hey guys cldnt upload awhile ago no idea why but here's the next chpt. some surprises here. thanks for reading!

The end of the dark angel

Peyton left her daughter and her friend in the pool to answer the doorbell. It had been ringing incessantly for the past minute. She grabbed a towel and was drying her hair roughly as she ran to get it.

'Hang on, I'm just coming…' she stopped the moment she opened the door. Her mouth hung open as water droplets dripped down her hair.

'Hi Peyton,' Lucas said.

'Lucas…' she said closing the front door behind her hurriedly. Her voice dropping to a whisper, 'What are you doing here… you can't be here, my…'

'I just wanted to pass you something,' he said thrusting a file into her hands. 'It's yours anyway.'

Peyton eyed Lucas suspiciously, then the file in her hands. It looked strangely familiar..

'Open it,' Lucas urged. 'It won't eat you,' an uneasy, slightly forced laughter.

Peyton smiled weakly, opened up the file and gasped in utter astonishment.

'I found it, the day you threw it away,' he began. 'I wanted to remind you that your... it still mattered, even if not to you anymore.' He paused in recollection. 'It still matters to... to me.'

Peyton flipped roughly through the pages, each piece categorized according to date – something Lucas had done. She felt shocked and strangely, grateful.

'Thank you Lucas,' she said at last. 'Thank you.'

And with a smile and nod of his head he was gone.

Peyton walked steadily through the living room and through the patio doors to the pool area where her daughter was. She checked they were playing safely before lying down on the pool bench and opening up the clear file. She paused at one piece for a few moments as if deep in thought. After a few moment she took out a fairly big piece of her old artwork, turned to the back of it and using a pen in her shirt pocket, began to make some markings.

'Mums! What're you doing?' Beth called.

'I'm drawing baby,' she called back.

'I didn't know you drew Mums!' she shouted in glee. 'Look Lucy my Mums an artist!'

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'You wanted to see me?' Lucas asked walking over to the park bench. It seemed lighter than it was the last time they had met, maybe it had something to do with the full moon in the sky. The whole park was deathly silent and empty, except for the two of them. In the far distance he could see the Rivercourt, a place drenched with memories of what had been and what never was.

Lucas put his hands in his pockets and shifted his weight nervously. Two weeks had passed since he had turned up uninvited on Peyton's doorstep and now he was seeing her again. For a moment, just a moment he remembered the feeling after the match with Nathan.

'What did you bet?'

Her face worn down, tired, but beautiful. The most beautiful face he had ever seen, with eyes that spoke volumes with just one look.

'Why?'

Because nothing matters but you.

A stunned stare, not believing what he says. Nathan calling, a shrug of her shoulders.

'I'll be seeing ya.'

She stood up from her seat on the bench to reveal a single piece of paper. She gave him a watery smile as she passed the paper to him.

'And now we can't have it?' he said questioningly at the familiar sad art in his hands.

'Behind,' she gestured with a smile.

It was a picture, sketched out in blue ink a "Romeo and Juliet" style. There were two figures in it both adorned in ancient clothes, the girl with an elaborate headdress, the guy with a sword slung to his side. The guy was standing at the bottom of the steps, his hands stretched towards the girl at the top of the steps. They both wore the same expression that was difficult to define – it was neither sad nor happy, and as Lucas looked up to the artist, he realised that they were both wearing the expressions of the figures in the picture.

'A little medieval I know..' Peyton laughed inconfidently. 'I guess I'm getting old and sentimental...'

'You drew us?' he said slowly.

Peyton nodded. 'But the thing is…' she said, no more laughter. Her eyes welling up, her voice breaking. 'It's the first thing I've drawn in 17 years Luke… 17 years!'

They both stood motionless, speechless, staring at the picture in Lucas' hand. Raindrops began falling on their heads, on the ground, on the picture.

'I have to go…' Peyton said feeling her the rain spatter over her body.

'Peyton don't go…' he said.

'You can keep it…' she said, beginning to run. 'Goodbye!'

'I'll be seeing ya!' he called out with desperation, a longing that wasn't there as strong the first time he said it. 'Right?'

Peyton stopped in stunned recollection of that earlier moment. The rain began soaking through her shoes as she remembered the hope she had held in her heart, despite all the mess she was in, a hope that life could be, would be better with him. A hope that life had torn away from her, a hope that she had thrown away the moment she stepped out of that wedding dressing room.

She turned around slowly to face the man of her dreams, his eyes were misty with emotion.

'I love you,' he said helplessly.

She looked into his eyes, those blue eyes that always saved her, searching for the answers she'd been looking for all this time.

'Lucas…I…'

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