So glad you guys enjoyed the last chapter! I figured we were due something a little lighter amongst all the drama... just to be clear though - Brooke in no way resents Sophie or doesn't want to bond with her and spend time with her - she just really misses surgery! There's not much excitement in a newborn, but I'm sure she'll feel differently when Sophie does more than poo, sleep and eat lol it was just a funny little interlude, she loves her baby immensely!
Brooke and Lucas aren't getting along so well in this chapter... but it won't be for long. Time to meet two more members of Lucas' family!
Enjoy :)
Chapter Twenty-Five – Tongue-Tied
A few weeks later, Brooke was back at work and was keener to get stuck in than ever. She didn't realise how much the time away from the hospital would affect or, or how much she would miss the stink and sweat of surgery. She immediately got in on some big neurosurgeries that she knew would look good on her application for her neuro fellowship that was due in soon.
Since numerous residents had dropped out of the programme over the past few years, Karen and the Scott foundation had been desperately looking for ways to revamp the programme so that the residents felt they were learning in a secure and stimulating environment. After some thought and consultation with the rest of the board, Karen had an idea. Her niece Lindsey Strauss was a paediatric surgeon, but had also done a significant amount of research into what makes residency programmes work and thrive in such a high stress environment, so after a little bit of coaxing, Karen managed to convince Lindsey to come to Raleigh Med and make things better.
Everyone was excited for a fresh and invigorating start – everyone expect Lucas. He and Lindsey had never really seen eye to eye growing up. When Brooke asked Lucas about her, he didn't really say much.
"It's the same in every family – there are some cousins you do get on with and some you don't. There's was no big fall out or anything, just a clash of personalities."
"That's so boring Lucas, at least make up something interesting..."
Lucas had merely chuckled and told Brooke not to worry about it, which just made her more curious.
"Brooke, you really know nothing about this girl?" Rachel asked the morning Lindsey was due to start as she, Brooke, Nathan and Haley all sat in the resident's lounge.
"Why would I know anything?" Brooke asked.
Rachel looked at her like she was insane, "Oh, I don't know Brooke, maybe because your hospital owning baby daddy is her cousin?"
"He just said she has a bold personality" Brooke said with a shrug.
"Yeah, I heard she revamped a programme down in Tampa and it was chaotic" Nathan told them, recalling what an old friend from med school had told him. "People were being fired at an alarmingly fast rate but – it worked. The programme is better than ever."
"I guess we'll have to be on our A game then" Brooke commented as she lifted her white coat and left the room. As she turned through the doorway, she accidentally bumped into someone and looked up to see Peyton in front of her, looking a little distressed at whatever was on her phone. Brooke, Peyton and Lucas had never really been able to form a resemblance of a friendship over the past year. They were civil, there were no fights, but there were certainly no niceties in the hallways.
"Oh, Davis, thank god" Peyton said as she let out a breath.
"Everything ok?" Brooke asked cautiously. She never thought she would see the day that Peyton Sawyer was glad to see her.
"Do you know how to work these stupid dating apps?" Peyton asked. "It won't stop making a noise and it is driving me insane! I was just being a little spontaneous cause god knows there are no eligible men left in this hospital, but I am having some serious regrets right about now." She grumbled as she handed Brooke her phone.
Brooke scrolled through the app and looked at Peyton, impressed with what she was seeing. "You've got a lot of messages Sawyer… are you going to reply?"
"Um… maybe. I don't know. Not to all of them anyway. Will they know if I don't reply?" she asked desperately.
Brooke chuckled, "You mean – will they know you're not interested when you ignore them? Yeah, I think they'll get the message… oh this guy is cute, he wants to go for a drink, you should do it!" Brooke encouraged. Since her own love life had finally fallen into place, she was all for others finding their happily ever after.
"God, I feel like I'm back in high school again, this is so stupid." Peyton said as she took the phone back off her and stormed away.
"Let me know how it goes!" Brooke called after her, surprising herself by how invested she all of a sudden felt in Peyton's love life. She figured if Peyton found someone she really clicked with, she might lighten up a little...
"How what goes?" she heard Lucas say behind her, causing her to jump a little.
"Oh, nothing" she brushed off, knowing Lucas probably wouldn't care. "What's up?"
"I was just going to meet Lindsey in the lobby. Mom said as hospital owner I should be putting on a united front and besides all that – she's my cousin. Family supports family…" he said, reciting Karen's words to him.
"You sound thrilled" Brooke said as she started following him to the lobby.
