Disclaimer: I do not own OTH or any of it characters places or such. I am simply borrowing them
AN/ Thanks for the reviews! I know some of you were confused by the last chapter, I hope that this chapter make things a little clearer.
Suggestions are welcomeNathan and Keith were in the detached garage behind the house playing a game of pool. Deb had played pool when she was a teenager and she had taught Nathan. It had become one of their favorite pastimes together. As Nathan sank the 8 ball winning the game, he looked at his uncle finally having the nerve ask him about the Sawyers.
"Hey Keith?"
"Yea, I know. You beat me, AGAIN" Keith replied laughing
"Can I ask you about something?"
"Yea, sure" Keith said as he sat his pool stick down on the table and leaned against it
"Do you know anybody with the last name Sawyer?"
"Yea, George and Carol Sawyer live down the street."
"Yea, I remember them. Did they have any kids?"
"Yea, a son, Larry. One heck of a basketball player"
"Do you know Larry?" Nathan asked as he also sat his pool stick on the table
"Yea, he got married right out of high school, had a couple of kids and got a job in South Carolina. Why do you ask?"
"Did mom tell you that I was looking for a new agent?" Nathan answering with a question of his own.
"Yea, I think she mentioned it a couple of weeks ago on the phone. Did you find one?"
"Yea, I did. His name is Lucas Sawyer." Nathan said as Keith turned his head away from Nathan, "We played against each other in college. His sister went to college with Haley and I. He said that his parents were from here"
"I think we should go in the house. Your mom might need help with dinner," Keith said as he started walking towards the garage door.
"He said that they call you Uncle Keith too," Nathan said still standing beside the pool table
Keith stopped, "They do" Keith answered and continued walking out the garage door and towards the house. Nathan following
"You know them?" Nathan asked as Keith reached the back door
"Yea, I know them. Come in the house, Nathan. I know you have questions, but come in the house"
"My brother? How is that possible?" Lucas asked
"Why don't we sit down?" Larry said
"So, Nathan is my brother also?" Peyton asked as she stood beside Lucas
"No, he isn't" Anna answered walking towards the dining room table
"Okay….So, he is Lucas's brother, but not mine. How does that work? Lucas and I are brother and sister" Peyton looked at her mother confused
"Just sit down and we will explain it all to you" Larry said as he moved to sit at the table with his wife
Brooke, who had been quiet the entire time, started to leave the room. She was married to Lucas, but wasn't sure if she should be in this conversation.
"Brooke, you need to hear this too. Sit down" Anna said as she noticed her daughter-in-law start to leave, "Please, Lucas, Peyton, sit down"
Peyton and Brooke sat at the table, but Lucas didn't move from his spot by the kitchen counter.
"Lucas?" Larry asked
"Just say what you need to say"
"Okay, You know that your dad and I went to Tree Hill high school together, that was how we met" Anna started, "Well that is also how we met Keith. Your dad and his brother, Dan were best friends. They played on the basketball team together. Dan is Nathan and Lucas's father"
"Mom, are you saying that you cheated on Dad?" Peyton asked
"No, your mom didn't cheat on me"
"Then how do Nathan and I have the same father?" Lucas asked still standing at the counter
"Dan had a girlfriend, Karen Roe. She was a quiet shy girl, who your mother got to know very well sitting on the bleachers during basketball games. After high school, that July when your mother and I got married, Karen was your mom's maid of honor and Dan was my best man"
"I don't know what this has to do with the fact that Nathan and I are brothers"
"I am getting there Lucas" Larry said turning to look at his son, "Dan and Karen were planning on going away to college together that fall at Duke university."
"A couple of days before they were suppose to leave, Karen came to me and told me that she was pregnant. She had told Dan and he wanted her to have an abortion. Karen knew that she could never do that, so she decided to have the baby and stay in Tree Hill with us. Dan left for college telling Karen that they would work something out when he was home for Christmas break. When Dan didn't come back, Karen knew that she couldn't take care of the baby and decided to give him up for adoption when he was born. Your father and I discussed it and told Karen that we would take the baby, raise him and that she could still be in his life. She seemed happy about it at first and we got all the adoption paperwork ready. When you were born, Lucas, Karen never held you and she wouldn't even look at you. She told me that she was leaving Tree Hill and that she didn't want to be in your life. You were legally adopted the next day and a month later I found out that I was pregnant with Peyton"
"So, I am adopted" Lucas said as he felt his knees begin to fail him
"Yes, you are adopted. We never said anything because you never asked. We have never heard from Dan or from Karen either"
"So, you moved from Tree Hill to avoid them coming back for him?" Peyton asked
"No, we moved from Tree Hill because I had a job offer here." Larry answered his daughter
"Where does Nathan fit in all this?" Lucas asked as he began to slide down the wall below the counter
"Dan never came back at Christmas because he had a new girlfriend, a girl he had met at Duke, Deb Lee. Deb became pregnant with Nathan a couple of months after Karen with you and when she told Dan he ran. She went to look for him when she was 8 months pregnant and ended up in Tree Hill. She met Keith, Dan's older brother and never left." Larry said
"Keith knew about you Lucas. When he found out that Karen was giving you up and that we were adopting you he told us that he wanted to be part of your life. We never denied him that right. When Deb showed up in Tree Hill pregnant, he called to tell us. We made a trip up to Tree Hill to see your grandparents and met her. We decided then that it would just be easier not to tell you two about each other. We have kept in contact with Deb over the years usually around this time of the year, but we have not seen her since that day." Anna finished.
