You Let her go

Chapter 1

A/N: Okay I just got to Florida and I finished this chapter on the plane so I thought that I'd just share it with you guys now although my body is still on UK time so I'm exhausted because it's 2 am for me.

I think that all you need to know is that everything in One Tree Hill happened in exactly the same way up to Lucas' proposal (the first one) then things kind of turned out a little differently. This story takes place 5 years after the proposal.

Disclaimer: I still don't own One Tree Hill (shocking right?)

March 26th: 10:27 am

You know that first moment where you feel yourself coming out of your unconsciousness after a great night's sleep then you snuggle back down under the duvet to try and recapture the amazing dream you've just had? That was not how Peyton Sawyer felt on the morning of March 26th.

When Peyton Sawyer woke up that infamous morning she found a heavy arm strewn across her stomach, her head felt like it was about to explode and she had no idea what she had done the night before, she couldn't even remember what the guy in bed with her looked like never mind his name.

Around a million thoughts were going through her head at once but the main one was what the hell should I do now? In her twenty four years of existence she'd never had a one night stand and she hadn't planned on having one last night either - not that she can remember anyway – so now she had no idea what the etiquette for this morning should be. Should she just leave now to avoid any awkward conversations or would it be better if she just waited for him to wake up so that she could find out more about what she did last night? Should they go for breakfast together?

As she lay in bed staring at the ceiling, trying not to move so she didn't wake the guy she was sharing a bed she remembered someone who could help her at a time like this; Brooke.

She knew that Brooke had one night stands a few times so she must at least have some advice, therefore all she had to do was find her phone and call Brooke. The problem came in that she had no idea where her phone was, she didn't even know if this was her hotel room, as she quickly scanned the room she realised that it was definitely not.

Unfortunately at her examination of the room she had also noticed a few other items that made her increasingly more worried about her adventures the night before. Then at the end of the bed she noticed her phone underneath what looked like her underwear and a disposable camera, if she wasn't before she was now certain that last night hadn't gone as she'd planned. She attempted to reach her phone with her feet so she didn't wake the man whose arm was pinning her to the bed but unfortunately this guy seemed to be a light sleeper, he opened his eyes and rolled over so she could now see the face of the man she had apparently slept with last night.

The minute that she saw those piercing blue eyes her own eyes grew wide with the realisation that she'd done what she promised she'd never do again: have sex with Lucas Scott.

"What the hell are you doing here?" she asked him as she quickly got out of the bed and wrapped herself in a white sheet, the scene now vaguely reminded her of a much happier time in a small town in Texas. She quickly put those thoughts to the back of her mind, Lucas wasn't the same guy that she gave her heart to seven years ago. Now more than ever she wanted to know what had happened last night and how she had ended up in bed with the guy who had broken her heart.

"Where are my clothes?" she muttered while searching the room for said items.

"Peyton?" he questioned drowsily.

"Who do you think it is? Now tell me what we did last night." She raised her voice at him which massively hurt her head but she was hoping it had the same affect on him.

"Okay if you're going to yell at me please do it quieter and I think it's pretty obvious what we did last night sweetheart." He smirked as he realised that they were both naked and in bed together.

"I meant before that." She glared at him with her hands on her hips, she couldn't believe that the first one night stand she had was with him, the guy she was hoping she'd never have to see again.

"I don't know I can't-" As he started to say that he couldn't remember anything of the previous night he put his left hand to his head but was cut off when her jaw dropped and she interrupted him by furiously talking to herself.

"Oh my God, when did you get married? And how the hell could you cheat on your wife? You're such an ass." She started yelling at him after her initial reaction of being angry with herself for sleeping with someone who was married.

He looked at her as though she was talking nonsense. "What are you talking about? I'm not married."

"Really? Because the ring on your finger says otherwise." She pointed to his left hand where there was a gold band glimmering in the sunlight attempting to break through the curtains.

"What? I don't have a-" he began but then he looked down and sure enough there was a ring that had definitely not been there the day before, it was now his turn to be surprised.

"So you got married last night? Way to keep up the Vegas tradition." She smirked at him although she was aware that it didn't have the same effect as his endearing yet painfully annoying smirk.

"I wouldn't laugh so hard at that if I were you Peyt." He cut her off with that same smirk she'd just been thinking about.

"No," Peyton said as she realised what he meant, she looked down at her own ring finger and was shocked to see a gold band there, shinning as though it should be celebrated rather than despised.

"No, no, no." She sat back on the bed while in complete and utter shock, yes she knew that she must have been drunk last night to even talk to Lucas never mind sleep with him but to marry him? That must have taken a hell of a lot of Tequila.

"So we got married then?" Lucas asked her unnecessarily.

"Way to point out the obvious," she told him sarcastically. "How the hell did you convince me to marry you last night?"

"I don't know, I thought it was like your worst nightmare to marry me," he replied bitterly.

"Why can't you just leave the past in the past?" she asked with her voice echoing her frustration.

