Sweat rested heavily on his neck. He stretched out his arms and brought his hands up to his face to crack his fingers one by one. For some reason he felt nervous and uncomfortable. He looked upwards to see hundreds of people sitting there staring back at him. Their gazes were full of anger and resentment. He tried with all his might to figure way they looked at him that way. If looks could kill, he would have dropped dead right then and there.

Especially the way his mother looked at him, or rather the way she did not look at him. She stared down at her hands that sat in front of her with tears streaming down her cheeks. Dan sat next to her with his arm around her but giving him an evil stare.

"Lucas Scott!" A man in a suit slammed his hand in front of him. "Did you intentionally kill your Uncle Keith?"

Lucas's head snapped up at the man who could actually say such an accusation. "I did not kill him, it was Jimmy Edwards." Lucas stopped seeing the boy sitting on the other side of his mother. His heart began to hammer inside of his chest seeing the monster right there next to his mother.

"You are saying Jimmy Edwards killed your uncle?" the man, Lucas assumed had been a lawyer, repeated the statement.

"Yes!" Lucas bellowed. "I saw him do it!"

"If he killed your Uncle Keith, why is his blood on your hands?"

Lucas looked down at his hands. He found them covered in a deep crimison colored blood. His eyes widened at the sight. How did the blood of the man he loved, get on his hands?

-0-0-0-

Lucas tossed and turned in the bed, his legs kicking the covers off. At one point he tossed so hard, he fell of the bed and slammed his head against a nightstand. His nose took the direct brunt of the fall causing blood to ooze from it. His hands immediately went out in front of him to grab his nose.

Lucas first sight when he opened his eyes was the blood on his hands. His eyes widened as he shoved himself off the ground and went to the bathroom. He tried to get the blood off his shaking hands. Once he had them cleaned, he turned off the sink to see more blood drip on the porcelain sink. He looked up at the mirror to see blood gushing out one of his nostrils.

He took a tissue and shoved in up his nose while pinching the bridge of his nose. After the five minutes, that last drops of blood came down and Lucas cleaned up the mess he had made. Just as he threw the last piece of toilet paper in the garbage can, he heard the front door open.

Lucas walked out of the bathroom and entered the living room to see who had walked in. He had found someone he did not recognize, a woman he did not know anymore. The woman physically was thirty two, but emotionally she was dead. Her once dark hair had always been constantly straightened, but now after days of being unwashed it became a curly mess.

"Mom," Lucas managed to say. He had no words for her but at the same time he had so many things he did want to say to her. I love you. I'm Sorry. I'm here for you if you need anything. The way she looked at him, when she was able to muster the courage too, stopped him every time, it melted his heart completely. Her once vibrant bright green eyes had an overcast of almost grey.

Lucas imagined her saying everything he knew her heart felt towards him. He almost wished she would just say so she could get it off her chest and weirdly enough, he would love hearing it because that would be the first time they would have talked since before that terrible day a week ago.

Karen turned around at the sound of her only son's voice. His blonde hair was greatly disheveled, his eyes had lines under them, she thought she saw dried up blood coming from his nose, and he was wearing Keith's clothes. She took a deep painful breath in order for her not tell the boy to take of his dead uncle's clothes.

"What are you doing here?" she inquired turning around and heading to a box on the table.

Lucas carefully spoke his words knowing one slip up could be his last, "I went for a run and ended up here. Sorry, I would have called…but it was late."

Karen shrugged, "Since when does it matter to you to let me know anything."

The statement covered in resentment surprised Lucas. He did not know what she meant by it. "What do you mean?"

Karen slammed a glass plate down on the table causing Lucas to jump, "You know exactly what it means Lucas!" She looked at him with her eyes narrowing and her nose knitting with fury. "Do you have any idea how it felt to be told by a doctor that my son had a genetic heart condition that he told me he tested negatively for?" her voice began to rise with every sentence. "Not only was I facing the murder of the only man I have ever loved but my idiot son had a heart attack on the same day and I had to have a stranger tell me why!" Karen walked over to Lucas as she ranted and imitated the doctor, "Your son had a heart attack because he has a heart condition called HCM, maybe if you were a good mother you would have known that Ms. Roe."

"He actually said that?" Lucas looked at her shocked.

