-Breakfast once again brought them right back to awkward. Peyton and Lucas didn't really have anything to say to each other and Anna, who could have been their common ground, the centre of interest, was apparently angry at the both of them now. She hadn't said a word to either Lucas or Peyton, though she didn't take her eyes away from Peyton once.

-This was a nice, even though a little bit creepy change, Peyton realised. Yesterday and midway through breakfast Anna had avoided looking at her, like she had the plague, but after she got up to go to the bathroom and had returned Anna had had her attention focused on her, an unreadable look on her face.

-Peyton had been a little confused about the change of attitude, but figured that Lucas must have talked to her, which he hadn't. Lucas had been as surprised by Anna's attention on Peyton as she had.

-"So, Anna, you should probably get ready for school." Lucas started after the three of them had finished breakfast.

-That was enough to make her look away from Peyton. She shot her father a look.

-"I'm not going." She decided, her eyes narrowing at him dangerously.

-"Anna…" Lucas started. He didn't really know what he was suppose to say. He thought that it would be best for her to keep as much a sense of normalcy as she could and that meant going to school, but also, he wanted her to get used to having her mother back into her life, and she couldn't do that in school. He had no idea what he was suppose to do.

-"I'm not going, you can't make me." She added stubbornly, pouting at her father.

-"Anna…"

-"Why doesn't she take a day off, just for today." Peyton tried, seeing the hesitation in Lucas.

-That brought both pair of eyes to settle on her, but whereas Lucas' were questioning, Anna's were still angry. So much for softening her up, Peyton thought sadly.

-"Hum alright," Lucas finally decided, "You can stay home, but just for today. Tomorrow you're going, no excuses." He warned.

-He didn't receive the thankful look that he was hoping for, instead Anna just looked at him blankly before going back to watching her mother, who was starting to fidget under the constant inspection.

-"Is there a problem Anna?" He asked a little taken aback by her reaction to him.

-She looked back at him and then at Peyton, before her angry eyes settled on him once again.

-"You took her side." She pointed accusingly at Peyton, who looked as surprised by the accusation as Lucas did.

-"Huh Anna, baby, I didn't take her side. There are no side. I just want all of us to be happy." He explained calmly.

-Was it possible for a six year old to sneer, because he was pretty sure that it was exactly what Anna did at that moment, she looked up at him an sneered. He knew that she was angry and probably a little lost right now, but the attitude was really going to have to go.

-"Apologize, Now." He stated more than asked.

-"No!" Anna answered, stubbornly crossing her arms over her chest.

-"You apologize, or you go sit in the corner, you choose."

-Peyton wanted to interfere, do something, but she realised that it wasn't her place, Lucas was the one being the parent and she had to stand by and watch. She hated that, she couldn't believe how much she would have wanted to be the one disciplining Anna right now. She was craving that sense of normalcy so much, it was killing her. It was weird that the part of parenting that she hated the most, discipline, was one of the things that she ached to get back the most. She wanted her life back.

-"Fine. I'm sorry okay." Anna pouted.

-"Good start, but not good enough. Why don't you think about it and try again. In the meantime, you're not leaving that seat. You hear me?"

-Anna narrowed her eyes at him but nonetheless nodded.

-"Hum, I'm going to go take a shower if that's alright." Peyton was dying to get out of there, she felt useless and she hated that.

-"Sure…"

-Peyton was halfway to the bathroom before he even finished his sentence. Lucas quickly went after her.

-"Peyton wait…"

-"What?" She answered, a little bit harder than she intended.

-Lucas was taken aback by her reaction but pushed it back quickly.

-"Are you alright?" He asked concerned.

-She looked at him for a few seconds and then.

-"No Lucas, I'm really not." And without waiting for a reaction she walked into the bathroom and closed the door behind her. Lucas sighed, threading his fingers through his hair. Why couldn't things just go smoothly for just a few hours.

-He could understand that it must have been hard for Peyton, to watch him with Anna while she just stood there, after all it was her daughter. She had been the one to take care of her until it had happened and now he had taken that from her. Peyton had lost everything and now she was scared of losing her daughter too, he could feel her pain. He had no idea what he would have done if he would have been the one going through all of this.

-He walked back to Anna who was still in her seat and sat in front of her, resting his head in his hands.

-"I'm sorry." Anna spoke, the arrogance was gone from her tone and replaced by sincerity. He looked up.

-"You're forgiven." He smiled down at her and then checked the hallway to see if Peyton was still in the bathroom.

-"Ann, sweetie, I need you to do something for me."

-"What daddy?" She asked sweetly.

-"I would really like it if you tried to be a little nicer to mommy. She loves you so much and you being angry with her, it's making her very sad. Do you think that you could do that, please?" He pleaded with her.

-"She left." She stated accusingly after a few seconds.

-"Ann, it's not like that okay. I told you before that mommy was hurt and that she couldn't come back until now."

-"Then why did everybody say she was gone forever then?" She asked angrily.

-Lucas sighed. "Because nobody knew that she was hurt. We all thought that she was too hurt to come back ever, but she wasn't. She's here now, aren't you happy about that?"

-Anna refused to meet his eyes, focusing on her hands instead.

-"Anna?" Lucas tried once more.

-"She's going to leave again."

-Her voice was so quiet and so sad, he almost hoped that he hadn't heard her right, but he had, he couldn't back away now.

-"No she won't." He stated confidently, needing that to be the truth, as much for her sake than his. He didn't know if he could handle Peyton leaving again.

-"She said that before. When I was little, she promised she was always going to be there, but she lied. She lied daddy." She cried, her eyes finally meeting his.

-As he was about to say something, anything to help Anna, he saw a flash of blonde hair in the corner of his eye and turned to find Peyton, just exiting the bathroom, tears in her eyes. The two of them silently stared at each other. Lucas was trying to see if she wanted to jump in into the conversation while Peyton seemed simply unable to move, rooted to the spot.

-Anna noticed that her father wasn't looking at her anymore and turned to see what he was looking at. Lucas expected some kind of angry retort, or at least look, but he saw none. Anna's eyes found her mother's and then she quickly averted her gaze once more. She brushed away tears from her eyes and then went back to looking down at the table.

-She didn't look angry anymore, just sad, exactly like her mom. Both Sawyers had identical pain-filled expressions on their faces and Lucas was once again caught in the middle, not knowing what to do.

-The three of them were torn out of their trance when the phone rang. Lucas sent Peyton a worried look as she moved to join them in the kitchen and he answered the phone.

-"Hello." He said distractedly.

-"Is it true?" The distraught voice on the other end asked.

-"Brooke! Are you okay? What's wrong?" He asked worryingly.

-"Is it true?" She cried once again.

-"Is what true, Brooke?" He asked again, noticing that both Peyton and Anna were looking at him nervously.

-"On… On the news they're saying that… Is it true Luke?" She kept asking the same thing and he had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach that he wasn't going to like whatever she was going to tell him next.

-"What are you talking about Brooke?" He tried to stay calm, she was starting to freak him out.

-"Just put on the news. It's everywhere." She paused. "Please tell me it's true, you'd know."

-"Okay. Just a minute."

-He took the phone and walked to the living room, both girls in tow, and turned on the tv. He had to switch channel because Anna had been watching her shows, but as soon as he did, his heart stopped.

-There was a picture of Peyton, the words 'Plane crash survivor resurfaces' in bright yellow at the bottom of the screen.

-"Oh God!"

-It was his thought but not his voice.