"You know you could have stayed with Mouth and I," Rachel told Brooke as she messed with her hair a bit. "We were clothed the whole time, or at least partially," she added with a grin.

"Please tell me that was a joke because the thought of you and Mouth…." Brooke shuddered.

"It was a joke. I'm just saying that you could have stayed and talked with us rather than subjecting yourself to three small children and two buns in the oven." Flawlessly, Brooke applied mascara. "I mean are you ready to deal with the two of them for a second time today?"

"Rachel, they are two of my best friends in the world and I love them dearly regardless of how sad their children and current condition makes me."

"Current condition? You mean being pregnant?"

"Yeah that."

"At least you admit that it makes you sad." Brooke stopped fiddling with her purse.

"Of course it does, it makes me think to what I could have had. And what I lost. And it kills me that it makes me sad. I should be able to be supportive of this phase in my two best friends' lives. I should be able to take my goddaughters to a movie or out shopping and not tear up." Rachel capped her lip gloss.

"Brooke, honey, no one expects you to just let go of that part of your life. It was a life changing event and of course it's going to affect you." Brooke blinked and brushed the tears away.

"Not any more. From here on out I'm going to just act like these things don't affect me."

"If you keep acting eventually you'll truly belong in LA," Rachel joked. She took Brooke's hand in hers. "Don't give up on the past, it makes you who you are today."

"Why Rachel that was very deep of you."

"I know. Tell you what…" Rachel grabbed her jacket as the two headed out the door. "I promise to never ever be that deep again. So are you ready for tonight?"

"Yeah I mean why wouldn't I be?" Brooke checked the door to make sure it locked behind her.

"Well a certain brooding blonde will be there."

"How about you come up with a new adjective/noun combo for when you want to bring up Lucas? Or you know what, how about you actually use his name because despite what you seem to believe, the mere mention of his name does not make me bring out the razor blades and hack away at my wrists."

"Ok fine, Lucas. Are you ok that Lucas is going to be there? Because I've seen you try the whole silent treatment on the plane and then the competitive, bitchy act at the airport. And neither of them seemed bring you any results. So tonight you're just going to have to suck it up and talk to him. He's hurting. You're the one that did the hurting. So that means that you're the one that needs to make the first move."

"Car's here," Brooke stated as a response. Without a word, the two got in the car and rode to the restaurant.

The car pulled up outside the quaint restaurant. As Rachel and Brooke walked up to the front, they bumped into Lucas. "Oh um…hi," Brooke stumbled. Lucas nodded and then held the door open for the girls.

"Good start," Rachel murmured to Brooke as she passed by.

"There are our big city girls," Mouth called as Brooke and Rachel moved into the heart of the dining area to join the group already assembled.

"Hey," Brooke smiled. There were hugs all around as Rachel stood awkwardly on the side lines as she was only close to Mouth and Lucas. Brooke knew that the topic of the children would be considered forbidden unless she brought it up first. So following her new philosophy to act like nothing mattered to her, she broke the taboo. "So Tutor Parents got a night out? And Mr. and Mrs. Jegalski. Did you lock the kids in the basement?" Everyone laughed before sitting around the table.

"Ok I hate to break up this lovely, Dawson's Creek bonding moment, but I have something to say," Rachel said as she faced the table. "I was never really close to any of you in high school and I'm not saying that I really want to be that close to any of you now, but I also don't want to sit here on sidelines all night while you guys trade stories about the good old days. I mean Haley I know why you hate me because I tried to sleep with your husband. And Nathan doesn't like me out of solidarity. But Peyton you and I are the only two at this table that have decent taste in music. And you Jegalski our paths never really crossed so there's no need for you to be angry with me. So tonight all of you are going to include me in your conversations whether you like it or not." With that, Rachel sat down. "So Haley other than getting knocked up… twice what have you been up to?" Rachel shoved a breadstick in her mouth.

"Well, Rachel, right after high school Nathan and I went to Stanford. I studied to be a teacher and he played basketball. It was hard raising Brooklyn and studying for class, but we got through it." She beamed up at Nathan in a loving way. "And then midway through freshman year I found out I was pregnant again with Audrey. We were thrilled and scared. It was hard enough raising one baby much less two. In junior year Nathan got an offer to work for a scout and well…you want to talk about that?" she offered to her husband.

"Not really much to tell. I started to work for this guy at some big shot scouting agency and he kept telling me I had a lot of promise but I wasn't getting anywhere. So I quit. But knowing that Haley would take it kind of hard if I told her that she and the girls would be living in a nice cardboard box, I had to get another job. I quit school and opened up a small agency and well it went uphill from there. I'm no millionaire but it pays well enough to keep a roof over our heads."

"He's modest. It's very successful. Which is why I didn't worry too much that I didn't have the time to work as a full time teacher. But enough about our lives I'm sure you want to hear about everyone else's."

"Yeah how have the rest of you losers been?" Rachel asked the table at large.

"Peyton's been working at a record label," Jake offered.

"Yeah but it's not as glamorous as it sounds, I'm pretty much a glorified assistant. I get the owner his morning coffee and take lunch orders. But Jake's been doing the cute little stay at home dad gig. It's really quite adorable." She ruffled her husband's hair. "And you two, how's life in LA?"

"Fabulous," Rachel said with a smile. "I've been doing great modeling. I always knew that this rocking body of mine would be a good investment." Haley rolled her eyes.

"And Brooke how have you been?" Haley asked.

"Ok done with me," Rachel said.

"I'm sorry, was there more?"

