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 26

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." - Confucius

Lucas groaned loudly and surveyed the damage to his face while Brooke rushed around their penthouse looking for first aid supplies. It was nearing 1 in the morning and both of them had yet to sink into their comfortable bed after their disastrous dinner party. Between Lucas's argument with Jake and Haley's fight with Elizabeth, Lucas was tired of family, friends, and anybody in between.

"We should just elope." He muttered annoyed. "If we have to be afraid at our own wedding that our friends just might kill each other then it's not even worth it."

Brooke smiled at him. "I can assure you it's not going to be a repeating thing. Eliza was just stressed that my mother was there and Haley provoked her."

"Provoked her into almost beating the shit out of a pregnant woman?" Lucas said incredulously.

"Haley should learn to pick and choose her battles." She chuckled at the bruise now turning strange colors on Lucas's jaw. "And not to get you involved in them."

"I was protecting my nephew/godson." Lucas grumbled. "Your sister has a mean left hook."

"She took boxing for a couple of years."

He rolled his eyes. "Well that explains it."

"She apologized." She reminded him.

"After I was already on the floor curled up in pain." He muttered. "I really do think we should elope."

She looked at him as if he had suddenly sprouted another head. "Lucas Scott get that idea out of your head right now. We are not going to elope after I've spent countless hours with perky Jenny and have already invited my mother." She shivered at the thought. "My mother would slaughter me as soon as she saw me if I didn't have a big wedding." She handed him an ice pack. "Not to mention what Karen and Keith would do or Dan for that matter."

"My mom and Keith would just be happy that I'm happy and who gives a rat's ass about Dan?" He replied.

"We're not eloping, end of story." Brooke said firmly.

He sighed and pouted. "Fine."

"We're going to go through with this wedding and make very sappy vows and pledge our life to each other while simultaneously stopping World War III from occurring at our wedding and we will like it." Brooke continued just as firmly.

"I don't know about that last part…"

She gave him the patented glare of doom before pushing him towards the bed. "And tomorrow I'll deal with my sister and you'll deal with Haley and then I'll meet you for lunch and afterwards I'll go yell at Jake. What are we doing for dinner?"

He shrugged the pain medication he took finally beginning to kick in. "Let's just order in. I think I'm sick of seeing the outside world."

Brooke was tired, she hadn't been able to sleep after she had shuffled Lucas off to bed but that didn't mean she wasn't looking her best and ready to chew out Elizabeth for horrible behavior. She was meeting her sister for breakfast while Lucas talked to Haley at Promotex, at least this way they were positive that the two wouldn't run into each other and start another fight.

"Hey Brooke." Elizabeth said smiling slightly at her sister as she took the seat across from her. "Come on and let me have it."

Brooke took her time, ordering her food and making sure that her sister was afraid…very afraid. She was pissed and she was going to make sure her Elizabeth knew it.

"Brooke?" Eliza asked warily after she had ordered her own food. "You are going to yell at me right? And not turn into mom and avoid it?"

Brooke's brown eyes met her sister's blue ones and then she exploded. "You are an asshole. Did you know that?" Brooke said with an almost frightening calm voice. "I figured that you and Haley would eventually go at it but couldn't you have waited until you were outside and not in the middle of my party?" Brooke growled. "My practice dinner party! The one that is ultimately important and alludes to the fact that I am getting married and deserve to have all the attention focused on me and not on your stupid problems with Nathan!"

Elizabeth shrank back in her chair against the onslaught of Brooke's tirade. "B, you know I'm sorry. Haley's jabs at me on top on everything else that happened that night set me off. I didn't come there with the intent of fighting her."

Brooke sank down into the chair in front of Elizabeth's desk and regarded her sister. "Mom called me about the attitude you had with her."

"And now it's super Brooke to the rescue?" Elizabeth asked not interested. "Unless you have the ability to turn back time so that mom didn't have me I don't think you can fix this one."

"Are we back to this again?" Brooke said exasperated. "Mom loves you Eliza, she's not the best mother in the world so it barely shows but she wouldn't be so upset that you were upset with her if she didn't care."

Elizabeth shrugged. "I don't want to talk about this with you."

Brooke rolled her eyes. "Whatever Eliza, I'm not going to try to convince you."

"I didn't ask you to." Eliza looked up from her computer screen. "Anything else?"

"Are you going to be with Nathan at the wedding?"

"Are you asking me if I'm going to deliberately piss off Haley? Because the answer to that would be 'no.' if you're asking if drama is going to occur at your wedding because your sister is dating your fiancé's best friend's ex-husband then that is a definite 'yes.'" Elizabeth said wryly typing away at her computer.

"You're so damn hilarious." Brooke said once again rolling her eyes.

Brooke was a traditional person, after spending most of her teenage years being a trouble maker she had wanted to make her parents and the society pages happy with the wedding of the year. But with all the drama going on in her family, Lucas's family, and both of their friends a wedding seemed more and more like a chore and a definite disaster then something that would make the both of them happy. This is why Brooke though it was about time that she revisited her rebel years.

"Eliza what would you think if I decided I wanted to elope with Lucas?" Brooke asked.

"You mean head over to Vegas for a couple of days of extreme fun and then get married in a cheesy chapel? I think it'd be adorable." Elizabeth answered. "What's the matter? Getting cold feet? Don't think the wedding is posh enough to make it into People magazine?"

Brooke snorted vainly. "I don't have to try to get into People magazine; they're already knocking on my door."

"Then eloping was Lucas's idea?"

She nodded. "He wasn't too keen on doing a wedding after the dinner party disaster."

"And you're actually considering it? I figured you would shut him down before he even got the sentence out."

