CHAPTER ONE: Silent Misfortune

"Hey, where do you think you're going?" Jimmy shouted as Lucas carried Peyton's practically lifeless body through the doors that connected one hallway to the other.

Lucas stops in his tracks, like a deer caught in headlights. He looks at Jimmy and then back down at Peyton. "She's bleeding." Lucas whispered barely audible but also hesitantly. Who would want to speak against a man who had a gun?

"THE SCHOOL IS ON LOCKDOWN!" Jimmy shouted at Lucas. The tone in his voice made Lucas jump and become a little more frightened then he had already been.

"I know, Jim." Lucas started. He used Jimmy's nickname, a name that he hadn't used since their days back on the River Court. Lucas pauses slightly. "But if I don't get her out of here, she's going to die." Lucas said his voice shaking with fear.

He was worried for his own life, he was worried for Haley and Nathan and the other kids that were held up in the tutoring center, and he was worried for Jimmy and the path that he was spiraling down in. Most importantly, he was worried for Peyton's life and terrified that she wasn't going to make it. He had that sinking feeling in his heart that she wasn't going to make it. Her body seemed grow more lifeless as he just stood there with the gunman.

Jimmy grew a heartbreaking look on his face as his eyes focused on the girl in Lucas' arms. "I didn't mean to hurt her." Jimmy said, a tear sliding down the side of his cheek.

"We know that, Jimmy." An older male voice came from behind Jimmy. Jimmy whipped around and saw Keith standing there.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS? THE SCHOOL IS ON LOCKDOWN!" Jimmy's voice boomed through the hallway as he waved the gun around motioning to the school. Jimmy then turned the gun on Keith.

"Please, Jimmy, just…please just let them go and…you and I can talk about this." Keith says and then pauses to glance at Lucas, and then turned his focus back to Jimmy. "She's hurt, Jimmy." Keith replies.

Jimmy grew tense as Keith told him that Peyton was hurt. "I didn't mean it." Jimmy said.

Keith moved around Jimmy, and Jimmy followed him with the gun. Keith stood in front of Lucas who was carrying Peyton. If Jimmy decided to shoot, Keith would take the bullet for them. "I know." Keith replied to Jimmy. Keith doesn't move as if he was frozen in his place. "Go on, Lucas," He said gently not breaking eye contact with Jimmy.

Lucas starts to move towards the exit, and Keith moves with them protecting them on the way to the exit. Jimmy doesn't make a move to shoot any of them. Lucas, Peyton, and Keith get to the exit. "Keith," Lucas said starting to plead with him, that he shouldn't stay behind.

"Luke, I love you." Keith sighs. "Now go,"

Keith looks between Lucas and Jimmy, and then focuses his attention on Jimmy. Lucas waits for a second, looks at Jimmy, and then walks out of the school. Jimmy looks away from Keith.

"Why don't you hand me that gun, Jimmy?" Keith asked and held out his hand. "Let's follow the two of them out of here." Keith suggests.

Jimmy thinks about it for a moment then shakes his head vigorously. "I can't."

"Well I'm not going to leave you here, son." Keith said and starts to walk forwards toward Jimmy. "I'm not going to do that and I'll tell you why;" Keith pauses. He takes a breath to swallow what was going on. "You know what I won't do that? I won't do that because I've been there. I've bought the gun…and I planned on using it, ok? I've been there and I want to tell you something…" He said softly. "It gets better."

Jimmy starts to shake as everything starts to build up inside of him. "Not this." He shakes his head firmly. "It can't."

"It does, Jimmy. That…that pain in your stomach, that pain in your heart; it goes away! That voice inside of your head that's…that's saying there's no way out; it's wrong Jimmy! Would you please…please just believe me; it gets better." Keith pleaded with Jimmy.

Jimmy let the tears stream down his face as he stood there distraught, the gun shaking because his hand was shaking so bad. "IT WON'T! NOT AFTER THIS! I CAN'T TAKE THIS BACK! I-I CAN'T ERASE THIS!" Jimmy shouted at Keith. "She's going to die." Jimmy said fearfully.

Keith walks forward towards Jimmy calmly. "You don't know that." Jimmy just stands there and cries.

[O][T][H]

Lucas pushes the door open to the high school and he stepped out into the quad area of the school. The SWAT team immediately turns their guns towards him and Peyton. Four guys ambush the couple.

[O][T][H]

"I just…" Jimmy started. "I just wanted…" Jimmy sighed. "I just wanted them to leave me ALONE!" He shouted aiming the gun at Keith again.

Keith nodded his head softly understanding the position that he is at.

"I just wanted them to like me!" Jimmy looks up at Keith. Jimmy slowly falls to his knees.

[O][T][H]

Lucas walks forward slowly away from the school, before a few members of the SWAT team ambushes them. They surround the couple.

