Author's Notes: Are you guys still here? Because I am, I really am. I know that I'm the worst updater in the world, but you guys are the best reviewers in the world. I was reading over them last night -- just for the last chapter -- and I honestly began to tear up. You guys are fantastic and you deserve better than me updating once every three months.

This chapter is short but necessary, and everything is sort of going to change after this. I'll be on vacation for the next three weeks or so, but when I get back, I'm going to work hard to get the rest of the story out to you, hopefully before summer ends.

Thank you so much, and I hope you like it.

Movie Script Ending

Chapter Forty-One: Did I Forget That I Said I'd Be There?

A cry echoed through the house. Soft first, and then louder. Before long, the cry became a wail, loud and beckoning to the young sleeping parents.

Brooke covered her ears, and when that did not work, attempted to do so using a pillow.

Lucas, always the deep sleeper, would not stir for several minutes.

The young wife sighed as the child's wails grew heartbreaking. She was exhausted. She did not want to have to get up and breast feed or sing the baby back to sleep. She wanted to succumb to her own dreams, didn't her baby understand that she needed an escape too?

Her husband only began to show signs of life after several moments had passed, and when he groaned, beginning to sit up, Brooke murmured, "The baby's up."

"I noticed," he said this as he said all things when he'd just woken up. In a voice gravelly and deep, that had once left her weak in the knees. She could still remember mornings when they'd first started dating, how she had always loved to hear him whisper to her when they were just waking up. "Are you coming?"

She sighed, still not lifting her head from the pillow.

Lucas did not wait for her to answer.

-

The months following Gabriella's birth were a strange time for everyone.

Lucas began to write. He had always loved the craft, but had never really practiced it. One afternoon, home alone with the baby, he had gotten bored and opened a word document. This soon turned into a constant; before work, during work, after work. Most of the time, he wrote short stories, most of them mirroring his life in ways he himself could not understand, or would not let himself.

Nathan once again became a frequent fixture at the Scott household. Though this made life difficult for Brooke, she did not complain. She watched sullenly as he cuddled with their child, trying to take on the role of uncle though he so desperately wanted to be Gabriella's father.

Brooke found that she was fading. Disappearing into this life she had created for herself. Instead of fighting it, she embraced it. She began shopping on a daily basis, collecting impressive numbers on her credit cards and making new friends with the Stepford Wives of Tree Hill.

Gabriella grew into a healthy, strong baby. She didn't cry often, and giggled frequently. She was a happy child, the spitting image of her parents. She grew to know her fathers the best; Lucas, who she saw daily and loved because of his sweet disposition and his unyielding care for her. And Nathan, her real father, who she was connected to for reasons she would never get the chance to understood.

The two men made Gabriella their entire lives, and at the center of everything, sad and beautiful as she always was, was Brooke.

-

When Lucas returned to bed, he collapsed almost instantaneously.

From where she lay, Brooke could hear his breathing become rhythmic. Slowly, his body sunk deeper into the bed, and before long, he was out.

At first, she did nothing.

She stared at the ceiling, listened to the noises coming from outside. She could hear a car slowly pulling into a driveway a couple houses over, a dog barking in a neighborhood far away, the crickets and the wind.

Then, after she was completely positive Lucas was asleep, she slid out from under the covers.

-

Since she'd been a child, there had always been an unpleasantness in Brooke's life. Growing up, it had been her self-destructive behavior and tendency towards things that weren't good for her. Then, it had been the loss of her child. And finally Nathan and all that came with him.

It was not that Nathan was wrong for her, or that when she was with him, she was unhappy. It was all the wrong that came with him. It was the pain and the hurt she was both causing and feeling. It was the aftermath, it was their child.

Brooke, upon the birth of her child, did not miraculously climb from her plummet downwards. She did not become mother of the year, and she did not find happiness in her family, like she'd hoped she would.

Lucas worried from afar, but said nothing, and she almost wished he would. She almost wished he would yell at her and tell her he hated her and that she was ruining the life they'd made together slowly but surely, but he said nothing. Instead, he tried to find opportunities to leave mother and daughter alone to bond. He tried to get Brooke interested in things pertaining to motherhood. He failed to acknowledge that she was suffering from some severe from of postpartum depression, that she was detached because of something even bigger than them.

The thing was, Lucas could not comprehend what was wrong with their lives. He was not their to witness her downfall, and had not even the slightest clue of her relationship with Nathan. Lucas, in his good-natured naivety, had no idea that he himself was involved in a lie so large, it could kill him if it were to come out. Brooke and Nathan were left to stir in their guilt, Gabriella a constant reminder. But Lucas did not know, so therefore, no one could blame him for thinking the problem was smaller than the catastrophe it actually was.

-

She walked slowly through the hallway, enjoying the way the soft light of the night came through the skylights. Of course, she was also sure to be quiet, not wanting to wake Lucas or the baby.

As she entered Gabriella's room, she was overcome with a swelling of love in her heart for the child. She knew that she did not interact with Gabriella much when others were around, or even when the child knew of it, but nighttime was their time. She could sing and stroke and Gabriella would sleep and coo, and sometimes she would even wake and stare up at her mother in that curious awe that babies sometimes have.

Brooke leaned over the cradle where Gabriella slept, and stroked her soft forehead. She was so perfect it was almost unbelievable. There was not a flaw on her.

She sat there for a while, quietly admiring her baby and wishing so badly that she could be better, that they could be happy. She wanted to be better than this. She wanted to be good for Lucas, and she wanted to be good for this baby.

She pressed her lips firmly to Gabriella's head, and as she pulled away, whispered, "I love you more than anything in this world, little one. I hope you always know that."

Babies could sense things. Perhaps, despite Brooke's lack of contribution to the relationship, Gabriella knew how much her mother loved her.

Brooke made her way back to the bedroom and laid down as silently as she could.

She blinked up at the ceiling.

Somehow, her gaze wound up on Lucas, laying on his stomach with his arms bent underneath the pillow and his head resting atop it. He looked beautiful, like he always did.

She lifted a hand so that it rested against Lucas's shoulder. She allowed her fingers to caress his skin, so soft and warm.

Biting her lip, she lifted one of his arms, which hung limp in her grasp for a moment, and then lowered it over her shoulders, moving in closer so that their foreheads were touching and she could feel the soft breath he was exhaling from his nose.

A tear made its way down her face and she did not understand.

For the first time since she'd known him, she did not feel safe in Lucas Scott's arms.