Nathans POV

Mornings like this, laying here, with my arms around her are perfect. In the calm of the sun rising. Tomorrow we leave to go back to Tree Hill. The place where it all started with her and I. It's time to face the ghosts of our pasts for Whitey. He was always there for the both of us, and we want to go and pay our respects to a man who was a great father figure, and a great coach. When I think about Whitey, I know he's up there smiling because he gets to see the great love of his life again, his Camille. I don't know how he's gone on without her all these years. Peyton Sawyer, well Peyton Scott now (that always makes me smile everytime I hear the name Scott joined with her name) is the great love of my life. It may have took a little time to figure it out, but it's always been there inside me, until it was the right time to realize it. Peyton helped me alot when my first wife left me in highschool, but I guess that's what I get for getting married so young, but Haley taught me how to be a better man, and without her I probably never would've got Peyton back. After Haley came back from the tour, we tried to make it work, but I was already in love with Peyton by that time. Peyton and Lucas got together, but eventually she came to me and told me she couldn't be with him any longer, because she was in love with me. Finally a week before graduation Haley signed the papers and I became her ex-husband. After everything was finalized, I followed Peyton to LA. We moved in together, and 3 months later we were expecting our first child, Skye. Peyton gave me everything I never knew I wanted. A great wife, 3 kids. Sure we have some arguments, but not any that our as bad as when we were in highschool. We make it a point to never go to bed mad. When I left Tree Hill after my father was thrown in prison, I cut off ties with everyone there. It just didnt seem to matter anymore. I don't really care what any of them have to say tomorrow, i'm more worried about Peyton then anything. None of them know Peyton and I are married. It's not that i'm ashamed of it, or of her, it's just we have no reason to communicate with them any longer.

As I feel Peyton stirring in my arms, I tighten my grip on her. I open my eyes and see her half open ones peering up at me with a small smile gracing her face.

"Goodmorning, sleeping beauty" I whisper and then lean down to kiss her softly.

"Mornin' Superstar" she whispers and I chuckle at the nickname.

Glancing at the clock, I see it's almost 8 and footsteps will soon be making their way down the hall.

"Peyt, are you okay with tomorrow?" I ask her.

"I'm a little nervous about your ex-wife kicking my ass, to be honest"

"Hm, if it comes down to it, I think you can take her" I say as I chuckle "..but seriously how are you really?"

"To be honest, i'm a little nervous, but only because these damn hormones are acting up and I might have a meltdown and scream at them..or cry..i'm not sure which one yet, but you'll be the first to know."

"Peyt, i'm worried about you and the baby. We've been doing good on our own all these years. I just don't want them to disrupte our balance."

"Nate, look at me.." I glance down at her our eyes connecting "They won't disrupt our balance, sure it will be different with all of them knowing, but nothing, and I repeat nothing, will disrupt our happiness. It's you & me until the end of time."

"mi primer amor" I whisper to her and then kiss her.

"mi amor verdadero" She whispers back and then kisses me.

Mi primer amor, meaning my first love, and Mi amor verdadero, meaning my true love are our sayings. She was my first love, sure there was Haley, and she was my first wife, but Peyton was my first love, which means everything to me. Mi primer amor is engraved on her wedding ring. Mi amor verdadero is because our love is true, it's real, it's pure, it's passionate. There will never be another love like the one she and I share. Sure, she and my brother had this weird connection in highschool, and she loved him, just like at one point I loved Haley, but the love Peyton and I share together was more true, more real, more pure, yet more passionate. Mi amor verdadero is what is engraved on my wedding ring.

Our wedding was beautiful. It wasn't too big, but not just five people either. Our wedding was 2 months after Skye was born. Although I said i'd never do marriage again and it was only a little bit over a year before we got married, I knew it was right, that this marriage would be forever. My buddies on the team all came out with their wives and girlfriends. The people Peyton worked with came out, her father flew in from NC to walk her down the aisles, and then a few of our friends that we met in LA were there.

Our wedding was actually in the middle of December, in the snow at the Loswillows, under the stars. Everyone was freezing in their winter apparel, but Peyton never did like traditonal. I was surprised she actually wanted to wear white and didn't complain. I was also really happy.

