Brooke takes on Lindsey after she makes some snap judgements and Lucas gets a little jealous and needy over Brooke... enjoy!

Chapter Twenty-Eight – I'm Yours, You're Mine

Brooke sat beside Lucas in the plastics lab, looking over his shoulder as he worked on his latest project. Someone had anonymously donated a hefty sum of cash to the hospital to fund a research competition. In a few short weeks, they would have to present their work to the hospital board who would determine where the money was allotted in order to develop projects further.

While the donation had been anonymous, Brooke had her suspicions that the money was coming from a certain Scott who'd received a hefty inheritance that he didn't want... Despite this, she decided to not say anything. She knew Lucas was desperate to build something without the Scott name haunting him and wanted to be able to enter a competition for once. Most previous competition and award schemes had been run by the Scott Foundation so he couldn't enter, but this time he was in and he was determined to win.

"This is so cool Lucas" Brooke complimented as she examined his work.

"Yeah…" Lucas grumbled as he looked into his microscope.

Brooke scoffed, "Don't try and sound too enthusiastic about it…"

"I have two ideas and I don't know which one to develop"

"Hm. Poor Lucas. He has two ideas and he can't decide which one to submit…" she said sarcastically as Lucas rolled his eyes and smirked. "At least you have two great ideas, I am completely out of the game." Brooke said as she fiddled with the instruments around her.

"How so?" Lucas asked as he leaned back in his chair.

"Ever since I had Sophie I feel like I'm being pushed out by the attendings. For some reason, being a mother doesn't appear to be something good surgeons do." Brooke said quietly. "Hargrove has basically been ghosting me from neuro for entirely unknown reasons and Rachel has latched onto Kate's side—I have no one." She had been feeling a little useless around her recently and she didn't know what to do with herself.

"You're at the top of your residency class Brooke, everybody wants you. You can write whatever fellowship ticket you want." Lucas reminded her. She really was the best of the best she was being way too hard on herself.

"I'm not so sure about that right now."

"We could form our dynamic plastic's duo again?" he suggested with a smirk, knowing exactly how she felt about being Lucas' right hand man in the hospital.

"… no." Brooke said firmly as Lucas chuckled.

The door to the lab opened and Lindsey appeared, not looking overly impressed.

"Davis? ER, now." She demanded before leaving.

"Wow, grouchy…" Brooke said before jumping off her stool. "I will see you later broody." She said as she gave him a lingering kiss.

"Go get yourself back in the game baby, you got this" he encouraged, with a light slap on her butt in a joking manner causing her to squeal lightly and giggle as she walked away.

"Thank you handsome"

While Brooke was in the ER, she came across a little boy named Oscar was experiencing some severe pains in his chest, accompanied by difficulty breathing. After some test and scans, they were able to determine that Oscar had a large tumour on his throat that was spreading downwards towards his lungs and therefore restricting his ability to breathe. After explaining this to his parents, and the fact that he would need surgery immediately, Brooke received a surprising response that immediately turned her day from bad to worse.

"When can we take him home?" his father, Winston had asked quickly.

"Well that depends on how quickly he recovers after surgery. Most patients can be released within—" Brooke began to explain but Winston held his hand up and cut her off.

"No, Oscar won't have the surgery. Or anything else, we don't believe in medical intervention." He said as Brooke's face fell. Why the hell did they bring him here then? Why come here to find out what's wrong if you're going to do nothing about it?

"If you take Oscar home without this surgery, it is very likely he will die. He is in pain, he can't breathe properly." Brooke reminded them in complete disbelief at their ignorance to Oscar's discomfort.

"If it's his destiny to live then he'll live." His mother, Lola, insisted. "How soon can we discharge him?"

Brooke clenched her jaw, realising that there was nothing she could do about this situation. "I'll get the paperwork for you." She said, turning away from them. She took one last look at Oscar and saw the desperation and fear in his eyes. She couldn't believe this was happening to this little boy.

