Hey lovely readers!

So sorry about the long delay in updating anything. The new computer still seems nowhere in sight. However, my fantastic friend Jessica James 23 has loaned me hers while she's away on her holidays, so for the next 2 weeks I hope to get plenty of updates done.

Anywho, here is the last installment of this story. I hope you all enjoy it.

Leeese

Brooke let out a small sigh as she gently brushed the curls from her gray hair. She studied her reflection as she did. She noted the lines at the corners of each eye and her mouth. She was glad that she had the evidence to show that her life had had many happy moments over the years since Lucas's death. It made her grateful that she had been wrong about her life being over without having her soul mate by her side.

For the laughter lines that were etched on her face, she had her three children to thank. They had been a critical part in her getting through the pain of losing Lucas. She was thankful everyday for having them in her life. She knew that without them she would have given up many years ago. She glanced over at the cabinet that she had set up as a mini memorial to her husband and her eyes fell on the framed picture of him holding the triplets on their first Christmas Day. A sad smile graced her lips as she knew that he would be proud of how his babies had turned out.

Jamie had taken after Lucas academically as well as physically. He excelled in all of his classes and had graduated high school, college and medical school at the top of his class. He was now a senior consultant at a hospital in Los Angeles. Even though he was approaching retiring age, he showed no intention of wanting to retire. He specialized in burns. He had told Brooke that he had chosen that area to honor his father's memory. And to help people who had also been on the wrong end of a fire.

He had thought about continuing the family tradition of being a firefighter. However, he knew that he could never be brave enough to go running into a burning building to rescue a stranger. He had debated over his career dreams for several years before he had even started high school. He had decided to become a burn specialist after getting lost in the local hospital one day whilst he was visiting. After graduating at Duke he moved to California and attended the School of Medicine at the University of California in San Francisco.

Jamie married an architect called Kirsten when he was 27. They had their first child when Jamie was 33. A boy they named Lucas who was now 29. Two years later they had another child; a girl named Amy. She was now 27. Each of them now had one child each. Both were boys. Lucas and his girlfriend Maria had named him James Lucas to honor both his father and grandfather. Amy had separated from her boyfriend on bad terms before her baby had even been born and had been a single parent ever since. She had named her son William with Brooke's help. She had asked her grandmother about the names she and Lucas had come up with when Brooke had been pregnant. When Brooke had told her the other choices they had made, Amy had known instantly that she had her son's name.

Jack had taken a complete different career path. He had become a professional basketball player. His love of basketball had started when Keith had told him and his siblings' stories of Lucas playing in high school. It had only grown stronger once he had found Lucas's old basketball in his Grandparent's garage. Since that day he had been determined to be the best.

The countless hours of practicing had paid off when he reached high school. He had joined the basketball team immediately and had eventually worked his way up to become the captain of the team in his sophomore year when the current captain had graduated. He had gone on to lead the team to win three State Championships. Brooke had attended each and every one of his basketball games and it had given Jack a little extra boost in his game. He wanted to make his mother proud by winning every single game he played in. It was a feat that he had somehow managed to accomplish.

Jack had been offered a full scholarship to Duke University. He had declined the scholarship and had told them to give it to somebody who couldn't afford to get to college. He didn't want to stop somebody else having the opportunity to follow their dreams when he knew that he already had a college fund to achieve his own. He had told Brooke that it would be selfish of him to accept the scholarship just because he had been offered it and she had been incredibly proud of his reasons to turn it down. It had been tinged with a hint of sadness as he had reminded her so much of Lucas in both his attitude and logic.

When he had graduated college he had been approached by numerous talent scouts. Nathan and Keith had helped him arrange an agent and had gone through each proposal he had been made with a fine tooth comb to make sure that there were no hidden clauses. In the end he had chosen to sign a contract with the Houston Rockets. Brooke had been sad to see another of her children move to a different state. But she knew that he was following his dream, so it had given her a little comfort.

