Hi everyone! So glad you've enjoyed the past few chapters. Things are moving FAST, but I feel like I dragged things out long enough... why not get into the good stuff?!
Currently trying to pick a name for baby Scott... I think I know what i'm going to go for... but it's HARD lol any suggestions for a boy or a girl are welcome!
This is a super long chapter because I couldn't decide where to split it - so just think of it as two chapters for the price of one!
Enjoy
Chapter Twenty-One- Cautious Optimism
"Hey" Lucas greeted Nathan as he joined him in one of the paediatric patient's rooms.
"Hey what's up?"
"Do you uh—do you think I should tell Peyton about the baby?" Lucas asked quietly. It had been weighing on his mind a lot for the past little while. The news still hadn't spread around the hospital, but he knew it was only a matter of time before people started talking and they would have to tell people. Lucas wondered if this was something Peyton should hear from him rather than from someone else.
"It might be a little rough for her to hear it from someone else, but at the same time a knife in the chest coming from you." Nathan said bluntly, helping Lucas weigh things up.
"Man this is complicated." Lucas said as he ran a hand down his face. "I want to be openly happy about this, I want to talk about it, it's annoying me that I can't just do it."
"Brooke's what? 14 weeks now? Soon enough, the bump will do all the talking."
"She's going to be hurt either way, huh" Lucas said with a sigh. They may not have been in a good place, but he was still sensitive to her feelings.
Nathan gave him a sympathetic look. "Yeah. It's going to hurt her."
No matter when it happened, it was going to hurt when Lucas or Peyton moved on. He just happened to be first, and it just happened to be quite soon. He just wished he didn't have to feel so anxious about welcoming his own child into the world.
At that moment Brooke walked in with a confused look on her face. "Hey, we're all hearing dogs, right? I'm not going crazy?" she asked.
"Once a month a rescue centre brings in some puppies for the kids. Boosts morale, and healing and crap." Nathan grumbled.
"Seriously? Man, I'm on paeds today…" Brooke groaned.
"You don't like dogs?" Nathan questioned.
"No, I love dogs, I just don't do dogs at work. It's bad enough having to deal with human bodily fluids, I don't need dog fluids on me too." Brooke justified as she scrunched up her nose and Lucas chuckled.
"Well you're probably going to need to get used to having bodily fluids over you that aren't your own, especially baby bodily fluids" Lucas reminded her as he gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and left.
When Brooke was sure Lucas was gone, she turned to Nathan, using this opportunity to get advice from him too.
"Hey, I have a question about the baby and I'm a little nervous about talking to Lucas about it cause he's a little anxious about the whole thing anyway and about Peyton finding out—"
"What's up?" Nathan asked to stop her from rambling.
"I'm thinking about getting some tests done to make sure everything is ok with the baby." Brooke asked cautiously. "My family has a history of genetic defects and I just want to make sure everything's ok. Do you think it's a good idea?"
"Yeah. I think it is. The earlier you discover these things the better. But you need to talk to Lucas about it first. You've got to make these decisions together." Nathan wisely advised.
Brooke knew Nathan was right, but she didn't know how to approach it. She almost felt like she would be bursting their happy bubble, but she also felt like there was no harm in being sensible and cautious about the pregnancy.
"Yeah, you're right… man, being in a relationship is hard work huh?" Brooke joked as Nathan chuckled.
"Imagine actually having to properly communicate with someone else, it's almost as if we were adults…" he joked back as Brooke playfully rolled her eyes and left the room.
Brooke left the bathroom after trying to scrub the dog urine off her hands and soon spotted Lucas at one of the nurse's stations. She took a breath and approached him, realising it was best to just speak to him. She shouldn't be afraid to speak to him. She knew he would be understanding about this, she just didn't want to panic him and make him think something was wrong when it wasn't.
"Hey, can I talk to you about something?" she asked as she lent on the desk.
"Yeah, what's up?" he asked as he put his tablet down and looked at her.
"I—"
"You bitch!" Brooke heard behind her as she turned around.
Slap.
