-Once they were safely in the car Lucas turned to Peyton worryingly.

-"You okay?"

-"You weren't suppose to get involve Luke!" She said exasperated.

-"I know okay, but I heard the shouting and then the clash and I, I thought that you might have gotten hurt or something."

-"I'm fine Luke." She knows he was only trying to help, but she's pissed and right now he's the only one who's there.

-"Yeah but you could have not been fine. I can't just stand by and watch you get hurt Peyt, okay I just can't. That's not who I am. Beside I could have never lived with myself if something would have happened to you."

-"It was Brooke Luke, not some psycho, she wouldn't have hurt me."

-"But he did." He says impulsively and then stops abruptly as he realises what he has just said.

-Peyton froze, that was the last thing she had expected. One second they were talking about Brooke and the next they weren't.

-"Luke," she tried to get him to look at her but he's looking right ahead, concentrating on the road.

-"Luke, look at me." She tried again, all her previous anger at him walking in gone completely and replaced by concern for him.

-"We're almost at school." He said once again without looking at her.

-The second they stop in the school parking lot, her hand is on his stopping him from walking out of the car.

-"Luke."

-"It's nothing okay. You were right. I told you I was going to stay out of it, I should have stayed outside. I'm sorry."

-"I don't care about that. I just want to know why you said that."

-He's looking straight ahead, fixing a far away point.

-"Luke." She tries again but no change. Finally she has had enough. Forcefully, she reaches out and grab his face with both of her hands, forcing him to look at her.

-"Peyt." He pleads.

-"Tell me." Her eyes are boring into his, somehow trying to find the answer in his soul.

-He evades her grasp and looks out the window.

-"I keep seeing it." He starts, looking through the window, away from her.

-"Keep seeing what Luke?" She asks quietly, happy that he's finally opening up but at the same time dreading his answer.

-"You. Each time I close my eyes I see it. I see you sitting there in pain, blood pouring out of your leg. I came in too late Peyt, and because of that you got hurt and I'm terrified that it's going to happen again."

-"Luke." She's speechless. She has no idea what to do to help him but she knows that she needs for him to look at her.

-"When I heard the clash, my mind flashed to that place again and I couldn't not do anything. I was terrified that I was going to be too late again. That can't happen again Peyt, I can't loose you too, not after…" He finishes with tears in his eyes. She can't see them since he won't look at her but she knows they're there.

-"Lucas." She reaches for one of his hand. "Lucas look at me, please."

-She's convinced that she's not getting through until he finally, slowly, turns to look at her and like she expected, he's got tears in his eyes and she feels guilty. She feels guilty for not having realised that some of the pain he had been carrying around since that day was about something other than his uncle's death.

-"You saved my life Luke."

-He's about to object when she continues.

-"It doesn't matter when you showed. The only thing that matters is that you did. You couldn't have stopped him from shooting me Luke, you're not Superman."

-"But I could…"

-"Don't. Don't do this. It happened, it's in the past now. There's nothing that you can do about that, you can't go back and changed it. I got hurt yeah, but I didn't die, and that's all because of you. I appreciate you wanting to keep me safe, really I do, and I love you for that. But you can't keep me in a bubble Luke."

-"Why not? I think I could enjoy that." He smirks and she's elated. He's smiling, she's getting somewhere.

-"Yeah?" She flirts. Mostly to relieve the tension but also because she loves it. She loves that now she can do things like that with him whenever she wants.

-"Definitely." He flirts back, scanning her body as he speaks. He grins when he sees her blush under his scrutiny.

-"Luke." She wants to keep talking about what happened. She knows that she's not going to be able to trust herself much longer if he keeps looking at her like that.

-"Yeah?" He grinned somehow knowing exactly what she's thinking.

-"We weren't done talking about…"

-"I know. But that was fun." She shots him a look. "Okay. Look, I'm scared. I'm scared of something happening to you. And I'm probably going to be scared for awhile. I know that I can't keep you in a bubble, as fun as that sound, but could you just maybe, you know, just for a little while…"

-"Let you play bodyguard." She tries, really she does, but there's just no way she can keep the flirting out of her voice.

