A/N: I woke up this morning and did not like how the first page was almost full of Brucas stories and so it inspired me to update a Leyton story for all of us missing Leyton.. I also got extremely inspiring reviews from last chapter. So thank you cayt326, jamyj30, bendecida82, OTHGirl24, lucasandpeytonfanatic, Lexie-Rae, Ghostwriter and Ace5492 for inspiring me and keeping me writing this story. I got feedback that the kids were missed in last chapter. I missed them, too. And so in this chapter I have extra Peyton and kids goodness. I had tons of fun writing it. It's also the longest the longest chapter I have written so far (I think). I hope you enjoy it too!

-The same Tuesday night-

Lucas gave the Scott family hosting him some alone time and he locked himself to the quest room to write for most of the evening. When the kids were both sleeping Haley knocked on his door and invited him to join her and Nathan downstairs in the living room.

"Want a beer?" Nathan asked Lucas when he brought Haley a glass of red wine. He nodded towards the table with two bottles already opened.

"Yeah. Thanks!" He reached for one almost at the same time as Nathan got his. Nathan snuggled to his wife's side and Haley shot Lucas a look that asked if it was okay for them to be so comfortable with each other while he was away from his wife.

Lucas knew exactly what her look was asking and chuckled. "Yeah, go ahead."

Nathan looked at the two wondering what was going on and went then straight to the point. "Not that we don't love having you here, but why sudden camp out here? Is everything alright? Where's Lindsey?" Haley placed her hand on his thigh signaling him to slow it down.

Lucas was more alright with Nathan's questions than Haley was worrying. "Um, it's over. Lindsey is packing at the house. I promised to stay out of the way until she gets a flight to Boston. When the time is right, we'll get a divorce."

Nathan just stared at his big brother trying to wrap his head around what he just heard. "But why? I didn't even know you had problems?" He held onto Haley a little tighter as if to make sure she'd always be there by his side.

Lucas saw that, too and both him and Haley smiled at the gesture. "Yeah, I think that was part of the problem. We let it get too easy. We couldn't connect even so much to fight. It was going on for years that all that kept us together was a piece of paper saying we're committed to each other and the house we lived in. We forgot each other out of our definitions of family. We simply just co-existed."

"Wow.." Nathan took his time to process the information. Then all of a sudden a light of understanding went on in his eyes "Was it Peyton?"

"Nathan!" Sometimes Haley wished her dear husband was a little bit more discreet. Lucas did not seem to mind his brother's bluntness, in some other state of mind he would have, but apart from the shame of seven years and a huge promise falling apart he had found a peace about the decision.

"What! You know how they used to love each other.. And I know you've still been picking up vibes and gestures from them. If even I have there's no way you could have missed them. Besides, at least they never 'simply just co-existed'. If she had anything to do with all this, I think we should know so we'll know where everyone stands.."

"Um, little brother, I'm still here.." Lucas pointed out and the couple turned their attention back to the blonde.

He was about to continue, but all of a sudden he did not know what to say. He opened his mouth to deny Peyton having anything to do with their divorce, but suddenly he couldn't say that. No, Peyton wasn't the reason they broke up, because if she had been it would have happened much sooner. But did she play any role in the break-up? Lucas tried, but couldn't deny that she did. He wanted what he had had with Peyton: something that deep and meaningful. He guessed Lindsey wanted that, too. They just couldn't give that to each other. It was a fact that behind everything that went wrong in their relationship there had always been his ideal woman of someone as passionate and amazing as Peyton and his ideal relationship with connection, meaning and love that made him so brave he would risk anything and everything, even his own life for the woman he loved. Despite his screw ups he had had that passion with Peyton.

"If our divorce had been just my try to get back with Peyton, it would have happened a long time ago. When I still maybe would have had a chance with her." he finally answered vaguely, but honestly.

His answer caused Nathan to smirk. But he soon pulled himself together and said sincerely, "I'm sorry, bro. About all of it."

Haley, who had mostly been quiet rose and and embraced her best friend with all the love she had. "You know that we love you no matter what? And that we're here for you no matter what.." she almost whispered.

Lucas smiled at her and nodded. "Yeah, but if you don't mind, I'd like to go upstairs to my room and just write tonight.."

Haley let go of him and he walked towards the stairs. He turned back to his brother and best friend. "Oh, and I'd really appreciate it if you could keep this to yourself for now. It's really over and I'm okay with that. But it's all happened so fast and I feel like I need some time to tell everyone about this."

"Yeah, of course. We're here for you" Nathan answered for the both of them and Lucas made his way upstairs.

