It has come…the final chapter of Boomerangs: Our Story. Now, I am going to save the final farewell for this story for later, but I just want you all to know now how much I truly appreciate all of your comments and interest in this chapter. It seriously has made me a better writer and has made the story eve n greater than I ever thought it could be. I would also like to give a HUGE shout out to Morgan (benz405) for EVERYTHING she did for this story. She gave me a huge foundation for the Lucas in the this story and has helped me think of so many incredible ideas. I may have been responsible for writing the original oneshot and for taking over this story solo, but Morgan made this story possible. So thanks, Morgan. You have been a great help, great friend and you ARE a TERRIFIC writer, whether you believe you are or not.

NOTE ALSO: this chapter takes place in the present; it is in italics because that is how we opened the story, in the present. Hope that isn't too confusing. But if it is just pm me and I'll explain.

Okay, now on to the final chapter of the story…

EPILOGUE

"Boomerangs…you cast them out into the world and they always find their way back. And a perfect symbol of us. We remember every year, every Valentine's Day, that night we finally found our way back to each other. We haven't been apart since, and we never will be again."

I close the book and look over at Brooke, sitting in bed next to me with that beautiful smile on her face.

"Perfect," she says. "Perfect ending."

I smile back at her. "Well…you wrote that ending, remember?"

"I know. That's why it's so perfect."

I laugh and Brooke says, "Seriously, though. It's terrific, Luke. You did a good job."

"Me? Did you forget you co-authored? See….Boomerangs: Our Storyby Lucas and Brooke Scott."

She chuckles then and says, "Yeah, but all I did was give you my insight. You put it all together."

"But you helped me. I'm not going to let you talk me out of giving you credit, so you can stop being so modest."

She's still smiling as she says, "Okay, whatever. Anyway, it turned out really great,Luke. It'll be a New York Times Best Seller. Everyone will love it."

"Well, we'll see. Six weeks till its release date."

I look down and smile at Nevaeh, fast asleep between Brooke and I as she lays against Brooke's chest.

"Apparently, though, it has already put her to sleep."

"Awe…no, I'm sure she loved it too. She's just tired. Let's see…" Brooke pushes some of our six year old's short dark hair back behind her ear, leans down and whispers, "What'd you think of the story, Vaeh?"

As Brooke pulls her head up, Vaeh stirs and opens her eyes.

"Is it morning?" She mutters through a yawn.

"Nope," I tell her. "Not yet."

"So it's still my birthday?" She's suddenly wide awake as she looks to her mother for confirmation.

"Yep," Brooke answers her. "For a few more hours anyway."

"Yay! Well, are you going to finish the story, or what Dad?"

"We already finished it, baby girl," Brooke tells her. "You fell asleep half way through."

"Awe, nuts!" She snaps her fingers and pouts and I can't help but smile as she looks so much like her mother. "Well, can you read it again, Daddy? Please?"

"No, not tonight, princess," I tell her as I pass the new novel to Brooke. "It's way past your bed time, and mommy needs her rest too."

"Awe…but I don't want to go to bed yet, Daddy. It's still my birthday!"

"I know, pumpkin, but even big birthday girls need their sleep."

Vaeh looks at Brooke then, hoping her mother will give her a different answer when she asks, "Do I have to, Mommy?"

"Afraid so, baby girl. But you know what? The sooner you go to bed and go to sleep, the sooner it will be morning and you can see grandma and Addison. They're coming over in the morning, remember?"

"Oh yeah! Okay, I'll go to bed right now!"

I watch with a smile as Vaeh kisses her mother good night, and then lowers her head to Brooke's pregnant stomach. She kisses her stomach twice and says, "Goodnight guys. Mommy and daddy says it's time for bed, so don't keep mommy up all night again. She's really tired."

"Okay, princess," I say as she sits up. "Let's go. Horseback?"

"Yay!"

Vaeh jumps on my back and I gallop her out of the room and down the hall.

I can't help but smile as I watch Lucas carry Vaeh out of our room, both of them laughing. Lucas is such a wonderful father, just as I've always known he would be. He and Vaeh have a great relationship as father and daughter, and also as best friends. For that, I am so incredibly thankful. I don't know how I could have lived with myself if my keeping them apart that first year had hurt their relationship.

