I would like to thank everyone for their reviews, they really make my day.
As always I do not own OTH or any of the characters.
Peyton froze in the mess that was covering her backseat when she heard the garage door creak open, and quickly crossed her legs together from where they were hanging over the side of her car. 'It's just the wind,' she tried to convince herself, making herself take a small ragged breath before changing tack, '...or it's just Karen.' As much as she tried to convince her brain, her heart knew differently. The way the atmosphere inside the garage suddenly changed, causing a whisper of a shiver to run down her back, and the quiet breathing of the other person told her everything she needed to know. She wasn't ready for this, not today, not this week.
Peyton stayed as still as possible, waiting for him to make the first move, for him to slip out of the door again whilst she wasn't looking and break her broken heart again. The pain in her chest was becoming unbearable again, and she forced herself to take another shaky breath. Over the pounding of her heart she heard it, the unmistakeable sound of metal scraping together, and she felt his presence move closer. 'He isn't leaving,' her mind was telling her trying to give her some hope, but again her heart didn't believe her.
Shuffling out of her car and grabbing her bag out of the back, Peyton slowly padded across the concrete floor of the garage to the front of her car. Painstakingly slowly she saw the person come into view, who was leant across the engine to her car, shielding his face from sight.
"Lucas?" she questioned, unable to stop herself once she saw that his shirt had slid upwards to reveal a strip of skin at his lower back. "What are you doing...?" she asked. What she meant to ask was 'What are you doing here in Tree Hill' but her voice had cracked before the end.
"Fixing your car so you can drive it back to LA," his rough voice replied, not once looking away from the engine and Peyton shuffled her cold feet nervously.
"What?" Peyton breathed, wondering how he even knew she was in town, and why he would think she would be driving all the way back to LA.
"Well I guess that's why my mom called me, so I can fix your car and you can take it home back to LA," Lucas spit back out, and for the first time ripped his eyes away from her engine so that she could see him properly. He looked unbelievably good, maybe a little tired, but living with a one year old, that has to be a given. His shirt slid back into place as he straightened up, and Peyton glanced away from him.
"I never asked her to call you," Peyton replied, feeling the hostility rolling off Lucas and responding to it. She didn't remember calling him repeatedly earlier whilst she was crying, but she had just needed to hear his voice, even if it was just his answer phone message.
"Well why else would she call me then?" Lucas continued, and Peyton snapped her eyes up to meet his for a split second. "It's not like you need me for anything else."
"God Lucas, you're such a dick," Peyton yelled suddenly, watching as he visibly jumped at the sound of her voice. Slinging her bag further onto her shoulder, Peyton strode past him, slamming the garage door closed behind her as a warning for him not to follow.
Striding through his house, Peyton quickly veered off into his room, dumping her bag onto the floor and pulling out items of clothing. Sliding into a well worn pair of jeans, and yanking on a tank top, Peyton dug out her Converse low tops, pulling them into place whilst walking out of the door that led outside and set off at a run, allowing the door to slam back into place on its own accord.
She didn't know where she was running to; she just emptied her mind and just concentrated on her feet hitting the pavement, leading her away from him and away from her heart ache.
"Damn it!" Lucas yelled to the empty garage, hurrying across the open space to the door, just as Lily's cries became louder. Pulling open the door, he saw his mom emerging from the toddler's room with his sister in her arms and a look of thunder on her face.
"What the hell happened?" Karen hissed, trying to settle Lily by gently rocking her from side to side. "Where has Peyton gone?"
"Er... I don't know," Lucas mumbled guilty, side-stepping around his mom to his open bedroom door. 'So this wasn't the second door slam' he concluded, looking at the explosion of clothes across his bedroom floor.
"What do you mean 'you don't know'?" his mom followed him through the house, keeping her tone light and airy for Lily's sake whilst entertaining her with a teddy bear.
"Well we kind of got into a fight..." Lucas tailed off, unsure exactly what they were fighting about at the time. Bending down to throw all of her clothes back in the direction of her bag, Lucas came across a calendar which must have fallen from the wall when she slammed the door.
Standing up slowly and flipping through the pages to find the right month to put it back on the wall, Lucas suddenly froze. Pulling his phone out of his pocket to check the date, his eyes flashed between the phone's screen and the giant red pen mark on the calendar that was circling the same date.
