"If you'd like to talk about it, then call it what it is. An abortion." Her voice broke the conversation. One word. One word, and Lucas' world was stopped. He was stupid, he knew that what he was asking her to do was have an abortion. But they weren't sixteen, and they hadn't made a mistake. They weren't trying to fix a mistake. They were trying to be happy, and he couldn't be happy without her. And if he lost her, after he'd been an ass, and left them alone for three years, he wasn't sure he'd want to keep living.
"Peyton." He couldn't think of much else to say. There wasn't anything else he could say, except maybe, kill the damn baby. But he didn't want to say that. He didn't want that. He wanted to get no sleep, and he wanted to deal with her all hormonal. He wanted her to be pregnant. But he needed her to be here. "Peyton, I want this baby." His voice was soft and warm, trying to melt her glare, but he knew her well enough to know to at least stay away. "I want to hold our little girl in my arms, and watch her grow up, but Peyton, I don't want to do it without you." He paused, looking at her.
She was a mess, she should be a mess, and she was one. Her long blonde hair was down, and though it had been washed and combed this morning, the day's stress had worn it down. Now the curls hung around her head, almost lifeless. Symbolic. The little amount of makeup she'd thrown on was running down her face. She looked, to Luke as always, perfect, but she also looked more broken that he'd seen her since he'd left her.
"There will be other babies, Peyton. We can make another baby." Okay, so now wasn't the time for sexual innuendos. He had just been trying to get her to smile. "I can't make another you. I tried. I tried to find someone to replace you, Peyt, and we all saw how well that ended." He looked back at her, his eyes meeting hers. "It ended with you. Everything comes back to you, Peyt, and I don't know what I'd do if I lost you."
"But this is our daughter, Luke. She's already our daughter. We can't just give her back." They could. The doctor hadn't said that so bluntly, but that had been the gist of it. She wasn't far enough along that she couldn't terminate. "I can't just give her back. I can't leave her." Lucas didn't point out that if she died, she'd have to leave her, and him, anyways, he knew that she already knew that.
They were both silent for a moment, before Peyton took a few steps forward, across the cluttered, half-finished nursery that she and Lucas had been arguing in. She walked until she found herself in his arms, pressed tightly to his chest, his arms locked around her waist, as if he would never let her go.
"Luke," She finally said, her voice finally softening. "Both our parent's had the choice, and the reason to get rid of us. Can you picture a world where Ellie made the wrong choice, or one where Dan got his way?"
Two hours later, as he lay in bed, Peyton, Peyton and the daughter that might not be there's much longer, held safely, for the moment, in his arms, he couldn't get what she'd said out of his mind. What if Ellie had gotten her way? What if the world he was living in now had no Peyton? And it was with that, final, terrifying thought, that he let himself drift to sleep.
A/N: So, it's super short, but I hope you enjoyed anyways. This story is going to be short, maybe three or four chapters, and it's all going to deal with Peyton's final question to Lucas. As for my other stories, I have a UD for WECCD almost ready (maybe for Friday) and a UD for RTFP started (maybe for this weekend). School had been horrible this week, I swear, I've done nothing by write papers, read about Italian Unification and breathe since Monday night. Sorry! Review if you'd like to read another chapter.