She woke that morning confused and exhausted, because she didn't remember being driven back to their house. Opening her eyes, she searched for him and found just an empty side of the bed.

"Luke?" she calls out quietly.

He comes in carrying some breakfast for her, setting it on the desk before coming to sit beside her on the bed, "I'm sorry about yesterday."

"I should have told you...."

"No... Haley didn't want me to know, and I get that. I was worried about you though, and I let that trump everything. Nathan told me last night."

"Nathan came and talked to you?"

"I was at the rivercourt after you left, and he saw me there... he knows about everything with the baby, and he told me about Jamie." he says, getting a bit choked up at the thought of his nephew.

"I can't tell you that it's going to be okay, but I think that it's time that we get ourselves back to normal again... come with me to the hospital today?"

"Peyton, Haley...."

"No, Luke, it's okay. Nathan told you about it, and I only go when Haley isn't there. I won't go when she's there." she says with a finality that he didn't understand.

"What? Why?"

"I don't want her to be upset."

"She already is upset, Peyton..."

"Did Nathan tell you everything?"

"I think he was just sticking to the important stuff..." he says, with a sarcasm saying that there couldn't be anything more to tell.

"After we left, she got pregnant... the baby was born too early... she doesn't want to be around me, and I don't blame her... I don't want her to have to deal with that."

The look of disbelief that came across his features was something that broke her heart, but she knew that he had to know everything.

He stands up then, walking over to put on his shoes with a determination that she hadn't seen from him before, and then turns to walk out the door.

"Lucas, where are you going?"

He turns back for just a split second to acknowledge her, "To fix it."

It was early when he pulled up to their house, but he could care less about the timing of things. The door was always open, and that was something that he was counting on, knowing that he probably wouldn't be welcomed with open arms by his best friend and sister-in-law.

When he walked in, he heard someone in the kitchen and walked in quietly, taking in the picture before him. He didn't know how he could have missed it when he saw her before. She was too skinny, her moves lethargic, her spirit taken down.

"Haley..." he says quietly.

She turns slowly, not even attempting the fight of last time, but acknowledging his presence in the room. The look in his eyes instantly told her that he knew everything, and that alone was enough to send her walls crumbling. She didn't have the strength to keep it any more.

"You know..." she says, not as a question, but a statement.

He had spent enough time away from her to know that he had a lot to make up for. He spent enough time being her friend to know that she needed him. So, he crossed the distance to her, wrapping his arms around her and whispering her name into her hair as he held her tight. She protested for a minute, fighting the embrace of his arms, pushing at his chest and punching at his back.

"It's okay..." he says as she hits him, repeating it like a mantra softly into her ear.

"No!" she cries out, finally allowing herself to be held by him and sinking to the floor with his arms still wrapped around.

"It's going to be okay..."

"Where were you.... I needed you... I needed you..." she says desperately, the cries coming out loud enough to send Nathan running into the kitchen.

When he sees his brother on the kitchen floor with his wife, he silently thanks God or the powers that be for finally making them come to their senses. The only man aside from him that Haley ever needs is Lucas. He has never minded it, until Lucas wasn't there and he had to try to pick up the pieces by himself. Not wanting to break up their moment, he left as silently as he came.

After about twenty minutes of just letting her sob on his shoulder, she sat back up against the bottom cabinets, and looked at him. "I needed you Luke."

"I know. I'm sorry. You don't have to let me back in, Haley, I get that. I get the idea that you could hate me for the rest of my life. But I'm going to be here regardless. I want to help with Jamie. I want to help with you and Nathan. I want you guys to be a part of my life. Even when we were away, you were still with us, Haley. You were the voice inside my head for everything."

"Then why didn't you call? Why didn't you come back after you guys got married?" she asks, not in an accusing way, but as a way of getting some facts clear in her head.

"It was too hard for us. We wanted to see if we really were the Lucas and Peyton that everyone thought that we were."

"And..."

"After a few weeks of consistent fighting, we realized that we were."

"So a few weeks and you knew... but you stayed away, Luke."

He shakes his head, blaming himself for everything that happened while they were away. "I know...and I will not ever be able to tell you I am sorry enough."

"No, I should be sor--"

"No! You don't get to apologize Haley... you didn't do anything wrong, and you need to know that right now. We should have been here. Once we figured it all out, we should have come back. It was... it was just easier to start fresh. Peyton and I had way too much of the past to let go of."

–

The first week away...

–

"The second book is on its way out." he shouts at the bathroom where she is taking her shower.

"Really, that's great Luke!" she shouts back.

Coming out of the bathroom, she notices him sitting there staring at his phone, and peeks over his shoulder to see what he's so mesmerized by. Of course, once he realizes that she's there, he hides the phone from her eyes.

"Lindsay?" she asks, regarding the text message of someone saying how much they miss him.

"Yeah..."

"huh... when did she send that?" she says, with a bite to her voice that certainly doesn't go unnoticed by him.

"A few minutes ago, after she talked to me."

"Oh..."

She stands up and gets into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her, "Peyton, come on... this is nothing."

Opening the door while pulling on her t-shirt she shouts back, "Nothing... Lucas, two months ago, I watched you say 'I do' to that woman, and then watched you spend the next two months trying to get her back. You call me and ask me to start over with you, and I find you just two days later staring at a text message from her telling you how much she misses, you and I'm supposed to say that it is nothing?!"

"Peyton, it has always been you and me... everyone has said it."

"Dammit Lucas! That's the problem! Can't you see that? What if we aren't really those people?"

"But we are..."

"Says who? Haley? Brooke?"

"Says me... Peyton, I love you!" he shouts back at her.

