-Peyton parked the car and opened her daughter's door. Anna saw her father and bolted toward him.
-"Anna, what do we say about running…" She stopped and shook her head as she realised that Anna was already only a few feet away from her dad.
-Lucas bent down and caught her into his arms. He hugged her to his body tightly.
-"How's my little princess?"
-"Me and James we drew pictures and then we played with robots. James, he doesn't have dolls. He said boys don't play with dolls and he said that robots don't have princesses. It's silly, I think that robots they have princesses."
-"They found the way to argue about it apparently, according to Nathan."
-Peyton walked up to them, kissing the top of her daughter's head.
-"And Anna, you remember we said no running off alone."
-"But it was daddy, it wasn't a stranger." The little girl argued, looking up at her father for help.
-"Mommy's right, no running off, you know that."
-He then looked down at his wife.
-"Hi, so you said they argued?" Lucas asked Peyton, kissing her quickly on the lips before putting Anna back down.
-"Not really a surprise is it?" Peyton smirked. "Nathan handled it. Apparently, they were arguing for the sake of arguing."
-"He wasn't being nice… and robots need princesses too." Anna argued, a frown on her face and the two adults laughed.
-"Of course they do." Lucas grinned, winking at Peyton.
-"Can I go play on the platform?" Anna asked her parents, pointing at the playing platform a few feet away.
-"Sure baby, but make sure we can always see you okay." Peyton told her daughter. Anna nodded enthusiastically and sprinted away.
-"She seems happier than yesterday." Lucas nodded as him and Peyton sat on a bench facing the platform.
-"Yeah, I think her spending time with James is helping her forget all the tension that's around us here."
-"So, how did it go, at Nathan's, you seemed tense on the phone?"
-"Me and Haley alone at a table for over twenty minutes, yeah, I'd say tensed just about covered it." Peyton smiled, resting her head on Lucas' shoulder.
-"So things aren't all squared away between you two?"
-"We talked, she tried to explain, we didn't quite reach an understanding though."
-"Peyt, you know that you don't have to go all sarcastic on me. I get it, all the emotions that come with dealing with everything, I feel them too."
-She turned and looked up into his eyes, his beautiful blue eyes, before she took a deep breath and spoke again.
-"I know, it's just, it's so much easier to avoid it. I want to pretend that it doesn't get to me, that it doesn't hurt like hell that they thought I'd do something like that, but…"
-"But it does."
-"Yeah. I was sitting there, listening to her try to explain her reasoning, and all I could really think about was that it didn't matter. No matter the explanation, or the motives, it doesn't erase what happened. It doesn't take all the hurt away."
-"I know. That's exactly how I feel. My mom hasn't apologized and I'm pretty sure that she won't at this point, but even if she did, I don't know that I could ever forgive her. And if I do find it in me to forgive her, I don't think that our relationship will ever be what it was."
-"I'm sorry Luke."
-"Yeah, i know. I guess. us being away for so long, it made it easier to pretend that we could just lock that whole experience away and pretend that it had never happened. Now it's all coming back and we're forced to dig those emotions up. I guess it's suppose to be hard."
-"Is it bad that a part of me wished we'd just kept away? Left well enough alone you know. We've been happy Luke, and I just…I can't help but think that even if we did settle everything with them, it's not like it would make us really happier. It would change almost nothing and I keep thinking…"
-"Why bother?"
-"Yeah, kind of. It's not that…I'm happy that we patched things up with Nathan, really I am, but ultimately, it's just…To me it feels like our past and our present are so different from each other."
-"I know. It feels like we'll never really be able to reconcile the two. And if we do manage it, will it make us happier?"
-"Yeah, exactly."
-"So, what do we do now?" Peyton asked, a few minutes later, as they kept watching their daughter play.
-"I don't know. We just handle it the best we can for the next two days and then go back home and get on with our lives. That's the only thing we can do really." Lucas wrapped and arm around his wife's shoulders comfortably.
-"Alright, let's do that." Peyton agreed, sighing into the comfort of his arms.
-Lucas kissed her head softly.
-"It'll be alright."
-"Yeah, I know."
-They spent the rest of the afternoon at the park and the evening at Larry's house playing board games. All and all, it was totally devoid of all drama, exactly the way they liked it.
-Waking up the next morning, Lucas laid in bed, his arms wrapped tightly around his wife, wandering how they were going to spend their last day in Tree Hill. Their flight was suppose to leave the next day at eleven forty nine, they were planning on leaving Tree Hill very early and for them it was soon enough.
-He looked down at Peyton. Being here, it made him realize more than ever how lucky they were that they had found each other, had found the way of hanging on to their love and make it. Back here, he was constantly reminded of how many things could have gone wrong, how easily he could have missed it all. All he had to do would have been to listen to his mom and Haley, one moment of weakness and his life would be completely different now. Just thinking about it, a cold shudder ran through him. It was a terrifying thought, Peyton and Anna were his world, he had no idea what his life would be without them.
