"Hey Jenny, you tired?" Jake Jagielski asks his daughter who has her thumb in her mouth and her head resting on his shoulder, two sure signs that she was ready to sleep. "You want to have a bottle and then go for a nap?"

"Night, night," Jenny mumbles in response to her father's question. Fumbling for his keys while balancing Jenny, Jake can hear the phone ringing through the thin walls of his small apartment. Jake doesn't' even bother with the phone, his mind focused on getting Jenny to bed and then collapsing in bed for a short nap himself. As Jake sets to changing Jenny's diaper the answering machine picks up, "this is Jake, leave a message."

"Jake," the voice on the other line shocks Jake to the point that he stops mid-diaper change. "Listen, I've got to talk to you, it's about Peyton and it's important. Just call me back at home as soon as you get this."

Jake rushes through Jenny's nap time rituals, his thoughts focused on Peyton. He'd been worried in the first place. Throughout the summer he had gotten tons of emails from her and then all of a sudden they had stopped completely. He'd just figured that she had found someone else and move don, but in the back of his mind he'd been worried that there might be something else.

"You're a jackass," Brooke's voice is harsh on the other line when she answers. "I realize that you have a baby to protect but how God damned hard and time consuming is it to return a God damned email?"

"Brooke is Peyton okay?" Jake knows he deserves the wrath of Brooke Davis.

"No," Brooke snaps. "She's a complete mess, I've only ever seen her like this when her mom died."

"What's wrong with her Brooke?"

"She's nothing like the Peyton I've known all of my life. Since you left it's like she's lost all ability to deal with life. She's depressed and..." Brooke stops.

"And?"

"She's done some drugs."

"What?" Jake exclaimed, "Peyton?"

"I'm worried about her Jake. It's like I don't even know her anymore. I know you're hiding out from Nikki but could you come to Tree Hill, Jake. Just to see her? I can't help her. God knows I've tried. Can you?"

"Brooke I..." Jake sighs, he wanted to be there for Peyton.

"She helped you escape with your daughter, she saved you from possibly losing Jenny, now she needs your help. She needs you to pull her out of this."

"I want to Brooke, I really do, but I can't afford it."

"I can pay for it," Brooke offers.

"I can't ask you too."

"It's not technically my money," Brooke responds. "It's a long un-important story. You and Jenny are booked on a flight at 3:30, I know it's short notice..."

"I'll be there."

By the time Jake's plane lands in North Carolina Jake is a nervous wreck. His thoughts concerned with getting Jenny and her things off the plane but mostly his thoughts were focused on Peyton, Brooke's calling really weighing on his mind. Even when he tried to explain it to himself Jake couldn't explain the connect he had with Peyton. It was more than anything he had ever felt for Nikki and now he felt completely guilty for leaving Tree Hill without a word to the person who had helped him get out in the first place.

As soon as he stops by his parents house to drop off Jenny, Jake immediately heads over to Peyton's house. After ringing the doorbell and without an answer Jake takes to walking around Tree Hill, with no clue as to where Peyton would be. Most of the alley's Jake glanced down without a second thought and it was only luck that Jake's eyes focused on the car and two people standing in that particular alley. At first he's hidden in the shadows and he spots a guy he doesn't recognize from behind and the curly blonde who had held most of his thought standing there.

Jake walks forward a couple steps, out of the shadows and into Peyton's visibility, her eyes go wide and the other person turns around, "you know this guy?"

Jake's stomach drops, everything Brooke had said was true, Peyton was a mess there was no doubt in Jake's mind what was about to go down in the alley, and when all was said and done it was his fault.

"Jake!" Peyton's exclamation is more friendly than Jake would have expected, maybe he still had a chance to make this right. Maybe Brooke had been right, maybe all she needs is him.

A.N. I know this kind of ends...well exactly where the horribly wonderful writers at OTH left us off, but that was kind of my point. When the episode was done and I got over seeing the beautiful shock that was Jake being back I couldn't help but wonder, how did Jake get to Tree Hill in the first place? So the point was to see that, not Peyton's reaction to him being back...I'll leave that up to the fab OTH writers!