TITLE: Back to You
AUTHOR: Dayz Sollers
SUMMARY: Post season 2 finale. As Brooke, Nathan and Jake come back from their summers away from Tree Hill, the group has to face the trials and tribulations of their senior year of high school, and find out what is really important to them. Mostly B/L but it will take a while. Be patient, it will get there. I promise. P/J and N/H also. Feedback wanted! Please R&R
Disclaimer: Don't own One Tree Hill, too bad for me. Also, the song doesn't belong to me either.
Rating: PG13-maybe to an R later on
Category: Romance/Drama
Kelz3192: I just wanted to take a quick second and say thank you for reviewing this story! Almost everytime I send a chapter, I get on of your reviews, and they always make me smile! Right now the story is focusing on starting over for Nathan and Haley, Jake and Peyton falling in love, Brooke finding herself, and Lucas figuring out his life. But pretty soon, Lucas will be there for Brooke, when no one else really can be
KaraokeDiva419: OH! You totally made my day! I am glad someone likes Sean, I do! As for hooking up with Brooke, well we'll see... There's more to come in their relationship/friendship! Here's the next chapter, hope you enjoy it!
Ali213: Okay, glad you liked the Naley stuff. Here's a bit more
CrazyAznChick: Hope you had fun on your vacation! I need one, but I'm moving over the weekend to Vegas so thats almost like a permenant vacation so... anyways Brooke finds out in this chapter, and there are a few Sean and Brooke moments...hopefully you'll start to like him and understand that Brooke likes him too!
CharmedLover1329: glad you liked the chapter, here's the next one!
Brucas4ever: Well, there's not a Brooke/Lucas moment in this chapter but we'll see what happens :-D
L-A-C-18: I love your reviews! After every chapter, I always get a great review from you! I'm very glad to see that people aren't against the idea of Brooke and Sean. You all are pretty much opening up to him and Brooke being together. I know we all love Brucas and this is a Brucas story but sometimes you have to believe in your heart its over and move on, before you can find your way back to where you belong. And I agree, Peyton should have told Brooke, but I guess I am one of the only people who really don't like her on the show... I think that she's good with Jake, and she's a friend to Haley (ie the line "I would never do that to haley" when lucas questioned her about making out with Nathan.) she wouldn't do it to Haley, but she would do it to the girl that stood by her through everything? I for one wouldn't want that in a best friend. But who's to say she won't redeem herself in one way or another :-) Here's the next chapter, and it didn't even take that long!
CHAPTER TWELVE: Matters of the Heart
The next day had gone by fast for Brooke, as she awaited the last bell. She had successfully avoided both Lucas and Peyton and had even been able to sit with Haley for their lunch period. Haley had seemed happier, and Brooke knew it was because Nathan and her had talked. As she sat in her spanish class, she tapped her perfectly polished nails on the desk. In the corner of her eyes, she could see two girls looking at her smirking to themselves.
She ignored their looks, and watched the clock. The bell rung, and the other students made their way out of the room. Brooke stood, and collected her things but was interrupted by the girls walking towards her.
"Is it true Brooke?"
Brooke noticed that the girls in front of her were friends of one of the cheerleaders, and she rolled her eyes. She nervously ran her fingers through her hair, wondering if they had found out about her 'date' with Sean the night before. Instead of acting guilty, she shrugged her shoulders and laughed it off.
"About Sean? Yeah, it's true."
The girls looked at each other, each with confused looks on their faces. Brooke's smile fell from her face, as the blonde shook her head. "No, I meant about Lucas. Did he really sleep with Maria?"
Brooke picked up her back pack, and pushed past them. "If you want to know the truth, ask him! But I'd suggest you two get a life and stop wanting mine." As she finished yelling at them, she made her way out of the classroom and slammed the door behind her. Brooke knew she had to be strong, otherwise the whole school would know that Lucas Scott had once again broken her heart.
She looked down at her watch, and noticed she had only ten minutes to get to cheerleading practice. Avoiding Lucas and Peyton would be impossible to do. And now, she had to deal with Maria Velasquez as well. Brooke sighed, when had life gotten so hard? As she approached her locker, she noticed a daisy taped to her locker. She took it off, and unlocked her locker, to see note that had fallen inside. She opened the piece of paper, and read.
In every heart, there is a room
A sanctuary safe and strong
To heal the wounds from lovers past
Until a new one comes along.
