The anticipation of things going wrong seems to be getting to you guys! Which is definitely part of the fun ;)
How does Brooke feel about Lucas and the Scott Foundation owning the hospital? How does Ted feel about it? Find out now...
Chapter Eight – Uneasy
"I can't believe your mom bought you a freakin hospital." Brooke mumbled in wonder as she and Lucas lay in Brooke's bed one morning, staring at the ceiling.
Lucas was stunned into silence when Karen told him what she had done. He let her and Brooke talk up a storm at Tric all night about anything and everything while he sat and said nothing. He couldn't say anything. He didn't know how to process this. He was a resident and his mother wanted him to run a hospital? It was insane!
As soon as they had gotten home that night, Lucas immediately told Brooke what she had done and she was also stunned into silence. When they woke up the following morning, they just looked at each other before looking up at the ceiling, still in a state of shock.
"My mom can barely buy me lunch without pulling the whole "you're an adult now Brooke, you need to be independent, I can't buy you lunch for the rest of your life." Brooke rambled, as Lucas said nothing. She turned to look at his silent face. "Hey. Where's your mind at?" she asked softly.
"They'll hate me." Lucas mumbled, knowing that the other board members and senior staff of the hospital wouldn't be happy that a resident was their boss.
"They won't hate you—"
"I'm a resident, I'm a nobody, they've all worked so hard to get where they are and then my mommy swoops in and buys it out for me, just so she can feel validated in letting me stay here." He snapped, seeing right through his mother's supposedly good deed. It was ultimately a really selfish move.
Brooke didn't blame Lucas for feeling this way. She had spoken to Kate last night after Lucas had told her and she said Ted and the other board members were fully prepared to treat him like the kid he was. Although Ted was still chief of surgery, he may have to report to Lucas and the Scott foundation at times - and he wasn't necessarily prepared to report to a kid. Ted also pulled the whole 'He may be a smart kid but he's smart kid who has also been sleeping with my daughter' bit, much to Brooke's frustration. It appeared he would look for anything to reason with not listening to Lucas.
"You're being dramatic—" she tried to reason, but he wasn't prepared to listen.
"This is going to be the day from hell." He groaned.
They sat in silence for a few more minutes before Brooke spoke again; "You need donuts."
"Donuts?"
"Everyone loves donuts."
Lucas looked at Brooke with a little smile. "I'm not even sure donuts can save me on this one." He said as he pecked the tip of her nose affectionately. "I am definitely in over my head on this one."
"You're not exactly an idiot Lucas, you're going to be a fellow in a few months, you're set to take over the plastics department, you were just given something you never expected to get—" Brooke tried to reason.
"I can't do this." Lucas said, still not listening to what she had to stay as he got out of bed and frantically started pacing around the room.
"Stop—" Brooke said as she got out of bed to face him.
"I can't stop, I don't have time to stop, I need ideas and solutions to the money and staffing problems and everything in between so they don't think that I'm an incompetent idiot!"
"Lucas!" Brooke shouted as she grabbed him by the shoulder to stop him pacing. "Screw that. That's not what this hospital it about. This hospital is about saving lives. This hospital is about the people in it. You need to find a way to bring to life the reason that you are all able to sit around the table and make those big decisions. You need to find a way to embody the spirit of what makes this hospital what it is. Nobody is expecting you to have all the answers, but they can expect you to bring the life back into this hospital. Show it off Lucas. Show off what we're all about."
Finally, Brooke's words sunk in with Lucas—and he had an idea.
13 days. It had been 13 days since Brooke finally got through to Lucas. 13 days since he had spent any meaningful time with her that wasn't over a sliced open abdomen on an OR table. It was really starting to drive her crazy, but she didn't complain. She knew he was stressed with this whole hospital running thing and she knew he was trying to pull something together, but she just wished he would talk to her about it.
She was standing in the surgical wing's lobby that Thursday morning looking at some charts when Lucas got off the elevator – with Peyton. That was another thing that was driving her a little crazy. He always seemed to have time to talk to Peyton about whatever he was planning. It hurt a little knowing that he trusted her opinion about it all more than he trusted her. She watched as he smiled and hugged her quickly. Brooke looked away in an attempt to not let it frustrate her further. Brooke didn't think Lucas would ever admit it, but there was this unspoken thing between him and Peyton and it was something that didn't appear to be going away any time soon. There was just something in Lucas' eyes when he looked at Peyton – it was like he hadn't fully gotten over what they had.
