Brooke

"Hello, this is Brooke Davies. Who is speaking please?"

"Hello, Ms Davies. This is Carol; from the adopting agency."

"Oh yes erm, what can I do for you?"

"Nothing really. I was just calling to say thank you on behalf of Angie's parents, you did a really great job."

Brooke's usually pale face blushed a magnificent pink colour and her large mouth grew into an even larger smile. She realised that she hadn't spoken in the past few minutes as she had been enjoying the woman's praise too much, so she quickly murmured something that sounded vaguely like "Thanks, but it was nothing."

"Well, we thought it was something, as did Angie's parents, so I was wondering if I could possibly make an appointment with you. This is so we can discuss your time with Angie and maybe discuss when you could possibly adopt for real."

Brooke could not help but let out a small squeal of delight at this news. "How's Tuesday?" she asked without even checking her diary. She did not care though, no meeting was more important then this.

Lindsey

"Hello," Lindsey spoke into her phone. After a few minutes with no reply she asked what seemed to her the impossible, "Lucas is that you? Luc, please answer, I love you."

"Aw isn't that sweet and we were just about to prank call her." A young voice answered before it and another few voices began laughing.

"Stupid kids!" Lindsey shouted at the phone before slamming it back down. She bent down to get a glass into which she poured some whiskey. As she did this tears rolled down her cheeks, she didn't even bother wiping them away as she sank into her brown leather couch.

Peyton

"Hello?" Peyton asked. There was any number of people that could be calling her and she knew who she most wanted it to be though he was the least likely to be.

"I've got two tickets to Vegas. Do you want to get married tonight?" A man asked. Peyton stood in her office staring into space. Her dream was coming true and the only person she wanted standing next to her was just on the other end of this phone line. He was asking her to marry him and before she knew it she was saying yes and was rushing home to pack. She was getting married tonight! She was marrying her one true love tonight! The ceremony wasn't going to be the one of her dreams she wasn't even going to be in a wedding dress. None of this mattered though she was finally going to become Mrs Lucas Scott!

Peyton could not contain her glee as walked into the airport. She wheeled her medium sized green suitcase and stood in the centre of the airport. Around she turned three times on the spot until two hands gripped her slender waist. There was only one person in her world these hands could belong to. She turned around once more until her large green eyes met Lucas Scott's large blue ones.

"Lucas…" Peyton began to whisper however she was unable to complete her sentence as Lucas had pulled her into a passionate kiss.

"Peyton, I am so sorry for being such an ass to you and rushing you into marrying me tonight. I want you to know that I love you and that I just want you to become my wife so I can just show the world exactly how much I love you; Peyton Elizabeth Sawyer." Lucas whispered into Peyton's golden curls as he held her tightly against his body.

"I know and I'm sorry for being a bitch. I love you too Lucas Eugene Scott." Peyton smiled at the look of Lucas' face when she said his middle name.

"FYI, only you can ever say my middle name. Ever," Lucas said in mock warning before grabbing Peyton's hand and guiding her over to their check-in desk.

"Hey Luc wait…" Peyton said whilst rummaging in her purse for her ringing cell phone. "Hello…Mia is that you?" Peyton asked with a confused look on her face. The line was obviously crackled, as Peyton had to ask Mia to repeat herself more than once. After the call ended Peyton wore an expression of both glee and confusion.

"Hey Blondie, is everything ok?" Lucas asked Peyton with slight worry in his voice. He stroked her left arm gently as he awaited her answer.

"Erm… Luc I don't know how to say it to you so I'm just going to sort of blurt it out," Peyton said whilst fiddling with Lucas' fingers and looking everywhere but at him.

Lucas tilted up her head so their eyes met and then gave her reassuring smile. He then led her out of the queue and took her to sit down on one of the nearby benches.

"As you probably heard that was Mia on the phone. She said a little while ago that she met a man that said he knew my mom, Ellie. He has just called her tonight and said he could meet up with me tomorrow in New York where he's doing a gig. After that he's not going to be able to meet up with me for a few months at least." Peyton said this all very hurriedly and finished with a deep breath before looking up into Lucas' deep blue eyes.

"Peyton that's great, it really is, but I thought we were going to get married tonight. We still are right?" Lucas asked with a confused expression on his face. He was happy for Peyton, he loved her, but they were supposed to be getting married.

"Luc I…I don't think we can. I need to get to New York tonight so I have clear a head when meeting this guy tomorrow. Lucas I want to marry you, Go' you don't know how much! But this is something I have to do and I would so much rather I was doing it with you rather than without." Peyton looked pleadingly into Lucas' eyes. She was so confused herself but she needed Lucas to understand.

"Well look who is giving up on us now." Lucas said sarcastically, not even trying to keep his voice calm.

"I'm not giving up on us, I'm just asking us to postpone the wedding a day or two. Why are you being so selfish?" Peyton said in an extremely hurt voice.

"ME, selfish? No, I think that's definitely you!"

"Yeah, you're right I'm sorry (!) It's always my fault."

Lucas sighed deeply, running his hand through his spiked blonde hair and then turned his head to look up at Peyton. "No Peyton, I'm sorry. You're right, I was being completely selfish. I want to help you find this man, I do, but first of all I need to find myself and I need to find us. I'm sorry."

"It's ok Lucas…what are we going to do now then?"

"You said you can only meet up with this guy tomorrow so… why don't you and we can just get together in Tree Hill afterwards? I need to go away Peyton, to a place where no one knows me, knows us. I need to get away from my past so I can find our future. I wanted to take that journey with you but that obviously isn't going to happen." Lucas took hold of Peyton's slight shoulders and forced their eyes to meet. "Peyton, I love you, don't ever forget that, but before we can be together we're going to have to go our separate ways for a little bit, ok?"

It broke Lucas' heart as he watched Peyton's emerald green eyes fill with tears at his words. It broke Peyton's heart as she watched Lucas' sapphire blue eyes fill with tears at his words. They both knew this way was best. The two held on to each other as if never wanting to let go until they knew they had to.

"Lucas and Peyton…"

"…True love always." Peyton smiled a teary smile as she said this.

"And we will have always Peyton, I promise." Lucas smiled before turning around and walking away towards his check-in desk.

Peyton stood and watched as he turned and walked away from her. At least this time she was awake to see it; at least this time he had promised he would come back to her.

Peyton turned to walk away but something stopped her. It was the memories of the last time this had happened; Lucas had gone away and forgotten his supposed love for her by falling in love with someone else; by falling in love with Lindsey. She was not going to let that happen again.

"Lucas wait … I…I know I can't go with you and you can't come with me but I don't want a repetition of the last time this happened, you know so erm… here you go." Peyton handed Lucas an A4 white, sealed envelope, "This way you can't forget me," she added with a smile.

"Peyton I never would, but thank you anyway." Lucas said as he took the envelope from her slightly shaking hands. He then pressed his lips lightly against hers before turning around and leaving.

Peyton took a long deep breath before walking over to a desk to purchase a ticket to New York that night.