This is a really short chapter, a little shorter than I thought. But I decided that the Leyton discussion deserved to stand on its own. I tried to be fair and reasonable to Luke, even though he's not my favorite, and I hope I succeeded.
"Lucas?" She blinked when she turned on the light to her bedroom and found him sitting on her bed. Then it dawned on her, she was supposed to meet him at Nathan and Haley's.
"How's Jake?" He couldn't keep the hint of bitterness out of his voice. He'd been waiting for her to show up for hours.
She gave him a look over her shoulder as she went to her dresser for a tank top and shorts. "Not good." She finally answered. She went into her bathroom to change into her pajamas.
"And you were the only person he could talk to?" He had moved from her bed and was standing in the middle of her room when she returned from the bathroom.
She settled her narrowed gaze on him, and then sighed warily, she didn't have it in her to do this with him. "I don't want to fight with you."
"You can't honestly expect me to be ok with the fact that you spent most of the night with your ex-boyfriend." He asked her incredulously.
"Jake is my friend, Lucas." A friend who needed her dearly, a friend that she'd let down in the past. Maybe if she hadn't taken her eye off Jenny that day years ago in the mall, Nikki never would have grabbed her, and maybe Jake wouldn't have had to run. Who knew how much things might have turned out differently.
"A friend who you dated, a friend who you thought you were in love with, a friend who you followed to Savannah." Why couldn't she see why this would bother him, make him angry.
"I left Jake and Jenny behind to come back here for you. I gave up everything I had and could of had with Jake on the chance that you might want to be with me instead of Brooke." She'd gone to Savannah, to Jake and Jenny, proposed marriage to him, and then walked away.
"What was so important that you had to go running to Jake the moment you heard he was in town?" All he wanted was to know why she'd gone to see him. He just wanted to know what was going on.
"You know Luke, I don't question you every time you spend time with Brooke, even though I see the way you still look at her sometimes. I went to see Jake because Jenny might be dying. She has cancer." She was yelling when she finished, and tears had started to fall again. She still couldn't believe that cancer was threatening Jenny.
"I'm sorry." He whispered instantly horrified. He knew how much Peyton loved Jake's little girl. "Is she going to be ok?"
"The doctors told Jake they caught it early. So that's good, but she's so little, and she's going to have such a fight on her hands." She was going to need Peyton to help her get through this, and Peyton intended on being there for her.
"Do they need anything?" Luke asked her. Jake had been his friend, and Jenny was an innocent baby. He wouldn't wish this on either of them.
She wiped at her cheeks. "Just our support and our prayers." In her eyes it was the biggest thing they could give to them.
He nodded his head, and watched Peyton carefully. He could practically see what she was thinking. He knew what plans she was making in her head. "Peyton." He said carefully, not wanting to upset her anymore. "You're not Jake's girlfriend anymore, its not your place to just jump back into his and Jenny's life, and…"
"Did you not hear me tell you that Jenny could be dying?" She interrupted him angrily. "Jake is supposed to be your friend, how can you expect him to go through this alone?"
"I don't." He responded, finally yelling back at her. "I don't expect him to go through this alone. But that doesn't mean that its your place to just fall back into his life and be a mother to Jenny again; to sacrifice your own life and happiness to help them, like you did before." Peyton had risked a lot to help Jake leave Tree Hill the first time, and when he'd returned they'd become an instant family unit, just to watch Jake leave again.
She looked at him for a moment in shocked silence. "I love Jenny like she is my own child, and I walked away from her for you, and I didn't look back because I thought it would hurt you. I essentially promised to be her mother, and then I failed her. I failed her Lucas."
"You're not her mother." He reminded her quietly.
"Not biologically, but for awhile I was her mother in every other way. She needs me, she needs me now maybe more than she's ever needed me, and I am not going to walk away from her again." She was going to make everything up to Jenny. She wasn't going to let her down again.
Lucas sighed and ran his hands over his face warily, he knew that he was fighting a losing battle. He kept repeating Haley's words from earlier to himself. She chose you and she loves you, and you guys are good right now, solid. Peyton chose him, and he'd chosen her. They'd gone through too much to get to this point to just let it slip away. This isn't about Jake, he told himself, its about Jenny. She could love and support Jenny without getting drawn back to Jake. "Jenny needs you." He said aloud. "I understand that."
"Good." She moved into his arms and held him close. "Good, because I don't want to fight with you. I chose you, Luke." She added in a whisper, because she thought he needed to hear it again.