Lucas knew that Brooke was beginning to get a little suspicious about his relationship with Peyton. He did jump into something with Brooke pretty quickly after Peyton and maybe he wasn't completely over it because it never felt like a definitive end, but he really cared for Brooke. He really liked her and when he was with her, he didn't want it to end. They'd never had the 'label' conversation, it didn't seem to be a big deal to them, but they were for all intents and purposes boyfriend and girlfriend. However, he would be lying if he said he didn't have a lot of what ifs with Peyton.
When Peyton walked away from him, he spotted Brooke and suddenly remembered that they had a date planned for last night – and he didn't come home and he didn't call. He cautiously walked towards Brooke who looked up when she caught him in her peripheral vision.
"I forgot about last night. We were supposed to have dinner and sex. Or just dinner, the sex could have been all in my mind. Or it could have been in your mind too, but it doesn't matter, it didn't happen, I forgot, I'm remembering right now, and I feel terrible." Lucas awkwardly rambled.
"Ok…" Brooke merely mumbled, a little taken aback by his ramble.
"I am going to make it up to you tonight." He insisted as he kissed her cheek and walked away, before Brooke could say anything else.
That afternoon, Brooke sat in the resident's lounge, poking around her lunch with her fork. This whole Lucas thing had been on her mind all day and she really didn't know how to take it. She felt like a total idiot for letting her feelings take over, but she figured that it maybe meant she was human after all and that she was capable of something more than lust.
"Earth to Brooke? Hello?" Rachel asked as she waved her hands in front of Brooke's face, snapping her out of her trance. "What's your deal Davis?"
Brooke sighed, "Nothing, just thinking about Lucas."
"What about him?" Rachel asked as she sat on the couch beside her.
"How do you know if someone is worth the trouble?" Brooke asked cryptically. Rachel knew all too well that this was probably about Lucas being unavailable because of his new found role and his newly restored friendship with Peyton, but she would wait for Brooke to say that and for now, she would give as much reasonable and vague advice as she could.
"Well… what's so great about him?" she asked.
Brooke shrugged; "I don't know."
"You don't know?"
"No, I do know, I just—I've never had to say it out loud before. It's a little weird. I don't think either of us intended for it to get so serious so fast. We were just having a little bit of fun and then all of a sudden—he's basically my boyfriend." They still hadn't had that talk, but they both felt really good and positive about their future.
"These things happen, and it's not a necessarily a bad thing... you're allowed to love again Brooke." Rachel reminded her.
"I know, I know." Brooke insisted. "He's smart." she started, deciding to do her best to answer Rachel's question. "We can talk about anything and be on the same level. He gets the job, he gets the pressures of it but… it's more than that. He's kind, he's not a douchebag, he actually cares about how I feel. He pushes to be the best version of himself. Though… he doesn't always bring out the best version of me" Brooke confessed.
"What do you mean?"
"I feel like I'm getting stupidly paranoid over nothing." Brooke said as she rubbed her eyes, trying not to let her tears fall. "He's pretty close with Sawyer and they had a thing and it's all just a little messed up and… I don't want to get hurt" she said honestly. He had told her that he and Peyton were over, but she wasn't blind. She saw the bond that they still had.
"Has he shown interest in Peyton?"
"Not in front of me, but he's going to her with his problems now and I just feel redundant when he has her." Brooke said.
Rachel held onto her friends hand, not really sure what to say. She liked Lucas, she really did, but she was worried. She was worried that he would lose his head when it came to Peyton and do something stupid, but what else could she tell her friend than to trust him?
"You have to learn to trust him Brooke. He's with you for a reason. Maybe then you'll find yourself being… yourself." she advised as Brooke nodded slowly, hoping that Rachel was right.
Lucas had texted Brooke that afternoon and told her he would meet her at Tric after work, but now—Brooke was frustrated. She had been sitting on her own for over an hour, waiting for him. She had a day of people at work – mainly Kate and Peyton - talking over her and pushing her around and treating her like anything she had to say was invaluable and she wasn't in any mood to be pushed around now by Lucas either. She was better than that, she deserved better than that.
When Lucas showed up, he approached her with a gulp, knowing she would be annoyed. She wasn't the silent type, it something was wrong, she would say it. He wasn't sure he was prepared to tell her that he had been with Peyton talking through this whole hospital thing. Peyton knew him better than most people did. They went through their whole residency together, and she completely understood how this was all taking its toll. He valued her opinion and he missed having her around.
"I know, I'm not the most available—" Lucas began but Brooke held up her hand to stop him.
