Hi everyone! Thank you for all your reviews - you guys are great. Just a little note to say that I changed a few details in chapter three - just regarding Lucas' family, nothing major, so if you want to check that out go for it!

For now, news about Brooke and Lucas spreads around the hospital and Karen Scott is in town... enjoy!

Chapter Seven – Someone Worth Knowing

A week or so had passed and Brooke and Lucas were back in Raleigh and moving from strength to strength. They could barely keep their hands off one another, but were trying to do their very best to be discreet around the hospital and still hadn't put a label on what they were. Brooke had never been one to flash her relationships around and Lucas was worried about how Peyton might react. He wasn't sure if his guilt would ever subside over that situation, but he sincerely hoped it would because he was beginning to miss his friend.

Being discreet was relatively easy as they were always so busy with work. Lucas in particular was having to prepare for his boards and plan for his fellowship that would begin in a few months time. Brooke on the other hand had found herself in the ER for the past few days dealing with some of the most bizarre injuries, including a guy who got his tongue stuck in a bottle. To make matters worse, Peyton was the resident in charge and for some reason, Brooke found she was incredibly off with her, even scolding her about how she was managing the influx of patients. If took her a few hours to finally crack the system and get the order Peyton wanted and she was on hand to test Brooke.

"Davis, status report." Peyton asked as Brooke walked over.

"Uh, your MVC is in bed one waiting on an angio. I paged an ortho consult for bed 2, drunk guy in bed 3"

"Bed 4?"

"New patient, patellar dislocation."

"And bed 13?"

Brooke frowned, "… there is no bed 13."

Peyton stopped and smiled at Brooke; "Good job Davis, you passed, and your waiting room is clear. I hope you don't think I have been too hard today, it's just been a stressful week—" Peyton said, feeling awkward that they got off on the wrong professional foot, especially considering she was living in Brooke's house.

"No, I get it—"

"Not that I think you're bad at your job, but I just needed to be sure that you didn't think you could get by you your dad's merit or because you're sleeping with Lucas—" Peyton rudely blurted out.

Brooke froze; "… Lucas told you?"

"You're sleeping with Scott?" she heard a voice behind them say as she turned around to see Kate standing with wide eyes.

"Uh—"

"Oops…" Peyton said with a light-lipped smiled before walking away. Brooke clenched her jaw. It didn't go unnoticed by her that Peyton was deliberately trying to push her buttons. It was clear that she wasn't as over Lucas as she let on.

"Oops what?" Ted asked as he walked over.

"Nothing" Brooke said quickly.

"It appears Brookie has a budding romance-" Kate began as Nathan walked over.

"Romance? Are we really calling it that?" he asked as Ted frowned, more confused than ever, while Brooke wished she could just curl up in a ball and die.

"It's a romance, I've seen the way they look at each other." Rachel said as she joined in and Brooke pinched the bridge of her nose. "It's definitely not just about the sex, which we can all hear you having by the way, the walls in your house are pretty thin, so there's no point pretending—"

"Who are you all talking about?!" Ted exclaimed as the three others looked at him.

"Lucas, chief!" "Lucas, honey" they all said as if it were obvious.

Ted looked shocked, "Lucas Scott?!"

"Oh my god, Davis and co. family meeting, now!" Brooke announced as she ushered them into a side room.

Brooke started pacing the room to speak to them; "I get that all being in the same place all the time can be pretty claustrophobic, I get that we all have this incessant need to be up in each other's business, but my sex life should not be a part of that business!" she exclaimed.

"Don't say my sex life again please." Ted begged, not wanting to hear of anything other than his daughter's innocence. When he looked at her, he still saw a little girl, not a grown woman.

Kate laughed and shook her head, "I cannot believe you're sleeping with Scott."

"Yes, and you're sleeping with Ted and Rachel is sleeping with god knows who at this stage and Nathan – I actually have no idea who you're sleeping with, but the point is, who cares?! We all do it, it's not a big deal!" Brooke exclaimed.

"I don't want you to get hurt." Ted insisted. He saw how broken his daughter was over Aiden, he didn't want her heart to suffer again.

"We're just having fun, taking things as they come. We are both consenting adults, so get off your high and mighty horse Ted, you slept with your intern and then you married her." Brooke scolded as Rachel and Nathan stifled a laugh and Ted and Kate glared at her. Brooke and Lucas definitely weren't in their league.

"… fine." Ted conceded; "but we are never talking about this. Ever."

"Oh my god, deal!" Brooke said with an abundance of certainty. Her dad and her step mother were the last people she wanted to talk to about her romantic life. She quickly opened the door and left, wanting nothing more than to be out of this situation.

