She could hear the voices even before she made it up the sidewalk to the sprawling Scott house. Dan was home and angrier than Peyton had heard him since the night he found out that his prized son had married the James girl from the wrong side of the court. She had expected a similar demonstration the night that they told his parents that they were having a baby, but Dan had managed a surprisingly cool demeanor. Now, nearly a week later, his angry voice welcomed her as she arrived unannounced to Nathan's house. They had a check-up with the baby doctor, the first since their impromptu visit to the emergency room the night of the disastrous dinner with their friends.

Peyton stopped on the front porch to listen to the conversation. It sounded fairly one-sided, with Dan doing most of the talking. Sitting on the top step, she cradled her head in her hands as she listened to the explosive screaming coming from inside. "Dammit, Nathan, this was your one shot!" Dan yelled at his son. "I told you two weeks ago that the recruiter from North Carolina was coming today. Look, you got yourself into this situation, and I tried to play the supportive father role. However, I will not let you throw away your entire future just because you went and knocked up a cheerleader. You just call Peyton up and tell her that you're not going to be able to take her to the appointment."

She waited a moment for Nathan to defend her, but his reply never came. Instead, Dan seemed to like the sound of his own voice more than usual because he started in on another tirade. "Are you even going to say anything?" he taunted. "You screw up, and I have to work my ass off to fix it. We didn't work this hard to see it all slip away."

"We didn't work this hard?" Nathan dared to question his father. "I'm fairly certain that this is my gift, my life. Don't stand there and look at me like I'm you, Dad. Because I'm not. I could never walk away from my child like you walked away from Lucas, not even for basketball. I love the game almost more than anything, but I don't love it more than I love Peyton or our baby."

"And just how do you expect to support this child, Nathan?" Dan sneered as he paced the length of the spacious living room. He raked his fingers through his dark locks anxiously, one of the few quirky habits Nathan shared with his father. "If you don't come through on your part of the bargain – school and basketball – the money stops. I only agreed to help you if you keep up your grades and play well. I don't seriously think that disappointing the recruiter from one of the nation's top basketball colleges is the way to go, do you?"

The blonde sitting outside couldn't help but wince at what Dan had just said to Nathan. She hated that he was holding this over his son's head. No matter how grand Nathan's gestures were when it came to being a supporting father, she hated that he was going to have to sacrifice any part of his dreams. He had told her that his dreams had started to change, but she knew that part of his heart were still with basketball.

"I am going to take Peyton to her appointment, and then I am going to go to basketball practice just like I had planned. If the recruiter wants to see me, he'll wait. The truth is going to come out eventually. I don't plan on hiding the fact that I am a father," Nathan declared, his voice sounding stronger than before. Peyton stood up and peered through the curtains into the living room. "As for your not-so-subtle threat, do what you want, Dad. You always have."

Dan crossed the room in three long strides before looking straight into his son's blue eyes. "I told you once, Son, and I will tell you again. I will not let you screw this up."

Nathan smirked as he hung his head and shook it slowly. "You hate that you don't have the control anymore, don't you?" he scoffed. "It must kill you to know that you can't tell me what to do. I don't need you anymore, Dad. I'll figure out a way to take care of my family, with or without your help. You can't hurt me because I won't let you. I have Peyton now. I have something worth so much more than making you proud of me. I am going to be the man you never were and the father you never were. I guess I should thank you for showing me what kind of person not to be."

With his scathing final comment, Nathan picked up his gym back and strode out of the house. As he stepped out into the humid August afternoon, he missed the tiny blonde now huddled on the porch swing. The anger rolled over him in waves, as tiny little flashes of his domineering father of the years came rushing back to him all at once. Nathan chucked his bag on the lawn angrily, muttering curse words under his breath. Just as he was about to march back in the house and go another few rounds with his father, he felt a pair of arms encircle his waist from behind and a warm cheek press against his back. He would know those chipped black-polished nails anywhere. "How much of that did you hear?"

