A/N: Thanks for alll the reviews:) They make me happier than you think. All that I can say about this update..is that everything changes. And that it's sad. And review por favor!

It had been weeks since Lucas had talked directly to Peyton. And it had been weeks since Nathan had as much as looked at Haley. The two brothers had been on a mission together- to avoid their significant "others" as much as possible. Doing their homework, games of one on one- anything to pass the time and practice their game of avoidance was used to complete the mission.

Nathan and Lucas bounded up the steps to Lucas' home, their winter jackets and basketballs in hand. It was already getting warmer outside and both refused to wear their jackets out of determination for it to become summer, although spring was just beginning. Lucas pushed the door open after he kicked Nathan back down the stairs jokingly. The laughter died in his throat when he came face to face with Brooke, Haley.. and Peyton. He heard Nathan come up behind him, an insult on his tongue for sure, but he stopped short in the doorway.

The only one who didn't freeze the moment all of them were in the room together was Brooke. "Hey guys," she said as she greeted Lucas with a kiss on the cheek. "We were just hanging out... ya know, girl stuff."

Lucas glanced over to where Peyton and Haley sat at the kitchen counter, ice cream gallons stationed in front of them. Haley's spoon was halfway up to her mouth, her eyes locked on Nathan. Peyton's spoon was down on the counter beside her... with all of the ice cream from her last scoop in it. She exhanged a glance with Haley before crawling down from her stool. "Brooke- Haley and I have to go, but-"

"No!" Brooke whined loudly. "This is getting old. We haven't hung out all together in weeks! Why can't we just be together- all of us, like we used to be?"

"Do you want me to answer that?" Nathan asked feriously from the doorway. "Or should we ask someone else?"

Haley visibly flinched. "Nathan-" she said softly, but she stopped when he turned around abruptly and left the house, slamming the door behind him.

The house was left in silence. It was one of those silences where you could hear a pin drop and could but the tension with a knife.

Peyton cleared her throat. "Haley.." she said as she put her hand up on her arm. "You should go after him.. see if you can talk to him now. Maybe he's ready to talk about it."

"Did that seem ready to you?" Haley asked her back, her eyes wide and filling with tears.

Peyton glanced down to the floor. "He's had some time to think about it all... just try, Haley. What's worse than trying?" She had promised Nathan that she wouldn't tell Haley they had talked- and she planned to keep her word on that.

Haley looked towards Brooke and Lucas who were standing there with expressions of the upmost confusion on their faces. They still had no idea why there was such tension between her and Nathan.

"Okay," she whispered to Peyton, grabbing her jacket and heading out the door.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOOXOX

"Nathan! Could you please just stop!" Haley screamed at his retreating back. She could only catch up to him so quickly and he wasn't helping her at all. Stinking long legs of his. She broke into a run and darted out in his path in front of him. She had a second where she thought he was just going to run her over and keep going, but he stopped.

She studied the annoyed look on his face for other emotion.. but she couldn't find one.

"Did you stop me just to stare at me?" he asked gruffly.

Haley let out a heavy sigh. "Can we just talk?" she asked him calmly, as little drops of rain started to fall on Nathan's bare arms. He looked up at the sky and realized that he didn't have his jacket with him.

"Fine. Talk."

Haley pulled her jacket closer around her as she mimicked his actions and looked up into the sky. "Can't we go somewhere- it's going to rai-"

Nathan shook his head. "Talk here or I'll keep going."

She glanced around her, where people were bumbling past them, with Lucas and Brooke's house only a little ways back. "I... I can't say anything that is going to make this better, can I?"

Nathan saw the tears that had formed in her eyes, and his cold attitude towards her almost disappeared. Almost. He wasn't going to give into her. Never, ever again.

"Haley, you-"

"I know what I did, can we please not go over all of it again," she asked as the rain started to fall harder. "All I can say is if I could do it over...I'd do the same thing."

He looked at her incredously. "What?"

