Sorry for the late update, hoping that you will like this chapter. Thank you for reading and for the reviews. Enjoy!

Nathan Royal Scott had pride, he hated asking people for help and he would rather handle things by himself then show the world that he was only human and that he to sometimes found himself in situations that he really couldn't handle by himself. If it wasn't for Haley and for their baby he wouldn't be standing in front of Dan Scott about to ask him for money. It took every amount of strength that he had to stay there and watch his father give him the famous Dan Scott smirk, curling his lip slightly, looking at him with that look that clearly said how pathetic Dan thought he was.

"Dad, me and Haley are having money troubles" he started, finding it hard to meet his father's eyes, instead he looked down on the carpet, breathing slowly, finding it hard to tell his father that he needed his help, although he knew that Dan would help him as soon as he admitted that he needed his father it was still hard. "And I need your help, so can you help me?"

Dan Scott was known for taking care of his own, in his very special way, not everyone thought that he did it in such a good way, Nathan was one of them who most of the times thought that Dan only meant good, that he did what he could and that he didn't know how to help people in any other way. Money was one of the things he would gladly help anyone with, because that was one of the things that he had plenty of.

"No" he replied, Nathan starred at him with a questioning look on his face not knowing if he were to believe that his father had just denied him help, he always thought that he could count on his dad whenever he wanted help.

To hear him say no, deny him that help made him feel worthless, his own mom didn't want him and chose the pills over him, for a moment he knew just how Lucas felt every day. He knew sense he was a kid that he had a father, a dad, but that man didn't want him. Even if he was the lucky one of the two he still felt like shit because Dan didn't want him and if Karen had done what Dan wanted then he wouldn't exist. And to live in a world where he wouldn't have his older brother was to Nathan a pretty screwed up world.

"Why not?" he just asked, still trying to recover from the shock he had felt when his dad had told him no.

"You wanted to be an adult son" Dan Scott replied, not feeling like he owned Nathan anything, according to him he had been let down by his son, by both of his sons to many times for him to forgive them, and he didn't own them anything. "Now you are, and if you excuse me I have a meeting"

Nathan looked out the door and saw three elderly men sit there look in on him with interest probably wondering what was going on. Without a single word he walked out of his father's office and out of the house not wanting to talk to anyone at all. The anger he felt about the fact that his own dad didn't even want to help him would probably cause him to scream at anyone, even Haley and she didn't deserve getting him down her throat when she had done nothing wrong. He ran towards the river court, a place he had come to love, this was the place where Lucas proved to him that he was the better basketball player, at the moment. He knew that he didn't really belong there, that his brother had the spot first, that he belonged on the other side of the river, where Dan Scott decided everything that happened, he had control over the entire city, and it made Nathan feel sick to his guts knowing that his father, the cruelest man in the world had gotten that power. Nathan laughed as he saw his older brother standing on the river walking back and forth while talking to Skills whom were sitting on the ground next to him.

"Hey look who's here" Skills said as soon as he saw Nathan, he smirked at him and pulled himself up from the ground before walking up to him and gave him a manly hug. "Nathan Scott ladies and gentlemen"

Nathan laughed before pretending to wave to an imaginary audience, Lucas rolled his eyes at his brothers antics, acting as if that he didn't find them funny at all but failed miserably.

"Soon to be broke Nathan Scott" he added, earning him some confused looks from both Lucas and Skills, he sighed deeply, there were no going back now, and he knew that if he was going to ask someone for help it might as well be his big brother, the guy who had been there more for him than his own father, and that says a lot. "The money is running out"

Lucas walked towards the benches and sat down, Nathan and Skills did the same and soon they just stared at each other now, Nathan still felt stupid for asking his big brother for help, he didn't want to but who else would he turn to? His father had already neglected him, his mom were a junkie and not someone you asked for money.

"I know that this is much to ask for Luke" he started fiddling with his fingers as he did so, Skills and Lucas shared a look and then turned their eyes back to him, apparently not understanding what this was getting to. "But I really need help, I don't have any money and I don't know what to do man"

"No" Lucas replied, Nathan sighed deeply pulling his fingers through his air, cursing over himself that he even thought that Lucas would help him, why would he? "It's not too much to ask for, I really wanna help you little brother, we can have a charity thing at Tric, have some great bands come play and the money we ear can go to you and Haley"

Nathan had a huge smile on his face, feeling happy that he had someone on his side, someone that was going to help him and that wanted to help him. He was suddenly filled with the great feeling that everything was going to be alright, no matter what things were going to work out for him, and with great friends like this how could it not?

"Oh my god Luke" he said, giving Lucas a manly hug. "Thank you, I really owe you big time man"

Lucas just smirked as they all just stood up and started walking away from there, towards Peyton's house where they knew the blond would be probably drawing one of her no one understands drawings that she did so well. Skills simply followed the brothers, a part of hi being jealous of the bond they shared, but he also knew that he was Lucas best friend, they had been friends forever and there was nothing that he didn't know about Lucas Scott, they were like Tim and Nathan, but unlike Tim, Skills didn't have a crush on him.

