Disclaimer: One Tree Hill and its characters belong to Mark Schwahn, The CW, etc. I'm simply whoring them for my own amusement.
Spoilers/Warnings: I'm screwing with pretty much everything in the OTH verse. For now if you've seen S1, you're golden.
Summary: AU. A one night stand blossoms into much more than Lucas and Peyton originally bargained for.
A/N: Alrighty, then. Sorry it took me nearly a month to get this baby posted. I was preoccupied with that other fic. The next chapter will be the last, however, and will be relatively short.
—
09. There's No I in Threesome
It had bugged him all night, the man that Peyton had been referring to. It could have been her father—Peyton seemed the type to have daddy issues—but something told him that wasn't the case. That it was a romantic relationship. Aside from admitting to her brief relationship with Chris Keller, Peyton hadn't said anything further.
And she said he kept secrets.
He stood at the bar, watching her. She was talking to Tim and Skills, laughing at whatever the two morons were saying. She hadn't so much as spoke to him since they'd arrived. After she'd disappeared into the bathroom, they hadn't spoken another word until they were in the car. "What are you trying to do, suffocate me?" she'd asked when he'd failed to turn on the air conditioning. She seemed content to ignore him and, he had to admit, he deserved every silent second.
Despite the gulf that was between them, he couldn't take his eyes from her. She was ravishing in some plum colored concoction. He wasn't the only one watching her that was for sure. Even Tim was salivating over her. Much to the chagrin of his date.
Someone sidled up beside him and he didn't realize who it was until she spoke. "I thought this was Lily's party." Haley. Wonderful. He stifled a groan. That would make things between Peyton better not worse. Not at all.
"It is," he said, turning toward her.
"Maybe someone should tell them that." Haley gestured over to the group that was surrounding Peyton.
"They're just talking. Besides, Lily is with her friends, awaiting her birthday present to come out and serenade her." Lily's happiness over having Chris Keller at her birthday was the only thing keeping this evening from being completely miserable. He loved when his sister was happy and that he'd been able to get her something that was so normally unattainable. He had Peyton to thank for that…if only she would let him.
Lucas grabbed his drink and stepped away. "I should really go check on Lily." He started to walk away, but Haley grabbed his hand.
"What's wrong, Luke?"
Something made him turn back to look at Peyton. She was watching him and Haley intently. He snatched his hand out of Haley's grasp, albeit a little rougher than he should have. Her shoulders sagged and it made him feel like a total ass. He was an ass. "I told Peyton what happened between us."
"Why…why…why would you do that? It didn't mean anything."
"She didn't see it that way, unfortunately. And you…right now…you're not helping me. Please, Haley. Just…I don't want to lose her." He never begged for anything in his life, but he would beg and grovel for Peyton. He refused to let her go.
Haley sighed. She didn't know what Lucas wanted from her, wanted her to do. But it was Peyton he wanted. And if she wanted to be honest with herself, she didn't want him either. "I came here for Lily. I'll just go…" Before she left him alone, she turned to ask, "Do you love her, Luke?"
"If I do, you won't be the first person I tell."
—
Lucas approached Peyton apprehensively on the pretext of asking her to help him with…something. He scurried through different excuses as he crossed the floor to her where she was deep in conversation with Tim's date for the night. He interrupted, telling Peyton that he needed to speak with her. "Privately," he added when she gave him a look that said, "Well, talk." Taking her elbow, he led her away.
"What, is Haley preoccupied?" Peyton wriggled her arm free of his grasp, hating the little tremors that flitted along her skin with his touch. She wanted to be left alone to stew in her anger and she couldn't do that, she couldn't think, when he touched her.
"We were just talking. Which you saw."
"I saw you holding her hand."
"She grabbed my hand. I was not holding hers."
Peyton crossed her arms, flattening her back against the wall. "Thanks for the update. Are we done?"
"Not even close." He braced his hand against the wall beside her head, leaning close. "Come on, Peyton, we can get through this. I know we can."
"I don't know if we can. I don't like lies, Lucas."
His temper flared. "Whose, Peyton? Because I don't think your anger is about me at all."
"I don't know what you're talking about." She looked away. She knew exactly what he was talking about. Who he was talking about.
"Keep your secrets, then. But I refuse to be held responsible for someone else's mistakes."
