April 23rd, 2013
Tree Hill, North Carolina
Lucas and Peyton Scott's Bedroom
He was there when she went to sleep. She was sure of it. Positive. She remembered his arms snaking its way around her waist as she had drifted not quite contently off to sleep the night before. But as she looked around the near empty room, she could find no trace that Lucas was there, nor that he had ever been. His jacket was gone, and so was everything else that he had brought with him. He had actually left, and that had been the last thing that she had wanted. She felt the tears fall down her face, hot and burning streaming paths down her face. She squeezed her eyes shut, hoping to stop the uncontrollable tears, focused on breathing deeply, until she was jolted out of her attempt at calmness by something pulling her sleeve.
Peyton's eyes flicked open immediately, and she found herself looking at a six year old child. "Avery?" Peyton asked, frowning as she looked at this version of her daughter. The young girl nodded once before turning and pointing to who Peyton assumed to be Brody and Bailey, standing at the end of an unfamiliar hallway.
"Mommy," The blonde girl called from the end of the hallway, apparently not noticing Peyton's complete confusion. "Daddy's on the phone, he wants to know if you care if he brings his new girlfriend when he comes to pick us up for the week." Bailey said it with such a complete lack of surprise, that it made Peyton's horror even more prevalent. She turned back to Avery, and she simply shrugged. Peyton shut her eyes again, hoping to make the pain go away.
When she opened her eyes again, she was yet again in another place, though as she turned around and saw the hallway just outside the room she was in, she realized that she must be in the same place she had been in before, though judging by the new pictures decorating the walls, that had been some time ago. She turned around and stifled a gasp as she took in the teenager standing in front of her. "Lilly?" She asked, taking a guess, because the child standing in front of her, dressed in all black, looking nothing like Lucas' little sister.
"Nice guess." The sarcastic teenager said bitterly, rolling her eyes. "I don't understand why you're even making me go to this anyways. I don't like her anymore than you do."
Peyton honestly had no idea what Lilly was talking about, though she was saved from answering by a small voice from behind her. "He's your brother Lilly. You have to go."
"No, you're his daughter." Lilly bit back, "You have to go. I think he's an ass who abandoned your mother, and I think that she's a completely idiotic gold digger."
"Go where?" Peyton asked, turning around and finding both Avery and Bailey behind her. "What's going on?"
"Dad's wedding mom." Bailey said, looking at her mother, not quiet knowing what was wrong with her. "You said we had to go."
There were hot tears falling down Peyton face, and she barely heard Bailey's panicking whisper, or anything else for that matter until she felt a pull on her arm.
"Mom, it's going to be okay." She looked down and saw Brody standing next to her, dressed in a pair of Dockers and a dress shirt. "I promise it's going to be okay. But Max is throwing a fit, and I don't really think that he should come." For the first time Peyton noticed a small boy standing next to Brody, his body blurry.
"No one cares about Max, Brody." An exasperated Bailey said. "He's not important, not like us."
Peyton frowned, looking at her son, and turned to Avery. "Avery baby, did you take your medicine this morning?" She asked, not quite sure why that was the question, but relieved when she saw Avery nod at her. "Avery, why aren't you talking?" She asked, confusedly.
"Mom," She heard Bailey say, a sadness in her voice. "Avery doesn't know how to talk. You know that."
Peyton Elisabeth Sawyer jolted awake, panic surging through her body as she forced herself up, opening her eyes and breathing a bit more calmly as she recognized e artificially lit bedroom she was sleeping in. Her bedroom. She felt the panic rising again though as she noticed that her husband was not in bed with her. That panic too, though, ebbed as she noticed him sitting on the edge of the bed, horror in his eyes. She immediately pushed herself across the bed, thrusting herself into his arms. She left the tears fall freely now that she was safe, enveloped in her husbands arms.
"What happened Peyt?" He asked a few minutes later, even though he already knew the answer. The nightmares had been severe in Peyton's first pregnancy too, and he had had no reason to expect that this time would be any different. So now, three months into the pregnancy, Lucas was a near expert at how to handle her. He listened carefully as she explained her dream, and though he normally could keep his emotions under control as she relived her terrors, this one was a bit too much. "Peyton, baby, I would never leave you." He said, pulling her closer to him.
