Based on events after One Tree Hill episode 8x22, my take on the future for Brulian.
I'm posting today in honor of the fact that I am SO happy that I'm going to the Taylor Swift Concert tonight! :) Besides OTH, Taylor's music is my other love.
So loyal Brulian lovers, this is what you asked for! I figured I'd extend the first chapter of this story into a timeline of events for the Baker Family of what we didn't see during the Season 8 finale and what will come after 8x22. I'm making all this up since we don't know what will happen in Season 9's 13 episodes for while. These won't be spoilers of Season 9 or anything since they haven't started filming yet, unless someone high up in the OTH writing staff reads my stories and decided to take my ideas to put in the real show. Haha I'm sure that would never happen, but wouldn't that be awesome! LOL I've got some tricks up my sleeve of some things I wanted to happen in the show so bad! :)
I have GREAT GREAT ideas planned for the growth of the Baker twins, and I can't wait for you to read them.
Another great OTH fix for the LONG haitus would be to read my AU stories, Unexpected Life and its sequel Baker Life that I just finished, if you haven't already! Or look at my favorites on my profile for all the best Brooke/Julian/Sam/some Naley/etc stories on FF :)
Thanks for reviews on chapter 1 lostinwriting, libby, callmegeneralawesome, arubagirl0926, stagediva23, simy, caseyjr, wordsmeaneverything, cara, sb1218, sarah, minervaan, h23brock, simy, emma, lauralynn3, kirkland, and erin. Love your feedback! You inspire me to write more :)
***The age displayed as the title for each chapter is the age of Jude and Davis Baker.
.
Disclaimer: I do not own OTH or the characters. Just my ideas about the stuff that got left out of the season 8 finale and the future.
.
We've Been Waiting For You
AGE 0
Five Days Old
Julian POV
Brooke sat up in her hospital bed and wiped her eyes. She knew she looked absolutely horrid in the hospital gown, with her hair in a messy ponytail, and without any stitch of makeup on, but I knew she didn't care. She was too upset to care. Me, on the other hand, thought she was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen, no matter what.
Yes, tonight Brooke was being discharged from the hospital 96 hours after her emergency C-section. And she wasn't happy at all.
"Hey, you're awake." I said as I stepped back into the room, letting myself come into her view. When Brooke had fallen asleep, I left to go get a quick sandwich from the cafeteria and then I stopped by the Billing Department to drop off some insurance information.
"I'm not ready to leave yet, Julian." Brooke said coldly.
"Okay...? Uh, are you feeling alright? Are your stitches still hurting you?" I immediately thought she meant that she still wasn't feeling well. Brooke had been in so much pain and had actually had a bad fever the first two days after the twins were born. She had been miserable but was feeling better yesterday and today. I hoped she wasn't going backwards in her own recovery.
"Well yeah they still hurt, but that's not what I meant..." Brooke barked. "I don't want to go home when they can't."
I sighed and nodded my head slowly as I went over and was careful as I sat on the edge of the bed beside her.
"You know you can't stay here for as long as they'll have to. We need to get you home."
Brooke had done her best to be strong these last few days but she just couldn't right now. She lowered her head and the quiet sobs began. I put my arm around her, trying to steady her because I knew how much the sobbing motion made her C-section stitches pull. I just didn't want her to be in any more pain than she already was.
My wife cried out in a comination of physical and emotional pain. Her horomones were all over the place and I couldn't predict her mood at all lately.
"We'll visit every day, Brooke. All day if that's what you want, but I think a night in your own bed will do you some good."
"I failed," Brooke cried.
"You did NOT fail, Brooke," I refuted strongly.
"I caused this. I hurt them!"
"Brooke, it was there time to come."
"But it wasn't! I was so stupid. Everyone told me not to work and then I go and..."
"Sssshhhhhh. Let's get you dressed and we can go see them, okay?"
Brooke tried to take a deep breath as she nodded. I knew she wanted to be with her boys as long as she could before we went home.
.
Three Months Old
Normal POV
It's been a long few months for the Baker twins in the NICU of Tree Hill Memorial Hospital. And it's been even longer for their parents.
Being months premature, the twins were having some common complications like other premies have, but you couldn't convince Brooke of that.
It was her fault. She insisted that it was despite everyone telling her no.
Usually hospitals allow premies to go home on their due date, but that day had come and gone about three weeks ago. According to the pediatrician, Davis and Jude still hadn't gained enough weight come their due date and weren't thriving enough to trust them at home.
Of course they wanted their babies home, but Brooke and Julian were still glad the boys were being monitored by doctors and nurses.
.
