Author's note: Well here it is, the second to last chapter. I outlined the story back when I first started it and worked it out to go with the song lyrics, and well, it's almost the end of the song, and it's time for me to move onto a new story. I promise you an incredible ending. The more reviews I get…the quicker you get the ending.

Chapter 17- Unforgivable

And if I could hold on
Through the tears and the laughter
Would it be beautiful?
Or just a beautiful disaster

"I'm headed home Mouth, just give me a call if you need anything." Lucas quickly spoke as he headed towards the door.

"Hey, where's the fire? I've never seen you rush out of here so quick." Mouth called after him.

Lucas just shrugged as he flew out the door.

Hopping into his Jeep, he started it and pulled out onto the street. He was anxious to get home. For the first time in months, he was going to enjoy a night in by himself.

Pretty much every weekend was taken up by time with Brooke. Most weekends Lucas would drive out to see her, but every now and then, especially if a hot band was booked at TRIC, Brooke would head to Tree Hill for the weekend.

Lucas couldn't complain, he loved spending his time with her. Especially since they'd cleared the air about what they both wanted. They were living in separate places, but perfectly content with it. They still spent a lot of time together, but enjoyed their separate lives as well.

Lucas had to admit, it was working out better than he had thought. He really hadn't been ready to pick up and move for Brooke, especially when a part of him still feared she'd leave him again. This way they had the best of both worlds.

Sure, he knew they'd have to someday compromise and live in the same place, but Lucas felt like that point was pretty far down the road. If anything, there was always the chance that Brooke would move back to Tree Hill after her graduation in a couple of weeks. She still had her feelers out for a couple of jobs in Raleigh and Lucas knew that for right now, that was probably the best bet for both of them.

Unlocking the door to his apartment he exhaled and felt himself immediately begin to relax. He'd order in some Chinese and kick back with a couple of beers. He needed a night to himself, a night where he didn't need to worry about Brooke, TRIC, or anything else for that matter.

Lucas was working on his second beer when his cell rang. He curiously looked at the called ID.

"Mouth?"

"Hey, Luke, sorry to bother you on your night off, but I just have a quick question."

Lucas frowned, but put down his beer and focused his attention to Mouth.

"Okay, shoot."

Lucas nodded as he listened to Mouth. It wasn't anything too important, just a little quarrel with one of the bands' managers. Lucas knew Mouth hated handling that stuff by himself. He was always worried he'd make a wrong judgment call and Lucas would get angry.

"No, that's fine with me Mouth. That's how I would handle it myself."

The doorbell rang and Lucas' attention was immediately diverted away from Mouth and to the Chinese food he knew lay on the other side of the door.

"Call if you need anything else."

"Thanks Luke, again, sorry to bother you."

"No problem. Bye Mouth."

Lucas dropped his phone on the couch and headed towards the door.

"I'll be right there." He called out.

He stared thumbing through his wallet as he opened the door.

"What was the total again?" He asked without even looking up at the delivery man.

His question was met by silence and at last he looked up, stunned by what stood before him.

"Brooke? What's going on?"

She stood there, looking so small, in his doorway. Her hair thrown messily atop her head, her body covered in jeans and what Lucas recognized as a sweatshirt that had gone missing from his closet years ago. Her cheeks were stained with tears and Lucas could tell by her eyes that there were more just waiting to spill over.

"I have to tell you something."

Lucas pulled her into his arms. Worry had overcome him, but he pushed that aside trying to afford Brooke some comfort.

"Shh, whatever it is it will be okay." He spoke as he stroked her hair.

After a minute she pulled away and headed over to his couch. Lucas followed her with his eyes, and reaching behind him, he went to push the door shut.

"Uh, sir, your food?" A voice came from the other side of the closing door.

"Huh?" Lucas turned around confused. "Oh yeah. What do I owe you?"

Before the delivery man could even answer, Lucas thrust a $20 at him.

"Keep the change."

Lucas grabbed the food, shut the door, and headed over to the couch. Brooke had curled her knees up to her chest, back against the arm rest. Lucas sat down in front of her.

"Come on Pretty Girl, what's the matter?"

"I have to tell you something. You're not going to like it."

Lucas attempted to swallow, realizing that a lump had grown in his throat which made this very difficult.

"Whatever it is you can tell me."

Brooke nodded and slowly drew in a deep breathe, exhaling just as slowly. It was obvious she was trying to maintain what little composure she still had.

"Well, you know that I've been interviewing for a lot of jobs."

Lucas nodded.

"It looks like I landed one. A pretty good one actually, it's practically my dream job. It's a great opportunity and I know I'd make a ton of great contacts. I know that with this job, in a few years, I'd probably have my own line."

Lucas beamed, "Brooke, that's great. I don't get it though, why the tears?"

Brooke averted her gaze away from his piercing blue eyes, drawing in yet another breathe she spoke softly, "The job's in Los Angeles."

Lucas felt the lump in his throat growing even larger. "Ok, well, that's not the end of the world."

"I know." Brooke interjected, "I'd always planned on ending up in New York, but this is just such a great opportunity, I'd be crazy to pass it up. I mean eventually, yeah, I want to be in New York. But this feels right now."

Lucas reached out and wrapped his arms around her legs, "We'll work something out. We'll be okay. I've always wanted to visit LA, and with you being there I'd have a reason to do it a lot. The club practically runs itself now, so I would be able to take long weekends whenever I wanted."

