Down the rabbit hole

by StringerB237

It all started with a rabbit. A white-furred rabbit, that kept gracefully leaping and bouncing in front of her, as if it wanted to be caught. But for some reason, she would not budge, not even for a little bit. She would keep looking at it, as it went around her garden and eventually down the rabbit hole.

7. Chapter 6

CHAPTER SIX

It's gonna be

Victoria and Ted Davis had gotten married on July 18th, 1998. They had moved in Tree Hill on October 23rd, 2000. Two years later, Victoria had given birth to a girl, whom they had decided to name Brooke Penelope Davis.

Victoria had carefully picked the middle name. Penelope had been, in Greek mythology, wife to Ulysses. While her heroic husband had been away at sea, fighting his way back to his family, Penelope had stayed faithful to him. She had waited for twenty years; it was either Ulysses, or no one at all.

She wasn't merely a meek faithful wife; she was in fact very shrewd. During her husband's absence, she tricked people around her so that she wouldn't be forced to take another husband. And when Ulysses eventually reached home, she tricked him too in order to ascertain that it really was her husband who was back.

Brooke knew the story by heart; as a child, she had heard it from her mother about a million times. While she was waiting for her parents to come back from their Thanksgiving trip, lying on the couch, her head resting on her folded arms, Brooke thought about Penelope's life and what it meant to Victoria.

Her mother loved the story so much, and loved this character so much, that she had picked it to be her daughter's second name. She admired Penelope's resilient heart and her undying love. She thought everybody should fight just the same for their loved ones.

Brooke couldn't put a precise date on the day her parents had stopped loving each other, though she knew it had not happened overnight. However, she had a hunch that it had first been Ted who had stopped loving his wife, and that Victoria had tried everything to keep him with her. Over the years, she had repeatedly fought for their marriage, until recently when she had admitted that she wasn't getting her husband back: Ted Davis was no Ulysses. That must have happened right before summer, when Brooke had noticed a major change in her mother's behavior.

So, 2019 would be the year her parents would get a divorce. But what did it mean for her? Were they going to sell the house? Where would─

Keys turned in the front door's lock; she sat up straight, glancing over the couch to see her parents enter the hallway. She stood up and greeted them; they looked better than when they had left five days ago, especially her mother. It looked like their time off from their daughter had really been helpful to them both.

Brooke pondered on when the right time to talk to them would be. She decided on waiting until they had put away their luggage and taken a shower. She hoped they would then be in a better disposition.

With Peyton's help, she had cooked dinner earlier in the afternoon. As she had guessed, her parents were pleasantly surprised by her initiative.

She couldn't hold it in any longer; she waited two minutes after they had started eating and then spilled the beans.

"I saw the divorce papers."

Her parents froze. Ted's fork stopped midway in the air, his eyes staring at Brooke. Victoria, who was sitting at the end of the table, looked staggered by the news; she put down her fork and turned to her daughter.

"When?" Victoria asked.

Brooke eyed them warily, wondering when the shouting would start. After all, she shouldn't have read those papers. She glanced across the table at her father, who still hadn't moved an inch, looking almost comical now, then back at her mother. "Three days ago." She turned to her father again and said, "When you called me to get something in your office. I found the papers and read them. When were you going to tell me?"

Something that she had not seen in a while happened then: her parents shared a worried look. Ted finally put down his fork and cleared his throat, "We thought we would wait until you graduated."

"That long?" Brooke asked, startled. "Why?"

"We just thought that it would be better for you," her mother answered. She frowned slightly. "We should have told you sooner, you weren't supposed to find out this way."

Brooke didn't know what to say. Her parents had been willing to live together for one more year, no matter how miserable that made them, just so she could have a normal last year of high school.

They had never been the kind of parents to shower her with affection, but at that exact moment, and even though they were acknowledging the fact that they had stopped loving each other, Brooke had never felt more loved by her parents.

"I─ I didn't even notice," she admitted in a low voice. "I mean, I knew something was wrong, but I never thought you'd get a divorce."

Ted let out a sigh and said, "Things have been bad for a while, Brooke, but that doesn't mean we don't care about you."

"So, what happens now?"

He shared another look with Victoria. "Well, the initial plan was to wait until you graduated, and then I would move to L.A."

"L.A.?" Brooke repeated, surprised. "Wait a minute… That's why you bought the summer house?"

He sighed again, as if admitting a defeat. "Yes, that's why. I'm relocating there. Even my company is there now."

"Your father was supposed to move there permanently once you had graduated," Victoria explained. "But now that you know, well…" her voice trailed off as she looked at her husband.

"Now you can go," Brooke said, staring at her father. "That's where you were, right? You didn't go skiing."

He looked like he was out of words. Victoria came to his help, "I went to the resort, but your father went to L.A."

"But I can stay," Ted said, "I mean if you need me to, I'll─"

Brooke shook her head, "You don't need to do that. This is obviously torture for you two, you shouldn't have to live together if you don't want to. And I'm not a child anymore, I─ I'll be fine. If your life is in L.A. now, then you should be there."

It seemed like an enormous weight had been lifted off their chests. Their whole demeanors changed in an instant, their shoulders relaxed, and Brooke thought that if she hadn't been there, they would have even smiled with relief.

For the first time in ages, they had a proper family dinner. They spoke for almost an hour, each of them detailing how they had spent the past few days. Brooke told them that she was very busy right now, between her application files for college, the basketball season that had just started and the student council election that was to be held in a month.

Her parents didn't seem to resent each other. Of course, they weren't acting like best friends either, but they were still behaving like… Well, like family. She could really see them getting along in a few years, just as Future Lucas had told her right before their passionate kiss.

That kiss had been all she had thought about for the past three days. That, and the moment she had spent with Lucas in the bathroom. She knew what he was about to say to her when they had been interrupted by Keith. Everybody knew it, it seemed. The real question was: what would she have answered?

The next day, she went to school early to meet with Mouth before homeroom. He had come home late the night before, and only then had received the texts that Brooke had sent him over the week: the first one telling him of Nathan's impending paternity, the second one informing him that Haley was dating Nathan, and the third and last one telling him that she had travelled again but that she would tell him all about it at school.

They sat outside at a table while Brooke explained to him in detail what had happened in her latest travels and then at Nathan's house.

"This is… This is huge," Mouth whispered, his eyes so wide they looked like they were about to pop out. "Nathan and Haley… and Jamie?"

"I know," she cried, thrilled that she could finally tell someone about this.

"They're gonna have a kid. Like, a real kid."

"Do you think we should tell them?" she asked, though already aware of his answer.

"No!" he said in an alarmed tone. "Brooke, if we do that─"

"I know, I know," she said with a sigh, "the whole world will explode. It just feels so weird knowing this stuff and not telling them…"

"But they look happy in the future, right?"

She nodded. "They do."

Mouth's face suddenly fell, "Wait, I'm an idiot, I didn't even ask you how you're doing."

"What do you mean?"

"Didn't you say your parents were getting a divorce?"

She lowered her eyes and gave a vague shrug. "Oh yeah, I'm fine. I mean I was mad and disappointed at first, but now I'm really fine."

He looked like he was about to say something but changed his mind. He cleared his throat and said, "So, um, what was Lucas talking about? I mean, Future Lucas. You know," he added when she looked confused, "when he talked about accidents. Do you think that has anything to do with the reason why you can travel? Assuming that's what Future Haley meant to say."

"I'm sure that's what she wanted to say, it's like… I don't know, Mouth, I can feel it in my bones."

"So, it really might be related to the accident that Future Lucas mentioned."

Brooke frowned and crossed her arms, "Right, I forgot to ask him about that. I was too focused on my parents and─"

"And on frenching Future Luke," he teased with a grin.

"Shut up!" she said as she nudged him, though holding back a laugh. "But it's weird, isn't it? I mean that was my first kiss with him…"

"But it wasn't his first with you," Mouth said, clearly fascinated by the situation. "Is that considered cheating?"

"They're the same person! And we're not even dating."

"Yet."

"Sure," she said, rolling her eyes, "we're not dating yet."

"So when is that happening? I think he made it clear that the ball is on your side now."

"Who, Future Lucas?"

"No, Present Lucas! You know, in the bathroom."

"Oh, right," she admitted, glancing at her hands. "I don't know about that."

She looked up at him and saw that he was baffled. "What do you mean, you don't know?"

"I mean, sure, I want to kiss him all the time, and I want to feel his arms around me and─"

"Easy on the details, Brooke," Mouth cut her off with an embarrassed chuckle.

She groaned, dropping her head on his shoulder. "I'm definitely attracted to him, but… Why do I feel that way? I mean, is it because I can travel, and I know that eventually we'll be living together? Or is it because I really like him for who he is, and not for what our relationship will be?" She lifted her head. "Think about it, if I wasn't able to travel, would I even be talking to him?"

He frowned, "Do girls always overthink like this?"

"Yup. All the time," she said with a dramatic sigh.

She wished she could just ask for Peyton's opinion on this; her best friend would definitely know what to say. Brooke had told her about their discussion in the bathroom, minus the "passing out" part, but that was all she could tell her. She couldn't properly explain to her why she was having so many second thoughts on her feelings for Lucas.

Mouth was a great listener, but when it came to relationship advice, he was no Peyton. Still, he tried his best and asked back, "So, before you started travelling, you had never been attracted to him?"

She frowned, thinking about it for a while. "There was a… thing, at Nathan's end of the summer party, last year. We had never really talked before that and… Yeah, I guess I tried to approach him after that, but he was avoiding me like I was some kind of raving lunatic, so I dropped it. And then I figured he was still into Peyton."

"Which he wasn't."

"Well I know that now," she said, squinting as she stressed the last word. "I know the ball is on my side, and I want to be with him, but… Do I feel that way just because I know what's gonna happen to us?"

"I don't see why that would be a problem."

She shrugged and spoke softly, "It wouldn't be fair to Lucas."

Students were starting to flock around them; they decided that it was time to go to their respective classrooms.

When she arrived in homeroom, Peyton was talking to Lucas, sitting in neighboring seats. They fell silent when she approached them and sat in front of her best friend.

"Where were you?" Peyton asked her with a frown.

"Good morning to you too, sunshine." She briefly turned to Lucas and said, "Hi Luke." She glanced back at Peyton. "I was talking to Mouth."

"How was his holiday?"

"Er, great," she improvised. "Did you get to talk to your dad?"

"Yeah," Peyton said with a smile. "He's not coming back anytime soon, but at least he's fine."

"He won't be there for Christmas?"

"No, he got Christmas last year, remember?"

Brooke gave her a nod. "Alright, I'll tell my parents you'll be there then. Or maybe just my mom."

"Did you talk to them?" Lucas asked her.

"Yeah, my dad's moving to L.A."

"What?!" Peyton and Lucas cried in unison.

Peyton looked like she was about to say something, but Lucas beat her to it and asked, "Are you going too?"

She blinked at him, wondering if the worry she could hear in his voice was just a figment of her imagination. When she noticed Peyton's smirk, she knew it was real. "No, I'm staying here. My mom is keeping the house."

"Oh, okay."

"When is he leaving?" Peyton asked.

"In two weeks."

"That soon?"

Brooke nodded, feeling a lump in her throat. She was glad that her parents felt better now that the secret was out, but she still needed time to get used to the idea of her father living on the opposite side of the country.

Thankfully, before they could ask her further questions about the divorce, Nathan arrived and sat next to Brooke. Lucas' eyes brightened up when he saw him; he grabbed his backpack and got what looked like two tickets out of it.

"Guess what Keith got us," he said, handing one ticket to his brother.

Nathan looked at it closely. "Front row?" he asked in wonder. "How did he get these?"

"I don't know, but he got them."

"Wow, this is─" Nathan's face suddenly froze. His eyes went from the ticket to his brother. "Sorry Luke but, um, I can't go."

"What? Why?" his brother asked.

"I already have a thing this Saturday," he said with a shrug, handing back the ticket.

Lucas slowly took it in his hands, all the while staring at Nathan. "You mean something more important than front seats in Charlotte?"

Nathan threw a nervous glance at Brooke. From what she had recently learned, there was only one thing ─or rather, one person─ that could be more important to Nathan than these apparently rare tickets.

She cleared her throat, and said in a steady voice, "He's helping me that night."

"Helping you with what?" Peyton asked, her face clearly telling that she wasn't buying it.

Brooke glanced at Lucas, who looked surprised but not doubtful. "My dad needs some help with the furniture he's taking to L.A. and Nathan volunteered. Right Nate?" she asked in a dry tone when Nathan failed to react.

"Er, yeah, that's right," he replied, nodding for a good five seconds.

Before Peyton could tell them how that sounded like a blatant lie, their homeroom teacher interrupted them. When they turned to the front of the room, Nathan gave her a knowing smile.

Later that day, after thanking her for saving his butt, he explained that this Saturday was his 6th month anniversary with Haley. To think that one day, Nathan would want to celebrate a 6th month anniversary with anyone… If his ex-girlfriends heard about this, they would probably feel cheated, and rightfully so. Nathan had never been the romantic type; he usually acted like a jerk to his girlfriends, but Haley seemed to be the exception.

To her surprise, Peyton didn't try to find out what Nathan really was doing that night, but only because she was too busy convincing her to go on a date with Lucas.

From her point of view, it made sense; after all, she didn't know about the future and the interactions that Brooke had had with Lucas there. She didn't know why Brooke was so confused about this whole situation. To her, Lucas was into Brooke, and Brooke was far from immune to his charm, so what were they waiting for?

"Just talk to him, Brooke," she told her a few days later, rolling her eyes, as they were getting their lunch trays.

"I do talk to him."

They turned left to the dessert shelves. "I'm not talking about your platonic meetings at the Café." Peyton grabbed an apple. "Look, I can see that you're scared─"

Brooke tensed up, "I'm not scared."

"Oh really?" she snorted. "You think that after fifteen years, I can't read you like a book?"

"I'm not scared," Brooke repeated as they walked to their usual table.

"Alright," she said, linking their arms together and pulling her in the opposite direction, "then you won't mind this."

"Mind what?" she asked, bemused.

Peyton dragged her to another table across the room. As soon as she recognized some of the people seated there, Brooke groaned, "You're being ridiculous Peyt, I'm not─"

"Hey guys!" Peyton said in a disturbingly cheerful voice. "Can we sit here?"

Six bewildered heads looked up at them. Actually, it was five bewildered heads, since Haley didn't look surprised at all. Brooke's gaze went from Haley to Peyton as she realized that they were partners in crime. On the other hand, Lucas, Mouth and their friends seemed completely oblivious to their scheming.

"No, you can't. We don't want two hot girls sitting with us," Skills said from the other end of the table, making them all laugh.

"Thanks for that," Haley told him with a squint.

"I meant two other hot girls," he added with a wink.

"What are you doing?" Brooke hissed at Peyton.

Peyton gave her a smirk and whispered, "Just giving you a hand."

Before Brooke could say anything, Peyton shoved her to the seat next to Lucas and sat across from her, right next to Haley. Brooke scowled at them, then turned to Lucas who was sending a quizzical look to his best friend.

She cleared her throat and got his attention. "So, I didn't thank you," she whispered so that no one else could hear them.

Lucas leaned to her side. "For what?" he asked, bemused.

"Not telling Peyton about my, er, fainting."

He gave her a cheeky smile, "That's only because I didn't want to deal with Tornado Brooke a second time. She can be pretty scary."

Gosh, she really wanted to kiss him. She turned to her meal and tried to focus her energy on eating rather than hopelessly staring at his lips. Since when was she so hung up on a guy?

She barely listened when they talked about their science assignments or when Haley told them that her parents were coming home this weekend, and that Taylor was thus going back to her Texan bartending activities. Peyton said something about their physical resemblance, to which Lucas explained that they used to look like twins when they were children, something that Haley hated with passion.

"I even thought of changing my hair color," Haley said with an embarrassed laugh.

Brooke's ears pricked up; she was about to say that she should try going blonde, but then noticed Mouth staring at her and silently begging her not to say anything. Wait, did he think that her insinuating something about Haley's hair color could actually jeopardize the future? She rolled her eyes at him, which only deepened his stern look. Fine, she wouldn't say anything.

Peyton sounded surprised as she asked, "You did?"

"Yeah, a couple years ago," ─Haley glanced at Lucas─ "remember?"

He chuckled, "Right, you even got everything you needed, but then you chickened out at the last minute."

"Why?" Peyton asked.

Haley shrugged, "I didn't want to mess it up and end up with red hair." She picked up a strand of her hair and looked at it thoughtfully, "But lately, I've been thinking I could give it another shot."

"Need any help?" Peyton asked. "Brooke lightened up my hair once."

