Author's Note: Hey. Okay. I have some bad news. The other board that I had this posted at got some kind of virus and I wasn't able to save the end of this. I managed to save the next four or five chapters, but not the last three or four. And I have no other copies of them, so it looks like you guys are out of luck. When I'm done posting the remaining chapters I have, I'll post a summary of the ending for you. I hope you all understand.
…OTH…
"I have a really bad feeling about this."
Peyton and Jake were on their way to the Davis cabin and Peyton was starting to have second thoughts. She hadn't spoken to Haley in over a week. She wanted desperately to talk to her, to try and explain herself again, but Brooke said that it would be best to leave her be for now. When Brooke told her the plan to surprise Haley at the cabin, Peyton immediately said no. She knew that if she was ever going to fix things with Haley, she had to let Haley come to her. Cornering her in the middle of nowhere wasn't going to do them any good. So when Brooke told her that Haley knew she was coming and was still agreeing to go, Peyton couldn't help the tinge of hope that sparked up in her. Maybe they could get past everything after all.
"Why?" Jake asked, glancing over at her quickly before returning his eyes to the road. He noticed that Peyton was playing with the hem of her shirt, something she only did when she was really nervous.
"I'm just worried about how Haley will react when we get there." Even thought Brooke had assured her that Haley knew about them coming, she still had doubts. She knew how badly Brooke wanted the two of them to make up, so she would be willing to do anything.
"I thought Brooke told her we were coming?"
"She said she did," Peyton replied, looking out the window. Her stomach started doing flip-flops as she recognized the scenery. They were just passing the entrance to the section Brooke's cabin was in. "But it's Brooke, so you can't exactly trust her word, you know."
"I guess," Jake laughed. He felt bad that Peyton was fighting with her best friend, but he was pretty sure that they would be made up by the end of the weekend. Haley had told him that she still loved Peyton, so he knew that there was hope for them yet. "But do you really think that she would lie about something this big? Especially if she was going to be stuck with the two of you all weekend?"
"It's Brooke," Peyton stated, with a sigh. "Anything is possible with her." She returned to looking out the window. She watched as they passed tree after tree. She had come up here so many times when she was little. She remembered getting lost in the forest once. It had taken Brooke's parents two hours to find them. They ended up staying in some cave they found.
"That's a good point." Jake read the signs that were at the beginning of each driveway, keeping an eye out of the one that said Davis. "Which one is it?"
"It's right up there," she answered, pointing to the driveway that was almost completely hidden by the branches from the trees. Jake nodded and turned into the gravel road. He noticed that Peyton was starting to take very deep breaths. He laughed softly.
"It's gonna be okay," Jake assured her, reaching carefully across the seats to rest his hand on her thigh. He glanced over again and noticed her staring forward. "And if Brooke was lying, we can always just go back home. I'm sure my parents wouldn't mind being relieved of Jenny duty early…"
"You have got to be kidding me," Peyton exclaimed when the cabin finally came into view. Jake looked at her strangely, trying to grunge her sudden change of attitude.
"What?" he asked as he followed her gaze. He saw what had Peyton so shocked and his eyes widened. Nathan's black Mustang was parked right beside Brooke's silver Bug in front of the house.
"That son of a bitch." The car started to slow down and before Jake could bring it to a complete stop, Peyton was already out of the car and running towards the cabin. She took the steps two at a time. She could not believe the nerve of that jackass.
"Peyton, wait!" Jake called out his window. He swore under his breath when she didn't listen to him. He quickly tried to get the car parked as soon as he could. He grimaced when he heard the front door slam open. Whoever was in there was not going to get a happy greeting.
"Where the hell is he?" Peyton yelled, as she threw the front door open. She ignored the noise as at slammed against the outside of the cabin and walked further into the cabin. She stopped in her tracks when she noticed a girl sitting on the couch in the living room.
"Hi."
"Who the hell are you?" Peyton hissed. She had no idea who she was, but she didn't like her already. Without waiting for a response from the girl, Peyton starting looking around the place for any sign of her friends. Nicki pushed herself off the couch to follow the pissed off blonde. She leaned on the wall as she watched Peyton open each door in the hallway.
"They aren't here," Nicki informed her, once she came out of the third room. Peyton stopped her frantic movements and stared at her. Peyton didn't know what it was, but there was just something about this girl that she didn't like. She just knew she was trouble. Nicki caught the look and smile. "I'm Nicki."
"Peyton," she replied coldly. She did not have time to deal with this chick now. She shook her head and walked back into the living room. "You said they aren't here?"