Brooke began shaking her head, slowly at first, but with increasing ferocity as he spoke.

Lucas noticed this and looked up at her curiously.

"Visits aren't enough. Living an hour away now is hard enough, I can't imagine how it would be with half the United States separating us."

"So what're you saying? You want to end this?" Lucas asked, his demeanor quickly changing from warm and understanding to cold and questioning.

"No. I want you to come with me. I want you to move to LA with me."

Lucas laughed out loud. "Seriously? I can't believe you're asking me this. Just a few months ago I pitched the idea of possibly looking into moving to Raleigh and you flipped. Now you're asking me to move to LA? I don't get it. What's changed?"

"We've changed. We're stronger now. It's obvious that this is going to last. I'm ready to start my life, and I honestly can't imagine doing that without you. I know that this is a lot to absorb, but at least tell me you'll think about it?"

"No. I can't do it." He quickly answered, a definitiveness to his words.

"But why? You were willing to move to Raleigh for me. What's the difference?" Brooke asked, her eyes pleading for an answer she'd be able to accept, an answer that wouldn't break her heart.

"Oh, I don't know, over 2,000 miles maybe? There's a difference between moving an hour away and moving half a country away. I just can't do it Brooke. I can't leave my life here."

Brooke leaned back, crossing her arms across her chest. "There would be jobs for you in LA. I mean, you've run your own club for all these years. The clubs there are bigger, better, you'd find a job in a minute."

"It's not just that Brooke, but my mom, she's here. I can't imagine living so far from her."

"Oh, don't use that for an excuse. She has Keith now, she'll be fine. It's not like you'd never see her again."

"That's not fair. You know how important my mom is to me."

"And what about me? How important am I? This is us we're talking about, our future, finally having a future together." Tears started spilling down her cheeks. "After all these years, I'm ready Lucas. I want to start my life with you. I know, I was scared before, but I'm ready now."

"I'm sorry, but I'm not. I can't just move that far away, too much is uncertain."

Brooke threw her hands up in exasperation and leapt up off the couch. "You don't think you can trust me to stick around for good this time. That's it isn't it?"

Lucas just looked down at the ground.

"When are you going to stop punishing me? Yes, I screwed up Lucas, but I won't do that again. I won't walk away from us again. You need to stop punishing me for a mistake I made years ago."

Lucas stood up, facing Brooke, looking right into her eyes.

"What do you think? Just because you showed up on my door step a few months ago begging me to take you back that it makes it all better? It took you years to get to that door step Brooke, years. That's years I spent hurting, my heart broken because you walked away. That one moment where you knocked on my door doesn't make up for all the moments where the only memory I had of you was your back, walking away from me."

"That's not fair. It was you that walked away Lucas, all those years ago, you walked away."

"Don't give me that! You pushed me away. You wouldn't let me in and now just because you realized that that was a mistake I'm supposed to just up and move thousands of miles away? It doesn't work that way Brooke, it really doesn't."

"Lucas…"

"No, Brooke. Don't. I'm not fighting with you about this. I can't do it. I just can't. I love you, so much, you know that. But I just can't do this, I'm not ready. There are too many 'what-ifs.' I can't move that far with this kind of uncertainty. I'm sorry."

"No." Brooke stamped her foot. She knew she looked like a child, but she saw him slipping away and she couldn't let that happen. "This isn't over. You can't just say no. We have to talk about this. You have to be able to trust me not to leave. I'm not going to leave you again. I'm not going to push you away again."

Brooke looked at him, silently begging him for some kind of response. None came. Slowly she turned, heading towards the door. She opened it, and spoke, not turning back to face him.

"I'm flying out there on Wednesday. I have some meetings to tie up loose ends and go over all the details of the job. I'll want to start looking for a place to live. I should be there for a week. I'll leave you a message with the name of the hotel and room number just so you have it."

She stood there for another minute, hoping that he'd call out to her. But still, he said nothing.

Turning around to face him she knew she had to make one last effort, he was slipping away and she couldn't have that happen.

"You have to stop punishing me. Lucas, you have to stop punishing me. You just have to. You have to stop punishing me." As she spoke she choked back sobs. He still would not look at her.

Finally, she gave up. She knew further pleading would do no good. Silently, she turned, and walked out the door, pulling it shut behind her.

As soon as she heard the door click into place she collapsed against it. Finally allowing her body to be wracked with the sobs she'd been putting all her effort into holding back. She crumpled to the ground, her legs not able to hold her up.

Lucas sat on the other side of the door, staring at it in disbelief. He couldn't believe what had just happened. He couldn't believe he'd pushed her away. He was so scared.

He hated himself for doing that to her, for doing the exact thing she'd done to him so many times before. He pushed her away instead of confiding in her. It made him sick to think that he'd been such a hypocrite.

Lucas could hear the sobs from the other side of the door. He knew he should go to her. He knew he should pull her into his arms and hold her, tell her it would be okay, even though he knew it might not be. He wanted to go to her, but knew his legs would not hold him up if he tried to stand.

Not knowing what else to do he hung his head and cried. She'd pushed him away before and now he was doing the same thing. He'd been able to forgive her, but he wasn't so sure she'd be able to forgive him. Lucas knew he'd hurt her, hurt her deep, and that just might be unforgivable.