A/N: Hi everyone! As always, thanks for all the great reviews.

Brooke and Nathan's secret will come out soon enough though I'm glad I have some of you intrigued by it. To answer the inquiry about how I'm able to update daily it's because I had several chapters already written out before I ever started posting it. However, I'm going to be away for the next couple of days so I probably won't be able to post the next part until some time Monday, Tuesday morning at the latest. Sorry! But I hope you enjoy this one ;)

Chapter 15 - Halo

I always said that I would make mistakes

I'm only human and that's my saving grace

I fall as hard as I try

So don't be blinded

See me as I really am

I have flaws and sometimes I even sin

So pull me from that pedestal

I don't belong there

"Captain of the cheer squad. That's pretty impressive, Luke." Teasing good naturedly, Keith grinned at his nephew before turning his attention back to the football game on TV. "She must really like you if she's in the kitchen with your mom trying to help clean up after the mess I made in there," he added casually, hoping to procure a bit of information from the otherwise private teenager.

"Alright, Keith." Rolling his eyes, Lucas leaned back against the cushions and gestured with his hand. "I know you want to ask so go ahead."

"You know, I actually don't know what you're talking about, Luke. But if there's something that you want to get off your chest, you know I'm always around to listen." Lucas had to be impressed by the way his uncle turned everything around on him. Something that his mother often tried and failed to do.

"Okay," Lucas agreed with a laugh, silently acknowledging that there was one thing he wanted to ask. "Do you like her?"

"Absolutely," Keith said without hesitation. "She's pretty, she's friendly… she smiles a lot which is always good. Makes it easier to be in a good mood. Plus I know that your mom, who is probably the best judge of character I know, seems to really like her too so… if you've got the Karen Roe seal of approval, you're basically set."

"I'm glad," Lucas admitted, unable to help the small grin that formed on his lips as he thought about Brooke. "She's really important to me."

Meanwhile in the kitchen, Brooke was inspecting a plate she had just spent the last minute scrubbing. It was a first for her but instead of complaining about the caked on food, she couldn't help but feel a small sense of accomplishment. "I don't think I've ever seen someone scrub dishes with such a big smile on their face," Karen said, amused.

"I never get to do it at home, you know," Brooke admitted, biting her lip.

"I wish Lucas was as enthusiastic about cleaning," Karen replied teasingly though the warmth in her smile bellied her words about the blonde haired boy sitting with Keith. "Don't get me wrong, he always does his share of the housework but usually it's late at night because he's just spent all evening down at the Rivercourt."

Or our with me, Brooke silently added.

Looking back, it was almost strange how natural their friendship seemed to have progressed. One night they watched a movie together and the next came a phone call. After a few days, Brooke came to expect hearing his voice sometime between the end of his basketball practice and the minutes before she went to sleep.

What amazed Brooke even more was how much he seemed to care about her. He asked her about a lot of little things, questions about the little quirks of hers that he noticed. But most of all, he showed how much she mattered to him by letting her into his world. By smiling when she showed up at the Rivercourt to watch him play ball with his friends. For including her in the conversations he had with Skillz, Fergie and Junk about random guy stuff.

He let her in, knowing she was tied to Nathan in ways he didn't understand and not once had he ever made her feel uncomfortable because of it. Lucas didn't ask her to choose one friend over the other. He didn't make her feel like she had to defend herself or her friendship. It not only showed that he cared but that he respected her too. Something that no previous boyfriend had ever done for her before.

"He seems to really love it down at the court," Brooke mentioned while rinsing off the newly washed dish. "The friends he plays ball there with are really amazing too."

Smiling behind Brooke, Karen felt a small sense of relief that she hadn't realized she had been waiting for.

Originally, the concerned mother had worried about her son's choice of girl. While Brooke was nice enough, she was also a rich cheerleader who spent plenty of spare time with other rich kids, including Lucas' half brother, Nathan.

At first, picturing the two of them together seemed like a recipe for disaster because their differences seemed to be almost too many. Yet Karen still couldn't help but like Brooke. She was sweet and seemed to really care for Lucas. The clincher, it seemed, was that Brooke didn't only care about Lucas, but she also accepted where he came from and the people he'd grown up alongside.

The other differences didn't seem to matter to Karen anymore because they obviously didn't matter to Lucas and Brooke.

"You know after all this time, I still don't know what Junk's really name is," Karen admitted with a laugh. Giggling, Brooke nearly dropped the plate she had been washing. Together, both females began laughing even louder, garnering the attention of Lucas and Keith in the living room.

With a nervous expression on his face, Lucas stood up and crept to the kitchen. Standing in the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest, he watched the two brunettes, each up to their arms in soap suds, laughing heartily and some unknown joke.

Lucas didn't know what was so funny but that didn't stop him from laughing at the hysterical pair.

