Chapter Twenty- A Little Soul

A few months had passed, and things had been going relatively well in Raleigh—which made for a nice change. Brooke and Lucas were moving from strength to strength, happy that they could be together. They managed to keep their relationship on the down low because they didn't want to make a fuss—but everyone knew about it. They weren't as discrete as they thought.

Brooke lay in bed one Friday morning with a peaceful look upon her face. She was looking forward to this weekend as Victoria, Harrison and Matty were coming to Raleigh to visit. It had been a while since she had seen them and she was so excited. Though, admittedly, she was a little nervous about telling them she and Lucas were together again. She hadn't plucked up the courage over the past two months to confess the truth. She knew Matty knew cause he had like a 6th sense and kept making suggestive comments and she thought her mom was suspicious, but she hadn't outright said it yet because she knew it was a touchy subject.

She started to stir awake when she felt butterfly kisses travelling from her cheek to her neck. She rolled over and smile lightly with a groan.

"You are so beautiful in the morning" Lucas told her as he rested his chin on her arm.

Brooke chuckled and opened her eyes to see that he was knelling beside the bed completely dressed. "Stop it, get back into bed"

"I wish I could, but I have surgery and it's going to be a long one, so I might not see you tonight." He told her regretfully.

Brooke sighed; "That's ok, I have a busy day too. Lots of work to do before Mom and the boys arrive tomorrow. But I will feel oh so lonely in this big bed tonight..." She teased.

Lucas smirked; "I promise I'll be here when you wake up in the morning and tomorrow, we will make full use of this big bed..."

"I'm holding you to that." She whispered as he brushed her nose with his before kissing her softly.

"I love you"

"I love you too" she said as she smiled against his lips.

As Lucas left the room, Brooke sighed and snuggled back into bed. However, her face soon fell as she felt uneasy. She rushed out of bed and into the bathroom, before throwing up the contents of her stomach into the toilet.

A short while Later, Rachel came wandering up the stairs looking for her. She had a rare day off today and wanted to rub it in Brooke's face a little before she went into work.

"Brooke?" Rachel called down the hallway.

"Bathroom" she heard Brooke grumble as she walked down the hall and into the room to find Brooke hunched over the toilet bowl looking pale.

"Are you ok?" Rachel asked as she lifted a glass from the shelf and got her some water.

"I think I have the stomach flu. Can you get me some meds and saltines?" she asked her friend.

Rachel raised her eyebrows; "You want me to nurse you on my day off?"

"We can watch trashy TV all day?" Brooke suggested, knowing that that ought to sweeten the deal.

"… I'll be back in 15" Rachel said after contemplating it for a brief moment. She was going to watch trashy TV all day anyway, so it really made little difference to her.

"You are my hero..."

"Just—stay put. I don't want to have to clean up your vomit." Rachel said as she scrunched up her face.

"You're a terrible doctor."

Rachel scoffed, "it's totally different when it's a stranger's vomit…" she reasoned.

Meanwhile, at the hospital, Lucas was scrubbing in for his surgery when Nathan walked into the scrub room.

"Hey, is Brooke ok?" Nathan asked.

Lucas furrowed his eyebrows; "Yeah, why?"

"She called in sick this morning."

"Oh… she was fine when I left her." Lucas said, a little worried about her considering she was in a good mood this morning.

Nathan shrugged; "It's probably just a 24-hour thing. I'll check in on her Later—or you could do that. You are the boyfriend now. Which is weird." He said awkwardly. It wasn't that he didn't like Lucas, they were good friends, he just didn't like what he did to her. Brooke was like his little sister, he didn't want to see her get hurt again.

"Yeah…" Lucas replied, just as awkwardly.

"But you must really be into her, because you know the amount of people who will kick your ass if you screw up again is crazy." Nathan reminded him, knowing that it was a long list—that Nathan was at the top of.

"I love her man." Lucas told him sincerely. This was it for him, he could feel it in his bones. He'd felt it the moment he met her - but he screwed it up, he didn't listen to his gut - and he was so thankful that he was given this second chance.

"Good. Brooke needs love." Nathan told him as Lucas nodded knowing that never in his wildest dreams would he hurt her again.

