Thank you so much for all the reviews of the last chapter – I'm over 300! Here's the next bit…

A loud series of beeps broke through the low moans emanating from the room. Brooke Davis pulled back from her boyfriend with a disgusted look on her face. "Oh my god Luke! What is up with your ring tone!"

He chuckled and reached over her to grab his phone. "Hey Hales," he said with a sigh as he answered it.

"Well you sound happy to hear from me."

"It's…not the best time," he said, eyeing Brooke who was watching him with an eyebrow raised.

"Oh I see. Okay well then I'll make it quick. You guys, lunch tomorrow, our place…say one?"

"Um…that sounds fine, yeah," Lucas quickly tried to recall if he was meant to be doing anything tomorrow, and found he couldn't, so agreed.

"Great, well we'll see you then and let you get back to…whatever you were doing."

"We were just - "

"Did I ask?" she laughed. "Seeya Luke, and hey Brooke!" she called loudly, and Lucas held the phone away from his ear.

Brooke laughed. "Hey to you too Tutorwife," she called.

Lucas rolled his eyes. "Okay, bye Hales." He chuckled and hung up.

"What did she want?" Brooke asked.

"We're having lunch with them tomorrow."

"Oh fun! Does this mean you're not going to that meeting about the end of season party for coach Michaels?"

"Dammit I knew there was something…Oh well I'll have to skip it. Toby can fill me in."

Brooke nodded. "Okay, cool. Yeah you're not much of a party planner anyway."

"Hey! I am an awesome party planner, I did Nate and Hales' wedding party!"

Brooke raised an eyebrow and looked sceptical.

"Okay fine, you did that, but it was my idea!"

"Yeah okay Mr. Visionary. Now are we gonna pick up where we left off or do I have to put my top back on?"

Lucas rolled his eyes and kissed her again, and she giggled against his mouth, "Sorry, stupid question."

When they arrived at Nathan and Haley's apartment the next day Nathan greeted them at the door and ushered them through to the kitchen.

"Hey, you're here!" Haley said, looking up from her chopping board. "Great, now you can help cook."

"Yeah sure," Brooke said agreeably, hopping onto a counter as she spoke. "Go for it Broody."

Haley gave her a look and Brooke shrugged. "Seriously Tutorwife, what did you expect?"

Lucas came over to Brooke and rested his hands on her thighs.

"What are you doing?" Brooke asked. "Did you not hear Haley ask for some help?"

"I'm pretty sure she said that we plural can help."

Brooke rolled her eyes but nodded.

"So how are you guys?" Haley asked. Lucas turned around to face her and Brooke rested her hands on his shoulder as she hopped off the counter.

"We're good," he said, taking Brooke's hand and guiding her to a pile of potatoes that needed peeling.

"Speak for yourself," Brooke grumbled, as she pushed up her sleeves and picked up the peeler.

Lucas gave her a look and threw a pea at her.

"Hey! No playing with the food," Haley said laughing.

"Yeah Luke, don't play with the food," Brooke said, raising her eyebrows at him.

"So everything's going well for you guys?" Haley asked. "It sounded like it anyway from what I interrupted the other day…"

"What did you interrupt?" Nathan asked, looking up from the oven. He was met with stony looks from Brooke and Lucas. "Oh right, never mind."

Haley laughed. "Sorry about that."

"It's okay," Brooke said, "It was only the phone. The number of times I've walked in on you two - "

"You've walked in on them?" Lucas asked, grimacing.

"You haven't?"

"Yeah Brooke, most people haven't," Haley said, giving her a look. "If you'd just learn to knock you could save yourself a lot of therapy in later life."

"Who says I'm scarred by the experience? Tutorboy's pretty hot Hales."

Lucas and Haley both turned to her with their eyebrows raised, and Nathan grinned.

"Kidding! Well actually not totally, cause you are Nate, but not in that way - "

"Digging yourself into a hole here Cheery," Lucas said threateningly, and she rolled her eyes. "Calm down, he's married. I wouldn't do that to Hales."

Lucas turned to her, waving his potato. "What about me?"

Brooke giggled. "Aw, look at you, all worked up." She caught the front of his T-shirt and pulled him to her, kissing him softly.

"Only Nathan and I are allowed to make out in this kitchen," Haley said loudly, still chopping, and Brooke pulled back. Lucas kissed her on the forehead and they went back to peeling.

"Cheery, would you hurry it up? I've already done more than half," Lucas said after a minute, looking down at her pile of potatoes.

"But mine are so much prettier." She held one of them up. "See yours have little bits of skin still on them."

"Well they don't have to be works of art, just peeled. Come on I'm hungry."