"I need you to shut up." She said honestly as Lucas was instantly silent. "It's cause you're head of the hospital now, right? That's why you haven't called me in 13 days? God, I am not this girl, I hate myself right now that I know how many days it's been." She said with a scoff as she ran her hand through her hair. "I am not Brooke Davis anymore, I'm this weird girl who gives a crap what Lucas Scott thinks of her. I am not this needy and obsessive girl, let's be clear about that." Brooke rambled.
"I know Brooke, but if it's any consolation, I really care what you think about me too—"
"Is that why you've been going to Peyton with your problems instead of me?" she challenged as Lucas fell silent again.
"We've just been talking about a few things… she gets it Brooke. She gets me and it's not that I don't value your advice but – you'd want to talk to Rachel about some things over me, right?" he asked as Brooke didn't say anything, not wanting to validate his point. "It's just the same with Peyton, she's my best friend – "
"A best friend that you slept with and started to develop feelings for and the whole hospital knows she is pretty much in love with you." Brooke grumbled. "You know what… this isn't even about Peyton. This is about you and me so just – just tell me why it's been 13 days."
"Because I'm head of the hospital—"
"That's not an excuse for standing me up. All you had to do was text me. I deserve to be treated better so either do that or let me go." She said as she let out a breath and her rage turned into momentary sadness.
Lucas looked at the woman in front of him. After holding back and letting her do her thing, he finally got his chance with her and here he was—screwing it up. She was amazing, she was smart, she was beautiful, she was bold, and he couldn't ask for anything more. He knew that no matter what happened with them, he would never be able to fully shake this girl from his system. She would always be a part of him.
He quickly cupped her cheeks and kissed her with everything that was in him to show her how much he cared. Neither of them doubted they were falling for each other, they just weren't sure if they were ready to admit it and Lucas wasn't sure he knew how to let Peyton go.
A week or so later, Brooke was walking through the ER when she felt someone poke her sides causing her to jump.
"Hey" Lucas greeted as he quickly kissed her cheek, stopping at the nurse's station while she dropped off her charts.
"Hey" she replied happily.
"What are you doing tonight?" he asked.
"That depends… are you going to ask me to come to this gala you're throwing tonight?" Brooke asked as Lucas's face fell. He'd been meaning to ask her weeks ago, but he'd only managed to get around to it now.
Lucas's big idea that he had been working on for weeks was to throw a gala to try and schmooze people into investing in the hospital and show them what it was all about. The Scotts knew how to throw a party, so they were optimistic that it would pay off.
"Right… That is what I was coming to ask you." He made clear. "I'm sorry I didn't get to ask you sooner—"
"It's ok, you run a hospital now, you're busy" she playfully teased.
"… I swore I would never use that excuse again." Lucas reminded her.
"I know, that's why it's funny." She said as she patted his chest.
"I just wanted to make sure you knew that this isn't going to be fun, it's just going to be sucking up to a bunch of rich people—"
"I'm an excellent suck up, I'll probably get more money than you will." Brooke boasted.
Lucas quirked an eyebrow "… is that a challenge?" Lucas asked.
"If you want it to be." She replied with a daring smirk.
"Alright Davis. You're on. May the best schmoozer win." He said as they shook hands.
The evening and soon rolled around and while everybody went home to get ready for the gala, there was a weird feeling in the air. Everyone felt a little on edge, but no one could really put their finger on why, yet they all felt it.
Brooke stood in her bedroom staring at her reflection in her floor length mirror. She loved being able to get dressed up. She felt like she hadn't done it in ages. She barely had time to shower in between work. Yet, as she stood and looked at her hair and make-up, she couldn't feel excited. She couldn't feel beautiful.
There was a knock at the door as Nathan walked in.
"Hey, we're all downstairs, you ready?" he asked.
"Yeah. Just give me a second." She said.
Nathan eyed her curiously. He could tell something was bothering her. "You ok?"
Brooke turned around and looked at him. "I know it probably sounds really dumb, but ever since I was little, every time something bad was about to happen, I got this really weird feeling before it. I always feel really uneasy and unsettled."
"Ok…" he said, not entirely sure why she was telling him this.
"I have that feeling right now." She said quietly.
Nathan nodded, unsure what to tell her. It was often hard to ignore a gut feeling about something.
"It's just a gala Davis. What's the worst that could happen?"
A short while later, Brooke and Lucas walked into the gala arm in arm. They were amazed by the extravagance of the whole thing—it definitely wasn't what Lucas had in mind when he hired the planner. He wanted an elegant event that showcased the care and comfort the hospital had to offer. The planner appeared to go with a carnival theme that was so over the top.
"Now this looks a lot more fun than work." Brooke said with a smile. So much for it being boring schmoozing.
"Yeah it does… it's not exactly what I had in mind." He admitted as he watched the acrobats around the room.
