Authors note: Surprise, huh? LOL

This chapter belongs to especially one person – my beloved Stefy – who never gives up on me. I love you. Now, if you all even remember what happened last chapter, here we go. The title and lyrics come from an 80's song by Carly Simon.

-x-

CHAPTER 39 – Coming Around Again

Baby sneezes, mommy pleases
Daddy breezes in…

The sound of a baby's shrill cry pierces the air and instantly Brooke's eyes fly open in a sudden panic. But the fright only lasts all of two seconds before exhaustion seeps back into her bones and she knows that it just means Emma's hungry. Or fussy. Or tired…

Why wont she just sleep then?

"Lucas…" she groans and shoves her face deeper into the pillow. "Luke?"

The room is dark, and when she looks at the alarm clock it reads 4:21. It's too early and it feels like she just shut her eyes. But apparently she's not the only one that wants to sleep because her boyfriend keeps snoring. She says his name yet a little louder while pushing her elbow back into his chest and this time, the body behind her actually moves. She sighs in relief.

He's awake.

"Emma's crying" she mutters sleepily, her voice barely leaving past her lips through a hoarse yawn. "I'm too tired…"

When she hears him shuffle out of bed she closes her eyes again. She misses his warmth but curls up into the spot he's vacated, it makes a nice substitute. Pulling the covers up to her chin, she sighs happily. Her work is done. Seconds later she falls back to sleep.

…So good on paper, so romantic
But so bewildering

"Hi mom," Lucas half-whispers when walking into the still dimly lit kitchen with Emma on his arm. "Keith still sleeping?"

His mother nods and smiles. "Yes. For once. What are you doing up, hun?"

He pulls out a chair and hoists his baby daughter up on his shoulder. Yawning, he finds the pacifier in the pocket of his worn sweatpants and tricks it into the tiny little mouth before she starts crying again.

"Brooke needs some sleep. And apparently I don't."

He shrugs, looking miserable, but honestly he's totally okay with getting up at night with Emma. Brooke usually does it, because when Emma needs to be fed, he can't really be of any service. But she nursed their daughter just half an hour ago and Emma just seems fussy.

His mother smiles again and reaches over to stroke Emma's soft curls. "It's just three days left, son," she says. "Then we'll know. As soon as we get the results it'll get easier."

He sighs but smiles back, knowing that she's right.

"It just scares me," he says quietly and bends his head to kiss Emma's face. Of course it will be a relief to know because just waiting like this is horrible. Easier might not be the right word though. Because if Emma has HCM, nothing is going to feel 'easy'.

His mother nods but says nothing because there's nothing to say that they haven't already said.

"You want coffee?" he mumbles instead and gets up again to start the coffeemaker. Just like the previous seven nights, he's not going to sleep much anyway.

I know nothing stays the same
But if you're willing to play the game
Its coming around again

Morning comes way earlier nowadays. Way earlier than she's ever been used to. And it's a common knowledge that Brooke Davis doesn't do well with mornings. But there are exceptions to every rule and when she turns in the bed, still snuggled in the sheets, and feels Lucas' lips against her shoulder, then life isn't so bad.

"Morning baby…" her boyfriend mumbles. "Mom's made breakfast."

"Mmm… is there coffee?"

She rolls around and faces Lucas where he sits on the bedside with Emma on one arm. He nods and she smiles wider before reaching out to touch Emma's cheek. Her baby is a week old but she's still amazed every morning to wake up and realize that it's all not just a weird dream.

"I need to nurse her first," she says and yawns. "Come here sweetie…" She reaches for her daughter but instead Lucas leans in and kisses her. "Hey!" she laughs, but he does it again and again until she can't do anything but to kiss him back passionately. However tired she is, kissing her boy still sends shivers down her spine.

Eventually he pulls back but just settles beside her and places Emma in her arms. She runs a hand through his short blond hair and places the baby to her chest while he leans his head against her shoulder.

In her head she repeats the words of Midwife in the delivery room. Put the baby so that her belly is towards your belly. Let her find the nipple. Make sure she gets a good hold… See, that's how you do it…

She sighs out in relief when Emma starts nursing, because every normal moment she has with her child makes her think less about all the worries and concerns that are constantly being the elephant in the room.

