A/N: Thank you to all those who reviewed. Some of you are really good guessers. Anyway, there was a typo in the previous chapter that I should've seriously caught. Near the end of the last chapter I wrote that "Lucas was discouraged" when it should have been "Lucas wasn't discouraged." Completely changes the sentence. I'm really embarrassed about it and I've already fixed it. It's just hard proofreading your own work sometimes, but still. So, very sorry about that oversight! Thank you for your continued support.

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Peyton felt herself breaking down as she continued her journey back to her new house. Her vision blurred and her tears began falling. She had walked away from the love of her life. Why? Because it was too much? What kind of reason was that? He was always too much, but that never stopped her before. But then again, look what happened. He broke her heart.

And that's what it all boiled down to. He broke her heart and she wasn't sure she could handle him doing it again. Especially not now when she had her child to worry about. As much as she loved him, she wasn't going to risk getting hurt again.

She needed to get home before the sobs came. She thought that the last thing she needed right now was to make a complete fool of herself in public.

She was wrong.

"Peyton?"

She knew that voice. But it couldn't be who she thought it was. That voice wouldn't be in Tree Hill. She turned to see Julian Baker, her ex-boyfriend, standing there. She wanted to scream. Seeing her ex again was DEFINITELY the last thing she needed.

Julian looked her over. "Why are you always crying when I run into you?"

Peyton wiped the tears away. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm making a movie with a talented young writer. Perhaps you've heard of him, Lucas Scott?"

She couldn't believe what she was hearing. "You're lying!"

He shook his head. "No, I'm not. You were right, Peyton. It was a great story. And it's going to be a great movie."

"Are you doing this to torture me? Do you hate me that much?"

"I didn't even know you were living here, to be honest. And besides, isn't hurting you the way into your heart? I'm willing to bet money that Lucas is the reason you're crying right now."

She didn't say anything. She wished that she had never left the damn house that evening.

Julian's face softened. He moved closer to her. "I'm sorry. I really didn't think this would upset you."

Peyton shook her head. She didn't want him to be sweet. She wanted to be angry at him and being sweet would make it difficult for her. "It's not that."

"What is it, then?" He tried wrapping his arm around her waist but she moved away. "Come on, Peyton, you know that I can be a very good listener."

"When you want to be."

"And I want to be. Right now. For you." He lowered his face so he could look at her tear-streaked one. "Let me buy you a drink. Please?"

"No. I mean, I can't drink… I'm pregnant."

He took a step back and took her in. "I-I-I didn't know."

"It's fine." She just wanted the conversation to end so she could go home.

Julian stood up straight, as if he physically manned up. "How about a root beer float then? You always said they made you feel better."

"Not now, Julian. I'm tired and I just want to go home."

"Okay, fine. But I'm going to find you tomorrow, Peyton. And I'm gonna want to have my root beer float with you."

"I don't know if that's such a good idea."

"Why not? At the very least, it'll make that author of yours green with envy. Make him pay for whatever he did to make you cry tonight. And maybe it might make him realize what a mistake he's making by being with that pretty little girlfriend of his."

"I'm too old to play those games with people's emotions. Besides, his pretty little girlfriend, as you called her, is currently his ex-girlfriend."

Julian smirked at his former flame. "You do work fast, don't you?"

She groaned. "Fuck off, Julian."

"Be careful there, Peyton. Kids hear everything."

She resisted the urge to slap him and instead turned on her heel and hurried away. Things were going to get a hell of a lot more problematical with Julian around.

Julian bit his lip and watched her figure as she left him behind. He called to her, "I was going to be heading back to LA tomorrow, but now I'm thinking I'm gonna be staying here a while. So, don't you worry your sweet little head, you'll be seeing me around."

He laughed as she gave him the finger without turning back to him. Julian relished the idea of staying for a few more days. At best, he'd get to bed Peyton one more time. At worst, he scrambled up some drama that would definitely make it into Lucas's next book.

-------

The phone was ringing and no one was answering. Jamie looked around for his parents. He knew he wasn't supposed to answer the phone but what if it was an emergency?

"Scott Res'dence." He wasn't sure what "Res'dence" meant but that how his parents always answered the phone.

"Hey, J. Luke. Whatcha doing answering the phone?"

"Uncle Lucas! Um… I don't know."

"Listen, where's your mom?"

"I dunno."

"Okay, where's your dad?"

"I dunno."