Lucas was about to walk away when Chris Keller said over the sound system, "The next song is for Lucas and Peyton. Lily says thanks." A strobe light found them standing in a corner. People clapped. They mutually groaned.
"They're expecting us to dance, aren't they?"
Lucas nodded. He took her hand and led her out onto the dance floor. Chris began playing and Peyton whispered, "What is he doing? He's supposed to be playing songs off the new album." Instead, Chris sang a rendition of Cheap Trick's "The Flame." It was one of her favorite songs, yes, but the moron was supposed to be promoting an album.
"You're constantly in producer mode, aren't you?"
Despite the situation, she smiled at him. "What can I say? I love my job."
"And you're good at what you do. That makes a difference."
"You like what you do, don't you? Writing?"
"Of course, but I haven't been able to do much writing lately, not with manning the car dealership." He sighed. "Sometimes I think this was a mistake."
"What, us…or coming here?"
"No, not us. Never us. Coming here."
"But you love it here. Say what you will, but you do."
Lucas couldn't refute that fact. He did love Tree Hill. It was home. But since things with Nathan had gone sour, he just hadn't enjoyed the town like he used to. "Things just got so fucked up," he mused aloud.
"Because you lied to me. None of this would've happened if you had just told me the truth."
Lucas shook his head, his anger spiking. "No, because then I'd still be the biggest dick ever because I did something similar to some other guy you've known. Whether you want to acknowledge it or not, Peyton, you're pissed at me for what he did and I'm willing to bet that what he did was a whole lot worse."
Peyton hung her head. She knew what he was saying was true. What happened with Jake was similar to what happened with him, Nathan, and Haley. But it wasn't the same. Not at all. Yet she still couldn't distinguish between the two. The similarities were still there. Just like the raw feelings of betrayal.
"I don't know what you want me to say, Lucas."
"I want you to forgive me. I want you to say that this isn't our end."
"I'm sorry, Lucas. I can't." She slipped out of his arms, leaving him standing on the dance floor all alone as Chris sang the lyrics I'm in too far, I'm in too deep over you, you'll always be the one.
Fitting, considering he was in love with the damn woman.
—
Peyton was sitting at the bar while Chris continued to play, Lucas where he should be with his sister. She should've been up there with them, but she'd had enough of Chris in the last four hours to last her a whole year. As if Chris wasn't enough, she also had to tolerate seeing Haley.
It had been Luke's idea to invite his best friend. For Lily, he had said. It wasn't her birthday to micromanage the guest list. Now, Haley was standing with Lucas and Lily, watching Chris perform and Peyton was trying to resist the urge not to do something catty. If Lucas had to have a girl for a best friend, why couldn't she have glasses or braces? Why did she have to be pretty? Why did she have to be Haley?
"Wow, you're certainly taking it better than I did," Nathan told Peyton, sliding onto the stool beside her. He followed her line of vision, which was focused on Lucas and Haley who were standing very close, their arms nearly touching. She tried to picture them together, kissing; doing the things that she and Lucas did…she immediately shook the thought away. It had been years ago. It shouldn't bother her. It did.
"Taking what?" she asked Nathan softly, her warring emotions making her sad instead of angry.
He gestured toward Lucas and Haley. "Their relationship."
"They don't have a relationship," Peyton spat, angrily. She wasn't in the mood for Nathan's games. She was only in the mood to get drunk and forget her problems, forget that her boyfriend's long ago indiscretion had summoned up feelings that she'd thought long buried.
"Of course not. After all, he has you now. But they used to be quite the pair. Inseparable." Nathan watched with satisfaction as she devoured his words. He was a little perturbed, however, when she remained quiet. There was no cursing him, no pounding her fist on the bar. She didn't fly off her stool to go confront Lucas. She didn't even touch her drink. He frowned. This was not going as planned.
She looked at him, then, giving him a smile, however fake it was. "You can stop wasting your breath, Nathan." She whispered, "I know."
Well. He was impressed. His brother might be in love after all. However, he wasn't giving up. He would elicit a response from Peyton, one way or the other, even if he had to paint her a picture of what he'd seen. "Did he tell you that I walked in on them?" Her gaze snapped to him then. Bingo! "Yeah, right in the middle. That's an image that will be forever seared into my brain." He paused, and waited. "I'm actually surprised Lucas told you. The only one he's ever honest with is Haley."
