A/N OKay so there is no excuse for the lateness so I'm not even gonna try. This is chapter 8, only two chapters to go! Much of my inspiration for this chapter came from my favourite episode- 410, Songs to Love and Die By.
Disclaimer: *Looks in the mirror* Nope still not Mark Schwahn.
"Evening, Luke."
Lucas heard a very familiar voice. He opened his eyes slowly and squinted through the darkness to see Keith sitting in an armchair behind a desk. His uncle sighed.
"I'm supposed to say 'sorry you're in a coma' but frankly we've been here before, haven't we? Again, Luke? Why are you doing this to Peyton?"
Luke finally spoke. "You suck at this Keith," he said, his voice sounding harsh and unused. "Besides, what does Peyton have to do with anything?"
Keith merely raised one eyebrow and gestured towards the door.
On the other side was the back of a car. As they sat down, Lucas noticed it wasn't just any car, it was the Comet. The landscape around them was pitch black, though that could still have been the patient's unused eyes adjusting. They were zooming along the main road. Peyton picked up her phone.
"Hello?" she said brightly. "Nathan?"
Lucas listened to the rest of the conversation and was shocked by Peyton's tears.
"She hates me," he said, trying to convince himself.
"No, Luke. You uprooted everyone's worlds," Keith sighed sadly.
The older man led the younger out of the speeding car to show him everyone else's reactions: his mother in the middle of the night, Nathan by his pool, Brooke in New York and Mouth at Tric. Finally they burst out into an empty street.
"Do you know where we are, Luke?" Keith asked.
"No…" Lucas replied.
"This is where Peyton works her tiring minimum-wage job where she gets yelled at by her boss at least three times per day. She works here solely because it's close enough to Tree Hill to come and visit you every night and far enough away for her not to be haunted by her memories."
For once, Lucas was speechless. Suddenly the door to the store opened and Peyton herself walked out. She looked so old and tired that Lucas hadn't recognised her at first. The image faded.
"That was last week," Keith revealed.
The comatose young man looked around. "We're in the cemetery again," he observed.
Next to Keith's gravestone was a brand new one, also labelled 'Scott'.
"You have three options from here," Keith said. "Option one…"
Lucas read the stone.
Lucas Scott
Beloved son, brother, friend and partner.
September 3rd 1985- May 5th 2009
A young woman approached the stone and began to sob. As they watched her the sun went down.
"I should've said yes," she sobbed. "I never told you I loved you because I do. I love you, Lucas."
Before their eyes the woman aged.
"She moved on," Keith continued to narrate, "eventually, but she still comes back every year just to talk to you."
Once more the scene faded. They were back at the hospital. An elderly woman leant over the bed of an elderly man.
"This is your second choice, Luke," the young man was told. "You stay here in limbo and Peyton's entire life is spent waiting for you to wake up, stuck in her dead-end job.
A doctor, who was notably younger than this version of Peyton, walked into the room, straight through the two Scott men.
"Miss Sawyer," she said softly. "We're going to have to turn it off now."
Peyton looked ready to start crying again.
"What's happening?" Lucas asked, alarmed.
"They're turning off your life support."
Despair for Peyton and two wasted lives coursed through Lucas' veins. "No! No, I don't choose this option! What's number three?" he demanded.
"I think you know," his uncle replied. "Well, this is my last stop. I'll see you soon, or at the end of your long happy life, whichever you choose," he said dryly.
"Wait!" Lucas exclaimed. "Does that mean there is a heaven?"
Keith grinned. "Couldn't possibly say," he winked.
"You suck at this, Keith," Lucas complained.
"I've heard." The older man looked seriously at the younger one. "I know what choice you'll make. Look after my girls for me."
"You really don't have to come, Hales," Nathan said for the hundredth time as Haley and Jamie followed him into the airport.
"Yes I do," Haley said stubbornly. "I have to face them sooner or later and besides, Lucas is my best friend… was my best friend."
Nathan knew he wasn't changing her mind.
"You know Peyton is highly likely to throw something, Karen will be disappointed and Lucas won't even know, right?"
Haley nodded sombrely.
Truth be told, Nathan was worried about his friends' reactions to Haley after so long. He wondered how the years had suited Brooke and hoped beyond hope that Peyton's New York weekend had put some more youth back into her.
"Okay," he sighed. "Let's go."
Once they were on the plane the lack of conversation topics got awkward. Jamie was wedged between the two adults, talking nineteen to the dozen about how excited he was to see Tree Hill again. Eventually, he fell asleep.
Suddenly, Haley began to cry.
"Oh god, Nathan, I'm so sorry," she sobbed. "It's all just so messed up, you know?"
Nathan reached over to uneasily pat her shoulder.
"I get it," he said sympathetically. "When I found out about Luke I spent the week in a bar, calling you, Peyton and Brooke all the names under the sun."
"Thank you, Nathan." Haley's brown orbs penetrated Nathan's deep blue ones.
He looked questioningly at her.
"You let me go," she clarified. "Then you didn't give up on me and you've accepted me back into your life. I find it incredible how far you've come since I met you, how understanding and forgiving you are."
"I promised always and forever, Haley James Scott," Nathan shrugged.
Both adults felt hope for the first time in a long while.
Nathan and Haley both shuddered as the memories threatened to overcome them.
"This airport is where Luke proposed to Peyton for the second time," Nathan murmured.
Before long they were speeding towards the hospital in Nate's car. To a passer-by they would look like the picture of a happy family.
"I'm so excited to see Uncle Lucas again," Jamie chirped. "He promised we could work on a car together when I was big enough."
The adults exchanged looks.
"Jamie, honey," Haley began, "Uncle Lucas isn't very well. He's in the hospital and he's… sleeping to get better."
"When will he wake up?" Jamie asked innocently.
"We don't know, bud, but he might be able to hear you," Nathan replied.
