A/N: OK, I get that the LH is a little bit weird (trust me, it's totally bizarre to write it, too). Just keep in mind that it's AU, and that if Lucas had never joined the team, there's the possibility that he and Haley could have fallen into a relationship at some point.
I will also say that this story doesn't have much LH or NP interaction, just bits and pieces here and there. It'll mostly focus on LP and NH relationships.
----
Peyton had mentioned in passing that she'd seen Lucas at the cemetery when she was there one time, and Nathan had just nodded as though it was a simple piece of information that he wasn't entirely interested in. She left out that she'd had a conversation with Lucas, figuring that Nathan just wouldn't care to hear anything more about the guy.
But hearing Lucas' name had affected Nathan, he just didn't show it. Since that day with Haley and those words she'd spoken, questioning whether or not he was alright with knowing nothing about a member of his family, he was asking himself the same question over and over again.
So they spent two weeks decorating their beachside home, and driving back and forth between Tree Hill and Charlotte, decorating the home they'd bought there, too.
--
Lucas never told Haley about his brief encounter with Peyton, not that there was really anything to tell. Haley never told him that she'd spoken with Nathan, either, and she would have felt guilty about that, but there was really nothing to tell, and she hadn't seen - and had no intentions of seeing - the younger Scott again.
Their weeks had been busy, a flurry of activity as he tried to get ready to scout players and build a winning team, and she started preparing for her first year of solo teaching. Neither really had a lot of time to think about the two people they'd shared brief moments with weeks before.
----
Lucas and Haley were walking down the street on a Saturday morning, holding hands after having breakfast together at his mom's café. It was something they'd done nearly every Saturday they spent in the town since they'd gotten together. They would eat and chat with his mother, and then they'd stroll through their town, stopping at their favourite book store and the record store.
Peyton noticed the couple on the other side of the street as she and Nathan walked toward the coffee shop they frequented. She locked eyes with the blonde when neither of their significant others were looking, and she offered a smile as he sent her a nod.
"Dammit," Haley muttered, stopping in her tracks.
"What's wrong?" Lucas asked, breaking his gaze with the girl across the street.
"I left my phone at Karen's. I'll be right back, OK?" she said with a smile, leaning up to peck him on the lips. "I'll meet you at the bookstore."
Peyton watched the petite brunette take off, hurrying back in the direction the couple had just walked from.
"Shit," Nathan said, pulling his hand from Peyton's to rummage through his pockets, and pulling her from her thoughts.
"What?" Peyton asked, looking back to him.
"I left my wallet in the car," he told her, leaning down to kiss her cheek. "Go ahead, I'll meet you in there."
Lucas crossed the street to get to the book store he and Haley were going to, and he noticed Nathan walking away.
"Fancy meeting you here," Peyton said with a smile.
"In a town like this? I'm surprised we haven't seen each other every day," he laughed.
"So that's Haley, huh?" she asked, gesturing in the direction she'd seen the petite brunette head.
"That's her," Lucas said, smiling.
"She's different. I mean, we're all different than we were at 17, but...," she said, stumbling over her words. "She's beautiful."
"Yeah, she is," Lucas agreed.
He saw Haley running across the street towards him, and laughed at the way her now-shorter hair moved as she did - she'd never been the most graceful runner. He'd always been a fan of longer locks, but this style was still nice. He loved it when she'd had long wavy hair, though. It wasn't lost on him that the blonde woman before him had those loose curls like Haley'd had once upon a time.
"Your mom was just about to call you and tell you I left it," she said with a laugh before really noticing Peyton. "Hi!"
"Hey," Peyton greeted with a smile.
"Peyton, this is my girlfriend, Haley. Haley, you remember Peyton," Lucas said, by way of introduction.
"Yeah, of course!" Haley said happily, extending her hand. "Wow. That is quite a ring."
"Oh," Peyton said, glancing down at her left hand. "Yeah."
Lucas hadn't really looked at it the first time they'd bumped into each other. Of course, he'd known she was engaged, but seeing that perfect diamond on her finger made it more real somehow.
"We should probably go before he comes back, right?" Haley said softly, looking up at Lucas with a compassionate glance.
"Yeah, we should," he insisted, looking from Haley to Peyton. "We'll see you."
"See you," Peyton said with a weak wave, watching as the happy couple started off down the street and away from her.
For some reason, seeing Lucas with his girlfriend made Peyton completely uncomfortable. She wanted to ignore it, to quell that feeling or chalk it up to being the third wheel for a moment. But she watched him slip his arm around Haley's shoulder and lean down to kiss her temple, and she had to look away.
"Was that Haley?" Nathan asked curiously as he walked up behind Peyton again.
"Yeah. And Lucas," Peyton said softly. She briefly wondered how he knew Haley, but decided against questioning him about it.
