As today is OTH Day and ten years since the show aired, I decided to treat you all to a little Oneshot to celebrate! It occured to me that it was 10 years ago today that Lucas and Peyton had their first encounter at the lake so I've kind of gone back to that a little with a hint of A/U and drama. Anyway enough blabble, I hope you all like it.
Don't Say It's Over
Lucas Scott sat waiting in his Mustang, staring at the scenery in front of him. This was the place where it had all started, where it had all began. He was at the lake, the lake where he'd first talked to Peyton Sawyer. He smiled as he remembered what a bitch she'd been to him back then, but then he felt a frown form on his face and his smile disappeared, she could still be a bitch to him now.
The pair of them had become friends since that day when he'd had to tow her car back to his Uncle's Body Shop and quickly after, they'd soon become more. They loved each other, he was sure of it, they'd told each other enough times and shown each other enough times over the years too, but they hated each other just as much. She'd annoy him, he'd annoy her, they'd bicker, argue, fight, not speak for days, sometimes weeks and then one would say sorry and they'd make up again, but it was becoming a regular thing and it wasn't something he wanted to deal with anymore. He'd had enough of going around in this circle and he'd had enough of them being on and off more times than a tap. It was going to hurt him as much as it would her, but he needed to end this for both their sakes, the love he felt for her just wasn't enough anymore.
Pulling her Comet up beside Luke's Mustang, Peyton wondered what she was doing here? They'd not been here in years and when he'd called earlier telling her to meet him here, she'd been confused? Seeing him get out of his car once she'd killed the engine of her own one, Peyton followed suit and got out of hers, hoping to get some answers from her boyfriend.
"Let me guess, your car's broken down and you needed saving?" She asked with a laugh as she walked over to him and he gave a slight chuckle and shook his head. She was expecting him to give her a quick peck or hug, but he didn't.
"No, that's more your style." He answered. "And I'm always the hero in our relationship remember?" He added, putting his hands in his pockets and Peyton just nodded, thinking back to all the times he'd saved her in the past. The school shooting, her psycho stalker...the list went on.
"So what are we doing here then? Just feeling nostalgic?" She asked as she looked out onto the lake itself. The early evening sunshine was reflecting on the water making it glisten and it looked pretty beautiful.
"Something like that." He replied and then looked at her. "I like it when it's like this you know." He said and Peyton turned to face him and nodded.
"Yeah, I was then thinking how beautiful the sun makes this place look myself. We should really come here more often, it's where it began for us after all." She replied.
"I was actually meaning me and you...I like us when we're like this." He told her and she looked at him confused.
"Like what?" She asked.
"Talking not fighting. I like it when we're getting along, when we're calm and peaceful." He replied and she nodded.
"Yeah, me too." She agreed and then let out a sigh. "We're not like that enough sometimes are we?" She asked and he shook his head.
"That's what I got you here for. We need to talk...I don't know about you, but I can't do this anymore Peyt. I can't keep going around in circles with you." He admitted and she looked at him in slight surprise.
They argued a lot, fought about stupid things that they always ended up making up over days or weeks later, but they hadn't had a fight or a crossed word in over a month, so where was this coming from?
"What?" She asked, not really knowing what else to say?
"I can't keep doing this anymore." He repeated. "I know we haven't argued in a while, but there's a voice in my head telling me that it won't be long before we do again." He said and in Peyton's mind she was prepared for that next argument to take place now.
"So what are you saying?" She asked, already knowing where he was taking this, but she wanted to hear him say it.
"I'm saying that before I go for another spin on that same merry go round, I'm getting off it before it starts." He said and Peyton rolled her eyes.
"Look if you want to break up and for good this time then just say those words. Don't bring frickin' merry go rounds into this!" She shouted and Lucas just rolled his eyes.
"See this is what I'm talking about! I come here to break it to you gently, to talk about it, but everything gets turned into a yelling match with you!" He shouted and Peyton just turned away from him, pulling her hair in frustration as she did so.
"God, why are guys such jerks?!" She echoed from the past and Luke let out a sigh.
