Karen now walked into another girl's room. Was this ever going to end? It just seemed like a never ending cycle. When she walked in she saw a sight, a sight that she was not expecting to see for awhile. Peyton was in Brooke's hospital bed and they were laughing, laughing about the past, the good times that they could never forget. Brooke saw Karen, "We are ready to change."

"I am glad to hear that, because we all need a change around here. Something is not right when the girls that I care about the most are sad."

"We are not sad anymore."

"That is all that I want to know."

"Yeah you are too late," Lucas said in response to Nathan's question.

"Lucas, let me talk to him."

"How is that fair? You wanted to talk to him and he broke your heart. So now that he wants to talk to you, you are just going to do as he says."

"Lucas, let me make my own mistakes. You go and try to fix yours."

"You need to rest."

"I will, Luke, I will. Just give me a few minutes, okay?"

"Are you sure you are going to be okay?"

"Lucas."

"If you hurt her anymore then she has already been hurt."

"Lucas."

"Okay, I am out of here."

They both waited until Lucas left until they said anything. "Why are you here, Nathan? Why now?"

"Lucas said that you were in the hospital."

"Yup, here I am. Where were you when my heart broke? Where were you when the pieces did not go back together again? Where were you when the beach washed away? Why now, Nathan?"

"I wanted to make sure that you were okay."

"And then what? Take away all my pain? It is too late for that, because pain is my new best friend."

"Haley, I had my own share of pain."

"I am not saying that you didn't, not at all. I mean I have experienced the loss of a spouse, I know what it feels like, and it is not a good feeling."

"I gave up everything for you, Haley, everything."

"I never asked you to give up anything Nathan. It was a marriage, a joining, not a giving away of everything that we knew. Yeah, along the way we were going to have to make sacrifices, but that is what marriage is. And I thought that is what we have."

"If you thought that we had it then why did you walk away from it? Why did you leave me? I mean I thought that we had it too, Haley."

"You told me to leave, Nathan, do you not remember? Because there is not one day that I can't help but remember."

"You kissed Chris; you think that I could just forget that. I was angry, and you lied to me, I was getting all of this at once."

"But I had an opportunity to follow my dreams and I had no support from you, what was I supposed to do? You wanted me to walk away from my dreams?"

"I did the same thing for you. High Fliers was my dream, I turned it down."

"There is a difference, I never asked you to do it. It was all your choice; you told me that you did not get it. How was I supposed to know the difference? I trusted you; I did not think that you would lie to me. I never asked you to turn it down. But when I was given this opportunity you wanted me to say no."

"Haley you wouldn't even have a dream like this if it wasn't for me."

"How can you say that to me?"

"I am the one that sent Peyton the file, if I never did that then you would have never have performed on opening night, and Chris Keller would have never have heard you, and wanted you to go on tour with him."

"Wait, if we are going to be naming things like that, if you had never sent the file then Chris would never had heard me. This is your fault. You had more to do in this then I ever did, Nathan. You want to blame someone, then blame yourself."

"But things did happen, Haley. And we got married; we vowed to be with each other forever. But you just couldn't wait that long to get away from me, could you?"

"The thing that you always fail to remember time and time again is that I came back. I came back for you. I came back for us. And that is never going to be enough for you, is it?"

"I crashed into a wall because of you."

"As I recall that was all you Nathan, you were the one driving."

"Maybe I was driving the car, but you were driving my heart."

"And you think someone else had a handle on mine?"

"I have a few guesses."

"Nathan, there was one small, meaningless kiss between me and Chris. One. It never went further then that."

"Every kiss means something."

"Okay you want to know what that kiss meant to me, it meant nothing, nothing at all to me. The only thing that is reaffirmed was my love for you. My kiss with Chris, it was a mistake. One that should have never had happened. You see I can take the blame. But one kiss should have never have torn us apart."

"But it did."

"You let it."

"You are blaming the downfall of our marriage all on me?"

