Nathan and Peyton were restocking the alcohol and putting the glasses back in the cabinets. Peyton was also showing him where everything is behind the bar. "So we have wine on the left and under here is some lemons."

"You gotta knife?" Nathan asked, looking around.

"No, but I'll get you one." She said.

She was about to walk away when Nathan grabbed her arm. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. You're the boss. I'm the one who does the getting. And as far as you having to tell me where everything is, it'll take me two minutes."

"I just want to make sure you know-"

"Know everything back here. I know."

"You sure?"

"One of my uncles owns a restaurant. I used to spend every summer working there. Tending bar, busing tables, working in the kitchen. It paid for a big chunk of my college tuition."

"You worked for your uncle, huh?"

"Yea we all did. My brother and my cousins, aunts…"

"Your family sounds close."

"Yea, we are pretty tight. My father died when I was a kid so I had to become the man of the house."

"The man? Where was Damien?" Peyton asked, trying to get as much info out of Nathan as possible.

"He's older, but it's just the way things worked out."

"I'm sorry for your loss."

"Well we all have to lose someone we love sooner or later."

"Yea we all do." Peyton said, looking down. Nathan noticed this.

"Did I touch a nerve?"

"No, no. Not at all." Peyton chuckled. "I'm just thinking about you having to lose your brother and your dad. It must be hard."

"With Damien it was always a matter of time. He lived life on the edge. Sometimes he lived way over it."

"Way over it?"

Nathan turned to face Peyton. "Look, Damien had a few rough edges, but he was a decent guy. And he was family. Where I come from that means something. When someone messes with your family you do something about it."

"Well what do you do?" Peyton asked nervously.

"Nothing. It's just an expression."

Haley and Lucas still sat at the table talking. Haley really just wanted to get back to studying. "Look, Haley, I know how hard this must be on you."

"Do you? How? You ever killed anybody before?"

"Keep your voice down, ok."

"No! Not ok! Nothing is going to be ok."

"You're gonna make it through this, Haley."

"I think 'get away with this' are the words you're looking for."

"No."

"No? You can tell me you don't want me to just pretend that nothing happened? Forget that I bashed a man's head in?" She said as she got up.

"Come on, Haley." Haley sighed as Lucas stood up too. "Look, I really wish I was there for you. I wish I was there so I could've protected you."

"Why? What for? So you could be the one to kill him and not me?"

Lucas put his hands on Haley's arms. "You're not really making much sense, Haley."

"I'm not trying to make sense, Lucas. There's no sense to be made out of any of this."

"So what do you wanna do? You wanna go confess everything and do the right thing? Is that what you wanna do?"

"If I knew what the right thing was."

"But you don't because Damien was a bad guy. And he hurt and destroyed a lot of lives. And if you and Peyton didn't do what you did, he would've kept on doing it."

"I took a life, a young life. Why are you just trying to just excuse this?" Haley asked, getting upset.

"Haley I'm not trying to. Our problem right now is not that, it's Damien's brother. He is not going to take any excuses because he wants revenge. He finds out anything that happened, he's gonna come after all four of us. He might kill all four of us."

"You don't know that."

"I do." Peyton said, coming up behind Lucas. "Lucas is right. We have a new bartender, Haley. Nathan Scott."

"What?" Haley asked, shocked. "He works here? What is wrong with you?"

"What happened to Mark?" Lucas asked.

"Oh, he just quit. At the same exact time, Nathan comes in and offers to take his place."

"What are you trying to say?" Lucas asked, confused.

"I'm saying Nathan did something to him. He ran out after he saw Nathan walk in. I know it. He did something."

"I think I'm gonna have a little chat with our new friend Nathan Scott." Lucas said, heading to the bar. Peyton grabbed his arm.

"And say what? You're fired? Why don't you just put a gun to your head, Lucas."

"What you think he can stay here?"

"He can and he will."

"Are you crazy?"

"He's right, Peyton." Haley said.

"I'm not nuts, ok."

"So what if he finds out?" Lucas asked.

"How about this? Maybe he already suspects. Did you think of that?" Haley said, getting angry.

"All we have to do is not act like scared little rabbits every time the guy looks at us, alright. If you can do that, Haley then maybe he won't suspect anything."

"So that's the deal? What's the plan?" Lucas asked.

Peyton looked at both of them. "I'm gonna make him fall in love with me."

Peyton walked into Tric with a very different outfit on than she usually wore. It was a low cut top, mini skirt and knee high boots. She walked through the crowds to the table where Julian, Haley and Lucas sat. When they looked up they all were shocked. "How do I look?" she asked.

Haley and Julian's mouths were open. Too stunned to say anything. "Like somebody who's trying to get herself killed." Lucas finally said.

"Lucas, I can handle myself."

"You don't have to do this, Peyton." Haley said.

Julian grabbed Peyton's arm to make her face him. "If Damien's brother finds out that you're trying to keep him off the trail of murder, we're all dead."

Peyton yanked her arm away from him. "He will be head over heels in love with me in a matter of days."

"Right." Haley smirked.

"What if you little plan backfires?" Lucas asked.

"It won't. Not everybody is as blind to my charms as you, Lucas."

"Ha-ha." Lucas said, sarcastically. "Look this isn't a joke, Peyton."

