The trees were in full bloom, blue and pink streamers hanging from the lower branches and some thrown TP style over the top. Balloons lined the patio, tied to every wooden post and taped to the backs of chairs in pairs. She took deep breaths, trying to put her stomach at ease as she scanned the back yard, her eyes finding the dark haired boy who was already a little taller than the rest. Her eyes locked with blue and the boy’s face lit up as he ran towards her. “Aunt Brookie!”

A smile now graced her face, a genuine one, not the kind she wore on a daily basis. She lifted the boy off the ground, hugging him tight. “Jamie! Happy birthday!” She moved him to her hip, pulling back so she could see his face better. “When did you loose those two front teeth mister?”

Jamie smiled proudly, showcasing the gap between his teeth. “Uncle Luke knocked them out when he passed me the basketball this morning.”

Brooke chuckled lightly. “Oh, that’s wonderful,” she said with fake enthusiasm. She would never understand little boys. She lowered James back down and instead of running back off to the group of children in the yard, he ran behind her and into the arms of his god father.

He picked up James like she had just picked him up and when he glanced out at the yard, the first thing his blue eyes hit was her. She stood there with her hands clasped together, her arms at her side stiffly, looking uncomfortable. Her gaze was cast down on the grass and before he could even react to her actually being there, she was already walking away.

“Aunt Brookie looks pretty huh?” Lucas sighed and nodded. She really did. Her brown locks were pulled back into a clip, a few strands framing her face. Her white dress flowed behind her and he remembered how she would always say that she looked horrible in white because it made her look extremely pale. But as she walked away he thought she looked perfect, her creamy skin looking even softer in the dress.

“Your Aunt Brooke looks gorgeous,” he mumbled underneath his breath once he set the boy down. “So where is your mom?”

James pointed to where Brooke was now standing chatting animatedly with Haley. He sighed once more before walking over to the two women. Haley hugged him once he reached them, standing on her tiptoes in order to whisper in his ear. “Be nice to her.”

“Hey Brooke,” Lucas said once he had pulled out of the hug with Haley. He wore a fake smile on his face, and she smiled back with one of equal fakeness. “I’m surprised to see you here.”

“Where else would I be,” she replied, looking at everyone in the yard instead of looking at him.

He shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe where ever you’ve been the past 3 years for his birthday because we all know it wasn’t here.”

Her shoulders dropped and she let out a snide laugh. “Wow, that was what? A minute before you started tearing in to me?” He shrugged again and she sighed, covering her face with her hands before taking a deep breath. “Look, can we please just be civil to one another? I don’t want to fight with you. Especially on Jamie’s birthday.”

Haley had left after the initial ‘Hey’ and it was just the two of them standing with people all around them, stopping a scene from being made. She was tired of the constant bickering between them. In high school they were fine. They were able to coexist and be friendly. But then, she had no connection with anyone for a few years and suddenly she was as bad as Dan.

“I’m sorry for not keeping in contact but can you really blame me?” He stood their silently, trying to be mad at her. He knew that it was his fault that she’d ignored Tree Hill for as long as she did and she seemed to truly mean her apology even though she didn’t have to say she was sorry.

He never could stay mad at her for long but when he remembered everything that had happened on James’ and Lily’s first birthday, his anger bubbled up. “Whatever. So, what’s it like to become your parents?” He walked away without further acknowledgment, leaving Brooke alone in the grassy backyard.

“Unbelievable,” she scoffed before Haley came back up to her with a smile.

“So how’d it go?” Brooke gave her a look and Haley’s smile dropped. “Not good I guess.”

“No it went very bad! I apologized to the ******* and he blew me off.” Haley rolled her eyes. Brooke had never been one to apologize, especially when she wasn’t necessarily in the wrong. “Don’t roll your eyes at me. I was sincere.”

Haley sighed and shook her head, her eyes landing on Lucas who was chatting with Nathan by the barbecue. “You just need to give him space.” She heard Brooke snort next to her. “What?”