Brooke was sitting in a private room in the NICU wing of the hospital, waiting for a nurse to bring in the twins. She had such a hard time going home everyday, but she wasn't allowed to stay at the hospital every night. So she settled for staying as long as she could during the day and getting right back in the morning bright and early.
Brooke smiled when she saw a nurse wheeling in Davis' plexiglass cradle. Davis was now a wire-free baby and didn't rely on any IVs or O2 machines for support. He still had some trouble eating enough and not falling asleep sometimes but he didn't require a feeding tube unlike his brother.
"Is that my Davey!" Brooke squealed in her baby voice for her son. He kicked his legs eagerly, knowing his Mommy was here. Davis was a very happy, bubbly baby regardless of his journey in life so far. Brooke scooped him up carefully and cradled him.
"Hello baby..."
"How'd he do last night?" Brooke asked the nurse.
"He slept great and took all of his milk at five A.M."
"You did? What a good boy you are!"
Davis yawned.
"Oh no! Don't fall asleep on Mommy! I was gunna feed you now silly."
Brooke had wanted to breastfeed but obviously the babies couldn't do that because they were so premature. So Brooke settled on pumping as much as she could and delivering the milk to the hospital to either bottle or tube feed them. She thought it was the least she could do to help them. The nurse handed Brooke a tiny bottle and Brooke began feeding Davis.
"I'm going to go get Jude. Is your husband coming soon?"
Brooke looked up. "Ugh. Not today. He hadn't been feeling well so we didn't want them to catch anything."
"That's a good idea."
The nurse left and Brooke talked to her son.
"Have you been taking good care of your brother, Davis? Mommy really wants you two to be best friends so you've gotta learn to look out for each other...I bet you are."
Then the nurse was back and this time she wheeled a more elaborate cradle. This one had an 02 machine and an IV pole attached. Yes, Jude wasn't doing as well as everyone had hoped.
"Say hi to Mommy, Jude," The nurse told the infant.
Brooke leaned over to see her other son.
"Hi buddy. You're coloring looks better today."
Jude responded with a little hiccup.
"I think he agrees with us," the nurse said. Brooke nodded even though any out-of-the-ordinary sounds from the babies, such as hiccups, made her anxious.
"Dr. Robs should be in here in a minute to talk to you," the nurse started.
"Oh no, I'm right here. How are you Brooke?" The doctor walked in waving.
"Good, Dr. Robs, how've you been?"
"Great... do you think I could talk to you for a minute?"
"Okay," Brooke replied as she continued to feed Davis. Dr. Robs nodded and closed the door to the room before sitting down in a chair beside Brooke.
;
Brooke POV
The clacking of my heels grew louder as I increased her pace to the car. I just couldn't take it much longer before I burst.
When I reached the parking garage, I practically ran and threw myself into her car. As I hit the speed dial #3 on the cellphone, I burst out crying.
"Hello?"
My sobs were all that could be made out.
"Brooke, what's wrong?"
"Julian..."
"Honey what happened?"
"They.. they..."
"Did something happen to Jude?"
He automatically jumped to the conclusion of Jude... we had had a few scares with him before.
"No... They told me...that..."
"Brooke take a deep breath. Just breathe. Then tell me."
I took a shaky breath and swallowed. "They want us to take Davis home and leave Jude behind."
"Oh Brooke...honey, I know that sucks but it's not a bad thing. Davis is ready to come home and they've both made such progress."
"I can't leave him. They should be together. They should both come home," I insisted.
"Not if they don't think Jude's ready."
"But Julian..."
"Ssshhh. Everything's going to be okay. He's going to come home when he's ready."
"I'm scared." I had to admit it. There was nothing else I could do. I had no control.
"I know, babe. Do you want me to come get you?"
"No." I shook my head even though he couldn't see me. "I'm going back inside once my red face goes away. I just needed to talk to you."
"I wish I could be there for you. Stupid cold-slash-allergy symptoms. They better be gone by tomorrow."
"I know. But I'll be fine"
"Brooke..."
"I'm okay, I promise. I'll see you later."
"Call me if you need anything at all."
"I will. Bye."
"Bye. I love you."
I hung up and tried to pull myself together. At least one of my babies was healthy enough to venture outside the hospital.
I had to take what I could get.
;
The next day
Normal POV
Julian sighed as he carried one baby carrier into their house.
"Here we are buddy. You're new home," Julian smiled and looked back to Brooke who was bringing in a large bag of Davis's things from the hospital.
"It's way prettier than that NICU, isn't it Brooke?"
"Yeah.."
Brooke was still upset about leavng Jude behind. She knew having Davis home would keep her too busy to be at the hospital for as long as she'd like. She felt like she couldn't be with the boys equally. She wanted to be the best Mom to both boys and right now she felt like she was failing on both ends.
