Set in season three after Peyton comes home from Savannah and learning of her feeling for Lucas. This story will, for the most part, be AU but will reference the actual show sometimes and use it for a timeline. Pairing are Brucas, Naley, and eventually Leyton. From Lucas' POV.

A/N: So, I have posted this story a couple times now, and really wasn't hapy with it. So I deleted it and added a bit to this first chapter and I think I am finally good with this story. Also, I do plan on updating my other two fanfics, writer's block and family issues have been making my life a bit hellish but I promise I will get some new chapters up soon. Now onto the story... (Oh yeah, I own nothing, and all that jazz)

Come As You Are -

She sat on her bed, sketchbook in hand, pen poised to begin another masterpiece. But her muse was gone for the day. Her pen remained stationary as the flow of ink never connected to crisp white page below. Flipping through the sketchbook she held in her hand, myriads of pictures, drawing, and colors flew past her eyes.

As I stood there in the doorway watching her, I wondered what was going on behind that now straightened blonde hair. What was she thinking about? Was she thinking about me, us? What we could have been before all the chaos enveloped our lives and we lost each other, if only for that moment in time? I watched the solitary tear slowly make its way down her face, leaving a trail of sadness in its aftermath.

"Hey," finally escaped my lips, soft and kind yet audible in the silence and stillness of the room. Hell, the sound of a pin drop would sound like a hurricane in the silence of the normally loud room.

That's how I knew something was off.

Normally there were the sounds of a live rock concert spewing forth from the blonde's room that you could hear even before entering the house. But now, it was silent; an earth shattering silence that was a cry for help.

She looked up from her sketchbook and quickly wiped away the tear, probably silently hoping that I didn't see it but somewhere inside knowing she was caught. "Hey," she returned with a weak smile.

I ventured into the room and sat a few feet away from her on the edge of her bed, "How you been in your mysterious leaf of absence? How was Chicago?"

Somewhere deep inside I knew that she didn't go to Chicago to go see Pete and hang with Fall Out Boy. She wouldn't be like this if such happening had occurred.

"It was fine. I had a really good time with the boys." Her white lie made my lips curl into a feint frown. I could read Peyton like a book and I knew that there was something else going on with her. She saw this frown placed upon my face and sighed, "Okay you caught me I didn't exactly go to Chicago to see Pete and hang out with Fall Out Boy."

I scooted a little closer to her on the bed. Peyton watched my every movement. She sat still, almost frozen, as if she was afraid, "Well then, where did you go? You did leave right?"

"Yeah, I did leave." She said in huffed breath. Her eyes wouldn't look up to me as I sat there looking deeply sat her, trying to get inside her head and find whatever conundrum had placed her in such a mood.

"Well where did you go?" I said getting a little closer, my hand unconsciously being placed unto her knee as a means of support. Peyton slinked back a little at my touch and I released my hand from her knee in confusion. She didn't answer my question. Instead she looked down at the empty page in her sketchbook that the ink never met. "Peyton, if you didn't go to see Pete in Chicago, then where did you go?"

It was when she looked back up that I saw it. The look, her eyes told it all. Please, don't ask that question. Anything but that, please. Then she spoke, "Lucas, it's awesome of you to come and check up on me and everything but I just got back from my plane ride and I am still really tired. I think I am just going to lie down and try to get some sleep if that's okay with you." I stood up off the bed and looked down at the blonde girl who looked so broken.

"Are you okay Peyton?"

She bit her lower lip subconsciously, tale-tell sign that something was on her mind that she wasn't telling me, before speaking again, "Yeah Luke, I'm fine, I'm just still a little jetlagged." She saw the uncertainly expressed on my face, "Really, I'm fine. I promise. I'll answer any questions you have tomorrow. But for now, I just want to put on a Pink Floyd album and crawl into bed."

I still had my worries that something had happened that Peyton wasn't telling but I knew not to press the issue. She would tell me eventually. "Okay," I said quietly looking down to her. "But be prepared to be drilled with a gazillion questions when you are jet lag free." A soft smile broke that doll-like mask she had on.

"Okay I'll be ready. Good night Lucas." She got off the bed and walked over to the shelves of records that had taken over her walls and pulled one out, placing it in her record player. I watched her from my place at the side of her bed,

"Good night Peyton." I then walked slowly toward her doorway as music filled the empty, soundless room. I made it halfway before her voice carried with the music to my ear.

"Lucas," I pivoted on my feet by the doorway and turned to her as she pulled back her comforter and crawled under it, "Thank you for coming over and checking in on me. You are the best friend a girl could ask for." A broad smile hit my face as I replied,

"You're welcome, I'll see you later." And with that I exited the room and walked down the too familiar staircase and out of the door, still wondering where Peyton could have went and why she would keep it from me.

I walked from Peyton's house to the Café. The wind was just picking up and hit my cheeks and bare arms. I shivered against it as I rapped my arms around myself, silently kicking myself for going against my better judgment and leaving my coat at home.

I finally reached the Café, opening the door and welcoming the warmth that came from within. I walked up to the counter and sat down at a stool. "Hey Luke," A warm and cheerful voice greeted me as well as did a coffee cup that was quickly filled with dark, golden liquid. I looked up to see Haley staring at me.

"Hey Hales," I mumbled half-heartedly before adding some sugar to my coffee and stirring it. I took a sip to see if I had found the right ratio of sweet to bitter and began pouring more into the cup as I noticed Haley still staring at me. Only now her smile had turned itself into a frown.

"Okay, what is it now that has gotten Lucas Scott brooding again. It would be another cage match fight with a certain fashion designer girlfriend of his, hmm?"

