Chapter Twenty-Six: Everything Will Change

An alarm sounded through Brooke's Davis, waking her reluctantly from a deep sleep. She frowned. Brooke had stopped anticipating her days in the mornings.

"Babe, wake up. You have an appointment," said a voice. She smiled slowly. Her memory was always a bit worse for wear in the morning.

"Shh. It's bedtime," she muttered.

"Wake up. I made you breakfast. Eggs sound good?" he asked, putting a tray on her bedside table before dropping onto the bed beside her. Brooke looked between him and the tray for a moment.

"I know what I want for breakfast…" she said seductively, pulling him into her by the necklace he wore.

"Later. When we get back, I promise," he said, pulling away.

"Wow. We're scheduling sex. We must be growing up," she said, reluctantly grabbing a piece of toast from the table and taking a bite of it.

XxxxxxX

"Nervous?" asked Lucas an hour later, as they drove to the Doctor's in his car. She shrugged.

"Not really. They're doing an ultrasound though, that should be cool," she said.

"Yeah. I'm looking forward to it. Hey, it's been a couple weeks since I got back. Do you want to stay here until the end of the summer, or..?"

"You're bored. I'm sorry. It's just that Haley needs me right now. I'll let you know, okay?" she asked. She knew that Tree Hill was beginning to bore him. She was worried it would make him leave.

"Whatever you want," he promised.

"You know you're the best, Lucas?" she asked. He smiled sideways at her, filling suddenly with an overwhelming sense of peace.

Brooke held her boyfriend's hand tightly as they walked into the clinic. In some ways, she knew she had no reason to fear. Lucas had promised to help them, financially and otherwise. Her grandmother had left her a trust fund when she'd died, and Brooke had more than enough money for herself and the baby.

But it didn't stop it from being terrifying.

"Hey. This is Brooke Davis, here for an ultrasound," said Lucas to the nurse at the desk, noticing that she was zoning out again.

He led Brooke to a row of hard plastic chairs. He considered breaking her out of her daydream, but he knew that there was nothing he could say that could honestly convince her that the idea of a child was not terrifying.

"Do you think I should go to college some day? Haley's going to college," said Brooke.

"Do you want to?" he asked. She shrugged.

"Well I planned on moving to LA and spending my gap year partying, but it looks like that's not going to happen. Haley and I have always done things together, you know?" she said, sounding sad.

"Where's Haley going?" he asked sympathetically.

"Brown. And I know I could never get in there, and I guess it's not that far, but I'm going to miss her," said Brooke.

"You'll see her all the time. All you have to hope for is that Nathan and Haley seal the deal before September, and then you're guaranteed that she'll come to LA to visit him," he said.

"I don't have much hope for them anymore," she said.

"I do. People who're meant to be together always find their way in the end," he said encouragingly, as the nurse called for them.

Their doctor, a middle aged woman with graying brown hair, looked surprised to be in a room with a Scott, the blonde one who was involved in slightly less scandals than the dark haired one and Brooke Davis, the image of everything perfect in Tree Hill.

"Miss Davis. Mr. Scott, is it? Rumour had it that you'd flown back to LA," she said in surprise.

"Found a reason to fly back," he said awkwardly. Though they hadn't decided what to tell the world in the long run, they had decided that Lucas should pose as the father for now.

"Ah, I see. You're the baby's father. Miss Davis, if you could lie down we could get started…" she said, gesturing toward a chair.

The Doctor warned them what would happen ten minutes before it would actually happen, but even still neither were entirely prepared for it. It hadn't truly sunk in with either of them that Brooke was growing a child inside of them, a child that would become theirs.

"And that's your baby," said the doctor unnecessarily. It had taken Brooke a moment to find it. The being on the screen looked more like a peanut than a human child. But it would grow. She knew it would.

For a moment Lucas forgot that the child wasn't his. For a moment, all that mattered was that the woman he loved looked happier than he'd ever seen her. She clutched his hand tightly, and he felt an overwhelming sense of pride and love.

He knew it would come back to him. That if the child came out looking like it's natural father, he'd feel hurt. That someday, seeing the baby be connected to its mother in a way that it could never connect to him would be painful. But above all he knew that the baby would be more important than all of these things, and that the baby would make them happy.

"So… Haley said your sister's around somewhere. Want to go to the hotel and visit?" asked Brooke later, when they were in the car. This time it was him sitting in silence, her trying to make conversation.

"Not really. She's not going anywhere," he said.

"I guess not. I guess we could go home and do some more scheduling," she said suggestively, desperate to get him talking to her.

"Sure," he said listlessly.

"Or swimming at the Club?"

"Fine."

"Are you mad at me?" she asked.

"No. I'm not. But that was incredible. I mean, I've taken condoms with me everywhere since I was fifteen to avoid that happening, and now that it's happened to you I can't help but wonder why. That's life, Brooke. It was… beautiful," he said. Brooke raised her eyebrows. Her LA born playboy rarely opened up to her, rarely used to many words at once.

"You know, six weeks ago all that mattered to me was having a good summer and spending time with my friends before they all leave. Now I've got this baby, and I've got you. It's all pretty great," she said. He looked sideways at her and smiled. Who knew, that what had started out so simple could become so deep?

They held hands as they walked into her house, fully expecting to finish what they'd started in the morning with tenderness renewed. Brooke stopped by the answering machine and pressed the play button as Lucas dropped an arm around her waist and kissed her.

"Brooke? This is Sheila McFadden, Mouth's mom. He passed away this morning, and…" Brooke pulled away from her boyfriend. Only ten minutes ago, in their post sonogram bubble of happiness, it was easy to imagine that everything would be okay.

Now it seemed feasible that nothing would be okay, ever again.