He had stayed with the team for his entire basketball career. When he was 35 he had been injured in a car accident that had put an end to his playing days. He had however, stayed on as an assistant to the coach. When the coach had retired he had become head coach. Then when he had turned 40 he had moved up to being the assistant managing director. Ten years later he had become the managing director.

Jack had married two years after joining the Rockets. He had fallen in love with a Rockets cheerleader named Greta almost as soon as he had joined the team. They had been married a matter of months when they had discovered that they were going to be parents. Greta had almost had a breakdown when she had remembered that Jack was a triplet. A trip to the doctor has soothed her fears when it had been confirmed that she was only carrying one baby. The baby had turned out to be a girl and they had named her Violet. Her birth was quite traumatic for Greta and had resulted in an emergency c-section and she had had to have a hysterectomy to stop the bleeding.

They had wanted more children so the two of them adopted when Violet was 6. They had ended up adopting a brother and sister whose parents had died in a house fire. Jack felt a special bond with them due to their similar circumstances. The boy was called Brian and had been 6 years old at the time of the fire and his sister Joslyn had been only 3. Each of Jack's children now had two children of their own.

Unlike her brothers, Summer had found school difficult. Even with her brothers and cousins being in her classes, she found it difficult to make friends. She found that she had no interest in basketball or cheerleading like they did. Dancing was her passion. As soon as she could walk, Brooke had found her dancing to any type of music that was played. Karen had encouraged her to enroll Summer in dance classes, so the two of them spent several weeks searching for the perfect place for Summer to attend. They had found an independent dance school nearby in Wilmington and when they had taken Summer to look round, she had fallen in love with the place. She had become a regular fixture at the school until she had graduated high school. She then headed off to New York City to The Juilliard School to pursue her dream of becoming a professional dancer.

At first, Brooke had been worried that Summer's dream of dancing would be cruelly cut short due to the heart troubles she had experienced as a baby. She had been glad when her worries turned out to be unfounded. Brooke had taken her to see a top cardiologist and Summer's heart had had a thorough checking over. When she had been told that it was good news, Brooke had yet again sent thanks to Dr. Copeland for saving Summer's life.

When Summer had graduated from Juilliard, she had gone on to dance in numerous Broadway shows. She had met her husband, Ryan, several years later. He was a producer on one of the shows she had been cast in. He had been overseeing rehearsals one day and had been mesmerized by her dancing. They had dated for almost ten years before he proposed. It was another five until they were actually married. They wanted a family, but had struggled to conceive. The two of them were overjoyed when Summer gave birth to twin boys a few weeks after her 44th birthday. Summer had followed in Jamie's footsteps and honored her father's memory by naming her eldest son Lucas. Her other son she named Nathan after her father figure; the one who had walked her down the aisle on her wedding day.

Once she had become a mother, Summer put her dancing days behind her and focused on her new family. She remained living in New York for several years, but longed to move back to her home town to raise her boys there. She eventually managed to relocate her family back to Tree Hill when the boys were four years old. Her husband's latest show closed and he decided that a change would do them all good. He continued to work on ideas for shows from their new home. Summer's sons had taken after their maternal grandfather academically and both were currently studying at Harvard Law.

When her children had left the family home and headed to college, Brooke had been at a loss. To fill the time that had usually been spent on her motherly duties, she started an organization that helped victims of fire. She invested part of the money she had inherited to start the organization and once it was up and running, most of her time was spent on fundraising. Even though she spent a lot of time working to help others, Brooke made sure not to neglect her children and stayed in regular contact with them. She had spent a lot of time travelling to visit them and was thankful that she could spend as long as she wanted visiting them.

Nathan had stayed at Brooke's house for two years after Haley and Lucas had died. He had helped her with the triplets in that time and she had been extremely grateful for his assistance; especially when they had begun teething. He had moved out of the house once he had embarked on his new career as the maintenance manager at Tree Hill High. When he had gone to see his father and Dan to tell them that he was resigning from the fire service, they had been shocked. Yet they also understood why he was leaving. It had taken him a long time to even think about what direction he was going to take regarding his employment and was thankful that Brooke had no objection to supporting him financially. He had thought about using the money from the sale of the land where his home had stood during that time, but he had made a promise to Haley on one of the visits to her grave, to keep it to one side for Alyssa's future.

