Lucas took the phone call in the bedroom, the door slightly ajar as he spoke in a hushed tone. With everything that had happened, the last thing he needed was noise in his ear but there seemed to be no way out. He listened and every few seconds made a noise to make it appear as if he were remotely interested in the conversation. Finally it was over.

"You okay, Broody?" Brooke asked, as he returned to the common area.

He rubbed his tired eyes.

"No. Actually, I'm not, Brooke. As soon as we drop Jake, Peyton and Jenny off at the airport, I am gonna have a grueling five hour plus practice. I'm tired as hell and my shoulder is killing me. I've got some tough road games coming up and did I just mention I had to hear it from my brother for the last half hour about what you did to Megan yesterday."

"Sorry", she shrugged.

"Sorry? Babe, you can't go around doing stuff like that."

"She started it."

"Then you be the bigger person."

"I didn't do anything bad, Lucas. I was just being honest."

"You hurt her feelings."

"So?"

"So she's pregnant and she doesn't need to be upset like that."

"Fine", Brooke sighed. "Are you mad at me, Broody?"

"Yes", Lucas answered. "What you did was rude and harsh and blunt and…"

"Do you like this color?"

"What?" Lucas asked.

"This color on my toes. I just painted them. It's new. Pink Rosary they call it. Do you like it?"

"Brooke!"

"What?" she shrugged.

"Jesus, baby! I'm trying to talk to you about something serious."

"No, you're trying to lecture me because someone, me, finally had the balls to tell Megan like it is, and she can't handle the truth so she runs home crying to Nathan and he calls you yelling."

"It wasn't that bad", Peyton finally spoke up. "Granted things got a little out of control towards the end but Megan was holding her own and she said some pretty harsh things about Haley."

"Not to mention my sweater. My beautiful, new, one of a kind cashmere sweater that the psycho ruined. Megan is such a mental case. She's a bitc…", Brooke stopped mid sentence, looking right at little Jenny. "God, she's such a b-i-t-c-h."

"Bitch?" Jenny answered.

"Jennifer Eve Jagielski!" Peyton exclaimed.

"When did you learn how to spell?" Brooke frowned.

"Aunt Brooke, I'm eight!"

"Oh."

"I don't care how old you are, Madam", Peyton scolded. "No cursing. What? Do you think you're an Osbourne or something?"

"Listen to your mother, Jen", Jake nodded.

"God, I didn't do anything bad. I was just repeating what Aunt Brooke said", the child protested.

"Well you know right from wrong and you know what not to repeat", the father said in a more stern voice.

"Dad!"

"How about spelling and repeating this? You're g-r-o-u-n-d-e-d!"

"Grounded?" Jenny answered, her smile quickly fading when she realized just what that meant. "Aw man!"

"Jenny, why don't you go hang out in me and Brooke's room?" Lucas offered. "You can watch cartoons on the TV without having all of us grownups interrupting you."

"Thank God", the child muttered as she pouted all the way to the back.

"You watch your mouth, Missy!" Jake called out.

"Gosh, she has such an attitude", Peyton groaned.

"I think she's sassy", Brooke shrugged.

"Brooke!"

"What? Pey, sassy is good. I was sassy at the age."

"Still are."

Brooke winked.

"Babe, about this Megan thing…"

"I'm not apologizing, Lucas. And she didn't even say she was sorry for what happened before."

Lucas took a deep breath. It was tearing him apart.

"This is ridiculous", Jake sighed. "Peyton and I are in the middle and Lucas, man, you spend more time worrying about Nathan, Megan, and Haley's relationship than you do about your own with Brooke."

"I know", he said quietly.

"This has got to stop", Jake said. "We can't keep going on like this. It's way too much."

"Hel-lo!" Brooke piped up. "Is this not what I've been saying for like ever? If Nathan doesn't love Megan and is just with her for the kid, then let them deal with that. And if Chris and Haley want to play house and start a family, then that's none of our business either. Face it, she's been out of all our lives for a while. Let's just let everybody do their own thing and worry about ourselves."

"Sounds good", Jake nodded. "Lucas? Peyton? You guys in?"

"I guess", Lucas finally spoke. "Pey?"

Peyton shrugged. Of course she wanted to join the majority and be "in" but she couldn't quite shake that nagging feeling in her heart or the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"I…"

"Peyton, what's wrong?"

"I don't know. I…I just…something tells me that this is even more complicated than it already is."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I think that Haley is carrying Nathan's baby."

Brooke rolled her eyes.

"Are we on that again, P. Sawyer? Tutor Mom said…"

"No, Brooke. Taylor said…right, Luke?"

Lucas' eyes met Peyton. He knew what Taylor said. He had believed her. But after leaving New York, he still felt weird.

"Yeah."

"Then who's to say it's really true? I won't believe anything until I hear it out of Haley's mouth. Then I'll believe it and only then. When I can look in her eyes because when she told me before, I really believed her. When all those rumors were floating around about Chris and it seemed like the obvious that they were together, she told me point blank that they weren't sleeping together. I believed her then and I'll only believe that Chris Keller is the father, when I hear it from her mouth."

"Peyton, that's stupid", Brooke scoffed. "Haley James is a huge star. With one phone call to her publicist, she could straighten this whole mess out. But she hasn't. She hasn't breathed one word. Everybody thinks it's Chris', it's all in the papers and on TV and they sure do look cuter than Justin and Cameron tooling around New York holding hands. If it looks like a duck and it quacks like a duck…"

"I'm not convinced, Brooke", Peyton said. "And Lucas you don't look like you are either."

"It doesn't matter", Brooke offered. "Don't you two, see? It doesn't matter if it is or it isn't. It's not our place or our business or our lives. Their lives and their drama are taking our lives over. That's not fair. We have to let it go. Now none of us particularly likes these recent nasty little altercations that have been happening. None of us wants to take sides or be in the middle. None of us wants to lose any more sleep than we already have over this mess. I say right here, right now, we all agree to just let it go."

"Brooke…"

"She's right", Jake nodded. "We all know that. So let's make a pact from here on out, we don't get involved. Okay?"

"Sounds good to me", Brooke put her hand over Jake's. "Broody?"

Lucas took a deep breath. What other choice did he have? What else could he really do?

"I'm in", he added his hand. "Peyton?"

The curly haired blonde was the last and the most reluctant to join the others.

"Babe?" Jake prodded.

She ran her fingers through her hair and placed her hand on top of the pile of her boyfriend and two friends.

"Okay."

"Good", Brooke squealed. "Now that that's all done. You guys can spend your last few hours in Philadelphia doing something fun."

Peyton forced a smile but she wasn't smiling on the inside. She felt uneasier than ever. As her eyes looked up, she could feel Lucas staring at her. She knew that look. It was a common bond. As usual, they were on the same wavelength. Something wasn't right. The seed of doubt had been planted and they could almost feel it in their bones.