"Really?" she asked back, her eyes darting from Peyton to Brooke.

"Yeah, and she did a pretty great job at that."

Haley frowned slightly and after a moment of silence asked them, "How about this Saturday?"

This Saturday, as in the day of her anniversary with Nathan? Did she want to give him a surprise? Brooke was the one who answered this time. "Sure, let's do it. We can go buy what we need in the afternoon and then go to my place to─"

"Your place?" Peyton interrupted. "Isn't your dad packing his stuff this weekend?"

"Oh right," she said with a nervous laugh, "um, then we can use your house, Sawyer."

"So you asked for Nathan's help but you're not gonna be there yourself?"

Brooke squinted at her, "I can take care of Haley's hair in the afternoon and then go help in the evening. Speaking of," she said, turning to Lucas to ignore her friend's dubious gaze, "who are you taking with you for Saturday's game?"

Thankfully, that was enough to change the conversation since Skills, Fergie and Junk were still fighting to know who would be the chosen one, and Brooke went back to staring at her plate instead of Lucas' face.

On Saturday afternoon, she met with Peyton and Haley at the store to get the hair products they would need. Haley had made it clear that she only wanted to lighten it a little bit to reach a more chestnut color.

Brooke read the notice twice on the way to Peyton's house. It was actually quite simple: first they had to apply a lightening product for about 15 minutes, rinse it off, then apply what the manufacturer called a patina, let it sit for another half an hour and rinse it off again.

They settled into Peyton's bedroom: Haley was sitting on a chair facing the mirror, while Brooke was carefully applying the first product with a brush, strand after strand. Peyton was behind them, sitting cross-legged on her bed, and when Brooke glanced over her shoulder, she saw that Peyton was sketching them. She smiled to herself and went back to Haley's hair.

"Stop fidgeting," she said when Haley moved her hair for the tenth time, "I'm not gonna mess this up. Peyton loved it when I did her hair, didn't you P?"

"Yeah," she said, not looking up from her sketch, "minus the part where you missed a whole portion of my hair."

Haley's eyes grew wide in fear, "What?!"

"Just kidding," Peyton said, lifting her head, a playful grin plastered on her face.

"Alright," Brooke said, putting the brush down, "we're done with the first part." She took out her phone and went to its timer app. "Fifteen minutes, starting from… Now." She put her phone back in her jeans pocket. "Stop looking so nervous Haley, you're gonna look fabulous."

Peyton stood up and stared at Haley's reflection, "So who's the lucky guy?"

"Wh─ What do you mean?"

"Oh, come on," Peyton replied, walking around the chair to lean against her desk and face Haley, "you're telling me that this" ─she pointed at her hair─ "is not because of a guy?"

"N─ No, not at all," Haley said with shifty eyes.

"I'm not buying it."

"Yeah, me neither," Brooke said. She ignored Haley's alarmed look and went on, "There's no need to hide it anymore. I mean it's pretty obvious, we all noticed the lovestruck eyes you have around Whitey. But hey, who can blame you?"

They all shared a look before bursting into laughter. Brooke fell silent as she felt something tugging at her shirt. She said she needed to pee and left the room as Peyton was picturing how Haley's date with Whitey would go.

She arrived in the bathroom and locked the door. The tingle was now spreading in her arms and legs. She sat on the floor, her back to the wall, and patiently waited until the usual drowsiness invaded her and forced her to close her eyes.

She woke up sitting on a couch and looked to her right to see that Jamie was tugging on her shirt. He looked younger than the last time they had met.

"Can I get another one?"

Brooke frowned, "Get another what?" He pointed at an empty plate that was on the coffee table. There were just a few crumbs on it. She gave him an apologetic smile, "Sorry buddy, I don't know what you're talking about. Remember what I told you about my episodes?"

His face lit up as he nodded. "Are you having one right now?"

"Yup, so I'm gonna need your help," Brooke said with a wink. "What's that thing you asked for?"

"Another PB&J."

"Oh, sure, I can do that," she said, relieved that it was a simple task.

She got on her feet and looked around her: the place was completely unknown to her. She was standing in a spacious living-room, with a couch, two armchairs, a huge flat-screen TV, and a beautiful patio door that opened to a garden. She walked over to it, wondering where she was, until Jamie tugged at her skirt.

He pointed to the opposite direction. "Kitchen's over there," he said, taking her hand and leading the way.

They left the room and walked in an even bigger kitchen. From the looks of it, she had prepared a PB&J not so long ago: all the ingredients were still out on the marbled kitchen island. She picked Jamie up and heaved him on the island.

"Aunt Brooke?"

"Yeah?" she asked as she was taking two slices of bread in her hands.

"Do you think we can make one for Chester?"

"Chester?"

"You forgot about Chester too?" he asked, his eyebrows raising.

"Seems like it, yeah. Who's Chester?"

"I'll show you!" he said before jumping on the floor and running off.

She watched as he left and looked around her. Her eyes stopped on the fridge to her right, on which there were several pictures. She got closer and noticed that there were only four photographs; what she had mistaken for pictures were actually two postcards. One from Paris, and another from Mexico. She took the latter and read it; it was signed by "Mom and Dad" but she couldn't recognize the handwriting. The text was quite short: it said that they were spending a memorable holiday and missed them. She put the postcard back on the fridge and took the other one, the one that came from France.

She immediately recognized the handwriting as her own, and saw that it was signed from Lucas and her. She looked at the stamp; it was from 2024. Wait, she suddenly thought, what was the date now? She didn't have any pockets on her skirt, so no phone to be found there. She quickly scanned the room, but there was no calendar around. Only then did she notice the square shaped screen on the fridge, showing not only what time it was but also the date: August 11th, 2025.

Now back to the postcard. To her disappointment, it didn't bring much information, just a few lines about how Paris was a wonderful city and the many places they got to visit.

After carefully placing it back to its original spot, she examined the pictures.

Two of them showed Haley, Nathan and Jamie and seemed to have been taken recently, as Jamie looked just the same to her. One was showing them sitting on what looked like bleachers, with both Nathan and Jamie wearing jerseys, and another in a garden, which Brooke recognized as the one she had been staring at just a few minutes ago.

The third picture made her smile: it was the one she had seen in Nathan's present-time house, with Peyton, Nathan and herself dressed up as the three musketeers.

The last picture was one that she also knew well now, since she had taken it with Mouth and Haley in 2024.

She looked down and saw that there were magnetic letters and numbers on the bottom part of the door, with a few words spelled out and then, at the left bottom corner, some letters and symbols were assembled in, what looked like at first, a completely random order. After a few seconds, she realized that it was an equation: HBJS + NRS = JLS.

She frowned, staring at it for a fleeting moment, until she figured it was simply their names. Haley, Nathan, and Jamie. The R stood for Royal, Nathan's second name that he hated almost as much as his father who had given it to him. JLS was for Jamie Scott, but the L… Well, considering his parents were both Lucas' best friend and his brother, it had to stand for Lucas. So, Jamie Lucas Scott. And then, Haley… JS had to be James Scott. But the B? She didn't know Haley's middle name. Barbra? Beatrice?

Just as she was thinking that this place could be none other than Nathan and Haley's house, Jamie came running back into the kitchen, holding a stuffed animal in his arms.

"Can I go back on top?" he asked, looking at the island.

"Sure thing," she said as she lifted him once again.

After he was settled next to the peanut butter jar, he looked down at the bread, then back at her with a puzzled face, "Where's my sandwich?"

"Coming right up, mister," she said as she grabbed a knife and spread some peanut butter on a slice. "So that's Chester?" she asked, glancing at the plush toy. She froze when she saw a tremor going through it.

It wasn't a toy.

Its white ears perked up and its head lifted from Jamie's arms to stare at Brooke.

It was a white-furred rabbit. And it looked eerily similar to the one she had dreamt of all summer.

"What's wrong?" Jamie asked her when he noticed that she had stopped moving.

She blinked twice. "Er, nothing," she said, getting back to the PB&J. "How did you get this rabbit?"

"Chester's still a bunny, not a rabbit."

"Sure," she said a little impatiently, "but how did you─"

"You got him for me, remember?"

For the second time, she stopped and stared at him. "I did?" she asked, puzzled by this information.

"Yup, on my fourth birthday."

She didn't know what to think anymore. Was it just a random gift to a kid that seemed remarkably close to her, or did it hold a special meaning? "There you go," she said as she handed him the now finished sandwich.

He gave her a cheerful smile and after thanking her, took a bite and let out a satisfied groan. "You make the best sandwiches!"

"Thank you handsome," she said with a grin. "Wait a minute, when you said Chester wanted one too, you meant him?" she asked, motioning to the bunny. She laughed when he gave her a nod, unable to speak with his mouth full. "So, er, what does the B stand for again?" she asked him, pointing at the bottom of the fridge.

Jamie pensively chewed another bite, "I'm not sure I can tell you."

"What?" she asked, acting offended. "Don't you trust me?"

"I do, but… It's kind of a secret between Mom and me."

"Oh, but what if I promise to never tell anyone?"

He pondered on it for a few seconds and eventually reached out the little finger from his sandwich-free hand. "Pinky swear?"

She linked her own little finger to his and shook it, "Pinky swear."

"B is for Bob."

She frowned, thinking for a second that she had misheard him. "Bob?" He nodded swiftly, still chewing his sandwich. Bob? "Where does that come from?"

He swallowed and squinted at her, "You really won't tell anyone?"

"Hey, I don't take pinky swears lightly."

"No one knows about this, just me. Even Uncle Luke doesn't know."

"Alright, alright, I get it, it's state secret."

"Mom tells everyone it's because grandpa and grandma liked this old singer named Bob, er…" he frowned, struggling to find the rest of the name. "Mylan?"

"You mean Bob Dylan?"

"Yes!" he said with a bright smile. "Bob Dylan."

"So that's the story she tells everyone?" He gave her another nod. "Then what's the real story?"

"It was for their cat. Grandpa had a cat named Bob, and Mom looked just like him when she was a baby."

"That's, um─"

"Chester says he wants to watch TV now, can I go with him?"

She looked down to the rabbit, then back at the little boy, and chuckled, "Sure, if that's what Chester wants."

She helped him down and followed him back to the living room. While Chester and Jamie were turning on the TV, Brooke noticed a display case on the left wall. She walked to it and saw a dozen different trophies and medals there. Some she had already seen at Nathan's, but most of them were unknown to her. They all came from basketball championships. There was also a framed picture, showing an older looking Nathan in his jersey surrounded by what seemed to be his team mates. She squinted, trying to make out what team he was playing for, but she couldn't make out the logo on their jerseys; who was she kidding anyway, she had never taken any interest in basket ball beyond cheerleading.

She thought about exploring the house further, but quickly gave up on that idea; after all, she was probably in charge of Jamie right now, so she couldn't just leave him alone. Eventually, she sat next to him and listened as he explained to her the cartoon he was watching. After a few minutes, she felt the tingle appearing on her fingers and toes.

She turned to Jamie, smiling as she noticed how focused he was on his cartoon. It was too bad really, she wouldn't have minded spending more time with him. This was one hell of a good kid that Haley and Nathan had raised. Or rather, were going to raise, since he was yet to be born in her time.

The buzzing sound got so loud that she had to close her eyes and started massaging her temple, waiting for it to pass. Just as she was starting to feel like going to sleep, Jamie asked her something.

"Sorry, what did you say?" she asked, looking at him one last time.

"When this episode is over, can we go to the River court?"

She failed to give him an answer when her eyelids shut tight against her will.

When she opened her eyes, it took her a few seconds to remember why she was sitting on Peyton's bathroom floor. She jumped up, swiftly left the room and passed by the bedroom as quietly as she could.

She went downstairs, straight to the kitchen, and opened a drawer where she knew she would find some paper and a pen. She sat at the table and scribbled down everything that had just happened to her. She hesitated when it came to the part about Haley's middle name, not seeing how that could ever be relevant, but wrote it down nonetheless.

When she was done, she read it just to be sure she hadn't missed a single detail. Once she was satisfied with her writing, she folded the paper in half and slipped it in her jeans pocket.

Wait a second, something was missing. She frowned and patted her pocket, searching for her phone. Her eyes grew wide with fear when she understood that it must have fallen from her jeans.

She rushed upstairs, this time not making any effort to be quiet. She ignored Peyton's voice asking her if everything was alright, and yanked open the bathroom door. There it was on the floor, right where she had been sitting, lighting up and vibrating. She picked it up and checked the screen: the timer had been ringing for ten minutes now.

"Shit," she muttered as she shut it off. Haley was going to kill her.

She walked back to the bedroom; Haley was patiently waiting on the chair, her head bobbing as she was listening to the record that Peyton, who was still sitting on the bed, had been playing on her computer.

"Erm, Haley?" Brooke called nervously. "Time to hit the bathroom."

Haley cheerfully stood up and walked out, followed by Peyton. Before her best friend could cross the threshold, Brooke grabbed her arm and made her stop.

"Don't let her see her hair," she whispered urgently.

"Wh─ Why?" Peyton asked, taken aback.

She made a face. "I might have forgotten the timer and left the product longer than needed."

"How long?"

"Does it really matter? I mean─ "

"How long?" Peyton insisted.

Brooke's voice turned into a guilty mumble, "Ten minutes."

"Brooke! She said she wanted chestnut, not platinum!"

"I know, and that's why you need to rinse it off right now! I'm gonna check the instructions one more time, maybe I can reverse it."

Unfortunately, there was no guidance on what to do in that situation. Along with Peyton, they acted like nothing was wrong at all and when Haley came back with wet hair, Brooke proceeded with the second product to apply. They waited for half an hour, during which Brooke kept glancing anxiously at Haley's hair, waiting for it to change into a bright orange color at any moment. Right before it was time to rinse off her hair again, Haley eventually picked up on her restlessness and while she was still sitting on the chair, asked Brooke what was wrong.

"N─ Nothing's wrong."

Haley raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Really?"

Peyton chimed in, "Yeah Brooke, really?"

Brooke scowled at her best friend, which again Haley noticed, "Okay seriously Brooke, what's going on?"

Brooke looked back at Haley, whose anguished face made her feel even more guilty. She cleared her throat nervously, "Um, it's nothing bad, really, but you know how I was supposed to check for my timer when we applied the lightening product?"

Haley frowned slightly, "Yeah."

"Well, I might have accidentally forgotten to do that."

"What?!" Haley asked, jumping on her feet, her eyes about to pop out of their sockets. "B─ But then I…"

"I'm sorry Haley, I really am, but maybe we can still fix it before tonight!"

"Yeah, she's right," Peyton said, sitting up on her bed. "Let's just see how it looks like and then we'll work from that."

Haley didn't look very convinced but still followed Peyton to the bathroom.

After Peyton finished blow-drying her hair, she took her back to the bedroom where Brooke was waiting. Brooke was relieved to see that her hair hadn't turned orange at all. It had taken a honey blonde shade that truly lightened up her face. However, she figured Haley would still be very mad at her since the final result was definitely far from what she had wished for.

Haley stood before the mirror, frowning at her reflection. Brooke shared a worried look with Peyton, before walking up next to Haley.

"Haley, are you okay?"

She wasn't moving at all, it was almost like she had stopped breathing. But after a few seconds, her frown slowly disappeared, and her mouth stretched in a broad grin. "Brooke, you're a genius!" she cried before hugging her.

"Really?" she asked dubiously, wondering if it wasn't a ploy to murder her.

"Yeah, I love it!" Haley let her go and contemplated her hair in the mirror, brushing it with her hand.

"And I'm sure Whitey will love it too," Peyton said with a wink.

They never got to know what the Coach thought of Haley's new hair color, but from the text she sent to Brooke on the next morning, she knew Nathan had not been indifferent to it. That afternoon, she went to Mouth's to discuss her latest travel. She was welcomed, as usual, by a perky Mrs McFadden. Brooke went up to Mouth's bedroom and had barely had the time to take off her scarf and coat that his mother had climbed up the stairs and knocked on the door with a plate full of cookies.

"Mom, I think you can go now," Mouth said, looking embarrassed, as his mother was placing the plate on his desk.

She ignored her son and turned to Brooke, "Honey, are you sure you don't want anything to drink?"

Brooke sat on the window sill, her favorite part of Mouth's room. It was arranged with a small mat and cushions, all in different shades of green, and was large enough for two people to sit. She glanced at Mouth, who was sitting at his desk, and then back at his mother. "Positive. I'm just stopping by."

Mrs McFadden smiled at them both and left, closing the door behind her. Mouth's chair pivoted until it faced Brooke; his face was now lit up. "So? Did you travel again?"

