Hey everyone! I'm going straight on with the story now, because I think you've waited long enough! There'll be an author's note later…

Enjoy!

Lucas lay in his room, thinking. He was fingering a photograph of him and Brooke.

Their smiling faces looked back at him, and he couldn't help but smile too when he looked at her. Then he realised how ridiculous this was, considering he may have just lost her forever.

Different thoughts were circling through his head, and suddenly he didn't want to hear them anymore. They'd been through too much, there was no way he was throwing this away because of some stupid mix up. Standing up, he went downstairs, and knocked on Brooke's door.

Carrie opened it. As soon as she saw Lucas she said, "She's not here. But you have to find her, and talk to her. You guys are not screwing this up."

"Where is she?" Lucas asked. There was an edge to his voice, and he felt his heart rate increase a little.

"I don't know, she left and she wouldn't tell me where she was going. She said she knew I'd tell you." Carrie smiled wryly, "She was right about that one. Call Haley or something."

Lucas nodded, "Yeah, okay. Thanks Carrie." He left as quickly as he'd come, dialling a number on his phone as he did so.

Lucas sat on the train, willing it to go faster. Haley's phone was off, which was enough to make him suspicious on its own, but then he'd called Nathan who had needed very little persuasion to crack and tell him she was there.

Now he was on his way to their apartment, and praying she would talk to him. If not, well he'd just have to wait until she did. He thought back over all the arguments they'd had. None of them ever lasted very long…at least, not he big ones. One of them always cracked and they'd end up laughing about it over some ice-cream. Sometimes he suspected Brooke just started arguments because she liked the make-up sex, or because he brought her ice-cream or chocolate when he apologised.

Maybe he should have done that…but somehow he thought a tub of Ben&Jerry's might not solve this.

He would explain it to her…that it had just been a mistake, he'd been confused. He loved her, and it seemed she loved him too, so there was nothing standing in their way. He could only hope that she would see it like that too.

When the train arrived he hurried from the station to their apartment, and knocked on the door, which after a minute was answered by Haley.

"Hales, is she here?"

Haley paused for a second, looking at Lucas. Then she nodded, and opened the door. "She's in the spare room," she said.

"Thank you." He hurried past her, making his way to the room. Haley watched him, praying Brooke would forgive him.

Brooke was lying on the bed, staring up at the ceiling when she heard the knock on the door.

She ignored it, but the door opened a fraction, and a blonde head peered round it.

"Lucas, just leave."

"No Brooke I need to talk to you."

"Can we talk tomorrow? I'm really not in the mood to hear your excuses right now. I get it, you're not ready."

He didn't reply, but came and sat on the edge of her bed.

She sighed and rolled over, facing the wall.

"Brooke, please."

She slowly turned back towards him, and sat up, drawing her legs up to her chest.

He hesitated, unsure where to start. Finally he said, "You caught me by surprise earlier. I was so sure that you weren't ready that when you said you were…it took me a minute to believe we both really felt the same way."

She looked at him, but didn't say anything. She suddenly felt his fingers on hers and looked down. He slipped her hand into his on the bed. She looked up at him again, and met his bright blue eyes, that were pleading with her quietly.

"What took you so long?" she whispered after a second, "were you having sex with a random girl to get it out of your system?"

He chuckled quietly, "I thought about it. But then I realised, if I could spend the night with any girl in the world…it would be you. I only want you Brooke. And if this," he indicated the two of them, "is forever, then I couldn't be happier. And if it's not…well then I don't want to waste any more time."

Brooke looked into his eyes, a small smile on her face.

"So what do you think? Can we give this another try?"

She smiled, and nodded. He smiled back, and then she flung her arms round his neck, kissing him.

He cupped her cheek as she pressed her lips against his. He had missed her so much…

She straddled his lap so she could move closer to him, one hand tangled in his hair as her tongue found its way into his mouth. They broke apart and Lucas moaned a little at the loss of contact, but her lips met his skin again as she kissed his neck up to his ear. "God I missed you," she whispered, her voice a low whisper.

He leaned back a little, catching her eye and holding it. She smiled at him, her dimples on full display.

"I love you," he said simply.

Her smile grew and she beamed back at him. "I love you too."

Author's note:

Just take a minute to let it sink in…ok.

I was going to have that scene in its own chapter, but then I thought you deserved a little more. But I'm having an author's note now because I have some explaining to do.

Firstly, Thank you so much for your reviews, I loved reading them!

Secondly, I'm so sorry this chapter is really late, my account got locked for a week so I couldn't upload anything. This happened because my story 'Under Your Skin' got deleted because it broke a rule (I think it was that the rating was too low, but they haven't told me for sure). That story is now posted here: http/ (a new chapter was up on Monday, and another will be up soon, so go read it if you haven't yet!)

I had a note about all of this on my profile page, but I'm sure some people haven't read it, and just thought I was being lazy!

