Futures

Chapter 2:

The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most.

The sun was just rising in the distance but even in the dim morning light it was obvious that Tree Hill hadn't changed much at all. Grace street was still lined with the same shops. The stoplight at the corner beside the record store Peyton had drug her to every Tuesday still flickered on green. The same families were still living in the same houses. Nothing had changed at all, except maybe her.

She tucked her hands inside the sleeves of the oversized hoodie; the air was always colder down the by the river. The signatures on the blacktop beneath her sneakers were faded with four years time and weather, but they were still there. Four years ago the world hadn't existed outside Tree Hill to them. They lived for basketball games and after parties. If you had told Raven's cheerleader, student council president Brooke Davis that in four years time she'd be the owner of one of the fastest growing fashion labels in the country, she would have freaked out. Twenty-two year old Brooke Davis would tell her to hang onto her childhood a little bit longer.

New York was beautiful and exciting and everything she had always imagined it would be. The city never stopped; there were no quiet mornings like this, with no cars on the streets and the sun setting over the harbor in a way that could almost take her breath away. She had never really appreciated that growing up. She'd dreamed about New York and L.A and how beautiful they were with their twinkling skylines and bustling streets. But Tree Hill was beautiful too, maybe not in such a showy way. But it was hers, even now.

In the back of her mind she'd always held the knowledge that she wasn't New York City. She loved it sure and she was having a good time there, achieving almost every dream she'd ever had, but it wasn't her. Brooke Davis was always going to be, at the end of the day, small town North Carolina. She had grown up playing under a bridge with her best friend, catching fireflies and dreaming about someday being a Raven's cheerleader. The first time she ever got drunk was at a keg in the woods when Nathan got bumped up to the varsity team freshmen year and the seniors invited him out. Peyton had ridden on the handlebars of his Huffy, Brooke on his back pegs. It had been freezing out but she'd worn a denim skirt anyway, got goose bumps all over her legs and let a boy slip his hand up her shirt for the first time against an Oak tree. She'd learned to speak with no accent from her mother a long time ago, but that twinge of North Carolina was still present in her voice when she got really excited about something. She knew the smell of an old gym floor, the sounds of sneakers against it and the adrenaline of a final buzzer shot better than most girls. She used to sit out here in the dark by the river, watching the only boy to ever take her breath away shooting playground three pointers like every one mattered. He used to walk her home, kiss her like she was in a movie and call her his pretty girl. Tree Hill was who she was. Or maybe it was just who she used to be. She wasn't exactly sure.

"Well if it isn't the heartbreak kid Brooke Davis," the voice startled her and she spun around on her heel, unable to fight her smile as she fell into the open arms.

"It's so good to see you Skills," she told him honestly, pulling back out of the hug. He held a basketball under one arm and was dressed in sweats and a hoodie. If she didn't know any better she'd say he had walked right out of high school.

"Oh please, like I pop into your head while your sitting in that big ass office in the big apple counting your stacks of money," he teased and Brooke rolled her eyes.

"I'm a fashion designer Skills, not a drug lord. And those sneakers on your feet tell me that you know that you do more than pop into my head," she pointed to his feet and he smiled. She might have had a lot of connections and she might have gotten her hands on a pair of the newest edition Nike Dunks before they even hit the shelves. And she might have sent them to her old friend. Somehow the richer you got the more free stuff people wanted to give you. She usually wound up sending her freebies to her friends.

"I been meaning to thank you for these fresh kicks but you know, you kinda hard to get in touch with B."

"Yea, yea I know. But I'm here now so tell me what's been going on in your life. How's Bevin?"

A freight ship was passing slowly in the water behind them, sounding its low horn.

"We're both fly as always. She just started over at Tree Hill Memorial."

"I still can't get over Bevin becoming a nurse, that is so great." She certainly never would have pegged her sweet yet ditzy childhood friend as a future nurse. But a lot of people had changed after high school and Bevin had definitely been one of the ones to thrive in a world without cheerleaders and keg stands.

