Chapter 24! 3 more chapters to go!
"You guys have an extra room right?" Nathan asked throwing his duffle bag at Lucas's feet, almost knocking poor little Ella over. Lucas had known it was only a matter of time before this happened. Sure, Haley had let him come back home, but she wasn't the most forgiving person in the world. Lucas was just shocked he'd gotten to stay at home this long.
"Nate what happened?"
"Peyton happened"
"Right" Lucas sighed. He knew exactly what this meant. The paternity tests had come back and he was guessing that the baby wasn't Jakes like Peyton had hoped.
"Haley's furious"
"Lyric's yours?"
"I don't know what's worse? Having a kid for the past few months I didn't know was mine, or having a kid named Lyric!" Nathan ranted plopping down on the couch.
"Have you talked to Peyton?"
"Not yet, she wont answer her phone"
"Ready… woah, Nate you look like shit" Brooke laughed. She wasn't really that surprised to see Nathan on their couch. Peyton had called her the other day and told her the tests would be in anytime. Brooke guessed this meant Lyric was Nathan's and Haley had spazzed.
"Mommy" Ella giggled as Brooke said shit.
"I meant crap"
"After Haley threw her ring, shoe and a toaster at me I figured I should leave"
"How'd she find out?" Brooke asked hoping Peyton hadn't told her. That was the last thing they all needed. More girl on girl fights. Especially between Haley and Peyton.
"They called, she told them she was my wife, they told her"
"Ugh that sucks"
"Now your little friend, wont answer her phone" Nathan smiled sarcastically. Sometimes Brooke wondered how he and Lucas were even related. Nathan could be such your typical guyish ass when he wanted to be, while she wasn't sure she'd ever seen Lucas hit that point.
"My little friend?"
"So its not Jake"
"Why you thought it was Jakes?" Nathan asked. He seemed to have what sounded like hope in his voice. Lucas felt kinda sorry for him. It had to be a sucky feeling to find out you had a kid with someone you didn't love.
"Lyric has Jakeish qualities"
"Apparently not"
"As much as I love listening to all of this drama, Lucas we have to go" Brooke hadn't realized how late they were running until she heard Dora the Explorer's theme song playing on the TV.
"Right. Nate you can stay here as long as you need"
"Thanks man"
"Call Peyton, she'll answer because she'll think its me"
After reluctantly leaving Nathan alone in their apartment, Brooke and Lucas headed downstairs to the car with Ella. Lucas didn't really like leaving Nathan like that. He'd been known to do some pretty messed up things when he was fighting with Haley. They'd be lucky if there was still an apartment left when they got back. But right now he couldn't worry about that. He and Brooke had bigger things to deal with.
"Daddy I big" Ella giggled as Lucas tried to get the car seat buckle over her head. He wasn't sure if there was anything harder then trying to get a squirming 2 year old into a carseat.
"You'll be as big as mommy soon and you can steal all the clothes that won't fit her anymore" Lucas whispered loud enough for Brooke to hear him.
"Hey! I heard that, you just wait until you start gaining the sympathy pounds Broody, just wait"
"Or until you start sneaking the extra calories in my food"
"Or have I started that already" Brooke giggled climbing into the backseat to sit with Ella. She wasn't sure how she was going to get Lucas back for knocking her up yet, but she'd have to come up with something before it was all over with.
"Bad baby"
"What are you teaching her?"
"The truth" Brooke sighed as Ella patted her stomach. One thing she was sure of was that this whole stomach fascination Ella and Lucas had suddenly developed was going to have to go.
"You're terrible"
"It look likes Gucci?"
"Will it look like Gucci? I really hope not" Lucas laughed. The things that came out of that 2 year olds mouth killed him sometimes. Like the time she asked him if she could eat through her belly button.
"Ella's going to help me with the baby"
"Really, what are you going to do?"
"Feeds it, an pwlays with it" Ella said sounding very sure of herself and what she was going to do. Brooke wished she could be that confident. She didn't even know what she was going to do with it yet.
"See, at this rate I wont have to do anything"
"Whose going to change diapers?"
"You awre" Ella giggled
"I see how this is going to work"
"I gos buys it stuff"
"She's got it all planned out" Lucas laughed amazed at how much she had thought about this. He hadn't even put that much thought into it yet.
