A/N: Thanks for the amazing reviews. The next chapter will be the epilogue, which I know I didn't prepare you guys for and for that I apologize. But I wrote this chapter and it felt like things got settled, and things got cleared up. I don't feel like I can add much too this story any more. Honestly, it was going to be quite a bit longer but I decided against it. The letters aren't in this chapter either, but they will show up in the epilogue. Again, I'm sorry it's so abrupt but I hope you'll be happy with ending I have in mind. Thanks so much and much love.

Echoes, Silence, Patience, And Grace

Lucas tugged off his tie as he followed Brooke into their darkened house. Their house, he thought to him cynically. He hadn't lived there in months. For as long as he had known Brooke, she hadn't been anything short of fierce and fiery, but as she bored into own eyes only a short time earlier she looked absolutely petrified. He wasn't sure what this 'talk' would consist off, but he was praying that it was something good; something to push them in the right direction of saving their marriage. Because at this point, there really wasn't much to hope for it seemed.

He peeked around the quiet house. "Where are the kids?"

"Uh, Peyton's. All weekend actually." Brooke responded shrugging off her jacket and neatly placing it on the coat rack. He looked at her curiously and she suddenly found herself needing to explain further. "I had some things I needed to take care of. Bevin was actually here this morning."

"Really? How is she doing?" Lucas questioned following Brooke upstairs and into their bedroom. Well, technically hers. "I haven't talked to Skills in a minute either."

"As far as I know, Skills is good. Bevin's good too. They both seem happy, even though they're not with one another. She really grew up after high school." Brooke lifted up one foot taking off her heel and then repeated the same with the other foot. Tossing them in the closet she headed into the bathroom.

"Here." Lucas appeared in the doorway just as she was about to throw her hair up. He handed Brooke some sweat pants and she smiled in thanks. They didn't have to live together for him to know what she would be most comfortable in. "I'm going to wait in the sunroom."

She nodded and sighed as he exited the bathroom. This, she knew was going to be difficult. She had been trying to psych herself up all day and even up to the point when she saw him. The words had just tumbled out of her mouth before she even had a chance to think about what actions she had to take because of those words. Talking. To Lucas. Her husband. This should've been fairly easy.

Not quite.

Standing in the doorway of their sunroom she watched him as he watched the rain pouring down the atrium walls. The whole room was glass and it was one of the reasons why they had chosen this house to buy. Neither had green thumbs, but the use they had in mind a lot dirtier than playing with well, dirt. Later on in their marriage, he would come in there with his laptop and focus on writing the book he had been dying to finish for nearly twenty years and she would work on sketches. The light always seemed to be just right for the task they were trying to accomplish. They were doing their separate pastimes but they were doing it together. It saddened her to realize that she hadn't been in this room since before Lucas had moved out.

The two bottles in her hand clanked together as she stepped down into the room. She startled him at first but he nodded in appreciation when she placed the beer in his hand. Taking her own, she folded her legs underneath her as she took the seat directly across from him. She took a big gulp out of her beer and let it rested between her crossed legs. Making a game of popping her thumb in and out of the top, she tried to make it as loud as possible to break up the undeniable awkward tension in the room. Yes, she said she wanted to talk but she didn't say she wanted to be the first to speak up.

"I guess we need the liquid courage huh?" he mused putting his bottle in the air in a mock cheer before taking a massive gulp himself. "As awesome as I claim to be, I can't read your mind Brooke."

"No, I know." She groaned setting her bottle down on the table in front of her. Placing her chin in her hand she gave him a weary look. "We don't really know how we ended up here so I don't really know where to start."

Lucas leaned forward, clasping his hands together. "I'm sorry. For being a jackass. I know you way better that that. You would never stoop so low as to cheat on me no matter how much our marriage sucks right now. There really is no good excuse but everything was so tense and weird and dramatic. I was angry so I lashed out at you."

"You are one of the most level headed men that I know but its okay to pop your top every once in a while." She shrugged indifferently. "I don't blame you."

"Good. Now that we have that out of the way, I guess we should move on to bigger topics."