He responded by holding his hands in surrender.

"Look we don't have to make a big deal out of this okay? We'll just get an annulment and it'll be like it never happened," she suggested.

"Fine I'll contact my lawyers when I get home."

"Why not now? The sooner we get this sorted the sooner we can just get back to our lives," she told him snidely.

"Because honey I would prefer to spend the rest of my vacation relaxing by the pool not chasing down lawyers."

"Whatever, I just want to get this nightmare over and done with."

"You haven't changed at all have you?" he asked her bitterly. "You're still as commitment phobic and pessimistic as always."

"Yeah and you're still as much of an idiot as always."

"Hmm, not your best comeback Peyt, I've heard you come up with better."

"First of all shut up." She glared at him, "and second of all don't call me Peyt, only my friends can do that."

"So what? We're not even friends anymore?"

"We haven't spoken in four years Lucas and that conversation didn't exactly end well; did you really think I would be happy to see you again?" She asked him in softer tones that she quickly regretted.

"But you were happy to see me last night, so happy in fact that you married me, remember?"

"That's the point I don't remember anything."

"Don't blame me; I'm pretty sure I didn't pour the drinks down your throat, you always were a lot more fun when you were drunk, do you remember that one time with the tequila?" he asked her with a wink, knowing that a reminder of their past, even more so theirintimate past, would only irritate her further.

"Are you just trying to-" she was cut off by her phone ringing.

"It's Brooke," she informed him before answering the phone with an attempt to keep her tone even. "Hey Brooke."

"Don't hey Brooke me." Brooke hissed down the phone. "Is it true?"

"Is what true?" she asked nervously.

"Did you and Lucas really get married last night?" Her tone was so annoyingly excited that Peyton cringed at the thought that she wouldn't be able to keep this from her as she had planned.

"How the hell do you know?"

"Oh my god it's true?" Brooke's voice was so loud through the phone that Peyton had to bring it away from her ear meanwhile Lucas just carried on watching her with his stupid smirk.

"Just answer the question Brooke," she said irritably.

"Okay Mrs Scott." Brooke laughed over the phone and Peyton just put her head in her hands before she carried on. "You sent me a text at like 1 am telling me that you and Lucas had gotten married, obviously I thought it was just a joke, I mean you and Lucas? The press for Luke's movie are going to have a field day when they find out about the happy couple."

"This is not funny!"

"Actually it kind of is." She only annoyed Peyton further by laughing. "God, we haven't had drama like this since high school!"

"Hey Peyt, I think I found your bra," Lucas said to her from the other side of the bed.

"I thought I told you to shut up and don't call me Peyt." Peyton glared at him before returning to her phone conversation with Brooke only to regret it.

"Wait was that him? OMG did you and Lucas sleep together last night?" Brooke asked with far too much excitement in her voice for Peyton's taste, especially since she was pretty sure that Lucas could hear everything that she was saying.

"Um...," she hesitated as though trying to find a way out of it. "I think so."

"What do you mean you think so?" Brooke asked with a laugh.

"Well I can't remember much from last night so I can only assume what we did but when we woke up it seemed like we did." She tried to explain without using words like 'naked' as she was very aware that Lucas was sat right next to her. Completely naked.

"Oh come on Peyton it's you and Luke, of course you slept together," Brooke practically squealed down the phone.

"You're really not helping right now," Peyton said, frustrated by the fact that Brooke seemed so excited about this although she shouldn't have been surprised, this was one of the reasons that she hadn't wanted to tell Brooke in the first place.

"Sorry you're right, I guess I just got caught up in the excitement." Brooke rushed out and Peyton rolled her eyes which Lucas seemed to smile at, not smirk. "Look, I know that you won't want to stay married to him and I can understand that I guess, just don't want you to do anything rash okay? He's still the same Luke from high school deep down and I know that you still love him." Brooke told her gently.

"I'm going to ignore that last comment because we both know that it's completely untrue, I've accepted it so why can't you?

"Look I don't want to get into this argument again," Brooke warned her, "right now we need to focus on the fact that you're married to a guy you haven't spoken to for four years." Even if you are still in love with him Brooke thought to herself.

"What should I do then?" she asked in need of real advice.

"Well Julian wants to talk to Luke about it," Brooke informed her casually.

"Wait a minute, you told Julian about this?" she asked, mortified that the number of people who knew about this seemed to be growing by the second.

"Yeah apparently sharing secrets is part of the whole engaged thing, who knew?" Brooke laughed.

"Whatever, I just don't know what to do now."

"Just talk to Luke, he's not that bad," Brooke suggested.

"Brooke, you know that I can't do that."

"Well you're just going to have to. And Peyton? Everything will be okay."

She hung up the phone and glanced over to Lucas, she really felt like nothing would be okay again.

This story is named after the song Let Her Go by Passenger which you should listen to if you haven't heard it before. I hope you liked the chapter, leave reviews to let me know what you think because I haven't really got a plan for this story so what you like or want will definitely influence how the story goes.