A/N: I think I should apologize first lol. This chapter took a week after me getting three chapters up in only two days. I don't want to promise to have a chapter in any set amount of time because two things usually happen: I type a chapter up in minutes and it's up; or I don't type for a day or two and suddenly a week has went by. But I will make sure that a chapter is up as quickly as possible, I can promise that.
Thank you for the reviews, especially lalez and cayt326, who seem to be loyally reading, I hope you're happy with this addition. :)
Italics are in flashbacks, and I can only hope this is worth the wait...
"Lucas, th-that's great!" Haley gushed, squeezing her best friend as tightly as her small frame could muster.
"Yeah," Lucas agreed, clearly not as enthused, "I only wish Peyton thought the same thing."
Haley's eyebrows scrunched together in confusion as she motioned for them to be seated on the couch. "What? She's not happy for you? I thought this would be the kind of thing she's been waiting for. I don't understand." Haley looked to Lucas for an explanation.
"I did too," he sighed, "But Peyton was saying something about 'being away from the family' and that there was no way I could make money off of this," Lucas said with an air of defeat in his voice. If his wife didn't want this to happen, there was a very good chance that he wasn't going to pursue this opportunity."
"Okay," Haley asserted, "tell me exactly what she said."
Lucas leaned back into the couch, his lips pursed as he tried to recall the events that happened this morning. "Well..." he trailed off, recounting the story to Haley while she listened attentively.
"Peyton," Lucas said, surprised. He wasn't expecting her to be there, but that meant he got to share his good news earlier. He was clean, Peyton noticed. Fresh clothes, freshly shaved, a smile on his face. He looked happy, he looked okay. "I have good news," he declared, taking Peyton's free hand in his, giving Sawyer a peck on the cheek, and a look of undefeated promise on his face.
"What?" Peyton asked, unable to fight a smile on her face at the sight of Lucas' sudden and indestructible happiness, "What is it?" she prodded.
Lucas gazed into Peyton's eyes, absorbing the moment in his memory forever. This was the day that their marriage would be turned around. Things would get better from this moment on. "I just talked to Lindsey on the phone. She says that if I can get to New York quickly and she makes a few calls, I can get a real tour going. The Comet can actually have a chance to sell big! Isn't that amazing?" Lucas waited for Peyton to agree, to be just as jubilant as he was, but her face seemed to have a look of apprehensiveness.
Peyton paused, choosing her words carefully, "I don't know, Luke." That was all it took for Lucas to become completely crestfallen. "I mean, it could be really good, but I don't know. You'd have to leave for New York? And how long would you be gone?" Peyton didn't wait for him to answer. "You'd be gone for awhile, running across the country. And for what? The Comet already had its chance, and it didn't do well. Maybe it's time to give it up?" Peyton waited for Lucas to agree or disagree, only hoping that this wasn't going to escalate into a big fight.
"Yeah, maybe you're right," was all Lucas said before rushing out of the house, leaving Peyton with her mouth agape at his departure. She took one look at Sawyer, the baby smiling peacefully, and knew that she was right. There was no way they could survive as a family if Lucas was gallivanting across the country for a year. They barely made it through Peyton's month in L.A. She was doing this for Sawyer, as always.
"And then I came here, and the rest is history," Lucas finished, leaving Haley to digest what he just shared.
"Can I get you something to drink, Luke? Water, anything?" she offered, falling back on her hospitality skills to bridge an awkward gap in the conversation.
"No," he declined. "I just want to know why she's being like this." A simple enough request.
"I don't know," Haley admitted, "It makes sense that she would want you to be near her and Sawyer, but she's got to know how much this could help you and your family," she reasoned.
Lucas nodded in agreement, "Yeah, that's what I was thinking. She's been spending all her time with the record label, but I'm not allowed to spend any of my time working on my career. I don't get it," Lucas exhaled in frustration.
Haley froze, the wheels visible as they turned in her mind. "Well, Luke, I don't know for sure, but what if Peyton just wants to be with the record label? Maybe she's become so attached to it and if you make money off of The Comet, she feels like she'll have to leave her label behind?" Haley attempted making sense of the situation.
"Wow. I think you're right," Lucas agreed. He wore a blank look on his face before changing it to an expression filled with malice, jumping from his spot on the couch and heading toward Haley's front door. He looked like a man on a mission, and no one would stop him.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Lucas!" Haley yelled, rushing between him and his exit that he seemed to have a newfound obsession with, "What are you doing? You look like you're about to go kill someone!" Haley exclaimed, trying to push Lucas back with shoves from her petite body.
