Part 14

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Haley slowly threw the covers off her over heated body and awkwardly pushed herself into a standing position. With all the kicking her son had been doing throughout the night she had gotten almost no sleep, and with Nathan out on his morning run she had no hopes of being able to get any now.

So sleepily she shuffled her way out of the bedroom and into the kitchen yawning as she went. Automatically she switched on the kettle before reaching up to open the cupboard and get her decaffeinated tea trying her best to avoid looking at the large jar of coffee sat beside it. Putting the tea down she scowled at the coffee wondering why she let Nathan get away with drinking it when she had to suffer without it for months now.

Turning her back to the all too tempting brew she reached for a cup on the opposite counter unable to hold back her feelings on the subject.

"Don't see why he's still gets to drink it, the lucky bast-"

Suddenly she drops the cup which crashes to the floor and shatters as her hand raises to cover her mouth.

"Oh my God!" She shouts before rushing a few feet towards the figure seated on the couch.

Peyton.

The same Peyton who she and her friends hadn't heard a word from after having dropped her off outside the police station early yesterday afternoon. The blonde had stopped carrying her cell phone after the amount of calls she was getting once the news programme had aired Sunday night, leaving them with no way of getting in contact with her.

Nathan and Lucas had gone to the station looking for her after waiting two hours for her to call them, as she'd promised to, but she'd already gone. They had even waited at the hospital for her to visit Brooke but had left after being told by one of the nurses that Peyton hadn't arrived and had never been late to see Brooke before.

Worried about their friend they had called everyone they knew looking for her as well as having gone to all the places they could think of.

They'd had no luck.

Finally they had to accept that Peyton wouldn't be found that night and returned home. Lucas had been so upset he had left to take another drive around to see if he could find her but had to finally give up and accept defeat.

"Where the HELL have you been!" Haley demanded as she closed in on her friend.

Haley looked more closely at Peyton as she was met by silence, the blonde was sitting with her legs up on the couch crossed underneath her with her head bowed as she played with the bottom of her jeans.

Still she said nothing.

Worried, Haley took a step closer and knelt down in front of the girl.

"Peyton, honey?" Haley began quietly placing a hand on her friends leg. "Peyton, are you okay? We've been really worried about you... we didn't know where you were."

Peyton slowly lifted her head and looked at her friend feeling nothing at the concern showed about her by Haley and her friends. It had never occurred to her to get in touch with them to let them know where she was, she had only wanted to be left alone.

Unfortunately she had to come back here at some point, and now they would have to talk.

She would have to talk.

It was no longer an option to keep everything inside anymore, there was too much at stake now. And her friends needed to know. They needed to know who was responsible for attacking Brooke, and it was a conversation she was not looking forward to.

Haley waited trying not to push Peyton into talking, as much as she wanted to berate her for worrying them the haunted looking in the green eyes in front of her kept her quiet.

"I… there's som-" Peyton begins but is interrupted by the front door rattling which causes her to jump noticeably.

"Haley?" Comes the shout from the door as the handle is turned from the outside.

Haley pats Peyton on her leg not understanding why the blonde suddenly seemed so frightened.

"It's just Nate Peyton, he must have forgotten his keys." She explained as she stood to let her husband in.

"Hey." Nathan says leaning down and kissing Haley on the cheek as he heads into the kitchen to get a drink. "What's with locking the door? You knew I was out there." He asks before gulping down some water.

"I didn't lock it."

"Then who di…" He begins to ask just as he notices the blonde on the couch. Glancing at Haley questioningly he walks back into the living area. "Peyton, everything okay?" He asks her with a frown.

"Sorry I locked you out." She replied softly without looking at him.

"No worries, smelling as bad as I do right now I probably would have locked me out too. So why don't I jump in the shower and then we can go over to the café and meet Lucas for breakfast before school. Okay?" He says only to get a nod of agreement from the blonde.

"Right then, I'll be back in a minute." Nathan continues before gesturing to Haley to follow him into the bedroom.

