"You made it to 8 months! You should be proud, Brooke!" Dr. Crawfords said to me after we had completed our check up.
"Yeah, this one's mother refuses to let me flex a muscle," I chuckled, lifting my arms up so that Lucas could help me get off the table.
"You got everything ready for their arrival?" he asked as he printed the sonography pictures for us.
"Not yet, but very very soon. I am going to inherit my grandfather's house, so just waiting for the legal stuff to go through. It should in a few days," I smiled.
"That's great. Keep doing what you are doing and everything will be good," the doctor encouraged before handing us the film and seeing us out.
Lucas walked me to his car and helped me into the back seat. "I am perfectly fine in the the front," I said while rolling my eyes.
"Yeah, but research says that the safest place for pregnant women is the back seat. Besides, you don't exactly fit in the front anymore," Lucas joked.
"You take that back, Lucas Eugene Scott!" I yelled while smacking his arms with my bag.
"Still a violent lady. I wonder how the kids will turn out," he continued his banter.
"You're entering thin waters, boy!" I said before allowing him to click my seatbelt in place.
"Do you want to grab some food before we go back home? I know just how bored you are of that bed," he asked me kindly.
It was true, at this point I knew exactly how many rotations the fan made per minute, I knew the schedule of every person who came to walk on the beach regularly, I knew the exact spot where a stray dog had buried all his bones, I had seemed to have run out of all content on Netflix and instagram was just making me sad as I saw pictures of people from school partying or reels where people had the luxury to move!
"Arrabiata Pasta and an iced tea, and a slice of chocolate pie, maybe two slices, at that Italian place you took me out on a date on," I barked.
"Brooke, I was hoping more on the lines of takeaway that you could eat on the bed at home," he tried to coax me.
"Lucas! Please, the place has booths just as comfortable as the bed. Besides, we haven't gone on a date yet, every since we started dating again, boyfriend," I winked.
That was enough for him to take me to the place. I giggled happily as we got into the booth.
Sit next to me, not across," I whined when he was about to go to the other side after making sure that I was comfortable.
"You know you're worse than a child," he giggled himself.
"Come on, we have what a few weeks before we have to be adults full time. Technically we already are adults since I got emancipated two days ago. Let's savour it," I said, pushing my lips to his forcefully.
He was surprised at first, but eased into it quickly, his hands tangling into my hair, pulling at them gently, elicting a soft moan to escape from her lips. Lucas couldn't help but look, at the plump cherry red lips that had lip gloss on which tasted like strawberries, the beautiful soft brunette tresses that cascaded down my shoulders, the gorgeous hazel eyes that were closed currently as our lips moved in sync with each other. He was so lost, deep in love that he almost forgot where he was. He was however soon reminded when we had to part as we heard the sound of somebody cleaning their throat.
"Sorry," Lucas said sheepishly to the waiter as I hid my face in his chest which was as red as the pasta I had ordered. He gave our order to the unamused waiter who quickly jotted it down and walked away, giving us our privacy again in the corner booth in a nearly empty restaurant.
"So where were we?" he asked before cupping my cheeks in his hand making me blush.
"Who knew Lucas Scott was so much into pda," I remarked as he attacked my lips with soft feathery kisses. He did not even answer as I saw his eyes get all cloudy and grey, his hands curled around my waist, pulling me closer to his chest as he sucked and pulled at my lips long and hard. I copied his actions, deeping the kiss by parting my lips and granting him the entrance he so desperately desired. He continued to attack my lips, giving them soft bited, yet he was tender at the same time. His kisses weren't fast or full of lust. They were romantic and full of love. It had longing and desire, yet no haste. I had never felt so safe or secure as I did in that moment. Despite everything that was so wrong, I felt so good and so loved. My stomach had butterflies, the ends of my fingers were tingling, I could feel my toes beginning to curl and my body felt aroused and pampered simultaneously. I kissed around his face and his jaw as he continued to make sure that none of the staff was around us as he sat on the outer end of the booth. Once he was sure, he reattached his lips to mine, adding more pressure, making my head move back.