Alyssa had been ten years old when Karen and Keith had tried to encourage Nathan to begin dating again. He wasn't comfortable with the suggestion but had agreed to go on several blind dates to appease his parents. However, none of them had worked out. Nathan had made sure to make it clear to his dates that he wasn't interested in beginning a new relationship as his heart would always be Haley's. The women had understood and they had remained friends.

When Nathan turned 40 he had discovered that he was going to become a grandfather. Alyssa had broken down after his birthday party and had told him that she was pregnant. He had been shocked at the news and hadn't said anything as he thought over how to deal with the revelation. Alyssa had been devastated by her father's silence and had left their small two bedroom house and had gone straight to her Aunt Brooke.

Brooke had become the mother figure in Alyssa's life, just like Nathan had been the father figure to her cousins. Brooke had sat her down and listened patiently as Alyssa had poured her heart out. Alyssa had ended up sleeping over in Summer's room and Brooke had called Nathan to let him know where Alyssa was and that she was safe. Nathan had gone over to Brooke's house and confessed that his silence had been him thinking of how Haley would have dealt with the situation. He had then gone on to tell Brooke that he would be supporting his daughter no matter what road she chose to go down regarding the baby. Alyssa had been listening in out in the hallway with Summer and had immediately run into the lounge to hug her father.

She had gone on to give birth to a healthy baby girl the following Fourth of July who she named after her mother. Nathan was by his daughter's side as her birthing coach as the baby's father, David, had refused to take responsibility for her. It had resulted in many unpleasant exchanges between Nathan's family and David's. Nathan had made sure that David paid maintenance for baby Haley by going to a lawyer and taking it through the civil court. David had kept up the payments until he had been fatally injured in a boating accident one Spring Break when Alyssa had been in college.

Nathan had been extremely proud of how Alyssa dealt with the responsibility of a child while she was studying for her career. She had decided to follow in her mother's footsteps and become a teacher. However, her dream had been to teach in Kindergarten instead. For her final year of college, Nathan had taken over looking after little Haley so that Alyssa could solely concentrate on her finals. Brooke and Quinn had also helped. Alyssa had commuted at the weekends from her college in Atlanta back to Tree Hill so that she could spend it with her daughter.

After graduating college she moved back to Tree Hill permanently and almost immediately got a job as a Kindergarten teacher at her old school. She ended up falling in love with the new Principal there and the two married a short while later. They had gone on to have a large family and Nathan had ended up with seven grandchildren; including Haley. He loved Christmas time when he watched them all opening their presents. His only regret was that Haley wasn't there to share it with them all.

Karen and Keith had again had to face burying a son when Nathan had died of a heart attack aged 63. Alyssa had been 39. Nathan's death affected her deeply and she had found it difficult to come to terms with it. Brooke had stepped up and had been there to support her and help her through it; along with her husband and children. Quinn had been too sick to help at that particular time. Brooke had been happy to be there for her and give her the extra support while she was grieving. It also made her feel like part of a large family once again.

Quinn and Clay had been there for Alyssa as much as they could over the years. However, both had found it difficult to find the extra time they desired to be able to be there for her more. With their jobs and Charlotte and Logan, they didn't have much free time. Quinn was extremely grateful that Brooke was there for her. She couldn't help but feel guilty that she was letting Haley down by not spending as much time with her niece as she felt she should be. Alyssa had assured her that she was doing enough for her. Clay had remained a firefighter and Logan had ended up working beside him until Clay retired. He was thankful that he was lucky enough to not have the same misfortune that Lucas and Chase had met. He was grateful that he was able to be there for every memorable occasion of his children's lives.

