Lucas refused to come down for dinner, even though Deb had ordered pizza from a local restaurant. He refused to talk to anyone who knocked on his door that evening. Lucas never left his room the entire first night home. Instead, he sat on his bed and cried, threw things, and utterly destroyed his room.

The next morning, however, Dan knocked on Lucas's door. It was a school morning, but Dan wasn't knocking on the door to take Lucas to school. Deb and Dan had talked it over and decided to take Lucas to the local therapist to see if they could do anything for him.

"Go the hell away!" Lucas yelled when Dan pounded on his door for the second time. "I don't want help! I just want to be alone!"

"Get your scrawny ass out here or I'm beating down the damn door!" Dan yelled back, deciding to do whatever Lucas did to get his son nice and annoyed.

"Well too bad!" Lucas yelled back. "You're going to have to get me a new door, for there is no way in hell am I coming out there!"
Dan felt as if he had been punched in the stomach, he was so surprised. No one, not even adults, refused to admit Dan Scott. This kid had real guts standing up to him like that, and unfortunately for Dan in this case, it meant that Lucas won.

"He won't come out," Dan announced as he made his way into the kitchen for breakfast with Deb. Nathan had left early, mumbling something about morning basketball practice for the junior varsity team.

"Let me try," Deb said, having heard the exchange above, knew that Lucas would refuse to be bullied.

"Good luck," Dan said, obviously doubting that Deb could get Lucas out.

"I got him inside yesterday, didn't I?" Deb retorted. Dan shrugged and shoved a piece of bacon into his mouth.

Lucas's music was blaring as Deb came to the door.

"Lucas, honey, open up!" Deb called softly.

"Go away!" Lucas shouted, throwing something heavy at the door. The music stopped and Deb knew that Lucas had thrown his CD player at the door. She heard muffled sobs through the door and knew something had upset Lucas.

"Luke, let me in," Deb said, trying the door again. It was still locked, and there was no movement coming from inside either. Everything had gone deathly quiet except for the sobbing that was going on.

"I'm not going to a therapist!" Lucas yelled, when Deb asked him to open the door again. "I'm not going to a doctor and I'm not going anywhere!"

"Get the hell out here and listen to Deb next time she says something or you'll be in trouble," Dan yelled through the door. Deb had been so intent on getting Lucas to open the door that she hadn't heard her husband come up the stairs.

"What can you do to me?" Lucas shouted back. "I've already lost my mother and my best friend. I don't have a father to lose, and I would gladly love to lose my brother, so what more can you do to me?"

"Come out Lucas," Deb said firmly. Lucas, on the other side of the door, was surprised at the firmness in her voice. He instantly felt hurt that the one person in this household he trusted was siding with the man he loathed most.

Since the car crash a month ago, Lucas had stopped trusting people completely. He hid his mistrust behind anger and tears, but he still refused to trust anyone. Then he had come to the Scott house and Deb had gained his trust by being kind to him. It hadn't even been twenty-four hours yet and she had already lost that trust.

"NO!" Lucas screamed. "Just leave me the hell alone and get on with your lives! You don't want me anyway, or else Dan would never have abandoned me."

"Move, Deb," Dan whispered.

"Don't, Dan," Deb moaned as Dan kicked the door at it's hinges. The door instantly sprang open, revealing a completely trashed room and an extremely upset Lucas. His wallpaper was strewn around his room and clothes were flung carelessly around. Some of the furniture had been knocked over or completely destroyed. The picture of Karen was broken into pieces in Lucas's lap, which he know bent over, crying. Lucas didn't even seem to notice that Dan had broken the door, he didn't even seem to notice anything.

Deb's heart felt like it was breaking. She had never seen anyone that lost or that upset before in her life. She felt like crying herself as she gazed at the broken person who was Lucas Scott, the eldest Scott of the second generation.

"Come, Lucas," Deb murmured, stepping over broken glass and torn clothing towards the teenager. Lucas glanced up and Deb nearly fell in surprise. Lucas's beautiful blue eyes were dark with mistrust and all the light she had seen in them from a distance had gone out. He was obviously angry, hurting, and deeply depressed.

"I can't," Lucas said softly. "I won't, even if I could. I can't trust you or anyone else. They will only end up leaving me, like my mom did."

"It was an accident, Lucas," Deb said, speaking in what she hoped were soothing tones. "She never meant to leave you."

"Then I can't trust people because they will only end up taking away the one thing that matters most to me," Lucas said, looking back down at the destroyed picture of Karen. "Just leave me alone, before something bad happens to you too."