"Babe you're always hungry," she said, patting his stomach.

He shrugged; it was true.

Eventually they got all the food ready, and went through to the dining room.

"I think my potatoes taste better than yours," Brooke declared, as they all started eating.

"How can you possible tell which are yours?" Lucas asked.

"Because," she said, holding a piece of potato up in her fork, "That's got a little bit of skin on it."

He rolled his eyes at her, and she grinned at him.

"We've decided we're going shopping," Brooke said, turning round from the sink where she and Haley and been washing up as the boys came into the kitchen.

Lucas raised an eyebrow and she rolled her eyes. "Okay, I decided. But Hales' agreed!"

Nathan shrugged. "Yeah okay."

Lucas' head jerked round and he gave him a look.

"What?" Nathan shrugged. "Whenever Hales' goes shopping with Brooke she comes back with really hot new lingerie."

Brooke grinned. "See, I knew he liked them," she said to Haley. "And thanks for reminding me Nate, we need to go to Victoria's Secret…and maybe Agent Provocateur too…"

Lucas groaned and Brooke gave him a look. "Do you want to take that back?"

He chuckled and caught her hands, pulling her to him. "You know I hate shopping."

"But you like lingerie."

"I like your old lingerie."

"But you've now seen everything I bought since last year, so I need to get some new stuff. So, come on," she grabbed his hand and dragged him towards the door. Nathan followed, and Haley went to find her purse.

Lucas caught Nathan giving him a look. "What?" he asked.

"Brooke's gotta have bought a lot of lingerie in eighteen months."

Lucas grinned and shrugged, and Nathan shook his head.

They entered the mall and Brooke immediately located a suitable store. "Alright guys, time to get lost," she said, waving Lucas and Nathan away.

"Can't we stay?" Lucas asked, pouting. "You need advisors when you try stuff on."

Brooke smirked at him but shook her head. "Uh uh Broody, sorry." She caught his hand and pulled her to him, kissing him as a consolation.

"Are you guys done flaunting your newfound love yet?" Haley asked after a minute.

Brooke pulled back and turned to her, thinking for a minute before shaking her head, and kissing Lucas again. He laughed against her lips, and eventually she broke the kiss, whispering "Bye Broody," before she extracted herself from his arms.

"Okay, we're done," she said, turning to Haley who rolled her eyes.

"Well then lets go." She leaned up and kissed Nathan briefly before the group separated.

"Okay, you know the drill," Brooke said to Haley as they made their way into Victoria's Secret. "Go find some cute stuff and meet me by the changing rooms."

Haley did indeed know the drill by now, and headed off while Brooke started surveying the options…

"So what do you want to do while they're doing their thing?" Nathan asked, as he and Luke strolled through the mall.

Lucas shrugged. "I guess we could start looking for Christmas presents. That way we don't have to come to the mall again more times than we have to."

"I don't see how you can date Brooke and hate shopping…it just doesn't make sense."

Lucas chuckled.

"But you're right about the Christmas presents. I'm already having nightmares about what to get Haley…it seems to get harder every year."

"You think Haley's hard? What do you get for the girl who has everything?"

"Well you always seem to do pretty well…what was it last year, an antique camera?"

Lucas nodded, smiling. "Yeah I was pretty pleased with that actually."

"Which she not only still uses, which is a pretty good sign, but she takes pretty good pictures with it too."

"Yeah but see now I have to get something better. I wasn't even dating her last year."

"Well last year I got Hales new perfume, which she seemed to really like. But it took me forever to choase that."

"What did she get you again?"

Nathan held up his wrist, the watch he'd received from Haley on it.

"Oh yeah, that was really nice."

"Yeah…maybe I should get her a new watch too…"

They continued walking and then they both stopped as they caught sight of the shop in front of them, turning to each other.

"Jewellery."...

"So Hales how's it going in there?"

Haley came out in the pink and white gingham bra she was trying on. "It's cute…I don't know if it's very me though…"

"Ooh it is cute! Hmm…I think you pull it off. Price?"

"Bearable."

Brooke nodded. "What do you think?" she asked, drawing Haley's attention to the emerald green bra she was wearing. "I thought I'd try something a little different. I swear my underwear drawer is so full of purple and dark red I can't tell them apart anymore."

"Don't forget black."

"Of course. But you can never have too many black bras. And with that in mind…" she ducked back into her changing room and came out a second later in a black basonette bra.

"Well it is gorgeous…and if you didn't already own three exactly like it - "

Brooke shook her head. "Uh uh, the lace is totally different."

Haley chuckled. "Yeah sure, then go for it. Matching underwear?"

"Of course."

