AN: Hey guys! OK so this fic is already all written out, I wrote it a while ago, like this summer, but I decided to post it here, too. So, I guess in the middle of writing it I decided to make it a short fic, so these next few chapters might seem to be moving kind of fast. But they're still good, I think. I hope you like them! Here's the next one. Thanks for the reviews: jeytonlover (twice! Wow thx so much!), flirts2much09, and lilmonkeygirl31.

CHAPTER 4: Absence Makes The Heart Grow Fonder

Lucas walked over to give Brooke, the love of his life, a hug, which Brooke greatly reciprocated. He didn't say anything. He had a million questions flying around in his mind: What was she doing here? Was she back for good? Just visiting? Did she get his e-mail? But he didn't ask any of them. Right now, he just wanted to hold her in his arms. But even that was too much to ask, 'cause a hug has to end at some point. So regretfully for Lucas and for Brooke, they pulled apart.

There was still some awkwardness in the air, but all in all, Lucas was glad to see Brooke, and Brooke was glad to be there.

"My parents let me come back for the weekend," Brooke said.

"Oh, that's great," Lucas said, trying to hide his disappointment. He was actually hoping that she was back for good. "So, how are things in California?" He asked, figuring that small talk was the way to go.

"They're great," She answered without even thinking about the question. It was just one of those things. Like when someone says 'How are you?' you just say 'fine' without even thinking. But who was she kidding? This was Lucas, she could tell him the truth. "Actually, no, they're awful."

"It can't be that bad," Lucas said, trying to cheer her up.

"My dad is always working, and my mom is always out. There is no way I am hanging out with the kids that live near me. It's like everyone there is so selfish and everyone here is so nice. I just..." Brooke paused and for the first time since she came here, she looked Lucas in the eye, and he was staring right back at her intensly. "I just missed you." She said a little above a whisper.

"I missed you too, Brooke," Lucas said.

The second after Nathan and Haley broke their hug, Nathan knelt down and kissed her passionitaly and took Haley off-guard. But it was a pleasant surprise. She couldn't remember the last time she had gotten a kiss like this. It reminded her of all her great kissed with Nathan combined. Their first kiss infront of her house, their kiss in the rain also in front of her house, their marriage kiss... And she had missed them. She had almost forgotten how good it felt to feel his lips on hers. It had been so long...

"Wow," Haley whispered when they broke apart. It sounded so corny, but it was all she could say.

Nathan didn't know what had come over him. It was a sort of impulse, to just kiss her, so he did. He wanted to show her that he was all in. He just wanted things to work out from now on. If he had a chance to have her again, he would take it and he wouldn't let go.

Nathan looked down at his wife. She was staring right at him, gazing through his eyes and into his soul. "I love you." Nathan whispered seeing her eyes glaze over and for a second he thought she might cry. But she kept her tears inside and simply smiled.

"I love you too." She said.

Jake knew he needed to get a move on things. He had been in New York for a few days already, about three. He figured that once he had spent about a week there, he would leave. But at the rate things were going, he would need to be there a little longer. He had been working at the Downtown Cafe, five hours almost every day and got pretty exhausted, but still wasn't getting much money. But it was about as hard to find a job for a teenage boy in New York as it was to find Nikki in all the US.

Jake was currently on his break and was walking around the streets of New York. He passed by a couple of middle-aged men sitting on the side walks, playing on guitars. There was a hat in front of them, with a couple coins scattered inside it. They were playing and singing some country songs and Jake couldn't help but he mesmerized by it. He realized how much he missed playing guitar. He obviously couldn't bring it with him on his little road trip, and it was missing it like crazy.

Since he had left Tree Hill, he had had a lot of time to himself, so when he got some free time, which wasn't often, he would write some songs in his notebook. He had never tried writing before, but he felt like starting. Now that he was alone, he had no one to share his thoughts with, so he put them all into songs. Some about Jenny. Some about home. Some even about basketball believe it or not. But mostly they were about Peyton. He just couldn't get her out of his head.

