A/N: My sincerest apologies for the delay. Your amazing support makes me want to give you an update every week even. However it's been tough to find the time to write and equally tough to find the words to write. In the lack of words, I've managed to neglect also replying to your reviews. That's all my fault and none of yours. They've kept me going even if it hasn't looked like it. I got such awesome inspiring messages that I'm extremely humbled and thankful for them.

THANK YOU! I've missed you all..

I hope you'll enjoy this chapter 15! It's dedicated to three people especially: WATCHMEWATCHYOUWATCHME (seriously scary nick, btw..) for signing up on Fanfiction to tell me you love this story. You did motivate me, sorry it STILL took so long. Lexie-Rae for posting a new chapter of Trinity. I FINALLY got through this chapter by not allowing myself to read it before I got this published. And also for the encouragement to keep trying. These last two happened pretty much at the same time and I'm extremely thankful for the push to get here.

Disclaimer: You know I don't own anything.. (Even the baby Lydia in Season 9 looks so cute she might very well be a toddler version of THIS Lydia)

Later in the evening

"..Guess what Uncle Lucas taught me on the phone, while you were watching that band?" Lydia's eyes shone in excitement. She had been talking without a break the whole drive from Tree Hill to Wilmington. Half of the babbling had been about her excitement for the weekend and the other about Uncle Lucas.

Lucas had been sweet enough to entertain his niece on the phone for over an hour. "He taught me to spell! Mama said that she loved spelling, when she went to school. I was wondering to Uncle Lucas, if I could be good at, too. Uncle Lucas said that I could and then he taught me! And guess what Aunt Pey? Uncle Lucas was right! I am good!"

Peyton smiled at her goddaughter and parked the car on her driveway. She still wasn't feeling well, but she was happy she had been able to drive them home safely.

"Lydia spells L - that's Lydia's letter.." the girl drew an L to air. She was so excited she didn't seem to have recognized the car had stopped and her aunt was rising from the car. By the time Peyton reached her door and got to unbuckling her, Lydia had finished explaining how to spell and write her own name and had moved on to Uncle Luke. ".. U - that's the letter that looks like a cup or a hole or a really steep pool. K - which looks like way too far opened scissors and E - which is like a not-so-good comb. That's L-U-K-E Luke"

Lydia hopped out of the car and then turned to Peyton. "Now we were just about to start your name, when you said we had to go." It was hard to tell whether she was blaming Peyton for the distraction or apologizing for not knowing how to write her name yet. Knowing Lydia it was probably a little bit of both.

They made their way inside and the second Lydia stepped through Peyton's front door, it seemed that Uncle Lucas was completely forgotten. "We have to watch a movie, Aunt Pey!"

"What makes you think that?" Peyton asked and then kicked herself for asking. After all, with the way she was feeling cuddling up on a couch and watching a movie would be the best possible activity to make it through the night.

Lydia was already by Peyton's DVD collections, but turned around and gave her the look that it was simply inexcusably stupid question. "We're having a girl's night. That's what you're supposed to do. Do you have any junk food?"

Peyton sat down to rest on the couch and chuckled. "Where did you learn that from?"

"Aunt Brooke." Of course.

Lydia knew which movies were suitable for her. There was a special 'Lydia-shelf', where Peyton had collected things especially for her. She chose Enchanted and Peyton got them glasses of milk and a few cookies.

"I'm a little tired already aunt Pey, where will I sleep tonight?" Lydia turned to her aunt, when the end credits started rolling.

Peyton mumbled something and moved in her spot like trying to find a better position. Lydia could see her aunt was asleep, but what really startled the little girl was that the grimace on Peyton's face made it clear she was in pain.

"Aunt Pey!" Lydia said with a slightly higher voice trying to calm herself down. She touched her aunt's face softly - the way her godmother whimpered in her sleep made the little girl not dare to touch any stronger. Peyton did not wake up, but the five-year-old could feel her burning up.

Lydia ran her little fingers through her hair trying to figure out what to do. What would Jamie do now? Panic began to arise in her and as first tears formed in her blue eyes she finally got it.

