Reviews

Alana: Enjoy the update!

nc: Thank you and I'm glad you're enjoying so far!

ThumperE23: Thanks for reading!

Guest: Yep Lucas is an ass. More on that eventually.

Guest: It's a new adjustment, so Peyton definitely has her defenses up. She is way too worked up and Lucas being the jerk he is plays with that. Thanks for reading!

Leytonluv: Sorry you aren't enjoying the direction I'm taking, but this is the story I want to tell. I'm not going the traditional route with Leyton, which is why I developed their personalities differently from the show. They're meant to be flawed and human. Thanks for reading up until this point though.

Emmajoie: Thank you! You're too sweet.

Shazzles: Thank you and many thanks for reading Strangers as well! I miss writing for it already! P Saywer will get her groove back. I can promise you that much, but I can't say more. Keep reading to find out!

jordana60: The shit between these two is complicated. There's love there, but it's also weighed down by an intense amount of frustration and pain. Thank you for all your faithful support with all my stories. You're a rockstar!

Guest: Thank you!

Tpassions: Good to be back, thanks!

Clavyus: Don't think Lucas was ever as cocky on the show as he is in this story! Lol

thibbs65: Sawyer was being bratty in that last chapter, but she's not really mad at her mom. Things are okay, she's just really excited to have her dad close again. Thanks for reading!

Chapter 11: There Is No Before

Peyton hadn't seen Lucas' face since the shower incident. He had wisely confined himself to his room afterwards, though at one point while she was getting dressed she had heard the familiar sound of his feet padding back towards the bathroom. By the time she had reemerged from her room, Lucas had already left the house having volunteered to drive Sawyer to school this morning. For that she was glad, the anger coursing through her veins was still very much present and Peyton doubted very much that she'd be able to control herself around Sawyer this time.

As she walked into the kitchen she noticed that Lucas had already made coffee, enough for the two of them. Though she was still furious with him, she was still going to pour herself a damn cup even if it had been made by her least favorite person on earth right now.

Peyton reached over, opening one of the kitchen cabinets. "What the hell?" She frowned, completely confused when she was greeted with dinner plates instead of mugs. Was she losing her mind? This wasn't right. She opened the cabinet next to it, her frown lines deepening instantly. Instead of herbs and spices, she was met with baking ingredients. "What the fuck?" Who the hell had rearranged her entire kitchen?

The sound of a car pulling in the driveway could be heard. Peyton whipped her head around already knowing who was responsible for all this. Lucas walked into the house less than a minute later. Why was he back? She assumed he would have gone straight to the high school after dropping Sawyer off.

"Hey." He greeted cautiously knowing well that Peyton was probably still upset.

"Don't you hey me." She snapped before demanding answers. "What the hell did you do to my kitchen?"

"I shifted some things around. Things are a little more organized now."

"When?!" She demanded. He'd only moved in yesterday.

He shrugged. "Last night after you went to bed. I couldn't sleep."

Peyton scoffed at him and continued to go around opening cabinets and drawers to see what else Lucas had moved. "Where are the damn mugs?" She barked out annoyed that she still hadn't been able to locate one. She really needed coffee right now.

Lucas rolled his eyes and took a few steps forward. "Right here." He opened a cabinet and pulled out a mug, setting it down by the coffee pot. "You had them stored on the other side of the kitchen, which makes absolutely no sense considering the coffee maker is here."

She crossed her arms over her chest. "You had no right."

"What are you getting so mad about? I just did you a favor. I don't even know why you rearranged the kitchen in the first place. It was fine before."

Peyton's left eye slightly twitched. "Before?" She gritted out.

By 'before' what he meant was when he still lived here.

Lucas had thing with things being perfect. He was a little OCD and everything had to be in its rightful place. He liked things cleaned and organized, which proved to be a major problem when they first moved in together after college. While Lucas liked his things neat and tidy, Peyton on the other hand was the exact opposite. She was messy and left her things laying all over the apartment, never bothering to put them back in their proper place and it drove Lucas crazy. Over the years she had gotten better about it, but in the beginning it had been a regular point of tension in their household. When Lucas' indiscretion came out last year Peyton had completely rearranged the entire house after he moved out. She didn't want any reminders of him and the home they had built together for over a decade. She had reorganized everything in that house, down to the last fork.

And now he was back eager to mark his territory all over again.

"Lucas. Listen to me and listen to me closely." Peyton began trying her best to be calm. "I have zero interest in going back to before."

