When Ashlee and Haley got back to the house there was a car in the driveway that Ashlee didn't recognize. But judging by Haley's reaction when she saw the car, Ashlee knew that she recognized it.

"Who's car is it?" Ashlee asked somewhat nervously.

"Um," Haley hesitated.

"Aunt Haley. Please, who's car is that?"

"Luke's."

"What? Why is he here?"

Ashlee didn't bother waiting to hear if Haley had anything to say before jumping out of the car and running into the house. She was completely incensed with anger that Lucas had dared show his face around them again after being told not to. Who the hell did he think he was, waltzing in and out of their lives as he pleased? She told him they didn't need him. Ezra told him they didn't need him. Chase told him. And then Haley told him. All that happened on the same day. Sure it had been two years now but Ashlee wondered what made him think they would be happy to have him in their house again? She was pissed. And it became increasingly hard for her to control her anger at the moment. All she wanted to do was take her cast-up knuckles and slam them into Lucas' face repeatedly.

As soon as she walked through the door, Leo had intercepted her. He could see the anger burning in his sister's eyes but knew what he had been told to do when she got home…keep her away from Lucas. It didn't matter what he had to do to make it happen, Leo wasn't letting her anywhere near him.

"Let me go Leo. I'm not gonna do anything to him. Let me go," she screeched as she struggled to get out of Leo's hold on her.

"No. I can't Ash. I know you. As soon as I do, you'll go tearing in there and beat the shit out of him. Don't get me wrong, I definitely think he deserves it but Ash I don't want you to end up in jail for it. It's not worth it. He's not worth it. Come on, let's go upstairs and start unpacking your stuff," Leo replied with a knowing smile.

"What did you just say?"

"You heard me. Let's go."

Leo turned Ashlee toward the stairs and pushed her to walk up in front of him. There was no way he was walking up there first because that would make it easier for her to get back down the stairs and get her hands on Lucas. He wasn't letting that happen.

"How did you?"

"Never mind how I knew. Let's just go. Let Dad and Ezra take care of getting Lucas out of here."

Ashlee sighed reluctantly as she made the rest of the climb up the stairs to her bedroom. She was surprised to find Nick and Jordan were already in there and they had started putting some of her things away for her. Glancing at her headboard, Ashlee didn't even know where the hole she had punched in the wall earlier that day was, in fact, she couldn't even tell that there was a new splotch of plaster covering a new hole. It almost made her forget that she had even punched the wall. Except that her hand was bandaged and currently throbbing in both pain and anger. She really hated him and wanted him to get the fuck out of their house. As she was unpacking her stuff she began to wonder if she should have just gone to New York so she could get away from Lucas. But that would be too much like Brooke and running from people wasn't something Ashlee wanted to emulate her mother for.

"What is he doing here?" Ashlee asked her brothers finally breaking the deafening silence they had been working in.

"I don't know. Dad sent us out of the living room as soon as he answered the door. Nick and I weren't sure if you'd mind us putting stuff away for you but Ezra didn't think you were leaving so we decided it was the least we could do," Jordan replied.

"Thanks guys. But how did you know Ezra was right?"

"You've been talking about staying for weeks Ash. But Dad thought it was better that none of us push you either way and let you decide on your own time what you were gonna do. But you Ez, he doesn't listen too good. That and he think he knows you better than you do sometimes."

Ashlee just rolled her eyes at Jordan's words. It was true though. She knew that. Ezra did seem to think that he knew his sister better than she knew herself sometimes. Yet, sometimes, he did know better than she did what she wanted to do about certain situations.

"How about you Nick? What do you know?" Ashlee asked.

"Not much more than you do. Basically all I know is Lucas is here. Oh and he looked pissed as hell when Dad opened the door. Kinda funny actually," Nick answered.

Ashlee was frustrated. Not so much with her brothers but with the lack of answers. She wanted to why he was here and when the heck he was leaving. But knew if she tried to go back downstairs before given the okay that he was gone, Leo would just interfere again.

Agitated, she flopped onto her bed and just stared at her ceiling while Jordan, Nick and Leo went about putting her stuff back where it all belonged with the exception, of course of her "girly things" as they called them that they refused to touch. Not that Ashlee minded because there were definitely things she didn't want her brothers or their dad touching. Ever.

Ashlee wasn't picky about people going through her stuff but there was definitely a line they weren't to cross and they all knew it. Which was fine with everyone because they had a strict privacy policy in their family and it was expected that it was honored by everyone in all circumstances and if it wasn't, consequences were hell.

Meanwhile downstairs in the kitchen, Chase, Ezra and now Haley sat on one side of the island and Lucas was on the other side. He had come over saying that he wanted to wish his daughter well on her adventures in college but Chase and Ezra didn't believe him. It didn't sound true, not completely anyway. They both thought that he was up to no good and was using the fact that Ashlee was supposed to be getting ready to leave for New York as an excuse to be there.