"I'm sorry ok, but come on Peyt you know as well as I do that this can't carry on. Yeah we've been good for four weeks, but that's nothing." He said and as she turned to face him again, he noticed the hurt on her face and the sadness in her eyes and he couldn't help but reach out and caress her cheek. "You might think that I'm a jerk, you might hate me for this, but I'm doing what I think is best for us. I love you, I do and this is as hard for me as it is you ok." He told her and she could see he was telling the truth, what she was feeling seemed to be reflecting on his face.
Nodding, she then let out a sigh. "So...where do we go from here, where do we stand...how are we leaving this?" She asked and Lucas pulled his hand away from her face and shrugged.
"However you want I guess? I mean I'd like us to be friends at least, I don't want things to be awkward, we have too many mutual friends in the middle." He added and she nodded.
"Yeah." She agreed. "Yeah, friends is ok." She told him.
"I'm sorry that things have turned out like this, but it really is for the best." He said and she just nodded, knowing in her mind that he was right.
A month had gone past since the pair of them had called it quits and being friends hadn't been as easy as it sounded. On one night out with the others at Tric, Lucas had met some girl and spent most of the night chatting, flirting and dancing with her. Peyton didn't want to be jealous, but she couldn't stop herself and she also felt a little hurt that he seemed to have moved on so quickly.
"So who's the girl?" Skills asked once Lucas had eventually dragged himself away from her and back to the table.
"Hey, you wanna chat girls, go do it at another table." Brooke spoke up, noticing how her best friend had been watching her ex like a hawk with her green eyes turning the jealous kind of green.
"No Brooke it's fine. If Lucas has met someone he likes, then I wish him nothing but happiness. Whoever she is will be lucky to have him." Peyton said and Lucas looked across the table at her and just smiled.
"You didn't have to say that, but thanks." He told her, only now realising that he probably had been rubbing it in her face a little, something he hadn't intended or wanted to do. He was just having fun.
Whoever the girl was didn't last, infact she never even went home with Luke that night and he hadn't seen her since.
Something Peyton herself had seen since though was a letter that had been posted and had landed on her doorstep a few weeks after her night out at Tric with the others.
She hadn't told anyone about it, infact as soon as she'd seen where it had been posted from she just wanted to chuck it in the trash and forget about it, burn it even, but then her curiosity had gotten the better of her and she wanted to know what it said, so she opened it, a move she regretted as soon as she read what it had to say.
Ian Banks was being released from jail.
She'd felt her blood go cold straight away and it was still making her shudder now, five days after she'd read it! When she'd first seen it was from the jail, she'd assumed it was a visiting order, he'd wanted her to go and see him or something. That she could have dealt with, that wouldn't have been so bad. That she could have just burnt or thrown in the trash and forgot about, but this...well this was different. This was something altogether different and it terrified her!
She knew he wouldn't come after her, the letter confirmed that itself, there was some order in place that wouldn't allow him in a certain distance of her, hell he probably wasn't even allowed in the same State, but she still felt scared about it. Knowing that he was out there somewhere, free and on the loose.
Those thought's really put her mind into perspective with things, all those pesky fights with Lucas when they were together, how they kept making up and breaking up, how stupid it all was and had been compared to this. If there was one person she needed right now it was him, but they hadn't really spoken much since that night at Tric so she couldn't turn to him. Being friends like they'd originally agreed to be wasn't working and how could it? Only a handful of people stay friends or close to an ex. You can never go back to that after being more.
Eventually she had to turn him. She'd come home to her apartment late from work one night, it was dark, quiet and she'd found her door open a jar when she reached it. Fear ran through her as she held her door keys in her hand, she knew she'd locked up before she'd left that morning and she knew Ian Banks had been out of jail for the last week. She didn't care if she was putting two and two together and coming up with five, but someone had been in her apartment, someone had broken in and that someone could still be in there, she wasn't going to take any chances. Running back to her car, she dialled the cops and then she dialled a number that she hadn't for a while and prayed that he'd answer.
Waking up hearing his phone going off, Lucas was too tired to even check the I.D of who was calling and just answered. Anyone this late would usually be an emergency.
"Hello?" He said, his voice thick with sleep.
"Hi...it's me." Peyton's shaky voice replied and Lucas suddenly shot up in his bed feeling very much awake. Of all the people to call him, he wasn't expecting it to be her and the worry shot through his mind at the sound of her voice.
