Hey guys, here's the next chapter. It's kind of short, but definitely worth it. I hope you like it. Reviews are very much appreciated!

POPSICLEx3LOVE

Thanks to: Josie, jamyj30, othstewy, luvtheOC09, RaeRaeRaeLiz, kaligator, LeytonTilEnd, voodoochild93, Sarah11650, perfectharmony22, for reviewing. I really appreciate it!

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Chapter Quote:

As for courage and will - we cannot measure how much of each lies within us, we can only trust there will be sufficient to carry through trials which may lie ahead. --- Andre Norton

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Chapter 6

"Hey dad." Peyton said, sitting at the computer still in her pajamas from getting up 15 minutes ago.

"Hi honey, listen, I don't have a lot of time but I got your messages and you said it was important. So what's up?" Larry said smiling.

"Well you see, I'm si…"

Larry interrupted, "Sorry to interrupt Peyton but I wanted to tell you that we're extending our time out here an extra four months. So I won't be home until February or early March. I know that leaves you alone for the holidays but you and Brooke can do something together. Business has been going great and now is not really the time to come home."

Peyton looked at the camera in disappointment, but seeing the smile on her dad's face made her not say anything. Her dad hadn't been home in three months and he still had two months left, and now the extra four months. He had missed so much; he didn't even know that she was fighting with Brooke. "Yeah, I'm glad everything is going great." Peyton said regretfully

Larry's smile widened, "What was it you wanted to tell me?"

"I'm sick." Peyton said simply and almost unemotionally.

A loud beeping siren was heard and Larry turned around to look. "Go to the doctor Peyt. I know you hate them but you'll get better, I promise. You know where the insurance card is. I have to go, there some type of emergency. I love you."

"No wait, dad! I'm sick… I have leukemia." Peyton said quickly but the screen had already gone black. Tears rapidly began streaking down her face as she hovered over the computer. She sat there for several minutes before getting up and walking downstairs to find Lucas. Peyton walked into the kitchen and found Nathan slumped over the sports section of the newspaper.

"Hey." He said as she walked to the refrigerator and took out the orange juice.

"Hi Nate. Where's Luke?" Peyton said as she poured a glass of juice and then sat down at the table next to Nathan.

"He had to run home for a little while he said something about helping his mom, but he said he'd be home before eleven. He thought you'd be sleeping for a lot longer."

Peyton nodded with disappointment. It was only 8:23, which would mean about two and a half hours without him.

"Listen, Peyton, I just wanted you to know that I'll be there with you and Luke through it all. I want to help. If you need anything, and I mean anything don't hesitate to ask. I know I wasn't there for you when we dated but I'm different now and I'll help with anything." Nathan said intently, reaching out to grab Peyton's hand.

Tears automatically sprung to her eyes, "Thanks. I really appreciate that." Peyton said quietly, squeezing his hand tightly before letting go and taking a drink of her juice.

"Your appointment is at 4." Nathan said absently, reading the newspaper.

"What appointment?" Peyton said.

Nathan looked up, "Oh, Lucas didn't tell you. Right, well you have an appointment with Dr… Robin something, to discuss treatments and stuff."

Peyton's face fell. "Oh." Tears gathered in her eyes and she jumped up and ran up the stairs before Nathan could see them, though he had. He got up and followed her into her room but Peyton was already in her bathroom and had locked the door.

"Peyton, come out okay? It'll be alright, I promise." After he pleaded with her for several minutes with no avail he slid down the wall out side the bathroom and closed his eyes listening to the quiet sobs coming from the bathroom, his heart clenching.

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"What are you doing?"

Nathan opened his eyes to see Lucas hovering over him. "Uh, hi."

"Hi, what are you doing?" Lucas repeated.

Nathan frowned sheepishly, "Well you see, Peyton's in there. She locked the door and I was trying to get her to come out."

"Peyton locked herself in there? When?" Lucas said turning towards the door.

"Yeah at about 8:30, I was just reminding her about her appointment today at 4 and she ran up here crying.."

Lucas knocked on the door gently, "Peyton, its Luke, why don't you open the door?"

Several seconds later there was a click and the door opened, Peyton ran out and gave Lucas a giant hug, soaking him with the tears that were coming out.

"It's okay Peyton, let it out. Just let it out. It's okay." He whispered into her ear.

Her sobs slowly quieted and she pulled away from him slightly, but still leaned on him. "What were you doing in there for two hours?" Lucas said.

"Crying." Peyton said shyly.

"It'll be okay Peyton. Did you talk to your dad this morning?"

She looked away at the mention of her dad, "Yes."

"When is he coming home?" Lucas said.

"He's not." Peyton said.

"What do you mean he's not?" Lucas said angrily.