"I know." She said, pulling her head up to look him in the eyes. "I'm just nervous." She let her eyes flicker to the clock in her nightstand. "Victoria's plane lands in four hours, and I promised Brooke I would go and get her with her." She ignored Lucas blatant disapproval. Brooke needed her, and Peyton knew it. Somehow, Mr. and Mrs. Davis had gotten wind that Brooke was going out of town the week they were supposed to be coming in, and they had changed their flight dates. A few meetings and a few slight problems with the company later, the flight was delayed again, until finally, after receiving a bad sales report, Victoria had called her daughter to tell her that she was coming in today, and Brooke was going to let her stay with them until her "ass-hole of a father" got back and gave her "the keys to her god-damn house." Brooke had also been warned that failure to comply would mean that someone just might tip off the press that Brooke Davis had two beautiful adopted girls. In a most likely vain effort to protect her daughters, Brooke had grudgingly agreed to let Satan's Wife stay with her, and then she had cajoled Peyton in to going with her to pick her up.
"Peyton…" He knew that arguing would get him nowhere, but on the off chance that it would help, he started anyway.
"Lucas." Peyton stopped him dead in his tracks. So much for that plan. "I am not stressed out, and Victoria is not a person whose opinion I actually value, so she can't stress me out, unless I let her." She smiled sweetly at her husband. "The baby and I'll be just fine husband."
"Are you taking the triplets or Lilly?" Lucas really wasn't sure if he wanted his kids around Victoria, but if it would keep his wife happy…
Fortunately, Peyton seemed to be thinking along those same lines. "No way in hell would I ever do that to my poor kids. Actually, Brooke said something about a picnic."
"Today?" Lucas laughed.
"Yeah. Victoria's flight gets in at eight, I have a meeting with Jake at ten, and Brooke wants us all at her house by noon."
"What do you need me to do?"
Peyton smiled, knowing that Lucas would have walked to New York for her if she asked him to, and that this task, as daunting as it sounded, was really just part of their normal routine. "I need you to feed all the kids, and then have them bathed by eleven. Jake and I are going to run some errands while we have our meeting, and he'll just come back here with me if we're not finished."
"Sounds good." Lucas replied kissing her head, and then releasing her from his arms.
"I should get ready." Peyton said a few minutes later after she glanced at the clock one more time and seen that she was supposed to realize that she was supposed to pick her up in less than two hours. She kissed him once, lightly on the lips before she pulled herself out of bed, and wandered into the bathroom.
Her shower was quicker then it normally was, mostly because something about being pregnant made her dislike for clod water grow, and a nausea accompanied with hot water develop. She quickly stepped out of the shower, and when she got back into the bedroom, she was left to decide what to wear.
Thankfully, she was still able to wear her normal clothes, which was such a luxury, seeing as when she had been two months pregnant last time, she had been about as big as a truck, but that didn't make dressing any easier. Finally, she realized that it actually didn't matter what she wore, as long as she was comfortable, and she ended up pulling on her favorite pair of jeans and one of her favorite Clothes Over Bro's tops, that's only drawback was that it made it very well known that she was pregnant, which wasn't exactly what Peyton wanted to be broadcasting to Victoria when she first saw her. But the normally comfortable April day was surprisingly cool, and it only made sense that Peyton dress for comfort.
"You look good." Lucas commented as she walked into the kitchen, Avery on one hip, her purse in her other hand.
"Thanks hon." She said casually, sliding her rings of the chain of the necklace that Lucas had gotten her for their anniversary and slipping them onto her fingers. She then carefully transferred Avery from her arms to Avery's highchair. "I need you do call Dr. McHugh's office about Lilly's first appointment tomorrow, and make sure everything's okay with that." Peyton instructed as she poured some Cheerios onto the highchair and started warming Lilly's bottle, complete with medication. "Avery was up, weren't you Ave? So I brought her downstairs. I know that you have some work to do, so if you can't spend time with her, just put in front of the TV, or something. She needs to hear the talking."
"Peyton, don't worry. I don't have that much work to do. I'll take her upstairs and read to her until everyone else is up. You don't worry about that. I love you, and don't get stressed out." He kissed her quickly too, one hand on her stomach before he let her go, watching her walk out the door.
Brooke was waiting outside her car already to go, when Peyton walked outside. "Morning buddy." She said quietly as she slid into Brooke's car, sending her a sympathetic smile. "How's everything going at home?"
"I just dropped Ollie and Lo off at Naley's house, they're going to bring them over for the thing this afternoon. Chase is at home, freaking out, I'm sure, and I am this close to having a mental breakdown. How about you?"
Peyton laughed, "Brooke, it's going to be fine. I promise. She can't do anything to hurt you if you don't let her."
Brooke was quick to contradict her. "Really? She could take away my business, your label, hurt you and Lucas, hurt my kids and my husband… She can do a hell of a lot."
"Brooke. I promise you that in the end, everything going to be okay."
