December 24th, 2012

Tree Hill, North Carolina

Lucas and Peyton Scott's Living Room

"This is awkward." Jake said, breaking the silence that was currently working as hard as it could to make this the single most awkward situation in the world. "What?" He asked, rolling his eyes when Peyton reached over and smacked him. He smirked as he continued talking, a slightly unbelieving quality to his voice."It is. Come on, you used to be madly in love with me, but now you're married to Lucas, who you've loved all along," he added the last part mostly so that he didn't get smacked again, and smirked quickly when Peyton's hand didn't come into contact with his arm again. "But before you guys realized that again, Lucas almost married Lindsay, who just announced that she is engaged to your half brother. And now we're all sitting in you and Lucas' living room like a big old happy family. This could be the definition of awkward."

Lucas snickered as he listened to Jake basically summarize their entire romantic love what ever shape they were on now. But he knew that Jake was right. If it hadn't have been awkward before this afternoon (about ten minutes ago, actually), it was definitely awkward now that Lindsay and Derek were planning to get married. None of them were actually when Derek and Lindsay had even really started dating. It had just happened. One day Lucas and Peyton had been asking what they wanted to do for dinner, and Derek had casually just said that he and Lindsay were going out on a date that night, and not to worry about them, or Sawyer. It wasn't like they weren't happy for them, both Lindsay and Derek were happy, so Lucas and Peyton were happy for them. It was just very awkward. Mostly because the last ring that had been on Lindsay's finger had been given to her by Peyton's husband. Not that anyone had said anything about that, at all. Lindsay and Peyton had developed a very comfortable friendship, they didn't talk about Lucas as anything other that Peyton's husband, and neither woman had any desire to change that. But all that comfort had been thrown out the windom one conversation before, when Lindsay and Derek had happily announced that they were going to be married. Peyton was fairly sure that she could picture her face as soon as they had said it, and it was not a good, supportive sister or friend face. It was more of a horrified face that she quickly tried to cover up with heartfelt sounding congratulations.

Peyton rolled her eyes at Jake and her husband, and then glanced over at the clock, shaking her head when she saw that it was only 2:32, which was the exact same time it had been last time she'd checked. "I'm going to go start dinner." Peyton said, sighing. She was nearly positive that she was going to explode if she was forced to spend one more minute in the tension filled living room.

Lucas looked up at her, a grimace forming on his face. "Hon, you can't cook." He knew that having all these people (even though they loved all of them, dearly) in this house was really getting on Peyton's nerves, but it was Christmas eve, and Haley and Brooke would be over in a few hours to set up for the big party tonight, and Lucas knew that no one deserved to have to be put through the torture of eating Peyton's cooking.

He braced himself for the smack that he was sure Peyton was going to give him, but he waited for a few seconds and felt nothing, and he looked up to see his wife standing above him, tears in her eyes.

"Blondie." He whispered, gently taking her hand and walking with her until they were just out of ear short of everyone else. He turned her around, pulling her closer to him and then kissing her quickly. "What's wrong?"

"I'm sorry." She said, leaning into her husband. "Luke this is just, there are so many people here. I feel like I'm living in a Youth Hostel, not a house. Or high school. Actually, I feel like I am living in high school. Complete with the weird love triangles, screaming kids, and well, bad food." She laughed weakly along with Lucas. "I wasn't really going to cook."

"I was hoping not. I get that you're stressed, but I promise you that everything is going to be okay. And I know that you need to get out of that living room, so how about you and Lindsay go and get all the kids ready. Jenny and Lilly are upstairs playing, and the triplets and Sawyer are in their rooms and I'm sure that it is going to be a project to get them all ready."

Peyton nodded against his chest. It was going to take at least a half hour per kid, with Lindsay helping to get them ready, and with six kids, that's three hours, and everyone would be here for the party at seven.

"What about Haley and Brooke?" They were both shocked by the voice that answered her question.

"We're here." Haley called from downstairs, "Peyton, Lucas?" The couple laughed when they realized that Haley was not in fact psychic, just very good at being in the right place at the right time. Sometimes.

"They're probably upstairs, and Peyton's probably freaking out." Brooke, on the other hand…

"I'll be right there." Peyton shouted down, kissing Lucas one last time before she headed downstairs, sending a sad smile over at Brooke when she saw that Jamie still wasn't talking to her.