Peyton couldn't hear anymore. She couldn't be here anymore. Not around Nathan or Lucas or Haley. She pushed her drink away and slid off the bar stool. "I'm not feeling so good. Could you— if Lucas asks— I have to go."
Nathan shot his hand out and grabbed her wrist. "Hey, are you okay? Do you want me to drive you?"
"No. I think you've done enough."
—
Nathan recognized her perfume, that floral scent that always made him think of spring rain and blooming flowers. He looked over his shoulder and sure enough, there she was. He'd saw her earlier talking to Lucas. He'd wanted to talk to her himself, but just hadn't the courage.
"What are you doing, Nathan?"
"I'm having a drink," he said, gesturing to the glass before him. It was club soda—but still.
"Liar. I saw you talking to Peyton and I saw her running to get away from you."
"She was not…you don't know what the hell you're talking about, Haley. Besides she was running away from you and my brother."
"It's time to let it go, Nathan. None of this is Luke's fault."
He scoffed. "You protecting Lucas…wonders never cease, do they?"
"Doing to him…exacting revenge it's only going to make a bad situation worse. It's not going to change anything. We'll still be broken."
"He broke us, Haley."
"No, Nathan, he didn't. You did. You broke us. You loved basketball and your groupies more than you ever loved me…if you even loved me at all."
"I loved you," he murmured, meeting her eyes. It was the worst mistake he could have ever made. Her eyes were soft and glassy—she was on the brink of tears.
"Then why wasn't I enough?" she demanded curiously. It was the first time she'd ever asked him that question.
Nathan started to answer, but realized it was a rhetorical question when Haley spun away. She never had liked for him to see her cry. Why wasn't she enough? He wondered as she disappeared into the crowd.
—
Peyton woke up on black satin sheets, her mouth dry, her head aching like the dickens. She was alone so that was good. She turned over and was struggling to sit up when she spotted Nathan at the edge of the bed. "You're alive," he said, laughter in his voice.
"Surprised, are you?"
He handed her a cup of coffee. "Here. I thought this might help."
"Thank you," she said, taking the cup from him. As she lifted the Styrofoam cup to her lips she spotted a dartboard on the opposing wall, a picture of Lucas tacked to the front. "Does it help?" She gestured to it.
"Usually. My aim is off lately."
"It's because of Haley." Nathan started to deny it, but Peyton talked over him. "I saw the two of you at Lily's party." She'd wanted to tell Lily goodbye, but had forgotten herself when she'd seen Nathan and Haley talking.
She'd watched them for a few minutes, things clicking into place, her anger with Lucas dissipating. It was so easy to see that things between Nathan and Haley weren't over, if one watched them long enough. And she had. She'd saw Haley's hands shaking as she stood there talking to her ex-boyfriend, the tears pouring down her face when she spun away from him later.
Maybe Haley did love Lucas, but was she in love with Lucas? It was a possibility. A person could love two people if their hearts allowed it. However, Peyton doubted that Haley's heart was that accepting. Haley seemed the type to love one person, interminably. Like Peyton herself.
"I'm not the one she wants, Peyton."
Peyton shook her head, wincing at the pain in her temple. This wasn't a conversation she needed to have with a hangover, but she may never get another chance. When Lucas realized that she hadn't gone home and that she'd spent the night with Nathan, there was no doubt in her mind that he'd never let her speak to his brother again. "I saw her with both of you and with Lucas not once did I get the feeling that I was spying on two lovers. She may love him, but she's in love with you."
"I thought you were convinced that she was in love with my brother."
"Opinions change," she said with a shrug of her shoulders. "She loves you. That was obvious to me, Nathan. I honestly don't think Lucas or Haley set out to hurt you. Or me, for that matter. Sure, what they did was screwed up, but it was one time. They didn't have an on-going affair."
"But she has feelings for him!"
"The girl is probably just confused."
"How can you defend her?"
"How can you not? If you love her, you fight for her, you show her. That's probably what started all this to begin with. You didn't show her, did you?" Nathan remained quiet. "I didn't think so. A girl doesn't hop into bed with her boyfriend's brother if he's showering her with love and affection."
