Disclaimer: I don't own OTH or any of its characters. I am just borrowing them

A/N Ok, I guess this chapter turned out okay. I don't know…I will let you guys be the judge.

Treehillgirl323-I can't promise anything. Just have to wait and see

Thanks to everyone for all of the reviews. I look forward to reading them after each chapter.

Everybody walked into the bedroom to find Brooke and Peyton talking. Peyton held baby Jason and she had a genuine smile on her face.

"Hey babe" Jake said as he walked towards his wife to give her a kiss.

"Hey" Peyton replied

Lucas was the last one in the room and he silently shut the door. He walked towards the bed and sat down next to his wife. Brooke started to rub his back and whisper in his ear.

"Luke, what is going on?" Nathan asked after a few minutes.

Lucas looked around at his family. "I know there is some things that you have all been wondering about since we got here, you want to know what happened after we left. I think that is best that you all hear it together instead of apart. My past is something that I am not very proud of" Lucas sighed and looked at his wife. She smiled and gave his hand a tight squeeze. Lucas looked towards a blank spot on the wall as he began.

"When I left Tree Hill, I had no idea where I was going. I just wanted to find Brooke. I started out in the first place I thought she might go. New York. I hitched rides all the way there and I even walked if I needed too. I conserved the food that I had with me and I slept wherever I could find shelter. It took me 6 days to get to the city. When I got there I realized how big it actually was, it was nothing like Tree Hill. Here I was this North Carolina boy with no money, no place to go and no job. I didn't know anyone and I had no one to turn too. I got a job at a local bar making drinks for tips. I had gotten the job after the bar owner found me sleeping out back. She offered me a place to sleep, food to eat and a hot shower. She only asked for two things. One is for me to help out at the bar and two was to keep her happy. You know what I mean by happy. When she told the conditions my first instinct was to tell her no, but then I thought about how I had no food and nowhere to go. So I said yes. I lived with Susan for the next 4 years. I moved my way up the ladder from drink boy to class act bartender. Everyone came into the bar when they knew I was making the drinks. I also started drinking, just a drink here and there whenever when one of the patron would buy me one and then it got to be a consist thing. Drinking helped me forget about Brooke, my mom, Tree Hill. All of it. I drank all day before the bar opened and I would drink after the bar closed. The only time I didn't drink was when I was passed out from drinking so much."

Lucas stopped there and looked at his mom. She had tears in her eyes. He immediately looked away from her. He knew that this was probably killing her inside. He looked at his brother, who had a grim look on his face. Lucas spoke directly to him, "I was an alcoholic and it runs in our family"

"It finally got so bad" Lucas continued "that Susan kicked me out. She said that my drinking was affecting my performance and she needed a real man. Unbeknownst to Susan, I had saved a lot of money over the years, for emergencies such as this. I spent the next 6 months in and out of hotels and having little drinking binges. The money finally ran out and one night I spent the last of the money a huge binge. I had a couple of dollars for a cab, but I had nowhere to go. I got into the cab, gave the driver the money and pointed in a direction. He drove until my time ran out. When he stopped, I got out of the cab incoherent as to where I was and saw two beautiful girls standing there. The next thing I remember was being put into a jail cell" When Lucas finished he looked down at his hands and signed. The hard part was over.

"Those two beautiful girls that he saw" Brooke started "One of them was me." Brooke recalled the night that she and Lucas met again.

Flashback

Brooke Davis was only in New York City for a couple of days. She had a fashion show to get to in less than an hour and she was lost. She just stood there as the busily people of the city walked by her. She glanced at her watch, if she was late, her boss would kill her. Finally, she spotted an officer and decided to ask him for directions.

"Excuse me, Officer?" Brooke asked

The older man turned around to look at the young girl "Yes"

"Can you please tell me how to get to Park Ave and 23rd St?"

"Sure Park Ave is the next street up on your right and 23rd is about 5 blocks up from there."

"Thank you so much"

Brooke walked in the direction that the officer had given her and finally found where she needed to be. Thank god. She was not going to get fired for being late, at least not today. The fashion show was great and went just as planned. Brooke spent three hours afterwards cleaning up the dressing room area. When she finished it was 10 o'clock at night. She walked towards the stage where she knew one of the other assistants, Nora would still be.

"Nora, you ready?" Brooke called, as she got closer to the stage area

"Yea. I am finally done taking this thing down. They can finish the rest in the morning"

"Let head back to the hotel and order room service. I am so tried and so hungry"

Nora laughed as they walked towards the front doors of the building. They stepped out on 23rd street and looked around for a cab.

As luck would have it a cab pulled up right in front of them. A very drunk and disorderly man step out and staggered towards Brooke and Nora. She could smell the alcohol on his breath as he got closer and looked like he hadn't had a bath in a week. His clothes were torn and dirty. "Hey Baby" he slurred, "Do you need some hot loving tonight?" Brooke shuttered as his hot breath hit her neck. She punched him in the midsection with all her strength and watched him stumble to the concrete. He passed out before he ever hit the ground.

"Come on Nora"

"Brooke, we can't just leave him here"

"Yes, we can. He is a drunk who just tried…. I don't want to even think about what he was trying to do"

"Well, we at least need to call someone. I wonder if he has an ID on him or an emergency contact card"

"You can check. I am not going near that dirty scumbag"

Nora sighed as she looked through the pockets of the overcoat that the man was wearing. She came across an old tattered wallet; she opened it and found a license and no emergency contact card.

"He does have an ID, a North Carolina license, but there is nothing else."

"North Carolina?"

"Yea"

"Can I see that?" Brooke asked as Nora handed the license to her. Brooke looked at the picture on the license and then the address and gasped.

"Brooke, what's wrong?"

Brooke ignored Nora's question and looked down at the man laying on the concrete," Lucas"

End flashback

The room was filled with silence. Everyone was stunned but what Lucas had told them. Karen and Haley had tears running down their faces. Nathan and Jake sat stunned. Peyton looked hurt, but she related to Lucas. She knew that he was ashamed, but she knew that he had gotten past that. After all, he had a loving wife and a handsome son now.

"Lucas" Peyton started "Lucas, look at me"

Lucas turned his head to face Peyton, but he still could not look her in the eye. How could he ever look anyone in the eye again?

"Lucas Scott, Look at me!" Peyton said raising her voice.

Lucas raised his eyes and looked at her face. Peyton searched his eyes and found hurt, anger, worry, and most of all regret.

"I know that you are not proud of what you just told us. I also know that you are not that same person anymore. I look in your eyes and I see you are hurting and that you regret what you did. Lucas, you made a mistake and it is in the past. I don't look at you any different than I did 10 minutes ago. You were man enough to sit here in front of your family and tell us everything. I am proud of you for that."

Lucas?" Karen soft voice filled the room.

Lucas turned away from Peyton to face the rest of his family and looked towards his mom. This time he didn't fiddle with his hands.

"Lucas, even though what you did hurts me. It is in the past. It is over. Peyton was right when she said that she is proud of you. I am too. It took a lot of courage to sit here and tell us that."

Lucas got up from the bed and walked over to his mom. He leaned down and gave her a long, hard hug. When he pulled away he felt a smile forming on his face. He felt like the elephant that had been in the room was now gone.

A/N: Alright you know the drill…..