"Why are you really here?" Chase asked as evenly as his temper would allow.

"I already told you I just want to wish Ashlee well with college before she leaves," Lucas replied in exasperation.

"You're full of shit," Ezra retorted, arms crossed angrily across his chest. He leaned forward on the island so his face was inches from Lucas' before releasing the wad of phlegm that had collected in his throat. Satisfied with himself Ezra couldn't keep from grinning when it landed in Lucas' open mouth. That was better than he had planned on since he was really aiming for Lucas' eye.

"You little bastard," Lucas barked as he grabbed and napkin and spit into and then wiped the edges of his mouth off.

"Excuse me," Haley snapped angrily at Lucas, "What the fuck did you just call my nephew?"

"You heard me."

Haley reached across the island and slapped Lucas as hard as she could across his face in one direction. She waited a second for him to straighten himself up before she slapped him across his face the other way.

"Are you gonna let him get away with that?" Lucas asked Chase in a low menacing tone.

Chase didn't say a word. He wasn't exactly thrilled by what Ezra had just done but he didn't blame him either. So the chances of him disciplining Ezra for spitting in Lucas' mouth were highly unlikely, especially since Lucas so desperately seemed to think Chase needed to institute some kind of discipline toward Ezra for his actions.

"I don't like you so why would I give you any sort of satisfaction in my doing what you think I should do to my son?" Chase replied just as menacingly as Lucas had been.

"He's my son."

"Like hell I'm your son," Ezra barked at Lucas. He couldn't stand being anywhere near that piece of shit anymore. Angry and in a desperate need for space, Ezra stood up and left the room and subsequently the house, slamming the front door behind him.

Ashlee was watching from her window and jumped to her feet when she saw her twin outside. Even from where she was sitting in her room she knew that Ezra was as angry as she was and had to go outside and talk to him. As soon as she stood up to leave the room however, true to his promise to Chase, Leo was in her way.

"I'm not going in the kitchen. I'm going outside to talk with Ez. Please get out of my way," she said calmly.

Leo looked in Ashlee's eyes and when he saw the sincerity staring back at him, he had no choice but to oblige and get out of her way. But that didn't mean he wasn't going to be watching out the window to make sure she really went outside. Ashlee kissed him on the cheek before walking out of her room and running down the stairs.

Chase looked up when he heard footsteps descending the stairs. He thought they sounded like Ashlee's footsteps and his suspicions were confirmed when he saw her dark ponytail swing as she stalked briskly over to the island. He was so gonna have a talk with Leo later.

"Get out," she said angrily at Lucas before turning on her heels and walking out the door. Again it slammed closed as soon as she was outside.

"She is more and more like her mother every day," Lucas said almost happy but not quite.

"Oh she's more like her mother than you could imagine. Especially when it comes to how much she hates you," Chase replied snidely.

"Brooke never hated me."

"Bull shit. If she never hated you how do you explain that it wasn't you she married and had three other children with? Oh wait, because you walked away and broke her heart. How stupid can you be?"

As soon as Ashlee stepped foot outside Ezra turned around. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that it was his twin and not Chase or Lucas who had followed him out the door.

"What happened?" Ashlee asked gently.

"I can't stand him Ash. He's a dick. Why the fuck does he have to come around and pretend like he cares about what's going on with us? He never cared before. He never showed his face while Mom was alive. And just now, he called me a bastard," Ezra replied. His words dripped with an anger that startled both himself and Ashlee. Usually, Ezra was the even tempered twin and Ashlee had the fiery anger thing going on.

It broke Ashlee's heart to see him like this. She wished there was something she could do, something she could say to make it better. But the reality was, nothing would take away Ezra's anger toward Lucas or the pain that he felt just by having Lucas anywhere near them.

"Why was he even there? Huh? Why was Lucas at Mom's funeral Ash? Who the hell told him he could be there?" Ezra exploded suddenly, which again, startled both of them.

"I don't know Ez. I really don't. But there's nothing we can do about it now. That was two years ago. Sure I was pissed off that he was there but on some level I guess he should have been. Don't get me wrong, I didn't want him there but somebody must have or I don't think he would have been," Ashlee answered him carefully.

She hadn't really thought about why or how he had ended up at Brooke's funeral but that wasn't something in her past Ashlee liked to spend a lot of time thinking about in its own right. She hated thinking that Brooke was gone and thinking back to her funeral made it all too real for her. So for the most part, Ashlee didn't think about that day, she didn't try to figure out why Lucas had been there or why he had shown up at the house afterward for that matter.