"Hey, you made it out of the bathroom." Rachel greeted as she walked upstairs and found Brooke lying in her bed.

"Yeah, I feel a little better." Brooke said as she sat up and Rachel sat on the edge of the bed.

"Maybe it isn't the stomach flu."

"It's probably just a 24 hour thing." Brooke said with a shrug.

"Or something else…" Rachel said cryptically.

Brooke furrowed her eyebrows; "Like what?"

"Food poisoning… pregnancy." She said as she looked sheepishly at Brooke.

"Oh my god you think I'm pregnant?!" Brooke said with a laugh. There was no way that was true, Rachel was just winding her up - there was no way she believed it could be true either! Right?

"You and Lucas have been at it like rabbits since you got back together—" Rachel said as Brooke slumped into the bed in embarrassment. They had a lot to catch up on... and she certainly wasn't sorry about that.

"I am not pregnant." Brooke said with certainty. "I'm basically a foetus myself—"

"Brooke. You're 30. You are not practically a foetus." Rachel said with an eye roll. She really could be over dramatic when she wanted to be.

Brooke gulped as she started to the period math in her head. Could she really be pregnant? It seemed too unbelievable. She and Lucas had only been together for a few months, this couldn't be happening right now. They'd barely gotten their feed off the ground, it seemed ridiculous.

"I—I can't be pregnant." Brooke said quietly, as the reality of it sunk in.

Rachel smiled softly at her friend, seeing the fear spreading across her face. "Luckily for you, I went to the hospital and got some stuff for a blood test. I'll take it up to the lab and get them to push the results. We'll know by tonight." She said as she lifted the equipment out.

"I won't see Lucas tonight." Brooke said, worrying about telling him.

"That's ok." Rachel reassured her. "We can talk about it before you tell him."

"There will be nothing to tell him because I am not pregnant." Brooke said, trying to convince herself of the fact, but she had a funny feeling Rachel had maybe hit the mark…

As soon as Rachel got Brooke's blood, she rushed it to the hospital to get it checked that afternoon. After spending some more time with Brooke watching TV and snacking away, or in Brooke's case nibbling at saltines, Rachel came back to the hospital for the results. She was impatiently waiting at lab desk, just as Nathan walked past and eyed her curiously.

"Rachel?" he questioned as Rachel's eyes widened and she turned on her heel.

"Nathan. Hey!" she greeted awkwardly.

"Hey… it's your day off, what are you doing here?"

"I uh—I wanted to chase up some labs for a patient, make sure that everything's ok."

"What patient?" he asked as he crossed his arms.

Rachel silently cursed herself; "I—I totally forgot that I'm paired with you on rounds this week and all my patients are your patients…"

"Uh huh. So, you going to tell me the real reason you're being so sketchy?" he asked.

Rachel sighed; "I don't know if Brooke would—" she slipped.

"Wait, this is about Brooke? You have to tell me now." Nathan said, worried about his friend. Rachel, Nathan and Brooke often came as a trio - there wasn't much they didn't share with each other.

"Nathan—"

"Rachel. I'm serious. What's going on?"

"… Brooke might be pregnant so we're running a blood test to see if she is, though she is adamant that she's not, but I really think—"

"That's why she's not here?" Nathan asked.

"She thinks it's a 24-hour thing." Rachel explained.

Nathan nodded, knowing how much Brooke was probably freaking out right now and how much she needed someone to talk her through this.

"Ok. I'm going over there now." He said as he stuck his head through the hatch. "Steve! Get Dr. Gatina the results she needs, stat!" he demanded before rushing away.

Nathan soon made his way round to the house and knocked on Brooke's bedroom door. He opened the door and saw Brooke surrounded by snacks and watching the TV on the cabinet.

"Nathan? What are you doing here?" Brooke asked as she sat up straighter.

"You might be pregnant. Where else am I going to be?" he questioned as he sat beside her on the bed. He would always support her through thick and thin.

"Rachel told you?"

"Only because I pried it out of her, so don't be mad at her." Nathan requested.

"Honestly, it's probably just a 24-hour thing…" Brooke said as she twiddled her thumbs, not really believing herself anymore.

"Do you really believe that?" Nathan asked.

