Chapter 2-

It was chaos at the Scott house.

It had been three weeks since Brooke and Elijah had arrived home from the hospital. Brooke was frantically running around her house with Elijah strapped to her stomach. She needed to find Leighton's purple dress. She knew it was clean; she'd just washed it the day before. She just didn't know what she'd done with it. She had one hour before people started arriving for Leighton's birthday party, and none of her kids were dressed.

"Brooke?" Haley called through the cracked door.

"Haley? Thank goodness you're here. Can you please help me dress Taylor and Jenna? Aniston and Leighton are fine on their own if I ever find Leighton's dress."

Haley nodded and grabbed Jenna's hand trying to lead her to her bedroom.

"No!" Jenna wailed, "Mommy!"

Brooke rolled her eyes. Jenna hadn't done well with Elijah being home. She liked Brooke whenever and wherever she wanted.

"Go with Aunt Haley, Jenna, Mommy will come do your hair in a minute."

Jenna went with Haley, but not without a pout. She was Brooke through and through. Taylor followed in typical Taylor fashion. She was without a doubt the most easy-going of the Scott brood, sweet and helpful.

"Mommy! I broke my dinosaur!" Aniston wailed, crashing into Brooke's leg.

"Okay baby, leave it on the kitchen counter and I'll fix it later."

"No! I need it for the party! It's my new one; I want to show it to Miriam!"

Miriam was Nathan and Haley's little girl. Aniston had been fostering a crush on her for a while, unfortunately, Miriam couldn't have been less interested in him.

"I know sweetie, I'll do what I can."

Aniston frowned a little and placed his broken toy on the kitchen counter.

Brooke grabbed Leighton's dress off the treadmill, and handed it to Leighton, who'd been trailing her mom all morning.

"Mom! It's still wet!"

"It'll be fine, just put it on; it'll be dry by the time people get here."

Leighton pulled the damp dress over her head, messing up her hair in the process. Brooke grabbed a comb out of her back pocket and fixed it, then headed to Taylor and Jenna's room. Taylor was sitting on her bed, shoving a bottle in her baby-doll's mouth. Jenna was standing in her closet with Haley, pouting still.

"I not wearing it," she declared.

"Jenna, put on your skirt," Brooke said, growing exhausted. Jenna ran over to Brooke and wrapped her little arms around Brooke's legs.

"No wanna wear that," she said, little tears streaming down her face.

"Okay, well, pick out something you do want to wear and put it on."

"I'm sorry Brooke," Haley apologized, "I couldn't get her to put on anything."

"It's okay, thanks for the help."

"Anytime. Nathan should be here any minute with Aaden and Miriam."

Brooke nodded then sat down behind Taylor on the bed. She gently pulled the comb through her little girl's soft blonde curls. She was exhausted, and she had a whole birthday party to run. Lucas couldn't come of course, she didn't know why she'd ever expected him to, he hadn't been to any of the other kid's birthday parties. She wasn't happy. She wasn't who she wanted to be. She loved her kids, and wouldn't trade them for the world. But Lucas was never home, and raising five kids on your own isn't easy.

She finished with Taylor's hair and moved onto Jenna's. She combed through the little brunette's curls, ignoring the exaggerated pained look on Jenna's face. Neither she nor Lucas had curly hair, but Taylor and Jenna both had loose curls.

"Okay, you're done," Brooke said, taking the girls into the family room; turning on Noggin.

She went to the kitchen and glued the dinosaur's leg back on.

"Brooke?" Nathan called out, coming through the door with Aaden and Miriam. Brooke ran out of the kitchen to greet her family. She was still amazed by Miriam's resemblance to Haley even after four years. She had light brown curls cascading down her back, huge brown eyes, and the cutest button nose Brooke had ever seen.

"Hey guys," Brooke said, hugging Nathan.

"Mommy!" Taylor screamed, "I need you!"

"Taylor, what is it? Mommy's busy!"

"Mommy hurry, Jenna's hurt!"

Brooke raced into the family room to find Jenna laying on the floor silent tears streaming down her tiny cheeks.

"Taylor, what happened?"

"We was having a tickle fight, and I was tickling Jenna, then she falled!"

"Jenna sweetie, where are you hurt?"

"Arm," Jenna whimpered.

Brooke gently pulled Jenna into a sitting position in order to get a better look at her arm.

"Oh my gosh, Haley, I think it's broken."

"What?"

"Look, it's in a really weird position, I've got to get her to a hospital."

"Go Brooke, I'll stay here and supervise the party."

"Are you sure?" Brooke asked.

"Yeah."

"Okay," Brooke said, springing into action, "Taylor I need you to stay here and help Aunt Haley. I'll take Aniston and Elijah with me, you'll have enough kids without my boys too."