"I did it for both of us Nathan. I gave up the baby for us. You have basketball and I have singing, and we couldn't have that we had a baby. It just wasn't the right time..."

"You're a broken record, Haley."

Her eyes widened and her eyes fell to the ground. The rain was falling hard now, making puddles on the ground. The rain mixed with the tears on her face as she shivered slightly. She looked up at Nathan. At the wet t-shirt that was clinging to him, at his dripping hair, his baby blue eyes. She was reminded of that kiss they had in the rain, outside of her house, to make up after their argument. "We're not...this is it for us, isn't it?"

Nathan's annoyed look faded.. but it was replaced by a sad one. "Yeah, Haley."

She bit her lip, blinking more tears onto her face. "I know 'I'm sorry' doesn't help... but I am, Nathan. More than you know."

"I know you are, Hales. But I can't... when I see you, all I think of now are the lies that you fed me over the past few years," he said quietly, but sternly. She had started to shiver, and the look in her eyes told him that he was breaking not only his own heart with his words, but hers as well. "And I can't love and be with something if I don't trust them or ever believe what's coming out of their mouth."

She wiped at her face, trying to control herself in front of him. "I can't- I don't know how to fix this, Nathan. I need to be with you... I have to be."

He cringed noticeably at her words and shook his head. "We're done," he stated. "For good."

They stared at each for a second... Haley was trying to come to terms with what he had just told her. Nathan looked like this conversation was killing him. And that was when she knew that he didn't want to do this... but she had made him. And it was over. Soaked to the bone and shivering, Haley let a sob loose. A hand came up to her mouth to stifle the noise.

Nathan stepped towards her, but she backed away from him, crying. "Don't..," she whispered. She went around him, running back to Brooke's house. Nathan stood in the rain for another moment, hanging his head. Not only was he cold...but he felt numb. He felt.. nothing.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXXOXOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOXOXOXOXXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

After Haley went out the door, Peyton sat herself back down on her stool, resuming her position in front of the ice cream. She didn't touch it though as she tucked a piece of her hair behind her ears. She had decided to straighten it today and she wondered at how different it felt.

"What's with them?" Brooke asked. "What happened.. you obviously know."

Peyton looked up to find herself being stared down by Brooke and Lucas. "It's not my place to tell you guys. Let one of them when they're ready."

"But it's big, right?" Lucas asked her, and her eyes traveled over to him. They hadn't spoken or seen each other in weeks- not since their conversation in the car. She felt something stir within her as their eyes met...

"Yeah," she confirmed. "It is."

Lucas sighed as Brooke went into her room her something. He sat himself down boldly in the seat next to her. Guess his and Nathan's plan had failed- big time.

"Cookie Dough, huh?" he asked her, referencing towards the container.

"Yup," she replied.

"What's up with your hair?"

"It's straight."

"I see that. I like it curly, though."

"And..?"

"Did I do something wrong?"

"You tell me," she said as she got up from her seat and went over to put her spoon in the sink. She turned back towards him and leaned against the counter, folding her arms across her chest. "Did you do something that caused you to be avoiding me all this time?"

Lucas' mouth dropped slightly at the question. Through the silence you could hear the rain hit the roof.

"I just- uh-" he stuttered.

"I thought we were going to be friends, Lucas."

He noticed how she never said 'Luke' anymore. "I'm trying, Peyt."

Peyt. He had called her Peyt. The memories flooded back to her of the times her had used that name. During the first time they had made love, sitting in the swing together, reading in her room...when he told her he loved her for the first time. The look on her face must have been a clue to what she was thinking, because he opened his mouth to say something, looking desperate- but Haley came bursting in through the door, dripping wet and sobbing.

Peyton jumped as the door popped open, interrupting her conversation with Lucas. Her eyes widened as she saw the state of Haley. Brooke came out of her room at the slamming of the door as Peyton rushed forward to grab onto a sobbing Haley.

"Towel, Brooke?" Peyton asked as she neared Haley, who was covering her face with her hands and shivering profusely.