-----

After driving Brooke back home, Lucas decided to go inside with her for a while because he could see that she clearly didn't want to be left alone. Not that she would have ever admitted it. "Why don't you want to sleep with me," she whispered a half hour later while tracing invisible circles on his chest. Her expression was one of deep concentration but Lucas guessed it was just a way to avoid looking at him. She was obviously scared of what his answer would be while he was just surprised by the question.

"What makes you think I don't?" he finally asked.

Snuggled beneath the goose down comforter on her bed, Brooke felt like she was nestled into a little safety cocoon. The warmth from the blanket and the safety she felt with Lucas by her side was enough to give her the courage to ask something she had been wondering about for several days. At least since the night they first kissed in the rain.

"Because you haven't tried," she shrugged uncertainly. "I've been in your bed, you're here in mine now. We're all alone."

With a sigh, Lucas tipped her chin up so that Brooke would finally have to meet his intense blue gaze. "I do want to sleep with you Brooke. Believe me," he admitted, allowing her to see in his eyes how much he wanted her. "But the thing is that I've never done it before and I really care about you so when it happens… I want it to be something special between us instead of just this thing we did one night because we were alone." When she didn't say anything, Lucas let out a nervous laugh. "Too cheesy?" he asked.

"Then maybe it shouldn't be with me," she whispered sadly and looked away as the first tears slipped from the corners of her eyes.

"Hey," he whispered back and shifted down the bed a little so that her eyes could no longer avoid his. "Why would you say that?" he gently asked.

"Because," Brooke insisted, helplessly. "Lucas, you're good. Any girl would be lucky to have you but… I don't deserve you," she whispered through her tears. "You should have an amazing first time with a great girl. Not one that has a closet over flowing with skeletons," she declared as her body began to shake with the force of her tears. "Not someone who's first time already belongs to someone else."

It was the closest she had ever come to admitting just how colorful her past really was.

Sure there were rumors about random hook-ups and drunken nights that she was sure Lucas had heard at one point or another. While plenty of the stories were pure fiction, Brooke was ashamed to admit that more than handful were also true. And she didn't want that for Lucas. As much as she wished she could ever be enough for him, Brooke knew it was a selfish desire. She needed to let him go because in her heart she knew it would hurt even more if he dumped her later after finding out the sordid details of her life.

"Brooke, I don't care about that," Lucas insisted and placed a gentle kiss against her lips before she could protest. He could taste the saltiness from her tears. "I don't care about what you did before because the girl I know today is pretty damn amazing," he said with the same reverence he often kissed her with. "Brooke, I wish you could see yourself the way I see you. I wish you knew how beautiful you were inside."

His heartfelt declaration only made her tears fall faster.

She was tempted to tell him about all that she was done but she couldn't open her mouth to say the words. She knew he deserved a better girl, a nicer one like his best friend Haley but Brooke couldn't help the strong desire she felt to hold on as tight as she could while he was willing to let her. Brooke wondered if maybe he could actually accept the things she had done and said.

"I wish I was a better person," she whispered, continuing even after he frowned. "Because if I was, I would let you go before you got in too deep. I'd let you go so that you could find another girl that was nicer and sweeter. Someone that you could always depend on. But I'm not a better person."

"Brooke…" He wrapped his arms around her body, pulling her against him so that no space existed between them. With her head on his chest, listening to the gentle thump of his heart beat, she felt a sense of calm envelop her. "I want to know you. The good… the parts that you seem to think are bad. All of it. All of you."

Sighing, Brooke raised her head to look down at him from where she lay sprawled on top of his body. "Just don't paint my picture with a halo, Lucas. If you want to see me, then seem me as I really am. I make mistakes, I fall and... I sin," she said simply. The pensiveness from before refused to leave her face and Lucas wished, not for the first time, that she wouldn't sell herself short. "That's just who I am. And as much as I'd love to change who I once was… I can't."

"I'm not asking you to change anything, Brooke. I know you aren't perfect, I just wish you knew that no one else was either," Lucas murmured, raising his hands to push back the strands of hair that had fallen in her face. "You are so beautiful."

Raising his lips to hers, they met in a sweet kiss.

Brooke would have kissed him all night if he had let her but she understood that Lucas wanted to take it slow. So they slept. Legs tangled together, arms draped across each other's bodies… sharing the breaths exchanged by lips so close together. They slept. Together. And it was the best sleep either had ever had on any given night alone.

-----

To make up for their days off, lazing around and eating large amounts of food, Whitey called a special Saturday morning practice. He almost seemed to take pleasure in standing on the sidelines while the team ran horses up and down the length of the court. "Hustle up, Tim. Point guards lead from the front, not the back!" he called out to the boy who was so obviously hung over, it was a wonder he hadn't puked all over the hardwood.

"One more to go," Lucas said and gave Tim a helpful little shove forward to keep him moving. If even one person crossed the finish line more than three seconds behind the others, they'd all have to run their reps a second time.

"Yeah, man… let's go. Come on," Nathan coached, encouraging his friend to keep moving.

