Author- Emily-Grace Mendes (Brookebynature)
Disclaimer- I don't own One Tree Hill, or any of the characters. maybe this would actually be written into the show if I did.
A/N- To celebrate the renewal of One Tree Hill for a fifth season, I've written this one shot. And I think we should all campaign for Brucas this season, because Leyton does not compare in any way to good old Brucas. Enjoy guys xxx
The Babysitters Club
"How can you be friends with someone if every time you look at them it makes you want them even more?"
"Okay, he's asleep. I gave him his bottle at 6:30 and he'll probably wake in about three hours for another one. Are you sure you'll be okay?" Haley asked Brooke, a slightly worried look spreading across the brunette's face. If she became a parent, she hadn't imagined the whole thing to ever be so…structured.
"Hales, I have babysat before you know?"
"Yeah but that was when you were thirteen and you were only doing it because you had a crush on the baby's dad." Nathan replied, smirking at the god mother to his son James.
"Brooke!" Haley widened her eyes in horror.
"In my defence," Brooke shot back, her eyes narrowing at a chuckling Nathan. "he was only eighteen, and he was hot!"
"Why did we choose her as god mother again?" Haley asked Nathan, who seemed to be checking his watch every few seconds.
"Because I'm totally fabulous and James will love me. The girls will be drooling over him."
"No girls will be drooling over my son." Haley asserted.
"Aw come on. It's in his genes to be drooled over-look at Nathan and Lucas. And Dan had his fair share of women back in the day." Brooke giggled.
"Please don't talk about my father like that." Nathan shook his head, disgusted. "It creeps me out."
"Whatever, are you guys going or not?"
"Not?" Haley asked, her eyes pleading at Nathan to let her stay with her son. James Lucas Scott (a name that, where Brooke was concerned, was slightly unimaginative to say the least. And kinda cliché she'd always thought. But then, his parents were Nathan and Haley-the king and queen of cliché.) was now three months old, with a pair of piercing blue Scott eyes and wispy brown hair. He didn't look much like either Nathan or Haley, Brooke had silently concluded, and he didn't really do all that much. But Brooke had been made god mother, which meant that she was proud to show him off at every opportunity.
"Haley, we're going." Nathan told her. "Brooke's got it under control."
It wouldn't have been wise to tell Haley that in all fact, she hadn't got a clue what to do if James cried, or if he needed his diaper changing, so Brooke stayed quiet instead, nodding and waving the baby monitor she was holding.
"Lucas will be coming over soon." Haley said as she put on her coat, hoping to get out of the door of their apartment before Brooke realised what she had said. Nathan was too slow though, and hadn't realised Haley's plan to get out of there fast.
"Lucas?"
"Yeah, did I forget to tell you?" Haley asked. "Whoops."
Giggling as she exited the apartment clutching Nathan's hand, Haley bit her lip as Brooke stood stern in the doorway.
"If you weren't a tutor Mommy right now, I'd kill you!"
Haley rolled her eyes at the eccentric brunette left in charge of her son. "You'll thank me later."
----
Having re-applied her mascara with some borrowed from Haley's make-up collection, (that made Brooke want to take her friend shopping for some decent stuff) she was glad of the sound of Lucas opening the door over baby James' screaming.
"Brooke?"
"Follow the screaming." She called to him, not daring to move from her position rooted to the floor of James' nursery in case she either dropped him, or he started crying even more.
"Hey little guy." Lucas called to his nephew, taking James from Brooke who immediately covered her ears with her hands. So far, this babysitting lark hadn't been as easy as she had initially thought.
To Brooke's horror, James instantly quietened down, leaving him with a smirk and her with an annoyed expression.
"How'd you do that?"
"He just likes to be rocked a little." Lucas told her softly.
"Right."
They walked slowly to the living room, Brooke staying at Lucas' side for fear that he might drop little James, and they'd have to face the wrath of Nathan and Haley.
"I'm not going to drop him you know." Lucas laughed.
"You never know, I've seen you drop the basketball a couple times." Brooke teased, glad that James was in Lucas' arms, and he couldn't exploit her ticklishness like he always used to do when they were together.
But they weren't together anymore because he loved Peyton, and Brooke had chosen independence.
"Yeah? Well at least I can get the ball through the hoop." Lucas bit back. "I remember the days at the River court when I used to try and teach you how to score a basket."
He couldn't do that anymore, because Peyton wasn't keen on spending their days at the River Court, and Brooke wasn't there anymore to turn his attentions to kissing rather than shooting.