"No he didn't, but the way he looked at me said it! How dare you hide that from me Lucas Eugene Scott!" and before either them knew it, she took her hand and slapped him right across the face. Feeling the power of getting her anger out, Karen continued on her tirade. "If you would have came out of that building last week, Keith would still be here. The man I was supposed to marry in a month would still be here but no, he is dead. The man who never did anything wrong died but the boy who told a lie to his mother lived. I think the boy with the lies should have died instead!"

Lucas felt another crack, probably the deepest, in his heart slice through. His mom, his own mother just admitted she wished he would died instead of Keith. As he held his stinging cheek, he blinked furiously as tears built in his eyes. It was one thing when Dan said horrible things, but another when his mother had alleged the cold truth.

"I'm sorry mom," Lucas began to choke as he fell to his knees before her, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you about my HCM. I'm sorry Keith is dead because of me, I know for a fact if I would have come out, he still would be here. He would be here to marry you and for me to be his best man in the wedding. He would be here for me to have my dad I have always wanted him to be."

"Well sorry isn't going to bring him back is it?" Karen hissed.

Lucas heart broke for the hundredth time but this felt like the worst time. That statement hurt more then the slap Karen had given Lucas moments before. As tears traced down his cheeks, his mouth opened to say something, anything but he was completely frozen. He would never forget the way her eyes turned heartless as she delivered those painful words.

"Looks like you are going to be the bastard you were born to be." Karen delivered one more punch in his gut.

Lucas doubled over as he held his fragile heart; he could barely take it anymore. All he needed was one more knife stabbing comment and he would be done. He could barely take it being in the apartment, for everything around him was a painful reminder of what had happened.

Lucas stood up and walked towards the front door. He had to get out of there, all the oxygen in the room was full of hate and bitterness. Lucas ran down the stairs of the apartment as fast as he possibly could. He ran down the streets of Tree Hill with hot tears still pouring down his cheeks.

He was not surprised to find himself at the Rivercourt ten minutes later. He stood on the asphalt with his hands on his hips trying to catch his breath as he hiccupped over and over. As Lucas breathed short, shallow breaths he found a basketball abandoned under the net. He went over to it and scooped it up. He attempted to score but missed by a long shot.

Once Lucas had the ball in his grasp again, he stared at it. He looked up and stared at the court. His thoughts were a whirl wind tornado, viciously spinning around his head. What if he never left the Rivercourt? What if he just played basketball as a hobby with his friends? Jimmy Edwards would still be his good friend and probably would have never gone into the school with a gun. Keith would be still alive and would marry the love his life a month from then. Lucas wanted a do over so badly; he would change the fact of joining the Ravens Basketball team. He would be a nobody again if that meant that all this pain would disappear.

Lucas began to fill with anger. He took the ball in his hands and chucked it hard at the backboard of the hoop. The ball bounced back at him and he slammed it against the wall again and again. The ball smashing into it somehow relieved his anger quite efficiently. He could feel his heart beginning to ache immensely.

"I sure hope you are purposely missing those or we are in serious trouble." a voice called from behind Lucas. Lucas spun around to see Nathan with a smile, stepping on the asphalt. "How are you, man?"

Lucas used the back his hand to wipe the sweat off his forehead. His hands were shaking uncontrollably. His heart hammered inside of his chest and the pain intensified with every passing moment. He dropped the ball out of his hands. As it rolled over to Nathan's feet, Nathan followed it with his eyes. When it touched his feet, he looked up his older brother.

Lucas's, once bright blue eyes had descended to two deep grey pools of desperation. They were swollen and red. His whole face had been covered with an obvious physical pain that any passerby could make out, but what the untrained eye could not see was the lines of emotional pain Lucas held. Nathan read his face as one full of remorse, hurt, and guilt. The seventeen year old boy held more heartbreak then people three times his age would ever have to in their entire lifetime.

Lucas clutched his chest as his brother studied him intensely. He could hear the blood pumping inside of his ears. Breathing, something that came naturally, became a difficult task. His felt a wave of dizziness overtake him as he slowly became disoriented. He heard his brother calling his name but everything began to fade away, his vision, his hearing, and even more so his pain. As he legs gave out, Lucas fell to the ground thinking;

I'm coming home to you Keith

Well should it end right there? Or should I have more up my sleeve somewhere? What do you guys want and think? Sorry I took a while to update, the life of a college student is never boring. I might not update till next week since classes will be over a few weeks and then Summer classes begin. Well it is going on 3am...I better get some sleep! Thanks for everything...