Disclaimer: I do not own OTH or any of it characters places or such. I am simply borrowing them
AN/ Here is the next update! I am not sure when I will be able to update again due to Christmas and this week is going to be crazy for me. I will try to have one up soon though, promise!
As always suggestions are welcome
When the guys reached the Sawyers, Peyton, Brooke and Haley were on the front porch waiting for them. As the walked up the front walkway, the three came down the stairs to give them each a hug
"You okay?" Haley asked Nathan as she hugged him
"One of the most terrifying nights of my life, Hales" Nathan replied returning the hug.
"Come on in the house, guys. Mom has cookies in the oven" Peyton said
"She always does" Skills replied
"She bakes more when she is nervous. We all know that" Brooke replied as she put her arms around Lucas
"Yea, cookies here we come" Mouth said as he walked towards the house.
"He eats more than anyone I know and he still stays skinny" Haley said, "I don't like him" a comment that gained a round of laughter from the group. Haley could always make you laugh.
The gang walked up the front steps and onto the front porch.
"Where are mom and Meredith?" Lucas asked as they stepped into the foyer of the two-story home.
"Upstairs in one of the guest rooms. Meredith wanted Theresa to stay with her" Peyton replied
"We are going to go check on them" Nathan replied as the two brothers started up the stairs
When they reached the landing at the top of the stairs where Anna Sawyer met them
"Lucas, Nathan. I am so glad that you are okay," Anna said as she hugged each of boys
"Thanks. Which room are mom and Meredith in?" Nathan asked
"Second room on the right" Anna replied "Go on in there and then come down for some cookies. I made your favorite, Peanut Butter"
"We will be down in a minute, Aunt Anna" Lucas said as Anna headed down the stairs
Lucas and Nathan walked towards the bedroom that they had been directed to and found the door was open. Inside Meredith laid on the bed with Karen and Theresa on either side of her. They were talking softly.
"Hey guys" Theresa said as she spotted them. "I am going to get a drink. I will be right back," She said to Meredith as she left the room giving the family some time alone.
"Hey munchkin, are you okay?" Nathan asked as he slipped into the spot that Theresa had vacated.
"Yea, I am okay. Are you okay?"
"Yea, I am fine"
"Who was that man?"
"He was a someone from our past" Karen answered
"Who?" Meredith persisted
"Someone that we will never see again. So you don't have to worry about him" Lucas answered.
"Why did he keep saying that he was your father, Nate?"
"That is complicated" Nathan answered. He had hoped that Meredith had been too scared to listen as Dan had ranted on about being his father. No such luck.
"I will tell you all about it when you get a little older" Karen answered as she put her arms around her daughter.
"Promise?" Meredith asked innocently
Karen laughed. She knew that Meredith would not forget a promise as she said, "I promise. When you are older, I, We will tell you about the man that you saw tonight"
When Theresa came down the stairs, she found the rest of her friends in a deep conversation in the living room.
"What is going on?" Brooke asked as Theresa entered the room and took a seat on Skills's lap.
"One minute they are fine at the river court, the next we are being rushed into the car and told get some things and come stay the night and then Peyton called and said to just come here. When we get here we find Haley and her parents and the guys being rushed out the door by John and Larry" Brooke continued
Peyton and Haley exchange a look. What should they say? It wasn't really their place to tell their friends what was going.
"Tell them Haley. They deserve to know" Her father says from the doorway. "Tell them everything"
"Dad, Why don't you? You know more about it then I do."
As the Scott family upstairs didn't want to tell the youngest member of their family about the man that had brought havoc to their lives tonight, John James told the rest of family that deserved to know. "Dan, Larry and I were best friends in high school. We were all on the basketball team together and we were the type of friends that you all are. Anna, Karen, and Lydia were also best friends. We are had all started dating about the same time, Anna and me, John and Lydia and Dan and Karen. That was the way we graduated high school. Three couples that we thought were destined to be married and have our children grow up together. Karen got pregnant the summer after senior year, when she told Dan he said that he was still going to Duke on his basketball scholarship and he didn't care if she was carrying his child or not. So he left and came back 6 months with Deb, the girl he had met at Duke, who was also pregnant with his child. The two were planning on getting married after the baby was born. That was until Deb found out about Karen. She had met Karen when they had first arrived back in Tree Hill and they had become good friends. Karen knew who Deb was, She knew that she was going to be marrying Dan and that she was also carrying his child, but she never told Deb that the child she was carrying was Dan's also until the day that Lucas was born. Deb had gone to the hospital to see Karen. She held Lucas and placed him into the plastic bassinet and that is when she read the name, Lucas Keith Scott. She asked Karen if the baby's father was Keith's, Dan's brother. Karen would not say a word just shook her head then Deb was hit with the realization that the baby she had just held in her arms was the brother of the one that was still growing within her. She quickly called off her engagement to Dan and told him that she could not marry a man who would lie to her and abandon an unborn child. Dan stayed around Tree Hill until Nathan was born, then three days later he left not to be heard from again until the boys were just over six years old. He showed at Deb, threatening to take away her son. The one thing that he knew would hurt her the most, Nathan of course had no idea who the man was and was scared. When Dan refused to leave, Deb called Larry."
"Where's Theresa? She told me that she would read me a bedtime story." Meredith asked her brothers as Larry told the tale downstairs.