"At least she's not jealous"
"Yea, I don't think she's grasping what a baby is, so much as a baby doll or a dog. Something we play with until we get bored then kinda leave it alone"
"Wait, isn't that what we do anyway?" Brooke asked, trying to sound completely serious.
"You're funny you know that"
"I gives it cookies Gucci's cookies"
"God, I caught her trying to eat a dog biscuit for breakfast this morning" Brooke giggled
"Last night she traded Gucci her ice cream for his cookie"
"Maybe she thinks she's a puppy"
"I teach it to go pottys" Ella added, obviously completely ignoring Brooke and Lucas's separate conversation.
"And not fall in like you do?"
"See Brooke, Ella's gonna raise this baby for us. It'll be easy"
"If only, ok lets pretend now that mommy isn't having a baby ok? At least for Marshall" Brooke sighed as they pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant. Maybe Ella would suddenly develop a shy bone and not talk at all.
"It's a prize?"
"Sure"
Luckily they were only a few minutes late to meet Marshall. When they met him at the table, he'd already found what looked like a couple about his age to talk too. They looked like they had about as much money has Marshall did too. The woman was carrying a huge Chanel purse and whoever the guy was definitely had those same rich qualities Brooke's dad had. Old rich people were funny to Brooke, it seemed like the more money they had, the worse they seemed to dress.
"Sorry we're late"
"No problem, getting a 2 year old out of the house isn't always easy" Marshall smiled as Brooke and Lucas took their seats.
"Brooke, Lucas this is Carina and Richard"
"Hi"
"A dowgie!" Ella shrieked as some woman walked her dog across the sidewalk. So much for that shy bone theory.
"I see, it kinda looks like Gucci"
"Gucci come toos?"
"Nope, Gucci had to stay one and keep uncle Nathan company" Brooke laughed trying to get Ella to sit still in her lap so they could get down to business and go home. She really wanted to make sure Gucci was ok there with angry Nathan.
"Is it really necessary that she sit at the table?"
"Carina…"
"Poor Gucci" Ella whispered patting Brooke's stomach. Brooke didn't even want to ask on this one.
"Poor Gucci's right"
"Back to business. Richard's a lawyer, and Carina's, well she's his wife"
"Ok?" Brooke asked, not really sure what their deal was, then she didn't really care either.
"A few years ago, Carina got pregnant, and at the time they felt they couldn't keep the baby"
"I was in denial. I mean there I was 43 and having a kid. I tried it for a few days, but being a mother just wasn't for me at the time"
"She wasn't very good at it, we didn't have a choice" Richard said patting his wives shoulder. Brooke didn't exactly feel sorry for them, and was completely confused. Maybe they were senile and at the wrong table or something.
"Am I the only one who's completely confused here?"
"These are Ella's birth parents"
"Wait what?" Brooke and Lucas both said in shocked unison. Neither of them had been expecting this.
"You have to understand how scared we were"
"Didn't we name her Harris or something?"
"Horace" Brooke muttered under her breath. She didn't like where this was going. It sounded like they wanted to get to know Ella or something. Like they had a right to get to know her. She was definitely sure they were senile now.
"They were contacted a few weeks ago by the adoption agency when we filed the papers"
"We regretted what we did for so long, and when we heard she was still there and we had a change of getting her back"
"Getting her back?" Lucas asked. He felt his heart plummet into his stomach as the words came out of their mouth. Of course. This had all been too perfect. They were Brooke and Lucas, nothing could be easy on them or work out how they needed it too. Ever. That's just how their lives worked.
"Yes, that's why we're here"
"That's not how it works, you gave her up"
"We were so scared" Carina whispered. Brooke wanted more than anything to slap her, and she would have if she hadn't had Ella sitting in her lap completely clueless to what was going on. What was wrong with these people? Who did they think they were? Ella wasn't theirs anymore. She was Brooke and Lucas's. They'd done everything Marshall had told them too, everything. Of course getting pregnant wasn't exactly on the list but no one knew about that yet.
"Right, because you couldn't have sold that Chanel bag for a nanny. You weren't scared you were selfish"
"Brooke"
"No, she's not theirs anymore" Brooke said turning to Lucas. She could see how worried he looked. She hated that look.