"Yup," she said with a chuckle, amused by his excitement. She took out the piece of paper she had found in Peyton's kitchen and handed it to him.

She watched as he silently read it; after about five minutes, he gazed up at Brooke, looking perplexed. "What's up with that rabbit? Have you dreamed about it since summer?"

"No, not since I started travelling. Last time I saw it in my dreams, I caught its tail and then it was gone."

"Do you think it's a coincidence?"

Brooke frowned, giving it a thought. "My dreams, the lamp in Lucas' bedroom, the rabbit foot in his car, and now Chester?"

"Yeah," Mouth said as he nodded, "it definitely sounds too big to be a coincidence."

She crossed her arms against her chest, a sudden sense of discomfort creeping in her. "But if it's not a coincidence… Then what does it mean? Why would I get Jamie a bunny that looks just like the one in my dreams?"

"Well, the future you… She knows what's gonna happen to you, right? Since she's been in your shoes before. So maybe she's…" his voice trailed off, and he slowly shook his head. "No, never mind."

She hesitated, as her uneasiness kept growing. "What is it?"

He tilted his head, his voice sounding uncertain. "Maybe she's trying to send you a message."

Brooke stayed silent for a moment. She realized that she too was thinking the same thing, and that it was exactly what made her so uncomfortable. First Future Lucas talking about accidents, and now this? What was so important that her future-self wanted to warn her about? Or were they just reading too much into it? "They're supposed to be good omens," she muttered, remembering what she had read in Dan's former study.

"Rabbits?"

"Yeah. I read it in those dream interpretation books that Deb has, so it's probably all just nonsense, but… They're supposed to announce a big change in life, and most of the time, it's a good thing."

"So… Maybe Future Brooke just wants you to pay attention to Jamie?"

"But why? He's just a kid. I mean, sure he's adorable, but he's just a kid. How could he change my life?"

Mouth thought about it for a second. "You're right, it's gotta be something else. Or maybe it's nothing at all and we're just overthinking this," he said with an encouraging smile, probably sensing her worry. He cleared his throat and looked at the paper once again, "So, er, Nathan's gonna be playing basketball in the future, huh?"

She knew he was trying to change the subject, and she silently thanked him for that. "Yeah," she said with a grin, "but come on, does that really surprise you?"

"Not at all. And Haley did turn blonde?"

"Yes, but it really was an accident! I swear I didn't─"

"I know you didn't, Brooke," he said with a chuckle. "What about those trophies you saw in their house, did you see what team Nathan was playing for?"

"Mmh, no," she said with a frown. "I tried to see the logo, but I really couldn't tell, it was too small. I do know that they have a house in Tree Hill."

"That was in Tree Hill?" Mouth asked in surprised, his eyes going back and forth from the paper to Brooke.

She nodded, "Right before I came back here, Jamie asked me if we could go to the River Court. But it might be just a vacation house."

"No, Haley told you she was a teacher in Tree Hill, remember?"

"Oh right," she said, recalling that conversation. "I forgot about that."

Mouth looked thoughtful again. "You know, I'm starting to have trouble keeping track with all these travels."

She snorted. "Imagine going through them."

"Maybe we should put it all in one place…" he muttered to himself, seemingly lost in his thoughts.

"What are you─"

His head raised in a swift move, startling her. "Do you have your entries about all your former travels?"

"Er, yeah, they're in here," she said, picking up her bag from the floor. She took out the sheet protector that she always brought during their meetings and handed it to him.

"Can I keep this for a while? I'd like to go over it again."

She was a little surprised, but agreed nonetheless, trusting him entirely. Before leaving, when she asked him what he had in mind, he said that he just wanted to clarify things a little.

She expected him to tell her more about this the next day, at school, but he didn't; he even disappeared during lunch break. That night, after her class had ended, her cheerleading training was over and her student council meeting was done, she stopped by the Café. Once she was settled at her table, and Lucas had taken care of his other customers, he came by to sit next to her. He was going over her NYU application essay for one last time before she could mail it.

"It's good to go," he eventually said, handing her back her essay.

She took it in her hands, staring at it with a slight frown. "Are you sure? No last-minute corrections to make? Because I changed some parts last night and─"

"I know," he said with a chuckle, "and you've been doing that every night for three weeks now, but at some point, you're gonna have to send it."

"It's just that… I really need it to be perfect."

"Brooke," he said with a soft voice, making her look up at him. "Trust me, you can send this."

Her heart gave a little flutter, which seemed to happen a lot around Lucas. "Great," she said with a grin, "because I only have three days until the deadline."

She put the essay in a brown, paper-sized envelope and hesitated before sealing it. Lucas seemed to notice that and asked, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, it's just that…" she said, still staring at the envelope. She briefly debated on whether or not she should show him, until she took out three sheets of paper and spread them on the table.

Lucas' bemusement turned into excitement, as he bent over the table to take a closer look. "Is this…?"

"Yup," she said with a nervous voice, "these are three Brooke Davis originals. I'm sending them with my essay."

His eyes were fixated on her sketches. "Wow, this is great, Brooke. You're really talented."

She felt a slight pink blush spreading on her cheeks. She didn't know if it was from the fact that he sounded genuinely astonished or the fact that his face was really close to hers; maybe it was just a mix of both.

"What's that?" he asked, pointing at a skirt she had drawn.

She leaned over, squinting at the part he was confused about. "Oh, that's a raven," ─she shrugged─ "I thought it would be a nice nod to our school."

"It is," he murmured, still staring at her sketches in wonder.

The last time she had seen his face this up close, she had ended up kissing him. But that was in 2022, and it had not happened with the Lucas next to her, at least not yet. Her gaze went from his eyes, to his nose, and down to his lips. She stared at them, noticing that they were slightly apart.

Would it feel the same? She knew they were the same person, just at various times of his life, but still, would kissing him feel the same? And if it didn't, would it be such a bad thing? She didn't think it would be; after all, she knew she wasn't imagining the way she felt about the Lucas who was currently sitting next to her. So, it wouldn't be bad, but rather… very confusing.

Maybe Mouth was correct, maybe she was just overthinking things, but she simply couldn't help it: when had her feelings started? Was it in the present or in the future? And it were the latter, then how─

"Brooke?"

She blinked, dragged away from her thoughts. Lucas was staring at her with a puzzled look, waving his hand in front of her face. She blushed and leaned back on her chair, trying her best to hide her fluster and apparently failing miserably at it, for Lucas' eyes suddenly glinted. He rested his chin on his hand, his elbow pressing against the table, and kept staring at her.

"Sorry," she muttered, avoiding his gaze, "I was just thinking about, er…"

"Anything I can help you with?" he asked with a crooked grin.

During times like these, this Lucas and the one she met in the future seemed to perfectly overlap, which was only adding to her confusion. So no, he could not help her.

Before she could tell him, the door bell chimed and they both looked up to see that Karen and Keith were entering the Café. Keith's arms were full with paper bags; he briefly said hello to them and walked straight in the direction of the kitchen. Karen, however, stopped by their table to greet them.

"Hi Mom," Lucas said as he sat back on his chair.

She smiled at her son then turned to Brooke. "How are you, Brooke?"

"Great, thanks," she answered with a smile, her inner turmoil now muted. "What's all that for?" she asked, pointing her thumb at the spot where Keith had disappeared.

"Christmas stuff. What are you working on?" she asked, looking down at the table. Her mouth slightly opened as she leaned closer to the sketches. "Did you do these?"

Brooke's lips slightly curved up. "Yeah,"

"Brooke, this is…" Karen's voice trailed off as she seemed to think of something. She looked up at Brooke. "Do you sketch only?"

"No, I make them sometimes, but it's not that─"

"Could you show me some of the clothes you made?"

"Why the sudden interest, Mom?" Lucas asked, intrigued.

She ignored her son and kept staring at Brooke. "Could you?" she repeated.

"Er, yeah, sure. How about tomorrow?"

Karen gave her a satisfied smile. "That would be perfect."

Brooke and Lucas shared a look, both wondering what had gone through his mother. They found out on the next day, at approximately the same time, when Brooke showed up at the Café with a few clothes in her backpack. Karen took them to the kitchen and made them sit next to each other while she was examining the clothes. She was really detailing them, which made Brooke feel awfully nervous. What was this all about?

"You know, some of them are not so great, like on that t-shirt" ─she pointed at the one Karen was scrutinizing─ "some of the seams are visible and it probably doesn't fit the way I intended the─"

"Well," Karen said, putting a sudden stop to her rambling, "this is very impressive."

Brooke couldn't help but be a little skeptical, "You think so?"

"Yes, really." Karen walked around the table and stood in front of them. "How long would it take for you to make t-shirts?"

Lucas raised his eyebrows, "Are you renewing your wardrobe, Mom?"

"No, it's not for me specifically," she answered with a smile. "We're finally reopening Tric and since the whole place will look brand new, I figured we could have a change of clothing too. So what do you say, Brooke? Could you make t-shirts for the staff? About ten of them should be enough." Brooke was rendered speechless. She couldn't believe that someone would offer her a job, let alone that it would be Lucas' mother. Karen misinterpreted her silence for hesitation, for she added, "Of course you would be paid. And I'll buy all the material you'll need."

"Oh no, that's not…" Brooke said, stumbling on her words. "I'm just surprised, that's all. Of course I'll do it."

They agreed to meet again on Sunday, giving her enough time to work on a prototype. The timing was impeccable, since it gave her something to take her mind off her father's move.

It was difficult not to think of it at all: huge cardboard boxes were scattered all around the house. Her parents filled them together, bit by bit, all week long, until Saturday came. The moving company arrived early in the morning and took care of all her father's stuff. Though she had known all week that they would be emptying his study, it still came as a shock to her when she woke up that morning and saw that the room was now completely empty.

Brooke stood in the doorway, looking around, noticing the dust stains that the furniture had left on the wood floor and on the walls. She clenched her fists, tears prickling her eyes, and tried to remember the picture she had seen in 2022, where the three of them looked happy. Even though her father was leaving today, she knew for sure that she wasn't losing her family… It was just changing.

With that in mind, the day went by more peacefully; when it was finally time for Ted to go, Brooke helped him carry his suitcases downstairs and waited with her mother for the cab to arrive.

"Are you sure you don't want me to drive you to the airport?" Brooke asked once more, looking up at her father.

He put an arm around her shoulder and gave them a light squeeze. "No, I don't think that's a good idea. I'm not sure I could handle all the crying."

"I'm not gonna cry."

He looked down at her; the corner of his lips twitched. "I wasn't talking about you."

Her mouth turned into a frown, and she put her arms around him, hugging him tightly. "Don't be a stranger."

A minute later, her father was gone. Brooke and Victoria stood outside the house as they watched the cab driving away. When it had turned left and disappeared from their view, Victoria put a hand on her daughter's shoulder and told her, in a quiet voice, that they should get inside now.

When Brooke closed the door behind them, she saw that her mother really was shaken up, maybe even more than herself. It shouldn't have come as a surprise; after all, whether they had been happy or not, they had lived together for 22 years.

"Mom, do you want to see what I'm working on?"

Brooke's sketches turned out to be a nice distraction for Victoria, too. Her mother was surprised to hear that she had received an actual order. She even gave her a few advice on the final prototype sketch that she brought to Karen the next day.

When she knocked on their door, she recalled that she had never felt this nervous before. And it didn't have to do with the fact that it was Lucas' mother, no, she just really didn't want to disappoint Karen. All her agitation instantly faded away when she saw Karen's warm smiling face opening the door and inviting her to come in.

They sat at the kitchen table while Karen was looking at the sketches: one for female t-shirts, and one for male t-shirts. She had slightly changed the Tric's logo to modernize it.

"I like the lightening bolt," Karen said with a satisfied grin. She looked up at her and reached out a hand. "Alright, you're hired." Brooke shook her hand so vigorously that it startled Karen at first, then made her laugh. "How about a hot chocolate now?"

"Oh, I don't want to intrude─"

"You're not," Karen said with a vague hand wave. She stood up and went to open the fridge, taking out a bottle of milk. "So how was your weekend?"

"Oh, erm…" Brooke watched as Karen poured the milk in a pot and put in on the stove. "My dad moved to LA yesterday."

Karen froze just as her hand was reaching for the closet over her head. She turned around to face her, "Lucas said your parents were getting a divorce, but I didn't know he would leave so soon."

"Yeah," she said with a shrug, "I… I don't know why it feels so weird to be alone with my mom, because lately he hasn't been around much, but…" Her voice quavered, "It still feels weird." She cleared her throat, "So, erm, I don't see Lucas or Keith."

"They went for a run after lunch," Karen said as she put chocolate chunks in the milk and stirred it. She glanced at the clock and frowned, "They should be back by now."

As if on cue, the kitchen door opened; Brooke glanced over her shoulder and greeted Lucas and his uncle with a smile.

"Brooke!" Lucas said, freezing on the doorstep. "Didn't you say you would come by in an hour?"

"Yeah, but I was too nervous, and I couldn't wait at home," she admitted with a chuckle.

He smiled at her and was about to say something when his uncle pushed him inside, "Luke, I'm freezing out here! Hi Brooke, how did the job interview go? Did Karen let you negotiate your pay?"

She chuckled, her mood lightening up. "Actually, we haven't discussed it. But honestly," she said, turning to Karen who was slowly stirring the pot, "a month of free drinks at the Café would be fine by me."

Karen gave a quiet laugh and turned off the stove. She turned to Lucas and Keith and wrinkled her nose when they stopped on her side and leaned over the stove to check what she had been preparing. "I think it's time you take a shower."

"I'll go first," Lucas answered. He didn't walk straight out of the room; instead, he slowed down by the table and stopped in front of Brooke. After checking with a quick glance over his shoulder that his parents were busy talking, his voice turned into a murmur that only she could hear, "Don't go before I come back, I er… There's something I'd like to show you."

Before she could ask him what this was all about, he dashed away. She was still staring at the door leading to the hall when Karen came to sit with her, handing her a hot chocolate. That was the same hallway where she would be playing hide-and-seek in 2026 with a brown-haired girl.

"Brooke? Are you okay?" Karen asked, pulling her from her thoughts.

"Er, yeah," she said, looking at Karen. "Did you…" She hesitated, and from the corner of her eyes noticed that Keith quietly exited the room. She wondered if Karen had told him what they had been talking about and if that was why he had preferred to leave them alone. "Did you ever think about having other children?"

Karen, quite predictably, seemed taken aback by her question. "Where does that come from?"

"W─Well, it's just that, er…" she said, racking her brains to find an excuse. "My parents never had another child because of their issues, so I was just wondering, seeing you with Keith, if… Sorry," Brooke sighed, shaking her head, "I don't know what got into me."

"No, I don't mind you asking," Karen told her with a reassuring smile. "If anything, I should be flattered that you think I'm still young enough to have children."

"But you are!"

"Technically, yes, but I also have an eighteen-year-old child who's about to go to college."

Which meant her future daughter would be an accident, just like Jamie. Had people in Tree Hill forgotten how contraception worked?

"So how's Christmas gonna go for you this year, with your father in LA?"

Brooke took a sip of her drink. "I'm staying here for both weeks. My dad said I should come for a week, but, er…" With her uncontrollable time-traveling situation, she had thought otherwise. "I figured my mom needed me more. Plus," ─she tapped on the sketches that Karen had approved─ "I'm gonna need my sewing machine to get this ready by Tric's reopening."

Karen frowned upon hearing that. "Brooke, if this prevents you from─"

"No, honestly, I'm really excited about this."

Lucas' voice startled them both. "She is." They turned to him: he was standing in the doorway, leaning on its frame, his arms crossed against his chest. His hair was damp and the t-shirt he had changed into was wet on some spots. "That's all she's been talking about in class."

Her mother squinted at him. "Maybe you should pay more attention to what your teachers have to say." Brooke snickered, which made Karen face her. "That goes for you too."

"Right," she muttered, lowering her gaze to her drink.

"Mom," Lucas said as he was obviously struggling not to laugh, "can I borrow Brooke for a minute?"

"She's all yours."

Brooke took her hot chocolate with her and followed Lucas to his room. She stared at it for a moment, remembering what had happened the first time she had been in here, during her first travel.

His voice brought her back to reality. "So, er, how did the moving go?" She looked up at him in surprise. He was leaning against his desk and was staring at her with worry in his eyes. "Wasn't it yesterday?" he asked in an uncertain tone, confused by her reaction.

"It was," she said, walking to his bed. She sat there and put her drink on his bedside table. "I just didn't think that, er…"

He came to sit next to her. "That I'd remember? Come on Brooke, I know it's a big deal for you."