Brooke swiftly walked through the hospital to calm herself down from her awkward family encounter before heading back to the ER to continue working. As she walked through the hospital, she spotted Lucas working in one of the labs. When she looked through the glass a little carefully, she noticed that he appeared to be having a fiery conversation down the phone with someone. His hands were raised and his forehead was all crinkled. She couldn't hear what they were saying, she figured it was maybe about the fact that Ted had been pushing any non-emergent plastics out of the ORs over the past few days. The hospital was having some money problems and it appeared that plastics was the department suffering because of it. She watched as he aggressively hung up the phone with a sigh before sitting back down on his stool. She gave him a few seconds before she opened the door and walked over to him.

"Mad Scott returns" she said as he looked up at her.

"What?" he asked quietly as she rested her hand over his shoulders.

"Your face. You get all mad and your eyebrows do that thing—it's cute." She said with a giggle. His eyebrows were always hunched when he was mad or frustrated or just stressed and Brooke had quickly picked up on it.

Lucas sighed; "It's my mom. She's been on at me for years to come back to Boston and take a leadership role in the Royal Scot foundation and now she's ringing that bell again. That loud, very loud bell. She thinks now is the perfect time considering my residency is coming to an end." He explained as Brooke's face fell.

"You're leaving?" she asked, trying her best to keep her cool.

"No, I work here." He said a little harshly. He didn't want to take his frustration out on her but he was struggling not to let it all get the better of him. "Are you free this afternoon?" He asked, wanting to change the subject.

"I'm supposed to be in the ER but I can get someone to cover if you need me for something?" she asked.

"I have a rhinoplasty this morning with Kirk if you want in on it?" he asked, figuring that it would be a little more interesting than what she had to deal with in the ER. Brooke nodded her head in agreement. "Can you prep Mr. Preston?" he asked.

"Yeah" she agreed as she walked to the door before remembering something. "Oh, Rachel mentioned earlier that the chief is pushing any non-emergent plastics surgeries. I actually thought that's why you might be mad…" she said, completely forgetting why she was even in here in the first place.

"That's the 5th time this week." Lucas said as he angrily stood from his chair. "I never thought I'd say this but maybe mom has a point." He grumbled as he left the room and a disappointed Brooke.

That afternoon, Brooke watched Lucas from the other end of the lobby as he made a phone call. She tried to stay cool about the possibility of him leaving, but she wasn't doing all that well at it. She really liked him and they were doing really well. For the first time in a long time she felt good about something and she didn't want to throw it all away.

Rachel walked over to her; "Hey, I managed to convince the chief to do some rearranging and get Scott and Walker's rhinoplasty back on the board."

"He's on the phone with the Boston chief of plastic surgery." Brooke announced, not really caring about Lucas's surgery right now.

"Don't be that girl." Rachel sternly warned as Brooke turned to look at her. Rachel refused to let her friend be the girl who desperately pined after a boy and put him above everything else in her life.

"I have never been this girl, I don't know what's wrong with me! I am like putty in his hands. His future job is potentially being flushed down the drain and all I can think about it how I'll have to stop seeing him." Brooke admitted.

"Surely the sex isn't that good—" Rachel said as they turned and watched Lucas pace the hallway.

"Look at him Rachel. Of course it is that good but – it's more than that. I can't believe I am actually admitting this…"

Rachel looked at her softly. She had never seen her friend with this look in her eyes before. "You're not just sleeping with him, you really like him." Rachel observed as Brooke stayed silent. She had never been particularly open with her feelings and as much as Rachel wanted a romance to work out with Lucas, she never expected it to actually work. She thought Brooke would bolt at the first sign of real feelings getting involved.

"It doesn't matter if I really like him or not, we'll never know if it has the potential to get really serious unless he stays in Raleigh." Brooke said as Lucas hung up the phone and Brooke immediately started walking towards him.

"Every step you take is a giant step back for womankind!" Rachel shouted after her. "There goes the right to vote. Roe V Wade!" Rachel shouted after her as Brooke glared.

"Cut it out." She said through her teeth before turning around and seeing Lucas in front of her. "So, Boston?" she asked.

"No, not Boston." Lucas said as Brooke felt a wave of relief rush through her. "My mom wouldn't want to win that way anyway." He said with a little smile. His mother really wouldn't want the war to be that simple. "If you could work anywhere else in the country where would you go?"

"I don't know… I have a withstanding offer from John's—" Brooke explained. When she accepted Raleigh, John's Hopkins told her they would always have a space open for her if she really wanted it.