Once upon a time Jamie and his Aunt Brooke had been inseparable. That was before she came home two months ago with not just an infant to adopt, but that baby's older sister, who was a year older than Jamie. They had all known that there would be some slight problems with Jamie and Lilly adjusting to not being the oldest kids, but none of them had anticipated him being so affected. Haley guessed that it was probably becuase Jamie had been the oldest just a few months ago, and then in what seemed like just a few months, Lilly, Jenny and now Olivia had all shown up. But what ever the reason, Jamie hadn't said a word to Brooke since she had introduced both of her new kids.

"He said hello this morning." Brooke said, smiling, and Haley pulled her friend into a hug. Everyone knew that Haley and Nathan felt absolutely awful, but no one knew what to do about it, other than give it time. Judging by the smile on her friends face, Peyton assumed it was working.

"We weren't going to come over until later." Haley said, smiling hesitantly, "But then I remembered that it's the triplet's and Sawyer's first Christmas ever, and not only is it Logan's first Christmas too, but it's his and Olivia's first Christmas with Brooke and Chase, and you guys have Jenny and Lilly here, we thought that maybe you wouldn't mind if we all just pitched in and got them all dressed here." Haley finished talking and she looked up at Peyton and sighed in relief when she saw her grinning.

"That sounds great. And Lucas was just telling me how much he Jake and Derek want to cook dinner, weren't you dear." Lucas looked up in shock and rolled his eyes. Better the kid who's mom owned a restaurant make the dinner than she who couldn't make cookies. "Lilly and Jenny are upstairs," Peyton said, turning to Jamie and Olivia, smiling at both her nephew and the seven year old brunette who could definitely pass as Brooke's own daughter. "They're playing in Lilly's room, so how about you get them and tell them that I need you guys all lined up in the hallway, okay?" The two kids scampered up the stairs, leaving Peyton, Haley, Brooke and Lucas in the entryway.

Lindsay joined them a few seconds later, obviously having heard the plan. "We did say casual, right?" she asked, making sure that the plans hadn't changed.

"Yes." Peyton laughed, looking over at Brooke, who was none to happy to hear that the party that she had been looking so forward to was not going to be formal. But in all reality, it just wasn't practical to have a huge formal party. Not with five newborns, four young children and a handful of adults who still acted like children.

"I hate you all." Brooke said, her voice filled with mock sincerity as she walked past Peyton and up the staircase, laughing when she walking into the upstairs hallway and found Jenny, Olivia, Jamie, and Lilly all with their backs against the painted wall.

Haley, Peyton and Lindsay burst out laughing too as they saw all four kids too. "We should get them ready first." Haley said, laughing. "How about you guys put Logan in with Brody and Sawyer in with Avery. I'll do the baths, Lindsay can feed the babies before we get them ready, and Brooke and Peyton can dress and do hair."

"Okay then Captain Tutor Girl, will do." Brooke laughed, though she and Lindsay did just as they had been instructed, and Lindsay then did proceed to the kitchen to make up all five bottles. By the time Brooke and Lindsey got back, Haley had disappeared, probably into the bathroom, and seeing as Jenny was missing, she assumed it was to make sure that she was taking a good shower.

Brooke found Peyton in Jenny's bedroom, looking though her closet, hoping to find something nice for her to wear.

"What do you think about this?" Peyton said, turning around, a completely serious expression on her face as she displayed the olive green unicorn sweater. "I love Jake, but I have no idea where he gets some of this stuff for that poor kid." She added, and they both burst out laughing, and Brooke came over to inspect the closet.

It took twenty minutes, and the entire time that it took for Haley to make sure that the girl was clean, but they eventually picked out a suitable outfit for Jenny, just as she walked in the door.

"What do you think Jen?" Peyton asked, turning around and showing her what they had picked out.

The young girl's face lit up when she saw the pink and purple striped sweater dress. "That's my favorite Peyton!" She was still incredibly shy around Peyton, but she was definitely getting better, and there was complete proof of that as she hugged her, smiling.

"Yeah? Well, I'm glad. Now, come over here, cause I have to do your hair." It was actually Brooke who dried and then straitened her hair, and then put in the matching barrettes while Peyton looked for Jenny's brown leather boots and the bracelet that matched the dress, but either way, it only took a few minutes before Jenny was dressed and left with strict instructions not to get dirty.

Lilly had a new outfit already picked out for the evening, and Peyton laughed as they walked in and found the girl already dressed and waiting for her hair to be done.

