This is for all the people who wanted me to update, jacqueline22393, LilAngel413, Queen2821Bee, protogurl08 andjennycraig10as well as everyone else who reviewed. Luv Y'all.


Brooke stood outside Karen's cafe; there was no way in hell that she would go in there. She had just had her heart crushed by the owner's offspring and therefore entering the premises was gonna be a big no no. She brushed her hair behind her ears and took a seat on a nearby bench. She was content to wait Here for Jake to finish his shift, she didn't even know why she'd taken up his offer. Maybe it was the loneliness the need for someone to be kind to her. Before she knew what was happening Nathan had found a seat next to her.

She looked at him inquisitively, 'what you doing here?'

Nathan obviously wasn't in the best of moods, 'just felt like a walk'.

'To Karen's cafe?' Brooke asked.

'Maybe,' Nathan knew where this line of questioning was gonna go.

'You gonna ambush Luke and beat on him cause believe me it won't make you feel any better,' Brooke got all diplomatic.

'Well if I can't take my anger out that way how about you help me out, lets find a way to relieve the tension,' Nathan

Jokingly suggested.

As usual Brooke joined in, 'of course you go get the hotel room and ill go freshen up'.

Even through their banter a tone sorrow loomed above their heads as if their own private raining cloud resided.

'Sucks to be us right now don't it?' Nathan didn't need a response.

But he got one, 'it sure does, Nate, sure does'.

It broke his heart all over again to hear Brooke the life and soul of the party to be so defeated. She was so full of energy, life and was so confident but what had happened had obviously blown her to pieces. And so the two broken hearted teens sat watching the pedestrians and cars pass by outside of Karen's Cafe.

Peyton felt that she should have been more upset concerning the less than subtle beginning of a relationship between Lucas and Haley but all that was there was a sting of what could have been. It all faded away when she thought about what could be with Jake. Sure there were a few smiles and some hard core sparks but Peyton knew that in the past the guys she'd gone for had screwed her over thoroughly. She was going to be careful this time. What she needed to concentrate on now was being best friends and taking care of Brooke who obviously was so in love with Lucas. She could feel that anything she said to Brooke would come across fake. Peyton looked back on Brooke's quest for Lucas how she'd tried to push Peyton and Nathan back together and then next morning said how unfortunate it was that Peyton and Lucas hadn't slept together. Why did Brooke go for him if she could see how Peyton felt about him in the first place? She tried not to think about it too much that just led to badness. She pressed play on her guilty pleasure New Found Glory and tapped her pencil along to the music before her phone gave a shrill cry. She jumped slightly and pressed pause on her music player.

Peyton was pleasantly surprised to hear Jake but his topic worried her slightly, 'no I thought she was going to meet me here after work but she hasn't shown'.

Peyton felt a little pang of jealousy, which she quickly squashed with worry for her distraught best friend.

'Don't worry I'm gonna go look for her,' Peyton said ready to hang up and shoot off like supergirl.

'I'm coming with you,' Jake said and she could sense the worry in his own voice.

'Okay I'll be at the cafe in ten,' Peyton hung up quickly she wanted to find Brooke as soon as possible.

Peyton ran up to Karen's cafe door and knocked loudly, Jake came out immediately putting his finger over his lips, signalling to be quiet. Peyton peeked inside to see Karen, Haley and Lucas standing around Jenny. Lucas joined Peyton and Jake outside.

'I wanna help find her,' Luke said kind of asking for their permission.

Peyton knew that that wouldn't go down very well, 'I don't think so', she said apologetically.

Jake back Peyton up explaining unbiased the way she couldn't, 'after what happened Brooke probably doesn't want you to find her'.

Luke looked down at the ground, the guilt overriding him.

Peyton and Jake edged away and started off in search before Peyton turned back to Lucas to say, 'you and Haley I think make a good couple'. Peyton gave her blessing and a meek smile as the only consolation for him. Luke mirrored her smile and was thankful that he hadn't broken his ties with her. Jake put his arm around Peyton to prompt her for what they had to do. Jake smiled at Luke not feeling that it was appropriate to say anything else.

Luke watched them go off into the fading light of day, he knew that Brooke was wild and impulsive and all that kept running through his mind was the worse case scenario. She was off somewhere with the wrong kind of people in some kind of danger and he couldn't save her. Haley watched him stand on the stoop, she knew that they were together but this was all new to her, the jealousy wasn't, she knew that Luke felt guilty that was just part of his moral code as shaky as it had been at points he was a good guy. Hales couldn't help but feel the guilt herself so when Luke finally came in she made her way to the kitchen to clean up leaving Karen with Jenny. Luke saw Hales move off quickly and was about to follow her when Karen lightly touched his arm catching his attention.

She smiled up at her son, 'so you and Haley'.

He could feel a lecture coming on, 'yeah me and Haley'.

'You know its hard to jump into a relationship with someone whose been your best friend for so long, just hope you know what you're doing,' Karen tried her best not to sound patronising or criticising of the relationship but it came out that way.

'Look mom I love you but I love Haley too and even though this changes everything it changes it for the better and I wouldn't have it any other way,' he looked over the counter into the back kitchen where Hales stood wiping off the counter, 'and I wouldn't have it any other way'.