"She's just so controlling and in your face. It's either her way or the highway and that's not going to go down well here." Lucas reasoned. "There are too many strong characters with strong opinions, she has to be willing to listen."
"Ok, sure, but there are also a lot of people who are really open to change. The residency programme is floundering Lucas, people are leaving, it needs a kick up the ass" Brooke reminded him.
"I know… but why does it have to get a kick up the ass from her?" he asked. He was telling the truth when he said there was no real beef between them. There was no big fall out or anything – they just didn't really gel as people.
Brooke linked her hand around Lucas' arm, "I know it's frustrating… but you're going to have to put your big boy pants on and deal with it" she teased as she kissed his cheek and he rolled her eyes.
"You're mean…" he commented just as the got to the lobby. The elevator doors pinged open and Lindsey came striding though – basically like she owned the place.
"Damn, she's hot…" Brooke commented as Lucas grimaced.
"Lucas" Lindsey greeted as she stopped in front of her cousin. "It's good to see you" she said rather formally as Brooke looked awkwardly between the two. You could cut the tension with a knife. Lucas discreetly put his arm around Brooke's back, who in turn reached her hand round to give him something to squeeze in frustration.
"Lindsey… thank you for coming to help us out, we really appreciate it." Lucas said as Brooke held back a laugh. She could tell by his clenched jaw and the tightness of his hand hold that he said that with great reluctance. "This is Dr. Brooke Davis, 5th year resident."
Lindsey smirked, "Ah, the girlfriend…"
"… and 5th year resident" Brooke repeated as she shook Lindsey's hand with her free hand. As much as she loved being Lucas' girlfriend, she would rather be known as Brooke Davis first and foremost.
"I've heard a lot about you. You're top of your class and will no doubt go on to do great things" Lindsey complimented as Brooke smiled politely. "And I believe congratulations are in order too. Karen sent me some photos of your daughter. She's really beautiful."
"Thank you" Brooke replied with a smile. She couldn't help but smile whenever someone mentioned Sophie. "I should get back to work, but it was nice to meet you Lindsey, I'll look forward to working with you" she said before walking away, leaving Lucas wishing he still had something to squeeze on to.
"She's cute" Lindsey told Lucas as he held himself back from saying something rude. He wasn't exactly looking for her approval.
"So" he began, turning the conversation back to work, "What's your plan of action?"
"I have a list" she said vaguely.
Lucas quirked an eyebrow, "A list? What kind of list?"
"A list of the top residents and their favourite attendings. It's based on what your mother and the former training director has observed." She told him as she handed him the list. Lucas looked at it and smirked. He was up there at the top. "I want to work on improving those relationships and really giving the residents a chance to shine by doing. It's becoming too common that attendings aren't teaching just because they want to show off. The residents need the opportunity to practice otherwise they're not going to be as good as the attendings one day."
"Well, I can't wait to see what you try and do" Lucas told her, curious to see where this was going.
"It's going to be great Lucas. You can count on that."
That night, Lucas was sitting in the living room watching some football when Brooke came and slumped beside him.
"You're interested in the game now?" he questions, remembering her moaning not 5 minutes ago about how he was more interested in the game than in her.
"No, I'm interested in these nachos…" she said as she tried to take the cheesiest one, but Lucas slapped it out of her hand. These were his game nachos and he'd be damned if he let her take the best one.
"Watch it…" he warned as Brooke chuckled as sat back in her seat.
"You know—Peyton asked me earlier if I knew how to work a dating app. She must have been desperate if she had to ask me." Brooke told him.
Lucas frowned; "How would you know how to work dating apps?" as far as he was aware, she'd never had the time between relationships to use it.
Brooke shrugged; "I'm a young professional, I know how dating apps work."
"Seriously?"
"Don't sound so surprised..."
"When would you have time to know how they work?"
"I know you probably find this hard to believe, but—I have single friends." She said in a sarcastic manner as Lucas rolled his eyes. "And we hang out every now and they use dating apps, so we talk about the people that they meet on these dating apps."
"You're right. I do find it hard to believe that you have friends." He teased as he scoffed the best nacho she had previously tried to take.
Brooke lightly slapped his arm as she took the bowl from him. "You're so annoying sometimes..."
Lucas smirked; "That's why you love me right?"
"I love you because you make good nachos."
"And yeah, Peyton was talking to me about her dates too." Lucas told her as Brooke eyed him curiously. She was surprised that Peyton would turn to Lucas with something like this. She must have been really desperate. "She said she had to fake pages from the hospital on multiple dates to get out of them."
