The night flowed rather normally. It almost felt like everything was quite normal with Peyton being there. Sure, Nathan and Haley wondered what and how the date happened, but they continue on being normal. The dinner had its normal loud spurts of laughter, Ava Joy standing on her chair insisting she only was daddy's princess, Lucas telling her to get down, and everyone scraping down the food like they never ate before. When the kids went to go ready for the magic show, the adults stayed at the table drinking their wine.

"Do your new meds let you drink wine with them, Luke?" Haley inquired both noisily and like a mother over her older friend.

"They not only let me, they encourage me to get as drunk as I can." He replied with quick wit as he refilled his glass trying to dodge the question. He offered to fill anyone's class. Nathan stretched out his arm for his glass to get filled.

"While Lucas gets drunk, I want to know why Peyton Sawyer is back in town." Nathan asked nodding his head for more when his glass was half full.

"He means to say, hi Peyton, haven't seen you in awhile. Hope you're doing well." Haley interjected with pushing the bottle towards Lucas.

Nathan made a face, but took the sweet drink to his mouth and sipped it. Peyton answered, "Well thanks for asking Nathan. I am doing alright. Good to see you too. Glad your wife is still talking for you."

Lucas and Haley laughed. Nathan pretended to be angry. "Well I am glad to know after all these years, you are still the sassy Peyton we went to high school with."

All four erupted in laughter. Once they all stopped, Nathan inquired once again "Seriously. What brings you back to Tree Hill?"

As the other two got ready to listen, Peyton took a long drink of her wine to stall. She needed to come up with a quick lie to appease all three's curiosity. She couldn't think of anything but the truth. The truth would not have been welcomed by anyone in that room especially her. As she finished her drink, two other bodies rushed in the room and announced that they were almost ready for the magic show to begin.

"We need our strong and helpful daddies to help us first." Ava Joy told, "Daddy, will you help us?"

The adults cackled again with the unintentional joke at Nathan. Lucas wiped his corners of his mouth, stood up where pain from his leg was there to meet him. He winced hoping it didn't make too much of a scene. Everyone seemed to be looking at cute little girl instead of him. Trying not to sound like he was agony, he told the kids to show up where he could help.

While they were walking down the hallway to Jamie's room, Ava Joy turned around and walked over to her hurt Uncle Nathan. "Are you coming, too?"

Nathan shrugged without looking at her. Ava leaned in and kissed him on the cheek and then suggested "When daddy is sad, I just kiss him and he seems happier."

Nathan let the smile come across his face, stood up, and smacked the little girl lightly on the butt to tell her to get going. The men and Ava Joy prepared for the show. Haley and Peyton cleaned up the table, loaded the dishwasher, dished out dessert and brought it to the living room. They sat on the couches. Before they could say anything to each other, the two dads joined them as if smelling dessert. They took it from the women and sat down.

As Lucas hopped on the couch, he noticed yet again his leg was bothering him. He had been noticing it had been steadily getting worse and worse as time went on. Nothing other than stress really triggered it. He thought about the idea of bringing it up to his doctor, but he know the orthopedist would say the same thing she always said,

"Seriously Mr. Scott, it might be a long surgery and recovery, but it will return you back to normal."

Normal. What was normal? Life without his precious wife? No. Life would not turn back to normal. Plus, like any procedure/surgery there were risks. He couldn't bare the thought of anything happening to him because he had a sweet girl that only had one parent left. Even the surgery went well, the recovery would be traumatic for the little girl to handle seeing her daddy learn how to walk again.

Nope. No matter how much his leg hurt, Lucas would not get the surgery. He slowly eased into the chair, rubbed his thigh first and then his calf. Again, he hoped he wasn't making a big scene. He looked up and saw his daughter taking the center stage and taking any attention off of him. He was thankful for her outgoingness right at that moment.

The kids carried through with their rehearsed magic show. All four of the adults laughed at certain parts louder than some others. They applauded and wowed at other parts. Throughout the show, they asked for volunteers. Everyone got up and helped when need be.

Towards the end of the show, Jamie asked for a final volunteer. Since all four of the adults had a turn, they looked at each other and wondered who would be the last one.

"We really want you, Uncle Lucas." Jamie admitted.

Lucas looked around him pride fully as he stuck tongue out Nathan. Nathan pretended to pout. "Don't worry dad, you'll be happy we asked him instead." Jamie comforted his father.

Nathan put his arms across his chest not believing him. Soon enough, Ava Joy pulled out a pretty pink tu-tu for her dad to wear. Everyone laughed as Lucas pushed the thing up his legs and around his hips. Everyone, including the kids, applauded once he got it on. Lucas did a full out curtsy which caused everyone to laugh louder.

"Now Daddy, we need you to close your eyes and stand up on your tip toes." Ava Joy ordered him.

Lucas shrugged and did what he was told. But the pain in his leg grew so intense. The normal throbbing pain felt like something had just stabbed him fifty times. As he stood on his tip toes, his leg gave out and caused him to lose his balance. He landed on the ground on his side.

