Chapter 10

Lucas Scott watched this tall brunette girl walk around the basement clearing up. After all these years he still didn't feel that he was good enough to take care of her. The six years he had done that had been interesting years – in many ways Lucas felt that she had grown up herself, while all he had done was give out the allocated allowance every month.

Ever since they had moved to Tree Hill he had felt especially inadequate as a "parent". And the way he resolved that inadequacy was through a tad bit of overprotectiveness.

'Who was that?' his voice came out a little louder and fiercer than he intended.

'Just a friend...' she said smiling.

'Anything I should know about...' somehow Lucas got the sense that this line was supposed to come out as a caring confidant, but in his mouth it came out more like an army order. He sighed inwardly. How was he supposed to do this?

'How am I supposed to do this Hales!' Lucas squealed laughing.

'Just hold her!' a young lady with red streaked hair and metal bracelets laughed in reply. 'She's not going to bite you!'

Haley smiled as Lucas bobbed her daughter up and down in an awkward fashion.

'Not hard anyway...' she added with a grin. 'She just got her 1st tooth yesterday.'

'Oh first teeth eh...' his mouth hanging open. 'Ooooohh...'

'Which reminds me,' Haley said walking over and holding her little girl's hands. 'You have a word for Luke right?'

The little girl with her mother's hair and sparkly eyes pointed her little plump palms at Lucas saying 'Luk-ey!'

Lucas laughed and handed her back to her mother. 'She's adorable...' he said.

'And I think I missed out the self-intro..' she smiled sheepishly. 'Lucas Scott, meet Eugenia James Keller... named after two of the best people I know...'

'Haley James!' Lucas shrieked. 'All I did to hide that name and you...'

'Stuck it on my daughter forever, right baby?' she said triumphantly blowing kisses in her daughters face.

'Me eu-gee-na!' the infant said in glee. 'You Lu-key!'

'Oh no...' Lucas said slapping his hand against his forehead.

Ring Ring Ring.

'Hello Lucas Scott speaking.'

'Hey best friend, ever thought of giving us as ring now and then?'

'Hales! Sorry! But the phone goes both ways right... hows the new album...'

'It's going alright, how's your book? Still getting raving reviews?'

'(laughs) Nah... trying to think of something new actually...'

'About time!'

'How's the little princess? Keller?'

'They're both doing okay... Eugenia just celebrated her 4th birthday yesterday... when you gonna come visit us again?'

'I'll try Hales I will...'

'I heard you're going back to Tree Hill.'

(pause)

'Yup, where'd you hear that from?'

'Karen.'

'Oh.'

'Hey Luke, I know that things have been rough since the last time you went back, but I really hope you can patch things up with Nathan...'

'Hales...'

'Luke, he was and always will be one of the most precious people in my life, take care of him for me please, now that I no longer can.'

'It's complicated Hales.'

'Please, Lucas, please.'

'I'll try Haley... I promise...'

Door slams shut.

Why didn't he go visit her when he still had the chance?

Lucas looked around the cold room and had a strange sense that he was stuck in a dream, that soon he'd wake up, far away from here in his house in Connecticut, writing his 2nd book, living the dry life he'd grown to be accustomed to.

He'd wake up, not watching the lawyer go through a thick stack of papers that they called the will, not watching a 10 year old girl lean on her nanny's chest crying like she could never cry enough, not trying to understand why he couldn't cry, why his face was flat and dry.

He'd wake up, and Haley would still be alive.

'And now that the property has been distributed we move on to a second item, I thank everyone for their patience, especially Miss Keller,' the clear, collected voice of the Haley and Chris' lawyer came through the silence and stillness.

A few muffled sobs from Eugenia as her nanny hugged her.

Lucas tried to avert his eyes from her, this girl so close to his pain, yet because of his isolation, he found no way to comfort her. He had chosen to shut himself off from the world, never visiting Haley again after that one time when Eugenia was only a tot. He had chosen to take solace in his writing forgetting all the people that he had love and that, had potential to hurt him. He had chosen that path.

And now it was too late.

'In Mrs Keller's will she wrote out a special item,' the lawyer continued speaking. 'In the case of crisis that her daughter, Miss Eugenia James Keller, should be left in the guardianship of her best friend, Mr. Lucas Scott.'

An even greater silence filled the courtroom. Eugenia turned around slowly to look at the stranger whom everyone was staring at – a tall blonde man who looked as surprised as she felt. Felt – if she could still feel anything at all that is.

'Mr Lucas Scott?' the lawyer was waiting for a form of response.

Lucas fumbled with his collar. Memories of a telephone call flashed through his mind. 'Luke... one of the most precious people in my life, take care of her for me... please... now that I no longer can... Please, Lucas, please... one of the most precious people... I no longer can... Luke... please...precious people... please Lucas...please.'

I'll try Haley... I promise...'

'Excuse me, Mr. Lucas Scott?' the lawyer was waiting.

Lucas nodded. 'I agree... I agree, of course.'