Haley nodded, grabbing Elijah's diaper bag off the coffee table.

"Jenna," Taylor started, "Taylor has to stay here and help Aunt Haley. Do you think you'll be okay with Mommy and Aniston and Elijah?"

Jenna nodded and Brooke smiled. After hearing Brooke refer to herself as "Mommy" with her kids, Taylor had taken to talking about herself in the third person to her younger siblings.

"Okay, tell Leighton that I'm sorry I won't be here for her party, come on kids," Brooke said, taking a hold of Aniston and Jenna's hands and resituating Elijah in the Snugli.

"Don't worry Mommy! I'll watch the kids for you!" Taylor called.

"Haley?" Brooke said over the phone, trying to talk over Aniston's whines, Jenna's screams, and Elijah's snores.

"Brooke? Where are you?" Haley whispered.

"We're still at the hospital. They had to do this weird thing to Jenna's arm where they attached all her fingers to something and let her arm hang. Apparently it takes a few hours. Plus, because of her size, they couldn't giver her any painkillers, which is why she's screaming her head off."

"Aww, poor baby. Nathan took Aaden and Miriam home, and the girls are in bed. I think Taylor's asleep, Leighton's reading."

"Haley, you are a lifesaver. Why are you still there by the way, where the heck is Lucas?"

"He isn't home yet."

"Not home yet? It's nine!"

"I don't know Brooke, but Leighton's out of bed. I have to go. Go take care of your kids. Give Jenna a kiss."

"Thank you Haley. Tell Ley that I love her."

"Will do, bye Brooke."

"Bye."

"Was that my mom?" Leighton asked, climbing onto couch and settling down next to Haley."

"Yes. She said she loves you."

"How's Jenna?"

"Fixing her arm was a little harder than they expected, but she'll be fine."

"Aunt Haley, if I tell you something, will you promise not to tell anyone?"

"Of course, what is it?"

"Not even mom."

"I promise."

"I don't feel like they love me."

"What? Leighton, that's not true."

"Neither one was at my birthday party."

"I know sweetie, but your mom would have been there if there were any way that she could've."

"I know. Everyone's just so busy. Dad is never home, and Mom is so busy with all the other kids."

"I know how that feels sweetie. I have a lot of brothers and sisters too. But your parents love you. And I can guarantee that I will always love you and be here for you."

"Thanks Aunt Haley, I love you."

"I love you too Ley. Now go get some sleep birthday girl."

"Night Aunt Haley."

"Goodnight Leighton."

"Hey Haley," Brooke whispered, creeping through the front door with a sleeping Elijah on her chest, and a holding the hand of a very tired Jenna.

"Hey Brooke. Where's Aniston?"

"He's asleep in the car. I couldn't carry him and Elijah at the same time."

"I'll go get him."

Brooke walked down the hall to the boy's room, Jenna in tow. She gently lifted Elijah out of the Snugli where he'd spent most of the day and laid him down in his crib.

"Where do you want Aniston?" Haley asked.

Brooke pointed to Aniston's bed, and Haley softly placed the sleeping boy on the bed, removing his little tennis shoes and glasses.

"Thanks Haley."

"You're welcome. I'm sorry Lucas didn't come home."

"Yeah, me too. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. He's never home before ten."

"Well, I'm gonna head home. Love you."

"Love you too."

Brooke was laying on her queen sized bed watching Leno. Jenna had fallen asleep next to Brooke, or rather on top of Brooke. Lucas still wasn't home. Brooke didn't care. She was too exhausted to care about Lucas. He never had to come home again for all she cared. She situated the blankets and covered Jenna, glancing at the clock. It was midnight. She slid a little farther under the covers, her eyes drooping.

"Brooke?" she heard someone call.

She sat up and saw Lucas walking through the door to the bedroom that they shared.

"Brooke, I'm so sorry I didn't return your calls. Work is just so busy, and people are getting laid off like wildfire. Is Jen okay?"

"Yeah, she's fine. She's going to sleep with me tonight, so you might want to sleep on the couch," Brooke said, rolling her eyes a little. She couldn't believe he'd called her Jen. Thank goodness Jenna was asleep, or she would've had a complete hissy fit. It was only Jenna. Never Jen or Jenny.

"Yeah, okay," Lucas replied, heading back out the door.

"I really am sorry Brooke."

"Yeah."

AN- Hey everybody! Thanks for reading! I'll be out of town all next week, so I wanted to get this up now. A big thanks to little Hannah Gosselin from Jon and Kate Plus Eight, who originally said, "Don't worry Mommy, I'll watch the kids for you." I also took Taylor calling herself "Taylor" from a little girl I babysit, so thank you to her as well. Thank you all so much for reading and if you really want to make me super happy, just click the little review button!