Live on through it all comes back to you: chapter 5

Lucas lay next to his wife in the queen size bed in Nathan and Haley's spare bedroom, no one was awake yet which he found quite refreshing, this house had been their party house for the past week so it was no surprise that it was so silent. No one had gotten to sleep at their usual times everything was just too exciting, He thought that maybe everyone was trying to cherish the moment because they thought that if they went to bed that they would miss something important or they would go to bed and the next day the whole experience would be over. Lucas wouldn't say that having eight kids in the house was easy neither was is to have six adults but it had certainly been one of the funniest times that he could remember. Lucas couldn't stop thinking about what Haley had said to him the first night that they had been there "You can't hide forever" and he knew that she was right, that he couldn't let the memories of the closest thing he had to a father rule his life, he knew his wife would move back in a heartbeat she wanted that support system and he didn't want to deprive her of that, but was he truly ready? He put it in the back of his mind and decided that he might as well sleep until one of his children decided it was time to get up, so he shuffled in the bed a little and slid back into the covers. As he shut his eyes he heard the door creak open, he assumed that it was his six year old daughter who had recently taken up the habit of waking up and climbing into bed with her parents and her cold cold feet which always ended up on Lucas. He didn't think anything of it, she wasn't disruptive she would just climb in and settle in between them both.

"Lucas" Haley whispered harshly in resulting in him turning his head to face the door and squinting at her.

"What's wrong?" he whispered back at her

"Get up you're coming with me Scott" Haley whispered smiling at him with her regular cheeky grin that she knew Lucas Scott couldn't say no to

"Okay I'm coming" he said throwing the blankets off his legs and slowly getting out of bed as she just stood there "do you want me to get changed or not?"

"Oh sorry" she said before shooting him the grin one more time and shutting the door.

Peyton murmured and he knew she was about to wake up, he took his shirt off and searched for a new one as his wife lifted her head putting her shoulders underneath herself for support "Where are you going?" she said in a groggy tone

"Haley is taking me somewhere" he said, no other explanation needed she smiled told him to have a good time and then lay back down, curling up into a ball. In the portable cot closest to Lucas a murmur similar to his wives, he looked over the top of it and his little girl was looking up with her big eyes and a cheeky grin on her face, Lucas lent down and picked her up, he got her dressed and went to walk out the door before going back to his wife, kissing her temple and telling her that he was taking Ellie with him.

Haley stood in the kitchen sipping from her coffee cup patiently waiting for her best friend while trying desperately not to think about the fact that at the end of the day she had to say goodbye to Lucas, Peyton and her gorgeous Nieces and Nephews, and the idea of doing that was breaking her up inside. Lucas walked out in his grey tracksuit pants and black hoodie holding Ellie dressed in a stripy onesie and a pink hoodie. Lucas quickly relinquished grip as Haley scooped the little girl out of his arms and kissing her all over her little face as she giggled.

"So where are we going?" Lucas said trying to get his best friends attention away from the little girl, not that he blamed her she was pretty distracting. "I'm going back to bed" he said turning away

"No, No" she said directing her attention back at him

"So where are we going?" he asked her again

"Well Mr Lucas Scott I have decided that we are going to go THRIFT STORE HUNTING" she said with a giggly smile on her face.

Lucas laughed and then came to a sudden realisation "Breakfast?"

"On the way?" she asked back

"You read my mind Haley James Scott" he said before she picked up her handbag and they headed out the door.

Peyton lay in bed not willing to let her eye's fall open, she just wanted to lie there, but something felt strange her chest felt tight and she felt a cold wind on her face, she thought to herself 'oh god I'm having a heart attack' she opened her eyes quickly and threw her head forwards, crashing it into something else that went "Ouch" in response, Peyton re-took in her surroundings and determined that she wasn't having a heart attack that her six year old was sitting on her chest.

"What did you do that for mama?" Sawyer asked referring to the head butt she had just been given

"I'm sorry baby" she said wrapping her arms around the little girl and dragging her down into a snuggle on her chest then turning onto her side.