"Luke... Lucas!" his mom eventually got through to him, and he turned around, with his finger tracing the outline the pen he had made years ago. "You had better get your arse out of this house right now and find her," Karen threatened, all the while keeping a fake smile plastered onto her face. "You need to get over your bruised pride..."
"Is this really the date?" he whispered brokenly, cutting her off and ripping his eyes away from the calendar to look at his mom, who just nodded in response. "God, she's right... I really am a dick," he tailed off, with the feeling of guilt flooding through him, and he automatically backed up towards the door.
"Luke, language!" his mom called him just before he pulled the door open. "Do not come back until you have found her and brought her home."
"Home," he breathed, allowing himself a small smile, which Karen noticed, before pulling open the door and bolting out of the house.
Immediately a list of possible places she could have run to sprang into his mind, and he debated every scenario in my head whilst jogging down the street. He knew Peyton could run when she wanted to, with her years of cheerleading endurance kicking in, so he decided it would be quicker to figure out her final destination rather than run to catch up with her. First place that was a possibility was her house, but considering it was only a couple of blocks over, he knew that she would run further than that. The Rivercourt, the record store, Tric, the cemetery, all flashed before his eyes as his feet hit the pavement in a steady rhythm. Turning the corner, he headed in the direction of the record store, knowing that she usually finds peace with her music, and he could make a quick pit stop before heading towards the Rivercourt.
Jogging down the high street, dodging families and pedestrians, Lucas slammed to a stop in front of the record store... or to stand corrected, what used to be the record store. Browned newspaper covered the windows, and a large closed sign hung on the locked door. Stepping closer to the door, Lucas peered through a gap in the paper seeing the dust covered empty shelves. He could almost hear the echoes of music through the silence, and he remembered when his Uncle Keith, or his Uncle Keith's ghost he wasn't sure which, brought him here. During that time he realized he couldn't move on with Keith as he had to come back for Peyton. It was always Peyton, and he had promised that he would wait forever for her. It was yet another promise to her that he had broken.
Suddenly the loud cry of a baby cut through the memory, bringing Lucas back to earth with a bang. Standing still wasn't helping bring her home, but it did allow him to cross a place off his list. Logic kicked in for a moment as he re-gained his breath, as he realized that she couldn't be at Tric as it was closed at this time of the day, and Peyton had given her keys back to his mom before she left for LA.
Turning on his heel, Lucas began jogging in the direction of the Rivercourt, automatically following the invisible path that he had used countless times before. The Rivercourt was where he did his best thinking, and he hoped that somehow that Peyton would be inexplicably drawn to the silence of the park.
Heading across the bridge over the river, Lucas scanned around the court, taking in the old worn basketball hoops and the wooden bleachers, but the entire area was empty. Stepping into the centre of the court, he could make out the slightly faded names on top of the blacktop that had been written the final day when they had all been together at the end of senior year. Standing here, like he always did whenever he came home, that moment felt like it was yesterday, when they had all their hopes and dreams at their fingertips. But the past couple of months, it felt like it was another lifetime ago. Now Lucas was unsure. His heart and his head were still conflicted, but he knew that it would always come back to Peyton, even if he wasn't ready to admit that to himself just yet.
Standing by her signature on the Rivercourt, Lucas quickly flipped through the memories of the two of them together. What happened the last time she ran? When she last ran away from her house out of fear and anger, whilst she unintentionally ran towards him? Where did she end up?
In that instant he knew where she was... and thinking about it, he must have always known, because he knew her better than anyone, probably even better than Brooke, which was saying something. He was hit with a moment of clarity, something he hadn't experienced since winning the state championship game.
Swinging back around, he ran back in the direction of his mom's house to get his car. He couldn't possibly run after her considering her head start and his heart condition. Jumping up the porch steps, he flew into his room to grab something before finding his car keys and jumping into his car.
"Luke?" he heard his mom call from somewhere inside the house, but he didn't wait around to see her. The sun was slowly setting, causing the temperature to drop drastically, and he knew it was paramount that he found her as soon as possible. Slamming his foot onto the accelerator, with a screech of his tyres, he sped away from the curb towards his destination, and within a couple of minutes of insane driving through the thankfully empty streets, he finally arrived at his location.
She had finally stopped running, which he knew was a good thing, but he was unsure as to how he should approach her. Considering her reaction to his presence the last time, Lucas was nervous as he slowly walked towards her, but his heart wouldn't let him consider anything else this time.
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