Hey guys sorry that this update took sooo long. But I have a really good excuse…I am an aunt for the first time (which makes me sound kind of old and I'm not) and this little girl is just super freaking adorable that I kind of lost track of everything for a while. I've never been around kids, like at all, so I learned the hard way that when you're trapped underneath a sleeping baby, you go to sleep as well. I wish I would have known that before, I would have asked one of my sister's to have a kid and I wouldn't be the insomniac that I am today.

Chapter 9

Peyton sat at her desk tapping her fingernails against it; it was fast becoming a habit. She had just hung up with Brooke, or on her if you asked the brunette. The only things she knew with certainty were that firstly, she had a headache to rival the headache of a rock star on a world tour and a week long bender. Secondly, John Knight was currently the root cause.

John Knight was… sometimes words failed her whenever she had to describe the man. He was a single minded thinking man that was more arrogant than most of the musicians that they produced. When she had gone to L.A. after high school to intern at Sire Records, he had been her boss. Working for him might have been the single most trying time of her 18 years up to that point. She wasn't stupid, she knew what she looked like and had become quite adapt to turning down the advances that she always received. But when she got to L.A. it was a whole different game, and her usual tactics didn't work on the handsy producer. After being propositioned for what felt like the hundredth time in the short three months that she had already interned there, she had had enough and called upon one Brooke Davis for help. And help her she did. Brooke had even surprised Peyton when she strode into Sire Records one Wednesday afternoon, walked up to Peyton's desk and laid the biggest, deepest kiss on her in the middle of the whole office. She had even grabbed her ass and promised more when Peyton got home from work later on. Afterwards Peyton cursed herself, thinking that Brooke never just subtly did anything, and the aftermath of that day just made things worse with John making twice the comments as before, but asking if she would call Brooke to join as well.

This, among just generally missing Brooke and home were the main reasons that she had struggled the whole 4 years that she was in L.A. and worked for John. The only reason that she was even dealing with John now was because when she first opened her own recording studio, Red Bedroom, no one would give her the time of day, seeing as she hadn't made any kind of name for herself yet. When she finally did convince Mia to stay and let the blonde produce her, she ran into her next roadblock, which was the distribution aspect of the music industry. Having found out that it really is all about who you know, Peyton sucked up her pride and grabbed the olive branch that John had extended. She wasn't so naïve to think that she could just do all of this on her own, but she defiantly didn't think that when they first started to get Mia out there and John came to her and tried to bully her into partnering with him, that anything other than 'fuck off' would be the last words that she would have to say to him. Sadly they weren't, because he proceeded to black list her, painting her into a corner that only he could get her out of.

So in her office is where she set, tapping and thinking about the contract that she had signed with John that sat in front of her, saying that he would be a partner only in the distribution aspect of her record studio. When they first signed it, he didn't like it, but she didn't care. It wasn't his blood, sweat and tears going into to producing all of her artists. He wasn't losing sleep when there was an emergency with one of the tours and she had to fly to Cleveland in the middle of the night. It wasn't him sweet talking a club owner out of pressing charges for something a drunk drummer did or sitting in the studio for hours while an artist tried to write while missing their muse.

Peyton felt her tears start to fall again and she wiped at her eyes thinking that the time for crying was over. She had been crying for that last two weeks, granted it was for two completely different things, but generally the same reason. She felt like she was losing the only two things that she loved with all her heart, no explanations necessary, Brooke and music where the only things that had never let her down. Sure she and Brooke would argue and have falling outs, but they always came back to each other in the end. She could say the same thing for music; it would let her down sometimes and turn its back on her, but she knew she would never stop believing in it.

But now as she sat at her desk, after just hanging up with Brooke, she felt like her world might be turning on her. In her more moodier years as a teenager, she felt that if you got too happy or maybe too much of what you deserved at once, the universe might start to focus in and turn on you. She had too many examples for her theory to be taken lightly, now she felt as though she had gotten too comfortable with life and how happy she was and she had forgotten about it. Well, she couldn't help but think, the universe definitely has me under the microscope now.

Her trip down memory lane was interrupted when her phone went off. Snatching it off the desk she looked at the caller, wanting to genuinely rip the head off of anyone that had the nerve to call it. Because one thing was for certain, people only bothered you when you were in a bad mood, and for the past two weeks, anyone that called her phone didn't have anything good to say. Maybe her current mood was because her and Brooke were on the outs at the moment, or because she and her lawyer were sifting through a 45 page contract sentence by sentence to see if John Knight could really try and sue Peyton for half of her company, or because the only sleep she had had in the last two weeks was when she accidently dozed off, or because karma was a bitch on her period and just hated blondes.

