A month later, everything seemed to be going perfectly, with everyone settling into their roles quite easily, seeing as they had already been living them before. Jamie was still as involved as ever, swimming in any league he could swim in and getting ready to end his year and get ready for his second grade year. He was doing well with his doctor who just met with him once a month after they realized that he had really started opening up with everyone about how he was feelings. He was coping well, and had really taken a liking to Lucas and Peyton and their marriage. He was safe and happy, and that was all that the newlywed couple could have hoped for.

They slipped quite easily into this new life together, so nothing had prepared them for what followed a conversation with Haley's sister a few days ago.

"Hello?" Peyton says, picking up her phone before checking to see who it was.

"Peyton? It's Karen, I need you or Luke to get over here."

"Is Jamie okay? What's wrong?" she says as she grabs the purse off her desk and starts walking out the door.

"Jamie is okay, but you've got to get over here...we'll talk when you get here."

"Okay, I'll call Luke, but I'll be right there."

She made her way to the car while calling Lucas, who was in the middle of basketball practice. He said that he would have Skills cover him and be there as soon as he could.

When she pulled up, nothing seemed out of the ordinary except for her sister-in-law's car in the driveway. At least that's what she calls her. She never knew the woman before Haley and Nathan had passed away, but she figures that's what they would be to each other.

Walking into Karen's house, Jamie was nowhere to be found, and Karen was sitting at the kitchen table seemingly in a glaring contest with Vivian.

"Karen, what's up?"

"Why don't you ask her?" she says, pointing at the woman across from her and standing up to be next to Peyton.

"Vivian?"

"I came to get Jamie." she says simply, without any explanation.

"I didn't know that you were coming to visit. Jamie has swimming in an hour, so he can't do anything tonight...." she says hesitantly, sensing that there was more to her statement than just that.

"It always seems to be an excuse with you, Peyton. You and Lucas have to know everything, and we can't ever see our nephew."

"Vivian, if this is about the other day, you need to drop it. I wasn't about to tell that boy that he could ditch out of school to go to the zoo with his Aunt and Uncle."

"It was one day, Peyton, and the boy is in first grade... how much can he miss."

"That isn't the point. I don't want him to dismiss school like that, and think that he can skip out whenever he wants."

"Even if his Aunt and Uncle were taking him on a special trip?" she says with a look of expectancy on her face, as if she was entitled to everything she desired.

"Vivian, with all due respect, you guys don't live too far away. It isn't like he never sees you."

"Well, that's what I've come to talk to you about."

"What is there to talk about?" Peyton says, raising her eyebrows and putting a hand on her hip.

"Michael and I talked and we think it best if Jamie come stay with us for a while. We are his family."

"Okay, first of all, Lucas and I are his family too, and second... where the hell do you get off telling us what is best for Jamie?" she says evenly, her voice raising as she continued.

"We're getting a lawyer involved, and until then, I would like my nephew to come with me." she says, standing up to face Peyton, and inching closer as her attempt at intimidation.

Peyton recognized the gesture, but was not a woman to be tampered with, "He is not stepping a foot outside this household unless it is with me or Lucas, so you'd better back off."

It was then that Lucas walked through the door, "What's going on here?"

"I came to take Jamie to spend some time with Michael and I."

"Well, he has swimming tonight and school tomorrow, so I'm pretty sure that we can't swing that." he says, and a look of satisfaction crosses Peyton's face, knowing that they were that matched for each other.

"If I don't take him with me tonight, I'll just be coming back with my lawyer in a few days."

Suddenly, Lucas understood why this was so important. She didn't want him for the evening, she wanted him period. "And if you choose to do that, your lawyer will get a chance to meet ours, so you can do whatever you want. Jamie, however, is staying right here." he says, moving to stand next to his wife.

Seeing that she was obviously not going to get her way, the oldest James sister, now Prior, stepped back. "Let me at least say goodbye to him?"

