Merry Christmas everyone! :)

Sick feelings crashed through Lucas. He felt like a tornado ravaging through a city had found the place he hid in and began tearing off layers. He wanted to pretend nothing ever happened.

Peyton never came over.

Matter of fact, she never was in his life.

Kate had not died.

His head swarmed with spinning thoughts like these. He was stuck on a merry go round and could not get off no matter how nauseous he felt. His stomach sat as a pit to all the terror. He did not have a clue how to handle all of it.

Shortly after her horrible and incriminating confession, Peyton passed out on the couch. Lucas could not even stand to look at her as the tears burned his eyes. Hatred burned a hole through his heart. Call it an extreme emotion to feel, but he was so angry to put it nicely. He had waited for six long years to know who was the piece of junk that took away the most precious person to him away. And of course with this person taken away, it left his sweet Ava Joy without a mother. It was one thing to do that, but the way the girl was growing to look like her mom and how she had mirrored her almost perfectly. Or when those big almond eyes asked innocent questions about why her mommy wasn't around. Sure Haley told the little girl what had happened since Lucas couldn't do it. Still the little girl insisted her daddy tell her.

Again and again, the storm that was Lucas's famous mind waged long and hard. He stayed up all night trying to figure out what to do. He wanted to wake up Peyton and send her out the door. But thought her drunk self is what brought all this misery for him in the first place. He saw asleep on the couch, the place where his wife cuddled with him. The place she read the scattered papers of the novel she bragged about to everyone including the writer.

Lucas eventually remembered the guest bedroom. Sure that alone held so many memories in it, but he carried the passed out woman and put it on the bed. When he went to close the door, he found himself second guessing the whole time. The last time he had a woman stay the night at his house, excluding Haley, his mom, and Brooke Davis once when she was in town, was his wife.

Was he betraying her?

Was she judging him?

Had she been judging her for all the crap he let happened to them?

Ava Joy probably hated him immensely.

Once Lucas shut the door, he collapsed into his bed. His head hurt so bad with all these swirling thoughts. He lied there staring at the ceiling wondering what he should do. When another hour went by, he decided to do what he always did when he needed to clear his head. He walked to the river court.

Was it a longer walk then he remembered? Yep. Did his leg bother him because of it? Oh yeah. But did he need it more then any therapy or medicine? Absolutely. He got to the rivercourt and the scene instantly caused him to breathe and slow down. He sat down on one of the benches and surveyed such an integral part of his life.

The basketball court was still the same. It stretched with cement which wasn't the nicest cushion when you fell in a rebound against your little brother. He laughed at that memory. Nathan seriously didn't know what to do. He mostly made fun of Lucas, but had the tint to his eye eluding he was worried. Lucas pretended for a brief second that his head hurt, but when Nathan threatened to call Haley, Lucas stood up fast to calm down the presses. Nathan in turn slugged him in the stomach.

"I was worried, man!"

"You did look as you were going to cry over it." Lucas teased.

"No, I wasn't!" Nathan retorted defensively.

"Oh, I think you were." The older continued his joke, Nathan turned around in almost embarrassment "The look you gave me is what I imagine you looked like when you cried over the Notebook."

Nathan turned around and face Lucas fast, "How did you know about that?"

Lucas smiled big knowing he had fun his brother's point of contention, "Oh, a little birdie told me."

"Haley! I'm going to kill the girl!" Nathan tersed. "It was right after the dental procedure from a few months ago. I was high on pain meds and could not control any emotion."

"I see and you opted in this high emotional time to watch the Notebook?"

Nathan made a face of anger but picked up on the joke "Whatever Luke. When you find the right girl, you'll watch dumb movies like that too."

Lucas laughed and went to respond, but a small and unfamiliar voice called behind him. Both boys looked and saw a small woman approaching them. They both looked at each other and shrugged.

"Excuse me, guys, but I am new to town and I can't find Karen's Café."

Lucas's firs thoughts were that she was absolutely gorgeous but the Karen's Café kicked him back to real life, "I know where that is. It's only about ten minutes north of here."

The woman lit up, "Oh okay! But wait, I don't know my north and south very well. Can you guys show a girl like me where it is and I'll buy you something from there?"

Nathan made a noise to grab his drooling brother's attention, but Lucas quickly responded willing to help. The two began walking towards the car when Nathan called his brother's name.

"Hey Luke, how are you planning on getting there? I drove, remember?"

Lucas stopped and thought through the predicament. The woman quickly answered, "You can drive with me, Luke, and you-" she said pointing to Nathan, "Can follow us to guarantee I don't kidnap and rape this guy."

Nathan and Lucas laughed. All three headed towards the car. Before Lucas got in the car, he asked, "Before we go, can I know the name of my kidnapper?"

The woman laughed and said the most wonderful name, "Kate."

What a precious memory to have that started a beautiful love. Lucas treasured that memory. Kate also loved to tell people that's how they met. Kate ended up going to Karen's Café to meet with someone about getting a job at the nearby school. A person named Haley James Scott. The two formed an instant bond since both easily liked and trusted people. As time went on, Haley played the middle man to find out what was happening in her best friend's mind and her best girlfriend's mind.

The rest is history. History that Lucas longed for more then he wanted to admit to anyone but most importantly himself. He sat starting at the court. Behind it stretched a river. It wasn't wide, but it was so mesmersing. The starry night twinkled in a reflection in it. There was no sound. Then again there was a small distant sound of an orchestra playing miles down. Again, the peace caused Lucas to breathe and not freak out.

After staying at court for a few hours, Lucas decided to limp back home. The pain in his leg was terribly uncomfortable. Every step proved more and more painful. He got home, took something to ease it, set out hang over medicine for Peyton, and crawled into bed. He managed to sleep for a few hours even though when he woke up, he knew had to do something he did not want to do.