Anyhoo, sorry about all of that, but everything should be back to normal now! So we can get on with the chapter…

Lucas kissed Brooke again, unable to believe this was really happening. He ran a hand over her hair, holding her head as she leaned closer to him. Finally she slowly drew back, breaking the kiss.

"We should probably tell Nate and Hales," she said.

Lucas made a face.

"Luke we're in their apartment!"

"Fine. Come on," he stood up, taking her hand and pulling her up too. Just before they reached the door he stopped, leaning down and kissing her again. She giggled as they broke away. "We can do this as much as we like back at the dorms, now come on!"

He groaned but allowed her to push him out the door.

As soon as they came into the living room Haley jumped up from the couch and spotted their linked hands. "You got back together?"

Brooke laughed, a little taken aback.

"Actually you guys hold hands all the time anyway, but you did get back together, right?"

"Um, yeah, we did," Brooke said, smiling.

Haley squealed and jumped over the back of the sofa, enveloping them both in a hug. "At last! Oh my god and to think you almost screwed it up Luke."

Lucas gave her a look.

"Sorry. Won't say another word about it."

Nathan came up chuckling and clapped Lucas on the back. "Glad you finally got your act together man."

Lucas chuckled and Nathan went to hug Brooke. "I'm really happy for you B."

She grinned and leant against Lucas' side.

"Well we should go out to celebrate," Haley said, "We can all have lunch somewhere."

"Um…" Brooke hesitated. "We were kind of going to…"

"Right, yeah of course. You guys will want to get back to the dorms." Haley grinned. "Okay, well go then. We'll see you soon. And Brooke, we can talk," she gave her a look that meant she would want details of exactly what Lucas had said to her earlier, and Brooke grinned. "Of course. Thank you so much you guys. And we'll see you soon!"

Lucas said goodbye, and they left. Brooke tugged Lucas' hand up the street.

"Where are you going?" Lucas asked. "Train stations that way."

"I came in the car."

Lucas nodded. "Right, okay." He followed her, chuckling as they went. "I still think it's ridiculous how you have a car in the city."

"You don't think it's so stupid when you want to use it," she retorted, laughing as well.

"I never use it! You never let me."

"Um, hello! Last week, you drove up here."

"That was with you."

"Oh whatever, you drove."

Lucas rolled his eyes. There was silence for a second and then her asked. "Now that we're dating again can I use it more?"

They had reached the car and Brooke raised an eyebrow at him as he opened the door for her. "But we're in the city. With the subway. What use could you possibly have for a car?" She raised her eyebrows and he chuckled. She was throwing all his old arguments back at him.

"Fine. Jeez you'd think I'd get some privileges," he joked.

"Of course you do," Brooke said as she got in and Lucas went round the other side. "You're allowed to tickle me without me killing you…but not often. You're allowed to hit other guys when they hit on me. And you're allowed to have some say in what movies we watch on movie nights."

"No…sex, in there anywhere?…"

Brooke shrugged slowly. "Possibly…we'll see…"

She turned and grinned at him, and started the car.

They walked down the corridor towards Brooke's room and Lucas stopped outside. "Now, are you sure we don't want to go to my room instead?"

"Lucas, she might not even be there."

He gave her a disbelieving look. "I think she'd want to know what happened. I'm surprised she hasn't called you already."

"Exactly, we should tell her now, get all the screaming and whatever out of the way, and then we're done…oh except I should probably call Pey…"

Lucas rolled his eyes but smiled. "Okay, fine. Come on."

They went in and as they'd expected Carrie's head shot up as she heard the door open. "Oh my god thank god you're here. So? Are you…?"

Brooke just nodded and Carrie squealed (sounding very like Haley) and jumped up to hug them. "Finally, oh my god!"

"Are you getting déjà vu?" Lucas whispered to Brooke, who giggled.

"I was going to call but then I thought you might be…busy…or gettin' busy or whatever. Speaking of which, I should probably go."

"You don't have to, you can stay," Brooke said.

"Yeah, I would, but as much as I love you guys, I really don't want to see you making out, so…yeah," she pointed towards the door, and grabbed a jacket.

Brooke bit her lip and smiled, and Carrie gave her a last hug before she left the room.

Brooke turned to Lucas. "See, quick and painless."

He conceded, and flopped down on Brooke's bed. "But now Peyton."

"Last one!"

Brooke grabbed her phone and settled herself against Lucas' chest as she dialled Peyton's number.

"Hey Peyt!"

"Hey, you sound happy."

Brooke grinned. "Me and Lucas got back together."

"Oh my god! WOOHOO!"

Brooke giggled as she heard Peyton yell the news to Jake over her shoulder. "That's awesome Brooke, how did it happen?" she asked as Jake hurried over to the phone.

"Um…"Brooke chuckled as she bit her lip. "Well we kinda messed up, but then it was okay."

"Oh god, what did you do?"