Peyton was sitting on her bed sketching and listening to Jimmy Eat World's 'The Middle'. It was weird, but she had so much time alone these days that when she got bored she just listened to music and listened closely to the lyrics she had heard a million times before. She was searching for a hidden meaning or something.

"It just takes some time, little girl,
You're in the middle of the ride
Everything Everything will be just fine
Everything Everything will be alright"

Peyton sighed. Nothing was ever 'just fine' here in Tree Hill. There's always, a jackass singer stealing people's wives, or deadly love-triangles, or some pshycho crazy ex going around stealing babies. Speaking of psycho crazy people, 'WATCHMEWATCHYOU' hadn't instant messaged Peyton in a while. She must have gotten bored of stalking her, Peyton thought.

"Who's your best friend in the whole wide world?" Peyton heard a familiar voice say from behind her in that cheery tone Peyton knew all too well. She turned around with a wide grin on her face.

"BROOKE!" She screeched as she went to hug her best friend. "What are you doing here? Why didn't you tell me you were coming? Oh my gosh, are you back for good? Did your parents-" Peyton rambled on and on until Brooke had to interrupt.

"Wait, don't get all excited. I'm just here for the weekend." Peyton didn't hide her disappointment. She really needed someone there by her side, with everything going on.

"OK, well then I need to fill you in fast, about everything going on." Peyton said.

"That much? I've only been gone a week!" Brooke said, excited for the gossip.

"This is Tree Hill, remember?" Peyton said.

"Right. Please, go on." Brooke said.

"Ok, so first. Haley came back. For good." Peyton said.

"What? Oh my God! Lucas didn't tell me that!" Brooke exclaimed.

"Wait, wait wait, you saw Luke before me?"

"Well..." Brooke said putting on her innocent face. "I was just driving by the River Court, on my way here of course, and he was there, so I kind of... stopped by?"

Peyton laughed. "Hey, it's fine by me. I'm not about to step in between true love."

"Peyton, I do not feel that way about him-" Brooke lied.

"Well he feels that way about you. Obviously. Come on Brooke, you don't have the slightest feelings for him?" Peyton said.

There was a long pause. "Well, OK, maybe a little..." Brooke admitted. "But anyway, that's not the point. What else is going on here?"

"Well... um, you know that woman that was supposed to be writing an article about me?" Peyton said.

"Yeah..." Brooke said.

"Well, it turns out," Peyton said a little uncomfortably, "that she lied and she's not writing an article about me. And she's my mom. Well, biologically at least... It's kind of a long story, but her story does make sense." Peyton said and Brooke pulled her in for another hug.

"Oh, honey, that's big news. What're you going to do?" Brooke asked.

"I don't know." Peyton said, truthfully. Just then the phone rang, so Peyton pulled away from Brooke's embrace to go pick it up. "Hello?" She said. "mhm... yeah... Oh, are you sure?... No, that's great... Thank you, sir... OK, I will. Bye." Peyton said looking shocked as she hung up.

"What is it?" Brooke said.

"Um, well, I have more stuff to tell you actually. I know that Jake told me that I should forget about him, but I mean, you know, how could I?" Peyton said as Brooke nodded, she knew that Jake was a touchy subject. "So I got in touch with the police and kind of... filed a warrant out for Nikki's arrest..." Peyton said.

"Wow, alright Blondie!" Brooke said cheering for Peyton, which made her smile.

"Yeah, so this was a while ago, and I didn't really know to expect something or not, but I just wanted to help, you know? So, the police guy that I talked to was really nice and said that they would look out for her in all their stations all over the country. Well, it turns out, that this morning, the police spotted her, she's somewhere in New Jersey, the told me to come down to the station now and we'll just take it from there." Peyton said, the news just starting to sink in.

"Oh my God, Peyton that's fantastic! You did it!" Brooke screamed.

"Yeah, now we just have to hope that Jake checks his e-mail..." Peyton said.

"You haven't heard from him?" Brooke asked sympathetically and Peyton shook her head.

AN: OK guys, I hope you liked it! ok next chapter I promise there will be Jeyton! and of course Naley and Brucas. please REVIEW!