A/N: Apologizing for long times between updates is getting old. I am sorry, though. And I am still hoping to not take so long in the future. I'm not sure I'm able to make any promises yet, though. Thank you for the follows and reviews and messages encouraging me to get back to writing this! They have helped me get here more than you know. Without further ado.. Here's chapter 19!
Later in the evening Brooke and the kids had gone home and Haley was making dinner so Lydia set out to find her big brother for some consultation.
"Jamie… What do you call a person who finds out about things others don't know about?" Lydia inquired as she jumped onto her big brother's bed.
"Like what kind of things? A lot of people could do that. Like detectives, journalists, scientists and other researchers, investigators…" Jamie listed.
"Like cool things… About other people. Like what's going on with them…" Lydia expanded.
Jamie pondered for a moment just to try to catch his little sister's train of thought. "Could still be many things.. I guess doctors and psychologists do that and detectives, journalists and researchers…" he laughed. "That's still the whole list!"
Lydia wasn't finding it as funny, though. It was utterly frustrating how generally quite smart people like her big brother had so much trouble understanding the concept of true coolness. "Jamie… Come on! Interesting things about cool people… Like what is going on with cool people. Like uncle Lucas and papers and ready."
"What are you talking about? What's going on with uncle Lucas?" That was not what Jamie had expected.
"I don't know. But he was on the phone with Lindsey for a long time and they looked serious. And in the end he said something about being ready and looking at papers and being there as soon as possible. It sounded very important." Lydia explained.
"Oh." Jamie needed to process this. He had noticed that aunt Lindsey seemed to be out of the picture even more than she usually was and uncle Lucas had stayed with them a while back… Could what Lydia told mean that they were getting a divorce? Some of his friends' parents had been through that.
"So, what do you call someone who does something like that?" Lydia asked again.
"I think you can still call them many different things. Depending on what they do with the information and how they find it. For example journalists find out about things and then tell others about it." Lydia opened her mouth to reply but Jamie lifted his finger and continued. "But I think the act of finding out about something like that if the person doesn't want to tell those things.. That's called snooping. Maybe we should wait for uncle Lucas to tell us what is going on."
Lydia considered her brother's suggestion for a moment. "But how can I reach my full potential in helping uncle Lucas if I don't know what's going on?"
"Maybe you help the best by not helping." Jamie countered.
"That's stupid! I'm special I should know things and do something." Lydia exclaimed.
"You're not that special.." Jamie smiled, amused by Lydia being so Lydia.
"Am too! Ask uncle Lucas or aunt Pey or anyone cool if you don't believe me…" the five-year-old stomped her foot to show some authority over her big brother. "They say so all the time."
The two couldn't continue the argument because that's when Haley called them to wash up for dinner but Lydia vowed to herself to find a way to prove Jamie wrong and uncover the uncle Lucas mystery. She washed her hands splashing more than usually and then marched to the dinner table with sheer determination.
Jamie on the other hand quietly mulled over the information Lydia had given him. He could still vaguely remember a time when his dad hadn't been living at home with him and mama. He remembered all of them being miserable then. Could Lucas and Lindsey really be getting a divorce? How was Lucas, really? As much as it wasn't a 5-year-old's business, maybe they did need to be there for uncle Lucas especially now.
After Lindsey's phone call it had taken Lucas a day to get everything in order in Tree Hill and travel to New York for a meeting with her and their attorneys. But here he was now at Lindsey's lawyer's spacious Manhattan offices.
"Mr. Scott, Mr. Hayes, I take it you had a chance to review all the information and you are up-to-date about the situation? Thank you for the paperwork you sent this morning. I have reviewed it and it provides further support for the idea I discussed with Lindsey and what she then suggested to you, Mr. Scott." Lindsey's attorney was thorough and formal as he lead the discussion.
"We did. And we are certainly open to the idea. However, I feel that to be fully up-to-date about the situation I must ask the both of you, why the rush? There is a reason why the half a year of separation is often compulsory. I don't recommend rushing the process in a heat of the moment, without solid, well thought-out reasons." Mr. Hayes, Lucas' attorney directed his response more towards the divorcing couple than the other lawyer.
Lucas took a moment to study the woman sitting across from him. The one he had promised a 'til death do us part. They had found out that because Lindsey's Manhattan apartment had stayed under her name and she had kept her residency in New York for her work, their separation could be counted from early days of their marriage rather than the day she cleared out all her things from his home.
Looking at Lindsey now, she looked like a stranger even though he had spent years calling her his wife. She spoke up first.
"Ever since we found out about the legal option, it's been the only one to make sense for me. Our marriage is over. Practically it has been for a long time. We have nothing keeping us together so why pretend another half a year that there's anything to ponder. We've already been doing THAT for a year."
Lucas nodded. "I agree with Lindsey. This was anything but rush decision and I think the conclusion was that we both have a lot of healing to do but that at this point we need to part ways to really do that. I think I speak for the both of us when I say we're ready to close this chapter and get to that healing."
Lindsey smiled at him and he smiled back. They were on the same page. There was a connection – an emotional understanding – that felt beautiful in the midst of the brokenness of their life and marriage. After all this time they shared a hope, even though the hope was found in letting go of what they had held on to for so long.
"Well then, it seems everything is in order for a smooth uncontested divorce. You have no children and to me it looks like your assets are already naturally quite well divided." Mr Hayes continued the meeting. "Do either of you have anything you want to contest regarding the settlement?"
Lindsey and Lucas both shook their heads. They had lead such separate lives for so long that arrangements to go their separate ways were not nearly as complicated as they had expected.
"Good. We will move forward then. Mr Scott, you can expect to be served soon." Lindsey's attorney concluded.
The meeting didn't take long after that and soon Lucas was standing on the busy 5th avenue. He stood there for a moment, just watching the world go by. Things were moving forward, he and Lindsey were on the same page and he was now in New York with no work meetings to attend… What should he do now?
All of a sudden life felt very empty. Free but empty. So he stood there thinking about what it all meant. Now was the time to start healing and practicing living up to the standards of integrity, passion and love he had set up for himself.
He and Lindsey had let themselves become such hollow versions of themselves there really was a lot of healing and standing on one's own two feet to be done. There were no excuses anymore…
But he was also taken back by a sense of shame for thinking of his marriage as an excuse to not be who he should have been. Anything could be made out to be an excuse – what is to say he'll ever be worthy? Could he ever hold marriage as sacred as he wanted to if he couldn't even fight for his but had to let it go in order to try to find himself..?
With such thoughts he just stood there until he heard someone asking "Are you Lucas Scott?".
A/N: We'll get to Nathan and Peyton's NYC trip in the next chapter and find out who it was that noticed Lucas on the street. I promise to start writing the next chapter right away and do my very best to updated it soon. It shouldn't be as difficult to write as this one was.. Anyway, if after all this time you're still interested in this story - thank you! Feel free to send me a review. I'd love to hear from you!