"Haley," Nathan said with a vulnerability in his voice. Haley could remember only a handful moments with him like that, like when he stumbled to her room after he had collapsed because of drugs when they were going out or when she was hit by Daunte's car, when she was expecting Jamie. "come here.."

Haley moved back into her husband's arms. It was hard for her to understand Lucas and Lindsey's drifting apart, when her own marriage had been such a blessing for not only 7 years, but close to twice as long. She still felt so great just having his arms around her.

"The other night that you fell asleep on the couch with Luke, you knew about this, didn't you?" Nathan asked quietly.

"Yeah, he told me that night that they were trying to figure out which direction to take. He was so broken and confused that night. I'm still worried about him, but it feels like he's doing much better now."

Nathan tugged his wife's hand to get her to turn to face him. He looked deep into her eyes and begged "Promise me we'll never end up like them. Haley, I can't lose you."

"You won't. I'm here and I'm not going anywhere." She kissed him to prove it.

"Yeah," then to Haley's surprise he laughed. "Besides, I doubt we'll ever have a problem of having it too easy. We've had so much hardships in our lives that even if nothing happened for the rest of our lives, I'm still pretty sure our life or relationship couldn't have been called easy. And no matter how awesome our kids are they'll surely provide us with plenty of challenges. Parenthood always does."

Haley leaned back against him and they were quiet for a moment. Both thinking about their own lives and Lucas and Lindsey. "I'm not saying they should have had kids, but I just think that it surely would not have allowed them to have a too easy life."

She turned to look at him again. She looked at him like he had said something somewhat unbelievable. "Do you really believe the real problem was that they had it so easy?"

It was Nathan's turn to wonder what was going on in her head. "What?"

"Do you think circumstances can be big enough problem to make a marriage of seven years with an enormous amount of will to commit fall apart like that?" she rephrased the question.

"Look, I've been holding this in for seven years and I've hated to keep secrets from you. So now that you know what you learned tonight I can tell you what I've been wanting to for years. The night before Lucas and Lindsey's wedding I told Lucas not to marry Lindsey. I had read his novel that he never published and it was a beautiful, heartbreaking love story about a boy who saw a comet, fell in love with it and could never let go. It was so Peyton that it hurt me to see him get married to Lindsey."

For the second time that night Nathan was trying to understand some completely new information. "Are you saying you've been wanting this to happen all along?"

"What no, all I've ever wanted was for Lucas to be happy and I just had this very bad feeling when they got married that he was making a mistake. But when he did anyway, of course I supported him and I never wanted this to happen. Apart from just needing to confess to you what I said to Lucas the day before he got married, I guess my point just was that I think you're right about him and Peyton. I think there's still something there.."

-Same week's Saturday-

"Lydia Peyton Scott. Come here, I've missed you!" Peyton called as she arrived to the Scott household as almost every Saturday. And the little girl ran to her godmother's arms like her life depended on it, just like almost every time she saw Peyton.

Peyton could hardly say hi to Nathan, Haley and Jamie when little Lydia already dragged her away from them. The two sat down to a beanbag where Peyton often read for the girl. It was their own safe haven, a special place for one-on-one time.

"Do you want us to read something?" Peyton asked and ruffled the little girl's hair. Lydia shook her head and then pressed it tight against her godmother's chest. She seemed sad somehow. "How are you doing princess?"

"Did you know that uncle Lucas has been living here, in your room now?"

"What? No, I didn't know that. Why has he been here? Is aunt Lindsey here, too?" Lydia's question took her by surprise. Why would Lucas be here, when his house was so close by?

"Mama says he's on vacation here. He mostly just writes in your room. I don't see him that much." Peyton nodded at the information. She was worried about him, but there was no point in making a five-year-old worried, too. Besides, although they were friends again, their relationship wasn't the kind where she was in any kind of position to save him if he even needed that. Lydia continued "I think he's sad, though. Can you help me to cheer him up?"

"You know that we're all sad sometimes and it's okay." Peyton tried to reason first. She did not want to get involved with this. But when the little girl just nodded still expecting for a plan for them to cheer her uncle Lucas up, Peyton knew she couldn't help but be involved. She may not have been in any kind of position to try to help him herself, but if her goddaughter wanted to cheer him up, she would do anything for that little girl. "You know what, your uncle Lucas really loves chocolate chip cookies. Do you want to bake with me?"

"Yes! I'm a really good cook. We'll make the best cookies in the world and I'll give some to uncle Lucas and he can eat them with milk and feel good again." Lydia got excited.