Brooke sighed, resigned to know that her normally 'not the silver lining kind of person' best friend wasn't likely to let her win this one. "How's my newest little Sawyer Scott coming?"
"Fine. Nightmares this morning, but the morning sickness is nothing like with the 'lets. Speaking of which…"
"I won't say a word until the party." Brooke said, smirking. "Promise."
"Thank you." Peyton said, taking a deep breath in time with her best friend as they pulled into the airport parking lot. "So, what's the dress code for this party?" Peyton asked, trying to keep both Brooke and hers minds' off Victoria's arrival as they walked slowly towards the airport.
"Nice." Brooke responded simply, elaborating when she saw Peyton's confused face. "Ollie's wearing her beige skirt with a light-blue polo and a light blue, purple and ivory argyle sweater vest. Lo's wearing beige pants that match Ollie's, and-" Peyton cut her off.
"Brooke," she started, laughing. "Your mother goes to fancy dinner parties all the time. I know you want to impress her, but maybe showing her that you have people who don't feel like they have to constantly dress up for you is the way to go."
Brooke seemed to ponder this for a minute before she spoke again. "In that case, Ollie wanted to wear that long knit cable tunic that I bought her last week, with that striped pink shirt, and jeans, probably. And Lo will probably wear those jeans that you bought him, and that bear long sleeved tee with that brown dress shirt over it."
Peyton nodded, that sounded much more like something that they would be comfortable in. Brooke looked around and saw that they were only a few feet from the doors. She looked at Peyton, and the blonde wordlessly walked forward, opening the door, and they both walked in.
Victoria was standing in plain view of them, thankfully, facing the other way so Peyton and Brooke took their time walking from the front door to where the woman was standing. Brooke took one deep breath before she made her presence known. "Hello, mother."
Victoria spun around on her heels, her brown hair a few degrees behind her. "Brooke, darling." She walked forward and pulled Brooke into a hug that any onlooker would think was just sweet, however, Peyton could easily recognize the way Brooke pulled back just a bit to early, and how Victoria's fingers seemed to be rigid. "And you brought Peyton, how nice." Peyton smiled coolly at her. "And she's pregnant! Congratulations dear." Peyton scoffed internally. "Well, I already got my luggage, how about we just get out of here. What are our plans for tonight?"
"Actually, mother, I'm having some people over for the afternoon. It's something that we with friends like to do every so often." Brooke said coolly, now that they were out of public ear.
"And who would be attending this lovely party you have planned?" Victoria bit back just as coolly.
"Well, you remember Nathan and Haley, and their son Jamie. Peyton's family is coming," Peyton sighed when Brooke's mother didn't ask about what Brooke meant by family, "my friend Rachel and her boyfriend, Owen, oh, Lucas' ex-fiancée and her new fiancé/ Peyton's brother, Derek, and her son, Sawyer."
"And Jake and Jenny." Peyton added. "Lilly begged, I assumed you wouldn't mind."
"Of course not. I love that kid." Brooke said, laughing. "And her dad's okay too. Oh, and of course my family will be there." Brooke threw that one in last, Peyton was sure, in an attempt to not have her mother notice it. It didn't work.
"Your family? I thought that they weren't giving you a baby, because you were single."
"Well, they mush have changed their minds after I got married." Brooke clipped back. "My oldest is eight, and her names' Olivia, and her brother, Logan, is four months old." Brooke explained as she pulled up to Peyton's house, both of them enjoying the look on Victoria's face as she took in the towering three and a half story beachfront house.
"I'll be at your house in two hours, right?" Peyton asked as she slid out of the car. Smiling when she saw her husband through the window, and she could tell that he was sopping wet, even from where she was. She said goodbye to Brooke quickly and then walked up to her front doors, about to say hello to Lucas when she noticed Jake sitting in the living room.
"I needed some help." Lucas admitted, laughing as he gestured to his soaking wet apparel, "and Jake said that he wouldn't have a problem with helping out, so he came over. You don't mind right?"
"Of course not." Peyton answered, "and seeing as I already talked to Brooke, we really don't need to have a meeting anyways. I totally forgot that Victoria seems to believe that she has some stake in my company, so it would probably be best if we didn't do anything to important while she was here anyways."
"Sounds good then. Jenny invited to this party thing?"
"Yeah, just warn her that Brooke's mom is a little mean sometimes." Peyton warned as he walked out the door. "Tell her not to take it personally."
"Okay." Jake said as he walked out the door and Peyton heard it slam shut a few seconds later.
"So, how was it?" Lucas asked, walking up to her and pulling her into his arms.