“Give him space?” What, the last three years weren’t long enough?” Brooke walked away, shaking her head. If Lucas wasn’t man enough to put it past them then he was no longer the Lucas she used to know.

---------------------

Everyone gathered around the three long tables that were filled with food. Haley and Karen had gone all out with the food. If it had ever been served at a summer party it was on one of the tables. There were five different types of salads: potato, macaroni, fruit, egg, and garden. There were hamburgers, hot dogs, turkey burgers, and ribs along with every chip imaginable.

“Brooke, can you please help me with my plate?” Brooke looked down where she found Lily tugging on her dress, an empty plate in her hands.

“Of course birthday girl,” Brooke replied sweetly, straightening out the plastic rhinestone crown that was nestled in the girl’s curls. As Brooke helped Lily with her plate, Lucas watched them interact. Everyone had told Lily stories about Brooke but the little girl had no recollection of meeting her considering she was one the last time Brooke had seen her. It seemed odd that Lily would ask Brooke when he was right behind her.

He shrugged his shoulders, letting it go and helping himself to the food, noticing that they were approaching the five different salads. Lily had been talking to Brooke the whole time and she seemed to be really interested in the life of his 4 year old sister. He stood patiently, waiting for the spoon that Brooke was using to spoon macaroni salad on to Lily’s plate.

Without hesitation Brooke put the spoon back into the bowl, getting a big scoop and putting in on Lucas’ plate. Both stopped and blinked before looking at one another. “Sorry, habit I guess,” Brooke replied, almost embarrassed by what she did even though it was no big deal.

“Thanks.” For a second, she thought that maybe things were okay, or at least a little bit. “I could’ve done it myself though.” She sighed and shook her head, giving up. She had been nice during the whole party and if he couldn’t say two kind words to her then to hell with him.

“Brooke! Lucas! Before you eat can I get a few pictures of the two of you with James?” She only had three photos of Brooke and Lucas with James. One was when James was only a day old and Lucas blinked. The next picture was when they first brought James home and neither Brooke nor Lucas were looking at the camera. Instead, Brooke was talking to someone who hadn’t been captured in the picture and Lucas had his eyes on Brooke. The last one was taken on James’ first birthday and Brooke was wearing a clearly fake smile while Lucas just looked plain pissed.

The godparents groaned, both of them setting their plates down on their chairs. They made their way over to Haley who was standing in front of the large tree with James. “But Mom, I want to eat now,” James whined as Haley just rolled her eyes, cleaning some dirt off of her son’s cheek.

“Yeah, we want to eat too,” Lucas whined as well.

“Well if you guys would just cooperate then we can get this done quickly and you can eat!” The three groaned together, Brooke and Lucas standing next to one another, James standing in front of them. All three stood with blank expressions on their face, waiting for Haley to press the button. “Can you please look like you like each other?”

“I like Uncle Luke and Aunt Brookie,” James piped in and Haley nodded her head.

“I know you do. So smile. Please?” Lucas rolled his eyes as Brooke picked up James, placing a small dimpled smile on her face. Looking over at Brooke and James, Lucas too was also able to put a smile on his face and wrapped an arm around Brooke’s shoulders. Haley snapped the picture, satisfied. “See? Was that really so hard,” Haley asked, noticing Lily near by. “Lily! Come take a picture!”

“Haley, we took your pictures with James! Let us go and eat!”

“All I’m asking for is one more with Lily,” Haley said as Lily approached them. “Honey go get with them so I can take a picture.” Lily nodded and ran up to her brother, laughing as he lifted her high into the air before settling her on his side. “James smile,” Haley instructed quickly before snapping yet another picture. “Okay, you can eat now.”

“Finally,” James sighed, running towards Nathan who had his plate of food.

-----------------------

“Oh Lucas,” Karen said warmly as Lucas walked into the kitchen. “I didn’t know you were going to stop by.”