'Neither would I, just glad to hear you feel the same,' her voice though full of happiness for her son yet she could feel how she had not been brave enough to take the same chance in her life.

She let him go to her, adjusting baby Jenny's blanket. Luke made his way to Haley but could tell she was a little off. He might have had a clue from how she backed away or her complete lack of eye contact with him. The topic for this particular lack of communication or contact was obvious.

'Hales it is not your fault,' Luke tried.

Haley was having none of it, 'Yes it is Lucas Brooke was destroyed and now she's missing.

'She's not missing...'

'Luke she's not at home, not here where she said she was gonna be,' Haley's eyes began to tear.

He wasn't gonna have her feeling guilty; 'look she's upset because I dumped her that was separate from you and me being together'.

'Yeah so why did you dump her, because of me and we could have gone about it better, you that,' Haley said a tear cascading down her soft cheek.

He grabbed her shoulders to steady her, 'You didn't intentionally set out to hurt anyone did you?'

Haley shook her head.

'Then you are not culpable,' He said bringing her in close to his chest.

She rested her tired head upon his chest feeling his heartbeat her breathing got in sync with it. He buried his head in her hair the smell of coconut couldn't distract him from the truth that he was in fact the one who was responsible he had intentionally dumped her and as much as he didn't want to cause her pain he had. There was no way of knowing where she was, what was happening to her but he knew it was because of him.

Peyton and Jake started off by checking the usual Brooke spots she still wasn't at home, the mall, the park, the boardwalk, the beach. They even tried the river court and school but no luck. They had resorted to walking the streets hoping for some sign of her. They had hardly spoke in the search for Brooke and what eluded Jake and had plagued his mind from the moment they had left Luke was why Peyton was upset with him. He had at this point put it down to her concern over Brooke but after a while he could feel the freeze too much, he always knew that Peyton wasn't one to openly complain, mostly keeping her woes to herself. If she was angry at him there wasn't anyway she was gonna come straight out and tell him. He would have to guess and right now he wasn't coming up with anything.

'Why don't you try her cell again' he suggested.

Peyton gave a nod, no words, which bothered Jake more than he liked. Peyton put the phone to her ear and waited, it rang and rang and rang. If Brooke was ignoring all of Peyton's calls and there had been a total of fifty so far in the evening then something was definately wrong. Jake thought for a moment about the possibilities of where Brooke could be but his mind kept coming back to why Peyton was upset. She had turned away from him to make the call and every little indication of her avoidance just about crippled him he couldn't keep quiet.

'Peyton are you angry at me?' Jake said sounding slightly hurt.

Peyton wasn't ready for this and found it complete bad timing, 'what! no...look...she's not answering, we should get the police'.

Jake sucked up the masterly evasiveness of the beautiful blonde in front of him, 'have you tried any of the girls Theresa...Bevan?'

'Yeah they say they haven't seen her since school,' Peyton said looking at the ground, she turned around but turned back to him, 'why were you meeting Brooke?'

Jake was a little taken aback, he knew they'd been flirting and he couldn't deny that he wanted Peyton but jealousy wasn't really a thing he saw coming, 'You think me and Brooke, I was being nice to her, as a friend, she'd had a bad day'.

Peyton could feel how stupid she was being, 'look its not a problem you don't have to explain yourself to me, its none of my business and it was nice of you to do that, you're a good friend to Brooke'.

Jake could feel her taking it the wrong way, he walked closer to her and she looked up into his eyes, 'I kind of want to explain to you, so you don't get the wrong idea, see there's this other girl I sorta have a big thing for'.

As he said those words his smile peeking out at her Peyton couldn't help but smile in spite of her current crisis of missing Brooke, 'well that's really good to know'.

Jake could see her smiling like a fool in front of him, he couldn't find anything cuter except the smile of his baby girl Jenny. Feeling the time was right he brushed aside one of her curls and slightly felt her cheek. Peyton looked down blushing she was okay when Luke or Nathan had come onto her but with Jake it was definately different she felt more embarrassed because for her more was at stake.

'We should keep looking,' Peyton said quietly as the moment demanded delicacy.

'Okay,' Jake whispered back.

The innocence of the couple couldn't be further from what was happening across town in Nathan Scott's apartment. Brooke Davis pulled her red strap top back on as she sat on the edge of the bed. Nathan rolled over and assessed the actions he had moments ago been carrying out. He dragged his hands over his face and let out a heavy sigh. Brooke couldn't see his face but couldn't help but hear the sigh that signalled only bad things.

'What regretting it?' Brooke said anticipating another let down, another dis upon her person.

'no actually,' Nathan said removing the sheet and getting up making his way to his drawer, 'just wondering if its a one time thing or not'.

Brooke faced him as he pulled up his boxers, 'I guess so, it didn't suck'.

Nathan gave a small laugh as Brooke approached him her wicked smile in check, she pulled him to her kissing him hard her their lips wet and hot.

Nathan managed to get out, 'this is one fun way to get back at them'.

Brooke traced his lips with her fingers, 'I say we should be having a lot more fun'.

Nathan's smile widened, he pulled her shirt over her head, 'well you if say so'.

To Be Continued...