Telling herself to be a big girl and calm down she ran to Peyton's purse and found her cell phone there. Address book, Lu-.. in her mind she was ahead of herself and a few tears fell down her cheeks as she thought of how Uncle Lucas had taught her to spell Luke, but his real name was Lucas. What if she wouldn't find him on the phone? Why couldn't she have come up with the idea to start practicing letters better already earlier?

Another set of tears released as she found Uncle Luke's number on the phone simply as Luke and no other Lu- starting names to confuse her. She could hear Peyton whimpering on the couch.. She quickly called the number and held her breath waiting for her uncle to pick it up.

"Hey blondie" Lucas answered with a bright, smiling voice.

"Uncle Luke.." Lydia was overcome by so many emotions that her voice, too, sounded like a whimper. Then the panic kicked in again. She rambled on very confusingly about Aunt Pey and couch and movie and princess and sick and pain and sleeping and doctor a bunch of other things Lucas couldn't register. He only knew his little niece was in panic and something seemed to be wrong with Peyton.

Lydia was still crying and trying to explain what was going on when he was out of the door in a record time. Not even bothering to turn off lights he just ran straight to his mustang and started driving towards Wilmington.

"Okay, honey. Calm down. I'm on my way there to help you. Everything's going to be alright." Lucas calmed his niece down and silently prayed he wasn't promising her too much. "I'll be here on the phone all the time until I'm there with you. Now can you do something for me?"

Lydia nodded. And Lucas answered the silence with his instructions.

"I'll be here on the phone, but could you please go look at your aunt Peyton." Lydia walked back to the couch, but still did not verbally answer him. "Now is aunt Peyton breathing alright?"

Lucas could hear that the girl was bending over her aunt now. Peyton's breathing was heavy and she was whimpering. As much as he was relieved she was clearly alive, Lucas hated the sound of her agony. No wonder the little girl was in panic.

"Lydia, listen to me: sounds like your aunt Peyton is in a lot of pain right now, but is still going to be alright. You can try to wake her up so that you don't have to be alone. I'll be there in 10 minutes to take care of you both." Lucas instructed as calmly as he could.

By her uncle's encouragement Lydia had managed to wake Peyton up. She had been shocked how she had caused such distress to her little princess, she just didn't have enough strength to blame herself for the neglect yet. However, together they managed to get to Peyton's kitchen and get Peyton an ibuprofen to lower the obviously high fever causing the weakness and ease the pain.

Then they crawled back to the couch. Lydia found her aunt an extra fleece blanket and joined her on the couch.

"It's okay aunt Pey, uncle Lucas says you're gonna be alright." she whispered to her aunt earning a weak smile from the sick woman. The 5-year-old had calmed down and gained bravery from having her aunt awake again. "My mama always sings to me when I'm not well. It makes me feel better."

And so she pressed against her aunt's burning hot side, caressed her hand and began to sing one of her mom's biggest hits with her soft child's voice:

"...Come to me

..First one waiting

..Last to leave

Promise ... come to me

...Anything

... Everything you need"

Her singing was so soft, it was hardly audible at times and it was missing half of the lyrics, but to Peyton it sounded like a choir of angels had come straight from heaven to make her feel better in the high fever. She smiled and whispered. "I'm so sorry princess. I love you."

"I love you, too, aunt Pey." the little girl smiled as well and snuggled even closer to her godmother.

5 am. Peyton opened her eyes to realize she was in her own bed and not in the living room she had her last recollections from. Lydia! Where was she now? Had she managed to neglect and traumatize her dearest goddaughter twice in less than 24 hours? She still felt weak and worn off and her throat was aching, but it was much better than last night. She felt so relieved when she turned to her side and noticed the princess lying there next to her - peacefully sleeping.

Peyton slipped quietly out of her bed and made her way to the kitchen to put the kettle on. She had possibly few hours to get herself cured and avoid making Lydia go through last night all over again.

"Hey, you're up. How are you feeling?" she jumped hearing a sleepy male voice from behind her.

"Luke.. God, you scared me. What are you doing here?" Peyton panted.

"Lydia called me last night. She was so worried about you that I thought it best to drive here to help out. I'm sorry I just rudely let myself in. I knew chances were that you'd be really sick and Lydia wasn't allowed to open the door, so I found your spare key from a similar plant you used to hide it at in High School." Lucas noticed he had begun to ramble and looked at his feet slightly embarrassed.

