Peyton stirred slightly before opening her eyes. She smiled sadly as she felt the warmth of Lucas's body against her back. Tears burned in the back of her eyes as she spun around to face him. He stared down at her, a smile playing on his lips. She closed her eyes and inhaled the scent from his shirt that she was wearing. When her eyes opened again he was still gazing at her. "How long have you been up?"

"About an hour…" he pulled her closer as his hand slipped under the shirt and onto her lower back.

"I'm sorry"

"Don't be…I like watching you sleep" his smile grew but soon fell as he watched tears slip from her hazel eyes. She tried to smile as she bit her bottom lip and her brows furrowed. "Hey…what's wrong" he removed his hand from her back and cupped her face, his thumb wiping away the tears.

"nothing…" she shook her head and let out a small laugh as more tears fell.

"Pey…" he leaned down as placed a small kiss on her lips before resting his forehead against hers.

"Would we be here if things were different?" she closed her eyes tightly for a second before continuing. "I mean…if I wasn't sick would you have even given me a chance…would we be laying here with your arms around me…would I have ever been able to see my daughter again?" she inhaled deeply as she looked into his eyes, searching for some kind of answer.

"I don't know Peyton…" he looked down at her with sympathy etched in his features.

"Luke…I don't want you to pity me…you're not obligated to comfort me because of what's going on…" she tried to pull away from him but he pulled her closer until his lips captured her. He waited until he felt her body real before pulling away.

"But I want to." They locked eyes as more tears creped through. "This isn't about pity or me feeling obligated to you. I wanna be here. Pey if things were different and you weren't sick…you wouldn't be here and neither would Alex. And if things were really different then you never would have left Tree Hill to begin with. You would have been here and I would have been able to hold you every night. But things aren't different Pey. I'm here with you because I wanna be here with you. Mistakes are made and we can either deal with it or spend our time holding grudges. I want our family to be together and if that means putting the past away then I can do that. I want us Peyton not because my mind says it's the right things…but because my heart does. After everything that's happened I never stopped loving you. I will always love you."

Her arms found there way around his neck as she buried her face into his neck. "I'm sorry" she whispered as he held her tighter.

"Don't be…" he kissed the top of her head as he closed his eyes.

"Daddy..." Lucas looked over at the door and smiled at his daughter as she stood quietly with her teddy bear in her arms.

"Morning beautiful…come on." He watched a smile spread across her face as she ran towards the bed and crawled on. Peyton spun her body around to face her daughter.

"Hey you…" Peyton pushed the hair away from Alex's face and tucked it neatly behind her ear.

"Why are you crying…" Alex leaned forward and wiped the tears from her mother's face just like she used to.

"Don't worry about it…they're happy tears." Peyton briefly shifted her gaze to Lucas who returned the smile she had formed. "Come here" Peyton pulled back from Lucas and patted the empty space between them. Alex gladly crawled over Peyton and laid between her parents. "I love you" Peyton dropped a kiss Alex's head as Lucas replaced his arm on Peyton's waist again.

This is not the end yet