A/N: Thank you lukenpeyton4ever, cayt326, jamyj30, rachel, LukePeyTLA, mahsa, bendecida82, M'sOTPisLP, Lexie-Rae and Ace5492 for your wonderful reviews once again! They were golden in shaping this chapters to what it became. It seems like maybe the hints about Peyton and Neil's history weren't very easily picked up from the last chapter, but no worries, this one introduces the story to from a new perspective so hopefully it doesn't feel confusing.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it inspired by your amazing reviews..

-Later the same day-

Julian's new movie's preproduction was going full speed around them. This was the last day of casting and they were in a hurry to start shooting soon. It was once again a movie based on Lucas's book so he was there as a producer and writer. It was a deal they had had since working on Ravens, which fell through and was never actually shot. Julian had directed Lucas's second published book a few years back and it had become such a hit it had even won a Golden Globe.

Lucas had started writing again after Lydia was born and Peyton came back. It was a story based on Mia's music, even named after her song Who You Are Without Me. A lonely High School student Audrey Maples, who is very touched by a stunning local celebrity, who made art out of her job at a small town radio station and local theater. The girl loses herself in the profound affection to this woman whose biggest fan she is and then uses music to find herself. She works to tell her story to the woman who changed her life and everyone else, too, by writing a song, the song the book was named after.

It was an enormous success. It did not have a romance like Ravens did, but it was at least as powerful love story and it reached even wider audience than the story of him and Peyton. It ended up being about Peyton, too, the loval celebrity saw in many ways as stunning as Peyton was when she returned to North Carolina and got involved with Lydia Scott. The references to her were just so well hidden they could easily be denied, if someone picked them up. The big theme of the power of music obviously was very Peyton-inspired, too.

In midst of the success Lucas got an idea of turning Who You Are Without Me into a trilogy and continue exploring the different sides of fame and fandom in two more books. Mia's songs were perfect at structuring the story in his mind and so the second book of the trilogy, Forever and Almost Always once again had a narrative that was more or less a fictionalized version of the title song's songwriting process. In that Audrey from the first book got her own huge fan and it seemed much like her own story that she was in a cross fire of how to react to such an affection. Once again critiques and fans thanked Lucas for such a surprising view point into love and how it sometimes hurts. And now Julian was turning the story into a movie. They just needed to finalize decisions on the new fan's actress and that was what this day was all about.

Julian's dad, being the executive producer of the film, was seated on the first chair behind the table, Julian was the director and sat next to him and Lucas next to Julian. Jamie had gotten into filmmaking, when Julian had started directing and had ever since gotten to tag along to any of Julian's projects. So he sat next to Lucas feeling very important getting to be casting with his uncles. On Jamie's other side was still Chase, who represented Mia in everything that did not relate to sound. Julian had given her a chance to supervise sound and music to the film, but she still wanted to do other work, too, and so Chase sat in for his wife in many occasions.

They had a little time before people started coming in and so Lucas couldn't help but take the opportunity and talk with Chase about something that had been bothering him.

"Chase, you know Mia's manager, right?" why beat around the bushes when you can go straight to the topic.

"Who? Neil? Yeah, of course I know him, he was her tour manager at the time we met so I've spent plenty of time with him over the years."

"So, you'd say he's a good guy?" Lucas challenged.

"Yeah, Neil's great.. How come?"

"I think he's going out on a date with Peyton tonight." Lucas told very reserved.

"Really, they're only now going out on a date? They looked like an already established couple to me, when they picked up Brandon in his car this morning."

"They, what?" Lucas sounded so worried it could have been his daughter or wife, rather than ex-girlfriend, they were talking about.

Everyone knew Lucas had heard Julian right, so they ignored him and Chase answered straight to Julian. "What, you didn't know? I would have thought Brooke would fill you in on everything.." he seemed puzzled and the two Peyton's ex-boyfriends followed him even more puzzled. "Wow! So, Brooke didn't know.. Woow!"

"What didn't aunt Brooke know?" Jamie butted in voicing both of his uncles' thoughts impatiently.

"They probably looked like an established couple, because they used to be one."