"It's okay." Peyton smiled at him. Then the guilt and worry hit her again. "God, you must think I'm a terrible godmother.. So irresponsible.. Putting Lydia through that last night.."

She was about to go on but Lucas raised his hand signaling her to stop. The kettle whistled telling that the water was ready. She took it poured some into a mug Lydia had given her the Christmas she was 3 years old. It was one of those mugs you got to draw on with special porcelain colors. The 3-year-old's drawing was hard to figure out. But Haley had typed an explanation to the bottom. It said 'Me and aunt Pey. When I grow up I wanna be just like aunt Pey.'

"Peyton, I don't think you're a terrible godmother. And the mug in your hands is a great proof that neither does Lydia. Considering I spoke to you just few hours earlier, I know your fever rose to really high so suddenly that it must have just taken your body by surprise. You couldn't have known. I'm just glad that you're alright. Lydia will be fine, too."

"Luke.." Peyton challenged. She did not believe him. He was taking it way too lightly.

"Look, I hope to God I'll never get a phone call like that again. Lydia was in such a shock I could hardly understand what was going on. And I was scared" He pressed the word 'I'. "I was already out of Tree Hill by the time I got confirmation that you weren't in fact dead. God, that was one of the worst half-hours of my life. And maybe you could have prevented some of the horror, but you didn't know it would turn out that way. It could have happened to anyone."

Peyton breathed in the steam rising from her mug and just let his words sink in.

"Don't wallow in self-blame. There's a 5-year-old little girl sleeping peacefully in your bed. She's fine and she will be fine. You just take care of yourself so that she'll get to have fun with her favorite aunt soon again." Lucas stepped a little closer to test her forehead and retreated back to his original place. "You're still in fever. Get back to bed, Peyt. You'll still have few hours before she wakes up." he instructed and walked back to her living room.

Lydia woke up at 8 am alone in her godmother's bed. She opened her blue eyes and looked around the room as if to figure out where she was. She heard sounds from the kitchen, like someone was making breakfast. A smile lit up on her face and she jumped up and ran straight into the kitchen.

"Oh." she stopped at the door, disappointed to see her Uncle Lucas there instead of her aunt Peyton.

"Well, good morning to you, too, princess. Is that any way to greet an uncle who made you waffles." Lucas chuckled.

"I'm sorry Uncle Lucas. I just wished aunt Peyton would have been here."

"I know sweetie. Come here." Lucas sat down on Peyton's kitchen chair and took Lydia to his lap. "Aunt Peyton is doing her best to get well and back to playing with you soon, so she's asleep now."

Lydia nodded sadly and pressed her head against her uncle's chest.

"I'm really glad you're here Uncle Lucas" she whispered.

They just sat there for a moment until a smile started forming on Lucas's face. As the smile grew into a grin, his fingers started tickling the melancholic little girl. Soon they were both laughing.

"I'll tell you what. Let's put our waffles in bowls this time and make aunt Peyton a plate of fruit. She needs vitamins to get better. Then we can go wake up aunt Pey for a little bit and eat our breakfast in her guest room. I bet she'll let you eat in the bed with her."

"YES!" Lydia shouted so loud it was bound to wake up Peyton. She jumped to her feet as if to get started, but then stopped and turned around to wait for orders how to make that great plan happen.

A few minutes later when they were finishing up the breakfast preparations, Peyton shambled into the kitchen. She rubbed her eyes and smiled at the view in front of her.

Lydia had an open syrup jug in her hands and she was waiting for Lucas to finish cutting a hot waffle and put the smaller pieces into two bowls in front of them. There was something wonderfully honest and true in the the way the 5-year-old poured syrup on the waffles. She didn't care about calories or modesty but kept pouring until the waffle pieces were basically swimming in the syrup and Lucas told her it was enough. Lydia chuckled lightly. She was clearly very pleased with her bowl of waffles in syrup.

Lydia turned around and saw her godmother standing by the kitchen door smiling at her. "No! Go back to bed! You are not supposed to be up yet!"

