Part 15

"So is this really such a good idea?" Nathan asked as Lucas opened the front door to the house they were standing in front of. "And why exactly do you have a key for this place anyway?" He continued as the door opened and they stepped inside.

"Peyton gave it to me on Saturday night to pick up some of her clothes." Lucas replied as he looked around the downstairs of the house. "I just never got around to giving it back."

Nathan follow as Lucas made for the stairs that would take them to Peyton's bedroom. He felt like he was trespassing. It wasn't like he'd never been in this house before, he had plenty of times, it was just that it was different now. This house was different.

Peyton had loved this house so much when she was younger but after the death of her mother Peyton stopped treating the house as her home. Instead she stayed for the most part holed up inside her room, only using other parts of the house when her father was home.

Now that had been taken from her too, there was no longer any part of this house that didn't hold bad memories for his friend. Even after Ian Banks had attacked her Peyton still managed to make her room her place again, her sanctuary from the outside world. It had taken time but she had refused to let Ian Banks take that away from her.

But after what had happened to Brooke that had changed, not that she had said anything to anyone. It was more obvious by her actions, she hadn't once stepped into this house even after being allowed back inside and she had never mentioned, not once, the possibility of moving back here.

"So…" Nathan began as he tried not to look at the floor of Peyton's bedroom, only he couldn't help but notice the large piece of carpet that was missing from beside the bed. Or the darkened stains that were still visible in patches around it. "what are we looking for again?" He asked as his mind went blank and all he could imagine was what had happened in this room.

Lucas was busy opening a drawer on Peyton's desk and pushing aside sheets of paper as he searched. "I told you her memory card."

"Right." Nathan nodded although he still hadn't moved to look for it. "Are you sure about this, Luke? I mean I'm just not sure we should be here, snooping through Peyton's things." He continued frowning at the thought of his friend finding out he had been going through her belongings.

Lucas couldn't believe his brother right now, Peyton and Brooke, two of their best friends, one his girlfriend and the other his previous girlfriend, could still be in very real danger from this psycho guy and Nathan was worried about trying to help them.

Turning to his brother still clutching a letter of some kind he glared at him. "What's wrong with you? Don't you want to keep them safe, or is it just that this was my idea?" He asked.

"What?" Nathan said in shock. "Of course I want to protect them, I just think we should have told them what we're doing not go sneaking around behind their backs, that's all!"

"Fine! Then start looking already." Lucas said turning back around as Nathan opened up the drawer on the bedside table. "And we will tell them, but if we can't find the damn thing there won't be anything to tell them so why get their hopes up?"

Nathan grunted, he didn't think either of the girls would particularly like Lucas' idea but he did think it would help keep them safe, or at least safer than they were if they did nothing, so he'd help his brother find the thing.

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Haley watched as Peyton lay down on the couch with her back to her. Earlier at the café they had all been talking about how to keep both Peyton and Brooke safe until the police were able to catch Ian Banks. Brooke was safe for the time being leaving Peyton, and so that's who they focused on.

Nathan and Lucas had began talking about taking it in turn to always be with her, agreeing who would walk her to classes, to the hospital and who would drive her back to the apartment. They had gotten so caught up in talking about calling Mouth and Skills to help them that they almost didn't notice when Peyton stood up and headed out of the shop.

They had all quickly gotten up and went after her with Lucas demanding to know what she thought she was playing at. Peyton had just continued into Nate's car and said that she wasn't sure who was down to be her shadow right now but if they couldn't decide she was sure the police, who were still in the car sitting behind them, wouldn't have minded driving her back to the apartment.

Haley had said she'd take her back with the others saying they'd meet them there a bit later as no one had felt much like going to school after what Peyton had told them.

Sighing Haley put down her bag and went into the kitchen where there was a broken cup all over the floor that still needed to be swept up. As she rounded the counter she looked down to see a clean floor.

Frowning she thought for a second before glancing over at her friend on the couch, she watched as Peyton turned one way and then back again trying to get comfortable. She knew she hadn't cleaned up and Nathan hadn't because they'd left before he had even noticed it.

That meant that Peyton must have done it for her.

Even after being shouted at she'd still cleaned up Haley's mess, shaking her head Haley went about making herself that cup of tea she'd wanted that morning. It wasn't like there would be much else to do if they weren't going to school and as long as the police car was parked outside she felt relatively safe at the moment.

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Lucas opened up another drawer and again it was filled with notes and letters but just as he was about to close it the words on a headed letter caught his attention. Pulling it out he began to read it.

"What's that?"

"What?" Lucas replies startled both by Nathan's question and by what he had just read. "Oh, nothing." He continues before turning to his brother while discreetly pocketing the letter.

"This is useless, it could be anywhere." Nathan says frustrated as he looks around the room. "Where does she keep her camera anyway? Won't it still be in the thing?"

"Maybe." Lucas agrees then thinks for a moment before walking into Peyton's closet and coming back into the room holding her camera bag with a smile on his face.

"Why did we just go through her drawers if you knew where she kept that?"

"I forgot?" He replies sheepishly.

Nathan rolled his eyes at that. "Well, don't just stand there. Check it out." He prompted and watched as Lucas pulled out the digital camera and began looking through the pictures one by one.

After looking over every photo twice Lucas dropped the camera onto the bed in defeat. "There's nothing on it that'll help." He said in a subdued tone. He had been so sure his plan would work, not only in keeping Peyton and Brooke safe, but it could have helped catch Ian Banks.

