A/N: Sorry. I forgot to add that in this story Jimmy was the one who killed Keith. Thanks for all the reviews and I hope you like the new chapter.

Chapter Two: Shock Waves

He stood outside the closed door debating as to whether or not he should go in. Although his heart urged him to continue moving forward, his mind was plagued with doubts and questions that forced him to remain still. Staring at the wooden barrier he sighed heavily with his hand still wrapped around the brass knob wondering what his next move was going to be.

Should he go in now or wait for the boy come out on his own?

And once the boy did make an appearance should he hold him like he had the night before or should he just stay quite and try to keep out of sight until he was ready to talk?

There were no right or wrong responses given the circumstances but he still found himself torn between the various answers to his questions. Everything could turn out badly if he acted too hastily or forcefully so he would have to go over every option with a fine tooth comb before taking his next step. This was a tough situation that he now found himself in and he knew that there were no quick fixes or easy solutions to what both he and Lucas were facing but he had to be strong and stead fast. The boy needed him now more then ever and he was going to have to put past issues and betrayals aside in order to keep his son sane…to keep himself sane.

Lucas wasn't the only one who had suffered two heartbreaking losses this past week. Dan had lost his brother and the woman he loved and it was tarring him apart.

Sure in the past he had done terrible things to both Keith and Karen but that didn't mean he didn't love them. He did, more then anyone would know and now they were both gone leaving him destroyed and Lucas alone and broken.

Their deaths had left a whole in his heart, a heart most people would claim he didn't have but none the less it was still hurting, still aching for two people that he had loved, betrayed, tortured and emotionally damaged and what pained him the most was the fact that he was never going to get the chance to say that he was sorry. That he would never again be able to say I love you to either of them ever again.

This killed him.

But what hurt him the most was the look in Lucas's eyes the night before. The strong, resilient boy he had matched intellect with not too long ago was gone. His son, the smart one, the tough one was nowhere to be found. Instead there was only an empty shell, hollow, void of any emotions or signs of life. Last night he just looked drained and numb from all the pain and sorrow that had been unfairly dealt upon him. His eyes were always a bright mixture or hazel and green, just like his own but in the darkness of the night they were almost black. It was as if his soul had vanished when he realized that she wasn't coming back. That she would never smile in his direction, never hold him again, that he would never hear his mother's voice again and he knew that look all to well because when he found out he had worn it too. But now it was time to pull himself together because Lucas needed him. He was the only family, besides Nathan that the boy had left and it was going to be up to him to put the shattered pieces of his son's soul back together and with this realization came a whole new wave of doubts and fears.

Lucas hated him.

The kid knew it, he knew, Nathan knew it, hell the whole town knew it and was the one thing out this whole situation that he wished he could change but he couldn't. But the words the boy had spoken to him last night still managed to hurt like hell and it also told him that there was a lot of hostility and resentment there.

"Besides we both know how much people just love to leave me, right Dad"

These same words had cut him deeper then any knife ever could but they couldn't be further from the truth. He didn't want to leave his child. He loved his son and wanted him in his life more then anything but his stupid, foolish pride had gotten in the way forcing him to lash out at him and punishing him for losing custody to the boy's mother.

It wasn't Lucas's fault that Karen had chosen to lawyer up and keep him away. It wasn't Lucas's fault that he had gotten Deb pregnant and it certainly wasn't his son's fault that his lawyer didn't even try to pled his case in court but instead told him that his wreck less actions with the blond was the reason why he would never have his son, his first born and the boy that he loved more then anything in the world. That Lucas, his little boy, would never know him.

He silently cursed himself now for not fighting for what he wanted. For not doing whatever he had to do to be a part of his son's life, but what's done is done and now they both had to move forward with their lives, or better yet what was left of it, and if that meant that he had to take the first step and deal with whatever abuse and heated words the younger Scott through his way then so be it. He wasn't going to walk away this time. Not now or ever again.

And he couldn't even if he wanted to.

Taking a deep breathe he turned the door knob and entered. When he stepped into the room the first place his eyes rested upon was the empty, unmade bed the boy had fallen asleep in the night before. He suddenly felt his heart rate increasing as he continued to study the room, hoping that is son hadn't left in the middle of the night or had done anything to harm himself, another issue he had to be on the look out for but he sighed a second later, relieved to see Lucas standing out on the balcony and staring into the ocean.

He slowly made his way over to the boy as not to startle him before standing at his side.

Either Lucas didn't know that he was no longer alone or he didn't care to acknowledge his presences because he didn't react in the slightest bit. He didn't shy away, he didn't look at him, he didn't do anything. He just stood there, numb and wearing the exact same expression as he did the night before.