"I think it sounds like a great plan. Especially, if you think it sounds like fun to you.." Lydia nodded many times to confirm that it would be lots of fun to her and Peyton chuckled at the funny girl. "Because, princess, sometimes adults just need to be sad and even if your uncle Lucas won't cheer up by the cookies, it doesn't mean he doesn't love you."

"Okay, let's go bake." Lydia said more interested about the prospect of baking with her aunt than getting the life lessons from her. She was already dragging Peyton towards kitchen.

"Whoa! Where are you two going?" Nathan asked as they passed the rest of the family in a hurry.

"We're baking cookies. You're not allowed to the kitchen, you'd only eat the dough and this is important!" Lydia answered not bothering to turn and face her father.

The rest of them laughed.

"Can I?" Jamie asked when Peyton and Lydia were already in the kitchen.

"No!" Lydia yelled back. But soon she peeked her head back from the kitchen. "I changed my mind Jamie, you can come. But NO eating the dough!"

Peyton was gathering all the ingredients to the table, when Jamie joined them. She picked up Haley's apron for herself, and the kids' aprons tossing Jamie's to him and helping Lydia with hers.

"So aunt Peyton, what's going on?" Jamie asked putting his apron on.

"Your sister wants to cheer your uncle up by baking him chocolate chip cookies. Are you in?"

"Yeah, cool! I can read the recipe. I think uncle Lucas is gonna love our cookies." Jamie joined in and got his little sister beam at the support.

The three had a lot of fun in the kitchen and although as a result the kitchen was pretty messy they also managed to make some really great cookies. When they got the cookies out of the oven and most of the kitchen somewhat clean Peyton sent the kids to get the three adults for milk and cookies while she finished the cleaning.

They all six sat around the Scott kitchen table enjoying the delicious cookies.

"Wow, great job kids. These cookies are heavenly!" Lucas admired.

Jamie took a bit of his cookie and leaned back a little smugly. "I must say I kind of saved them. So you're welcome!"

"Jamie! You weren't supposed to tell on me.." Lydia groaned.

"What, what's going on kids?" Nathan started a fatherly investigation.

"Lydia thought a dash was a handful. She filled almost her hand almost full of salt and would have ruined the batch if I hadn't caught her in time." Jamie laughed.

"I have small hands. I thought it could be an adult dash." Lydia defended herself and buried her head into Peyton's lap a little embarrassed.

Lucas chuckled. "You know, it's okay princess, your aunt Peyton put a handful of salt instead of a dash, too, when she made me cookies in High School."

Lydia rose her head. Her eyes had been about to form a few tears, but they were shining so bright now. "Really?"

Lucas smiled at the memory. "Yeah, but she was a lot older than you, then and her big brother wasn't there to tell her to not put that much salt, so those cookies turned out really salty."

"Hey, you were not supposed to use that against me, ever!" Peyton groaned just like Lydia had groaned earlier.

Lucas smiled his first very sincere smile in a week "I am not. I told you they were the best cookies I'd ever had and they were.. Although now it might be a tie with these ones.."

Peyton caught herself smiling, too. She tried to reason it was just a smile for her goddaughter's success, but an undeniable truth was a lot of it had to do with Lucas and what he had said about her cookies, basically their past. She collected herself fast, though, reminding herself to enjoy the gift of moving on and future rather than holding onto a past that was long gone.

They enjoyed the cookies and milk mostly listening to Jamie and Lydia's stories about baking with Haley. To Lucas it was the best moment he had had in a long time. He was sorry he hadn't included Lindsey to his family, when she was supposed to be it. But eating cookies and drinking milk with Jamie, Lydia, Haley, Nathan and Peyton felt like home and that was a feeling he had really missed.

When they had all eaten Lucas offered to help Peyton finish up the cleaning and do the dishes. There wasn't much to be done, but she had done so much already that since the kids, well Lydia, allowed him to help, he wanted to do what he could. They had sent Lydia on a quest to prevent her from making more mess at the final stages of cleaning and now that it was just the two of them they were quiet for a moment.

"Luke, Lydia told me you've been staying here. Is everything alright?" Peyton finally gathered up her courage to ask.

She had clearly not noticed his empty left ring finger and now would have been a perfect moment for him to tell her about the separation and future divorce. But he felt so ashamed and unworthy having just watched her rock the household and make every Scott's Saturday great. No matter what she would say, he just couldn't face it yet.

"Yeah, um, Lindsey just needed the house to herself for a while and it's good to be here." he only told half truth and was relieved his niece returned from the quest before the conversation could go on.

