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Something Crazy

Chapter Twenty Five-Here I am

Brooke weaved her way in and out of the crowded hallway full of students rushing to their lockers or friends. Each day she found it harder and harder to walk through the school without her growing belly running into another student. Most people at Tree Hill High were used to the pregnancy but there were still a few people that looked at Brooke as if they had been living under a rock for the past few months and just now heard about her pregnancy.

"Hey Cheery," Lucas matched his pace with hers and reached for her book bag that was resting from her right shoulder, "let me get your bag."

She shook her head, giving Lucas a thankful smile, "it's ok, Luke, we're like two feet away from my locker."

"It's not good for you or the baby to be carrying around a book bag full of heavy textbooks." When they came to a stop in front of her locker, he removed the bag from her shoulder anyways, "well from now on, I think I might just have to walk you to every class."

She entered the last digit into the combination and popped the lock open, "and be late to all of your classes?"

"I'll only be late to four; I have three classes with you."

"Don't college scouts look into tardiness?" she questioned him lightly while pulling her math book out of her bag and placing it in the top shelf of her locker. She shut her locker and turned back to Lucas, he was looking at her with suspicion, "what's that look for?" she asked innocently.

"College scouts look into a lot of stuff, not just tardiness and attendance."

"You mean stuff like participation in some of the greatest basketball camps in the country," she scrunched her face as if she were in thought, "like say perhaps...High Flyers?"

"Have you been talking to Nathan?"

"I think you should go..." while he was still holding onto her bag, she opened it and pulled a few papers out of it, "tryouts are this Saturday in Charlotte. I think you should go...maybe you and Nathan can road trip down there...some brotherly bonding." She shrugged as she put the papers back in her bag. "Just a thought."

"Well that's all it's going to stay is, just a thought," he shook his head, "I'm not leaving you for that amount of time."

She grinned, "ok, whatever you say." she linked arms with him, "now let's go, we have a doctor's appointment to go to."

Lucas raised a brow as she pulled him down the hallway; Brooke Davis did not give in that easily, she was up to something and he was going to find out what before she succeeded with her little plan.

A few minutes went by and they were climbing into his truck, he pulled his seat belt across his lap and looked over at Brooke as she was doing the same, "I'm not trying out for High Flyers," he said suddenly.

Brooke looked up, trying to keep her smile at bay, "you already said that, Broody."

"Well I'm just saying it again," he scratched turned the key in the ignition, "just to clarify it."

The twenty five minute ride to the hospital was silent and it was killing Lucas. Brooke never went this long without speaking unless she was asleep or in some mood. He pressed on the brakes as he neared the red light and took the opportunity to look over in her direction; she had her phone out and was texting someone, "who are you talking to?" has asked in the most nonchalant manner he possibly could.

"A few people…right now though, Nathan."

He raised a brow, "oh really?"

"Yeah, he's talking about…" she stopped suddenly, "well, never mind."

"Never mind, what?"

She shook her head, "it's not important to you."

Lucas sighed and turned back to the road in front of him as the light switched to green, "I didn't say High Flyers wasn't important to me."

"I don't see why you're talking about it so much if you don't want to go."

"I never said I didn't want to go, Brooke!"

"I don't see why you're getting so upset, Lucas," Brooke said in a calm manner before turning to watch the scenery pass them by.

"Whatever you're up to, it's not going to work," he mumbled, "because no matter how much I want to go, I refuse to leave you by yourself so close to your due date. I promised I wouldn't leave you, remember?"

"You won't be leaving me, Lucas," she whispered. "This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, and not only is it a good opportunity for your future but it's an opportunity for me and our baby. There are going to be college scouts from all over the country there, the more you show what you can do, the more you're likely to get a full ride scholarship to a top NCAA school." She shrugged, "while you're going to school and playing basketball, I'll be working and taking care of the baby."

He was silent for a few minutes, taking in everything she had said, "You've put a lot of thought into the future, haven't you?"

"I kind of have to," she shrugged and looked down at her growing belly, massaging it, "this baby might not have been planned, but I'm gonna make sure it has the best childhood we can possibly give it."

Lucas chuckled lightly and pulled into the visitor parking lot of the hospital and quickly found an available spot, "you're incredible, Brooke Davis, you know that?"

She smiled, "I try."

Brooke held tightly on to Lucas' hand as the nurse lead them back to the examining room that she had already visited many times before. She went through the usual routine of getting weighed, having her blood pressure taken and what not.