"Peyton–"

"No. This is my house and my kitchen, and I like things just the way I had it. You're a guest here Lucas, don't you forget that. You're only here right now because I allow it."

"Peyton."

"Put everything back Lucas. I'm not gonna say it again. Just do as your told."

"Now don't you think you're overacting just a bit?"

Peyton glared at him with wild eyes. "I'm overreacting?!" She shook her head in disbelief. "You crossed a line back there today!"

"I crossed a line?" Lucas scoffed. "Because I moved around a few plates? You're being ridiculous."

"You know damn well that's not what I'm talking about now. That little stunt you pulled earlier this morning is completely unacceptable. There are boundaries Lucas. RESPECT my personal space. You don't get to waltz in wherever you damn please."

"This is my house too Peyton." Lucas shot back.

"No. It was. Not anymore and you paying the mortgage doesn't change that. No one is forcing you to do that. You made that choice." The blonde quickly reminds him.

Lucas angrily shook his head.

"We are not together anymore Lucas. What part of that do you not get?"

"Oh believe me. I got it."

"And what? You think that it's still okay for you to come into the bathroom while I'm showering? I don't care how many times you did it the past. We do not have that type of relationship anymore. You don't get to do that anymore Lucas. You don't get that privilege anymore, so how about you show me and our daughter some fucking respect. I mean you do realize that Sawyer could have seen that right?"

"She didn't though." Lucas quickly defended.

"That's beside the point."

"I was just messing around okay? I'm sorry."

Peyton shook her head. "Except you're not really sorry. You did it to piss me off, but this isn't a joke Lucas."

"I never said it was Peyton."

"Then why do you it Lucas?!" Peyton exclaimed.

"Gee I don't know Peyton, why do always find the need to be pissed at me about every single little thing?! I can't do anything right. Everything pisses you off. You're always overreacting about shit that doesn't matter. I'm a good father goddammit, and I was a good husband to you and you know it."

"Oh yea! You were the best!" She sarcastically quipped in his face.

"There was nothing I wouldn't have fucking done for you." He spat out.

"Except keeping your dick in your pants. That's kind of an important one there."

"Wow, I'm surprised you remembered I had one. Certainly can't remember the last time you bothered to touch it."

Peyton's glare turned dark. If looks could kill he would be six feet under right about now. "Fuck you Lucas." She turned around and stomped away from the kitchen forgetting all about her coffee.

"Fuck." Lucas mumbled to himself and quickly went after her. "Peyton wait." He called out knowing he had fucked up. That moment back there had been complete word vomit. "I shouldn't have said that."

"No Lucas. No! Just don't okay!" Peyton gathered her things getting ready to head out the door.

Lucas grabbed her arm, pulling her back towards him. "I'm sorry okay?"

Peyton yanked her arm away from his grasp. "Don't touch me. In fact how about from now on you just stay on your side of the house."

"My side of the house?" He made the mistake of laughing, which only pissed her off further.

"Yes as in the guest room. Those are your boundaries. Don't touch the rest of the house in addition to me. I expect not to see anymore changes."

"You can't be serious." He scoffed out.

"Dead serious." Peyton barked back.

"Stay on my side? What are we three? Grow up Peyton."

"No, you grow up Lucas!" Peyton slipped her bag over her shoulder. "Oh and I want my fucking coffee mugs back where they belong!" She added before opening the front door of the house and slamming it furiously behind her.

"Real mature." Lucas called out after opening the door she had just slammed in his face.

Peyton looked over her shoulder glaring at him before slipping inside her car. Eager to get the hell out of there she quickly slipped her key in the ignition.

And of course the car refused to start.

Just her luck.

"Fuck me." She cried out loudly after several failed attempts to start her car.

Lucas was still there, quietly leaning against the doorframe. "I'll drop you off on my way to work." He offered.

Peyton got out of her car and harshly slammed the door. "I'd rather crawl all the way to work." She pulled out her phone to call a cab as she continued to walk down the driveway and away from the house. The more distance between her and Lucas the better.

"Well that went well." Lucas muttered to himself before heading back inside the house to finish getting ready for work.

What's wrong?" Haley questioned as she watched Lucas aimlessly move his food around on his plate. They were having lunch together in the teacher's lounge. Haley was a math teacher at Tree Hill High.

Lucas dropped his fork and sighed. "Nothing." He mumbled unconvincingly and rubbed his face with the palm of his hand. His brain had been replaying his fight with Peyton all day. It was a fucking disaster.

