"Why?" she says, playing with the soft hairs on his chest, as she adjusts the sheets around her.
"Because."
"Luke, that is such a bad answer... why?"
"Cause it's my job!"
"But we've only been moved in together for a month... that's not enough time for me to be sick of you yet!"
"Excuse me?" he says, grabbing her hand, and laughing at her comment.
"I'm just not ready to give you up yet. I want you all to myself."
"Need I remind you that it is now three in the morning and you have had me all to yourself since eight o'clock last night."
"Oh, I don't need a reminder of that, but I'm just saying that it is going to get awfully lonely here for the week that you're gone." she says, in a sultry voice, crawling up his body and pressing a kiss to his lips.
"Peyton, you're killing me here..." he says after they break for air.
"You're seriously complaining?"
"I'm not complaining, but it is going to be ten times harder getting on that plane this afternoon when all I've had for my last hours home is you, me, naked in a bed."
"Oh... too bad... making you want to stay?"
"So, this was your dirty little trick all along, huh?"
"Maybe..." she answers playfully, then screaming when he grabs her and flips them over so she is smiling beneath him.
"Good thing for you... all I want to do in my last hours home is spend hours in bed naked with you, Peyton Sawyer."
"Lucky me." she says, before he kisses her, and they continue the dance that they started hours ago.
When the alarm finally goes off, the two of them groan, having only gotten a few hours asleep because of being a little occupied with extracurricular activities.
"So tired..." she mumbles, curling up against him.
"Your idea..."
"Hey," she says, smacking him on the shoulder and settling back into the bed, "it takes two to tango, babe."
"I will never complain about how we spent last night or this morning... but I will complain that no sleep and flying for six hours is going to be a bitch today."
"Well, good luck with that!" she says, pushing him away from her and flopping onto her stomach to go back to sleep.
"You're coming to the airport, aren't you?"
"Seriously?"
"Don't you want to see your man off?"
"I've seen my man enough in the past twelve hours, I'd like to see the back of my eyelids for that long too..."
"Peyton..."
She looks up at him, looking down at her with his cool blue eyes and a smirk, knowing that she would cave eventually.
"Fine... I will rise, but dammit Lucas Scott, I will not shine..."
With that, he is left alone in the bedroom as she hops in the shower to get ready to take him to the airport. He is still smiling at her retreated form as he hears a yell come from the shower. "Luke, you better get in here and help me stay awake!"
Laughing, he opens the bathroom door, stepping into the shower behind her, making sure that she had some good memories to remember him by.
At the airport, it seemed borderline ridiculous. They were 24 years old, holding hands in the airport and moping about how they were going to be apart for a week. They might as well had been seventh graders in the hallway between classes wondering how they would survive the forty minutes of class without each other with the way they were acting.
"I'm gonna miss you."
"I'm gonna miss you too."
"Take care of the apartment, and take care of you."
"You take care of you too."
"Do I really have to leave?"
"Yup... at least that's what you keep telling me."
"I do, don't I?"
"Go make me proud Lucas, and tell our story..." she says, planting a lingering kiss on the very corner of his mouth.
Not caring who was watching, he grabbed her close, bringing her in for a searing kiss that was borderline inappropriate for a public place like this. They were sure to be making some people blush, but it didn't matter. All that mattered was that they had to spend a week apart from each other.
"I've got to go... security always sucks, you know?"
"Yeah... I wish I could go with you... at least to the gate."
"Damn FAA!" he says, laughing, with a big smile on his face after she caught the sarcasm and shared in the laughter.
"So, goodbye?"
"Yeah, I'll see you in a week... be careful. And when Haley gets here on Wednesday, have fun... show her the town... don't do too much work while I'm gone." he adds as he's walking away.
"I love you!"
"I love you too, Peyton. Forever."
"Hey, Luke?" she asks, a smile beaming across her face.
"Yeah?" he says, turning around, but staying where he was.