"We will go find her. Why don't you get a book? Mom will start it and when Theresa gets back she will finish it." Lucas said
"Okay" Meredith replied as she got off the bed and walked over to the small collection of books sitting on the shelf. "I found one" Meredith said as she picked out a book
"Good. Now get in bed." Meredith did as she was told and was soon under the covers waiting for her story to begin "night Shrimp" Lucas said as he bent over the bed and kissed her forehand
"Night Luke. Night Nate" Meredith said
"Good night munchkin" Nathan replied as he leaned over and gave her a hug. "Sleep tight"
Lucas and Nathan left the room as Karen began the bedtime story that Meredith had picked out. As they walked down the stairs they could her Larry talking about the history that surrounded tonight's events. Lucas and Nathan were both grateful that someone else had told the brunt of the story that was that time in their lives. They reached the foyer, walked towards the living room and entered just as Peyton began to speak.
"After Aunt Deb told dad what was happening, Nathan got on the phone. He said that same thing that he said to me tonight, that was the first time he had ever said it and it was the last until tonight, 'We need you, Peyt' That is how I know something was wrong" Peyton interjected. "Dad called Uncle John and both of them went over there to get Dan away from them. Meanwhile, Mom took me to Haley's and went to get Karen and Lucas. Dad and Uncle John soon returned with Deb and Nathan. We all stayed at Haley's through the weekend until Dan was picked up for being drunk in public"
"Dan had not stepped foot back in this town until tonight" Nathan said as he and Lucas took a seat on floor by the fireplace. "He was in the shadows of the trees to the right corner of the court. I didn't see him until I made that winning slam-dunk. I am not even sure how long he was there. That is when I pointed him out to Lucas. The evil smile that he gave us gave me the creeps"
"That is why we told everyone to come our house. We had not idea what he was going to do and figured that if there were more of us there then he wouldn't try anything. When we got home we told mom what was going on. She made decision to call Uncle Larry and Uncle John. They had stopped him before and we needed their help again. When I went into the kitchen to call Haley, Dan was standing at the window looking back at me," Lucas added
"He left the window and walked around the house. He was coming towards the front door, but found it locked. He did find an unlocked window, the window to Meredith's room. I went down the hallway to check on Meredith and Dan slammed the locked door behind me. He was on a rant about being my father, he let Meredith come sit with me and then he realized that I was in the NBA. He said that he could use that to his advantage when he got locked up, he would call me to bail my father out. He was trying to get to me, he asked if I knew that Lucas was my brother and I told him yes and that we both called the same man dad. When I called him a sperm donor that set him off. He pulled a gun." Nathan said
"Mom and I were outside of the door listening when Larry and Jake joined us. Larry pulled me into the kitchen to ask if we were all okay and then he told me what the plan was or at least his part of it. His part was to get the door unlocked so that we could get into the room," Lucas said
"He pointed the gun and I came in through the open window, Skills and I had been hiding behind a bush just outside the window. He took a shot at Nathan that luckily went over his head and through the bedroom door. That is when I reacted and wrestled him to the floor. The gun went off again and this time hit the ceiling, which made some of the plaster fall on top of us. I was finally able to get the gun away from Dan and that is when Jake came there the bedroom door and the cops started arriving" John added
"Oh my gosh!" Was Brooke could say when they had finished telling the tale. "You guys…"
"It gets worse" Nathan said, "Dan killed dad"
"What!" Haley asked from her spot beside Peyton the couch.
"He admitted it and has no remorse" Lucas said
"Isn't Dan dad's brother?" Theresa asked
"Yea, he said that dad was in the way. So he had to get rid of him" Nathan said, " He didn't even know that my mom was dead and accused mom of getting rid of her just so she could have me"
"That guy is just sick, man" Skills said
"Yea, apparently he signed over his rights to us a long time ago" Lucas added
"He did. That is how Keith was able to adopt both of you and Karen was able to adopt Nathan after Deb died. He gave up his rights when you were three. He did it voluntarily too. He was the one who went to a lawyer and told him that he wanted to give up his parental rights to all of his children" Larry added, "John and I were there when he signed the papers"
"By all, do you mean that he had more children?" Peyton asked her father.
"Yea, you two have another sister out there somewhere. That is the only one that we know of" John replied looking at the two men sitting on the floor
The group sat in silence until Nathan asked, "We have a sister? Why have we never heard of her before?"
"We don't know where she is. We told Deb and Karen about her when we got back from Charlotte where Dan signed the papers and they were going to tell you when you got older and then time got away from them. I am not even sure if your mom remembers" Larry said
"Do you know anything about her?" Lucas asked stunned at the news that he had another sister somewhere
"Only her name" John answered, "Samantha"
Just then the front door opened and Jake and Sergeant Reynolds walked in. They spotted everyone in the living room and walked towards them.
"John, Larry, Can I speak to you two?" Reynolds asked the two as the both followed him out towards the foyer
"Guys, there is something that I need to tell you" Jake said as he walked up to Nathan and Lucas
"Jake, man, what is it?" Lucas asked
"That bullet that went through the bedroom door it hit a picture across the hall."
"Which one?" Nathan said
"The family portrait that was taken before Bevin and Michael died" Jake stopped took a breath, looked towards Nathan and continued, "It hit Michael and Bevin"
AN/ Review!