Just then my phone began to ring. I still continued to kiss him as I tried to look at the screen from the corner of my eyes.
"It's the lawyer," I said while Lucas continued to attack my mouth. He gave a low grunth but no indication of stopping his favourite activity. I moved my hand blindly to try and grab my phone, still not breaking any contact of our make out session.
"Hello," I said, finally tapping the green button and gently pushing Lucas away.
"Hey Brooke, hope I caught you at a good time," the lawyer spoke to me cheerily, making me roll my eyes.
"Yeah, tell me," I replied, though I wanted to do anything but.
"I just wanted to say that I am so sorry. It really pains me to give you the news that…" he trailed off. A million thoughts raided my mind, I had already begun mentally appeasing myself. So what if I lost all the money and housing. I never had it to begin with. I had a plan before that and we would just go back to that. It would be okay. I began with the understanding of having to do it alone and now I even had Lucas backing me. I would be okay without the money and properties.
"It's okay. I get it, I am sure you tried your hardest," I cut him off in order to let him know that I was accepting of the situation.
"Let me finish. I am sorry to let you know that you're gonna have to pay heavy taxes from now on and you're going to need to hire an accountant because you just officially inherited everything your grandfather left you in his will!" he said joyously.
"Wait really!" I asked, beaming wide. "It's over? I really got it all? The houses and everything?"
"Yes, as soon as you sign on the dotted line, you control all the assets. I already have all the paperwork drawn up to transfer ownership in your name. We can finish all the legal formalities in no time but the judge just signed off on the order to transfer everything to you. Congratulations Miss Davis, I will come over to your place tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. and get all your signatures," he said before ending the call.
"Guess what, lunch is on me! I just inherited everything my grandfather left me," I smiled at Lucas just the waiter placed the food we had ordered at our table.
"Congratulations!" he exclaimed, feeding me a forkful of pasta.
"I hope you know that it is our money, not mine. We share it," I told him after swallowing the pasta he had been feeding me. Lucas gave me a goofy smile before pecking my lips yet again.
— — –
"That's the last signature. Here are the keys to all the properties and these belong to the storage locker and safety deposit box. The money will show in your account by tonight," my lawyer told me.
"Thank you so much!" I said before handing him a cheque for his cut. "Perhaps encash it tomorrow though." He chuckled before leaving the house.
"Broody, can you get the place ready for us?" I asked him, handing all the keys.
"I'll get to it with help from the gang. Don't worry about it," he replied.
"Do you have ideas for it? We really have poor communication skills," I asked him, looking downwards feeling shameful that we had nothing prepared at 8 months when I was destined to have pre-term labour.
"Actually, yeah. I do. What would you want the theme to be though? Peyton and I have been discussing it at school," he said to me.
"I know that Squirt is going to be all basketball blue and knowing Peyton, she must have suggested black for Princess," I said sassily.
"You're not entirely wrong, actually. But she did mean it more as a joke, at least I hope," Luke laughed as we climbed up the stairs to our room.
"Her name for now is Princess, so maybe a tiara over her bed? No jungle animals though, I need the room to be elegant. Maybe enchanted forest with fairies and mermaids," I suggested.
"Duly noted. Any requests for Squirt?" he asked.
"Yeah, to stop calling him Squirt!" I rolled my eyes.
"You love it, don't you little one?" Lucas asked to my belly and surprisingly, he gave a kick right where Lucas' hand was resting. He gave me a triumphant look, earning another eyeroll from me.
"Boys are beyond me! Princess, you better have my back against these men, okay?" I cooed looking at my stomach. Lucas sniggered since I was met with nothing but radio silence, or rather radio kicks.
"She's gonna be a Daddy's girl whom I am going to spoil rotten but she is not allowed to date until she is thirty. I mean just look at her mother, I shudder to think how beautiful she is going to turn out to be," Lucas replied.
