Disclaimer: I own nothing to do with ONE TREE HILL

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

Hanging on so Don't Let Go

by: D. Sollers

"How is she?" Brooke asked, hours later.

Lucas had taken the seat next to her in the waiting room and smiled at her. "She just delivered the baby. It's a girl," he said proudly. Having a little sister was something he had always wanted but had settled on Haley. Now, his mother was in the other room and the little girl was safe in her arms. Brooke clapped her hands together and grinned.

"That's great Luke, did they name her?"

He nodded his head. "Samantha Lynn."

"That's beautiful. Do you think…" Brooke looked down at the floor and then back towards Lucas. "Do you think I could see her? Your mom I mean?" She asked him. He nodded his head and took her hand in his.

"That's why I am here. She told me to come and get you."

Tears entered Brooke's eyes as she nodded her head. She had always thought of Karen like a mother and was glad to know that her feelings were returned. As they walked towards the room, they saw Keith coming out from the elevator. "Did she have the baby?" He asked, juggling flowers and a few balloons. Lucas nodded his head and Keith brought him for a hug. "How does it feel?"

"Like it should have been you," Lucas stated truthfully. Brooke gave him an evil glare and smacked his arm. "What I mean was- it should have happened a long time ago. I'm sorry things didn't work out for you and my mom."

Keith nodded his head and looked down at the floor. He had been thinking a lot recently of his relationship with Karen. His heart had belonged to her for as long as he could remember but they had both been promised to someone else. He had moved on with Jules and even though they had a lot of issues to work out, a part of him was really happy. Karen had just given birth to her second child and had married Andy a few weeks before.

"I wouldn't change anything," Keith reassured Lucas.

He simply nodded his head and pointed towards the room. The faint sound of a baby crying came through the door and Brooke turned to Lucas with her hand over her mouth. Lucas squeezed her hand.

"Let's go meet my sister."

……

"So Haley, did you go see the baby?" Brooke asked as she eyed a rack of dresses out of the corner of her eye. She pointed towards it and the three friends made their way over. Haley nodded her head and picked up a pale blue dress.

"How about this one?"

Brooke shook her head no and continued looking throughout the store. Prom was less than a month away and the girls still hadn't decided on a dress. Peyton was busy looking at the simple black dresses behind her and Haley was standing beside her, still touching the blue dress. "Hales, it's pretty but we're not going for pretty. We're going for sexy and glamorous."

"I'm neither of those things," Haley pointed out.

Brooke turned towards Peyton and groaned. "Hales you are both of those things. Even if you don't see it, the rest of us do." Brooke smiled. "Now come on, how about something red?"

"That's more…" Haley tried to come up with the right word.

Peyton chuckled. "That's more your style Brooke."

Brooke smacked Peyton's arm and sighed. "I'd be mad at you but it's probably true." She laughed a bit before looking across the store. Bevin, Theresa and Maria were standing in front of the mirrors, each in similar dresses but different colors. "I'm going to say hi to Bevin," Brooke said as she walked towards the group of girls.

"Hales, how about this one?"

Haley turned her attention back towards Peyton and smiled at the dress in the girls arms. "It's beautiful Peyton, Jake would lose it." Peyton looked at the sage green dress in the mirror and smiled softly.

"You think?"

Haley nodded her head and Peyton shook her head. "I guess this is the dress then. I have to go find shoes." The normal somber girl walked towards the shoe section of the department store, leaving Haley to fend for herself.

She took a hold of a darker blue one and held it against her. The satin material felt great under her fingers and she knew that with the right makeup, the dress would be perfect on her. Maybe glamorous wasn't too hard after all.

……

"Brooke, are you home?"

Sean knocked gently on her door. He was just about to leave a note when the door opened, to reveal a very aggravated Lucas. "What the hell are you doing here?" Lucas demanded.

"I'm looking for Brooke, is she home?"