"Okay. I think that Brooke is freaking out a bit, but she changed the dress code to casual, which is amazing, seeing as they triplets just started to crawl and I have not gone out and bought anything that's safe for them to wear except crawlers."
Lucas laughed as he followed his wife up the staircase, and helped her dress all three infants. All three kids were dressed in the same style, Avery in a pale purple onesie, with matching grey pants, and a purple, grey and blue polka dotted hoodie. Bailey was wearing the same outfit in pink, green and purple stripes, and Brody had a white onesie and a raven's colored sweat suit on over it. Despite the easiness of dressing the kids, it still took an hour and a half for them to get Avery, Bailey and Brody dressed and ready, Lilly ready and to get themselves dressed, and it was just noon when they all finally got into the car, with everything packed for the babies in a bag next to Peyton.
They pulled up to Brooke's house, and Peyton was surprised to find that everyone was already there. She laughed to herself as she reached in and unbuckled Avery, pulling her youngest daughter in closer to her and cradling her to her chest as Luke grabbed Bailey and Brody.
With Lilly behind them, they all made their way into the big house, Lilly immediately joining Jenny, Jamie and Olivia in the living room, while Lucas and Peyton continued into the kitchen, where they found the rest of the adults, and Sawyer spread out. Peyton walked over to where the rest of the women were sitting at the table, Sawyer and Logan with them. Lucas too made his way over to Nathan, Chase, Derek and Jake, with the two babies. "Where's Victoria?" Peyton asked, looking around for evidence of the she-devil, crying kids, for example.
"Sleeping. She needed a nap." Brooke said, frowning. She looked as though she was going to continue when Rachel came running into the room.
"You'll never guess what I just found." She said, laughing as she held out a DVD for everyone to see. "Senior videos." She said simply, and the entire group began to smile at the memory of watching the tape that Rachel was holding, a few weeks before Rachel herself had left. The tape was made by parent's and teachers and kids, and was basically a video record of their entire senior year.
"Let's watch it." Someone said, Peyton wasn't sure who, but she agreed.
"Yeah, come one Brooke, you remember that year, it was hell, this video was amazing though, and it had been a long time…"
Brooke smiled as she took the tape from Rachel and rolled her eyes. "Fine. We can't eat until my mother gets up anyways." She gave in and directed the crowd to the large living room, giving Peyton, Lucas, Avery, Brody, Bailey and Lilly the biggest couch, Jamie, Haley and Nathan the love seat, herself, Chase, Ollie and Lo the other love seat, and Derek, Lindsay and Sawyer, and then Rachel and Owen a large, oversized chair each before she put in the tape.
The first images were from the first half of senior year, and there were plenty of images of Lucas and Brooke, and one or two of Chris Keller, one of Haley on tour, Ellie and Peyton and so many other memories. They were all so caught up in the tape that none of them heard the heels clacking on the floor as Victoria entered the room, taking in the large group of people.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't my grand children." She said, looking at Olivia and Logan for the first time. "Well, come say hello." She said to Olivia, and she watched as the frightened child stood up and quietly walked over to her grandmother, muttered hello and then sprinted back to her mother's arms. She looked past Logan quickly, almost as if she hadn't seen him, and then fixed her gaze on Lucas and Peyton. "Are those all yours?" She asked, distaste in every word.
Lucas at least, had been expecting this. Aside from Brooke, he and his wife were the people that Victoria felt most compelled to torment, and anyone who so much as looked at Peyton with her kids would be able to see in an instant exactly to do that. That was why Lucas hadn't been especially happy about coming here in the first place. He knew that Peyton was already pront to stress, and that was the last thing that he wanted for her, or his newest child.
"Yes." Peyton responded simply, smiling at her best friend's mother, unaware of her husbands worrying. "They are."
"And the babies are?"
"Ten months." Peyton answered, smiling.
Peyton, Lucas and everyone else in the room watched as Victoria's gaze travel from Avery in Peyton's arms, to Brody and Bailey, and then to Peyton's stomach.
"And you're pregnant." It wasn't a question, and she obviously didn't approve.
Peyton nodded, her calm attitude diminishing with every passing second as she got less mad and more scared.
"You do know what causes that, right?" The entire room was shocked into an astounded silence as Victoria uttered this sentence, and it was enough to get Peyton mad again.
"Yes." She said, smirking, "And we're pretty damn good at it too."
This was going to be a long night.
A/N: Review, please. 105 would make my week!! Oh, and just in case you were wondering, here's my plan. There are only five or six more chapters in this fic, and then an epilogue, and then this'll be done. Then i'm going to finish up Pictures Hang Like Broken Pasts and then i think i'm going to continue on Hear Right Past Me.