"Let's show him his room, okay?" Julian tried.
The couple entered the half-Enchanted Forest green- half-Soft Duckling yellow nursery. The wooden cribs sat side by side and Julian placed Davis's carrier in the one closest to the windows.
"This is your crib, Davis."
The couple just stood there as Davis slept through the whole tour.
"He's missing it," Julian joked. He put an arm around Brooke.
"Honey, you're making his homecoming sad."
"I'm sorry. I know I should be so happy to have Davis here. I just pictured them coming home together and it being a great day."
"It still is a great day. We have a baby in the house, Brooke Davis."
Brooke smiled. "We do, don't we?"
As if on cue, little Davis started to wake up. He began to wiggle around and cry immediately.
"And parenting begins!" Julian cheered so his voice resounded throughout the room along with Davis's cries.
Brooke unlached Davis from his carseat and picked up her crying baby to comfort him. She bounced him lightly and rubbed the back of his baldish head.
"Haha, yes it does."
;
That same night, in the wee hours of the morning, a shrill sounds pierced the ears of the barely sleeping parents.
Julian rolled over, cursing the telephone for its existence and answered it quickly to make it stop. Brooke and Julian were exhausted since Davis had woken them up in barely an hour and a half intervals since eight o'clock last night. It was now six fifteen A.M.
"Hello?" Julian said groggily without opening his eyes.
He listened quietly before giving a concerning "Oh my God", causing Brooke to sit up.
Julian thanked the person before hanging up and standing up.
"What is it?"
"We have to got to the hosiptal right now."
It took twenty minutes until Brooke and Julian rushed into the NICU wing of the fourth floor of the hospital. The parents were literally still in pajamas and had quickly dropped Davis off at Naley's house before driving like crazy people to get to the hospital.
Of course, Brooke was in a panic.
"What happened? What's wrong with him?" Brooke cried to the first nurse she saw.
"Brooke, Julian," Their heads spun quickly at the sound of their names. "Come this way."
Once inside the NICU, the nurse explained further how Jude's heart had stopped at approximately four fifty-seven A.M. and that the on-call nurses had to quickly start CPR. The staff called a code to get the emergency responders team to come in to help him and they were luckily able to get his heart started again. Jude was re-intubated but was now stable. They didn't want his parents to be scared out of their minds, but they still knew they would be when they called them anyways.
"So what does this mean now? He's obviously sicker than he was before if his heart stopped," Julian said as he comforted Brooke in his arms.
"Well we actually would categorize this in the category of SIDS, which is sudden infant death syndrome. Medical professionals cannot explain why it occurs, but sometimes it does happen to the healthiest of babies who were full term and went home with Mom after their birth. In fact, babies who have gone home already usually don't survive because they pass away overnight when their parents are asleep as well. We were lucky to still be monitoring Jude so we could catch this. He was making progress so this was totally unexpected for him. And really this doesn't necessarily have to do with his prematurity at all," the nurse explained.
"Is he going to be alright?" Brooke questioned, hoping for a good answer. She stared into the incubator and tried to understand how her little guy was so fragile, yet was being so brave and tough at the same time. She thought about how she had wanted Jude to come home yesterday with his twin so badly. Now she was thankful he was being taken care of by competent nurses who were able to save him.
"We'll continue to monitor him very closely for the next forty-eight hours and if he's still stable, we'll try to take him off the ventilator. If we can get past this little scare, I think he'll continue on his way towards getting released as before."
"Thank you," Brooke whispered to the nurse before she gave the parents time alone with their son.
"You're doing so great, Jude. Mommy and Daddy are here now and we're so happy you're okay. But you need to keep being so strong and brave," Brooke told her son.
"Just like you're Mom," Julian added.
The parents took turns staying at the hospital and going home so at least one of them could be with Jude constantly. Plus they had little Davis to take care of too. They didn't want to leave him out either.
After two days, Jude was taken off the ventilator and was doing fine. He was back on his way to getting healthy enough and strong enough to make the venture home one of these days.
;
Five Months Old
Just when Brooke and Julian's routine was beginning to become, well, routine... another change was coming. A very good change.
"Jude! You're coming home!" Brooke cooed as she clapped her hands lightly in front of her son before picking him up carefully.
Much to his parents concern and dislike, Jude was still not as healthy as everyone hoped him to be. But he was stepping in the right direction everyday. Today he was finally coming home. But unlike with Davis, there were a few more attachments to this child. Jude was eating better, but he still had a feeding tube just in case. The nurses also taught Brooke and Julian to operate an oxygen machine that they would have at home for emergencies. As scary as that sounded in theory, Brooke was still over the moon that her sons would be together again.