Peyton palm connected with Brooke's cheek as everyone around them fell silent.
Lucas quickly reacted; "Peyton!" he shouted as he pulled Brooke back.
Peyton pointed vehemently at Brooke; "You're pregnant. Pregnant!"
Peyton—" Brooke began, wanting to speak rationally about this.
"Tell me honestly, did you sleep together while we were still together? Why am I even asking that, of course you did and now you're having a baby? God! You are a liar Lucas." Peyton said, now directing her anger at Lucas.
"We didn't sleep together while we were still together, we only started something afterwards –" Lucas informed her. It was the truth. They hadn't done anything.
"Like that changes the fact you still wanted her!"
"Peyton, this isn't you—" Lucas said, knowing that it was so unlike Peyton to lose her head like this, he understood why she was upset, but this was too far. She was causing such a scene.
"I never want to see either of you again you—you pieces of shit." Peyton spat.
Brooke reached out to her; "Peyton—"
"Don't you dare touch me."
Brooke sighed. She had been slapped and called a piece of shit—there was no reasoning with her. Maybe some home truths would make her calm down.
"Peyton, you have no right to be mad. A little sad maybe. But mad? No. You're the one who walked away. You're the one who pushed Lucas to move on. You were too late. You can't punish us for your mistakes." Brooke said honestly. She looked down at her feet, not wanting to get angry with her. She understood Peyton's emotions right now— she'd lost Lucas once herself, but she wasn't going to let her make her feel bad for bringing a life into this world.
"This baby is happening." Brooke said quietly. "And he or she is going to be incredibly loved because they deserve nothing less than that. I am sorry for the pain that you are in… but this is not the way to deal with it."
Brooke looked around her and saw that everyone was staring. She let out a breath and ran a hand across her forehead, before walking away from everyone, to take a moment to breathe.
Brooke walked into the bathroom to inspect the red mark she knew was on her cheek and stopped in her tracks when she saw Kate—doing jumping jacks by the sinks.
"… why?" Brooke simply asked.
"Got to wake up, just got called in to do a triple organ transplant." Kate explained as Brooke nodded and closed the door behind her. "Why is your face all red?" Kate asked with a furrowed eyebrow as Brooke looked in the mirror and grimaced.
"Sawyer slapped me."
Kate stopped her jumping jacks and looked at her; "Why?"
"… she found out I'm pregnant." Brooke said cautiously as Kate's eyes widened.
"You're pregnant?"
"yeah…"
"When were you doing to tell me?!" Kate said, completely taken aback by this news.
"When the waters were a little calmer around here, though I'm starting to sense I would have given birth and raised the kid before that happened." Brooke confessed as she leaned against the sink.
"You're pregnant. And Sawyer slapped you. She can't do that. She can't slap a pregnant woman. All personal feelings aside. I'm going to slap her." Kate said, getting out her thought process.
"Kate—"
"Brooke, you are my family, I protect my family, Ted would be rolling in his grave if I let this slide!"
Brooke smiled softly. She couldn't quite believe that Kate was defending her so fiercely.
"Kate, I promise you, I am fine." She insisted. "I stood up for myself, I said what I needed to say. Honestly, I'm kind of glad it's out there, it's like a weight lifted off my shoulders, I can actually start preparing myself for this." She confessed.
Kate calmed down and smiled widely at her; "You're having a baby"
Brooke chuckled; "Yeah"
"A Davis-Scott baby." Kate said with wide eyes. "That baby is going to have like special powers or something."
Brooke laughed; "Oh probably…" she joked along.
"Come here" Kate said as she hugged her step daughter tightly. Kate knew Ted would just be completely over joyed for her right now. "Congratulations Brooke" she said quietly.
"Thank you. So uh, any word from Danvers?" Brooke asked, knowing that Kate had given her number to a doctor she met a few days ago.
"Actually… we have a thing. Tomorrow night. Drinks."
Brooke gave her a lopsided smirk; "getting back on the horse huh? Well Danvers is a hot horse, I'll give you that." she said with a wink.
"No one is getting on a horse. It is going to be weird." Kate confessed. She really wasn't sure how she felt about the whole thing.