Lucas walked outside of the house and pulled the door closed behind him. "That's non of your business and even if she was home, she wouldn't want to see you," Lucas said as he leaned against the door. "What are you doing here?"

"I know you feel like her knight in shining armor Luke but I really don't have time for this. I came to apologize to her," he explained. Lucas's face softened for a moment and then he looked down at the ground.

"She's not home."

Sean nodded his head and then looked up at Lucas. "Then what the hell are you doing here?" He asked. Technically, he had no right to be mad or even jealous that Lucas was inside Brooke's place. But during his relationship with Brooke, it was always Lucas that kept him from getting into Brooke's heart. He had always felt second best and inferior to the boy standing in front of him.

"Look, she asked me to go to the prom with her a couple of months ago and I said no. I didn't think that under the circumstances that it would be a good thing but she didn't care," Sean explained. "I just wanted to tell her that I'd go, you know if she needed me."

Lucas smirked. "An ex teacher going to the prom with one of his ex students?"

"I care about her Luke, I really do."

Anger flared inside of Lucas and he felt like hitting the man in front of him. Was it jealousy? Hatred? Disgust? He wasn't sure which of the emotions were which but he knew he wasn't going to let this man come close to Brooke ever again. "And I don't?" Lucas asked. "Sean you had your chance at making her happy. Now it's my turn."

"You two are together?" He questioned.

Lucas shook his head no. "We're not together. But that doesn't mean I don't love her. I have for a while now, you know that. If I get another chance with her, I'm never letting her go. She's it for me."

"Well I guess we both feel the same about her then."

Lucas agreed. "It's her decision who she wants to be with. Neither of us have anything to say about it. But if she chooses me, I want you to back off. Just let her go."

"Okay," Sean said simply. "All I want is her happiness."

Lucas nodded his head again, aware of just how many times Sean and him had agreed in one conversation. "I guess we've agreed on that too," Lucas said. The two men stood there, surrounded by their common love for one girl.

……

Peyton sat down on her bed, surrounded by all of her shopping bags. She could hear Jake in the bathroom and she knew that they needed to talk. Everything that Brooke and Haley had been saying was repeating in her mind and she wanted to tell Jake how she felt. "Hey babe, can we talk a minute?" Peyton called.

"Sure." He made his way towards her and sat down beside her on the corner of her bed. "Did you get your dress?" He asked and she nodded her head. "Can I see it?" She shook her head no before propping her feet over his lap.

Peyton's smile fell and she reached out to touch his face. "Look I have to be honest with you about something okay? And I don't want you to be mad."

"Whatever you have to tell me, just tell me."

She nodded her head sadly and then looked down at her hands. "Remember the night you took me to that pier? And I freaked out and wanted to come home?" Peyton questioned.

"Yeah," he said simply.

Peyton laughed slightly. "The truth is, I wanted to go home because I found something."

"What are you talking about?" Jake questioned her.

She knew that what she was about to do would be embarrassing and would probably hurt Jake's feelings but she needed to get it addressed. Peyton shut her eyes and opened them to see Jake staring at her intently. As she looked in his eyes, she knew he was piecing it together.

"Peyton, I never meant for you to…" he stuttered.

She pulled her hands away from his and stared at him, hurt by his words. "So you weren't going to…" She said as she jumped off of the bed. Peyton threw her hands up in the air and rolled her eyes. "I am the dumbest girl."

"No, that's not what I meant."

Peyton smirked and leaned against the table. "Well you either were or you weren't. Which is it?" She said angrily.

"Okay wait. Are we arguing because I didn't purpose to you or because I wanted to purpose to you?" He said. Peyton smiled gently and Jake shook his head. "This is confusing Peyton, I never expected you to find the ring. That wasn't the plan. My mom gave it to me and I guess I just forgot to take it out of the pocket."

Peyton blushed in embarrassment. He hadn't planned on purposing that night and she had completely blown everything out of proportion. "Oh, okay then. Well just forget about my little confession and just lets drop this okay?" She asked hopefully.