"Enough to know that you really need this," she murmured as she came around to face him. She wrapped her arms around him in a comforting embrace. Nathan rested his chin on top of her golden girls, returning the hug with a fierce intensity. "Nate, I hate that this is another rift between you and your father."

"Trust me, Peyt, you're definitely not to blame," he assured her as he pulled back to meet her gaze. "My dad has been telling me what to do my entire life. He has had everything planned out for me since before I was born, and this is the first time I've really deviated from his plans. He hates that there is anything that I could love more than basketball because he never has. Not my mom, not Karen, not even Lucas or me. It was all about the game for him. I was like that for a long time, too, because it was all I knew. And then I met an angsty blonde cheerleader, and she threw me for a total loop."

She smiled as she remembered those precious first days when they had been together the first time. That long summer where she would meet him secretly after he was finished lifting weights and they would make out behind the gym until Dan would come to collect his son. She had fallen for the golden boy hard, and everything was a new experience that they were going through together. When it was good, it had been very good. They had gotten quite a few months of that happy phase before the inner Scott had come out in Nathan and he had checked out on her. Six months later, he was married to Haley and she had somehow convinced herself that she was in love with his brother. Another six months later, they were standing together on his front lawn, talking about their child and a life together.

"I don't want to be like my father."

His confession was soft and sad, enough to break Peyton's already fragile heart. Her watery eyes met his. "You won't be, Nate," she promised him. "You're already so much more than him."

Those words coming from her lips were almost enough to make Nathan believe it. He could almost have faith that he would never let the part of his father that was inside of him come through. "I am going to take you to this appointment, and I am going to be there for every single one after this. I don't care if it is the day of some important game or when a recruiter is in town or whatever, this is more important. And I promise that I am going to do my best to be there for everything else the rest of our lives because nothing matters more to me than our family. I want to live up to the man you see when you look at me."

Peyton encircled her arm around his waist as they walked down the sidewalk toward her black convertible. She handed the keys over wordlessly to Nathan as he closed the passenger door behind her. This had become their routine already, one that had started the first time around. He slipped behind the driver's wheel and brought the engine to life with the simple twist of the key in the ignition. The Ataris flooded the cab of the car as they waxed poetic about "The Boys of Summer" like the old Don Henley song.

"You know, this song has always reminded me of you."

She looked up at him in surprise. Nathan had never really been one to talk to her about music, let alone seeing any deeper meaning in it. He mostly made fun of her love of emo and complained when she turned it up in his truck. "Oh, really?" she asked with amusement. "And why is that exactly?"

"Well, besides the fact that you made me listen to this album the entire summer after it came out," he joked as she leaned back in her seat and he pulled out onto the street. It was one of those late summer days where the air was so still and the humidity was so hot that you could barely breathe. However, the cool air blasting through her air conditioning vents was enough to keep them both comfortable. "It was kind of the soundtrack of our relationship at the time. Think about all the lyrics that pertain to us. Like, there's that whole verse. 'I never will forget those nights, I wonder if it was a dream. Remember how you made me crazy? Remember how I made you scream...'"

"Now I don't understand what happened to our love," Peyton sang along, her voice filling the car as she lost herself in the familiar lyrics. As much as Nathan always pretended to hate her music, he always loved watching her get into it. She was at her very best when she was completely wrapped up in a new song that she was falling in love with. "But babe, when I get you back, I'm gonna show you what I'm made of."

Nathan grinned at her. "Exactly. We would fight until we were both blue in the face, and I would leave your house swearing that you were completely insane," he remembered. "And then I would show back up after I realized how amazing you were, always promising myself that I was going to be the better man that you deserved. I just never quite lived up to that part of the deal."

"You're living up to it now," she pointed out with a smile before reaching across the console for his hand. "So what else in the song reminds you of me? I kinda like seeing how you see me through a song. It's a very attractive side of you, Mr. Scott."