"I did, but now I'm having second thoughts." She smiled nervously. "Sometimes I think our life is so hectic and complicated that this wedding will never happen."

"You and Luke let your lives be overrun but your friends and it shouldn't be that way." Elizabeth said wisely. "It's great that you guys love your friends so much but you guys go overboard with it. Especially Lucas."

"Lucas wouldn't feel right if he saw anybody he loved suffering." Brooke said smiling. "That's one of the reasons why I love him so much."

"Otherwise known as bleeding heart syndrome." Elizabeth said disgusted. "It's cute for awhile and then it's like 'Lucas stop being a pussy and tell Haley how much of a bitch she's being. I was surprised he had the nerve to go up against Jake like that the other night."

Brooke groaned. "I have to go talk to them. Jake needs to seriously apologize and Peyton has been going out of her mind with guilt about it."

"Peyt's a good person and Jake is too, he's just caught up in his hate for Nikki."

"I know."

Brooke stood up glancing at her watch. "Eliza you want to come out with me and Lucas for lunch?"

"Give me a half hour to do some updates to the website and I'll meet you in Lucas's conference room?"

Brooke nodded. "That's fine."

"How you doing?" Lucas asked dropping into the seat next to his best friend.

Haley looked up at him and went back to the sheet music she was studying. "Hey Luke, I'm doing good but I should probably be asking you that right?"

"Between the black eye and the bruise on my jaw I think how I'm doing is pretty self explanatory."

She burned with shame and gave him a small smile. "I'm sorry. I don't know what I was thinking when I said all of that crap to Elizabeth. I was just so pissed at Dan and then his public display of affection for Nathan's decision to drop me and pick her up was just a low blow."

"Dan was pretty harsh but the man is a bastard what do you expect?" Lucas said as if that was an excuse.

"I don't even know why you invited him." Haley murmured. "You can barely stand him."

He shrugged. "He's my father Hales."

She nodded. "Much to my dismay, he is. So what's the real reason for coming here Luke? You and Brooke double teaming Elizabeth and me?"

"Something like that." Lucas said. "I wanted to make sure my favorite nephew was okay of course."

"He's coming along fine." Haley said smiling broadly. "The doctor said he's perfectly healthy."

"And Nathan went with you?"

She smiled slightly. "Surprisingly yes. And we didn't fight once and I didn't bring up Elizabeth. I decided to drop the custody issue. I'm being ridiculous to even consider cutting Nathan out of our child's life."

"That's great Hales, custody battles are never pretty. Especially when every detail is liable to end up in a magazine for the whole world to see."

"Oh the perils of being famous right?"

"Right."

"So what about you and Elizabeth? Finally going to bury the hatchet and mean it?"

"I haven't spoken to her." Haley said.

"Please do." Lucas said. "I got to head back to the office, I'm meeting Brooke for lunch but talk to Eliza as soon as you can okay?"

Haley nodded. "I will, thanks for coming by."

"You're my best friend." Lucas reminded her.

"Best friend for always right?" Haley said smiling.

"You can count on that."

Lucas arrived back at his office to be met by the Davis sisters. Tugging at his suit he locked the door and stared. "Why do I suddenly feel worried?"

"I was thinking about the idea you had this morning." Brooke said. "And then when I went to go talk to Eliza I finally realized just how much I was letting our reputation and our friends and families opinions rule our life and that it just wasn't making me happy."

"Wait hold on." Lucas interrupted a worried look on his face. "Marrying me isn't making you happy?"

"Not that, the big wedding isn't making me happy." Brooke clarified. "Marrying you is making me deliriously happy."

He grinned. "Just checking."

"So, eloping doesn't seem like such a bad idea." Brooke ventured slowly.

"Are you serious?"

"As a heart attack."

Lucas turned to Elizabeth. "I love you in such a ridiculously platonic way."

Eliza smiled at him. "I know."

"When?"

"I was sort of thinking now." Brooke said blushing.

He let out a girly squeal and crushed Brooke into a bear hug. "I love you and I love this idea and I'm all for doing it right now."

"Then we have a plan?"

"Not yet we don't." Lucas said determined. "Sit down." He ordered.

Brooke and Elizabeth sat while they witnessed the real reason why Lucas was so good at everything he did.

First phone call: "Hey Nathan? Could you come to Promotex right now? Yes it is that important. Oh and pack a bag for about 3 days. No, I can't tell you why you're packing a bag until you get here. Yes, it's a good thing. Do you have a key for Eliza's apartment? You do? Good. Can you pack a bag for her as well? Thanks little bro'!"

Second phone call: "Hey Nance can you do me a favor? Can you head over to my penthouse and throw some clothes for Brooke and me in a suitcase? You can? Thank you I really appreciate it. I'll tell you why when you get here just go ahead and bring it to my office."

Third phone call: "Hi my name is Lucas Scott I'd like to book a flight for four to Las Vegas at your earliest possible time. Yes, it'll be first class. Thank you I can make it for 3:15 go ahead and book them. Thank you."

Fourth phone call: "Hey Lauren? Hi it's Lucas Scott. I was wondering if you could do me a really big favor. Can you and Lawrence handle four visitors at your house for about 3 days? It'll be me, Brooke, Brooke's sister, and my brother." He paused and grinned. "You are a lifesaver Laurie! Our plane comes in at seven can you meet us at the airport? Thanks so much."

He set down the phone and looked at the two women. "Now we have a plan."

Brooke just looked at him in awe. "I just realized why you're CEO."

"Because I started this company?" He said looking at her strangely.

"No, because you're damn good with a telephone."

Lucas and Elizabeth laughed.

"Well, Las Vegas here we come." Elizabeth remarked.