He smiled at the beauty by his side before once again focusing on the stream of children exiting the school, searching for his daughter's face.

"Luke I…" Brooke's voice trailed off as he hand slipped from his and he turned in time to catch her before she hit the ground.

"Mommy?" Luke tore his gaze away from his unconscious fiancée to his terrified daughter.

"Lauren go inside, go back to Miss Rhodes – now!" The terrified girl continued to stare at her mother. "Lauren." The sharpness of his tone sent her scurrying back into the school. "Brooke, baby wake up."

"Mr Scott, I've called the paramedics." He looked up to find Miss Rhodes Lauren's teacher standing over him holding a blanket out to him. He took it from her wrapping it around Brooke's still form. "Lauren's with the school nurse, she was very upset so I thought it best. Is there anything else you need that I can…" The woman trailed off he was sure because she knew that there was nothing she or he could do.

"Could you, could Lauren stay here…I can call my brother and get him to…"

"Don't worry Mr Scott, Mrs Scott's details are on file in the office I'm sure I can reach her or her husband at home and Lauren will be fine with me until he comes." Lucas had forgotten the school would have Nathan and Haley's number on Haley's personnel file. He heard the siren and felt the presence of men standing over him. He gently eased her from his arms and over to the paramedics.

"What's her name?"

"Brooke, Brooke Davis."

"And how many weeks is she sir?"

"Um I don't know exactly, she's um over 37 – just. She just collapsed. She was fine when we got here, we walked here was that wrong?"

"Sir we just need to get her to the hospital." He watched helplessly as they loaded her into the ambulance, with one last reassurance from the teacher than Lauren would be fine he climbed in after her. Perched next to Brooke he gripped her hand.

"Brooke, sweetie wake up….please." the journey to the hospital felt like it lasted a lifetime and he felt so useless as she was wheeled away from him. Left alone in the hospital he sank back into a chair and cried, the fear that something would take her and their baby away from him devastating.

"Luke?" He quickly brushed the tears away before looking up as the brunette man jogged towards him. He unashamedly went into the strong arms that were held out to him. "What happened?"

"I don't know, she was fine. She said she wanted some air so we should walk to get Lauren from school. Maybe that was a sign she wasn't well, she just said she'd been stuck in the house all day. Maybe I should have said no."

"Luke this is not because she walked to Lauren's school. She will be okay, the pregnancy has been tough on her from the start, but she is a fighter. She has everything she wants you think she's going to leave that now when it's finally perfect."

"Uncle Keith I just…" Lucas couldn't continue as once again the desire to cry overcame him. He composed himself within a minute and pulled away from the man who was in all the ways that counted his father. "How did you know we were here?"

"Nathan called on his way to get Lauren. He wanted to come himself but obviously he needed to be with Lauren, Haley and the kids. Your mom will be here as soon as Deb arrives to watch the twins."

"Is someone here for Brooke Davis?" Lucas turned and marched to the doctor.

"She's my fiancée, is she okay? What about the baby?"

"Brooke is awake now and I'd like to discuss this with you both there." Keith patted his back as he went off with the doctor. As he walked through the door into her room and saw her laid in the bed looking so pale and ill his heart lurched. He rushed to her and wrapped his arms around her.

"Please don't scare me like that pretty girl."

"Lauren?"

"Yeah she saw, but she's with Nate and Hales." The doctor came further into the room and Lucas sat in the chair beside the bed holding Brooke's hand.

"Miss Davis you passed out due to a spike in your blood pressure. Now your blood pressure is quite high and there appears to be protein in your urine, now it would suggest you have pre-eclampsia. Due to you not having any other symptoms it's likely it's a mild case. However the only cure is to deliver the baby. Now at over 37 weeks you are considered as being full term so there is no chance of any harm to the baby if we induce labour, which is what we think is necessary. To continue further may increase the chances of you becoming more severely affected."

"But once the baby's here she'll be fine?"

"Yes she will."

"And there's no risk for inducing labour?"

"There are no greater risks with an induced labour than a natural one."

"Okay then."

"Very well Miss Davis, now you'll be given a pessary which hopefully will begin contractions, if this fails to occur after 7 hours then another pessary will be administered. I'd like to get things underway as soon as we can so if it's okay with you we'll administer the first pessary in an hour." With that said the doctor left them.

"Luke you need to go home and get the hospital bag. And make sure you go to Haley's and tell Lauren I'm okay and she'll be a big sister soon."

"Brooke I want to be here." She shook her head.

"No Luke, Lauren needs to hear from you that I am okay and I need that bag so you need to go. You won't miss it. I might get another one in 7 hours, you're not going to miss the birth I promise. Now go on."