"We had her, she's our child"
"How can they just come back now? Isn't there some rule about that?"
"In the most cases possible social services like to put children back with their birth parents, unless they are unfit parents" Marshall whispered. Lucas could tell he must have felt pretty bad about the whole situation, but he really didn't care. Not now.
"So, if you leave your baby at some orphanage, that doesn't make you unfit?"
"That's just how it works Brooke. If the parents have time to fix whatever was wrong, clean up their act, they can have their child back"
"And there's nothing we can do" Lucas asked. He was a lot calmer than Brooke, but she could hear the raspiness in his voice.
"You're 19"
"We were 19 yesterday too"
"Yesterday her parents didn't want her back" Marshall said, just as calm as Lucas. Brooke couldn't believe this. After everything they'd been through. Marshall had all but promised them that Ella was theirs.
"Why now?"
"We miss our child"
"You haven't missed her for the passed 2 years, why now?" Lucas asked again. His tone had changed from calm to pissed off. Brooke didn't know which was worse. She'd only ever heard Lucas that mad at one other person, and that was Dan.
"We have some family events coming up we'd like to have her in"
"Family events? You haven't had family events the past 2 years?"
"I start campaigning next week" Richard finally said after getting the ok from his wife. Campaigning. It was making a lot more sense to Lucas now. They were just politicians who needed to look good for the voters. They were Dan.
"Ritchie's running for mayor"
"Mayor"
"She's a pretty child. She'll look great on camera for the commercials, and at events" Carina smiled waving at Ella. Ella didn't bother to wave back. In fact she was too pre-occupied with trying Brooke's rings on her tiny fingers to have any clue what was going on.
"I'm sorry"
"Marshall, don't"
"We knew there was a chance" Marshall whispered, trying to make things better even though he knew he couldn't. He hadn't imagined in a million years something like this could happen. This was the kind of stuff you only saw on those ridiculous shows like The OC. Not in real life.
"We? We knew nothing."
"Brooke"
"No! You can't do this to us! You can't let us get this attached and then just take her away! You gave us the ok!" Brooke was mad now. She couldn't help but yell as a tear slid down her cheek. What else was she supposed to do?
"There's nothing I can do"
"We really are sorry for any trouble we have caused, but we best get going"
"Now?" Lucas asked, he thought they'd at least give them a little while. At least time for him and Brooke to flea the country.
"We would like to get her home and settled with the nanny"
"A nanny"
"Like I said earlier, I don't know much about young children" Carina laughed. Brooke didn't find this funny at all. A nanny? Brooke wasn't even that bad when it came to parenting.
"She doesn't have any of her things"
"We'll be fine. Our nanny has taken care of those things" Carina said, reaching to take Ella from Brooke's arms.
"Nowa"
"Come on, we best get going"
"Wheres?" Ella asked still clinging to Brooke's hand.
"To our house"
"Comes on Mommy"
"I, I'm gonna stay here baby ok?" Brooke whispered not sure she could get her whole sentence out. She felt so bad for just letting them take her, but she didn't know what else to do. Lucas was just sitting there, as still and in shock as she was.
"I stays too"
"No darling, you have to come with us"
"Daddy come?" Ella asked reaching for Lucas's hand.
"I have to stay here"
"I don't go"
"I bet they have a lot of fun toys, and pretty dresses" Brooke said trying so hard to smile. She didn't want to let them take her, but she also didn't want Ella to be scared to go. She wasn't sure she could stand to see her crying as they took her away. She'd have to pretend she knew she was happy with them.
"We have a cat"
"She's allergic to cats"
"Right, well thank you for taking such food care of her, come on" Richard said finally grabbing Ella away from Brooke.
"You be heres in a minutes"
Brooke nodded and then turned away. She couldn't watch them take her away. These people were as bad as her parents with nanny's and maids. None of this was fair. Why Ella? She wanted Ella more than anything. Why couldn't she have just gotten to keep Ella and not gotten pregnant. It seemed to make more sense that way anyway. She felt completely numb. Any crying that had been done was over, at least for now. Sometimes there was just that point where you're too shocked to cry. The whole thing just hurt too bad.