When the nurse was finished, she smiled at Brooke, "go ahead and take a seat on the examining table, Dr. Bradley will be with you two shortly."

Brooke had gotten quite used to this routine by now, after the nurse would finish up, she would take a seat on the examining table and wait for Dr. Bradley to make his entrance. Every time she came in, something different would catch her eye, today it was the wall of baby pictures…a picture of each child Dr. Bradley had delivered in the past.

Lucas watched Brooke carefully, "just think, before you know it, our baby's picture will be up there."

She sighed, "I still can't believe this is really happening."

He turned to Brooke, knowing exactly where her thoughts were going, "you'll be a great mother, Brooke, so stop worrying."

"I don't understand how you can act so calm," she frowned, "aren't you just a little bit scared?"

"Of course I am," he walked up to the examining table where she was sitting and reached for her hands, "but life never happens the way you think it will, yeah, I never thought I'd be an expectant dad at the age of seventeen, but I'm not going to turn my back on you or this baby."

"Before I got pregnant, did you ever see kids in your future?"

He nodded, "of course," he titled his head curiously to the sadness that had washed over her face with his answer, "what's wrong?"

"I never thought about having kids, to be honest, I never thought about life after high school at all," she took a deep breath and looked down at their intertwined hands, "I just always took things day by day, and now…" her bottom lip trembled, "and now with this baby…I'm just really scared, Lucas…I'm terrified," she whispered the last part, almost afraid of hearing herself.

"Brooke," Lucas began, "look at me pretty girl," she looked up hesitantly and Lucas shook his head at her tears, "you don't need to cry, Brooke."

The door opened and Dr. Bradley entered, "good afternoon!" He closed the door behind him, "so today's a big day, have you two decided whether you want to know the gender?"

"Yes," they answered simultaneously.

Lucas chuckled softly and Brooke looked up at him, grinning excitedly. The two had spent hours upon hours discussing their baby. Most specifically, names; but they had agreed they wanted to know if they were having a boy or a girl. They could narrow down names, Brooke could shop more easily and people would have an easier time when it came to buying gifts.

Dr. Bradley grinned, "Excellent!" He walked around to the other side of Brooke to wear the sonogram was sitting, "well you know the drill, Miss. Davis, go ahead and lift your shirt just about your abdomen and we'll get started."

A few minutes later, all three occupants in the room were staring contently at the black and white screen in front of them, waiting for Dr. Bradley to pick up the signal as he rubbed the transducer across Brooke's abdomen. Finally, a black and white imaged appeared on the screen and just like last time, a steady beat sounded.

"We've got a heartbeat and an image," Dr. Bradley turned to the expectant parents, "the heartbeat seems strong." He turned back to the screen as he examine the fetus, "now let's see what we've got here, two feet, two hands and…" he leaned in farther, "you two have got yourselves a boy on the way."

"A boy?" Lucas repeated, a goofy grin appeared across his face, "we're having a boy?"

"Indeed you are, Mr. Scott. And everything looks good, you're son is where he should be in development; he's about a pound in weight and is about ten inches long. You'll be starting to feel him move around and kick within the next few weeks. I'm going to send these to the printer in my office. I'll send the nurse in here to help you clean up and then you can come to my office and we'll go over a few more things."

"See you Wednesday, Kyle." Haley said goodbye to the last student she was scheduled to tutor for the day.

"Later, Haley."

She waited until the tall sophomore shut the door behind him before sighing and starting to collect her books and miscellaneous papers. She heard the door open back open and didn't bother to look up, "I'm sure you'll do fine on your test, Kyle, just remember the elements and…" she finally looked up, "Oh, hey Nathan."

Nathan smiled, "hey."

"I don't tutor you anymore."

"I didn't come here because I need tutored, in fact, you might be happy to know, I aced my last math test." Haley was happy to hear he was keeping his grades up, but she didn't show it, "I suddenly found a lot of free time on my hands," he shrugged his shoulders, "no basketball, no girlfriend…"

"Nathan…"

"Oh come on, Hales! Don't you think I at least deserve an explanation? You broke up with me with no explanation and every time I try to talk to you, you blow me off or ignore my phone calls."

She stood up and shoved everything in her bag, for once not worrying about organizing it all before hand, "my shift at the café begins in fifteen minutes, I've got to get going. But you need to leave so I can lock up the tutoring center."