"Time!" Whitey called out once they all made it back to the base line. "Now that you've worked off a few holiday pounds," he said dryly. "Divide up. Blue will work on perimeter jump shots. White on free throws. If anyone misses a free throw, you'll be taking a lap. Now move!" Resisting the urge to groan, the boys began separating and walking towards their respective baskets. "Hold on a second there, Lucas. Turn your jersey inside out and join the group at the free throw line," he instructed before telling Hamilton to switch over to blue.

Surprised, Lucas reluctantly joined the group of starters and got to the back of the line. As his luck would have it, he got stuck right behind Nathan.

Two rounds of shots went by with neither acknowledging the other's existence. Finally after his third try, Lucas returned to the end of the line while Nathan half turned back to face him, his eyes focused on the bleachers across the court. "The team's partying it out at Tim's again tonight. You should bring Brooke." Said so casually, the reluctance in his voice was almost undetectable. But Lucas heard it and instantly knew that his new girlfriend was the reason behind Nathan's invitation. She had obviously told him to play nice. That wasn't what surprised Lucas though. He knew how difficult it was for her to be stuck between two brothers who disliked each other so much.

No, what surprised Lucas was that Nathan was actually making the effort.

But he didn't say anything at first. Not until Whitey blew the whistle again and told them to switch their shots. "Okay," Lucas said simply as he found a spot just outside the paint to shoot from.

Tossing up the ball that sailed through the basket effortlessly, Nathan shrugged. "Cool."

"Oh god, I'm gonna throw up!" Tim groaned and ran off the court amidst laughter and pointing from his teammates. From where he continued to stand at the sidelines, Whitey turned his head to hide a chuckle. He figured it would teach the other guys not to get drunk the night before they were supposed to play.

-----

"Hey, pretty girl," Lucas greeted when he walked into his kitchen after practice and found his girlfriend sitting at the dinner table.

"Morning boyfriend. How was practice?" she asked in the quiet, raspy voice that never failed to cause a wave of desire coursing through his body.

"Not bad. Tim was hung over though and… well… let's just say that the locker room isn't exactly the nicest smelling room in the gym. Or the cleanest for that matter," Lucas explained, grinning when Brooke rolled her eyes. Reaching into the refrigerator, he pulled out a bottle of water and sat down across from his girlfriend.

"You're mom invited me," Brooke stated, answering the silent question. While Lucas knew that Karen really liked his new girlfriend, he couldn't imagine why she had called and asked her to come by on a Saturday morning. "I guess she kind of figured out that my parents aren't exactly around much and since you had practice, she thought we could have breakfast together," she said before informing him that Karen had gone off to the café a half hour before to straighten up a few things. Graciously, she had invited Brooke to stay and wait around for Lucas since he was due back soon enough.

"Well I'm glad she did because it'll save me a call," Lucas declared, causing Brooke to narrow her eyes inquiringly. "I thought maybe if you wanted to… we could go to Tim's party tonight," he suggested casually and took a long drink from the plastic bottle.

"Wait, you actually want to go to a party?" Brooke asked, perplexed by the sudden about face.

"Sure, it might be fun."

Sighing, Brooke reached for his hand across the table and said, "Lucas, I love that you're willing to put yourself through another party for me but I'm okay with skipping it. Just the fact that you offered is good enough." She knew what Nathan promised and Brooke was positive he wouldn't go back on his word but that didn't mean that the other guys were going to play nice. And after the emotional rollercoaster she'd been on throughout the week, Brooke was fine with a stress free night with Lucas, watching movies and snuggling up in his arms.

Tugging her hand gently, Lucas gestured for Brooke to walk around the table and sit down on his lap.

Teasingly, she decided to straddle his legs instead while wrapping her arms loosely around his neck. Lucas couldn't resist leaning in for a kiss. One that quickly began to get out of control as their tongues clashed wildly together and Brooke ground her hips against his. She could feel evidence of his arousal pressing against her inner thigh. She couldn't hold in the moan she emitted softly against his lips.

Hands wandering, Lucas slid his palms inside her shirt and gently tickled the soft skin with his fingers.

Brooke was just about to reach for his waistband when they heard a throat being cleared somewhere behind them.

Mortified, Brooke buried her head in Lucas' chest, imagining how upset Karen would be after finding them in such a compromising position. "Hey Keith," Lucas greeted as casually as he could considering the circumstances. Better his uncle than his mother, he thought. "You remember Brooke."

"Hi Uncle Keith," she said, her voice muffled by Lucas' shirt as she raised her hand in greeting.

"Brooke… Lucas… your mom's on her way in. She just stopped to check the mail," Keith informed, trying and failing to hold in a laugh. "I'll be in the living room. Good to see you again, Brooke," he called out behind him, making it impossible for Lucas to keep from joining in the amused laughter.

"Luke!" Brooke scolded and poked his side.

"Well at least you know he likes you," Lucas shrugged as the front door slammed and Karen walked into the house. "Otherwise he would have let my mom catch us."