Both Brooke and Lucas watched as James cracked a small smile, accompanying it with a gurgle that made Brooke feel a little funny. She wasn't sure what it was, or why she was feeling it, but the smile spreading across her own face was enough to tell Lucas that she did enjoy her Godmother responsibilities more than she let on.
"Does it make you want one?" Lucas asked Brooke.
"No."
He laughed, and Brooke rolled her eyes, shaking her head. "I mean, not right now. Maybe in a few years when I have a job. But our kids would be so cute…" She trailed off, the realisation of what she had just said hitting her.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean…" She stuttered. "I just wasn't thinking."
"It's okay." Lucas laughed a little nervously. "I bet if we'd ever had kids, they would have been cute."
"Yeah." Brooke whispered, dipping her head.
----
It was silent between them then, Brooke watching as Lucas fed James his bottle, thinking about just what their life as a family might have been like had they actually stayed together.
It hadn't occurred to her, until just now, that even though her and Lucas had broken up, she'd still imagined a future with him. Peyton hadn't come into any of these plans or daydreams, and Brooke suddenly felt guilty.
"You want a hot chocolate?" She asked, hoping that making the two of them a drink would stop her thinking about Lucas in the way she was supposed to have left behind when they ended things nearly a year ago.
"Haley doesn't buy hot chocolate, she says it's for kids." Lucas laughs, remembering all the times when Brooke had complained that Haley never bought any of the stuff she liked when she went to the store.
"I know. That's why I brought my own." Brooke smiled, shaking the packet at him as Lucas simply laughed.
Brooke was still the same as she had always been, and he had missed that about her. His relationship with Peyton hadn't been quite what he'd imagined throughout the three years they had been lusting after one another. (Lucas couldn't deny that to himself, not now, because he knew he wasn't supposed to be considering his ex-girlfriend's feelings when thinking about his current girlfriend.)
But Peyton had changed. He used to admire the way that she was always different, choosing to wear t-shirts with the names of bands that nobody had ever heard of on them, refusing to paint her toenails because it was pointless and taking her time out to be independent.
Now, it seemed like all of those qualities had been thrown away, and she had succumbed to the idealistic portrayal of a perfect relationship. Lucas thinks that Peyton wants that for them.
He knows it can't ever be, because the more time he spends with her, the more time he wants to spend with Brooke. She used to spend hours painting her toes, and couldn't stand to be alone because she was either bored or scared (not that she would ever admit it.) Lucas loved that about her, because not once during their relationship had she tried to be something she wasn't. From the beginning, she'd spelled out their differences, and he'd told her that's what he loved about her.
He still did.
"But if hot chocolate is for kids, Haley should be buying it right?" Brooke asked chirpily, snapping Lucas out of his reminiscing.
"Uh, what?"
"Weren't you listening to me?" She asked, rolling her eyes. "If Haley says hot chocolate is for kids, then she should be buying it because she has a kid."
Lucas simply laughed, at Brooke's reasoning, taking the mug from her hands as she brought it over.
----
"We don't hang out much anymore." Lucas told Brooke softly, comforted by the slight buzz from Haley and Nathan's broken television, as James lay asleep in his nursery.
Brooke shrugged. "We don't have any reason to."
"Why not?"
"Why would we?" She asked, sitting up a little in order to distance herself from the ex-boyfriend that was absent-mindedly rubbing patterns across her arm. She shouldn't have let herself get so comfortable.
"Lucas, you're dating my best friend, and as interesting as people might have found our little love triangle to be, we're not going down that road again."
Brooke only felt that sinking feeling in her stomach when she watched Lucas' face drop.
"But none of that means that we can't be friends."
Brooke bit her lip as wished that James might cry or the doorbell might ring, or anything to get her out of this situation.
"We were never friends Luke and you know it."
"So why can't we try to be now?" He asked, inching closer to Brooke's seemingly shrinking form.
"Because it's too hard."
As soon as the words had left her mouth, Brooke knew that she shouldn't have said anything. They were James' Godparents, so they were supposed to be friends.
"Why is it too hard?" Lucas asked. "It's only hard if we don't want to be friends."
"Then maybe I don't want to be." Brooke shot back, glad for her raised voice to wake James up in the room next door. "I'll get him."
She felt a little proud of herself when she was able to calm the baby down, humming a song that she wasn't sure resembled what it was supposed to be. Either way, if it didn't sound much like Avril Lavigne's 'Girlfriend' then she was glad, because as appropriate as the song was, she knew boys weren't supposed to be listening to things like The Pussycat Dolls, or Ashlee Simpson, or in baby James' case, Avril Lavigne. Nathan would kill Brooke if she made his son gay.