Brooke couldn't help but smile. She brought the daisy to her nose to smell, and leaned against the locker. Brooke recognized the lyrics to the song, as she put both the daisy and the note in her binder. She pulled her pom-poms from the locker, and headed down the hall towards the gym.
Brooke stopped as she reached the last door at the end of the hall. She glanced inside, and could see Sean sitting alone. He was working on something, perhaps grading papers or going over his lesson plan, she wasn't sure. But for a moment, she was mesmerized, and a desire burned within her. She wanted to get to know him, to understand him the way that he had understood her.
He glanced up at her, and smiled slightly. They both were on dangerous grounds, but neither of them wanted to admit it. She held the flower up for him to see, and mouthed thank you as he simply nodded his head. They stood there, on opposite sides of the door, both looking through the tiny window towards one another. Neither one of them wanted to look away, too afraid to face the real world.
"Hey Brooke, going to practice?" Nathan wrapped his arm around her, causing her to brake her gaze. She looked once more at Sean, who had stood up and turned to face the chalkboard, his fingers moving franticly across it. She nodded her head, and listened as Nathan began to talk.
"I did what you said. We're starting over, and I asked her to go on a date with me, but I'm at a loss here. And you know I don't like to lose," Nathan grinned. "Where do I take her?" Brooke thought for a moment, and an idea went off in her head. She reached into her backpack and pulled out a flyer. He looked at it, and raised an eyebrow.
'Burning Boat.'
Brooke shrugged. "It's tradition right?" He nodded, and she continued. "Well just think. You two standing there, letting go of what has happened in the past. You'll have your arm around her, and she'll have her eyes closed as you both realize you're going to do whatever it takes to make your relationship work. The fire will be blazing, and you'll share a magical kiss," Brooke gushed. Nathan rolled his eyes, and chuckled.
"Been reading Jackie Collins novels again Broke?"
She went to laugh, but looked up at him, an amused look on her face.
"How do you know about Jackie Collins?"
He stammered, a bit uncomfortable with her question. "I have a mom Brooke, not to mention I was married…"
She giggled. "Sure, whatever Boy Toy. I gotta go change, get to practice."
……
Peyton made her way into the gym, dressed in her cheerleading outfit. She knew Brooke was mad at her, and she was nervous about what that had meant. Everyone in Tree Hill knew that when Brooke was angry, you better stay away from her. But Peyton knew she had to apologize to her, and even if Brooke wouldn't listen it needed to be done.
Across the gym Jake sent her a sympathetic smile, and even blew her a kiss. She found herself blushing, embarrassed by his show of affection. Lucas threw the ball at him, and Jake shot it through the hoop, turning back once again to look at her. She smiled, and headed towards the cheerleaders.
She sat down beside Bevin and Theresa and began to stretch. It didn't go unnoticed to anyone that Brooke was late, and Peyton turned to ask Theresa where she was. Theresa shrugged her shoulders, and turned towards Bevin. Even she didn't know.
"I bet I know where she is," Maria said as she pulled her dark brown hair into a ponytail. Peyton looked at her, and rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, and where would that be?"
"You're her friend right, shouldn't you know? I mean if my friend was getting involved with a teacher, I would know about it." Maria looked at Peyton, nodding her head in amusement. "It's true. Dominique and I saw them leaving a diner this morning at two thirty."
Peyton didn't know what to say. She wanted to defend her friend, but at the same time she knew Brooke had left the club the night before with a guy. Lucas had called Peyton earlier, to find out who the guy was. He said he seemed older, like he was in college. Peyton had just brushed it off, knowing that Brooke wasn't interested in dating anyone.
"I wouldn't go around gossiping about anyone considering you have a habit of sleeping with guys who are in love with other people." Peyton bit back. Maria's smile fell, and Peyton felt better. There was no way that she would let Maria start a rumor about Brooke.
"You should talk."
Peyton could tell by the look on Maria's face that she wouldn't drop it. She looked towards Lucas, and sighed. "At least he wasn't drunk when I was with him." As they came out of her mouth, Brooke had joined them. Peyton turned to explain to Brooke, but she threw her hands up in the air.
"I don't want to hear it. Stay away from me. You're on the squad because I can't kick you off. But know this. I don't want you here." Brooke was angry, and she didn't care who knew it. She could hear girls snickering behind her, and she turned to face Maria.