"At first it will be a little weird, but not bad weird and Kate this is a good thing. Getting back out there—it will be good." Brooke insisted. She didn't want Kate to be afraid to put herself out there for the rest of her life. "I can't believe I'm encouraging this, now that's something that would cause my dad to roll over in his grave." Brooke joked as Kate rolled her eyes and they left the bathroom to get back to the real world.
Shortly after Brooke had disappeared, Peyton too made a quick escape, but Lucas was quickly storming through the hospital corridors looking for her. It didn't take long to find her in the ER as he quickly walked over to her. As soon as Peyton spotted him however, she was quick to get the first word in before he could berate her.
"Were you ever going to tell me?" she asked.
"Yes, I was going to tell you today actually—"
"I can't believe you would do this to me—"
"We haven't been together for over a year, we've been broken up for 5 months. I haven't done anything to you. And where do you get off thinking you can slap Brooke? She's pregnant for God's sake!"
"Oh don't I know it! That is like a knife to the chest Lucas, how could you?" Peyton pleaded.
Lucas tightened his jaw, feeling is anger bubble inside. "You're seriously mad at me for moving on? You wanted me to sit around and pine after you? How heartless can you get Peyton?" he asked as Peyton looked to her feet and bit her lip to contain her emotions. "I know you're hurt, I understand that, but this baby—it's innocent in all of this. A baby is a wonderful thing and I'm not going to apologise for that baby not being yours. I'm not going to apologise for falling in love with someone who was able to love me back." He said honestly as they soon realised the rest of the ER had fallen silent.
Lucas looked up and saw Brooke standing a little distance away from them. She looked to the ground before turning and walking away. She made her way into an empty room to take a moment to herself, but Haley was on her tail, seeing that she was upset.
"Brooke" she said as she turned around and looked at him, her eyes glistening with tears.
"I guess it's out there now." Brooke mumbled, knowing that the whole of hospital would have heard of both incidences.
"Yeah. It is."
"I know it's messy. God, I know. I didn't plan for this to happen. Having a baby is something I want to be happy about but I feel—I feel awful and I know Lucas does too. I shouldn't feel guilty about this—but I do." Brooke confessed.
Haley rested her hands on Brooke's arms. "You couldn't help that you fell in love Brooke. You couldn't help that you were blessed with this miracle. Cause that's what this baby is. A blessing, a miracle. Don't let her take away from your joy."
Brooke nodded as she allowed the tears to fall down her face. Haley quickly pulled Brooke into a tight hug to try and comfort her, but she figured the only person who could really make this better was Lucas.
The door behind them open and they broke apart to see him standing sheepishly in the frame.
"I'll leave you too to talk." Haley said quietly as she smiled softly at Brooke before leaving the room.
"Hey" Brooke said quietly as she dried the last of her tears.
"Hey. Are you ok?" he asked as he walked closer towards her.
"I'm fine—"
"Let me see your cheek" he said as he ran his thumb over it.
"It's fine Lucas—"
"She was so out of line… maybe you should hit her with a gurney." He joked lightly as Brooke smirked and rolled her eyes, thinking back to when she accidentally hit Lucas with one.
"Funny. Lucas—I know things are messy between you and Peyton and I'm sorry if I've made that more difficult for you because I know you wanted to have her back as a friend—"
"No, no you haven't caused any difficulty for me. Peyton was the one who flipped a switch." Lucas said as he ran his hands up and down her arms. "I wouldn't take us back for anything. We're here and we're in love and we're having a baby and that is an amazing thing." Lucas reminded her.
"Before everything went down, I uh—I wanted to talk to you about something. I was talking to Nathan about getting some genetic testing done." She told him.
Lucas nodded. "Ok"
"I know it's a heavy subject and maybe it's something you're not ready to talk about but—"
"No, no you're right to bring it up. We should get the tests. It's better to know early." He agreed. Things may have been a little emotional right now but that didn't mean they couldn't be sensible.
Brooke nodded. "I'll set up an appointment."