Brooke sighed; "I don't know. I'm scared Nathan." She told him honestly.

"I know. But it's ok. It's really ok." He said with a little smile. He didn't want Brooke to think that this was a terrible thing. It could be a really wonderful thing. He knew she'd always wanted to be a mom. Just because it wasn't planned didn't mean it wasn't special.

"I feel like a foetus myself, now there could be one inside me…"

"It's not like you're a child who doesn't have your life together. You love Lucas, he loves you, you're both grown adults, babies are an amazing thing—" Nathan assured her.

"Having kids is a huge deal Nathan, we've only just gotten back on track, we haven't had the big conversations yet. Now we might not get that chance, we're just going to have to deal with the cards we've been dealt. What if he doesn't want this?" Brooke asked quietly as her eyes glistened with tears. She never wanted Lucas to be put in an uncomfortable and unwanted decision.

"That boy would probably repopulate the world with you if you asked him too. He's crazy for you. Who cares about the timing, love is love." Nathan assured her. He and Lucas may have been good friends, but he would always put Brooke first and he would never lie to her. He saw clear as day how Lucas felt about her and he was determined to make her see it.

Brooke nodded. She figured that one day, this was something they would talk about. That someday they would have a family of their own. But now, it was being thrown upon them with no discussion.

"What if I'm a crappy mom?" Brooke asked.

"For such an intelligent girl Brooke, you can be really stupid" Nathan said as he shook his head.

"Oh gee thanks…" Brooke grumbled as she turned her shoulder away from him, but Nathan quickly pulled her back.

"I'm serious. You're an amazing sister to Ellie, you practically had a role in raising Matty - You were amazing, and you were so young. You are going to be the best mother in the world. I'd place money on it."

Brooke tried to smile softly at Nathan for his sincerity, but she struggled. "Thank you" she whispered, just as Rachel quietly walked into the room and held up the envelope.

"I got the results."

"I can't do it." Brooke said almost immediately as she shook her head.

"Yes you can—"

"No, no, I—I can't do it without Lucas. I need Lucas but I'm—I'm not going to see him till tomorrow." Brooke told them.

"His patient died this morning, he's out of surgery." Nathan told her.

Brooke sighed and closed her eyes; "Just what he needs. A dead patient and a pregnant Brooke." This could either be the best day or the worst day of Lucas's life.

"Go see him." Nathan encouraged her as she nodded and got out of bed.

Brooke paced the surgical wing, waiting for Lucas to come out surgery. She wasn't sure what she was going to say, she just hoped that in the moment it would come to her. Her head shot up when the door to the scrub room opened and Lucas appeared, surprised to see her.

"Hey" He greeted.

"Hey… I'm sorry about your patient." Brooke told him.

Lucas nodded; "Yeah, it sucks."

"Pretty tough day."

"Yeah. Are you feeling better?" he asked, remembering that Nathan had told him she called in sick.

"Yeah, a little." Brooke said as Lucas affectionately rubbed her arms.

"Must have been pretty bad to keep you off." Lucas said knowing that Brooke hated to miss work for any reason. She usually fought through any kind of sickness that she had. "Was it just a 24-hour thing?" he questioned.

"I'm not sure" she told him quietly as his face fell, seeing the worry that was spread across hers.

Lucas looked down at her hands and saw that she was holding a brown envelope. "What's that?" he asked as he pointed to it.

"I got a blood test. I don't want to make this day more difficult for you Lucas. But uh—I think I might be pregnant." She said, the words quickly flowing out of her mouth.

Lucas raised his eyebrows; "Oh. Wow." Was all he managed to say.

"Yeah, I know…"

"That's not exactly what I expected to hear today" he said with a little Laugh, trying to lighten the mood.

"I know it's a lot. I wanted to open the results with you and I know we haven't even gotten to a stage where we can talk about this kind of stuff but—I love you. No matter what and we are being dealt these cards for a reason. I truly believe that" she said as confidently as she could.

Lucas smiled at her and he ran his thumb across her cheek. He loved this woman so much. He wanted nothing more than to have a family with her—even if the timing didn't seem right.

"Let's find out." He encouraged as she nodded and opened the envelope, scanning the results.

"Oh my god"

Lucas's face fell; "What? Are you dying?" he panicked unnecessarily.