"Well," ─she cleared her throat, avoiding his gaze─ "he's all settled in LA now."

"When are you gonna visit him?"

"We haven't planned anything for now," she answered with a shrug. "Hey, I completely forgot to ask you, did you finish all your college applications?" He gave her a nod. "Even the one for Columbia?"

"Yup, Nate and I sent everything yesterday." He tilted his head, as if remembering something. "Did he manage to fix your TV?"

"My TV," she repeated slowly, bemused.

"Yeah, this morning. He didn't come?"

There was nothing wrong with her TV, but if Nathan had told his brother that he needed to repair it, then it could only mean one thing. "He did. And he fixed it," she said, making a mental note to herself to remind Nathan that a warning would be nice if he wanted her to cover his and Haley's butts.

She was about to grab her drink but stopped when she saw the lamp standing right next to it. Before she knew what she was doing, she took it in her hands, examining it closely. Her finger grazed the chip on the rabbit's left ear: it really was the one she had seen in her first travel.

"Brooke?"

She blinked twice; Lucas was waving his hand in front of her eyes. She put the lamp back to its place and turned back to him. "Sorry, I was, um…"

"In a daze?"

"Yeah."

He looked at her with a mix of amusement and worry in his eyes. "You've been doing that a lot, lately."

"Oh, it's just that, between my essay, the new president election in a month, our midterms, my dad going away… I've had a lot to think about." And that was just the tip of the iceberg: the majority of her dazing off activity was due to her travels.

"Not to mention my mom giving you a job."

"Yeah," she said with a broad grin, "but that doesn't count, because that's one thing I'll definitely enjoy doing." She frowned, recalling wat he had told her before hitting the shower. "Weren't you supposed to show me something?"

"Um, I wanted to, but… I don't know, you've got enough on your plate right now."

"Come on," she said, nudging him, "what is it?"

He seemed to ponder on it for a second, then said, "Remember how I said I'd let you read my texts if you showed me your sketches?"

Her eyes widened. "Can I see them?"

He stood up and went to his desk, opening the bottom drawer to take out a red-colored file. He looked hesitant when he sat back next to her. "You know, no one's read this before so I'm not even sure my writing's good and─"

She snatched the file from his hands, startling him. "And of course I'm expecting to read no less than the next Pulitzer." He laughed, his shoulders relaxing. "Let's see what the great Lucas Scott has in store." She opened the file: there were three stacks of paper, clipped together, each with a title. Chapter one, two and three. Her head shot up, "You're writing a book?"

"No." She frowned, confused by what she had in her hands. "I wasn't planning on writing one, I just needed to put some things on paper and next thing I know, I'm writing a second chapter. And then a third." He paused, looking thoughtful, scratching his head. "Okay, maybe I am writing a book after all."

Her eyes travelled from the chapters in her hands to the blonde boy next to her. "Wow, this is… This is awesome, Luke."

"Wait until you read it."

"But, um… Are you sure you want me to be your first reader? I won't give you any good advice like Haley would, or─"

"I'm sure," he said, his eyes fixated onto hers. "Plus, we shook on it, remember?"

She started reading it when she went home that night: it was heavily inspired from his own life. The names were different, but she knew the characters in the first chapters represented his family. Those three chapters covered his childhood until the age of six, and detailed the bonds that he had developed with his parents, and those he hadn't with Dan and Nathan.

As she was advancing through the chapters, Brooke remembered how as a child, Nathan would throw fits of anger if anyone mentioned his older brother's name. She hadn't really known about Lucas, not until high school. From the very few details Nathan had given her over the years, she had always pictured him as a monster. A scornful, petty, mean boy. With a hunchback. How wrong she had been.

She gave the chapters back to Lucas two days before Winter break, right before a cramming session planned at the Café. Peyton and Nathan hadn't arrived yet, and Haley was busy serving a customer at the other end of the room.

He was sitting across from her, fidgeting in his chair, waiting for her to render her verdict. He cleared his throat, "What do you think?"

She held back a smile. "I think you need to give me the rest asap."

His features relaxed instantly. "That's still a work in progress. But you'll definitely be the first to know when it's done."

They changed the subject when Haley came back to sit with them. After a few minutes, Peyton and Nathan had also arrived, and they were all struggling with maths. Well, all but Haley, who was so quick to solve every question that she still had time to help them out and attend to her clients.

After an hour so, Nathan suggested that they could use a break. He asked Peyton how Tric's reopening was going, to which she replied that she was still looking for someone to open that night.

"I thought you had a band already?" Brooke asked her.

"Exactly," Peyton said with an annoyed look. "Had. They just canceled."

"So the spot's free?" Nathan asked.

Peyton raised her eyebrows. "Why, are you interested?"

He laughed it off, "Yeah, right, I've been dying to perform on that stage. Hey Brooke, once you're done with the t-shirts, maybe you could make me a suit."

Lucas snickered at that. "Or a dress," he muttered under his breath.

They all stared at him, wondering why he had made that comment. Brooke threw her leg under the table, intending to kick him; she knew she had missed her target when Peyton, who had been sitting right next to him, winced in pain.

"What the hell was that for?" Peyton asked her with a frown.

"Sorry, I slipped."

"Slipped?" she repeated, incredulous. "What do you mean─"

"What was that about, Luke?" Nathan asked his brother.

Lucas threw a furtive look at Brooke, "Er, nothing. I was just joking."

Nathan turned to Brooke and squinted at her, looking suspicious. "Why would he make that joke, Brooke?"

She gulped, avoiding his stare. "How would I know?"

Peyton's eyes went from Lucas, to his brother, and eventually landed on Brooke. They grew wide as she let out a laugh that sounded like she was both surprised and amused at the same time. "Oh my god, you showed him the picture!"

"What picture?" Haley asked in a confused voice.

"Nate-N-Furter! Right?"

Lucas' expression went from guilt to utter confusion. Nathan looked mortified, and Brooke's apologetic look didn't seem to help him.

"Nate and what?" Lucas asked.

"You know," Peyton said, looking at him, "the one where he's dressed as─"

Brooke cleared her throat. "Actually Peyton, I didn't show him that one. Just the one we took during my fashion show."

"Oh," her friend said, nodding and chuckling as she remembered it, "right, the pink dress."

"You dressed as a girl?" Haley asked Nathan. "I need to see that," she added with a laugh.

"No you don't," he said, shaking his head with vigor. He then turned to Brooke and hissed, "I can't believe you showed him!"

"Sorry Nate, I just slipped-up about it."

"So, if you weren't talking about the pink frilly dress picture," Lucas asked Peyton, intrigued, "what were you talking about?"

"Oh," Peyton said, "Nate-N-Furter. We had him dressed up as Frank-N-Furter."

Haley giggled again at that, "We're discovering a whole new side of you, Nate."

He rolled his eyes, then pointed at Brooke and Peyton. "Those two forced me to do it."

"If I recall correctly," Brooke said with a smirk, "you didn't complain much."

"Okay, wait a minute," Lucas told them, still looking puzzled. "Who's that Frank-and-something?"

Brooke answered, "You know, from the Rocky Horror Picture Show."

He didn't seem to have a clue on what she was talking about. Haley patted him on the shoulder with a somewhat pitiful look and said, "Luke's never watched it."

"What?!" Peyton and Brooke shouted at the same time, startling him.

Nathan threw him a surprised look, "Really?"

Before Lucas could answer for himself, his best friend said, "He's never been into musicals."

"But it's so much more than a musical!" Brooke cried.

Lucas seemed thoughtful for a moment. "I remember that I wanted to watch it on TV years ago, but my mom said I was too young to see it. So what does this Frank-and-something look like?"

"You know what, maybe it's a good thing you've never watched it," Nathan told him with a shrug. "Stay innocent, man. This girl" ─he pointed with his thumb at Brooke─ "made us watch it with her when we were 9."

"I can't believe you've never seen it," Brooke murmured, shaking her head in dismay.

Peyton turned to Nathan, laughing at him. "And you're only saying that because you don't want him to know what Nate-N-Furter looked like." She paused for a second, and after a brief glance at Brooke, said to Lucas: "You know, Brooke has watched it like a hundred times and has it on DVD."

"Not a hundred times," Brooke said, rolling her eyes. "More like 20 times. But yeah," ─she turned to Lucas─ "I could lend it to you."

This time, it was Peyton who kicked her under the table. Brooke was about to complain, but fell silent when she noticed the look her best friend was giving her. It wasn't very subtle, since Haley seemed to notice it too: she suddenly stood up and grabbed Nathan's arm. "I totally forgot, Karen asked me to move this, er, very heavy thing at the back, so… Nathan," ─she pulled on his arm, startling him─ "come with me."

He looked deeply confused by her behavior but still went with her, quickly followed by Peyton who muttered something about giving them a hand. Seriously, subtlety was not their strong suit.

Brooke looked at Lucas: he was watching their friends disappear behind the counter. She lowered her eyes to her hands, feeling a huge lump appear in her throat. She knew about his feelings, and she knew about her feelings, so why was there still a part of her who didn't want things to change? Was it really because she didn't know how much her experience in the future had influenced her? Or was it─

"How about we watch it together?"

She looked up at him. "Sorry, what?"

"The movie, we could watch it together. Say, tomorrow night?"

Was that considered a date? Oh, but wait, tomorrow night was… "I can't," she said with an apologetic face. "Not that I don't want to, but it's movie night tomorrow with Peyton and Nate." He seemed relieved to hear that she wasn't really shooting him down. Come on Brooke, she thought, wondering where all her guts seemed to vanish whenever she was around Lucas. "I'm free on Saturday night."

His lips slowly stretched, but before they could form a proper smile, they froze and were then accompanied by a frown, giving him a strange look. "Aren't you supposed to go out with Haley that night?"

She recalled then that Haley had indeed told her earlier that week that she needed an excuse to have dinner with Nathan. "Right, I forgot about that… But I'm free in the afternoon."

"Saturday afternoon it is, then," Lucas told her with a broad grin.

She kept telling herself that it wasn't a date. It wasn't, really; it was just a friendly, inconsequential meeting.

"It's a date, Brooke," Peyton told her the next day, as she was setting a food tray on her coffee table.

Brooke sighed and turned to Nathan, who was already comfortably sitting on the couch, waiting for the movie to start. He shrugged nonchalantly and said, "She's right."

"It's not!" she cried, plumping down next to him.

"Fine, it's not," Peyton said as she sat on Nathan's other side. She turned on the TV and glanced at her. "It's just you, inviting over to your place the guy you've been flirting with non-stop for a month, to watch one of your favorite movies." She snickered and rolled her eyes. "So not a date."

"We're not flirting."

Nathan stifled a laugh and stopped when he noticed Brooke's scowl. "Oh, come on! He's my brother, so you know I'm uncomfortable speaking about this, but… You two are totally flirting all the time."

"What I don't understand is what's holding you back," Peyton said, squinting at her. "It's almost like you're scared of─"

"Stop saying that!" Brooke exclaimed with a frown. "I'm not scared."

"Then what have you been hiding?"

"Wh─ What?" she asked, startled.

Peyton sighed. "I'm not dumb, Brooke, or blind for that matter. I can see there's something bothering you and that you're hiding, and it's been going on for a while now, and it looks like it's connected to Lucas. I didn't ask anything so far because I figured you'd talk when you're ready, but…"

"You're being paranoid, Peyt," she retorted sharply.

"Oh, am I?" Peyton said, taking offence. "Nathan, what do you think?"

"Yeah Nathan, what do you think?"

She could tell from his face what he was thinking right now: that he'd rather be anywhere else than on this couch, caught between their respective fires. "I, er, I don't know…" he said in an unusually faltering voice. "I guess, yeah," he said turning to Brooke. "You've been acting a little weird, lately."

Brooke's mouth hung open in surprise. She watched when, in a gesture of approval, Peyton patted him on the shoulder. She glared at Nathan, "Fine. You want to know what I've been hiding?" She turned to Peyton and said, "Nathan and Haley are dating."

Nathan was caught off guard. He opened his mouth, but before he could make any sound, Peyton grabbed his shoulder and made him turn to her, "Is that true?!" she cried in surprise.

"Yes, it's true," Brooke answered, "and they don't want anybody to find out, especially not Lucas, so I wasn't allowed to tell anyone, but I still had to cover their asses every week!"

"I see…" Peyton said in a thoughtful murmur. She swiftly looked up at Nathan and punched him on the chest, "I can't believe you didn't tell me! When did it happen?"

Nathan had no other choice but to tell her everything that he had already told Brooke. It was the perfect diversion: they stopped teasing her about her so-called date with Lucas, and Peyton had a plausible explanation for her strange behavior. Nathan did call her bluff later that night, when Peyton had gone to the restroom. As he pointed out, she had indeed started acting strange way before she had known about his relationship with Haley. But after she had reminded him that he owed her big time for keeping his secrets, including his missed trip to High Flyers, he agreed not to discuss this any further.

Although she had kept repeating to herself, almost like a mantra, that it wasn't a date, Brooke felt awfully nervous when she woke up the next day. That morning, she tested about five times her DVD player to make sure that it was still working, and asked her mother twice if she was still planning to go out for the afternoon.

About ten minutes before Lucas arrived, she realized with horror that they were out of popcorn. What kind of a movie non-date would it be, without popcorn? She was still rummaging through the kitchen when she heard the doorbell. She paused before the door, and closed her eyes, taking a second to regain her composure.

Lucas was waiting on the porch; he turned around when she opened the door and waved two small boxes at her. "I brought some popcorn."

She didn't know what she had been so nervous about; maybe it was the fact that for once, they wouldn't be hanging out at the Café or at school. Whatever it had been, after a couple of minutes, she realized that there had been nothing to be nervous about. After all, she had rarely been this comfortable around anyone, and it seemed to be the same for him too.

She put the DVD in the player and went to sit next to him on her couch, with just the bucket of popcorn between them.

"Are you ready to have your mind blown away?" she asked in a very dramatic tone.

He chuckled, "Play away."

During the first song, she noticed that he kept throwing her sideway glances. After catching him doing that for the fifth time, she sighed and turned to him. "Okay, what is it?"

"Nothing," he said, staring back at the screen.

"Do I have something on my face?" she asked, patting her nose.

"No, you just… You've been mouthing the lyrics, and I think that's really cute."

She felt a warm feeling on her cheeks. "Is that how you pay attention to one of the best movies ever?"

"Sorry," he said with a quiet laugh, "I promise I'll be more focused from now on."

He did watch quietly for the next two songs, until the character he had been waiting for appeared. When Tim Curry, dressed with a leather corset and garter belt ensemble, started singing about being a sweet transvestite, Lucas turned to her, gaping.

"Two questions," he eventually managed to say. "One, did you really dress Nathan that way, and two, how did your parents let you watch this when you were nine?!"

She laughed, taking a mouthful of popcorn. "We did, yeah. We found everything we needed in Deb's closet."

He winced, making her laugh louder. "I did not need to know that."

"And as for the parents part… I knew it was gonna be on TV, and I really wanted to watch it, so we went to Nate's that day. Dan was supposed to watch us, which basically meant that we could do whatever we wanted as long as we didn't bother him."

"Still, nine is a bit young for this, don't you think?"

"Wait until you see the rest," she said with a wink. "Then you'll definitely want to call child services."

As far as she could tell, he was really enjoying the movie. He kept making witty comments and bobbing his head to the songs. She had to admit that the longer she spent sitting next to him, the more it felt like, after all, they really were on a date. Although, her dates wouldn't usually get interrupted by her mother coming home early from her shopping.

They both startled when they heard the front door open and after sharing a look with Lucas, Brooke went to see who it was.

"Mom?" she asked, confused by her presence. "What are you doing here?"

Victoria raised her eyebrows and closed the front door. "Isn't this my house too?"

"That's not what I meant," Brooke said, shaking her head. "I thought you wouldn't be back until tonight."

"My plans got canceled," her mother said, intrigued by her reaction. She took off her coat and hung it on the rack. "What's going on Brooke? Whose coat is that?" she asked, noticing Lucas' things.

"Erm, I've got a friend here…"

They both turned around when they heard the wood floor squeak behind them. Lucas was standing on their left, holding the popcorn bucket in his right hand.

"We're out of popcorn," he said before turning to Victoria. He walked up to her and reached out his hand hesitantly. "Hi Mrs Davis, I'm Lucas."

She shook his hand, smiling at him. "Nice to meet you, Lucas. My daughter" ─she briefly glanced at Brooke─ "didn't tell me she had company."

Brooke cleared her throat. "Luke is Nathan's brother. You know, his mom owns─"

"Karen's Café, of course," her mother said, nodding in understanding. "Where you've been spending all your time."