"Well, little miss Lilly Roe, it looks like you take after your Aunt Brooke after all. Don't you look pretty?" It was true. Lilly looked absolutely adorable in the pleated brown corduroy skirt, cream-colored shirt and a hot pink fitted blazer. Brooke walked over and once again began to dry the young girls hair as Peyton dug through the room, which had, soon after being redone for Lilly, been turned back into a playroom out of necessity and now just looked like a thrown together junk yard with a bed in the middle. Lilly had been great about it, but Peyton and Lucas both knew that they had to do something about it. No matter the mess though, it didn't take long for Peyton to find the polka dotted knee socks or the headband, and as soon as Lilly was dressed and looked precious as ever, they left to quickly check on Jamie.

Jamie didn't need to have an outfit picked out, Haley had done that already, and he was "not a baby," so when Peyton and Brooke walked in, they saw that he was already dressed, and the tan dress pants, pale orange dress shirt and the gray white and blue sweater vest made the already cute kid look like he should be on TV. Brooke quickly ran some gel though his already dry hair, and then sent him off running toward Lilly's room, where they could hear Jenny and Lilly already playing.

"Come on in Ollie." Brooke said, as soon as she heard the girl come into Jake's room, which was the room that she and Jamie were using to get ready. "I got you some new clothes for today." Brooke said, a smile appearing on her face when the young girl smiled. Brooke would absolutely never forget when they had found out that they were going to be getting her.

They had baby sitting for Peyton and Lucas' kids when they had gotten the call from the agency, saying that there was a kid up in New York who had just lost both of his parent's and had no family left. The mother had abandoned them a few weeks earlier, but apparently, she had had every intention of returning for them when her situation got aa little better. Unfortunatly, she had died of a drug overdose before she had been able to do that, and her boyfriend, who was apparently the children's father was killed in a shooting a few months prior to that. The parents hadn't had a will of any kind, and if Brooke hadn't have taken them he would have ended up in a foster home, or back at the state home that they had been staying at for the past few weeks. Brooke and Chase had readily agreed to take the child home, and Logan Ross had been there with a social worker at the airport. They knew that there was something up as soon as they had seen the state worker's face. And they had soon found out exactly what was wrong. There was a sister, an older girl who had been absolutely devastated when she had learned that they were taking her brother away from her. One look at the tiny, brunette girl and Brooke hadn't even had to think before she had asked if there was any way to adopt the girl too. The social worker, and her husband, for that matter, had looked at her as if she was crazy, but a few phone calls later, it had been decided that Olivia Mallory would go home with the Davis-Adams.

Olivia, or Ollie as Brooke had taken to calling her, was still extremely shy though, and even after two months, she only talked when she absolutly had to, and she was still skittish around Brooke.

"Brooke?" Peyton said, suddenly getting an idea. "Why don't you let me talk to Ollie, for a minute."

"Okay. I'm just going to go help Haley with the baths." She whispered, obviously hurt that the young girl still wasn't comfortable around her. She smiled quickly at both girls before she quietly left the room.

"Come here Ollie." Peyton said quietly, waiting patiently as the girl slowly walked over to her, hugging her bathrobe close to her. Peyton carefully reached out one hand and let it rest on her shoulder, guiding her to the bed. "You know I was adopted too." Peyton began, smiling when the seven year old looked up at her, shocked.

"Really?" She whispered, and Peyton smiled, happy that she had gotten some sort of response.

"Yeah. My mom and dad knew that they couldn't take care of me, and that it would be bad for me to be around them, so they loved me enough to give me to someone else, someone who could love me and take care of me." No need to add that her dad wasn't actually in the picture, or that her mother actually loved drugs more than her… "And Brooke really does love you, a lot."

"My mommy left me and Lo at the hospital. She told us that we were going out, and then she just left us there. She didn't love me."

"Baby, I'm sure she did. But I know that Brooke loves you, and Brooke isn't going to leave you. I promise." She was fairly relived that she had been able to detrmine why Oliie had been so relucant to get close to Brooke, and she knew how it felt when you thought that a parent didn't want you. She had felt exactly like that when she had first found out she was adopted. She wanted to cry as she saw those big brown eyes staring back at her, and she carefully hugged her, smiling when she released the girl, and got the brush, which she began to drag through her hair, and then she began to dry it, listening carefully to make sure that she didn't miss it if Olivia said anything.

