It had been about a month since Brooke and Lucas had moved to Chapel Hill, and they were doing great. Lucas was doing well on the Bobcats, and Haley was due very soon- in about 3 weeks. Brooke was due in 2 months, and all the furniture had been bought and arranged; now the decorating was beginning.

"Pink…Brooke" Lucas whined.

"It's a girl!"

"Can't it be a neutral color…like yellow?" Lucas asked. Who was he kidding? He knew this baby was gonna be Brooke's mini me and she was gonna like pink.

"Lucas, honey, you can try and try to make a boy out of this girl but you know she has too much of me to be anything but the biggest girly girl on the planet" Brooke informed him.

"I know…but she will learn how to play basketball"

"Uh…cheerlead!"

"Basketball"

"Cheer!"

"How about she cheers and then runs on the court to shoot the basket?" Nathan suggested.

"Don't be a smartass Nathan" Haley said, smacking him.

"It's the hormones" Nathan whispered to Lucas.

"I hear you" Lucas whispered back.

"Lucas!" Brooke shrieked.

"No, I'm not-"

"Useless, Lucas Scott, don't try to dig yourself out of the hole you're too deep into it" Brooke stuck her tongue out.

"I'm sorry…" Lucas said, pulling her into his arms and kissing her. "You know I love you"

"Right" Brooke pouted, but he could see the twinkle in her eye. "Come on, lets move along" Brooke said, pushing Lucas down the aisle.

"My girls' room is gonna be blue and purple" Haley said.

"Cute!" Brooke said. "I think mine's can be yellow and pink"

"Sounds good" Lucas said. "Not ALL pink"

"Oh it's gonna be a girly yellow" Brooke giggled, kissing Lucas. "Come on Broody pants"

"Fine" Lucas rolled his eyes, knowing it was gonna be no use trying to talk Brooke out of it.

"I'm so sore" Brooke whined, rubbing her calves. "And I feel fat"

"You are not fat, baby" Lucas said, kissing her on the forehead. "You get more beautiful every day"

"Oh you're lying through your teeth" Brooke said.

"I am not!"

"Fine" Brooke pouted. "Carry me"

"Brooke…"

"Kidding…jeez Broods" Brooke giggled, throwing the yellow sheets in the cart. They made their way to the checkout and bought all the sheets and toys.

"Wow…500 dollars" Lucas said, looking over the receipt. "That's a lot"

"No its not" Brooke whined. "Lets get in the car, my ankles are killing me"

"Fine, fine, let's go" Lucas laughed, climbing into Nathan and Haley's car.

"I'm hungry" Brooke announced.

"Me too" Haley agreed. "We should stop and get lunch"

"Ok where do you all wanna go?" Nathan asked.

"Chinese" Haley said. Brooke nodded her head in agreement.

"Alright, Chinese it is" Nathan laughed, turning into the mall where he knew Haley's favorite Chinese restaurant was.

After lunch, they returned to their houses with promises to meet up later that evening.

Brooke sat on the bed, deep in her thoughts. She was twirling a piece of hair around her finger and staring off into space. Lucas was sitting on the chair and would occasionally look up from his book to see what Brooke was doing. Eventually he let out a chuckle.

"What?" Brooke asked.

"I've never seen you this Broody" he pointed out. "You've been sitting there silently for over an hour without squeaking and it's…fairly strange" Lucas laughed.

"I'm thinking" Brooke said. Lucas climbed onto the bed with her and wrapped his arms around her.

"About what?"

"The baby, and us, and what I'm gonna do when the baby comes and wondering whether or not I'll be able to handle it"

"You know you'll be such a good mother" Lucas said, kissing the top of her head.

"No I won't, Lucas" Brooke said.

"Yes, you will"

"See this is what I hate!" Brooke said, breaking away from Lucas. "You place so much confidence in me and 99 percent of the time I let you down- I hate that you're pretending that we're with gonna be a happy family because we're not, Lucas! You and I both know it! We're 19, no experience with parenting, we practically got kicked out of our own houses, and we're going to have a baby. In 2 months. I don't know why YOU'RE not terrified, because I AM"

"Brooke, I'm scared too but shouldn't we at least try to be happier? Why are you acting like this is the most negative thing ever? What's happened has happened and now the only thing we should do is look to the future and be positive because we can't change the past!" Lucas countered. "I have this conversation, or now fight, with you every week, Brooke, and I'm sick of telling you you'll be fine. Maybe you won't be fine! I personally believe you'll be fine, but if you don't then who am I to try to snap you out of your misery?" Lucas said.