"Jamie, I'm pretty sure your parents didn't leave you home alone, so ONE of your parents must be there."

"I guess…"

Lucas sighed. "Can you do me a favor and go find one of your parents for me?"

"But what about Spongebob?"

"Is it a new episode?"

"No, but…"

"Jamie!"

"Fine…"

Jamie placed the phone down and was about to walk away when he realized that his favorite part of the episode was coming up. He sat down on the couch to watch it. After all, his uncle could wait five minutes.

Lucas, still on the line, waited for his nephew to bring back an adult he could talk to. He watched the clock as the minutes passed by and he started to get a little worried. Where the hell could his brother and his sister-in-law possibly be?

Haley came downstairs, feeling refreshed after her shower. She saw her son right where she had left him, in front of the television. "Hey, is your dad still outside mowing the lawn?"

Her son made some sort of noncommittal sound and shrugged, all the while never turning his attention away from the cartoon. She frowned, she was going to have to talk to Nathan about blocking that show if Jamie didn't ease up on his obsession of it. But she was going to worry about that now. She was still in relax mode after her shower. She looked at the clock, it was almost noon. It would be nice to have Peyton and Brooke over for lunch. She picked up the phone to call them and found that the phone was already in use.

"Hello?"

"FINALLY!"

"Lucas?"

"Where were you? I sent your son looking for you over twenty minutes ago!"

"Oh, did you? Give me a minute, won't you?" Haley removed the phone from her ear and covered the mouthpiece with her hand. "James Lucas Scott!"

Jamie's hair on the back of his neck pricked. He was in trouble. The small boy turned to look at his mom, standing there. "Yes, Momma?"

"Is there something you want to tell me?"

Jamie scrunched up his face. "Oh yeah! Uncle Lucas is on the phone for you!"

Haley blinked as her son gave her a sweet smile and turned back to his show. She could have the argument later. She moved the phone back. "I'm here now, what's up?"

"I totally ignored your advice."

"You haven't told Peyton how you really feel about her pregnancy, yet? Jeez, Lucas-"

Lucas cut her off. "No, not that piece of advice. The other one."

"You didn't."

He sighed, obviously embarrassed. "I did."

"What happened?"

"Well, she loves me but she said she couldn't deal with me," he explained. "But I know she wants to be with me. I can tell. I think she's just scared."

"Of course, she's scared! Put yourself in her shoes for a minute. How would you feel?" Haley forced herself to soften her tone. "I was going to call her and Brooke and invite them for lunch…"

"I'll be right over!"

"No! You stay right where you are!" She cringed. She hadn't meant for it to come out like that. "You really need to give her some space now. I'll try to talk to her and see where her head is at and if she says anything that wouldn't be a MAJOR betrayal of trust, I'll tell you."

"Thanks, Haley. I owe you one."

"Yeah, you do."

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Brooke was worried. Peyton had come back from her walk and shut herself in her room. She had begged off breakfast this morning and as far as Brooke knew, she was still in bed. The dark-haired beauty made her way to Peyton's room and knocked lightly on the door.

"P. Sawyer? Are you okay?"

In spite of how she was feeling, Peyton had to smile at the amount of concern her best friend had for her. She really shouldn't let Brooke worry unnecessarily. She got up from her bed and opened the door and allowed Brooke to come in.

"All right, so obviously the answer to my previous question is 'no.' So, what's wrong?" Brooke sat on the edge of her bed and looked at her.

"Last night, I kinda ran into to Lucas…"

"What did he do? Do I have to go kick his ass? What am I saying, look at you. I DEFINITELY need to kick his ass."

"Don't. He was good, really," Peyton said, convincingly. "He was romantic and told me all the things I needed to hear. He's not shirking his parental responsibilities."

"That's good but that doesn't explain the…" Brooke gestured wildly around the room.

"Lucas says he wants me back."

Brooke looked at her. "Oh, I'm sorry. Am I supposed to be surprised?"

Peyton huffed. "Yes! I am!"

"Oh, please. I was waiting for this since I found out he broke up with Lindsey." The brunette examined her friend. "You told him no, didn't you?"

Peyton nodded. "I'm stupid, right? I keep turning him down! He going to start doubting I love him!"

"No, he's not. And you're not stupid. I'm sure you have a perfectly good reason for why you said no."

The blonde sniffed. "I'm scared. I don't want to hurt that bad again, Brooke. I don't know if I could handle it."

