"Listen, I don't know who you are, but you need to leave," Peyton said in a raised voice. Her loud tone caused her daughter to stir slightly in her arms and Peyton turned and placed the infant in her crib. Peyton stood in front of the baby blocking the child from the woman she now believed to be crazy.
"You want to know who I am," the young woman questioned.
"Not really," Peyton replied crossing her arms in front of her. She was in protective mother mode, a role that didn't take her long to adapt to. "I just want you to leave."
"I can't do that," the young woman told her.
"Oh, I think you can," Peyton said advancing on her. She took the young girls arm and instantly felt a jolt of energy she had never felt before. It was a jolt of familiarity and it also hinted at sadness and loss.
Peyton retreated, a look of shock and mild horror on her face. "What just happened," she exclaimed.
"You just touched a future you never had," the young woman said. "How did it feel?"
"Okay, what the hell is going on?" Peyton began to drag in deep ragged breaths. She was dealing with the greatest loss of her life, even more so then losing two mothers, and she didn't know if she could deal with some psycho mind fucking her.
"Peyton don't you get it?" The young woman's face grew soft. "Don't you see?"
"No, I don't," she almost screamed but lowered her voice mindful of her baby daughter. "That is why I am asking."
"I am your daughter, Peyton," she told her.
Peyton instantly looked to her slumbering child. There are times in your life when you try to comprehend the unexplainable and it is then you realize how small you are in the universe. This was such a time.
"You are telling me you are my daughter, Sawyer," it was a mixture of a question and a statement.
"No," the young woman shook her head. "I am the daughter you never had."
"Okay, what the hell," Peyton was fuming.
"Do you remember that night in L.A. when Lucas proposed and you said no?" The young woman asked.
"Okay, first I didn't say no," Peyton held up her finger. She hated when people got that wrong. There was a big difference between no and someday. "Second," she held up a second finger. "What does that have to do with anything?"
"It's all about crossroads, Peyton," the young woman said. "The choices we make and the regrets we have to live with."
"I have enough regret I am living with," Peyton said as tears formed in her eyes. "I don't need some psycho coming here messing with me and reminding me all the years I wasted, years I could have spent with Lucas."
"But you can," the young woman's voice was calm. "You can have it all back."
"What?" Peyton spread her arms wide. "You gonna' play my guardian angel and take the last five days away? Stop him from being in that intersection when the driver swerved just a fraction and took everything away from me. Took my daughter's daddy from her."
"No, that is a path I can not change." The young girl's voice held sadness.
"Then what the hell are you doing here?" Peyton charged on her again. Her eyes were red, tears streaming down her face and she could feel the breath leaving her body and struggled to drag it back in. "What are you offering me?"
"A different path," the young girl continued cryptically.
"Will you just stop going round and round and just say it." Peyton brushed her hair from her face and clasped her hands behind her head.
"Alright," the young girl said. "Okay. But you may want to sit down." She moved her hand toward the bed.
Peyton complied easing herself on the bed and waiting for her to continue.
"I am your daughter, Peyton," the young woman began. "The daughter you could have had if you had said yes in that L.A. hotel room all those years ago. You and Lucas would have made love and you would have conceived me."
"What are you saying," Peyton couldn't hide her shock.
"I am that different path," the young girl said. "You and Lucas would decided later the next morning to be engaged for a year before marrying." The young girl looked wistful. "That is, until you found out you were pregnant. Then things changed for you, Peyton. Priorities changed. You decided Tree Hill was a place that held more then bad memories, it held your future."
"Gee, thanks for rubbing all this in," Peyton said in a sarcastic tone."So, what, I became the house wife of Tree Hill?"
"No," the young girl shook her head. "Do you really think Lucas would let you give up your dreams?" She smiled. "No, you still have parts of this life you know now. You have your record label but you also open a small art gallery where you showcase local artists, including your own."
"Why are you telling me this?" Peyton jumped up from the bed. "Why would you show me something I can never have?"
"Ah, but you can," the young girl offered. "All you have to do is follow me back to that hotel room six years ago and say yes when Lucas proposes."
"That's it," Peyton placed her hands on her hips. "I do that and I get it all back."
"Well, not everything." The young girl directed her gaze to the infant in the crib. "Go back and choose this path and you will have a baby, Peyton, well you will have me. But that child will never be born." The young girl pointed to the infant.
"What are you saying?" Peyton's eyes grew large.
"It is choice, Peyton," the young girl continued. "A crossroads. You can go back and have it all, you just can't have the child you call Sawyer. It won't be the right time for her to be born. She will cease to exist."
"And what, I go back and forget all this ever happened?"
"No, that will be your payment. You will remember it all."