Peyton was about to protest, but the little girl was already pushing her out the door so she opted to just follow the instructions. She was feeling better than the night before, but still quite weak. Her own soft bed with a few extra pillows felt like a really appealing idea.

The bed felt better than she had even dreamed. Maybe it was the slightly oversensitive state she was in, but she only now realized that there can be a big difference in comfortability between her guest room's cotton linens and her own bed's satin ones. She had switched over to the guest room at night to protect Lydia from her illness. But now that the little girl was awake, she could switch back over to the bedroom.

It had been too long since Peyton had last celebrated Mother's day. But the way Lydia and Lucas marched proudly to her bedroom with a tray full of breakfast was just as good as she had imagined Mother's day mornings to be. Lucas helped Lydia onto the bed and handed Peyton a bowl of fruits and Lydia her syrup-waffle bowl. He placed a big mug of steaming hot tea to the night stand next to Peyton and Lydia's grape juice to the other side and finally sat down on a chair by the bed to eat his own waffles.

They ate in silence for a while. Lucas didn't know what to say - Lydia was so enchanted by the amount of syrup she got to have and too worried it'd be taken from her if she spoke up about it too early. And Peyton - she wanted to savour the moment, pretend for a while that this was her life rather than the one that was really hers and still awaited for her when Lucas and Lydia would leave for Tree Hill after the breakfast.

"I'm so sorry baby that I had to get sick and ruin our weekend." Peyton apologized to her goddaughter. "Maybe it'd be best if you spent the rest of the weekend in Tree Hill with your uncle Lucas. You could actually have fun."

"No way!" Lydia protested so passionately she was almost yelling at her aunt.

"You know I'd want nothing more than to do all kinds of fun things with you this weekend. But I'm still not feeling well. I will have to take it quite easy this weekend to get better. It will be boring for you here."

Lydia added intensity to her pout. If the girl wasn't so cute, she'd have looked a little scary with her angry, frustrated face.

"No, I don't want to go to Tree Hill. I wanna be with you!" She exclaimed quite frantically. Then she continued with a much calmer but extremely persuasive voice. "If I go, it will be your fault if I never reach my potential."

"Reached your potential? Where'd you even pick up that one? And how come I'll do that to you?" Peyton asked not knowing whether it was appropriate to laugh, but the girl was just so darn cute.

"Everyone says that. I've heard daddy and Jamie talk about it and Uncle Lucas said it when I was watching Ravens practice. And you and mama when you were talking about the demos." both adults smiled at her. "I didn't know what y'all meant, but I asked Jamie and he said it's getting to be the best you can. SO if I don't get to stay with you I won't ever be the best."

"Okay. But why would that be?" Peyton noticed Lucas had backed out of the argument so the discussion had to be handled between the girls.

"'Cause I may want to become a doctor or a nurse or someone else who helps take care of sick people and mama always said that it takes a lot of practice to become the best." Darn that girl was too smart and persuasive for her own good.

Peyton looked to Lucas for help, but he just raised his hands slightly and smiled.

"Oh, honey you'll have plenty of time to practice. I just don't want you to get sick with what I've got or ruin your weekend by letting you get bored here."

"Good. It's settled then" Lydia smiled and hit her hands together as if to seal the deal.

Lucas swore she had copied her energetic and decisive being straight from some moment where Peyton had been negotiating with a band and she had been following it all closely. It was hard to say no to Peyton when she was in her full professional mode. A quick glance at the blonde woman and Lucas knew she had just been out-negotiated by a 5-year-old. Peyton was speechless she only raised her eyebrows questioningly, but there was no way she'd have the energy to win the argument.

"See, I don't wanna get bored, too. So I should be here. I love you and I love uncle Luke. We can just have a fun weekend in your bed so you can take it easy."

Peyton didn't know what to say. She did know that her goddaughter was a people person.. It didn't matter to her so much where she was or what she was doing. She cared most of all about the company she was in.

She just really didn't want to keep Lucas from his life, but judging by last night she didn't want to stay alone with Lydia while she was still feeling so weak. In Tree Hill Lucas could at least be in his own home, get some other friends to babysit better..

She could call Nathan and Haley and have them come back home. But they really deserved weekend away. Haley was pregnant again and who knows how long it might take until they had another chance for something like this weekend.

