Chapter 9

Not With Anyone Else

Peyton sat on the edge of the bathtub staring at the stick on the counter afraid to look at it. A gentle knock on the door jolted her out of her thoughts.

"Peyt, honey, can I come in?" said Lucas softly through the door.

Peyton got up slowly, unlocked the door and went back to sit on the edge of the large spa tub.

Lucas went inside, closed the door and sat beside her.

"So?" he asked.

"It's over there. I haven't looked yet."

"Ok, so let's look at it together, but before we do, there's something I want to ask you," he said turning more to face her.

"Ok," she answered uncertainly.

"I know we haven't been together for long, but I feel like we've been building up to this our whole lives. I think maybe everyone else saw the inevitable before we were ready to admit it. I want you to know that I'm not pinning my hopes for us on what's on that stick over there. I want us to be together no matter what. So I was wondering, since Brooke and Julian are going to need an extra room very soon, and we're in love and all…if you would move in with me."

Peyton let out a long sigh of relief then turned to Lucas and slowly closed the gap between them to plant a soft kiss to his lips. She pulled back and smiled at him. Lucas was momentarily concerned as the kiss almost felt like an apology.

"Yes, Luke. I would love to move in with you. I thought for a moment you were going to ask me to marry you, and I don't think we're ready for that yet. I love you so much. I think it will be good for us to live together."

Lucas cupped her face in his hands and kissed her tenderly rubbing their noses together as he pulled away.

"Ok, ready?" he asked reaching for the stick on the counter.

"As I'll ever be," she said smiling at him and paused for a moment "Can you believe we're here? I mean, I always kind of hoped, but it's just seems a little surreal at the moment."

Flashback

The weeks and months that followed Peyton and Lucas' encounter in her office were difficult. She tried to work things out with Julian, she really did. She attended all family gatherings and her and Julian had gone out a few times with Lucas and Lindsey.

To any stranger watching the foursome, they would appear to be a group of friends all laughing and having a good time. Those within the foursome knew there was an underlying, unspoken current running through their relationships that would always be there. Peyton felt that Julian was watching her every move trying to catch a stolen glance, or an accidental touch that wasn't so accidental, and that was the source of most of her discomfort.

Her and Lucas had been friends all their lives. They knew each other inside and out in the most personal way possible that had absolutely nothing to do with sex or attraction. It came from spending the majority of the first eighteen years of their lives in each other's company, and regardless of anything else, that friendship continued into their adulthood.

Finally, after a year of suspicion and forgiveness and fighting and making up, Julian and Peyton broke up. Peyton moved in with Brooke. No one was really shocked and they remained friendly. They turned out to be much better friends than lovers. Julian and Lucas were in the final stages of finishing the screenplay for the movie of his book, and casting was due to begin in the next couple of months.

Julian had offered Peyton the job of setting the soundtrack for the movie since she lived it, and in that vein, Brooke had been offered the job of costume designer as well.

Lindsey was helping Lucas with his screenplay and so the five of them started spending more and more time together as a group. Although Brooke was the one who hadn't been part of that original dysfunctional foursome, it was Lindsey who began to feel like the fifth wheel. It became clear that Peyton had shared more of her past with Julian than Lucas had shared with Lindsey of his.

Julian was able to participate in and even instigate some of the fun teasing over past indiscretions that would naturally occur when they were all together. Lindsey tended to withdraw from the conversation and find somewhere else to be.

Over the next few months Peyton noticed that Brooke and Julian seemed to have a little flirtation going on but could tell they were holding back because of her. One day, after watching yet another round of flirtatious banter between the two in Peyton's office that had become the makeshift headquarters for the movie, Peyton pulled Brooke off to one side and asked her bluntly if she liked Julian.

Brooke was evasive at first but finally caved in and confessed.

"Ok, I like him. I like him a lot, but I feel like it violates some kind of girl code to go out with him. I mean, you guys were LIVING together." Brooke explained.

"Honey, I would be violating the best friend code if I stood in the way of you being happy. Julian and I are friends now. We're good friends, and I want to see both of you happy. He's a good guy. We just didn't work as a couple…for a number of reasons." Peyton said.

"You mean because of Lucas," Brooke added smiling.

Peyton squirmed uncomfortably. "Partly, yes, but that's old news. Lucas is happily married and we are friends, just like we have been all our lives. Someday my prince will come. You should go and get yours."

"I love you P. Sawyer," Brooke squealed and hugged Peyton tightly.

They returned to where Julian was sitting and Brooke sat down beside him. Peyton gathered up her things and got ready to leave.

"Julian, you break her heart, I break your face, clear?" she said as she winked at Brooke and walked out.

Julian's eyes followed Peyton as walked out with a quizzical look on his face until Brooke pulled his head back around and kissed him. They had their first date that night.

They were about six months into the pre-shooting prep work for the movie when the bad news came. The studio had been taken over and all projects not currently filming were indefinitely suspended. Everyone was disappointed, but quickly moved on to other projects.

Julian decided to stay in Tree Hill and moved in with Brooke and Peyton. It wasn't as awkward as they thought it might be. In fact, Julian often joked, he felt like he had two wives who both nagged him about his bad habits.