Her attentions had then turned to the little boy's outfit, which if she had to be the judge, would not be winning many awards for style.
"Come on little man," She whispered, rocking James as she walked over to the small closet where Haley kept his clothes. "Lets see if I can find you some of the more stylish clothes Aunty Brooke bought you."
Had she been aware that Lucas was watching, Brooke was have simply comforted James before putting him back in his crib. But that cheesy parenting scene she saw so often on the afternoons she would watch those made-for-t.v movies was far from the centre of her mind. And Lucas' presence didn't deter her one bit.
"Aww you poor little guy!" Brooke mused as she pulled out various jump suits with pictures of frogs and dogs on them, not to mention the Christening suit she had tried so hard to forget about. Thought Haley had informed Brooke that it was traditional, even for a boy to wear a dress at his Christening, the brunette hadn't been so convinced, making a mental note to herself that if she ever had a son, to never dress him like Haley had done to poor James.
"Your daddy's a basketball player, where are all the little jerseys?" She asked to nobody in particular, James still cradled in one arm up against her warm body. Though she had only ever shown him off as her Godson to passers-by in his stroller, Brooke was enjoying having the content little baby snuggled up in her arms.
"Haley said she didn't want her son looking like a mini pimp." Lucas told her, his form in the doorway scaring Brooke a little so that she dropped the outfit she was holding. "Good thing you dropped the clothes and not the baby huh?"
Brooke rolled her eyes, handing James to Lucas as she continued to rifle through his closet.
"I made him such a cute little vest and I was wondering…"
"The one with the writing on it?" Lucas cut in, recalling the day when Haley hid Brooke's gift at the bottom of James' drawer.
"Yeah. Have you seen it? I bet it's on the washer right?"
"Uh, well Haley wasn't that impressed that you'd stitched 'Future Sex God' on her son's vest." Lucas informed Brooke with a chuckle. "She said the colour was cute though."
"It was white, there's nothing cute about white."
"Haley thinks so."
"You see James, if I was your Mommy, you'd be one Hell of a stylish baby." Brooke called, replacing the items of clothing back in the wardrobe. She was definitely going to have to go baby shopping with Haley soon.
"Can we say hell in front of him?" Lucas asked.
"Well we just said it twice, so maybe that cancels out the first time?" Brooke guessed with a shrug. "He's only a few months old, he's hardly going to remember."
----
"You'd be a good dad you know?" Brooke told Lucas as he slouched on the couch, James asleep on Lucas' chest. She's always imagined him to be the father of her children though, and the way things were going right now, Brooke knew there would be more chance of him getting Peyton pregnant. Much more of a chance.
"Thanks. I always used to think that we'd have lots of kids." Lucas smiled. "Way too many, and we'd have to have an ugly big car just to be able to take them all somewhere. And you'd complain because you missed your Beetle and you couldn't be the glamorous Mom you wanted to be if you drove a bus around."
"Luke…"
"We'd be constantly in the principals office because you'd let our daughter go to school with too much make up on, or our son was skipping school to hang out at the beach with girls." Lucas laughed a little.
"Lucas." Brooke began again, the smile dropping from her face. "This is yours and Peyton's dream. Not ours."
He hadn't realised up until that point, that he still thought so much about a future with the girl that was no longer his. He hadn't so much as thought about his relationship with Peyton longer than a week ahead, let alone children and schools.
"No." He shook his head. "That was the dream I have for me and you."
"The dream, you had." Brooke corrected.
"I've just realised." Lucas told her. "That I still have that dream, for me and you. Not for me and Peyton."
"But…"
"I still want a future with you Brooke." He decided aloud. "Not Peyton."
She blamed herself. If she hadn't told him that she thought he would make a good dad, then he wouldn't have told her his dreams. He wouldn't have made her heart leap into her mouth, where she decided he could break it, yet again.
"No." This time is was Brooke's turn to shake her head, standing up because being next to him on that couch, with a sleeping baby, seemed too much like the family life he had portrayed.
"No, you don't just get to say that to me Lucas! Did you ever think about how it would make me feel?"
"Yes." He answered honestly. "I was hoping you'd feel the same as me, and then when you told me we couldn't be friends because it was too hard, I thought that…" He trailed off, watching the silent tears fall down her cheeks. "I thought that you did."