"Were you a good baby for daddy?" she sooths and plays with her baby's tiny hand. "Did you keep him up the way you do with me?"

She can hear Lucas chuckle in her ear and its comforting. Maybe he laughs because the term 'daddy' is still so weird? In her head, Lucas is still the teenage boy that she tricked into buying whipped cream and condoms at the local drugstore.

"Tell your mom that you were an angel, Em," he whispers to their half asleep infant and hearing the way he says 'mom' is even more weird. If he's still the innocent teenage boy, then she should be the bitchy cheerleader in a way too short skirt. The one busy with parties and gossip.

But she's not.

She looks up into Lucas eyes and he places a soft kiss on her forehead. And for a couple of minutes, as Emma has her breakfast, she feels totally at peace. It feels wonderful.

Moments like this she just longs for them to go to college and start their life in the new apartment. Moments like this she doesn't even remember to feel worried at all.

At least for a moment.

So don't mind if I fall apart
There's more room in a broken heart

"Lucas! I can't find the pacifier…"

She roams around in the diaper bag and comes up with everything possible except for what she needs. Maybe she should be more like Haley? Try and organize stuff better? But it's so damn hard.

It's past two in the afternoon and she's going to meet Rachel for coffee in less than an hour. Yet she hasn't showered, gotten dressed or even managed to dress Emma. She's tried to make lunch, but that backfired majorly and now the kitchen looks like a pigsty. She forgot the laundry that she promised Karen to hang, so now the bathroom is full of half-wet clothes.

She could really use some help right about now, but Lucas is busy watering the plants in the backyard and she hushes the crying infant in the bouncer beside her. It seems that this is a fussy day for her daughter.

"Lucas! Lucaaas!"

Finally he comes in through the backdoor and retrieves the missing pacifier from the pocket of his shorts.

"Sorry" he smiles. "I had it without knowing."

She takes it and plugs the crying sound with it before standing up and pulling a hand through her hair. The silence is like cotton for sore ears and she bites her lip not to yell at him for not coming sooner. The kitten-like cry that Emma let out in the beginning after being born has become so much stronger in the last two days. Now her baby wails like a professional opera singer.

"I need to shower…" she mumbles in a distracted tone while eyeing the mess around her. Karen is not going to be pleased.

But Lucas smiles more wickedly. "I'll ask mom if she can watch Emma in the kitchen," he says and looks over his shoulder towards the bathroom door. "I could come with you."

Then his hand reaches out and he longingly drags his fingertips down her upper arm. Roles seem to be reversed lately. Ten days ago she had begged for him to make out with her around the clock, but now…

She swats his hands away playfully and he groans in half-serious disappointment. How can she be annoyed with someone so utterly cute? He looks so adorable when he pouts like that and she bites her lip and gives in. It's just a shower.

"Okay whatever," she says and smirks. "Just remember the rules."

A wide grin replaces the pout and he looks mischievous.

"What should I tell my mom?"

"What do you mean?"

"I can't tell her that I need her to watch the baby so that I can feel you up in the shower."

He gives her a look that says 'right?' and she laughs. "Who said anything about you feeling me up?" she answers with her brow raised. "I thought you were saving in on the hot water."

She re-fastens the towel around herself and his eyes follow her movements hungrily. For a second she contemplates flashing her boobs, just for fun, but she decides against it. Karen could walk in any moment and lately she's been trying to act a little more mature around Lucas mom, just so that Karen won't worry so much once they leave for college.

"You know what I mean Brooke," Lucas whines but she just sticks her tongue out.

"I guess you'll have to watch Emma yourself then…" she taunts. "If you're afraid to ask her, then shower will have to wait for you." She cups his groin and he moans. "Maybe you should make it a cold one," she says and winks.

She cant help but smirk to herself when her daughter picks that exact moment to spit the pacifier out and let out a loud wail that could pierce glass. Hah! That'd keep Lucas occupied.

When she walks towards the bathroom, her smirk grows wider and she drops the towel to the floor anyway. Just because she is scared shitless of actually having sex with him at some point doesn't mean its not still fun to tease him.

Lucas is after all a horny teenage boy.

And she knows exactly what buttons to push.

-x-

The shower is still running by the time the doorbell sounds. Lucas has just placed the now sleeping little girl down in her carrier and he's in the middle of changing his vomit-drenched t-shirt when the shrill ringing pierces the air.