"The guy is obviously dangerous. Haley told me he scared the hell out of the last bartender you had." Julian said.

Haley turned to Peyton. "Don't mess with Nathan, Peyton. I'm telling you, I know you and you're gonna slip something up."

"You mean the way you almost did with Alex Dupre? That's what you're talking about?"

"You called Alex?" Julian asked. Alex Dupre was the police chief, Michael Dupre's, daughter.

"Yea she did. And I stopped her before she could say anything." She turned to Haley. "Now I am not gonna fall apart, ok. Not like you. Nathan will fall for me and he'll never know we killed his brother."

Peyton didn't say anything else. She walked away from the table and over to the bar where Nathan was. She leaned over the bar and grabbed a bottle of tequila. Nathan noticed her and walked over. When she saw him walking over, she smiled.

Nathan leaned forward on the bar top. "What's up?"

"I was thinking about you." Peyton flirted. "I made a list of everyone that was here the night that your brother died." She held out a piece of paper.

Nathan grabbed the list from her and read over it. "Does anybody stand out?"

"It was a busy night. So I don't really remember anyone's names. I was more concerned with the numbers than with the people." She smiled.

"Do I make you nervous?" Nathan asked, seeing right through her.

"Nervous?"

"Yea."

"No." she chuckled. "Why? Why would you make me nervous?"

"Well I'm not exactly here on a mission of mercy."

Peyton smiled and grabbed his hand. She held it between hers. "I understand. I do the same exact thing. As a matter of fact we are a lot alike."

"Oh yea? How's that?" Nathan pulled his hand out of her grasp.

"Well if you don't know then I'll show you. I lost someone in my life too, someone in my family. I know how it feels. My father, he died suddenly."

"Tough break."

"Yea he was such a great guy. He was so nice to people and did everything for them. And we had such a great relationship."

"I thought he worked in the record industry? And from what I heard, he cut you off a few months before he died."

"What?" Peyton was a little taken back by his statement.

"Yea, I was a little curious how someone like you could own some place like this. So I did a little checking up."

Peyton smiled. "I guess I should be flattered."

"Don't be. You're a very attractive girl, Peyton."

"Oh I promise you, Nathan. I am no girl." Peyton said, touching his cheek.

Nathan pushed her hand away. "But I don't have time for distractions. Especially from someone like you."

"I'm a good distraction, Nathan. I can help you."

"No thanks." He said.

Peyton was getting nervous. This was not working. "Oh come on. I know you don't look for your brother's killer all the time. What do you do for fun?"

Nathan leaned closer to Peyton. "I have one reason, and one reason only for being here. I'm gonna find who killed Damien. And trust me, you don't want to be the one diverting me from that purpose."

He walked away and Peyton stood defeated. She had no idea why he didn't fall for what she was putting out. Guys loved it. Well most guys, not Lucas or Nathan. She walked away from the bar without looking at Lucas or Haley.

Lucas and Haley had watched the whole interaction between Peyton and Nathan. "I'm gonna go see what happened with Peyton, alright. I'll be right back. Don't go anywhere." Lucas told Haley. He got up and followed Peyton.

Julian had left a few minutes before, so Haley sat at the table with her school stuff. She was just about to get back to it when she saw someone sit down next to her.

"You wanna help me out, Haley?" Nathan asked.

"Um, ok?"

"Tell me the truth."

She turned to look at him. "The truth about what?"

"What a nice, beautiful girl like you is doing studying in a place like this. And why you hanging out with this crowd?"

"I like them. Why wouldn't I?"

Nathan smirked. "Come on, you're not like these people. Look at who owns this place. I mean you know as well as I do that you can't trust Peyton Sawyer."

"What?"

"Well I can see right through her. If I were you, I wouldn't let my boyfriend work for her."

"Yea, well…" she said, trying him to get the hint that she didn't want to talk. She went back to studying as best she could with Nathan Scott sitting next to her.

Nathan looked at her and then at her book. He smiled. "Oh this is Bio 2. Professor Carr."

"How did you know that?" she asked.

"Relax. I'm not checking up on you. I had him too."

"You?"

"Yea, I went to Tree Hill University. Don't be so surprised. Damien and I kinda went our different ways."

"Yea I guess so." She said, trying concentrate on her books.

"You probably thought of him as a punk. Or some sort of petty thug, huh? It's alright, most people did. But he was my big brother. You know, he helped pay my way through college. Even though he knew college wasn't for him, he wanted to make sure I did ok."

Haley looked up. "Well I didn't know."

"No. Damien never wanted anyone to know he was anything other than a tough guy. But I loved him. That's why I gotta find out who killed him."

Haley sighed. He was obviously not going to stop talking to her about this. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Cause I don't want you to cringe every time I look at you. I'm not here to make life difficult for people like you. You don't need to be afraid. In fact I think maybe you can help me."

Haley was done. She didn't want to sit here anymore and talk about this. She started grabbing her books. "Ok, you know what? I'm really sorry about your brother. I really am. But I would really like to be left alone."

She didn't give him a chance to respond. She got up and walked away. Nathan watched her. This was going to take longer than he thought. He just wanted to find the killer and be gone. He didn't want to have to deal with this group of friends who were making finding his brother's killer much more difficult than it needed to be.