"No problem dude" Lucas replied as they walked, holding the ball in front of him as they walked. "Now, all we need is for mom and Peyton to be okay with this"

Nathan looked nervous at the thought of having to ask two more people to help him; Lucas was the only one noticing his discomfort and he laughed quietly before giving his brother a playful punch on the arm.

"Sucks don't it?" he asked.

"Yeah" he said as they walked slowly on the street. "And I was at Dan's first, asking him about money, he said no"

That's when both Lucas and Skills understood how wrong things had gone for Nathan; he would never have asked Dan unless it was really bad, neither he nor Lucas wanted to go to their dad with their problems if it could be avoided. And they walked under silence from there none of them wanting to talk about either Dan's reaction or what it meant that Nathan had actually gone to his father with his problems. Skills thought of his own father, and how he knew that he could talk to him about anything, they had a great father-son relationship and he always admired his father for being the way he was. For working on that company, for always being there for his children whenever he needed it. Skills would be him forever grateful for not being like Dan Scott. They soon arrived at Peyton's house, it looked empty but just as they were to walk away from there they saw Derek walk towards the door. He banked on it and screamed loudly for Peyton to get the door.

"Something's wrong dawg" Skills said, stating the obvious, Luke felt his cell phone vibrate, he looked on the display and saw Brookes picture.

"Brooke?" he answered, she were crying loudly sounding scared. "Brooke what's wrong?"

Derek weren't on the outside anymore, he had made his way in the house.

"Lucas I need you" she cried. "I'm at Peyton's house, Derek is not her brother, and he's a stalker, Lucas"

Lucas hung up on her and started running, the others calling his name behind him as they followed. Lucas couldn't stop, instead he just ran towards the house, thinking over and over again that he couldn't survive if something happened to Brooke. Terrified he ran in the house and up the stairs where he heard the girls scream loudly. When he got to Peyton's door he saw Brooke and Haley sit in one corner of the room tears running down their cheeks, Derek were leaning over Peyton, blood were running down her nose and she were crying, screaming at him to let her go.

"Let her go" he screamed, Derek turned around and saw him then smirked and looked down on Peyton again.

"She's mine" he whispered. "All mine"

He touched her cheeks and kissed her gently, while Peyton just cried and begged Lucas to get him of her, not able to take anymore he threw himself on Derek and punched his jaw, the blond immediately started bleeding heavily. Skills and Nathan stood on the doorstep, looking confused at what was going on.

"Nathan" Haley screamed and he ran over to her, taking her in his arms gently kissing her forehead.

"Babe I am so sorry I weren't here to protect you" he whispered, Skills just stood there watching Lucas and Derek fight, as did Brooke.

Her eyes filled with tears, and you saw that she was scared, frightened that Lucas would get hurt, that something would go wrong and that she would somehow lose him, and she wasn't ready to do that yet. He was her rock in this world, the one she needed next to her, and the one she wanted next to her when all her dreams come true.

"LUCAS" she screamed, when she saw Derek take a knife and point it at him, he turned around and looked at her, everything went in slow motion as the knife went through the air and they all saw how Derek pushed it into Lucas chest.

His eyes widened as it went through, and he fell to the floor, blood were already running out the wound and he just laid there on the floor looking up on the ground, Brooke cried heavily, her vision blurry as she saw Derek stand up and look around. Skills took a step towards him, but was pushed away by yet another person that went through the door. Brooke vaguely saw that Skills and the new guy pushed Derek out the window, and then she ran over to Lucas, taking his hand.

"Oh my god Luke" she cried, he reached his hand to her cheek and touched it gently before smiling softly at her.

"Are you okay pretty girl?" he asked.

"I'm fine" she just replied, smiling through the tears, not being able not to smile about the fact that even when he was the one that was hurt he still wondered if she was hurt, he didn't even seem to care that someone had just put a knife through him. "We've gotta get you to a hospital, Luke"

Lucas lifted his head and looked down on the blood on his shirt, then he shrugged before nodding, the others walked over to him, all of them feeling different things. Nathan couldn't believe that things that had started so good had ended so wrong, he felt tears burn in his eyes, he didn't want his big brother to die, and he needed his brother in his life. Peyton felt guilty for being the reason that Lucas had been hurt, Skills and Haley both just stood there feeling scared for their best friend. Nathan took his cell phone, ironically noticing that yet again he was the one to call the ambulance.

"I'm sorry Luke" Peyton whispered as she sat down next to him.

"You have nothing to be sorry for Peyton" he whispered, his vision getting blurry, he's speech sounded off and he felt more tired by the second. "I'm gonna be fine"

Brooke laughed quietly, and he turned his face towards her still holding onto her hand.

"You better" she replied. "boyfriend"

He smiled softly at her, closing his eyes, Brooke cried heavier than before just as Lucas grip on her hand was softened and it fell to the ground. None of them had never been more scared before, seeing Lucas so still, not breathing, they just sat there all of them crying, not noticing anything around them, in their minds they were all hoping for Lucas to survive, to open his eyes and tell them it was a joke, but he didn't, and they were starting to wonder if he ever would.

Yeah, so maybe this chapter isn't the best ever. But I am going to try and write more soon, hopefully the next one will be better.

Hoping that you liked this one even if I weren't very pleased with it, as usual reviews are highly appreciated.