"No mum it's not sleep time" she said wriggling to get out of her mother's grip, Peyton wasn't letting go mainly because she found her daughters wriggliness very amusing, eventually she did and Sawyer stood up on the bed where her dad usually slept, grabbing her mother's hand pulling it and trying to hoist her out of bed, she pulled and pulled until she fell off the bed sending Peyton darting to the edge of the bed looking down panicked at her curly haired daughter.

"Are you okay baby?" Peyton said trying to pull the little girl up

Sawyer stood up and looked at her mum "Whoa" she exclaimed as her mum looked at her face "I landed on my bum" she giggled before Peyton broke into giggles lifting the little girl into her arms and wrapping her back up into her arms.

"I'm sorry baby girl" she said kissing her daughters head

"can we get up now?" The little girl said leaning back so she could give her mum the puppy dog eyes

"Sure" she said letting go of the little girl who hopped off the bed as her mother slowly got up, looked in the mirror deciding that it was probably a good idea to tie up her unmanageable bed hair, She looked into the other portable cot and leant down picking up the little boy in his red stripy pirate pyjamas and placing him in her arms "Hey baby boy, hey" she said quietly while placing kisses on his forehead.

"Come on mama" Sawyer said coming to the door, grabbing her hand and pulling her mum out the door into the kitchen, through the back kitchen doors, past the pool and onto the steps leading to the backyard before letting go and running over to the cubby house where her two female cousins were sitting having a tea party. Leo wriggled in his mum's arms like his big sister and she knew that he wanted to run around, so she put him on the ground and he proceeded to run to his uncle and cousins who were running around in the not so distant distance. Peyton watched on before walking over to where the girls were and sitting down on the vacant chair.

She looked at all their smiling faces "What's going on Ladies?"

Haley rocked Ellie back and forth in her arms as the little girl slept, she stood in front of the changing room waiting for Lucas to get ready into one of the shocking outfits she had made him try in.

"Don't you miss it all?" she asked through the door

"Of course I do Hales, It's always going to be my home I spent the majority of my life here and my family is here of course I miss it"

"Do you miss me?" she asked looking down at the little sleeping girl in her arms

"Every single day my goofy friend, every single day"

"Oh wow you totally have a shrine to me don't you?" Haley laughed

"Do Not" his response was muffled behind the curtain

"You totally do, I knew from the start that you were totally in love with me" she laughed

"Shoosh you! Okay I'm coming out" he said ripping the curtain open and strutting out before quickly strutting back in as Haley hysterically laughed "Not Cool Haley, totally not cool as soon as I get home I am ripping the shrine down"

"This is your home" Haley whispered quietly to herself

"What?" he asked curiously over the top of the curtain

"Nothing, Try the next one on"

"Just one question" he yelled over the top of the changing room "Why am I the only one who has to participate in this cruel torture session?"

Before Haley could respond the woman, presumably the owner of this particular thrift shop walked up to her and put her hand on Ellie, before looking up at Haley "Now who is this little darling?" she asked

"This is Ellie" Haley responded

"She looks just like her gorgeous mother" the older woman said as Haley nodded before coming to a realisation

"Wait…" Haley went to finish her sentence but was interrupted by Lucas throwing the curtain open and showing off a repulsive outfit

"Well Sir let me tell you this you look absolutely dashing, I definitely have a female outfit that would match perfectly with that" she said turning away before whispering " Lucky girl, he has large hands" and walking off as Haley stifled her laughter.

"What was that about?" Lucas said before walking back into the change room to get back into his actual clothes, The woman walked back up to Haley handing her an outfit " You know what they say about hand span" the old woman said before walking away chuckling as Haley stood there laughing equally as hard as Lucas walked out looking at her strangely and taking Ellie out of Haley's arms

"What's so funny?" Lucas asked still looking at her

"The lady that owns this place says you have large hands" Haley laughed but Lucas still looked at her strangely "Hand span my friend hand span" she laughed as Lucas worked out what she was talking about and chuckled "I don't know if I should be sick of laugh" Haley said

"That pervy pervy old lady" Lucas said throwing his arm over Haley's shoulder and walking towards the exit, waving at the old woman on the way out with a cheeky grin.