"When you get back... maybe we could talk about that word again?"
He gets a confused look on his face before the realization hits him and the smile that crosses his face would make anyone who saw it start beaming.
"I love you..." he shouts, one last time, with a quick wave.
She, of course, watches him until the last possible moment, waiting until he turns the corner and she can't see him anymore. Then, a whisper crosses her lips, "Peyton Sawyer will be Peyton Scott..."
–
Just two days without him and she swore she had cabin fever. It also didn't help that Brooke was in meetings for the new line almost every moment of every day.
Thankfully, she sat on her couch now, waiting for the buzzer to let her know that Haley was here, ready for a few girl's days and some studio time. It would be a great distraction to keep her mind off of Lucas' absence and she loved the idea of spending time with Haley again, who was quickly becoming second to just her best friend.
When the buzzer buzzed, she ran to the box on the wall, pushing the button to let her in almost immediately, not even checking to see if it was in fact her.
Then, when the sound of just one knock was heard, the door was flying open, and Haley was surrounded by the flailing arms of Peyton. "I'm so glad you're here!"
"Wow... that is quite the welcome!" she says after pulling away for a minute to look at Peyton's welcoming smile.
"I've been impatiently waiting for you all morning..."
"My over enthusiastic welcome wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that you have realized that you and Lucas don't know what to do with yourselves now that you have each other, would it?"
"No..." she says instantly, then catching the knowing look on Haley's face, changes her answer, "Maybe...?"
Haley just laughs, remembering what it was like to be in that new relationship, without the kids and the house and all the responsibility that comes with that package. "I'm okay with being your distraction."
"You are a lot more than that, but thank you."
Grabbing Haley's stuff, they get her set up in the guest bedroom, and then move to spend some time chatting on the couch, catching up with the last week since they spoke.
"So, how are things? How's the new digs and the living with a boy treating you?"
"Surprisingly, it was so easy... we marvel at it all the time, the way we just fall into it like we do."
"Doesn't surprise me."
"No?"
"The day after he met you, he called me, nearly in a frenzy, asking me what I knew about independent record labels and art galleries, talking a mile a minute. When I finally got him to explain what the hell he was jabbering on about, it came out that he was in a tizzy over a girl... you."
"A tizzy?"
"He had no idea what he was talking about, and I was completely confused, because usually me talking to Lucas about dating ends with him complaining that he hated New York girls and that he wasn't going to meet anyone at a bar to date, let alone to marry. This time though, he couldn't explain what had happened... you rendered him speechless for once in his existence and it scared the crap out of him and made him so excited all at the same time. Then, when I met you, I knew that the two of you were exactly what the both of you needed..."
"He is."
"I know that, and I'm glad that you two are so great together."
"I told him I wanted to marry him..." Peyton says, looking down at the hands in her lap.
"He asked you!?" Haley screams, after she hears this information.
"No. I just... we've talked about it before... forever, you know... and any time that we've brought it up I've run scared from it. Then the night that we were in Savannah and all that happened with Jake, I mentioned something about forever, which brought it all up again, but I told Luke that He would know when I was ready for that."
"So... you're saying you're ready now?"
"On Sunday, at the airport, the two of us were basically pathetic, and when he tells me he loves me, he tells me forever, and I watched him start to walk away, and it was like the clearest thing in my life, so I told him that I wanted to talk about forever when he got home."
Haley smiles a genuine smile at the nervous blond in front of her, knowing that the second Lucas got back, the ring that he had hidden would make an appearance and the boy would be down on one knee.
"Well, I'm excited... You'll make good in-laws."
"Thanks..." Peyton says, glancing at the time, "speaking of being good in-laws, part of this trip is me sucking up to you a little bit, treating you to some fun stuff while you're here... soooo... I got us tickets."
"Ooooh! Where?"
"I'll never tell, but get on something nice, cause we are going out for a late lunch, a little shopping, and a trip to Broadway..."