"Haley if you're about to put Brooke on the phone, I already told her on Nathan's phone I didn't have time to talk" Peyton spoke first as her good mood was currently sitting in the trash can beside her desk.

"Hey Peyton, no she's not. Actually, I was kind of wondering if you could watch Jamie for like an hour?" the school teacher asked and Peyton could hear the grimace on her face.

"Haley, I'm super busy and it's really late" Peyton said as she looked over to the clock on the wall.

"I know, I know and I already tried all the guys, but apparently their all at Prowler's a couple towns over celebrating Luke's new book release" Haley said, she really had tried everyone.

"Haley…" Peyton tried again as her hand ghosted over her right eyebrow.

"Peyton, I swear I wouldn't ask, but one of the kids that I teach got arrested for breaking into the school and she gave the cops my number to call. She's a really good kid, but she's in foster care right now and-" Haley rambled in one breathe, the only thing cutting her off was Peyton on the other end.

"Haley! It's fine, I can watch him" she said, knowing that if she hadn't cut her off, she probably would have deprived herself of more oxygen.

"Oh God, thank you Peyton" the brunette gushed out.

"You'll have to bring him to the studio because I still have work to do here" the blonde said when she heard keys jingling on the other end of the phone.

"That's fine, he'll probably stay asleep anyway" Haley said, then made her way into Jaime's room to retrieve him after hanging up the phone.

When Peyton put down her phone, she ran her fingers over her face again and winced. Pulling a compact out of her purse, she opened it up to spy the bruise that was right above her eyebrow. This had been one of the reasons she had been keeping her distance from everyone, she didn't want to explain its appearance. As she stared at the dark purple mark that looked completely out of place with her light complexion, she couldn't help the irritation that flared in her over how she had gotten it.

The previous week had been beyond shitty with Brooke leaving for New York and John threating lawsuit, so when Monday came and went and Peyton left the studio for home, she had expected to call Brooke and be sent to voicemail, take a shower and go to bed. To her future telling credit the night did progress in that order, only after she went to bed the doorbell rang and one drunk Lucas Scott had come in uninvited.

Peyton ground her teeth together when she thought about Lucas. Ever since she had met him when they all started high school, she would always catch him staring at her, it didn't matter if she was cheering or drawing or just standing around talking to their friends. Brooke always stated her distaste for the way that he looked at the blonde, even before they started dating. The brunette was also very vocal about it to Lucas himself, though Peyton knew that once Brooke stopped drinking the verbal punches directed towards him had substantially cooled down. The whole 'Lucas Situation' as Brooke had deemed it, had crawled to the out of control state that it currently sat at now. It wasn't that Peyton wasn't a vocal person; she just wasn't and never would be as vocal about things as her girlfriend. She was in slight denial that Lucas would grow out of his crush, get a girlfriend of his own and move on with his life. But a feeling in the pit of her stomach had her believing that he kept himself unattached thinking that the two of them might possibly have a chance together.

After what had happened with the other blonde the week before, the feeling had been confirmed with his drunken declaration of complete love and adoration. Even with his droopy eyes and slurred speech, Peyton knew that Lucas was telling the truth. Unfortunately he had come on one of the worst weeks that she had ever had and she generally had no sympathy or patience for him, she had bigger problems. Like any drunk person, Lucas didn't take Peyton's news that they wouldn't be anything other than friends too well. After he grabbed her arm when she moved away from his touch, she told him to get the hell out. When he grabbed her again and turned her around to plant one on her, she had reached her limit with Lucas Scott and kneed him in his walnuts making him drop to his knees immediately. As Peyton spun to put space between them, Lucas grabbed her ankle, making her fall forward. Even though she threw her arm out to catch her fall, all she managed to do was break the vase on the side table and hit her head on the banister for the stairs. She felt extremely dizzy and by the flourish of apologies she half heard, she assumed that the situation had quickly sobered Lucas. After repeated pleas for Lucas to leave, he finally did.

