CHAPTER 36

1 Month… 4 Weeks… 28 Days… 1,680 Hours… 20,160 Minutes… 1,210,920 Seconds…

As Peyton sat in her car driving along the highway, wind in her hair without a destination or a care, she realised that numbers meant more than she'd originally thought. They were significant. Each of those 20,160 minutes of the last month had been a slow process of trying to get through each and every second. Tree Hill was her focus and she contemplated driving there everyday. Or perhaps just jumping on a plane might be a little easier… but perhaps the most important statistic to her was that there were 6 billion odd people in the world give or take, and she only wanted to see one…

Spend the rest of her life with one.

She wasn't being fair on her father, she knew that. He wouldn't take any jobs that came his way because he wouldn't leave her. Perhaps he knew more about the pain she was feeling than he let on. Either way she'd barely said more than ten words to him in days.

She sighed into the wind and nearly closed her eyes in content, the first positive feeling that had washed over her in a month, before she realised she was in fact driving. The absence of music would have been classed as ominous but somehow the silence was calming her, any lyric hit too close to what she was feeling. She'd learnt the hard way. She sped up slightly with a small smile.

Driving was sort of exhilarating.

Larry Sawyer sighed audibly, running a hand over his face. He was at a loss of what to do, he shouldn't be feeling so helpless…his daughter was eighteen years old and had so far had one serious relationship, that was until Lucas...

Larry had been dubious about Jake to start off with but as their relationship went on he got to know the boy and found that he was good for Peyton and even though he wouldn't dare have a talk about the concept of love to his teenage daughter he knew that Peyton had loved him.

However he hardly knew Lucas, he'd seen him a handful of times and yet the effect he had on Peyton, in his presence and out of it, was pain-stakingly obvious. As soon as Peyton came back to LA he'd passed it off as a summer fling, a teenage love affair that wasn't real love because it just couldn't be. She'd known Lucas three months and they were both eighteen years old.

Then he'd realised the other day why Peyton's relationship with Jake hadn't bothered him as much as her relationship with Lucas seemed to. He was worried. Lucas had the power to take his daughter away from him… she loved him so intensely that it scared him as a father. It had never been like that with Jake, which was why he'd never been worried about their relationship. He hadn't planned on her finding anyone she loved as much as him for a long time and yet here it was. He was thinking selfishly but he knew that Peyton had found the person she wanted to spend her life with and there was only so long that they'd live without each other. In the end they'd take drastic measures to be together, he knew it.

Love is blind.

It didn't help that his heart broke little by little every day he had to face his daughter over the table at meal times- she'd stay locked in her room the rest of the time. He was so used to the sparkling bright look in her eyes, granted they always held a certain amount of mystery, but he was horrified at their new expression. It was a deadened look, so vulnerable and almost transparent though ironically carrying the same amount of mystery. It was like looking at someone who had the whole world resting on their shoulders.

Running another hand over his face he closed his eyes. Peyton hardly said a word nowadays and it just led Larry to think about what he could possibly do to salvage the situation. The thing was that if Peyton had a great group of friends in LA then he'd have no intention of leaving, however-although she did have friends in LA- she'd shut them all out and none of them had pursued her about it. Larry had known straight away that they weren't real friends, just simple acquaintances.

It didn't make him feel any better.

The other day had confirmed this as he went into Peyton's room to try and coax her into talking to him at least, he'd opened the door but she was no where to be seen and he sighed because he knew she'd snuck out to be alone…and he really couldn't blame her. He'd noticed she was spending a considerable amount of time in her car, driving around meaninglessly and it scared him. He worried she wasn't in the right state to think rationally. He had been about to shut the door when photos on her bed caught his eye, he picked them all up and flicked through them pausing now and again.

They were all from her summer in Tree Hill, there was a few of a the dark haired girl who Peyton had told him was named Brooke, a lighter haired girl called Haley and Peyton laughing arm in arm at a fair of some sort. Another one of the three having a pillow fight and eating ice cream. There'd been a few of Peyton and a tall dark haired boy that looked fleetingly like Lucas, he guessed it was Nathan. In one Peyton was on his back and the expression on his face as he looked around at her was of playful banter, his hands holding on tightly to her legs as her hands hung loosely around his neck, they seemed to be standing outside a big cabin and there was another one of Peyton, Nathan and Lucas. She was in the middle, Nathan had his arm around her shoulders loosely laughing at something that was said and Lucas was looking lovingly at her, a hand intertwined in hers. Another one of Peyton hugging Brooke, a red headed girl that he fleetingly remembered was called Rachel that wasn't in many of the pictures and Haley again. Larry took a deep breath as he reached the bottom of the pile; he spent longer looking at these pictures. They were crumpled slightly as if they'd been looked at more than necessary.

