Thanks for reading and reviewing! As always, you are the best!

Also, I apologize because I've been bad about checking email lately and I didn't see PMs/emails until after I updated the last chapter. But I promise I will be better, so feel free to PM/email me with questions, comments, etc

All it means is that I'm a lazy fool :-)

After Nathan began kicking him in his sleep, Lucas decided he had to find somewhere else to be.

He heard the television on downstairs, so he followed to noise to find his father sitting on the couch, unable to sleep either.

"Hey, what are you doing up?" Dan asked from the couch.

"Nathan kicked me out of my bed."

"Well I'm pretty sure he will forget in about fifteen seconds."

"He literally kicked me out of my bed."

"Oh. Ouch."

"Yeah, he has a hefty kick for a guy who's going to wake up with a massive hangover in a couple of hours."

"Well, might as well sit here then."

Lucas nodded and sat down on the couch.

"So what are we watching?"

"I don't know, I'm channel surfing."

"Can't sleep?"

"Yeah…"

"Any particular reason?"

"Yeah…"

"But…you don't want to tell me?"

"I don't want to ruin this day for you."

"Is it a bad thing?"

"Not necessarily. Just…"

"Come on, tell me."

"Keith…he…came to the wedding."

"What?"

"He was hanging outside."

"Why…"

"I don't know. I guess he finally decided to come back…he just chose the most…interesting…day to do so."

"But he was there?"

"Yeah, I think I'm the only one he talked to."

"It figures." Lucas said angrily.

"What do you mean?"

"It figures he comes back for this. Never mind anything else that's happened this year."

"He didn't-"

"I've left him so many emails and voicemails, he knows everything."

"You called him?"

"I kind of thought that one of those things would matter to him."

"Lucas…"

"He really doesn't care about me anymore."

"I don't believe that." Dan said, not realizing how unlike him that sounded.

Lucas didn't realize either, he just kept on ranting.

"You'd think if he did care, one of the things that happened would've brought him back. I almost died, Dad. Why doesn't he care?"

"Maybe he came back to show that he does."

"He only came back for my mom. He came back to see her marry someone else. It's his own fault."

Dan was speechless. He had never heard his son sound so bitter.

Lucas didn't notice the silence; he just shifted on the couch and fixed his gaze on the television.

Slowly, Dan put his arm around Lucas and pulled him closer.

"I missed him, you know?" Lucas said quietly.

"Look, Lucas…"

"If he missed me he would've come back."

Dan didn't want to, but he knew he had to be fair to Keith. After all, he had been in a similar predicament, just for much longer.

"Maybe he was scared."

"Maybe…"

"I don't like seeing you like this. Give him a chance."

"Why?"

"Well, look at where you are now. You gave me a chance, you gave Nathan a chance, and it doesn't completely suck now does it?"

"Not completely." Lucas said, turning to Dan and smiling.

Dan smiled back.

"I'm sorry…"

"For what?"

"Being so down."

"It's understandable."

"So how come you didn't tell me about this before?"

"You were so happy…I figured that you would have your day of fun without this hanging over you."

"Oh. Thanks…"

"No problem."

"What the hell is this show?" Lucas asked.

"I don't know."

"Okay…" Lucas said, watching the show.

They sat in silence for a while, Lucas slowly drifting off and Dan just enjoying being with his son. Dan absently rubbed his son's arm up and down as they sat there.

Soon Lucas' even breathing indicated he was asleep.

Dan continued to sit there, just happy for the opportunity he had. He thought about how if Lucas was several years younger, he could just pick him up and carry him upstairs.

He thought about how this was just one of the first late night talks he had with Lucas.

He wondered if Lucas and Andy had any late night talks.

He wondered what Andy had done to get so close to Lucas.

"I feel like hell." Nathan said, coming downstairs and sitting on the couch next to Lucas the next morning.

"Good morning, princess." Lucas said, taking a sip of coffee.

"Yeah, yeah. So any indication of how long I'm grounded for?"

"I think I may have talked them out of any punishment. It was a party, good times to be had, yadda yadda…"

"You serious?"

"Yeah."

"I owe you so big." Nathan said, his eyes wide.

"Oh, I know little brother. I know." Lucas smirked.

"Somehow I get the feeling that this will actually be worse than any punishment I would've gotten otherwise."

"Well, you don't really deserve it especially since you kicked me out of my own bed last night."

"I did not."

"Did too."

"There's no freaking way I would've done that. I'm not that mean."

"You did. You have a hefty kick for a drunk guy."

"…I thought you meant figuratively."

"Nope." Lucas said, pulling up his t-shirt, showing the slight bruise he had on his side.

"Damn."

"Yeah."

"I'm sorry Luke."

"Don't worry about it."

"Any other things I should know about?"

"Such as?"

"Any other embarrassing things I should know about from my inebriation? I do remember the 'I love my big brother' speech. By the way, I am so sorry for that."

"Yeah." Lucas laughed.

"So seriously, did I say or do anything else that I should pretend to know about?"

"Well last night, you were lying in my bed, and you said 'I love you' over and over."