"That means you too."
Maria's smile fell, and Brooke turned to her squad. "We have a game this weekend, and we need to get ready. Everyone has been slacking off this summer I can tell. Bevin that means skipping breakfast and going for a run. Theresa spend more time on cheering and less on your fake tan."
The girls faces all fell, as they watched Brooke revert back to her old self. As they started to practice, Brooke couldn't help but notice as Lucas went to answer his phone. He smiled into it, talking happily and she was fuming. Why was he parading another girl in front of her? She could see Felix in the corner of her eye, as he watched Theresa stretch.
"Hey."
Brooke smiled up at him, he looked at her confused. "Brooke, I said I was sorry about the doll house, you know I wouldn't have broken it on purpose." She nodded her head, and patted her hand against his chest.
"Wanna do me a favor Felix?"
Felix nodded slightly, and she lifted her hand up to play with his hair.
"Take me to Burning Boat."
"A date?"
Brooke grinned. "Not really. I want everyone to think it's a date. I have one actually," Brooke said. Felix stood there for a minute, and she could tell he wasn't following. "You broke my doll house, the least you could do is pretend to go to the burning boat with me."
He agreed, but still didn't quite understand why. Felix wasn't normally so easy to push over, he did what he wanted and nothing changed him from that. But Brooke always had a pull over him, and he found himself doing countless things that he hadn't wanted to do. Felix shrugged his shoulders, and leaned down to kiss Brooke on the cheek.
Peyton watched the scene in front of her, and wondered what the hell Brooke was up to. She couldn't help but feel bad as she noticed Lucas staring too. He watched her, and Peyton could tell he was disappointed. It didn't go unnoticed by anyone, that Brooke had been overly flirtatious with him.
Peyton rolled her eyes, and tried to focus on her cheer. Felix and Brooke. That was something she never thought would happen again. After everything he had done, Peyton thought for sure that Brooke wouldn't bother with him. But anything was better than a teacher.
……
Nathan was running late. He had exactly two minutes to get from the gymnasium, to the student center or Haley wasn't going to tutor him. Practice had run late, so there was no time for him to even stop to take a shower. As he rounded the corner, he slammed his hand onto the door to open it.
Haley was there, looking down at her clock. "You're late," Haley said sternly. He nodded his head, and took the seat in front of her.
"You're beautiful."
A smile broke out on her face, and she started to laugh. "You're forgiven," she said, as she leaned over the table to give him a kiss. She was an inch away from him, when she pulled away and waved her hand in front of her face. "You stink!"
Nathan laughed. "Thanks. I feel the love."
She tossed an eraser at him, and sat back in her chair. Haley crossed her arms on her chest, and looked down at the test in front of her. "You're doing better than you think Nate. There's some errors you need improvement on, but I can help you with that."
Nathan got up from his seat, and walked behind her. He breathed against her neck, and whispered "I never heard you complain before," into her ear. She could feel his breath on her, and she shut her eyes. Haley licked her lips, a reaction that shocked both her and Nathan. He laughed, and picked up the test she had been looking at.
"A 72 is an improvement, I'm satisfied." Nathan sat back down and lifted his feet to the desk. She pushed them off and rolled her eyes.
"I'm not. Now are you gonna be serious or what Nathan?"
He shook his head, and looked down at the test. "Kiss you later?" He said quietly and she smiled. Haley didn't say anything, just nodded her head softly.
……
Sean leaned against his desk, reading the chalk board in front of him. He had written on the chalk board quotes about life, love and loss. His intentions were to make his students take one quote from the board, and tell the class in their own words what it meant to them.
As he read his own writing, he wondered silently what the words meant to him. His eyes fell to the last quote, and he smiled slightly. "Whatever doesn't kill you, makes you stronger." Memories flooded into his mind, as he remembered his mother offer those words to him. Whatever he had gone through, she would be standing there, giving him strength to continue. That was until life had finally caught up with her.
Sean had left to college the summer of 97, only to get a call three weeks later from his stepfather. His mother had died, after being hospitalized for having a stroke. Even then, his mothers words kept guiding him through life. Years later, as his wife handed him the divorce papers he could still hear his mother.
His relationship with Natalie had always been so complicated. The two had met freshman year of high school, she had been dating his friend, and he was secretly in love with her. Little by little, she had fallen for him, but had stayed faithful to her boyfriend. When he moved out of state, Natalie and him eventually hooked up. They dated through their graduation, and even into college.