"I'll just get changed then too." Haley says aloud before disappearing into the bedroom behind her husband.

Closing the door Haley looks at Nathan letting her fear over the blonde in the other room show clearly on her face.

"Hey, everything is going to be okay Hales." Nathan says in a whisper as he pulls his wife into an embrace. "But you better call Luke and tell him we'll be over soon, okay?"

Haley nodded against his shoulder.

"She looks terrible Nathan, and I've no idea what could be wrong. She's been missing for hours, and she's acting like…" She trailed off in the same hushed tone not knowing the best way to describe her friend at the moment.

"Well something is going on that's for sure. And there's a police car parked out front." Nathan says.

"There is? Do you think it's Brooke? Maybe something's wrong." Haley responds trying to think of anything that could be wrong that would cause the blonde to be so upset looking.

"I really don't think so Hales, whatever it is we'll find out soon okay. Now I better get that shower or we'll never get out of here." He said before grabbing some clean clothes and disappearing towards the bathroom.

Haley quickly got herself dressed no longer feeling any of the effects her lack of sleep had on her just a short while before.

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The three friends had travelled in the same car with Nathan and Haley trying to make small talk with Peyton only to be met with one word answers or silence. The blonde had completely ignored the fact that the police car that had been parked out in front of the apartment had slowly followed behind them all the way to the café and was currently pulling up behind them.

As they got out of the car Nathan and Haley stared at the white patrol car while Peyton just headed into the shop without so much as a glance backwards.

"What the hell is going on Nate?" Haley asks as they follow the blonde while casting looks at the two uniformed officers seated in the front of the police car.

Nathan frowns but remains silent as he opens the door for his wife to enter in front of him. Inside Lucas was currently hugging his girlfriend in the middle of the empty shop, his mother was just bringing out a tray with drinks which she sat down on two tables that had been pushed together.

"Why don't you all take a seat?" Karen says as she moves to lock the front door and turn the sign to indicate that it was closed.

Lucas finally released Peyton as Karen returned and sat down.

"Where have you been Peyton, we called everyone but no one had seen you." Lucas says taking the empty chair beside her.

"You had us all worried, is everything okay now?" Karen asked the quiet girl. In truth Karen was extremely concerned about the young women seated at the side of her, she looked like she'd slept in the clothes she was wearing and seemed to be very withdrawn. She had heard from her son that Brooke was on the mend so Peyton's sudden disappearing act had them all troubled.

"Right." Peyton began reaching for a glass of juice and taking a sip to wet her suddenly dry mouth. "I guess I should start with why there's a police car outside."

"There's a police car outside?" Lucas asks getting up to look outside as Karen's eyes widened in reaction to that news.

"Um, and why is there a police car out there?" She asks looking from Lucas, who was retaking his seat, to the blonde and then at Haley and Nathan who she raised an eyebrow at.

"Yeah, it was outside our apartment this morning too." Nathan volunteered as he bit into a piece of toast.

"Right." Peyton agreed. "Well this isn't really an easy thing to say." She continues playing with the rim of her glass.

"Hey." Karen began placing her hand over the blonde's and giving it a reassuring squeeze. "Take your time."

Peyton took a deep breath and looked up at everyone seated around her, her friends, Brooke's friends. They were all worried about her she could see that clearly from their expressions, but it didn't bring her any comfort, in fact it only served to make her feel more guilty.

"It was Derek." She finally managed to blurt out.

It was blunt and to the point but it wasn't exactly how she'd planned to inform them, but in a way she was just glad she'd been able to say his name at all.

"What was?" Haley asked.

"Derek?" Lucas asked not sure if she was referring to her brother or the guy that had pretended to be him.

"That hurt Brooke, only his name's not Derek it's Ian. Ian Banks." Peyton said as her previous nervousness evaporated and anger took its place. "He's the guy that attacked her, that raped her."

"Your brother?" Nathan asks having never really met the guy properly. "He did it? He broke into your place and almost killed Brooke?" He continued with anger in his voice.

