A/N: Thank you so much for your reviews, favorites and alerts! I hope you know how awesome you are. I've been so touched to receive so many and so awesome reviews. Like I mentioned before, this is an exploration of a what-if scenario that I've just been really intrigued by and so all your thoughts are especially appreciated! I got a lot of wonderful perspectives that have been a great help now that I've tried to come up with a plan for the story. Please do let me know what you think and how you see things, because I promise I'll at least weigh in everything and will happily shape the story accordingly if it fits my vision.

To all of you, who can't stand Lindsey, I'm sorry this chapter has her, but she's currently Lucas's wife. The rest of the chapter will have much less if any of her.. I hope you'll enjoy the chapter.

"Mr and Mrs. Scott, welcome back. It is wonderful to see so committed couples that they never forget about the appointment and are always on time," Emma Swinney was their latest family therapist. Yes, latest. They had been to five different ones before this, they had had different styles and schoolings, but two years of therapy with 5 different variations hadn't changed a thing in their marriage. So Emma Swinney was their sixth pick and this was their 5th week with her.

"Well, we've been fortunate enough to have the same time slot reserved for therapy for the past over two years, we've been going. It comes naturally now. I don't really have to check my watch to therapy, I can just count the time from the therapy." Lucas half-joked as they sat down.

"Two years is a long time to go to couples' therapy.. Why do you keep going?" she had seen many couples over the course of her 20 years in family therapy, but there was something very peculiar about this couple. She had tried her normal approaches for the last four weeks and it hadn't given her much to work with. They said their problem was lack of intimacy and affection. Both Lindsey and Lucas were still very open and co-operative and seemed to have much respect for each other. They weren't fighting and they looked relatively happy. If they weren't at her office and admitting they had problems, she would never have guessed there were some. From the looks of it all their friends were completely clueless, too.

"Life's quite far from a honeymoon, but it's still easy with us." Lucas answered surely.

Lindsey smiled and nodded. "Yeah, it's still the easiest."

"When you say you lack intimacy and affection, what does that exactly mean?" The Scotts were quiet, both deep in their thoughts. So she decided to ask everything she wanted to know in little pieces. "How's the sex?"

The two on the other side looked at each other and their therapist startled and chuckled nervously.

"What sex?" Lindsay shot back with a hint of sadness, but an equal amount of amusement, too.

"Yeah, it pretty much died down during our firsts years of marriage. When we started therapy they sometimes told us to 'just do it' and it could get our intimacy problems back, but it just felt forced and wrong. I don't really even miss it, though." Lucas looked more embarrassed by the topic.

Lindsay nodded. "Yeah, we talked about it after our third therapist and we came to the conclusion that if neither of us really misses that kind of intimacy, why make such a big deal out of not having it. Just because it's the norm in marriage, doesn't mean our marriage has to be that way."

Emma looked at the two of them eyes wide open. She had never in her 50 years of life met a couple that was so committed to easiness. "Okay, so if non-existent sex life is not the issue you want help for, what is the intimacy problem you came here for?"

"We lack connection. I love it that Lucas is so nice to me and treats me so well. And we talk alright, but I don't know how to explain it, there's just no connection."

This time Lucas nodded as if to signal it was his response, too.

"When was the last time there was a connection?"

Both Scotts were quiet again. Lucas couldn't help but think about Peyton. Just last weekend there had been a barbeque at Nathan and Haley's and there had been connection in the simplest things, even when it sometimes was to signal the need for keeping distance. He knew he didn't deserve Peyton after all these years, so he hadn't done anything about the connection since getting engaged to Lindsey. Knowing all the facts about the time before his marriage it wasn't hard to calculate he shouldn't have married Lindsey, but try to get Peyton back. But by the time he had admitted it to himself it was too late.

He didn't want to put Peyton back to the home-wrecker's position. In all honesty she had never been one, but he knew that going behind Brooke's back and the way it had hurt her had done a number on Peyton's self image. Even though she was back being best friends with Brooke and it was all forgiven, it wasn't forgotten and with the right hints at hand it was easy for Lucas to read a shade of shame about it on Peyton's face. Even now - over ten years later. So he buried his feelings for her and focused on the easy life with Lindsey. He had had his share of infidelity in the past and he owed it to everyone he loved to stay loyal and committed this time around.

Emma noticed she was not going to get an answer from the question so she decided to speak instead. "I have a feeling all the things you praised in your relationship is actually the problem in it. When was the last time you fought?" Both Scotts shook their heads. "Fighting is part of the relationship. Constructive arguments take care of the boundaries of your self. Don't be afraid of it. What if you stopped trying to be so loyal and committed?" She paused to let her speech sink in. "Lucas, tell me what you love?"

"Like what do I like to do or...?"

Emma smiled reassuringly "What's important to you? What do you enjoy?"

Lucas took a moment and a sparkling smile crept onto his face. It had not appeared in the previous sessions. "Family is important to me. I love seeing my niece, nephew and little sister grow and playing and spending time with them." he paused a little as if taking his time to enjoy the thought. "I enjoy literature, music and basketball."

"You coach the Ravens, right? I've read your books, are you currently writing?"

"Yeah, I am. I'm hoping to leave my fourth book to my editor" he pointed towards Lindsey "in a month or so. I'm really excited."

"What about music? Are you musically talented, too?" Lindsey smiled amused at the question and Lucas let out a chuckle.

"No, I'm not. It's just important in my life. I guess it's one of my coping mechanisms that I've had for a long time. My best friend is a great musician and my mother started night club that's known venue for a lot of great bands. She actually gave it to me almost ten years ago."

Emma nodded. "What about you Lindsey, what do you love?"

"Well literature, obviously. It's an amazing feeling when you get to read stories that are so moving it feels like you're part of it. And I'm not talking just about Lucas's work, although I was really happy that five years ago when his niece was born he decided to pursue writing again."

"I used to love my family, too. My father was really important to me, but he died and it was hard. It shattered our family in many ways, so I no longer have a family like Lucas's to love. I also enjoy nature. Walks by the Walden Pond are always magical and North Carolina is not that bad either.."

Emma nodded again and smiled. She looked at the clock to see their time was running up. "We gotta continue next week, but here's a thought for you for the week: Instead of focusing on easiness, loyalty and commitment, what if you focused on the things you love and try to find the lost connection in sharing those things. It struck me as really odd that you both talked about loving your families, but not once did you include your spouse in it. Legally Lucas's family is now yours, too, Lindsey. And it's a common thought that when two people get married they become each other's most immediate family."

Lucas and Lindsey walked back to the car in silence. What the therapist said was something no one had ever noticed before. Not even themselves. But it was scarily true. They hadn't even talked about THEIR family since they had gotten married. That did not sound right. In all honesty it sounded terrible. It was time something needed to change. They either had to find the concept of Their Family or end the illusion and go separate ways.

A/N: So now the story is set up and we'll start moving on. Next chapter picks up both two first chapters. I look forward to hearing your reviews, thoughts and ideas. I'll let you know when the next chapter will be posted in replies to the reviews I can reply to. I'm hoping to maybe even publish one tomorrow, but I'm working two jobs and studying, so we'll see.. But, please review! They make a difference in writing this story.