Peyton pulled Haley into herself, crushing her against her chest, where she could feel Haley's body jolt with her unhappiness. "What happened," she asked, her voice sad. Haley only shook her head as Lucas looked on helplessly from the side. Brooke came through with a towel and started to dry Haley off with it to warm her up a bit.

"I'm sorry I made you go after him..."

"It's not your fault," Haley said as her head emerged out from the haven of her hands. Make-up was running down her tear stained face and she sniffed loudly. "It's my fault...all of it." She blinked more tears down her face. "He-he said that we were done... for good," she continued, her voice breaking.

Peyton and Brooke pulled her into a three person hug. "He didn't mean it, Haley," Lucas said from the sidelines, not wanting to intrude on their moment. "I know it."

Haley looked up from the middle of the massive hug to see him. "The way that he talks about you... the way he looks at you... you should see him, Hales. He's so in love with you that nothing should be able to stop him from being with you."

Peyton's cell phone rang, but she ignored it. "Go get your phone, Peyton," Haley told her, as she started to wipe off her face and bring herself into a hug with Lucas. She was still tearful..but they might have helped her, as much as they could, Peyton guessed as she grabbed her cell phone off the counter.

Lucas and Brooke still didn't know what was going on with Haley and Nathan, but he wasn't going to ask her now. Nathan was going to be a nightmare though for the next.. who knows how long. Wonderful. He glanced at Peyton over Haley's head, whose face turned from happy and smiling to deathly pale and morbid in about a second flat.

"That's not funny, Dad," she was saying. Her mouth dropped open slightly as she listened. "No..but..how is tha-", she continued until her father must have cut her off. She shook her head violently in response to his words. Brooke's attention had been captured by her too and she turned to Lucas to ask him what was going on. He merely shrugged and muttered, "I don't know." She snapped her cell phone shut, but her hands were shaking so badly that she dropped it to the floor with a crash. One of her trembling hands went up to her mouth as she sunk to the floor, her body shaking with sobs that echoed through the room.

All three of them just watched her, in shock at the sudden breakdown. But then Brooke snapped out of it, and rushed to kneel down to her on the floor. "Peyton...?" Peyton shrugged her off and abruptly stood up. She swept out the door so quick that none of them were able to react and stop her. Haley glanced at Lucas with her eyebrows raised, and made a motion with her head towards the door. She wanted him to follow Peyton. Running a hand through his hair, he nodded, knowing this probably wouldn't turn out well.

Peyton had made her way down the street, her hand still over her mouth as the tears came down her face. The rain pounded on her, but she didn't feel it. Her car was just a little bit down the block. Not able to see clearly, she bumped into a guy who was just standing still in the middle of the sidewalk. He turned as she fell to the ground roughly.

"I'm sor-" he started to say as he reached down to help whoever it was up. "Peyton?" he asked as he pulled her up so she was standing. He noticed the tears. "What's going on?" Nathan asked her. She shook her head and over her shoulder, Nathan saw his brother running towards them. Nathan took Peyton by the arms, trying to talk to her. "What's going on?" he repeated to her as Lucas reached them, a somber look on his face.

Nathan's eyes met Lucas' and he knew that Lucas didn't know what was going on any more than Nathan did. Lucas hesitated for a moment before he put a hand on her back, while Nathan was still holding her arms. Peyton's sobs seemed to have stilled for the moment, as she looked up into Nathan's face. "What's wrong?" he asked again, sternly this time. She pulled herself out his arms to wipe her face off as she sniffed. Lucas' hand remained steadily on her back and she leaned against him slightly. "I can't...". She sniffed again. "If I say it- then it..then it's real," she continued, her voice cracking with the last words. A tear fell slowly down her face. The rain was soaking all of them through their clothes, Nathan the most wet of them all.

"Peyton.." Lucas said as he spoke for the first time that he had been there. "It's going to be real either way.." he said as he removed his hand from her back and went to stand next to Nathan in front of her. "Please... you're scaring us," he pleaded further with her.