"Oh…okay…uh…"

"Well, you said 'I love you Haley' eventually. At first I was a little concerned because you would follow up the I love you's with comments like 'you're so pretty and smart'."

"Oh but you are." Nathan teased, trying to shake off the embarrassment.

"Look, I know that sometimes when people drink, they say crazy stuff."

"I can't exactly write it off as some drunken comment can I?"

"I didn't think so."

"I tried, Luke. I tried so hard."

"To move on?"

"Yeah."

"You know, you didn't have to, really."

"I had to try."

"Why?"

"I was so confused, I honestly had no idea what I felt. I just had to take that shot, see if it all was worth it."

"Uh huh…"

"What's wrong?"

"It's so back and forth with you two, Nathan."

"I know, I know. But it's not like it was an easy thing to get a grip on."

Lucas bit his lip and looked down.

"What?" Nathan said, trying to catch Lucas' eye.

"So what happens now?"

"What do you mean?"

"So, now you go back to her? Find her somewhere alone, give some amazing speech and you two will be back together, happy forever?" Lucas said bitterly.

"Whoa, whoa. What the hell, Lucas?"

"I should've figured."

"Figured what?"

"You would do this."

"I haven't done anything!"

"Go ahead, Nate. Go be married again. Go live your life." Lucas said, getting up and leaving.

"Lucas!" Nathan hollered.

His only response from Lucas was the front door slamming.

"What the hell?" He wondered out loud.

"You okay?" Deb asked, coming into the kitchen.

"No. Lucas just completely blew up at me."

"What happened?"

"I don't know. I kind of admitted that I may still have feelings for Haley and he got…mad…mad at me."

"That doesn't sound like him."

"Doesn't sound like who?" Dan asked, tying his tie as he walked into the room.

"Lucas completely bit my head off for no reason. I swear, some days he is freakishly patient, and others he has the shortest fuse on earth." Nathan said.

"Perhaps it had something to do with you kicking him in your sleep." Dan teased.

"I told him about Haley…that I think I still have some feelings for her." Nathan said slowly.

"Oh…" Dan said slowly.

"What? Do you know something we don't?" Deb asked.

"Kind of. Maybe."

"I want to go look for him."

"Give him some space, Nate. Trust me."

"If you say so…I'll be in my room, sleeping forever." Nathan mumbled.

"You have fun." Deb smiled.

"Uh huh." Nathan moaned.

"Well this is quite the development." Dan commented.

"The Haley thing?"

"I thought he was pretty happy with Theresa."

"I think he is…he just misses her."

"Maybe."

"I wonder what's going on with Lucas."

"He's just stressed. It probably doesn't have everything to do with Nathan."

"Look at you." Deb smiled.

"What?"

"You've picked up this father thing really quickly."

"Yeah, well, Lucas and I were up late last night, talking."

"I figured when you didn't come upstairs until three in the morning."

"He's mad, about Keith. And the wedding."

"Oh…that must be hard on him."

"Yeah…"

"So the whole thing with Nathan?"

"He's afraid someone else disappear from his life."

"What? Nathan's not leaving."

"I don't know…but his fear is not totally irrational. I mean, look at the first seventeen years of his life, his mom jetting off to New Zealand to be with little Andy for the whole damn summer, then of course there is Keith, and now he's afraid Nathan will go off to be with Haley."

"You think so?"

"I don't know. But that would explain why he yelled at Nate."

"Hey, how are you?" Brooke said when she saw Lucas standing in her doorway.

"Been better." Lucas said, stepping inside and wrapping his arms around her.

"What's the matter?"

"Keith's back."

"That's good, isn't it?"

"He came to the wedding."

"I didn't see him there."

"He only talked to my dad."

"But why are you upset? Because he didn't talk to you?"

"Yeah. He didn't talk to me for months."

"Oh Lucas…"

"I called him so many times, Brooke. I emailed him too. I tried everything to get him back. I left him all these voicemails, apologizing for everything. Begging for him to come back home."

"You never told me that."

"I never told anyone."

"He never responded?"

"No…and I wrote him a bunch of emails…sometimes to tell him the good things…and the bad stuff. He just didn't care."

"I'm sure that's not true. Maybe he was scared."

"That's what people keep telling me."

"I've been there, Lucas. You should know that." Brooke said, smiling a little.

"I guess." Lucas said, allowing himself to smile too.

"This could be great, you know. Then you can really repair all the relationships in your life."

"Maybe…"

"You still don't seem sure."

"It still hurts. Even if we were fighting, I was in the hospital, Nate was in the hospital, he went to rehab…lots of stuff. That should count for something, shouldn't it?"

"Yeah. You just have to talk to him and find out what happens."

"I guess…"

"So how's Nathan?"

"Still fast asleep."

"I bet. Peyton told me all about it."

"Jake was no help." Lucas laughed.

"It sounded funny."

"It was. It definitely was."

"So do you miss your mom yet?"

"Probably when this week is over…I don't think it's hit me yet."

"Yeah."

"Its not that long though."

"Right and you get to spend time with you Dad and Nate."

"Yeah. And you." Lucas grinned.

"Always a plus." Brooke said.

