AN: Hey guys! I know it took me super long to update this! I just completely forgot about it! I'm so sorry! Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed! I hope you didn't forget about this fic! Anyways this was already finished, but here is the epilogue. I hope you like it.

I Care For You

EPILOGUE: A Fresh Start

September, 2005

Peyton And Jake

For once, everyone was actualy excited to return to school. Because this time, for everyone, there were no disfunctional relationships, nobody who felt like they didn't belong or were misunderstood. For once, everyone had found their place. When Peyton woke up on September first, their first day of their senior year at Tree Hill High, she knew that her place was right there, next to Jake.

Jake and Peyton had spend almost all their free time together, call it making up for lost time. Peyton's dad was almost never there, and so Jake would stay over a lot for the night. They could not get enough of each other. Peyton could barely remember the feeling of being so lonely and lost, right now she was in pure bliss.

She rolled over to her side to see Jake there, still asleep. She gently shook him to wake him up. She hated to do it, disturb him when he looked so peaceful, but it was their first day of school, and she was not going to be late.

"Mmmmm," Jake grunted as he woke up, smiling seeing Peyton there, still wearing nothing, making him remember the wonderful night they had spent together last night. The sight made him a little... excited... to say the least.

Peyton noticed this quickly and forced herself to restrain. "Sorry," She said sincerely, "But I can't be late today. We need to get ready." She said and she got up and put on a robe as she steped out of the room and into the bathroom to get ready.

Jake smiled, this girl made him crazy, but he loved every second of it. She was all he ever wanted. But more, she was all he ever needed. Jake rolled over and noticed a box pop up on Peyton's computer screen. He got up, put on his boxers and went over to see what it was:

WATCHMEWATCHYOU: That's some trick you pulled.

Jake looked surprised, and wrote back on Peyton's screen name.

PEYTON: Nikki? What're you doing harasing my girlfriend?

WATCHMEWATCHYOU HAS SIGNED OFF

"Peyton!" Jaked yelled so she could hear him over the shower.

"Yeah?" She yelled back.

"Why has Nikki been IMing you?" He asked, still confused. He would have expected something like this from Nikki before, but now that the hearings were over and he had costody, he figured she'd just realize that she'd lost and leave everyone alone. In fact, Jake hadn't heard from her since, but apparently Peyton had.

"What? She hasn't..." Peyton said, completely forgeting about creepy 'WATCHMEWATCHYOU' person who had stopped sending her IM's a couple of weeks ago, so she just figured it was some random person who had had their fun and then got bored of it. The sound of the shower came off and Peyton walked into the room wearing a towel and looking at Jake weirdly.

Jake pointed to the screen, trying to avoid how hot Peyton looked wearing just a towel, and showed her the IM box that was still there.

"Oh my gosh, that's Nikki!" Peyton asked a little surprised but soon after realized that she should have figured this out earlier. It did seem like a very Nikki-like thing to do.

"Yeah, you'd think she'd be smart enough to change her screen name to harass you, but I guess she's that stupid." Jake said, and Peyton kind of smiled. "Look, I'm sorry she's been doing this, you shouldn't have been involved in this. I mean, it's good that you were involved, I mean I owe everything to you. But what I mean it, you weren't suppose to be on Nikki's btch list because of this. I'm sorry," He said.

"No, Jake, it's not your fault. I'm not scared of her, anyways, I don't care what she does to me, as long as she stays away from you and Jenny. I mean, she'll probably move on eventualy, you know, give up." Peyton said, and it was true. This really didn't affect her very much. She was just happy that Jake was there with Jenny and that they wouldn't have to run anymore.

Nathan And Haley

Although Haley was not pregnant, the whole scare just made her think about it a lot, being pregnant. She was always a beat before others. But getting married at sixteen, didn't mean she would have to be pregnant at seventeen. That was a little more than she could take.

Everything that her and Nathan had already been through, just gave them more hope. It was like, if they got through that and are happy now, than they could get through pretty much anything. And they both knew that they were each others solemates, and they weren't going to let each other go. Haley knew this, that's why she wasn't sad about not being pregnant, but relieved. She knew that it would happen sooner or later for her and Nathan, but they were in no rush. Right now, she just wanted to be a senior and have fun.

