Nothings bigger than love – chapter six
"But I don't want you to go" he sulked looking at his wife who slammed the boot shut and then crossed to the driver's side of the car
"Come on Luke" she said as he followed her around the car "I told you that if you really wanted to you could come and visit Derek with me but you know that you have chapters due for your book Luke and I will not help you escape that" she said as he looked on at her unable to respond, she put one hand on each side of his face, pulling his head in and kissing him on the lips "Now get to work cause I can't be your sugar mama forever" she said before letting go of his face and sitting down in the car "Say bye to daddy Sawy" she said as they both directed their gaze to the curly blonde haired two year old who sat contently with a colouring book in her car seat in the back of the comet, the little girl looked up and waved, it was so weird for Lucas for the past two years he had barely spent a moment apart from Sawyer and even Peyton, it was the benefits of living so isolated and now Peyton was taking Sawyer away for four days to go and visit her brother Derek and his family. Lucas waved goodbye to both his girls as Peyton shut the car door, looking back at their daughter and smiling before setting off down the road, Lucas had watched as the headed out of sight which took a while because their little beach town had one main road out and it was completely straight. They had decided that if Lucas had no distraction at all he would have a higher chance of actually getting something done, he could always think of an excuse but with Peyton away there wasn't the distraction of a crying baby or an energetic baby that constantly wanted to be picked up by its father, There was no Peyton watching soap operas on the couch, and most especially there was no car to provide as transport out of the commitment he had made in writing another book. Lucas sat down in front of the computer screen and opened a fresh word document and began his often long process of sitting and staring at the open word document, willing his mind to think of the perfect opening sentence. After about five minutes of frustratingly sitting he stood up and walked over to the fridge to get a beer, perhaps an alcohol buzz would stimulate the thinking muscles, he reached into the fridge and picked the first one out, he let out a laugh as he realised how well his wife knew him the bottle had a pink post-it note stuck to it that said "Five minutes really?" he opened the top and took a sip before returning to his computer screen watching.
X-x-x-x-x-x
Peyton pulled up the driveway of the elegant two story home that belonged to her step-brother Derek, she hadn't realised how close it actually was to where they were living at the moment, compared to the other homes of people that they loved so dearly this one was practically and metaphorically around the corner from them. It was a very peaceful and fun looking street and she couldn't help but laugh thinking of Derek as a Desperate Housewife. It was a court and Derek's house sat directly in front of you as you turned into the court itself. Peyton hopped out of the car, throwing her handbag over her shoulder and lifting Sawyer out, deciding that she would leave her bags in the car until she knew they were actually home.
"Come on Derek" she said standing impatiently at the doorstep holding her daughters hand as they both did matching 'need to pee' dances, after five minutes of waiting at an unanswered door she decided that she would investigate the cheering she could hear from the back on her brothers enormous house. Peyton walked to the big gate hand in hand with a two year old Sawyer and as she did she was welcomed by the family dog jumping all over them, She quickly hoisted up a Sawyer who she could tell was petrified by the tighter grip that her daughter had administered the second that she lay eyes on the dog.
"Buddy down" a voice bellowed from in front of them and as the dog obeyed Peyton let out a smile back to the man walking towards them with a matching smile "Well if it isn't my sister Peyton" Derek said as they both walked forward, but before he could even reach her two blurs ran past him yelling
"AUNTY PEYTON" and latching onto Peyton's torso were Peyton's niece Mia and her nephew Andre, she laughed handing Sawyer to her older brother over the top of the kids and then leaning down to give them a proper hug. By the time she had leant back up and hugged her brother his wife had appeared from her spot on the grass with a smile on her face, Mandy and Peyton had only really met a couple of times, Peyton didn't even get to see Derek that much but the moment that Mandy and Peyton had met they had got along really well, they had become increasingly close when Derek had deployed and she was left alone with their two children, Peyton hadn't been able to visit often but she lived for the phone calls that they would have, revealing to each other their deepest fears. Peyton quickly clasped her hands around the pettily framed woman as her niece and nephew broke into a fight and began running around the large spaced backyard, the dog not understanding the predicament which had led to the fight interpreted it to be a game and began chasing the kids with its tongue lopping to the side and its tail wagging.