"We'll prevent anything like that from happening, Lucas," Deb said. "Just come with us to a doctors office."

"Okay," Lucas whispered, allowing Deb to help him up. Lucas was fighting back tears as he was forced to use his shattered ankle to make it across the room, where Dan stood, dumbstruck at the sight of the utterly destroyed room. Lucas was helped down the stairs by Deb and into the backseat of the car, where he curled up and wept again as Dan got in the driver's seat.

Lucas yelled suddenly as they pulled onto the interstate. He was frightened of driving over the speed of twenty-five miles an hour because of his car accident and he was deathly afraid of getting in another accident. Deb told him he would be fine, but Lucas wasn't listening anymore. His eyes were wide with horror and fear, and his lips were forming words that no one could hear.

"We're here," Dan said, ten minutes later. He pulled of the interstate and into a small parking lot of a doctor's office.

Deb helped Lucas out of the car and into the waiting room, where Dan signed him in. Dan seemed to be in an unusually civil mood and accompanied Lucas and Deb back to the examination room.

The doctor examined the kid, who was definitely depressed. He barely responded to his name, he cried through half the assessment and refused to say more than his name. When the doctor finished, he took Dan and Deb outside in the hallway so Lucas wouldn't hear what he would have to say.

"How bad is it, doctor?" Dan asked immediately when he saw the concerned look in the other man's eyes.

"I have never seen a case of depression this bad before, in my twenty-five years of experience," the doctor said honestly. "Did you say he destroyed his room and threw his best friend out?"

"Yes, sir," Deb said. "And he won't eat anything."

"I suspect he won't eat anything because he feels out of place in your home. Do your best to make him feel welcome and let him redo his room if he wants to," the doctor said. "I'm going to prescribe Zoloft to your son. Make sure he doesn't overdose on it, or otherwise he could die."

"How many pills a day?" Dan asked, feeling strangely sorry for his first-born son. He never cared this much about Nathan before, and he barely even looked at Lucas before the car accident. Usually it was Deb's place to do this.

"Two or three," the doctor said. "While these won't totally end his depression, they should help him keep his feelings from becoming to out-of-control."

"Thanks, doctor," Dan said. "Can we take Lucas now?"

"Yes," the doctor said, looking relieved to get the blonde haired kid out of his office. "Go to the pharmacy and call me if there is any change for the worse."

"We'll do that, doc," Dan promised, crossing his fingers in his sweatshirt pocket. It was a childish thing to do, but Dan had never broken the habit Keith had taught him to do while lying. Keith, Dan thought thoughtfully. Maybe Lucas would respond better to him than to anyone else.

Lucas glared moodily at the pharmacist as she handed him a bag of medication. He was unaware that someone was talking to him, but he was aware of someone pulling him along back towards the car.

The car ride home took about half an hour. Instead of freaking out on the interstate, Lucas didn't even register that it was there. The only thing he did register, however, was the little orange bottle of white pills that was in his hand at the moment.

They don't even want to try and help me, Lucas thought miserably. Why did they even bother to take me in?

"We're home," Lucas heard Deb say. He ignored her trying to help him and managed to limp up to the house by himself.

Nathan was sitting out the couch with a beautiful curly blonde haired girl with vivid green eyes. They were watching TV together. The girl looked up at Lucas when she heard him come in and shot a surprised look at Nathan.

"Peyton, this is my half-brother, Lucas," Nathan said bracingly. Lucas glared at him for a moment and then continued on his way limping up the stairs.

As he crashed down onto the bed, Lucas could not get the girl named Peyton out of his head.

Peyton glared at Nathan who stared back, surprised at the intensity of her glare.

"How could you be so rude, Nathan?" Peyton demanded. "He's hurting right now and you just had to rub it in that your moms are different."

"I wasn't trying to rub it in!" Nathan protested. "Honestly, I was just introducing the two of you."

"I already knew that he was your half-brother, Nathan," Peyton said coldly. "You didn't have to tell me that."

"Why are you sticking up for him?" Nathan demanded. "It's not like you two have anything in common! You don't even know each other!"

At that comment, Peyton glared at him and walked up the stairs to the closed door of Lucas's room. She knocked and got the reply she expected.

"Go the hell away!" Lucas shouted. "I don't want to talk to anyone."