Lucas's head was spinning. Of course Peyton hadn't just stayed hung up on him all these years. But never having been introduced to any of her boyfriends he had liked to not think there were any. With hands trembling of very uncalled for jealousy he grabbed his glass of water, hoping it would cool him down. Jamie placed his hand on his uncle's back for support.

Since the rest of them just stared at Chase waiting for explanations he continued on his own "When I met Mia she spent most of her time on tour with Peyton and Neil both handling their other business from the road and together taking care of Mia's tour. We never really talked about it, so I don't know the whole story, but considering our accommodation arrangements it's pretty obvious they were together in more than just business arrangements."

"And what about then? Do you know what happened afterwards?" Lucas asked with clearly shaky voice. He was very happy he was in the middle of a bunch of guys who weren't the very closest friends of his. Had Haley, Brooke or Nathan been there with him, he would have had to explain himself and start talking about his feelings.

"As I said, I've never talked about it. But I haven't seen them like that since Peyton left the tour and came back here after Lydia was born. But I guess now that Neil's here, too. Maybe the old flame has lit up again."

"Good for them, they looked pretty good together and at least Brooke seems to approve.." Julian smiled as the first actresses walked to the audition and they had to turn their attention to business.

-Wednesday noon, two days later-

Peyton was pulling her hair and bored out of her mind listening to demos that pretty much all sucked. So when Neil walked into her office insisting on taking her out for lunch, she happily accepted the offer. They decided on a small diner by main street. It had a nice patio for gorgeous days like this one.

"Do you have any contacts to the literature publishing world from licensing Mia's music to that idiot's trilogy?" Neil asked as soon as their food was served.

Peyton gave him an unappreciative glare. "First of all, you should not call Lucas an idiot. He's my friend and he's an extremely talented author who is responsible for making both of our biggest artist as insanely popular as Mia now is." Neil rolled his eyes at her, but Peyton ignored him. "But yes, I guess it depends on what you're after, but I know Lindsey Scott, who edits the Who You Are Without Me trilogy and she has a lot more contacts if she's not what you're looking for."

"First of all," Neil mocked before really heating up about what he had to say "you can't blame me for hating that tool. He broke your heart and stomped on it and made me just a rebound guy. No matter how talented he may be, he can't be anything but an idiot to screw you over like he did. And he certainly doesn't deserve to be your friend!"

Peyton opened her mouth to answer to his accusations, but he continued without giving her a chance for that "And if Lindsey Scott is the same Lindsey that married the idiot and made your life a living hell, I don't want to have anything to do with him."

Peyton took a few deep breaths. Why did the people in her life have to be so damn passionate? She had thought to fire back and tell Neil to mind his own business, but it looked like her stupid past was preventing him from even that own business, so she needed a different plan.

"Alright, let's calm down and why don't you tell me, what you need literature publishing for.."

Neil had to take a minute to calm down as she had ordered, "I have this artist, who's looking for a more 360-approach to his new album and one of our brainstorming ideas was to tie the songs with literature somehow. Like teaming up with an up-coming author and writing together so that the novel and the songs of the album go hand-in-hand somehow."

Peyton smiled, that was actually a really interesting idea. After Lucas and Mia's success the whole music and literature union had become a lot more popular, and she thought that at best Neil's idea could be brilliant.

"That really sounds like something Lindsey would be great at. I'll tell you what, how 'bout I'll take it to her and if she suggests someone else, I'll give you the details? That way you can use my contacts, but don't have to worry about dealing with Lindsey."

"You'd really do that? Why would you do that?" This woman was made of pure gold. In all honesty she should be the one angry at the Scott idiots and yet she offered her help like that. Neil couldn't help but wonder where such strength and grace could come from.

"Of course I would." Peyton smiled and gently placed her hand on his arm. "You know, the other day you were wondering how I could get such a cool office for free."

Neil had no idea how this had to do with that, but he nodded, because of course he remembered.

"I had failed pretty bad in L.A. and I was down and insecure when I moved back. I told you how we had quite bad fights with Lucas when I came back, but I don't think I ever told you what he said to me when he gave me the office."