Lucas lent forward and rested his forehead against Brooke's.
"I know you take the weight of the world onto your shoulders Brooke, but you don't have to do that anymore. I am here. I will always be here and you will never have to take on anything on your own. It's you and me. Always."
"Always." Brooke repeated.
Lucas let himself smile softly; "let's be happy Brooke. Let's not live in worry or fear."
"Ok"
Lucas bent down and kissed her with great love and care. She was his forever, no matter what came their way.
"I think she knows" Lucas whispered cryptically into Brooke's ear a few weeks later, causing her to jump slightly.
"Who knows what?" she asked.
"I think my mother knows about the baby." He said as Brooke's eyes widened. In the midst of all the chaos, Lucas managed to forget to tell the other most important woman in his life – his mother. He had wondered who spilled the beans – he had a funny feeling it was Victoria. It was definitely the sort of thing she would bring up on their occasional phone calls thinking she knew.
"I can't believe you didn't tell her. I thought she liked me, I don't see what the issue is." Brooke said. "And… it was totally my mother who spilled, I would place money on it." Brooke said as Lucas nodded his head in agreement.
"First of all, that's what I thought, second of all, she does like you Brooke." Lucas responded. Truth was, despite their rocky start, Karen was a big fan of Brooke's. She had always been convinced that they would end up together—even after the whole Peyton debacle. "It's just—it's all been a little messy and now she's going to be mad at me for not telling her right away."
"It will be fine Lucas, I promise." Brooke said as she lightly kissed his cheek and walked over to the nurse's station. When she got there, she suddenly turned back, remembering she had to ask Lucas for a consult, but when she turned she noticed he had started to talking to a pretty scrub nurse whom she hadn't seen before. She felt the jealousy rise in a little, but more than that – she started to really crave him.
Rachel soon approached her; "Hey, when's your ultrasound?" she asked, knowing they were going for one today. All their tests had come back fine, so this was just a precautionary screening.
"This afternoon" Brooke said as she continued to stare at Lucas, her leg shaking.
"Why are you so jittery?" Rachel asked.
"Lucas is really hot. Isn't he hot?" Brooke asked. The navy scrubs really made his eyes pop and Brooke was amazed that she actually knew someone who could pull scrubs off.
Rachel raised her eyebrows; "Uh—"
"Our baby is going to be so beautiful. Who's the girl?" Brooke asked, as Lucas laughed at something the nurse said.
"Oh, that's Emily, she's the new scrub nurse in plastics." Rachel explained as Brooke narrowed her eyes.
"Hm…"
Rachel soon caught on that Brooke was feeling a little horny and a little jealous—and it was a deadly combo. She chuckled; "Brooke, remember, you are not the jealous type—"
"Yeah, there's nothing to be jealous about. They spend super long surgeries together and now they're laughing. No big deal." Brooke said as she started to walk towards them.
"Brooke—"
"I have a lot of hormones…" Brooke mouthed to Rachel before turned back around and coming face to face with Lucas and Emily. "Hey!" she greeted happily.
"Hey Brooke, this is Emily our new scrub nurse."
"Hi" Brooke greeted pleasantly as she shook Emily's hand before turning to Lucas; "Could I borrow you for a second?"
"Sure…" he said as Brooke grabbed his hand and pulled him along to one of the on call rooms.
"What's up?" Lucas asked as he closed the door and Brooke pushed Lucas against it, kissing him passionately as her hands held onto his face and his hands roamed around her hips.
She pulled away briefly as their noses grazed and identical smirks formed on their faces.
"What was that for?" Lucas asked as Brooke quickly got rid of his shirt.
"You're really hot. Like really hot and I am really horny. Emily was getting flirty. I need you, now." She said as she turned them around and pulled Lucas onto the bed with her.
Lucas smirked; "These baby hormones are amazing…"
Just as Brooke was about to remove her shirt, the door swung open and their eyes widened—when they saw an unimpressed Karen Scott standing in the door frame.
"My goodness, we are getting ourselves into an interesting little habit here." Karen said, referring to the almost identical situation she caught them in the first time they met.
