“Love comes to those who still hope even though they've been disappointed, to those who still believe even though they've been betrayed, to those who still love even though they've been hurt before.”

Most people think that our hope, our belief, is misplaced. They think it’s over. It’s already been decided and we’ve lost. We overanalyze and that no one is smart enough to write the way that we think. They can’t see the subtleties; the absolute hidden truths that are there every episode. The reasons to keep on believing even when things look so bleak that people are jumping ship left and right, yet the faithful ones have stuck with it. Through it all, we know that our couple is best. We can see that the best is always saved for last.

So many fans have given up in hopes of softening the blow. There is no joy in that. In order to feel the full force of anything, you have to give yourself to it one hundred percent. The shadow of doubt can take over so quickly and with it comes less enjoyment of the wonderfulness that we do get. We are firm believers. That’s not to say that there aren’t moments of fear. There are. Whitey says in The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most (1.02) “There's no shame in being afraid. Hell, we're all afraid. What you gotta do is figure out what you're afraid of because when you put a face on it you can beat it. Better yet, you can use it.” We all know what scares us about this fandom. With a face on it, we can prepare for it. Preparing for it scares us but that preparation helps. We can use it. It can strengthen our belief if we let it.

Belief has been used by the writers of One Tree Hill as a theme for certain couples. In the triangle, that couple is Brooke and Lucas. In season two, they talk about believing in the possibility even when life gives you every reason not to believe. The voice over in Somewhere a Clock is Ticking (2.16) is Lucas’s best man speech. The coda is the best coda in all five seasons for this fan base. An excerpt from it- “Remember tonight for it is the beginning of always, a promise. The belief in each other, in the possibility of love. A decision to ignore or simply rise above the pain of the past.” That episode alone is the reason many people hopped aboard the ship. There was so much not said in that episode. Unspoken promises that we knew would be fulfilled. They were too. By the end of the season, we had a declaration of feelings long held and it was beautiful.

Again in season five, when we started to get the amazing scenes of hope, we got an entire voiceover devoted to wishing, hoping, and believing. In Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace (5.13), the ending voiceover is, “Make a wish and place it in your heart. Anything you want, everything you want. Do you have it? Good. Now believe it can come true. You never know where the next miracle is gonna come from, the next smile, the next wish come true. But if you believe that its right around the corner and you open your heart and mind to the possibility of it, to the certainty of it. You just might get the thing you're wishing for. The world is full of magic. You just have to believe in it. So make your wish. Do you have it? Good. Now believe in it. With all your heart.” From that moment on, we got the, debatably, best scenes in two years. We got the purple monkey parallel and the resolution of the S3/S4 breakup point by point all in the short span of five episodes. So there you have it, both times a major build up was about to take place, the writers used belief as a starting point. The point is- we’ve always been built on belief, as a fanbase and they have, as a couple.

There’s a state of mind that we are in. Brooke and Lucas aren’t there yet. That doesn’t mean that they’ll never get there. It’s just that we’ve never left. They have stopped believing in who they can be together and we never did. Just because they’ve lost sight of it, doesn’t mean that they’ll never see it. It’s been clearly shown that they do see glimpses. Brooke’s inability to hear a hurtful quote from Lucas’s first book in 5.08. Her face as vowels are exchanged at his almost wedding. His face as she expresses her need for a family to him. His need to let her know that he remembers things about her. The fact that it was her he needed in 5.17 as he felt his life was crumbling down around him. Lucas knowing that Brooke needed him at the airport without her asking for it in 5.18. The way he tells her that he thinks vulnerable Brooke, which is what he always sees, is beautiful. The fact that they’ve admitted love to each other and the looks on their faces as they’ve said it. They are all little glimpses into it from them. That’s not going to change in early season six. Lucas dreams about Brooke in a romantic sense. His subconscious knows what we know. That- while being with Brooke would be hard- she’s the only one, of the three, that he could give himself fully to.

“Pull back the shield between us, and I'll kiss you,
Drop your defenses and come, into my arms.
I'm all for believing, I'm all for believing.
I'm all for believing if you can reveal the true colors within.”

Missy Higgins’ song ‘All for Believing’ is my nomination for our new theme song. Right now, and for the past two seasons, there is the ever present shield between Brooke and Lucas. The second the defenses are dropped, like in I Forgot to Remember to Forget (5.05), the unresolved feelings come out in full force. Brooke put her shield back up almost immediately but even as she walked out the door the devastation was written all over Lucas’s face. Her words to her mother later conveyed her own sadness, “And Lucas Scott was the one boy I might’ve lost it for.”

“I know you blanket your mind so much that I am blind, but I,
I see you've painted your soul into your guard,
I'm all for believing, I'm all for believing
I need to know just how you feel, to comfort you;
I need to find the key let me in, into your heart, to find your soul.”

Love is the key. We’ve heard that a lot this past season. In Life is Short (5.15), Lucas is holding the key up and Brooke comes to the door and knocks. What followed was nothing short of a miracle for this fanbase. They opened up to each other, bared their souls, and ended the night together, as a family. They were to each other what both of them crave. Even if it was just for one night, they made us believe again. Their true colors were showing and it was absolutely stunning, amazing, our shining light in a tunnel of darkness.

“And say you will be there for me to hold,
When the faith grows old
And life turns cold
So if you're cold I will stay, maybe fate will guide the way.
I believe in what I see and baby we were meant to be,
Just believe. Just believe. Just believe.
Trust in me.”

Fate. Meant to be. Destiny. What’s written in the stars. They are all ours. A choice can be made against the will of the world but eventually what’s meant to be will overturn that choice. Manual override if you will. Believe in what you see and have seen for the majority of the time the show has been on air. People who are meant to be together always find their way in the end. The road is long, but in the end the journey is the destination. Brooke and Lucas will eventually realize what we already see and what is already there in the back of their minds, just waiting to jump out.

“Anyone can give up, it's the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that's true strength.”

Remember that. It’s hard at times. The end of this journey could be so worth it and even if it’s not, we still enjoyed the journey. No one can take that from us. No one can take the fact that Brooke and Lucas are only genuinely happy when they are together from us. Find your strength. And never let it go.

Text by Corey [BrucasplusNaley]

• Letter #83 - [By Cheyenne]
• Letter #84 - [By Adrienne]
• Letter #85 - [By Christine]
• Letter #86 - [By Megan]

ღ


550th. Icons. Fan Videos. Fan Fictions.