A/N: Thank you to everyone who's been reading, alerting and favoriting this story and a special thank you to lukenpeyton4ever, EuST, Lexie-Rae, mahsa, julianafun, Anon, Ace5492, cayt326, annabelle18 and AnnOTH21 for your reviews. It keeps me going and excited to know you're reading and what you think. And I gotta give a shout out to leytonforever, whose earlier review inspired me with the name of a new character I'm introducing in this chapter. It's not exactly White Collar, but I thought the name suited and the purpose may still be close, too. :)

-5 days after chapter 1, 3 days after chapter 2-

It was quite normal Friday afternoon for Peyton. Although most of her work was done from the office or recording studio she thought it important to keep a touch to the live performance side of her artits' work and to meet the fans that were to buy Red Bedroom albums. St was an exception to the rule if she was not preparing for any of her artists' shows on Friday afternoons. Usually she had to travel further to catch one of them touring, but this week she was with Mia and they had the home-court advantage of Tric. Peyton loved it all, but she had been the one starting live performances at Tric and no matter how she now lived in Wilmington Tree Hill was still home so it always felt special to catch a show there.

"Style-Police Baker's Outfit Delivery!" Brooke yelled from the door to signal Peyton to come to her help. "Brandon! Come on, buddy!" She had lots of outfits on one arm, she held a stylishly dressed 6-month-old baby girl with her other arm and she had an amused smile on her face as she watched a little boy running towards Tric's stairs.

Peyton took the baby from her long time best friend and Brooke went to help Brandon up the stairs. Peyton sat down and watched as Brooke walked in with her another godchild. She was so happy for her best friend. Even though Brooke had fallen in love with Peyton's ex-boyfriend and gotten everything she wanted much before her, she could not be hold grudge about her best friend's happiness.

If anyone deserved to be happy it was Brooke. And she was happy. She had been hesitant to Julian's love, when he came to Tree Hill to work on Unkindness of the Ravens movie. It had been quite soon after Lucas and Lindsey's wedding, but Peyton had already moved to Wilmington and filled her life with all the exciting things of her work. Brooke was afraid the movie would be too much for her best friend and she had given Julian and Lucas a hard time about it. Peyton had told her on the phone that she was okay with the idea, but it had not sounded very convincing. No matter how protective of Peyton Brooke was giving Julian hard time turned out tough when he charmed her with his goofiness and sincerity. He was one of the kind and lucky for Brooke Peyton gave them her blessing despite the history.

They had gotten married around the time Lydia was born and Brooke had received her favorite wedding present when after honeymoon Peyton had cut down on the traveling work to spend more time in Tree Hill. Brooke had radically cut down on work, when Brandon was born a year later. She left Clothes over Bro's mostly to the hands of Victoria and Millicent and did just the most necessary designing anymore. She was so born to be a mother and enjoyed every moment with now-four-year-old Brandon and his beautiful little sister Ellen.

"So , I have outfits for Mia and the band in here." Brooke pointed to most of what she had brought. "And you my best friend, should go put this on. But first.." She organized coloring book and pens for Brandon over at a nearby table and then came back "we're going to have some good girl-talk."

"Okay? What's up best friend?" Peyton gave Ellen back to Brooke as Brandon was all set.

Brooke looked at her incredulously. Her eyes were wide open and for a moment Peyton was worried she'd drop the baby as a reaction to her normal, basic question. "Um, no we're not talking about me. Who's the hottie?" She pointed with her head towards a handsome, about 30-year-old man, who was working on his laptop near the stage. The chair he was sitting on hung Peyton's leather jacket and Peyton's purse was leaning against his leg.

Peyton laughed at her best friend's enthusiasm. "Brooke, you do realize you are married to a man who loves you even more than I do and you have two beautiful children together. What was it that you used to said to Haley when she had gotten married: You eat at at home now.."

Brooke did not find it that funny. She gave her best friend a glare that demanded seriousness.