"If you hadn't invited me to this and I found out it was this crazy, I would have been so mad." Brooke confessed.
She looked all around her, and her eyes fell on Peyton – who had her arms draped around a guy.
"Hey, who's that guy with Peyton?" Brooke asked as Lucas looked over and immediately clenched his jaw.
"Jake Jagelski" Lucas merely said before he took Brooke's hand and walked over to the pair. "Hi" he greeted courtly as they both turned to look at them.
"Lucas, hi!" Peyton said as she quickly hugged him. "You remember Jake, right?" she said as Jake and Lucas shook hands, though Brooke immediately picked up on the tension between the pair.
"Of course. It's been a while Jagelski" Lucas said, trying to be polite, but it was clearly difficult for him.
"Not long enough." Jake shot back.
"Uh – this is Brooke Davis" Peyton introduced, seeing as Lucas clearly had no intentions of doing so.
"Ah, Chief Davis' daughter, right? I've heard great things about you, you're the superstar of your year." Jake complimented as Brooke smiled.
"Oh, I don't know about that…" she said as she blushed a little.
"Trust me, my sources don't lie" He joked as Brooke laughed a little.
"Excuse us, we're need a drink" Lucas said as he held onto Brooke's hand a little tighter and pulled her towards the bar.
"Uh… what was that all about?" Brooke asked as Lucas lifted them two glasses of champagne.
"Jagelski used to be in our residency class, but he moved hospitals in our 4th year. The guy is an asshole, he was constantly undercutting anything I did, constantly took credit for things that he had nothing to do with. God he just makes me squirm, I can't believe Peyton would bring that guy here." Lucas said as he turned to order another, slightly stronger drink.
Brooke nodded her head. She knew exactly why Peyton wanted to bring Jake here – she knew she would get a reaction out of Lucas for it.
Brooke decided that she was just going to ignore this little scenario and focus on the situation at hand – schmoozing investors. She looked around the room and spotted a man who was staring straight at her with a small smirk on his face. She felt a little uncomfortable that he was staring at her like that. She then remembered the bet she made with Lucas and thought maybe this guy would be a good target. All she had to do was be nice to him for a few hours.
"Hey, who's that guy over there?" she asked Lucas as he looked in her direction.
"Isaac Martin. Huge investor, he has shares in a lot of hospitals." Lucas told her.
Brooke looked up at him and smirked; "I think I just found my target" she said as she started to saunter towards him.
"Brooke—" Lucas said, not entirely comfortable with the thought of her flirting with a bunch of men all evening.
"Don't even pretend like you're not going to get your flirt on tonight Lucas, your whole being is a flirt." Brooke said as she motioned his whole body. One look in those baby blue eyes and women were sunk—they were intense.
"I am not a flirt—"
"Don't even try to talk your way out of this one." Brooke warned. "And don't worry, I promise you're the only person I want to be taking me home tonight." She said as she walked back towards him and kissed his cheek.
Lucas had been irritated all night. While Jake and Peyton had been all over each other all night, Brooke had been all over Isaac Martin all night in an attempt to get his cheque book out. He had never been the jealous type. He hated it when people got jealous over him, but this was really rubbing him up the wrong way. Both scenarios were rubbing him up the wrong way and he really hated himself for it.
He shook thoughts of Peyton out of his head and tried to focus on his girlfriend. He knew she was just being friendly and trying to get the hospital some money, but no one could be that friendly for that long without it being intentionally flirty… right? He knew he was over thinking the whole thing, and if anything, it just demonstrated to him how much he cared about her.
He was about to walk over and interrupt them when it happened. Isaac leaned forward and gave Brooke an unsuspecting kiss. Brooke quickly moved back, but Lucas didn't pay attention to that. His girlfriend had just kissed an investor. Brooke's head shot around to look at Lucas who was seething in anger.
"Lucas" she mumbled under her breath as Isaac eyed her curiously.
Lucas took a breath before turning around and leaving the hall, but Brooke was quick on his tail.
"Lucas" Brooke called as she rushed out of the hall after Lucas. She had never intended for her schmoozing to get that far. She didn't want him to kiss her at all.
"I'm too old for drama Brooke—" Lucas complained as he stopped and turned to look at her.
"Are you kidding me right now? Have you even met me?" In what part of his mind did he think she enjoyed drama? That she enjoyed the situations she had been forced into.
"You're pissed at me for not inviting you to the gala until today, then you were desperate to beat me you thought you'd make out with that guy—"
"Oh my god no and gross. You are seriously grasping at straws for an issue here-"
"So you're not pissed at me?"