Lucas leaned over and kissed her, then put his arm around her.

"Thanks for listening to me rant."

"Anytime."

"So how are you?"

"I had an amazing night last night."

"Me too."

"It was so beautiful. Everyone looked great, and it was so much fun."

"Yeah. It really was."

"So Tutor Girl and Eric seemed pretty cozy last night."

"Yeah…" Lucas said quietly.

"They are definitely cute. I wasn't expecting them to get together or anything at first, but they really seem to click you know? Haley told me that she thinks she might be falling for him. Can you believe it? Our whole group is finally happy, its not weird anymore." Brooke rambled, not noticing Lucas had slipped deep into thought.

Lucas didn't respond, he just sighed.

"What's wrong?" Brooke asked.

"Huh?" Lucas said, glancing at her.

"Were you even listening?"

"Yeah, Haley and Eric. Everyone happy…no more…weirdness…"

"Am I missing something here?"

"No. I guess I'm a little tired. Yesterday was a busy day, then I stayed up late."

"Taking care of Nate?"

"Among other things. I have to apologize to him when I get home."

"Why, what happened?"

"I kind of snapped at him this morning. He didn't do anything to deserve it."

"Aww."

"Yeah, I'll just have to make it up to him."

"I'm sure he'll understand."

Nathan stumbled into his bedroom and flopped down on his bed. After lying there for a few minutes, he clumsily reached under his bed and felt around for a box.

He lost his balance and fell to the ground, but he had found what he was looking for. Lying on the ground with his head pounding even more now, he opened the box and pulled out a picture.

It was him and Haley, standing on the beach, right after their wedding. Nathan smiled and pulled some more stuff out of the box, and saw something roll across the floor.

His wedding ring.

It had been sitting in his car for weeks, but after a while, he had put it in the box, along with everything else. Gently, he put the ring back in the box, on top of a bunch of newspaper and magazine articles, and a videotape.

He saved all of Haley's interviews, and all the articles about her and the tour. He taped every interview he saw on TV with her. Even the ones that hurt the most.

For awhile, he thought he was being sentimental. It was an important part of his life, after all. He was married to this girl. He loved her, he loved someone for once without holding back, without being scared.

Maybe it was the headache, maybe it was because he was ready to fall asleep, maybe he just felt a little lonely without anyone to talk to at the moment, but he was pretty sure it hadn't faded away.

"Hey." Lucas said quietly.

"Hi…so I've been trying for hours to figure out what the hell happened this morning."

"You have not. You've been sleeping it off." Lucas smiled.

"Well…yeah."

"Listen, I'm sorry I freaked out on you."

"Why did you?"

"I thought you were going to leave."

"Leave?"

"I thought that if you got back together with Haley…you would stop the whole divorce thing and go back with her. You two would live in that apartment, and I would never see you."

"Oh come on, Luke. That was never going to happen."

"Wasn't it?"

"First of all, yes, I think I still have feelings for her. But that doesn't mean we're going to get married, Luke. We obviously weren't ready before. What makes you think we'd be ready now?"

"Well, um, you're more mature?" Lucas said pathetically, seeing Nathan's point.

"Yeah, right. Well maybe a little. But that doesn't mean I want or am ready to be married."

"I just didn't want to screw up this thing we had going."

"You and me, we're always going to be tight."

"It was more than that though. This year, my family is complete, you know?"

"Yeah…"

"I'm just being selfish because this isn't how I grew up, I didn't grow up with two parents, with a really stable household, with you…I just want it as long as I can. We're going off to school next year, and I figure we'll go somewhere around here. But it's not the same. It's the only time I have."

"Luke…nobody is going anywhere. My mom, your mom, Dad, and Andy? They're all going to be here."

"I know…"

"Listen, before I went upstairs, I heard Dad and my mom talking. About you. And why you were so upset."

"Oh so that's how you had time to sleep."

"That and the massive hangover."

"How's that going, by the way?" Lucas said, changing the subject.

"Better. Now I just have to avoid all of our friends forever."

"Why?"

"Because I went on about how much I love my big brother."

"That was the best thing ever, even if it was mortifying."

"Oh, shut up."

"It was so touching." Lucas said, pretending to be emotional.

"I bet. Wow, I'm stupid."

"You're not. It was a wedding, someone was bound to drink too much and embarrass themselves." Lucas grinned.

"It's your kindness and sympathy that I admire the most about you."

"I thought it would be my charm and good looks."

"Well it might be if you had either one of those qualities."

"Okay, it's been fun. Bye." Lucas said, getting up.

"Sit, stay." Nathan laughed, pulling him back down.

"So what's going to happen now?"

"I don't know. Should I tell Haley?"

"I don't know." Lucas sighed.

"Oh come on, you have to know."

"Why the hell do I have to know?"

"Because you're supposed to."

"You annoy me."

"Uh huh and yet you love me so much you don't want me to leave."

"Shut up."

"I think it's sweet." Nathan teased, pinching Lucas' cheek.

"Dumbass." Lucas said, rolling his eyes.

Please read and review!

I kind of combined chapters so hopefully it makes sense.