"Okay. Fine." Peyton was still smiling. "Neil, come meet my best friend!"

Brooke tried to swallow her squeal as he rose from the chair and walked over to them. Boy, he was even better looking than it had seemed from afar: about the same height as Nathan, he was well dressed, but still kept a laid-back appearance he had chocolate-brown hair and although his eyes weren't as piercing blue as Scott genes made them, the shade of gray was gentle and beautiful.

"Brooke, this is Neil. He's Mia's manager. Neil, this is my best friend Brooke." Peyton introduced them she smiled contently as he shook Brooke's hand and flashed her a smile.

"Nice to meet you, Brooke. And these two angels, are they yours?" Neil referred to Ellen and Brandon.

"Yeah, this is Ellen. And the boy is Brandon." Brooke smiled.

"Actually Brandon's my godson. A true rockstar in making.." Peyton elaborated to Neil. "Anyway, I love you Brooke, but I gotta get back to work. Can we hang out some other time when I'm not working?"

"Yeah, sure. I wanna go see Haley anyway. Call me when you're free and have a great day." Brooke hugged her briefly and excused herself to get her son ready to go.

"Hey, Brooke! Thanks for the outfits.."

"Oh, my problem. And Neil, there's an outfit for Peyton, too. Can I trust you to make sure she'll wear it?" Brooke winked and hurried Brandon towards the door.

Neil stood beside Peyton and watched as Brooke and the kids made their way out. "Wow! Sawyer, I thought you were special, but she's something else.. Is she always like that?"

Peyton hit his arm playfully and pretended to pout. "Yeah, that's Brooke. She's been that way all her life."

Haley took a deep breath. She was by their swimming pool enjoying beautiful day and the way the water felt on her feet. Nathan, Jamie and Lydia were messing around in the pool, but she appreciated watching from the side and staying for the most part dry and comfortable. But she almost fell into the water as someone suddenly touched her shoulder.

"Luke, Lindsey.. What are you doing here?" she asked almost screaming as she tried to regain her balance and recover from the shock.

"Nice to see you, too, Hales." Lucas laughed. "We were just enjoying the beautiful day on a walk and we thought to stop by here as we were close by."

"On a walk?" something like that had never been reported to her before. It shouldn't have been that special, but it still felt odd to her.

"It's no New England, but Carolina scenery has its perks, too." Lindsey smiled.

"Okay, well there's lemonade on the table, get yourselves glasses from the kitchen and join in.." Lindsay went in for the both of them.

She had just made it inside, when Brandon came running from the car. The boy ran straight inside to get what he needed not even bothering to stop by and say hi to his aunt, uncles and cousins. The adults looked at each other amused and laughed. He was so Brooke's kid...

Brooke and Ellen did not come far behind and the elder Baker-lady ran with a similar enthusiasm than the four-year-old. "Haley! I met Neil!" she squealed not caring about the rest of the Scotts there.

Haley had no idea what Brooke was talking about. She couldn't come up with anything about any Neil in their previous conversations. "Um, okay. That's nice, but you do realize you're married to Julian?"

Brooke sat down next to Haley and shot her a glaring look. "Not funny, Peyton said the exact same thing. And I know I'm married, but this is not about me, it's Peyton."

Haley looked at her still lost. "Oh sure, yeah. I have no idea what you're talking about!"

"You know, Mia's manager Neil, right?" Haley nodded slowly.

"He is so hot! And I'll be a very happy maid of honor at his and our 's wedding." Brooke continued dreamily.

"Wedding? Well yeah, not bad actually... He is kinda hot..."

"Hey, husband here!" Nathan had no idea what they were talking about, but wasn't exactly into hearing his wife call some other man hot.

Haley blushed and gave him an apologetic smile. She also noticed how dark Lucas had gotten and that little Lydia was swimming towards them clearly wanting to take part in the public girl talk. "You know, Brooke, I think we should go... change Ellen's diapers. Come On!"