Peyton nodded and wiped at her eyes as they began to water. She didn't want to start crying again she'd already spent enough time doing that already.

"Only he's not my brother, he just pretended to be." She replied to Nathan.

"I don't understand, isn't he supposed to be in jail already?" Lucas asks confused as he was pretty sure he was right.

Peyton laughed.

"Yeah, turns out that it was him calling not that Wilcox guy." She says. "And it gets better!" She continues with a grin. "He was never there for Brooke in the first place, the cops think she just got in his way."

"He was after you." Lucas said fearfully, catching on to what she was really saying.

"That's why the cops are following you right?" Nathan asks as they all try to understand everything they've just been told. "Is he still out there?"

Karen couldn't believe what she was hearing, it was such a terrible thing that had happened to Brooke, something she'd never wish on her worst enemy. But to find out that Peyton had been the intended victim was hard to take in.

"Why on earth did you take off yesterday if you knew this already, what were you thinking Peyton? You can't put yourself in danger like that." Karen said to the teen.

Peyton shrugged, Brooke had said something similar when she'd been about to leave the hospital last night. She'd had to lie to the brunette, telling her that Lucas was waiting outside to give her a ride home. Only then was Brooke okay about her leaving even though Peyton could tell that she wasn't completely happy about the idea.

"Does Brooke know?" Haley asked.

"Yeah, she knows." Peyton relied, they hadn't talked about it but from what Brooke had already told her she knew Brooke was aware of who attacked her. There was a chance the brunette knew a lot more than she did about just who Ian Banks was.

"That's it, you're not going anywhere on your own from now on. Between Lucas and me and the cops out there, there's no way this guy's getting within a hundred feet of you." Nathan says getting a nod from his brother at the idea as he tries to think of ways to keep the blonde safe from this psycho.

Peyton snorted at the idea.

"Peyton." Karen begins not liking the blondes reaction to Nathan's suggestion. "Nathan's right, you can't just wander around alone, not when this person's capable of what he did to Brooke."

"Oh, I know exactly what he's capable of Karen. And do you really think it's a good idea to put more people than necessary in danger?"

"We only want to help Peyton, if that means following you around then fine me and Nate can do that. We'll protect you." Lucas says thinking Nathan's idea would work great, that way if either of them spotted Ian Banks again they'd be in a position to pay him back for what he'd already done to Brooke.

"You'll protect me?" Peyton asks doubtfully. "You think following me around constantly is going to stop this guy, do you think he'll care about hurting more people than just me?"

"It's worth a shot Peyton, at least until they catch him." Nathan replied.

Peyton ran her hand over her face not knowing whether to laugh or cry. She was already responsible for what had happened to Brooke she couldn't stand the idea of another of her friends being hurt because of her. Or worse.

"It's not that simple Nathan." Peyton said looking over at her friend suddenly feeling completely drained. Nathan may have been a jerk of a boyfriend when they had dated but he'd always been one of her best friends. And she loved him for trying to look out for her now, she just didn't know if it was worth it. She didn't want anyone else she loved to get hurt because of her.

"If the cops haven't been able to catch him for the last two years, do you really think they'll catch him now?" She continues before letting out a sigh. She was exhausted and all she wanted to do right now was head back to the apartment and try to get some sleep.

"Two years?"

"Why have they been looking for this guy for the last two years Peyton?" Haley asks even though she was afraid to hear what the blonde's answer would be.

Peyton looks at Haley straight in the eye for a moment before she answered her.

"Because six other girls weren't as lucky as Brooke, they all died."

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AN/ Okay so for you guys over this side of the pond, sorry my bad : ( But for the rest of you I soo got this posted when I said I would!!

Anyways thanks to everyone still reading ::kiss, kiss:: and much love to you.

But it's late or really, really early so I'm off. I'll try to respond quicker to reviews this time, promise. Please feel free to let me know what you think so far, but remember complaints should be sent to the guy two doors down the hall ok: P