Chapter One Hundred Thirteen: Come What May

Author's note: Can I just say that you guys are like the best reviewers ever? After all the stuff I've put you through, I wouldn't be nearly so nice. Thanks for that. I'm almost at 1500, and I love you for it. And uh, sorry for putting you through yet more stuff.
Jamie Lara Jagielski-Scott, her father's Princess, her mother's darling, her family's miracle, slid down the biggest slide in the park and was caught by her fahter. He gleefully twirled her around, zooming around the small park with her high above his head, her arms stretched ahead of her like a small rocket.

She called for her mother and Ryan leapt up and began to chase them around the small grassed area, calling out for her. Jamie shrieked in excitement. A shriek of mirth could be heard as Ryan tackled Jake and the small family collasped in a heap on the grass, laughing in exhaustion.

The small energetic, beautiful family were the centre of the attention of everyone in the park.

And the centre of the young blonde woman who watched them, her brown eyes fixed on their antics, absorbing their glee, inserting herself in.

Peyton sighed. Once, a long time ago, that place had been cut out for her. It had been. Now it was gone. She'd ruined it, Davis had ruined it, Christian Braddock had helped. A thousand reasons stood between her and Jake, and she could no longer see through them.

It was time, finally, to concede. Concede to the beautiful blonde woman who'd love him always, who would be a better person than her always.

Jake plucked the colorful hat off his daughter's head and held it enticingly out of her reach. Peyton stared at him as she jumped repeatedly in the air, her chubby fist outstretched. Jake was handsome as ever, fit as ever, good as ever. Too good for her always. Out of her reach forever.

Not her true love, she finally realized. Maybe he'd never been.

Peyton remember the feel of his body against hers, the feel of his lips, the sound of his voice when whispering tender things in her ear. These things belonged to her. Always. She almost smiled. Maybe she didn't regret it, after all.

She turned and walked away from the park.

Ryan glanced over shoulder as if she detected her presence, but said nothing. After all, her life was better when it was just them.

"Knock knock," came a voice from the door. Peyton glanced upward, her mind still on the viewing of Jake's daughter.

"Davis," she said softly, beckoning her friend in to the room.

"You look terrible. What's up?" she asked.

"Have you seen Jake's daughter? She's beautiful. Just like both of them," she said.

"You finally going to stop screwing with them?" asked Davis, dropping into a chair, purposefully giving Peyton a view of her breasts.

"Yeah."

Peyton glanced up at Davis, willing her to be Haley. Or even Brooke. Someone remotely sympathetic. Preferably Jake, who could never be hers again.

"It's about time. He's ridiculously cute with that Scott girl," she said abruptly.

"Somehow or other, all my best friends ended up ridiculously cute with a Scott," she said.

"Really? I heard Nathan and Haley were splitting," said Davis, her face blank.

"Yeah, no thanks to you," snarled Peyton, standing up and walking to the window.

"Please, I haven't screwed with them since the summer of 2006," she said in disbelief.

"I never understood why. You didn't love Nathan, you still don't."

"It wasn't because of Nathan. It was because of Haley," said Davis.

"What?"

"She ruined my life. She became me. Everyone loves her, everyone knows her and her perfect children. They don't need me anymore," she said.

"Okay, that's pathetic. You thought if you ruined any chance of happiness they had, he'd take you back and make you perfect again? Is that why you..." Peyton's words died on her tongue. Deep down, she didn't want to believe what she knew to be the truth.

"Why I what?"

"You tried to kill her. And him," said Peyton.

Davis didn't deny and didn't agree. Her face was blank. Peyton cautiously stepped forward. When they were only inches away, staring in to each other's eyes, Peyton leaned forward and kissed her.

Davis reacted in surprise for only a moment before returning the kiss. They kissed longingly, the kiss of the long seperated, the long desired. Davis mixed one hand in to Peyton's blonde curls while Peyton let her own slid down Davis' hip.

An instant after Peyton's hand slid onto her thigh, Davis pulled away. Staring at Peyton in amazement, she made a move to snatch her phone again out of Peyton's hand.

"What, you're cutting me off? Are you conning me?" she asked. Peyton shrugged.

"Just searching for redemption," she said.

"Please. They're never going to forgive you. You'll always be the one that tried to break up Jake and Ryan, and slept with her professor, and slept with me. They don't need you anymore Peyton," said Davis scathingly.

"You need me."

"I don't need anyone," said Davis viciously, stepping forward to lessen the gap between them.

"Liar." Peyton leaned forward, as if to kiss her again. Suddenly her eyes widened in shock, and her breath came out in a raspy gasp.

She slowly sank to the floor as Davis withdrew the knife she'd stuck in her stomach, and blood poured out of the wound. As Peyton's breathing became slow and irregular, and her heart failed as the blood made a large, sinister pool on the floor, Davis walked over to her, her own breathing shakey. She stood over her body and stared in to her eyes.

"I'm..." Davis wasn't quite sure, if for the first time in her life she was going to make an apology. For a long moment, it certaintly seemed that way.

Peyton made an indistinguishable sound. For an instant, Shannon Davis looked remorseful.

"Jake..." whispered Peyton, as her eyes lost their shine and looked blankly up at the ceiling. Davis held her own breath, listening desperately for the sound of a heart beat, the faintest of breaths, movement in the body on the floor.

It didn't come.

And suddenly, more than ever before, she was lost.