A/N: The response I had from you guys for this one totally blew me away! Thank you all so much. So many of the reviews have been so helpful and encouraging and set my mind a-buzzing, so I shall be continuing.

This chapter is mostly filler really. I'm using season seven storylines but I'm not planning on sticking to it very rigidly which means I can make my own scenes up: like this one! I just wanted a nice together scene before the more emotional stuff comes and it was important in establishing a couple of new relationships.

Lucas and Peyton were the last to arrive at the other Scott residence. Nathan and Haley had decided not to tell Jamie that his aunt and uncle had returned, thinking it best to surprise him. The doorbell rang and Nathan and Haley both went to answer it, both eager to see Lucas. They opened the door and thankfully Peyton had anticipated Haley's reaction and thought to take Sawyer herself as Haley launched herself at Lucas, throwing her arms around his neck. Peyton rolled her eyes and Nathan snickered. When Lucas had muffled a plea to be released he laughed as he stood to face his brother. He held his hand out to Nathan, who despite joining Peyton in laughing at Haley, pulled his brother into the manliest hug he could muster. Peyton burst out laughing as she carried Sawyer through into the hall.

"Haley, this place is beautiful. Don't suppose the old one is for sale is it?" she joked.

"You're moving out of Karen's?" Haley was shocked.

Lucas joined his wife's side and gently tapped Sawyer's nose, causing her to giggle. "We'd love to stay there but with baby number two coming, we're just not going to have enough room. Anyway, we can talk about this stuff any time, lets just enjoy being back together. Where is everyone?" Lucas looked around.

"Out back, man. Come on," Nathan gestured in the direction of the garden. As he did so, Sawyer padded at his face and held her arms out to him. "Nay!" she chirruped. Nathan beamed as he took Sawyer out of Peyton's arms.

"Aw," Peyton breathed. "She called you Nay! That's so cute!" Peyton, Lucas and Haley all laughed as Nathan became completely lost in Sawyer and carried her towards the garden. Lucas slung his am around Peyton's shoulder, pulled her into him slightly and kissed the side of her head. As they stepped out on to the patio they were greeted with a very surprised seven year old.

"Uncle Lucas!" Jamie bellowed as he became aware of the new visitors. He hammered across the grass and Lucas bent down to meet him. He launched himself into Lucas's lap causing his uncle to chuckle.

"Hey, J. Luke. I missed you, buddy!" Lucas closed his eyes relishing being close to his nephew again.

"I missed you so much Uncle Lucas. I've been waiting for you to come back for so long," he pouted towards the end of the sentence as his happiness subsided into remembering how sad he was without Lucas around.

"I know, kiddo. I'm sorry we took so long," Lucas patted Jamie's back, and kicked himself inside for forgetting how much Jamie would want him around. Jamie stepped back and walked towards Peyton.

"Hey Baby James! How's it going?" she bent down to meet his eye.

"I missed you too, you know?" he said solemnly. "So did Daddy."

"I know. I'm sorry we were gone so long. We missed you too and so did your cousin," Peyton pointed towards Nathan who was playing with Sawyer, lifting her over his head as she screamed and giggled with delight. Jamie's face lit up and he ran towards them. They turned back intending to take a moment to let the feeling of being back with their friends wash over them, but Lucas was nearly tackled to the ground by Brooke and Julian lifted Peyton off her feet.

"Broody!" Brooke rasped. "God, it's good to see you. You looking after our girl?"

"Brooke Davis. It is sure good to see you. Of course I am."

"I know," she whispered.

"What about you, you being looked after?" Lucas enquired sincerely. Brooke merely nodded and smiled softly.

"Julian, put me down! I'm pregnant you crazy ass!"

Julian put Peyton down quickly and looked over at Brooke in shock. "What?" Peyton laughed realising just how much Brooke relished being the only one to know something, she hadn't even told Julian.

"I told Brooke not to tell anyone. At first we waiting to find out if everything was going to go okay and then we decided to come home and wanted to tell everyone ourselves. Don't be mad at her," she laughed.

"But you are going to be okay?" Julian was concerned.

"Yes. What happened with Sawyer is not going to happen again. It was a possibility but the doctors are like 99 percent sure that I will be okay. I haven't had any of the pain I had before or anything, so everyone," she raised her voice a little, "please stop worrying!" caused laughter to roll around the garden. She looked down as she felt some tugging at her dress.

"Mama, up!" Sawyer pleaded as she gave Jamie another sideways look causing Peyton to chuckle and she took her into her arms.

Jamie walked up behind her, pouting. "She doesn't like me Aunt Peyton."

"Aw, buddy, she's just nervous. She's only little so sometimes new people can freak her out a bit," Peyton ruffled his hair as Sawyer peered down at Jamie from the safety of her mother's arms. "Just let her figure out where she is and who all these people are and she'll love you, I promise," she smiled. Jamie put his hands in his pockets and went to seek out Lucas again.

Nathan grabbed Clay's arm and pulled him away from Quinn. He guided them towards Lucas.

"Clay, there's someone I'd like you to meet. This is my brother, Lucas. Lucas, this is Clay."

Lucas and Clay shook hands and exchanged 'it's good to meet yous'. They were soon talking like they had known each other a lifetime.

An hour or so later the groups had changed again. Lucas and Quinn were catching up and competing with embarrassing stories of each other. Haley occasionally chimed in and Brooke would erupt into laughter when she remembered something similar happening to Nathan. Peyton stood away from them slightly, surveying her friends. She stood to the side, a little way off on the decking and rested her elbows against the surrounding fence. She felt a presence next to her and smiled as she looked up to Clay. He returned her smile and they both looked back at their old, and new, friends.

