A/N - Hey! Sorry I haven't updated in a while! I've been pretty busy!

Thanks: othfan326, Brooke D., Brook-Lucas-Fan-23, bd-ls-islove, c.j., onetreefan, evergloweyes, Team Davis-Scott, BrOoKe DaViS23, BRUCAS EQUALS LOVE, brokeback kami '-', onetreehillgirl066, brucas3, chebelle, and BDavis427.

Enjoy and PLEASE review!!

Thanks!!

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Searching For What We Lost

Chapter 3 -

--Two Months Earlier--

"Lucas." Haley breathed in, wrapping her arms around him.

She hated seeing her two best friends like this. Seeing them so broken and seeing them have to go through such a tragedy...And the worst part was there was nothing for her to do to help them.

Lucas didn't react to her hug, and just stood there numb.

Numb.

It was how he had been feeling since it happened.

Nothing anybody could say or do would be able to fix this.

"I'm gonna go in and talk to her. Okay?" Haley pulled away and wasn't surprised to see that Lucas's eyes were not on her's. They were staring off into the sky, not at anything in particular. He wanted to be taken away from this all...but that was impossible.

She gave him a final hug, looked back at Nathan who was holding Jamie in his arms, and then walked up to the house, giving the door a push.

"Uncle Lucas?" Jamie asked and didn't wait for a response from his uncle. "Why is Aunt Brooke sad? Is it because of Alex?" The young five-year-old didn't really understand what had been going on with his family. All he understood was that his cousin and best friend wasn't there anymore.

And that question just made Lucas want to escape everything even more.

Inside, Haley walked down the hallway and was pleasantly surprised to find out that Brooke wasn't in bed, like she had always been since it happened. She was sitting at the kitchen table. She still wasn't doing anything, though. She was just sitting there. But it was an improvement.

"Hey, Brooke." Haley walked closer and decided to take a seat next to the brunette.

Just like Lucas, she didn't respond. "You're gonna be okay, Brooke. You and Lucas. It's just going to take a lot of time to heal. You guys need to talk it out."

Truth was, Haley wasn't sure they were going to be okay. Losing a child would have to be one of the most tragic experiences a family could go through.

Fortunately, Nathan and Haley had not gone through anything like that. And Lucas and Brooke definitely did not deserve it.

"How do you know?" Brooke finally said, her voice dripping with anger and coldness. "Don't you dare tell me that it's going to be okay. You don't know anything." Brooke still wasn't looking at Haley, but Haley could tell from her voice that she was on the verge of tears. "You still have your son."

--Present Time--

"You can't just ignore me." She had followed him inside the house, just as he had suspected she would.

"And why not?" It was the first few words he had said to her since their interaction. He would have preferred to ignore her and just have the silence envelope the two, but what she said got to him. "Because if I remember correctly, two months ago, ignoring everything was what you had been doing." His words stung into her, and suddenly she had wished he had stayed quiet and continued on ignoring her. "Oh, and by the way, how was California?"

"Okay, now that's not fair."

"Not fair? Not fucking fair?! You want to talk about what's fair and what's not? How 'bout the fact that you goddamn up and left after ignoring everything that was going on? You didn't want to deal with it!" He threw his hands up in frustration.

"I couldn't be here anymore, Lucas." She mumbled and wiped her eyes and tear-stained cheeks. All his yelling was beginning to scare her, but it was her fault that he was angry. "It was too hard."

"Too hard?" He asked incredulously. "And it wasn't hard for me? You don't think I was suffering? You were too busy locking yourself up! Blocking yourself off from everybody! And you couldn't see that I was suffering, that I was in pain! But I was pretending to be strong for you, Brooke. And then you left..." He trailed off with the shake of his head. He looked over at Brooke who was completely sobbing by now.

But for some reason he didn't care. She was the one that left, she was the one that didn't want to deal with anything. And now that she was back, she was going to have to.

"I needed you. I needed my wife to be there. And you should have needed me, too, Brooke. We should have been dealing with it together, crying together!" It wasn't until he felt his damp cheeks that he realized he had been crying. He looked around the room, taking in the sounds of Brooke's cries. "I—I can't do this." He wiped his eyes, threw on a sweatshirt over his body and left the house, leaving a broken Brooke inside.

Brooke closed her sketch book, happy she was finally done with her new designs. She looked out the window, expecting to see her son there, playing basketball with his mini-basketball hoop.

Except he wasn't there.

Quickly getting out of her seat, she ran to the backdoor in the kitchen that led to the backyard.

"Alex?" He wasn't there either. "Alex?!"

She ran through the house, now to the front and out the door, and she nearly fainted at what was before her eyes.

"Oh my god, Alex!"

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With two rings of the doorbell, Haley opened the door to reveal a distraught-looking Lucas.

"Lucas, what's wrong?" Lucas had been over their house only an hour ago, and she could already tell something had definitely happened in that time.

"I...I don't know what to do." He admitted, running his hands through his short hair. "I saw her...and...and I just don't know what to do."

"Okay, come in, let's talk." Haley motioned him inside, closing the door once he got in. "You saw her?"

"She was waiting outside when I got home...and I just totally blew up at her." He sounded helpless, and Haley wanted nothing more than to help him.

"God, Haley...I'm just so lost."

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A/N - Sorry to leave you guys with such a short chapter; I just really wanted to get something out for you guys!

And I'm sure you're all still wondering what happened to Alex; don't worry, you'll find out soon!

LEAVE A REVIEW! THANKS!

–Melissa