"No, no, I'm a little low on iron, but I'll get supplements for that—"

"Brooke—" Lucas grumbled. It drove him nuts sometimes when she went off in a tangent, especially in particularly important moments.

"Along with my prenatal vitamins." She told him as she finally looked up at him, a little stunned.

"You're—"

"I'm pregnant." She confirmed.

"Pregnant. We made a baby" he said, as he tried to process this news.

Brooke nodded; "We made a baby."

"We're having a baby." He repeated, before a huge grin graced his face and Brooke felt herself automatically smiling back at him.

"We're having a baby!" she said happily as he lifted her up and hugged her close. "Wait, wait, wait." She said as he set her down on the ground. "You're really ok with all of this?"

"You have always been my light at the end of the tunnel and being able to do this with you… it's exciting and I—I can't wait to start forever with you. I love you" he told her as he cupped her cheeks.

Brooke smiled widely again; "I love you too." She responded as he rested his forehead against hers.

"It's you and me pretty girl… now and forever." He whispered.

Maybe this hadn't been planned. Maybe the timing seemed off. But in that moment—nothing felt more right.

Brooke walked through the hospital corridors the following Friday morning, a little jittery. Victoria, and her brothers were due to arrive at any minute and while she was excited to see them, she was also nervous about telling them her big news. She wasn't sure how they would react. As if telling them she and Lucas were back together wasn't big enough, she was now dropping a baby bombshell on them too. It was bound to put their heads in a spin.

She saw Lucas come towards her with his head in one of the hospital tablets.

"Lucas" she called as he looked up, surprised to see her.

"Hey, what are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be meeting your mom and brothers?" he asked as he quickly kissed her cheek.

"Yeah but I have some stuff to do, so I just told them to meet me here." She said as she rubbed her arms and looked all around her.

Lucas eyed her curiously; "You're avoiding them."

"I—I am not avoiding them. I told them to meet me here, didn't I?"

"Yes, but you're in your scrubs. You want a quick escape from them when you tell them about the baby." He said, immediately clocking on to Brooke's fears and reservations. He really could read her very well.

"I just—I don't want them to freak out." Brooke replied honestly. "Especially Harry, you know how protective he can be and how weird he can be about you."

Lucas furrowed his eyebrows; "He's weird about me?"

Brooke screwed up her face; "Of course he's weird about you, you dumped me in front of a whole bunch of people."

"And I'm so glad we're able to move past that…" he mumbled. "They will be happy for us Brooke, I promise." He said as he wrapped his arm around her shoulder and kissed her head.

As they moved to walk on, Brooke suddenly stopped as Lucas turned to face her.

"What is it?" he asked when he saw the downtrodden look that graced her face.

"For a brief moment I panicked about how I was going to tell my dad." She said quietly. It was the easiest thing in the world to forget that he was no longer here. Lucas nodded softly. He knew this would come up at some point. He knew it would be hard for her to tell her family about the baby without Ted there.

Lucas rested his palm against her cheek and rubbed it softly with his thumb. "He would be happy for us too."

"I don't know, his little girl pregnant? I think he'd be freaked out." She said with a little chuckle. This was the guy who almost had a heart attack when Brooke got her ears pierced when she was 13.

"Brooke!" they heard from behind Lucas as he turned around and they saw Victoria, Harry and Matty walking towards them. Any fears Brooke had about telling her family disappeared in that moment as a huge smile broke out on her face and she rushed towards her mom.

"Mom" she said as she held her mother tightly. She had missed her hugs and the scent of her perfume and just her.

"Oh honey, I've missed you so much!" Victoria said as she released Brooke from the hug and took her hands to get a good look at her. "Look at you, you're glowing!"

Brooke laughed awkwardly; "Yeah well, good facial cream…" she joked before turning to her brothers "Harry, Matty!" she greeted with the warmest smile on her face as she hugged her brothers simultaneously.

"The three musketeers reunited." Harrison joked.

"And ready to cause mischief no doubt." Brooke teased as Victoria sighed. She would expect mischief from Matty—but not from her two grown children. "Mom, you remember Lucas" Brooke said, remembering her boyfriend was still standing behind them.