Maybe if that was all that had happened in the past couple of days she could have mentally bounced back, but after today she felt like she just might break. She felt the moisture on her face thinking about how she might be handling all of this better if Brooke was here. Her better half had always been the only reality check that she had ever needed. All things considered, she's lucky that she still had her sanity, especially after her youth. She had to give credit where credit was due, and she truly believed that Brooke was the sole reason that she had made it through everything that she had been through.

The rattling of the studio door handle brought Peyton back to the here and now. When Haley walked through the door with Jamie in her arms, Peyton instantly knew that time had gotten away from her and stood to make her way over to Haley.

"Thank you so much Peyton, I swear this won't take long" Haley said as the blonde took Jamie from her.

"Hales, I said it was fine" Peyton said, walking over to the couch to lay Jamie's still sleeping form on it carefully so as not to wake him.

"Hey, are you okay?" Haley asked when her friend turned around. "What happened?" she reached out her hand to Peyton's face when she saw the bruise, but dropped it when the other girl took a step back.

"Nothing" Peyton averted her eyes, brushing off the concern. She always felt that people could read her emotions when they looked in her eyes. She knew that Brooke could, the brunette had told her hundreds of times, but she didn't know if it was because it was Brooke or if the statement pertained to others as well.

"Did that Ian guy do that?" when Haley saw Peyton's head jerk up at her question, she continued, "Lucas told me what happened" her eyes followed her friend's retreating form as she turned around.

"Of course he did" the blonde mumbled, "Lucas should mind his own business" she all but bit out causing the other girl to raise her eyebrows at the tone.

"Peyton, Lucas said that guy was bothering you, if he did that to your face-" Haley was trying to get the girl to lean on her, but she knew it was to no avail.

"Haley please!" Peyton almost yelled, "Please just do whatever it is that you needed to do" she brushed off her friend's concern again, not wanting to have to relive the last two weeks.

"I'm not dropping it Peyton" Haley said as she picked her purse back up and headed out the door.

Peyton slumped down in her chair after having stared at the closed door for a couple of minutes. She knew that Haley was being nothing but truthful. Since she's known the mom, before she was a mom, Peyton had always found her failure to leave things alone decidedly annoying. It had been Brooke and Nathan that had taken to Haley when the teens first met each other in high school, with the blonde hanging back. She wasn't really one to trust people outright without them proving themselves. The fact that Nathan and Lucas didn't quite get along didn't really help matters any either. Peyton still sat back and kept her emotional barriers up even when Naley happened and then the two brothers became close. She always got the feeling, even when they were younger, that Haley was trying to mother everyone around her. She knew it was just the brunette's personality, but it had still caused a rift between the two girls, which in turn caused all the friends to pick sides for the stint of their argument. Most of their friends completely removed themselves from the situation, effectively leaving Brooke, Nathan and Lucas to field the two angry girl's temperaments. It wasn't that Peyton didn't like Haley, she just felt like the other thought that she needed to be mothered, even though Peyton thought she was doing a fairly good job herself and already had a mother that she still held in high regard even though she was deceased. Brooke had been right when she told Peyton that her problem with Haley was that the blonde might have felt like Haley was trying to somewhat step into her mom's shoes if that even made sense.

As Peyton leaned forward and laid her head on her desk she thought about what Haley had said to her. It wasn't just about Ian Banks and her hand twitched with the audacity that Lucas would try to blame her face on the idiot photographer. Yes, Ian Banks had officially crossed lines that he shouldn't have and that was a problem, but for Lucas to not take the blame for his actions the other night made Peyton want to slap him. He had crossed lines too. Even though she was mad, she was still shaken up by everything that had happened apart from this Lucas debacle.

Peyton's head snapped up when she heard the handle to the studio door jiggle. She looked over at the clock across the room on a side table, then looking quickly over to the couch that Jaime was on to make sure that he hadn't woken up. When the person on the other side of the door started to wiggle the handle rougher, Peyton got up from her seat and moved toward the door. She stopped right before she got to it when there was a bang on it.

"Peyton?" the male voice on the other side of the door asked loudly.

"Who is it?" Peyton unconsciously asked and then slapped her forehead for saying anything.

"It's me Ian, I wanted to apologize for the other day" the photographer said as he roughly wiggled the handle on the door again.

"Apology accepted" Peyton rushed out, trying to get rid of the man.

"That didn't sound all that sincere" Peyton heard him say with another bang on the door.

