Chapter 11
Angie
Peyton and Lucas arrived at the hospital to find Julian pacing outside Brooke's room. Haley arrived shortly after and said Nathan would be by shortly after he had dropped the kids off with Deb.
Julian greeted them all and advised them that Brooke was being checked over by the doctor at that moment. When he emerged, they were given the go ahead to enter Brooke's room.
Julian moved directly to the bedside while the others gathered around the foot of the bed. A fetal monitor on the opposite side of the bed beeped steadily.
"The doctor said that everything seems to be ok, and they'll be back in a second to give me the epidural" offered Brooke calmly as Julian held her hand.
"What happened to make you rush over here?" asked Haley.
Brooke and Julian exchanged sheepish glances and Brooke continued.
"Well, I'd been feeling what I thought were Braxton-Hicks contractions for most of the morning and then they seemed to ease up. Without going into details of exactly what I was doing, let's just say my water broke and I started to feel some real contractions. They're not really close together, but with my water breaking, we knew we had to come to the hospital. The doctor said I'm barely a centimeter dilated, but once I have the epidural, they'll give me a labor inducer to speed things up a bit."
Everyone visibly relaxed knowing that everything was going to be all right. Nathan who had joined them midway through Brooke's explanation decided to put his own special contribution in and addressed Julian.
"Man, I could have given you some pointers on how to do it when she's this far along. I'm three kids in to the whole pregnant sex thing." He laughed as Haley smacked him.
Lucas squeezed Peyton's hand and chuckled as he patted Nathan on the shoulder.
"Good to know, Nate. I'll be coming to you in a few months then" he said.
"Ew, ok, I know we were all about you two getting together, but I'm still getting used to this and picturing you two doing it is so not where my head should be at right now" Brooke chimed in.
"Hey!" yelled Peyton. "Have you forgotten that it's all your damn fault, I'm in this condition in the first place?" she taunted playfully. Nathan, Haley and Julian all turned to Peyton waiting for an explanation patiently. They had not been privy to how the 'deal' had come to be sealed in the first place.
Flashback
Throughout the year before their impending 30th birthdays, Lucas and Peyton lived in their own fantasy world. They weren't living together, they weren't having sex, yet they often had sleepovers, and spent all their spare time together.
Every denial of feelings, and every assurance that they were just friends was met with eye rolls from all their friends. Every mention by anyone who knew about the deal was met with a scowl, followed by an all too familiar assurance that they were just friends and the deal was a long time ago. Brooke never accepted this and took every opportunity to remind them of it.
At Thanksgiving Haley announced that she was pregnant with her third child, and the news was met with great enthusiasm. It had been a while since a baby had been in the group and Nathan and Haley were the only ones who seemed to be contributing to the next generation.
At Christmas, Alexandra was given an Etch-A-Sketch by Peyton. The nine year old had shown an interest in drawing and Peyton had given her a full set of art pencils for sketching and the Etch-A-Sketch just for fun because she'd had one as a child as well. They all took turns drawing goofy things or trying to write messages on it.
Finally, Lucas and Peyton's 30th birthday came around and they decided to celebrate with just their 'family', Nathan, Haley, Jamie, Alexandra, Brook and Julian. They all met at Nathan and Haley's house where they had a dinner and all relaxed in the spacious living room opening presents.
At exactly 7:02 p.m., Lucas announced that Peyton was an old woman as she was officially 30 years old. She told him to wait an hour and he'd catch up.
Brooke spent much of the evening sitting by herself playing with Alexandra's Etch-A-Sketch until Peyton finally went over to find out what she was doing. Brooke hid her work carefully and told Peyton she had one more present for her.
Peyton opened the small package and held up what was inside. Everyone's eyes were on the object and no one was sure whether to laugh or not. Lucas had a look of sheer horror on his face.
"Brooke! Seriously? Why would you get ME a baby's onesie?" she yelled.