"No, what were you going to tell me Peyton?"

She looked at the floor and shrugged her shoulders. "I guess I was just going to tell you that I love you. And you are who I want to be with forever. I thought that if you knew you were ready and I knew I loved you, then it would be okay. We could be engaged. I mean we live together and I help you with Jenny…"

He smiled at his girlfriend and walked towards her. "It would be logical, you know that we take the next step."

"And I mean just because we get engaged, it doesn't mean we have to have the wedding right away," Peyton pointed out.

Jake nodded his head and smiled. "It could be a year away. Or two."

"Or three," Peyton offered.

He grabbed a hold of her hand and without thinking slipped the ring on her finger. Jake had been carrying it everywhere he went, waiting to find the right time to slide it onto her finger. She gasped and looked into Jake's eyes. "Plus, the ring looks great on you."

Peyton shook her head in agreement. The simple diamond was beautiful and she wasn't sure she had seen anything prettier. Brooke was going to be impressed, she could tell. "It would just a symbol that we're permanent and that nothing is going to break us up."

"And that I'll marry you one day. You know, when we're ready," he said as he pulled her into a kiss. It hadn't been the way he was expecting to give the ring to her but she had agreed in her own way.

……

Brooke stuck the key in her door and unlocked it. She flipped the light switch and called out for her kitten. "Baby, mommy's home," she laughed to herself. It sounded so corny, but she had become very attached to the little kitten Lucas had given her. As the kitten came running out of her bedroom, she noticed an unfamiliar collar wrapped around his neck.

"Baby," she said as she bent over to grab the kitten. She pulled at the blue collar and saw that there was a locket attached to it. "What the…" she asked, playing with the locket until it popped open. A tiny piece of paper fell down to the floor and she bent over to pick it up.

Be my date for prom?

Brooke laughed to herself. She knew it was Lucas who had gone to such great length's at asking her and she couldn't help the feeling in her heart. Prom had been one of those things that she had waited her lifetime for, something that she was sure would be perfect. But after breaking up with her boyfriend, it simply seemed as just the end of the year. The final party before everyone left her.

She had agreed to tag along beside Nathan and Haley. It wasn't the best of ideas, considering that the marred couple had a lot ok making up to do but when Haley had asked her she had reluctantly agreed. Nathan had even agreed to it, promising to dance with her as many times as she would like. It had made her feel special that her friends would take that much care of her and she found herself okay with going.

But as she stared down at the note, she couldn't help but feel more happy. Granted several guys had asked her to prom but she had declined on all of them. She had been sure that Lucas would have found a date and had already given up the hope of the two of them together.

The doorbell rang and Brooke raced to answer it. "Lucas," she smiled sweetly as he stood in her doorway. He pulled a bouquet of wild flowers from behind his arm and looked down at her.

"So… can I take you to prom?"

She took the flowers and smelled them. With a shrug of her shoulders she nodded her head yes. Trying to sound as unaffected as possible, she signaled for him to come inside. "I guess we should go, I mean Nathan and Haley do need time by themselves."

"Peyton and Jake too," he laughed.

Brooke laughed along with him and the two sat down on the couch. "I should be unloading all those bags but all I really want to do is watch a movie. You up for it?" She questioned.

He nodded his head. "Anything for you."

Brooke smiled up at him and tilted her head to the side. She was amazed at how sincere his words always sounded to her. Brooke used the remote to turn on the television, before snuggling up to him and putting her head on his shoulder. "Rent's on, I have been meaning to see that," Brooke said. Lucas nodded his head and stared at the television. He was sure that she had picked a movie but he couldn't remember which she had said. All that he could remember was Brooke moving closer towards him. Where Lucas has thought she had always belonged.

TBC...

Author's Note: Okay, just to let everyone know there is going to be one more chapter to this story and then a small epilogue. I thought I could end the story with just one chapter but it would be too long. So hopefully the two parts will be out later today. Thank you for all of the reviews, they mean the world to me :-)