"Mom"
"Dr. Scott, hi" Brooke said as she pushed Lucas off her, stood up and desperately tried to fix herself while Lucas quickly lifted his shirt and put it back on.
"Brooke. It's wonderful to see you." Karen said sincerely. "You know it is so cold and sleeting back east, it's just dreadful." Brooke and Lucas eyed her curiously. That was really all she had to say?
"So… you came to Raleigh for some sun?" Lucas asked. This definitely wasn't the place for sun.
"I came to Raleigh for my son. I believe you two have something to share with me?" Karen asked with raised eyebrows and arms folded.
Brooke and Lucas shifted awkwardly in their positions as Lucas rubbed the back of his neck; "Yeah, uh - mom - you're going to be a grandmother." He said happily as Brooke smiled too.
"I know." Karen simply replied. Was that it? I know? Where were the questions? Where was the shouting? Where was the meddling?
"What are you doing?" Lucas asked, knowing that something wasn't quite right here.
Karen shrugged; "What do you mean what am I doing?"
"You're not trying to meddle. Why aren't you trying to meddle?" he asked as he folded his arms, meeting her detached stance.
"Oh Lucas, I believe you went through two break ups without me meddling." Karen reminded him abruptly, as Brooke just wanted to jump into a hole at this stage. "and despite what you may think—I am very happy for you two." She said with the softest of smiles before leaving the room.
Brooke and Lucas looked at each other, not sure what to make of that little interaction.
"I'm not going to lie—I have no idea what she really thinks about this." Brooke replied.
"Yeah, first she's all passive aggressive and then the next thing she's saying she's happy?" Lucas questioned. Also entirely unsure of his mother's position on the whole thing.
"Well this is going to be an interesting day."
Later that afternoon, Brooke walked into the resident's lounge and immediately sat down at the table. She was exhausted after her surgery. This being pregnant thing was a killer when it came to even three-hour surgeries. Though she wasn't sure she could ever admit that.
"When I was pregnant with Lucas and Lily a three-hour surgery felt like twelve." She heard Karen confess as she turned around and saw her walk into the lounge.
Brooke gave her a tight-lipped smile; "I'm trying not to let it show."
"Well you look good to me. Sometimes my feet were so swollen, I was physically unable to take my sneakers off. A few times I slept in the damn things." Karen said with a laugh as she sat opposite her. "How many weeks are you now?"
"14" Brooke replied.
"Morning sickness?"
"A little at the start, but not a lot. I've been pretty lucky."
"You are lucky, I couldn't stop being sick, with both Lucas and Lily. I thought I was coming down with the stomach flu or something. You'd think as a doctor I would be more in tune with what was going on with me, but no… it's true what they say – doctors really do make the worst patients. We're so reluctant to diagnose ourselves." Karen confessed. "I was pretty shocked when I found out."
Brooke was pleasantly surprised by Karen's honesty in this moment. It was like she was talking to a friend, and not a mother-in-law she was terrified of.
"Yeah, its uh—it's definitely startling. Lucas and I opened the test results together and it was just—the craziest feeling." Brooke said with a warm smile that Karen returned. Since they were being honest, Brooke decided to go further; "Karen, I know this probably isn't the life you pictured for your son but—I'm crazy about him and I am so excited to have this life with him"
Karen reached across the table and held Brooke's hands in hers; "Brooke, I know I've never been easy on you, but it's because I just saw so much potential in you. You are full of passion and love and what more could I want for my son? Truth be told, I think you two were always meant to be together. Lucas just hadn't seen things through with Peyton, and he needed to do that in order to see you on the other side. I'm happy for you two and I am so excited to be a grandmother."
Brooke could have sworn she saw Karen's eyes glisten with tears of joy and she felt the emotions bubble inside herself too. "I'm really glad."
Brooke felt her smile fade as a wave of nausea came over her.
"Are you ok honey? You look a little pale?" Karen asked.
"Yeah, I don't—I don't feel so good—" Brooke said as she tried to stand up—but then everything went black.
