Equal But Opposite Reaction
By: Sari
Disclaimer: No, I don't own OTH. If I did Brooke and Lucas would be back together and Felix would be in a ditch somewhere. Haley wouldn't be going insane and she and Nathan would be back together.
Summary: AU Brucas. Successful bachelor Lucas Scott meets hard to get, feminist Brooke Davis and a rollercoaster ride occurs as both begin to fall in love.
Part 4
"The entire sum of existence is the magic of being needed by just one other person." – Vi Putnam
Brooke was slowly going crazy. It had been only two days since she had last seen or spoken to Lucas and she was longing to just hear his voice or see his face. She had unloaded this all on Peyton a few hours earlier and the girl had promptly laughed so hard she had started to cry and told Brooke she was falling hard for him. Brooke couldn't argue with her, she believed she was.
She looked down at the plans for the next edition of Filly and sighed loudly. She couldn't concentrate and was beginning to get fed up with the magazine's layout in general. Thankfully she was interrupted by the shrill ring of her cell phone.
"Hello?" She answered happily, glad to be rid of thoughts about magazines, deadlines, and Lucas Scott.
"Hey Brooke." Lucas said.
Brooke's eyebrows shot up and a slow smile spread over her face. "Hi Lucas, I haven't heard from you in a while."
"Yeah, 2 days and I would tell you the number of hours but I think the time difference would screw it up." He said.
"You're not in town?" She asked.
"Emergency with one of my athletes, he got injured and I went to survey the damage." He said. "I'll be back in time for our dinner though, I was hoping you'd be able to drive there yourself instead of me coming to pick you up. I'd be going to Haley's house straight from the airport."
Brooke nodded to herself. "That's fine. I can drive myself its no big deal."
She could hear his sigh of relief and smiled again. "So how are you?" He asked.
"I'm bored, sitting here mulling over layout designs for the next edition of Filly." She said, suddenly remembering she had deadlines to meet.
"Sounds painful, I wish I was there to help."
"And how would you be able to help? I'm sure a sports agent wouldn't know how to work with the layout of a magazine." She said skeptically.
"You should never underestimate me, I have a lot of hidden talents." Lucas said.
"You'll have to show me one of them one day."
Brooke could faintly hear some noise in the background and heard the abrupt dropping of the phone. "Lucas?" She asked.
She waited several moments and then his voice was heard again calling her name. "Brooke are you there?"
"Yeah I'm here, what's going on? Where are you?"
"The hospital." He said.
"Maybe you should call me back then?" Brooke suggested.
"I think I will, see you later tonight."
"See you." She echoed before hanging up.
Brooke sighed softly to herself and laid her head on her desk in frustration. She didn't want to finish these layout designs, what she really wanted to do was speed up time so she could get to her dinner with Lucas. She was looking forward to learning more about his best friend and brother, finally able to see how he interacted with his family. Brooke growled to herself as her office phone began to ring.
"Filly Magazine, this is Brooke Davis speaking how may I help you?" She asked pleasantly.
"Brooke, it's been a long time." The voice said.
Brooke scoffed to herself and rolled her eyes. "You have some nerve calling me Tim. What's the matter Theresa ditch you for the next hot, rich man that came her way?"
"No need to be hostile Brooke, Theresa and I are doing just fine. I wanted to call and see how you were doing but obviously you're still bitter." He remarked snidely.
"I'm way over your cheating and Theresa's backstabbing, I just don't make it a habit to sugar coat my words. I don't know why you're calling and frankly I don't give a shit. So why don't we get to the point so I can end this conversation."
She heard Tim let out an aggravated sigh and smiled triumphantly. He deserved worse than a tongue lashing, he needed to be hanged for what he had done to her. "Look I didn't want to do this but Theresa insisted on it. We're having an engagement party on Wednesday and we wanted to invite you and Peyton."
Brooke's breath caught in her throat at the word 'engagement.' She couldn't help the ball of hurt that started in her stomach. Looking back on it now she couldn't believe she had been in love with this man! "Why invite me? Does Theresa want to rub it in her face that she stole my fiancé?" She shouted.