He purposed two weeks after his mother had died. Natalie had insisted on waiting until after they had graduated college, and he had reluctantly agreed. All Sean wanted was the happy ending his mother had always told him about. They eloped and things had headed down hill from there.
There was no doubt in Sean's mind that Natalie had loved him. The years together had proven to him that. And he didn't blame her for their marriage failing. Neither one of them could handle her ex boyfriend being back in town, and his interest in her.
Sean had told her to see him, knowing she never really had time to get over him in the first place. The love Natalie had for Sean was strong, but if Trey had stayed in Charleston, Sean knew things would have been different. Natalie would have still been with Trey, and they never would have even dated.
His thoughts were interrupted by a gentle knock on the door. He looked up, and couldn't believe his eyes. The woman that clouded his thoughts, and drove him insane with hurt was standing in front of him. He looked at her, taking in everything.
Natalie was skinnier than he had remembered, her blonde hair pulled back in a firm ponytail. She was wearing a black designer suit, with a white silk shirt beneath it. There was little to no makeup on her face, just a touch of lip gloss, as she smiled nervously.
"Hello Sean."
He leaned against the desk, trying his hardest to remain calm but failing miserably. "What are you doing here?" He questioned her, but not really wanting an answer. As she stood there, all he had wanted her to do was turn around and leave. Seeing her was too hard, brought back too many memories he had been trying to forget.
Natalie moved towards him, and pulled an envelope out of her purse. "I came here to give you this. I don't expect you to come, but I didn't feel right not inviting you," Natalie explained as she handed him the envelope.
He took it, and pulled it open. Pulling out the invitation, he found himself chuckling. "A wedding invitation. Nice, Nat real nice," Sean said, shoving it in its envelope and handing it to her. "I'm busy that day. In fact I'm always busy, if you could leave now."
Natalie sighed as she leaned against one of the students desks. She looked at him, her eyes trying to reason with him. "I'm sorry about the things that happened between us Sean, I really am. I thought we had gotten past that point."
He stood, and turned his back to her. "We have. Forgive me if I don't want to go to your wedding."
She understood how he felt. If he had been the one getting married, she too would feel uncomfortable. But she would understand. Even though their divorce was only months ago, their marriage had been over for two years.
"I just want us to be friends Sean. You were very important to me, and to Trey."
Sean turned to face her, angry that she had said his name. "I think you should go," Sean said, once again turning to his chalkboard. She nodded her head, and went to walk away. As she turned to face him once more, she smiled slightly.
"I did love you."
He was about to say something as the door opened, and Brooke propped her head inside. She was smiling, until she saw Natalie. Her smile fell, and she made her way into the room. Sean stared at her, glad she was wearing regular clothes and not her cheerleading uniform.
"Did I interrupt anything?"
Brooke looked from him, to her and then back to Sean. He simply nodded his head and gathered his books. "Brooke, this is my ex wife," Sean explained, gesturing towards Natalie. Natalie smiled, and Brooke reached out her hand.
"And you are?"
Brooke was caught off guard, and looked up at Sean. He hesitated, but put his arm around Brooke's shoulders. "My girlfriend." Brooke nodded her head, going along with his charade, and grinned.
"Ex wife, girlfriend…weird huh?"
Clearly, she was the only one amused. Sean looked once more at Natalie, before pulling Brooke by the arm. "It's time to go, we have reservations remember?" Sean asked, praying that she would go along with it.
Again she nodded, and the two walked out of the classroom, leaving Natalie in there. Sean looked into the window and watched as Natalie opened her cell phone and dialed a number. He turned to face Brooke, and smiled.
"Thanks for that in there. Things are still really weird between us."
Brooke nodded, and shrugged her shoulders. "So where do we have reservations at?"
tbc...
What's next on Back to You?
-Burning Boat
-Sean and Brooke go to Natalie's wedding
- Lucas gets some unexpected news
- Keith gets arrested
- Haley misinterprets something she sees
- Felix puts the moves on Alexis
Authors Note: I know this chapter was pretty short, compared to the others but I promise the next will be really long. It'll be up in a few days, but while you wait you should check out my AU story Never Gone. It's B/L, with a bit of B/N. I'm also finishing up chapter three of Welcome Back Love, which should be up later today. Enjoy everyone, but please let me know what you think! R&R