He gets tangled in the fabric and he almost trips over the baby-gym in an effort to get to Emma before the loud sound wakes her up. But it's too late.

"Damn it, Rachel…" he mutters and picks his screaming daughter out of the carrier again. Shouldn't the godmother know that she's not supposed to ring the doorbell when there's a cranky sleeping baby inside with very tired parents?

Emma wails loudly into his ear as he balances her on his shoulder and he steps over Brooke's scattered stuff to get to the door. For a second he contemplates stopping to find a clean t-shirt, but the bell sounds again and he curses.

"I'm coming," he barks, ready to kill Brooke's redheaded friend when Emma's screaming reaches new levels, and he figures that it doesn't matter if he yells at her with a naked upper body.

He rips the door open and without even looking, he snaps "What the hell were you thinking!"

Then he looks up and he wishes that he never even went out of bed this morning, because on the doorstep, there's no Rachel. The second to best alternative would be Nathan, or his mom, but it's none of them either.

"Uhm… hi… Mrs. Davis."

Its Brooke's freaking mother.

She smiles, although somewhat tense, probably very confused about the not so nice greeting, and he stutters out a concoction of excuses and tangled explanations, just loud enough to be heard over the sound of his by now hysterical baby. And it takes one quick glace over his shoulder to decide that this situation soon will get worse.

It looks like a battlefield in the entire house and there is no time to try and sort the mess. Even an hour of cleaning would probably not be enough.

"I'm sorry to barge in on you like this," Victoria says and looks at his naked chest in disapproval. "It's just that I haven't heard from Brooke since she called and told me that the baby was born. I was hoping she'd come and visit, but I guess she's been busy."

The tone is a little bitter and the smile is strained. The woman on his doorstep is still a stranger to him and it's weird to think that she's his daughter's grandmother. He's met her on a total of what? Four occasions? And he's still not sure that he likes the way she treats Brooke. But the fact that she's here, making an effort to take part in her daughter and granddaughter's life, must mean that she wants to better herself—right?

"I bet Brooke will be happy to see you," he smiles and steps aside so that she can come in. "She's in the shower, but she should be done soon."

Actually he's not sure how Brooke will feel, since lately she's been very tightlipped about her relationship with her parents. He hasn't pressured her because there has been so much else going on. All he knows is that Brooke refuses to talk to her father but that Victoria calls once in a while.

He cringes when he sees Brooke's upper class mother wrinkle her nose and sidestep a rolled up diaper.

"I'm sorry for the mess, Mrs. Davis. Emma has been a little fussy today and we didn't have time to clean up. If we'd have known that you were coming…"

"It's fine." She interrupts him and walks towards the kitchen. "Where's your mother? Isn't Karen home?"

Emma is finally calming down and he kisses her temple and rocks her gently. He wonders if she quiets because of the demanding demeanor her grandmother exudes. Which brings him to another deep thought, so far since entering the house, Victoria has done nothing but merely glance at the baby girl and he's a little confused. Wasn't that the first thing she should do? Meet her granddaughter?

He clears his throat and moves Emma to his other arm. "She's at Deb's house for the afternoon. Would you like something to drink?"

Victoria nods and hesitates slightly before putting her purse down onto the kitchen table. But the moment of snobbery soon passes and she then sits down and stretches out her arms towards him.

"Now give me the baby," she says and smiles a little softer. His previous reservations shrink and he gladly hands her Emma, the tiny beautiful love of his life. The baby replica of Brooke Davis.

"She's a little cranky because she just woke up," he says and watches Victoria hold his baby. It's clear to see that all the women in the Davis family have the same coloring because Emma's dark locks of hair are almost the exact same shade as Victoria's. And Brooke's.

"Mom?"

Brooke appears in the doorway, an expression of complete disbelief written on her face. He reaches out a hand towards her and pulls her into his side so he can wrap his arm around her.

"Hi hunny," Victoria says as if the surprise in Brooke's tone is totally uncalled for. "She's beautiful, Brooke. Very beautiful. You did good."

He can literally feel his girlfriend's shoulders relax at those words and he smiles thankfully towards the woman. Brooke smiles as well. At least until Victoria looks down at their daughter again and says, "The name Rose will fit her perfectly."

