Okay one reviewer gave me the great idea to write this in Dan's POV, so here it is.
Dan Scott drove through the overly crowded parking lot on Christmas eve, it seemed that in the Christmas rush, that the citizens of Tree Hill had forgotten their driving skills. "Like they had any in the first place." He muttered, trying to entertain himself in this mess of cars.
He was at the mall, with one more gift to buy. Just one.
This year, his son had joined the Ravens champion basketball. And it had opened his eyes to Lucas, and how much he needed him. The need went both ways.
About a week ago, Dan had confronted his old lover, his high school sweetheart, Karen Roe, concerning the lanky blonde boy. At first she had been reluctant, but after he stated what he wanted to do for Lucas, her skepticism had melted away.
"What do you want Dan?" She had growled at the smarmy looking man who had entered her cafe.
"Karen, I want to talk to you about Lucas..." He started with a nerve racked voice.
"What do you want with my son?" She asked, making Dan flinch on the inside, with referring of Lucas as her son, and not theirs. But Dan quickly realized that he had no right to Lucas, and Karen had every right to claim Lucas as her's and her's only.
"I want to do something for him this year for Christmas. Now before you shoot me down and tell me to go screw myself, please hear me out. Before Lucas joined the team, I had been fine with neglect because I never saw the boy, but now that I see him regularly, I also see how much he needs me, and wants me as a father."
"What are you talking about? Lucas has been just fine without you as a father. And just because Lucas has shown some potential in basketball, you decide that maybe you can buy his love too? Lucas doesn't work that way. And don't even start with the whole thing that he wants and needs you. Keith has been more of a father to Lucas than you could ever hope to be..." Karen started yelling in rage that Dan could think that Lucas wanted him and needed him.
Dan was frustrated. All that he wanted to do was make his first born son happy. "
"Kare, you know it and I know it, Lucas loves Keith, but he wants a father too. Sure he's really happy, but even I see the yearning in his eyes behind the hate for me."
"Exactly Dan, he dose hate you. But I do think that you might be right, even if he does hate you, he still wants you as a father. What did you want to do for him this Christmas?" She said, letting her guard down slightly.
"I want to get him a gift, atleast show him that I care about him." Dan spoke while looking at the ground, he didn't think that he would be able to take Karen shooting him down.
"You can get him something Dan, but nothing too fancy. You can't buy his love. But know this Dan, if you get him a gift, his hope that you will actually start acknowlede him, and care about him. And if you destroy that hope, then I will hunt you down and hurt you. Dan I don't know if Lucas can take being abandoned by you again."
Dan was brought back to reality from his flashback by a few cars honking their horns at him. Muttering obscenities, he pulled into the nearest parking lot, still trying to think of something to buy for his son.
Inside the Tree Hill Mall, citizens were scrambling for last minute items before getting home to spend time with their families.
Dan didn't know what to buy Lucas at all. He had wondered all week about what to get, and he had contemplated even going to Karen to ask her, but then he thought of all the nasty things that she could say about how it was his fault that he knew nothing about his son, so he just decided to wing it.
Lucas was into basketball, so maybe he could find something in that area. Entering the nearest sports store, he found the nearest section that held all of the basketball merchandise.
As he looked at all of the clothes and warmups, he found another thing that he didn't know about his son. What size did he wear? What sports team did he like? His mind drew a complete blank. Eventually, he came up with a very nuetral gift for the boy, a nike basketball. He'd seen the ratty ball Lucas had bounced around town.
After he got the ball, the next step, a card for the boy.
Inside the card store, he gagged at all of the sentimentalness of the store. Then he found it, the father-son section. He didn't have to look too hard before he found the perfect card. The cover had a father sitting in a rocking chair, with his small son in his lap, reading him a book. The card touched his heart, which was rare in the world of Dan Scott.
At home, he immediately excused himself to his office to wrap the gift.
Late that night, he drove across town to deliver the present.
Not ringing the doorbell, but obeying Karen's directions of entering the kitchen door, she was there waiting for him.
She looked admiringly at the silver wrapped box. "Dan, you have no idea how happy this is going to make your son."
Those words really affected Dan, he was contributing to his son's happiness.
The next day, Nathan was ripping the paper off of every single box that had his name on it, admiring it for a few seconds, then tossing it aside for the next box.
It reminded him of what Lucas was probably doing right now, except the opposite.
Silently, he whispered, "Merry Christmas Son, I love you.