"Of course not Nathan, just like it takes two to fall in love, it takes two to tear it apart. But it should have taken two to bring it back together again."

"That isn't going to happen now, is it?"

"My heart just cannot take it anymore. I came home for you, I gave up my dreams for the hope, the small glimmer of hope that you would take me back. And that hope is gone, and so is the last two months. Too much time has past, we were not meant to be."

"So we are going to give into all of the skeptics out there. Those who said we were naïve to get married in high school. So many people told us that it would never work. Are you telling me that all those people are right?"

"For a while I would say no, but awhile is gone, and those people are right. Marriage is an adult thing, Nathan, we were just kids, we still are, and age does not change that. We couldn't handle each other's dreams or each other's love, we couldn't handle a marriage. And as much as I never wanted to give into the skeptics, it is something that we are going to have to do."

"I loved you Haley, more then I thought I could love anyone."

"Loved is in the past tense, Nathan. What about right now? Do you love me right now? Or is it in the past?"

"Is there anything left fighting for?"

"There is everything worth fighting for, but maybe it is not for us. Maybe love was not meant for us, Nathan, maybe not this kind of love. Nathan, do you even know how much you hurt me? Maybe I am being selfish, but I have never felt pain like this before I met you."

"I never cared before I met you."

"Maybe we were not meant to be together forever, but just for a little while, so we could live. Live lives that we would have never have lived if we had not met."

"I don't regret marrying you, Haley."

"I don't regret falling in love."

"Where do we go from here?"

"Day by day. I mean things are not going to go back to normal anytime soon. And love is not going to just reappear. We just have to deal with the fact that we were not meant to be. As much as it hurts, we have got to move on. In the last four months of my life I had everything and lost it all at the same time. I never wanted to lose you, Nathan, but you have hurt me too much. I know that I hurt you as well; I am not going to deny it. Don't they say you hurt the ones you love the most. Well you must have really loved me, and yes, loved is in the past tense. This morning was the last morning that I was going to wake up with tears in my eyes. Tears for the fact you are not there, that you don't love me, and tears for each day I lost hope. Hope is gone; all I have left is reality. Love hurts, love is a battlefield, love ends. It ended today."

"I never thought that I would be like Dan."

"You are his son."

"That shouldn't make me who I am though. I could have been better then him."

"Well you make sure that with the next girl you do that."

"Haley, are we really over?"

"How long did you think I was going to wait, Nathan? You thought that I could fluctuate my happiness and sadness for the next few months, years, and then we could go back to each other and be back madly in love. You might have given up on our love a long time before I got home, but it would have been nice if you told me so. The only reason I would wake up each morning was the hope that you would love me. It would have been so much easier if you let me go when you stopped believing in us. I was naïve enough to think it wasn't going away. I vowed forever. You must have only vowed until it got to hard."

"That is not fair, Haley. We are 18; most 18 year olds do not get married, and vow to be with that person until the day that they die."

"Well maybe we should have just followed the trend. But in all honesty, death was almost sooner then I would have liked it."

"You almost died tonight?"

"Does that change anything?"

"Well then we both have our near death experiences to remember the next time we fall in love."

"The next time I take a vow, I am praying to God that the person I love is truthful with me. If you never believed in us, then we should have never have gotten married in the first place."

"I told you that I do not regret it."

"You sure as hell sound like you do."

"I was a better person when I was with you."

"What are you now?"

"Not the same. You know why?"

"Because I left you and broke your heart, this story is getting old, Nathan."

"You always find the good in people, even when they do not deserve your time or your effort. I never knew that there was any good in me, Haley. I mean I was a jackass to Lucas, and that is when you agreed to help me. Most people would have looked away."

"I am not like most people."

"And I know that. I am not going to find another person like you, another person to open to my eyes to what I have."

"What did you have, Nathan?"

"I had the love of my life."

"What happened to her?"

"I lost her. I lost her forever."

"Forever may not be as long as you thought it could be."

"I know how long this forever is."