The next morning, both of them waking up with a bit of a hangover, they stumbled into the kitchen in search of coffee, which of course was usually Lucas' job, making Peyton miss him even more and Haley nauseous at the sweetness of the sentiment with a combination of the alcohol left in her system.
"Curse Brooke Davis for sending us a limo set on a bar crawl..."
"I can't believe she organized all of that... that was absolutely insane."
"She just felt bad that she ended up not being able to come out with us, and she didn't want a perfectly planned bar crawl to go to waste."
"The party girl in me loves her right now, but my spinning, pounding head... not so much."
Peyton laughs, and groans when she hears a cell phone ring that seems to be so loud that it penetrates her brain to reside right behind her eyelids with a sting.
"Sorry... I'm sorry..." Haley says, patting Peyton on the head as she covers her ears and lays her head down on the table, and then grabs her phone, "Hello?"
"Mrs. James-Scott?"
"Mr. Nash, what can I do for you?"
"There was just one piece of information that I still needed from you to finalize these papers... the bank number for Jamie's savings account."
"You know what, I am actually out of town right now, so if you call Nathan at home, I'm sure he'd be able to find that for you. And thank you for working on this with us. With Nathan's new contract, we wanted to make sure that all of our legal papers were in order."
"Always be prepared, I say! Have a nice trip Mrs. James-Scott."
"Thanks" she says, hanging up the phone and setting it on the counter next to the steaming cup of coffee that Peyton had just poured.
"What was that all about?"
"Since Nathan just signed a new contract, his agent suggested that we get our money situation all sorted out by a lawyer for safety. We don't need the money right now, so we had to set up different accounts and stuff for Jamie, and all this other random stuff that we had no clue was important."
"Sounds quite obnoxious..." Peyton says, scrunching her nose.
"Well, when you get rich and famous because of your small time turned major label, then you'll have to deal with the same stuff."
"We'll see... speaking of which, are you ready for some quality studio time Haley James-Scott?"
"Give me a couple of hours and a handful of aspirin, and I'll try my best." she says, shaking her head at the memory of the evening before.
–
The two were surprised how much work and fun could be accomplished in just two days together, with them getting enough studio stuff done to keep Peyton busy for the rest of the week. Mixing final cuts of everything, managing the current deals she was working on, and working on getting up a press package for what was going to be Haley's new album very soon, had her working until the day Lucas would come home.
"When does your plane land?" she asks as soon as she flips open her phone, after a quick glance at the caller ID.
"Hi Peyton... I missed you to... I'm glad to talk to you..."
"Oh, shut up and tell me when you're coming home..."
"You see... there's a problem..."
"What kind of problem..."
"A stranded at an airport in Ohio kind of problem?" he says in a questioning tone, trying to make light of the situation.
"What?" she says with a whine in her voice that would make his younger sister proud.
"I'm sorry... I don't know what happened, but one flight got delayed and then I miss my connection, and now I have to wait for another one, and it's just all messed up..."
"Well, what time do you think you'll be here?"
"Probably not until after midnight..."
"Luke..." she says, the whinyness creeping in again.
"Peyton, I can't help it... I'll be home as soon as I can, but I don't want you to wait up for me, I'll get home on my own. You need to rest up for tomorrow."
"What's tomorrow?"
"Well, you know how we ended things before I left?"
Smiling, she knew exactly what he was getting at, "Yeah..."
"That's exactly how I intend on spending my first day home... so carb up and sleep away, cause I'll be home in a few hours."
"You're horrible, you know that?"
"Says the woman who just whined like a five year old when I told her that I would be late..."
"All right, All right, Call me when your flight out of Ohio leaves, okay?"
"You got it, babe."
"I love you."
"Love you too."
And now all she could do was wait. He told her to go to bed, but she couldn't, so she opted to stay up for a while reading. Somewhere around eleven o'clock she fell asleep, her eyes drooping as she tried to focus on the pages in front of her.