Brooke grimaced. "That is rough… I wonder if Jagelski is still single. They were good together... for all 5 minutes that they were actually together…" she added as Lucas quirked an eyebrow.
"You're going to play match maker for Peyton now?"
Brooke smiled; "We're all adults, with crazy working schedules and little time to date and I have a lot of room in my heart for forgiveness and growth so if I can help Peyton Sawyer—I'll do it."
"You—are a saint." Lucas teased.
Brooke fluttered her eyelashes; "Why thank you."
Brooke sighed; "You know, I'm probably going to regret asking this, but why has your ego taken a sky-high boost today?" she asked as she set her computer down. She'd noticed that after they met Lindsey in the morning, he was walking around the hospital with an inflated sense of self.
"The residents think I'm a good attending."
Brooke raised her eyebrows; "Do they now?"
"Yeah. Lindsey has a list, I'm at the top."
"I'm going to just pretend I know what that means" Brooke said with a little laugh. "We had a meeting with Lindsey today. It felt like a strategy session, it was kind of weird… she wanted us to divulge all our secrets."
"What secrets?"
"If I told you they wouldn't be secrets then, would they?" Brooke asked with a teasing smirk as Lucas rolled his eyes and say up straighter. Why wouldn't she want to tell him what Lindsey was planning? Why couldn't she just be honest with him about it all?
"Why is it all so secretive?"
"Because you're going to run back to the other attendings with whatever I tell you, I am not your inside man, I have boundaries and I am not crossing them, so you and the inner posse can ruin what your mom is trying to do." Brooke reasoned with him. If it were the other way around, she knew Lucas wouldn't tell her either.
"I don't want to ruin what they're trying to do, I just don't want her completely changing what makes this hospital what it is." He reasoned. "I've worked hard to keep the hospital on people's radars. We're the best surgical hospital in the state and we got there without Lindsey. What is so bad about wanting to keep things the way they are?"
"Why keep things the way that they are when they can get better?" Brooke challenged. "Lindsey really wants the residents to get involved in surgeries, to let us do it rather than just watch the rest of you show off." She and Lindsey may have had a rough start, but she was liking where Lindsey wanted to take the hospital because it meant she got in on more surgeries.
"We're not showing off Brooke, we're being cautious, these are people's lives we're talking about, it's not something to be played around with."
"And we're never going to learn if we don't do."
"You can still get a good surgical education without following Lindsey around like a puppy." He was doing just fine without the Lindsey Strauss education plan. In fact, he was doing great!
Brooke glared; "I follow no one around like a puppy."
"Well it looks like that's about to change."
"God, this is so stupid!" Brooke exclaimed as she stood up, getting more and more worked by the second. She couldn't understand how he was being so stubborn and arrogant about things. Lindsey wasn't trying to undermine the good work he was doing, she was just trying to add to it. "You're getting on like a child Lucas, fighting with Lindsey and trying to get all the attendings on your side, it's ridiculous! You should be sorting this out like adults not trying to score points at every available opportunity." She knew Lucas and she knew his arrogant side. If there was a chance to outshine Lindsey, he would take it.
"I'm not trying to score points—" Lucas said as he set the nachos down beside him.
"The surgeries you are doing are slowly becoming about you which is not why we do this. We don't do it for the ego boost, we do it to make a difference in people's lives and I know you believe that too." She pleaded as Lucas remained silent. "Go ahead and use the Scott name Lucas – but do something worthwhile with it. Don't massage your own ego." She warned sadly, wishing Lucas wouldn't throw the Scott name around and actually fix things for the better.
Things were incredibly tense between Brooke and Lucas for the rest of the evening and the following day. Neither had anything good to say to the other and they just needed a second to breathe, so they said nothing. They were completely silent, only engaging in conversation if it had to do with Sophie.
The following evening, after a long day of avoiding each other at work, Lucas sat on his laptop in the living room, looking through some scans of a patient he had to visit in Maine. She needed a throat transplant and Lucas had planned to fly out with Brooke to complete it. That is if she was still willing to even associate with him after the previous day.
She walked into the living room with a basket of washing and began folding everything while looking over Lucas's shoulder.
"That's a nasty throat tumour." Brooke observed as Lucas merely nodded his head and replied with a "Yeah."
They fell into an uncomfortable silence, before Lucas sighed, closed his computer over and stood up, but Brooke was not prepared to let him walk away from this.
"Lucas, what is going on with you?"
He shrugged; "I'm going to bed."
"Lucas—"
"Brooke, you might be ok with sitting around and letting this happen, but I'm not." Lucas said.
