CHAPTER 17

'So are we finished with the little interrogation?' Peyton asked.

'Well, I guess…' Haley started but Brooke cut in.

'No we are not.'

Peyton sighed closed her eyes and fell back against the mattress.

'Ok, I guess we are.' Brooke shrugged smirking. 'I just wanted to keep Lucas waiting down there.'

Peyton opened her eyes confused and Haley turned to look at Brooke.

'The guy is probably agitated to get back in here.' She laughed.

Peyton rolled her eyes, then her phone rang, she picked it up off the cabinet next to her in surprise. Who'd be calling her?

'Speak of the devil, I bet.' Brooke smirked and Haley laughed.

'It's actually my dad so shhh.' Peyton smiled and opened her phone. 'Hey dad!'

'Ok well…we'll be going then…' Haley whispered and pointed towards the door, Peyton gave them the thumbs up and they opened the door and stepped out into the hall, before walking down the stairs. They walked back into the living room to see Lucas and Nathan sitting on the couch together, as soon as they walked into the room Lucas was on his feet with a grin and up the stairs in a flash.

'Whipped!' Nathan called after him, laughing.

'I think it's sweet!' Haley scolded.

----

'Uhuh, yeah it's great…. So Karen told you we're staying at a cabin… right. Yeah it's pretty cool…'

She looked up as Lucas, with a grin on his face, entered the room and closed the door behind him, settling himself down on the bed beside her and resting a hand on her hand which lay on the bedspread.

'Yes, dad…I've made friends.'

Lucas raised an eyebrow smirked and leaned in closer, placing a kiss just behind her ear and taking in the scent of her shampoo decidedly loving the smell.

'Yes of course… am I getting on well with Lucas?' Peyton repeated her father's question rolling her eyes, and Lucas smirked suggestively leaning in again and brushing his lips against her cheekbone, Peyton had to fight hard to keep her voice steady as Lucas moved to her neck, placing a small kiss there as his hand moved from hers to rest on her thigh.

'Sure, he's not a total ass.' Peyton smirked and felt Lucas chuckle against her neck, his warm breath making her tingle before placing a feather light kiss on the side of her mouth.

'So how's work?' Peyton asked swallowing hard as Lucas kissed the other side of her mouth before being bold and kissing her lightly on the lips. She gave him a warning look and batted him away quickly as she realised exactly what his intentions were.

'Uhuh, oh that's good then… well we're staying at the cabin for-for…' Peyton totally lost the thread of what she was about to say when Lucas pulled himself closer to her, his hand resting on the small of her back, sending feather light touches across her skin. He smirked once more and kissed her on the lips before hearing Larry's voice of…

'Peyton? Peyt… are you still there?'

Peyton pushed Lucas away again before saying, almost breathlessly.

'Yeah, I'm here, sorry, we're staying for a week, we arrived-' She was cut short again as Lucas' other hand slowly made its way from her back up her arm to cup her face and capture her lips once more, he was absolutely loving this, Peyton noticed angrily. He had a glint in his eye which told her that he knew exactly what he was doing.

'D-Dad, I-I've got to go, talk soon, love you.' With that Peyton snapped the phone shut and stared angrily at a smirking Lucas.

His smirk faltered a little under her furious glare, she opened her mouth and he knew she was going to scold him so he did the only thing he knew would totally diffuse the situation. He crashed his lips onto hers in an intense kiss…maybe it would even make her forget what she was about to say beforehand. She was definitely surprised Lucas noticed, as she didn't reciprocate for several moments, then he smiled inwardly as he felt a small tug on his t shirt as she opened her mouth to him. She broke away after a few moments and he gave her 'the' eyes he knew she wouldn't be able to be resist.

'You are an ass.' She muttered but then smiled and he laughed before pressing his lips to hers once more.

His phone vibrated against the bed side table and a second later so did Peyton's, curiously they broke apart to have a look.

'I just got a text off Brooke.' Peyton said.

'I just got one off Haley.' Lucas answered and they swapped phones reading the messages.

Lucas clicked on Brooke's message and had to suppress a chuckle,

L&P- I don't really want to have a mental image of what you're up to at the mo. So…food is served!! You'll probably need all the energy you can get for later ;)

Peyton clicked on Haley's message and smiled at how she was trying to be tactful,

Hey guys. Don't want to interrupt but dinners ready, we can save you some if you want?

'Look at the difference between the texts!' Peyton laughed. 'Shall we go down?'

'Well…' Lucas smiled looking down at Brooke's text. 'If I really need the energy for later, then sure.' Lucas smirked but got to his feet all the same, helping Peyton to her feet too as they headed downstairs. Lucas wrapped his arm around Peyton's shoulder and she wrapped hers around his waist as they entered the kitchen.

Just before they sat down Peyton whispered in his ear, 'Oh by the way, you will need energy for what I've got planned.'

Lucas looked at her, surprised, and saw that her eyebrow was cocked and her lip was curled, he laughed shook his head and kissed her lightly on the lips before sitting down for the meal their friends had prepared.

'So Hales, Brooke why did you text us… couldn't you have just come up and told us that dinner was ready?' Lucas asked smirking.

'And walk in to find you both naked, erm no thank you.' Brooke answered.

'Yeah, I got enough imagery last night to last me a life time thanks.' Haley cut in.

'We weren't-' Lucas started but Nathan cut him off.

'Dude, please…I'm trying to eat. If you really want to talk about it we'll get to your sex life later.'

Everyone laughed but Lucas scowled before Peyton gave him a look that made him smile and tuck into the food.

