Author's Note: This chapter is dedicated to naley19, the most consistent reviewer I have with this story. Thanks a million for reviewing every chapter; it means a lot considering the erm, small amount of reviews this seems to get during the school year. The song at the end of the chapter is Everything by Michael Buble. Disclaimer- I don't own the lyrics. R&R, por favor.

impeding – adj. about to happen; imminent

"It's been a while, hasn't it?" Peyton asked as she set her steaming hot chocolate down at a table for two in the campus café. "Thanks for meeting me here, Luke."

Lucas nodded in response, contently sipping a soda as he watched Peyton get situated in her seat. She swirled her straw around in the mountain of whipped cream on top of her drink and sucked the edges of her cup to get the excess off. Luke couldn't help but laugh.

"Care to share what's so funny?" Peyton mumbled, eyebrows raised.

"You got that habit from Brooke, didn't you?" Lucas commented as he motioned to her hot cocoa.

Peyton giggled a little too. "I can't believe how much she rubs off on people when they're around her too often."

"Yeah, you and me both."

After a little more small talk, mostly about Brooke, Luke had to get to the point.

"Why did you really want to meet up today, Peyton? I mean, I care about you a lot, but we haven't been normal since that day."

"That's kind of what I came here for," Peyton said. She reached into her purse and dug out a brown paper bag to hand to Luke.

"It isn't my birthday you know," he joked.

"Look inside," Peyton said, slightly impatient. Lucas hesitantly stuck his hand inside the bag and took out what was inside.

"My shirt?"

"From 'that day'," Peyton finished.

"Peyton-"

"I've had it since last year, Luke. Given it was buried under most of Brooke's clothes, but it's been in my closet since then. It's the little piece of you I still had all this time. It even smelt like you until I had the guts to wash it, God forbid Brooke recognize your scent which she swears to be the most intoxicating, in case you're ever wondering. She loves you Luke," Peyton closed, "and I love Jake. This is it."

Lucas just stared down at the shirt and played with some of the fabric in between his fingers.

"Can we go back to normal now?" he asked.

"Normal? Luke, normal for us was thick sexual tension and Brooke acting like a hooker to get to you."

"Then how about better than normal?"

"I think we can mange that." Peyton slipped back into her coat and got up to hug Luke.

"You're an amazing friend, Lucas Scott. You're a great boyfriend to Brooke, and I know you're going to be the perfect father for your son."

"If only I believed that half as much as everyone else seems to," Luke sighed.

"Luke, are you kidding me?" Peyton laughed. "You have a perfect example of the kind of dad you don't want to be. With Karen as a mom, I'm pretty damn sure you can figure out parenthood."

"As long as parenthood comes with a diploma," Luke smiled. "Thank you, Peyton."

"Of course." She leaned in again for another hug but was interrupted by a great shove.

"Jake!" she screeched as he pushed Lucas into the wall. "What the hell are you doing? Let him go!"

"Peyton, you stay out of this!" he hissed back. Jake's usual melancholy manner had been replaced by the one Peyton had seen only three times: The first time when Rachel left him in high school, the second when he found out Jenny was dying, and the third when Mike tried to pull something on her.

"Listen to your girlfriend for a change, man. Let me go," Luke muttered with Jake's hand to his throat.

"You're not getting away with it that easy, 'man'," he mimicked Lucas's voice. "Brooke might have gotten over it fast but we all know I'm nothing like her. Most people aren't, and isn't that a relief?"

Lucas's face become red and he swung to hit Jake's chin.

"Guys!" Peyton yelled. The whole café had moved to one side of the store to get out of the boys' way. "Where the hell is the manager of this place when you need him? Jake, let Lucas go!"

"I told you to stay out of this, Peyt." He pushed Lucas into a table as he stumbled over a few chairs, bringing down somebody else's drink in the process. Lucas got right back up and grabbed Jake's wrist to restrain him from doing further damage.

"Calm down; we're friends," he tried to assure Jake. "I didn't even know you two were dating when everything happened."

"Is that suppose to make it any better?" he huffed and puffed, trying to break loose from Luke's grip.

"Actually, it should," Peyton stepped in. "Brooke had every right to be mad at Luke and me because they loved eachother, you had every right to be mad at me because we were dating, but Lucas didn't know that. I'm the only person you have to blame, and you forgave me. At least, I was pretty sure you did."

"But he did Rachel this summer too," Jake retaliated as he elbowed Luke in the stomach, "Then you. That isn't right and I'm pretty sure even he knew that."

"Just let it go, Jake," Lucas commanded.