Never taking his eyes off the woman, Lucas calls down the hallway.

"Yeah?"

"Come say goodbye to your Aunt Vivian."

"She said I was going with her tonight." he says, confused at the sudden change from what he was told.

"Well, you've got some things going on tonight and you've got school tomorrow, so we're going to have to reschedule that."

He shrugs his shoulders in a gesture that clearly said that he could care less what he was doing and moves to hugs his Aunt.

"I'll be seeing you soon, Jamie."

"Bye Aunt Vivian."

The cold stare the couple received as she walked out the door was enough to let them know that they were surely in for a fight.

After a restless night, the two still hadn't figured out anything about their situation, but between Brooke and Andy's connections, they had plenty of options where lawyers were concerned. They opted to stick with the lawyer that had dealt with Haley and Nathan's estate, since he clearly knew Haley and Nathan, and understood the situation that would be presented to him.

A few days passed though, and no action was needed, so they assumed that it was over. Until one day when a man came into the TRIC office with papers for Lucas and Peyton Scott.

When she opened the letter, she immediately got into her car and drove over to the high school, where she ran into the gym with a frazzled look that meant nothing less than something terrible.

"That can't be good dude, what'd you do?" Skills said as he saw the blonde running towards them.

"Shut up, Skills." he said before she reached them.

As she shoved the notice at him to read, the color left his face, "Are you kidding me?!"

"They're claiming that you have no rights to Jamie since you are only Nathan's half brother, and they are suggesting that we married so quickly so we could get a piece of the estate." she says, as he continued to read.

"This is bullshit!"

"Luke, what are we going to do?"

"Let's go over to mom and Andy's." he says, placing a hand on the small of her back to guide her out of the gym before turning to address skills, "I need to take care of this."

"Hey you guys need someone, anyone, about this... I been around J-Luke since he was a baby, and I've known you and Haley since we was in fourth grade. Aside from blondie, I know you and that kid better than anyone."

Lucas just nods before turning back to Peyton, and walking out of the gym.

When they reached Karen and Andy's, Peyton was in tears, claiming that she couldn't understand how this could be happening.

"After everything that little boy had to go through, they are going to put him through this? Are you kidding me?!"

"We're going to figure it out, We will..." he says, as they are walking through the door.

Karen was the first to see the pair walk in through the kitchen door, and noticing the tears in Peyton's eyes, she immediately called out for Andy.

"What's wrong?" he says, coming into the room.

"We need your help." Lucas says, handing him the letter that Peyton was given just a few hours ago.

"You've got to be kidding me. They think that the two of you are in a marriage of convenience because you wanted to get at their money?"

"And they are trying to claim that I have no rights, because Nathan was only my half brother."

"That will get easily dismissed in court. You were a presence in Jamie's life more than she was, and you were more a part of their recent past. They named the two of you guardians, and usually that sticks unless it is a non-family member named as guardian."

"We've got Mr. Nash on standby with the situation. He was the one who dealt with the wills."

"I think that you need to still bring in a family court lawyer, Lucas. See if you can get both of them to work together to represent you."

"How are we going to do this?" Peyton says, as if she was ignoring their conversation.

"Peyton, we're going to fix this. It's going to be fine."

"Luke, he's already been through so much."

"That right there, Peyton... the fact that you care so much about that... is why he isn't going to be taken away from us."

She nods, wiping a tear away, and regaining her composure. With that fire back in her eyes, she turns to Andy, "Who do you know, and how fast can we get them?"

One week later, they were sitting in the office of a family lawyer, recommended by Andy to be one of the best in the country.

"Peyton, Lucas, sit down."

"Thank you for meeting with us Mrs. Lindley."

"Andy told me about the situation, so let's dive right in, shall we?" she says, with an air of confidence and a hint of bitchiness that had Lucas and Peyton share a look between the two of them.

"All right, from what I understand, the main thing that they are going to try to prove is that yours is a marriage of convenience, so I need your story. How did you meet, when did you meet, when did you get engaged, and how does that fit in with the Scotts' passing?"

