OK, first let me start with an apology. I'm so sorry I haven't updated sooner, I've been on Mardi Gras break. Then after I had to play catch up at school. The updates should get more regular now.

Second this entire chapter is flashback. The story will alternate in between the two, between Brooke leaving and her coming back, not really a pattern, just as needed for the story.

Lucas sat staring out his window. The team has just won a big game against their biggest

rival, but for some reason to Lucas, it didn't matter. Nothing had really mattered lately. Not without Brooke. Getting up from his desk chair he wandered downstairs, everyone had come over to celebrate the win and help decorate the tree. He watched as Jenny giggled as Nathan jingled the ornament in his had, the bell inside hitting against the outer metal. Sitting down on the sofa he began to unravel the light string that no matter how carefully they packed up each year, it always came down tangled.

Jenny saw her Ucas as she called him come down the stairs and immediately left her spot in Haley's arms and toddled over to him before reaching up for him to pick her up. Lucas willingly obliged, and lifted the small child into his lap, letting her tangle herself in his just untangled lights. Lucas didn't really care, as long as Jenny kept the strands away from her throat and mouth it couldn't get too dangerous.

Johnny came home broken-hearted

Said he lost his girl

He burrowed up all the hurt in his heart

But still a hole in the wall of his world

Now Betty she was a blonde-haired beauty

With an eye for a man who could spend

She stole his heart in a pick-up truck

Then drove off in a Mercedes Benz

And he said...

Haley watched as Lucas carefully watched the baby. Moments like this, watching how good Lucas was with Jenny made her really wish Brooke would tell Lucas, he'd make an awesome father, but Brooke, Brooke was stubborn, she refused. Haley knew Brooke was just scared, scared of the being a mother, messing up, facing Lucas, the list went on, probably some Haley didn't even know about.

Lucas phone began ringing and placing Jenny on the sofa beside him, he ran up the steps to answer it. Opening the screen he stared at the unfamiliar number displayed across the screen before opening it.

"Hello?" Lucas tentatively asked, wondering who it could be. No one responded, but Lucas heard deep breathing. Followed by a hiccupped sob.

"Bye Broody." Brooke said before quickly hanging up the hospital phone.

Lucas heard the dial tone in his ear. Quickly he hung up the phone before flipping it over and calling the last in come call number. He was met with an machine recording. "This number does not receive incoming calls." Lucas slammed the phone shut before once again sitting at his desk window, again staring at the stars, the little festive feeling he had earlier completely lost, along with his heart.

Oh she looked so innocent

Talkin' 'bout bein' just friends

Oh and it don't make a bit of since

Ain't that the way that it always ends

Brooke hung up the phone on the table next to her bed, trying her hardest not to jostle the sleeping two hour old infant in her arms. She didn't know what possessed her to pick up the phone and call Lucas, it wasn't like she was going to tell him he was a father, a father to a beautiful baby girl she had decided to name Grace Elizabeth Scott. No she wasn't, so why had she called. Brooke gently shift in the bed, into more of a laying position. Today had been long and hard. It had started out normal, but around noon her water had broke, and her grandmother had brought her to the hospital, where after hooking up to the fetal monitors, the doctors realized Grace wasn't tolerating labor too well, her heart rate dropping dangerously low with each contraction. An immediate C-section was decided and those ten minutes in between, hadn't been the scariest in her life, praying to the God she wasn't sure existed for her baby to be ok. When the doctors pulled Grace out and Brooke heard the first cries of the baby she let out the breath she had been holding, the sobs finally taking over. Maybe that was what had possessed her to call, wanting to tell Lucas about what they had almost lost, but when he answered, all Brooke could do was look at Grace and cry. Why she told him bye, she wasn't sure.

Sharon she had a long time dream

And only one man in her life

He kept her waitin'

But she didn't care

Cuz he promised her he'd make her his wife

Now Billy he had a good thing goin'

But he let it go to his head

He got jealous late one night

She caught them both in her bed

And she said...

Brooke smiled as Grace opened her eyes, before shutting then quickly, her eyes still not used to the bright light. The baby once again opened her eyes, the crystal blue staring at her. The doctors told her that most babies were born with blue eyes before the child's natural eye color came. Brooke knew though that Grace would have her fathers eye color. And that might be the only connection her daughter would have to her father.

Oh he looked so innocent

Talkin' 'bout bein' just friends

Oh and it don't make a bit of since

Ain't that the way that it always ends

Brooke smiled as the baby nuzzled further into the gentle embrace of her mother, the blond soft tufts of hair tickling Brooke's neckline. Picking up the phone, Brooke once again dialed familiar numbers. Haley answered on the fourth ring.

"Brooke?" Haley asked as she stepped out on the porch, making sure no one else followed.

"It's a girl." Brooke stated, adjusting the blanket covering her daughters tightly wrapped body. "I named her Grace."

"Oh Brooke." Haley sighed, pushing the hair out of her face. "Is everything ok?"

"Yeah, she's tiny though. Only five pounds, four ounces, but the doctor said she'll be ok." Brooke said. "I'll email you pictures."

"Ok." Haley looked up hearing someone step out on the porch. "You want to talk to Karen?"

"No, but tell her I'll email her some pictures too." Brooke said before hanging up quickly.

Oh it always looks so innocent

Talkin' 'bout bein' just friends

Oh and it don't make a bit of since

Ain't that the way it always ends

Ain't that the way it always ends

Ain't that the way it always ends

"She'll email some pictures." Haley said, turning to face Karen. "It's a girl, Grace, five pounds four ounces."

"So, I'm a grandma?" Karen asked, not sure whether to laugh of cry. She was too young to be a grandma, and her son was definitely too young to be a father.

"Yeah." Haley whispered, for the first time noticing the little lines around Karen's eyes. "You're a grandma."

Ok. So I'm not completely happy with this chapter, but it was more a filler, to explain feelings.