A puffed out Nathan went and sat next to Peyton on the grass, the girls had joined in on all the running making Nathan work extra hard.

"I remember chasing you around the playground when we were that age" he said as he caught his breath.

"I remember you chasing me" she laughed "You ran really fast, it really scared me"

"Who would have thought we would be related and not in a married way?" he said with a cheeky smile while nudging her with his elbow.

"Dude, shut up"

"You reckon you're going to move back to Tree hill?"

"I don't know yet"

"Do you want to?"

"Thinking about it"

"Well if you do move back you're going to have to cut out the whole dude, shut up thing. Cause my daughters are so going to copy their cool aunty Peyton"

"You see I'm cool"

"Yeah! Totally" Nathan said sarcastically and Peyton jokingly slapped his arm

"Dude, shut up"

Another sunny afternoon was spent by the pool, with the group constantly expanding; this week not only had refreshed the relationships or all the adults but built new relationships between the kids who belonged to this collective group. This was set to be the Sawyer-Scott's goodbye for now song and everyone was forced to pretend that they totally weren't bummed out about it all.

Nathan stood up from his deck chair and walked into the kitchen to refresh his lemonade, as he walked in he saw his wife sitting on the bench looking really sad. He walked over and she wrapped her legs around him. "I don't want them to go"

"I know you don't babe, but you know that Lucas and Peyton are fiercely independent"

"So? That doesn't mean they can't be fiercely independent with us" she said dropping the bottom lip and sulking. Nathan laughed, well on the inside cause he wouldn't dare laugh at his wife when she was in this mood, she so reminded him of Lydia when she sulked. "I just want them home"

"If I could convince them to come back I would babe, but come on don't waste today sulking on the bench"

She looked at him like he insulted her deeply as he helped her off the bench and sent her towards the doors "I'm not sulking"

As the younger kids paddled in the shallow pool that they had set up the adults sat in a semi-circle watching on. "You know what?" Nathan spoke and everyone's gaze turned to him "This is ridiculous, this old man" he said pointing to Lucas "hasn't been to the river court on his last day and I think that is stupid"

"Much like you in high school" Lucas joked

"Agreed" Brooke chimed before taking a sip of the fresh lemonade.

"With what Brooke?" Nathan asked not knowing if he should act insulted

"Both" she giggled as Peyton sat up.

"You're right, we need the river court" she smiled. Everyone jumped up and sprang into action Haley went over to her husband and kissed him on the cheek

"Good thinking babe, Luke can't resist the river court"

Cars came from everywhere, rolling up at the outer edge of the river court. The first three cars held the two sets of Scott Families and the Baker family. The fourth contained Karen, Andy, Lily and Whitey. The fifth contained mouth and skills and their pregnant girlfriends, next held Junk and Fergie with Quinn and Clay and so on and so on. It was a full on family event.

All afternoon they laughed whether it was Haley's lack of basketball skills, Brooke and Peyton's cheerleading, the music that skills had blaring out of his car stereo, possibly the bad jokes that everyone was cracking, or the flashbacks they were telling everyone was genuinely having this fantastic time. It may have been an unconventional family, but it was a family.

After the intense game of 'donkey' the girls rushed to the back of Haley's car, lifted the boot and carried three big tubs each and put them on the edge.

"What are they?" said Jamie as everyone began to go towards them.

Haley opened the tub and picked something up "You'll just have to wait and see" she said before throwing the water balloon and hitting Lucas, water flying everywhere. Everyone soon was drenched running around with big goofy smiles.

Lucas dragged his soaked laughing wife away from the crowd

"What's going on?" she smiled

"We need to talk?" she nodded "I've been thinking"

"That you want to move back?"

"Yeah! How did you know?"

"I can read you like a book Lucas Scott"

"I mean this big messed up group is our family" he said before Peyton pulled his face into hers

"I know" she said as he kissed her. As he let go he shook his shaggy drenched hair in her face and then ran away as Peyton yelled out "YOU ARE DEAD LUCAS SCOTT" and chased after him.

Finished!