He beamed proudly.

"I know, my baby the pediatric nurse. Anyway, I've been coaching over at the school with Luke. Trying to whip those kids back into a championship team. You know they completely disgraced our name."

She tried to keep smiling but he picked up on the falter in her expression right away and sighed, throwing his arms up in exasperation.

"Damn you're just as bad as him. Why don't you two just get back together and stop moping around?"

"What makes you think that…"

"Please B. Davis, I cannot take anymore Brucas denial."

Brooke wrinkled up her forehead at the name but didn't answer, just crossed her arms across her chest and sighed.

"It's complicated Skills." There was so much to say about what had happened but she wasn't ready to say any of it.

"Well you know he's on his way here right now to meet me."

"What? Ok I have to go, please don't tell him you saw me okay?" she gripped his hands, put on her best pout.

"You know I can't be lying to my boy. But I guess we can consider this my official thank you for the shoes. Just tell me that you are going to go see him at some point while you're in town?"

"Of course," she promised, mentally crossing her fingers, "I'm just not ready."

"Yea, whatever. Get out of here."

She hugged him quickly once more before turning off the court, shouting a quick "tell Bevin I'll call her" over her shoulder as she made her escape.

She found herself sitting in Haley's kitchen at the island counter, snacking on carrots from a bag that had a piece of masking tape scribbled with the name 'Chester' sticking to it. It was an expensive house with high ceilings and a built-in-pool in the backyard. Obviously they were doing very well off Nathan's NBA salary, even if he was a rookie. It reminded her a little bit of the house she had grown up in. Except this place felt much more like a home than her parent's house ever had. Haley stood a few feet away doing dishes and chatting over her shoulder. Brooke smiled. Domesticity had always suited Haley so well. She could remember their stint as roommates in high school. The other girl had practically been mothering her, folding her clothes when Brooke forgot and teaching her things like how to load a dishwasher and reminding her to close the cereal boxes all the way. Sometimes she worried though, that Haley was never going to go after her own dreams again. Her brief moment as rockstar-Haley had made things so hard with Nathan for a while that Brooke knew she was scared of admitting she missed it.

'Teacher-Girl' as Brooke had happily re-dubbed her, seeing as Haley was officially now a teacher and no longer just a tutor, had promised that as soon as she finished her 'chores' they could leave for the hospital to go see Peyton and the entire Jagielski clan. Her best friend wasn't being discharged until the next morning but Brooke was anxious to get another look at that little boy, and she hadn't even had a chance to see Jenny or Jake yet. She still couldn't believe that Peyton had given birth yesterday. Weren't they just as cheerleading camp last summer? Sometimes it felt that way.

"So I was getting groceries a few days ago and saw you with that cute actor from that new horror flick on the cover of one of those tabloids," Haley teased.

"Oh God," Brooke groaned, "Don't believe any of that. Victoria sets up those dates and those guys get kicked out of the limo before I even get close to benefiting from the cute company."

"So you haven't had any boyfriends since…"

"Nope. Not like I really have the time, it's all work, work, look gorgeous, work. Not that I'm complaining. Why? I mean has he had you know…girlfriends?" she did her best to put on her 'casual Brooke face', which Peyton always teased looked a lot like 'constipated Brooke face'.

"Nope, perpetually single for two years now," Haley scraped something from a plate with her fingernail and Brooke cringed. Dishes were one chore that definitely still grossed her out. "Well there is Lindsay," she added after a few seconds of thought and Brooke tried to keep an even face despite the twist in her stomach.

"That's a nice name," she forced out, suddenly less hungry.

"She's editing his book. And she's basically been throwing herself at him for a year now but Luke has been playing dumb. I don't know if he's just not into her or if its because he's still in love with you."