Rachel walked down the hallways of the hospital on her way to check in on a patient when Lucas turned the corner in her direction. She smirked at him and crossed her arms; "How did you manage to escape the horny hands of Brooke Davis?"
Lucas chuckled; "Even a horny Brooke knows that as surgeons, we have to perform surgeries."
"I see…"
"I think I'm going to like this pregnancy thing…" Lucas said with a smirk.
"Yeah, just wait till she hits the 8 month mark and she's complaining about not being able to see her feet - you won't be saying that. Don't forget about her sonogram later." Rachel warned.
"I won't—"
"I'm just checking, you'll probably end up scheduling a surgery by accident—"
"Why would I do that? You're an annoying best friend." Lucas said with a pout.
Rachel shrugged; "That's my job."
Lucas's phone beeped as he looked at it and his face fell.
"What's wrong?" Rachel asked, seeing the worry spread across his face.
"I gotta go." Lucas said as he quickly rushed away from her.
Lucas paced the OB's exam room while Brooke lay in the bed. She had come around from when she passed out, but she still felt nauseous.
"Lucas, would you stop pacing?" Brooke begged.
"You passed out Brooke, that's something to pace about."
"Everything is fine, I was just a little dehydrated!"
"I'll wait for Dr. Johnson's verdict." He said, referring to Brooke's OB.
Brooke rolled her eyes and slumped back on the exam chair. He was overreacting. Everything was fine.
"You need to stay away from surgery, standing on your feet all day is not good for you." Lucas advised.
"Yeah, that's not happening—" She was a surgeon, she had to perform surgeries, she wanted to perform surgeries.
"You've been sticking with neuro recently and the surgeries are long, you can't be on your feet for that length of time—"
"You are over reacting Lucas, I'm fine!" she said, again, growing more and more frustrated.
"I'm being cautious. You can come into my surgeries, but you're sitting every half hour—"
"Lucas, stop!"
Before their disagreement could develop any further, Dr. Johnson walked into the room with Brooke's test results. Brooke insisted that a normal OB would be fine, but Lucas wanted her to have the best, and Johnson was the best.
"Dr. Johnson, can you please tell Lucas that I'm fine and he can stop being a control freak?"
"I wish I could Brooke—"
Brooke's face fell and Lucas immediately stopped pacing as the mood in the room shifted. "What? What's wrong?"
"You have placenta previa. Obviously, it's too soon to be getting alarmed. You're only 14 weeks and it could rectify itself before the baby is ready to be born. Do you need me to go over the risks?" Johnson asked as Brooke looked down at her hands.
"I know what it means." She mumbled.
"You need to be really careful Brooke. Nothing strenuous. I'm going to have to put you on pelvic rest." Johnson told her.
"So no more vaginal exams… or sex" Brooke confirmed as Lucas's head shot up.
"Sex?" he asked with a gulp.
"Yep" Johnson confirmed.
"That—that's ok. 6 months is fine." Lucas said with a shrug.
"You say that now…" Brooke grumbled, knowing this was going to frustrate him (and admittedly her too, they could hardly keep their hands off each other most days).
"No long surgeries, no lifting anything heavy—basically the only thing you can do around here is typical clinic duties. Minimal activity. Nothing that can make you stressed. Just think of the beautiful baby you'll have at the end of it. Now, to put your mind to rest, we will do an ultrasound, because other than that your baby should be just fine." Johnson told them as he quickly set up for the exam.
He put the gel on Brooke's barely there bump before moving the probe around it and turning the volume up. Soon the sound of the baby's fast beating heart filled the room and their fears and concerns disappeared in that moment.
"Wow" Lucas said as they watched their baby on the screen.
"Yeah. Wow." Brooke repeated, feeling immense joy and love.
A short while later, Brooke and Lucas were sitting in one of the on-call rooms taking a moment to themselves to consider what all this meant. While Brooke was entirely unhappy about having to sit around all day, she knew it would be more than worth it in the end.
"I had a really nice chat with your mom earlier." Brooke told Lucas as he raised his eyebrows.
