I am a late comer to this show but I love it and I can't help myself from writing it. And I must confess that I ship the hell out of Laley. So please enjoy.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
When she practiced writing her married name – Haley James Scott – it wasn't her husband that she was thinking of but his brother. The year they turned eleven was spent scrawling that name across the back cover of her binder, on the inside of her Lisa Frank folder – anywhere that Lucas might accidentally see it but nowhere he would look on purpose. She had always sworn that he was just like her brother and, in ways, she meant that but she wouldn't be human if she hadn't thought about it a time or two... What if she and Lucas had never left the River Court? What if it was still just Haley and Lucas against the world? No best friend's long lost brother turned boyfriend then husband and father, just Lucas and Haley. Would they have ever taken that leap?
She hates herself for letting her mind wander there. She loves Nathan with her whole heart – she truly does, even when he's a complete ass who makes her nuts. She loves her son more than words could ever describe. She wouldn't trade a single day of their lives. Except, sometimes, late at night when Jamie is asleep and Nathan is away for a game, she lets her mind go there. She imagines what life would have been like if she had given into that eleven year old crush on Lucas Eugene Scott.
Would they still be together? She thinks so. Their friendship has survived hell so there's no reason to believe their relationship wouldn't have. Would all the twists and turns of high school had happened? What if one decision had changed the entire course of fate? She's read about it in a thousand books. Would Keith still be alive? Jimmy? Would she have chased music? Would Lucas have been more supportive of that choice? Would Jamie still exist?
And then the bed dips and her husband's arm comes around her waist and she's never felt so at home. She sees Lucas and Peyton and Sawyer and she knows that is where Lucas has always belonged. Sometimes she just has to wonder...