1Hi guys! I want to thank all of those again who continue to read and review. Thanks for the favorites and the story alerts as well. Here is the latest update.

Disclaimer: I do not own OTH nor do I own the characters Lucas and Peyton.

Previously Chapter 3: "So when are you going to tell him?" Lucas inwardly groaned at his choice of words. It was only a few weeks ago that he recalled asking David a similar question. "When are you going to tell her?"

_____________________________________________________________________

CHAPTER 4

Both mentally and physically exhausted, Peyton pulled away from the confines of work and into the evening traffic, happy to finally be off her feet and away from the ringing of phones. There were days she questioned what she had gotten herself into, but regardless of how grueling things got at her office, she couldn't imagine not running her own record label. She wouldn't trade what she did for anything.

Peyton bit her bottom lip, gently slowing the car for a red light. Alone at last, she allowed the thoughts she'd been trying to push away come forth. One thought or person in particular she knew had to be dealt with. David.

She was less than ten minutes away from her home now, and less than an hour away from laying it all out there not only for David, but most importantly herself. Tonight was the night, she decided.

To her surprise she wasn't anxious or nervous like she thought she'd be, and she had yet to wrestle with second thoughts. She was more than thankful for clarity, however late it came.

Her thoughts went to Lucas and she smiled.

It comforted Peyton to know that he was supporting her decision to go through with the divorce; she hadn't expected that. He wasn't being judgmental either and she liked that, always had. Even after all these years, and all they'd been through, he was still the same Lucas Scott she'd met in college, still caring, considerate, and undoubtedly the best kind of friend one could possibly hope to have.

She hated what had become of their friendship towards the end of college, but she knew she had done very little to help set things right again. Lucas, as persistent as he was, on the other hand had tried. He had pushed her for answers, but she had pushed even harder, intentionally pushing him away.

Eventually he had backed off and although they were still intertwined through David their friendship was hardly ever the same-David was one reason , but there were also others. Apologies were long over due on her behalf and she knew it. Today would mark changes of many kinds when she got home, starting with her marriage.

Home at last, Peyton shut the door behind her, kicked off her shoes, and collapsed into a chair and as she took in her surroundings it was in that instant it all became too real. Although the house she shared with David had not really been a home in the last two years, she knew technically that if a divorce proceeded the house would belong to either or, or neither. She needed a drink.

Drink in hand, she made her way back in to the living room and over to the book shelf; she didn't question why she was led there , she knew. She picked up the photo album.

Peyton set her wine down on the table and sifted through its contents .One by one she looked at the pictures of herself and David.

The smiles etched upon their faces seemed so foreign now, and all the memories they created seemed to have made up another lifetime. It was somewhat hard to believe that all they were and everything they had shared were gone now. But it would be even harder for someone to convince her that she wasn't making the right decision for the both of them.

Peyton tried to picture how David would respond, not to the thought of a divorce, but a definite divorce. For the most part she pictured him confused and hurt because that's the way she originally felt when the thought first crossed her mind. Given the words he had spoken earlier there was a possibility he would be angry, she really couldn't be sure.

Peyton looked at the clock. It was 7:22pm. David still had a good half hour until she expected him to be home. Today she had asked him to come home early. She wouldn't ambush him with the proposal of divorce. She gazed out the window, the hints of a sunset had long since disappeared.

An hour and thirty minutes later Peyton still sat alone. Why she expected anything different was beyond her. Frustrated, she huffed out of the living room and into the kitchen where she tossed the last remnants of her drink down the sink.

The phone rang. If it was anyone at this time Peyton was sure it would be David calling with excuses. She had no interest in hearing them now, she just wanted to go to bed. She ignored it.

When the phone rang again, a few seconds later, irritated, she picked up the receiver.

"Peyton, its me. Your cell's turned off." Lucas.

"Now if this isn't weird, Luke. First you show up at my work, then you take me to lunch, and now you're calling at strange hours of the night," with all traces of annoyance gone, she smiled as she exaggerated playfully.

"This is kind of inappropriate, don't you think?" She pulled out a chair from the kitchen table to sit in, waiting for his laugh or a witty remark, but she was greeted with an eerie silence instead.