"Okay Mom," she said, urgently pulling on her mother's arm, "why don't you come with me to the kitchen? Luke" ─she grabbed the empty bucket he was still holding─ "just stay on the couch, I'll be right back."

She dragged her mother to the kitchen and turned around to face her. Victoria had a lopsided smile on her lips. "He seems like a nice boy," she told her daughter.

"He is, but─"

"Isn't he the one who helped you with your car in September?"

"Yeah, Mom, that's the one."

Victoria went around her and filled a glass with water. "Well," she said after taking a sip, "you should have warned me, I wouldn't have come home this early."

"What?" she asked, her voice quavering. "No Mom, it's not what you think, we're not… Lucas is a friend."

"So you're telling me he's not the reason why you've been spending all your free time at the Café?"

She groaned, resting her elbows on the kitchen island. "Thanks for pointing that out to him. And honestly, the reason I started hanging out there was to avoid spending time here with you and Dad." Victoria's face fell, which made her regret her words immediately. "Sorry, that was mean."

Her mother's voice turned hoarse as she said, "But entirely true."

"But that was when you were hiding your divorce from me. Sorry Mom, I really didn't want to─"

"It's okay Brooke," she said, her voice softening. "So, um, what were you doing?"

"Watching Rocky Horror." Which reminded her that they were out of popcorn. She reached for the second box of popcorn that Lucas had thoughtfully brought and opened it.

Her mother chuckled. "Oh Brooke," she said in an endearing tone.

"What?"

"You could have picked a more romantic movie. I mean, I know how much you love this movie, but…"

Brooke sighed, and stared at her mother. "Mom, for the last time, this is not a date. Lucas is just a friend. Nothing more," she said, her tone hardening on the last two words in an attempt to ignore the voice in her head, the one telling her that the only person she was trying to convince was herself.

She startled when she heard a noise from her right and turned her head to see that the kitchen door was ajar. She frowned, then slightly shook her head and put the popcorn in the microwave. When it was ready, she poured it in the bucket and carried it back to the living room.

She froze when she saw that Lucas was now standing up, wearing his coat and tying up his scarf around his neck.

"Where are you going?"

He turned to face her and immediately averted his eyes. "Sorry but I can't stay, I have this, er thing to do. Forgot about it," he muttered, walking towards the hallway.

She followed his steps, wondering what had gotten into him. "Luke, if this is about my mom, she said she'll stay upstairs and─"

"It's okay, Brooke," he said, his hand on the doorknob. For a second there, he looked troubled. "It's not like this was a date or anything," he said, opening the door.

She stared at the now closed door for a few seconds, but managed to break out of her stupor just in time to reach him as he was getting to his car. She hadn't even put on a coat, and she was still in her slippers, but she didn't care how cold it was outside.

"Luke, wait!" she said, stopping him in his tracks as he was about to get in. He turned to her, and she felt a pang as she noticed that she had never seen him looking this hurt before.

"You should go back in your house, Brooke," he said with a frown, looking down at her slippers.

"Did you hear what I said to my mom?"

He raised his head but was still avoiding her eyes. "I did, yeah."

Her voice cracked. "You weren't supposed to."

"It's okay. It's better this way," he said with what looked like a forced shrug. "At least now things are clear."

"Wh─ No, that's not… That's not what I meant to say."

This seemed to tick him off. "Then what did you mean to say, Brooke?" he asked, his voice hardening.

It was her turn to avoid his gaze. "It's just… complicated."

"Complicated how? It's pretty simple to me, Brooke. I like you." She looked up at him, startled, her heart speeding up in her chest. "I want to be with you. What about you?"

"I…"

The words didn't seem to come out. It felt like they were stuck somewhere in the part of her brain that was still trying to process everything that had happened since she had caught the rabbit's tail. Her heart sank. What was she supposed to do now? How was she supposed to explain to him something that she couldn't even explain to herself?

"See?" he said, looking dejected. "It's just better this way."

She couldn't move anymore; her muscles didn't seem to answer to her brain anymore. She watched as he got in his car and drove away. It wasn't until her mother called her name and grabbed her arms that she realized that Lucas' car was long gone.

Victoria hurried her in the house, closing the door behind them. She took a coat and put it around Brooke's shoulders, rubbing them to bring her some heat.

"Brooke, what happened?" she asked with a worried frown.

"I…" her voice was shaking. She looked away, tears welling up in her eyes. "I screwed up."

Victoria patted her on the back, and said in a comforting tone, "I'm sure it's not that bad."

As much as she wanted her mother to be right, Brooke refused to be in denial. She had just screwed up her chances to be with Lucas. She knew, deep down, from the way he had looked at her, and the way he had talked to her, that he wouldn't want anything to do with her from now on.

This time-travelling crap was turning out to be the worst part of her life. It seemed now like the universe had decided to give her a glimpse of what she could have had, and then had pulled the rug from under her in order to tell her that no, in the end, she wouldn't get all that. All she would get instead was Lucas' resentment.

No, she couldn't blame her travelling abilities for this. She was responsible for this fiasco. She had to face it: due to her inability to be honest with herself, she had just single-handedly changed her entire future. Correction: their future.

Victoria didn't understand why her daughter was all of a sudden so depressed. She kept telling her that she shouldn't beat herself up this much, that things would get better, but Brooke knew it couldn't be that easy.

During the following 24 hours, she kept herself cooped up in her room, doing nothing else but sleep and cry. She had never cried this much about any boy before, but that shouldn't have come as a surprise, since she had never been… Well, never mind, it was all over now.

And then something seemed to snap in her. She got out of her trance and decided that she should keep herself busy with something. She had t-shirts to make after all.

Her mother was relieved at first to see her getting out of her room. But then she seemed to understand that Brooke wasn't feeling all that better; still, she didn't make any comment and kept asking her if she could help her in any way. Brooke kept answering that she didn't need any help, she just needed to sew.

Sewing was easy: it gave her something to focus on. She would sew all day long, without any interruption.

She lost all notion of time, so much so that when Peyton knocked on her bedroom door one afternoon, she wondered what her friend was doing here.

"It's Christmas Eve, Brooke," Peyton said, entering her bedroom. "Your mom called me yesterday, she sounded a bit worried."

Brooke was sitting at her desk, her eyes screwed up on her sewing machine. She answered without lifting her eyes from her work, "She shouldn't be."

"I was worried too. You didn't reply to my texts. Or Nathan's."

Brooke heard as Peyton dragged a stool and placed it right next to her. "I was busy."

"I can see that. But, um, I thought Karen asked for t-shirts?"

"I finished those already. I figured I could make hoodies too."

"That's… That's great, Brooke. We'll definitely use them."

Brooke frowned, trying to ignore Peyton and the concern that showed through her voice; she needed to focus solely on the sound of her sewing machine.

"So how did your date with Lucas go?"

Brooke's foot froze, lifting from the machine's pedal. The rumbling noise immediately stopped. Her gaze hardened on the fabric she was working on. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Well, I ran into Lucas two days ago." There was hesitation in her voice, but she still went on. "He looked miserable, kinda like you right now, Brooke." Her voice softened, "What happened? Is it my fault? Did I─"

Brooke stared at her; her friend looked anguished. "Your fault?"

Peyton let out a sigh. "I honestly just wanted to give you a little push, but maybe I went too far."

"You didn't," she answered in a stern voice. "It's me who didn't go far enough."

"What do you mean?" Peyton asked with a frown.

"I… I think I ruined it."

"Wha─ It can't be that bad."

"Funny," Brooke said dryly, "my mom said the same thing. But I know it, Peyton. I ruined everything."

"Okay now maybe you're overstating things a bit." She looked around them and Brooke imitated her. Pieces of fabric were scattered all over the floor. "Is that why you went into frenzy sewing mode?"

Brooke shrugged. "I figured that way I wouldn't think about…" she said hoarsely. "So after I was done with the t-shirts," ─she pointed to a pile of clothes on her bed ─ "I made new aprons for the Café. And then I started making these hoodies, but the pattern is way more complicated than t-shirts. I mean just the zipper part takes me hours and now that I've started it, I have to finish it, otherwise─"

"Brooke," Peyton said, grabbing her shoulders, "I think you should take a break for now."

"But I can't─"

"I'll help you out, okay? Hell, even your mom will help if needed, so don't worry, we'll finish those in time. But for now, no more sewing for at least 24 hours, alright?"

Brooke frowned, looking down at her hands. "I really screwed things up with Lucas," she whispered, her voice shaking. She could feel the lump in her throat swelling again. "He hates me now."

Peyton pulled her into a tight hug, "I don't think Lucas could ever hate you."

Brooke closed her eyes. "You didn't see the look on his face."

"Actually, I did. I told you I ran into him, and he didn't look angry at all."

"No, it's over, I know it." she mumbled.

Her friend looked surprised by Brooke's pessimism. "Just give him some time, I'm sure he'll come around. And in the meantime, don't beat yourself up. Now come on, your Mom is cooking dinner for us, how about we go help her?"

Victoria seemed relieved to see that her daughter was getting away from her sewing machine for more than ten minutes. She really had outdone herself for dinner; Brooke wondered if it was to compensate for her father's absence, or to give Brooke a semblance of comfort after the whole Lucas fiasco. Probably a bit of both.

Peyton was right, she really had needed time off from her work. Brooke noticed how her mother and her best friend did everything they could to avoid talking about anything that could remind her of her failed non-date. In fact, it was almost comical; her mother even choked on the word popcorn.

They were eating the dessert when Brooke heard a faint music coming from afar. When the tingle appeared in her fingers, she frowned at them: she didn't want to travel, not if it was to see that her whole future had changed. She snickered at herself: as if she had any say in the matter.

"You okay Brooke?" Peyton asked her.

She stood up, managing a weak smile. "I'll be right back."

She went to the toilet and made sure the door was locked. She sat down, trying to ignore the shrill noise ringing in her ears. She leaned on the wall, lifting her head, feeling somewhat nauseous. That wasn't usually part of the pre-travelling package, but then the more familiar sluggishness came over her.

When she opened her eyes, she was lying on a bed, her head resting on her arm. She stayed still for a few seconds, wondering if she couldn't simply lay there without moving until she would go back to her own time. She could hear the music from outside of the room, and shut tight her eyes, trying to ignore it.

Someone knocked at the door. She groaned, opened her eyes and sat up straight on the bed. There was a huge Christmas gift next to her, and she was holding a piece of red ribbon in her right hand.

She looked around her, recognizing the bedroom. She had been there before; it was where she had read her journals. The Brooklyn apartment.

She frowned, confused as to why she was here. Did that mean she would still move into this apartment, even without Lucas? Instinctively, she glanced at the bedside table and saw that the rabbit lamp was still here. Her heart skipped a beat. If the lamp was here, didn't that mean that─

"Brooke?" a familiar voice called from the other side of the door. Lucas came in and just as quickly closed the door in a swift move. He took a few steps in the room, his eyes lowering to the floor. "Brooke, what the hell! You know Lily can't stand still, you need to finish wrapping these before she barges in!" Brooke's brain seemed to have crashed, but it still managed to grasp that Lily was possibly his little sister's name. Lucas kneeled on the floor, taking a roll of wrapping paper in one hand, and a pair of scissors in the other. "Mom's distracting her in the kitchen, but I don't know how long that─ Brooke?"

He raised his head, perplexed by her lack of reaction.

Brooke was staring at him, rendered speechless. Was she… Was she just imagining this? Or had she traveled to another dimension, one where she hadn't blown up her chances with Lucas?

"What's wrong?" he asked, hurrying to her side. He sat on he bed and gently lifted her chin, making her meet his eyes. "You're white as a sheet." His hand shifted on her cheek. "Do you feel sick?"

"Y─ You're still here," she blurted out in disbelief.

He tilted his head and raised an eyebrow. "Where did you think I'd go?"

The knot that had been constantly aching in her stomach for the past four days disappeared in an instant. Her eyes started watering, which freaked him out, but before he could say anything, she threw herself in his arms, holding him close against her.

He seemed hesitant, unsettled by her strange behavior, but eventually put his arms around her and started stroking her back. "You're seriously starting to scare me."

She didn't care how much of a weirdo he thought she was; she buried her head in his neck and smiled to herself. She really felt good in his arms. "I thought for sure that I had changed it."

"Changed what?"

"The future."

He stiffened, and after a second grabbed her shoulders and pulled her away. "Wait, did you just travel?" She nodded. He was about to ask something but looked like he was pondering on whether he should or not. He eventually made up his mind when he asked, "Did you want to change it? The future?"

"No!" she cried. "I was afraid to come here and find you gone."

"But then why did you think it had changed?"

"It's, er, Christmas. I mean, in my time. And a few days ago, you came over and you heard me speak to my mother about─"

"Oh, Rocky Horror!" he said, snapping his fingers. "But I still don't get why you would think that it changed everything."

"Because with the way you left, I figured you would move on."

He chuckled, "Yeah, I do remember feeling really down then. I thought for sure you didn't love me back." He laughed again, as he recalled, "My new year's resolution was to forget about you."

"What made you change your mind?"

"That's something for you to figure out on your own," he said with a crooked smile. His expression changed abruptly into horror. "Did you see it? Tell me you didn't see it."

"See what?"

"Close your eyes!"

"Wha─" He pressed a hand against her eyes, startling her. "Hey, what are you doing?!"

"Sorry, just a second," he mumbled, taking her left hand in his. She couldn't see what he was doing, obviously, but she could feel his fingers fumbling around her hand, and sliding something off her finger. After a few seconds, he took his hand off her face and sat back in an incredibly nervous stance.

"What was that about?" she asked, her eyebrows raised.

"Nothing. So, erm," ─he cleared his throat, looking down at the floor─ "we should really finish these before─"

"What did you take from my hand?" she asked, gazing down at her naked hand.

"I didn't take anything."

"No, you did. I felt something on my─" she murmured, staring at her finger. Her head shot up, startling him. "It's a ring! But why can't I see" ─she let out a gasp─ "Oh!"

Lucas groaned, rolling his eyes in a half-annoyed, half-amused way. "Of course, you had to find out about this, too."

She recoiled. "We… We're married?" she asked, feeling dizzy all of a sudden.

"No," he sighed, "engaged. But why do you make it sound like a bad thing?"

"W─ Well because I'm in high school!"

His expression softened. "You are, but my Brooke graduated a long time ago."

"Wait, what's today's date?" she asked with a frown.

"December 24th 2026."

"So…" she said, thoughtful. "You proposed somewhere between July 2026 and December 2026."

Lucas stood gaping for a moment. "How… How do you know that?"

She couldn't help but grin proudly. "I travelled to the end of June 2026, and I don't remember seeing any ring."

"Damn it Brooke, could you just for once─"

"So how did you propose?"

He snorted. "Like I'd tell you that."

"Oh, come on," she said with a pleading voice. "I promise I'll act surprised."

"No way, I'm not giving you any details."

"I won't tell anyone, I swear─"

"Yeah, right," he said, rolling his eyes. "Guess who told me first we'd get married one day?"

Wait, what? "What do you─"

They both startled when the door flung open. Keith appeared, and like Lucas had done a few minutes ago, hastily closed the door.

He didn't look much different from Brooke's time, except maybe for the beard. Keith's eyes travelled back and forth between them and the gifts that were yet to be wrapped.

"I see you guys have been very efficient."

"Sorry, we'll get right back at it." Lucas told him with a nervous smile.

"Actually, Lily would like to do some coloring. Brooke, do you have any old pencils she could use?"

Brooke threw a sharp sideways glance at Lucas. He gave her a faint, almost imperceptible nod. "Yeah, I do," she answered.

"I'll go get them," Lucas said, standing up. He walked to the door but stopped before leaving. He turned to Keith with a quizzical look. "Aren't you coming too?"

"I'm sure you can distract your sister on your own." Keith said, sitting on the floor and grabbing a round-shaped package. "And Brooke looks like she could use some help with these." Keith seemed to notice his nephew's reluctance to leave them alone, for he chuckled and said, "Don't worry, Luke, I won't bite."

When he realized he didn't have a choice, Lucas exited the room. Brooke went to sit on the floor and reached out for the closest box.

"So, erm…" Keith sounded hesitant. "How are you holding up?" What did she have to hold up to? She tried to hide her discomposure as much as she could but before she could hazard an answer, Keith added, "Luke told me about your trou

!*bles at work. How's that going?"

"I, um… I don't really know."

"So things are still uncertain, huh," he said, nodding thoughtfully. He took a sheet of wrapping paper and cut out pieces of tape. "But you shouldn't worry. Even if you lose your company, you'll still have your talent."

