The kids had been in bed for about an hour. Brooke had broken out the wine bottle about forty-five minutes ago, and all three of the girls forbade the men to drink proclaiming they already had their turn.

"Some one needs to be sober for the kids." Haley said accepting another glass of wine.

When they were sufficiently drunk Nathan grinned to the other two and walked over to the piano. Usually he cursed every minute his mother ever made him take piano lessons. Except on the occasions like this one, when there was fun to be had. Jake and Lucas had no idea what he was doing when he sat down at the bench, but Brooke caught that gleam in his eyes and got the other two's attention.

"All right you chipmunks." Nathan said playing a few notes.

Jenny, Keith, and Jamie gave each other odd glances from their usual spot on the stairs.

"Simon?"

"Okay!" Haley answered.

"Theodore?"

"Okay!" Peyton jumped up only slightly buzzed.

"Alvin?" Nathan called, Brooke took a long sip of her wine while Nathan continued, "Alvin? ALVIN!"

"O-kay!" she yelled

Christmas, Christmas time is here!

Time to toys and time for cheers!

We've been good but we can't last,

Hurry Christmas, hurry fast.

"What are they doing?" Jenny asked laughing.

"Mom told me about this once." Keith said shaking his head, "Peyton's dad wasn't around so mom invited her over for Christmas, the year Haley and my mom were living together, and Haley was playing with her keyboard while they all drank to quote my mother "Special Eggnog" She started playing this song and my mom and Peyton sang along. Nathan kicked Haley off the keyboard and played it for them and all three girls sang along. She told me the first Christmas after she and my dad split."

"I wanna sing it again!" Brooke said partly in character but mostly cause she was drunk.

"Brooke." Nathan laughed.

"Yeah why can't we sing it again?" Haley asked laughing as she sat next to Nathan on the bench.

"Let's sing it again." Peyton chimed in.

"Girls." Lucas said attempting to wrestle the wine out of Brooke's hand.

Peyton sat on the couch next to Jake and drunkenly leaned her head on his shoulder.

"God, why can't we just keep them all drunk forever?" Jenny asked.

"They are always happy that way." Jamie agreed.

"Come on guys let's go to bed." Keith said, not wanting to see his parents being happy when he knew it wouldn't last. Not unless Jenny, Jamie, and himself came up with a better plan that the ones they had.

"Five days." Jenny exclaimed waking Jamie and Keith.

"Jeez." Jamie exclaimed looking at the clock, "Jenny it's five in the morning."

"We have five days to fix our parents marriage Jamie." She repeated, "I thought the two of you might care."

"We do." Keith said sitting up and yawning.

"Yeah, but not at five in the morning." Jamie complained getting up.

"Just get up." She said shoving them both, "And meet me in the kitchen."

"What are we doing?" Jamie asked taking the toast Jenny handed them both.

"Christmas is in four days, we leave in five. Our parents are not back together." Jenny said stating the facts.

"Yeah?" Keith said.

"Guys," Jenny said seriously, "We need to do something."

"Jen, we're trying our best. We had seven days to fix our parents; it's only been two. Give us a break." Jamie said.

"Fine." She sighed.

"Let's just get to work." Keith suggested holding up the bag of mistletoe they'd managed to get the day before.

"How long have you three been awake for?" Haley asked walking through the living room.

The three kids had collapsed on the couch after hanging mistletoe on every available door, leading to the outside.

"Not long." They all lied.

"Well who's hungry?" she asked.

"As long as it has sugar." Brooke chimed in entering the living room behind Haley with Tyler in her arms, "How'd you sleep Tutor Girl?"

"Fine." Haley said, kissing her nephew on the head before Brooke put him down, "You?"

"Alone." Brooke said, as if being accused.

Haley laughed, "God, you haven't been that jumpy to that question since we lived together, and you used to sneak Lucas in."

Brooke nodded, "Yeah well unfortunately, these days I actually mean it." She paused and looked back up at Haley, "Not that uh… I want Lucas. I was just talking about a man. Not that Lucas isn't a man."

"Glad we all agree on that." Lucas said from the stairs.

"Ha ha." Brooke deadpanned hiding her blushing cheeks, "Come on Hales let's go make breakfast."

"Yeah," Haley laughed, "Oh Luke can you grab the paper? It should be on the porch."

Jenny's eyes lit up, "Aunt Brooke you wanna help me sneak in mom and dad's present while they're still sleeping?"

"Yes!" Brooke said excited, "I love presents."

"Okay it's in our trunk." Jenny said.

Both Brooke and Lucas started walking through the door, "Mom! Dad! Wait!" Keith yelled, and they both stopped in mid step right in the doorframe.

"What?" they both asked.

Keith dropped his head into his hands, "Never mind."

Haley looked at them and laughed.

"What?" Brooke asked still confused by her son's actions.

"You're under the mistletoe." She said through her giggles, "You guys have to kiss."

Brooke and Luke looked up, then at each other, "Hales." Luke started.

"Nope," she shook her head, "It's Christmas Law."

Brooke sighed and glared at her, "Fine, let's just get this over with."

Lucas rolled his eyes, "So romantic."

"Shut up." She said.

"Don't make me call Penelope." Keith said.

Brooke leaned in and brushed her lips against his, and for one second she forgot herself. She forgot they were divorced, she forgot they hadn't been together for two years she forgot everything. All she knew was she was Brooke and he was Lucas and they were kissing. But he pulled back and she made some quip about better kisses she's been given and quickly walked to Jake and Peyton's car, waiting for Jenny.

"Nice acting skills." Jenny commented to Keith before she got up to follow Brooke out the door, "What was that anyway?"