"Yeah, they all went after some girl…"
"Peyton, why didn't you wait for me?" Jake asked as he came running in the front door. He stopped dead in his tracks when he spotted Nicki standing not two feet away from Peyton. Nicki looked to be equally surprised. "Nicki?"
"Jake Jaglieski," she stated with a smirk. She honestly had no idea that Nathan was a friend with her ex, but that just made the whole thing even better. "Long time, no see." Jake did not return the smile she was giving him, instead he was shooting her a glare.
"Yeah, how long has it been?" he asked sarcastically. "I think it's been almost a year and a half since you left town, hasn't it?" Peyton looked back and forth between the two trying to figure out what was going one. It was obvious that they knew each other.
"Jake, you know her?" she asked, her intense rage at Nathan forgot for the time being. It took Jake a moment to break his death stare at Nicki before he turned to her.
"She's my ex-girlfriend," he answered softly. He didn't think that Peyton was the jealous type, but he wasn't exactly sure how she was going to react. Peyton's eyes widened and she glanced back at Nicki.
"Is she…" Jake nodded, knowing what she was about to ask.
"Yeah," he answered softly. He didn't like to talk about Nicki, especially with Peyton. "She's Jenny's mother."
Peyton let the information wash over her. Over the year that she and Jake had been seeing each other, she had grown very fond of Jenny, she even thought of her as her daughter in a way. In fact, she said her first word when Peyton was baby-sitting her; mama.
She had always wondered about what Jenny's mother was really like. She asked Jake about her a couple times, but he won't even tell her the girl's name. Finally, after a while, she realized that she was never going to find out anything about this mystery girl, so she just moved on. Up until now, she hadn't really thought about it.
"Let me guess," Nicki said, interrupting her thoughts. She had caught the pained look that came to the blonde's face when Jake told her and she put two and two together. "You're the new girlfriend?"
"That really is none of your business, Nicki," Jake snapped. Peyton looked at him in surprise. She had never seen him look so angry before. Usually he's so clam and relaxed. Seeing him like this kind of scared her. She just hoped that she never did anything to make him hate her like that.
"And the kitten has claws," she laughed. She loved it when Jake got like that. She found him a lot more attractive when he was pissed off.
"Both of you, just shut up," Peyton exclaimed. "As much as I'd like to stand here and trade puns with the two of you, there is a more pressing matter that I must attend to." Peyton send a pleading look in Jake's direction for him to let things go for now. He sighed and nodded.
"Okay," he mumbled. Nicki's smile widened when she saw how wiped he was. He was the same with her. That boy seriously needed to grow a backbone.
"Fine with me," she laughed. She quickly stopped when she saw the look Peyton was giving her. She didn't know what it was, but there was something about the blonde that scared her.
"What are you doing here, anyway? "
"Nathan brought me up," she answered. By the look on Peyton's face, that wasn't the answer she was looking for.
"I'm gonna kill him," she stated. Neither Jake nor Nicki thought she was joking. The hatred was clearly written on her face, anyone could see it. "You said they weren't here. Where'd they go?"
"They went off looking for some girl," she answered. She wasn't entirely sure herself what happened. All Nathan told her was to wait there for the others to come.
"Haley?"
"I don't know," Nicki shrugged. "I didn't catch the name. She just freaked out when she saw Nathan and took off." Peyton closed her eyes. This was just what she was afraid of happening. "The other girl started screaming at him. Finally, after like five minutes the other guy suggested that they go look for her."
"When was all of this?" Peyton was trying to think of all the possible things that could have happened to Haley when she ran off. There was so much stuff out in the woods that Haley won't know about. She also couldn't forget about the fact that the woods were huge and Haley could be anywhere out there.
"I'm not sure." Nicki glanced at her watch. "Maybe an hour ago."
"And you still haven't heard from them?" Nicki shook her head. Peyton closed her eyes again and she could felt Jake wrap an arm around her waist. She took a few deep breaths as she ran a hand over her face.
"Everything will be okay," Jake tried to tell her. He knew that it wasn't true, and he was pretty sure that she didn't believe him. He could feel her start to tense up. She was really worried about Haley and he knew what she was about to do.
"I'm going to look for her," she announced. She moved out of Jake's arms and spun on her heels, heading towards the door. Jake quickly followed. "You can't stop me, Jake. I've been lost out there before with Brooke, it's not fun. She's alone and upset. It's not safe and I'm going to go find her."
"Not alone," he told her, grabbing onto her arm as she opened the door. "I'm going with you." She shook her head and looked past him to Nicki.
