The Next Day.

"Thank you for coming." Larry gave Karen a cup of tea and took a sip from his coffee before adding, "And thank you for coming, too."

Lucas smiled and looked back at his mom. It wasn't every day that your mom asked you to skip school, not that he was complaining. He was just curious. And he was more curious now that they were drinking and chatting at the Sawyer's house.

"I would have come to take Peyton this morning…but my mom beat me." Karen looked at Larry first and then she turned to look at her son.

"Why don't you go see if Peyton's awake?" his mother said, but Lucas wasn't so sure if his mother really cared about Peyton's sleeping habits or if she just wanted him out of the room. Knowing his mother, it was the later, but he did as he was told and left the room with as little noise as possible. Karen watched her son for a while and then she turned her attention back to Larry. He looked like he hadn't had a good night of sleep for a while now.

"Are you leaving again?" she asked, the thing that was bothering her since his phone call early that morning.

"My mother, she suffered a minor heart attack last night." He looked to see if the kids were near and then he continued, "Peyton doesn't know about that and I will not tell her. Mom's okay but I have to go and see her and…"

Karen stopped him from telling more with a simple, "Peyton can stay with us, I'm sure that Lucas doesn't mind, and I really don't mind having her around. It's nice actually, to have another female in the house, doing girly stuff…oh Larry, I'm so sorry."

Larry smiled, assuring her that it was okay but saying nothing for a couple of minutes, and Karen was about to kick herself when he finally spoke.

"After Anna's death, I didn't date for over two years. Peyton wasn't ready and I wasn't ready as well. After a while, I was more of a single father rather than a widowed man."

"And a few years go by and that's all you are," Karen said, to which Larry nodded.

"I never brought any of my female friends here and I just realized that I should have. I wasn't afraid for Peyton's heart, I was afraid for mine."

Meanwhile, upstairs, Lucas was watching Peyton's sleeping form and he didn't know if he was more surprised by her clothes, where she slept or by her freshly cut hair. He decided that it was a combination of all three.

And then he noticed her make up.

On one hand, he was glad that she was wearing make up. It was a sign that she was coping with what had happened and trying to be as she was before. Lucas knew that it would take time, but Peyton was a strong woman and he had no doubt that she was going to be okay.

On the other hand, her make up and clothes bothered him. She was known to wear band t-shirts, but if she had passed him on the streets today he wouldn't have recognized her.

Wasn't she the one that had said you didn't have to wear black or to have your nails painted black to be punk? He liked the fact that Peyton was confident enough to wear a Motorhead t-shirt to school, and he also liked her mini skirts. The ones that let her long legs be free to watch.

Wait…where had that come from? Maybe the fact that he had been looking at her legs for the past hour had something to do with that. Feeling guilty for his thoughts (he was in love with Brooke, he was in love with Brooke), he tried to wake her by clearing his throat, an action that did nothing to wake Peyton.

"Peyton, hey Peyt." She stirred and if she wasn't sleeping in the chair in front of where her computer used to be, he would had found that cute. But he didn't, and not because he was in love with Brooke. A grimace of pain in her face had all his attention.

He tried again. "Hey Peyton, it's me, Lucas."

She opened her eyes but Lucas could see that she wasn't fully awake. "Luke?" she said and tried to wipe the sleep from her eyes. She let out a yawn and (carefully) stretched her body.

"What are you doing here?"

"Well, good morning to you too."

Another yawn. "You were supposed to get me to school this morning?"

"What? You thought that I would let you alone in your first day back to school?" She was somewhere between sleep and reality and Lucas took advantage of that by teasing her softly.

"To tell you the truth, I was waiting for Nathan," she explained. "He wanted to throw me a party. I really don't need a party." Her tone wasn't angry, but more tired and Lucas had to ask.

"Are you okay? I mean, do you have any problems? Did you eat? Did you sleep well? Are you in pain?" He would have asked more but Peyton start laughing, and Peyton didn't laugh often. So he stopped to listen her laugh. God knew it had been a while.

"Too early for questions?" he smiled shyly.