"I love you too, Luke. But maybe this past is too much for us. Did you ever think about that?"

"No. I never thought about that, because I know that I am meant to be with you. I know I am."

"And that is why you proposed to another woman after I told you that I loved you... and that is why you sped up a wedding to marry another woman?"

"I proposed to another woman because she found the ring that I was still holding on to for you and I couldn't be man enough to tell her that it would never be for her. I sped up a wedding to marry another woman because I knew that if I didn't marry her right away, I would end up back to loving you without you wanting to marry me."

"Oh, God, Lucas! You are such a coward!"

"A coward!?"

"Yes! You're telling me that Lindsay was just because I was too hard for you?"

"No... I just..."

"No, that is exactly what you are saying."

"So, you didn't meet anyone when you were in Los Angeles? Anyone at all?"

She turns then, going back into the bathroom, slamming the door in his face.

"See! If I'm a coward then you are a damn hypocrite!"

Whipping the door open again, she spat back at him, "He left me because of you!"

"What? Peyton, before you came back to Tree Hill, I hadn't seen you in three years!"

"I told you once that every time I see your book, I buy it... well partially because I have to have it with me. I have to have a copy on me at all times, and sometimes I lose them or something gets spilled on them... and then I know that I'll always have a back up waiting for me. Julian... that was his name, and I were going on a trip and he left me because I wanted it in my carry on."

He moves then, going to plop down on the bed, taking in what she just said. After a few minutes, she came to sit next to him, thinking about everything that just happened as well.

"We are a mess..."

"That we are." she says, with a smirk.

"It was us... we were too scared to admit that we just needed each other."

"I really should have said yes..."

"No... I should have said that we could have a long engagement."

"Luke..."

He turns to her then, putting her hands in his, "Peyton, from the first time we spoke and you told me that I didn't know you at all, I think I was in love with you. Yeah, I thought that you were the most beautiful girl in the world before that, but it wasn't until we spoke that I knew. Through all the crap that we've been through, together as friends, separate as nothing, together as lovers, I have never ever stopped loving you."

"Me too..."

It was finally the end of the first of many fights that they had that week, but that was still the one that stuck out to him the most, them finally admitting that maybe they needed more time than they thought that they would.

–

Present day...

–

"Are you happy now, Luke?"

"With Peyton, yes... I couldn't have asked for anything more. With myself, no."

"You can't blame yourself either, Luke."

He considers that for a moment, letting it process as he takes in her defeated posture, staring down at the floor.

"Well... I'm going to for a while... that way you can stop blaming yourself."

She smiles for the first time in what seems like months, and pulls him in for another hug as she starts to cry again.

"So, talk to me Haley... what do we need to do? How can we help him. How can I help you?"

She stands up quickly, trying to distract herself with meaningless chores as he watches her move through the kitchen. He knew that she was trying to avoid talking about it, trying to get him to drop the subject entirely, but he wasn't about to do that... not after completely avoiding it this long.

"Haley..."

"He's not going to make it..." she says, and then lets out a sharp breath as she clutches to the counter. "The next round of treatment is a long shot, and after that, if it doesn't do anything, then he's gone."

–

A few weeks ago...

–

"Mrs. Scott, this is very experimental. There is just a small chance that this is going to work, so I don't want you to get your hopes up at all."

"You said that even if he doesn't completely turn around, that it will still prolong his life?" she asks hopeful.

"By a month... two at most..." the doctor says with a doubting air about his voice.

"Haley..." Nathan says, placing his hand over hers where it rested in her lap.

"No! Nathan, I want to try it."

"This is it though... Haley... we can't do any more... I won't put him through this anymore."

She looks between Nathan and the doctor before finding her voice again, "If it doesn't work... then what do we do?"

"We keep him comfortable, and we wait."

"Is he going to know what is happening?"

"He's still too young to really understand what is going on with his body. As long as we keep the pain away, he'll go peacefully."

As she nodded while he was speaking, she tried hard to swipe at the tears that were falling quickly down her face.

"I'm going to give the two of you a minute..."

Once the doctor leaves, she crawls into his lap, much like a child needing comforting.

"Nathan, I can't do this. I can't do this again."

"Haley, what little time he has had on this earth has been great. You and I made sure of that. We will be okay... it will take time, but we will be okay."

–

Present Day

–

She didn't expect the phone call that she did, but Nathan called her, and told her that she should come down to the hospital to sit with Jamie for a while.

When she rounded the corner, and say Nathan and Haley looking in on their son, she stopped, worried about Haley's reaction towards her after finding out what happened. But seeing Nathan's eyes smiling at her from down the hall assured her that it was going to be okay.

"You both should spend time with your nephew..." Haley says as she approaches.

Her words surprise Peyton, as she turns to look in the hospital room and sees Lucas sitting with a smiling Jamie.

"He looks really good today."

"Yeah, I think he needed Lucas back... he needed both of you back."

She doesn't say anything, just waits for Haley to continue, as she looked like there was more that needed to be said. "Peyton, I am happy for you guys... I am. There is a lot that I'm still working through, and I keep sinking back down. But I want you here."

Peyton takes her by the shoulders, turning her to look her in the eye, "We aren't going anywhere else."

And then it seemed like just another part of the wall crumbled, as Peyton took Haley in her arms, letting the woman cry a little on her shoulder.

–

Okay... so I know that this was a total downer chapter, and I know that there were a few moments while writing that I, myself got a little teary eyed. I just... I needed that drama for you, and I wanted it to seem real. I hope that nobody felt it forced or too dramatic. I hope you liked it.

Anyways... Review, cause this is a chapter that I don't know... I really liked writing it, and I value your opinion.