"Enough about me though...how's your life B. Davis?" Peyton says after having a moment to remember the past year.

"You know, it's actually getting kind of late, so why don't we get back to your place... or Luke's place... I... well, I guess it's your place now, right?"

Seeing that Brooke obviously wanted to dodge the bullet of her questioning about the last year, she stood up nodding and walking towards the door.

When they got back to the house, the two friends let themselves sit in the car for a moment, in an awkward silence. Peyton finally had to ask, "It's like senior year all over again, isn't it?"

"What do you mean?"

"You'll be in a room with me, but you won't talk to me, and you won't open up to me... We can't ever be like it was."

"Peyton, it may have only been a little over a year, but I don't think you understand how much can happen in that amount of time."

Getting frustrated with that answer, she threw her arms up in the air and turned in her seat to face her best friend, "Then tell me what happened here Brooke!"

"Some of it isn't mine to tell, Peyton."

"Then tell me about what is yours to tell."

Brooke's phone beeped and vibrated from the purse she had at her side, and as she reached in to get it out, she made it clear that the conversation was over, "Goodnight Peyton."

As she watched Brooke pull out her phone and start talking she couldn't help but wonder what was going on, but getting that she wasn't welcomed at that moment turned to walk into the house.

In the car, Brooke watched her friend go up the walk to the house, and pulled away from the curb as she listened to the woman who had been there for her in the last year.

"Did you tell her anything?"

"Haley, I told you that I wasn't going to tell her anything that wasn't mine to tell, but you need to talk to her and Lucas. I think that we all do."

"Brooke, you were just as pissed as I was when the shit hit the fan and they didn't bother to come back from wherever the hell they were! What were they doing anyways? What was so important that they couldn't be here?"

She knew her friend was on the verge of tears, but knew also, that it was going to be like a band-aid, so told her the information that she knew Nathan had kept from her, "They got married Haley..."

"What?"

"... and she's pregnant... and believe it or not, they were in Charlotte."

"North Carolina?"

"Yes."

"I want it all back Brooke... I want Lucas back to being my best friend, the one I can lean on. I want Peyton to be my inspiration and my other best girl... I want this year back."

"I know you do Haley."

–

While They Were Away

–

"Jamie, what's wrong buddy?"

"Nothing, I'm just tired..."

"Okay, well do you want to take a nap before we get to dinner?"

"Yeah..." he says, walking away, but stopping before the hallway to turn to his mother, "Did Uncle Lucas call yet? You said he was going to call soon."

"No, honey, he didn't, but I'm sure that he'll call you to talk. He and Peyton are just really busy right now." she says, not sounding convincing to even herself.

As Jamie walks out and into his room, Haley slams her hand down on the counter, "Damn You Lucas!"

"Hales?" Nathan says, coming in after hearing something hit the counter, finding his wife in tears as she sits at the stool. "What's wrong?"

"He can't even call his nephew... I mean he won't return any of our calls and it has been two months. Two months since he and Peyton left, and we haven't heard anything from either of them!"

"You know that they have a good reason Haley, it's Lucas and Peyton."

"Well when whatever the hell they are doing effects my son, then I have an issue. Nathan he is moping around here and has been since I told him that Lucas was going to be gone for a while."

"I know, but Hales, it is going to be okay, and it is Lucas, so I don't see him going off and doing anything stupid."

"I know that, but I want him back here with all of us. Him and Peyton, because I can't take much more of Brooke and all of her drama."

"Yeah, why did you and Luke decide to become popular in high school?"

"Shut up and help me with dinner." she says, swatting at his chest and putting a smile on her face.

It was a few hours later that dinner was ready and she decided to wake up Jamie to eat. She was met with a child who claimed that he didn't want any food and that he was still too tired.

As she felt his forehead, she knew that something wasn't right, "Nathan!"

He comes into the room quickly, "What's wrong?"

"Go get the thermometer for me, can you?"