"Can I come in?" Peyton asked, twisting the doorknob as she spoke. It was locked, which was to be expected. When Peyton lost her mom, she refused to talk to anyone and always had her door shut and locked. It took her a long time to start trusting people again, and even longer to stop her heart from breaking every time she thought of her mother.

"Who is it?" Lucas asked cautiously. His voice sounded closer than before, so Peyton figured he was right inside the door.

"Peyton," she said, just as the door swung open.

The room was a disaster area. Instead of cleaning it up, Lucas had destroyed it even more, completely breaking his window and bookcase. It was awful, but not nearly as awful as Lucas was.

His once bright, lively blue eyes were dim and dead, as if he had died instead of his mom. His hair was uncombed and his clothes were rumpled and had dark blotches on them. Peyton was horrified at the sight of him, but hid her emotions well.

"Hey," Lucas said softly, limping back to his bed, the only clean spot in the entire room.

"Hi," Peyton said, just as softly. She picked her way around broken glass and destroyed furniture to sit next to Lucas on his bed.

"Why are you in here?" Lucas asked. His voice sounded vaguely curious and somewhat hostile.

"I'm here because I understand what you're going through," Peyton said carefully, not wanting to upset him.

"No you don't," Lucas scoffed, glaring at her. "No one does. No one even wants to, either. Not the doctors, not Deb, and definitely not Dan."

"I lost my mother too, you know," Peyton whispered.

Lucas didn't seem to hear her, he was too busy ranting about how everyone hated him and didn't even want him.

"Lucas?" a soft voice said from the door. Peyton looked up and saw Haley James, Lucas's best friend, in the doorway. They had been introduced when Peyton came over for dinner last night.

Lucas had stopped ranting, but now he was glaring broodingly out the window. He didn't seem to register that anyone was there, or where he was.

"Haley's here," Peyton told him, reaching out to touch Lucas on the shoulder.

"Go," Lucas said curtly. He didn't even look at them.

"No, I'm not leaving this time," Haley said firmly, coming into the room to sit by Peyton and Lucas.

"Just leave me alone, Hales," Lucas said, his tone getting colder with every word. He nearly spat Haley's nickname.

"Lucas, please," Haley pleaded. "I'm only trying to help you! Please!"

"I don't need anyone's help," Lucas muttered, still glaring out the window. Peyton didn't miss the tear that rolled down his face, but Haley didn't see it. Haley reached out with one hand to grab Lucas's but he pulled back extremely fast, nearly yelping in pain as he did so.

The next thing Lucas did happened quickly. One second he was sitting on the bed, the next he was leaving the room via the balcony that was connected to his room.

"What are you doing, Lucas?" Peyton yelled, exchanging a horrified look with Haley.

"Joining my mom," Lucas said. Peyton could barely hear him, but the moment she understood what he was about to do, she leapt off the bed and darted over to the balcony.

It was too late. Lucas closed his eyes and jumped.

"LUCAS!" Haley screamed. Someone pushed Peyton to the side roughly and managed to grab a hold of Lucas before he fell completely.

"Move," the person grunted. It was Nathan. Peyton's mouth dropped open in surprise at seeing her best friend rescuing the one person in his life he hated more than Dan. "Move, Peyton." Nathan pushed Peyton out of the doorway and dragged Lucas into the room.

"Thank you, Nathan!" Haley exclaimed, taking hold of the blonde teenager. Tears were streaming steadily down his face but the glare he shot Nathan surprised Haley.

"Why didn't you let me?" Lucas yelled, taking a swing at Nathan with his good arm. "Why didn't you just let me jump? You wanted it anyway! The other day you told me to go die anyway. Why the sudden change of heart?"

Flashback:

Lucas was sitting in the hospital, gritting his teeth at the pain of moving his shoulder. A knock at the door announced his half-brother, Nathan, was there.

"Why are you even bothering?" Nathan asked as he saw Lucas trying to move his shoulder. "It's not like anyone cares."
"I'm doing it for my mom," Lucas said, glaring at his brother. "She would have wanted it."
"No one wants you," Nathan sneered. "So why don't you just go die like her anyways?"

End of Flashback.

Peyton stared dumbfounded at her best friend. How could Nathan be so stupid and say something so cruel?

"Nathan, is that true?" Peyton asked softly. The look of guilt that flashed across Nathan's face made Peyton want to punch him to.

"Get out, all of you!" Lucas screamed, raising his hand to take another swing at Nathan. Before he managed to take a swipe, he yelled out in pain and collapsed on the floor, clutching his chest.

DUN DUN DUN!

Read and review, and tell me if this was good or horrible.