"Damn" Lucas said, impressed that she could just go to John's Hopkins if she really wanted to. "Well, you never know. If we ever had to go, we could end up somewhere near each other. Wouldn't be the worst thing in the world." Lucas said quietly as Brooke smiled softly.

"No. It really wouldn't be." She said.

Suddenly, Peyton came bursting over to the pair of them and thrust her phone in Lucas' face.

"Lucas, your mom is coming to Raleigh?!" she questioned as Lucas frowned and took the phone from her, seeing that Karen had posted a photo on social media of her boarding the Scott family jet with a caption saying she was Raleigh bound.

Lucas looked up at Peyton "… you follow my mother on social media?"

Peyton snatched the phone away, "Yeah we follow each other… I'm a fan of her work, ok? She was super kind to me when she last visited, practically offered me a job at Mass Gen." She reasoned.

Brooke shifted where she stood and looked at her feet. She knew Lucas and Peyton were friends long before she met him, but she couldn't help but feel a little jealous that Peyton had met his mom and was practically friends with her. How could she ever top that? Stop Brooke. This isn't a competition. Lucas is with you now. She tried to tell herself, but she still saw the way Peyton looked at him and she knew Lucas really valued their relationship.

"Yeah, I had no idea she was coming into town. Probably wants to try and convince me in person to move back to Boston" Lucas grumbled before turning to Brooke. "You ready to meet my mom?"

Brooke laughed awkwardly, "Oh yeah…" she said with total uncertainty as Lucas winked at her in reassurance, having no doubt in his mind that she would win her over instantly.

The following morning, Brooke burst into one of the on call rooms where Lucas was trying to nap and posed in front of him.

"How do I look?" she asked as he turned his head on his pillow to look at her.

Lucas eyed her for a moment. There wasn't really anything different about her. She had her scrubs on and her hair was down rather than up in her usual ponytail she rocked for work.

"Uh… the same?" he said cautiously, knowing that probably wasn't what she wanted to hear.

"Dude come on! My hair is down and clean and tidy and my face is actually remotely presentable." She said motioning to the minimal make up she was wearing.

"Why are you feeling the need to be presentable today?" Lucas asked as he sat up on the bed.

"Because your mother is coming to the hospital and I have to make a good impression." Brooke reminded him as he nodded slowly. Lucas had told Karen that he was dating someone and when she eagerly asked if it was Peyton, he awkwardly said no and told her, her name was Brooke, but that was all she knew – and Karen had high standards. "I need to look smart and classy and relaxed to give off the vibe of 'I know I'm am merely a 3rd year resident who is dating your dynasty preserving son, but before you write me off as a gold digger, I am a Davis and a kick ass surgeon, and your son is lucky to be dating me.'" She said, clearly having rehearsed that line.

Lucas chuckled as he stood up and held onto her waist. "You are putting far too much pressure on yourself." He told her honestly.

"Would you believe me if I told you I can be a tiny bit of a people pleaser?" she said, mocking herself.

"Oh really?" Lucas said, pretending to be surprised. Brooke hated letting people down, and this situation was certainly no different.

Lucas pulled her closer towards him so their chests were touching and delicately tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear. "She's going to love you." He assured her before leaning down and kissing her. His hands started to roam up the back of her shirt and Brooke immediately deepened the kiss. She soon discarded his shirt before Lucas scooped her up and pushed her against the wall. He dipped his head down and began kissing along her neck, eliciting some quiet moans from Brooke. He really had learned all her sweet spots already.

Suddenly, the door flung open and Lucas' head lifted while they both looked at the figure standing there like two deer caught in headlights. They were almost frozen in time as Lucas held onto her tightly before gulping.

"… hi mom" he greeted awkwardly as Karen Scott looked at them, entirely unimpressed that they had been caught in this position. He gently lowered Brooke down to the floor as she desperately tried to fix herself and Lucas put his shirt back on.

"Lucas. Where are your manners?" Karen said, breaking the silence that filled the room.

"Mom, this is Brooke Davis, Brooke this is my mom Karen Scott." Lucas introduced.

"It's nice to—" Brooke began, holding out her hand to shake hers, but Karen interrupted her.

"Dear. Would you mind handing me the pillows from the top bunk?" she asked.

Brooke awkwardly took her hand back before walking over to the bed and handing her the pillows with an uncomfortable smile on her face. Karen took them, gave Lucas a smile and left the room.

"… I don't think she got my smart, classy and relaxed vibe." Brooke said awkwardly as she hid her head in her hands.