"This may be against my best interest," she began, eyeing Nicki. "But I want you to stay here with her. If Hales comes back here, she's not going to want to be alone with her."
"You can't go out there alone," he stated, looking out the door to the forest. He shook his head and looked back at her face. "It's not safe."
"I've been out there hundreds of times," she promised him. She could see the fear and concern in his eyes and she found it overwhelmingly sweet. God, she loved him. She had no idea what she would do if he ever did what Nathan did to Haley. The need she felt to go find Haley was multiplied now. "I won't get lost, I promise."
"Okay," he sighed. He was not okay with this, in fact he was the furthest thing away from okay, but he knew how much Peyton loved Haley so she wasn't going to take no of an answer. "Just be back before it gets dark?"
"I will."
"Be careful." She nodded and he kissed her softly on the lips before letting her arm go. "I love you."
"Love you, too." With one more kiss and a final warning glare at Nicki, Peyton was out the door. Jake stared after her for a moment, noticing that the sky was looking dark. He said a silent prayer that everyone turned out okay and closed the door.
"So," Nicki began in a suggestive tone. Jake slowly turned around to face her. He knew the look on her face all too well and he didn't like it. "It looks like it's just you and me."
…OTH…
"We've already looked here," Lucas exclaimed as he noticed the huge rock that had blue paint on it. He sighed and sat down on the rock. "It's been an hour and we still haven't found her."
"And we aren't going to if you just sit there," Nathan spat at him. He was really starting to get worried. Haley never just took off like that. She was the smart one in the group, she knew better than that. "Get your ass up and in gear."
"Give me a minute," Lucas defended, leaning forward and resting his hands on his knees. He was really starting to get tired. He could run up and down a basketball courts for an hour, but he could barely last fifteen minutes of hiking, it just wasn't his thing.
"We don't have time," Nathan replied. He reached forward and grabbed a hold of his brother's arm and jerked him forward. Lucas stumbled a bit before regaining his balance. When he was standing, Lucas glared at Nathan.
"Dude!"
"Look, Haley is lost, okay," he reminded him. It was like very second that passed, he just got more scared. "We don't have time to sit and rest. She is out there somewhere by herself."
"And whose fault is that?" Brooke demanded. So far she had kept pretty quite, only supplying her input when it was asked, but she had had enough. She didn't say anything before because she didn't think that she could restrain herself from murdering Nathan. "You're the complete jackass that crashed the trip and brought a girl along for the ride."
"I didn't…"
"Honestly, what in the hell were you thinking?" She had known Nathan Scott for almost her entire life so she knew that he could be a real dick sometimes, but what he did even surprised her. "Were you trying to completely destroy Haley? I mean, are you even made of human parts?"
"I didn't think she was coming still," was his lame excuse. While it was true, he really didn't think that Haley would be there, he still knew that he shouldn't have done it in the first place. He obviously wasn't wanted there, but he did it just to prove a point. He wanted everyone to think that he was over Haley, that he wasn't going to wait around for her. "I thought she was still mad at Peyton."
"Which is also your fault."
"Whatever," he groaned. "We don't have time to play the blame game right now, okay? We need to find her before it gets dark." He glanced over to see that Lucas was standing up straight, looking more energized than before. "You good?"
"Yeah," he answered, nodding his head. He laced his fingers in with Brooke's and started walking again, Nathan trailing behind them. After calling out Haley's name for five minutes, Brooke felt something land on her. She looked up at the dark sky and let out a frustrated scream.
"And now it's raining," she exclaimed. This was just what they needed. She held onto Luke's hand tighter and snuggled into his side as they walked down the dirt path. She was really starting to get worried about her best friend. Haley was not an outdoorsy kind of person, if she got in some kind of trouble, she won't had the slightly idea what to do.
"She'll be okay, sweetie," Lucas assured her, kissing her softly on the head. He could practically feel his girlfriend's fear radiating off of her and it only made him feel worse. He was just as scared as she was, but he had to be strong for her. He had to keep her thinking that everything would be okay. "She has to be."
Nathan kept quiet, listening to them talking as if he wasn't there. He didn't blame them though, he would ignore him too. This whole thing was his fault; Haley was missing because of him. He couldn't believe that he had exactly brought Nicki up there with me. How much more of an ass could he be?
He prayed to himself that they would find Haley and that she would be okay. Like Lucas said, she had to be okay. He couldn't lose her, not again, not now. He realized that he would rather have her as a friend than not have her at all, but from where he stood now, he would be lucky if she ever looked at him again.
…OTH…
That's all. Hope you liked it. I'll be back with the remaining chapters soon. Please review. Peace.