"Oh my God," Brooke exclaimed, biting into her carrot angrily, "Why is everyone in this town still obsessed with me and Lucas?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe because you guys were completely in love for what four years? And then suddenly it's over and nobody is allowed to ask what happened? Even all I know is that he bought an engagement ring before he went to see you in New York and when he got back a day later he was devastated."

Haley's protective streak for Lucas was evident in her voice as she glanced at Brooke with a cocked eyebrow.

"I didn't want to hurt him Hales, ever," she sighed quietly.

"Well you did. And obviously you're hurting too Brooke. You miss him, he misses you. Why don't you just talk to him?" Haley leaned her soapy hands against the sink and stared at her friend, waiting for an answer.

Before Brooke could come up with a response Jamie ran into the room, skidding to a stop by Brooke's chair.

"Aunt Brooke come meet my bunny Chester, he's really fluffy!" he took her hand in his tiny one and pulled.

"Gladly buddy," she squinted at Haley, "Chester's probably the only one in this whole town not going to tell me I'm still in love with L-U-C-A-S."

"Jamie your room is beyond stylin'. And Chester is the coolest pet I have ever seen," she told him honestly. Chester was a huge bunny and was in fact, very fluffy. She sat cross-legged on Jamie's bed, holding the white bunny in her lap. Jamie was sitting on his knees on the rug, absentmindedly playing with a hot wheels car against the rug. The four year old had short-cropped blonde hair and a wide smile. He looked so much like Lucas it made her heart hurt a little.

"Uncle Skills is scared of him," the four year old laughed and Brooke couldn't help but to do the same.

"Is he really? I'll have to use that piece of information later."

"When are you going back to New York?" Jamie glanced at her with somewhat of a frown and she felt a twinge of guilt. She didn't get to see her Godson nearly as much as she would have liked. It had been almost six months since the last time she'd seen him, when Nathan had been in the city for a meeting with Gatorade and brought his son with him. They'd come by the office and Brooke had devoted an entire hour to giving her guests the grand tour of Clothes over Bros.

"Well, I'm going to stick around for the next week so I can go to Garrett's christening, because I'm his God mother, just like I am yours."

"Is Uncle Luke his God father too?"

"Yea buddy he is," internally Brooke suddenly realized what that fact meant. She and Lucas would need to be together at the church, would need to in fact at least speak sometime with in the next week. She made a mental note to pinch Peyton for that. Wasn't anyone else in this town qualified for Godparent duty besides the two of them?

"Does that make me and Garret God brothers? Since we have the same God parents?" Jamie squinted in confusion.

"I'm not really sure how that works, but he seems like a pretty cool baby."

"It'll be nice to have a boy to play with," Jamie decided and Brooke couldn't get over how cute he was, "I have fun with Jenny and she's my best friend and all but she doesn't like to dig up worms or go fishing."

"Well," Brooke shrugged, "Girls are complicated buddy. You'll figure them out eventually."

"I wouldn't count on that," a new voice announced quietly from the doorway and Brooke felt her breath catch in her throat, the tiny hairs on her arms stand on edge and her heart rate seem to double within seconds. She knew that voice so well, even after all this time. Jamie went bounding across the room.

"Uncle Lucas!" he threw himself into his uncle's arms and Lucas hoisted the little boy up, his eyes however bearing into Brooke's back. She clutched Chester against her body, took a deep, shaky breath and closed her eyes, saying a silent prayer to whoever was listening as she mustered her courage. Finally, she began the slow, hesitant turn towards the door.

Ah! I had to, sorry :) Thank you, thank you, thank you everyone for your wonderful reviews so far. I will be doing my very best to keep this story regularly updated. I already know my ending, its making the middle worth reading thats the hard part. More from more of our favorite characters soon, everyone will be making appearences and some drama besides Brucas will be adressed. Like where's Karen? Is Dan still in jail? Nathan's in the NBA? What about Rachel, whats that skank up to? And speaking of skanks, what happened to Niki? Soon enough children, soon enough.