A short while later, Brooke reluctantly stood with Lola while she signed the discharge papers. She couldn't believe that they would just let their little boy leave here without any help, help that they could expertly and accurately provide.

"And this states that you are aware you're taking Oscar home against medical advice." Brooke said glumly.

"I know this probably seems strange to you Dr. Davis, I appreciate your co-operation with everything." Lola said awkwardly as Lindsey approached the pair having heard about the situation.

"Do you understand that against medical advice in this case means that if you take Oscar now, there's a very real chance Oscar will die?" Brooke asked again, taking one more chance to try and convince her.

Before Lola could respond or Brooke could say anything else, Lindsey walked over, having heard about the situation and decided to speak up. "Thank you, Dr. Davis." She said firmly, indicating that this conversation was over.

Lola walked away, and Brooke gathered the papers into a neat pile and handed them to the nurse behind the desk.

"Who taught you to speak to patients that way?" Lindsey demanded to know.

Brooke looked her dead in the eye before saying; "She's not my patient." She simply said. She didn't owe Lindsey any kind of explanation for her conduct.

Brooke sent her one last glare before quickly storming away, not in the mood to deal with Lindsey today. On the whole, the two of them had gotten a long, but today seemed like a day that that just wasn't going to happen.

That evening, a large cohort of attendings and residents made their way round to Tric for a much-needed drink to celebrate the handing in of their project proposals. While Lucas waited at the bar for Brooke while she put Sophie to bed and waited for the babysitter, Lindsey came over and stood beside him.

"We need to talk about Brooke" she said.

Lucas sighed, "Hello to you too, Lindsey…" he grumbled. She could be unnecessarily court when she wanted to be.

"I read her file and I noticed that when her father died, she went back to work almost immediately."

Lucas shook his head, "No, she took a few weeks off and then she went to Boston for three months—"

"With no counselling, nothing."

"She's fine, she's focused, the people she needs are here in this hospital—" Lucas reasoned. He was right. This was her safe place and it was often the only thing that kept her afloat. Almost everyone she loved most in the world were here. She was exactly where she needed to be – why was Lindsey questioning that?

"She's had a lot of trauma in her life." Lindsey added. Lucas was still confused, but was beginning to clock on that for some reason, she was concerned about Brooke's state of mind.

"If anything, that makes her a better doctor. She has a real drive and passion to make a difference in people's lives so she can save people the heartbreak of what she's been through. Why are you so interested in this?" Lucas asked, the frustration evident in his voice.

"I noticed some red flags. She was inappropriate with a patient's family member—"

"We all get arrogant and snarky with family. They often like to think that they know best and I would be concerned if a surgeon wasn't a little high strung about that." Lucas asked.

"Open your eyes Lucas. She's not fit enough to be here." Lindsey boldly stated.

"Why are you coming to me with this?"

"You own the hospital, you have majority shares on the board, you need to know about your surgeons." Lindsey reasoned.

"You haven't come to me about any other surgeon before but you think you can come here and tear my fiancée apart and expect me to just throw her under the bus too?" he questioned in disbelief. What did she hope to achieve from this?

"You need to be put your personal feelings aside."

"Even if I didn't have personal feelings in this issue, I would say the exact same thing that I'm saying now. Brooke is the best and the brightest resident we've got. This hospital needs her." Lucas said as he lifted his drink and left the bar, just as Brooke walked through the door.

"Hey—wow" he greeted as Brooke took his drink and downed it. "Rough day?"

"You could say that. I had a little boy today with a tumour in his throat and he could barely breathe… but his parents wouldn't let him have any kind of medical intervention." Brooke said as she looked to her feet, trying to control her emotions. "I just – I can't imagine ever putting Sophie in a position like that, you know? And I am trying so hard to respect their life choices but – it's not a choice for that little boy. He just wants to live."