"At least she didn't walk in a few minutes later…"

"Oh my god." Brooke muffled in her hands as Lucas engulfed her in a hug, trying to get Brooke to see the humour in the situation.

After taking a moment to breath before he got mad at his mom about what was going to go down, Lucas walked into one of the board rooms Karen had perched in and was already getting disapproving looks from Karen. She hadn't even given him the opportunity to ask about Keith or Lily - and he sensed she wasn't going to. She was here with an agenda and she was going to see it through.

"Mom—" He began, but Karen beat him to the punch.

"You are aware of the name that you carry Lucas?" Karen asked, perching one hand on the table and the other on her hip.

"She's a Davis mom—" Lucas argued, trying to use Brooke's words to win her over. Brooke certainly wasn't a nobody. Not that her name matter to him, but he knew it would matter to his mother. A name in the surgical world meant a lot of things to a lot of people.

"And you think that cancels it out?" Karen asked as Peyton knocked on the open door.

Karen smiled, "Dr. Sawyer, it is lovely to see you again" she said as she walked toward Peyton and kissed her cheeks.

"It's great to see you too Dr. Scott" Peyton said as she looked at Lucas who was clearly frustrated. "You ok Luke?" she asked with a frown.

"Peyton you would not believe the fuss I had to go through to see my son…" she said shooting him a disapproving look.

"Can we not do this, please?" Lucas asked, not really in the mood to fight with Peyton there.

"What happened?" Peyton asked.

"What do you know about Brooke Davis, Peyton?" Karen asked as Peyton raised her eyebrows.

"Well she's good enough for Lucas to dump me for." She joked.

Karen turned and looked at Lucas completely shocked as Lucas clenched his jaw. He reminded himself to thank Peyton for that one later…

"Lucas Eugene Scott!" she began scolding as Peyton let out a laugh.

"Eugene?" she questioned. "I'm sorry, I'm just kidding, Lucas and I would never have worked out anyway." Peyton said, trying to brush the whole thing off, even if she didn't really believe it. There was still something there – and they both knew it.

"Oh yeah, just two friends who know everything there is to know about each other, who hold the same passions in life the same drive, the same experiences, the same mentalities. You're both brooders and a fine pair." Karen reasoned.

Lucas momentarily looked at Peyton who gave him a soft smile as if to say 'yeah, this is awkward, but she's not wrong. We are two good friends who are compatible in every way imaginable' – and Lucas knew it was true. Was he missing out on something good with Peyton because of a spark he thought he felt with a girl he didn't know that long?

Lucas shook his confliction out of his head before turning back to his mother. "I have a job to do, we will talk later."

"No, we will talk now." Karen insisted.

"I'll catch up with you later Luke…" Peyton said as she moved towards the door, not wanting to be a part of this awkward conversation.

Once Peyton had left, Karen swiftly closed the door and stood in front of her son. "This hospital is going under Lucas, you need to get out of here." She warned him as Lucas crossed his arms over his chest.

"I can't say that I'm the sort of person who just abandons ship when it takes on a little bit of water." He reasoned.

Karen rolled her eyes, "Now is not the time for you to be a martyr Lucas—"

"I'm not being a martyr I'm being fair. This is a great hospital. A top 10 hospital, Chief Davis runs this place exceptionally well, not to mention all that I have been able to learn from Kirk Walker. He's setting me up to take over the entire plastics department when he goes, I reckon that's a pretty good job to take rather than constantly being someone's understudy in Mass Gen."

"If this is about that girl—"

"That girl is called Brooke, mom, and I would appreciate it if you could show her the respect she deserves. She is an amazing person and an amazing doctor and she is going places on her name and her name alone." Lucas said, wanting to fight for Brooke and the person that he knew she was. "I know you probably think she's some sort of gold-digger but I can assure you, she has a hefty trust fund waiting for the taking—"

"Ok, fine, we'll remove Dr. Davis from the equation." Karen said, not wanting to hear about how wonderful this girl was anymore. "If she's not wants holding you back – why stay?"

"I have the opportunity to help a lot of people mom. Nobody comes to Raleigh to be a surgeon, let alone a plastic surgeon. I want to do some good here and I know you'd want that too." Lucas took a step forward and spoke quieter to his mother. "Don't become him mom. Don't become Royal. You may not be related by blood – but he has the power to have this hold over us and we need to fight against it. He's about making money when the foundation should be about saving lives." He reasoned, as Karen was at a loss for words on what to reply.

Lucas let out a breath before swiftly walking past his mother, wanting to give her time to stew over what she came here to fight for and whether it was really worth it.

