Sawyer didn't know where she was going. She just knew that she needed a way out. Her brain was on overload as she attempted to process the information that her mother had given her only a short time ago. Here she was, almost sixteen, and she had never known that most of her life was based on lies after lies. Her father hated her because of her mother. At least, that's what she thought as she walked down the side of the highway. She looked up, seeing headlights coming straight for her. It was dark, and she knew that it was stupid for a young girl to be walking all alone, but she couldn't go home. The car slowed to a stop, and she heard it park.

"Hey, Scott!" A voice said, running over. "I've been looking for you everywhere. What the hell happened?" Sawyer turned and began walking back the way she came as she saw the face. "Sawyer. You shouldn't be walking out here alone."

"Leave me alone, Ryan. I'm not in the mood for this." She continued walking until he darted in front of her and placed his hands on her shoulders.

"If you don't want to talk, that's fine, but I'm not going to leave you walking on a dark road. At least get into the car. Let me take you somewhere," he said. For the first time, she looked into his eyes and she could see that he was simply concerned. She gave in and they walked silently back to the car. He helped her into the passenger seat, and then went around to the driver's side. Soon, they were heading off. To where? Neither of them knew. Ryan was glad he could help her, that she let him help her, and Sawyer was glad that she didn't have to be paranoid about walking.

–

"Peyton, where is this coming from?" Lucas asked, trying to keep his temper at bay, and trying to help his wife to calm down. They stared at one another for a long moment.

"Sawyer found my will," she said. "She came to the park and freaked out on me, made me tell her why her father hates her so much."

"I don't hate her."

"But you never really tried to show her that you didn't, did you?" Peyton said. "I know that I should have talked to you about going off of the birth control. It was stupid of me, okay. I've paid for my mistakes. But that doesn't give you any reason to treat our daughter as you have, making her feel like she's not worthy of your love. So what would you expect of me? Everything that I have done has been for her. I focused my life on her because that's what a parent does. And what did you do? You ran off to your garage. You didn't care. This is your fault. All of it is."

Lucas shook his head. "No, this is not all of my fault, and you know it. We are equally responsible in this."

"So, I'm the reason you hate your daughter."

"I don't hate-! Jesus, Peyton, are you even listening to what you're saying? After you were pregnant, after the.. the abortion, you shut down from me. You stopped sleeping in the same bed as me, you stopped talking to me unless it was about something that didn't really matter... What was I supposed to do?"

"Be a good father to your daughter, go to her basketball games for christ's sake! Not just opt for something else because you're mad at me. I may have made some stupid choices, but I have never let my daughter feel like she's not worthy or that I don't love her," Peyton said. Luke felt helpless. All of this just seemed like one big blame game. They both knew the other wasn't innocent, but it wasn't completely the other one's fault. Maybe he didn't realize just how badly he'd treated his daughter. If Sawyer truly felt like he hate her.. "She's your daughter, Luke, and I've tried to be both parents for all of these years, I've tried to do everything that I can to make sure she was happy and had everything that she wanted.." She sighed heavily. "She wants a dad, she needs her father. Even if you and I never get back to the way they were, I don't think I could sleep at night if something doesn't change the way you two are together."

"Peyton, I want..." He paused, his eyes on the floor before he looked back up at her. "I want to make things work, with her, with you. I want to have that life we dreamed of having.."

"It's too late for dreams, Lucas.. Maybe it's too late for us. If you don't hurry, it'll be too late for your relationship with Sawyer." She sat down heavily in the chair by the window. Luke turned toward the hall and nearly walked away, but he knew that if he walked away now, he could never get back to what he wanted.

–

"So.. are you okay?" Ryan asked as they sat in the car at a drive in. Sawyer had been relatively silent, other than to tell him what she wanted to eat. She looked over at him.

Sawyer said slowly, "You come off as this bad ass, this guy who doesn't care.. why are you trying to care?"

"Because that's a front. A defense," Ryan admitted. "I don't really care about most people, least of all those jerks at school." He shrugged his shoulders. "The way they all flaunt about like they're so important, and want to be your friend, when you know that, in a second, they would turn on you when the next best thing came along."

"Wow," Sawyer said.

"What?"

"You've just summed up my life in Tree Hill schools," she gave a laugh. "Just yesterday, Kara blew up on me."

"Your friend that staked a claim on me?"

"Yeah. She freaked out on me, so I assume we're no longer friends," Sawyer said, giving a shrug. "That's how she's been since kindergarten. Can't blame the kid, just wished she had a little more sense about herself." The two fell silent as their food arrived and they ate. It wasn't until Sawyer put down her burger that she looked over at Ryan. He wasn't so bad. If he was, why would he come after her?

"So, do you want to talk about it yet?"

"Why are you pushing me to talk to you about this? I don't even know you."

"Maybe that's for the best," he said, taking a bite from his burger and then talking with his mouth full. "You don't know me, I don't know you. We're just two strangers wandering around in a world of no understanding." Their eyes met, and Sawyer was taken aback by his words. He seemed to understand her better than anyone else.

"My parents have always had this... weird relationship," she said carefully. "My mom's been the over loving, always protectful mom, and my dad's just been.. uninvolved." Their eyes met briefly before she turned ahead and thought over the events of that day. "My mom finally told me the truth about everything that's happened in my life, her choices, his, and I found out that she could be dying... She lied to me. I feel like everything in my life has been a lie."

"But do they love you?"

"What?"

"Your parents, do they love you? Have they shown that they love you?" Sawyer was taken aback by his question. Her mother, without a doubt, had shown she loved her. Lucas, not so much, but there was something in his eyes the last couple of times she saw him..

"Yeah, I guess so."

"No, there's no guessing. They either do, or they don't," Ryan said. "If they don't, I'm sorry, I know what it's like, but if they do, then whatever else happens really doesn't matter."

"But-"

"But nothing, Scott, if you know that they love you, then really that's all that matters."

–

"No, damnit," Lucas stopped and turned back to her. "It's not too late for us. I refuse to believe that." Peyton looked over at him from her seat near the window. "All of this.. tonight, here, I did it for you. I wanted us to have a quiet evening together and try to fix some of our problems. If I thought it was really too late for us, then I would have never done all of this." She looked back to the window. She was so conflicted.. so hurt.. Peyton tended to shut down whenever she felt helpless in situations. Lucas knew this, so he crossed to her and knelt on the floor, before taking her hands from her lap into his. "Peyton, I love you. I know that I haven't said it much. I know I haven't really said it at all.. and we've both done things that we can't take back, but what matters now..." She looked over at him. He looked up at her with pleading eyes. "What matters now is we're here. I want to fix things. Don't give up on us. Don't give up on me."

Peyton was quiet for the longest moment. She attempted to swallow the large lump in her throat, her eyes turning to the window, resting on a spot on the darkened street out in front of the house. She sighed heavily, before turning back to Lucas. "Where do we go from here?"

A/N: I know that I haven't updated since last week, I am so so sorry. Lots of stuff going on at the moment. Anyways, I wanted to thank everyone for the hits and reviews. They really are inspiring. For those that are still reading, thank you! I know that there are some people who have read this that don't agree with the things I've put into this story. I just want to address this really quickly: A lot can happen in sixteen years. People tend to do some stupid things, and that can cause changes that you may or may not like. I'm not one to write something for fluff. I like to shock my readers and place them in a situation that isn't happy, because, let's face it, Tree Hill is a town full of drama, and things can't always be happy. In fact, they're rarely happy. Anyways, thanks again to those that are still here. I know this is a shorter update, but I just wanted to post something so you guys didn't think I abandoned the story, because I haven't. Just been really busy. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!