Lucas didn't know what to say, instead, he just pulled her into his chest to comfort her as best he could.

"You see the best in people Brooke, even when you find it hard not too. Don't let that go. Don't let one person make you lose faith in humanity. We have to believe that that little boy will be ok. That's all we can do" he told her quietly as Brooke let one stray tear escape from her eye.

"I love you" she whispered against his chest.

Lucas smiled against her head, "I love you too"

The following morning, Brooke was working in the ER when to her surprise, Oscar came stumbling into the hospital. He was alone and was clearly desperate for help. He begged Brooke to help him. He felt like it wasn't his 'destiny' to die and he knew that this surgery was what he needed. She got him in to a private room and paged Lucas to come down immediately. As an ENT specialist along with plastics, he was the best person to help remove Oscar's tumour from his throat.

"Hey" Lucas greeted when he found Brooke pacing outside of Oscar's room. "What's going on?"

"The little boy came back, he's here." Brooke said as Lucas looked in the window of the room and saw Oscar sitting lying in the bed with an oxygen mask around his face.

"His parents gave consent?"

Brooke took in a breath and shook her head, "He came here, by himself. He begged me to help him, Lucas we have to help him."

"Brooke—"

"You know this isn't right. You know we have the power to save his life and I can't on good conscience let him walk away from this hospital knowing that I did nothing to help him. That's not why we became doctors, we don't get to pick and choose." She said, firmly making her case.

"How do you suppose we go about just wheeling him into surgery? Piper and Lindsey would be on us like hawks." Lucas said quietly as he pulled Brooke over to the side so no one else could hear their conversation.

"We fudge his records. We say that his airway completely closed over, it was an emergency procedure. We'll do it by Lindsey's methods, I'll run point, it was my decision, you just need to enter it into the charts as the attending." Brooke made clear. She needed his help, but she also wasn't about to put him in a dangerous position when it was her idea.

"… ok" Lucas said with a nod. If this was Sophie, he would hope someone would do the same thing for her. "Let's do it."

A few hours later, Oscar was out of surgery and doing really well. Lucas managed to remove all of the tumour and while he couldn't talk right now, his breathing was much improved. Brooke was sitting in his room with him to keep him company before his parents got here and no doubt all hell broke loose. As she was laughing about something with him, she looked up and saw Lindsey standing at the window, nodding her head for Brooke to come out of the room.

Oh boy.

"I will be right back" she said to Oscar before disappearing. She followed Lindsey around the corner to a silent part of the hallway for what Brooke didn't doubt would be a big confrontation.

"It's time to start talking." Lindsey demanded as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"I'm sorry?"

"Why did Lucas enter those orders?" she asked. As soon as she saw Lucas' name on the board beside Oscars she knew Brooke would have dragged him into this. She just needed to hear it from her mouth.

"I was running point – like you insist all the residents do – and I made the call." Lindsey's method of putting the resident's in the driving seat appeared to be back firing on her.

"You operated on a little boy without his parent's consent! Do you have any idea how much money you could cost this hospital because of your recklessness?" Lindsey asked, fully expecting a law suit to come out of this.

"Recklessness? Last time I checked, saving lives isn't reckless it's our job!" Brooke snapped back. "Oscar came to us looking for help, so I helped him, that is the job."

"No, that is not your job, that is his parents' job—"

"Then where the hell where they?!" Brooke exclaimed. "We did their job. We protected their child when they couldn't keep him safe and healthy and be there to tell him everything will be alright. They couldn't do their one job!"

"You're out of line Davis." Lindsey said through her teeth.