"Oh Rachel's got a whole ode to her boobs written that she'll perform if you give her the chance," Brooke joked. "Things for me have been, exciting. I mean one minute I'm sketching these little dresses in my notebook and the next they're being worn on the runway. And then I've got all this money that I don't even know what to do with it."

"Well you can throw some of that my way if you'd like," Peyton joked.

"And you Lucas, what all have you been up to," Brooke asked him. He looked up in shock.

"Writing."

"Writing? That's all you've done for the past five years?" Brooke laughed.

"Writing and thinking about where we went wrong." The table got silent.

"Lucas I…"

"No I know, you're married. But I'm not giving up that easily Brooke. I'll settle for being your friend for now, but sooner or later I'll make you see that we belong together." Forks clanged and chatter was heard from every table except the one with the reunited friends.

"Lucas, man, could you come with me for a sec?" Nathan stood up and reluctantly his brother followed him. Jake looked from his wife to her best friend to Haley.

"I'm going to go with them," he said as he hurried after them.

"So married? Wow." Peyton nodded her head. "What's his name?"

"David. He's a great guy."

"As great as Lucas?" Haley mumbled quietly. She and Lucas were best friends and seeing the way he treated Brooke she couldn't see why Brooke would be with anyone but Lucas.

"Lucas is a great guy," Brooke agreed. "But I can't keep chasing my past. I have to move on. I have moved on."

"Pick up his book when you get a chance. You need to know how he's feeling," Peyton told her. When Brooke shot her an evil look, Peyton held her hands up defensively. "I'm not saying that it'll change your mind or your life it'll just clear a few things up." The tension in the air could be cut with a knife.

"You know I need to go check on the kitchen staff. My head chef called in sick this morning," Mouth said as he stood up.

"Your head chef?" Rachel asked.

"Yeah. This place…" Mouth looked around. "I mean I know it's not like those fancy bistros in LA, but it's all mine."

"And you failed to mention this in the hours that we talked?" Rachel asked in mock offense.

"You never asked," Mouth said with a shrug before leaving to go make sure his kitchen staff didn't serve anything uncooked.

"So Mouth went from wannabe newscaster to restaurant owner?" Brooke asked of Haley and Peyton, trying to keep the conversation off of her and Lucas.

"After Jimmy…killed himself," Haley said the last part quietly. "He never really recovered. After high school he kind of just gave up on that part of his life. I mean he says it's because there aren't that many chances for sports broadcasting at Harvard, but I know."

"Haley events like that change people. Sometimes it's for the good and sometimes it's for the bad," Brooke explained.

"So was yours for the good or the bad?" Haley asked.

"For the…" Brooke started but she was cut off when the four boys returned.

"Haley the sitter just called. She's having trouble getting Audrey to sleep and I said that we could come home and get her." Haley smiled.

"The joys of being a mother," she smiled and then gave Brooke a pained expression.

"Hales, I'm fine. I know when I left I was in such a state that the word mother practically pushed me off the edge, but I'm better now." She glanced quickly in Rachel's direction and the red head gave her a knowing look.

"Sorry we have to cut the evening short," Haley said as she hugged everyone goodbye and then followed Nathan out.

"Yeah I think I'm going to have to cut it short as well," Peyton said as she struggled to get to her feet.

"P. Sawyer calling it quits before midnight? What happened to the party girl I went to high school with?"

"If I remember correctly, you were the party girl not me. Not to mention, even if I was a party girl this," she indicated her stomach. "Kind of takes all the party out of a girl."

"Call me soon B. Davis," Peyton hugged Brooke and then a shocked Rachel.

"I guess that baby's eating all the bitch cells," Rachel said as she pulled away. With a roll of her eyes, Peyton and Jake made their exit.

"In continuing the stopping of this party, I've got to make sure that my kitchen does not burn down. I'll call the two of you soon. We'll get together on a less hectic date." Mouth hugged Brooke and then Rachel.

"Hey maybe you could come out to LA to see us sometime," Brooke suggested.

"Absolutely." With one last smile, Mouth was gone.

"And then there were three," Rachel said as she looked from Lucas to Brooke. The two had been surprisingly pleasant towards one another all evening and Rachel was crossing her fingers that it would last.

"So would you two ladies like a ride to your hotel?" Lucas offered.

"Yeah that'd be great," Brooke smiled. Rachel followed the two, a bemused expression across her face.

Lucas pulled his car into a spot in front of the hotel. "All that money and you're staying here?" He took in the dingy surroundings.

"I don't like to go around flaunting my wealth," Brooke said with a smile.

"Oh yeah when I think Brooke Davis I think unassuming." Rachel rolled her eyes and began to climb the stairs.

"Ha ha," Brooke faked a laugh as she stared at Rachel's rapidly retreating back. Lucas had begun to get out of his car but Brooke stopped him. "You don't need to walk me to the door, it's not like this was a date or anything." The two held eye contact as they both entertained thoughts of what that would be like.

Lucas broke eye contact first and then attempted to make up for the awkward silence. "Well I was just going to make sure that you didn't get killed on the way up." She knew that this wasn't true.

"Well look, Rachel made it up ok. And if it helps, I'll run really fast."

"Goodnight Brooke." And then he stared at her, his eyes boring into her in a way that she knew all too well. He took her hand in his and put his other over it. They stayed still for a moment before Lucas once again tried to make up for the awkwardness. "Well start running." She smiled and then fake jogged up the stairs and to her door. Before entering her room she gave a wave to Lucas who was still sitting in his car watching her. He laughed and started his car, driving away while laughing. Brooke slid into the room and closed the door behind her. She leaned against it, a smile on her face feeling oddly like a giddy teenager.