"Of course, hi Lucas." Victoria said as warmly as she could, surprised to see him with Brooke.

"Dr. Davis." Lucas greeted, feeling the little bit of tension in the air.

"Lucas and I are dating again" Brooke blurted out unexpectedly, as everyone looked at her with wide eyes – even Lucas.

"You- you two? You're back together?" Matty asked, looking for some clarification. He may hav been making jokes about it but he wasn't serious.

"Yep…" Brooke said with a pop of her lips.

"… awesome!" Matty said as he clapped hands with Lucas who couldn't help but smile. He and Matty had always gotten on rather well.

"I uh—I did not expect this news" Victoria said with a little laugh. "I guess you should start calling me Victoria again if you're going to be dating my daughter."

Lucas nodded his head, acknowledging that that was all the support Victoria could muster right now.

"You can call me Dr. Davis though." Harrison joked as he shook Lucas's hand, much to Brooke's surprise. Harrison then winked at Brooke, as his way of saying he was glad they had worked things out. She wasn't really sure what to expect from her family, but this wasn't it. She expected her mother and Harrison to go off in one, but they were oddly subdued. Maybe they were more on board with Lucas than they'd let on.

At that moment, Bevin walked past and smiled when she saw Brooke. "Brooke, are you feeling better?"

"Oh yeah, much better, thank you." Brooke said as Bevin smiled and walked on.

Concern spread over Victoria's face; "You were sick?"

"No, no, not really—"

"What do mean not really? You're either sick or you're not…" Matty said as if that were obvious.

"Well—" Brooke said as she looked to Lucas for support. He nodded his head as he hand rested on the small of her back. "I'm actually—pregnant." Brooke revealed as all three of their mouths fell open and they froze entirely.

"Pregnant?" Harrison managed to muster out.

Brooke took in a breath before simply replying; "Yeah"

"… woah." Matty muttered.

"About 8 weeks." Brooke revealed. She finally looked up at her mother and saw that her eyes were glistening with tears and the smallest most sincere smile graced her face. She watched as Lucas' hand drifted from her back to Brooke's shoulder and her daughter looked up and smiled at him ever so softly. In that one simple gesture, Victoria could see just how much they loved each other. It had been such a long time since she'd seen Brooke look at somebody that way. Despite everything that had happened – she really couldn't ask for more for her daughter. It was clear that this was meant to be.

Victoria's hand rested over her heart; "My baby's having a baby?"

Brooke allowed a smile to creep onto her face "Yeah. I am."

Victoria immediately walked forward and hugged Lucas and Brooke tightly.

"This is so exciting. Congratulations." She said so only they could hear.

"My little sister is having a baby…" Harrison mumbled before Victoria shot round and put her hands on her hips.

"Harrison, you need to keep in mind that Brooke is 30 now and I was significantly younger than that when you were born, she is a grown adult—" Victoria defended before Harrison stopped her with a smile.

"I'm going to be an uncle." He said happily as he hugged Brooke before shaking Lucas's hand again. "You are going to be the most amazing mom and Lucas—you'll be alright at the dad thing I guess." He teased.

Lucas chuckled; "Thanks Davis."

"I have a question." Matty piped up. "Does it feel weird? Having an alien growing inside of you?"

Brooke frowned deeply; "Matty, don't call me baby an alien!" she whined as she rested her hand across her stomach.

Matty held his hands up; "They look like aliens."

"Matty!" Brooke whined again.

"Ok, no more calling Brooke's baby an alien." Victoria concluded.

"Also, can you not tell anyone yet about this? Especially in this hospital, things are a little sensitive at the minute—" Brooke said as she looked awkwardly at Lucas.

"With Peyton?" Harrison boldly asked. Truthfully, neither of them had really spoken to Peyton, but the room was always filled with tension if they were both working on the same patient in the ER. It was kind of unavoidable considering Peyton was a trauma attending.

"Yeah… I'd rather wait till things cool down a little before announcing this to the world." Brooke told them. She figured the gossip would be wild when this got out, so she wanted to keep it between them for as long as possible.

"You secret is safe with us." Victoria assured them with a wink.

"Ok. Now, we have to go down to day care so you can all see Maya, she is just gorgeous." Brooke said as she linked arms with her brothers and began walking through the hospital.

