She gripped the kitchen counter with one hand, dragging out a long shaky breath before frustration grew within her and she hastily threw the useless phone in her hands on the couch and put her free hand next to the other one.
Looking outside, people would think it was a glorious day filled with laughter and happiness and love to go around but in truth, it was like the devil's wrath was unfolding from beneath them and nothing they could do could stop it.
She sighed, gaining enough strength to pick herself up from the counter before walking towards the pitch dark colored room that she knew, held the weakness and vulnerability of the woman she had known since high school and held a sisterly love for.
She walked in, face stressed out and knowingly in a look of sadness and despair and wistful thinking.
This was all too much.
They've worked outrageously hard, to the point of no return, for happiness and a sense of belonging and a familiar yet comfortable basis between their daily life.
To fall into a routine, one that disposed of drama and banned hurt and sadness and despair to enter their lives.
It seemed like Tragedy didn't like that idea one bit.
Her tanned hands curled around the knob and before she knew it, she was entering the room that entitled a gateway to seeing a woman she loved dearly crumble and crash in hurt and pain and longing.
She wasn't too surprised to see her husband towering in front of her protectively.
He's taken the possessive role of her best friend ever since Peyton showed up all messy bed hair and inhumane pale face and big tears leaking on her face… it didn't take long for his protective stance to come out full force and have him hurling her into his arms the minute he saw her.
He's been catering to her every need since.
She sees his crossed arms loosen up a little bit and she knows that he knows she's there yet won't be getting up anytime soon.
Frankly, she wouldn't either.
Summer Elisabeth Scott is missing.
She pauses, feeling tears swarm in her eyes and she blinks, albeit painfully but needingly in order to rid of the pain.
How the hell was she supposed to tell Jamie?
How the hell was she supposed to tell Lucas?
She could only imagine how her sister- in-law felt. She could tell it wasn't anything close to pretty.
"How is she?" She murmurs though she knows the answer, she's filled with dread and resentment and guilt, sorrow and every damn sad emotion that you can damn well find in the dictionary but she doesn't know what else to say.
She can't think.
Her neice is gone.
She watched her husband run his fingers through Peyton's scalp and a tiny smile withdrew from her lips.
She knew he knew Peyton adored it when people did that to her and she loved how affectionate he could be towards her. Even though he teases her and provokes her in most cases, whenever she's in trouble or in need of a helping hand he's always glad to be that one and she knows that if Lucas can't be her savior, Nathan will always be available to help him with that spot.
It's a running joke in the family that Peyton has not only one Scott brother to save her but two and even a short haired blonde midget Scott that adored her completely.
Either way, she ends up loving all three of them even more each time.
"She blanked out an hour ago." Nathan tells her softly and she nods, tucking a brunette strand behind her ear.
She wouldn't be able to sleep either if the roles were reversed and Jamie was in that position.
She rubs her arms in a soothing manner to rid of the chills that arose from her at the thought.
"You reach him?" Her raven-haired spouse asks her, shifting his face to look at her and her shoulders slump in defeat.
She can tell he already knows what that means, her brunette tresses bounce back and forth as she makes the answer even more clearer for him.
His jaw tenses and his eyes darken, his hands are already curling into fists and she knows that he's just about ready to explode.
She's already halfway towards him to catch the bullet.
He's struggling to breathe and she wraps her arms around him to calm him down, pressing a kiss to his temple as she grazes his cheek with her finger.
She always does that.. To calm him down.
He would've smiled proudly had the situation be any different.
"They don't deserve this, she doesn't deserve this." He barks out dreadfully and she nods with compassion and understanding.
"I know, baby." She replies because she does, she knows.
Lucas and Peyton are probably one of the strongest people she's ever met, from car crashes to bullet wounds to absentee parents, psycho's and hell and back.
They've been through the roughest things a pair of twenty year old's shouldn't have to embark on and then something like this springs into their life with a huge dramatic tailspin.
"We'll find her…. I promise." She chimes in and she closes her eyes shut as he leans into her touch.
"Everything will be okay."
She's petrified and scared and filled with sorrow for she doesn't know, she doesn't know if everything will be okay and she doesn't know if Summer will come out of this alive, come out of this at all.