"Her name is Emma, mom. Emma Karen Penelope Scott."

He doesn't have to look at his girlfriend to know that the smile has turned into a frown. "I told you over the phone."

At the tone of her mother's voice, Emma immediately starts to wiggle in Victoria's arms. A look of discomfort covers her tiny baby features and Lucas wonders if at one week old she is already preparing herself to play referee between the two women. The thought brings an impulsive feeling of concern into his chest.

"I know you did," her mother tussles modestly to subdue the whining infant, "but I thought that you had come to your senses by now." Victoria looks up with two piercing blue eyes. "The name Emma is far too common, Brooke. She needs a better name than that and Rose was the name of my grandmother."

His eyes go back and forth between the older and the younger Davis and he sighs inwardly when Brooke shakes her head and takes Emma out of her mother's arms. The baby instantly stops whining and nuzzles into Brooke shoulder.

"How long are you staying?" she asks coldly and walks over to the sink, probably to occupy herself in order not to start yelling. It pains him that she looks so tense all of a sudden.

"Until I'm sure that you are comfortable in your new role as a mother," Mrs. Davis answers and scans the messy kitchen. "It looks like you both are struggling with this. I told you that you were too young for this responsibility and…"

She doesn't get further because Brooke turns around and shoots off a look of liquid venom. A look that clearly says 'shut up before you go too far.' Victoria falls silent and Brooke simply leaves the room, just as Rachel walks into the house.

"Why aren't you and mini-B ready, slutface?" the redhead calls from the hallway and Victoria's face turns disapproving once more. "I thought you said you had the 'getting ready'-shit down by now?"

From the bedroom he can hear Brooke snap out an angry, "Shut up, Rach!" and he sighs and walks over to put on some coffee for his future mother in law.

Its three days left until they find out if Emma's test-results are positive. Stress levels are high even without this addition of Mrs. Davis and if Victoria is going to be here, it will feel like an even longer wait.

"Where is Brooke going?" Mrs. Davis asks and gives him a frown. "I came to see her and… the baby."

"Emma," he mutters back and takes out coffee cups from the cupboard. "Brooke and Rachel are just going down to the mall. She'll be back soon."

Victoria smiles again and sits up straighter. "Well, I guess this gives you and me a chance to talk."

He fakes a smile and groans silently.

The three days are going to feel like a year.

You pay the grocer
Fix the toaster
Kiss the host good-bye…

"I can't fucking believe her!" Brooke yells angrily while unsnapping Emma out of her car-seat in the mall parking lot. "She waltzes in as if she was the freaking queen of England, she doesn't even call first, and then she has the audacity to complain about the name I picked for my baby!"

Rachel leans against the hood of the car and nods in agreement, but Haley – who's just arrived and still seems a little confused – makes the mistake to respond.

"Maybe it just came out wrong?" She replies as she rocks the stroller with her twin boys. "I mean, it could be great to have your mom here as support for a couple of days. Lucas said that you're not getting that much sleep… Maybe your mom can help out?"

Brooke snorts, a sound that turns into a dry laugh, and she looks down at her beautiful daughter. Help out, huh? Pass the skills of motherhood from one generation to the next? Not likely.

"We'll kill each other," she mutters and lifts Emma up into her arms. "I don't need her scrutinizing looks right now. I just want to get through the next three days and then…"

She falls silent and Haley comfortingly puts a hand on her arm.

"It's gonna be fine Tigger. This little princess will be perfectly healthy, okay?"

Nodding, she puts Emma in the ready stroller and grabs her diaper bag before locking the car. Rachel is still quiet and she glances at the redhead to see sympathy in her eyes. Rachel knows what it's like and for that, Brooke is utterly grateful. Because Haley doesn't, and neither does Lucas.

She loves her mom, but it's a very complicated 'bordering on hate' love. There is a reason that she hasn't called her mother during the last week since coming home from the hospital. She hasn't wanted to have to explain about the HCM testing, because Lucas certainly doesn't need another thing on her mother's long list of possible disapprovals.

Plus, she wanted to get used to all this before Victoria interfered. The nursing, the diaper changes, the whole 'being a mom' thing. Because honestly, it's so much tougher than she imagined it would be.