"No Brooke, she wants to try to get her friends back! You can't help who you fall in love with Brooke! We didn't set out to hurt you." Tim insisted.
"Please, save me the excuses I got sick of hearing them a year ago." She spat.
"Brooke please just consider it okay? It would mean the world to Theresa if two of the people she grew up with attended her party." Tim said defeated.
"I'll consider it but that's all I'm promising." She said. "Was there anything else?"
"I really am sorry Brooke, I didn't mean to hurt you the way I did." He muttered softly.
Brooke laughed loudly at that. "If you didn't mean it you would have broken off our engagement instead of sleeping with my best friend for months! GOODBYE TIM." She shouted before slamming down the phone.
Brooke took in a deep cleansing breath and let it out, chuckling at the conversation she had just had. She didn't believe that two-timing bastard actually had the audacity to call her and ask her to his engagement party.
"He must have been joking." She decided returning back to her layout plans. "I don't think I'd be able to handle it if he hadn't been."
-
Brooke pulled up in front of the Scott's apartment building at a quarter to seven and sat outside gathering her courage. It wouldn't have been that bad if Lucas had been with her but he was arriving later on leaving her to face his family, albeit only a small portion of them, by herself. To make it even worse she didn't know anything about them besides their names, and that they were both rich and famous. In Lucas's stories he had neglected to inform her of anything about his younger brother or long time best friend.
She groaned and rested her head on the steering wheel suddenly realizing that she was going to be alone with his best friend. If she was anything like Peyton then Brooke knew she was in for a long night of death glares and whispered conversations while Lucas wasn't looking. Anything to size up the new meat that he had picked up.
"Way to think positive Brooke." She muttered to herself. Opening her car door she grabbed the desert she had bought on the way over and made her way upstairs. "Let's get this over with." She thought.
The door opened to reveal Nathan Scott, Lucas's younger brother and the basketball player of the family. He looked her up and down with a completely blank look on her face before recognition set in. "Brooke Davis right?" He asked.
"Yeah…" She replied. "Lucas said he'd call and tell you that he'd be late and I'd be coming over by myself."
Nathan nodded and let her in. "Haley is in the kitchen so you can take that into there." He said pointing her in the direction of the kitchen. "You can tell Haley I'll be there in a minute."
She nodded and walked off towards the kitchen entering it and stopping in her tracks as she saw Haley practically running back and forth in it looking worried.
"Is something wrong?" Brooke asked.
Haley jumped and looked up. "Brooke you're here!" She said with surprise and spying the desert in her hand breathed a huge sigh of relief. "You're a lifesaver without even knowing it! I ran out of cake mix and was in the process of having a breakdown."
"I'm glad to be of service." Brooke said setting it down on the counter. "Do you need any help?"
Haley shook her head. "No thank you but thanks for the offer. Why don't you sit down and we can talk before Luke gets here."
Brooke smiled inwardly. "I'm not about to get grilled about my intentions am I?" She asked jokingly.
Haley shot her a dead serious look. "Well you are, and since you know you're about to it'd make this process a lot faster."
"Ask away." She said sitting down at the table.
"What do you want from Lucas?" Haley asked not beating around the bush, and then she quickly amended her statement. "I don't want to sound like a bitch but he's my best friend and I love him and he's been so unlucky with relationships."
"I don't know." Brooke answered truthfully. "I like him a lot, but I'm still getting to know him. I just want to see where it takes me."
Haley nodded. "That's understandable, but if you ever feel like it's not going to work out just let him go okay?"
Brooke gave her a strange look. "You're pessimistic, why would I suddenly decide it's not going to work out?"
"I'm not pessimistic, I'm just realistic about Lucas and his life. Not a lot of people can understand how he works or how his schedule works." Haley said.
Brooke waved a hand. "He's told me about his experience with the not understanding girlfriend. I've already told him how I felt about it."
Haley looked at her doubtfully. "If you say so." The door slammed at that moment and Brooke could hear Lucas and Nathan laughing together as they drew nearer to the kitchen. Brooke smiled happily as Lucas walked into the kitchen and got up to meet him. Hugging him she discreetly whispered in his ear that his best friend had been giving her the third degree. He just smiled in response.