She's still waiting for that petite adorable girl to rush out with a loving heart and a tender smile from underneath the kitchen table and ramble that she was playing hide and seek because she was bored.
She wants to believe that everything will turn out fine, that they can overcome this period of drama and that they will suceed in moving past it with no looking back and Summer moving forward along with them.
She's still got hope, albeit small as it may be and late as it is to spread itself around everyone else's body she's hanging on to that mighty bit of hope with every ounce of strength that she has.
She has to be the strong one now.
---
She jerked awake an hour ago with puffy eyes all red and wild and just so damn terrifying that for a moment, she looks at herself in the mirror and she's musing over what she is actually crying about.
And then she looks at the blanket beside her and her memory swerves back and she's gripping the blue item with shaking hands and trembling, all the while trying to find some common peace.
She can't with her daughter alone somewhere, in the oblivion, without protection…. with the man she despised.
She ponders how she got here.
She's been through destruction and back, been through things a woman of her age should never have to experience and shouldn't have to deal with but she's been through it and she's overcome it and its one of the reasons why people are so intrigued by her.
Nathan says she's the strongest woman he knows.
To her, he couldn't be ever the more wrong.
Her mind races back over to her little four year old, how she is, where she is.
She doesn't even want to even think about her state.
Her tight curls bounce back and forth fiercely, for she cant. She can't mull over the possibility that her child might be dead, she just can't.
She loves her too much and she can't bear the fact of imagining her hurt and this whole thing is just making her lose self-control and her state of mind.
She feels like someone has disposed of the oxygen she had to breathe and she's left with a struggle to overcome on her own.
She just wants Lucas.
God why do these things always happen to her? Hasn't she been through enough?
She just wants Summer.
She sobs once again when she realizes yet again, what she wants is completely out of her reach.
It always is.
And she hates it.
There's a dip on the bed and her wary version of herself reveals its outer shell for the hair on her neck is standing on alert but she won't crane her neck to see who the perpetrator is.
She's kicked Nathan and Haley out, they both treat her like she's a damn cripple and hover around her twenty four seven when really all she wants is space to breathe.
She just wanted to be alone.
This is all just too much to handle.
She knows its not Jamie, she knows they broke it down to him, save the gory details and add in the simple formed way to narrow it down but she knew he knew about his cousin/ best friend and what just happened and the possibilities from her sudden kidnapping.
He knows.
The crying she's heard from his room just make it all the more clearer.
It doesn't make this whole spectacle any easier.
She's sniffing every few minutes and she's had her eyes painfully shut since the person walked through the room but she keeps imagining her little Summer in the hands of that murderous leech and her heart spirals out of control and her tears are going wild-fire.
A salty sorrowed tear hits her shoulder and she knows the person opposite her is crying too and within minutes she feels hands, familiar hands all weak and vulnerable and tremendously shaky struggling to wrap their arms around her, to provide some comfort.
She struggles a good battle, refusing the comfort and the safe haven being welcomed to her.
She won't have it. She can't have it.
None of it will bring Summer back.
"Don't do that." Reprimands her, voice raspy and gruff, words so soft yet harsh that for a moment she just wants to turn around to cry with her best friend.
Then her mind races to the downfall of her day and the moment is gone.
Just like that, she's back to being numb.
Back to being Peyton Scott, drowning in her own body that is dripping with sorrow.
"Don't shut me out." Brooke continues, her lips are shaking and tears are leaking on to her face.
She doesn't know what to do.
Her godchild is gone and for the first time, her best friend won't let her all the way in.
She's scared and she has no answers.
What the hell is she supposed to do?
"I'm scared." Peyton finally croaks out, and Brooke feels some of her turmoil slowly fading for her best friend is speaking, her best friend is confiding in her.
She just wishes she could help. Again, she doesn't know how.
So hot, salty tears collide with her tan cheeks and she struggles to keep her sniff locked before she brings her arms together to lock her childhood friend into a motherly embrace and kisses the apple of her cheek as she combs her blonde streaks with her hand.
"Your aloud to be."
Peyton looks up at her and Brooke struggles to hold in the breathless gasp that is dying to come out, her eyes are bloodshot red and ultimately filled with sorrow and despair and a flicker of hope but inside she is blank.
