Chapter 19 The Difficulty of Forgiving a Friend

The next morning, after gaining approximately three hours of sleep, Lucas rolled out of bed quietly, attempting not to wake his wife. After dressing and getting himself ready, he went to the boys' room and woke them up, urging them to get ready for school quickly.

"Where's mom?" Ryan asked suspiciously, not used to his father waking him on school mornings.

"Sleeping," Lucas answered. "Let's get a move-on! I can't be late!" Both boys grumbled, but quickly began to get dressed for the day. He was on his way to Gretchen's room when he heard noise coming from Winifred's. Opening the door, he saw that she was fumbling around for her glasses.

"You're not going to school, Fred. Go back to sleep."

"Dad—"

"No arguments. You were in the hospital. Give it a few more days. Go back to sleep." He tucked her back under the covers and kissed her forehead before going in search of his younger daughter. Lucas found Gretchen still sleeping and decided to leave her; the females of this household apparently needed more sleep that day. Reluctantly, he called the Jagielski household before eight in the morning. Jake answered the telephone and seemed incredibly surprised when Lucas asked to speak with Brooke. Apparently that meant having to wake the sleeping princess.

"Whatdoyouwant?" She snapped grouchily.

"I need your help," Lucas answered evenly. "Peyton's not feeling well and Fred is home from school. I need you to keep an eye on the two of them and Gretchen while I'm at work."

"Sure," Brooke mumbled after a few seconds of thoughts. "I'll be over in a few."

"Thanks Brooke."

"Whatever," she mumbled tiredly before handing the phone back to Jake.

"Hey man, what's up? Everything okay over there?"

"We're fine," Lucas answered. "Peyton's just a little under the weather and I don't want her to have to keep up with Gretchen all day. She's a pretty active kid."

"Let us know if there's anything we can do to help."

"Brooke coming over is more than enough. Thanks man."

"Anytime. See you later."

"Bye." Lucas hung up the phone and returned to the kitchen to find Ashton and Ryan sitting at the table, looking at him expectantly. He grumbled a bit, thinking that they were old enough to pour their own cereal. Unfortunately, Gretchen woke up just as Brooke arrived and put up quite the fuss when Lucas attempted to leave.

Peyton woke at nine that morning with a pounding headache; the kind that usually came after a night filled with too much stress and too many tears. She was alarmed when she saw the red digits of the alarm clock and sprang out of bed, running down the hall in her bare feet. She soon found Brooke and Gretchen, who were sitting on a sofa in the living room. The little girl was cheerfully clapping along with a sing-along movie while Brooke leafed through a magazine in which she seemed to find little or no interest. Peyton realized the reason for that when Brooke set the magazine down and revealed it to be one of Lucas's book catalogues.

"Hey sleeping goldilocks," Brooke said cheerfully when she saw Peyton.

Gretchen quickly scrambled off of the sofa and ran at Peyton full speed, happy to see her mother for the first time that day. She had been less than pleased when her father had left her with Brooke and it had taken Brooke almost half an hour to pry the little girl away from the front window, from where she had watched her father leave.

"What are you doing here?" Peyton's voice betrayed the small fact that she was still tired.

"You don't sound happy to see me," Brooke pouted.

"Happy. Yes. But also confused."

"Lucas called this morning. Said you were still sleeping and he needed someone to watch baby goldilocks. And since I have nothing better to do—"

"Brooke, that's not true."

"Yeah, it is. I'm not getting into a debate with you over the meaninglessness that is my life. What's up with you? You're normally super mom. I was surprised to find out you sleep at all anymore."

"I think that's the problem," Peyton said with a half-smile. She turned her attention back to her daughter, who was reaching to her mother, trying to get Peyton to pick her up. She couldn't though, now that she knew she was pregnant. Instead, she stooped down and hugged the little girl and kissed her cheek. "Did we have breakfast this morning, baby girl?" Gretchen answered by giggling and extracting from the pocket of her pink jean skirt a few pieces of cereal. "And you're apparently saving some for later," Peyton said dryly as she raised her eyebrows at Brooke.

"Hey, she's your kid. She wanted cereal for the road. I wasn't arguing."

"And you're not the one who has to do the laundry. I'm going to check on Fred-"

"She's fine. We looked in five minutes ago and she was reading. Lucas has already talked to her this morning. He called after his first class."

"Thanks Brooke. I'm sorry Lucas woke you up this morning. You don't have to stay."

"Yeah, I actually do." Peyton looked at her questioningly and Brooke continued with her line of reasoning. "My husband and yours were both pretty insistent that I'm not supposed to leave you alone today."

"Lucas is overreacting," Peyton said with a sigh. "It's really only sweet for a little while. Then, it's a little annoying. This is what too much crying gets you."

"You're lucky. I usually get a Prozac shoved down my throat."

"I'm sure you're exaggerating a little bit."

"You'd expect anything else?" They both laughed and Peyton sat down on the floor, tired after just a few minutes of standing.

"Since you've been forced to take the day off, why don't you go back to bed? It probably wouldn't hurt."

"At this point, I'm up. I'm going to eat. Want anything?"

"Nope, we're good." Peyton smiled as she walked into the kitchen. She was surprised, but slightly relieved, when Gretchen didn't follow. The little girl was not going to understand her mother's sudden reluctance to picking her up and carrying her around as she normally did. After finishing her breakfast and peaking back in on Brooke and Gretchen, Peyton walked up the stairs and knocked lightly on Winifred's door.

"Come in."

"Morning."

"Hey. I was wondering where you were. What's aunt Brooke doing here?"

"You'll have to ask your dad," Peyton answered with a small smile. She crossed the room and sat, tiredly, next to her daughter. Still clad in pajamas from the previous night, Peyton pulled her feet up and snuggled under the covers as soon as Fred offered them. "What's that?"

"Book for school," Fred answered as she showed Peyton the tattered copy of All Quiet on the Western Front. "It's sort of depressing."

"If I remember correctly, most of the classics are. Can I turn on the TV?" Fred nodded and Peyton reached for the remote, which she used to quickly find a channel replaying old horror movies. Fred shook her head as her mother started watching House on Haunted Hill and continued with her book until Brooke poked her head in looking for them.

"Comfortable?" She asked Peyton with a smirk.

"I figured I'd take advantage of you serving me. It's not like it'll ever happen again."

"Not likely," Brooke agreed. When Lucas got home from practice that evening, he was surprised to find Peyton and Fred both asleep, curled up on Fred's little princess bed while Dial M for Murder was playing on the little TV. Now that he was home, he could breath again. Although his mind had argued with him all day and assured him that his family was fine, an inner voice had plagued him ever since he had left them with Brooke. Old wounds healed slowly and trust took a very long time to regain.

The chapter title is taken loosely from this quote:

"It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend." William Blake