Brooke smiled coyly and handed Peyton the Etch-A-Sketch she had been working so diligently on. Peyton read the words on it.
BROOKE AND JULIAN ARE HAVING A BABY. YOUR TURN.
Lucas rolled his eyes and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly then decided to focus on the first part of the message rather than the last and went to shake Julian's hand. He went to give Brooke a hug and whispered in her ear.
"Nice try, pretty girl" he smirked as he walked away to let the others give congratulations.
Peyton hugged Brooke and Julian, but was in somewhat of a stunned silence for the rest of the night. The silence continued as they drove back to Lucas' after the party. Peyton had decided she didn't want to go with Brooke and Julian that night.
"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked.
"No, but it's like this huge elephant in the room that's never going to go away, so I guess we should" she said quietly as she played with her hands.
"Peyton, I'm not going to hold you to some stupid deal we made in high school, but if it's what you want, I'll do it" he said earnestly.
The rest of the short drive to Lucas' was uncomfortably silent, but once there, they fell into a routine that was all too familiar and very comfortable. Lucas stopped the car and handed the keys to Peyton. Her door was closest to the house so she was always there first to unlock the door.
Once inside, the keys were thrown on the table in the hall. Peyton went into the bedroom while Lucas headed to the bathroom to brush his teeth. When he came out, Peyton went in to change into her pajamas that she had taken out of 'her' drawer in his dresser and to wash her face. By the time she came back, he was in bed, and just like every Saturday night, she crawled in next to him.
She lay down close to him on her side and he instinctively moved his arm so she could rest her head on his chest. His hand fell comfortably on her shoulder as they lay in silence.
"I'm just scared" she said suddenly. "You mean so much to me as my friend and the last time we had sex, things got really messy. I can't afford to lose you again to something so stupid, and the stakes would be so much higher this time. I mean we're talking about creating a life together, and what if…" Lucas stopped her mid-stream by pressing a finger of his free hand to her lips.
"We can 'what if' ourselves to death, Peyt. I told you. If you want to, I want to, but just because it's our 30th birthday, doesn't mean we have to decide tonight, or next week, or even next month, or ever. Let's sit with it for a bit, ok?" She looked up at him from her place on his chest and he leaned down to give her a chaste kiss on the lips and settled to sleep.
Over the next three months, Peyton thought often about what it would be like to have a child. It was impossible not to with her two best girl friends expecting at the same time, and now Mia, her first artist had just announced she was pregnant. She felt a little bit like Ally McBeal being haunted by a dancing baby and her biological clock was beginning to clang like Big Ben in her ear.
She and Lucas had not talked further about it, and now she almost felt uncomfortable bringing it up. What if he'd forgotten, or didn't want to do it any more? Why couldn't she just be a normal person and find a boyfriend, fall in love, get married, and have children? That answer was fairly obvious. When did she have time to have a boyfriend?
She was always with Lucas and a boyfriend probably wouldn't appreciate the Saturday night sleepover tradition. A tradition that was becoming Saturdays, Mondays, Tuesdays, and sometimes Fridays as well. In fact, there was one whole week when she didn't go home at all. Lucas didn't seem to mind and she was finding it difficult being around pregnant Brooke. It made her want a baby even more, and the vicious cycle of doubt and longing would begin again.
Lucas was in his own private heaven and hell. He had a beautiful woman who he cared very deeply for sleeping next to him nearly every night. The down side to that was he had a beautiful woman sleeping next to him nearly every night and he was actually getting used to the cold showers he was having nearly every morning.
He fully realized that his body's reaction to Peyton sleeping next to him had a great deal to do with it being Peyton rather than just any woman. Truthfully, he couldn't remember the last time he looked at another woman with attraction. It was probably Lindsey, and that was years ago. He was also beginning to realize that he had never spoken more truth than when he had told Peyton at the tender age of 18, that he wanted a family, and he wanted it with her. Now it was up to her to tell him she wanted that too. Until then, he'd wait, and he honestly thought he'd wait forever if he had to.