"Her dad has quite the charm as well, I must admit. Can we discuss names tonight? We have been delaying it for far too long. Have you even looked up any?" I asked him.
"Yeah, but they were all so generic. I don't yet know what they are going to look like so it just feels wrong to give them their names already. I gotto see what fits the bill," he responded.
"Yeah, but it's good to have options! I need three names for each of them tonight! Or you are just gonna have to go with whatever I choose!" I said sternly.
"Like it's gonna be anything but what you choose," He whispered extremely softly.
"What did you just say?" I asked him, raising my voice.
"I think I'm gonna check if Peyton is free, then we can run to the store and get paint, maybe check out what damage the last owners did," he quickly changed the subject.
"Good call. I will call Genevive. I am sure she and her husband will be grateful for the reemployment. They can help you guys out," I said. "Wonder if the basketball net I had put up is still out, or the home theatre. I really hope not much has changed."
"Don't worry, we have the entire basketball team and most of the cheer squad at our disposal. Bevin and Haley are going to start getting all your extra stuff packed and brought there once we know what we are dealing with. You have a village behind you," he winked.
"What about your mom's stuff?" I asked. Karen had managed to find a house for her as well. It was the house across the street from Haley's place. A cute three bedroom house with a white picket fence and flower vines that grew over the wooden structure. It also had a large backyard with a vegetable garden. It was just perfect for her. However, she refused to move there until after my pregnancy which was understandable. She had already made the down payment and was excited to start the next chapter of her life, Dan free.
Karen was a little angry when she learnt that Lucas and I did not plan to live with her once the twins were born. She had just expected that we would and I got where she was coming from, her son was only seventeen. Lucas agreed with me though, we needed our space with the kids and for ourselves. Eventually, Karen had reached acceptance even though she did pass an occasional comment. We were just glad that she was still extremely excited to babysit along with Deb.
"I offered helping her out as well but she asked me to concentrate on our place. Keith is gonna help her." Lucas said. "I was thinking that maybe we get new cribs for our nursery and the ones that Keith and I refurbished, we keep them at mom's for the time she is gonna be with them during school."
"Makes sense. Ooh now I wish I was taking part as well, I wanna choose furniture! Can I take part as well? We can shop online!" I begged, realising suddenly that I was gonna miss out on so much.
"It won't be a surprise then, will it?" he laughed.
"Screw surprises!" I yelled.
"Not budging on this one. You can get one small thing for each of their rooms, but this one is on me!" he said firmly.
"Please God, save me from basketball and black rooms!" I said exasperatedly.
"Peyton's free. I'm gonna head out with her. See you at night!" he said before pecking my lips and leaving the room.
I decided to finish some pending homework because I had nothing better to do.
"Hey Brooke honey, I'm going to go run to the grocery store real quick, is that okay?" Karen asked me a while later.
"Yeah, I'm just studying. I'll be fine," I responded shyly.
"Do you need anything?" she asked. She really wanted me to open up to her like Haley and Lucas had, but I was having a hard time doing that. It just felt weird. This was Lucas' mom, technically my mother-in-law! Okay no Brooke, you cannot go there, you're only sixteen. No marriage thoughts please and thank you! It just all still felt extremely bizarre. I loved Karen, but I feared her, that she would hate me, think I ruined her son's life, assumed that I'd be a terrible parent to her grandchildren… all of which would be perfectly valid concerns since I did believe all of them myself. Yet, it didn't hurt to pretend that Karen was perhaps a little slow and hadn't been churning on the same thoughts even if I knew the opposite to be true.
"No thanks," I said simply. She nodded her head and left the house. I liked having the space to myself. I hadn't had that in so long. I closed my eyes for a couple of moments, just savouring the silence and stillness. It lasted all of five minutes as I felt a jab on my uterus, making me want to go pee again.
"I'm tired of needing to pee, you little Rugrats!" I sighed before getting off the bed to go to the bathroom.