The women and the baby left as Lindsey returned back with Brandon and more glasses for the lemonade. But Lucas and Nathan hardly noticed the new additions to the company, both too deep in their thoughts of trying to figure out what was going on with this hot Neil and the three women.

"Daddy!" Lydia yelled to get her father's attention. "Is that man feeling really bad?"

"W-what?" Nathan wasn't sure if he had missed out on part of the conversation. Who would his princess be talking about?

"That Neil aunt Brooke was talking about.. Do you think he's feeling really sick? When I have a lot of temperature, I feel really bad and then mama sings to me.."

Jamie let out a laugh. Having a clueless little sister was so much fun sometimes. "No SillyD, in adult language hot means someone that gets kissed a lot.."

"So mama is hot because daddy kisses her All the time?" Lydia tried to make sense of the new information.

Everyone laughed except for Brandon, who did not quite understand. "Oh yes, sweetie, your mom is extremely hot. But like, Jamie said it's adult language so you really don't need to think about it any time soon."

Lydia ignored the last part and went on processing the new information. "Everyone says that I'm just like mama." All the three Scott men smiled at the little girl. "So if I'm like mama and mama is Extreemely hot, and hot gets kissed a lot, and daddy and Jamie," she counted with her fingers, "and mama and Aunt Peyt and Uncle Lucas all kiss me a lot, does it mean in adult language I'd be hot too?"

Her sweet voice did not help at all when the content of her speech sank in to the Scott boys. They grimaced at the thought. "Sweetie, I said it's just adult language so you really should not have to worry about that until you're at least 35. Let's go play with Brandon shall we?"

Ever since they had left therapy on Tuesday Lucas had been feeling extremely restless. There was an awkward silence in the house whenever it was just the two of them at home. Both had so much to think about and so much to change that they basically abandoned their good old easy routines and were now just hoped to find the new direction before the awkwardness made them go crazy.

Lucas had been sleeping on the couch. They lived on take-out. Lucas would order chinese from the house phone and Lindsey italian from her cell phone. It felt freeing to break the harmony, but they still did not know what it meant. Tuesday night they had decided to give it time, try separate lives and focus on sharing meaningful things and see if it would help them figure out a direction for the future. They still had not told anyone about their situation. They hadn't agreed not to say anything, but it had felt too embarrassing and confusing to speak about.

The couch wasn't a comfortable place to sleep in, scratch that, the house was not a comfortable place to sleep in anymore. So every night when Lindsay had gone to sleep Lucas had left the house to go to River Court. Just like everytime he had needed to clear his head since he was a teenager.

But tonight he did not find peace in the River Court, his usual safe haven, so he continued the walk all the way to his best friend and brother's house. It was past midnight he knew he shouldn't bother anyone at this time, but he couldn't take it any longer and he knew Haley was the only person he could talk to. So he knocked on the door he knew could be heard to Nathan and Haley's bedroom, but not to the kids' and soon his best friend came to the door. Her hair was mess and she was very groggy.

"I love you, Luke, but what on earth are you doing here at 1 am?" she said in a way it was hard to detect whether she was worried or annoyed.

"You were right. I was so hell bent on doing the right thing and staying loyal to the path I choice that I made the biggest mistake of my life. I have ruined everything."

She melted at the sight of her broken best friend. The last time she had seen him like this was about ten years ago, when he had proposed to Peyton. She did not know what was going on, but her heart was breaking for him so she closed him into a warm and loving embrace and let him inside.

A/N: Alright, that was chapter 3. What'd you think? I will try to update the next chapter sometime at the end of this week, but as much as I'd love to just keep writing, I gotta focus on work more than I have now at the beginning of the week.. Please leave a review to keep the story going... Do you want to hear Haley and Lucas's discussion? I have some ideas for continuing the story still from the same night, but I'm not quite sure about it yet.