"Are you kidding me? What sort of doctor are you? You're so concerned with protocols and being perfect little Lindsey Strauss that you can't even do the job that you're trained to do which is save people's lives. I don't need you coming here and telling me that I'm out of line. I don't need you going to Lucas and telling him you think I'm damaged. To hell I am damaged!" Brooke shouted as some of the staff had turned the corner to hear all the commotion, including Lucas, Rachel and Nathan. "You seem to think that because my life is full of tragedy and trauma that I'm not fit to be a surgeon. How dare you turn my life into some sort of unfixable tragedy. How dare you try to take the one thing away from me that gives me the greatest purpose." Brooke exclaimed. Being a surgeon was everything to her. It saved her, it made her a better person. "You can look at a file and make all the conclusions you want… but you don't know a damn thing about me or my life. You don't know how I dealt with my pain and my sadness. You don't know how strong I am and how capable I am."

Lindsey remained in a stunned silence as Brooke turned to look at three of the most important people in her life.

"Only the people who truly know me and love me understand that." Brooke said with a gulp.

Lucas gave her a reassuring smile before stepping forward. Since Lindsey had arrived here, he'd been biting his tongue and letting her do whatever she wanted, but enough was enough. She wasn't a team player. She didn't understand the doctors in this hospital, she couldn't see the talent and dedication and passion in each of them. It had been a noble attempt by Karen, but there was no place for her, and Lucas was going to make that clear.

"Dr. Strauss, I don't believe that there is a place for you in my hospital anymore." Lucas said Bluntly as Lindsey clenched her jaw and glared. She spun on her heel and left the hallway, never to grace Raleigh Med's halls again.

A week or so later, Lucas walked into the hospital one Thursday morning as he carried Sophie down to day care. Brooke had been staying late a few nights this week, trying to work out how she could up her game around here or at least find a speciality. Since the big blow-up with Lindsey, Brooke was even more determined to make the attendings notice her again – especially Andy. Neuro was her passion and she wasn't prepared to let it slip past her. Lucas had really missed seeing her. Despite working together and living together, they barely had time for one another and he knew Sophie was missing her too. Therefore, he was glad when he saw Brooke waiting for them outside of the day care.

"Hi monkey!" Brooke said as she held out her arms for her daughter who smiled widely when she saw her momma. She took her and hugged her tightly; "Oh I missed you last night, yes I did." She cooed at her as she made funny faces and Sophie laughed.

"I didn't realise you were planning on staying here last night… again." Lucas said to her, clearly annoyed about it.

"I know, I haven't been home much at night, but I've just really been getting my head down and—"

"For what? You're already ahead of your game." Lucas reminded her. She was the best resident they had, she could afford to not be in on every surgery.

Brooke sighed; "I don't have a specialty Lucas. So, I can either beg Hargrove to let me back in on neuro, I can prove to him that I am worthy of being on neuro or I can find something else that I am passionate about—and I am not a begger." She made clear.

"Ok, just—don't neglect Sophie in the middle of it all." He mumbled quietly.

"I'm not neglecting her Lucas, I've spent every lunch time with her—" she said defensively.

"Or me." He added as Brooke raised an eyebrow.

"Are you feeling lonely? Cute…" she said with a grin.

Lucas shoved his hands in his pockets; "How is that cute?"

"Because you miss me. I'm missable." She said proudly.

"I—I'm fine, I see you every day anyway—" he reasoned, not wanting to give away just how much he actually missed her.

"Oh I get it. You miss the sex." Brooke said with a smirk as Lucas remained quiet. "See, you can't even deny it! It's only been a week, surely you can last a little longer—" she teased as she took a step towards him as she saw him shift awkwardly. Sure, he missed the sex, but he missed all of her. He missed hearing her laugh in his ear about something ridiculously stupid. He missed hearing her terrible singing as she rocked Sophie to sleep. He really, truly missed her.

"You mean you're still planning on staying here?" he asked quietly.

"Well… I'm considering it now just to tease you." She said, as she stood just a breath away from him.

"You are so mean…" he groaned.

"I know."

"That's it, we're having a date night tonight. No excuses." He said firmly.