"Hey Hales." Lucas said kissing Haley on the cheek. "I didn't miss anything important did I?"
Haley gave him an innocent smile. "Just girl talk Luke, right Brooke?" She said turning to Brooke.
Brooke nodded. "Just girl talk." She repeated rolling her eyes.
"Well dinners done so why don't we get started." Haley said. Brooke helped her take all the food out of the oven and onto serving dishes while Nathan and Lucas set the table. Eventually the four of them sat down at the table to eat.
"So Brooke, you're an editor of a magazine right?" Nathan asked during one of the lulls in the conversation.
She nodded. "I'm the executive editor of Filly magazine. That's how I met Lucas." She answered.
"How do you like it?"
"It's interesting. I love putting together a product that I know my readers will enjoy and of course the parties and celebrities aren't too bad either." She said with a smile.
"How hard was it to start up your magazine?" Haley asked interested.
"Not too hard." Brooke said. "It was easier because I was already in the industry, I was a writer for Elle magazine." Brooke switched gears deciding she needed to question them as well. "So how'd you and Lucas meet Haley?" She asked.
Nathan laughed and shook his head. "Not one of the stories I like to remember."
Lucas smiled. "That's because Haley practically knocked you out!" He turned to Brooke and began the story. "When we were younger Nate was an absolute jerk. Not like he isn't one now but he was even more of one back then. Haley and I had already been friends from elementary school but when I moved in with Nate we got a lot closer because she'd be the person I'd vent to when Dan was out of control with his issues.
When we were like 15 or 16 before we had gotten kicked out the house I invited Haley over and Nathan got a look at her and immediately started making passes. Haley got pissed off and punched him in his face and broke his nose. She told him if he even looked at her wrong again she'd break something else."
Brooke laughed, loving the spunk the girl had. "Wow, Haley you received major cool points for that stunt.
Nathan snorted. "Not done yet, not only did she threaten to break something else she lectured me on how she didn't even know how Lucas and I came from the same father when I obviously inherited Dan's evilness and Lucas didn't."
Haley blushed and kissed her husband. "I was way wrong back then." She said. "Nate was just under some bad influences."
The discussion went on like this for an hour or so, Brooke participating by asking questions about their childhood, work, and other friends they had. Brooke had to admit Nathan and Haley were really and interesting couple that she'd love to have as friends.
"You guys seem really close." Brooke commented. "I wish I had friends like that growing up."
Lucas put an arm around her and gave her a one armed hug. "Life in Palm Beach wasn't all it was cracked up to be. We had way too much problems within our little group of friends." He said.
Haley laughed and started to tell another story. "When we were younger we were friends with this guy named Jake Jagielski. He had so much drama it wasn't even funny. He and this other chick Nikki had a child together and Nikki ran off leaving him to deal with the little girl. Then she would come back periodically to make his life living hell, making our lives hell in the process. I remember one day he just got sick of it and left." Haley said.
Lucas looked thoughtful. "I wonder what ever happened to him."
"Last I heard he moved here." Nathan said. "We talked sometime during college but that was a while ago."
Brooke's ears had perked up at Jake's name, she had tuned out because they had gone off on a tangent reminiscing about the old times but hearing a name she recognized she tuned back in. "Wait…did you say Jake Jagielski?" She asked in disbelief. "You guys know him?"
Lucas nodded looking strangely at her. "Yeah…"
"Jake is engaged to my best friend Peyton Sawyer." She said.
Lucas, Nathan, and Haley's eyebrows all shot up in surprise. "Wow, what a small world." Nathan said in disbelief. "How is he doing? How's the little girl doing?"
"Jake and Peyton are deliriously happy as far as I can tell and Jenny—his little girl—is the sweetest little thing. I'm her god mother."
"That's great. Jake always did deserve some stability. Nikki was one crazy woman." Lucas said. He glanced at his watch and noticed the time. "Wow it's getting late."
Haley smirked at him and then locked eyes with Brooke smiling warmly. "I think Lucas is trying to hint to Nathan and me that he's ready to have you to himself."