Lucas paced about the small room, unable to deal with the pain Brooke was in. it's was almost ten and she was due to be checked to see if another pessary was needed in five minutes. She'd been experiencing pain for almost 4 hours now and Lucas was wondering why any woman would do this more than once.

"Okay then Miss Davis, how are you doing?" The midwife asked cheerily as she came in.

"The pain is coming every ten minutes, and lasts for around a minute."

"Well I'll just see how things are." The midwife checked Brooke out and Lucas was praying she'd inform them Brooke was well on her way. "Miss Davis I think the pains must be due to the pessary as you're not dilating at all yet. Now if the pains are as regular as you say than it's wise not to administer another pessary just yet. I'll check you again around 5am so you should try and get some sleep." The midwife left the room, leaving them both feeling deflated.

"Sit down Luke, that chair reclines." He followed Brooke's instructions and reclined the chair in the corner.

"Holy crap!" Brooke cast her gaze over to him as he struggled to stand. "When it reclines the back goes up and the bottom shifts down leaving a gap your ass falls through!" The sound of her laughter was worth the uncomfortable feeling of being stuck in that chair. As he cast his gaze up at the clock he saw it was approaching 11:30 and he still was not asleep, thankfully Brooke seemed to have settled slightly. The next thing he knew Brooke was calling his name and it was midnight.

"Luke my water broke." He shot up and out the door to bring the midwife in. the lights went on as she examined Brooke.

"Well you're still not dilating and there are still no contractions. We best get you cleaned up and dry and then try and get some more sleep." The midwife disappeared and returned with clean sheets. Lucas helped Brooke into the bathroom while the sheets were changed and showered her down before slipping a clean man's t-shirt over her head and helping her back to bed.

"The baby seems to be getting a little distressed now. I think we really need to get things moving." It was now 2 in the afternoon and due to Brooke's waters having broken in the night they'd not been able to administer another pessary, meaning that despite her waters having broke, which put the baby at risk of infection there were still no real signs of progress. "Brooke we're going to have to put you on a drip to give you something that will bring your contractions on. Now to do that we'll have to give you an epidural."

"Why? I didn't have one with Lauren."

"Because this will mean your contractions come on so hard and fast your body won't have time to get used to them, it's just too painful without the epidural. Now the anaesthetist has been paged and will be here soon to give you the epidural." Her scared eyes locked on his.

"I'm afraid of needles." He held her hand in his.

"It's going to be okay. Just one Brooke and then we'll have our baby before you know it." Lucas wasn't about to admit to his terrified, quivering fiancée that the needle that was behind her being preparing to be placed in her back was the biggest he'd seen in his life. She sat on the edge of the bed as he held both her hands, the midwife trying to calm her down and stop her shaking so there was less chance of anything going wrong.

"You've done really well Miss Davis, I've got everything ready. I'm just going to administer the epidural now and then the midwife will get you hooked up to the drip." As Brooke was eased back onto the bed and the drip inserted into her arm Lucas kept reassuring her, telling her how proud he was of her and how well she was doing. It was barely half an hour after the drip had been inserted that Brooke's contractions started, within the hour she was fully dilated and ready to push. Her cries and telling him how she couldn't push anymore broke his heart and he swore after this he'd never ask for another child. That despite always having wanted 3 or 4 children that after witnessing just what she had to go through that he'd never ask it of her again.

"You have a daughter. Congratulations." And like that it was the end and the beginning all wrapped into one. The room was a hive of activity as Brooke and the baby were checked and cleaned, the room cleaned and he looked on. To Lucas it felt like he stayed stock still as the room buzzed around him, until Brooke was laid on a pristine bed, with a beautiful baby in her arms and a smile lighting up her face, and the three of them were the only ones there.

"So Luke, you got to here this time. So how was it?" She beamed up at him.

"I think two children is perfect and I think you're the bravest person I know for doing this again." She laughed and shook her head.

"I think when we try for the boy I'll go back to Team Lauren for the delivery."

"Try for a boy? You'd do this again?"

"Maybe not soon, but yes Luke. I'd consider it. Now how would you like hold your daughter?" She edged over to allow him room on the bed next to her and as he settled beside her she handed their new baby over to him. Nothing could prepare him for the rush of emotion as the tiny bundle was placed in his arms.

"I feel like I'm going to break her. Why didn't it feel like this with Jamie?" Brooke laughed at him once more.

"Because she's yours. You have to protect her and keep her safe and it's scarier. So Broody, since I did the first one – you got a name for her?"

"How about, Emily?"

"And which famous are you naming our daughter after?"

"Emily Dickinson. She was a poet."

"Em, Emily Scott, Emily Haley Scott."