Sure enough, time escaped and Lucas found himself awake with a jump. He wondered what woke him up, but soon found his phone had vibrated. He checked it and saw Haley had texted him,

Taking the princess and the peapods to the beach. Join us if you feel up to it.

Lucas smiled. He loved that Nathan, Haley, and Jamie took Ava Joy places fun. He also laughed because he loved the witty name Haley used to describe the three of them.

I might join you later. Have fun! Kiss my girl for me. And Nathan too so he doesn't feel left out. Lucas replied.

Haley responded fairly fast Haha, you're brother says he loves the kiss coming from me not you. Over and out, got to get everyone ready. Love you.

Love you too Hales. Lucas responded.

He felt the relief that he didn't need to worry about his girl for a good portion of the day. Lucas brought his feet to the floor. Sure enough, he swayed like a drunk man, due to the stiffening of his leg. He caught his balance. Somedays he was not so lucky. Regardless, he went in the kitchen to fix something to eat.

Lucas walked in and saw a hung over Peyton sitting at the table. He fixed a cup of coffee and spoke as kindly as he could muster, "Good morning."

"Is there anything good about it?" Peyton responded.

Lucas smiled, poured some coffee, and put it in front of her. "Drink some of this stuff. It should ease the headache."

The curly hair blonde took the drink and the pills Lucas laid out for her. Lucas made himself a cup of coffee and sat across from her. The two sat in silence for a bit.

"Dare I ask what stupid things did I admit last night?" Peyton spoke nervously.

Lucas tried not to look at her but with anger in his tone, "What? You don't remember?"

Peyton took a swig of the coffee and said, "Oh, you remember back in the day what would happen? We all would get drunk, say stupid stuff, and then forget the next morning."

Lucas nodded as memories came back of doing that or witnessing others do it. He straightened his back and cleared his throat. "You confessed to a car accident you got into and all the joyful details about it."

Peyton's eye brows immediately shot up, "Oh no, I did?"

Lucas nodded a lot and carefully admitted, "Oh yes you did, how was I supposed to take it?"

"I don't know," Peyton tried to think of a response,. "I never told anyone what happened that night-"

"Well I can see why, you killed someone that night."

"No, I didn't."

"Yes, yes you did." Lucas pressed trying to hide the tears from showing.

Peyton looked up at the angry eyes of her high school sweetheart. She tried to read them but only anger. "No, I did not. When I crashed at a hotel that night, I put on the TV to help me sleep and heard a news report talking about hit and run accident. It immediately sobered me up as I heard that the poor man I hit broke his hip. He was a week from retirement and I did that. I knew it because I looked at out my window to see the Comet and sure enough the front of my car was crushed."

Lucas shook his head and wanted to respond but didn't know how too.

"But…how…I mean why did you come back?"

"I wanted to see you and prayed you would take me back, but I saw you with some Asian chick and thought I lost all chances. I went out and grabbed the drink from a party store."

The thoughts swarming in Lucas's head came to an abrupt stop. He was so relieved and even more confused. As the two continued talking, he found the fears that crashed him last night were not what he thought at all. He assumed what she meant. He put her on the electric chair and assumed the worst. The two laughed at it even though Peyton did not know his end of the story.

A few hours later, Lucas went to the beach in search of his family. He told Peyton to come along. She did hesitantly, but knew she would be grateful for the sea air and see people she did love once upon a time.

The family had fun swimming in the ocean, playing in the sand, and walking the board walk. When the sun began to dip behind the sky line, Lucas told everyone he needed to take Ava Joy home. The girl pouted for two seconds, but really was happy to spend time with her dad. Before they headed home, Lucas brought her to a bench facing the ocean.

"Baby, I need to talk to you about something."

Ava finished licking an ice cream and looked at her dad, "Yes daddy,"

Lucas smiled at how mature his little girl was. He knew she could understand more then things then kids typically her age could. So he proceeded to tell her about the car accident and her birth. The girl listened intently, but when he finished she asked him a question;

"Is that why your leg acts silly?"

Lucas laughed a short, but guilty laugh. "Yep."

Out of all the things to be concerned with, the little one focused on that "Is there anything you can do for it?"

Lucas's head exploded with awe that the girl, six years old, thought of that in the midst of all he told her, "Well, there is a surgery that daddy is scared to get."

"You get scared?" she inquired and when Lucas nodded, "why?"

Lucas explained what his honest fears were. He never imagined telling anyone what held him back much less his six old daughter. Sure, he did not tell her everything, but the biggest thing being he was scared to have her hurt.

"Please." Ava Joy responded like Haley would, "I am going to take care of you."

Lucas smiled big and hugged his sweet daughter. Her front two teeth were gone and made him just crazy about her. This conversation made him smile. He knew Kate would have loved it. That's when he realized that part of keeping Kate's memory alive was telling their daughter when she did things like her mommy instead of keeping them locked away. Ava Joy wanted to know things about her mommy, when she asked Lucas needed to answer instead of avoiding it.

"That's something your mommy would have said," Lucas spoke trying not to cry, but leaned in to hug her.

The two proceeded to walk down the board walk, hand in hand, Ava Joy telling funny stories. Lucas just listened with no interruptions. The tears in his heart remained swallowed, but never was he more proud of his little girl.

When they got home, Lucas tucked his sweet angel into bed and headed to the guest room. He sat down at the desk, took a deep breath, pulled out the dusty laptop, and wrote the night way. He labeled the document Letters to Royalty . He made the grand plan to give it to Ava Joy when she was old enough.

After three hours of flowing inspiration, Lucas allowed himself to think You would love her, Kate. Then he went to bed and slept so easy. He even dreamed about Kate, Ava Joy, and himself. For the first time, it was a peaceful dream.

He was looking on the scene and was seeing his girl walking along the beach. The waves crashed against the shore, but they remained so peaceful. Kate and Ava Joy skipped along the edge and laughed hard. Lucas followed behind them and loved watching the scene. They were just about to run ahead, when Kate turned around and mouth,

"I already do and I love her daddy too."