It was definitely good that they were sitting, because had they not, Neil might have fallen because of the surprise of hearing that it was Lucas who gave her the office. "You don't really mean that Lucas gave you the office.. He wouldn't and you definitely shouldn't.." He talked quietly enough for such strong words. That was definitely good, because Peyton probably would not have taken it as well had he used even a little bit louder voice.

"Yes. Despite everything, Lucas believed in me. He took me to Tric and showed me the space and he said to me that even if I couldn't change the world from Los Angeles, I could do it from Tree Hill. And let me finish before you say anything," Peyton raised her finger as warning "There's two points to me telling the story to you: first, you have only heard the pain and heartache Lucas caused me. But it's been seven years and although it's been hard to talk about the good stuff, there has been plenty of those, too. So I'm sorry if I've ruined him for you. And second, is the answer to your question as of why. Well I think your idea is a great one to venture and I still believe that art, music and literature have the power to save the world a little bit, so why wouldn't I support great ideas that might just empower those possibilities."

Neil tucked a strand of her hair behind her hair and smiled a thank you to her.

After the lunch Peyton got back to the frustrating demos, but since the quality had not improved she decided to get on with Neil's project and visit Lindsey. Taking into account that Lucas had said Lindsey need the house for herself, when they had talked on Saturday and that Julian had still mentioned picking up Jamie and Lucas from Nathan and Haley's on Monday, she assumed that Lindsey could quite easily be found at their home.

Lucas's car was parked outside so Peyton congratulated herself for calculating right that things would have gone back to normal and it was alright for her to visit the Scott residence for business even if it was unannounced.

Peyton knocked on the front door and heard Lucas yell "It's open, come in!" She opened the door and stepped into the house where she had spent a lot of time in High School, but not that much since then. It looked empty somehow. The living room walls looked somewhat naked, like they were missing something. There were a couple of empty picture frames on top of the drawer and mostly the photos Peyton could spot were of Jamie, Lily or Lydia.

Lucas was writing so vigorously that he did not bother to check out who it was at the door. In Angel, the final part of the trilogy, Audrey, the main character from the earlier books, had to fight her final battles with loneliness. She was a stunning rock star, who was admired and adored and talked about, but she had developed serious trust issues. Touring with one of her favorite artists Audrey refused to become friends with someone she's fan of, although in reality she was also one of their favorite artists. The tour finally breaks down her walls and sets her free from the curse of loneliness.

Thematically the fight of drilling through trust issues of a stunning rock star reminded Lucas of him and Peyton in High School. It felt really therapeutic to write about it. It was especially amazing when his own life was such a mess right now and in his dreams the easy way out was to go back in time and not screw up so bad with Peyton. He tried to reason to himself that Peyton wasn't the answer to his problems, but that he had to get his act together first, before even having a right to think about Peyton. It was just so damn hard not to think about Peyton. Especially in midst of all the "hot Neil jealousy".

"Hey Luke, is Lindsey here?" Peyton interrupted Lucas's writing.

His heart felt to jump out of his body. He had just been thinking of Peyton and there she was. Then it hit him that she was asking for Lindsey. She was asking for Lindsey and it was time she told her what was going on. Lucas bit his lip as he turned closed his laptop for the confession.

"I, um, I didn't tell you the whole truth on Saturday." He was so scared of her reaction it physically hurt to admit what was going on. "Lindsey did need the house to herself, but it was because she was packing her things. She moved out yesterday."

Peyton just stared at him. So he specified, "We are separated, we will get a divorce."

"I'm so sorry, Luke." was all Peyton could say. She just kept looking at him, hoping their often well working non-verbal connection would get through all the rest of what she wanted to say to him.

Maybe it did not go through at least fully, because Lucas seemed to be waiting for something more, in fact, he looked like the waiting was happening on death row. "W-what are you thinking?"

Peyton kept still quiet for a moment. "I'm just surprised I guess. I thought everything was fine, I didn't suspect anything.."

Lucas sighed and nodded. "It hasn't been good for years. Maybe ever. But it felt so embarrassing that we hid it and pretended everything was fine."

"Must have been hard on you. Pretending is never easy." Peyton was the first seem that understanding, especially so soon.

Lucas just nodded and turned his head down.