"I am," Lucas confessed, "You're completely right, Haley. Peyton doesn't want to part with her precious record label, her precious Jake. Well I'll be damned if that guitar strumming jackass steals my wife away from me. Next thing you know he'll have Sawyer and Peyton and I'm not letting him take my family. It's not going to happen," Lucas promised, now easily able to push by his stunned sister-in-law and leave the home.
After a minute of confused and flabbergasted silence, Haley picked her jaw off of the floor and ran to her cell phone, dialing a number that could possibly, and hopefully, save the day. "Hey," she began, her voice thick with implications that this short conversation would change her day, "It's me. Yeah, listen, I think I accidentally made things worse..." Haley trailed off, filling in her accomplice on all the sordid details of the confounding talk she just had with Lucas.
Haley snapped the phone shut, praying that the situation brewing between Jake and Lucas could be resolved in time. This was, again, all her fault. She didn't mean to suggest to Lucas that Peyton was yearning for Jake, just that she had come to see the record label as a second child of hers. Hell, it would make more sense if Lucas were out of the state if Peyton wanted to get with Jake, right? But then again, that was reason; something Lucas wasn't fond of listening to at the current moment.
Haley shook the many thoughts of what could go wrong and how this was all her fault to begin with out of her head; she decided to calmly wait for an answer from someone, anyone, on what was going on. She walked upstairs, a quick detour in the bathroom to swallow an aspirin, and finished her trip, ending face down on her bed, waiting for sleep to overtake her. Sleeping would be the only way that Haley could shake these thoughts from her pounding head.
"Don't worry Haley," the brunette soothed her, "Lucas won't be getting a hold of Jake any time soon. I swear." Brooke exchanged glances with her visitor, a man perched on the couch of her back room in Clothes Over Bro's. "Okay honey, why don't you go take a nap and calm down? Bye." Brooke pressed the button on her cell phone to end the call with one of her manicured fingers.
She proceeded to glare at him, unable to decide if she could blame him for these things or not. She supposed it wasn't fair to do so, but someone should be blamed- and it wasn't going to be Haley.
"What?" he asked, "You're staring at me and I have no idea why. Care to share, Brooke Davis?"
Brooke took a deep breath. "No," she answered quickly, in a snapping tone. "But I suppose I have to," Brooke conceded. "Lucas is after you. Apparently you're trying to steal Peyton away and he's going to kill you," Brooke couldn't help but smirk as she recited the preposterous idea running through Lucas' mind.
Jake laughed, a deep one that echoed through the room. "That's dumb. Does he even know why I'm in town?" Jake inquired.
"I don't know. I haven't talked to him in weeks, I don't know what Lucas is thinking to be quite honest," Brooke explained. "But, just for the record, do you mind telling me why you're in town? Because I'm pretty sure that the only one who knows why for sure is Peyton, and lord knows she's not telling anyone anything these days," Brooke muttered bitterly, the sting of Peyton's betrayal still a open wound for her.
"Why hasn't Peyton told him?" Jake wondered aloud.
Brooke rolled her eyes. "Jake, I'm not getting into Peyton and Lucas' marriage problems right now, especially not with you."
Jake's eyes narrowed, surveying Brooke as if she had let slip a vital piece of information. "Oh," he started, inconspicuously enough. "So they're having problems?"
Brooke huffed. "Listen. I don't know about it and even if I did, it's not my place to talk about it. Now right now I have half a mind to call Lucas up myself and let him come beat you up because it sounds a lot like you are invested in Peyton's marriage's issues," Brooke ranted, a finger pointed at Jake angrily the whole time she talked, "And none of what you just said answered my question, Jake. Why are you in Tree Hill?" Brooke repeated.
Jake relented, sighing and asking Brooke with his eyes to remove the finger from his face. "Well fine," he began. "I'll tell you what happened."
"Where is he?" Peyton inquired, bouncing up and down with impatience. Sawyer whined at being jostled on her mother's hip.
"Calm down Blondie. He'll be here," John promised. "Why did you bring the kid, anyway?"
Peyton's eyes darted evasively, something she was thankful that John didn't pick up on. It wasn't a question she wanted to answer. "Oh, well, I remembered you saying something about him having a daughter so I figured maybe they could play together?" The lie rolled off of Peyton's tongue so easily that even she was impressed with herself.
John seemed to believe her. "Yeah, maybe."
Peyton was clearly glad to have dodged that bullet. The true reason why she brought Sawyer was a long exposition that she currently didn't want to share with anyone. Instead she tapped her foot and bit at a cuticle on her free hand, impatiently waiting for her new artist.
"Flight 321 from Savannah, now landing in Gate 3," a pleasant voice called over the intercom at the airport.
A smile burst onto Peyton's face. "He's here!" she exclaimed craning her neck to find someone who she realized too late that she wouldn't recognize anyway.