"Fine," Nathan mumbled, "I'll see you at the café."

Once he left, Haley sighed deeply, "why couldn't I have just said something else? No, instead, I had to tell him I was going to work."

Lucas and Brooke entered Dr. Bradley's office hand in hand, smiles on both of their faces.

"Go ahead sit down," Dr. Bradley said, as he finished gathering the pictures from the printer tray. Brooke and Lucas obliged and a minute later, he was handing them a few pictures, "there are plenty there, so be proud expectant parents and share them around."

Brooke eagerly reached for the pictures, "thank you!"

"You're very welcome, Miss. Davis." He took a seat behind his desk, gathering the pamphlets and brochures he had put together, "I've scheduled your next appointment for next Monday at four. Now normally it wouldn't be necessary to have another appointment that soon when you haven't entered your third trimester but after going over your numbers from the checkup the nurse performed I think it would be best."

"What do you mean?" Lucas questioned, "what's wrong?"

Dr. Bradley pulled his glasses from his eyes and sat them on his desk, "your blood pressure is slightly above average."

Brooke and Lucas both tensed at Dr. Bradley's words.

Lucas looked over at Brooke, her eyes were screaming panic and he reached out and squeezed her hand, trying to reassure her and himself. He tried to keep his voice calm, "what exactly does that mean?"

"It means that if Miss. Davis' blood pressure continues to increase it could lead to serious complications for her and your son. As of right now, there is nothing to be alarmed about. I wanted to take the sonogram before explaining this to the two of you. Your baby has a steady heartbeat and he's right on target in physical development."

"So there's nothing to worry about?" Brooke asked cautiously.

"For now," he smiled, "I don't want to prescribe any medication just yet, see if it goes down on its own. But I suggest if you're working to cut back on the amount of hours you're on your feet. Spend less time walking around and more time relaxing and resting, you're almost halfway through your second trimester and your body is really going to be put to the test."

Brooke nodded, "what if, when I come back and my blood pressure hasn't dropped?"

"I will prescribe medication," he sighed, looking between the two, "high blood pressure can lead to a lot more serious conditions such as preeclampsia and gestational hypertension." He handed a few pamphlets out to them which Lucas took. "read the list of symptoms carefully, if you start getting severe headaches, feeling pain in your abdomen or start experiencing any of the other symptoms listed, I want you to come in here right away I'll prescribe medication and start monitoring you more closely. But like I said, your baby is developing just as he should be and he's got a strong and steady heartbeat so as of right now there is nothing to worry about, I'm just taking precautions."

When Haley pulled open the door to the café, she wasn't at all surprised to see Nathan sitting up at the counter, talking casually with Karen as she refilled the salt shakers.

She looked at her watch, "sorry I'm a little late, Karen," Haley said as she walked around the corner, "I got up with some things at the tutoring center."

"Don't worry about it, sweetie, it's been a calm afternoon. Nathan and I were just talking about the High Flyers tryouts this weekend."

Haley nodded and placed her bags under the counter and grabbing an apron, "yeah, Brooke mentioned it Saturday night, I think she's really trying to get Lucas to tryout."

"He should tryout," Nathan interjected, "there will be NBA players showing coaching us, it'll really help when the scouts start paying closer attention. This could be good for Brooke and the baby, too."

"He doesn't want to leave Brooke," Haley said in a matter of fact tone, "it's understandable."

Karen could feel the tension between the two teens, "well I'm sure whatever Lucas decides to do, we'll all support him no matter what." She gathered up a few things, "since it's a slow afternoon, I'm going to go back and check inventory. Let me know if you two need anything."

Haley nodded, "ok." She watched as Karen disappeared into the kitchen, when she turned back around, Nathan was grinning. "What?"

"The place is empty; you've got no reason to avoid me."

"It doesn't feel good to be avoided, does it?"

Nathan sighed, "ok, so maybe I deserve it…I'm really sorry that I started treating you like shit."

"No, Nathan, treating me like shit means you would had to at least been talking to me. You wouldn't even talk to me, I felt like you had broken up with me but I had failed to receive the memo or something. And I would try to talk to you about it and you would shrug it off, saying you were just busy with basketball or school." she took in a deep breath and exhaled, trying to calm herself, "it wasn't fair to me so instead of following you like a lost little puppy I cut all ties thinking I could just stop thinking about you and about our relationship."