She's her best friend, she can tell.
She is blank and numb and so far out of it that she's letting the pain wash over her and for a moment, she doesn't recognize her.
She doesn't recognize her best friend.
She feels like she's going to cry.
"What if we don't overcome this? How do we get past this?" Peyton swallows thickly, feeling her heart constrict out of her chest and her throat close up at the thought of her next words. "What if we never see her again?"
"We will." She refuses to think otherwise, Brooke thinks, as she lets her swarm of brunette orbs daze into darkness at the fluttering of her eyes closing.
"We're going to get through this, P.Scott. You and me." Brooke rasps and she sighs as her best friend clutches on to her for dear life.
She honestly hopes so.
She's too terrified to think otherwise.
Her eyes flutter open and the clear brimming of fresh new tears forming prevents her from seeing the view of everything around her but she looks outside, into the garden and the wind is rattling around the free, fresh pair of leaves that had picked itself off the tree and decided to make its way down and she turns that movement into a significance of hope.
She hopes to God that girl is okay.
She has to be.
---
Lucas feels an exhausted sigh come out of his lips before it makes 'round to presenting his presence and once again, he's concluded with how tired he is.
He's had three book signings and a press conference and honestly he is as good as beaten. His press conference was long and droning and just so damn boring, he spent his time consisting of catering to what the executives and publishing company thought of his book.
It was new and ironically enough three hundred and sixty pages and beyond on his family and his friends and his successes and basically to sum it up on happiness and how it was a constant struggle to get there but now he was drowning in the sentiment.
After showcasing it and expressing the meaning and forecasting many different things and disagreeing on subtle and annoying- didn't they get the meaning of the book?- opinions, It was set to come out on Wednesday.
He honestly couldn't wait to tell Peyton.
An ache in his heart forms and he feels that terrible chunk that something is missing and he takes it as a thought that he misses his family.
He misses the way Summer fits her little head on the crook of his neck whenever its his turn to read her a bed-time story and he misses the way Peyton purses her lips, eyes flaring with fire and stubborn wit whenever she is dead-set on winning an argument.
He misses the way Summer beams whenever they play basketball one on one with Peyton standing on the porch steps watching them with an estatic smile. Peyton knows that in secret, that Lucas lets Summer win each game to make her satisfied and happy and she knows that her little daughter knows his little ploy but won't actually admit it.
Four years old as she is, she is stubborn like that and she absolutely adores it when he lifts her up with those soft, protective hands of his and sets her on his shoulder to help her make that goal… the way he looks at her, and let his blue eyes clear even more and the way he gives her that proud little smile whenever she turns to look at him makes her feel like the luckiest daughter in the world.
Lucas has always been adamant on the fact that he was the lucky one.
He had a splendid wife, all blonde curls, skinny arms, slender legs, looks to die for and a heart that only overwhelmed him with its fascinating way it has in loving other people and a daughter that is timid and stubborn and witty yet loving and caring and protective over the ones that she holds dear in her petite, little heart.
He breathes with anticipation as he dials that number he knows all too well…. That will allow him access to letting him talk to the two girls he loves the most in this superficial world.
His two girls. They're his world, and the only people he needs.
He smiles at the thought because its true, and it always will be, he's adamant on making the two of them happy and well and alive for the rest of his unpredictable life.
He swears it.
He feels worry build its way into his chest as the sound of Summer's tiny but earth-shattering voice greets him on voice-mail.
He never gets voicemail. Ever.
Whether there is company over or they are busy entertaining themselves or a room full of thousands of people they had always managed to pick up the phone.
They know its him and they wouldn't miss a chance to talk to him, ever.
He's petrified when Peyton doesn't answer her cell phone.
She always picks up her cellphone, its been a god-given act that she have it at all times since the re-appearance of the psycho fake brother attack in senior year.
He's darn near about to piss his pants when his hands tremble to dial Nathan and Haley's number but the phone beats him to the punch.
He holds his breath, all the while hoping its Peyton as he answers.
Please God, let them be okay.
He mutters a breatheless and rushed 'hello' as a greeting and his heart thumps loudly as he hopes to hear Peyton's smooth yet sexy voice ring through his ears.