Brooke smiled back. "I think I'm about ready to have him to myself as well."
The foursome stood up and Nathan and Haley walked Lucas and Brooke to the door. Haley touched Brooke's arm to gain her attention. "Brooke, it was great meeting you and I'd love to spend more time with you."
Brooke grinned. "I'd love that. You can call Lucas for my number and we'll work something out." She said.
Haley nodded and kissed Lucas on the cheek. "Then I'll see both of you later." Nathan patted his brother on the back and kissed Brooke's cheek. Lucas and Brooke both waved and then turned to walk down stairs. They reached the bottom and Brooke went to go sit on the hood of her car inviting Lucas to do the same. Once he was seated next to her she started to play with his hands.
"Tonight was great." She said. "Haley and Nathan are really nice."
"They like you."
She smiled at that. "I like them too."
"I'm glad you had fun." He said. "Is it pathetic to say I missed you while I was gone?"
"No, because then I'd be pathetic as well. I missed you too." Brooke ran her free hand through her hair.
"What'd Haley talk to you about before I got there?" He asked.
"Oh the usual best friend questions. It was no big deal. I thought it was cute that she worries so much about you."
Lucas smiled fondly. "Hales has been like that since we were younger. I don't take care of myself as much as she thinks I should so she does it herself. Without her I'd probably be lost."
"I'm sure she feels the same way about you, just like I feel the same way about Peyton." Brooke said.
Brooke debated telling him about Tim's party. She had been mulling over it most of the night after finally deciding that Tim's invite hadn't been a joke. She figured if she brought along Lucas then she would be able to survive the already predestined torturous night and she could scope out Tim and Theresa's relationship as well.
"Lucas…" She murmured. "Are you busy Wednesday night?"
"If I am I could always make myself available, you said so yourself." He said with a sly smile. "Why?"
"My ex-fiancé Tim is having an engagement party and I don't think I could survive it alone." She said.
"Ex-fiancé?" Lucas asked raising an eyebrow. "Do tell more."
"Tim Smith was my fiancé a year ago, I met him the year before and I fell in love with him. I thought we were happy but I was wrong right before our rehearsal dinner I found out that he'd been sleeping with someone who I thought was my best friend for months." Tears welled up in Brooke's eyes as she remembered the pain she felt a year ago. "He told me that he thought he could get her out of his system if he just continued doing it and he begged me to understand. Isn't that insane?"
"This guy is an idiot." Lucas agreed. "If I had known you back then I would have beat him up for you."
Brooke smiled and touched Lucas's cheek. "That's nice to know."
He took her hand from his face and kissed it briefly. "Who is he getting engaged to?"
"The same girl he cheated on me with. My ex-best friend Theresa." Brooke said.
"How awkward is that going to be? What was the point of even inviting you?" Lucas asked incredulously.
Brooke shrugged. "He says it's what Theresa wants, she wants to repair her friendship with Peyton and me but I keep thinking it's just to rub his happiness in my face."
"You haven't been happy without him?" Lucas asked a sad tinge to his voice.
Brooke looked up into Lucas's sincere eyes and silently berated herself for making him feel inadequate. "I'm happy with you Lucas." She whispered softly.
Brook closed her eyes briefly to gather up her courage before leaning towards Lucas and planting her lips on his own. She smiled against his mouth as he gasped in surprise, taking the chance to deepen the kiss and explore the warm cavern of his mouth. He kissed back, after he had gotten over the shock, just as enthusiastically until they broke off both in dire need of air.
"What was that for?" He murmured.
She smiled at him and kissed him again on the cheek sliding off the hood of her car and motioning him to do the same. "Will you be able to go with me on Wednesday?" She asked avoiding his question.
He locked eyes with her and sighed softly. "I'll be able to go."
"Good." She grabbed his hand and pulled him towards her enveloping him in a tight hug. "Then I think it's about time I stopped running."
"Running?" He asked putting some distance in between them.
She smiled. "I think you know what I mean."
He nodded. "I do, but it's too good to be true. I want you to clarify it for me."
"I like you, and I want to try being something more than friends." She said looking directly into his eyes.
He grinned. "I like the sound of that."
TBC