Owen and Mia had married on Valentines Day when Evelyn was 4 years old. Brooke had been Mia's maid of honor and Owen had asked Nathan to be his best man. The two of them had become close friends after Nathan had finished working at the firehouse. They would hang out at the river court and catch up, while Brooke and Mia would have girl time and the children were with Rachel and Julian and Peyton and Jake. They had all gotten together and had come up with the idea to give Brooke and Nathan a break and also to let them know that they were there for them.

Owen and Mia and Rachel and Julian were also now related. Evelyn and Lee had begun dating in college and had ended up getting married not long after they started their full time jobs. Evelyn ended up working for Brooke at her organization, along with Charlotte. She felt that her Godmother worked too hard and wanted to help ease her workload. Once she had started there, she had encouraged Brooke to hire Charlotte to help with the publicity the many events they hosted would require. Lee ended up becoming an EMT. When Evelyn and Lee had got married, Rachel had half joked about making sure they didn't have kids as she didn't want anybody calling her grandma. Several years later, the first of their four boys arrived. Rachel got her wish as her grandsons had invented their own name for her and she was affectionately known as Mee-Maa to them.

Jake and Peyton had gone on vacation to Vegas shortly after Lucas and Haley's deaths. They had taken Jenny and Ellie with them and had decided to marry once they had been there for a few days. Jenny had been thrilled at their decision. Her happiness had increased once they had returned home and Peyton had officially adopted her. Jake too had remained a firefighter which had made Peyton anxious. She became increasingly worried that he would meet the same fate as Lucas. Her worry had become so great that it began to make her ill. Seeing how his job was affecting Peyton, Jake decided to cease his days as a fireman and retrained as an electrician. He then began his own business which quickly became successful. Peyton ended up becoming his secretary and was happy to work from home.

Keith and Dan continued their work at the firehouse until they retired. Owen and Julian took over their posts. They spent most of their retirement with Karen, Deb, grandkids and ever growing number of great grandchildren. All had lived well into their nineties before it had been time for them to be reunited with their lost loved ones. At their funerals, Brooke found herself thinking back to Lucas's own funeral and she realized that the memories of that day were as clear as if the event had only happened the previous day. However, she managed to find the positive in the sad events as she realized that her whole family was gathered together again. She loved having everyone get together as it made her think of happier times. On some occasions it would only be fleeting happiness as her mind would quickly go the huge part of her life that was empty; the part where Lucas should have been.

She had just had the pleasure of spending the day with her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. She had just celebrated her 80th birthday. Jamie, Jack, Summer and their families had surprised her by secretly coming back to Tree Hill to celebrate. She had been treated to a lavish breakfast that Jack, Jamie and Summer had made, before she had been showered with gifts. They had then taken her out to her favorite restaurant for dinner, where they had met up with Rachel, Julian, Peyton, Jake, Quinn, Clay, Mia, Owen and their extended families. They had spent several hours at the restaurant, until Brooke had become too tired.

After saying her goodbyes to her family, Jamie had driven his mother back to the family home. He and his siblings, as well as their partners were staying at the house. Everyone else was staying at hotels. Brooke liked that she had company in the house once again. She had lived alone since the triplets had gone on to college. She had never looked at another man romantically since she had met Lucas and she had kept it that way. She had had many offers of dates over the years, but had rebuffed them all. She was still in love with Lucas and she had no interest in any other man.

Brooke snapped out of her reminiscing as her aching joints screamed at her. She placed her hairbrush down and slowly raised herself into a standing position. She had to brace herself on her dressing table to aid herself. She wished that her arthritis didn't play her up as much as it did; it made getting around extremely difficult. Once she had straightened, she began to slowly make her way over to her bed. She climbed under the covers at her side of the bed and sighed as her aching body sank into the comfortable mattress. She turned onto her side as she pulled the covers over her, so that he was looking at the empty space where her husband should have been. Her left hand reached out and rested on the pillow that his head would have rested on as she closed her eyes. A single tear slipped out from underneath her eyelid as she slowly slipped into slumber.

