"Do you like it?" Brooke asked as Jenny opened a dress Brooke had designed.
Jenny was only half paying attention to the gifts she was unwrapping, she'd been staring at her parents since she got down stairs. Jake and Peyton weren't doing anything unusual. They were just sitting on the couch, Peyton had her head on his shoulder and he had his arms wrapped around her. But the reason Jenny was staring at them was because they were smiling, and oh how she'd missed her parents genuine happiness, "It's great Aunt Brooke." She mumbled.
"You've barely looked at it- Ah Lucas!" Brooke squealed as Lucas practically tackled her kissing her neck, and cheeks, and hair before finally landing on her lips, "What?" she asked laughing.
"Thank you." He said holding up his new computer, "You are the most perfect woman I have ever laid-"
"Lucas!" Brooke exclaimed looking around embarrassed.
"-my eyes on." He finished, laughing.
"Oh." She said even more embarrassed than before.
"Haley got me a basketball hoop!" Nathan yelled.
"God he's like a kid on Christmas morning." Haley said shaking her head.
"Honey, he's not like a kid on Christmas morning. He isa kid on Christmas morning." Peyton corrected.
"I have got the greatest wife." Nathan said coming inside, "Not only did she get me the hoop, she also got this awesome sweater." He added pointing to his new green sweater he was wearing.
Peyton and Brooke laughed, while Haley shrugged and whispered, "Well I didn't want it to go to waste."
"Dude!" Jamie said unwrapping his new basketball, "Awesome."
"Dude." Keith said, unwrapping a matching ball.
"Make that a triple dude." Jenny said, though not as enthused as the boys, as she unwrapped her own new basketball.
"You bought her a basketball?" Peyton asked, shaking her head at Jake.
"What? It's a great present." Jake said, Nathan and Lucas nodded in agreement.
"I helped you wrap that. How did I not notice you bought her a basketball?" Brooke asked.
"Come on kids," Nathan said, "It's time to start a new tradition, Scott-Jagelski Christmas basketball game."
"That means we'll have to come here every year." Jenny pointed out.
"Yeah well, someone's gonna have to keep an eye on us six." Nathan said, patting Jenny's shoulder.
"Deal." She said.
"Come on Jake, you gotta help teach your daughter the fundamentals of this game, if we want the kids to have a chance at beating us state Champions." Lucas said.
"I'm so gonna beat you guys." Jenny said sticking her tongue out at Lucas.
"Forty- two to ten! Suck it!"
"Stop rubbing it in." Lucas sighed a hand on his sore back.
"I'm just saying you lost to a bunch of little kids. The same little kids that are probably already exhausted from spending the week putting your marriage back together."
"Yeah, we know." Lucas said rolling his eyes.
"The State Champs couldn't even-"
"Brooke, how long is this going to go on for?" he interrupted.
"A little bit longer." She said.
"Or maybe your done?" he asked leaning in to kiss her.
"Maybe I'm done." She nodded, and then laughed, "Ten. Okay now I'm done."
"Good." Lucas said.
"Dinner will be ready in a couple hours guys." Haley said, handing Lucas, Nathan, and Jake each an ice pack. They each applied the ice to different spots.
"So not teenagers anymore?" Jenny asked innocently before she, Keith, and Jamie burst out laughing.
"Hey, you can walk home." Jake said pointing to his daughter.
Peyton shook her head, "No you won't."
"Hey, uh Keith don't go too far, bud. We might be going somewhere, before dinner." Lucas said.
Keith shrugged and followed Jenny and Jamie out of the kitchen while Brooke asked, "Where are you going?"
Lucas gestured for her to follow him into the living room, "I uh… I need to do something today. You kinda made me realize I've needed to do this for a while, but I can't do it without you."
"Okay." She nodded, "Anything."
"I love you." He said making her smile, "Hey, why are you crying?"
"I just missed hearing that." She said as he wiped her tears away, "I need to hear it sometimes ya know?"
"I'll never stop saying it Brooke. I never did." He admitted, "You just never heard me."