Thankfully, though, that time apart had no negative consequences on their relationship now. If it had any effect at all on their relationship, it made them as close as they are now. Because Lucas has lived up to that promise he made me that night. He never left Vaeh's side again, nor did he mine. He stayed with us and took care of us. He even transferred from UNC, his dream school, to NYU so he could be nearer to us while I finished my degree.

I'm not really sure what, or if anything made the difference, but Lucas and I did so much better the third time around. Actually, we're still doing great. Maybe it was being away from Tree Hill for awhile that helped us. Maybe it was the fact that we'd made a child together. Or, maybe, it was that we had both finally stopped running scared and just opened up our hearts. Whatever the reason, our relationship was stronger than ever…and it's lasted.

So I guess it really is true, what's been said before. If you love something, you set it free, and if it comes back, its yours forever. I know I truly believe in that now. I set Lucas free and he came back to me. He's mine forever now.

Lucas and I have been back together for five years now, and we've been married for almost three years, since we moved back to Tree Hill to raise Vaeh around family, and so I could open my own clothing store and make Clothes Over Bro's even more accessible for purchase. The store has done so well, I've recently opened another location back in New York, being run by Amanda, or Mrs. Chase Adams as she is now.

Amanda and Chase were married a year before Lucas and I, and they live just outside the city now with their two children, Kara and Marissa. I keep in very close touch with them to this day, not just because Amanda runs my store up there, but because they are family to me. I care about them as much as I do Nathan and Haley.

Speaking of Nathan and Haley, they are a very happy family too. Both Nathan and Haley are teachers now. It's surprised me, when Nathan turned down an offer to play in the NBA to become a teacher. But he said basketball wasn't his dream anymore, that his new dream was to be with his family and to help other kids, kids like he used to be. So now he's a Health teacher at Tree Hill High School, and he's also the coach of the Tree Hill Ravens, who haven't lost a single game since he's been coach. Nathan, as anyone would be, is very proud of his team and of his family, the family that added a new addition when Haley gave birth to Noah in November, much to the excitement of new big brother Keith.

Anyway, back to Lucas and I. Moving back to Tree Hill has helped us grow closer as a family too, with each other and with our extended family. Next month marks not only our third wedding anniversary, but also the date the twins are due…all on Valentine's Day, believe it or not.

It's pretty obvious that Valentine's Day has become a very special day for Lucas and I. We are really looking forward to celebrating, all in one day, our third wedding anniversary, the birth of two new little Scotts, and the release of Lucas's new book, Boomerangs: Our Story. The excitement of it all is so built up inside me already that I can barely stand waiting six more weeks.

I never thought I could ever be this happy or this in love, not before Lucas came back. I'd been certain he was never going to come back to me, and that I would never be happy again because I would never love anyone like I loved him. But, obviously, he did come back to me, and now I am much happier with my life. And I'm especially happy to be sharing my life with Lucas and our daughter.

"Finally…"I look up and see Lucas has returned and is making his way to the bed and to me. "We can be alone."

I giggle as he climbs into bed and kisses my lips.

"Is she all tucked in, Dad?" I ask as he lifts his arm over my shoulders and I lean against him.

"Yep. She's already sleep too, which is great for us because we'll get to be alone all night now, with no little girl in the middle this time."

I smile as I trace my finger along the plaid of his pajama bottoms, and I say, "Yes, and we get to be alone all day tomorrow too."

"We do, do we?"

He runs his fingers through my hair as I explain. "Uh, huh. Your mom is picking Vaeh up early and she's taking her and Addison to meet Nathan, Haley, Keith and little Noah for a day out. They're going t ogo to breakfast, shopping at the new mall, and then lunch."

"Oh cool. It'll be Noah's first trip ever to a mall. That'll be fun. He won't remember it, but it should be fun for the other kids."

"Yeah…and while they have fun at the zoo, you know what we get to do?"

I look up at Lucas to see if he can answer correctly.

"Be alone?"

I nod slowly as our lips meet again. I just love that feeling, his lips against mine. After the kiss, we cuddle silently together a few minutes.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you," I remember something I'd wanted to tell him earlier after I glanced at a picture on my nightstand.

"What?"

"I talked to Peyton today."

"You did?"

"Yeah." I sit up as I finish telling him. "Yeah, she called early this afternoon when I came in to get Vaeh's cake. She wanted to wish Vaeh a happy birthday and see how she liked the card and present she sent her."

"Did you tell her how sad Vaeh was to hear that she couldn't make it out for her birthday? And how practically depressed you were about it?"