She didn't care to know why really, it wasn't like she planned on letting him be involved in her life now or even then. Ashlee had always had Chase, Nathan, Skills and Jake around. She didn't need Lucas in her life. Even though people always told her she should give him a chance since he was her biological father. That however never meant shit to Ashlee because if he had really loved her or Ezra or Brooke he never would have left. But he had and that alone served as Ashlee's sole reason for refusing to let him in. Ever.

There weren't many things that Ashlee and Ezra didn't talk about but Lucas bailing on their mom and essentially usually was one of those things. Just because they didn't feel like they needed to talk about it. Talking about it wasn't going to change anything for any of them so they just never bothered with it. If they had something to say about it though, they would either go to Brooke, Chase, Haley or Nathan. Never to each other.

Ashlee looked at her brother and could see there was something else going on behind his eyes. What, though, she wasn't completely sure. She had to know though because if it was something she could help with, Ashlee would do her damnedest to be there for Ezra.

"What's really going on?" she asked cautiously.

"What do you mean?" Ezra replied defensively.

"You have that look in your eye."

"What look?"

"The look that tells me there's something on your mind that you're not going near. What is it?"

"I, uh, I. Well you see. I kinda told Jordan and Nick that I didn't think you were really leaving."

"I know that."

"But you don't know why."

"How about you tell me?"

Ezra shrugged his shoulders. He wasn't really sure he wanted Ashlee to know. He told Nick and Jordan that he didn't think Ashlee was really leaving because he didn't want her to but had been too afraid to say so. Especially to Ashlee.

"I told them that because I don't want you to leave. I don't wanna be left here without you. I couldn't understand why you seemed so sure that you were still gonna go off to New York even without Mom alive but I couldn't make myself go to Fayetteville and that's not even out of state."

"Ez, don't judge what you're ready or not ready for based on what I may or may not be ready for. We might be twins but we're not gonna do everything and be ready for everything at the same time or the same intensity level. Honestly, I'm not ready for New York. I may never be ready for New York but go there some day anyway. But for now, I'm gonna stay here because that's about all I can handle."

Ezra couldn't believe what he was hearing. Ashlee was telling him she might not ever be ready for New York but some day might not let that stop her from facing up to her facing and going to New York anyway. She never ceased to amaze him with her abundant courage. Something he wished he possessed but really didn't have much of or confidence for that matter.

"You're amazing Ash," he said seriously.

"What?" Ashlee replied looking at her brother questioningly.

With that he explained everything to her and how he always wished he could be more confident like she was. Ashlee in turn told him that it wasn't so much that she was more confident than he was just that she wasn't as shy about her abilities as he was. And to Ashlee, that was a huge difference. They continued talking and laughing with one another but stopped immediately when they heard the front door open and saw Lucas walking toward them.

"You haven't seen the last of me," he told them threateningly before storming toward his car and peeling down their street.

"What the hell does that mean?" Ashlee asked no one in particular.

"Ash, I think we need to talk," Chase said to her as he put his arm around her shoulders.

"About what Dad?" she replied looking up at him curiously.

"You know what."

"Dad, I'm not talking to you about the hole in the wall. Not again, we've beaten that conversation to death. I'm too old to be reacting that way, I need to be more mature and set better examples for my brothers. Blah, blah, blah."

"Not what I meant. I meant about New York. Are you going or not?"

Ashlee pursed her lips. The moment she was waiting for was staring her in the face. Chase had asked the one question she knew he had been waiting to ask for at least a week. Was she going to New York? How was it that Ezra, Jordan, Nick and Leo could know what the answer was before asking her and yet Chase genuinely didn't seem to know? That was a fact that was completely lost on Ashlee. Regardless, she had to tell him that, no she wasn't going. She drew in a low deep breath before opening her mouth to speak.

"Ash? Are you going?" Chase asked again when he felt that she was taking too long to answer him. He didn't think it was a hard question to answer. All he was looking for was a simple yes or no. Nothing complicated there.

"No."

Chase nodded. He had pretty much been expecting that. Especially after the hole in the wall incident.

"Okay then tomorrow you gotta find a job."

Ashlee nodded as she brushed past him and went back in the house and back to her room. Surprisingly, Leo was still in her room. He was sitting on her bed staring at the doorway. She looked at him puzzled by his expression.

"Leo, what's up?" she asked when he didn't seem to notice he wasn't alone anymore.

"Huh? Oh nothing. So did you tell Dad you're not going?" he replied.

"Yup. I have to find a job tomorrow."

Leo nodded. Ashlee sat next to him on the bed and then like she had done earlier that afternoon, flopped backwards and stared at the ceiling. This time however, there were tears in her eyes. She really wasn't going to New York. It hadn't hit before but now that Chase had asked, it was starting to set in.