'Where's the food from?' Lucas asked appreciatively.

'We found it in the freezer…' Haley started but Rachel cut in.

'…you know, where the ice cream's kept.'

Brooke chortled and choked on her drink while Chase gave her a thump on the back.

'That's a good one Rach.' She said nodding her head.

'Guys please, can we stop this?' Lucas asked as Peyton blushed, looking down at her plate.

'No can do little brother.' Nathan smirked.

'Yeah this is payback for not telling us.' Brooke answered, spearing a chip on her fork and pointing it at him.

'Don't worry Peyt.' Lucas said turning to Peyton smirking. Peyton looked up matching his smirk.

'Oh I'm not. We'll get them back, one by one.'

'Oh I'm really scared.'

'You should be, you don't know what dirt we can dig up…' Peyton said mischievously.

'Yeah… you better watch your backs.' Lucas said with an equal look to Peyton's.

Everyone took a quick look at each other then burst into laughter.

'Well that didn't work.' Peyton smirked, wryly.

Peyton woke the next day to the sound of someone hammering on her door, she opened her eyes and then closed them abruptly as light came streaming through her eyelids. She groaned as the hammering got louder.

'Get up!'

Peyton groaned again when she heard Brooke's voice, she knew that Brooke wouldn't quit until she was up but she still couldn't find it in herself to leave the comfort and warmth of the bed. She snuggled down a little more sleepily but was brought back to reality when someone shouted,

'Up!'

Peyton opened her eyes and got out of bed, angrily. She stormed over to the door and threw it open.

'Brooke! Are you trying to put me in a bad mood so early in the day?!' Peyton growled.

'Well good morning sunshine.' Brooke smirked and Peyton looked around when she heard a few chuckles. Everyone was standing around; looking equally sleepy and Peyton knew Brooke had just woken everyone up. She alone was the bouncy, bubbly one.

'Peyton's not a morning person.' Someone croaked to the side of Peyton and she turned to see Lucas standing beside her, having been rudely awakened moments before Peyton had been.

Peyton glowered at him. 'Oh really Lucas?'

'Yeah, I mean you're not all sunshine, rainbows and kittens in the morning are you…?' Lucas stated not really understanding why everyone was sniggering and why Peyton's eyes had widened.

'Luke. Dude. Please shut up.' Nathan sniggered.

Lucas rubbed his eyes and looked at Peyton again, finally understanding what he was actually saying, 'What I mean is…'

'Oh boy.' Haley muttered and Nathan chuckled nudging her slightly in the ribs.

In spite of himself Lucas nearly smirked, Peyton's curls were unruly… definite just-got-out-of-bed look, her eyebrow was cocked and her eyes were twinkling with anger… but she couldn't have looked more beautiful to him.

'What do you mean Luke?' Rachel asked, and there was amusement laced throughout her tone of voice.

'I mean… Peyton you look beautiful and…!' He gave her a chaste kiss his eyes twinkling and Peyton couldn't help but let her lips curl in a smile, he grinned and placed an arm around her waist drawing her in close and kissing the tip of her nose.

'Nice save big bro.' Nathan grinned and Skills chuckled.

'So, what was it that got you waking us all up at this hour, Brooke?' Lucas said cheerfully.

Brooke, who'd been watching them with a smile seemed to jump back into a military style pose. Everyone jumped slightly as she said in a voice that implied that what she was about to say was a direct order and no one was about to disagree with her.

'Right! Trust you two to distract me. People, I've decided that tonight we are all going to go camping!'

There was a general groan at this statement.

'What?! Come on, it'll be fun!'

'You do know what camping is don't you Brooke?' Rachel stressed, eyebrows raised incredulously.

'Of course I do…I'm not a total dumbass! Anyway it'll be like a team building exercise, it'll be awesome!'

'No, no and no Brooke. This is why we came to a cabin in the first place!' Chase said.

'Yeah we have lodgings, why do we need to sleep in a wood?' Nathan asked.

'Oh come on! I think it'll be fun!' Haley grinned and Nathan scowled at her, his face a picture of 'why has my wife gone mad?'.

'Now there's the spirit!' Brooke said flinging an arm around Haley's shoulders.

'Anyway I want you downstairs in no more than ten minutes! We need to get ready!'

All nine of them were left standing there as Brooke beamed at them all and then leapt down the stairs humming to herself.

'Brooke's gone crazy!' Mouth exclaimed and most couldn't help but agree as they stood almost stunned into place.

610- Who else loved this episode? I did! After reading a review I've reformed my opinion of Julian/Peyton. I'll love LP till the end, but I've got to say I do like the Julian/Peyton scenes, I loved the scene where Julian was looking for Lucas and Peyton came across as all sarcastic… and I'm really glad that Peyton wasn't moping around in LA for three years. To be honest, at that point in Peyton's life Julian was good for her! Also as Brooke said to Lucas (loved that scene too) he was with Lindsey, but I did like seeing jealous Lucas! Oh and I loved the musical performances especially Angels & Airwaves! Lifeline and Secret Crowds are great songs! The best scene was the last LP scene, how sweet were Lucas' words…

'You've been so good to me and so strong, when I've strayed from us…. Anyway who wouldn't fall in love with Peyton Sawyer.' (Or something like that :P) I was just 'awww-ing' all over the place.

Anyway I can't wait for the next episode, Chad's one! I think it'll be good. The promo's look really good :) Again i'm really sorry for the lack of updates, something which I'm hoping to rectify and please Review and tell me how I'm doing!