Nathan had done exceptionaly well at High-Flyers, and got him self some impressive recomendations for colleges. They had told him that if he kept up his work, he could possibly go pro after or during college. He still wasn't sure what he wanted to do about that, but right now he was just happy that whether or not he went pro or not he would always have a loving wife to come home to. Basketball was no longer number one in his life, Haley was.

Haley woke up, to her disapointment, to an empty bed. On her husband's pillow, she saw a sloppy hand-written note:

Hey baby,

Woke up early. Decided to go to the River Court. Meet me there. Wanna see you. Love you.

Nate

Haley, who had tutored Nathan all of last year, still loved how he wrote in small fragments like that. It just added some cuteness to the little notes he had written. Haley streched a little and got up out of bed, she pulled on some jeans and a T-Shirt. She had planed to think very thoroughly about this. She wanted to make a good impression on her first day as a senior at Tree Hill High. But when she really considered it; she already had the guy of her dreams, and all the friends she would ever need, and what better way to start senior year being yourself. So she just pulled on some usual clothes, brushed some light eye-shadow on her eye-lids, ran a brush through her hair, brushed her teeth and was off to meet Nathan.

"Hey," She said to her loving husband when she got there. Nathan was looking particularly hot right then, sweaty and currently without a shirt.

"Hey," Nathan said kissing her sweetly on the lips.

"You finished? We should probably get back to the appartment so you can shower and then we have to get to school. Don't want to be late our first day as seniors!" She said excitedly.

"Yeah, I'm finished. But, um, first..." He said digging into his pocket, "I have something for you." He said, pulling out of his pocket the craker-jack bracelet that he had given her their first tutoring session that Haley hadn't taken off since then, until she left on the tour and left the bracelet behind. Haley's heart did all sorts of things at the sight of that piece of plastic. It fliped and broke and soared and sang. A worthless little bracelt infact wasn't worthless at all. It was worth the world to Haley, and she had missed it everyday that it wasn't on her wrist.

She was absolutely speachless, so Nathan took her wide smile as an invitation to slip the multicolored bracelet on her wrist like he had done when he gave it to her. It was weird how something so small could move Haley so much. But it really did, she teary-eyed. "Thank you," She whispered, there were a million things she could have said about what she was feeling right then, but she felt like that one was the best. Besides, the way Nathan knew her so perfectly, he could probably know every thought that was going through her mind.

Haley flung her arms around his neck and kissed him passionitaly. Embraces tight, tongues battling it out, and hearts racing, they didn't even notice that they had been standing ther in the middle of the river-court, making out for almost half an hour. So much for getting to school on time.

Brooke And Lucas

With Lucas moving back in with his mom and Brooke moving back in that house, too, Lucas and Brooke found themselves living together. Karen trusted her son, but she also knew that a teenager is a teenager and that Lucas and Brooke would obveously have some things going on in that house. Karen was fine with it, after all she had been seventeen and in love once before, and she trusted Lucas and Brooke, all she did was insist that they be safe.

After a month or so of no one hearing from Andy, he suddenly showed up, claiming that he had been in New Zealand the whole time, just in a different hotel than he had told Karen he was staying in. Of course everyone had pretty much doubted this story to be the real one, he was still very nice and insisted on paying for Lucas's medication, even if Karen wasn't forgiving him any time soon. Lucas had eventualy chosen telling his mom about HCM over dying from HCM, and she had managed to pay for the medication until Andy came, and she accepted to let him pay for it, since he clearly had the money to.

In late August, Dan had woken from his coma, like everyone knew he would. He was still in the hospital however, for he had suffered from serious burns and they still needed to take more tests and the police needed to question him on what he remembered from that night. No one had come to visit him yet, but they all knew he was awake, and nobody knew quite what to think about it.

After serious begging, and convincing on Lucas's part, Karen had agreed to go away to New York for a night with Andy, leaving Brooke and Lucas alone in the house. Lucas woke up to a loud sound of clinking and clanking that sounded like pots and pans droping. He noticed that Brooke wasn't lying next to him and that his shirt and boxers from yesterday were missing. He pulled on a new pair of boxers and walked out to see what the noise had been.

"Oh, my gosh, Luke, I'm so sorry. You can't see me like this, I'm a mess." She said picking up half a dozen pans that were on the ground. Her hair was a little messed up, but it looked dmn sexy to Lucas, and he couldn't help but notice how cute she looked in his boxers and shirt.

"What happened here?" Lucas asked laughing a little.