She wiped at her face again, determined not to break down any further in front of him. "That.. that was my dad. He called and he..he said.." The tears started to leak out of her eyes again, much to her chagrin. "It's Ellie- Elizabeth..."

"Your birth mother?"

She nodded quickly, as the tears kept coming. Hesitantly, Lucas took one of her hands in her own, while Nathan was left to look on and wonder who 'Ellie' was.

"She... there was an accident- a car accident..," she said, her voice small. She shook her head, unable to continue, but both Lucas and Nathan understood. She shivered. Whether it be from the rain or from her thoughts Lucas didn't know, but he habitually reached out to comfort her. To his surprise, she didn't resist. She came crashing into his chest, looking for any source of comfort, anything that could make this disapper. He felt her hands ball up his t-shirt as she clung to him.

Nathan noted the surprised look on his brother's face as Peyton clung to him. He had to say he was surprised himself. She had been glaring daggers at him ten minutes ago.

"Please..." she was saying into his shirt. "...make it go away." Lucas recovered from his initial shock and put his arms tentatively around her. "You always fix things for me," she whispered. "Fix this.. save me from this..please," she asked desperately, looking up at him. Lucas felt his heart twist at the hopeful look in her shiny, green eyes. He looked away from her.

"Peyton I... I can't. I can't fix this." She hung her head in response to her words and his heart broke soundly. "But I can be there for you through it..okay, I can help you through this."

She nodded. "I know.." she said slowly. Realizing she was still in his arms, she backed up from him, coming back to her senses slightly. She pulled the wet hair that was sticking to her face back from her, sniffing again. She tried to rub the discomfort from her eyes, but it didn't work. She couldn't think straight. All she knew was this buzzing in her head.. a dull, numb, nothingness...

"Peyton? Peyton?"

She shook her head slightly to try and clear it, but the buzzing remained. "I wanna go home," she mumbled quietly as she started for her car down the street. Lucas exchanged as look with Nathan and they both followed her to her car. "What are you doing?" she asked as Lucas made his way over to the drivers side of the car.

"We're going to take you home," Nathan responded as he opened the door for her and got her in the backseat.

The drive home was silent and Lucas' eyes kept being drawn to the mirror, where he could see her in the backseat. She wasn't crying anymore... she wasn't doing anything really. Just sitting there with this blank look on his face. They arrived at her apartment and the three got into the house. All three were damp and shivering as Peyton ran a hand through her curling hair. So much for it being straight today. But was that really relevant right now? Was anything?

Nathan and Lucas were watching her quietly. "Um.. I'm going to go take a shower.. then pack, I guess," she said slowly as she started for the stairs.

"To go where- Miami?" Lucas asked her, making her turn back around.

Peyton shook her head. "My dad said he wanted to have her buried next to my other mom... back in Tree Hill..." she said quietly, her voice cracking. "You guys should go home.." she said as she proceeded up the stairs. When she came back down, Lucas and Nathan were still sitting on the couch. Nathan was busy praying the Haley didn't come home and Lucas had papers in his hand. "What are you still doing here?" Peyton asked them.

Lucas looked her over- from her baggy clothes to her bloodshot and puffy eyes, and he held the papers up to her. She took them from his hand. "I got us some plane tickets... the flight leaves in the morning."

"Us?" Peyton asked as she read the paper. "Three tickets?"

Nathan nodded. "Three."

Peyton saw their bags on the floor. Looks like they had gone home to get their stuff while she was taking her hour long shower.

"If that's okay..?" Lucas asked her quietly, not even sure that Peyton would want him to go with her. They really weren't on the best of terms.

"Yeah..thank you." She handed the papers back to him.

"You should go and try and get some rest," he told her quietly, although they both knew she wouldn't be able to really sleep. Just like the time they waited overnight in that motel room to see if her father was dead.

"Okay." She headed into her room as Lucas flopped back on the couch with Nathan.

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