Despite the visit from her family, Kate had managed to rope Brooke in to helping with an old patient of Ted's. Her name was Alyssa Monroe. She had been admitted to the hospital almost 15 years ago and now she's back with the same recurring tumour invading her heart.

As Brooke stood in Alyssa's room looking through her charts, Alyssa was eyeing her curiously.

"You look familiar" Alyssa said as Brooke looked up.

"Sorry?"

"There's something familiar about your eyes."

Brooke nodded, realising that she had seen Ted in her eyes. "I uh—I have my dad's eyes and he was the guy Davis. Your previous doctor." Brooke explained with a small smile.

"Oh, you're Brooke" Alyssa said happily.

Brooke looked at her curiously; "Yeah… how did you-?"

"Oh he was always talking about you and your brothers to me." Alyssa told her off handily as if it wasn't that big of a deal—but it was. It was a huge deal. She'd barely had a relationship with her dad when he first got here and the fact that Alyssa even remembered him talking about them was remarkable.

"Oh. I didn't—I didn't think he spoke about us when he first got here." Brooke confessed quietly.

"Oh yeah. He basically worshipped the ground you guys walked. There was Harrison, the eldest, he was a bit of a bad boy, then the youngest Matty, he was a bundle of joy, and then you—Brooke. The golden girl. Apple of his eye." Alyssa said.

"That sounds about right." She heard Kate say as she walked into the room and Brooke playfully rolled her eyes.

"He was super proud of you guys. I'm sorry for your loss." Alyssa said sincerely.

Brooke nodded; "Thank you." She said. Not just for the condolences. But for her story. For telling her that her father was proud of them. So proud that he talked about them to a young patient of his. It was evident that he loved them more than anything on this earth.

Nathan stood at one of the nurses' stations when Lucas approached him and handed him his phone.

"What do you think about me buying a boat?" Lucas said as Nathan looked at the yacht that appeared on his screen.

"You're going to have a baby in 7 months Scott, the last thing you need is a boat." Nathan said truthfully. Why the hell did he want a boat?

Lucas sighed. For the past little while, he had felt that he needed something more in his life. He was always consumed his relationships and he felt like he needed his own thing, his own safe space for when he was feeling overwhelmed – whether that was a hobby or just a brand spanking new boat. Being a Scott and a hot shot plastic surgeon certainly had its financial perks.

"I need something new. The old is gone, this is a new chapter—" Lucas began rambling.

"Brooke's not exactly new though is she—" Nathan clapped back as Lucas rolled his eyes.

"New girlfriend, new baby, new hobby." He reasoned.

"A yacht isn't a hobby, it's a luxury." Nathan responded. "Golf is a hobby"

"Golfing doctors is such a cliché." Lucas grumbled as he took his phone from Nathan. "Brooke would kill me if I bought a boat. You know, Kirk always wanted me to try golf and Brooke loves Kirk so…" he reasoned.

"Just – don't buy a boat dude. Just golf. Or better yet – basketball" Nathan suggested.

"Basketball? Doesn't that require, you know, a team?" he reminded Nathan.

"I'll play with you, one on one, there's a court down by the river" Nathan said. "Fair warning though, I played in high school and I'm pretty good…"

"Fair warning – so did I." Lucas said returning his smirk. "And football, baseball, little bit of wrestling…"

"Ok Mr. Hotshot, don't you have some boobs to enhance or something?" Nathan sniped.

Lucas chuckled, "You're on for that one on one."

"Prepare to have your ass whipped!" he shouted after Lucas as the nurses looked at him funnily.

"I told my mom and brothers about the baby." Brooke confessed to Rachel and Haley as they sat in the canteen that afternoon for lunch

They both raised their eyebrows, "How did it go?" Haley asked.

"They took it better than I thought they would, especially considering I was dropping the I'm back with Lucas bomb on them at the same time. I was convinced Harry was going to punch Lucas, but they were actually really happy for me. I think they saw how happy I was and it just really put me at ease." Brooke explained, glad that things were going smoothly. Now, she only had to dread the rest of the hospital finding out. It wasn't exactly something she could keep a secret forever. "Though I am dreading the rest of the hospital finding out. In particular Peyton who will probably rip my heart out of my chest and I'd very much like it to stay there."