"Fine, Lucas, whatever" Brooke snapped, getting up off the bed and walking out of the room. "I'm going for a walk"

"Whatever" Lucas said, reclining in his chair and picking up his book again, watching Brooke leave over the top of it. He heard the door slam shut and sighed. Why was Brooke such a doubter? Why didn't she believe she was gonna be ok?

Brooke walked down the apartment stairs and out to the hot late June afternoon. Tears streamed down her face as she walked to the bench that was in front of the apartment building. She didn't know what was going on with her. She was confused and scared and tired and all she wanted was to curl up with Lucas and watch a movie and talk like they did in high school- she didn't want this baby or this life or anything like it. All she wanted was to be a kid again.

At the other Scott resident…

"Nathan, honey, tuck the bed sheets under the mattress" Haley instructed with a laugh. "Did you ever make your own bed?"

"No my mom or the maid did it" Nathan said sheepishly.

"Seriously I'm gonna have to teach you how to do all of these things" Haley laughed. "Come on, what do you want for dinner?"

"Weren't we going out with Peyton and Jake and Brooke and Lucas?"

"Oh yeah!"

"But I would like a snack…" Nathan said, kissing her. Haley sighed.

"What do you want?"

"I love you…"

"Fine, fine…I'll make the French fries"

"Thank you!" he said, hugging her. She giggled and kissed him and walked into the kitchen.

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Lucas looked at the clock. Brooke had been outside for over an hour and now he was really worried. She usually came back in 20 minutes later either to yell at him or apologize or huff and ignore him. He got up and walked around the apartment, hoping she had snuck back in.

"Brooke?" he called. No answer. He went outside and was relieved to see a petite body with straight brown hair curled up on the bench staring off into space.

"Brooke?" he asked softly. She turned around and his heart dropped as he saw her tear streaked face and her hazel eyes that no longer had their twinkle left in them. He went over to sit down on the bench. "I'm sorry…I'm an ass"

Brooke turned around and wiped her cheeks with her hands. "No Lucas…I was being ridiculous…its totally not your fault that you're trying to be optimistic and I'm just like putting the whole situation down…its not your fault you got stuck with me who didn't bother to use proper birth control and then blame you for the consequences…"

"Stuck with you, Brooke? I love you! Why do you think I proposed? Look I had every opportunity to leave you to deal with this baby alone, but I didn't because I love you"

"Lucas but I thought you just proposed so the baby would have a stable environment"

"Brooke last time I checked stable environment constituted of two parents that were in love…pretending like we love each other for the sake of the child would be a very deceitful and dishonest thing to put her through"

"But…Lucas I'm so scared" Brooke whispered. "This is all coming at me too fast- we're 19 and expecting a baby and getting married! What happened to the rest of my life? And I'm so worried I'm gonna end up like my parents…emotionally and verbally abusive to her and I'm just so scared…Lucas I don't wanna become my mother!"

"Brooke you will NEVER become your mother, believe me…and you doubt way too much, you don't have enough confidence in yourself- if you want to, you can be the best mother ever, and I'm confident for you- look I know you don't like that I put so much confidence in you but I love you, and most of all, I believe you have that confidence- I'll be there with you through every step, through every stage, from the first word of our daughter to her walk down the aisle to her first child- I'm not gonna leave you, Brooke, and you need to know and understand that- never, never, never"

"But you're 19…you're hot, and there are plenty of girls who wouldn't be stubborn with you and listen to everything and go with the flow and would be much prettier to show off"

"But I like to show YOU off…because you have something I don't think I could find in anyone else"

"Lucas…" Brooke whispered. "I'm sorry; I'm moody and pissed off because…I'm me"

"Its ok, it's not your fault- I should've been more careful and less enthusiastic about how we were gonna be totally perfect…we're gonna have problems but we'll make through"

"I know we will…we're us, right?"

"Yeah" Lucas smiled, kissing her. "Forgive me?"

Brooke kissed him softly. "Does that answer your question?"

"Yeah" Lucas chuckled, wrapping his arms around her. "So we're cool?"

"Yeah" she smiled, the familiar twinkle returning to hazel green eyes. "We're cool"

"Oh yeah and Brooke?" Lucas asked, getting a very serious expression on his face.

"Yeah?"

"Race ya!" He shouted, sprinting towards the apartment building.

A/N: review….!