"Well when I decided to tell Lucas I found him in a club dancing with another girl…"

"Lucas!" Peyton said exasperatedly. "Is he there? Let me yell at him."

"Yeah, he's here," Brooke smirked and handed the phone over. Lucas gave her a look as he took it; he hadn't heard the other side of the conversation. Brooke shrugged innocently. "She just wants to talk to you."

Lucas took the phone. "Hey Peyt."

"Luke! What the hell did you do!"

"What? We got back together."

"Yeah, after she found you in a club with some girl!"

"It was just a misunderstanding."

"What, did you forget you're totally in love with her or something!"

"No! We…just, got some wires crossed. But then I tracked her down to Nate and Hales'."

"Oh, well done. You gotta be Sherlock Holmes to work out she'd go there!"

At this point Brooke took the phone back, laughing. "Peyt, what did you say? He looks like a little lost puppy." She leaned over and kissed him to cheer him up.

"I was telling him off. But anyway, it sounds like you worked things out."

"Yes we did. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know."

"Okay, I expect you have…stuff to do now."

Brooke chuckled and rolled her eyes.

"Hang on a second though, Jake wants to talk to you."

"Hey Brooke."

"Hey Jake, how's it going?"

"Pretty good by the sound of things. So you guys finally worked it out?"

"Yup."

"Great. Hey, let me talk to Lucas for a minute."

"Sure, hang on." She passed the phone over, and Lucas took it dubiously, wondering if he was going to have another tirade aimed at him.

"Hello?"

"Hey man."

"Jake, hey!" Lucas grinned, and the two started talking. When Brooke could tell that they had got off the subject of their new relationship by the fact that her name had been replaced in conversation by 'basketball', she rolled her eyes and asked for the phone back.

"One minute," Lucas held up a finger and Brooke gave him a look. He continued talking and so she turned around, half straddling his lap, and began trailing kisses up his neck.

"Okay Jake, I gotta go."

"Yeah sure, I'll talk to you soon."

"Yeah, okay, bye man."

He handed the phone back to Brooke, who immediately took it and turned around. "Peyt?"

Lucas tapped her on the shoulder as she started talking to her friend again. She turned a little, still talking, and raised her eyebrows.

He motioned to his neck and raised his own.

"What?" she shrugged. "I just wanted the phone back."

Lucas gave her a withering look and she grinned. She talked for a little more and then rolled her eyes to herself. "Peyt, I gotta go. I'll speak to you soon, okay?"

"Yeah, sure. Bye Brooke!"

"Bye!" She put the phone down and turned to Lucas, smiling.

"You done?" he asked.

She nodded. "Why, you want me to…?" She tipped her head towards his neck.

He gave an exaggerated shrug. "Not if you don't want to…"

Brooke shrugged and stood up. "Fine." She had taken a step towards the door before Lucas caught her arm and gave her a look.

She giggled and got back onto the bed, settling herself in his lap and slipping a hand up to his cheek. "Well if you insist," she murmured, before she kissed him.

The kiss became more heated as Lucas pulled her closer, and she shifted her position so she was straddling him again. Brooke felt warmth spread through her as the memories came back. She couldn't believe how long it had been since she'd felt this: the roughness of his jaw as her thumb grazed it; the taste of his mouth and the softness of his lips. She broke the kiss and moved her lips to his neck, comforted by the familiar smell. She remembered the feeling of being held in his arms, his fingers pressing gently against her waist.

He moved one hand slightly so it rested against the bare skin where her top ended, and she felt a shiver run through her as his fingers touched it.

Their lips met again, and as they kissed she reached for the bottom of his T-shirt, her fingers brushing his belt buckle.

Lucas pulled back gently, meeting her eyes.

"Don't you think we should wait?" he asked. "Just a little bit. I mean, this is pretty huge…we don't want to rush anything."

Brooke gave him a look. "Okay, normally Broody, I'd agree with you - " She saw his face and rolled her eyes. "Okay, fine, I wouldn't. But I do see your point. But it's not like this is something new for us…and you can't use that whole line again about 'it's not the first time we've had sex but it'd be the first time we made love' yadda yadda, cause we've done that too."

"Hey, that was a good line!"

Brooke smiled. "You're right, it was," she leaned up and kissed him. "But still, it's not valid anymore."

Lucas nodded and rested his hands on her thighs. "You're right. And believe me, it's not that I don't want to do this, because I do," his expression showed that he meant it and Brooke chuckled. "It's just, I want it to be really special."

Brooke nodded. "Okay. Okay…we'll wait a little bit. But remember, this is just the first of many, so…it doesn't really matter what this night is like cause we've got loads of tries to perfect the whole 'romantic evening' thing."

Lucas grinned and nodded. "Okay. Well as a starting point how about I take you out this Friday."

Brooke smiled and kissed him, keeping her face close to his. "Okay. It's a date."

Please review, I really want to know what you think now they're finally together! I'll try and UD soon with some really fluffy stuff!