-He blushes at her insinuation and then laugh nervously as the way she looks at him reaches parts of him that shouldn't be reached in the school parking lot.

-His eyes darken and her breath catches in her throat. God she loves when he looks at her like that.

"How much body are we talking about here?" His lustful eyes scanning her up and down as his hands reach for her waist, pulling her to him.

-She tries to come up with something to say, anything, but the way he looks at her and his hands on her are too much and she determines that they definitively can finish this conversation later.

-Pushing everything else but the feeling of him out of her mind she eagerly catches his lips with hers.

-Instantly he kisses her back, tracing her bottom lip with his tongue, begging for entrance that she willingly grants. He reaches one hand to the back of her neck, angling her head to give him better access, his hand then moving into her hair as his other hand is busy caressing her naked thighs under her skirt.

-His lips then move from her mouth, descending on her neck and gently sucking on her pulse point, beaming at the realization of just how fast her heart his beating, even though he knows for sure that his is beating just as fast. He feels her fingers on his clothed chest and can feel the heat through the thin fragment as he hears her moans in his ear.

-"Luke." She protests weakly, some part of her faintly aware of their surrendering, but before she can protest again his lips are back on hers, his tongue in her mouth doing nothing to calm her raging hormones, and she stops protesting altogether, giving into the feeling of him.

-"Taptaptap."

-They spring apart at the sound of someone knocking on the window, but it's too late the offender has already seen all that there was too see. Peyton blushes profusely before rolling down the window, wishing to God that Haley hasn't seen too much.

-Nathan laugh out loud at the expression on Haley's face. Poor girl had wanted to say hi to her friends and ran out to the car before he could even suggest that maybe it wasn't a good idea and apparently she stumbled on something because as he finally reaches them Haley is stunned into silence while the two blondes look mortified.

-"So, you two getting cozy?" He smirks at the blushing blondes in the car.

-"Huh no, not at all. We were just talking." Lucas tries to argue, but it's the farthest thing from convincing.

-"Really? But Luke, isn't your hand a little high on her thigh for 'just talking'" He makes the quote signs with his fingers as Lucas dashes his hand away from Peyton's leg while she blushed even more and pulls her skirt back to its normal length.

-"Nathan," Haley squeals horrified.

-"What? I think it's funny that if you hadn't interrupted them, they would have probably gone R rated right in the school parking lot."

-Three identical sets of bewildered eyes flew in his direction.

-"We weren't…" Peyton tries to argue.

-"Of course you weren't honey." Nathan says in a faked condescending tone, that makes her glare at him again.

"Why are you guys here by the way?" Lucas asks trying to change the subject before Peyton rips Nathan a new one.

-"It's school, and it's school time. What did you guys think it was, Lover's Lane?" He smirked.

-"I meant what are you doing here, here. As in next to my car." Lucas asks again, ignoring Nathan's jibe.

-"Haley wanted to speak to Peyton. I tried to warn her about possibly finding this" He motioned between the two of them, "But she was gone before I could finish. That's too bad." He says in mocked deception as Lucas and Peyton finally walk out of the car to meet their friends outside.

-"Shut up Nathan. What's up Hales?" Peyton asked her friend.

-"Just wanted to talk, that's all." Haley answers, too embarrass to look Peyton in the eye.

-"Alright, let's talk then." She looks back at Luke. "I'll see you later."

-"Definitely." He leans down and brushes his lips to hers.

-"Do you guys need us to clear the perimeter or something?" Nathan joked.

-Lucas and Peyton broke the kiss and Peyton glared at Nathan. "Shut it perv. Now come on Hales." She pecked Lucas on the lips and then linked her arm with Haley.

-Nathan looked back at Luke with a huge grin on his face.

-"Someone was about to get lucky apparently. Lucky bastard."

-Lucas simply rolled his eyes at his brother and started to walk toward the school, with Nathan jogging to catch up to him.