Writer's Block

Lucas Scott has the same dream almost every night for the last three years. It starts with a bang and when the smoke clears, Dan Scott, the father that denied him, that father that killed the closest person Lucas ever had to a father was dead. In his dream, his mom snaps out of the spell of Dan and sees clearly what a bad man he was. In his dream, Nathan thanks him for freeing them all. The problem is, it's only a dream.

Lucas wakes, throwing off his covers and paces his spacious and very pricey loft in New York. He's a writer now. He novelizes the pain and heartache he's suffered and gets paid a handsome price for doing it. His first book, An Unkindness of Ravens, was a major success and there was already talk about purchasing the movie rights from him. His second book, The Leaving Song, about a boy who is guided by the spirit of his dead uncle, was equally successful. He's now working on his third novel in as many years. This one isn't coming easy though. This one is about a truth no one believes but him. This one is about the murder of his uncle Keith. He has a working title, Small Town Secrets, but that's about it.

His success is bittersweet. The pain that makes him a great writer also makes him alone.

“He killed Uncle Keith,” his voice shouts angrily in his head.

His mother's look of disbelief, her angry words about Jimmy Edwards ring back.

His days are filled with these memories. It's made him reclusive. His editor and his agent love

“Inaccessibility adds mystery, which adds to demand,” Elaine always tells him.

All his mail goes through his agent. He doesn't have contact with anybody. He made that decision the day he left Tree Hill.

“Dan killed uncle Keith,” he tells Nathan.

Nathan doesn't square off and punch him, Nathan doesn't curse him or call him crazy, Nathan does the one thing Lucas can never forgive...he simply doesn't believe him.

Lucas eats the same breakfast every morning, bitter coffee and dry toast. He pads across the hardwood floors to his office area and clicks on his computer which stays on hibernate when he's not working. He hasn't the patience for waiting for it to boot up when an idea strikes be it morning, noon or night. He opens up the file of his latest endeavor, he types.

Scott Daniels had everything.

He pauses. “I need to seriously work on that name,” Lucas mutters. He sits and stares at the one line on the screen. “You had everything you son of a bitch,” he yells at the screen, swiping the stack of crisp white paper off his desk. He pushes back from the screen and heads for the bathroom. Lucas thinks a shower will change his mood.

“I was there Lucas. I was trapped in the room with that maniac, so don't you tell me what he was and wasn't capable of,” the voice of his best friend Haley screams at him when he confronts her with the truth.

Water and suds stream from his head down to his still lithe form. He closes his eyes against the sting of the soap but he can't close his mind against the sting of rejection. The shower having done little to clear his head, he heads out of his apartment and on to the busy streets. He walks counter to the flow of people hustling off to work, enjoying the brief contact of bodies bumping against his own. He heads to one of those trendy coffee shops, orders his second cup for the day, but hardly his last and sits in a quiet corner.

'Lily is probably three by now,' Lucas pondered, watching a woman dressed in a business suit scoop up her toddler while waving down a taxi.

Lucas cut off all ties with Tree Hill the day Tree Hill turned their back on him even though it wasn't technically all of Tree Hill that did. It was however, the people that mattered to him most and in Lucas' mind, it was the same difference. His mom, his best friend and his brother, none of them believed him. None of them knew him well enough to know he wouldn't lie about a thing like that. None of them had actually thought he was a liar. What they thought, was that he was crazy. What they thought, was that grief had clouded his judgment. There was a time when he almost believed that himself.

Pushing back from the quiet table tucked in the corner by the window, Lucas stands and heads back to his loft and the book the refuses to be written. As he approaches his building, he thinks he sees another ghost from his past. It's not Keith this time, nor the mother he lost during the birth of his sister. The brunette that is standing in front of his building has a small slip of white paper in his hand. His hair is cropped but the face is the same. Lucas closes his eyes and opens them again. The vision is still there. It's nothing new. He's used to these waking flashbacks. The harder ones to deal with are Dan himself, standing there smirking at him, taunting him. Lucas approaches the building sure the apparition will go away eventually.

“Lucas?” The ghost asks as he turns into the doorway.

None of them have ever spoken before so Lucas figures he's either slipped further into madness or this person is the real deal. When he doesn't turn around, the voice speaks again.

“Lucas Scott?” It questions.

Lucas hangs his head and slowly turns around, hoping against hope, the spirit will be gone when he does. Instead, he's met with a familiar lopsided grin. This is real. His estranged brother, Nathan Scott is in New York.

His brother tries to hug him but Lucas steps back and for the briefest of seconds enjoys the crestfallen look on the younger man's face.

“Why are you here?” Is Lucas' greeting. The other man looks down, fumbling for words. Lucas is losing his patience. He turns to go in, meaning to leave Nathan out on the street.

“I..I'm sorry,” the brunette's voice says hurriedly.

“For?” Lucas asks, key in the door.

“Not believing you all these years. You were right, I was wrong. Dan killed Keith.”

Those last three words get Lucas' attention. Silently, he opens the door and steps to the side, indicating that Nathan should come in. The walk up the four flights of steps, there's an elevator but Lucas isn't feeling quite ready to forgive and forget, leaves his younger brother winded. Lucas figures the boy hasn't had a decent workout in years despite his physical appearance.

Lucas unlocks the door to his loft, switches on the light and hears Nathan let out an appreciative whistle.

“You've done all right for yourself,” Nathan enthuses. He gets no response from Lucas who moves to the living room area and sits.

“What made you have a change of heart?” Lucas says, getting to the point.

“Lots of things, but I guess his confession pretty much did it.”

Lucas knows his jaw has just dropped. Maybe Nathan has been sent to be his muse. Maybe this is the news he needs to get over his writer's block. Closing his mouth, he narrows his eyes and says as coldly as possible, “Glad the word of a murderer proved more reliable than that of your own brother. Nice to see you again Nate.”

He rises and heads for the door, determined to show Nathan the other side of it. “Give Haley and your son my regards.”

“That will be sort of hard to do,” Nathan says as he gets the hint and gathers his only luggage, a knapsack, “I haven't seen them in two years.”

Lucas shuts the door before Nathan can leave. He doesn't want to care but part of him does anyway.

“Why is that?” He tries to ask impassively.

“Because I did something stupid,” Nathan's voice nearly cracks when he says this.

“Why doesn't that surprise me?” Lucas watches Nathan shiver at those words.

His shoulders slump and his head hangs down just a little. Lucas loves it. He wants this man to suffer the way he's suffered. He's glad Haley has left. He hopes she's as miserable as Nathan looks at this moment. Nathan looks up slightly when he speaks again, eyes not quite focusing on the cold glare Lucas knows he's giving.

“This was a bad idea Luke, I know. Showing up here after all these years. It was just that when you didn't show for the trial, I thought I should come and check, make sure you were okay.”

“I'm fine,” Lucas answers coolly, “thanks for your concern.” Inside, he wants to know about the trial, he wants to know if Dan is behind bars finally. He wants to know if the man got the death penalty and if he wept like a baby when the judge delivered the news. He's afraid to ask. He's afraid that somehow, Dan has charmed his way out of trouble again.

“It was nice seeing you again,” Nathan mutters and reaches for the doorknob himself.

“Is he in jail?” Lucas asks quickly.

Nathan nods his head no.

“Figures,” Lucas smirks.

“He's dead.”

The solitary tear that streams down Nathan's cheek matches the one threatening to do the same to Lucas', only Lucas is pretty sure, their tears are for different reasons and that only rekindles his anger. In spite of it or maybe because of it, Lucas opens his mouth and is shocked by what he says next.

“Why don't you stay, tell me what happened.”