I looked up and sighed, "No, things with Brooke and I are fine. And we do not have cage match fights." I got a loud laugh as my response.

"Please Luke, you and Brooke's fights should be filmed and put on pay per view. People would probably pay to watch them." She leaned over, taking a sip of her own coffee that she poured a couple seconds after mine. I scowled at her,

"Is this supposed to be helping? Because if it is, it isn't; in fact it is kind of pissing me off."

I watched Haley leaned back up and her body recoil at me snapping at her, "Okay, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you more. It was supposed to be funny, but I was never one for comedic timing." She resumed watching me for a little more before speaking, "So are you going to tell me what is wrong or just keep pouring sugar into your coffee until there is more sugar than coffee?"

I looked down to see that what Haley had said was true. I had been pouring sugar into my coffee continuously while we were talking. I sighed again, a little heavier than the one before it as Haley poured me a new cup of coffee and disposed of the old, sugar filled one. "Now, are you going to tell me what is wrong or are I going to have to force it out of you?"

I sipped my coffee and looked down, slowly ripping up a napkin as I spoke. "Well you know that Peyton got home today? Well I went to go say hi and she how she was doing and all," I stopped to looked up, already knowing Haley's facial expression before my eyes looked to her face, "She just didn't seem like herself. Like something had happened. But of course she wouldn't tell me." I realized I was still holding my coffee cup in hand and set it back down. "I dunno Hales. She told me that she didn't really go to Chicago to go see Pete, but she wouldn't tell me where it was that went." I frowned as I looked up at Haley to see her giving me one of her famous looks, "What?"

Haley just sipped her coffee innocently and didn't say anything. "Haley, would you just say what it is that you are going to say?" I was getting frustrated.

"I wasn't going to say anything. I just thought that Brooke was your girlfriend, not Peyton."

I let out a groan as my hands automatically went up to my head, covering my forehead and eyes before I pulled it through my dirty blonde hair, "Do we really have to go through this again? Peyton is just a friend, Brooke, however, is my girlfriend. Why must you keep insinuating that there is more than just friendship between Peyton and me?"

Haley's eyes narrowed, "I wasn't insinuating anything. And that is why I didn't say anything. I just think it is kind of weird that you are so worried about what is going on with Peyton."

"She's one of my best friends Hales. What? I can't worry about her when I know something is wrong?" I huffed as I took a long drink of the golden liquid. It was quiet for a little bit, "I just wonder why she won't tell me where she went. I mean it obviously had an affect on her." Haley walked out from behind the counter and sat down in the stool next to mine.

"Well, let's think about it this way, where would she want to go if she wouldn't go see Pete and hang out with Fall Out Boy? Her father has been home for a couple weeks now so she wouldn't have gone to see him. Maybe she went down to Savannah?"

A look of bewilderment covered my face, "Why would she go down to Savannah? I mean she doesn't know anyone down there…" I spoke deadpan as the realization filled my head. Haley obviously didn't know or couldn't put two in two together.

"What?" her word filled the air around me.

I couldn't say it. I couldn't bring myself to say what it was that I was thinking. Finally the name dropped out of my mouth and hit the ground with a loud thud, "Jake," I exclaimed, almost in a whisper.

Haley's face shone that all knowing look on her face, "Yeah Luke, I was talking about Jake. Who else would Peyton go see in Savannah? I don't know of anyone else she would know living down there."

I sat there, mind racing at how dumb I felt. So that is why she is in a mood. Something between she and Jake must have happened, and from the looks of it, it wasn't good.

I felt like such an idiot. I mean, where else would she have gone? There really would have been nowhere else she would go in order to get away for a while. I sat still and looked down at my coffee cup, almost as if the dark liquid held all the answers I was looking for and if I stared at it long enough all would be shown to me.

I had little contact with Jake. We were good friends when he was in Tree Hill, before Nikki invaded his life and forced him away from everything he knew and loved. We had shared e-mails here and there ever since he left for the second time and that was when we all learned that he was down in Savannah, dropped out of school and trying to do his best to make sure that he gained sole custody of that little girl of his. Last time we had talked all was good with him.

But something didn't feel right about this one. It didn't really make since at all. Why wouldn't Peyton tell me that she had gone to see Jake? She really had no reason to hide this from me. It's not like I would have gotten upset, would I? I mean, they were a couple; they dated and fell in love. And non-purposely, Jake broke her heart on more that one occasion. But there was no reason for her not to tell me that was where she went.

I looked back up to find that Haley was gone for the moment, off tending to a customer. She was back within a couple second, "Sorry about that. You were a daze for a little bit so I figured that I could use that time to take a few orders. Is everything okay Luke?" A quizzical look formed on her face as she looked at me.

"Why wouldn't she tell me she went to go see Jake? I mean, why hide it from me? It's not like I would have gotten upset or anything. She can go see whoever she wants. It wouldn't have bothered me."

Again, the all knowing look was apparent on Haley's face, "Are you sure about that Luke? Are you absolutely sure that it wouldn't bother you if she told you?" I looked at her, not really sure where she was going with this. Seeing my look Haley let out a sigh before she continued.

"Not that it is any of my business, but you kind of sound like a jealous boyfriend. You keep saying that it wouldn't bother you if she went to go see Jake, who is her ex boyfriend. All I'm asking is are you sure that you aren't bothered by this. Because you keeping saying no, like it really does."

I gave her another annoyed look. Of course it didn't bother me. We are just good friend with a history together. So why was it bothering so much? Could it be that I really was jealous?