-Two days later-

At 9 am on Monday morning Neil pulled over by Peyton's to pick her up. Peyton smiled at how everyone had thought their 9 o'clock meeting would have been a date at 9 pm. For some weird reason even Brooke, who clearly had heard the end of the phone call, had tried to be so discreet about 'the date' that she had not had any good situations for righting their assumptions. The truth was that they had simply decided to be ecological and drive the Wilmington - Tree Hill - Wilmington route together in one car whenever that was possible. Today was Neil's first day living in Wilmington and working in Tree Hill and neither of them had anything special that would have required two cars.

"Hi! There has been a slight change of plans." Peyton greeted and informed Neil, who was about to start the car, but put the brakes back on as he heard her. "You can still go.." Peyton laughed, "but Brooke has Ellen's doctor's appointment and Julian has work so I promised to take Brandon to work with me. I hope it's okay for you that we'd pick him up, when we get to Tree Hill?"

"If me not having a car seat for him is not a problem, then yeah, sure, it's fine.." Neil turned his head quickly to see if his backseat was full of stuff. It wasn't.

"Nah, they have one we can use. My car is still lacking car seats, too."

Neil laughed at her, "You know Sawyer, sometimes you sound like such a mom when you speak that it's almost hard to believe your friends' kids aren't actually yours."

Peyton smiled at the thought "Neil, you if anyone should know that they're not mine. But I don't think I could love a kid any more than I love them even if it was my own."

They were a little uncomfortable quiet for a while until Peyton picked up a new trivial topic to talk about. The ride continued in the same chatting and banter of quite irrelevant matters until they arrived to Tree Hill and Peyton had to give Neil instructions of getting to Brooke and Julian's. He followed orders, but was clearly deep in his thoughts at the same time.

They could almost see Brandon and Julian waiting just outside Brooke and Julian's house, when Neil finally talked again. "Peyton, that kid you left me and the tour for 5 years ago.. Was it Brandon?"

He pulled over by the Baker boys as Peyton answered. "No that was Lydia. He's only four."

They rose out of the car and Brandon literally jumped into Peyton's arms as soon as she was standing. "Hey B-Rock, my man! What ever shall we do today?"

"We're gonna rock!" Brandon raised his hand up in the air like a rock star on stage. "Look, mama even bought me black rock star boots!"

"Hi Peyton, thanks for this! Here's the car seat, do you know how to install it? I should pick up Lucas and Jamie in 10 minutes from Nathan and Haleys. We have a full day of casting." Julian butted in.

"Yeah, no problem. Me and that seat are somewhat accustomed to each other. Besides, I can just boss Neil here. He can be a gentleman and put it on.." Peyton laughed and tickled Brandon. "Shush, go Julian, we'll be fine.."

Julian kissed his son good bye and was about to turn around and be on his way, but all of a sudden it hit him that there was a man with Peyton. He turned around and sized him up. "So you're the hot Neil. I'm Julian, nice to meet you. Sorry I can't really stay to hang out more, but thanks for this, bye!" And before Neil could even shake his hand Julian was gone.

"The hot Neil? If you're still into me Sawyer, you know you can just tell me." Neil chuckled. Peyton blushed and patted his arm as Neil took the car seat from the ground. "And anyway, where do you find all these weird friends? Brooke was quite a case and I must say he was, too."

"I'd say he's like that because of Brooke. When he dated me, he was the stable one and I was more like that. Being married to Brooke has definitely brought out new sides from him."

Brandon's little mouth and eyes all went to o-shape as he realized what his aunt had just said "Aunt P, did You date daddy?"

"B-Rock, you sound like Lydia now.. I did, but it was a very long time ago, long before he met your mama." Neil was done with the car seat and so Peyton started to b

Brandon thought a while and then nodded seemingly satisfied by her answer. "Okay, but aunt P, can we play Foo Fighters, though he's here?"

Peyton laughed, "I don't know.. Neil, would you happen to have any Foo Fighters CDs here in the car?"

Neil started the car. "Sorry, buddy. I'm afraid not."

"Aunt P, next time you pick me up, can you please come with the Comet. He's not very cool." Brandon pouted. It sounded so comical that both of the adults couldn't help but laugh. Peyton mouthed 'sorry' to Neil and was so thankful he was still cool enough to not be offended by her godson's remark even if he wasn't cool enough to keep any Foo Fighters albums in the car.

A/N: What do you think? Please keep me writing this story by reviewing. I'd love to hear any wishes, ideas or thoughts you have, also if you don't like something or wish I'd do things differently. I take it all into consideration, when writing. Even if I disagree and don't write it as you wanted. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and can't wait to hear your thoughts!