Chapter Two

Peyton sat on the edge of the bed and watched Luke as he slept. Curled in the fetal position, his back to the wall, his soft face unmarred by lines of confusion, anger or retribution.

Silky blond hair that creased her pillow. She stared at him, one thought on her mind. Fate must be laughing at me right now. I finally find someone to love, who loves me in return and he has to leave to rescue someone else he loves. My mother of all ghosts shows up on my doorstep. And now, I have Lucas in my bed right where I wanted him a year ago. Things happen and time has a distorted way of sending you what you want.

The dark night hung over Tree Hill, through the town, lights were off and more were on, because of the catastrophic fire that had occurred. People were wondering what had caused it? Was it arson? Was it motivated by someone's need to expunge Dan, because he had destroyed so many lives. People wondered, they paced and speculated.

Deb and Nathan were down at the police station, being questioned in separate rooms about their whereabouts that night. It was 3am and they'd been there for the last 5 hours. Having been called to the scene of the fire by the police at about 9:30 and then being escorted to the police station.

In a dank gray room, Nathan was being grilled by 3 policemen, he was starting to sweat, but his story stayed the same, detail for detail.

"One last time, then I'm done," Nathan sighed, raking his hands through his hair. "I was picking stuff up at my apartment, since I was moving home and I made a few trips back and forth, my soon to be ex-wife showed up at my house between 7:45 and 8 to talk to me, I told her we were done and that I didn't want anything to do with her. She left shortly after that, she never came inside, my mom was home the entire time while this happened."

"Okay son, we'll be back shortly," Lieutenant Trudeau told him, nodding to the other two officers, they exited the room.

"What'd you guys think?" they watched him from the observation room.

Meanwhile, Deb was being grilled along similar lines down the hall, "I've repeated this story to you three times."

"I was at the café till 6, then I closed up shop, locked the doors at 6:30, just as I was leaving Whitey, Coach Durham stopped by to see me and gave me some information about High Flyers for Nathan, I talked to him for about 20 minutes, got in my car and drove home. Nathan was there, dropping off more boxes, it was about 7 by now. He left again to go pick up his last load of stuff from his apartment, I sat down to read a book, Nathan got back at about 7:30, he brought his stuff in with him and put his stuff away. The doorbell rung at about 7:50 and it was Haley, his wife, she wanted to talk to him. I went upstairs to give them some privacy, they talked for about 5 to 10 minutes and then she left, she never came inside. Nathan and I watched a movie until about 9, then I was getting worried about Dan, because he hadn't called to say he'd be late, so I called his cell, no answer, so I called the dealership and no answer. I didn't think anything of it, cause sometimes he's delayed or he's gone somewhere and I have no way of talking with him until he phones me back. I received your call at 9:24 and Nathan and I left straight away to go to the dealership."

Linking her fingers together, she sat back and stared at them, not blinking an eyelash. "Thank you again Mrs. Scott, we'll be right back." Lt. Wade and Sgt. Lancaster nodded at her. Joining Lt. Trudeau and the other two detectives, they compared notes about the stories and how they were similar and different.

Pain has a face and a name, I'm looking it in the face right now, it's taken over my body. What can I do? But accept how it feels? What it does to me? I've lost everything important to me. Nothing matters anymore.

There's no one in town I know
You gave us some place to go.
I never said thank you for that.
I thought I might get one more chance.
What would you think of me now,
so lucky, so strong, so proud?

Haley remembered the lyrics of the song that she heard on her discman while on the plane here to see Nathan. They struck her as somehow right and she'd hoped that Nathan would take her in. Fitting her mood, she slugged her bag over her shoulder and stared out the window at the coming dawn.

Pale fingers of light crawled over the mountains, her life was over, she no longer had a home in Tree Hill.

lyrics from "may angels lead you in"

short i know, more soon, thanks for the reviews.