"Nice? Really?" he asked. He had expected her to be cold and stand-offish about the whole thing, but evidently he had been unfair. It seem that both Brooke and Lucas' families were more supportive about everything than they had anticipated.
"Yeah, she was really supportive."
"She's always had a soft spot for you, even if she didn't want to admit it." Lucas said with a little laugh.
They fell into a comfortable silence for a moment, before Brooke quietly spoke up. "I'm really sorry."
"For what?" Lucas asked confused.
Brooke shrugged; "Having placenta previa I guess."
"Why are you sorry for that? It's not your fault—"
"I know, I know it's just—we were in such a happy little bubble and I didn't want anything to ruin that. I just feel like it's always been one thing after another with us and I want to be able to enjoy this with you.
Lucas held tightly onto her hand; "Brooke. The baby is fine, you are fine. This is a very manageable condition. We can enjoy this, we can still be in our little bubble…" he said as she scoffed and rested her head on his shoulder. Lucas lightly kissed her head before resting his cheek against it. "Everything is going to be just fine."
Brooke and Lucas soon got changed out of their scrubs and were leaving the hospital when they ran into Karen.
"I'm glad I bumped into you two." Karen said. She'd been in surgery all day at the request of the chief and had barely had time to speak to them following Brooke's collapse. "I was just going to head out for some dinner, will you join me?"
Lucas put his arm around Brooke's shoulders; "It's been a rough day, I think we're just going to head home and get some rest."
"Make sure he treats you like a Queen tonight Brooke." Karen said with a wink.
Brooke smirked; "Oh I will."
"And if you need anything. Please call me." Karen insisted.
"Thank you, Dr. Scott."
"Please. Call me Karen."
"Question." Karen stated as she caught up with Lucas in the corridor the following morning.
"Here we go…" Lucas grumbled.
"When are you and Brooke planning on moving in together?"
"Um… we haven't talked about." Lucas said. In all honesty, it wasn't something that had ever crossed their minds. Probably part of being in the bubble that had them avoiding reality.
"Oh Lucas, you really should! This is an important thing."
"I mean—we basically spend every night together anyway, it just hasn't crossed our minds to make it official." Lucas added. He was rarely in his condo anymore, he guessed it would make sense to move in officially, but he didn't want to rock the boat.
"Speaking off official, do you think you two will get married—"
"Mom." Lucas said as he stopped and turned to face her. "You need to take a breather, we haven't been back together that long—"
"I know, I know, but you know what they say. Happy mom, happy dad, happy baby." Karen advised.
Lucas rested his hand on Karen's arm; "We are happy mom."
"Maybe you haven't thought about it, but did it ever cross you mind that Brooke has?" Karen asked as Lucas fell silent. Brooke wasn't exactly the quiet type, so he had just assumed that moving in together and marriage wasn't something that was on her mind right now—right?
"Just—something to think about." Karen said as she patted his shoulder and walked on.
Brooke stood in the scrub room getting ready for surgery when Kate walked in and immediately shook her head.
"No." Kate said.
"No, what?" Brooke asked as she turned the tap off.
"No, you are not going in there."
"Why not?!"
"This could be a long surgery, you have a serious condition, you were told minimal activity, I would prefer it if you and my quasi grandchild to remain perfectly healthy." Kate said sternly.
Brooke raised her eyebrow; "Quasi? I might consider that as a first name." she said with a smirk.
"Brooke." Kate said in a warning tone.
Brooke sighed; "I'm fine Kate!"
"You collapsed Brooke. We're all worried about you, because you don't seem to be worried enough—"
"Of course I am worried Kate, I'm freakin terrified! But I am also a doctor and I know what my body can and can't handle. Do you seriously think I would put my baby at risk?" Brooke snapped. She wasn't an idiot and she didn't appreciate people treating her like she would break at any second.
"Of course not—"
"I'm not going to stop doing what I love. You know what, I'm going to scrub in with Lucas later—" Brooke said as she opened the door and left, leaving Kate sighing about how that conversation went so wrong so fast.
Brooke sat at one of the nurse's station eating her way through a bag of potato chips when Rachel walked round the corner with a smile on her face and sat opposite her.