"Yeah…"

There was a time not too long ago, after everything we'd been through with Lucas, that I'd been certain Peyton and I could never, ever be friends again. I hadn't wished it to be that way, but I'd been so hurt and betrayed by her that I didn't see how it was possible to ever forget that pain she'd caused me. But…having Nevaeh helped heal that pain in my heart and allowed to me forgive, especially after Peyton had made her little visit to New York to try and bring Lucas and I back together, after she had finally been honest with me and made that giant leap to try and mend our relationship.

We did mend our friendship, Peyton and I. Day by day, month by month, year by year, we have gotten back to being good friends again. And our friendship now is greater than it ever has been before. Maybe it's the grown up in us, who knows. The point is…I have my best friend back again, and it is wonderful. Peyton even asked me to be her Matron of Honor at her wedding to Jake almost two summers ago. And last April, she and Jake asked Lucas and I to be godparents to their baby girl, Anna Rebecca.

"So are they still planning their vacation to come out next month?" Lucas wonders.

"Yeah. Peyton, Jake and the girls will be here February 7th, and they're planning to stay two weeks. I told them we'll have plenty of room in this huge new house of ours.

"Our dream house. It'l lbe fun having them stay with us. Vaeh will be excited. You know, I'm glad you two are such good friends again, Brooke. You two have always seemed like sisters to me, even when you weren't talking."

I nod, thinking about that too. I've always felt that way about Peyton too. She's always felt more like a sister to me than a best friend. Her and Haley both now…are sisters to me. I love having them in my life too."

"Oh, now I almost forgot something."

I look over at Lucas as he reaches dow over his side of the bed.

"What?" I wonder. He pulls up a red gift bag and looks back at me. "What's that?"

"It's a present," he tells me. "A Valentine's present."

I smile at him again. "Babe…you do realize you're about six weeks early with the present?"

He returns another smile. "Yes, I know. But since you're going to a little preoccupied Valentine's Day, with giving birth and all, I wanted to give it to you now. It's for the nursery. Go ahead…open it."

I look down into the bag and pull from it two miniature boomerangs, pink and blue and I can feel my emotions take over me again, just as they had when Lucas presented me with my first boomerang.

The look on her face when she pulled out those two little boomerangs is exactly what I hoped it would be. I smile as I watch her look over each boomerang, running her fingers over the engravements….HOPE on the pink, and CHANCE on the blue.

"I thought we could hang them over their cribs," I tell her. "Like ours hangs over our bed, and Vaeh's over hers. What do you think?"

"Lucas…" Brooke looks up at me and her eyes are so full of tears. "They're adorable…"

"You like them then?"

She nods and touches her belly as she says, "I love them. They're…they're…perfect…"

I should've known her crazy hormones were going to take over her when I gave her that present. She cries so easily these days and I never know how to stop it, so I move closer to her and hold her close to me.

"Awe…honey, it's okay. I didn't mean to make you cry."

"No…" I hear her sniffle before she goes on. "I'm crying because I'm happy, Luke. You…you make me so, so happy. And I love you so, so much."

"I love you too, Pretty Girl…always."

And we will love each other forever. There's no one and nothing in this world that can ever tear us apart again. But if something, god forbid, did happen to break us apart again, we would never stay that wy. Because, like the boomerangs do when you cast them out into the world, we will always, always…come back. And we will always come back to each other.

Okay…so the story is over now. I never like ending my stories, but I do love it when they are finally complete because then I can look back and see how it all turned out. But I can definitely tell you that I am certainly going to miss writing this one…it was a challenge but also so much fun and interesting to write. It took a lot more thought than my others have. I did a lot of new things with it, like writing in the first person and from only 2 POV. That was all a first for me. You'll have to tell me how I did.

Anyway, while this is the final chapter, keep an eye out for another ud notice. Now, it won't be another chapter, but it will be my final farewell to you all from the story. You all now I can't end a story without giving you all a final farewell and thank you. Plus, I want to let you all in a new idea I've come up with for a new story, as well as an idea I have for a possible sequel to this. So I will be posting a final farewell very soon, possibly tomorrow, but I

'm not sure yet as I have to work and I have a graduatipon party to go to for my best friend. Anyway…while you all wait, you can go ahead and review on this chapter. Please, please, please review as much as you want, on everything you think about it. I looooooooooooove long reviews and I love hearing what you guys think. Thanks so much!

-Maureen