While, Keith and Nathan were in the garage, Deb started dinner and Haley sat at the kitchen counter talking away.
"So, did Nathan find an agent?" Deb asked as she began frying hamburgers, "I meant to ask him earlier"
"Yea, he found one. Actually someone that we know."
"Really? A friend from college?"
"Yea, they played a couple of games against each other. His sister, Peyton went to college with us at UNC Wilmington"
Deb dropped the spatula on the stove like a hot potato at the mention of the name Peyton.
"Deb?"
"Hmm?"
"Are you okay?"
"Oh, yea. Sorry. So what is the name of his new agent?"
"Lucas Sawyer" Haley answered watching her mother-in-law. Deb's eyes began to mist over and Deb knew that the day had finally come when she would have to tell Nathan the truth
"He told you about his Uncle Keith, didn't he?" Deb asked sitting the spatula down and turning off the stove.
"You know about Lucas?" Haley asked as Deb walked towards her
"Yea, I know about Lucas."
Deb walked towards the back door and turned the knob. When she opened it she found Keith standing by the door and Nathan behind him still in the yard.
"Come in the house, Nathan" Deb said as she looked into her son's blue eyes and then turned from the door.
"Lucas?" Anna asked her son who was sitting on the floor.
Lucas looked at his mom. He opened his mouth to speak, but couldn't say a word
"Lucas, I know this is a big shock, but I want you know that your father and I love you. We have never thought of you as anything, but our son."
"I am adopted" Lucas finally managed to speak, "I am twenty-five years old and I just found out that I am adopted. And that I have a younger brother, that I have known for years"
"Maybe your mother and I should have told you sooner. I am sorry that we didn't. We just didn't know how to tell you. We didn't want you to think that we loved you any less."
"Dad", Lucas began, "I know that you love me. I just don't know how to deal with this new information."
"Luke" Brooke said as she got up from her chair and walked towards her husband. She sat down beside him and put her head on his shoulder. "Just because your mom didn't give birth to you doesn't mean that she is not still your mom or your dad your dad or even Peyton your sister. This is your family. They have raised you, cared for you, and loved you. Nothing about your life has changed."
"It has changed Brooke. My whole life has been a lie"
"No, Luke. It is hasn't been a lie", Peyton said as she sat on the other side of her brother, "You are still my brother. These are still your parents and this is still the house that we grew up in. Yea, you are adopted so what. You have had a good life. That is what Karen Roe wanted for you. She gave you to two people that she knew would love you like their own. She did you a favor"
Lucas sat there silently thinking about what Peyton and Brooke has said. They were right. Things were changed, but he couldn't let that tear apart the family that had loved and cared for him his entire life. Lucas stood and walked towards Anna.
He bent down and hugged her, "Thanks Mom." Anna looked at her daughter and daughter-in-law still sitting on the floor as the tears came running from her eyes
Keith and Nathan entered the house and walked towards the living room where they found Haley and Deb. Haley sat silently on the couch and Deb was sitting in the rocking chair across the room tear streaks down her face
"He knows Deb" Keith said quietly to Deb as he leaned towards her ear
"Yea, I know" Deb said quietly back, "Nathan sit down please"
"Mom, Uncle Keith what is going on?" Nathan said as he sat down the couch
"You asked me about the Sawyers and about why Lucas and Peyton call me Uncle Keith. They don't call me Uncle Keith just because I am close with their parents"
"What are you trying to say?"
"Lucas is my nephew" Keith looked at Deb before continuing, "So are you, Nathan"
"We are your nephews? Both of us?"
"Yea, both of you"
"How is that possible?" Nathan asked this time looking at his mother
"Your father…your father is Keith's brother, Dan. You and Lucas are brothers." Deb said as fresh tears came to her eyes
"What!" Nathan said as he stood from sitting beside his wife, "How is that possible? Lucas's father is Larry"
"Larry and Anna adopted Lucas when he was a day old." Keith said
"Lucas is adopted?" Nathan said sitting back down
"How does this puzzle all fit together?" Haley asked
"To make a long story short. Lucas's birth mother, Karen and Dan were high school sweethearts. Karen got pregnant the summer after graduation and Dan went off to college telling her that he would be back at Christmas. He met your mom at Duke and didn't come home. When, she told him she was pregnant he left also. She came here to find him and this is where she stayed"
"Mom, do you know Lucas?"
"Yea, I met him when he was four months old. A week before you were born. Keith called Larry and Anna and told them about me and they came to visit Larry's parents. We met while they were here and decided then that we wouldn't tell you boys until it was necessary. I talk to them about this time every year just to catch up and see how things are. Every year we discuss when and how we are going to tell you about each other and we can never find the right way."
"Well, I guess you won't have to discuss that anymore. We found out on our own." Nathan said as he stood from the couch and walked towards his bedroom. Nobody moved to go after him
"Haley" Deb said almost begging her daughter-in-law to look at her, "Haley"
Haley looked up at Deb as tears began rolling down her own face, "All our lives Nathan has always told me that I was the lucky one. I had a brother. He has always wanted that in his life. A brother that he could have played basketball with in high school, talked about girls with, played video games with. I know he is upset because all of this time, he had that and didn't know it" Haley said before standing and walking after her husband
"Keith" Deb said, "What have we done?"
Keith moved to pull Deb into a hug as she continued to cry, "It will all be okay" Keith said, "It has to be"
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