"No, you let go!" He mustered up all his strength and spun around out of Lucas's hands. Taking an enormous swing, it was like a slow motion moment when he forced his fist onto Lucas's face. Peyton, standing meekly in the background, couldn't escape in time. As Lucas came down, he came down on top of her, colliding with yet another table and taking that with them too.

"Holy shit!" Jake gasped. He fell immediately to the floor and pushed Lucas aside, only concerned with Peyton. "Peyt, are you alright?"

Peyton grimaced and screamed at the top of her lungs. "First Nathan, now you! Can't you guys just leave us the hell alone? It's like your macho egos can't handle just sitting back and leaving things be! Luke," she said, taking his hand and pulling him off the ground, "I'm glad at least we worked things out. Are you okay?"

"I'll be fine," he replied, averting his eyes to Jake for an quick evil glance.

"Good. I'll see you guys later." She picked up her purse which was shoved underneath a mass of chairs. Holding her aching shoulder, she limped out with a bruise instantly forming on her knee, not bothering to acknowledge Jake as she left.

Brooke sat bouncing Andrea on her leg when Peyton suddenly burst discombobulatedly through the door.

"Is that child always here?" she asked frustrated, tossing her jacket onto the floor and flopping down onto the sofa.

"Something like that. Bevin and Skills are still doing wedding stuff," Brooke answered. "What crawled up your hot ass and died?"

"I was grabbing something to drink with Luke just now and Jake showed up and started to beat the crap out of him," she moaned into a pillow.

"Whoa!" Brooke replied, shocked. She rocked Andrea to sleep quickly and set her down in the carrier. "First, what were you doing out with my boyfriend?"

"Getting things back to when we were just friends. Next question."

"Did Jake know you were there or something?"

"That's a really good point that I don't have the answer to, but it seems like he did," Peyton contemplated, biting her lip. "Next."

"Why did he try to beat him up?"

"Try? Rest assured, he succeeded. Apparently the never-ending one afternoon stand Lucas and I had pissed him off enough to hurt him."

"Is Luke alright?" Brooke finally sounded worried about one of Peyton's answers.

"He might have a nasty black eye tomorrow, but he's going to be okay. I on the other hand, have a throbbing shoulder right now."

"Jake hit you?" Brooke practically screamed.

"Well he hit Luke and I got knocked over with him and the rest of the café."

"Oh my gosh; are you okay?" Brooke stumbled into the bathroom to look for a first aid kit.

"Brooke," Peyton followed her up. "I'm fine. I just need to rest."

Brooke nodded in agreement and watched her friend sulk into their bedroom, attempt to slam the door, and trip over a pair of her Prada heels lying on the floor.

"Brooke," Peyton moaned.

Brooke opened her mouth to say something, but decided against it and snuck back to the couch. Within minutes her choice paid off when she heard Peyton's light snores from the other room.

"Anybody home?"

Brooke turned around from where she was snuggled on the couch to find Haley in the doorway.

"Hey there; come on in!" She moved over so Haley could take a seat and threw a part of her blanket onto her friend's lap.

"So I heard about the restaurant yesterday," Haley said quickly in hopes that maybe Brooke wouldn't hear her.

"Oh no," Brooke said. "Who told you?"

"Would you shoot me if I said Rachel?"

"Well I don't have a gun so locking you outside in the cold is probably my best bet. What were you doing near that whore in the first place Haley?"

"Lucas forced me to go check on her last night since he didn't want to stay there to sleep." Haley continued on to explain what had happened between Rachel and Lucas the prior night. "It wasn't pretty…"

"Rachel," Lucas begged. "Put the knife back. Don't do anything stupid; you could really hurt somebody."

"That's my point, Luke," Rachel hissed. She held the knife close to her bulging stomach and gave him a suicidal stare. "Now get out before you regret coming back."

"I'm not leaving you alone until you calm down." Lucas moved in slowly toward his son's mother. "Please, just come sit down with me Rachel."

"You know I'll do it Luke," she warned, a slight laugh escaping her devilish lips. "You'll probably feel more pain than I will." She made motions with the knife closer and closer to the unborn child's resting place. "And if you take one step near me," she added when he started to move toward to her, "I'll get you too."

"You can't be serious."

"Do I freaking look like I'm kidding? You're lucky I didn't kill myself in the car coming home from the restaurant today after the way your slut of a girlfriend acted. I have feelings too Lucas, and I was really trying to change to prove that to everybody. No one seems to believe me," she whimpered, falling to the couch, "but it's true. People can't just tell me I've never loved anyone! I did love you Lucas! I loved Jake! I wanted to love our son, but this could be it." She reached to pick up the knife off the floor where it had fallen.