"No. Just too many questions."

"So, what's with the new look?" He changed the subject, respecting her silent request for privacy.

"I needed a change. Plus my mood has been kinda dark the last few weeks. Months…year," she joked. Despite the light tone of her voice, Lucas knew that what she had said was true.

"So, what do you think?" She did a small circle around herself.

She was standing now and he could appreciate her outfit a little better. She was wearing jeans that were so tight to her body that Lucas was starting to worry if she was breathing well. A black shirt with low sleeves and a lonely red star in the left side. A red tie. A triple S belt. She was wearing a leather wristband on her right arm (the left had the cast) and a Green Day grenade with a logo dog tag around her neck.

So not Peyton.

But what was even more surprising was her make up. Dark eye shadow, black mascara, and black eye liner that framed the green of her irises, making her eyes look like they belonged to a cat. He didn't like her new look, but he couldn't deny that she looked beautiful.

"You're beautiful," he said, and she snorted.

"Yeah, the green bruise of my cheek matches with the green of my eyes."

"No, listen to me," he touched her arm and (gently) forced her to look at him. "You're beautiful. Honesty."

Peyton looked at him for a moment before jerking her arm free, swallowing hard, not knowing which hurt the most. Her body from the suddenly movement, or her heart.

"We need to get going."

Lucas nodded and took her new messenger bag and was ready to follow her down when he stopped her. "I have something to give you. It's in the car."

"Tell," she commanded, but her tone was light.

"It's not a big thing, okay? I want you to have my old CD walkman. I wanted to give you my iPod but Skillz can't find it."

"You lent your iPod to Skillz?"

"Yeah," he admitted.

"Oh Lucas, you're an idiot!" Realizing what she had just said, Peyton put a hand over her mouth in an attempt not to burst in laughs.

"I know, and it's okay, you can laugh all you want."

The iPod conversation took them all the way to the kitchen. Larry's smile turned in a thin line when he saw his daughter but he didn't say a thing. Karen, on the other hand, was ready to say something when a warning signal from her son stopped her.

"Hey Peyton, you look…like Billy Joe Armstrong," she finally said. Karen wasn't a fan of the group but her son was, and they did have some songs that she liked. A little.

"Thanks." Peyton's smile was wide and unique.

"That wasn't a compliment," Karen whispered to Larry but he just shook his head before handing Peyton a cup of fresh orange juice. He wasn't sure if it was because of Lucas (he hoped it was), but Peyton took the cup and drank it without protesting.

Peyton wasn't thirsty or hungry, if she was honest with herself the thought of food made her sick, but she needed to see if her father would continue to play the role of the 'carrying dad' or if he would treat her as an adult and told her that he was leaving.

"Uh, Peyt, I need to go for a couple of days," she left the cup down and turned to see him, sensing that his words hide something, "Grams not feeing well and"

"What? Why you did tell me earlier?"

"She's fine!" Larry half lied; he's mother was going to be fine, "I'll go for a couple of days just to see if she needs anything. Knowing my mother she will put me to re paid the house," Peyton smiled but still Larry could see that the smile didn't reach her eyes.

"You are going to stay with us until Larry's back."

Lucas looked at her mom and then he looked at Peyton. He didn't had a problem giving his room to a friend in need but this was Peyton we were talking about. If Brooke didn't want him to even talk with Peyton, Lucas could only imagine what she could thing now. Frankly he didn't care. Much.

"We'll be roommates," giving her his best smile.

"Or maybe you'll sleep at the couch," Karen warned.

"Or maybe I'll sleep at the couch."

After they arrange whom was going to sleep with whom and where, Larry decided that it was about time for them to go to school. Peyton kissed her dad, not for goodbye since he would be back to the end of the week but still the feeling of leaving was too strong to avoid.

"Kiss Gramma for me, okay? And tell her that I'm going to call to check on her."

Getting to the car, Lucas noticed that Peyton's moves were without strength. "You okay?" he asked and Peyton, taking two pills from a small bottle, nod. She swallowed the pills with no more than three sips of water, a move that was an evidence of doing that a lot.