"Are we set to go, Brooke?"
"Yep. Let's just get him bundled up in his seat."
Brooke turned when Jude was in securely and laughed. "Think we have enough stuff?"
Julian stood behind her with two duffle bags, a diaper bag, and a box. "I don't remembering bringing this many outfits for the boys here."
Brooke drooped her head. "My bad!"
Before heading out, Brooke made sure to hug all the nurses that were working today. They had done so much to protect and help her family, some of them had even been there the day Brooke had her emergency C-section. She didn't know how to ever repay them.
Soon enough, Julian had packed up the car and buckled Jude's carseat in place, and they were on the road.
"I can't wait to take the first picture of boys boys together at home!" Brooke squealed.
Julian looked in the rear-view mirror to see Brooke holding her son's little hand.
"Brooke?"
"Yeah." She looked up.
"We did it. We're going home."
Brooke nodded and looked back to her son.
"They did it. My brave boys did it."
After picking up Davis from Naley's house, the family of four was finally together. When they got home, Brooke and Julian quickly got the boys out of the car and brought them into the house. They brougth the boys into their room and Julian placed Jude and his extra wiring in his crib before going to put Davis in his own separate crib.
"No wait, I want to put them together in Jude's crib to tak their picture!" Brooke squealed. She was so excited.
Julian placed they boys side by side in Jude's crib and went to grab the video camera. He figured this would be a great home movie someday.
When he came back into the nursery, he filmed Brooke standing over the crib with one hand in the crib and one clutching her chest.
"Brooke Davis, what's in there?"
Brooke turned and wiped a happy tear from her eyes.
"My baby boys are here in their room together for the very first time," she smiled.
Julian focused the camera over the boys and filmed them squirming around on their backs.
"To everybody watching, Jude just came home from the hospital today. Davis came home about... uh, seven weeks ago but this is the first time the boys get to be together in that long. So we're very happy to have our family of four together now."
"And everyone's healthy now. That's the most important part," Brooke added. Julian nodded.
"Can you smile for the camera boys? We'll be showing this video to your wives someday, you should at least smile for them!" Julian joked.
Brooke hit his arm. "Are you kidding me? No other woman gets to take my boys away from me! You here me?"
Julian laughed from behind the camera, catching every word.
"Brooke, you do realize their wives may not be born yet. I think you have some time."
"Nope. They're mine. I've waited so long for them, I'm never letting go." Brooke half joked.
"Well you heard it here, babies. Your mother says you can't date or get married, but I promise not to tell her if you do."
The camera recorded Brooke laughing in the background.
"Oh look, Julian! Davis grabbed Jude's arm!"
"I see it. The first sign that they'll be best friends forever."
"Yeah, don't grow up to hate each other," Brooke asked. "You both went through so much already together and you're only twenty weeks old. Plus you're twins. That's a bond that will always be there." Brooke talked to the babies' future selves.
"So I think it's time to see Mommy hold both her boys together for the very first time in their new room."
Julian placed the camera down on the changing table and angled it towards the rocking chair. Brooke picked up Davis and sat down and Julian passed Jude to her very gingerly. Brooke's eyes bugged a little bit while trying to balance both babies, showing slight fear but overwhelming happiness on top of that.
"There are my guys." Brooke cooed and kissed each baby before looking up. "All three of my guys."
Julian knelt down beside the rocking chair and kissed his wife. He then rubbed one of the babies' heads before looking at the still-rolling video camera.
"Okay guys. Just listen to this silence. I'm pretty sure it will never be this quiet ever again in this house."
Brooke laughed. "Probably not."
Julian then made a wierd face. "Uh oh. I think we've got a stinker on our hands."
"Which one is it coming from?"
"I don't know." Julian began sniffing each baby separately.
"Uhh. I think it's Jude."
"Haha well he'll never live this down now." Brooke jestured to the camera.
"It's okay. Davis had a crazy explosive one this morning."
"Good, now you've embarrassed both of them. Let's turn that thing off before clothes start coming off."
"Good idea." Julian stood and walked to the camera.
"This is Daddy Baker signing off... Davis and Jude, if you're watching this, I love you so much and I can't wait to spend the rest of my life being your Dad."
The camera caught Brooke smiling emotionally and nodding behind Julian.
"This is what we wished for," Brooke spoke these words clearly right before Julian shut the camera off.
;
Hope you liked it!
I'd say the last we saw of Brooke and Julian and the twins in 8x22 would be about two months or so after I left off here.
The boys will be Age 1 next chapter. Do you like the idea of me skipping a year or so each chapter?
REVIEW PLEASE!
~Haley :)