He ducked his head sheepishly because he knew that this wasn't like him. He'd never been comfortable being a sappy romantic, but everything about Peyton him want to be honest about how he felt. "I could just imagine you riding around in your car, with the top down and your sunglasses on, blasting this song. It's such a literal interpretation of the song, I know, but it just fits you. I like that there is this piece of music out there that I can listen to whenever I'm thinking about you. Does that make me totally whipped?"

"Oh, yeah, totally," she assured him with a nod before bursting out into laughter. "Actually, I just think it makes you sweet, Nate. You know how much music means to me, and if there is even one song that we both happen to love that means something to you, that makes me really happy."

"Well, my whole goal in life is to make you happy now, if only to see that signature Sawyer smile," he retorted as he pulled up to a stop light. He felt Peyton tense up next to him as she always did. Her grip on his hand tightened. He brushed his thumb over her knuckles and smiled at her reassuringly. She managed a tight grimace as the light turned green. The car ahead of him lunged forward, but Nathan remained stationary. "You okay?"

She managed to nod as her free hand came to rest on her stomach. "I've just been thinking about my mom all day, and I guess I still have those moments when I stop at a red light," she tried to explain. She knew that this was something that she was going to have to deal with eventually, but it barely made any sense in her own head. "Finding out I was pregnant, one of the things that I started to think about was how she would take it. Would she be proud? Would I be a disappointment? And then I start to worry what if something happens to me. I don't want our son or daughter to have to grow up without me. I know it's crazy to worry like that, but I can't help it."

Given her history, Nathan thought that her anxieties were only normal. "Peyt, I can't promise you that nothing is going to happen. I can promise you, however, I am going to do everything I can to protect you. I'm planning on being with you for the rest of my life, and I can't do that if you up and leave me before I'm ready," he declared. "As for your mom, I never knew her. However, I know how much she loved you from the way you talk about her and the stories I've heard your dad tell and what Brooke's told me. She would be proud of the choices you have made in this situation and what a strong woman you are. I have no doubt that she would be supportive and that she's looking over you now like your own personal guardian angel."

Peyton would do anything in the world to give Nathan one ounce of the selfless love she had been blessed with through her mother. He had never known that unconditional love with his own parents. Deb had tried but her addictions had often mattered more than her son. Dan's personal hang-ups, ego and domineering presence were enough to keep any pure emotions away other than pity and rage. They had never loved their son as openly and as perfectly as Peyton's mother had loved her. As she would love their child. As she would spend the rest of her life loving him.

"I love you, Nathan."

He thought her comment came from nowhere, not knowing the thoughts going on inside her head. However, he didn't need to know them to know that she meant it. "Love you, too," he retorted before leaning down to address her abdomen. "I love both of you." Peyton giggled as he rubbed her stomach for a moment before heading down the road again. "After this doctor's appointment, do you think you could come to the school with me? I want both my girls there when the recruiter sees me play."

"Oh, so you think it's a girl now?"

"No," Nathan corrected her. "I know it's a girl now."

"And there's that cocky Nathan Scott that we all know and love," she shook her head as he pulled into the parking lot outside the hospital. "Just when I think you're getting all soulful and sensitive, the real you comes sneaking out."

"They're both the real me, Peyt," he said seriously.

"I know, and I love both of them."

"Can't say it enough now, can you?"

"Nope," she grinned proudly. "I wasted months not saying it. I don't plan on making that mistake again."

"Good," he decided as he shuffled out of the car and around to help her out, "because I'm not very good at being the real Nathan Scott without you."

"Well, I promise that you'll never have to be anything else for anyone else ever again,"

Author's Note: Just want to thank everyone who reviewed the last chapter. I apologize that I didn't get back to you, but I've been fighting a nasty cold all week. However, I read and appreciated every last one of them and hope that you will continue to grace me with them in future updates. I promise that there is a lot more angst and joy and hope and sorrow and melodrama and romance to come!