"So what did I interrupt?" Peyton asked as Sawyer was placed back on the ground and quickly made her way back to her mother's hand. Sawyer Brooke Scott was this crazy fireball of giggles and energy and this had been the same since she was an infant, buckets full of personality shooting from her with a simple smile or a position taken by the little girl but what surprised both Peyton and Lucas was that their little fireball around people she wasn't completely aware of on a personal level she would become so shy that she would recoil into this placid little blonde curly thing, people would even comment on how placid and graceful the little girl was and Peyton would just stand back and laugh knowing full well that when that person left the game was on again. Sawyer just needed about ten minutes to warm up to people, Lucas had once contemplated the idea that Sawyer did it on purpose to lull people into a false sense of security and then when she felt they were lulled she would release her crazy.
"We were playing baseball" he said as all three of the adults with Sawyer at hand walked further into their extensive backyard.
"Oh I am glad, I am really good at baseball" Peyton said with a laugh.
X-x-x-x-x-x
Lucas had received the call from Peyton telling him that they had made it to Derek's and not so subtly reminding him that he had a deadline that he had to meet, he had promised her that he was up to his ears in words that filled and described his next piece of work, telling her that he had at least the bare minimum of chapters that he needed to have completed and while she hadn't totally believed him, for good reason as he had only written six sentences, she wished him luck and hung up the phone. Just her voice alone made him miss her like crazy, the laugh was the killer though, it was so raw and packed with emotion that each time she let out her crazy laugh he felt his heart melt and wanted to kiss her senseless, unfortunately you can't kiss the receiver without feeling a little bit weird. Lucas had this sudden epiphany, he told himself that it would be inspiration but he knew deep down that it may not actually have that precise effect it may just the fill the silence that was so abundant in their small house which seemed so large when it wasn't filled with chatter and pure joy.
Lucas stood up got himself another beer and then set up the television so that the video camera was connected, he had gotten it when they had set off from Tree Hill with their baby girl so that he could capture every moment of triumph and every single milestone, he had promised Haley that he would be constantly emailing videos so that she didn't feel left out, Brooke had instantly taken the same stand as Haley, It was Peyton's idea to include Larry Sawyer in the video sharing and when they had moved away from Andy, Karen and Lily, Karen had demanded that he film everything and send it to her instantly, Lucas had asked her if she would just prefer a whole 'big brother' scenario where their house was constantly recording which would provide Karen with constant video streaming of everyone's activities, they had all laughed when she had said that that option was definitely the one that she preferred. It certainly wasn't designed for this purpose but hey it was going to work for him. He pressed play and sat down onto the couch and his screen was filled with excitement and he felt as though he was back on the beach when Sawyer had learnt to take her first steps;
They had still been living in the beach house that they had been hiring with Andy and Karen, Sawyer was about ten months old and they were all completely smitten with the gorgeous little girl especially Larry Sawyer who had come up to visit them. They had all decided that they would go on a sunset walk across the beach and Lucas had brought the camera along because Haley was feeling neglected and wanted video evidence that they were all alive and well because apparently photos just weren't cutting it, so they had all sat down on the beach to watch the sunset, they were on the furthest edge of the beach from where they were actually staying. Lucas held the camera as he sat down next to Larry who sat there awe struck of how happy his daughter was with her small yet perfect family and Lucas hoped that that showed on the camera screen, Andy was sitting with Sawyer a couple of metres in front of them building a sand castle and digging a hole, well Andy was building a sand castle and digging a hole for the little girl while also trying to prevent her from eating the sand she sat upon, Lucas chuckled as he heard Andy say to the little girl "It doesn't taste nice" with that he tilted the camera up and got the view of where the ocean began, in the water stood Peyton, Karen and Lily all connected by hands jumping waves, Lily then splashed Peyton and both Karen and Peyton began to chase her through the water. He was distracted momentarily by Andy's shocked and shaking voice "Luke" he said all weary, Lucas directed the camera back to Andy and let out a laugh as Andy looked on all excited as Sawyer stood up leaning against the sand castle, they had all been on high alert for the first steps since Peyton had become obsessed with a certain baby book which told her the alarming figures of how many parents miss their children's first steps, not wanting to be a statistic she had told them that if they thought that Sawyer might walk that they were to call her immediately and that if she missed it they would all have to accept the consequences, let's just say that there was a lot of false alarms but from the look on both Larry and Andy's faces he knew that they both believed that it was just about to happen "PEYTON" he hollered down the beach, she instantly turned not knowing exactly what her husband was alerting her to, she stopped still as Lucas pointed down at Sawyer, Andy was now standing up doing the exact same thing as Lucas, Peyton paused allowing Lily to splash her, she barely noticed, she darted up the beach and stood about a metre away from Sawyer "Come to mama baby" she said with a smile beaming across her face, Karen and Lily came running up the beach too, at this point everyone just stood in silence watching with awe stricken looks on their faces and Sawyer took five wobbly sets to her mother, who scooped her up in her arms and span her around kissing her and praising her as everyone around them let out excited yells, Karen stood in the corner of the screen with a goofy grin on her face with tears streaming down her face.