"Lucas, Bevin wasn't here this morning on an ordinary visit. I asked her to come." She drowned the rest of her beer, chucking the bottle in the trashcan. She really wanted another one, anything to help her get through this, but decided against it. "The board members would like for me to forfeit my share of the company in exchange for power. As of right now, I…" she took a breath and corrected herself. "We; we own the about 78 percent."

"They can't do that." He protested softly. He could see the absolute defeat in her eyes and it scared him. This was not the girl he fell in love with. "Brooke, that's your company. That's your designs. If they don't like your involvement then screw them. It's like you just said. You own the majority of everything."

"They say I don't make enough appearances anymore." She muttered, throwing her hands in the air. "I haven't been taking an active role as leader of my company and they're; Lucas, they're right. I'm never around anymore! When I do happen to get a chance to go into the office and actually get my hands dirty as far as the business goes, I can never stay longer than noon so that I can be at school on time to pick up Noah and Sophie. I never get to travel anymore. I haven't been to the New York or Paris fashion shows in two years."

"I'm not going to let you sell your company that you've worked so damn hard for." He ran a hand through is hair, rubbing the back of his tense neck. "We'll figure this out. I mean, I watched walk around with band aids on your fingers from all the times you pricked yourself. I watched you light up when you finished a new dress. I won't let you lose your dream."

"What if it's not my dream anymore?" she whispered softly surprising him, but mostly surprising herself. "When we had Sophie and Noah, you took care of them most of the time. I mean you took them to work with you and played with them. I remember when Noah was six months old," she sniffled, swiping away her tears. "You called me at worked because you were so excited. I could practically hear you jumping up and down. He had said 'da da'. Remember that? I was in New York, or London; whatever it was it wasn't nearly as important as being there with you. I cried for hours after hanging up the phone with you. I missed my kid say his first word. And Sophie; God, I had to watch her take her first steps over a web cam. My baby, walking. I'll never get those moments back."

"Brooke."

She cut him off, shaking her head. "And then you keep finding all this great talent. You're business kept growing. We gradually switched out the roles. I got to be a mom, and that really has made me so happy. I like where I am in my life right now. I love my career, don't get me wrong. But I am meant to be their mother. Giving up one for the other isn't that much of a sacrifice. I don't want Sophie to go off and get a tattoo at sixteen because I became bitter and wasn't there for her. I will not become my parents."

He thought for a moment. "I really haven't been around much have I?"

"Neither have I." she agreed, reaching over and giving his hand a quick squeeze. "I thought, when you announced this merger that things would get better. I thought that since you had more people working for you, working with you, that you would manage to be home every once and a while. Now it seems like your gone more than ever."

"It's not that easy." He explained, pulling away from her. "I wanted to merge because I new that eventually I wouldn't have to be the one travelling all the time. I wouldn't have to be the one doing all the leg work. But Brooke, baby, it's going to take some time. The merger isn't complete until March. Until then, I'm basically still running the place. A few people come over at a time and settle with us. It's going to take up until then for everything to be complete. I know that it sucks right now with everything going on, but it's the best I can do. Now, what do you think you want to do?"

"I don't know!" she exasperated, jumping up quickly, beginning to pace. "I don't know okay? I think I should just sell. Something has to give, and something has to give right now. Otherwise, we're not going to just lose our marriage but we'll lose our family. It's not fair to them for us to be away so much."

"So it's my fault?" he shot back, standing up as well to face her. He stopped her pacing and she jerked away from his grasp. "This is not just my fault Brooke! I am doing what's best for us, for our family. You do not get to plan blame on me!"

"I never even wanted kids!" she shouted, clamping her hand over her mouth as her eyes grew wide with realization. Lucas stumbled backwards as if he had been slapped, and in a way he had. She cleared her throat and spoke much softer. "Lucas, I never wanted children. "

"A little late for that now isn't it!" he yelled smacking his palm against the wall in frustration. "Why didn't you tell me before?"

"Sophie was an accident! You found out before I could even tell you. What was I supposed to do then?"