[O][T][H]

"I understand, son. It's what we all want. It's all ANY of us want." Keith said.

Jimmy started blinking rapidly. Jimmy looks up towards the ceiling as if he was looking to Heaven. "I'm not here." He whispered.

[O][T][H]

The SWAT team takes Peyton's drained of life body from Lucas' arms and they shove him to the ground. The SWAT team members take Peyton's body away from Lucas' line of vision and he drops to his knees.

[O][T][H]

"It's going to be ok." Keith said to Jimmy.

"BUT IT HURTS!" Jimmy shouted and he tapped the gun to his chest a few times. "IT HURTS! IT ALWAYS HURTS!"

"I know." Keith said barely audible. "Please…" Keith pleased. Jimmy looks at Keith with sadness in his eyes and Keith's heart breaks. "Please…" Keith begs again.

Jimmy's voice broke as he apologized. "I'm sorry."

Jimmy turns the gun to himself and Keith rushes towards him to try and stop him. "NO!"

The bullet when through his head, and Jimmy fell to the ground off his knees. The noise rings through the school hallway. Keith looks at him, as Jimmy lies in his own pool blood. He puts his hands on the young boy's chest. He was dead on impact from the bullet.

[O][T][H]

Peyton is loaded into the ambulance with Lucas' shirt still tied around her leg, strapped to a gurney. She's still lying there unconscious.

Lucas is let go by the SWAT team as soon as he is cleared and walks towards his mother. He wraps his arms around his mom. His mom cries into his arms. He let go of his mother and then he walks over to Brooke. She collapses in his arms. He circles his arms around her and he puts her head under his chin, and let his chin rest on her head as he ran his fingers through her hair comforting her as she cries.

A little way over Jimmy's mother is staring at the school, and police officer approaches her to let her know that Jimmy committed suicide just a few minutes after Lucas exited the school, and she covered her mouth with her hand, and the tears run down her face.

[O][T][H]

Keith stands over Jimmy's lifeless body and he hears footsteps behind him. He turned his head to see his brother; Dan Scott behind him. The mayor of Tree Hill High was inside of the school. He helped Keith get inside of that school. The gun lies abandoned near Dan's feet.

Keith looks up at Dan letting the tears run down her face. "He's gone Danny." He takes a deep breath and looks down at Jimmy. "He's gone." Keith whispered.

Dan nods softly and waits a moment before he bends over and picks the gun up that Jimmy used to shoot himself. Keith watches Dan and he stands up. When Keith looked up there Dan was standing with the gun pointed at Keith. Keith looked at his own brother with a confused expression on his face and then everything went black and he fell to the floor.

[O][T][H]

As the night pulls to an end, Lucas is sitting against the headboard in his room. His knees pulled against his chest and Brooke sitting right next to him. They were sitting there in the silence. She had tried to talk to him, but getting the news that Keith was gone devastated both him and his mom. His mom had been locked in her room ever since she came home from the school.

"Do you want to talk about it, baby?" Brooke asked softly. Lucas stood up off the bed and shook his head.

"No, I don't want to talk about it." Lucas said and grabbed his Keith Scott sweatshirt.

"Where are you going?" Brooke asked.

"I'm going out. I need to clear my head." Lucas said and Brooke sighed softly. He always had this knack of shutting her out. His uncle just died. Brooke needed to understand that. "Just don't wait up for me."

Lucas exited the bedroom and he stepped down the steps of the back porch. He looked both ways and the crossed the sidewalks. He sighed and started walking. Before he knew it, he had arrived in front of Peyton's house. He hadn't heard from her or her father since the shooting happened earlier that day. Maybe he needed to visit to her.

Lucas walked all the way to the hospital. On the way, he thought about the day's events. He thought about what had happened with Peyton in the library.

-FLASHBACK-

Lucas appears around the corner of the bookshelves in the library with the bat up on his shoulder. He follows the patches of blood and he heard whimpering. He swings around one of the bookshelves and Peyton cries out seeing him. Lucas dropped the bat and he rushed to her side.

"Peyton, it's me." Lucas said and he touches her arm.

Peyton cries heavily and she speaks, "Ow, my leg! I got cut by some glass. Lucas, I lost Brooke. I'm so sorry!" She cried.

"She's fine, she's fine but…" Lucas said and he looks down at her bleeding leg. "Ok, you're not. Um…oh we got to get you somewhere safe. Come on." Lucas said trying to get her up to walk.

She protests him because of the pain in her leg.

"No, I can't." Peyton whimpered desperately. "I can't walk. I already tried!" She cried.

"Ok. That's ok." Lucas said soothingly as he caressed her arm. She looks at him sadly. He looks over the shelf towards the library doors and sighs. He goes to lock it and she pulls him down begging him not to leave her.

"Don't leave me! PLEASE!" Peyton begged.