They were the ones of Lucas and Peyton.

Many of them seemed to have been taken without them noticing, laughing or cuddling. A particular one caught his eye and he stared down at the two people, one he knew so well- the other who had captured his daughters heart. They seemed to be half lying on a couch, Lucas' lips pressed against the side of her head and Peyton's face simply radiating with joy as she clung onto his arms which rested around her waist. There was no denying that Peyton looked happier than he'd ever seen her, his eyes shifted to Lucas and although he wasn't smiling his face said it all. His eyes were bright but peaceful, happy but calm and the look he gave her was so intense that Larry couldn't help but look away turning to the next picture quickly. This one wasn't any better at calming his nerves; someone seemed to have captured it as a joke. The two were sitting on the beach, facing each other- Lucas' legs on either side of her body, hands resting loosely at her hips and Peyton's hands on his cheeks, their lips connected. He couldn't deny the smile on each of their faces and if their eyes had been open he could almost see the look that would have been reflected back at him through the photograph.

Another one concluded a game of Twister and he half smiled, Peyton loved that game. Peyton had one eyebrow cocked with a small smirk and Lucas was hovering over her with a mischievous grin on his lips, a twinkle in his eyes that made Larry somehow know exactly what happened next. The next one showed Peyton and Lucas standing in a room decorated with 'Happy Birthday' banners, their hands intertwined and a look of shock on Peyton's face. Lucas was bent slightly with a wide smile about to whisper something into her ear. He guessed this was the surprise party he had been told about. Another one showed them in an embrace that made them look like they were dancing, people were all around and it looked like the same room. Peyton's birthday party. They weren't smiling on this one…it looked like they were realising something from the thoughtful expressions on their faces. Their foreheads were together and their bodies stood close, melding together. The next one showed Peyton standing on her tip-toes, arms around Lucas' neck as they kissed.

He felt like he'd seen enough… the realisations were starting to make him feel slightly sick.

The last photo he looked at was of ten people, he recognised Lucas and Peyton in the middle straight away- facing the camera with wide grins, Lucas' arms around Peyton's stomach from behind, his cheek pressed against her hair. Three more he recognised briefly, mainly Nathan and Brooke and Haley. The ten teenagers were standing in front of a cabin, a lake to their right and woods stretching out to the sides of them and behind.

He stopped looking at that point, he'd definitely seen enough…

The fact was that Larry had deluded himself into thinking that Peyton wouldn't have wanted to leave LA if he'd suggested it, she had too many friends here but gradually he'd begun to think a lot differently and these pictures cemented the core of his belief.

It was simple and he couldn't believe it hadn't occurred to him before…

Lucas opened the door to the kitchen of his house, his mother was at the café and it felt strangely empty. Then again, it had since she'd left. He found it easier not to think of Peyton's name somehow, even though her face was everywhere for him. He pulled a photo out of his pocket and studied it critically. It was worn and crumpled after all the times he'd stuffed it in a pocket and looked at it in general; however its message was clear. He didn't know how long he sat there, just staring and staring but when his mother walked through the back door, he placed it down on the table quickly.

'Mom, hey.' He said and Karen looked at her son sympathetically. She looked at him like that all the time nowadays, as though knowing exactly what he was thinking and going through.

'Hey honey. How was school?' She asked, flicking on the kettle.

'All right.' Lucas mumbled back. Karen sighed almost dramatically when she noticed the picture on the table. She sat down and picked it up, looking at it briefly. She should have known what it contained, Lucas and Peyton-… it seemed like a lifetime ago, even for her.

'Luke…' She murmured grabbing his hand as it tightened into a fist atop the table.

'I just… miss her.' Lucas whispered and Karen's hand tightened around his.

'I know you do honey, I know.'

'Does this… ache ever go away?'

'Not unless you really make an effort to move on.' Karen said honestly.

Lucas contemplated but didn't get very far, 'I… can't…'

'Then, no…it won't go away. But it'll get better with time. I promise.' Karen said gripping his hand still tighter as he looked at her like a lost boy.