As soon as I closed the door behind, suddenly I slipped emitting a p whelp! I landed right on my belly which led to such an excruciating pain to erupt that I let out a raucous moan. That's when I saw the blood flowing from between my feet leading me to give a blood curdling scream.
I felt pain, so much pain everywhere. How was it that it was today that I was all alone at home, when that hadn't been the case in months. I had left my phone outside. I needed to call Lucas, or 911. I tried to get up, but I couldn't. It hurt so much! I clutched my belly and cried, hissing as every breath I inhaled and exhaled seemed to make my insides coil. The blood flow at the bottom of my feet was not reducing. I had to save the babies!
"No!" I cried, my tears flowing freely as I tried to crawl towards the door.
"Aaaaah!" I screamed as I made a feeble attempt to reach the door handle.
"No! God help me! Please help me!" I cried, despite knowing that nobody was going to come to help.
My body was slick with sweat, my breath was ragged as if I had run a triathlon. Every cell in my body was reveberating, I was getting spasms, I was in shock, in fear, in panic and I was alone!
"Come on!" I yelled to myself as I tried to reach for the door handle again. My hand shivered and my fingers trembled as I tried to clasp the doorknob. My other hand yet firmly clutched onto my swollen belly. With another scream loud enough to shred my insides, I finally managed to turn the doorknob, again landing out onto my stomach on the floor of the bedroom. I was in so much pain that I was ready to pass out. I just wanted to feel that numbness and give into the darkness.
"No! The twins! You have to save them!" I whispered to myself as I tried to crawl to the other side of the room where my phone was lying on the nightstand. My vision was getting foggy, my elbows could no longer carry my weight, my belly felt like I was carrying rocks there and the sharp pain in my lower abdomen made dying feel like a better choice.
"911, what is the nature of your emergency?" I heard the operator ask me.
"I'm pregnant," I hissed, the words coming out of my mouth were so soft and ragged that I couldn't help but wonder whether I was audible for the operator. "I slipped, there's blood. I'm at 8 months with twins and cervical incompetency. Please hurry. Please save my kids."
"What's your address?" she asked me but the pain had become too much and I was almost passing out.
"1515 S. Lake Park Boulevard, Carolina Beach," I whelped before passing out.
— — –
LUCAS' POV
"Brooke. Baby, I'm right here!" I said, running into the hospital room that Brooke was in. I saw her lying there curled up in the hospital bed. She looked so different. She looked tiny, her face which had been glowing was shrivelled and she was in so much pain. She looked weak and tired as well as heart broken.
"I'm so sorry," she whispered. I saw into her eyes, they looked dead. The Brooke Davis sparkle was gone. She didn't meet my eyes for long, quickly closing the and curling into a ball devoid of emotions.
"Shh. Shh. No, it's okay. You did great!" I said, clutching her hand, letting my tears flow freely.
"Are they okay?" she asked, her voice cracked and that was the first hint of emotion that she showed me.
"Our kids are here. And you're here. Our family's gonna be just fine. I promise," I said even though I did not know how much of it was true. The babies were very very tiny and had to be placed in incubators. They had wires and all sorts of medical equipment strapped around them to help them breathe and keep them alive. I was scared, yet I knew that I had to be strong…. Strong for Brooke and strong for both my children.
"Go be with them, please," Brooke whispered, allowing a few tears to flow down her cheeks. I couldn't imagine what she was going through. She hadn't even had a chance to look at the children. She didnt know what they looked like. Frankly, neither did I. It was just so hard to tell from all the wires and tubes. I squeezed her hand once more before going back to the NICU.
"Hi, guys. It's daddy. I like the sound of that. I just want you to understand that you're gonna be okay. Okay? So don't be afraid or intimidated by all this stuff, you know? Because the thing is... Your mom is Brooke Davis. And her strength is enough for all of us. I promise," I said to them before putting my arms through one of the hatches to feel their soft hands which were so tiny that I was afraid to hurt them. "Mom and Dad love you very very much Princess and Squirt! We love you beyond the moon and back and we will always be there for you. We love you Always and Forever."