It's amazing. It is. And when it's like this morning and she and Lucas are both there to cater to Emma's needs, then she loves her life. But when she's alone and she cant comfort her baby like earlier this afternoon, or when she has to get up for the fifth time in the middle of the night to breastfeed, then she sometimes wonders if she's going to go insane.

"I feel for Lucas," Rachel suddenly mutters and pulls a hand through her long scarlet locks. "He's gonna get grilled."

They walk across the parking lot and she nods and frowns. She shouldn't have left him alone with her mother but she couldn't stay in the house one more minute. The frail peace that has been instilled between herself and Victoria during the last six months isn't ready for arguments and yelling.

She reaches into the stroller and touches Emma's cheek.

"Daddy is going to be very pissed at mommy," she whispers down to the baby, trying out those weird and new titles once more. "But mommy's gonna make it up to him."

Rachel fake coughs out "Slut" behind her and even though she's stressed, tired and still annoyed, she can't help but laugh. Rachel is incorrigible but it's just what she needs.

The feeling of life being normal.

…then you break a window
Burn the soufflé
Scream the lullaby

Lucas picks up the last of Emma's scattered clothes and throws the tiny onesie in the laundry basket. He's cleaned up the bigger part of the house, not just because it was needed but to escape Victoria and her million questions.

When Brooke's mom was last here, back when Brooke almost miscarried, he remembers the woman as being rather silent and withdrawn. She had mainly shadowed her husband ad when Charles Davis left, she had seemed like she felt uncomfortable and a little guilty.

But apparently divorcing her husband has made her a lot more 'outgoing' because this Victoria is a presence to be reckoned with. After three hours of having her watching his every move, he's tired and worn, and when Brooke comes in through the backdoor to his bedroom, he actually sighs out in relief.

"Thank god, I thought you fled the country."

His beautiful girl smiles and hands him the car-seat with a sleeping Emma still strapped in it.

"She barfed all over Rachel," she giggles and when he puts the car-seat down on the bed, she reaches up and kisses him. "You should have seen Rachel's face. I thought she was gonna hurl as well."

He can hear Victoria talk to his own mom out in the kitchen and he pulls Brooke in closer. "I bet she cursed, right?" he muses, unconsciously feeling her up. "Did it get in her hair? Did you try and get her to change diapers too?"

"No, that would be pushing it babe. She likes Emma. I want it to stay that way."

They both laugh and some of the pressure disappears for a moment. But then their daughter coughs and lets out a tiny whine. Brooke turns to check on her and his arm stays around her waist as she bends down over the carrier.

"Has she been okay today?" he asks. "I didn't want to call and check up with you guys with your mom breathing down my neck."

Brooke nods. "Yeah, she's been good. She didn't want to eat but I guess Rachel found out why first hand when she tried to move her around too much."

A faint smile covers her face and she brushes her thumb over Emma's cheek. She seems calm, seems fine, but he knows that on the inside his girlfriend is just as worried as he is. Every new sound from their little girl causes worry, and after seven days of not knowing whether or not Emma is healthy, he feels like the answer is getting less and less important, just as long as they'll know.

"But she hasn't seemed sick?" he asks just to make sure. "Mom said that we should keep her and Keith away from each other because Keith seems to have a cold."

Brooke sighs.

"I think she's fine. Fussier and little crankier maybe but that could be because she knows that her grandmother is here. And not nice grandma Karen," she mutters and unfastens the baby to pick her up. "I bet Emma can feel that my mom doesn't like babies."

"How can she not like babies, Brooke? Besides, this is different. Emma is her grandchild."

He hates how he sounds so fake when he says it, but frankly he's not sure what to say. Brooke has told him countless stories about her childhood during these last months of her pregnancy and he knows that Brooke had a nanny to the age of ten. One that did pretty much everything a real mom should have been doing.

The sigh comes out of nowhere and when Brooke brings their tiny daughter up to kiss her face, he can see his girlfriend's own face turn sad.

He knows what she's thinking and he presses his lips against the nape of her neck.

"No, baby," he mumbles and holds her tighter. "You're not like her at all, and you never will be."

Just like he will never be Dan.

I know nothing stays the same
But if you're willing to play the game
Its coming around again

Victoria leaves eventually but the morning after she's back again, equipped with a checkbook and a will of steel.