"Lydia, dear, Could you practice your healing powers and bring aunt Peyton an orange from the kitchen? C-vitamin is very important in recovery." Lucas asked to get Lydia off the case for a moment.

The girl was out of the room in a few seconds.

"I'll take her to Tree Hill if it'll make it easier for you to recover. But if you don't mind or would rather not be alone, let us stay here and take care of you." He didn't waste any time after the girl was out of the door.

"I don't need taking care of. This is about you and your health and comfortability." Peyton avoided a direct answer.

"I know you can survive on your own. But you should allow yourself the luxury of being taken care of. Now's a good chance for that." Lucas answered her softly.

They just looked at each other for a moment. Both evaluating and considering each other's motives and the whole situation.

"You're not really coughing or sneezing. Chances are we've either already gotten your cold or we won't get it at all. And as for the comfortability. I can speak for myself and her both, when I say that we'll be more comfortable with you so we know how you are and can spend the weekend in your company than we'd be in Tree Hill trying desperately come up with something to do and wondering how you are."

Peyton sighed. Looking deep into his eyes she could see he was sincere. All of a sudden she felt extra-hazy. She told herself she was simply too sick to interpret it as anything other than her bad-luck cold. It still felt so nice he cared. The way he looked at her made her heart beat faster and her whole being feel weaker, but it also felt so good - so healing - that she couldn't mind the poor physical state as much.

"I picked the biggest orange you had aunt Pey. So you can get a LOT of Sea-Vitalins and heal Really fast." Lydia came back running and proudly introduced the fruit to her aunt.

"Thanks baby." Peyton smiled tiredly. It felt nice how the little girl cared about her as well. Maybe it was alright to not be so alone for a few days. "Go pick a movie. If your uncle Lucas is alright with staying, you are both invited to a lazy weekend in Wilmington."

Lydia looked at her uncle pleadingly. He smiled at her. For him it was a no-brainer. Going back to an empty house and think about the horror he had experience the night before. He could visit all his regrets and favorite might-have-beens. Or he could spend a weekend in Wilmington basking in the bliss that Peyton was still very much alive and he could DO Something to make her feel better.

He had loved her more than half of his life and most of the time unfortunately sucked at it. Rare were the occasions he been even close to reaching his potential in loving her. But no more. She was still alive and though he hadn't felt that way in a while, so was he. From this day on he'd practice loving her the way she deserved to be loved. This weekend would be the weekend he got his life back. It would be the first weekend of the rest of his life.

From this day on he would not wallow in self-pity thinking of all the wrong turns he had taken. He would learn to be the kind of man Keith had taught him to be. Strong enough to stand through hardships without running away. Strong enought to love a woman who might even be falling in love with someone else. He'd be there for her like Keith had been there for Karen. No more running - he would learn to love her the best he could and stop thinking what it meant for himself.

Looking at her resting her eyes with an adoring 5-year-old cuddled up to her side he finally realized that maybe loving her didn't just mean pain and frustration. Maybe loving her would mean finding his integrity. Maybe loving her would be much better than what he had been so scared of.

She looked so beautiful lying there - even if her hair was one tangled mess and her skin was so pale she would not have needed make up or costume to dress up as a ghost for halloween. Maybe - all these years he had thought loving her so hard only because he was a coward.

Maybe loving her was not only good and right. Maybe it was natural. Maybe it was the way he was born to be.

A/N: The song Lydia was singing pieces of is BJG's old song Then Slowly Grows (Come to Me). It's pulled me through some pretty lonely/sad times, so I highly recommend searching for it on youtube, if you don't know it yet.

I hope you liked this chapter! I'd love to hear whether you want another chapter of the Lazy Weekend or if you wanna move on to the next week with other characters back in the picture, too. And anyway, any thoughts and ideas are always appreciated.

I just want you to know that no matter how long it takes for me to write sometimes, I'm still NOT giving up on this story or Would You Be My Brother. (I've also felt extremely inspired for a 3rd story, but to not have 3 stories hanging I'm using that inspiration to just write it for now and I think I'll only start publishing it if I can update it somewhat regularly. Feel free to argue against this plan if you think it'd be better differently..)