"Are you sure about this?" Keith asked.
Lucas nodded, "As long as you stay with me."
"We're not going anywhere." Brooke said, reaching for his hand with her free one.
Lucas pushed the door open and walked into the big gray room.
"When they said my son was here to see me… I thought they meant Nathan."
Lucas shook his head, and lead Penelope in behind him, "Hi."
Dan nodded to him, "Lucas. Hi Brooke."
"Mr. Scott." Brooke said softly, she waited to see if Lucas was going to say something but when he remained silent she started, "This is Tyler and Penelope, and you met Keith."
"Hi kids, I'm Dan."
"He's your…" Lucas started, "He's your grandpa."
Dan half smiled, and Penelope being Brooke's daughter started talking a mile a minute telling Dan all about the presents she'd unwrapped.
"-And this is a scarf my mom designed at her company. She works at Clothes over Bros. But she's back with my dad, so she's not really over bros so…" Penelope trailed off in thought.
"You're back together? Congratulations." Dan said, to Brooke. Lucas was staring at his shoes.
Brooke nodded, "Thank you Mr. Scott. We uh… we brought you a coffee cake but they well the guards took it."
Keith had remained silent since they walked in, he was just watching his father wrestle with his thoughts. Finally Keith stood, first he put a hand on his father's shoulder then he walked over to Dan, "It's really hard for my dad to say but not me. I think you've been waiting to hear it for all these years. That's why you were scared when you saw me." Dan, Brooke, and Lucas stared at him confused, "I forgive you Dan. Merry Christmas."
Dan tried to say something but he couldn't, all he could see was his younger brother looking up at him, "Th- thank you." Was all he got out before he broke down crying, "Merry Christmas Keith."
Lucas blinked back his own tears and said, "I forgive you too… dad." Then he looked to his son and hugged him, "I love you."
"I know." Keith said.
"This is it right?" Peyton asked Jake when they were alone in their room. He nodded and whispered, "I love you Peyton." Into her skin as he kissed her, "Good. Cause this is where I want to be, Jake. I love you so much. Too much to screw it up again."
"Peyton, I think that as long as we have Jenny there's no way we'll be able to split up without a fight. Pretty soon Ellie will be old enough, and she'll be on Team Jake/Peyton." He said.
"Too long a name hon." Peyton laughed.
"Fine Team… Pake."
Peyton laughed again, "How bout Jeyton?"
"See this is why I married you."
"What for my abilities to compress names together?"
"No,this is why I married you." He said gesturing to the bed.
"Jake." She laughed.
"Hey so are you going to open your present yet?" Nathan asked Haley as she skinned some potatoes.
"Nathan I'm a little busy." She laughed.
"Please?" he asked, "I got you something really good this year."
"You've been giving me great gifts since we were sixteen." She said holding up her wrist with the bracelet on it.
"Please?" he asked again.
"Okay, okay." She said rinsing off her hands.
"Here." He said handing her a box.
"Oh Nathan," Haley said unwrapping a new ring, "It's beautiful."
"Read the inscription." He said.
"There's a bunch of dates, and our initials." She said looking up at him.
"The first date is the first day you tutored me," he tugged lightly on the bracelet, " the second date is our first wedding, the third one is our second wedding, and that's Jamie's birthday, and that's Andy's. There's uh… there's room for more… if we uh…" he trailed off.
"Oh Nathan." She said her eyes welling up with tears, "This is the most thoughtful gift anyone's ever given me. It's like a timeline of our relationship." She grabbed him and kissed him, "Thank you."
"You're welcome."
After Christmas dinner all the adults sat the kids down in the living room.
"Okay kids, as you know the six of us have uh…-" Lucas trailed off searching for the right words.
"Come to your senses?" Jenny supplied.
"Gotten over yourselves?" Jamie suggested.
"Oh!" Keith said, "Finally realized your kids know more than you."
"Ha ha." Brooke said sarcastically.
"Fine." Haley said, "You get the picture."