Right, she had a company; Future Haley had mentioned it, too. A company that, apparently, she was about to lose. "Thanks."

"On a brighter note, Lily is very excited about the wedding."

She chuckled, recalling the lively girl she had met once. "Why am I not surprised by this?"

"Well, you know how she can get," he said with a quiet laugh. "Brooke," his tone turned suddenly serious, "I don't know if I've said this before, but I'm really glad that you're─ Brooke? Are you okay?"

She was staring at her hands: the tingle was back. "Yeah, I'm just a little… Could you get Lucas here?"

He frowned slightly and gave her a quick nod before dashing away. Brooke could hear the familiar ringing noise in her head. After a few seconds, Lucas came rushing in the room, and kneeled next to her, staring at her with a concerned frown.

"What is it?"

"I'm going back, but before that, I…" She paused, the buzzing becoming louder and louder with every second. "I need to ask. Last time I saw you, you talked about an accident."

"A─ Accident? When was that?"

"It was, um…" It really was becoming difficult for her to think straight. She was now feeling an urge to sleep, but she did everything she could to fight it. "2022. Jan─ No, February. I was mad at you for not telling me about my parents' divorce."

"Oh, I remember," Lucas said with a lopsided smile. "I mean, I remember what we did after you jumped down my throat, but I don't remember saying anything about an accident."

He was lying, she knew he was. But before she could tell him that, her eyes shut tightly, and she felt her body going limp.

A second later, she was back in her toilet. She let out a sigh and got back on her feet.

Maybe he wasn't lying to her, maybe he genuinely couldn't remember mentioning an accident to her. After all, to him, it had been, what, 4 years since that moment? He could have really failed to remember that detail. But somehow, deep down, she felt like he had simply not wanted to discuss it.

But at least now she knew one thing, and at that very moment, it felt like it was what mattered the most: her future with Lucas hadn't changed.

Her mother immediately noticed that Brooke's spirits were lifted when she came back to the table, but she didn't comment on it. Peyton, however, happened to be much more upfront about it. She waited until Victoria had gone to the kitchen and had left them alone to ask what had happened for her to be in such a better mood after a mere 2-minute break in the restroom.

"I just… put things in perspective."

"On the toilet seat?" Peyton asked, raising an eyebrow.

Brooke shrugged. "Great place to have an epiphany."

After that, the days went by more peacefully. Brooke thought about calling Lucas, or even showing up at his door, but she still hadn't figured her feelings out, and as long as she hadn't done that, she knew it would be difficult to approach him.

Nathan had been texting her non stop since the beginning of the vacation. She replied to him, apologizing for her silence so far, and told him that she was fine, just busy working on Karen's order.

They spent the next days working on the hoodies, and as promised, Peyton helped her out. In fact, that was almost all they did during the rest of the holiday. But at least, Brooke wasn't in frenzy-mode anymore, as Peyton had rightfully put it.

While sewing had been a way for her not to think about Lucas at the beginning of the Winter break, it had now become a way to calmly think things through. And when it came to contemplating her feelings, she had noticed a while ago that listening to the songs of a particular singer she had discovered in Lucas' car was of great help. For once, Peyton didn't even comment on her obsession for Norah Jones: she was just glad that her friend was back to normal.

Two days before they went back to school, Brooke went to see Mouth. She had texted him to notify him of her latest travel, and they had agreed to meet at his place. He had told her, in quite an enigmatic way, that there was something he wanted to show her.

She got even more intrigued when, instead of stopping at his bedroom, he walked ahead down the hallway, and stopped at its end, where no door could be seen.

She raised her eyebrows at him, "What are we─"

Mouth pointed at the ceiling; she looked up to see a trapdoor with a string attached to a handle. He reached up to it and pulled on it; the trapdoor unfolded into a narrow staircase leading upstairs.

She followed him as he climbed up to the attic. It was completely dark until he switched on the light: the room was filled with many old-looking furniture, cardboard boxes of all sizes and spiderwebs. The ceiling was so low that they had to walk hunched forwards until they reached the center of the attic. Only then could they stand up straight without their heads touching the joists.

"Um, Mouth, what are we doing here?" she asked, looking around them.

He pulled a box next to her and dusted it off. "Just take a seat." She gave him a quizzical look, but did as she was told. "I put it here because no one comes in here anymore, so I figured it would be safer than my bedroom. But just in case I hid it with old sheets."

"What are you hiding here? A dead body?"

He chuckled, "No, just this." He walked a few steps over to a big, rectangular object standing on small wheels, and hidden behind white drapes. He made it roll until it was right in front of Brooke: it looked like a long hanging rail. "Drumroll, please."

She grinned, and used the box she was sitting on, eagerly tapping it.

He unveiled a whiteboard where a timeline had been drawn. She stood up and took a closer look: it started in January 2020 and went all the way up until 2026. Every time Brooke had travelled, he had marked a spot on the line, with the exact dates written. Arrows started from each of these spots and led to boxed texts that explained when Brooke had travelled from, when she had travelled to, who she had met, what she had heard about and finally, sticking on the board with magnets, the matching photocopied pages of her journal entries. He had numbered the travels and used different colors, making it easier to read.

He had also drawn a huge red cross in June 2020, when they would graduate and she would stop travelling, according to Future Mouth and Haley. Speaking of, the only travel entry that wasn't linked to a spot on the timeline was the one with them; which made total sense since Mouth had refused to know when that would take place.

There was a marked spot around October 2020, which was Jamie's approximate birth date. And finally, two words were circled in red: "rabbit" and "accident".

"This is… Wow," she whispered, still looking at it.

"I figured it would make things clearer," Mouth said with a proud face.

"It does." She noticed where he had placed her first travel: November 2021. "How do you know that?"

"Because in travel number 4," Mouth said, pointing at the corresponding box, "Lucas told you that it happened two travels not so long ago, right before Thanksgiving. So, I figured…"

"Oh, right. What about travel number 2?" He had placed it around summer 2021.

"Well, this one I'm not sure, but from what Luke told you about the movie you were watching, I figured it was around 2021. And we know it can't be after November, because from what he said, you only travel once between November 2021 and April 2022, and that's in February 2022, so I guessed that it was before November and then─"

"You know what, Mouth? I don't know how you managed to do this, and I don't need to. This is amazing," she told him with a playful punch on his shoulder. "You're like my super smart side-kick."

He gave an embarrassed laugh. "I don't know, I mean, I just did a bit of deduction and… Oh wait, we have to add your latest travel!"

She pointed at a spot on the line. "Right there. December 2026."

She reached for her bag and gave him the journal entry she had written that day. As he started reading it, confusion spread across his face.

"Why did you think you had changed the future?"

Brooke sat back on the box. "It's, erm… a long story."

Mouth tilted his head at her, then dragged another cardboard box next to hers and used it as a seat. "Does that have anything to do with Lucas not leaving his room for the past two weeks?"

Her mouth turned into a frown. "Remember how you said the ball was on my side now? Well, I had the ball in my hands, and then I threw it backwards."

"So I'm guessing you haven't found the answers to your metaphysical questions about Luke and you?"

"Not really, no. I still feel like things would have been different without the time-travel."

"Anything I can do to help?"

She glanced at the board, then back at him with a grateful smile. "I think you've done more than your share already."

On Monday, she felt conflicted about going back to school. Part of her really wanted to go and see Lucas, but another, much bigger part ─or maybe it was just louder─ just wanted to stay at home all week and avoid any contact with him. She did try to linger in bed, but her mother made sure she would get up and go to school.

Peyton was waiting for her at her locker. While Brooke was busy taking her books, her friend was giving her a pep talk about how to handle Lucas.

"He's probably just gonna go back to his old self."

Brooke sighed, closing her locker. "You mean the old self who would barely talk to me?"

"That one exactly," Peyton said, linking their arms together. They started walking towards their classroom. "But remember, he's just hurt, he doesn't hate you and I'm sure that eventually you'll be able to wear him down."

"That sounds so romantic," Brooke said with a dry laugh.

"Just chin up!" she whispered as they were entering the classroom.

Brooke felt a schizophrenic mix of disappointment and relief when she saw that Lucas hadn't arrived yet. However, his brother was there, and from the way he stood up, marched towards them and grabbed Brooke's arm, he had been waiting for them.

"What the hell happened during your date?!" he asked her in a low voice, after he had dragged her to the far-end of the room.

"That's none of your concern," Peyton told him with a glare.

"Brooke?" he asked, ignoring Peyton.

Brooke looked at him and said, "I don't really want to talk about it."

"That's fine by me. But the thing is, Luke doesn't want to talk about it, and you don't want to talk about it, and both of you look─"

"Again, not your business." Peyton chimed in.

"Oh, but it's yours?" he retorted.

"No, it's not. It's their business, and theirs only."

Nathan admitted, though reluctantly, that she was right, and agreed to drop the subject.

Lucas arrived about two minutes after they had taken their seats. Just as he was passing by Brooke's table, Peyton, who was sitting right behind her, kicked her chair.

"Hi," Brooke blurted, making him stop in his tracks for just a second.

He looked briefly surprised to hear her speak to him. "Hey," he mumbled before walking away without glancing at her.

No eye contact and only one word at a time: yup, they were definitely back to square one. Although she knew she could only blame herself for this situation.

That day, Peyton insisted that they go sit with Lucas' friends for lunch. Wear him down, she kept repeating her.

Lucas was sitting at the far-end of the table, and that was probably for the best, considering the way he was avoiding looking at her at all costs. Brooke sat right next to Mouth, where she knew she wouldn't be overwhelmed with uneasiness. Haley and Peyton were in front of her, and spent most of their lunch whispering to each other.

She had expected Haley to hate her, or at least ignore her, but no, Haley's behavior towards her hadn't changed at all. Was it because Lucas hadn't told her about what had happened? Or was it because she understood why Brooke had acted the way she had?

Towards the end of their lunch break, Haley looked around them nervously and asked, "So, is everyone here going to Tric this Saturday?"

They all gave her a form of approval, which for some reason seemed to increase her edginess.

Brooke turned to Peyton, "You never told me who's gonna perform this weekend."

"Well, not Norah Jones, if that's your question."

Lucas, who had been quite silent so far, perked up at that. He leaned forward over the table and turned to Peyton. "Why Norah Jones?"

Peyton seemed to hesitate but still answered, "Because Brooke has been listening to her music nonstop at Christmas. But actually" ─she turned to Brooke, looking thoughtful─ "you started obsessing on her a while ago, didn't you?"

"Nonstop?" Lucas repeated in a bemused tone.

Brooke felt her cheeks burning up. She glared at her best friend, hoping she would get the message to shut up. But no, she didn't seem to get it, as she went on: "Yeah, is weird, because her music is far from the type you usually like, right Brooke? How did you even hear about her?"

Brooke threw a quick glance at Lucas; he was listening to their conversation with acute attention. What was she supposed to say: that her songs made her think of Lucas?

"You know who you should get?" Skills, sitting on Peyton's left, chimed in. "Travis Scott."

"Sure," she answered without missing a beat, "you got his number?"

Apparently, Peyton had finally gotten her message, because she successfully deflected the conversation away from Brooke and her obsession with a certain singer. However, until the end of their break, Lucas kept throwing furtive glances in her direction.

That was a good thing, wasn't it? At least now she was back on his radar, but… What if he came to see her and ask her again if she wanted to be with him, what would she then reply? Somehow, she knew that "sure, I want to, but I'm conflicted about it because the main reason why I want to might be that I can travel in time" wouldn't be acceptable. And she had already spent a lot of time trying and failing to sort out her feelings, so who knew if she would ever be able to reply to him?

Actually, she knew she would, since Future Brooke had managed to do so. But the how and the when it would happen were still a mystery to her.

Thankfully, he didn't corner her that day. After school ended, and she was done with her extra-curricular activities, she headed to the Café, with three boxes full of brand-new clothes in her trunk. Peyton, who was already there, helped her carry them inside.

Deb was standing behind the counter. She rushed to their side when she saw them and took a box from Brooke. "Didn't Karen only ask for ten t-shirts?"

"Yeah she did, but I got inspired," Brooke said as they followed Deb to the kitchen.

Karen seemed delighted to see them, which surprised Brooke. She had not expected this warm welcome from Lucas' mother, but maybe he simply hadn't told her what had happened.

"These are great, Brooke," she said as she was looking at the t-shirts and hoodies. "But it must have taken you a lot of time to do this."

Brooke patted Peyton on the shoulder and said, "I had a great assistant. And then, well… The night I worked here, I noticed that most of your aprons were worn out, so I figured you could use some new ones."

"I don't know what to say," Karen said with astonishment. "I mean, thank you, really, but now I feel like I've underpaid you."

"Free coffee on the house?" Deb suggested.

"Works for me," Peyton said with a grin.

They followed Deb as she left the room but before they had crossed the door, Karen called out to Peyton, who immediately stopped in her tracks, making Brooke bump into her. They both turned to Karen, who walked up to them.

"Are you still good for Saturday?" Karen asked Peyton.

"Yeah," Peyton answered with a nod, "2 pm sharp. But I can get there earlier if you need me to."

Karen looked thoughtful. "With Nathan and Haley there, I think 2 pm should give us more than enough time to get everything ready."

"Brooke can come too."

"Come where?" Brooke asked.

Peyton turned to her. "We're setting things up for Tric's reopening. You should come."

"You can say no," Karen told her with a warm smile, "I think I've taken enough of your time already."

"Oh no," Peyton said with a chuckle, "she's got nothing else to do."

"Thank you for pointing out how thrilling my life is, Sawyer."

"It's my pleasure," her friend told her with a wink.

Brooke turned to Karen, who looked amused by their bickering. "She's right, I don't have any plans that day. I can totally help."

"Well, I can't say no to an extra pair of hands."

"And I'm guessing Lucas will be there too, right?" Peyton asked.

Karen looked bemused by her question. She threw a quick glance at Brooke then said, "Actually no, he won't. He'll be helping Keith at the garage."

Peyton's disappointment was palpable. Brooke yanked on her friend's arm and dragged her away before she could even think of suggesting that Brooke could help at the garage too.

"You still haven't told me who's performing this weekend," Brooke noted as they sat at a table.

"And you still haven't told me what this whole Norah Jones obsession is about."

Brooke's cheeks burned up. She stared at the Café's menu as if her life depended on it. "Don't know what you're talking about," she mumbled.

"Please, you think I didn't notice how you acted at lunch? Or Lucas' reaction?"

"It's nothing, just this silly detail…" Peyton snatched the menu from her hands, making her look up at her. She sighed and said, "Fine, do you remember our first day back at school, in September, when my car broke down and Lucas drove me home?" Peyton gave her a quick nod. "Well, that's what was on the radio that day, in his car. So when I went home, I started listening to her songs out of her curiosity and then I kept listening because, well…"

"Because it makes you think of him," Peyton said, raising her eyebrows. "Brooke, this isn't a silly detail, this is a big deal."

"I wouldn't say that─"

"I really don't get it," she said, lowering her voice. "It's obvious that you want to be with him, and it's no news to anyone that he wants that too. So what exactly are you waiting for?"

And there it was, the part of this now repetitive conversation where Brooke couldn't give further explanation. She shrugged it off and stood up, stating in a low voice that she was gonna get their drinks.

Brooke kept herself busy that week, planning the student council election that was to be held in two weeks. She ran into Lucas several times at school, but they never got past the formal greeting stage. He looked like he wanted to, but she was always running an errand or late for a meeting.

On Saturday afternoon, she went as planned to help out at Tric. The place looked brand new. Everything had been changed, from floor to ceiling. Even the stage looked different now, it looked much bigger, but that might have just been a change in the lighting arrangement.

"Look who finally decided to show up!" a familiar voice shouted from the other end of the room.

She turned to see Nathan and Peyton lifting a table. She walked up to them just as they put it down. "Sorry, I know I'm─ Hey, you're wearing my t-shirts!" she squealed with a broad grin.

"I'm way more comfortable in this than in those dresses you used to make me wear," Nathan said, making them laugh.

"So what can I do?" Brooke asked, looking around them. "Where's Haley?" Nathan and Peyton shared a worried look. "What happened?"

"Nothing," Nathan told her, "she's just running a little late."

"See these boxes?" Peyton asked, pointing at a pile of cardboard boxes placed right next to the bar. "They're full of glasses that need to be put away under the bar."

"I can handle the bar," Brooke said with a playful smile.

They heard someone clearing their throat and all turned to see Karen walking through the main entrance. "As long as the bottles stay full, I'm fine with that."

Peyton and Nathan were still busy placing tables all around the room, so Brooke went to the bar on her own. She moved the boxes behind the bar and crouched down on the floor to open them. With the number of glasses there, she knew this task wouldn't be over in five minutes.