Sensing that the boy wasn't in the talking mood Dan simply stood there with him as his mind flashed back to images of himself and Karen walking along the very same beach so many years ago. He smiled a little, remembering how she tried to keep her hair neat against the heavy winds while yelling at him for bringing her there. Well that was until he put her over his shoulder and carried her into the water. He shook his head at the memory. She was so pissed at him but they made up a few seconds later. She could never stay mad at him for very long, well back then anyway. Of course that was before things got messy.

"I wish I could be so cheerful this morning" the boy said breaking into his father's thoughts.

Dan was caught off guard not only by his son's words but by the nasty tone that carried them. But instead of flying off the handle and trying to dominate the situation like he would on any other day he just answered honestly.

"Just remembering that's all"

"Really" replied Lucas with his eyes still fixated on the water. "How she looked when you left her standing alone and pregnant in the gym or how her lifeless body looked when they took her away"

The boy's voice was no longer cold but rather unsympathetic. It was causal as if he were telling someone what he heard on the news one day.

It was scary.

"Neither actually. Just a day we shared on the beach" the man spoke before turning to face his son. He was hoping that the boy would return his gaze but looked back down sadly as he noticed that they boy had chosen to remain focused on the ocean.

"Uncle Keith used to take me to the beach all the time. Mom always had to work at the café and never had to the time so Keith and I would go. He always called it out guy's day out"

Dan smiled and turned back towards the water not wanting to push the boy into going any further. Lucas was in a bad place right now and needed to be handled with care.

"We would eat junk food all day. Ice cream, cookies, cotton candy, pizza, you name it we ate it" the boy continued.

Dan felt an instant twinge of jealousy at hearing all the fun his brother had with his son while he was forced to maintain his distance but he said nothing. He just let his son continue reminiscing.

"When we got back Mom always interrogated us about what we had to eat and we would swear up and down that we didn't have any junk but one day I ate a little too much and threw up on the floor at the café" the boy smirked before the emotionless mask returned "She grounded me and Keith for two weeks for lying"

"You must miss him"

"Yeah well life's a bitch that way. Besides after enough people start leaving you, you become desensitized to it. I should know it happens often enough for me"

Dan wanted to say something to defend his brother and himself but the words just wouldn't come out. Lucas's change sudden of emotions was astonishing and unlike anything he had ever seen before which meant getting the boy back to normal was going to be even more difficult then he thought.

"Then there's Mom" the boy spoke in a low growl as he held the banister tightly "Who thought that I was so much of a disappointment that she would rather die then to continue living life with me as her son. It's your fault Keith is dead Lucas. I hate you Lucas. I wish you were never born Lucas, oh no wait that one wasn't her" he said with a hint of cruel laughter "That one's all yours Dan"

"That's not true Lucas. I…"

"Just cut the shit Dan. People always leave. Peyton was right about that. You, Keith, Mom anyone else that's come into my life always ends up leaving me. But you know what? Its just fine by me. If they don't love me enough to stick around then why should I give a damn that they're gone? Why should I shed tears over people who think hurting me is a sport?"

Dan could see the tears in the boy's eyes and it crushed him knowing that he was partially responsible for his son's feelings of neglect. On instinct he reached out to hold the boy but quickly retreated when the boy jerked away.

"Don't touch me"

"I was just trying to comfort you son. I know this is a lot to handle with Keith dying and then your Mom…"

"Stop it" screamed a shaken Lucas as tears slid down his cheeks. He didn't want it to happen but he couldn't control it.

"They're gone son and I know that you're hurt. I know that you will say and do anything to stop the pain but lashing out at them and me isn't going to help"

"You don't know anything so just shut up! You don't know anything about me and you don't give a damn that Mom and Keith are gone" he yelled walking into the house as Dan followed closely behind.

"Hey you don't get to tell me how I feel" Dan said feeling himself losing control.

"Oh please you tortured them for as long as I can remember and now you expect me to believe that you suddenly love them and miss them" he paused "Well then again maybe you do. Maybe you miss having your little toys around to play with. Maybe you miss the way you could easily start a fight with Keith or the way you could piss Mom off with just a glance but you don't know how to love Dan. You're incapable. You have a black hole where most people have a heart so you don't feel anything. You never do. Only the people around you feel and you know the one emotion that you can trigger so easily in them all, pain Dan. When Keith, me, Mom, Nathan and Deb think of you all we feel is pain"

Dan wanted to shake some sense into the kid, tell him that didn't know the whole truth. That he didn't know as much about him as he thought he did but the man was cut off by a stunning revelation.

"Especially Mom" Lucas said taking a breath and walking over to his father so that he was now face to face with the man "Do you know that every night until the time I was fifteen I would hear her crying in her room. She kept asking over and over again why you left her and even though she never let anyone know how long she had been hurting I knew. I knew every night when I would stand in the doorway and watch her cry over you, holding a picture you guys in one hand and the jersey you gave her in the other"

Dan just stood there silently as the boy continued "And when she had finally cried herself to sleep I would go in the room and take off her shoes and take everything out of her hands and help her get underneath the covers, something a child should never have to do, I'd turn off the lights and go to my room and ask myself the same damn questions. Only instead I would ask why you didn't want me and what made Nathan so special that you would chose and Deb over Mom? Do you know what that feels like Dad?"