Peyton started to walk away and stood in front of the window. "In fact, he's extending his trip four months; he'll be home in February or early March."

Luke followed her and turned her around, even with the tears running down her face once again he couldn't help but be angry, "What the hell do you mean Peyton? He's not coming home? Didn't you tell him you were sick?"

She nodded, "I told him I was sick and he said 'go to the doctor Peyton, you know where the insurance card is.' and then I tried to tell him it was leukemia and the screen went blank." She cried.

Lucas pulled her into a hug, "I'm so sorry Peyton."

Nathan, who was standing off to the side, interrupted their affectionate session, "Sorry to interrupt the love fest but I'm going to go. I have a few things I need to do. Call me if you need anything while I'm out. I'll see you guys tonight."

Nathan started to walk out but Peyton called his name and he turned around, "Will you come with us? To the hospital, I mean."

Nathan was shocked but nodded, "Of course." He then turned around and walked out leaving Lucas and Peyton in each others embrace.

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Peyton and Lucas were lying in Peyton's bed, just holding each other. Neither of them had talked much, but they knew what each was thinking. They were both thinking about the leukemia, it was a scary thought and it was going to be tough to get through. But until their doctor's appointment which was later in the day, neither would know what would happen. Peyton knew this would only get worse, it had too; but she knew that as long as she had Lucas and Nathan it would be okay, they would take care of her.

"Luke, what do you think will happen? I mean with treatments and stuff." Peyton said rubbing designs into Lucas' hand with the pad of her finger.

"I don't know Peyt, I think you'll have to do chemo and/or radiation. It will be rough Peyton. I know that. It's definitely not going to be happy times, you might lose your hair and the nausea and pains and all but we're all here for you…. when I went home today I told my mom."

"Luke…"

"I know Peyt at I thought I had screwed up big because I didn't know if you wanted me to tell people or not, but I needed to tell someone and now I think it's a good thing, I mean since your dad isn't coming home we're going to need an adult and my mom and Keith are more than willing to help. They can come with us today to the appointment. We're going to need help Peyton, more than Nathan and I can do."

Peyton sat contemplating what he said for a few minutes before nodding, "Thanks Luke. You're right we are going to need your mom and Keith's help. Why don't you call them and if they will come with us today?"

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Lucas and Peyton once again sat in Dr. Robinson's waiting room but this time Karen, Keith and Nathan were sitting with them. The tension and apprehension was very thick and they all sat in silence. Peyton was clutching onto Lucas's arm, he was trying to soothe her by rubbing her hands with the fingers. When Lucas had called Karen and Keith to talk to them, he mentioned that Larry wasn't coming home. Keith immediately stepped in and asked Lucas what time Peyton's appointment was today. It made Lucas feel better knowing that Peyton was going to have a lot of support and help.

"Peyton Sawyer?" The assistant, who they now knew was named Katherine.

Peyton shakily got up and headed to the esk, alone. "Hi honey, I need you to fill out these forms, we have some of the information from your doctor's office, but we need you to fill in the rest." Peyton grabbed the clipboard and muttered a 'thank you' to Katherine, who she knew she'd be seeing a lot of in the next coming months, maybe even years. Peyton returned back to her seat and tried to concentrate on filling out the form, but as she looked over the form, her mind went blank. After watching Peyton cross out several wrong versions of answers Karen gently took the papers from Peyton. "Thank you Karen."

"Don't worry about it Peyt."

They all sat there in silence for a few more minutes before Katherine called Peyton back to Dr. Robinson's office. All five of them headed back to the office and there was a surprised look on Dr. Robinson's face as he opened the door. "Hello and you must be Mr. and Mrs. Sawyer?"

When Peyton looked away, he knew he must have made a mistake.

Karen spoke up, covering for Peyton, "Actually we are Lucas' parents. Larry, Peyton's dad, owns his own business and leaves for long periods of time and Peyton's mom, I should say moms, since she is adopted, one died many years ago in an accident and her real mother died just recently due to breast cancer."

If Dr. Robinson had a look of surprise before he definitely had an astonished look now, "Well, I'm very sorry I was mistaken, but it is good you are here. Please have a seat."

As they walked in Dr. Robinson noticed Nathan, "Hello, who are you?"

"I am one of Peyton and Luke's best friends. I am pretty much living with them now."

Dr. Robinson nodded, he sat down across from the group; Keith and Karen sat at the end, Nathan sat next to Peyton and then finally Luke, who was holding onto a shaking Peyton.

"Well I know that you probably just want to get to the chase. We're going to have to set up a treatment schedule. Oh, sorry, I jumped a little bit too far. We are going to have to do rigorous chemotherapy sessions to help your body grow new blood cells, which we hope will be healthy. Now unless you completely and totally object, we would need to keep you in the hospital, so that you will be less like to catch an infection or cold. You see, we are going to almost completely deplete your immune system to get rid of all of the bad cells in your body." He paused for a minute to let them completely absorb all he had said and to let them ask questions.