As I stood there in my tux next to Whitey, I was nervous. It wasn't the first time I was getting married but it was the last time, not that that was my reason for being nervous. I was finally marrying the girl I loved since freshman year of highschool, the one I dated for two years and broke her spirit immensely. We've come along way sinced then but part of me still thought this was a dream. I never thought i'd ever get to experience standing at the aisle waiting for Peyton Sawyer to come down that aisle. On cue the song "Love Knows No Wrong" started playing. There was Peyton at the end of the aisle with her dad, and she absolutely took my breath away. I had never seen someone look that beautiful. She was stunning. She had her hair down so her curls were bouncing, just the way I like them with a deep red rose bud stuck through it. And her wedding dress made her look like Cinderella. She also carried a bouquet of deep red roses, like the one in her hair. As she approached I felt my nerves disappear. She reached the aisle and her dad gave her a kiss on the cheek as I reached for her hand.

The pastor began to speak as we were looking deep into each other's eyes.

"Friends, we have been invited here today to share with Peyton Elizabeth Sawyer and Nathan
Royal Scott a very important moment in their lives. In the years they have known each other or been together, their love and understanding of each other has grown and matured, and now they have decided to live their lives together as husband and wife.

This passage is from "The Velveteen Rabbit" by Margery Williams

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.

"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

Nathan and Peyton have chosen marriage as the ultimate celebration of their virtues. Marriage is a position in life that must be earned. It is a legal contract, a social tradition, and, most important, a profoundly personal commitment over the span of a lifetime.

The first challenge to the possibility of marriage is finding one's soul-mate - the second is knowing if your fundamental standards are in agreement. Nathan and Peyton have found that they are soul-mates. They have shown each other that they are rational, honest, and resolved to live the happiest lives they can live.

Earlier in their relationship, Peyton wrote Nathan a letter saying that she would love him until the day that forever ceased to exsist.

Nathan replied, "As long as you are you, I will never stop loving you or abandon you… But don't take my work for it. Let me prove it to you."

For over a year they continued to prove it, and, Nathan finally asked Peyton's hand in marriage.

This ceremony is their proof to each other and to all who listen that they will never abandon each other.

Nathan and Peyton have choosen to write their own vows, if you will, Nathan please begin."

"Peyton, In freshman year if anyone would tell me i'd end up here confessing my love in front of all our friends and family

and vowing to be your husband, and that i'd also be a father, i'd think they were wrong, but they were more right than

anything. You and I are like a puzzle, when we arent together, the piece of you is missing, and without you i'm incomplete.

So today I promise to be faithful, to be loving, and caring to go through all the bad times with you, as well as the good times. You have given me your love, and a beautiful child, and for that I will be forever grateful. You're my forever Peyton Sawyer."

As Peyton began to tear up, I knew that right then she was my forever. I'd never betray her, or leave her. I'd always be faithful and by her side. Together as one, always.

She mouthed to me "I Love You" and I mouthed the same back to her.

"Peyton, will you please recite your vows." the pastor asked of her.

"Nathan, In highschool I never thought this day would come, sure I hoped, but I didn't think it would given our past, and our rocky relationship, but here we are, and we've come quite a long way to be together. You are the father of my son, the love of my life, my best friend, my everything, so today I promise in front of family and friends that I will love, respect, and honor you. I promise you that tis bond, this unique relationship that exsists between us will always be kept alive. You're my happy ever after Nathan Scott."

"As Ayn Rand found,

One gains a profoundly personal, selfish joy from the mere existence of the person one loves. It is one's own personal, selfish happiness that one seeks, earns and derives from love.

It is for your own happiness that you need the person you love, and that is the greatest compliment, the greatest tribute you can pay to that person."

It is time for the rings.

I turned to Whitey and he handed me the ring that would forever bind me to the love of my life.

"Nathan, repeat after me:

Peyton, I give you this ring as a symbol of my love. As it encircles your finger, may it remind you always that you are surrounded by my enduring love." the pastor told me

"Peyton, I give you this ring as a symbol of my love. As it encircles your finger, may it remind you always that you are surrounded by my enduring love." I repeated.


"Peyton, repeat after me: I will wear it gladly. Whenever I look at it, I will remember this joyous day and the vows we've made."

"I will wear it gladly. Whenever I look at it, I will remember this joyous day and the vows we've made."

"Now for the bride, Peyton once again repeat after me: Nathan, I give you this ring as a symbol of my love. As it encircles your finger, may it remind you always that you are surrounded by my enduring love."

"Nathan, I give you this ring as a symbol of my love. As it encircles your finger, may it remind you always that you are surrounded by my enduring love."

"Nathan, repeat after me: "I will wear it gladly. Whenever I look at it, I will remember this joyous day and the vows we've made." the pastor asked of me.

"I will wear it gladly. Whenever I look at it, I will remember this joyous day and the vows we've made."