Lucas smiled and gave his mother a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Figured I’d say goodnight to the birthday girl. Where is she?”

“In her room. She just laid down so she should still be awake.”

Lucas walked down the hallway and opened the door that once led to his room. Now, the walls were pink with flowers along the border and was filled with small white furniture. His little sister laid in-between pink sheets, her dark hair sprawled out across the matching pink pillow case. She looked up from the book she had received for her birthday and saw Lucas standing in the doorway. “Lucas!” She made an effort to jump out of bed but Lucas stopped her, motioning for her to lay down.

“Time to stay in bed.” She nodded, lying her head back down on the pillow, a small yawn escaping her mouth. She scooted over, making room for Lucas to sit down on the bed next to her. “So, did you have fun today?” The small girl nodded sleepily. “What was your favorite present?”

“The doll house I got.”

“It is a very nice dollhouse,” Lucas said, glancing over at the Barbie doll house Deb had given the girl. It was simple, pink with white shutters and inside there were two rooms, a kitchen and bedroom. “You’ll have to make sure you thank Deb.”

Lily shook her head. “Not that doll house. The one with the red door.” She pointed to her dresser where the large white dollhouse with blue shutters and a red door laid. “That one is so pretty and big. It has FIVE bedrooms Lucas! FIVE,” Lily exclaimed, holding up her hand for added emphasis.

Lucas laughed lightly nodding his head. He took his eyes off Lily and once again placed them on the doll house across the room. The red door always caught his eye, grabbing is attention off of anything else he’d try to be focussing on. But, his eyes were always lead their first, naturally of course, due to the brightness of the color. He was pulled out of his thoughts by his sister patting him on his shoulder. “Yeah Lil?”

“Can you tell me a story Lucas?”

“Of course. As a matter of fact, I have a pretty awesome story about that dollhouse.” Lily’s eyes got wide, and she nodded, snuggling into her bed. “Okay, well once upon a time.” He noticed Lily roll her eyes. Even a four year old already realized the over use of those four words. “There used to be a very pretty girl who used to live in a house that looked exactly like that doll house.”

“Was she a princess?”

Lucas paused, and thought. “She’s wasn’t a royal princess but she was beautiful and rich and nice and smart like a princess.” Lily nodded, yawning as Lucas continued. “But the pretty girl’s parents were never home and she got very lonely.”

“Is this where the prince comes in?” Lucas nodded. “Does he look like Prince Philip?” Lucas stayed silent and Lily rolled her eyes. “From Sleeping Beauty, duh.”

Lucas smiled a little, still not sure who she was talking about. “Sure.” He was about to continue the story but was cut off once again by Lily.

“What does the princess look like?”

“Well, she has dark brown hair, kinda like yours. She has these mesmerizing green eyes and these gorgeous dimples.”

“She sounds like Brooke.”

“Sure does huh?” He noticed Lily open her mouth once more. “Lily, do you want to tell yourself the story?” She shook her head. “Then let me finish. Now, one day, this boy was walking in front of the house when he heard the princess crying. So, being the kind of person he was, he went up to the princess and asked her what was wrong. Now, the princess wasn’t very trusting of new people which was part of the reason why she was so alone. But there was something about the boy that made her take a chance on him. So the pretty girl told him about her parents and how she was alone in that big old house and the boy promised to stay with her until her parents returned. And as they spent more and more time together, they both began to have feelings for one another. So when the girl’s parents returned, she didn’t know what to do. She loved her house but she also loved the boy and she could only choose one.”

“And she chose the prince,” Lily asked sleepily, her eyes almost closed.

“And they lived happily ever after.” He leaned forward and gave Lily a kiss on the forehead before turning out the light in the room, tiptoeing out quietly. “Hey Ma, I’m gonna get going. There’s something I have to go do.” He quickly hugged his mother before getting into his car and pulling out his cell phone.

“Hello?”