"Well then I think we're done."

"We're getting pretty fast at this…"

The boys looked round at all the different necklaces and earrings on display in the shop.

"Brooke likes necklaces, right?" Nathan asked Lucas.

"Yeah…" he paused to look closer at one with a little silver shell pendant on it. "She's got quite a few special ones already though."

"How about a bracelet?…Maybe I should get Hales a bracelet."

"Yeah, I think there were some nice ones over there," he pointed, and continued looking along the cabinets to the rings...

"Ooh lets get a smoothie," Brooke said, as she and Haley passed Jambo Juice.

"Should we get the boys first? Miss 'I can't be apart from my boyfriend for more than five minutes without a very overblown goodbye kiss'."

Brooke giggled. "Hey, we just got back together! We're allowed at least a month long public PDA phase. We let you and Nathan have one…and then again when you got married!"

Haley shrugged, conceding the point. "So shouldn't we find them?"

"Nah, they might be buying stuff for us, we wouldn't want to disturb them," Brooke said, with a twinkle in her eye.

"Brooke, I don't want to dash your hopes or anything, but why would they be buying stuff for us?"

Brooke shrugged. "Cause they love us? Anyway you never know; Christmas is approaching and Broody likes to get the shopping part of it out of the way as quickly as possible," she said, rolling her eyes.

"Ugh my god I know. I'd always leave it till the last minute and then have no one to go with."

"Good thing you don't have to worry about that now." Brooke grinned.

"You don't strike me as a 'last minute' kind of girl."

"Oh god no. But I try to keep up constant yule time shopping all through December."

Haley chuckled and Brooke grinned again as they received their smoothies and found a little table…

"Luke, I've found a perfect bracelet," Nathan said excitedly, coming over to Lucas. "Luke?"

Lucas looked up distractedly and Nathan glanced at what he'd been examining. "Luke…"

Lucas shrugged. "What?" he said innocently.

"Those are engagement rings."

"So?"

"You can't get Brooke an engagement ring for Christmas."

"Says the guy who married his girlfriend at sixteen. And anyway, I wouldn't give it to her now. It's just…look." He pointed to a ring in the centre of the small selection, set in a little box with red cushioning.

"Wow…" Nathan breathed. Lucas smiled as he watched him.

"Okay, so it's beautiful. But, they all are," he said, gesturing to the others.

Lucas shook his head. "No they're not. Not like that one man."

Nathan looked up at him. "You're actually serious about this aren't you?"

"I just know that if I don't get this one I'll never find one like it again."

Nathan hesitated, watching him. "How are you going to pay for it?"

Lucas frowned. "Instalments?"

Nathan chuckled, shaking his head. "Dude…" He turned to him. "You're sure about this?"

Lucas nodded. "It feels right…and she feels right. I just…it's perfect, and I need to get it. She's the one Nate…I'm going to need one of these one day, why not today?"

Nathan smiled. "Alright. Come on then, I'll help you cover a down payment."

"Nate, no, it's - "

Nathan silenced him with a look, and he stopped. "Thanks man."

He clapped him on the back. "No problem. Oh, I'm getting this for Haley by the way." He held up a bracelet with all different kinds of music notes hanging of it, all made out of silver.

Lucas smiled. "It's perfect."

"Hey babe."

Brooke looked round surprised as she heard Lucas' voice and felt his arms wrap round her from behind.

"Hey! We were just about to come find you guys."

"Right after you bought up Abercrombie?" Nathan asked, chuckling.

"We were momentarily distracted by the really hot denim skirts in the window," Haley said, waving it away.

"And so, we had to go inside," Brooke continued, "To…you know, inspect them more closely. Check…thread counts and stuff."

"Right, okay." Lucas said incredulously, gently manoeuvring Brooke out of the store.

"So where did you guys go?" Brooke asked. "Did you get me anything?" she added excitedly, turning her head to look up at Lucas.

"Yup," he said, "But you can't have it now."

She stuck out her bottom lip. "Dammit. I hate having to wait for Christmas."

Nathan caught Lucas' eye, and gave him a look. Lucas just rolled his eyes, resting his chin on Brooke's head. He smiled to himself as he felt the weight of the ring in his pocket.

I can't help it, the fluff just keeps on comin'. Hope you're enjoying it anyway, let me know in a review!

I think there's only a couple of chapter left of this, which is really sad (or it is for me anyway!) But like I said, there's something planned for afters.

Oh and by the way, I'm not gonna have Lucas propose before the end of this story; it would be too soon. Just so no one's expecting that. And also, I didn't describe the ring because everyone would imagine Brooke's perfect ring differently, so I thought you can picture it for yourself!