Brooke took a step back and he immediately missed the warmth of her body so close to his; "I don't know, I—"

"No. Excuses." He said firmly as Brooke raised an eyebrow at his assertiveness. He must have really missed her this week.

"Alright then." She said. "Say bye to daddy Sophie…" Brooke said as she took Sophie into the day care. Brooke looked down at her hand and her eyes widened when she realised why her hand felt bare—her engagement ring wasn't there. She'd lost her engagement ring. Holy crap. What was she going to do?!

Lucas watched Brooke as she deliberately swayed her hips to frustrate him further. He clenched his jaw tightly. Tonight could not come soon enough.

After leaving Sophie off, Brooke rushed upstairs in search of Rachel. She really needed her help, though she had a sneaking suspicion that all her friend would do was laugh at her.

"I lost my engagement ring." Brooke said quietly as she found Rachel by the nurse's station.

Rachel raised an eyebrow; "What?"

"Yeah, and it could not come on a worse possible day. I haven't been home in a week, Lucas is planning an emergency date night and he's going to realise that I am an even worse fiancée than he originally thought—" Brooke said as she ran a hand through her hair, but Rachel cut her off.

"Have you met the new attending?" she asked as Brooke frowned at her, not grasping why she thought that was important information right now. "He's on cardio, I hear he's hot and we both know what you're like with attendings, particularly new ones—" Rachel said with a little laugh thinking about Julian.

Brooke looked at her with disbelief; "Are you kidding me right now? First off, one new one, second off, did you not listen to anything I just said? I lost my engagement ring! My very expensive diamond ring that Lucas will notice is gone!" she said frantically.

"Relax, it's kind of hard to miss, we'll find it. Just retrace your steps… via cardio."

"Rachel!"

"Oh come on, you love a good meet cute…" Rachel said as she wiggled her eyebrows. She really was just teasing, she loved Brooke and Lucas together.

Brooke pouted and crossed her arms; "You are a terrible best friend."

"The worst, I know." Rachel said as she linked arms with Brooke; "I'll make sure everyone but Lucas is on the lookout for your ring. He never has to find out."

Brooke threw her hands up in the air. At last she was acknowledging her problem; "Thank you!"

Lucas made his way round to the canteen and spotted Nathan in line for some food.

"Hey man" he greeted with a smile.

"Hey… why are you in such a good mood?" Nathan asked with a smirk, noticing that Lucas looked a little perkier than usual.

"I've got a date tonight, with my fiancée. My very beautiful, brainy fiancée who has been blowing me off for the past week to stay over at the hospital because she wants to get back in a game she doesn't realise she's not actually out of. So, to say I'm sexually frustrated would be an understatement. Date night is going to be off the charts—"

"Too much info man…" Nathan said as he shoved Lucas lightly.

"I can't believe how hot Brooke Davis is"

Lucas ears perked as he looked down the line and saw two of the interns talking about Brooke.

"You'd think we'd be used to it by now but no. She's like a Greek goddess." One of them said in wonder and awe.

Nathan watched as Lucas's eyes narrowed at the intern's fawning over his fiancée. Any other day, he'd probably let it slide. I mean, she was incredibly beautiful. However, he was incredibly frustrated today, and this was not helping.

"I never thought I would be into moms, but there's just something about her bossiness and patronising tone that turns me on—"

"Oh god…" Nathan mumbled under her breath as Lucas snapped.

"Yeah, nope. Harvey!" he said as he walked down the line and Harvey's face fell, and the other intern simply bolted.

"Hey buddy, I got a patient in 1413 with a large, super infected abscess in his groin that you're going to drain for me. Now." He ordered as Harvey sulked away. He was the sort of boy who was used to getting what he wanted, and it was talking him a while to adjust to the fact that he was a small fish in a very big pond and Lucas Scott was the king of the fishes.

Lucas turned back to Nathan with a clenched jaw and fists; "… I need to find Brooke."