'Will it?' Lucas asked and was not all surprised to hear a tremor in his voice.

'Time heals all wounds Luke.' Karen nodded.

It took Larry over a week to sort out and he didn't dare mention anything of his plan to Peyton just in case it fell through. The last thing he wanted to do was build up her hopes only to have them crash down again. However exactly ten days later when he was sure that everything was going to go ahead he took a deep breath ventured down the hallway and knocked softly on her door. After about thirty seconds of nothing he opened it cautiously,

'What?' Peyton asked in a biting tone. He couldn't find it in him to reprimand her, she didn't mean it… he knew that when he saw her close her eyes in an apology.

'Honey, can we talk?' He asked soothingly.

Peyton sighed and considered saying 'no' but as she looked into her fathers eyes she realised she shouldn't be taking this all out on him. It was her fault for falling in love in the first place; giving her heart to Lucas when they both knew it couldn't work out in the long run. So instead she murmured,

'What about?'

'I just- you like Tree Hill right?'

Peyton looked incredulously at her father, her mouth opening and closing several times before she said,

'Is this meant to make me feel better?!' She asked with a snort.

'Just answer Peyt.'

'Yeah, it's…' Peyton let out a breath. 'It's a beautiful town… with… Nathan, Haley, Brooke… Lucas.' She swallowed hard when she said his name but Larry saw the sudden spark in her eyes and his questions of doubt were extinguished immediately.

'So how would you feel about…living there?' Larry asked tentatively.

Peyton's head snapped around and Larry was sure she'd get whiplash, her mouth opened again but this time in shock. Had those words just left her father's mouth?

'Dad, I don't know what your doing. But this isn't helping.' Peyton said and a tear leaked out of her eye, she wiped it away impatiently.

'Honey, I'm serious… how would you feel about moving to Tree Hill?' Larry asked and the tone of his voice held no humour.

He was deadly serious.

'What?' She said and she wasn't surprised to hear her voice was a shadowy whisper as though not daring to believe what she was hearing.

Lucas jumped up and the ball flew out of his hands, slipping from his fingertips. He wasn't at all surprised or bothered really when it bounced off the ring without going in. Nathan however sighed,

'Luke, please get your head in the game. We've got a game on Friday and we really need to win if we want to go to state man.'

'I know.' Lucas said, his teeth gritting together.

'Well don't you want to win?'

'Of course I do.'

'Then stop playing like crap!' Nathan said forcefully.

'Easier said than done Nate.' Lucas sighed.

'Okay…' Nathan said and walked over to his brother, standing next to him and passing the ball back to Lucas. 'All right. I want you to clear your mind. No more thoughts of Peyton okay…'

'Again, easier said than done.' Lucas muttered,

'Lucas.' Nathan warned. 'Just do it.' Instead of clearing his mind his thoughts clouded over and his mind wandered to Peyton coming back to him, to Tree Hill. 'Now shoot.' He heard Nathan say, and with that in mind he let go of the ball, it flew straight through the hoop and Nathan grinned thumping his brother on the back, 'See I told you.'

'Yeah.' Lucas said as they walked towards the bleachers picking up their water and downing it. 'Have you heard from… Peyton lately?'

Nathan looked at him in surprise, 'No why?'

'Well, I just wondered…whether you still kept in touch, you were pretty close.' Lucas shrugged.

'We were. I think that's why we don't keep in touch, it's too hard. It's the same with Haley and Brooke too, I think.'

'Yeah. I just wondered…how she was doing and whether she's okay.'

Nathan placed a hand on his brother's shoulder, 'I bet she's fine Luke. Don't worry.'

'She has Jake. As much as I hate to think about it, I know he'll take care of her.' Lucas' face was half a grimace but he also seemed to be strangely comforted by the thought as well.

'Who's Jake?' Nathan asked interestedly sipping his water.

'Doesn't matter.' Lucas muttered and Nathan took the hint deciding not to press the matter.

'So did you get much sorted out in LA, did you talk?' Nathan asked.

'We tried to keep things neutral, I don't think either of us really wanted to talk about the…situation. So we kept things light, the rest of the time we didn't really do much talking.' As he said it Lucas blushed slightly.

With all seriousness Nathan nodded and then half a minute later muttered, 'Bom-Chicka-Wow-Wow huh?'