Nathan didn't want to hear anymore, especially since she had a point. He hadn't shown Haley how much he'd loved her until it was too late. Grabbing her purse off the floor, he set it in her lap, saying, "Your phone has been ringing all morning. I'm assuming that someone noticed you didn't go home."
"I would assume so," she murmured. She wasn't letting him change the subject that easily. "I think you still have a shot if you're man enough to take it."
He disagreed, shaking his head. He'd tried to make amends, it hadn't worked. For three years he'd busted his ass to show Haley that he wanted her and no one else, but she'd been content with friendship when he'd wished for more. "Too much has happened. I—we—can't go back."
"You can always go back…especially if there's someone there to take the journey with you."
Nathan realized that they were no longer talking about him and Haley. "You're in love with my brother, aren't you?"
This time she answered him, however flippantly. "Am I that obvious?"
"You don't hide it well."
"I should probably get out of here. If he finds me here with you he'll never forgive either of us." Peyton threw back the blankets and was standing up when her vision blanked and she swayed. Nathan's quick reflexes saved her from hitting the floor.
That was how Lucas found them. Wrapped up in each other's arms.
They both looked at Lucas, agape, then realizing they were still in each other's arms, jumped away. "I was worried when you didn't come back," he said, focusing his attention on Peyton. If he looked at Nathan, he didn't know what he would do. Probably push him out the door into oncoming traffic. "One of the bartenders at the club said that you were talking to him last night. I thought I'd take my chances that he knew where you'd be. I just never…"
"It's not what you think." That was Nathan.
"Isn't it?" he exclaimed, turning to cast dark eyes on his brother. "This was what you set out to do, isn't it? Congratulations, Nathan. You won. I understand now."
Nathan wasn't going to be blamed for something that he hadn't done. Sure, he had set out to do it, but he didn't. He couldn't. He circled the bed until he was just a few feet from his brother. "If you'd let me explain…"
"I don't want your damn explanations and don't you come any closer," Lucas warned. He wouldn't be responsible for his actions if Nathan advanced any closer.
Nathan stood a step forward without hesitation. What was Lucas going to do, hit him?
Yet, that's precisely what Lucas did—a good solid punch to the jaw. Then, he simply turned and walked away.
"Lucas! Lucas!" Peyton yelled after him. He stopped in the doorway for a moment, but he didn't look back, nor he did he come back. Tears streaming down her face, Peyton fell onto the bed. When Nathan attempted to comfort her, she slapped him across the face. She hissed, "This is all your fault."
He didn't dare disagree.
—
Lucas was sitting in a chair in the living room, a near empty glass of bourbon in his hand when Peyton returned. He looked up at her and held her gaze for a moment before he looked away. He couldn't bear to look at her.
She slammed the door closed. "You don't want to talk, you don't have to," she yelled, walking into the room. "But we're not going to make the same mistakes Nathan and Haley did. We're not going to lose years. I'm not going to lose you." She threw her purse onto the sofa. "I didn't have sex with Nathan. That may have been his agenda, but nothing happened. I was drunk last and Nathan didn't want me to drive. So he took me to his place. When you walked in…I couldn't walk. I almost fell. He caught me. It was innocent."
"How do I know that's true? I lied to you. You could be lying to me."
"Have I ever lied to you? No, because that's not who I am."
"But it's who I am, right? Lucas the Liar," he snorted.
"I didn't say that. Don't put words in my mouth. And don't start acting contrite now. You knew what you were doing. You had every opportunity imaginable to tell me the truth—you chose not to."
Lucas couldn't argue so he said nothing. Peyton took the glass from him and sat down on the coffee table in front of him. "You were right about what you said last night. I was holding someone else's transgressions against you. You remind me a lot of him. But really you're nothing like him."
Lucas started to say something, but Peyton leaned forward, putting her fingers over his mouth. "No. Not yet. Let me talk. Let me say this." Taking her hand away and putting it in her lap, she told him, "His name was Jake. He was the world to me when I was a teenager. But he cheated on me—repeatedly. He told one lie after the other to cover himself and when you told me about Haley…I thought about that and the night that he finally told me the truth. You were right. Yes, what he did was so much worse than what you did. He was a musician and had an ongoing affair with a groupie. They even had a child together." She felt tears prickling her eyes, but blinked them away. It always happened when she talked about Jake. She felt foolish for being cowed the way she'd been. "I loved him," she went on. "At least I thought it was love. Now I think it was merely an infatuation. The way I felt for him…it doesn't compare with how I feel for you, Lucas."