"What would have done if I hadn't of found out?" he questioned, his gaze steely and hard as he bore into her eyes. "Got rid of it?"

"No!" she protested, her gut slightly aching with guilt from what she had done. Taking one look at the look on his face, she knew she would never be able to tell him about her dark secret. It was bad enough she had to bear that cross, she didn't want it to put another major dent in their fragile marriage. "But Lucas God, you were so damn happy about it and I understood that. I couldn't take that away from you. And Sophie? I love her to pieces. I would do anything for her and I don't regret for a second not having her in my life. We never talked about it though! Not once did we talk about the possibility of having children."

"And Noah?"

"A gift." She cried, collapsing in the chair behind her. She placed her face in her hands, sobbing in them quietly before looking back up at him. "You wanted a son and I wanted to give him to you. Don't you know by now, that I would do absolutely anything you wanted me to? I am so goddamn in love with you, it makes me crazy! If you had never came into my life I would have never settled down. I never wanted any of this! But falling in love with you made me fall in love with all of this!" she motioned her hands around dramatically. "I don't regret that Lucas, I really don't. But this life we're living, this so called American Dream; it's all yours. I don't want any of this. I want our family. The fame and the fortune don't mean anything with you by my side. It wasn't what I pictured in life, not by a long shot but it's what I want now. Most of all I want you."

He didn't say anything immediately and she understood that. She had basically just told him that the most important things in both of their lives, she never had wanted to begin with. Living in a constant fear of ending like her mother had always kept her maternal instincts at bay. She assumed that Lucas not having a father the majority of his life had only made his paternal instincts grow stronger. They were at an impasse that much was obvious. She didn't want him to hate her for her fear, but at the same time, it was hard not to hate herself for thinking it as well.

"Don't hate me for feeling that way."

"I don't." he decided, realizing that she was right. The thought that she might now want children never entered in his mind. "You're right about everything you're saying."

"We never really discussed anything did we?" she asked and he gave her a curious look. "Like when we got married. We never discussed any plans about what we were going to do. One thing happened, then another, and so forth and we just took everything and dealt with it when it came up. Like when I got into Rogue Vogue our senior year in college. My career took off because of that. And then you started up your business. We never talked about what we were going to do when we had children or what would happen if my career failed or your business didn't take off. Lucas I think our marriage we suffering way before we even realized it."

It pained her to say it as much as it ached her heart to realize it. She could see the hurt flash through his eyes but it also seemed like he looked guilty as well. Blamed was well distributed between the two of them and she knew that. They were too young, too driven in two different directions, too naïve; even possibly too in love. The thought was in the back of her mind that maybe, for the first time in their marriage, they really shouldn't have gotten married.

"You regret getting married?" he chocked out, barely able to process the words in his head, much less speak of them out loud. She looked away from him, culpable he noticed, biting down hard on her lower lip. "Brooke!" her head snapped up at him and as her eyes glanced upwards, he saw the tears glazing them over. "I need you to answer me."

"No." she answered honestly. "I married you in my heart long before you ever slipped that ring on my finger Lucas Scott. But I do think we rushed into it a bit too soon. Yeah, we were together six or seven years before we took the final plunge but that doesn't mean we discussed everything we needed to."

"But we're discussing it now." He reasoned and she nodded. In one swift movement he was pulling her into his arms and she found herself not pulling away. His scent had always remained the same, a musky and mysterious smell that always kept her one her toes. She cried softly into his shoulder has he rubbed circles on her back. "I love you Pretty Girl."

"I love you too." She vowed kissing him passionately, pulling him as close to him as possible. She knew deep down she meant it with every fiber in her body. "God, I love you so much."

It took him off guard when her hand began to tug his shirt from his pants. A week ago, this would have been wrong with the state that their marriage was in. But now, all he could think about was the love of his life was in his arms again. He smirked against her lips and he pushed her back up against wall of the atrium, much like the first time they had spent the night in their home. He hadn't realized until that moment how much he had missed her and how he knew that she was who he was supposed to be with. She pulled apart, resting her forehead against his own.

"Come home Lucas."