She wants Brooke to buy a better car seat, clothes for Emma with a little more 'class' – totally unaware that his girlfriend has spent hours sowing the tiny baby garments – and most of all, a crib.

According to Victoria, babies get spoiled if they get to sleep in their parents' bed. And according to Brooke's silent but venom filled response, Victoria wouldn't know jack about that.

Lucas listens in on the mother/daughter conversation in the kitchen and he can hear the tiredness seep from Brooke's voice when she tells Victoria that they already have a crib for their baby and that she doesn't need a new one. It's been a long night since Emma decided that she didn't want to sleep unless someone rocked her and Brooke's patience is probably on an all time low.

Victoria's strong will exudes confidence and superiority and it's clearly breaking Brooke's spirit. There are two days left until they get the results from the hospital and for all he knows, Victoria still doesn't know that Emma might be sick. Imagine the heads that will roll if its bad news that comes back.

Lucas doesn't want to think negative thoughts like that. It feels like a betrayal to his daughter somehow. He frowns and softly slides his hand over her fine hair, God she's beautiful. He can't frown anymore, now he smiles.

He made that.

He looks at Brooke and takes a deep breath.

She made that.

His chest fills with an enormous amount of pride and he wants to reach out to Brooke and kiss her silly but Victoria picks this moment to point out a growing milk-stain on Brooke's tank top and his girlfriend leaves the room with a loud and frustrated groan.

To get them out of the house, Karen treats them all to lunch at the café, but the already sour mood between Brooke and her mother just deteriorates further. As a bystander, he can see that Victoria probably means well. Several times he sees Mrs. Davis look at Brooke proudly. Her otherwise pretty cold features soften when she watches Brooke handle Emma, but it's as if she can't show it, because when she talks to Brooke it doesn't come out like that at all.

Even he, who doesn't have a past of countless disappointments with the woman, feels stepped on when she points out all of their faults and slip-ups.

Brooke handles it better than he expected but it's clear that for every remark from Victoria, his girlfriend becomes more and more fed up. She doesn't say anything in particular to validate his thoughts but she doesn't have to. It's all in her eyes. Dark with unleashed frustration and strained from tight lipped forced smiles. She's like a ticking time bomb.

Of course he wonders when she's going to blow.

So don't mind if I fall apart
There's more room in a broken heart

By the time they have dinner on the second night, the tension is thick enough to cut with a butter-knife and Brooke feels like the house is shrinking around her.

Karen does her best to entertain Victoria but it's easier said than done. It seems like now that her mom hasn't had the chance to nag on her in such a long time, she wants to voice her opinion about every little thing Brooke does. As if she's making up for lost time and feels entitled to being able to fill in the blanks.

Victoria's attitude is especially strong when it comes to stuff concerning Emma. Apparently she's holding her wrong, she shouldn't bring her to the dinner table, and now that she has, then she should have dressed her properly and not just left her in diapers.

"But mom, its August. It's 85 degrees outside."

"It's a matter of class, Brooke." Victoria calmly states and sips her water. "One wears clothes at the dinner table."

Karen busies herself with serving the chicken and Lucas looks away uncomfortably. She knows that they both feel weird about having her mom here like this. At least Victoria had the decency to book a hotel room, but she figures that this decision is more because her mother wants the luxury of room service and nights free of screaming babies, and not because she doesn't want to intrude.

"Did you learn that at the charity events that you and dad went to?" Brooke mutters back sarcastically. "Because you sure as hell haven't passed these wisdom words down to me over family dinners." She raises her eyebrow and rubs Emma's back soothingly. "Oh wait… My bad. We never had family dinners."

Lucas looks at her with a worried expression and she takes his hand under the table and swallows. The atmosphere in the room is almost suffocating. Her mother turns her eyes down towards the table's surface and shakes her head.

"Not this again, Brooke," she says tiredly. "We've been over this. I did the best I could with you."

"Yeah?"

Tears burn in her eyes and she feels so disappointed. She should love the fact that her mom came to give her support in this situation. But she doesn't. 24 hours after Victoria arrived she just wants her to leave.

"Yes Brooke."

"Then why are you putting down every little thing I do?" Her voice cracks and Emma instantly fusses, feeling the change in her mood. "I'm trying to have a normal relationship with you, mom. But you've been missing for the bigger part of eighteen years! You can't start being a mom now. I don't need a freaking mom!"