“Haley, do you know where Brooke’s staying?”

---------------------

“What went wrong with us?” He sounded out of breath, like he’d just run a marathon and he looked slightly disheveled, with a light shine of sweat on his forehead. She had no clue as to how he figured out where she was staying, the thought of Haley never entering her mind, and why he decided to come at 10 o’clock at night.

She stuttered, not sure what to say, unsure of how to respond. She wanted to ask him how he found her and why he was here. She wanted to ask why he was asking her this when the answer was obvious. She pulled her robe a little tighter around her waist, crossing her arms underneath her chest. “What?” Was the one thing she had managed to get out of her mouth.

“We were good. We were great,” he said almost pleadingly, like he was trying to convince her it was the truth. She shook her head and closed her eyes as she bowed her head. She let out a deep breath before looking back up at him.

“We were never great. We were barely even good.” It was his turn to shake his head because he knew it wasn’t true, it couldn’t be true.

“We had to be Brooke. I’ve never fought for someone as much as I fought for you. I never loved anyone as much as I loved you.”

She took in a good whiff of the air, making sure she didn’t smell any alcohol. When she found no traces of any, that he as here telling her all these things completely sober, she stood up straight. “Why are you here?” She was choosing to ignore everything that he’d said because maybe it was al just some joke.

“Because I honestly haven’t been able to stop thinking about you since you walked out of my bedroom three years ago.” Her features softened only slightly. She still had the tired look on her face, the look that was there because she was tired of having this conversation.

“Lucas, that’s not the case and you know it. If it was me that you loved,” she started, walking towards him causing him to back up.

“Love,” he piped in and she rolled her eyes.

“Loved then you wouldn’t have gotten back together with Peyton when you could have had me,” she finished, poking him in his chest. They were now in the middle of the plain hotel hallway, the only thing surrounding them was the distant ding of the elevator and unsettling silence.

“That was the third biggest mistake of my life Brooke. Do you realize that the only things I truly regret are the times I let you go? Did you even read my book?” He threw questions at her, hoping that one of them would help her realize that this was it. This was their time to shine. They weren’t in high school any more, they were adults, out in the real world. They spent time apart, letting them see what else was out there and as far as he was concerned, she was it. She was the best there was.

“Yeah, okay, at James’ and Lily’s first birthday I chose Peyton. We had broken up because we were going separate ways and that isn’t a valid reason to break up. Had I not given it an actual try with her you’d still have your doubts.” She opened her mouth to protest, taking her eyes off the tan checkered carpet for the first time since she had finished talking. “No, Brooke, you know you would’ve because both you and I know what me and Peyton had in high school was nothing.”

She couldn’t exactly argue with that. “What took you three years? Obviously things were good with Peyton. And who knows? Maybe if Jake hadn’t come back into the picture you’d still be with her!” She needed to know that this was it. That he was going to pull through and be the man she always knew he could be. That he was still feeling her because in the two nights she’d been in town she’d realized that she was still in love with him

He sighed dramatically, throwing his hands up in frustration. “Why don’t you get it!? You’re the red door Brooke!”

Her brow furrowed and one eyebrow arched in confusion, her nose bunching up in a way he’d always found adorable. “I’m a door?”

“Yes! Peyton, she’s the house. She’s the plain blue shutters, the crappy gray shingles, the plain white paint. You always want to look at the house but my attention always goes back to the bright and beautiful red door! Nobody can stop looking at the door and even when they do, it’s always there in the corner of your eye. You’re my red door Brooke! At graduation, there were tons of people and you know who I found first? You! It is and always will be you.”

Her features softened completely and a small smile found it’s way on to her flawless face, her dimples barely showing through. He looked straight into her eye and saw that what had been there before was gone. Her walls were down and she was ready to take the plunge once more. Suddenly, the distant ping of the elevator was joined by someone clearing their throat. “Are you going to kiss him now or is he going to yell more?” The two blushed at the older woman who was standing in the doorway of her hotel room.