"Hey, are you ok?" He asked, already wanting to put some clothes on and go see her. He'd been missing her a lot lately and thinking about her a lot too.
"I...I erm...I know it's late, but...can...can you come over?" She asked and in a second he was out of bed and putting his clothes on.
"Course." He told her. "Are you ok?" He asked again realising that she hadn't answered him before.
"I will be when you're here." She told him, a sentence that made him a smile a little.
"Ok, I'll be there in a few." He told her and she just nodded. "Peyton?" He asked when he got no reply.
"Sorry." She said, realising he couldn't see her nod. "Yeah, yeah I'll see you in a few." She said and then hung up.
Once he got to her place, he got a bit of a shock, there was a police car parked next to her Comet and he could see her talking to an officer.
Getting out of his car, he noticed her jump as he shut the door and when he walked over to her and the officer, he unknowingly wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her closer, giving her some comfort.
"What's happened?" He asked, looking at the officer who'd been taking down some notes.
"A suspected break in, nothing seems to have been stolen, it looks like whoever it was heard something, got scared and ran off. It's probably teenagers." He explained and then looked at Peyton. "You should get an alarm set up incase this ever happens again." He told her and she just nodded.
"Thanks and sorry...I feel like I've wasted your time." She replied and the officer shook his head as he got into his car.
"No, you did the right thing in calling us and don't ever hesitate to in the future." He said with a smile and Peyton nodded before he drove off.
"Sorry, it seems you've had a wasted journey too." She then told Luke who could feel her shaking slightly against him.
"No, I think I got here at just the right time." He replied expecting her to suddenly break down and that's exactly what she did do. "Shhh, it's ok, I've got you. You're safe. You're safe with me." He said as he hugged her tightly.
"Psycho Derek's been released." She admitted. "He was released from jail about a week ago and I thought...I thought it was him, I was so scared Luke." She sobbed and he just held her tighter.
"What? Why didn't you tell me this? Do the others know?" He asked.
"No. I was too scared to tell anybody." She replied. "I got a letter about a month ago, he's not allowed near me, but he's free Luke. He's free." She sobbed.
"It's ok, I'm here now and you're ok. You're going to be ok. He won't come near you. He's not going to ever come near you" He told her.
After a few minutes of him just comforting her in his arms and whispering soothing words in her ear, her tears subsided into sniffles and Lucas pulled away. "Go sit in my car for a bit while I pack you a bag." He said and Peyton looked at him confused.
"What?" She asked.
"You're staying at mine tonight, I'm not having you stay here after what's happened and besides, that door of yours needs fixing." He said and then walked towards her apartment to pack her an overnight bag, not giving her the chance to say no.
When they pulled up outside his house a little while later, she stopped him from getting out of the car and he looked at her confused. "What? What's wrong?" He asked.
"Nothing. I just...I just wanted to say thank you." She said and he shrugged.
"What are friends for eh?" He asked and that sentence sounded wrong to the both of them.
"Luke, we haven't been the greatest of them lately. We haven't been close or spoken much for about two months." She told him and he let out a sigh before asking her something that had been playing on his mind a little in the last hour.
"Why did you call me?" He asked and Peyton shrugged.
"I don't know? I feel safe with you. You make me feel safe...you're the guy that always saves me." She whispered and Lucas just nodded.
"I've missed you in the last two months." He admitted.
"Well that's what you get when you decide to end things..." She started and then realised that this could easily turn into what had caused them to split up in the first place and after everything he'd done for her tonight, she didn't want that, she didn't want to fight or blame him for what had probably been the best thing for them. Two months apart had made them realise what they had, what they'd lost and how stupid it had all been! "...annoyingly, I've missed you too." She ended her sentence with and Lucas just smiled.
"We can try again can't we and I mean for good this time. I don't want this to be another make up and then we go and break up in a few weeks, this is for the long haul this time." He said and she agreed.
"No more fights, no more stupid arguments over stupid things." She told him and he nodded.
"I love you." He said. "I love you so much." He added before leaning over and brushing his lips against hers.
"I love you too and I'm not going to let you go this time." Peyton replied before pulling him closer and kissing him back with all the love she felt for him.
It may have taken something like this for them to get back together again, but just like all the other times they'd split up in the past, it had never really been over between them in the first place.