"I kind of... tried to make breakfast and then burned everything, and then when I through what I had burnt away I kind of... turned weirdly and I guess I knocked something over, and then you came in." She said blowing a few strands of hair out of her face. Then she smiled, flashing her fabulous dimples. "But I made decent coffee!" She said handing him a cup full of warm coffee.

"Thank you, you're adorable," Lucas said sweetly kissing her hello. She hungrily responded, after working her a$$ off to try and make breakfast, something she was not used to doing, and then failing, all she needed was some good boyfriend-time. Somehow, they got lost in the kissing and coffee from Brooke's cup ended up spilling a little bit on Lucas's boxers, the only thing he was wearing.

"Oh god! Sorry," Brooke said, feeling totally guilty. When had she become such a clutz? Maybe this was what love does to people.

"It's Ok," Lucas said, smiling. Situations like these were always pretty funny when you really thought about it.

"Well..." Brooke said getting and idea and raising her eyebrows, "We should probably get you out of those." She said pointing to his boxers.

"Good idea," Lucas managed to say before Brooke attacked his lips with hers. He put down his cup and guided them to his bedroom, never detaching his lips from hers. This was an important day: their first day as seniors. But what would being ten or so minutes late do?

Peyton and Jake stood in the hall way at their lockers, waiting for the others. For some reason, they seemed to be the only ones who remembered that the gang was supposed to meet up at school a few minutes before classes started. They hadn't even seen Erika and Mouth anywhere. It seemed like all the other couples had found 'other activities' to do this morning. With no one there to hang out with and fifteen minutes before school actualy started, Jake and Peyton decided to have some 'fun' in the supply closet.

"You sure we won't get caught?" Jake asked for what seemed like the seventy-sixth time in the last minute or so. Although, he really didn't care, he wanted Peyton right then and there, and the fact that they could get caught only made it better.

"We'll lock the door," Peyton answered, just as they walked into the closet and locked the door behind them. Peyton pushed Jake against the wall and then kissed him like there was no tomorrow.

"I love you," Jake panted as they broke apart.

"I love you, too. Now shut up, we don't have much time," She said pulling his shirt over his head and kissing him again. This was going to be fun. Jake seriously thought that after he had his daughter it would be the end of all this teenage, fun, sexy stuff, but that was before he met Peyton.

Nathan and Haley arrived soon after the bell first rang, but Brooke and Lucas didn't arrive until lunch.

"Where the hell have you two been?" Peyton asked when they got there. Her and Jake were sitting on one side of the table and Nathan and Haley on the other.

"Oh, well you know..." Lucas said, "We were just... I mean, I woke up late... and then, the car... um, you see the engine... it just, you know..." He stuttered as everyone silently laughed at him, knowing very well that whatever he was trying to say was a lie.

"We were just having sex." Brooke said.

"Oh god, too much information," Haley said. Lucas was like her brother, that was just gross.

"Oh please, tutor-wife," Brooke said, "I can so tell by your glow that you had sex this morning too," She said making Haley blush and Peyton laugh, "You too Missy-Blonde-Girl." She added.

"Anyways," Nathan said changing the subject, "Can you guys believe we're finaly seniors?"

"It actualy doesn't feel much different. I mean, we always kind of dominated the school." Brooke said, with a smirk.

"Speak for yourself," Haley said, and Jake and Lucas nodded along with her. "I think this year is going to be completely different from last year."

"Oh yeah?" Peyton asked, "Do you guys think we'll be able to dodge all the crazy Tree Hill drama?" she asked. Everyone looked at one another, thinking about this. It was true that in Tree Hill, and especialy this particular group of friends, they could get in some serious drama. But right now, when everything was pretty much perfect, it didn't seem like anything could affect them.

They were silent for a while. Then finaly Nathan spoke. "Not a chance." He said.

"Definitaly not," Lucas added, followed by a couple 'Never's' and some 'No's' from the others in the gang. It was true, whatever path each of them took, Tree Hill drama was bound to follow them wherever they go, but they were different. They had gotten stronger, and each of them had found their significant other, and together they could fight any obstable life would through at them. Right now, it was all about making it through senior year, having fun, and holding on the the things that matter the most in life.

THE END

AN: OK that's the end! so sad i know! I really hope you guys liked it! Thanks to anyone who every reviewed, or if there are ppl who read it and didn't review, that's still cool! I hope u guys liked it! thanks so much! and please review and tell me what you thought about the epilogue! thx!