"But you couldn't"

"Unfortunately not."

"Ouch," he mumbled.

"You deserved that, too."

Nathan fiddled with the recently filled salt shaker in front of him, "I don't really know what happened, Hales. I just didn't know how to handle it; the relationship was all new to me."

Haley scoffed, "because it was one of your first relationships, yeah, totally don't believe that."

He shook his head, "because the relationship was so different. I mean, Peyton and I were on and off for nearly forever. There was like maybe one other girl before she and I started dating but before that, all my relationships, well they were those stupid middle school relationships that really didn't mean anything." He shrugged, "Peyton and I had fallen into this love-hate routine and with you, it was so different and things moved so fast. Yes, I know, I was the one that said you should move in with me; and I meant it, but I think part of it was some rebellious thing, you know, wanting to get as far away from my dad as I possibly could."

"So you used me?"

"No! I just said I meant it when I said we should live together. But, God, we're only seventeen! And after watching Brooke and Lucas struggle with this whole baby thing, it kind of scared me. They are committing to this baby for the rest their lives and I didn't think I could commit to you, I was scared."

Haley sighed, "but then after you moved out…you still didn't talk to me." She frowned, "did it have something to do with Peyton?"

He shrugged, "I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"We didn't do anything if that's what you want to know. I didn't cheat on you…"

"But…"

"I was confused, it was like, I enjoyed my relationship with you but I missed how my relationship with Peyton was because I always knew what to expect."

"But isn't that a bad thing…do you really want a relationship to be predictable. I mean, look at Brooke and Lucas, they're relationship is so unpredictable."

Nathan laughed, "can we really use their relationship as an example…those two are like, in their own league or something." He sobered, "you know, at first, I hated the guy…I hated him so much. But even after cheating on her with Peyton, the guy is a better boyfriend than me."

She shrugged, "I don't know…you were a pretty good boyfriend for a while."

"Yeah, for a while…and then I stumbled…." He paused, "I miss you, Hales."

"Nathan…"

"Do you miss me?"

"I would be lying if I said I didn't…but you need to figure out what exactly it is you want, Nathan. Until then," she shook her head, "we'll work on a friendship basis."

Before anything else could be said the bell over the door rang as Lucas pushed it open, he moved to the side so Brooke could walk in first before following her.

Haley was glad for the interruption, "so?" she asked excitedly, "so what's the verdict? Is it a boy or a girl?"

Nathan turned in his stool as Brooke and Lucas walked up to the counter, "you guys got to find out if it's a boy or girl?"

Lucas nodded, "yep," he looked down at Brooke and squeezed her hand, she was masking her emotions pretty well. The two had spent a while alone, they didn't speak, just knowing they were in each other's company was good enough for the time being. But Lucas knew before the day was over he and Brooke would be talking about what Dr. Bradley had told them. He was anxious to get home so he could do some research of his own. "You wanna tell them or shall I?"

Brooke grinned, swinging their intertwined hands, "we're having a boy."

Nathan laughed and patted Lucas' shoulder, "way to go, dude."

Lucas nodded, "thanks."

Haley quickly embraced Brooke in a hug, "congratulations, Tigger!"

"Thanks, Haley…this will make shopping a lot easier."

Haley laughed as she pulled back, "that and your baby shower."

"Did I hear right?" Karen came jogging from the kitchen, "I'm having a grandson?"

Brooke nodded, her mood slowly lifting, "yeah, you're having a grandson."

Karen rushed over to Brooke and followed Haley's actions by embracing her into a hug, "that's wonderful!" she pulled back and turned to embrace Lucas into a hug, "I'm so excited for you two."

Nathan chuckled, "let's hope Dad doesn't find out anytime soon…he'll be trying worm his way into the kid's life."

"Oh hell no," Lucas shook his head, "he won't be allowed anywhere near my son."

"You know," Karen said, anxious to change the subject away from Dan, "I think I still have all of Lucas' old baby stuff boxed up in the attic, I don't know how much of it you could use," she shrugged looking at Brooke, "but it wouldn't hurt to look."

Brooke grinned, "I would love to see what Broody wore as a baby. I think it would be great if this baby had something that was his father's."

Karen laughed, "don't be shocked if you find a lot of things with trains…Lucas was obsessed with trains."

"Ma," Lucas complained, "I wasn't obsessed."

"Uh-huh, that's why you named your pet goldfish Thomas the Tank."