"Are you sure?" Nathan asked as he picked up the camera bag and looked inside. "Well she's got to have more than one anyway, right? It's not like… ah! Try these." He says pulling out two more small cards and handing them to his brother.

Lucas grinned at Nathan and quickly picked the camera back up and switched out the card and looked at what was on it. "Bingo!"

"Got something?"

Lucas beamed at Nathan and placed the camera back into its bag before he pulled it over his shoulder. "Yeah, this'll work great. Just let me call Mouth and get him to meet us at my place."

"Cool, let's go then." Nathan said more than happy to be leaving Peyton's house and that they may have found a way of help their friends.

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Haley grabbed the phone up before it could ring for a second time, it had taken Peyton over an hour but it finally looked as if she had managed to fall asleep and Haley didn't want her to be woken up so soon.

"Hello?" She says quietly trying to keep her voice down.

"Tutor-mum!!"

Haley blinked in surprise before responding with a grin on her face. "Brooke? Is that you? How did you get a hold of a phone? How are you?"

"Hey, you know me I can talk anyone into anything with this smile." Brooke responded and Haley could tell she was grinning.

"It's so good to hear your voice Brooke." Haley said as she closed her eyes with the emotion at talking to one of her best friends, a friend she'd come close to losing a few nights ago. "I'm so sorry about what happened Brooke." She continued as her voice broke.

"Hey none of that, this is a happy call, so no crying okay?" Brooke replied.

"Right."

"So anyway, I can't talk for long and I was just going to leave Peyton a message-"

"She's here, do you want me to get her?" Haley interrupted worried there was a more serious reason behind Brooke's call.

"No that's fine I can just tell you."

"Okay?" Haley said as she looked over at Peyton again wondering if she should go over and let her know Brooke was on the phone.

"So, seeing as you're not at school right now, where you should be might I add, what are you doing in about two hours?"

"Why?" Haley asked while ignoring the part about missing school as she didn't know exactly how she could explain that without worrying Brooke.

"How would you like to come visit me?"

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"So can you do it?" Lucas asks as he hands the card over to Mouth.

"Yeah, I mean it's not that hard to do, it's just… are you sure this is okay? Not that I don't think it's a good idea, but is Brooke alright about this?" Mouth asks as he pockets the card. Lucas had shown him the picture on his laptop and explained everything he wanted him to do. None of it was that difficult and it would probably only take him about an hour to finish. He just wanted to know Brooke was okay with the whole thing.

Lucas looked at Nathan who was frowning at Mouth's question before replying to him. "She's fine with it."

Mouth looked between the pair not completely believing that, but if Lucas said Brooke was happy for him to do this then he would just have to trust him. "Okay well Skills has already said he'll help me when I've got this finished, it shouldn't take that long so I'll call you then, bye guys. Oh and tell Brooke I said hi if you see her for me."

And with that Mouth left.

Nathan sighed from his position on Lucas' bed, he was beginning to rethink this whole idea. But it was too late now and he'd have to just hope that it did help and that Haley wouldn't kill him when she found out, or Peyton for that matter.

"Hey look, this will work so stop worrying little brother." Lucas said after he heard a second sigh coming from Nathan.

"Well I for one hope the girls see it that way before they lynch us for 'trying to help' that's all. And by the way big brother you can explain it to Peyton and Hales right now because it's about time we got back there don't you think?" Nathan said as he stood and made his way to Lucas' car.

"Yeah." Lucas says to the empty room as he considered for the first time that Peyton might not think this was a good plan, luckily Brooke wouldn't have to find out for while.

He just had to find the best way of telling his girlfriend about what he'd done. Maybe I can get Nathan to talk to her for me.

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"Brooke called?"

"Yes." Haley responds rolling her eyes.

"She called… here?"

"Peyton for the tenth time, yes Brooke called." Haley says trying not to get frustrated at having to continually repeat herself. Peyton had just woken up and she was trying to explain what Brooke had told her, but the blonde seemed to be stuck on repeat at the moment and Haley was starting to get annoyed with her.

"And you didn't wake me?" Peyton asked and Haley could see the hurt in her friends eyes.

"Oh honey, you were sleeping finally and she just wanted to leave a quick message. She couldn't talk for very long I'm sorry, but you'll get to see her really soon okay?" Haley says trying to make Peyton feel better and mentally kicking herself for not waking her in the first place.

Peyton nods pulling her knees up to her chin. "So you guys can see her, that's good right?"

"Yes."

"See who?" Asks Nathan as he walks through the doorway having heard what Peyton had said.

The blonde looked over to see Lucas and Nathan enter the apartment and then checked her watch. Now that everyone was there they could just head over to the hospital right now.

"Hey guys what took you so long?" Haley asks as she goes over to hug Nathan.

"Oh we just had some stuff for my mum to do first." Lucas replied not wanting to talk about it just yet, as he had still to come up with a good way of explaining what they'd done.

"Okay well you won't believe who called a little while ago."

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AN/ I could tell you all that I'm really sorry again about how much my timing on updates sucks but I think you know that by now, right:( I guess all I can say is I'll try to do better but don't get your hopes up.

This part was running a bit long, but I think you'll all like the next part for some reason. ::wink,wink::

Anyways thanks to everyone that's still around reading this and any new faces just joining and a super sized thanks to those that review.