Author's Note: This freaking computer is drunk! Please excuse any crazy errors as I had to remove and reformat this chapter twice. Anyway. Flashback sequence written in Italics...

"Lucas…you sleeping?"

"Nah", he whispered back in the darkness. "You?"

"No."

They lay side by side on their backs just staring up at the dark ceiling. It had been a few hours yet sleep hadn't come easy for either one of them. In the restless hours all they had were each other, speaking in hushed voices as not to disturb their daughter or the others.

"I guess I'm not that tired."

"Me neither", she agreed. "I guess I should try and get some sleep because it sounds like we'll have a busy day ahead tomorrow."

"Yeah. Jake and Peyton getting married. Finally", Lucas chuckled.

"It's about time, right? They've been together for like ever. I remember the night she fell in love with him. It was open mic at your mom's café and he brought Jenny in and played the guitar and sang. What was that song, 'Lonely Girl' or 'Lonely World' or something like that? Anyway, I'll never forget the way she looked at him that night."

"They do kind of complete each other, don't they? It's funny, I'd never seen Peyton smile until Jake and Jenny came along."

"Smile?" Brooke laughed. "You're one to talk."

"What?"

"You had brooding down to a science."

"That's all anybody ever did in Tree Hill anyway…brood, pout and have sex."

"Yeah. I guess you're right."

Brooke continued staring upwards. All of a sudden her brain was transported back to a memory from their high school days. When the Tree Hill images appeared sometimes they were so clear it was as if they had happened just yesterday. A smile crept to her lips that turned into a huge, goofy grin that eventually manifested itself into roaring laughter she could barely contain.

"What?" he asked.

"Nothing", she giggled.

She couldn't stop, her whole body making the sofa bed tremble underneath the two of them.

"Brooke."

"What?"

"Come on. What's so funny? Maybe I want to laugh, too."

"It's nothing. It's just that you said all everybody does in Tree Hill is brood, pout and have sex. I don't know. That just made me think of…"

"Of what."

"Junior year, Teresa's 17th birthday party. You remember that night?"

"Sort of", Lucas frowned.

"Okay. Let me rephrase. Remember what happened after the party?"

Lucas searched his mind and within seconds the memories came flooding back. Pretty soon he was laughing as well.

"Yeah. I remember. Man, those were the days, I guess. You were so horny then I used to have to beat you away with a stick", he joked.

"Me? Whatever. I recall that was all on you that night."

"Brooke, come on. You drove me home and we walked around to the back door by my room and I went to give you a simple chaste good night peck and your tongue practically devoured me."

"Before or after your hands were up my shirt?" Brooke laughed.

"After?" he replied meekly.

"Exactly. And I kept telling you that I had to go to school. You just kept on kissing me and feeling me up."

"Yeah but who threw who on the ground?"

"No, Luke we didn't end up on the ground, remember? It was Karen's hammock. The little makeshift one she had in the backyard. I remember we were making out so hard that we couldn't even open the door so we sort of fell back on the hammock."

"Yeah. We just kept kissing and kissing and the more we kissed I guess the more clothes came off."

"You were trying so hard to be quiet…"

"Me?" Lucas scoffed. "Yeah right. I wasn't the moaner."

"Yes you are…I mean, were", Brooke corrected. "You were always the loud one. Much louder than me. That night I tried to gag you with my underwear and it still didn't shut you up."

"We ended up falling right off that hammock…"

"And Uncle Keith heard the noise and ran outside and there we were…you with your jeans and boxers around your ankles and my panties in your mouth."

"He was so pissed", Lucas smirked.

"Yeah and he was so going to tell your mom that is until we asked him what he was doing there after midnight and without a shirt on. That shut him up pretty quick."

"Yeah…man, we had some fun times."

"You mean fun sex times."

"That too", he grinned. "It's just that we were always getting caught."

"Hell yeah. Karen caught us that one time in your room…"

"Whitey got us in the back of Keith's wrecker…"

"Dan saw us at the beach house…"

"Deb caught us in the storeroom of the café…"

"That was crazy", Brooke remembered with a smile. "But we weren't the only ones. I mean, Nathan and Tutor Wife, well at the time, Tutor Girl, never went past a heavy petting session but Jake and Peyton got caught a lot, too."

"Not as much as we did."

"Hell, Broody nobody got caught as much as we did. Nobody ever did it as much as we did."

Broody. She called him "Broody" again. His heart fluttered and it had nothing to do with his HCM.

"Jake and Pey…well, they're good for each other. Always have been."

"It was always about love."

"Isn't that the way it's supposed to be?" Lucas asked.

"I guess it is."

"Scary, huh?"

"Yeah but…well, that's not the part that scares me."

"What does?" Lucas dared to venture.

"People are gonna disappoint you. I get that…I kind of expect that but…I don't know. What if you wake up one day and realize that you're the disappointment?"

She made the comment before she even thought of how it sounded. Immediately it struck a chord with Lucas. Was there some sort of hidden message or agenda? What did she mean?

"What's on your mind, Brooke?"

Everything, she wanted to scream out. She couldn't shake Gordon's speech earlier. As much as she hated to admit it, he made sense. He had certainly touched a nerve. There was so much she wanted to say to Lucas, so much she needed to say. As the song went, the words just got in the way.

"Nothing. I…I'm getting sleepy", she faked yawned. "I think I'm gonna try to turn in before Gordie and I have to play Wedding Planner tomorrow."

"Yeah…me too, I guess. Um, good night, Brooke."

"Night, Lucas."

She lay perfectly still but she wasn't asleep. He knew it. She knew that he knew it. Still his mind couldn't help but drift. It was exhausting trying to decipher how they had gotten to "that point". It was easier to just remember the happy times. And oh how they had been such happy times. It was painful because they were so far removed from the good old days but at times like that, when he was in the darkness lying just inches from her warmth, the great days of the past weren't so bad to remember…

He opened his eyes and stared down at her. She fit perfectly in the crook of his arm and he could smell that fruit flavoured shampoo she used in her hair. And he loved the view, the view of the silk sheets barely covering her beautiful naked form. He loved the way she always draped her tiny, smooth leg over his. Yes he loved being in bed with her and waking up to her. He loved her. Moments like that he wished would last forever. And now they would, thanks to the vows the two had exchanged the day before at their wedding.

"Broody, quit staring at me", she mumbled into his chest.

"I'm not staring at you."

"Liar."

"How do you know I'm staring at you?"

"Because I can feel your eyes", she smiled, looking up at for the first time as she kissed his lips. "Good morning, Mr. Scott."

"Good morning, Mrs. Scott."

"Mrs. Scott and Deb is nowhere around. I like that", she laughed. "You sleep well?"

"Yeah. You?"

"Fine until you woke me up."

"Well I apologize. How can I make it up to you?"

"I can think of a few ways", she teased. "Let's start with a nice, steamy shower and then a hot breakfast and go from there. What do you say?"

"Sounds like a plan but I need you to do me a favour."

"What's that?"

"Say the words."

"What words?"

"The words. You know. Come on, Cheery. I just want to hear it one more time. 'I Brooke take the Lucas to be my lawful wedded husband…'"

"To have and to hold…", she smiled.

"From this day forward…"

From this day forward. Now the phrase almost seemed like a cruel joke. But it warmed him from the inside out every time he thought about that morning. The morning after his wedding, when he was a carefree, deliriously happy, oversexed newlywed head over heels in love with his bride. For a second he could almost feel that way again.

"Lucas?" she murmured.

"Yeah?"

"Quit staring at me."

He smiled as he turned over and rested his eyes. Yeah, it wasn't so bad remembering after all.