"We met nearly two years ago at a bar in New York."

"We'll leave the bar part out."

"We dated casually, but exclusively for a few months before Peyton came and met my family, including Nathan and Haley."

"So the two of you were involved with them for the year before their accident."

"Yes, we went on a few vacations, they came to New York, and they even came to help us move into our apartment." Peyton says, recalling all the time that they did actually spend together in those short months.

"When did you move in together? How far into the relationship?"

"Six months."

She raises her eyebrows at that as she wrote everything they were saying down onto her notebook.

"What was that?"

"You moved fast. Is there a reason for that?" she asks frankly.

"When you know, you know. Peyton fit into my life so seemlessly, that nothing else made more sense."

She nods again, this time with a smile on her face, "What about the engagement?"

"I asked her to marry me the day we found out we were going to be Jamie's legal guardians." he says and watches her brow furrow, "but my mother and her boyfriend, as well as Haley knew that I was planning on asking her to marry me soon. The ring she's wearing was my mother's from before the man she was going to marry, my Uncle, was killed."

"Okay, and the two of you just got married a month ago?"

They share a look that doesn't go unnoticed by the lawyer, "You didn't get married?"

"We got married, but, it was actually seven months ago."

"Oh, well, I remember Andy talking about your wedding just a month ago."

"We got married six months before our actual wedding... we didn't want to wait, and we wanted Jamie involved, so we haven't told our family and friends yet." Lucas says, and watches as the woman's grin gets wider.

"You couldn't wait? Really?" she says sarcastically, "I would have just stopped the whole wedding if I knew then what I know now."

It was the first time that Lucas and Peyton allowed themselves to laugh at their situation. It was also the first time that they thought the woman had a soul.

She figured this as she laughed with them, "I'm sorry about the ice queen routine. I just wanted to get a feel for you guys first, don't hate me." she says with a full on smile as she reaches out a hand for both of them to shake, "I don't for a second believe that this is a marriage of convenience, and I'm sure that after a little digging, we will find plenty of people to corroborate that statement. As for the gold digger idea, we're going to have to dig a little more to make sure there is nothing that supports the idea."

"Like what?"

"Well... you two just bought a house in Tree Hill, right?"

"Yes, it was from a woman who knew my mother, so we got a really good deal on it."

"And how did you pay for the house?"

"With my savings, and we took out a mortgage." Lucas says, shrugging his shoulders at the question, since that was typically how people bought a house.

"Good."

"Why is that good?"

"Because it is showing that you can provide for yourselves. Now, I've been in contact with Mr. Nash, and he is sending me over all the information with the will and how all that money is being distributed out. I know that this is going to suck, but you'll have to wait a bit while I get all of that in order."

"Okay..." Peyton says, sounding a little more nervous than she would like to be.

"While I'm looking over that, the two of you can send me over anything about your financial statements, as well as any information about trips that you took with Haley and Nathan. And as far as now, I want information about how Jamie is being taken care of."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I know that the two of you work, so are you using your own money to provide for him, or are you tapping into the different funds that are available because of your guardianship?"

"Everything has been out of our own personal money. We wouldn't have thought to take anything out of that."

"Keep it that way. I just need information about your lives for the past few months since Nathan and Haley passed and you were in custody of Jamie. Sound okay?"

They nod before standing up and shaking the woman's hand.

"I'm going to figure this out, and I'm going to make sure that boy doesn't go anywhere, okay? You don't have to worry... let me do that part."

–

Okay, so now you see the drama. I will say that the drama, while Jamie related, isn't going to hurt our boy or make him go crazy or anything. I know that some of you are worried about that! I won't do that. For that, you'd have to check out my other fic, Moments Missed. Still have plans in the fingers folks. We'll see how things go for our fabulous Leyton pair and see what comes our way!

Read and Review... and don't hate!!