"Momma, just let me sleep for a little longer... I'm not hungry." Jamie says, still half asleep as Haley waits for the thermometer to come back.

"Here." he says handing it off and taking a seat on the foot of his son's bed as she takes his temperature.

"103.2..." she says, turning on the light, "and he doesn't look right."

"Do you want to take him into the hospital, or do you want to wait it out?"

"Let's just get him out of these clothes and get some cool rags and see how it goes?"

"I'll go fill up the bathtub with some cool water, and that will get the fever down."

As they both took care of their jobs, they didn't know that this was to be the first of many sleepless nights with their baby boy.

–

Present Day

–

"I can't believe that they were in Charlotte...I called them. We called them. When Jamie was...God Brooke!"

"I know, and I know that you're upset. I think you and Nathan have all the right to be pissed at them, but at one point in time those two were our best friends, and don't we owe them to find out what went on and what happened?"

"I can't talk to her right now...it's too soon to be..."

"I know, and I understand that, but you should at least talk to Luke."

"I'll think about it..."

"Do it for Jamie at least." she says, knowing that would be what got her friend to talk to Lucas.

As they finished their conversation, another was beginning as Peyton walked into the house where her husband was sitting on the couch staring into the abyss that was their wall.

"Hey."

"Hey, how was ice cream?" he asks, being shaken out of his daze.

"I can't decide... the ice cream was good... but the conversation... not so much."

"We've had a lot of that here recently."

"I think Brooke is happy about us though. I've caught her in a few moments, but she won't come out and say it. I want to talk to the three of them and tell them everything that happened with us and find out what went on here."

The couple sat for a while and talked it out, deciding that they were going to wait until someone came to them before talking any more.

It was Skills and Nathan that made the first move between the group, crossing over to the "other side" and showing up on Lucas' doorstep on the next Saturday afternoon with a basketball in hand. However, opening the door, Peyton was expecting Brooke or Haley, and not the men of the clan.

"Dang P. Sawyer, you got fat!"

"Wow Skills, you are still as big of a jerk as when we left!" Peyton says, smiling and pulling him in for a hug.

"Seriously though, we be glad your back, cause it was a hot mess around here without you and Luke..." he says, walking into the kitchen like they were never gone, "So what's the haps, and where's the boy toy?"

"He's in the bedroom, probably sleeping, I'll go--" she says

Nathan cuts her off though, standing up from where he was leaning on the counter, "I'll go get sleeping beauty, and you two can chat it up."

"Thanks Nate."

"So, Skills, how's the love life going?" she asks as she grabs a glass for some water.

"Aw, me and Deb were kickin' it pretty good for a while, but now Skills is flyin' solo"

Peyton spits her water out and lets out a sound halfway between a laugh and a cough, "Deb! As in Nathan's mom Deb?!"

"Yeah, she and I met online, and then--"

"Skills I do not want to know!" she says and the two laugh for a moment, but quiet down, "I guess we missed a lot, huh?"

"I was a little upset when you all left, but I didn't have the major events like everybody else... You guys have some time to make up for P. Sawyer." he says, serious all of the sudden, but still light like he always was in talking about the stuff that mattered.

"Scott..." Lucas says, catching the tail end of their conversation and correcting his friend.

"What?"

"P. Scott"

"Dude, y'all got hitched! Damn, I knew it all along... I told Nate that you two ran off to get married, and he said that you wouldn't do anything stupid like that..." he says, and then catches the look on both of his friends' faces "he didn't mean stupid cause it was you two, he meant stupid cause you wouldn't do that without your... you know what, we best be going, and you can tell us all about it Luke. Later Peyton."

Lucas turns to give Peyton a quick kiss and tells her he would be back soon, and the boys leave for the River Court.

It was halfway through the game when Skills finally had to ask about the two of them getting married.

"So you get married after she got pregnant, or was that a planned thing?" Skills asked with no tact whatsoever.

"Skills, you can't ask stuff like that." Nathan says, hitting him in the shoulder.