When it hit just after midnight, the dip in the bed was enough to wake her, turning with a sleepy grin on her face, "You're back." she says, reaching up to stroke his cheek.
"I am... God... You are even more beautiful than when I left...how do you do that."
"Stop trying to woo me and just kiss me, Lucas Scott... we've got a whole week to make up for."
He leans down to kiss her, resting his body on top of hers, relishing in the feeling of her warm body again, vowing to himself that he would never leave her again.
"I missed you."
"I missed you too, so much."
As they resumed their kissing, his phone chooses to ring, interrupting the moment, causing her to break away from him.
"Let it ring, Peyton, they can wait."
Nodding, she went back to the task at hand, only to be disrupted again when things got a little more heated and clothing started to come off. "Luke, you should get it."
"I would kill myself if I stopped now... It is probably just my editor making sure that I got home okay, and frankly he can shove it." Luke says, emphasizing his last point by pulling off the t-shirt of his that she had chosen to wear to bed this evening.
The thoughts of cell phones and editors, book tours and albums faded away again, as they rediscovered each other after a week apart. He whispered I love yous between kisses down her neck, and she whispered I miss yous as she kissed up his chest after ripping off the dress shirt he was wearing.
This time, however, it was Peyton's phone that interrupted the moment. His hand in a very distracting place and her lips kissing towards a very distracting area all seemed to stop as they both groaned in frustration at the break in their reunion.
"Whoever it is really wants to get a hold of us... I've got to get it." she says, kissing his chin before reluctantly pulling away to retrieve her phone from the night stand.
"If it is Brooke, tell her to watch her back when she's sleeping, cause I'm going to kill her" he says, slumping down on to the bed with a huff.
With a smirk, she grabs her phone, flipping it open without bothering to look at the Caller ID, "Hello?"
"Peyton?" the voice says, but she can't make out who it is for a moment.
"Yes, this is she..."
"Did Lucas make it home yet?"
"Karen?" she asks, making the connection of who she was speaking to, "He made it home okay, are you all right?"
Hearing her question, Lucas senses that there is something wrong and sits up, looking expectantly at Peyton for an answer to what is wrong on the other end.
"You guys need to get to Tree Hill..."
"Okay, we're on our way, but what's going on?" she says, standing up, and motioning for Lucas to get some clothes on and walking into the closet for some jeans and a t-shirt for herself.
"It's Haley and Nathan... there was an accident..."
"Oh, God! What about Jamie?"
"He was with them, I don't know the details, I just...I think you guys need to get here as soon as you can."
"Okay, you guys hang tight, and call us if you know anything... we're getting ready to walk out the door now..." she says, and then hangs up, turning around to find Lucas standing there with a broken look on his face.
"Jamie?" he asks hesitantly, not knowing if he wants to know the answer.
"She doesn't know... she doesn't know anything. They just called her a few minutes ago."
"Peyton, I can't do this... I can't lose them."
"You won't, honey." she speaks softly, rubbing his back in an attempt to calm him down a bit. "They're probably going to be fine."
Looking up, he smiles at her gesture and her words, "You're right... but we should go..."
Grabbing their keys, they ran down to Peyton's car, getting in and mildly cursing the thought that they were going to have to wait six hours before seeing the family. That thought alone causes Lucas to push down a little farther on the gas pedal.
–
Okay... are you hating me right now? Please don't... I'm trying something new... and I haven't seen it done here before... at least that I've noticed... so yeah... bear with me... cause I think I might be in it for the long haul, and I'm pretty sure that you have to come with me!! And... I kind of based the six hours off of New York to Wilmington... and then took a couple hours off for story purposes.... hope that doesn't bother anyone, but since Tree Hill is fictional... so is time traveled in the car! Hehe!!
Review, cause I love it!
P.S. This is my longest chapter in like the history of EVER... be a little proud of me and my long-winded self.... show me some love!