"For the pain?" he asked starting the engine.

"Vicodin. Best thing ever."

"Peyton…" last years events were still fresh in Lucas mind.

"I'm taking them with doctor's orders, you know" her voice angry, yet still low, "plus I think that I already learned my lesson, thank you very much!"

Sensing her anger Lucas decided that it was for the best if he kept his mouth shut. Peyton didn't need much to blow these days. Instead of talking, he gave her his walkman and a CD with songs that he knew she would like. She was the music guru of the town but he could tell a good tune if he heard one.

Meanwhile at the school Brooke was walking with Haley and thinking that despite being a bad best friend, Peyton at least was interesting. Not that Haley was boring but how much one person could talk about math? Peyton knew her fashion as good as she knew her history.

Haley," Brooke stopped the other girl, "can you stop for a while? My head is going to explode with all those numbers."

Haley stopped and waited for Brooke to say something or at least to start a conversation but she did none of them. Something was bothering Brooke, Haley could tell that much but she waited until the brunette was ready.

She wasn't so sure if Brooke knew that today was Peyton's first day back to school and decided that a warning would do harm. "She's coming back today."

"Peyton?"

"Yes, Peyton. Nathan talked with her last night. He said that she's not so happy coming back."

"She wasn't so happy coming back after the shooting too" Brooke was the only one to know about that. Peyton never wanted to be anything more than herself and the days after the shooting she wasn't just Peyton. She was 'the girl that survived' or 'the one that lived'. Brooke had asked (in a not so ladylike way) from people to stop calling her best friend like that and after a while (and a few blackmails later) the comments stopped.

"I understand her. I mean, I thought that touring was hard but walking the school's holes was harder," sharing this information was not easy for Haley. That tour almost destroyed her marriage but at the end, she had Nathan.

"You had Nathan. She has Lucas."

Not believing what she just heard Haley jumped the opportunity to say few things to Brooke.

"She can have Nathan too! God Brooke, how can you be so harsh with her? She's your best friend, no, she was your best friend and I don't care about what happened between us. Keep it for yourselves but cut the girl some slack."

Brooke rolled her eyes and guided tutor wife out of willing ears. Walking inside the first door she could find and making sure that they were the only two person around, Brooke turned to Haley and with a very serious voice said, "I think that Lucas is best with Peyton."

"Wait…what?" Haley didn't expect that and her shock was evident in her face.

Two classrooms away, Nathan and Skillz were in some deep conversation. Nathan, being taller by a lot, had to sit to be in the same level with the other boy. He needed Skillz help, not that he would stop him if he refuge to help.

"So let me get that straight. Ya want to do what dawg?" Skillz wasn't so thrilled hearing Nathan's plan but on the other hand, he couldn't sit in his hands and watch.

"Come on Skillz. It's Peyton we're talking about. What if it was your sister? Or Bevin? Or your mother? I was watching a movie with Haley the other night and I couldn't stop thinking that it could be her. She could be Haley in Peyton's shoes man, and you know what? If the police don't catch them there is a change that she might be."

"I like skinny girl and all but"

"Fine! If you're out I'll do it myself," Nathan was ready to leave the room when a familiar voice stopped him.

"I'm in." Closing the door behind him Mouth walked holding something to his hands. He gave the object to Nathan and waited for a reaction. When he got none he explained "It's one of Peyton's CDs. I bought it from a guy for five dollars. It's import and they only person I know that owned a CD from this band was Peyton."

"Means nothing," Skillz cut him but feeling his anger grow, "that CD could be in a stock or something like that."

"Maybe. But I know that it's Peyton's CD because she had give it to me for a while. I scratch it and I was afraid of what she was going to do to me," both Nathan and Skillz snorted with that, "so I gave her the CD couple of hours before her attack. Care to guess what that CD has?"

"A scratch!" Nathan said holding the CD up so they could see the tiny, yet visible scratch. "They are selling her life for a few dollars, man."

Skillz left a sigh and licked his lips. "Tell us your plan again dawg."