Nathan came to see after about fifteen minutes, just as she was opening the second box at her feet. He knocked on the bar, getting her attention, and bent over it to talk to her. "Did you talk to Haley today?"

She looked up at him, puzzled by his question. "No, not today. I ran into her yesterday and she was a little, um… edgy."

"Edgy? Edgy how?"

"I said I was coming here to help and then she turned all pale, said she had things to do at the tutoring center and dashed away. Why, what's wrong?"

"Nothing. Nothing at all."

She eyed him warily, "So you're saying you look awfully worried for nothing at all?"

"Just… Tell me if she calls you."

He disappeared before she could ask what was happening. What was he not telling her? She considered dropping her task to run after him, but after a quick look at all the other boxes she had yet to open, she thought otherwise.

She didn't know exactly how long she stayed crouched on that floor, but it felt like hours. Eventually, all the glasses were put away in the right order. She let out a sigh of relief and grabbed on the countertop to pull herself on her feet; just as she emerged from below the bar, she found herself face to face with Lucas, who was hunched over the countertop.

After the surprise effect had faded, they both asked at the same time, "What are you doing here?"

Lucas leaned backwards, giving her enough space to straighten her back. "Your mother said you were helping Keith," she said, still surprised to see him here.

"I was, yeah, but he said he didn't need me anymore. What about you?"

"Peyton suggested I should help too. Didn't your mom tell you?"

"I guess she forgot to," he said, glancing over his shoulder as if he was looking for her. When he failed to see her, he turned back to Brooke, "How's the election going?"

"Erm, I'm still trying to convince Whitey to arbitrate the debate," she replied, her voice dragging a bit due to her discountenance. He was speaking to her as if nothing had happened. Why the sudden turnaround?

He seemed to guess her thoughts as his eyebrows twitched for a brief second. "Brooke, I've been meaning to talk you about, er, what happened at Christmas." Now? With their friends just nearby, dusting off chairs? "I'm sorry."

She frowned, wondering if this was all just a hallucination. "W─ Why are you apologizing?"

"I shouldn't have cornered you like that, or eavesdropped on you and your mother."

"You didn't exactly corner me, Luke, and I'm the one avoiding… the subject," she admitted softly.

"The subject being your─"

"Lucas!" Karen yelled from the entrance. They both turned to see that she was carrying a ladder. "Why didn't you say you were here?" she asked, walking over to them. "Go to the truck, there's still many things to unload."

"Sure, Mom," he said and watched as she moved on to the stage, away from them. "Look I don't know why you don't want to talk about… the subject," he told her with a concerned voice, "but if you ever feel ready to, just let me know."

Great, now she felt even more guilty about her indecisiveness.

After another hour, they were finally done cleaning up the place. They still had two hours left before the opening, which gave them enough time to go home and shower. At least Brooke could use one, since she felt like she was covered in dust. She was sitting next to Nathan on the edge of the stage; Peyton was on their left, right below the stage, checking the turntables. Lucas came from the backroom, accompanied by his mother.

Karen looked around them with a frown, "Where's Haley?"

Brooke turned to her, "She never got here." Karen had been so busy that she hadn't even noticed Haley's absence so far.

"But she's supposed to be here already," she replied with a worried frown, checking her wristwatch.

"Haley?" Brooke asked, raising an eyebrow. Why was Haley needed right now? All the work was done, they just needed to wait for the clients to come. She looked at Lucas, who seemed as lost as her, but then noticed the worried look that her two childhood friends shared.

"She's just running a bit late," Nathan said, avoiding Brooke's stare.

"Nate?" Peyton called, clearing her throat. "A word, maybe?"

They both went through the exit, leaving Brooke even more confused than she had been so far. What was up with them? She threw a quick glance at Lucas and decided to get some answers.

She found her friends arguing on the parking lot; Peyton was telling Nathan that he shouldn't have pushed her to do this if that wasn't what she wanted.

"Pushed who to do what?" Brooke asked, sneaking up on them.

"Brooke! It's nothing okay, we're handling this," Nathan said.

She snorted, "Clearly, we don't have the same definition of the word handling."

"She's right," Peyton said, shaking her head in dismay. "We still haven't heard from Haley, I don't think she's gonna come."

"I'm telling you, she's coming!" Nathan argued.

Brooke interrupted them. "Okay, can someone explain why you make it sound like a major issue if she doesn't show up?"

Peyton answered, "She's opening tonight." She let out a sigh, "Or at least, she was supposed to."

"You mean she's working here too?"

"No, Brooke, she's opening. She's singing tonight."

"She─ Wait, what? She can sing?"

"Yeah," Nathan replied with a proud face, "and she's great at it. It took me weeks to convince her to do this, and now…" He looked down in disappointment. "I think she's bailing out."

"Well then we just need to find her," Brooke said matter-of-factly.

"How do we do that?" he asked.

"Um, I don't know," she said, pretending to think hard about it, "maybe ask her boyfriend where she could be. You know, the guy who's been spending all his time with her, I'm sure he can guess where she's hiding."

"She could be anywhere," Nathan said with a sigh. And then suddenly his face lightened up. "Wait, I think I know. It must be the Café."

"Great, let's go there," Brooke said, pulling on his arm. "I'll drive."

Peyton stayed behind, as she still had to check the sound system. And anyway, someone had to explain to Lucas why they had suddenly disappeared. He was about to be extremely surprised since, apparently, he hadn't even known that Haley could sing. Only Nathan had.

Once on the road, she glanced at Nathan: he kept throwing nervous glances to his phone. It looked like Haley wasn't picking up.

"Can't you go a little faster?" he eventually asked, a slight hint of annoyance in his voice.

"Will you pay for the speeding ticket?" He stayed eloquently silent. "Yeah, didn't think so."

"Sorry, it's just that…"

"You're worried, I get it. Are you sure she's at the Café? Out of all the hiding spots in Tree Hill, that wouldn't be my first choice."

"I think so, yeah."

"So how did you convince her to sing tonight?"

"I just kept telling her she could do it. She's been working on her own, so when Peyton said she was looking for a replacement for tonight, I told her she could at least give her a demo. Peyton loved it, so she asked her to open tonight. Haley said yes, but… I knew she was having second thoughts about it," he said with a sigh. "She was so quiet yesterday."

Brooke stayed silent for a moment. "You really love her a lot."

"Well yeah," he said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world to him. "She's the one."

"The one, really?" she repeated. "Who would have thought that Nathan Scott would one day talk about the one."

"Alright, laugh all you want but─"

"I'm not laughing," Brooke said in a soft voice. "I'm actually envious. You get to live this amazing thing with Haley when I…"

"When you what?" he asked when she left her words hanging.

"Nothing," she said after a second of hesitation.

"Does this nothing have to do with my brother?" She frowned, staring at the road in front of her. "I know you don't want to talk about this, and considering he's my brother, I completely understand but… Just tell me you're not leading him on."

"You think I would do that?" she asked, slightly offended.

"No, but I'd feel more comfortable hearing you say the words."

She let out a sigh. "I'm not leading him on."

"Then why are you acting like you don't have feelings for him? I know you do."

"Is that what you call not talking about it?"

"Come on, Brooke, I'm just─"

"Whatever," she said curtly, pulling over. "We're here."

They left her car and walked across the street, over to the Café. Nathan was walking so fast that Brooke had to speed up to keep up with him.

Haley was nowhere to be seen, and Deb told them that she hadn't seen her since lunch. Brooke was about to tell Nathan that they should hurry and look for her at some other place, but turned silent when she saw that he was going to the kitchen.

"You think she's hiding in the fridge?"

Nathan ignored her comment and led her to a backdoor. Brooke remembered seeing Lucas go through that door once, when he had brought her to his mother to get some ice on her forehead.

It was leading to a staircase, then to another door, and suddenly, they were outside again, on the Café's rooftop.

"Wow…" she muttered, glancing around them.

It was equipped with two deck chairs, a small vegetable garden, and a complete mini golf set. Paper lanterns and string lights were hanging from poles to poles.

Alright, she had been wrong. This place would definitely be at the top of her list of secret hiding spots.

While she was busy looking around the place, Nathan rushed to a corner hidden by a low wall. Haley was definitely hiding there, because she heard Nathan tell her that she could have at least replied to his phone calls.

Brooke went around the low wall and saw that Haley was indeed sitting down there, her face pallid. She looked up at her and seemed surprised to see her.

"Brooke? What are you doing here?"

"What do you think?" she asked with a chuckle.

Haley let out a sigh and got on her feet. "I can't do it."

"What are you talking about Hales," Nathan said, grabbing her shoulders, "you can definitely do this."

"No, I can't," she told him, panic rising in her voice. "I've never sung in front of more than one person, and that's you, so a whole club all of a sudden is way too much."

Brooke knew the feeling, except for her it wasn't about singing at all. "Too much, too fast," she murmured to herself.

"Yes, exactly!" Haley said, seemingly relieved that someone understood her.

"I get it, it's just too big of a picture to look at. So how about you do this one step at a time?"

Haley sounded unsure as she asked, "What do you mean?"

"How about going to Tric to rehearse, with just us? That doesn't sound scary, does it?"

"I… I guess not."

"Alright, what are we still doing here, then?"

"But what if─"

"No one's gonna force you to do something you don't want. One step at a time, alright?"

Haley was still tense but agreed to follow them. Then, on their way back to Tric, she told them with a horrified look that she hadn't even prepared an outfit for tonight. Nathan told her that it didn't matter how she was dressed, which unsurprisingly, failed to reassure Haley. Brooke rolled her eyes at Nathan, then glanced at Haley through the rearview mirror and told her that she would take care of her outfit.

After dropping them off on the parking lot, she drove to her place and hurried to her room. Amongst the many outfits she owned, at least one should fit Haley, right? She picked up a long-sleeved black dress, took a record-breaking two-minute shower, then rushed back to her car.

When she arrived at Tric, she wondered whose record Peyton had been playing. She could hear a female voice singing over a piano and it sounded completely strange to her, yet familiar at the same time.

When she walked in the main room, she saw that it wasn't a record: it was Haley. Wow, Nathan hadn't been blinded by love when he had told her that she could sing. She really could.

Brooke walked across the room, passed by the two brothers who were sitting on stools at the bar, and stopped next to Peyton, at the turntables. She had her headphones on and when she noticed Brooke, let them slide on her neck.

"She sounds…" Brooke said, unable to find the right word.

"I know," Peyton said with a grin.

"Where's Karen?"

"Went to pick up some furniture."

Haley's song came to an end. When the last note of piano was played, they all cheered and clapped loudly. Haley seemed embarrassed but at the same time, relieved to see that they had enjoyed her performance.

Lucas hopped on stage and went to sit next to his best friend on the piano bench. He looked amazed by her. "I can't believe you never told me."

"My parents have always said they loved my voice, but they're my parents, they would say that even if I sounded like a dying cat."

"Well, you definitely don't sound like a dying cat," Lucas said with a chuckle. Brooke noticed that he gave her a quick sidelong glance before saying, "Hey, um…" He leaned forward to his friend's ear, whispering something that no one else could hear.

Haley frowned, looking thoughtful. "Yeah, that one's easy. So, um…" ─she turned to Brooke and Peyton and raised her voice─ "how long do we have until people get here?"

Peyton answered, "An hour, I think."

"An hour?" Haley repeated in a suddenly shrill voice.

"Okay," Brooke said, heaving herself up on stage, "one step at a time, remember? How about we go backstage for now, get your hair and make-up done?"

Their friends left to shower and get dressed; before he took off, Nathan looked like he wanted to speak to Haley, but changed his mind after glancing at Lucas.

Once on their own, Brooke and Haley went to the backroom to get the latter ready. The one-step-at-a-time strategy was working for now, but what would happen when the last step would be to actually go on that stage and sing? Haley still didn't look all set for that.

The dress didn't fit perfectly, but thankfully Brooke had brought what was needed for some last-minute adjustments. After she was done with her outfit, she made her sit down in front of a mirror and gave her a light make-up. Haley's anguished look gradually turned into a more relaxed one, though she stayed quiet the whole time. Well, not the whole time. At some point, she remarked that Brooke was humming.

"Sorry, what?" Brooke asked absent-mindedly, focused on Haley's hair.

"You're humming."

Brooke frowned at the strand of hair she was holding. It just didn't seem to stay put. "Yeah, I do that sometimes," she murmured, rummaging through her handbag for an extra bobby pin. She knew it was there somewhere.

"Funny, it's the same song that…" Her voice trailed off, which Brooke only noticed when she managed to get ahold of that pin and turned back to Haley.

"What was that?" Brooke asked, finally securing that last strand.

"Nothing," Haley answered with a hint of a smile.

Brooke was about to ask her what her sudden knowing look was about, but they were interrupted when the door on their left flung open. For a brief couple of seconds, Brooke caught a glimpse of the crowd that was coming into the Tric. It looked like they were getting a full house tonight.

Nathan strode in, followed by his brother, and shut the door. He turned to the girls and froze as his eyes landed on Haley, who was still sitting on the make-up chair. He blinked, and after a few seconds finally looked like he remembered how to speak, though what came out of his mouth was more of a stutter than proper speech.

"Wha─ You, um, you're…"

"Dressed, we know," Brooke said as she noticed that Lucas was sending a wary look to his brother. "Where's Peyton?"

"Setting everything up," Lucas answered, looking back at her.

"So, um…" Haley said, her voice slightly quavering. She stood up to face Brooke. "What's next?"

Brooke glanced worriedly at Lucas, then back at Haley. "Well, now you've got to go on that stage."

Haley's panic rose so fast that it was almost palpable. She slumped down on her chair and looked up at them. "With all these people outside? I can't do that!"

Lucas came over to her and kneeled in front of her, getting to her eye level. "Don't be ridiculous, Hales, you can do this."

"No, no, no… I'm not… I don't…"

Brooke watched as Lucas was doing his best to reassure her, yet failing at it. She quietly walked back to the door, where Nathan was staring at them, looking powerless.

She stopped right next to him and whispered, "What are you waiting for?"

"What do you mean?" he whispered back, genuinely confused by her question.

"Go talk to her!"

He gestured at Lucas with a desperate look on his face. "And how am I supposed to do that with him here?"

She sighed then with a shrug, said: "Maybe it's time you tell him."

"You really think that would help right now?" he asked skeptically.

"Well… Okay, probably not. But how can we get him out of here?"

"Not we, Brooke."

"Fine," she said, rolling her eyes, "how can I get him─"

"I think you know."

She frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Maybe it's time you tell him," he said, repeating her words.

Brooke glanced at Lucas, who was too busy talking to Haley to notice their conversation. The problem was that she wasn't ready to talk to him, not about…

Wait, why was she torturing herself with all this? Why couldn't she just tell him everything?

He would eventually come to know about it, someday anyway, since he seemed to know everything about her in the future. Maybe that was it. Maybe now was the moment she told him about her travels and the questions they raised.

She had thought about it over and over again, and she still hadn't come up with an explanation for her hesitance. She couldn't talk to Peyton about it, but Lucas? If he knew about everything that had happened to her since September, and everything that would happen to him in the future, maybe things would get cleared up.

She pondered on asking Mouth for his advice on this, but they were running out of time. So she took a deep breath, and walked up to Lucas.

"Luke?" Both Haley and Lucas looked up at her as she stood beside them. "I know my timing isn't great, but er, could we talk?" She threw a quick glance at Haley and cleared her throat. She was painfully aware of her friends staring at her and listening to her every word. "In private. It's kind of important."

He slowly got up, his eyes not leaving her face. "Now?"

"Yeah, now," ─she turned to Haley─ "do you mind if I borrow him for a minute?"

Lucas looked torn between Brooke's offer and the help he wanted to give to his friend. He threw a quick, hesitant look at Haley, who said in the most nonchalant tone, "Go ahead. I'll just wait here with Nathan."

This seemed to relieve Lucas, who now had a determined look on his face. "Come on," he told Brooke with a sharp head movement towards the door.

What if this was a terrible idea? What if he didn't believe a word she said and just thought that she was making up excuses? Or worse, being psychotic?

Nathan gave her a thankful smile when she passed by him. They left the backroom and walked to the end of the hallway, leading to the main room.

It was packed with people. Brooke noticed that Karen and Deb were bustling behind the bar. She looked around but failed to see where Peyton was. Random people kept bumping into them, and between the music and the crowd, she couldn't hear herself thinking. How was she supposed to talk about time travel in these conditions?

She turned to Lucas, who looked like he was patiently waiting for her to say something.

"There's a lot of people here, huh… Maybe we should reschedule?"

