Thanks for the reviews!

I'm a little iffy about this chapter and some of you might find Jake to be a bit OC...but it was necessary. Also, for any of you that read Something Crazy, I mentioned that I probably wouldn't be updating any of my stories until after the new year...well, I got ambitious. But this will probably be the last update for any of my stories until after the New Year. So...Happy Holidays!

Strings Attached

Chapter Seven-Drama in the Night

"But looking back…do you ever think it could have been something more?"

Brooke swallowed hard, she had thought about it; some days that had been all she thought about. "Does it really matter, now?"

Lucas pushed a small strand of hair back behind her ear and let his fingers linger, "it could," he whispered.

"How?"

"That night…" he sighed and raked his fingers through his hair, "that night meant something to me, the hours we spent just wandering around town, just talking. It was nice, I felt closer to you in those few hours than I had felt with any other girl. And when we went back to your dorm, that was nice, too…" he felt his cheeks get warm, "it was really nice."

Brooke grinned shyly, she could feel the red creep into her own cheeks, "you're blushing."

"So are you."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Mmhhmm." His hand trailed down her arm until he found her hand, "so I guess what I'm asking, is, Brooke Davis, will you be my girlfriend?"

"We haven't even gone out on a date."

"Ok then, Brooke Davis, would you give me the honor of taking you out on a date?"

The brunette smiled shyly, "What's with the formality?"

Lucas shrugged, "What's with avoiding my questions?"

Brooke sighed, and pulled away from Lucas, "I don't want to hurt Logan. It's already enough that out of nowhere he has a father. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm glad you're in his life. It's just…he's so confused with everything and I don't want to make it worse."

Lucas shook his head, "I don't see how his mother and father getting together will make things worse."

"Are you really going to make me say it?"

"I think I am."

"What if we don't work out, what if we have this horrible break-up and then you decide you want full custody of Logan and you take me to court and you're Lucas Scott, you have all the money in the world and you'll probably be able to get one hell of an attorney who will dig up my whole past and the court will rule in your favor and you'll take Logan away from me?"

Lucas shook his head, "I would never, never ever take Logan away from you." He brought his hand up to her chin and tilted it so she was looking at him, "and if you want to take things slow, then we can take things slow. We can even keep it a secret for a while if that's what you want."

"I'm not very good with relationships," she whispered.

"Well neither am I," he grinned and lowered his lips toward hers.

"Lucas, I'm sick," she mumbled as his lips got closer.

"I'll risk it." His lips touched hers in a soft manner and he slipped an arm around her waist, pulling her closer to him and deepening the kiss. Brooke moaned against his lips and absentmindedly sat the bowl back on the counter before wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Ok! I'm all clean!"

The two jumped apart just as Logan rounded the corner and made his return to the kitchen, he climbed up on the stool and looked between his parents, oblivious to what he had interrupted, "so what are we going to do now? Can we watch a movie?"

"I don't know, baby, it's kind of late," Brooke answered, ruffling her son's dirty blonde hair.

Lucas shrugged, "I have no place to be tomorrow."

"Awesome!" Logan exclaimed, "Come help me pick out a movie, daddy!" He took his father's hand and dragged him to the living room, rambling on about all the movies he had.

Two hours later, the television was softly playing the end of the movie to no audience. Logan was curled up in his sleeping bag in front of the couch, fast asleep while Lucas was asleep in one corner of the couch with Brooke leaning up against him fast asleep.

Jake disgustedly shook his head as Peyton smiled softly at the three, "this is so a picture moment," she whispered before going to the office she shared with Jake and getting her digital camera. She returned to find Jake turning the TV off and cleaning up the dishes that had been put off to the side, "move so I can take the picture."

"Yes, dear," Jake mumbled, taking the dishes into the kitchen.

Peyton had taken about a dozen pictures of the sleeping family before following Jake into the kitchen. "You know," she began, "I could have sworn just the other day you were saying what a nice, goodguy you thought Lucas was."

"Yeah, well that was before I came home to find my sister in his arms. He's giving the two false hope. Brooke's past relationships have been failures for various reasons and all Logan has ever wanted was his daddy to be with his mommy." He sighed, frustrated, "I just don't want to see the two get hurt."

"But you have to trust that Brooke knows what she's doing."

"We saw how well that worked out with Jeremy and Mitchell."

Peyton rolled her eyes, "Jeremy hasn't been around for years and well, Brooke knows what a mistake Mitchell was," she shook her head, "she wouldn't go back there, again." She shrugged, "besides, as far as I know, Lucas and Brooke are just friends. And if that's changed, well, I'm going to support the two of them and you should do the same. You need to for once support your little sister."

Jake looked offended, "what's that supposed to mean?"

"It means you never support Brooke. You barely talked to her when she was pregnant with Logan..."

"...that's because she was stupid and got herself knocked up with some guy whose name she didn't even know!" Jake defended himself.

The blonde shook her head, "you didn't support her when she dropped out of college to work two jobs so she could make ends meet! The only reason you let her move in was because working those two jobs had put her in the hospital and you had suddenly grown a conscious." She shook her head when Jake started to speak, "for once, you need to just shut up!"

"I'm not going to shut up and let her think that by hooking up with Lucas she's getting the perfect little family she's always wanted!"

Back in the living room, Lucas was listening carefully to the argument going on just feet away, he wasn't exactly sure what had woke him up at first but it hadn't taken him long to realize it was the loud voices of Brooke's brother and best friend. He felt Brooke shift in his arms and he looked down at her open eyes, he couldn't quite read the expression on her face, "you ok?" he asked whispered, aware of the fact that Logan was still asleep.

"I'm fine," she pulled away from Lucas' arms and threw the blanket off of her before marching into the kitchen.

When Brooke had entered the kitchen, both Jake and Peyton immediately stopped yelling.

Brooke glared at her brother, crossing her arms, "I'd appreciate it if you didn't talk shit about me when my son is nearby."

Jake scoffed, "Logan's in the living room sound asleep."

"Oh, so you knew we were sleeping but that didn't keep you from yelling at the top of your lungs. You're so thoughtful, Jake."

"Yes, I am thoughtful! Thanks to me, you and your son have a roof over your head! You two would be nowhere if it weren't for me! Yeah, I did ignore you when you were pregnant with Logan, you know why? Because I was disappointed in you, I was ashamed of you! But that didn't stop me from financially supporting you. Remind me again, who was it that helped you get the loan to start your clothing store? Oh! That's right, it was me! Who was it that defended you to mom and dad when they found out about Logan who was already two, through grandma? It was me!"

"Jake--" Peyton started.

Brooke shook her head, "it's alright Peyton, you've defended me enough, I can take it from here." She turned back to her brother, "You think you're so much better than mom and dad, but right now you're acting just like them and I'm not going to put up with it!" She spoke her next words without even thinking, "Logan and I are moving in with Lucas."

Twenty minutes later, Lucas was following Brooke out the door with a sleeping Logan in his arms. He hadn't heard the entirety of the argument between the siblings because he had taken Logan upstairs to bed so he wouldn't be woken up by the screaming. When he had come back downstairs, Brooke informed him that the three of them leaving.

He didn't ask questions, he only nodded and went about helping Brooke pack enough stuff for the next few days. She said she would be back sometime within the next week to move everything else out. That sometime referred to a time when she knew her brother wouldn't be home.

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