"She's pretty much convinced herself that I'm a gold digger trying to use sex to nab herself an Scott." Brooke explained to Rachel as they walked down the hallway. While Karen had never said that to her – considering she didn't really say anything at all – Brooke was jumping to some pretty big assumptions. She had always been good at reading people, however, and she could see it in her eyes. She was fiercely protective over who Lucas let into his life because of who he was, and that meant she was going to push back against Brooke with everything in her.

"Dude, you're Brooke frickin Davis, if anyone's using sex to nab someone, it's Lucas." Rachel argued.

"You know the really sad thing about it? I actually think we'd get along. She's an amazing doctor, an amazing woman and she has zero respect for me and, it hurts. It actually physically pains my chest." Brooke over dramatized as she slumped her shoulders.

"Ok, here's my piece of advice for the day." Rachel said as they stopped and looked at each other. "You're right, you would get along, everyone gets along with you and you need to tell her that. You need to stand up for yourself. A strong woman will respect another strong woman."

Rachel froze for a minute before becoming sheepish again; "I don't know I feel like the best thing to do when you walk into a hornet's nest is to just stand still and let the whole frenzy die down—"

"Brooke!" Rachel exclaimed, not impressed with her friend's sheepishness. "You are not this girl. You are strong, you are bold, you have a voice and you deserve to be heard." Rachel said firmly as Brooke stood there wide eyed. "Ok?"

"Ok..." Brooke replied in a scared whisper. "Geez it's like talking to my mother" she teased as Rachel smacked her butt and pushed her forward.

"Go forth and conquer sweetie!"

Evening soon came around and Brooke had finished with her last patient for the day. She walked into the lobby with a sigh to return her charts. Her previously bouncy and beautiful hair had fallen flat as she threw it up into her usual statement ponytail. As she tied the hair tie around it, she saw Karen standing at the desk, waiting. She hadn't found the strength to speak to Karen yet, but she knew Rachel was right. She needed to conquer her fears and prove to Karen that she was someone worth knowing.

This is it Brooke. This is your moment to be heard. To stand up for yourself. She took a breath as she strided confidently towards Karen.

"Dr. Scott, do you have a minute?" she asked.

"I'm meeting my son Dr. Davis, it's been a long day." Karen said, not paying her any attention.

"I just think we got off on the wrong foot. I know how it looked when you walked in on us earlier—"

"I'm not sure you do—"

"Oh, no, I do." Brooke said surely. "It looked like I was well on the way to having a quickie with your son in an on-call room." Brooke said boldly as Karen finally looked at her with wide eyes. "It looked like I had no respect for myself or for this hospital or for Lucas. I made sure that my hair looked nice today and that I didn't look at tired as I feel because I knew I would be meeting you. I have never done that before, for anyone." She said with a little laugh. She didn't even make that much of an effort when she met Aiden's parents. "Meeting Lucas's mother meant something to me. I care about him, and if all you're going to think about when you see me is that I was the girl making out with your son in a hospital—then you're wrong to think that. There are so many other things about me that are so much more interesting than that. I am no gold digger. I finished top of my class at med school. I am a damn good surgeon and someone you should be proud for your son to date."

Karen looked at Brooke with a sense of awe. She didn't really know how to respond to her declaration. Luckily for her, she didn't have the chance to as Lucas walked over with a concerned look on his face, surprised that Brooke and his mother were actually talking – or more that Brooke was talking at Karen.

"Hey…" he greeted cautiously as he placed a hand on the small of Brooke's back. "What's going on?"

"Nothing." Brooke said. Figuring that Karen had nothing to come with to her little monologue. "I'll leave you guys to it" she said, flashing him a small smile before going to leave.

"Brooke" Karen said, finally properly addressing her. "What's your hurry? I'm buying the first round at Tric."

Brooke's stance softened as she felt the tension leave her body. She nodded softly at Karen.

"Sounds great. I'll go grab my things." She said before heading to the resident's lounge.

"So, you've finally thawed a little towards her?" Lucas asked his mother with a smile on his face.

"I know this is probably shocking to hear coming from me but… she might just be the best thing to ever happen to you Lucas." Karen said, admiring her fire and her brawn and her brains. "Don't screw it up."

Lucas was at a loss for words over his mother's approval, but at the same time he wasn't surprised. Brooke was amazing and he didn't doubt that his mother would see that if she took the time to actually get to know her.

"Oh, and another thing…" Karen began. "You were right about wanting to stay in Raleigh. This hospital is doing good things and it would be a pity to see it fall down."

"So… you're ok with me staying?" he asked.

Karen nodded her head, "Yes, I am ok with you staying… now that the foundation owns the hospital and you're going to run it."