"I'm not supposed to be trying to fix them up remember? None of us are. We have to pretend like we're perfectly happy with all of them being split if we don't want to get caught." He reminded her.

She nodded and walked out the door.

"Where did the mistletoe come from?" Haley asked.

Jamie and Keith exchanged glances, "Uh, some lady was selling it door to door." Jamie lied.

"Yeah, we think she was homeless, so we bought a lot of it." Keith added.

Haley nodded, not completely sure if she believed them but she figured what could be so bad about the truth so she let it alone, "What do you guys want for breakfast?"

"So uh Uncle Nathan?" Keith started that evening. So far the three of them had been able to trick Peyton and Jake and Brooke and Lucas under the mistletoe but not Nathan and Haley, and they'd triedeverything.

"What's up kid? Got something else for me to get from outside?"

"No, it's not that." In truth he had told Jenny and Jamie that he was going to try to get Nathan and Haley in a doorway, but really he'd wanted to talk to Nathan since they'd visited Dan a few days ago.

"Then what?" Nathan asked sensing his nephew's tone, he sat down on the stool next to the counter.

"When we went to the… to the prison…"

"Yeah?" Nathan asked getting a little uncomfortable.

"It wasn't… it wasn't what I expected."

"What do you mean?"

Lucas stopped on the porch hearing his brother and son's voices. He had gone out back to gather some firewood Jenny had asked for so they could start a fire. Of course Jamie had asked Brooke to grab something from the porch but they'd all caught on to the kid's games, and Lucas said he'd just get it when he grabbed the firewood.

"He wasn't…" Keith started, "He wasn't the guy I'd imagined. I mean… he didn't- he didn't look like a killer."

"How is a killer supposed to look?" Nathan asked.

"I don't know, like they do on TV. All wild eyed and angry. I mean even when he yelled, he didn't look angry he just looked… scared." Keith said, "I mean, he thought I was… he thought I was…"

"I know." Nathan interrupted, noting the kids discomfort.

"Right," Keith said nodding, "and he looked afraid… and sorry. Are killers sorry they killed?"

Nathan looked up at him and nodded, "Yeah. Sometimes they are sorry. Sometimes they are really sorry, and they can't even believe they did it."

"Then why do they in the first place?" Keith asked and Nathan could hear the desperation in the boy's voice, he needed to understand why his grandfather killed his… other grandfather.

"I… I don't know little man. Sometimes people do bad things and there are no reasons for it." Nathan said.

Keith nodded, "Thanks Uncle Nathan."

"Look Keith anytime you need to talk about Dan or- about anything man… I'm your uncle, you can come to me always."

"Thanks." Keith said leaving the kitchen.

Nathan waited a minute before following. Lucas then walked into the kitchen with the firewood, with a troubled look on his face. He put the firewood in the living room with Jenny then walked out to the front porch and sat on the swing.

Brooke watched him come in and go. She knew something was wrong, but… they weren't married anymore so it really wasn't her place… right?

"Brooke?" Haley said nudging her friend.

"Yeah?" Brooke asked shaking her head.

"Sweetie, I'm going up to bed. Are you okay? You haven't said anything in over an hour."

"What are you talking about?" Brooke asked and looked around the room for support only to find everyone else was gone, "Where is everyone?"

"Honey they went to bed a while ago. Well everyone except Lucas, he's still on the porch. Are you sure your okay?"

Brooke nodded, "Where's Tyler?"

"Jake put him to bed for you."

"Remind me to thank him in the morning." Brooke said hugging Haley goodnight.

"What are you brooding about?" Brooke asked stepping out into the cold to talk to Lucas. She had one of Haley's wool blankets wrapped tightly around herself and Lucas made room for her on the porch swing, so she offered him some blanket, "Well?" she asked again when he didn't answer.

"Keith went with Haley and Nathan to visit Dan the day before yesterday."

Brooke nodded, "I know."

"Brooke I haven't seen him since my senior year of high school. My son went with my brother to meet the monster who killed my uncle. My father."

"Luke." Brooke started, "You offered to go with him."

"Yeah, but I wasn't going to go." he said, "I didn't realize it at the time, but Brooke you know I would have come up with some reason to get out of it. I told you back when we had Keith -and you wanted us to start sharing everything, remember?- about how Nathan and I chickened out during the junior/senior party. I haven't seen him since I almost shot him in my mother's kitchen."

Brooke took a minute to process this information, "Lucas, he killed Keith, it's natural for you to be... upset and angry about it."

"But for eleven years? Dan took Keith from my mom and their baby. He stole Lilly's father from her and my mom forgave him a long time ago. I mean it's not like she's going to invite him over for tea anytime soon but she forgave him."

"But he didn't just steal Lilly's father and her husband, Luke. He took Keith from you too. He took Keith from all of us."

"Did you forgive him?" Lucas asked point blank.

Brooke paused debating whether or not to answer him, and finally she nodded, "Years ago." Lucas looked down at his hands angrily, "Lucas listen to me. If you're not ready to forgive Dan than you're not ready to forgive Dan. It doesn't matter if I have or your mother did, or Nathan or Haley, or the rest of the world. He took your father from you in the most horrible way so that's for you to choose when he deserves your forgiveness. But Luke," he looked back up at her, his eyes still pleading for help, "You wouldn't be so upset about this if you didn't think you might be already be ready." Brooke leaned in and kissed his cheek then walked into the house leaving the blanket with him.

Brooke was in her room for about five minutes before Lucas walked through the door and fell on the bed kissing her.

Okay please review. I hope you guys like it.

-Em