"Can you make me look pretty for Brooke?" She finally said, and Peyton smiled at her sort-of-niece and nodded.

"Yeah Hon, I can." She carefully unzipped the garment bag that it hadn't surprised her that Brooke had brought, and pulled out a pair of gray pants, a pink shirt and a cropped pink trench coat. She waited patiently while the girl dressed herself, turning back around when the girl said she was done, and laughed when she saw a carbon copy of Brooke when she was that age. "You look just like Brooke."

"Really?"

"Yeah." Peyton smiled again as she pulled the girls hair up into a ponytail. "Why don't you go see Brooke?" Peyton suggested after Ollie was dressed and ready. Ollie nodded happily and dashed out the door, and Peyton stayed still trying to hear Brooke and her daughter.

"Hey baby." She heard Brooke say, "You look very pretty." She was trying so hard, and Peyton felt awful for her.

"Thank you. I like my clothes." There was a slight pause, and Peyton smiled, as she knew what was coming next. "Thank you mommy."

"Brooke?" Peyton called up, rolling her eyes. "Go chill with your kid, Lindsay and I'll dress the kids." She sighed as she trudged up the stairs, and was met by Lindsay at the top of the stairs.

"I'll dress Sawyer and Logan, you do the triplets. Haley finished the baths up and she's downstairs." Lindsay smiled as they both headed to dress their kids, and Brooke's kid.

"Lindsay." Peyton called, waiting for her to turn back around and looked at her expectantly, "Congratulations. I am really happy for you and my brother." She turned around before Lindsay could say anything back to her, and quickly walked to Bailey's room.

Dressing Bailey took all of three minutes, seeing as Brooke had laid out some pink monstrosity that was made up of a silky looking skirt and a matching pink cardigan and onesie, which Peyton couldn't for the life of her ever remember agreeing to put on her child. It wasn't as though her daughter didn't look precious, she did, just very pink. She kissed Bailey lightly on her nose when she finished dressing her, and moved to Brody's room, Bailey still on her hip.

Brody took about just as much time to dress, but at least Peyton liked his outfit. Actually, she adored the beige cargo pants and the red and white dress shirt, and the little navy sweater that was on top of it. She carefully kissed her son too before she pulled him up onto her other hip, walking past Lindsay, who was dressing Sawyer and Logan in basically the same outfit, except that they were wearing blue and green dress shirts with orange and grey sweaters.

She carefully made her way downstairs where gasped when she saw her house. It looked like it had been turned into, well, a place suitable for a party.

"Wow." She said simply, staring at the living room, which now was filled with food, and a Christmas tree that hadn't been there a few hours ago. They had meant to get a tree, but they had all decided that with all the young kids there was no time.

"You like it?" A voice asked from behind her, and Peyton was surprised to find Lucas standing behind her.

"Yeah, Lucas, it's perfect." She whispered, barley noticing when he took Bailey off her hip, until he started talk about her.

"She looks very cute."

"She looks very pink." Peyton corrected, and Lucas laughed, smiling.

"And Brody looks adorable."

"He does, doesn't he?" Peyton smirked, handing her son over to his father.

"And you look amazing Peyton Scott."

"I haven't gotten ready yet." Peyton said, paying no attention to his comment.

"Doesn't matter. You always look amazing." He said simply. "And where is our other daughter?"

Peyton laughed, knowing that the absence of Avery in her arms was probably very odd looking. "She's not dressed yet, which reminds me that I should get to that." She kissed him quickly on the lips before she turned around and walked quickly up to her youngest daughters room.

She closed the door behind her and slowly made her way over to the crib.

"Hey baby girl." She whispered, smiling a bit. "How's mommy's little girl. She reached into the crib and pulled out the infant, cradling her to her chest and then walking over to the couch that was on the other side of the room and lying down, Avery lying contently in her arms. "How's your first Christmas going sweetie?" Peyton asked, running her fingers though her daughter's hair, and then simply lying down, not moving, just resting for the first time that day, perfectly content to just be. Peyton wasn't sure how long they just laid there before she knew that they had to get up, but eventually Peyton got up, pulling them both over to the changing table where she laid Avery down, carefully sliding a soft pink onesie with a small grey kitten on it onto Avery. She quickly put a tiny pair of grey pants on her daughter as well, and finally a soft cotton stripped cardigan over her daughter's arms. She carefully put on a pair of little kitten socks, and then a little cat shaped beanie, which covered all of Avery's thick brown hair. She could have stayed there all day, but she heard her husband calling her name, and she knew that she had to go down before he came looking for her. She carefully scooped Avery up again, smiling at the warm, soft child in her arms, and then made her way downstairs, where she found that every one was already at the table, waiting for her. "Sorry." She said, sliding into her seat next to Lucas and graciously taking the bottle that he handed her. As she fed Avery, she took the time to look around her, at the people surrounding her.