"First day jitters?" She offered next.

He quickly shook his head. "Nah. I can coach in my sleep. We both know that."

"Jamie's super excited that you're coaching the team with Skills."

"He's gonna like it a whole lot less once I have the team run the drills I'm working on." He joked.

Haley laughed. "Doubtful. He's missed you. I'm glad you'll be spending more time together now that you're moving back."

Lucas quietly nodded. With the exception of Skills, no one else knew he was already back in town. Since Peyton wasn't ready to share their new arrangement, he had been telling everyone that he was commuting back and forth for the time being because he still had a few weeks left on his lease - which was a lie of course. Lucas knew this little charade of theirs wouldn't last long. It only took someone having a conversation with Sawyer for the beans to be spilled. Even Peyton must have known that. In his opinion hiding this was pointless, but for time being Lucas had no choice but to play along with Peyton's rules. After this morning he was already skating on pretty thin ice with her at the moment.

"So if it's not the new job, what's got you all mopey then?"

"It's nothing." He repeated.

"And you're full of it." Haley shot back with a grin before taking a bite of her lunch.

"Really I'm okay."

Haley rolled her eyes. "We both know you're gonna end up telling me anyway so how about we skip this part?"

Lucas chuckled and shook his head. Of course he wanted nothing more than to confide in his best friend and tell her what was going on, but Peyton would legit murder him. It was bad enough that he had already spilled the beans to Skills. "I can't."

Haley paused mid-chew, her eyes narrowing down at him. "You can't?" She said sounding slightly offended. "You can't tell me? Me? Your best friend in the entire world?"

"Yea. Kind of." He sighed.

"That's absurd. Of course you can tell me." Haley stubbornly pressed on.

"No, I really can't Hales."

Haley suspiciously eyed him down. "So it's about Peyton then." She concluded. It was always about Peyton and his failing marriage. What she couldn't figure out however is why Lucas was being so hush hush about it. She had been there for him through the thick of it when he had royally screwed up.

"Could we not do this?"

Haley shrugged and went back to her lunch clearly unhappy.

Lucas sighed again. "It's not that I don't want to tell you Hales, I just can't. Just not right now."

"Did you do something stupid again?" She wondered now looking worried.

Lucas laughed. "No...well at least I don't think so...okay, well so maybe..." He was starting to wonder if moving in with Peyton and Sawyer had been such a good idea. He was starting to worry that it would make his relationship with Peyton worse than it already was.

Haley chuckled. "You're a mess Lucas Scott."

"Yea. I guess you could say that." He sadly admitted.

"Is this about money?" Haley unexpectedly blurted out causing Lucas to choke on his food.

Lucas furiously banged his fist against his chest as he cleared his throat. "Why would you ask me that?" He croaked in surprise. She wasn't supposed to know.

Haley slid her bottle of water across the table between them. He took her offering, gulping down most of it.

"Because I know Nathan gave you money a few months ago."

"Goddamnit Nathan." Lucas angrily grumbled to himself. So much for being blood.

"Calm down, he didn't rat you out or anything."

Lucas raised an eyebrow.

"What you two fools failed to remember is that my name is also on our bank account and I look at the monthly statements. I just wasn't sure how to bring it up."

He frowned. "Well...shit."

"Luke, why did Nathan loan you all that money?"

"He didn't."

"He didn't? My bank account says otherwise." Haley pointed out.

Lucas blew out a breath. He looked around the teacher's lounge, confirming that they were still the only two left in the room. "I mean he didn't loan it to me. The money was a gift."

"A gift? I don't understand. It's a lot of money."

"Because I needed it." Lucas' eyes fell down and he could feel his face heating up in embarrassment. "I'm broke Hales." He revealed after a long paused.

Haley's brown eyes widened in surprise. "Oh." She mumbled awkwardly. She hadn't been expecting that.

"Nate was just helping me out and I didn't want anyone to know. That's why he kept it from you – poorly I may add."

"How could you be broke? You're a successful published author." Haley questioned finding this new information very puzzling.

Lucas shrugged. "I mean yeah, but I'm no Stephen King either. I'm not swimming in millions, but yes I've done pretty well for myself."

"So what happened?"

"The divorce happened. I'm not broke in the sense that I have no money at all. I just can't access any of the assets Peyton and I share until the divorce is finalized and we finish figuring out who gets what. On top of that my last book hasn't really been selling that well compared to the others."

"So that's why you took the coaching gig." Haley concluded.

"Pretty much."

