-Lucas had recuperated from his previous breakdown and was in the living room pretending to watch tv when he heard a knock at the door. He sighed and slowly got up to go answer it.
-"I forgot to give you a key, sorry." He told her as he opened the door. Seeing her there, at his door, right in front of him, it seemed unbelievable. No matter the amount of times he told himself that she really was alive, he just couldn't help the surprise at seeing her there.
-"It's alright." She said quietly. It was getting to her too to have him right in front of her. It had been so long.
-"Oh! Come on in." He realised that she had been standing there and let her through. "It's all you have?" He asked staring at her small duffel bag.
-"Oh! Yeah, I only bought a few things when I got out of the hospital." She said slightly embarrassed.
-"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have sa…" He saw her expression and felt guilty.
-"It's fine." She interrupted him. She was tired of people apologizing for her screwed up life, it wasn't anybody's fault.
-They walked into the apartment. "So, I was thinking you take my room I'm going to sleep in my office, there's a futon."
-"Huh no you don't have to, I could…"
-"Take my room Peyton." He decided for them.
-In consideration, he probably felt as awkward with her sleeping in his bedroom that she seemed to feel at the idea, but it was not like he could have her sleep on the futon, she had just gotten out of the hospital for god's sake.
-"You sure?" She asked trying to hide her embarrassment.
-"Yeah." He walked into a room and she followed. "That's it." He motioned to the interior of the room.
-It was very him. The walls were a deep blue and the furniture was simple but beautiful. She walked in slowly and left her bag on the floor.
-"I'm just going to take a few things, Brooke called, her and Anna should be here in about 15 minutes." He saw her distressed expression.
-"Don't worry, you can hide here till Brooke's gone and tell her when you're ready. I was thinking that we could go get your clothes tomorrow while Anna's at school if it's okay."
-"Huh sure." She was completely distracted by the thought that she was going to see her daughter in 15 minutes, it seemed so surreal.
-She followed Lucas distractedly as he took a few pieces of clothing and left the room. The two of them walked in the office. This room was totally different from the rest of the apartment. You could see that he spent a great amount of time here. Everything felt like him. She took a deep breath to calm down her emotions.
-"Your apartment, it's beautiful."
-"Thanks." He said, awkwardly sitting on his desk.
-"I read it you know." She said looking at the posters that were on the wall.
-"What?" He asks not knowing which book she was talking about.
-"Your first novel. I read it. It was great."
-"Oh!" And just like that they were back at awkward again. His book had been about her, about them and they both knew it.
-After their break-up, he had been reticent to have it published, but his publisher had refused to pull it out, so it had been published, much to his dismay. He had to spent to next few months diffusing questions about who the book was about from readers and journalists. He had always wondered if she had read it though.
-"Lucas…" They were interrupted by the sound of Anna and Brooke walking in.
-"Daddy I'm back." They both froze at hearing Anna's voice.
-Peyton's first reflex had been to run to her daughter, hug her and never let her go but the next voice stopped her dead in her tracks.
-"Scott, we're here." She couldn't see Brooke now. As much as she had missed her and wanted to see her again, she just couldn't do it now. She wasn't ready to go over everything again and she wanted to see Anna alone first.
-Lucas finally unfroze.
-"Stay here, I'll bring her here when Brooke's gone." Lucas said with an unreadable expression on his face as he left the room and closed the door behind him.
-How the hell was he going to do this? This question was the only thing that he could think about as he made his way to the vestibule.
-"Daddy!!!!" Anna yelped as she ran to him and jumped into his arms.
-He hugged her and kissed her hair distractedly.
-"Hey baby! Did you have fun with Brooke?" He asked setting her back down.
-"Yup we went to the park and we played on the swings and then we went to a really pretty restaurant and I ate chicken nuggets and after we went to the movies and we saw the movie about the horse." She said excitedly.
-"I'm glad you had fun. Did you say thank you to Brooke?"
-"Don't worry broody, she did. The kid's an angel." Brooke smiled at the little girl. "So, not that I want to bail but I got to go, I got a very important meeting in the morning."
-"Thanks again Brooke." Lucas said giving her a hug.
-"No problem. Like I said, I love to spend time with the kid. I'll see you Sunday kiddo." She told Anna, bending down to give the little girl a big hug.
-"Okay Brooke." Anna said hugging her back.
-"I'm going to expect an explanation of broody central Luke, just so we're clear." She smirked at Lucas.
-"I'm not broody."
-"Tell that to your face." She smirked again and Lucas smirked back.
-"Not funny. Well anyway, you'll probably find out soon enough. Good night Brooke." Lucas said opening the door for her. Brooke gave one last hug to Anna and got up.
-"Good night kiddo, bye Luke." And just like that she was out the door.
-"You hungry?" Lucas asked Anna once Brooke was gone and the two of them were left alone in the apartment, well for Anna they were alone.
-She nodded excitedly and the two of them made their way to the kitchen. Lucas prepared her snack and handed it to her while listening to her talk about her day at school and her night with Brooke.
-He knew that Peyton was in the other room, probably a nervous wreck, waiting to see Anna, but he needed time to figure out what the hell he was going to say to the girl beforehand since 'hey sweetie it turns out your mommy wasn't dead' was probably not going to cut it.
-He wanted to be honest with her, but he also knew that at barely six the chances that she would understand what was happening were pretty slim. Hell, he was 26 and he was completely confused on how this all could have happened.
-Finally, as she was done with her snack and was about to go play into her room before bath time he gathered his courage and spoke.
-"Ann, baby. There is something that I need to talk to you about."
