Julian's POV
The next day
In the hospital
Nervously, I paced back and forth in the waiting area, waiting for Brooke to be taken out of the OR. I would have liked to have been involved in the surgical procedure, but for some reason the spinal injection had failed and the doctors had decided to do a general anesthetic. You'd think I was used to sitting and waiting in hospital waiting rooms, but it was a nerve-wracking experience for me every time and I wished it was over. When suddenly a doctor approached me, I looked up.
"Mr. Baker?"
"Is my wife okay? Did the surgery go well?" I ambushed him with my questions.
The doctor frowned. "Yes, to the first, and yes to the second question. Everything went well. Your wife is now in the recovery room. We will keep her here for observation for the next 24 hours, in case that bleeding occurs. There is a high risk of a miscarriage until then."
I swallowed the lump that had formed. The danger wasn't over yet. Brooke could still lose the twins. The thought was only hard to bear. "Can I see her?"
The doctor nodded. "She is still asleep, but of course you can see her. You can wait until she wakes up."
He made a gesture that I should follow him and then we entered Brooke's hospital room together.
"Talk to her calmly," said the doctor with a smile. "Then maybe she'll wake up faster. But be prepared that she might not be completely awake. After a general anesthetic, patients are often confused and need a while to fully recover."
When he had left, I bent down to Brooke and kissed her lips gently. "Hey, baby," I said softly, carefully stroking her cheek. "Everything went well and our twins are fine too."
"Julian...?"
"Yes, it's me." I reached for her hand. "How are you?"
She frowned, still keeping her eyes closed, causing me to smile involuntarily. "Don't you have to think about how you are?" I asked.
She blinked and then opened her eyes completely. "Why... why didn't you tell me your... your mother is here?" She muttered.
I looked at her in surprise. "How do you know? I just wanted to tell you after surgery."
"Haley told me," she confessed.
I rolled my eyes. It was clear that Haley couldn't hold her tongue. And just from the way Brooke was looking at me now, I could tell that she wasn't exactly happy that my mother was in Tree Hill. "I suppose Haley told you that my mother lives with us now, right?" I asked carefully.
She nodded. "How could you bring her to our house, where you knew how much she despises me?" She exclaimed reproachfully, pulling her hand away.
I sighed inwardly. I had known that it wouldn't be easy convincing Brooke that my mother had changed. But I hadn't expected so much resistance. "She came to Tree Hill to help us," I began hesitantly. "My dad had told her about our situation with Justin, and she was determined to come here."
"How nice of her!"
I could hear the sarcasm from her tone and frowned. "She really means it well this time," I defended my mother.
"Oh, has she already twisted you around her little finger with her false staginess?"
I closed my eyes in frustration and struggled for composure. I realized that nothing I would say would change Brooke's opinion about my mother. Her hatred was just too deep. "We'll talk about it later," I said quietly. "You and the babies need rest now."
"Don't use our babies as an excuse to sneak out from this argument!"
Her eyes glinted angrily and I knew that I had no choice but to settle this issue with her once and for all. "I don't use our babies," I defended myself. "But you just had surgery and should rest. Or do you want to lose them?" When her eyes filled with tears, I knew that I had gone too far.
"That was mean, Julian!"
"Yes, it was," I admitted quietly, reaching for her hand again. "I'm sorry! I shouldn't have said that."
"She has time until tomorrow to pack her bags and get out of my house!" She exclaimed, pulling her hand away again and shoving it under the blanket.
"Brooke..." I started, but she didn't let me finish.
"I don't want to see her when I get home! Do you understand that, Julian? I can't bear to be near her!"
I gave up. There was nothing left to say or do to change her mind. I had to find another way to convince her that my mother meant well and really wanted to help us. And we needed her help. I didn't know how we could manage everything without her. But for now everything was said and done. I bent down to Brooke to kiss her and sighed frustrated as she quickly turned her head aside and my lips landed on her cheek instead of her mouth. "Rest now," I said, straightening up. "I'll come back later." I was already at the door when she called me back.