“Sorry,” Brooke mumbled, pulling Lucas back into her hotel room. She shut the door and turned around to see him standing there, his hands shoved into his jean pockets. Slowly, she made her way up to him and placed a hand on the back of his neck, bringing it down slightly so that their lips met once she got on her tiptoes.

-------------------

The trees were in full bloom, blue and pink streamers hanging from the lower branches and some thrown TP style over the top. Balloons lined the patio, tied to every wooden post and taped to the backs of chairs in pairs. She took deep breaths, trying to put her stomach at ease as she scanned the back yard, her eyes finding the dark haired boy who was already a little taller than the rest. Her eyes locked with blue and the boy’s face lit up as he ran towards her. “Auntie Brooke! When did you get here?”

She smiled softly and tousled the boys hair, something he’d come to hate as he got older. “I’ve been here for a bit now but you were too busy in the bounce house.” She moved the baby she was holding into her lap as Jamie plopped down next to her.

“Ugh, I hate when Aunt Taylor comes now.”

“Why,” Brooke asked, glancing down at the baby in her lap that was all smiles.

“Because now she has to bring that smelly thing,” James said pointing to the infant on Brooke’s lap. Brooke let out a laugh, one of the big belly laughs she acquired right around the time James and Lily was born.

Hearing her laugh, Lucas turned his attention away from his mother to follow the sound and placed his eyes on Brooke. He took a sip of his beer as he heard his mother say “So, are there any wedding plans for you two yet?”

Chocking on the cool brown liquid, he turned to look at his mom. “What?” She shrugged as if to say it was okay for her to start asking. They’d gotten back together two years ago and they had history. Plus with the way they talked about each other, Karen figured it wouldn’t be long. He shook his head. “Brooke and I’ve talked about it. Neither of us want to get married for a while. Maybe in a few more years but not now.”

He could’ve sworn that her mother started pouting, one that Lily had definatly gotten from her. Shaking his head, Lucas walked away from his mom and over to Brooke and James, handing Brooke the soda he’d gotten her. “What’s so funny?”

Brooke and James glanced at each other before looking back at Lucas. “Nothing,” they replied in unison.

Lucas eyed them suspiciously before taking the seat on the other side of Brooke. “So, how does it feel to be 6?”

James shrugged. “Feels like 5 still.” With that, James saw Lily wave him over back to the bounce house and he was off.

Lucas watched James run off before returning his attention back to Brooke who was babbling to the 6 month old in her lap. He smiled and she looked up at him, a smile on her face as well. “How’d you feel about having one of these,” Lucas asked as he held out his finger, the baby latching on to it.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her shrug but there was still a smile on her face. “It’d be kinda cool.” She returned her attention back to the baby in her lap, talking to him as if he was a real person who could understand coherent thought.

An hour later Brooke had handed the baby back to Taylor and walked over to the food tables, grabbing plates for her and Lucas. Just as they were about to sit down, they heard Haley calling. “Brooke! Lucas! Come take pictures!”

“Why do you even let us get our plates Haley? You do this every year,” Brooke whined as she stomped her way over to the tree where they always took the pictures. Lucas followed behind her, laughing at his girlfriend’s antics but agreeing with her none the less.

“Will you stop it? You’re as bad as Jamie and Lily.” The two children her standing next to the tree looking as fed up as Brooke and Lucas.

“Had I known this was part of the job I never would’ve agreed to be his godmother,” Brooke said as she held her arms open to pick up James. He simply stared up at her with a scared look. “I’m just kidding Jamie.” He nodded and went into Brooke’s arms, sliding onto her hip.

“I think this is going to be the last year I can do this,” Brooke laughed and glanced over at Lucas who had Lily on his hip as well. Haley cursed at her camera that had suddenly decided to stop working. “Oh and by the way,” Brooke began, scooting closer to Lucas. “I’m pregnant.”

Click.

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