If she needs support, comfort or motherly advice, then she has Karen. And she has Lucas, and her friends. Maybe it would work out better if her mom was more normal. If she offered a hug once in a while, or at least some other type of spontaneous affection. But apart from the careful declaration of motherly love a couple of months back – nothing.

Nothing. Except for money of course. Some things never changes.

She gets up from the table and mumbles an excuse to Karen. Then she takes her infant daughter with her into hers and Lucas' room because she's on the verge of tears and she doesn't want to show her mother how tired and lost she's feeling.

Lucas is right behind her, comforting hand placed on the small of her back, and when he has closed the door behind them, she leans into his chest.

"Make her leave," she whispers, and he kisses her hair.

"If you want me to do that, then I will," he mumbles back. "You know I will, baby."

He probably would but that's not how it works. She's a mother now. She has her own family and a future that needs for her to stand up for herself and her child. It's just that it's so damn hard.

For the bigger part of her life she's handled her parents by either keeping out of their way or by acting out to get attention. With parties, boys, crazy late night adventures that in any normal home would have had her grounded for weeks at a time. But not in the Davis household. No, in her family it just meant that her parents cared even less.

And she's trying to be different. She wants Emma to grow up feeling loved and safe. She wants her baby to have rules and boundaries, attention and praise. And she wants her to have a relationship with her grandparents based on love, not on bribes.

Carefully she puts Emma in the travel-cot beside their bed and sighs. In every situation like this – especially before she met Lucas – she would have raided the bar-cabinet in her father's study, found a party somewhere and then hooked up with a cute boy that would make her forget. Now two of those options are crossed out, and the third is the only way to go.

So instead of telling him to get rid of her mother, she turns in his arms and snakes her hands inside his t-shirt. His skin is warm and she caresses his abs before pulling the shirt up over his head. He lets her do it but once it's off and she starts placing soft wet kisses over his torso, he mumbles;

"What are you doing baby?"

Inwardly she curses the fact that he knows her so well.

"Shh…" she hushes and kisses her way up his collarbone and neck. "I just want to… be with you."

His hands play with her hair and she presses herself closer to him. "Come on Luke," she whispers and pushes him backwards against the bed. "Just for a little bit…"

He sits down and lets her straddle him. He even lets her pull her own top off. But when he pulls her down with him onto the bed, she already knows that she's not going to get where she wants to go with this. Her boyfriend is way too good. Way too caring.

"I'll kiss you all you want Brooke," he mumbles and cradles her face. "I'll touch you, any way you want me to. But I won't sleep with you, okay? Not yet."

"But…"

"No."

He kisses her softly and she sighs against his lips. She knows he's right. If not for the restrictions from her doctor, then for the fact that both their mothers are still sitting in the next room. So she settles for being close to him, having him hold her and make her feel loved.

"Just one more day," he mumbles against her hair and she nods.

Just one more nerve wrecking day.

And I believe in love
But what else can I do
I'm so in love with you

They must have fallen asleep because when he wakes up, its dark outside. At first he doesn't know what woke him up but then he rises on his elbow, startled by the unfamiliar sound. While he's still trying to figure out what it is, Brooke shoots up in the bed beside him and practically throws herself over him to get over to Emma in the travel cot.

And then he realizes. The gurgling, gasping sound that he couldn't place, is coming from his baby and it's the sound of her gasping for air.

In the millisecond that passes before Brooke yells at him, he's totally frozen. Every bone in his body scared to the point of paralyzation. But when he hears the panic in Brooke's voice, he snaps out of it and looks at his daughter.

Her lips have a blue-ish tint and she's making helpless whimpering noises.

Something is severely wrong.

"Mom!" he cries out, "Call 911!"

And that's Brooke starts to cry.

---x---

Thank you's: To all of you who keep giving me wonderful reviews, even when I wait months to update. To all of you that push me to write and make the best of this story. Again, to Stefy for always listening to my crap and for helping me out when I'm stuck. And of course to Elena for inspiring the hell out of me. LOL

To Chey, Daniel, Emma, Cami and all you others that I love love love love!!!

The next update will not take months. Believe me, Stefy would kill me.