With the movie out of the way, Lucas was at a loss for what to do. Lindsey had been on him about writing another book, but he really didn't feel like he had anything to say. He lacked inspiration. It caused some tension between them and Lindsey began spending more time in New York. She was often only home for a week at a time before going off for three weeks or a month. While Lucas missed having his wife around, he didn't miss the tension that always seemed to be there when she was around all his friends.

With Brooke and Julian paired off, and Nathan and Haley with their growing family, Lucas and Peyton found themselves spending a lot of time together. They would often eat meals together at his house or go for long drives in her Comet (when it was working) just to get away from the town for a while. If there was a day when they didn't see each other for some reason, they would make sure they talked to each other at least once on the phone. That was a habit that didn't stop even on the few occasions when Lucas went to visit Lindsey in New York much to her displeasure.

Over the course of the next two years, Lindsey missed many holidays and in particular missed Lucas and Peyton's 25th and 26th birthdays. The sad part was, she wasn't really missed.

Lindsey continued to stay away most of the time and Lucas and Peyton continued to spend lots of time together and soon Lucas found the urge to write again. He would take his laptop on their drives in the Comet and they would find a park or a beach where he would sit and write and Peyton would draw or listen to new music on her iPod.

It took him best part of a year, but he finished his second book, and wouldn't let anybody read it. He took it to New York to show Lindsey and his publisher and they both loved the story of a boy who watched comets all his life until a time came when he couldn't see them anymore and he felt lost without his comets to watch. His life had meaning again when the comets returned.

The book was so clearly a metaphorical reference to Peyton, that Lucas was almost disappointed when Lindsey didn't pick up on it, and get even a little bit mad about it. What she did do shocked Lucas very being.

"I love your book," Lindsey said straddling his lap and starting to undo his shirt in the living room of her New York apartment. Yes, HERS, not THEIRS.

"You do, huh?" replied Lucas, almost turned off by her sudden forwardness.

"Mmhmm. I think it's going to be great, and I think we should celebrate." She kissed him deeply and tried to remove his shirt.

"That sounds great, Linds," Lucas replied awkwardly removing his shirt and feeling entirely more uncomfortable than he should in this situation with his wife. "What did you have in mind?"

"Let's have a baby." She whispered in his ear as she kissed down his neck.

Lucas pushed her away in shock and looked her in the eye.

"What? I thought we agreed we would wait. I mean, you're here and I'm in Tree Hill, and there'll be another book tour. Maybe in a year or so would be better." He rambled. They had talked about it when they first got married, but they decided that, Nathan and Haley excepted, they were young and they had plenty of time. The subject had not been brought up again in the following six years.

The truth was, Lucas loved Lindsey, but in the back of his mind he had the deal that he had made with Peyton when they were 18. Not that he was wishing the deal with Peyton would come true, but the thought of having children with anyone else, INCLUDING his wife, had never crossed his mind.

His pleadings to wait threw Lindsey into a rage, claiming Lucas had more loyalty to his friends in Tree Hill, and specifically Peyton, than he did to his wife. Lucas didn't disagree and the argument that followed was the beginning of the end of Lucas and Lindsey's marriage.

End Flashback

"I guess you were always in the background of everything I did, and I guess that's what eventually got us to here." Lucas said "But I have to tell you, I wouldn't be with anyone else, anyWHERE else. Ever since our deal, I couldn't picture my children with anything but, blonde hair, green eyes, and lots of curls." He smiled sweetly and she kissed him one more time as they looked down at the stick in Lucas' hand together.

As they came back into the living room together, they both had completely expressionless faces even though all eyes in the room were on them. They went to retake their seats on the couch and sat not saying anything for several moments.

"Ok, I'm not as 'oh my god, Lucas and Peyton are together' as the girls, but dude, you're killing me here. Put us out of our misery, puhlease!" Nathan said.

Lucas looked at Peyton and she nodded in silent agreement that he should speak for the both of them.

"Well, Peyton took the test," he started.

"Uh, we know, skip to the good part" chimed in Brooke.

Lucas laughed and continued.

"Before we looked at it, I asked Peyton a very important question."

"Oh god, you proposed!" Haley squealed.

Lucas rolled his eyes and continued again.

"No, Hales, I didn't propose, but I did ask Peyton to move in with me, and she agreed." He turned to Peyton and rubbed her leg as he smiled at her.

"Thank god for that," Julian felt the need to add. "It sucks having to have quiet sex with my wife."

Brooke smacked him and everybody laughed. There was another long pause.

"It's actually a good thing that Peyton agreed to move in with me," another very long pause.

"GET ON WITH IT!!!" they all shouted together.

"It's a good thing, 'cos it would suck not being able to take care of my girlfriend properly when we don't live together, especially because…she's pregnant!!!!"

Everyone stood up and swarmed Lucas and Peyton who had also both stood up. There were hugs and kisses and hearty slaps on the back for Lucas from the guys and crude comments about his swimmers working overtime to make this happen so quickly. But no one, could have been happier at that moment than Peyton. Her dreams were finally all coming true.