"Rachel!" Lucas moved fast to get to it before her. He scooped it up and put his hands behind his back. "How about we stay in a hotel for the night?" he offered, still scared for her and his son's lives.

"No," she wailed. "You need to leave right now!"

"Come on; Brooke isn't that bad Rachel."

"I said that you need to get out! I'm not joking around with you Lucas. Either you leave my house this second or I'll call the cops and tell them that a college student broke into my home to try to kill me." She eyeballed the knife that Lucas was still holding behind his back.

"Please, Rachel," he pleaded, hiding that and all the other sharp objects in the kitchen away, "Don't do anything stupid."

"That's horrible," Brooke whispered. "That kid is having one hell of a week."

"The baby?" Haley asked, a mouthful of colorful M&Ms that Brooke had sitting in a candy bowl on the coffee table for times like these stuffed in her mouth.

"No, Lucas." Brooke went on to explain best as she could what had happened to him earlier that afternoon.

"And just the other day everything seemed like it was going to work itself out," Haley added. Brooke shook her head and dug her hand into the bowl of candy as well. For a few minutes the girls sat in complete silence, only the humming of the refrigerator and Peyton's sleep talking to keep them company.

"Did you actually start the conversation?" Brooke said suddenly.

"What?"

"Well, when you went back to Rachel's. Did you just start randomly talking to her?"

"No. I mean, not exactly. It just sort of happened. I'm not friendly with her or anything now but she just needed someone to listen, you know? I try to be that person to anyone."

"Yes you do. You are too good for this world Haley James Scott."

Haley twirled her wedding ring around on the table and smiled.

"How are things with you and Lucas? I feel like we never have girl talk anymore."

"That's because when we used to have girl talk you were still asking Peyton and I what everything meant."

"Ha, ha," Haley laughed slowly. She elbowed Brooke lightly in the stomach and punched her arm. Before long they were tackling eachother on the floor with pillows like little girls. Neither of them heard the light knock on the door before Lucas let himself in.

"Girl on girl," he observed as Haley and Brooke untangled themselves, still laughing. "Oh gosh, Haley! Brooke's even brought you to the dark side."

Brooke strode closer to Lucas and grabbed his faded Abercrombie shirt sexily. "Come to the dark side," she said in a melodramatic voice. "We have-"

"Ehem," Haley interrupted.

"Safe sex," Brooke finished, saluting her friend's cleanliness.

"I'll catch up with you guys later," Haley said. She noticed how close Brooke was moving in on Lucas and felt the need to leave the room.

"I'll call you later Tutor Girl," Brooke waved. "What?" she asked when Haley smiled at her for a moment longer than normal.

"I missed my nicknames."

"There's something else I've missed," Lucas whispered into Brooke's ear.

Haley slapped her hand to her mouth and laughed. "I'll be going now." She placed a kiss on baby Andrea's head before shutting the curtains for good measure and closing the door behind her.

Lucas pushed a few locks of hair out of Brooke's face and leaned in to kiss her, but she put her hands against his chest to stop him.

"What happened last night, Luke?" she got right to the point.

"Nothing. Everything's going to be okay. Why do you ask?"

"I worry about you… and how you're really doing sometimes."

"Brooke, you don't need to worry about me." Lucas took Brooke's hand and sat her down on the couch, kneeling in front of her. "I'm working everything out with Rachel. We might not even end up friends when this is over but for the kid's sake we're acting civil."

"That's all great," Brooke replied, pushing Lucas's hair back with her perfectly manicured fingers, "but how are you doing?"

"I'd be a lot better if you would kiss me, Pretty Girl."

Brooke felt like strangling herself. She was trying to have an in depth moment with Lucas but he wouldn't open up with his feelings. The only reason she would give in was because Peyton's meaningless mumbling was making it hard to think straight– and because Lucas's lips were so irresistible. She leaned down from the couch and pressed her lips gently against his, pulling him up onto the sofa with her and climbing onto his body.

"You had me at hello Lucas Eugene," Brooke told him.

"You had me at let's have sex Brooke Penelope."

"Glad to know it was my stunning personality, intelligence, and humor that truly captured your heart," Brooke giggled.

"It's everything about you, Brooke. You're my everything."

Brooke began to quietly sing into Lucas's chest.

"And I can't believe," Lucas continued. "Oh, that I'm your man, and I get to kiss you, baby, just because I can."

Brooke looked up into Lucas's eyes and knew at that moment that the fear she was feeling about his child, the anxiety about the problems with Rachel, and the worry about how he was handling everything meant nothing, because she meant everything and that was what mattered the most.