~X~X~X~X~

The sun shone down brightly as Brooke walked along the grassy path beside the river. It wasn't an actual path it was more of a trail that had been trampled down through over use. She had to hold her dress up as she walked so that she wouldn't trip over the delicate fabric. She glanced across the river at the river court as she walked and smiled as she saw Lucas playing there with Jamie and Jack as Summer skipped around on the sidelines. She blinked and the happy image disappeared. She then moved her attention back to the path she walked along. As she reached the end of the path she noticed that there was a familiar car parked there. She stopped as she saw a figure sat on the hood. A smile broke out on her face and she jogged over to the car. As she reached it she let her hold on the fabric of her dress go.

"Hey you."

"Hey yourself." Brooke replied as she stopped in front of the person. They reached out and cupped her cheek in a hand as she did.

"I've been waiting here a long time. I didn't think you were ever going to meet me."

"You're real," Brooke gasped in shock as she leaned into the delicate touch. Her hazel eyes met blue. "Lucas you're real."

"I am and I'm not." he replied cryptically as his eyes took in every detail of her face; her face that was once again line free and youthful.

"What do you mean by that?" Brooke asked him in a puzzled tone.

"See for yourself." Lucas replied as he scooted off the hood of his car.

She realized that it was the car that he had when they had first met. At that same moment she realized that they were at the exact place where they had met for the first time, where she had been led on the blanket as he treated her wounds. She then saw her reflection and saw that she was once again young. And that she was dressed as she had been on her wedding day.

"Am I dreaming?" she asked in surprise as her hands went to her face. She was surprised to feel smooth skin under her fingertips.

"You're not dreaming Pretty Girl," Lucas told her as he stood behind her and wrapped his arms around her slender waist. "Believe it or not this is real and I actually have you in my arms again. It's been so lonely without you."

"Am I dead?" Brooke asked in a curious tone. "Or have I finally gone insane through missing you so much and I'm hallucinating this whole thing when I'm actually in a padded cell wearing a straight jacket?"

"You're not crazy," Lucas said as he chuckled and kissed her temple. "It's your time to leave the life you knew. We can finally do all the things that we never had the chance to do."

"So how come I'm all young again?" Brooke asked as she turned in his embrace to face him. She was surprised to find that she wasn't sad about leaving her life behind. Then again, she knew that was because she was once again with the love of her life.

"That I can't explain," Lucas replied. He grinned cheekily at her before he asked. "Then again does it really matter?"

"No. No it doesn't," Brooke replied as she gazed into his eyes. "God I missed you so much. I can't believe that I managed to get by without you by my side."

"That's because you're strong," Lucas told her as his hands sank into her hair. "And because you have an amazingly strong heart. Just like our daughter."

"Our daughter only ended up with a strong heart thanks to Dr. Copeland." Brooke pointed out.

"That's true. If it wasn't for him then she wouldn't have been able to dance the way she did." Lucas replied.

"You saw her dance?" Brooke asked in surprise.

"Yeah. I saw every single one of her dance performances. Just like I saw every game Jack played and every exam Jamie aced and each Valedictorian speech he made," Lucas answered sincerely as he gazed into her hazel eyes. "I saw all the selfless work you did for others. And I saw every tear that you cried for me. It broke my heart that I couldn't reach out and hold you."

"Did I do okay in raising our kids?" Brooke asked in a small voice as she avoided responding to his comment about her tears.

"You did more than okay Brooke," he assured her. "Our kids turned out better than I ever hoped they would. They followed their dreams and they're happy. And that's all down to you Brooke. Now you can take a well earned rest and have time for you."

"You mean time for us," Brooke corrected. "So if you're here waiting for me, was Haley waiting for Nathan when it was his time?"

"She was," Lucas confirmed. "It was like I was in high school all over again. I'm glad I had Lucky and Mittens for company."

"Summer was adamant that they were with you when they passed away," Brooke said with a fond smile. She frowned slightly as she asked. "Are they kittens again or are they adult cats?"