"It makes sense now. I thought it was weird. I mean I know how much you love basketball, but it was still odd. You haven't had a second job since Peyton and Quinn first opened up the gallery."

Lucas slowly nodded.

"Why didn't you tell me all this?"

"C'mon Hales you know why. It's embarrassing. I'm 35 and I'm barely keeping my head above water."

"I'm your best friend Lucas, I wouldn't look at you any differently." She reassured him. "Are you okay though, do you need more?"

Lucas quickly shook his head. He wasn't taking any more money from his brother and sister-in-law. "I should be okay now." He replied.

"Really Luke it's okay. I'm totally fine with helping you out and so would Nathan. We're family." And truthfully they could afford it thanks to her husband's successful athletic career.

"It's fine Hales. I've got it handled now and once the divorce goes through it won't be an issue anymore."

"Are you sure? I mean Peyton filed for the divorce only like what? Two, three months ago? It could take up to a year. It's not exactly a quick process especially since you've been married for almost 15 years."

"I've got it handled Hales."

The look Haley gave him was covered with skepticism. "Does Peyton know?" Despite everything that had gone on between the blond couple, Haley knew that Peyton still cared about her husband despite her declarations to the contrary.

"She knows." Lucas confirmed.

"Okay. And?"

"And what? I told her and that's it, the story ends there."

Haley frowned knowing he was hiding something. "She offered to help you, didn't she?"

"How the fuck do you do that?" He wondered loudly because apparently Haley was telepathic now.

Haley grinned. "Because I've known you for most of my life and I've known Peyton even longer than that." Haley hadn't met Lucas until elementary school, but she had basically grown up with Peyton since her sister-in-law and Quinn had practically been inseparable since birth. "Peyton may not wanna be with you anymore, but she still cares. There's too much history there and you have a child together."

Lucas sighed. This was the second person to tell him this – that Peyton still cared. Skills had said the same thing a couple of weeks ago. It was kind of hard to believe though considering Peyton had zero interest in getting back together.

"I know you two, so I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say Peyton offered to help and you were a jerk about it."

"Wait how do you figure that?" Lucas questioned completely offended.

"Like I said, I know you Lucas Scott and you're kind of a jerk."

"Wow tell me how you really feel Hales."

Haley chuckled. "Luke I think you're amazing you know that. You're kind hearted, you're smart, you're a good friend, and a wonderful father. You always come through when your friends and family need you, and you're one of the most driven, hardworking people I've ever met. There's no denying that. But you're also one of the most arrogant people I've ever met in my entire life and it's definitely one of your least desirable qualities. Sometimes you have this way of coming across like you're better or smarter than everyone. Now I know you don't actually think that, but– "

"Hey it's called confidence and since when is that a bad quality?!" Lucas quickly defended. It was that same confidence that got him where he was today. No one had ever handed him anything. He worked hard for it.

"Honey it's called ego and it is not cute. Not at all."

"Okay Hales, Nathan's not exactly the most humble person on the planet either. So you can blame Dan Scott for that one."

"Yea maybe in high school, but the difference is that Nathan for the most part has grown out of it. You on the other hand..." She poked his chest hard and grinned."...have some work to do. Why do you think you and Peyton argue all the time anyway? You're so stubborn Luke."

"No. Peyton's the stubborn one." He argued.

Haley blew out a frustrated breath. "You two are utterly hopeless." There was no point in wasting her breath on this topic. "All I'm saying is just tone it down. You and Peyton could get along at lot better if you did. You love getting her riled up and you know it. You lash out at her because you don't want this divorce, but what's done is done Luke. You can't turn back time. It's over between you two. Don't be a dick just because you're not getting your way for once okay?"

Lucas sighed. He went back to silently shifting around the food on his plate. He knew Haley was right. It was time for him to man up and make amends with his wife.

"I still love you though." Haley quietly added after a beat.

Apologies for the delay folks. I was kind of stuck on this chapter for quite awhile. While I do have the main plot points of this story already mapped out, some of the in-between details are still kind of a hot mess and I'm still fine-tuning. This chapter went through a few round of cuts and additions. Originally there was no Haley scene, but I felt like the chapter called for a breather between Lucas and Peyton after such a tense morning so I had to rework somethings. Also I just love writing Haley/Luke friendship scenes.

Coming Up Next: Peyton attempts to make sure Lucas 'stays on his side' of the house. Will it work? Stay tuned!

Please review and let me know what you thought of this latest chapter. Ya'll give me life, no joke.

Until next time!