"Luke?"

"Peyton, something's wrong. It's David. Something's happened."

A sense of dread immediately washed over her, instinctively she reached out for the support of the kitchen table. "Is he okay?" She asked barely able to push the words past the growing constriction she felt in her throat.

"David was in an accident, Peyton."

"H- how bad is it?", She cried frantically, pleading for an answer yet not sure if she was ready to hear it.

"He's been airlifted to the Emmanuel, I'm headed your way. I'm just now passing the county line. Wait for me. Just wait, okay"?

"Okay."

Something's wrong .The two words echoed in Peyton's head as she waited for Lucas to arrive. They were familiar; the words had stumbled from her own mouth the day she had lost her baby. She prayed it wasn't an omen of some sort as she bore the weight of worrying what fate might hold in store for David.

****FLASHBACK - Two years ago ***

"Just so I'm sure, you want to leave?"

Peyton leaned forward and rested her head in her hands. The band wanting to leave the label before they were officially signed was sure to be horrible news for her staff to hear.

"Okay. I'm fine with that. I'm sure you'll find success with another label," she continued.

Without hesitation Peyton punched the disconnect button on her office phone and stood to rid herself of the tension that had formed between her shoulders and her neck, only to be met by the eyes of her colleagues, who stood in the doorway.

Of course they all thought the band was great and it was evident on their faces what they thought of her saying nothing to persuade them to stay with the label. Moving swiftly she closed the door on them. She was the boss.

And of course, she too was upset by the band's choice to depart from the label, though she couldn't say that she hadn't see it coming. As talented as the band was, she knew that managing them would prove to be a difficult task. She wouldn't work with anyone that she could foresee failing to adhere to the ground rules she and her company established. They were already uncooperative with the scheduling of meetings and the word compromise just wasn't in their vocabulary. Her decision to allow them to leave had been a justified one. They were tired of her, and she was equally tired of them.

And today she just was tired. She had been feeling restless and irritable from the moment she had left the house and to top it off she was hungry, but her morning sickness left her unable to keep anything down for longer than ten minutes.

Despite her personal torment she was vaguely aware of all the people at the label who still demanded her attention. She could eat and rest later.

But as the hours in the day progressed, she knew she could no longer push off the inevitable. She had to eat something even if it was just a sandwich. After all she was eating for two now.

David hadn't specifically said that he had something important to look after today, so maybe he could get away, she thought. It had been a while since David had last been to her office, and it would be nice for them to spend some time together. Plus he had been reading up on pregnancy and nutrition. He'd suggest something proper for her to eat. She called him.

No answer. The call went straight to voice mail. She tried again. Same result.

Peyton cursed herself for forgetting to pack a lunch. She called her assistant.

"Amy, do you want to grab a bite to eat ?" Amy was dependable. She offered to split her chicken salad aware of Peyton's condition.

"That sounds good. Thanks." Peyton stood and moved to open her door for the fourth time that day. Ever since the morning's incident colleague after colleague would come in and propose solutions to help rectify her supposed mistake.

However, she only made it half- way before she felt a dull ache in her abdomen.

She decided to dismiss it as her body's method of reacting to morning sickness and lack of nourishment, but still, Peyton felt as if something was wrong.

A second attempt to make it to the door would prove her right. A sharp pain ripped through her. She clutched her stomach, grimacing.

It was then she glanced down her body to see a pool of blood at her feet.

"Peyton, I also brought some- oh my, are you alright?" Amy asked as she raced to Peyton's side.

Peyton blinked a few times and swallowed. "Something's wrong."

Were People always destined to leave her?

***

There was a time that Peyton thought that she and happiness were two things that just didn't belong in the same sentence. The amount of personal tragedy she'd witnessed firsthand was enough to shatter ones belief in fairytales and happy endings. But when she had found and married David, she thought her luck had changed for the better. He gave her hope that, maybe, she could find the happiness that life had been keeping from her. And they were happy for the most part. But here she was, four years into her marriage and things were changing. Among those changes she could now add the absence of a child.

