Inescapable: Chapter One
Title: Inescapable
Author(s): alaricnomad
Pairing/Characters: Lucas Scott and Peyton Sawyer
Rating: M
Warnings: heavy sexual situations
Summary: Takes place after 4.05. Lucas knows that no matter how much they try, no one can understand. Peyton's demons haunt them both, but as they fall further into one another, can they keep those same demons from destroying them both?

Chapter One: Haunted

He lay beside her in the night, the opaque darkness and the silence enveloping the space around them, and he focused on the soft, steady rhythm of her breathing.

Since the summer before when they'd spent so many nights crashing together in the same bed, blurring those inevitable lines between the platonic and something more, she'd come to let down her defenses when sleeping beside him, and Lucas had come to know that Peyton Sawyer, independence and strong, was a cuddler. He found that fact utterly adorable.

So it was inevitable that every night, no matter how much space was between them as she finally drifted off to sleep, she always found her way back to the warmth of his body. So he lay beside her in the night, her head against his chest, torso pressed to his, arms around his waist, he listened to the soft sound of her breathing, taking advantage of their entwined hands to press his fingers to the underside of her wrist, focusing on her beating pulse.

She's alive, she's alive, she's alive, she's alive; it was a mantra he constantly had to repeat in his head, taking solace in the warm, breathing, utterly alive body sleeping contently in his arms.

Haley had come by that morning, wanting to talk about something or another involving her and Nathan, but she'd hardly allowed him the chance to speak or even listen after finding Peyton Sawyer asleep in his bed. He'd led her outside for fear of waking the slumbering blonde, and as he watched her open her mouth to give him what was more than likely a thorough tongue-lashing, Haley James Scott style, her words were cut off by a sudden scream of his name.

His heartbeat in his head, Lucas had raced through the door, gathered the sobbing Peyton into his arms and held her close as he murmured reassurances into her ear. Rocking her slender, fragile body back and forth in his embrace, he caught sight of his best friend's face of her shoulder, pale and disbelieving, blinking back tears of her own.

As much as he loved Haley, he knew she couldn't understand. She couldn't understand the fear that had run like blood through his veins the night of that attack, couldn't understand the broken, beautiful mess in his arms.

None of them could understand.

xx

News of the stalker's attack inevitably traveled around the school, and the stares and whispers behind her back became something to add to the long list of things he knew would get to Peyton. She came back to school, had not even made it to the morning bell before she was verbally attacked by none other than his ex-girlfriend.

"Well, well, P. Slut, I see you finally decided to show your face again. It's pitiful really; you thought yourself good enough to steal my boyfriend and the best you could get was some pathetic guy to follow you around like a psychotic puppy dog. It's pathetic."

The hallway was quiet, eerily silent, and Lucas could hardly believe his own ears as he started toward them. Peyton's back faced Brooke as she stood at her locker, rigid and still as stone as she suddenly whirled around, slapping the other girl with a resounding crack of skin hitting skin.

The last thing Luke caught sight of was tear-bright eyes and disarrayed blonde curls as he reached for her, pulling her to him, only to be shoved away as she raced down the hall. He stared after her retreating form helplessly, rage racing through him, hot and potent, reacting poignantly to Peyton's pain and his own inability to soothe away her hurt.

His anger fueling him, he turned on Brooke, who still stood among the crowd shell-shocked, her eyes wide and startled as she held her hand against her stinging cheek. Gritting his teeth, he grabbed her shoulders, gently but firmly pushing her until her back met with the lockers, pinning her against the metallic surface. She snapped out of her stupor at his sudden rough touch, glaring up at him as she struggled to break free. Lucas held firm.

"Luke, what the hell are you doing? Let go of me."

His eyes were hard and apathetic as they bore down into hers, his hands pressing down harder against her shoulders, not enough to be painful- if there was one things she knew, it's that Lucas Scott could never intentionally or even unintentionally hurt a woman- but enough to make her uncomfortably aware of his intimidating proximity.

"I want you to imagine something," he said, his quiet tone roughly laced with restrained anger, carrying through a corridor enveloped in silence despite the softness of his voice, "If this is uncomfortable, imagine it magnified by thousands of times. Imagine her fear, her pain as he threw her against the wall, the floor…hit her, grabbed her, bruised her skin by just how rough his touch was."

He took a shuddering breath, his eyes closing and reopening to reflect the pain tormenting him inside. "Imagine…as I ran up those stairs and saw him hit her, imagine how afraid I was…as he took a tazer to my chest and paralyzed my body. As I lay against the floor, completely helpless to get to her, as he threw her against the bed and made to have his way with her. He would have raped her…he could have killed her…and now she's so afraid…"

Everyone gathered around them still stared at him in stunned silence, including Brooke, and as he watched regret fill her eyes, he couldn't bring himself to care. Like all the others, she didn't understand. As much as he still cared about Brooke, he knew she couldn't understand.

No one could understand the fear of losing her, the frustration and hurt that came with his inability to drive away her demons…in his inability to save her like she had stated he did so many times before. The could have been's and the what if's plagued his mind every second of every day, sickening him with the only cure being found in the sensation of holding her close and warm and alive in his arms.

As he turned to run off in the direction Peyton had fled, he felt that almost magnetic pull, that inescapable longing that urged him to her.

Just like every other time, the night she'd been slipped the date rape drug, the night he'd found her on the beach as the last summer began, the school shooting, the stalker attack, and countless others, it was a feeling he could not bear to ignore.

Racing down out of the school, his breath ragged and heavy, his heart thundering as he found her sitting outside, huddled on a bench, arms wrapped protectively around herself as her body wracked with sobs. His heart broke and he walked to her without a word, bending down to her level as he gathered her into his arms, holding her close. She shuddered against him, clutching at his back as she buried her face in his chest, letting the tears fall freely.

She clung to him and he whispered in her ear, quiet, nonsensical words that had no other meaning beside to soothe and calm, an anchor in the storm of emotion tormenting and wracking. Her sobs quieted, the tremors coursing through her body calming as her breathing evened out, slow and steady, and before long he realized she'd exhausted herself enough to fall asleep.

He lifted her bridal-style as he climbed to his feet, cradling her safely against him. He exhaled sharply, bending his head to press a kiss to her forehead, brushing back a stray curl falling in her eyes. He glanced up to meet the concerned face of his little brother, watching as Nathan gazed at them with worry evident in his eyes, awkwardly stuffing his hands in his pockets and shuffling his feet. "Hey."

"Hey," Lucas murmured back, adjusting Peyton's place in his embrace.

"I heard about the attack…and I was there in the hall." He glanced at Peyton, almost brotherly affection warm in his expression. "How is she?"

"I don't know…I really don't know…" Lucas trailed off, casting him a helpless glance.

"You did good, Luke. The way you've stood by her, I'm glad to see it."

Lucas flashed him a sheepish smile. "Yeah, I don't know how much good I'm really doing her."

"What's up, Luke?" Nathan's mouth pursed into a frown, concern furrowing his forehead.

"It's all I can do, Nate, to know she's still breathing, that she's safe from moment to moment. It's all I can do, Nate."

Nathan smiled sadly, patting his brother's shoulder reassuringly. "I know, man, I know. It's all we can expect."

The younger Scott brushed his lips against Peyton's forehead, brushing his fingers against her cheek. "Take care of her, Luke."

"I always will."

With a parting wave and smile, Nathan walked off, and Lucas's heart felt a little lighter. Maybe, maybe Nathan understood after all.

He held Peyton's sleeping form close, and started toward his truck.