Chapter 8: How We Prove Ourselves

As they emerged from Jake's car, Lucas turned to the other two teens, "I'm gonna go talk to my teachers before school to see what I can do about the classes I missed yesterday. I'll see you later."

Haley watched as her best friend walked off in a direction away from them before turning to Jake, "You like Lucas."

"Haley, come on, no."

"Don't lie to me Jake Jagielski, why else would you have noticed the fact his six pack was gone." Haley laughed as her accusation caused Jake to go red in the face. She smiled proudly, knowing she was right.

"Alright, I do, I did," Jake admitted. "But I have Jenny to think about and now he's…" he lowered his voice to a whispered, "Pregnant, it makes things so much more complicated. There's nothing I can do about it now."

"Just stay out. He'll know you care if you stay there and support. God, I can't imagine being inside his head right now. He's "with child" and the father cheated on him." Haley lamented. "But you know what, I think it will work out in the end."

She conclude her thoughts and they joined Peyton outside the school.

"Hey, there." The blonde curls blew in the wind.

"Hey, um Peyton, I was wondering if you could do me a favor. Would you mind babysitting Jenny next Thursday. I'm helping Luke with a school project thing."

From her new position behind Peyton, Haley threw Jake a quizzical look or two, and inwardly smiling.


"You don't have to be here." Lucas said for the third as he looked over at Jake who was slightly engrossed in a parenting magazine, "And neither do you." He turned to his other side where Haley was already nearly finished for her worksheets for history.

"I kind of do. You're my best friend, Luke. I'm not missing any of this." Haley smiled. "I am fully commit to be at your beck and call, I've already bought 'What to Expect When You're Expecting' and started stashing basic craving foods when you want beef and skittles at two in the morning."

"Don't you think that Nathan's gonna get a little suspicious?" Lucas asked.

"Me and Nathan haven't had sex yet, so I doubt it, and if he did…he wouldn't have if you wouldn't have chicken out of telling them last Friday."

"I know its just kind of weird still. I will I promised." Lucas reassured her. They waited a few more minutes before a nurse appeared calling out, "Scott, Lucas."

The trio stood up and followed her back to a small room. "We're just gonna get some basic info first okay?" Lucas nodded, and followed as they got his weight and height.

"And is the other parent male or female?"

"Male." He responded shortly.

"Is he…" the nurse began carefully choosing her words eyeing Jake in the corner. Lucas realized what she was doing and beat her to it, "The father isn't in the picture any more, but these are my friends…I can't seem to shake them."

The nurse smiled warmly, "It's good to have a strong support system. We'll just check your temperature, blood pressure, and heart, okay? Then the doctor will be in and we'll take a look at your baby."

It was another twenty-minutes before the sonogram gel was brought out. "Okay," Dr. Coffman warned, "It's going to be cold."

Cold was a bit of an understatement, but Lucas didn't have time to argue as the grainy black and white image began flashing across the screen.

"Oh my gosh." Haley gushed cupping her hands over her mouth, while Jake stood there grinning. Lucas looked at the picture and couldn't help but be excited.

"Right there," Dr. Coffman pointed at the screen, "There's your baby, Lucas. It won't be til another couple of visits before we know if it's a boy or a girl." He handed Lucas a towel to wipe of the gel off, before continuing, "There's just a few things that I want to talk about before you leave. First, you can't be afraid of eating, I know morning sickness sucks, but the more you do manage to get down the better, I'm gonna give you some vitamins to help out and secondly I'm going to eventually need family history, from both sides if possible, just to see if there is anything we need to worry about."

Lucas nodded processing everything around them, made an appointment to return in three weeks, and the trio made their way out the door of the office building.

"Hey, you guys, I've got to go meet Nathan, so I'll see you two later." With that Haley disappeared around the corner where she had park.

"She does that on purpose." Lucas informed Jake.

"I know. How about we go relieve Peyton and I can make some pasta. I mean you get dinner, and some practice with Jenny."

It was only an hour later Lucas found himself sitting on the couch in Jake's living room as Jake entered with two bowls of pasta.

"You know what Haley told while we waited? It goes for me too. I'm not going any where." Jake said, hoping he wasn't giving anything away.

"Thanks, it means a lot…" Lucas smiled appreciatively, "I'm still letting on this sink in. I'm kind of wondering how I'm going to get a hold of David's family health history without letting him."

"So, you decided not to tell him?" Jake asked knowing Lucas had been debating the topic for the last couple of days.

"He doesn't deserved to know." Lucas said simply.

"I'll get it without him knowing. Don't worry about it." He waited until he saw the blonde nod before settling to finish the movie.

Later that night after Luke had left and called an familiar number.

"Hello?"

"Maddie?" Jake asked.

"Yeah, Jake what's up?"

"I was just wondering if anything has changed in your family's health history since Jenny was born."

"No, not that I can think of, Jake. Why? What's going on? Is something wrong with Jenny?" The worried tone came clearly across the line.

"No not with Jenny. Maddie you swear not to tell David?" Jake said.

"That'll be easy since me and David aren't really talking to each other right now. What's this got to do with him?"

"Lets just David has a lot in common with your guys' little sister."

Until next time, this is me…signing out.