Lucas cupped Peyton's face in his hands. "No, hey, look…I'm going to go block the entrance, all right? And we'll just hide out here." Lucas said unhappily knowing he should get her out of there.

Peyton nods softly. "We'll wait this out, ok?" Lucas said and she nodded again.

"Listen to me, ok?" Lucas asked. Peyton nods her head and makes an agreement noise like barely a mumble. "I'm not leaving you, Peyton."

Peyton continues crying. "I will never leave you." Lucas said softly. Lucas runs one of his hands over her hair pushing it out of her face. He holds her close as she leans against him.

Lucas sits down next to Peyton and he looks over at her leg. He touches the wound on her leg and peels away her jeans to look at the bloody wound. She cries out a bit when he does so shutting her eyes from the pain.

"You're bleeding badly." He says worriedly.

"Luke?" Peyton says and Lucas looks up at his friend. "It was your friend." She says after a small pause. "The one from the time capsule," She said crying. "He had the gun." She whispered. When she took another pause to take a breath, she looked over at him. "But he didn't look evil or angry. He just looked scared."

Lucas takes off his shirt and he wraps it around her leg tying it tightly around the wound to stop the wound from bleeding. After a few minutes, she's leaning against him and he looks over at her. She's paler than normal from the blood loss.

"I'm tired Luke." Peyton whispered barely audible. "Are you tired?"

"Yeah, but you got to stay awake, all right?" Lucas said. Peyton nods softly. "Talk to me. Tell me about a good day." Lucas suggested trying to keep her awake.

Peyton inhales deeply. "We had a snow day in the sixth grade. Do you remember?" Lucas nods and smiles. Peyton smiles slightly too. "It was like this whole other world just came in overnight and took ours away." She pauses. "And Brooke…" She smiles sadly when thinking about the best friend she lost when she was shot in the leg. "She came over and we made a snow fort with a tunnel." Lucas laughs and Peyton laughs weakly. "And we stayed in there all day." She paused again. "And it seemed so safe; like everything was ok, like everything in our world was about to become…" She shook her head. "Maybe we could just stop it. And stay little kids for one more day. But then it got cold….kind of like now. They're going come now."

Lucas has a confused expression on his face. "Who's going to come?"

Peyton lets a tear fall down her cheek. "All of them; the reporters…and the psychologists, and the analysts, and the so-called experts. And they're going to try to make sense of this." She said referring to the shooting.

She looks over at him and takes a breath in. "It's not glass in my leg, is it?"

Lucas shakes his head. "No." He sighs. "It's a bullet. Now I may have to get you out of here. Ok? But nothing will happen to you. I promise." He forced.

"You're always saving me, Lucas." Peyton whispered.

"Somebody's got to." Lucas shakes his head.

Peyton looked away. "If I say…" She looks back at him. "I love you right now; will you hold it against me, because I've lost a lot of blood." Peyton's voice breaks. "Come here…" She said weakly.

Lucas moves closer to her and their lips connect. She kisses him back just as softly. "That was just in case you can't keep your promise."

-END OF FLASHBACK-

Lucas walked to the front desk, and he put his hands on the desk. "I'm looking for Peyton Sawyer's room? She was shot in a school shooting today."

"Oh yes. Visiting hours are over though, sir. I can't let you go and see her."

"I'm her brother and I can't seem to get in contact with my father who is with her." Lucas lied through his teeth but it seemed to convince her.

"She's on the fourth floor, room 406." The woman gave him the information and he thanked her.

He walked up to the fourth floor taking the stairs only because he needed a moment to think. He arrived at the room and he opened it quietly. He closed it behind him and saw Mr. Sawyer nowhere in sight. He must have gone to the bathroom or get a cup of coffee. Peyton was lying asleep in the bed.

Lucas walked over to the bed and he sat down in the chair next to the bed. He sighed and he looked at his friend who was lying there. When he adjusted his feet, he accidently knocked one of his feet against the bed and Peyton awoke with a jolt.

"Luke?" Peyton asked.

"Yeah, it's me. Sorry for waking you." Lucas whispered.

"How did you get in here? Visiting hours…" Peyton asked and trailed off.

"If anyone asks, I'm your brother." Lucas said and Peyton laughed softly. "I'm really glad you're ok." Lucas said softly.

"You saved me Luke." She whispered and reached her hand over to his and wrapped her fingers around his.

"Somebody had to." Luke said sadly and he looked down.

"What's wrong Lucas?" Peyton asked.

"When I brought you out of the school Peyton…Keith came in and he tried to talk Jimmy out of shooting us. When Keith got us safely out of the school, it was reported that Jimmy shot Keith…and then he turned the gun on himself." Lucas said his voice shaking and then it cracked and Lucas let a tear slide down his cheek.

"He's gone, Peyton. He's really gone." Lucas whispered and she turned her head to the side and looked down. She squeezed his hand and she started crying to.