Lucas let out a snort and shoved him thinking of the morning after Peyton's birthday. 'Things seemed so simple back then…'

Nathan nodded. 'I think that's the moment I started to realise how much she meant to me…' Lucas added and Nathan turned his head to look at his brother, when he didn't say anything else he looked away again.

'I knew you loved her way before either of you did.' He said with a smile.

'You didn't!' Lucas smirked.

'I've been there Luke, hell I'm still there so I think I know what the signs are, you were…whipped…'

'Yeah I can't really argue with that.'

They sat in silence for a while before Lucas voiced the question he wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer to,

'Do you think… she still… loves me?'

Nathan choked on his water and Lucas looked at him in surprise, 'I can't believe you're even asking me that…'

When Lucas still looked puzzled Nathan rolled his eyes, 'Hell yes!'

'You think?' Lucas asked with a slight smile.

Nathan rolled his eyes shoving his brother until he fell off the bleachers.

'You're a jackass.' Lucas scowled.

'And you're stupid for even asking that question…' Nathan smirked before giving him a help up. Nathan grinned and after a minute or two he pulled Lucas into a quick hug, Lucas was so surprised that he said,

'What was that for?'

Nathan shrugged, 'I dunno. It's just, you're a good guy Luke and you are coping with this really well and I know its killing you.' Lucas looked at the floor. 'She loved you Luke, and I'm 100 percent sure she still does.'

'I love her.' Lucas muttered and Nathan nodded.

'I know…and I'm sure this'll work out. Sooner or later you're going to be together. I'm sure of it.' Nathan said confidently.

'Are you serious?' Peyton asked, hardly daring to believe what her father was telling her.

'Yes.'

'Really, truly…hand on your heart serious?' Peyton asked holding her breath.

'Yes.' Larry nodded, placing a hand on his heart and smiling.

Peyton seemed to hyperventilate for a few seconds, 'Are you joking because seriously if you are, it's the worst one I've ever heard, ever.'

Larry laughed, 'Let me explain. I never told you but me and your mom lived in Tree Hill for a time before you were born and when I started my new job we relocated to LA but I was considering moving back a couple of years ago and now seems as good a time as any. Especially knowing how much happier you'll be there than here.'

Peyton's brain seemed to be working in slow motion; there was too much information for her to digest, 'What about your job?'

Larry shrugged, 'How do you think I came to see you over the summer? We dock there quite frequently. It's actually a lot more convenient than being in LA right now. Anyway I've worked it all out with my bosses…they don't see a problem with us relocating…'

Peyton couldn't say a word, she was shocked and yet her heart was doing somersaults. She could be with Lucas, even on the bad note that they had left their relationship she still loved him and hoped he loved her too. There was only one way to find out, her face lit into a grin that made Larry grin too. In one swift movement she flew across the bed and into his arms, he laughed and said,

'So I'm guessing you're on board for this then?'

Peyton didn't seem to be able to form a coherent thought but the fact that she held him even tightly spoke volumes. He sighed happily and wrapped his arms around her, he was sure that he finally had his girl back.

Peyton couldn't help the tears spill down her cheeks; she was going back to Tree Hill. She was going back to her friends but more importantly she was going back to Lucas Scott.

Lucas lay on his bed that night unable to get to sleep. It had been a month and ten days, yet he had never experienced that amount of time to go so slowly. Years, in fact, flew by and yet a month without Peyton had to be the longest he'd ever experienced.

1 Month… 4 Weeks… 28 Days… 1,680 Hours… 20,160 Minutes… 1,210,920 Seconds…

Sighing he recounted the numbers that were permanently in his brain, growing by the second…the minute…the hour…the day... the week…

They say you learn something everyday right? The one random fact that stuck in his head from today is that he'd learnt that there were 6 billion people in the world. 6 billion and yet it only took one to make his life feel complete…

…6 Billion People, 6 Billion Souls… And Sometimes…All You Need Is One…

I don't think I can even comment on The Wedding episode... it still makes me tear up after like three days! Especially the song at the end, Wedding Dress, the lyrics are heartbreaking... I loved the humour of the wedding and i loved that Haley stole Lucas' predictions and read them to everyone and i loved the vows! I loved the ending, as heartbreaking as it was...and i'm sure Peyton isn't going to die!! ... I've got a deal with Mark ;P

Thank you for the continuing support for this fic, it's nearing the end now...