"Julian?"
I slowly turned to her. "What?"
"You believe me that I wouldn't do anything that could harm our babies, don't you?" She asked softly.
The way she looked at me, with that pained expression and tears in her eyes, almost broke my heart. I just nodded because my throat was suddenly tight, then opened the door and left the hospital room.
Julian's POV
Brooke's house
When I came home after the hospital visit, I was shocked to see what my mother had done with our furniture in the meantime. She had 'rebuild' the entire living room. Not only had she rearranged almost all pieces of furniture, she also had taken Brooke's pictures down from the wall. When she noticed me, she turned to me and smiled.
"Oh, hi, Julian! It looks much nicer now, don't you think?" She pointed proudly to her work.
I closed my eyes for a moment and counted from 10 backwards to 0. Brooke was right. She couldn't stay. She would completely mess up our household. I had to find another solution for Brooke's care. "No, Mom, absolutely not," I said, frowning. "Please put the sofa back where it had been. And put the pictures back on the wall, too."
"I just wanted to change them", she said. "I have already selected some new pictures for you that would fit much better to the decor."
"We don't want them," I said as calmly as possible, though I wanted to grab her and shake her. "It's Brooke's pictures, and she won't be very happy when she sees you've exchanged them." I rolled my eyes. "Why did you want to rearrange the furniture in the first place?" I asked her.
"Well, now that I live here too, I wanted to make it a bit cozier and more appealing," she responded. "I also changed the towels in the bathroom. They were altogether ugly. And I put clean sheets on the bed, though I think you should buy new bed linen."
"Excuse me?" I gasped, horrified. "What were you doing in our bedroom?!"
"I just told you. I put some clean sheets on your bed," she said, frowning confused. "What's so bad about that?"
"Brooke and I don't like it when you snoop around in our stuff," I said dryly, rolling my eyes. "Ever heard of 'privacy'?"
"Don't worry, I'm not as prudish as you might think," she said, shrugging casually. "If you want to use sex toys, it's your business."
I felt my cheeks heating up and closed my eyes in embarrassment. Oh no! She hadn't only changed the bedclothes, she also had rummaged in the drawers and had come across Brooke's vibrator. "Mom, that's..." I stopped because I was just lost for words.
"It's a private matter, I know," she finished the sentence and nodded. "Oh, which color would you like to have?"
"For what?" I looked at her in confusion because I hadn't been able to follow her mental leap so quickly.
"For your new duvet covers," she explained. "What is Brooke's favorite color? I don't want to buy the wrong covers."
"You don't need to buy us new duvet covers," I said softly. But I knew immediately that my objection was pointless. What she had taken into her head she would go through with it. "Something in pink or purple," I said with a sigh. "Those are Brooke's favorite colors."
"Good." She grabbed the car key. "You don't mind me taking your car?"
I shook my head mechanically. "No, just take it," I mumbled.
"Fine. I thought to buy my own car. But first I have to talk to your father. He wanted to help me with the selection." She laughed. "You know that I have no clue about cars."
"I could help you," I offered, but she shook her head.
"You have enough on your plate. How is Brooke?"
"Everything went well." I smiled. "She just has to stay in the hospital for the next 24 hours. After that she will be released." I looked around the room. "And by then the furniture should be back to the original place," I said, raising my eyebrows meaningfully.
"Fine with me," she sighed. "But first I will buy you decent bed linen. Since Brooke will spend most of her time in bed, she should have the best."
When she had left the house, I plopped down on the sofa and buried my face in my hands. It was incredible how she always tried to manage my life and made me feel like the little boy from the past again, who had done everything for his mom because he was afraid that she would relapse. But I knew she was no longer the mom of that time, and I was no longer the son who let himself be manipulated. She had been in a drug clinic for months and was no longer emotionally unstable and endangered to become an alcoholic again or to take pills. The only question was, why I still behaved the same way as I did back then? Sighing, I got up and began to put the furniture back in its original place.