"No. I mean I was confused why you hadn't invited me but then you did. He kissed me Lucas, I don't know where it came from, I did not ask for it. I swear. You know me Lucas, I don't just give myself freely to whoever wants it. You are the first guy that I have let in since Aiden." Brooke reasoned.
Lucas looked at her for a moment, knowing that what she said was completely true. Being with him was huge for her. She wouldn't just throw it away like that.
"Ok. If we're going to do this, we can't get irrationally mad at each other and jealous for no reason. We need to talk to each other, we need to communicate." Lucas said to himself more than anything.
"And not kiss potential investors in the hospital?" she tried to joke as Lucas smirked.
"You're crazy."
"That's why you love me, right?" she teased, as they both fell into an awkward silence. She didn't mean to bring up love, it just kind of playfully rolled off the tongue.
"Love?" Lucas asked with a gulp, not knowing what to say.
"Oh I—I didn't mean it like that—just—just kiss me." She said as he bent down and did exactly that.
Lucas tried his hardest to enjoy the rest of his night with Brooke, but his guilty conscious and jealous streak was getting the better of him. He felt like the world's biggest asshole for how he had treated Brooke tonight. He tried to turn her into the problem when he was guilty of so much worse. He was still pining after Peyton.
While Brooke chatted to Rachel and Nathan, Lucas stood hunched over the bar with yet another whiskey in his hand.
"Look alive Luke. It's a party" he heard a voice say beside him as he briefly looked over and saw Jake standing there.
"Piss off Jagelski."
"Wow, that seems a little harsh."
Lucas stood up straighter, "You really do not want to push me right now."
"Oh yeah? Because you'll crack? You can't contain your anger over me and Peyton?" Jake challenged as Lucas held his glass that little bit tighter. "News flash Luke – you moved on, so Peyton moved on. You can't blame her for that. So don't hate me just because you couldn't hold on to the one good thing in your life, all because you're weak—"
Lucas slammed his glass down on the table, turned around and punched Jake square in the jaw, causing him to fall to the floor and for the group of people around them to jump back. Lucas launched forward and grabbed Jake by the collar.
"You don't think I have what ifs?! You don't think I question my decision everyday?!" he exclaimed as Brooke felt her heart drop to the pit of her stomach.
Jake shoved Lucas off him as the pair stood staring at each other, and everyone else stood around them in shock – including Brooke, Peyton, Rachel, Nathan, Ted and Kate.
"You've got an audience Lucas. What now?" Jake asked with a devilish smirk on his face, realising the predicament Lucas had gotten himself into with a few explosive words.
He looked around him before his eyes fell on Brooke, seeing how broken she was. What the hell had he just done? He could never dream of hurting her, he was falling in love with her, but he was a fool who couldn't get Peyton out of his head.
"Lucas… do you want to be with Peyton?" Brooke asked quietly.
Lucas gulped, feeling tears form in his eyes. "Brooke, I—I-" he said, stumbling over his words. He had no idea what he wanted, he didn't know what to do. He felt like a damn fool and he knew there was nothing he could say to ease this situation.
Brooke took his silence as his answer. He wanted her. He wanted Peyton and she was not about to play second fiddle to anyone. She knew her worth, she didn't have time to play games.
"I never want to see you again." Brooke said sternly, before swiftly leaving the hall, feeling completely and utterly humiliated.
Brooke made her way to the steps outside the building in a complete daze. She sat down, trying to process what had just happened. Lucas had spent all this time worming his way into her heart, building up her trust, only to trip the rug out from underneath her and say he still wanted Peyton. How did this happen? How was this fair? It all happened so fast and she really did not know what to feel.
She felt a jacket fall over her shoulders and looked up to see her dad standing there.
"Come on honey. Let's get you home." He said as Brooke just let out a breath and looked straight ahead again.
"Why me?" Brooke asked quietly as Ted sat beside her.
"What do you mean?"
"Aiden died. Lucas chose his ex in a very public and humiliating manner. What have I done to deserve this? I have the job, the friends, the family… but I just can't find someone to love me." She said as Ted's heart broke for her.
"What happened to Aiden and what Scott did is not on you. Life is cruel, and it is mean and you are a good person and one day, you'll get everything your heart desires." Ted boldly told her. He truly believed that was the case.
"I don't know about that… but I don't want to talk about it. Can we go home?" she asked sheepishly.
Ted gave her a soft smile. "Yeah. Let's get you home." He said as the stood up and Ted wrapped a protective arm around her as they left the hospital.
BRUCAS IS ENDGAME.
But they have some stuff to work through first...