"Yeah," John said, craning his neck much like Peyton, "Okay, so his name is Jake Jagelski, and I guess we'll-" John stopped, realizing Peyton looked as if she just got the wind knocked out of her and her heart broken in the same blow. "Peyton? You okay?" he asked, almost aware that he would not receive a response.
"That's him," she whispered, pointing out a tall brunette whose hand was tightly grasping a smaller, light brown-haired girl's.
He walked up to Peyton, who by that time had gotten a better hold on her own daughter while catching her breath. "What are you doing here?" he asked, astonished. There was nothing else he could think of saying.
"Do you know her, Daddy? Who is she?" The little girl asked inquisitively. Jenny Jagelski, Peyton noted. She had to be about eight years old, Peyton rationalized. Her questions weren't getting answered, causing her to tug on her father's shirt. Her father, however, was busy gaping at Peyton, who mirrored a similar look on her face.
"Hi Jenny," Peyton answered the small child before Jake. Her question was much safer. "I'm Peyton, I went to high school with your Daddy. I knew you back when you were a little baby." Peyton grinned at the child, Jenny smiling back at her.
Her light hazel eyes lit up. "You did?" Peyton nodded again. "Who's that?" Jenny asked, pointing toward Sawyer.
"This," Peyton answered, holding Sawyer to face the Jagelskis, "is Sawyer Brooke Scott, my daughter." She watched Jake's face fall, taking note at the last name. His eyes scanned Peyton's left hand, finding the gold band that he desperately wished wasn't there.
"She's very pretty," Jenny commented politely. Peyton could tell instantly that Jake had done well raising his daughter.
"She is," Jake agreed, though his sour expression betrayed the compliment. Peyton thanked them, awkwardly smiling during the pause.
"So," John saved them by breaking the silence, "I'm John Knight. We're with Red Bedroom Records, the label that you're about to get signed to."
Peyton had forgotten why she was there, and that John was there with them, until he said that. Jake's face had visible signs of surprise. "Oh." He could only muster up that one word to describe the situation.
"Yeah," Peyton tried to explain, words failing her, "Red Bedroom Records is my label. I guess you're my new artist?" She let out an uncomfortable chuckle.
Jake nodded. "I guess so," he sighed. The three adults and two small girls stood in the airport, Jake and Peyton locked in a staring contest that no one else around them seemed to understand. They couldn't even understand it, Jake and Peyton did not know what to do after seeing each other for the first time in four years.
"So that's why you're in Tree Hill. Peyton," Brooke smiled a bit, supplying a shorter summary that amused her when seeing Jake's unamused face.
Jake glared. "No, Brooke. It's for my music. So I can support Jenny," Jake insisted. "Peyton was just... an unfortunate coincidence."
Brooke sighed, acting with more sympathy to Jake's troubled situation. She rose from her spot in her desk chair and sat next to Jake on the couch. "I'm sorry, Jake. This isn't fair to anyone."
"No, it's not," he agreed. "I think I'm going to leave, though. As soon as the album is done, I'm gone. This is too much, being back in this town is too much." His head was buried in his hands, rubbing at his temples to try to relieve the stress he felt all over.
"I feel the same way sometimes," Brooke sympathized, pulling Jake's hand to hold close to hers. "But all roads lead back home, you know? No matter how long you're gone or how far you run away; Tree Hill is always home. And home is the one place where everything is better and everything is safe. Remember that, Jake. We'll always be here for you, we're your hometown," Brooke promised.
Jake eased up, the telltale furrowed brow of stress gone from his face. "You know Brooke Davis, you're really good at giving advice. Thank you," Jake said sincerely. He got off the couch, pulling Brooke into a hug.
"Well if she's so good, maybe she can help me," a voice came from the entrance to the boutique's back room. "I need advice on how to understand why this guy thinks he's going to steal my wife."
"Lucas," Brooke warned, her voice stern and full of implied threats. 'Don't do this,' it said. But all she could do was watch as the two men stared at each other. Jake took a defensive pose, challenging Lucas to call him out to his face. Lucas was rearing to attack, leaving Brooke to wonder how she could fulfill her promise to Haley that this conflict would not happen, let alone be required to be resolved.
A/N: So there's Chapter 3. Lucas tells Haley his news and Peyton's reaction to said news; and Brooke learns from Jake why he's in Tree Hill and what happened when he landed. There was a bit of Brooke and Haley trying to resolve this drama and the ending was a minor cliffhanger- Lucas and Jake in a bit of a battle royale for Peyton.
Good job lalez, guessing Lucas is touring for his book. There's a bit more that I'm going to divulge soon regarding the "good news", but you'll have to wait... :)
I'm going to try to get Chapter 4 ready as soon as possible, the words and ideas are all in my head, they just need to be typed. I hope you're liking the story so far! :)