"She has no right to get mad." Rachel reasoned.

Brooke grimaced; "Rachel, I slept with her boyfriend—"

"Ex-boyfriend, they were so beyond done when you got back together." Rachel reminded her. "You really need to get some perspective Brooke"

"Yeah, it's not like we pined after each other for like a year before that—" Brooke reminded them.

"I would hardly call Peyton and Lucas' relationship a relationship in the last year. Besides, you didn't actually do anything. You're allowed to be friends with whoever you want." Haley encouraged. "Sure, people will be all up your business about it. It's inevitable in this place. You just have to find a way to blank it out. There are plenty of people around here who have your back anyway."

"Though on the subject of Lucas, he was looking up boats last night—do you think he wants a boat to get away from me?" Brooke asked dramatically.

"I think he's realised just how much money he has sitting in the bank account and figured he may as well spend it on something extravagant." Rachel suggested.

"Or, he just wants something new in his life." Haley said, seeing a deeper meaning in everything. "New girlfriend, new baby—new boat." Haley said, repeating the words Nathan had told her Lucas had said.

"… that's what he told Nathan, isn't it?" Brooke asked as Haley nodded sheepishly. "I mean—I guess a boat could be pretty cool." Brooke said with a shrug, not entirely against the idea.

Lucas was walking down the hallway when he spotted Victoria standing at the other end, staring right at him. He cautiously walked towards her and greeted her.

"Hi Victoria—"

"You left my daughter for someone else." Victoria stated.

Lucas gulped; "uh—yes, yes, but I—"

"Then you left that someone else for my daughter." Victoria stated again.

Lucas wondered where this was going. "Actually, I left Peyton for myself—"

"Then you got my daughter pregnant."

Lucas soon realised that this wasn't a discussion. "… yes."

"You are a walking cautionary tale." Victoria said as she shook her head and crossed her arms. It was like she was taking the time to actually digest everything that Brooke had been through with Lucas, cause it almost didn't seem real.

"I mean—"

"Kirk Walker." Victoria interrupted again. "He loves Brooke like a daughter." Victoria and Kirk may not have always seen eye to eye, but when it came to her children, he always exercised good judgement in what was good for them. "And he is very fond of you."

Lucas nodded. He missed having Kirk around greatly. They still kept in touch and swore that one day they would complete some research together, but it wasn't quite the same being in plastics without the other half of the dynamic duo. "I'm very fond of him too." He said sincerely as Victoria's face softened.

"When he finds out about you two... he will be jumping for joy." He said with the smallest glint in her eye. "I like you Lucas. I think you're good for her. Just don't screw it up again." Victoria said as she walked on.

Lucas smiled; "Yes ma'am."

He was going to take that as her seal of approval.

That night, Brooke joined her mom and her brothers outside of the hospital at one the picnic tables. They used to do this in New York. The five of them would just sit down and debrief their days. It felt a little strange sitting here now without Ted.

"Man, I am exhausted." Brooke said as she sat beside Victoria. She'd been in a long surgery and in hindsight, realised it probably wasn't the best idea in the world, but she wasn't feeling in any mood to stop.

"You need to take it easy. No more clipping aneurysms for hours on end." Victoria told her.

"Oh, come on, Foster promised that the next one would be mine and I have a whole village of people looking out for me." Brooke assured her. The people in this hospital really were like family to her. "I do miss you guys though. All the time." She said quietly.

"Well there's always a home for you in New York…" Victoria said, desperate to all three of her kids back into the city.

"I never thought I would admit it but—Raleigh is the most at home I have ever felt. As much as I love New York—this is my place. This is where I belong." Brooke said sincerely.

"Does it get easier? Walking around this place without dad?" Matty asked. Even he had found it difficult being there for a day, he wasn't sure how Brooke did it.

"Not really. But uh… I treated a patient of his from years ago today. She said he spoke about us to her. How he was so proud of us. He did a lot of good work here. A lot of work that we should honour and continue. Dad will never really be gone. He lives on through us." Brooke said as they all smiled at her, knowing in their hearts, Ted Davis would never truly be gone.