The venomous use of the word hit Dan like a blow to the chest causing him to step back as Lucas spoke "To wonder what you did that was so bad that your own father hated you? Or to wonder why the man you love suddenly stopped loving you back because Mom did. We both had to deal with the pain of your abandonment and rejection but thankfully we go through it with Keith's help. We learned to cope together and now my mother, the only person who cared about me from day one and my uncle, the man who raised me and loved me when you couldn't is gone and I blame you. You set this whole thing in motion and I will always hate you for that. Always"

Before Dan could say a word he his head snapped painfully to the right as his son's fist connected hard with his cheek.

"I hate you do you understand me! I hate you" the boy screamed as he tried to attack his father again but this time Dan was too quick for him.

The larger, older male seized hold of his son's arms and folded them across his chest as he pulled him to the ground as the boy struggled against him.

"Get off of me! I hate you!" the boy's screams were now a little softer and mixed with tears as his continued to struggle in his father's arms.

"Ok you wanna hate me fine then hate me but I won't allow you to blame yourself for what happened to your Mom and Keith and I'm not going to let you go through this alone Luke"

"Just let me go and walk away like you always do Dan. We both know that what you want to do anyway"

"Lucas stop it! I don't want to leave you and I'm not going to. Not now, not ever again" Dan was barely able to speak while trying to bring his son's tantrum to a halt.

Lucas's struggles began to subside as he rested his head on his father's arm.

"Just…let…me…go" the boy was panting as he now lay still against his father. "It hurts so much. I just want it to stop"

"I know son. I want it to stop too"

A few mintues later the boy was still in his father's arms leaving and a peaceful calm in the way of his outburst. Lucas had cried himself to sleep leaving Dan to cry silent tears himself and wonder how they were going to make it though this.

"Ok tutor wife I love ya and all but this depressing ass music has got to go. I think we have enough sorrow in our lives at the moment so we don't need to listen to it on the radio too"

"You're right Brooke, sorry" Haley said reaching over to change the station as they continued to make their way towards Lucas's house.

"Nathan I don't think this is such a good idea. I mean Karen and Lucas have been dealing with a lot lately and I'm not sure dragging them out of the house kicking and screaming is going to help"

"Listen we have to do something Peyton. They can't just stop living because Keith died that's not the way he would have wanted to be remembered"

"I know but…"

"I agree with Nathan. We have to do this for them other wise they're never going to get better"

"Well I don't think that ganging up on them is the way to do. That's all I'm saying"

"Well it wasn't our first choice either believe me but Luke's my brother and he was broody enough to begin with so excuse me if I don't want him to take that leap onto the suicide watch list"

Haley, Brooke and Peyton couldn't help but laugh but that laughter instantly faded when they pulled up in front of their friend's house and noticed the yellow and black tape decorating the front door.

"Oh my God" yelled Brooke as Haley felt her heart leap into her throat before turning back to Nathan.

The youngest Scott stared nervously at the door as a thousand scenarios ran through his head. His breathing became labored as he could feel tears stinging his eyes.

"LUKE!" he yelled as he flung open the car door, rushing towards the house and barging through the front door while Haley, Brooke and Peyton ran to catch up.

Inside the house Nathan was searching every room while holding his breath, afraid of what he might find.

Would he see a large puddle of blood?

Had Lucas killed himself? Or worse had someone killed both him and Karen.

The possibilities were needless and nerve wrecking and he was only met with more questions as he searched the house where nothing seemed to be out of place.

That's when his phone rang.

"Did you find anything?" asked Haley as she and the other girls walked up behind him.

"No, nothing" he said pulling out his cell phone hoping it was his brother. He rushed to answer without looking at the caller id.

"Luke?" he question. But his hopeful face disappeared giving way to a more sullen appearance. "What do you want Dad?"

"Yeah well what I'm doing is important to" he said wanting to end the conversation as quickly as possible so he could find out what happened to his sibling.

Peyton, Brooke and Haley impatiently looked on, urging him to get off the phone but was surprised when he held up a hand to silence them.

"What" he said turning to the girls "Oh God. This can't be happening"

"What Nathan? What is it?" asked Brooke as her eyes became glazed over.

"Ok I'm on my way. Bye"

"Does Dan know what happened?" questioned Peyton.

"Yeah" he said turning to face his wife "It's Karen"

Off his words Haley grabbed his hand while Brooke and Peyton clung to each other already knowing the woman's fate but unsure as to the cause. But nothing was going to prepare them for what he was going to say next.

With a deep breath and a heavy heart the boy continued "She killed herself "