"I know where we can be alone," Lucas said, firmly taking her hand.

He dragged her all the way across the room; when they passed by Mouth, Brooke tried to stop and talk to him, but before she could stall, Lucas apologized to him and said that they were in a hurry.

He led her to a flight of stairs she had never noticed before. She didn't even know they had access to the top floor. To her disappointment, he let go of her hand just as he was opening the door and gesturing her to come in.

"My mom and Deb use it as an office," he explained when he noticed her looking around.

There were indeed two desks facing each other and a couch on the side of the room. There were lots of plants all around; Brooke thought that must have been Deb's doing. Once the door was closed, all the noise from downstairs was mostly muffled.

"What did you want to talk about?"

Lucas was standing still by the door, eying her from afar, as if she was about to flee at any moment. She smiled to herself and sat on the couch.

"You might want to sit down for this one," she said, patting the spot next to her. He looked nervous as he came to sit with her. Brooke frowned slightly, wondering how she could explain this. Would he even believe her? Mouth had, but only because they had figured it all out together. "I don't really know where to start…"

She looked at the door across the room, part of her wishing that someone would interrupt them. No, she immediately thought, shaking her head at herself, she couldn't hope for something like that, she had made up her mind: it was the best thing to do right now.

"Brooke?"

She blinked and stared back at him. He was looking at her with a mix of worry and fondness that managed to put her at ease. "Sorry, I was, um… Never mind. When you left my place, right before Christmas, you… You asked me a question, and I didn't answer." She frowned. "I couldn't."

"Why?" he asked in a low voice.

"Well, I need to give you some context first. See, around September this year, I started…" her voice trailed off. She looked down at her stomach; there was nothing there, yet she could feel something crawling on top of it. It was a very odd feeling and only when it got followed by the usual tingle, did she understand what was happening. "Seriously, now?" she wondered aloud, rolling her eyes.

Lucas looked confused by her behavior but stayed silent. She looked at the door, pondering on leaving for a few minutes, but then figured she would probably just fall down the stairs. Or maybe she could just ask him to leave her alone for just a short moment. No, there was no way he would accept that, not after she had started opening up─

"Are you okay? You look pale."

She nodded, before wincing as the buzzing sound burst loudly in her ears. It seemed like it was getting worse for each travel she made. She could barely hear what Lucas was saying now. She shut her eyes tight, waiting for it to pass; she felt Lucas' hands on her shoulders, giving them a light shake, then felt suddenly drowsy.

The noise suddenly disappeared, and she felt like she wasn't in a sitting position anymore. She opened her eyes; it was now broad daylight. She was lying on what felt like a couch and staring at the ceiling above her.

Wait a minute, she knew that ceiling. It was her ceiling, the one at her house in Tree Hill. She was about to sit up, but again felt something squirming on her stomach. She slightly raised her head and looked down at a toddler, who was staring back at her with bright blue eyes. She knew that pair of eyes well by now.

She sat up, securing him with her arms, and smiled at him. "Hi Jamie."

He smiled and babbled happily at the sound of his name. She looked around them; yes, they definitely were in her house in Tree Hill. She got on her feet, holding Jamie on her right hip, and looked around the room. Almost everything looked just the same, apart from the TV that looked brand new and a couple of furniture that had been moved around.

"Ow!" she winced as Jamie tugged on a strand of her hair. "No, no, no," she said, clutching his hand, "let go." He did so and rested his head against her.

She found her phone lying on the coffee table. It was the same phone that she was using in 2019, which shouldn't have come as a surprise, since, from the tiny version of Jamie in her arms, she probably hadn't travelled very far in the future.

June 23rd 2021.

Which meant Jamie was about, what, eight months old?

She put her phone back on the table and walked around the couch, wondering if she was once again alone with the kid. The hallway was empty, but from there she made out someone sitting in the kitchen.

She walked over there, and immediately recognized the blonde hair. He must have heard her coming in, for he glanced over his shoulder and smiled at her.

"How was your nap?" Lucas asked her, sliding off the stool he had been sitting on. "They're not back yet, maybe Deb is holding them back. And how's my favorite nephew?" he asked Jamie with a broad grin, taking him from Brooke's arms and lifting him high in the air, making him giggle.

"Lucas?"

"Yeah?"

"Hi."

He tilted his head and gave her a puzzled look. "Hi, Brooke," he eventually said with a chuckle.

"It's me," she said, waving her hand at him. "You know, from the present. I mean, your past." He didn't react the way she expected him to; in fact, he seemed even more confused now. "I just traveled from January 2020."

His eyes widened at the word "traveled", his mouth opened slightly and he slowly sat back on the stool. "For real?"

"What's wrong with you? Aren't you used to it by now?"

"How could I be?"

She frowned at him. "What do you mean how─ Oh," she said with a gasp, dumbfounded, "it's the first time."

"So, you're… You're really…" he stuttered, raising his eyebrows. "I need to sit down."

"You're already sitting down."

"Right, I am," he said absent-mindedly.

He looked really shaken; she walked up to him and placed a hand on his arm. "How about you go sit on the couch, huh? I'll be right there in a second."

He looked down at her hand. "Sounds good, yeah," Lucas answered, though with an unsure voice.

Since she knew her way around this kitchen, Brooke easily found what she needed. After a couple of minutes, she went back to the living room with a food tray holding two cups of coffee and some biscuits.

Lucas was quietly sitting on the couch, gazing at Jamie with a vacant look. His nephew was next to him, lying on his back, busy biting on a rattle. He looked up when Brooke approached him and came to sit next to him.

"Thanks," he said, picking a cup from the tray and taking a sip.

"You look in shock. Didn't I tell you this would happen? I mean, my future-self."

"You, er, yeah, you did. But you didn't say when it would happen and it kinda slipped my mind."

"It slipped your mind?" she repeated, wondering if she had heard right. "That I could travel in the future?"

"Well, it's been a while since you told me."

"A while? How long exactly?"

"About a─" He frowned at her with a suspicious look on his face. "Are you fishing for information? You warned me, you said you would do that."

Brooke rolled her eyes. "Of course I warned you. But I don't get it, if it's been a while since I told you, and if it's the first time you're seeing me during one of my travels, why would… Why would you believe me? How do you know I'm not just pranking you right now?"

"You wouldn't do that," he answered matter-of-factly.

"And you believed me right away when I first told you about my travels?"

He gave it a thought. "Not right away, but… Pretty quickly, yeah. Oh no," he said with a sudden alarmed voice. "You saw Jamie, and I said he's my nephew and that Haley's coming back for him and─"

"Actually, you didn't mention Haley," she said with a chuckle. "But don't worry, I already know about Jamie's lineage."

"You do?" he asked, surprised.

"I don't travel in order of time. So, this is the first time for you, but not for me."

"Right, yeah," he said, scratching his head, "you did say something about that. This is so weird. So you're from January 2020? Where were you when you got here?"

"At Tric, in your mom's office. It's reopening night, Haley is performing, or at least, she's supposed to─"

"What?!" he shouted, making her jump. Even Jamie stopped chewing on his toy for a second to stare at his uncle. "What are you still doing here? Go back, now!"

"Um… I can't. It doesn't work that way, I don't─"

"Control it," he said with a frown. "Yeah, you said that too. But you really have to go back."

"I will, I just don't know when," she said with a shrug. "Why is that so important to you?"

"Because that's when you─" his voice fell abruptly. "No reason."

She scoffed, "That didn't sound like a lie at all." She took the second cup of coffee and drank a mouthful. "But I think I already know why it's important."

"Y─ You do?"

"I made up my mind before I wound up here. I'm gonna tell you─ I mean, the you in 2020─ about my travels."

Lucas seemed lost. "Wh─ What?"

"Well, yeah, I thought… Wait, isn't that when I tell you?" she asked, now uncertain of her choice. He didn't answer, but he didn't need to; it was written all over his face. "It's not, huh," she murmured, looking down at her drink. She gave him a sharp look, "So if that doesn't happen, why is it so important for me to go back right away?"

He tilted his head, a bemused expression on his face. "You were really planning on telling me your secret? In January?" Had he just completely ignored her question? "Why?"

"What do you mean, why?"

"Why did you want to tell me at that moment?"

"Oh, because of, um…" It seemed odd talking to Future Lucas about this, but then at the same time, she somehow felt comfortable sharing this with him. After all, this version of Lucas already knew about her feelings. "Remember what happened in December 2019, right before Christmas? When you left my place and─"

"You mean Rocky Horror? Of course I remember. But what does that have to do with your secret?"

"I, um… Back then, you asked me if I wanted to be with you, and I didn't say anything back." He nodded knowingly. "But the thing is, I…" She struggled to look him straight in the eye. "I do want to be with you." Her cheeks flushed when she noticed his affectionate gaze. "But I don't know why I want that."

Confusion spread on his face. "What do you mean, why?"

"I mean this," she said, gesturing around them. "This whole travel thing! What if… What if the only reason I started liking you was because I could travel in the future?"

"You think that's why─"

"I don't know! Maybe… It's at least one of the reasons. I mean before I started travelling, we never really talked, and…"

"Alright, so it all started with your travels," he said with a nonchalant shrug. "But why would that be a problem?"

"Well… Because then it means that maybe I started liking you in the future, and not in the present."

"I still don't get why that's a problem." He really didn't seem to see it.

"That's not fair to you!" she cried. "What if I never got to travel? Would I still have these feelings for you? Or would I─"

"Brooke," he said with a lighthearted chuckle, "I don't care about all that."

"But I do."

"No, you don't," he retorted, shaking his head. "You're just using that as an excuse."

"Wh─ What?" Had she heard him wrong?

"You know as well as I do that our relationship is not the only thing that was influenced by the future, Brooke." He put his cup back on the tray and mused, "Think about the rabbit lamp, if you hadn't seen it in the future, you wouldn't have pinpointed it to my mom and it would never have ended in my bedroom. And if you hadn't recognized my bedroom from one of your travels, you wouldn't have fainted in it and you wouldn't have bonded with my parents."

"How do you know all that?" she asked, though she already knew the answer.

He gave her a warm smile, "You told me. There's a lot of stuff in your life that's been influenced by your travels, so what?" He cupped her face with his hands and leaned in to plant a soft kiss on her lips, surprising her for a short moment. She closed her eyes, as the same sensation she had had the last time he had kissed her overwhelmed her. His eyes gleamed as he leaned back, "I for one can't complain about that."

"You're right," she murmured with a frown, gazing down at her hands. "I was obsessed with the idea that I wasn't being fair to you, or that things would be different without my travels, but you're right, it doesn't matter."

The thing was, once she had taken care of these questions, then she was left with only one thing to do.

Is that why she had been so focused on her metaphysical questions about her would-be relationship with Lucas? Because she was just too… Too scared.

She had never felt this way about anyone before. She had had relationships, yes, but no one had ever mattered this much to Brooke. And maybe the fact that she knew about their future life together influenced the way she felt, but in the end, her feelings were there. Not acting on them would prevent this future from happening. But acting on them meant that she would have the responsibility of ensuring that this future would stay the same.

In a span of a few months, she had gone from speaking no more than two words with Lucas, to… This. It was just too much, too fast. Or at least, that was how it felt like.

Lucas gently lifted her chin. "Penny for your thoughts?"

"I…" She averted her eyes, her voice quavering. "I'm scared."

"Of me?" he asked with a gentle voice.

She shook her head. "Of us. Of this. Of how much I… You know." She sighed and looked back at him, "I mean come on, four months ago I didn't even know you, and now we're getting married!"

Blood drained from his face. "We─ We're what?!"

Oh no, what had she done now? "Sorry, I said too much. But see, it's weird knowing all this stuff in advance. I mean, what if… What if I do something, or say something that I shouldn't, and it changes everything? Then it's on me."

"You've never told me about this," Lucas said with concern. "I didn't know you felt this much pressure about us."

"I'm telling you now," she said with a shrug. "If I screw this up… You don't know what's in it for us in the future, but I do. I know exactly what I could lose."

"Brooke, I know you, you're not gonna screw anything up, but if you do, well… I think there's something you forgot to take into account."

"What?"

"Me," he said, brimming with confidence. "Even without knowing the future, I wouldn't let you go that easily."

Her lips twitched upwards. "I'm not sure that's enough."

"It is." There was not an ounce of doubt in his voice; that seemed to considerably lighten the weight on her chest. "So stop thinking about all that, and just focus on the present."

"Easy for you to─" She froze, feeling something brushing her cheek. She raised her hand to touch it, but there was nothing there. "I'm going back."

"Already?" Lucas asked in disappointment. "You just got here."

"Told you, I don't control any of it," she said with a shrug. "But, um… Thank you."

"For what?"

"Believing in me."

"Anytime," he said with a smile that quickly faded away. "Wait a minute," he said with a frown, "I kissed you."

"So?" she asked, feeling the tingle spreading across her limbs.

"So, we're not dating yet in your time, which means that, it was…"

"It wasn't," she said, guessing what he was thinking about. She groaned as the buzzing sound started ringing, and tried to focus on Lucas. "I kissed you before that, during another travel."

"Wh─ What?! When?"

She managed to smirk through the loudness happening in her ears. It was nice that, for once, she was the one withholding the answers. "You'll have to figure that one by yourself."

She felt suddenly listless; the last thing she saw, before closing her eyes, was his dumbstruck expression.

The next thing she knew, she was still looking at Lucas, but his face was completely different. He looked worried and was staring down at her. It took her a few seconds to understand that she was back in 2020, lying on the couch, her head resting on Lucas' lap. When he saw her blinking at him, he removed his hand from her cheek.

"How long was I out?"

He seemed relieved just from hearing her voice. "About two minutes, just like at Thanksgiving. I take it you still have that low blood pressure going on?"

"Yeah," she said, sitting up, "but it's not that bad."

He clearly wasn't buying any of that, yet didn't argue. Instead, his shoulders relaxed and he asked, "So what were you saying?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know, before you passed out. You were giving me some context."

"Oh, right. About that, maybe─" They both startled when a loud roar echoed from downstairs. "Haley!" she cried excitedly, jumping on her feet. "Come on, we can't miss that."

They rushed down the stairs and struggled to make to their way through the crowd. She thought she had lost Lucas, but before she could even look around for him, he appeared right next to her, his hand brushing her waist as he told her to follow him. After pushing a few people around, he stopped some feet away from the stage.

They had a clear view from here: Haley was sitting down at the piano, her hands shaking just like Brooke's grandmother used to. She looked like she was about to pass out any minute now.

"I can't watch this," Brooke murmured, holding up her hands in front of her face, looking through her fingers.

The room fell silent as a church, just as Haley started playing the first notes on the piano. Brooke slowly lowered her hands, startled not just by the fact that Haley was actually singing in front of a crowd, but also by the music she was playing. It wasn't the song she had rehearsed in front of them. It was a completely different song, one that Brooke knew very well.

"Recognize it?" Lucas asked in her ear.

She turned to him; he was standing right next to her, and though he must have been very happy for his friend, Brooke knew that wasn't the only reason for his grin. "Come away with me," she answered, her heartbeat quickening. "It's the song we listened to in your car that day."

He leaned in, his face now dangerously close to hers. "You mean the day I finally dared to talk to you for more than ten seconds?"

"Did you ask her to sing this?"

"What do you think?"

"B─ But why?" She knew it was a dumb question to ask, but she still wanted to hear his answer. She shifted closer to him, leaving only a tiny amount of space between them.

"When I heard that you've been listening to Norah Jones non-stop, I knew it wasn't just a coincidence." She noticed the glint in his eyes and blushed. "Am I right?"

In that moment, she forgot about the future and everything she had learnt from it: all she could see and think about was the boy standing in front of her, showing her how much he cared for her, and how much he wanted her. And she knew that no matter what, things would be alright.

There was nothing to fear.

Her answer was clear and definite. "Yes."

She slid her hands around his neck and kissed him.

He didn't move at first, as if he was stunned. But then, very quickly, she felt his lips stretch into a fleeting smile. His hands swiftly moved to her waist and pulled her even closer to him. When he kissed her back, an intoxicating and now familiar feeling appeared in her chest. It was different, yet very similar to the kiss they had shared ─or rather, would share─ in their 2022 apartment.

She knew then that she had made the right choice.

---

That's it for this chapter! I know it's taken me a while to write it, but from the size of it I'm sure you can guess why... And my work schedule has been full lately, courtesy of Covid. But I really enjoy writing this, it's a nice escape from work!

Thank you so very much for all your reviews and kind messages. It means so much that you're actually enjoying this, and I really love reading your theories. I hope you liked this chapter and that you'll enjoy the rest of this story.

Next one should be up around end of February/beginning of March.