"Oh," Nathan said, remorse evident in his voice. He wasn't sure if he was upset to have missed Haley, or to have missed Lucas. Maybe both.
"Come on. Let's get me some caffeine," she said, slipping her hand into his again.
"Yeah, I don't want to deal with mean Peyton all day," he teased, making her swat his arm as he laughed.
----
A week later, Lucas was in the school's empty gym well after school hours, when he heard a woman's heels clacking against the hardwood. He'd assumed it was Haley, since she'd made a habit of stopping in and watching the occasional practice, or meeting him afterward so they could go home together. Sometimes, when he'd go there late in the evening to clear his head like he was doing now, she'd come through the doors after about an hour and they'd talk about whatever was bothering him, just the two of them and their voices echoing off the hardwood.
He was shocked to see Peyton walking towards him.
"Hi," she said weakly.
He could tell immediately that something was wrong. Her eyes were puffy and her cheeks were red, and he knew women well enough to know that those were the tell tale signs that she'd been crying.
He didn't know why she'd come to him, or how she even knew where to find him. He kind of liked that she had, though. She was a nice girl, and he figured she could maybe give him insight into the family he'd never had. He didn't so much care about Dan - he'd given that up a long time ago - but he wanted to know about Nathan. And he really, really hated himself for that.
"What's wrong?" he asked worriedly, taking a few steps closer to her.
"Nothing," she said, shaking her head and avoiding eye contact.
"Peyton," he admonished.
She looked at him, and he could tell that no matter how stubborn and stoic she wanted to appear, she really did want to tell him what was making her so upset. She wouldn't have been there if she didn't. But when she was driving past and saw his car there, she knew he'd somehow help her. He was somehow objective, though he had every reason not to be.
"We had a fight," she admitted as she sat on the bleachers.
"Oh," he said softly, sitting down next to her.
"I said I didn't want to be in Charlotte full time, and that I wanted to be here," she admitted, letting a sob escape. "He got mad, even though he'll be away so much. He said he couldn't deal with that right now, and he left."
She really had no reason for telling him anything, let alone something so huge and personal, but she trusted him, no matter how strange the circumstances, or how short a time they'd known each other. If you could even say they knew each other. But he was kind to her, and there was something about him that she still couldn't put her finger on.
"What do you mean, he left?" Lucas asked with a furrowed brow.
"He just took his car keys and walked out," she said. "I was just trying to be honest."
"It's OK," he assured her, rubbing her back comfortingly.
"I just said that I'll be here when he's on the road, and I'll still be in Charlotte when he is. I really don't see the big deal," she said, letting more tears slip down her cheeks.
"He'll come around," Lucas insisted. "He's probably just stressed because this is his first pro season, and he doesn't know what to expect."
"Maybe," she whispered. "Maybe you're right. Oh God! I'm sorry. I don't know why I'm bothering you with this!"
"You're not bothering me," he said with a crooked smile. "I don't mind."
"Thank you," she said sincerely after a moment, letting her eyes stay on his for longer than either of them really needed.
"Does he do that a lot? Just walk out?" Lucas asked quietly.
"Not as much as he used to," she admitted with a laugh as she wiped her cheeks. "He's really changed a lot, for the better, over the years. But sometimes he can still be that same arrogant jock that you probably remember."
"Yeah, well I think he has his father to thank for that," Lucas mumbled.
"He definitely does," she confirmed. "But Dan backed off a lot after Nathan's first year at Duke."
"Why?"
"Because Nathan told him to," she said with a raised eyebrow, watching as his expression changed to one of surprise. "Dan always had this whole inadequacy thing. I mean, no one else would really say that, but it's so obvious. First it was basketball, then the dealership, then he ran for mayor. It was just like he was always out to prove he was better than everyone as opposed to just living his life. And he'd push Nathan so hard because he saw his son as a reflection on himself."
She paused for a moment when she realized what she'd said, and saw him look down to the floor, then she reached out and placed her hand on his forearm.
"I'm sorry. Lucas, I wasn't thinking," she said hurriedly.
"It's OK, Peyton," he said with a smile. "Who would have thought the abandoned child would be better off than the one who was born with the silver spoon?"
She laughed weakly and removed her hand from his arm, and she could tell that hearing about Dan affected him a little bit more than he'd want to let on.
"Well, Nathan finally pushed back, and that was that. He told Dan in no uncertain terms that it wasn't about him any more, that it never was. Dan still tries to pull the possessive crap sometimes, pressuring Nathan and whatever," she explained. "But Nathan has busted his ass to get where he is, and he hasn't taken any shortcuts."
"I know that," Lucas said, nodding. "I kind of followed his career. He is my brother."
He said the last part almost in a whisper, and she just sighed, because she really wished the two of them had a proper relationship.
"You ever think you could have joined the team?" she asked after a moment of looking around the gym.