"And how do you…"
She huffed, "Surely you must know that I'm in love with you. I wouldn't have come here with you if I hadn't…if I hadn't already loved you."
Lucas sat forward, putting his hands on her knees. "Can you forgive me, Peyton?"
"Can you forgive me?" She didn't wait on his answer. "I didn't sleep with Nathan. I think that's what he initially set out to do, yes…but something happened. I think it was Haley."
Lucas smiled then. "It was always about Haley. It was never about me. I understood that. He didn't know what to do when he lost her, when she refused to take him back. Getting angry with me, wanting to get even…that was his way of trying to get over her."
"Well, he did a bang up job of it."
His smile widened as he inched closer. "I love you. Even if you had slept with Nathan…I'd still love you."
"I didn't, Lucas. I swear to you that I—"
His fingers were firm against her mouth. "I believe you."
"You do?"
"I love you, Peyton. I love you."
"I like hearing you say that."
"I don't know why I didn't say it before."
"The time wasn't right." She closed the distance between them, climbing into his lap. "I love you, Lucas," she whispered in one ear, and then repeated it in the other. She pressed kisses down one column of his throat and then the other. She told him. Now, she wanted to show him. She was reaching for the buttons on his shirt when he snared her wrists and pushed her back.
"No—wait. There's something I gotta take care of first."
"Now?" she exclaimed, incredulous that he was leaving her now. "But we were about to make up."
"Later." Lucas shifted her off his lap and stood up. "I'll be back. Then we can pick up wherever you want." With a kiss to her nose, he was gone.
—
Nathan opened the door, surprised to find his brother on the other side. He flexed his jaw and stepped aside waving Lucas in. "I can't say I'm not surprised to see you." He faced his brother, watching as Lucas rolled up the sleeves of his dress shirt. "What are you doing?"
"We've been butting heads for years, Nathan. It's time we settle it like men."
"We're not going to fight."
"Aren't we?"
"No. I don't want to fight you, Lucas. I'm… I'm tired of fighting you."
Lucas dropped his fists to his side. "I didn't intend to hurt you, Nathan. I was pot-slinging drunk when Haley appeared at my door. It was never supposed to go as far as it did."
"It happened, Luke. You can't take it back."
"No, I can't. But the facts remain the same. We can't get back the past three years or undo all the damage that's been done, but maybe we can call a truce? I think Haley and Peyton would appreciate that. So would Dad."
"I didn't sleep with Peyton."
"I know you didn't."
"I was going to."
"I know you were." Then, "Why'd you change your mind?"
Nathan shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know, honestly. It was something in her voice when I was talking to her at the bar. In that moment, I knew that I wasn't hurting you as much as I was hurting her. I had come to like her and I just… I hated that I hurt her, that I dragged her into our mess. It was selfish."
The party had been over by the time he'd wound up back at the bar and encountered Peyton. She was already deep into her cups by the time he sat beside her, raving about Lucas and Haley and everything that had happened since she'd come to Tree Hill. Her words had weakened his resolve, more so following his conversation with Haley. After talking to her he hadn't been able to think of anything else, much less bedding his brother's girlfriend out of spite.
"Nathan, this has got to stop. If we keep on the way we are we're going to turn out just like Dad and Uncle Keith. I don't know about you but I don't want that to be us in twenty years."
"No. Me, either," Nathan mumbled. He watched Lucas reach into his pocket, extracting a slip of paper. Lucas held it out to him. "What's that?"
"That's where Haley's staying. Go to her. Work it out."
"Luke, I can't…"
"Look, it was a fucked up thing that the two of us did. We weren't in good places and things escalated."
Nathan held up his hand, his eyes closed. "Spare me the details, please."
"I wasn't going to go into detail. If I remember you got your eyes full—" He stopped, seeing his brother's pained expression. "Just…try, Nathan. Otherwise you'll always wonder what might have been."
Nathan sighed, but snatched up the paper, stuffing it into his pocket. "I take it that you and Peyton worked things out."