"Oh Shut up, you know you want to find out how that went down."

"We got married before the baby."

"When?" Nathan asks, joining Skills in the questioning.

"About four weeks after we left."

"Dang, you move fast!"

"Yeah..."

–

While They Were Away

–

The past two weeks had flown by as they found a small apartment and she got settled in managing a few bands from Charlotte instead of Tree Hill. Luke was well into a third novel and seemed to be thriving on this trip away from home. As Peyton got ready to step into the shower for their "date" tonight, something caught her eye.

She picked up her engagement ring and saw for the first time the inscription along the inside, that read True Love Always. She couldn't understand why Lucas didn't ever mention it, and then got a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.

Grabbing her robe, she walked into the spare bedroom where they had decided to put their office and found her fiancee writing away.

"Luke, what's this?" she says, holding out the ring.

"Your ring?"

"I have to ask you something, and I don't want you to take it the wrong way or think that I am questioning anything, but this is Karen and Keith's ring, right? I wasn't imagining that?"

"It is."

"This is also the ring that Lindsay wore during your engagement, right?"

He winces at the fact that she had realized that, "yes."

"So, was this put on their for Karen, or did you just happen to share this idea with Lindsay as well?" she asks, pointing to the inside of the ring, and allowing herself to freak out a little bit.

"It was my mom."

"Oh... so Keith wrote that for her in the ring...that's so..."

"No... it was my mom who wrote that in there for me, well, for you I guess."

Sensing that there was a story behind this, she moved from her spot in the doorway to sit on his lap, quirking an eyebrow as if telling him to go on.

"After what happened with Lindsay, I sent the ring back to my mom. I think that I wrote her a letter with it and said something about how I obviously hadn't found the right person, and that she should have it back."

"Okay."

"Then, about two weeks before we left, I got the package in the mail with the ring in it again, and a note from my mom that said to look at it again, and I had found the right person, so I should go after her... I thought she was talking about me going after Lindsay, until I looked at the ring and found the inscription. She meant you, of course."

"Your mom has always been one of our biggest supporters you know?"

"How do you know that?"

"The day I met her, I think she knew that there was something there between us. Brooke came home after your accident junior year freaking out. The only thing other than you that she would talk about was how your mom didn't know who she was. In fact I think she said "she looked at me like an alien with two heads when I told her my name was Brooke, and grew another head when I said that I was his girlfriend.""

"How did I not know any of this?"

"You were kind of unconscious...but anyways, the next day, I came into the hospital and no one was sitting with you, so I sat down. A few minutes later, your mom came in and when I went to introduce myself she said she already knew who I was from you talking about me."

"Yeah... I was kind of obsessed with you."

"Yeah... you were, but it's cute."

"Well, I get you for the rest of my life, so I might as well be obsessed, right?"

"Tomorrow..."

"What is tomorrow?"

"Let's get married tomorrow..."

"Peyton."

"No, why are we waiting? We have both known that this was coming, so why stop now?"

"Tomorrow..."

–

Present Day

–

He tells them the story, leaving out the part where they tumbled into bed for a day filled with nothing even remotely PG rated, and the two men laughed.

"You two have it so bad... but I am happy for you, man." Skills said, hugging him in that guy way.

"I might not show it, but I'm happy for you too big brother."

"Thanks Nate, that means a lot coming from you."

–

So what do we think?? What do you all think about the whole Jamie thing?? Oh, and I decided against the italics for the flashbacks, but I did like the idea of putting some things not in the Leyton point of you, but switched it over to Brooke for a bit there. I'm just working on it here! Hehe!! Anyways, You are all great, and keep reading... cause we still have 2 weeks until our show comes back, and this is the only thing that gets me through...

Review Review!!

And if you are a Hilarie Burton fan, you totally need to look up the Southern Gothic Productions Blog, because there are some seriously awesome people over there that support the lovely woman who plays Peyton Sawyer.