"Luke, I know we are not the friends we used to be, and I haven't been there for you much. It's just I knew we both were clear that it was all over between us and whatever once happened happened a long time ago, like we agreed in that gym before you got married. But I was afraid Lindsey would still unnecessarily feel threatened and so I stayed out."

Lucas swallowed hard and Peyton continued. "But I hope you know that I'm still your friend and I'm here for you, if you need someone to talk to or anything."

Lucas's smile to her was appreciative but broken. "Peyt, can I ask you something?" he asked carefully.

"Yeah, sure."

"Are you happy?"

The question took her by surprise. She had not expected a question about her well being, especially when he was so broken himself. She thought about her life and couldn't help but smile going through all the amazing things in it. "Yeah, I'm very happy. How come?"

"I just.. I've been writing a lot. And in the final part of the trilogy Audrey somehow reminds me of you in High School. It's all coming to an end and I just want her to have the happy ending she deserves." Peyton blushed at his words. "It's got me to think of you and how you are. Sometimes it feels like you've had to sacrifice a lot in your life. And I find it so amazing and inspiring how you've still kept going. How gracious you have been in the face of everything. How amazing you are with the kids and with all of us."

Peyton smiled almost shyly. Appreciation and admiration from Lucas had always had a special effect on her. It always felt so true and good.

"Yeah, maybe I have sacrificed a lot. But I have also gotten so much. I have both an amazing family and an inspiring job. Maybe, if I hadn't made those sacrifices, I would not have gotten quite this much after all."

Lucas looked at her with such admiration, like she was the most incredible thing in the world that she felt the need to set things more realistic. "But trust me, I'm not that amazing. I have my moments. And all the grace I have I have gotten for being so much loved. Maybe Audrey could learn that the more she opens to love and loving the more she heals and the fuller and more meaningful her life gets and the more grace she has for also facing the tough stuff."

Lucas listened to her intently and when she had said it all, they locked their eyes and there it was, that connection she had hoped to find, when she first heard of his break-up, and he had dreamed of in midst of suffering from not having a connection with Lindsey. It was healing and carried so much meaning that if they had connected the feeling to what Peyton had just talked about, they would have known it was nothing but love.

"By the way, what did you come here for? You said you needed to see Lindsey." Lucas was afraid that if he did not continue the talk somehow, she'd decide to leave. It felt so nice to get to really talk with her that he didn't want her to go yet.

"Oh, Neil has this artist, who would like to write with an author his next record together with an author writing a novel. I promised I'd ask Lindsey if she had any ideas." Peyton then realized that the situation with Lucas and Lindsey would complicate it and added quietly, "I guess the timing kind of sucks.."

The mention of Neil had once again brought Lucas back to the jealousy so much that he did not follow through to Peyton's thoughts of whether to still contact Lindsey or not. He had seen Peyton holding hands over table of LizArt Diner's patio. They had looked... Connected. He once again realized that it was unacceptable of him to get jealous since she hadn't been his in a long time and he had been married for years. He just couldn't help it. And so this time he did not only think about it, but actually slapped himself in the face.

It actually helped a little bit, because it forced him back to present afraid from the terrible images.

"I heard the Hot Neil has now moved here. Must be nice to have him around so much, now." Lucas also forced himself to try and carry on a normal discussion about Neil. He needed to learn to talk with Peyton about things that mattered to her, again. This was an efficient punishment for the jealousy, and well, to all the previous screw-ups, too.

"Yeah, it's been great. It's also great that he lives so near me and works so near Red Bedroom, so that we can drive together most of the days. I've only now realized how awesome it is to not have to drive alone as much as I have been."

"Good, you deserve it." he replied a lot more quietly than he had started the topic of Neil. Lucas came up with a bunch of new hurting images with every sentence she said. Maybe it was bravery to the point of stupid of him starting to talk about Neil like that. He still had a long way to go.

A/N: So first proper Leyton interaction is now experienced. I'd love to hear your thoughts about well everything that's going on.. I'm seriously taking up Mahsa's idea of making a companion piece from the kids perspective of what's going on in the story. I think it would be interesting, but I'm not sure if I'm up for such a challenge.. We'll see.. Anyway, I look forward to your feedback and what happens next!