"Yeah…"

Lucas quickly manoeuvred through the hallways, frustrated that he couldn't find Brooke anywhere. He looked in every room, through every window but nothing. He soon encountered Rachel and Haley on his search.

"Hey, have you seen Brooke anywhere?" he asked frantically.

"No, why?" Haley asked him, seeing how distressed he looked.

"I just need her for… something…" he said awkwardly.

"Anything we can help you with?" Rachel offered, knowing exactly why Lucas was looking for Brooke, but wanting to taunt him a little.

"NO! No, no, this—this definitely requires Brooke." He said quickly, before quickly walking away.

Haley and Rachel looked at each other; "someone's looking to get some." Haley said as they both started to laugh.

Meanwhile, Brooke had just finished attending to some patients in the ER and was filling in some charts at the front desk when a unfamiliar face in navy blue scrubs walked towards her.

"I believe you are looking for this?" He said as he held up her engagement ring.

Brooke's face lit up; "Oh my god, you found it! Where did you find it?!" she asked as she took it from him and hugged it gratefully to her chest.

"Scrub room. You left it on the shelf." He replied.

"Of course I did, the most obvious place is the one place I didn't look. Thank you so much—" she said as she waited for him to fill in his name.

"Owen. Owen Morello. I'm the new cardio attending." He explained as Brooke shook his hand.

"It's very nice to meet you, Brooke Davis." She said with a smile.

"It's nice to meet you, I've heard a lot about you." He said. No one ever came to Raleigh Med without a low down on Brooke Davis. She was the crown jewel of this place.

Brooke laughed; "All good things I hope."

"Of course. I hear you're the person you want to be friends with in this place."

"If you're lucky enough…" she teased as he smirked; "I'm kidding, I will happily be the friend of anyone who needs one. I gotta run, but again, it was nice to meet you and we'll hang out some time soon. I'll introduce you to some people, you'll become part of the family soon enough. See you." She said sincerely before walking away.

Owen watched her as she left the ER with a smile on his face—just as Harvey was watching him. If he'd learnt anything today from his lunch break, it was that Brooke Davis was a no-go area.

"This is going to get messy…" Harvey mumbled as Owen turned around.

"Sorry?" Owen asked.

Harvey froze, not meaning for him to hear that; "Nothing, nothing…" he said quickly. "Considering the way you were looking at Brooke Davis, the very much engaged crown jewel of the hospital—it's going to get messy." Owen confessed, before quickly darting away.

Brooke happily walked through the hospital hallways on her way to the resident's lounge. She had a really good day in trauma again and felt like she was finally finding her feet—if only she knew why Andy was so averse to having her on neuro.

She eventually came across a frantic Lucas who looked incredibly relieved to see her; "Hey, I have been looking everywhere for you, date night needs to start now—" he said as he wrapped his arm around her waist and quickly pulled her down the hallway.

"Lucas, I had such a rush today in trauma, I am finally feeling on form again. No more walking around with clip boards and patronising interns, I'm getting in that OR, every damn day and I found my ring—"

Lucas frowned; "You lost your ring?"

"… but I found something other than neuro that I am passionate about!" she said as Lucas pulled her into the on call room and pushed her against the door, kissing her roughly. After a few moments of making out Lucas made his way down her neck.

"Damn, what has gotten into you…" she moaned as he continued to attack her neck.

"Interns running their mouths about you…" he mumbled against her skin.

Brooke's face fell; "Oh god. Do they hate me?"

Lucas looked up at her like she was crazy; "No, they think you're a goddess, they're obsessed with you"

"Oh. Well…" she said with a smirk.

"I mean rightly so... you're a goddess and I am so proud of you for getting your mojo back." he made clear as he kissed down her cheek. "but you're my surgical goddess. No one else's."

Brooke looked him up and down; "Jealous Lucas is an incredibly hot Lucas…"

"You're mine." He said as he lifted her up, causing her to squeal, and carried her towards the bed.