"Ian, please" Peyton said moving over to the couch when she spotted Jamie waking up, "No harm, no foul" she said, praying the man would listen to her this time and leave her alone.

"I'd just really like to apologize face to face" Ian said before ramming his shoulder into the door.

"Aunt Peyton, what's wrong?" Jamie said groggily.

"Hey Jim Jam, I need you to be quite for me okay?" Peyton whispered to the little boy as she helped him sit up.

"Peyton don't ignore me, dammit" Ian yelled through the door again and followed it up with a bang that rattled the whole frame of the door.

"Aunt Peyton-" Jamie whispered like his aunt had moments ago, but was cut off.

"Little man, I need you to do me a favor okay?" Peyton continued to whisper as she picked Jamie up and carried him over to her desk.

"Okay" Jamie whispered and watched as Peyton started to click through her cell phone that she had just picked up.

"Shit" the blonde said when Haley's phone rang out to voicemail.

Peyton's attention was drawn back to the door when three sharp bangs almost knocked it off its hinges. Figuring it was only a matter of time before the door gave way, she went to the back door of the office that led to the opposite side of the club below.

"Oh my God, this can't be happening right now" the blonde said when she saw smoke coming from under the door.

Peyton started to dial 911 when she saw the smoke, but when she heard the wood of the front door crack, she spun around towards it, dropping her phone to the floor in the process.

"Dammit" Peyton said and shifted Jamie in her arms and bent down to pick up her phone that now lay in several pieces on the floor.

"Aunt Peyton, I'm scared" Jamie whispered in a shaky voice as he clung to her neck.

"I know buddy, but I need you to be my strong little man right now okay?" Peyton asked, phone pieces in hand as she moved over to the only window that had a fire escape.

"Okay" Jamie said as Peyton let the little boy down to stand himself.

"Okay little man" Peyton talked to Jamie as she tried to shove the old window open as much as she could.

Knowing it wouldn't open any further than the foot that it currently was Peyton turned back to the little boy and continued to talk.

"Listen to me Jamie, remember when we were at the park and you raced your daddy and beat him?" the blonde asked the little boy, trying to keep the panic out of her voice as the room started to fill with smoke.

"Yeah" Jamie said after he coughed.

"Okay, I need you to climb out of here, cause you're smaller than me okay?" when Jamie nodded his head Peyton continued.

"You're going to climb down the ladder just like the monkey bars, except you're going to keep your feet on the bottoms okay buddy?" When Jamie nodded again, Peyton handed him her phone that she had just finished putting back together.

"When you get down to the bottom, I want you to call 911 okay?" When the blonde got another nod she continued, "Tell them that the studio is on fire and the doors are blocked okay?" Peyton told the little boy, trying not to frighten him but make it as simple as possible. "You remember the address?" she asked.

"950 Montgomery Street" Jamie recited by heart.

"Good job buddy" Peyton said and then jumped when there was another loud crack at the front door, "After you call 911, I want you get to the gas station around the corner and keep calling your mom until she answers, her number is right here okay?" Peyton asked again and waited for a response to make sure he understood.

"Got it" Jamie said as Peyton lifted him up and helped him climb out the window.

"Okay buddy make sure you're really careful and don't stop until you get to the gas station okay?" the blonde coughed hasher as the smoke started to completely fill the room, but still managed to hit the power button on the phone and put it in Jamie's jacket pocket.

"Okay Aunt Peyton" Jamie said as he started down the ladder.

"Be careful buddy" Peyton said and then spun around as she heard the front door finally give way.

She whipped her head around looking for something to protect herself with, but her eyes and lungs burned from all the smoke. Moving along the wall, she tried to keep low to the floor to breathe better, but ended up dropping to her hands and knees when she felt her lungs tense up. As she crawled along the floor to where she thought the front door would be, her hand landed on a shoe and she screamed, only to be silenced by a forceful punch to the face that sent her reeling backwards. Hitting her head on the hardwood flooring Peyton threw up, which made her throat feel like glass was coming up it because of all the smoke she had already breathed in. She couldn't tell you if she was hallucinating the figure that stood above her with a t-shirt wrapped around their mouth, but after they reached down and struck her in the face again she didn't really care. Her body felt like a bag of wet sand and her head pounded so loud that it hurt her eardrums. She could barely register that she was being dragged across her office floor before she finally gave into the sleep that she had been missing for the last couple of weeks.