Brooke wrapped her arms around Peyton. "It's okay, sweetie. That's perfectly understandable. And after all the shit Broody has done to you, it's time he chased you for a while."

Peyton chuckled. "God, do you really think he will?"

"He will if he knows what's good for him." Brooke smoothed her friend's hair. "Now unless the hormones are overload, there's something else, isn't there?"

The pregnant girl gulped and nodded. "On my way back here after talking to Lucas, I ran into my ex-boyfriend."

"Jake?"

"No, not Jake. Julian."

"Producer Julian who couldn't handle being Rebound Boy?"

"Brooke! That's not what he was!"

"Bullshit. Julian was totally your rebound. Not a very good one, but that's what he was, nonetheless." Brooke eyed her friend. "Tell me that he's not into town to win you back."

"No. Worse. He's the producer working with Lucas on the movie adaptation of his book."

"Ooh… That is worse. Do you think Lucas knows about the two of you?" Brooke and Peyton exchange a look and both shake their heads. "No, of course not. There's no way Broody would be able to handle that."

Peyton flopped back on the bed. "And now he's going to ruin everything. There's no way that Lucas is going to want me after Julian gets through with him."

"He's not going to ruin anything," Brooke promised. She was going to make damn sure that producer boy didn't interfere with Peyton's life anymore.

-----

Lucas sat down in front of his computer. He reread the last sentence he wrote to remind himself where he was. And then as if floodgates opened, words began to spill from his fingers and onto the page. He was so engrossed that it took him three rings to realize that his phone was ringing. He should've shut the phone off, but he was afraid that Peyton would call and he didn't want to miss that.

"Hello?"

"Lucas, hi. It's Julian."

"Hey. What's up? Something wrong with movie?"

Julian laughed. "No, everything's going the way that it should."

Lucas breathed a sigh of relief. "Good. But if you're not calling about the movie, then…?"

"Well, I was going to be heading back to LA but then I realized that you and I never really celebrated the completion of the screenplay."

"What are you talking about, Julian? We had a couple of drinks when I dropped it off to you."

"Come on, Lucas, you call that a celebration?" Julian snickered. "I know small towns are a little tamer than LA, but according to your book, you used to know how to party."

"Okay, fine. What did you have in mind?"

"I'm going to have a small party, here at the hotel tomorrow night. You could bring your friends. You know I would love to meet the inspirations for the characters in the book."

Lucas thought about it. "Actually, that sounds good."

"So, I can expect you here tomorrow?"

"Definitely."

-----

Peyton and Brooke were sitting with the Scott family, enjoying a good lunch. Peyton, again, was struck by how stupid she had been not to have come back to Tree Hill sooner. She couldn't believe that how much she missed because of her stubbornness.

Jamie finished his hot dog. "Okay, I'm done. Can I go now?"

Brooke frowned. "Hey, don't you want to spent some time with your favorite godmother?"

His forehead wrinkled in deep concentration. Brooke or Spongebob? He grinned at his godmother. "Of course, I do, Aunt Brooke. What do YOU want to do?"

"Hmmm… how about we go for a walk?" Brooke winked, reminding him of the deal they made at dinner the other night.

"Oh! A walk! I love walks!"

Haley looked at Brooke and her son suspiciously. "Something's going on here, I can tell."

"On the other hand, it would be nice to get him out from in front of the television for an afternoon," Nathan said. "Keep him out as long as you can."

"No problem." Brooke grinned as Jamie took her hand and they left.

Peyton finished her meal. "That was great. Why is it that only food served in this house is remotely appetizing to me?"

"Because you love us, Sawyer."

"That I do," Peyton agreed. "So, I'm sure you're dying to ask me about last night."

Nathan looked confused. "Why? What happened last night?"

Peyton nodded towards Haley. "Ask your wife. I'm sure Lucas called her and told her all about it already."

Haley looked embarrassed. "He did. I just want you to know that I advised him against that repeatedly."

"Against what?" Nathan was becoming annoyed.

"Your brother tried to get back with Peyton last night," Haley explained.

Nathan laughed. "I'm surprised he held out so long."

"So was Brooke. Apparently I was the only one who wasn't expecting him springing that on me."

"So what happened?" The younger Scott brother was curious to know how badly Lucas had messed things up this time.

"I turned him down." Peyton had to fight to keep an even tone. "I know you're probably wondering why I did but-"

Nathan cut her off. "You don't owe us any explanation. I'm sure whatever your reason were, they were valid."