"Letting this happen? Why can't you see or accept that Lindsey is not the enemy here!" Brooke exclaimed. She eyed Lucas curiously. He had been mad and frustrated yesterday, but today, there was something different in his eyes. He looked sad and afraid. She had a funny feeling that his bad mood had more to do with Lindsey.
"Lucas" she said quietly as she walked towards him and placing a hand on the side of his neck and face. "Talk to me. What is going on with you?" she asked quieter than last time, wishing that he could just be honest with her.
Lucas shook his head and took a step back in an attempt to physically and emotionally distance himself from her. "I uh – I need to check in on a few things in the hospital in the morning, so I'll just meet you at the airport so we can go to Maine."
Brooke closed her eyes and let out a breath, "Why are we going all the way to Maine for this?"
"Because they need us to Brooke!" he snapped as Brooke glared at him.
"Fine." She said through her teeth before storming upstairs, not prepared to deal with him if he wouldn't just talk to her.
Lucas said beside Karen in the back of a car the following morning. His mood hadn't changed from yesterday and Karen knew exactly why. There was another reason that Lucas was going to Maine. It wasn't just about this patient. The patient was a convenient excuse to find out the truth – but she didn't dare bring it up. She didn't want to start a fight.
"If you're having second thoughts we could bring the patient here?" Karen offered as she and Lucas drove to the airport. Brooke had arranged to meet them there with Sophie, so Karen could take her and look after her for a few days.
"I told you, we've got a girl who needs a throat transplant and a donor in the same exact hospital. We can't risk moving either of them." Lucas reminded her, as she merely nodded, questioning whether all of this could really be a good thing.
They arrived on the runway, just as Brooke's taxi pulled up as the simultaneously got out of the car. Brooke went around to the other side to get Sophie, while Lucas stuffed his hands in his pockets and walked towards her.
"Did you get things sorted with Mr Rosenbaum?" Brooke asked, hence why they travelled separately.
"Yeah, yeah I did." Lucas said as he took Sophie from Brooke as she moved to the taxi to life her bag.
"You two are going to have to speak to each other you know." Karen told them, knowing that things had been difficult for the past while.
"Mom—" Lucas warned as Karen raised her hands in surrender.
"Alright, fine, no meddling."
"I'll put her in the car…" Lucas said as he reached to take her car seat, but Karen came and took Sophie from him.
"Lucas, go, Miss Sophie and I have plans." Karen said as she cooed at her granddaughter.
"No medical journals, alright? I don't need her looking at body cavities just yet..." Lucas playfully warned.
"Oh no guarantees…" Karen teased. "Say bye to mommy and daddy Soph."
"Bye baby" Lucas said as he gave her a kiss and Brooke did the same before they both got on to the Scott private jet.
"Can I take your bag Dr. Davis?" the stewardess immediately asked as Brooke gratefully smiled, handed it to her and said thank you.
"This is amazing. Why have we never taken your plane before?" Brooke asked as they sat down beside each other.
"It's not my plane."
"That's your name right out there. Right on the wing, great big letters—broody boy." Brooke teased as Lucas sighed.
"Funny… it's more my mom's plane than mine. It belongs to the Scott Foundation and she is the chair since my grandpa is arguably insane." Lucas commented. Royal Scott really had not mellowed over the years.
"I mean—she did make the Scott Foundation what it is, it seems right that she should get to fly wherever she wants."
"Suck up…" Lucas grumbled as Brooke narrowed her eyes.
"I am not a suck—"
"Can we not talk about my mother?" Lucas interrupted. Getting into a fight about his mother was not how he wanted to start this trip.
"Fine." Brooke said through his teeth, just as the stewardess brought over a tray of champagne. "Thank god, just what I needed—" Brooke said as she went to take a glass.
"You shouldn't have any champagne, we're going straight to the hospital." Lucas said bluntly.
Brooke set the glass back down; "Fine." She said through her teeth once more, figuring this was going to be an annoyingly long day.
While Lucas was determined to help this little girl he had come to treat, he did have another agenda for being here. After seeing his patient and making plans for the surgery tomorrow, Brooke figured she and Lucas could use some down time, just the two of them. They needed to break this tension and start communicating.
"Look, we have tonight to prep for the surgery, I have somewhere that I need to be, I will find you later—" Lucas began as he started to walk away, clearly not interested in spending time with Brooke.
Brooke grimaced; "Where could you possibly need to be in Maine?" last time she checked, he didn't know anyone here.
"I'll find you later." He said, dodging her question before walking away, leaving Brooke just as frustrated. What the hell was she missing?