"Then this is goodbye?"

"There is no way that we could find something left from the pieces?"

"I am afraid that there are just too many pieces."

"Well then this is goodbye. I am never going to forget this moment, not for the rest of my life."

"What is so special about this moment?"

"True love can die. I was the naïve one thinking it could last forever."

"We are just kids, Nathan, there is a lot more living to do."

"Well I hope that you find that happiness that you are looking for."

"Oh, I had it at one moment, Nathan; it was just taken away from me."

"I have never loved anyone more then I love you."

"You will find someone."

"Why is this easier on you then it is on me?"

"Who said that this was easy, Nathan? For once in my life, I am trying to be strong on the outside, because I am falling apart inside. You have been the cause of enough of my tears, this time they are going to be mine. You showed me what love was. I am not just going to forget you. Before you came along, I thought it was going to be me and Lucas forever. No one had ever showed interest in me before. I never thought that we would fall in love."

"But we did."

"And people fall out of love."

"Are you saying that you don't love me anymore?"

"Do you even know how hard it is to love someone that doesn't love you back? You try that and you get back to me."

"One last thing before I go: even if our forever only lasted a year, it is a year that I am not giving up for the world. This year changed the person that I was, and I experienced things that I have never experienced before, compassion and love. As much as I wish our forever lasted longer then a year, I am going to live in search of it again, you showed me that I could love someone other then just have a passion. I would not be the person that I am without you. Thank you for forever."

"I just wish it lasted longer."

Nathan walked over to Haley and gave her a kiss on her forehead, "I love you."

"Nathan, please, please do not say that to me right now, please just walk away, it will be easier for both of us."

"Goodbye, Haley."

"Goodbye, Nathan." And with that goodbye, true love really did die. Was there any hope left for the rest of them?

"Did you leave Haley alone?" Karen asked her son.

"Nathan showed up."

"What? Nathan showed up? Don't you think that it is a little late?"

"She gives everyone a chance."

"And what we have learned from it is that everyone deserves one."

"Even me?" Lucas asked.

"Even you, Lucas."

"I am sorry that I gave up on you."

"Lucas, you never gave up on me, I just gave up on myself a long time ago, you tried to break in, and I wouldn't let you."

"I said that you were hopeless."

"I was Lucas; you were just speaking the truth."

"It doesn't have to be the truth."

"It is not going to be the truth anymore."

"Are you going to give me another chance?"

"Only time will tell, Lucas. First off I have to figure out who I am, when I figure that out, then I will see who I can give me heart away to this time. Because I need someone to protect it this time."

"I am not going away this time."

"We will see about that."

"Okay it is time for bed, the only thing that is going to end this day is for all of our eyes to close and it is going to be over."

"I want to be with Haley."

"You will see her tomorrow."

"I want to see her now."

"Brooke, you are still weak."

"I will bring her," Lucas told his mom.

"Okay, I cannot believe that we are doing this but Peyton is already out, I will stay in here with her. You go take Brooke to Haley, and you two stay with her. Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of our lives. Tomorrow is another day."

Lucas lifted Brooke up, and she held on. They arrived back in Haley's room, and they found her in tears.

"Haley, what happened?" Brooke asked.

"What did he do, I am going to kill him," Lucas asked putting Brooke down.

"Lucas, stop it. "

"So where do you two stand?"

"It is over, Brooke. We had to let each other go."

"I thought that you were not going to let him be the cause of your tears anymore."

"This is different."

"You are crying because it is actually over."

"I am not crying because it is over, I am crying because it happened. And no matter the final outcome, I got to experience love for the first time. It had to be over; I could not let this take over my life anymore. But it still hurts the same for it to be over with. The last thing he said was that he loved me."

"And that is all that you wanted."

"But I wanted him to love me when I needed him to love me the most."

"Your love was real."

"I know. But it is gone now."

"You are more then just Nathan's wife."

"As much as I know that, I don't remember how to live any other way, I do not know how to live with out him."