Peyton looked solemnly down at her stomach and ran her hand over it again. She wanted desperately to believe that her baby was still in there, safe from the outside world, and safe in her love for him. She would have been five months pregnant tomorrow. Her breath caught in her throat and she gasped, the sound pitiful and full of pain. She smoothed the fabric of the oversized t- shirt Amy had given her to wear before they left the hospital earlier over her now empty stomach and her eyes welled up with tears.

It was hard for Peyton to recall much of the technical proceedings after she arrived at hospital that day, but she definitely remembered the tears that flowed and how detached and robotic the doctor had sounded when he confirmed what she had suspected all along.

"I'm sorry Peyton, you lost the baby."

A phone rang in the distance, but Peyton ignored it. Only her father still called the house phone and he had a way of breaking reality to her that she wasn't ready to hear just yet. He cared and for that, she was thankful, but he had a habit of making her more angry than he cheered her up. She'd let the answering machine catch his sympathy.

Her mind went to David, but a quick survey of their room told her that he wasn't home. A more thorough survey lead her to a note at the foot of her bed. She recognized the handwriting as she picked it up to read.

"You asked to be alone. Granted. I'm so sorry Peyton. I'll be back in a couple hours to check in on you- Amy."

The note accounted for her assistant's absence, but not for her husband's. She remembered that no one had been able to get a hold of him at the hospital and it was apparent Amy wasn't able to get a hold of him either. She didn't know if she should be worried, or cry.

No sooner than the thought of David and his whereabouts crossed her mind she heard the jingle of his keys and the front door to the house open. Slowly she maneuvered from the bed to the doorway of the their room. She shouldn't have gotten up at all , after all she was sore, but will power was now added by fury.

So she waited, but she didn't have to wait long. He had a routine. He'd make his way back to the bedroom to rid his work clothes before he'd partake in anything else.

He was in the hall before she could count to twenty and she showed no mercy in her ambush of him.

"Where were you?! I've been trying to reach you all day!."

Startled, David stopped in his tracks. "Babe, what are you doing?"

"Where were you?"

"I had a meeting with a client", he offered softly .

"All day?!" She asked in disbelief.

"It wasn't all day. I saw that Amy called, he replied as he removed his over coat.

"And you couldn't be bothered to check your voice mail?" She watched him shrug as if was nothing.

Angry tears welled up in her eyes. She tried to suppress them, but the effort only made her head ache and the overwhelming urge to cry that much stronger.

"Peyton, is something wrong? What is it?" Worry lines etched into his forehead.

She wanted to roll her eyes, where was his concern when she needed him earlier?

She closed her eyes and turned her head away from him. "I-I lost the baby."

"WHAT? Peyton?" He stepped forward and reached for her hand.

"Don't," she whispered dangerously as she went to retreat back into the room.

"Peyton?"

She rounded on him furiously. "Don't bother David, you seem to be good at that! I needed you!" Her voice broke. "I shouldn't feel like I need to be a painting to be a priority to you."

"Honey ,you usually call a least three times a day-"

"SO WHAT! I guess I should be lucky that lately you only manage to answer one of them?"

"Peyton, I didn't know, I didn't. I'm here now."

Peyton didn't respond, but simply turned away from him and entered the bedroom.

Anger and resentment still rolled around inside Peyton when she heard David call out her ten minutes later, but as much as Peyton still wanted to be upset with him, she just couldn't.

Her need for his comfort was far greater and when she turned over on her side to meet his face from where he stood in the door way his face mirrored her own: glazed, red rimmed eyes, pale skin wet with tears. She instantly recalled the smile that had illuminated David's face the first time he felt the baby kick, she knew her emptiness was shared.

"Peyton, I'm sorry."

She swallowed hard, and nodded her head, and quickly she felt his arms around her pulling her into his embrace and holding her tightly against him as they cried together.

****END FLASHBACK****

"Are you sure he's going to be okay Luke?"

"Yeah. Yes, he is."

Her eyes met his. "Yeah, you right." And as they exited the off ramp to the hospital Peyton focused on believing so.

____________________________________________________________________

So that was chapter 4!

Lucas and Peyton coming soon , don't worry.

Please let me know what you thought of this chapter.

What do you think is going to happen?

Questions, concerns???