-"Hey!"
-He looked down and met Peyton's sleepy eyes.
-"Hi!" He said softly, pecking her lips.
-"What were you thinking about?" She asked groggily, wrapping an arm around his naked torso and resting her head on his shoulder.
-"Just about how easily it could have all gone wrong. How different my life would be if I had listened to them."
-"And?"
-"I'm glad that I didn't."
-"Yeah, me too." Peyton agreed softly.
-"It's weird. I never thought about it before. I don't know, maybe it was because we were so far from them, or maybe it was because I just love you too much to even consider that we could be apart, but I never even considered what the alternative could have been if I had made a different choice. It's scary."
-"You know, only you could be so deep in thought so early in the morning." Peyton remarked a minute later, a smile on her lips.
-"You were still sleeping, I needed something to do." He smirked, lazily running his fingers along her back.
-"So, that thinking you've been doing, no regrets?" She wasn't insecure or anything, that was long over, she knew Lucas loved her, she could never doubt it. No, she was more curious.
-"No regrets." He agreed, bringing her body closer into his and kissing her deeply.
-Before he had a chance to deepened the kiss, Peyton rolled from under him and sat up. She chuckled when she saw him pout up at her.
-"We don't have time for that. Remember, we're suppose to call Nathan and arrange something to do for today."
-"That can wait. Come on…twenty minutes." He had sat up and was now kissing down her neck and Peyton was having a really hard time remembering why it was so important that they call Nathan anyway.
-Lucas gently pushed her back down, their lips fastened together as they kissed hungrily. They were interrupted quickly though, as they heard a knock at the door.
-Lucas looked to the ceiling in exasperation as he rolled off her and Peyton giggled.
-"Told you." She smirked at him before turning to the door. Quickly, she walked to the door. She expected Anna, she nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw her father.
-"Dad?"
-"I went to see if Anna was awake, to see if she wanted breakfast, and I think that she has a fever. She looks sick."
-Before he even finished his sentence, Peyton and Lucas had dashed passed him and into Anna's room. Peyton sat on the side of the bed and gently put her hand on Anna's forehead. Her dad was right, Anna had a fever.
-"Do you have a thermometer dad?"
-Her father nodded and quickly left the room. Lucas sat on the bed beside her.
-"Anna, Anna princess, wake up." He coaxed, gently rubbing her belly.
-The little girl stirred slowly and as soon as she came to, she cried out and grabbed at her ears.
-"Oh baby…" Peyton gathered the crying little girl into her arms just as her dad came back into the room. He handed the thermometer to Lucas who got up and gently squeezed it under Anna's arm.
-"Cold. Cold daddy." Anna wept.
-"I know princess. Just a minute okay." He was caressing her hair, trying to comfort her. When the thermometer beeped, he took it and read it.
-"99.5. Okay, that's not good. It's probably a ear infection or something like that. We need to get her to a doctor."
-"Her paediatrician's in L.A. Luke and she can't fly in that state." Peyton answered, and Lucas barely heard her over Anna's cries.
-"We'll get her to the emergency room then. Come on, let's get dress and get there."
-Peyton nodded and got up quickly, a screaming Anna gathered into her arms.
-It was quite a feat to get dress since Anna hadn't stopped crying and wouldn't be out of their arms even for a second. Eventually, they managed and quickly left the house for the hospital. Peyton sat in the back with their crying daughter while Lucas drove. They left the hospital six hours later with a sleeping child, a prescription for ear infection medicine and an indication that Anna wasn't to board a plane for the next ten days.
-After gently laying Anna down on their bed, Lucas turned to his wife.
-"So we got two choices, we drive back or we stay here, miss work and fly back when Anna's feeling better."
-"So, it's between thirty hours in a car with a screaming child or another ten days here with people I can't stand. Great choice." Peyton muttered, wrapping the covers tightly around her daughter and kissing her forehead.
-"I say we stay here a day or two more, see how she feels then. If she feels better, maybe we'll drive. Otherwise, we'll wait it out and fly back when she's okay. I can probably work from here, I'd have to call in and ask but that shouldn't be a problem. So if your boss doesn't want to give you another week, I guess that I could stay here with her and you'd fly back."
-"I'll call later. I don't think it'll be a problem. Worst case, they can always e-mail me the assignment and I could do the work from here and e-mail it back. Anyway, our plans for the day are set." She declared, nodding toward their sleeping daughter.
-"Yeah. You got to admit though, the girl's got lousy timing." Lucas joked, wrapping an arm around her waist as they quietly left the room.