We proceded onto the rose ceremony that we decided to have. This wedding was everything to us and we wanted to make it special in each and everyway.

"Your gift to each other for your wedding today has been your wedding rings - which shall always be an outward demonstration of your vows of love and respect; and a public showing of your commitment to each other.

You now have what remains the most honorable title which may exist between a man and a woman - the title of "husband" and "wife." For your first gift as husband and wife, that gift will be a single rose.

s

In the past, the rose was considered a symbol of love and a single rose always meant only one thing - it meant the words "I love you." So it is appropriate that for your first gift - as husband and wife - that gift would be a single rose.

Please exchange your first gift as husband and wife."

We exchanged the roses looking into each other's eyes.

"In some ways it seems like you have not done anything at all. Just a moment ago you were holding one small rose - and now you are holding one small rose. In some ways, a marriage ceremony is like this. In some ways, tomorrow is going to seem no different than yesterday. But in fact today, just now, you both have given and received one of the most valuable and precious gifts of life - one I hope you always remember - the gift of true and abiding love within the devotion of marriage.

Peyton and Nathan, I would ask that where ever you make your home in the future - whether it be a large and elegant home - or a small and graceful one - that you both pick one very special location for roses; so that on each anniversary of this truly wonderful occasion you both may take a rose to that spot both as a recommitment to your marriage - and a recommitment that THIS will be a marriage based upon love.

In every marriage there are times where it is difficult to find the right words. It is easiest to hurt who we most love. It is easiest to be most hurt by who we most love. It might be difficult some time to words to say "I am sorry" or "I forgive you"; "I need you" or "I am hurting". If this should happen, if you simply can not find these words, leave a rose at that spot which both of you have selected - for that rose than says what matters most of all and should overpower all other things and all other words.

That rose says the words: "I still love you." The other should accept this rose for the words which cannot be found, and remember the love and hope that you both share today.

Peyton and Nathan, if there is anything you remember of this marriage ceremony, it is that it was love that brought you here today, it is only love which can make it a glorious union, and it is by love which your marriage shall endure."

We did pick a special place that day. In our bedroom there's a shelf with pictures of us in our teen years, us when we started dating again, us together when she was pregnant, and pictures of us with the kids and Ryder, but in the middle is a bigger picture of our wedding and every year on December 14th we each place a rose there.

"May the courage of the early morning's dawning, the strength of the eternal hills, the peace of the evening's ending, and the love of God be in your hearts now and forevermore. Amen.

By the power vested in me by the State of California, I now pronounce you husband and wife, you may now kiss the bride."

I leaned over and took her in my arms and we shared our first kiss as man and wife.

As we pulled back I heard the pastor say

"I present to you Mr. and Mrs. Scott"

."Natey, what are you thinking about?" she asked me, as I was coming out of my remembrence.

"Our wedding." I reply.

"Best day of my life." she says as she smiles a wide smile at me.

"Mine too, babe, mine too. I love you."

"I love you too. Always have.."

"Always will."

And then we grin at each other. We start to hear the pitter patters of little footsteps running down the hall and into our room.

"The terrors are awake." I whisper.

"Hey, can you blame them, look who their father is, the original holy terror" she replies, and I chuckle.

"Geez, thanks Peyt."

"Anytime honey, anytime."

"Daddy, Momma, wakey wakey up!" Skye hollars as he tries to get up onto the bed. I pick him up and place him in between Peyton and I and look down to see my little man Bray wanting to get up to. I pick him up and put him on my stomach.

"Dada! Dada!"

"Hey my little Bray man, hey skye"

"Hi daddy!" Skye replies.

"Morning momma!" Skye yells in her ear when she closes her eyes and I start to laugh.

"Good morning Skye" she says she put him on her stomach and cuddles nearer to me and I put an arm around her. It's times like this that I could lay here forever. My family means so much to me. If anyone told me 5 years ago i'd be a dad to two munchkin and one on the way i'd laugh in their face, but looking at my family I wouldn't trade them for the world. My mom usually wasn't home much for me, and Dan, well..He never was a good father, the way he acted towards me, and pushed me, i'd never do that to any of my children.

"Baba, baba, baba" Bray manages to get out and I know it's time for the family to get out of bed.

"Hey superstar, i'll take Bray to get his baba if you take Skye and get him dressed. I'll even cook ya up some breakfast" she smiles at me. Well one thing is for sure..Peyton could not cook at all in highschool, but when she got pregnant with Skye she took it up and she whips up some great homecooked dinners.

"Sure thing Goldilocks" I say as I kiss her cheek and we switch kids.