"Whitey asked me to," he admitted for the first time. No one other than Haley knew that, and he wasn't sure why he was telling Peyton, but it felt right. "Junior year, he asked me if I wanted to play Varsity."
"Why didn't you?" she asked in shock, shaking her head.
"This was Dan's gym, then it was Nathan's gym. I was just a kid from the River Court," he said with a shrug.
"It's your gym now," she said with a smile, watching as the smirk spread on his lips and he nodded.
"You're gonna be fine, Peyton," he insisted, changing the subject again. "Maybe you just need to meet him in the middle on this one."
"Maybe," she said absently, lost in the light blue of those eyes that she thought just might know her a little too well.
----
"What are you doing here?" Nathan asked, noticing the girl sitting on the bleachers at the old court by the river.
"Please, I've practically lived here since I was 8," she said with a smile before noticing the look on his face and changing her tone. "You OK?"
"You care?" he asked curtly. He watched as she raised her brow and looked at him pointedly. "I'm sorry. I just had a stupid fight with Peyton."
"You want to talk about it?" she asked tentatively.
She wasn't sure what it was about Nathan. Maybe it was that he was so similar to Lucas in a few ways, but so different from him in others, but she found herself intrigued by him. Those deep blue eyes seemed to have so much to say, but it was as though he never wanted anyone to know that.
"She just told me that she doesn't want to live in Charlotte with me," he said, sitting on the bleachers next to her and staring at his hands. "I mean, she said she'll be there when I'm there, but she wants to stay here when I'm on the road."
"Oh," Haley said softly.
"Am I overreacting?" he asked, looking over at her. "I mean, is it so bad that I want to make a home with her?"
"No," she said reassuringly, shaking her head. "That's not a bad thing at all."
"I just...I've talked to so many guys who play pro, and they say that the worst part about it is not really having a sense of home, you know? Like they're living in cities they didn't grow up in, in these condos or huge, empty houses or whatever...I just feel like having her there would make it home."
"That makes total sense, Nathan," Haley said softly, smiling at him a little as she spoke.
He didn't know why he felt so comfortable around her, able to tell her things that he hadn't been able to verbalize even to his own fiancé. She was caring and sweet and, for a reason he really couldn't understand, she treated him well, despite her probable better judgement. And the tone of voice she used with him, soft and sweet but still womanly and convincing, made him hang onto her every word.
"You know, sometimes I feel totally trapped in this town," Haley admitted, looking back out over the court. "Like I was meant to do something more."
"But you stay because of Lucas?" he asked.
"I stay because sometimes building a life for yourself is more important than making a name for yourself," she explained with a shrug of her shoulders.
He'd always thought those two things were the same, and he wondered if that was just because of the profession he'd chosen. Then he remembered her brief tour when they were in high school, and realized that maybe she was the perfect person to talk to about things.
"Music, right?" he asked after a moment.
"Yeah," she nodded. "You know, when I was on tour, I was so young, and so...just...scared about everything. You know? Like, how was I ever going to make it? What if I made an album that no one wanted to listen to, and then I had no schooling or anything to fall back on? So I quit."
"Do you regret it?" he asked, shifting his body so he could look at her.
"No," she insisted adamantly. "I regret giving it up completely. Maybe I could have gone back out there after high school or something. But it was the best choice at the time. Sometimes all you can do is make the best choice at any given moment."
"So what choice should I make?" he asked. "What choice is there even to make? Peyton, or basketball?"
"No," Haley said, shaking her head. "Maybe you just need to compromise. I mean, you're pretty lucky that you're playing this close to home. Maybe you need to realize what she's giving up to even be here. How many women do you know who would follow their star ball player boyfriend around and stick by him through all the crap you've put that girl through."
"I have put her through a lot of crap," he said with a laugh. "Those days are over, though. Mostly."
"Mostly?" she laughed, making him flash her a genuine smile. "I can't tell you what to do, but you should know that you've got a pretty strong woman by your side."
"Part time," he muttered bitterly, making her let out a chuckle. "What would you do? If you were her, I mean."
"Nathan, it doesn't matter what I think," she said. "I'm not Peyton."
For some reason, it absolutely did matter to him what she thought. Two brief conversations and she was already his number one confidante, aside from his fiancé.
"No, I know you're not. I'm just curious," he said with a shrug. "I just want your opinion."
"If I were her?" she asked, watching as he nodded. "Isn't it pretty obvious that I'd stay wherever my guy was?"
He let out a laugh, and then a sigh, and then they both looked out over the blacktop for a few moments, just sitting in silence.
"Thanks, Haley," he said after a while, turning to look at her. She gave him one of those perfect smiles, and nodded her head, and then they went back to the silence.
And somewhere amid those quiet moments shared at a sacred place for her, Haley realized that Nathan Scott was definitely not the man she thought he was.