Peyton smiled at her former boyfriend gratefully. "Thanks, Nate. But I'm afraid that now I ruined any chance with him."

"You didn't." Haley gave her a pointed look. "Trust me. Lucas loves you and he wants to be with you. But you have to be ready for that or it's not going to work out."

"I guess you're right, Hales. But I'm afraid that there's something else going on that I haven't told you, yet."

The phone rang, interrupting Haley from asking her what it was. Haley stood up. "Hold that thought, girlie. I'll be back in one second."

She left to answer the phone, leaving Nathan and Peyton alone. He studied her and found her to be a mess of emotions.

"Okay, I know Haley would kill me if you spilled the beans while she was out of the room, so I'll leave that conversation until she comes back. But, I want to ask you something."

"What?"

"What will it take for Lucas to win you back?"

"Did he ask you to do this because if he did…"

Nathan shook his head. "He didn't. I swear. I'm just curious."

Peyton bit her lip. "Truth be told., I don't know. I need to be certain that he's not going to hurt me again."

"Sawyer, that's impossible. He's going to hurt you again. And you're going to hurt him again. It's inevitable. It's part of being in a relationship. You're going to get hurt. The important thing is if you can work through the pain together."

Peyton's eyes stung. "I don't know if we can."

"I think you guys can," Nathan said. "But I can totally understand that you need Lucas prove himself to you, though."

"Thank you, Nate. That really cleared things up for me."

"Good. Glad I could help."

Haley came back, smiling widely. "So, that was Lucas on the phone. Apparently his producer is throwing a party tomorrow to celebrate Lucas finishing the screenplay and we're all invited."

Peyton mouth went dry. "His producer? Julian?"

Haley looked surprised. "Yeah, why?"

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about." Peyton's phone rang and she looked down at it. "It's Lucas!"

"Answer it, he's probably just inviting you to the party tomorrow," Haley urged.

Peyton answered, "Hey, Luke."

"Hey, I'm glad you answered. I was afraid that after last night all my calls would be forwarded directly to voice mail."

"Don't be silly. Anyway, what's up?"

Lucas took a deep breath. "So, I'm sure Haley immediately told you about the party the second she hung up with me. But um, I really wanted to personally invite you. This is a big deal for me and I kinda wanted to share it with all those I care about."

"I don't know, Luke. I'm not going to be very good company and I can't drink and I get tired really easily and…"

"Please, Peyton? I really want you there." Lucas mentally hit himself. So much for keeping the invitation casual. But it didn't matter as long as she said she was coming. "Just don't say no, yet, okay? Will you at least think about coming?"

"Yeah, I'll think about it."

"Thank you, Peyton. I hope you come."

Haley waited patiently until Peyton had hung the phone before asking, "What the hell was all that about?"

Peyton ran her fingers through her hair. "Julian, the producer? He's my ex-boyfriend."

Nathan leaned forward in his chair. "What?"

"We dated for a while, years ago," Peyton told them. "We broke up and I hadn't seen him since. And then suddenly I saw him yesterday and he was such an ass!"

"Of course Lucas doesn't know about this because there's no way he'd be working with Julian if he did know." Haley shook her head. "What about Julian? Does he know about you and Lucas?"

"Oh, yeah. He's well aware." Peyton stood and paced angrily. "This party undoubtedly designed to fuck with Lucas and me."

"Do you really think so?" Haley couldn't believe that the guy that Lucas had raved about for weeks could do something so slimy.

"I know so. So, catch 22. If I go, Julian will do something and it'll mess up whatever truce Lucas and I have. But if I don't go, I'm telling Lucas that I don't care about him and his feelings mean nothing to me. What do I do?"

Haley and Nathan exchanged a look and shrugged. Haley took her friend's hand in hers. "I don't know what to tell you. I mean, isn't there a chance that you could be wrong about Julian?"

"Maybe."

"Why don't you just tell Lucas about Julian?" Nathan asked the question and as soon as it left his mouth both girls looked at him as if he was stupid.

"Because if I tell him, he's not going to work with him and I don't want to ruin this huge chance for Lucas."

"Well, that makes sense, I guess." Nathan scratched the back of his head. At least it made sense for the two girls.

"So, what are you going to do, girlie."

Peyton knew she had to be strong. "I'm going to be there for Lucas and go to the party."

Haley smiled. "Good! I think that's the right decision."

The blonde breathed out slowly. "I sure hope you're right, Haley."