Lucas smiled as more and more of the special memories he had had of the past two years flashed up on the big screen in front of him; he watched Sawyer's first words, and birthdays and Christmases. He laughed as he watched Sawyer with a dummy in her mouth finding him lying behind the couch, her big smile being blocked by her dummy and her eyes lighting up as she saw him, he watched as she talked incoherent sentences to him as she sat in the bath tub as though she was telling him a story, all these emotions coming across her face as Peyton stood just in the hallway laughing so hard that he could still hear her in the distance, the next video began with music blaring in the distance and the camera moving up the hallway before being exposed to excessive amounts of light as the doors that opened onto their front deck sat wide open, the camera moved past the kitchen and living room and through the majority of the music, it finally stopped in the doorway looking out onto the deck to where Lucas and Sawyer were dancing and rocking out to music, the laugh that he loved so much was clearly noticeable behind the camera. Then there was a video that he recognised as later that fine afternoon after the dancing, Peyton, Lucas and Sawyer all sat on the deck, Sawyer was chowing down on an icy pole as the heat was extreme, and between licks of her icy pole Sawyer sat singing along loudly to the music that played out onto the deck, these videos were most recent. Peyton laughed and then spoke to the little girl as Lucas recorded from face to face "You got your daddy's beautiful singing voice Sawyer" she said it as Lucas directed the camera towards him before she began hysterically giggling
"Yeah and yours is so much better Peyt." He responded from behind the camera. As that video finished he clicked on the next one, this one was way back when Sawyer was a baby, he could tell by his own and Peyton's different hairstyles, he remembered that it was taken on their way to see his mum, they had stopped off to stretch their legs and breath in some fresh air at a jam-packed playground, Lucas remembered standing hand in hand with Peyton who still wasn't completely recovered from her caesarean, so they walked slowly as Lucas pushed the bassinet style pram in front of them;
She was laughing so hard, he was concerned that she was going to pop her stiches and they were going to be in a whole lot of trouble but he couldn't help but smile at her, They were sitting down on one of the only vacant benches in the whole park, Peyton recorded the sleeping baby in the pram before moving the camera up to face Lucas.
"Now Luke baby darling, Can you tell me why we are filming this iconic moment?" she said still trying to stop laughing
"I had a protective father moment" he said not looking into the camera but just down from it
"What did you do Lucas?" she asked and although he couldn't see it he knew she was smiling
"We were walking in the park minding our own business and this germy looking older woman came up to us and was all over the pram, I thought she was going to kidnap her and we were going to have to tackle her" he said directing that statement to Peyton "Anyway she was breathing all over Sawy. So I kindly…" he said before getting cut off
"Kindly?" She said as the camera turned around to his wife, her then light brown curls flew around in the light wind "It was the equivalent of an FBI or private security for the president telling you to move on, I was a little bit scared" she said with a smile.
Lucas was drawn out of video land by his ringing mobile, he picked it up and read caller id 'spunky trunks' she had changed her name in his phone to that the other week, he paused the video, composed himself to sound as though he had been writing his book this whole time, he then picked it up and smiled "Hey Gorgeous"
"How is the book going daddy?" she asked and he instantly felt himself smile
"Yeah great" he said, she didn't respond and he knew that she was on to him "I have written a few sentences, I am on the way"
"Luke"
"I miss my girls too much to be able to concentrate"
This chapter is finished this story not so much!