Lucas was sorry to make her cry again. He could only watch as she covered her face in her hands, the occasional sobbing noises escaping from her mouth every now and again.
"Just tell me Brooke." He urged. "Whether you want a future with me."
"What the Hell am I supposed to say to you Lucas?" She erupted, her eyes travelling to James, who was fortunately still asleep. Lucas straightened himself up, whispering that he was sorry to hurt her, before placing James in his crib.
"Do you want me to just tell you that I feel the same, and that all of this will somehow miraculously be made better?" She continued as soon as the door was shut. "You're dating Peyton now! She loves you, you love her…"
"Not like how I love you."
"She loves you Lucas." Brooke repeated, her voice much softer. "Is one of us never enough for you?"
"Not if that one girl isn't you." He told her, inching closer as he realised Brooke was shaking. "All I want is for you to tell me the truth." He said. "Do you want a future with me?"
Her head lowered, her eyes transfixed on the floor as she mumbled something inaudible to Lucas.
"What did you say?"
"I said yes I want a future with you!" Her voice was raised again, her hazel eyes widened in frustration. "But that doesn't mean anything because you're dating Peyton! My best friend remember? I can't do that to her Lucas. I can't do that to me."
"But I love you Brooke! I'm in love with you!" His voice matched hers, his nervousness staring to show each time he cracked. "Isn't that enough?"
She shrugged in the same nonchalant manner that Lucas had become accustomed to in her presence. "It should be."
"Then we can do this." He told her. "We can have a future this time, we can make it work."
"How?" She asked. "How are we supposed to make it work when you still have a girlfriend, and I don't trust you? What makes you so sure that we could make it work?"
"Because you're the only one I've thought about marrying. You're the only one I've ever imagined having children with, and because Haley arranged this whole babysitting thing when I told her I was still in love with you."
It was silent, for probably too long Brooke guessed. She could only stare straight ahead as Lucas' eyes searched hers for any kind of answer.
"Did Haley really arrange this whole thing?"
Lucas nodded, smiling a little. "And she said no sex on her bed."
"We would not be having sex on her bed." Brooke rolled her eyes, relenting. "We'd just do it on the couch."
He laughed at the signs of her sense of humour returning, the same humour that he'd missed over these past months of trying, but never quite managing, to be friends with her.
"Seriously." He began. "Are we going to do this?"
Brooke nodded slowly, biting her lip as a smile spread over her face. "But we tell Peyton tomorrow."
"Why tomorrow?" Lucas asked. Had he expected Brooke to say yes, he would have imagined her telling him he had to go over to Peyton's right away.
"Because tonight, I just want to do this." She told him, grabbing Lucas' shirt as she pulled him closer to her, her lips on his in an instant.
----
"Tell me more about our future." Brooke giggled happily, snuggling into Lucas' arms on the couch, a scene somewhat reminiscent of their time spent together at Rachel's cabin. "How many kids am I actually going to have to give birth to?"
"Six." Lucas told her. "Maybe seven or eight if all goes to plan."
"And the plan is?"
"Six, and then twins."
"Lucas." Brooke groaned. "I'll never fit into my jeans ever again! I'll have a saggy stomach and a scar, because there's no way I'm pushing out two babies."
"You'd still be sexy as hell." He chuckled, rubbing her very flat, toned stomach.
"I'd go for more flabby or saggy than sexy." She rolled her eyes, squirming, still not quite believing that she was in his arms for what they were planning to be forever.
"All boys." He continued, waiting for her response.
"Oh no. That Scott sperm is not stopping me from having a daughter." Brooke argued. "In fact, maybe I'll trick you into sexual positions where it's best to conceive a girl."
"Or I could just trick you into positions best for a boy."
Brooke simply raised an eyebrow. "What about their names?"
"Jacob, Christopher, Daniel…"
"Yuck." Brooke cut him off. "You're as bad as Naley! Can't you think of something more imaginative?"
"Hey! They named baby James after me."
"I know." Brooke rolled her eyes. "James Lucas Scott, you can't get much more cliché than that."
"I happen to like his name." Lucas defended. "Give me some better suggestions."
Brooke pretended to think for a while, before telling Lucas the names she'd imagined for their children. "Ryan, Caden…"
"No way." Lucas protested.
Brooke pouted, undeterred. "Hey, if I have to be pregnant and then give birth to our children, I should be the one to name them!"
"You can name them." Lucas told her. "As long as it's something I like."
"After a while it's all the same. The world could stop and you would never notice because he has become all you know."
Please reviews guys xxx