To his surprise, Peyton was the first to speak up. "I don't want to stay in the hospital; I can't do this while I stay in the hospital. I hate hospitals as it is, I don't really have a good track record with them, and I honestly don't think I'll fight to keep going on if I can't go home to where I'm comfortable and I can see everyone."

Dr. Robinson nodded, "Okay, well there will be additional dangers then, but we'll just have to take very cautious steps. You will have to come in for chemo three times a week. You will have off weeks where you won't have chemo, and you will have time to recover. There will be major changes to your life though; you will not be able to go to school. You will be so sick that there is no way you could handle going to school. If you feel like it, I'm sure we could arrange you being tutored by someone you know or even just having your work sent over so you can do it. You will sleep a lot, I mean a lot. There are side affects to chemotherapy too, such as nausea and vomiting. They will be severe. You may even lose your hair." Peyton was slowly turning white and Dr. Robinson noticed. "Look Peyton, I don't want to sugar coat this. The next few months are going to be difficult and you are going to want to give up, but you can't, okay? If you don't, I won't. You have a lot of support, which is great. We'll get you through this."

"Are you going to be my doctor through all of the treatments?"

"Yes I am, and this is when I request that you call me Adam, Dr. Robinson makes me seem really old, and we'll be spending quite a bit of time together."
"So when does she start treatments?" Karen asked.

"I'd like to start in three days, on Friday. She'll have only one session this week. I will need you to come in tomorrow for tests Peyton. And then Thursday I want you to rest, you are definitely going to need it."

All this talk made Peyton shiver and Lucas tightened his hold on her hand.

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Lucas, Nathan, and Peyton all sat in Lucas' truck as he drove them back to Peyton's house. Nathan sat in the seat next to them singing a horrible version of It's Not Over by Daughtry. They were laughing at him, but he kept on singing, happy that he had made Peyton laugh. As the song got over Nathan allowed himself to laugh.

"Nathan, please don't ever sing again!" Peyton exclaimed through her laughs.

Lucas continued to laugh. Yet things were still bugging him deep down. Peyton was going to start chemo in three days. They only had three days of normalcy, three days of bliss.

"Peyton, do you want to go out tonight?" Lucas said as he pulled into her driveway.

"I don't know Luke." Peyton said, getting out of the car and going up to her room, Lucas following.

"I'm going to watch the game, you want to join?" Nathan said, plopping down on the couch.

"No, I'm going to go talk to Peyton. Convince her to do something tonight."

Nathan nodded and Lucas headed up the stairs.

"We could get dinner, go to a movie, something." Lucas offered.

"Why do you want to go out? Maybe we could stay in watch a movie or something."

Lucas sighed, "I thought we could go out and do something normal. Before things get crazy and we can't leave because you'll be sick."

Peyton wheeled around. "What do you mean? You can go Lucas, you can go anytime. I don't want my sickness to keep you from living your life."

"That's not what I meant Peyton and you know it. I don't want to go and do things without you. You aren't going to be able to leave, so I'm not either."

"I want you to be able to do what you want. I don't want you stuck here taking care of me, I can do it myself." Peyton huffed, rummaging through her drawers for her brush.

"Sure." Lucas said under his breath, but Peyton had heard.

"What the hell do you mean by that Lucas?" Peyton said, staring him straight in the eye.

Lucas stumbled over his words, "Nothing, never mind. I just wanted to have a normal high school life tonight, before we start a crazy schedule. Why don't we go have dinner with our group of friends? We could have a life tonight; you never want to go out. Let's do it before we don't have a chance."

You could literally see the anger radiating off of Peyton, "You know what Lucas. Go, Leave. I don't care. Go out by yourself."

Lucas reared back, "Not without you. I'm not leaving."

"Just go Lucas! Go! I don't want to hold you back. Go live your life; you don't need to be burdened by a sick girl." Peyton screamed pushing on his chest. "Leave! Get out!."

"You aren't a burden Peyton, I love you." Lucas said trying to pull her into a hug. She pulled away and turned around. "Just go." she muttered.

"Peyt…" He started.

"Go!" Peyton cried. Lucas fled from the room and Peyton fell to her knees in tears.

As Luke flew down the stairs, Nathan came into Peyton's room. Peyton was rocking back and forth tears running down her cheeks.

"What happened?" Nathan said, pulling Peyton onto his lap.

"I didn't mean to, I made him leave. I love him Nate, I need him."
She continued to cry in Nathan's arms as they heard the squeal of Luke's tires out of her driveway.

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