Peyton was out shopping one Tuesday afternoon with Brooke. They had gone looking for fashionable maternity clothes. Brooke decided that there wasn't anything nearly as fashionable as what she could make for herself as she already had been doing, and she babbled excitedly about the B. Davis Maternity Collection. Peyton just let her go on, until Brooke stopped as if she'd had an epiphany.
"Ok, P. Sawyer, you can sooo be my model and spokesperson" she beamed.
"Er, Brooke, I see a problem. I'm not pregnant" Peyton stated obviously, indicating her flat stomach.
"Pssh" said Brooke waving her hand dismissively. "By the time I have everything together and ready to promote, you will be."
"What? Brooke, we've been through this. I can't go through with it. It will ruin what we have. The other option is for me to get IVF. That way Lucas could be the father and we wouldn't have to actually…" Peyton reasoned.
"Oh, please. That is such a cop out, and so not the fun way to do it, and what would it ruin? Ruin the Sunday morning breakfasts you guys have reading the paper to each other? Or maybe it would ruin the evenings you spend curled up on the couch together watching old movies or reading books written a trillion centuries ago. But worst, it would totally ruin those nights you fall asleep totally tangled up in each other." Brooke looked at Peyton knowingly and watched as the ball finally dropped for her.
Peyton let out a heavy sigh letting it sink in what Brooke had said and finally spoke.
"I knew I would live to regret telling you all that stuff" she sighed again "Ok, ok. You're right. It's not like there's anyone else, and I'm not sure I want anyone else. There's just one problem."
Brooke squealed with excitement and clapped her hands together rapidly.
"Ok, P. Sawyer, now we need to shop for you…wait. What problem?" she asked finally registering the last thing Peyton said.
"Lucas and I haven't talked about this since our birthday. It might be a little awkward" she responded shyly.
"You leave Lucas and your date to me. Now let's go. There has to be some lingerie with your name on it, and I've got a dress to make." Brooke grabbed Peyton's hand and dragged her rather forcefully to the closest Victoria's Secret.
Once she'd finished with Peyton, Brooke called Lucas and explained everything and told him that Friday night would be the night and they should have a nice fancy dinner. She told him she was making dress for Peyton and suggested he dust off his Armani. This was a special occasion.
"You mean a date" Lucas said when Brooke had finished explaining.
"No, not a date and don't you dare call it that or Peyton will bolt. She is so freaked out by this whole thing, if you start calling it a date, she might just change her mind, and you and I both know, that you REALLY don't want that" she winked at him and he blushed.
"I've actually been thinking about this for a while and I'd like to make it the whole weekend, but I'll need you to pack a bag for Peyton, and don't tell her about anything but the dinner." Brooke could see that Lucas was excited by this new turn of events and readily agreed not to tell Peyton about the extra part of the plan. Lucas also swore her to secrecy from telling any of the others about any of it. The fewer people that knew the better.
At dinner that night, Lucas and Peyton talked about everything but what was going to happen on Friday, but there was a shyness and flirtation in their conversation that had been absent or unnoticed in the past. Peyton was going to stay that night, but they decided that they wouldn't see each other again that week until Lucas picked her up from Brooke's on Friday evening.
"I'll be the one in the little black dress" she said flirtily as she kissed him on the cheek goodnight and walked to her car.
"Excuse me, Mrs. Davis-Baker" a nurse interrupted as Peyton and Lucas finished their story "the anaesthesiologist is ready now."
"And that's how I made it happen" Brooke finished for them as she panted through a contraction. "Now get the hell out of here. I want my epidural!" they were all laughing as they left with Julian staying behind to hold his wife's hand.
Eighteen hours later, after everyone had come and gone and come back several times, Angelica Davis Baker was welcomed into the world. She was small as preemies generally are, but she was beautiful and healthy, and she was their Angie.