Everyone jumped up and asked him if he was okay. Trying to calm everyone down, Lucas went to stand back up. As he did, his leg gave out again. This time he landed on his butt. He scooted rested his back on a chair. As he went too, Haley placed her hand on his leg. The pain intensified from a 10 to 33 in two seconds. He screamed louder then he meant too that added to everyone's horror.

The adults and the children watched in horror as this strong man bellowed out. The found themselves powerless to do anything, because really even one was right with Peyton not knowing what was going on. Nathan and Haley had a clue, but really they didn't know the full story. Haley had no idea touching his leg would cause such a reaction and instantly pulled her hand off.

"What can I get you, Luke?" Haley called out comfortingly.

Five pairs of eyes locked Lucas. He wanted a smile to cross his face so they would relax and no worry. But he could not muster that if he tried. The pain howled at an unbearable level. He could barely focus on what he needed. Sweat soaked the back of his neck. His breathing was heavy. He needed to make sure his sweet little Ava Joy wasn't traumatized by the event, but as he tried to avert his look to her concerned face, Haley landed in his line of vision.

"Lucas, what do you need?"

"The…the…needle in…the…fffridge…and the jar…right next to it." Lucas replied surprised how shaking his voice sounded.

Haley stood up immediately to retrieve the stash in her refrigerator. Before she left the room, she ordered her son "Get your uncle a cold wash cloth and a glass a water."

Once the two left the room, Ava with her eyes locked on her daddy scooted closer to him. Her eyes were deep brown with fear and concern. Her daddy had always been her rock and the thought of seeing him as anything different completely crushed her to the core. Just like her mother would have in the situation, the little rubbed the hand that wasn't busy rubbing his leg.

"Daddy, are you alright?"

Even though the pain radiated, Lucas smiled at little bit. He squeezed her small little hand. He had his eyes closed as he heaved heavy breathes.

"Yes princess," he always was good at lying, "Daddy is fine. Just sometimes his leg hurts."

Ava Joy nodded at his admission. Suddenly finding the floor more interesting, she admitted "I am sorry for making you stand up on your tip toes."

Lucas opened his eyes and stared at his beautiful daughter. He brought his fingers under her chin and brought it up to look at him. "You have no reason to be sorry. If daddy would have known that was going to hurt, he wouldn't have done it." Another lie.

Before either could react, Jamie appeared with the glass of water. He handed it to his uncle. Without saying it out loud, seeing his uncle and role model hurting really broke his heart. Lucas was his hero and seeing him hurting really cracked his heart.

Haley then bent down next to the three. She ordered the children to move aside. Ava Joy resisted, but when her daddy told her to go into Uncle Nathan's arms she did as she was told. Haley adjusted herself closer to Lucas. She prepared for the needle and looked at her best friend. He had closed his eyes and nodded whenever she was ready.

"Nice and slow, okay Hales?" Lucas questioned not looking forward to the next part.

Haley responded with a yes. She lifted her friends shorts to reveal his thigh. The medicine like epipen would be inserted in his fat of his thigh. The high doze pain killer would spread immediately to the injured leg. It would cause the extremely painful nerves to slow down and even halt to give him some relief.

"Ready?" Haley inquired.

Lucas nodded. Right away, Haley slowly counted to three and then placed the needle in her friend's thigh. The medicine took ten long minutes to come into his blood stream. Everyone held their breath and watched as such a strong man's scrunched up face relaxed. The pain alleviated down a few notched.

"Do you want to move onto the couch, Luke?" Nathan posed.

Lucas knew he would not be able to move himself as the numbness slowly started crawling from his hip bone to the rest of his leg. He slowly nodded regardless. Nathan asked Ava Joy to go stand next to Peyton. He stood up and walked over to his big brother. He instructed Lucas to put hands around his neck. Careful not to touch his leg, Nathan lifted him up on the couch. He swiveled Lucas's legs over to rest on the couch. He placed a pillow under his leg. He only was a professional at doing this because in the early days after the accident he did it almost a few times a day.

"Jamie, place that cold wash cloth on your uncle's forehead please." Nathan instructed.

Once Jamie did as he was told, Lucas could feel the medicine's effects come to his knee. He also tried to keep his eyes opened, but was failing miserably.

"Okay, let's let Uncle Lucas sleep. You two," Haley pointing, in her typical protective mom voice, at Jamie and Ava Joy. "Get ready for bed."

Jamie spun around and did as he was told. Ava Joy stood in place with her eyes still locked on her daddy. "Can I kiss my daddy goonight?" she asked in a way where all the adults almost cried. She spoke as if tonight would be the last time she would see her dad.

"Of course, sweetie1" Haley allowed.

Ava Joy fearfully, but out of duty walked over to her falling asleep dad. She put her hand over his forehead and kissed it goodnight.

"I love you daddy more than all the stars." She quoted their line to each other.

"And the rain drops from the sky." Lucas mumbled.

Fighting any urge to stay with her dad, Ava Joy nodded and turned around. She headed to her bedroom she shared with Jamie where her spare pajamas and bed sat.

Haley asked Nathan, "Can you take Peyton home? I think we are done for tonight."