Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

--

Peyton was standing at the side of the bed, staring out the hotel window. They had come to New York for the funeral. Brooke, Nathan, and Lucas had all come to support her, and help her through this. Nathan especially. After she spent the entire night crying in his arms, he offered to come to New York with her. Brooke and Lucas decided to come and help her out, too. Lindsey really wanted to come, mostly just to be able to be in New York, but since she was grounded, she had to stay with Paige and Karen and Deb.

Right now, they were out getting something to eat before they had to go to the wake at Jenna's church. Peyton would have gone with them but she wanted to be alone.

She never really got along with her aunt. They had never really seen eye-to-eye. But she was still family, she was still her aunt. And now, she didn't really have a family. Her parents were dead, she didn't have any other aunts or uncles, she didn't have cousins, and she didn't have a family.

Sighing, Peyton laid down on the bed, closing her eyes.

--

"Peyton?" Nathan whispered, shaking her slightly, "Peyton, wake up. We need to get ready to go. And you need to get something to eat,"

Groaning, Peyton opened her eyes. "I'm not hungry,"

"Peyton, you haven't eaten anything since the airplane pretzels yesterday, you need to eat something," He said to her as she sat up.

"I'm not hungry, Nathan,"

"Just eat the salad I bought you, okay? It would make me feel a little bit better,"

She sighed, "I'm gonna go get ready to go,"

"Well, we won't be leaving until you eat,"

"Nathan!"

"Peyton, you need to eat. You need to take care of yourself,"

"Why?"

"Why what? Why take care of yourself? Because it would be good for you,"

"Whatever," She stood up and walked to the table where he had placed the food. She took a bite of the salad. "There?" She said, "You happy now?"

"Almost. Finish it,"

She sighed and finished it. "There! I ate! I'm taking care of myself!"

She shook her head before walking into the bathroom.

He took a deep breath as he sat down on the bed.

They didn't speak as they got ready to go, or when they walked downstairs to meet Brooke and Lucas in the lobby.

Brooke smiled at her, hooking her arm with Peytons as they walked to their rental car. "How are you?"

Peyton took a deep breath and gave her a slight smile, "Fine, I guess, I'm not really liking you right now, though. Nathan is driving me crazy,"

"Why don't you like me though?"

"It was your idea that we share a room,"

"I was only trying to help,"

"No," Nathan said from behind them, "You were trying to set us up,"

Brooke shrugged, "Did it work?"

"Brooke!" Nathan and Peyton exclaimed at the same time,

She smiled evilly, Lucas laughing next to Nathan. "Is that a yes?"

"No!" Peyton said to her, "It's a no!"

"Don't you guys have a bet going?" Lucas asked, looking from Nathan to Peyton, "What happened there?"

Peyton glared at Nathan in the front seat. "You told him about our bet?"

"What bet?" Brooke asked, scowling,

"They have a bet over if they sleep together or not," Lucas answered her.

"Oh! I want in!" Brooke squealed, "I say you sleep together before we leave for Tree Hill!"

"Brooke!" Peyton said, glaring at her.

"Okay, shutting up now," She declared, turning to look out the window. Peyton sat up, hitting Nathans arm.

"Ow!"

"I can't believe you told him about our bet!"

"What? It's just a bet!"

"Yeah, a bet between us and only us!"

The rest of the ride was quiet, none of them speaking.

--

Peyton began to rock back and forth on her feet as the hundredth person approached her and told her how sorry they were for her loss. She was losing her mind, she couldn't take another sorry. She took a deep breath, an hour. She only had one hour to go before people would leave and would stop telling her how sorry they were. She had always hated the word. 'Sorry'. Ever since her parent's died, she had hated it. She felt as if it was coming back to haunt her. a kind of slap in the face. Ha-ha, it was saying, you've lost someone else. Closing her eyes, she pulled herself together. I just can't think about it, Peyton told herself, I just need to think about something else.

But, obviously, this was a little difficult since death was all around her at the moment.

Nathan nudged her, whispering, "You okay?"

She nodded, giving him a slight smile, "Yeah, I…uh, just need some air," She walked past the mourners and walked out to the back of the church.

She sat down at the bench and looked out. She heard footsteps as the person sat next to her. Knowing who it was, she laid her head down on his shoulder.

"It's gonna be okay," Nathan told her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

"I know, I just…" She took a deep breath before continuing. "It's just weird to not have a family anymore,"

He scowled, looking down at her, "What do you mean?"

"I mean, I don't have a family. My parents are dead, I was an only child, now my only aunt is dead and she didn't have kids. I don't have a family,"

"Yes you do,"

"What?"

"You have us. You have me, Brooke, Lucas, Karen, and Lindsey and Paige. You have us. We may not be blood-related but that doesn't mean anything. Karen and I aren't blood relatives but I still think of her as family. We can be your family, if you let us,"

She smiled up at him. "Thank you. For this and for coming. You didn't have to,"

"Just like you didn't have to be there for Paige. But you were. Now we're even,"

She nodded, standing up. "Still, thanks. I, uh, I think I'm gonna head back to the hotel, I don't really want to be here anymore,"

He stood up, "Would you mind some company?"

She stared at him for a moment, before nodding, and following him back inside to tell Brooke and Lucas they were leaving.

--

Nathan followed her back to the room, shutting the door behind him.

"Why did you come with me?" Peyton asked him once the door was closed.

"I didn't really want you to be alone,"

"I'm not going to shoot myself,"

"I know, but still, no one should be alone at a time like this,"

She nodded, wrapping her arms around herself and looking around. "Well, what do you want to do?"

He shrugged and walked over, sitting down on the bed facing the TV, "We could watch something, I guess,"

She nodded and sat next to him. They proceeded to watch TV for an hour. They sat next to each other, each lost in their own thoughts, but pretending to be lost in the show.

The show ended and another began, he turned to ask her if she wanted to continue to watch this, when she kissed him. Instinctively, he responded, pushing her mouth open with his tongue and turning, so he was over her.

The show kept playing in the background, but they never returned to watching it.