That night, Brooke was left in the hotel room studying for this surgery on her own. She had tried to convince Lucas to come back from wherever the hell he was with the enticement of Chinese food, but he stubbornly said no.
To make matters worse, Brooke had to rush to the hospital when she found out the donor had a lesion on his throat and couldn't be used. After the parents had refused a total laryngectomy, Brooke stormed out of the hospital to find Lucas. She was prepared to search every place in this damn town to find him if she had to—and she was doing so with full guns blazing. At the end of the day, she was the resident on this case and he was the attending - He should have been the one talking to their patient's parents, not Brooke.
Eventually, Brooke stumbled across a grill just outside town. It was in a more secluded area, with very few facilities around it, but the grill looked like it was popular. She was desperate for something to eat and had planned on briefly stepping in from the cold – but luck was on her side. She walked in and angrily sighed when she saw Lucas was sitting right there – with numerous empty beer glasses surrounding him.
"There you are, where have you been? I've been looking everywhere for you. I've been calling, texting—" Brooke said angrily as she approached him.
"Calm down, you sent one text. No organs, no surgery, right?" Lucas said. "Didn't hear anything else after that so I figured I'd have a drink." He said as he lifted his phone. "Oh, battery died, now that's not very helpful now, is it?"
Brooke scoffed and folded her arms; "You're drunk."
"You're pissed."
"Yeah. I am." She said defiantly. "We lost the donor, our patient's repeat scans show more extensive oesophageal invasion, her parents are a wreck and you're here getting drunk? Lucas—"
"I got off work and I had a beer Brooke. Four beers actually, and uh, some whiskey on top of that." Lucas said with a giggle.
Lucas rarely got drunk. In fact, Lucas never got drunk these days. Why would he choose now to do so? "What the hell is wrong with you?!" Brooke demanded to know. She was done with the soft approach, it clearly wasn't working.
"Nothing. Nothing is wrong with me."
"We have a patient who is counting on us—"
"Leave me alone Brooke." Lucas grumbled as he finished off his beer.
Brooke shook her head and looked at her feet; "This isn't you. You don't get wasted, you don't bail on patients—"
"I didn't bail on anyone!" Lucas abruptly shouted as he slammed his glass down, causing Brooke to jump back.
"Ok, what's going on here? How about some food to soak up that beer?" a man asked as he approached the pair. He had immediately picked up on the hostile vibes between the pair and wanted to diffuse the situation before things got worse.
"No, he's going home to sober up. He has work, right?" Brooke said as she glared straight at Lucas.
"Well in that case let me call you a cab—"
"I'm walking." Lucas said as he lifted his coat, put some money down and stormed out the door. Brooke sighed as she ran her hand across her forehead, desperately trying to hold back her tears.
"Can I get you something?" the man asked.
"I'm good, thank you." Brooke said before turning to the door.
"He left this book." The man said as he lifted it up and looked at the cover. "Techniques in oropharyngeal surgery. Hm. Airway reconstruction?" he asked.
Brooke eyed him curiously; "Uh, throat transplant."
The man nodded his head and handed the book to Brooke, "I used to be a surgeon – but that was many lifetimes ago." He explained with a smile.
"Really? You gave all that up for this?" she asked with a little laugh. Working in a secluded grill in Maine was a fair cry from the rush of being a surgeon in her eyes.
"Well, this is not all that different. People come to you in need, you provide them with a bit of TLC. They leave here feeling better than when they came. Hospitality isn't such a bad business to be in." he said with a smile. Brooke soon picked up that this guy must have owned the place as he said goodnight to some locals as they left. "Plus there's no 24 hour shifts and nobody had died on my watch – not yet anyway. It was nice to meet you, Dr.—" he said holding out his hand.
"Davis. Brooke Davis." Brooke said with a smile as she shook the man's hand. There was something so familiar about him. She couldn't place what it was, it was something about the eyes—
"Dan Scott."
Brooke eyes widened as she dropped her hand like she had been burned; "Scott? I'm—I'm sorry, like the foundation?" she asked cautiously. She already knew the answer, but she wanted to hear it from his mouth.
Dan chuckled; "Once upon a time. Come by any time Brooke, have a drink on me." he offered with a smile as Brooke could barely process this whole situation.
"I—I will." Brooke said as Dan walked behind the bar again and Brooke took a breath before walking out the door. This whole thing felt surreal and she couldn't imagine what Lucas was feeling right now. She couldn't believe it.
She had just met Lucas's father.
Oh man... what now?!