"This day is already getting on my nerves." Brooke grumbled.
"I rounded on both Grant and Piper's services, I finished their post ops notes, my beautiful, genius brain, is on fire." Rachel informed her happily.
"My beautiful, genius brain is not being used because apparently the fact that my body is housing another human, is a deterrent." Brooke said with a sigh.
"Everyone's just looking out for you Brooke." Rachel reminded her.
"I know" Brooke said. She was incredibly grateful to be surrounded by people who cared for her so much, but she was also a Davis and Davis' were stubborn as hell. She didn't want to stop doing what she loved. "I also haven't had sex in 4 days."
"I had sex this morning." Rachel said with a smirk as Brooke glared right at her. "What? I thought we were sharing?"
"Not if it makes me feel worse." Brooke said through her teeth as she snatched potato chips away and stood up.
"I'm sorry!" Rachel shouted after her with a chuckle.
"Yeah, ok." Brooke said with an eye roll as she walked away
That night, Brooke glared at Lucas as he sat enjoying a beer in Tric. Sure, her OJ was nice, but what she really wanted right about now was tequila. Lucas did a double take when he realised she was glaring at him.
"What?"
"No sex. No beer. No tequila." She said through her teeth as her eyes narrowed.
Lucas raised his eyebrows; "And that's my fault?"
"It's your sperm's fault." She snapped.
"Brooke—"
"I'm sorry, I don't mean to be grouchy…" she said, Lucas smirked, knowing that her apology wasn't going to stop anything. He didn't mind though. He understood that it was frustrating for her.
"You know, I was thinking—"
"Never a good sign" Brooke joked.
"Well I'm glad that even if your sense of decency has disappeared your sense of humour hasn't." he teased.
"Ha, ha, very funny…" Brooke responded. "What were you thinking about?"
"Are we—are we going to live together when the baby's born?" he asked cautiously.
"I uh—I honestly haven't really thought about it. Things have been a little crazy the past couple of weeks." Brooke said as Lucas chuckled.
"That's an understatement."
"I'm not saying that we never will live together, but I don't think we need to think about that right now." Brooke replied honestly. "We're in a good place, we don't need the added stress—but it's definitely a conversation for another day."
"That sounds like a fair deal to me." He replied with a smile. They both liked having their own space right now and if Brooke was entirely honest, she wasn't quite sure that she was ready to leave Kate and Rachel just yet.
Brooke turned to the door when she saw it open and watched as Kate walked through and sat at the opposite end of the bar. Brooke had been thinking that she was probably a little harsh with her earlier. She was just looking out for her after all.
"I'm going to talk to Kate, I'll be right back." She said as she slid off the stool and walked over to the bar where Kate was sitting.
"I'm sorry I snapped at you earlier." Brooke said immediately as Kate turned to look at her.
"I'm sorry too. I was out of line." Kate confessed. "I uh- I remember when Ted told me Julian was going to propose to you. He said that it was hard for him, because one moment you were his little girl, running around the house butt naked and the next thing getting married. You grew up in the blink of an eye and he couldn't help but feel like he missed it all. And now… you're having a baby. Now that he's gone… I feel like I've taken on those worries for him. I feel this need to protect you for him." She told her.
Brooke nodded. "I understand… You know, I don't remember the last time I was scared. Every bad thing that has happened to me—I felt like I was in a bubble the whole time. I didn't feel anything or maybe I did at the time, but it was just so surreal that I don't remember what I felt. I don't remember what scared feels like. Until now."
"You've been through more in the first 30 years of life than most people will ever go through in their whole lives. You have every right to be scared. Especially now because this is the fear of the unknown. But you can't let that stop you Brooke. You were right. Just forget for a second that you have placenta previa. You're having a baby. That's a magical gift. You have to allow yourself to be happy and excited. It won't cost you a damn thing."
Next chapter - Brooke and Lucas get creative Lily makes a visit to Raleigh and Lucas, Brooke, Nathan and Rachel find themselves in a dangerous situation that ends disastrously...