"It is going to be okay, Hales," Lucas told her giving her a reassuring tap on her leg. "You have got us now."

"I could not ask for anything more."

'Peyton Sawyer, Brooke Davis, and Haley James, each one was previously a girl lost, today they found who they were, today they graduated. There was a lot of living left to do, but for now they were not lost. They finally have found their way, and people to take the journey with, and they were not going to go astray again, at least not anytime soon. Maybe love is not the only thing that you need to make it, well not necessarily the love of a girlfriend or boyfriend or even a spouse. Maybe you just need the reassuring fact that your friends are always going to be there for you. No matter what, there are not a defining number of heart breaks that can turn a friend away. The more friends, the more to take the pain away. If you cannot make it alone, it is okay, it does not mean that you are weak, it means that you are human. And there are people out there that will take that journey with you, until you can make it on your own.

Everyone is trying to be the hero out there, try something new next time while you are waiting in line, walk away and instead of being the hero, just be the friend that they need during this time. People need saving, it is a fact of life. No one, no matter who that person is or who they are not, can manage the weight of the world on their shoulders all alone. There will be heroes, there will always be heroes, but it is harder to come across a really good friend. A good long lasting friend. Heroes come in and save the day, but only for that day, friends save you every time that you fall. So maybe friends are heroes, but they will never be ones to admit it.

Each girl needed a little saving, they lost the path that they were supposed to be on. But with the help of a friend along the way, they found their way back. And all that they needed now was time; time to not only fix the paths, but to fix their hearts. They needed to get used to having them back as well, for they had all given them away. Some were broken, some were torn, but at one point they were all loved. And love is a good feeling, just to know that someone loves you, you can die happy. Death is imminent, love is not, so you go out and you find it, because it is not always going to come to you.

That is what we learn along the way. Three things: you cannot make it alone, true love is real, but it can die, and you are going to be okay. Grab on to what life gives you; surround yourself with people that love you. You cannot make someone love you, but you can love them anyways. It is just hard. But as we live life we realize that it would not be life if it was easy, easy would just not be any fun. So give away the easy lives, I want one with pain and agony, and defeat, I want one where I make mistakes, get my heart broken, and do it all over again. I want to feel alive. Don't we all? Isn't that all we want? To be alive. That is all I want and strive for. What about you? What are you going to do? Be the hero, the friend, or the victim? Either way that you choose, feel alive doing it, it is the only way to live life.'

"Brooke Davis, an author? I cannot believe it, I always thought that I would be the one writing a book," Haley told her friend three years to the date of that day. That is how they all remember it, there is not one day that goes by that all of them don't think about the day, that day, it was that day that the world changed, and it changed for all of them. They were all living their lives now.

"Well you got to be the rock star, so I thought that I would try this out there ambition, who would have ever thought that my book would be a best seller?"

"There are a lot of people out there that just need a little push, and your book shows people that they are not alone, that there are others feeling the same pain that they feel when the wake up each morning. The person inside of them can be found," Peyton told them.

"Girl Found, I think that it is a fitting title, Brooke."

"It is who I am, it is who all of us are. There is no other title that I can find more fitting then this."

"There is no other title to describe the last four years of my life. I found me."

"I think we all found ourselves along the way."

"And that is the only way to live," it was the only way to feel alive. Alive.

That is it. I left it in the hands of the readers. I didn't want to leave the clearest of endings, I wanted my faithful reviewers and readers to create their own endings for the 'lost girls'. I mean in the end, they are okay, but I never said what happened with Peyton, was she pregnant or not? Did Brooke and Lucas get back together? What about Nathan and Haley? Did they find happiness? I didn't want to answer all the questions. Maybe there is a sequel in the future, I have just yet to write it. Thank you for all the reviews, this was my first attempt. I hope that it wasn't too bad. I am heading back to school now, so my writing will be limited, but I want to try again. Thanks for all the reviews and support. Peace out. Cait.