"They're kittens again," Lucas replied with a chuckle. "Remember when we first got them and they decided to use me as a climbing frame? Well they're like that permanently."

"You have to admit that they were super cute when they were like that though," Brooke said as she smiled. "Does that mean that we'll be young and beautiful forever then?"

"Pretty Girl, we can be anything we want to be whenever we want to," Lucas replied. "The laws of physics don't work where we're going."

"Where are we going?" Brooke asked.

"Someplace amazing," Lucas replied. "And you even get to pick how we get there. But first of all I'm going to do something that I've waited over 60 years to do."

"What's that?" Brooke asked even though she instinctively knew what the answer would be.

"Kiss you." Lucas answered.

He wasted no further time in bringing his lips to hers in a loving kiss. Brooke melted against her husband almost instantly at the familiar feel of his lips against hers. Her arms wrapped around him as he almost instantly deepened the kiss. The years of longing were clearly felt in the kiss. Lucas moved his hands from her hair and trailed them down her back to her waist. He gripped her gently and pulled her against him as her own hands went to his hair. They abruptly separated when Brooke's engagement ring caught in Lucas's hair and caused him to jump back out of their embrace. He gently rubbed the sore spot on his head as Brooke gave him an apologetic look.

"Sorry," she said in a sheepish tone. "I was just getting into that as well."

"Don't worry about it. We have eternity to make up for it," He replied as he grinned at her. "Are you ready to go?"

"Yes and no," Brooke admitted. She debated for a few moments before she asked. "How did I die?"

"Peacefully and in your sleep with a smile on your face." Lucas told her.

"Who will find me?" she asked in almost a whisper.

"I don't know," Lucas admitted. "But whoever it is will see that you're finally at peace."

"I have a few more questions before we leave." Brooke told him.

"Fire away Pretty Girl. I'll try my best to answer them."

"Can we check on our family every so often once we get to wherever we're going?"

"Of course," Lucas replied. "We can do that as often or as seldom as we want to."

"Why am I wearing my wedding dress?"

"That as obviously the outfit you were at your happiest in," Lucas answered. "Haley was wearing hers when we left the previous life, as were my mom and aunt Deb."

"That's a good reason I guess," Brooke replied. "Okay last question. How do we get to wherever we're going?"

"Well we could drive," Lucas began. He then grabbed her hand and spun her around as he added. "We could dance."

"Really?" Brooke asked skeptically as she kinked her eyebrow at him.

"I've missed that look," he said as he smiled. He then linked his fingers through hers on the hand that he still held. "Or we could walk off into the sunset and make our way to our destination on the last sunray of the day. And last but not least, all we would have to do is embrace each other and let the breeze carry us to where we're supposed to be."

"What happens to your car if we don't drive?" Brooke asked curious.

"Don't worry it's not physically here; just like us."

"Huh?" Brooke asked as her brow creased in confusion. "How can we be here yet not be here?"

"Like I said, the laws of physics have no meaning anymore," Lucas replied. "We may be here and feel solid to one another, but we're made of nothing more solid than like what clouds are made of. Everything physical is left behind, like our bodies. It's our souls that are here now and that's all that matters. So how shall we travel my love?"

"I like the sound of anything that involved me being in your arms right now," Brooke told him. "I've spent practically my whole life without you after all. I need to make up for lost time."

"Then that will be how we'll get there," Lucas told her happily as he embraced her tightly. "Hold on tight Pretty Girl. I've lost you once; I don't want to lose you again."

"Don't worry, you're not going anywhere without me ever again." Brooke replied as she held onto him as tight as she could.

She felt him kiss her forehead as she closed her eyes. She then felt the breeze beginning to gently carry them upwards and she felt herself smiling widely. They were going to a place where they would be together for eternity. Her heart swelled with happiness and joy as she relished in the feel of his arms around her. It had taken a lifetime of heartache to achieve, but here she was. She was finally back with her Lucas; her hero. And nothing would separate them ever again.

Thank you for reading. Hope you enjoyed it.

Leeese