Brooke was sitting next to her, laughing happily as she talked contently with her daughter, who was sitting next to her. Chase was next to Ollie, holding his son in his arms as he divined his time between looking happily at his wife and daughter, and talking with Derek about Lo and Sawyer. Peyton could honestly not say that she had ever seen her brother happier than now, with Lindsay and his near son by his side, and she was really happy for him, and surprisingly, for Lindsay, who was happily bouncing her son in her lap as she talked with Jamie, who had really taken to Sawyer, nearly as much as he had taken to Brody, though Peyton wasn't sure anyone could ever top that. Haley and Nathan were totally absorbed in some conversation they were having, well totally except for the small part of Haley's mind that was occupied with watching Bailey, and feeding her, actually, mabey it was more of a HAley had taking care of Bailey and having a offhand coversation with her husband. Millicent, Mouth and Skills were deep in discussion about, what sounded to Peyton like the rules of a water fight. She didn't want to know. And Jake and Jenny were on the other side of Lucas, right next to Lilly, who really liked Jenny. And then came Lucas, who Peyton was pretty sure was the most amazing guy on the planet, and was feeding Brody happily, while he was talking to Peyton, though she wasn't exactly listening to him. "What?" She asked, snapping out of her train of though. "Sorry. I was just thinking."

"About what Peyt?" He asked, laughing.

"The best family ever." She said simply, laughing as fell back into easy conversation with the love of her life.

December 25th, 2012

Tree Hill North Carolina

Lucas and Peyton Scott's bedroom

Peyton Scott groaned as she felt someone's hand on her shoulder, gently shaking her awake. "What?" she moaned into the pillow.

"Get up Peyton, I have something I want to show you." Her husband sounded like an impatient child at Christmas, and she looked up, surprised to find his side of the bed still made up, and more disturbingly, that it was dark out.

"Lucas. Why on god's earth would you wake me up this early?"

"I'll meet you in the car." He said, smirking as he left the room, and she sighed, pulling her self out of bed and throwing on an old pair of jeans and a tee shirt and then leaving the room, to tired to notice that there was nothing in any of her kids rooms, or her room, for that matter, as she stumbled down the stairs. She was however, awake enough to see that every one was still in her kitchen when she got there, except her kids.

"What is going on?" She moaned, taking a cup of coffee that someone handed to her, gratefully. "And why the hell is this kitchen so empty."

"Good cleaning." Nathan said, laughing. "And we can't tell you that. Go see your husband."

Peyton sighed as she and her cup of coffee walked out of the house into the freezing cold night and over to the car.

"Lucas."

"Peyton, stop worrying." He said simply before he started to drive. Peyton had no idea where he was going, and if she hadn't have known that he wasn't going to kill her, she probably would have been worried, but she wasn't particularly nervous as it was. Until they pulled into the driveway of a house that she had never seen before.

"Lucas, where are we?" She asked, staring to get annoyed. She was tired, and all she wanted to do was sleep. She rolled her eyes as she got out of the car, and was about to yell at him when she saw the beach in front of her. It was absolutely gorgeous. Lucas smiled when he saw her face, and he gently took her hand, pulling her towards the, Peyton realized gorgeous, house. He pulled out a small key and unlocked the door, pulling them both in.

"Lucas?" Peyton asked, looking around the hallway and seeing that it was filled with her stuff, their stuff. "Where are we?"

"Shh." Lucas whispered as he led her into a living room, complete with a huge Christmas tree and much to Peyton's surprise, a dog. "Hey boy." Lucas said as he walked over to the lab that was lying next to the fireplace in the corner, "Peyton, this is Rocket Jr." He laughed when he said the name. "Haley insists on the Jr. I'm thinking we can just call him Rocket."

"Lucas, where are we?" Peyton asked for the third time.

"We're home Peyton. Merry Christmas."

A/N: There's stuff about Derek and Lindsay and about Brooke and Chase, and pretty much everyone else in Tree Hill. So, merry Chrismas. And Review. I would love 85.