"Things are going to be touch and go for a while. She's very big on honesty, but you know I think we're going to be okay." He was eager to get back to her, but felt it was imperative he settled things with Nathan first.
"That's good. I hope you can work things out."
"I hope the same for you and Haley." Lucas headed for the door, but stopped just short of it and turned around when Nathan called out to him.
"I'm sorry I almost messed things up for you."
"You didn't, though. That's what matters. If you had our conversation would've turned out much differently." Lucas opened the door and walked out leaving Nathan to blow out a breath as he stared down at the paper in his hand, fighting the decision to follow his older brother's advice.
"It's so much easier to hate him," he muttered to himself, grabbing his keys off the bar, making a beeline for the door.
—
"I want another chance," Nathan said when she opened the door.
"Nathan, what are you—?" Haley asked as he stormed past her into the room.
"No," he told her gruffly watching as she closed the door. "I've let you make all the decisions the last few years because I felt guilty for how I treated you. Well now it's my turn. I want you, Haley. I want you back and I'm not leaving this room until you agree that we have something worth salvaging."
"Nathan—"
"Why won't you forgive me? For goodness sake, wasn't walking in on you and Lucas punishment enough? Haven't I paid for all of my transgressions? I love you. I've never stopped loving you. I tried to hate you, but I couldn't—I can't."
"Nate—" she tried again.
"I'll do whatever you want, Haley. Just say that you'll give me another chance." When she just continued to stare at him blankly, he said, "You should know that Lucas and I squared things away. You need him in your life, I understand that. Just…please, Haley."
She noticed the bruising on his jaw. "Did he punch you?"
Nathan nodded. "It was a long time coming. Plus, he walked in and found Peyton in my arms." At her gasp, he added, "It was nothing. She was drunk and had a little trouble remaining vertical."
"So you didn't—?"
"No."
"I'm not sure this is a good idea, Nathan."
"Why?"
"Because you have the ability to hurt me more than anyone else…"
Nathan crossed the room to her, grabbing her arms in his hands. "I won't. I swear it. I want you, Haley. Only you. You can turn me away but I'm not going to give up."
"You plan on pursuing me relentlessly, huh?"
"I'll do whatever I have to do." He sighed. "I just have to know one thing."
"Okay…"
"Lucas…do you love him—are you in love with him?"
Haley didn't answer him for a long moment. "I convinced myself I was. Lucas was all the things that I wanted you to be back then. He was kind and considerate and he paid attention to me. After we…afterward I wanted something to happen, I'll admit. I was hoping he'd look at me differently. But he never did. And when I got here…I didn't have a chance. Peyton's his world. I want to be someone's world. I want to be your world."
He crushed her to him, murmuring in her ear, "You are, Haley. You always have been. You always will be."
—
Peyton was sprawled across his spare bed when Lucas returned to the beach house. He thought to ask why but remembered that she'd painted his bedroom and the fumes were still far too strong. He noted that she'd shucked the dress she'd worn last night and was wearing a ratty old t-shirt. "Does your head hurt?" he asked, entering the room.
"It feels like there are a million carpenters in my head and they're building the biggest mansion on the planet," she moaned.
"Can I do something for you?" he asked, climbing onto the bed. He put his hand on her stomach, his touch gentle and comforting.
Peyton looked up at him, searching his face. "You can tell me where you went."
Lucas toed off his shoes then stretched out on his back beside her. "If you must know I went to see Nathan."
"Oh, God," she groaned, her eyes slipping closed.
"I thought we should battle out our differences once and for all."
She sat upright to look at him. She studied his face then picked up each one of his hands. "I don't see any signs that he fought back."
"We didn't fight at all," he assured her, capturing her hand, pressing a kiss to the top.
"That's a relief, I guess. What happened, then?"
Lucas blew out a frenzied breath. "We talked. We'll never be close but I think we can be in the same room for now on without wanting to beat each other senseless."
"Give it time, Luke. You'll get there."
He patted her hand, assuring her, "I accepted my fragile relationship with Nathan long ago, Peyton. As long as I have you, I can deal with how things are."
"You have me, Lucas. You have me."
"Can I have you now?" he all but growled.
"You can have me whenever you please," she said looping her arms around his neck to pull him closer.