"You did good with him, you know?" Peyton spoke softly.

"Who? Nathan?"

"Yeah."

"I wouldn't say that, I feel like this mess if my fault."

"Only natural. We all feel that the things we can't control are our fault. But it's not. You know, when we decided to leave, it was one of the hardest decisions I ever made. I would have followed Lucas without question but leaving Brooke and Nathan behind was especially hard. I'm glad he had you. So is Lucas."

"Luke's a great guy. He brings out the best in Nathan."

Peyton smiled, "so do you."

"So do you," Clay winked and Peyton laughed.

Lucas turned out the sound of his wife's infectious laughter and smiled to see her head thrown back. Nathan had said he knew that Peyton and Clay would get along and Lucas now agreed with him. He liked Clay. He knew that he had done his best by Nathan and had helped fill the hole left in Nathan's life when he and Peyton left. He smiled to himself when he realised that there was not one pang of jealousy or insecurity in him. Peyton and Clay made their way back over to join the rest of their friends. She winked at Lucas as she walked to wards him and he held out his hand for her take as she sat down in the chair next to him. Sawyer had fallen asleep in Nathan's lap, as comfortably as a year and a half old baby could.

"You okay with her Nate?" Lucas asked.

"Sure thing, big brother. Any time spent with my niece is time well spent. We're good," Nathan smiled.

Julian's cell rang on the table and Brooke saw it long enough to see 'Alex' flash up on the screen. She sighed as Julian grabbed it and rushed to answer it, excusing himself from the table and wandering down the garden. Brooke forced a smile as she realised everyone had sensed something was wrong. Peyton leaved over and squeezed her hand.

"You okay, B. Davis?" she said gently.

Brooke nodded. "Yeah, Alex has written a script with the handful of brain cells she actually has and Julian's interested in making it into a movie."

Peyton merely nodded in reply. She sensed that Brooke's issue ran deeper than that but given the circumstances she decided not to press her. Julian returned to the table and put his around the back of Brooke's chair and she shuffled closer to him.

"Lucas, you interested in helping out another writer with a script?" Julian asked with a slight grin.

"I'm not sure, what is it?"

"It's by Alex Dupre and it's good. But it needs work. There's only one other first script that wowed me and that was yours, I was thinking you could help her out?"

Lucas glanced over at Peyton. He was already aware that there was something more going on with Brooke. Peyton sent him a look that helped him make up his mind.

"Not right now, Julian. I'm pretty tied up with Sawyer while Peyton gets the label back under control and I'm trying to concentrate on my own writing."

Peyton smiled at him, sending him a thank you that nobody else would identify. Brooke, however, was crushed. She desperately wished that Julian could understand her the way that Lucas understood Peyton. Peyton and her feelings were always Lucas' top priority and Brooke felt like she could physically see Lucas' thought process as he made the decision not to do anything that would or could jeopardise his and Peyton's marriage.

Lucas carried Sawyer into their home as she rested against his chest still fast asleep. She'd woken up briefly at Nathan and Haley's and they'd changed her into her pajamas so that they could put her straight to bed without waking her up when they got home.

Lucas and Peyton both stood over her crib, their arms around each other. This was one of many nights they had done this but it never ceased to amaze either of them that they were here together, with their daughter. There had been so many times in both their lives when they felt that they would never find each other again. That and Sawyer's birth were two things they never let themselves take for granted. They rarely said anything, just looked at each other and smiled before turning off the light and leaving Sawyer to her slumber.

A few minutes later, Lucas stood behind Peyton with a glass of water in his hand. She looked up smiling and rested up on one elbow to take the glass from him. He walked round and sat down on the other end of the sofa and placed his own glass down on the coffee table. Peyton turned her body and shuffled down to rest her head on Lucas' lap.

"Do you think Sawyer's going to like living here?" she mused.

"I think she will. We liked living here, right?" he winked down at her and she smiled. "Besides, she's already adores Nate and Brooke and here she gets me, Nate and Skills all fighting over spoiling her. I think she's going to love it. But more importantly, you're going to love it and so am I", he said, absently entwining his fingers in her hair and running his hands through it. Peyton closed her eyes and smiled happily at the intimacy. She was ecstatic to be home. She had missed her friends and while their time with Karen and Andy had been amazing, Peyton had wanted nothing more than to return to making a home with her husband. She felt guilty for being so happy when Brooke seemed anxious and insecure and when Nathan and Haley were facing yet another Tree Hill scandal. At least with those two she knew what the problem was and that Nathan was completely innocent. But she feared that Brooke's problems were old ones resurfacing; ones that she had pretended to overcome.

"What's going on in that head of yours, Blondie?"

"Just thinking about Brooke. I think she's worried about Julian," she said sadly.

"Yeah, I kinda got the feeling something was up. You think it's that Alex person?"

"I don't know. It wasn't the time or the place to talk about it, so I'll try and catch her soon and see how she's doing. Seriously, I don't care that I'm pregnant, if Julian hurts her, I will be keeping that face-breaking promise," she scowled causing Lucas to laugh.

"Hell hath no fury like a Peyton Scott scorned," he teased. She playfully swatted at his chest before holding his collar and pulling his lips down to meets hers.

There ya go! It's not my best chapter but I wanted to put something like this in. For one I don't want to just push L/P into the other storylines, I want them to have some time too. Oh and there was no way I wasn't going to have Peyton and Clay get on. They would have been an awesome friendship to watch develop. Thanks to all your reviews I've got, what I'm hoping, will be some really good ideas. From the next chapter onwards we pick back up with what else has been going on in season seven!