He's disappointed to hear Skills.
"Skills?" He furrows his eyebrows as all that comes to ear is a long murmur of threats and vulgar sounds of beating and something else he can't really catch. "Whoa, Skills… I'm not gonna get a thing if you keep doing what your doing."
There's another threat that comes on his side of the phone until finally Skills breathes a frustrated sigh and Lucas takes a moment to wonder what the hell is going on?
He can practically envision his buddy grabbing hold of his bald head to run his hands through his thick, barely there wisp of hair only to scrunch his face up in anger when realizing there was no hair there to grasp.
Had there been another time and place he would of laughed.
"Boy, you betta get yo' ass ova' here." He grits out. " Your killing me, man."
"What?" Lucas asks incredulously. " Why? Where's Peyton? What's going on?"
"Summer's missing and we be callin' yo ass all day..."
His heart stops just at the sound of hearing Summer missing ,like literraly and he's so damn sure he's about to have a seizure.
His fingers are trembling and his legs are shaking and his hands have already dropped the phone to make way into impeccable hard little fists.
The pressure inside of him is building and his eyes are swarming with building incredulous tears and he blinks…. Painfully, harshly.
He was dreaming.. He had to be.
Damagingly enough, Skill's voice flows through the room from the phone's state on the floor and the sound alone is enough to show him that this infact is not a dream.
Summer is gone.
His little girl is missing.
He's on a flight to tree hill and nearly booking it all the way out of the Tree Hill airport in two hours flat.
His girl is missing…. And he's determined to get her back.
--
Her green pupils are just staring at the outdoors, drinking up the energy that is clouding around her.
The darkness.
She's long since kicked Brooke out of the room. It had been a struggle but she was a quick thinker and a whiz when it came to schemes and it became a no-brainer and finickally easy when she faked sleep, therefore enticing the brunette to reluctantly walk out of the room.
It was hard, that she knew, Brooke wanted to hover around her and be by her side at all times and even pettishly stormed up a stubborn fight between her and Haley when Haley argued she leave her alone.
In the end, Brooke lost, almost shockingly, to a point Haley had made and had swooped down to mothering-ly kiss on her forehead.
She lingered at the touch, that quick moment.. where she believed everything would be okay.
Then Brooke left, and her world.. once again, burned into flames.
She hasn't eaten.
She can't. Her baby is out there.
And so she feels her exhausted body working up a sweat until finally, what is supposed to be dried right now releases and tears burn against her cheeks as it slides its way down her face.
And she just can't stop.
She's tired of drama and tired of sadness and tired of things going wrong.
She's tired of this cycle, she just wants happiness.
Why can't she be happy?
She's hiccuping, and losing her tight grip on the bed and her cheeks are flushed and she's having a coughing fit because she can't breathe. She can't. Litteraly.
She's honestly wondering why she doesn't just die on the spot.
And then those arms, those arms she has been longing for circle around her waist and pull her flush against his muscular arms and she knows he's crying for she feels the tears on her bare shoulder.
And like that, that moment of weakness is gone and she finds herself crying once again.
crying, in the arms of Lucas Scott.
People always leave but sometimes they come back.... Many people had proven that quote of hers true in her life.
She's honestly hoping Summer does as well.
---
Woo! Finally got this chapter done! Omg! Have you guys seen the finale of the season! I knew Peyton and her baby would be okay! Personally, I loved 6x24. Everyone got their happy ending and the Leyton scenes + baby were just adorable… that kiss they get when Peyton hold Sawyer for the first time just makes me swoon.
Speaking of Sawyer, I was a bit surprised at the name. I really really thought they should of named her Anna.. I mean, I love Sawyer Brooke Scott equally… she is adorable ( especially when she smiles) and is no doubt the cutest baby alive but I kind of don't like the fact that mark keeps giving the babies first name as the mothers last name.
I mean c'mon Mark! Let the kids have their own original name for once!
All in all Lucas and Peyton Scott ( how adorable is it that we can actually CALL them that now?) have made an adorable little girl and they looked so cute as a family and once again I am estatic that my favourite couple in the whole world finally got their happy ending.
I am going to miss them greatly.