"Look besides the thank yous that you're all getting-"
"Like a used car from Uncle Al's Car Barn in three years." Jenny said.
"You're not getting a used car cause you didn't keep the secret." Jake said.
Jenny went to defend herself, when Peyton interrupted, "Yeah, you're getting a brand new one from an actual dealership."
Jenny let out a squeal of excitement while Jake looked at his wife, "What?"
"She put our marriage back together."
"We would've figured it out… eventually."
"Yeah, when you turned fifty." Jenny said.
"Alright," Nathan said, before Jake said anything else, "Can we get back on topic please?"
"Sure." Keith said.
"It's not going to be as easy as you three- sorry five-" Brooke said when Penelope and Andy cleared their throats, Haley then looked pointedly at Brooke, "six. It's not going to be as easy as you sixassume okay?"
"It's gonna be hard." Lucas said.
"We didn't all just wake up and decided we should get back together." Brooke said, "A lot of thought went into it, and we've all talked about it…"
"You gave more thought into getting back together than you did breaking up in the first place. Do you know how much time and money you could have saved if you all jut talked out your problems in the first place?" Jamie asked.
"And is the point of this talk to let us know that you're not going to rush into anything? Cause Aunt Brooke, you and Uncle Lucas agreed to get re-married last night, about twenty-four hours after you guys got back together." Jenny pointed out.
"That's not fast for Brooke and Lucas." Nathan said, and Brooke swatted at him, "Actually I'm more surprised Lucas didn't ask her sooner." Lucas glared at his brother.
"The point is," Jake started again, "we're not going to just give up like we did before." He glanced over at Peyton.
"Well no duh." Keith said.
"If you guys ever try something like this again," Jenny started deathly serious, "that'll just mean, we'll have to do this again.
"And no one wants a sequel, this was hard enough." Jamie said.
The six parents were speechless as the kids got up, and left the room.
Christmas day had come and gone and before they knew it, it was time to leave. Brooke, Haley, and Peyton were tearing up. Lucas, Jake, and Nathan were loading up the two cars with the accumulated presents.
"Thank you." Brooke said hugging Haley, "You fixed my marriage."
"No, that was our kids, sweetie." Peyton said.
"They fixed all of us." Haley nodded, looking at the seven of them. Andy and Pen were still playing Barbie's, Jamie, Keith, and Jenny were playing cards and Ellie and Tyler were coloring.
Brooke wiped her eyes, and Lucas wrapped his arms around her, "Alright kids, it's time to go."
"Mommy do we have to?" Penelope cried.
"Aunt Brooke don't leave yet." Andy said.
"We have to head out too kids." Jake said, leaning against Peyton with his chin on her shoulder.
"But dad." Jenny said.
"It's not like we'll never see each other again, guys." Nathan said as both Ellie and Tyler attached themselves to his leg. "Rematch next year." He added to Jenny, Keith, and Jamie.
"Yeah, and Brooke'll be popping out another one in what nine months? We can all get together then." Peyton teased.
Brooke glared at her, while Jake, Peyton, Haley, Nathan, and Lucas laughed, "Popping out what Aunt Brooke?" Ellie asked.
"Nothing hon." Peyton said.
Brooke shrugged to Lucas, "She's probably right."
"If she isn't I'll make her right." he said.
"Oh really?" she grinned as he kissed her, "God I've missed that."
"As weird as it sounds," Keith started, "I've missed seeing that."
"Okay you know what everyone gather by the couch." Peyton said pulling out her digital camera.
Lucas, Haley, and Jake sat on the couch, Brooke sat on Luke's lap, with Tyler on the right arm of the couch and Nathan sat on the floor in front of Haley with Andy in his lap, Pen to his right, and Ellie to his left. Peyton sat on the left arm of the chair next to Jake, while Jamie, Keith, and Jenny stood behind the couch, high fiving.
"We actually did it." Jenny said.
The End.
Okay guys, Merry Christmas! I am done. I hope you all enjoyed it. I know I enjoyed writing it. So uh, please review for one last time, and enjoy your Christmas.
-Em