Chapter 21

A/N: Hey guys! I feel so so so horrible about these slow updates (trust me it's all i've been able to think about) but school has started again and its going to be a lot harder for me to get chapters out plus my internet connection was down for a week. I posted this as soon as I got it back! I am really truly very sorry but my current plan is to put one out a week. I'm so sorry about how long you've all been waiting for this chapter! Thanks for sticking with me. And again, all of your reviews mean so much to me. I couldn't thank you all enough! Keep reading and reviewing! Enjoy!

ps. I just have to give a shout out to my beta, you know who you are and I couldn't/wouldn't have done this without you!

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"Jimmy!" Lydia screamed as Nathan stumbled backwards.

Haley ran towards Nathan, reaching out for his face. "Nathan!"

Jimmy shuddered back from Lydia, "I'm sorry you were right Nathan. Haley doesn't need to apologize, YOU do!"

Nathan wiped off his jaw and supportingly put his hand on the small of Haley's back. She rubbed his jaw gently, "I'm so sorry Nathan."

"No, I'm sorry Haley." Nathan hated watching her tortured expression.

Lydia put one hand in the air, "Okay. Everyone is apologizing to the wrong people. We're sorting this out right now."

Jimmy was still on fire, "Actually Nathan should be apologizing to Haley. She's still in high school!"

Haley's stomach twisted with the ice in her father's words, "Stop Dad. Nathan doesn't owe me any apologies, he's kept his promise to me. He loves me and he protects me."

Nathan's stomach twisted too but not because of what Jimmy said but with the guilty feeling that accompanied what Haley had just said.

Jimmy interrupted her, "Apparently he should have thought about protection more!"

Haley's anger beat out her embarrassment, "DAD! Nathan's not the guy you should be yelling at."

Nathan interrupted her this time, "Haley-"

Haley groaned, "Everyone stop interrupting me! Nathan don't even go there." Nathan opened his mouth to protest but closed it not looking too content.

Jimmy blinked with shock as he finally grasped what Haley had meant, "The jock?"

Lydia spoke up, "Okay, well now that everything's out in the open. Let's clear it all up. Jimmy you need to apologize to Nathan and Haley."

Jimmy was still shocked and spoke in a monotone voice, "I'm sorry Nathan, I shouldn't have hit you." Nathan nodded an okay.

Haley felt the tears trickle down her hot cheeks as her dad looked at her. She felt immense waves of guilt. He opened his mouth to apologize and barely managed it out before he embraced her in a tight hug, "I'm so-s-so sorry."

She clung to him and stayed in his arms for a couple minutes. No matter what the circumstances, being in her father's arms was one of the ultimate safe spots in life.

Nathan watched with relief as her face calmed and her tears stopped. Lydia sighed and took a seat, "And Haley used to be the one with the least problems."

Haley had calmed herself down to react to her mother's statement as she normally would, "Gee, thanks Mom." Nathan smiled and sat down as did Jimmy and Haley.

Jimmy sighed and stared at Nathan, studying his face, "I owe you another apology. I'm sorry you've been my punching bag about this all Nate. You're not even the guy responsible for this."

"Well.." Nathan began but Haley cut him off.

"We appreciate that Dad." Haley smiled and looked to Nathan who was pissed off at how everyone assumed this baby was Mike's.

Nathan couldn't leave out a detail as big as this one, "Haley's right but that's not the full truth. The paternity isn't sure."

Haley grimaced and glared at Nathan, "But the possibility of it being Nathan's is...well, it would be a miracle."

Nathan returned an angry glare. They had a clear disagreement about this topic.

Jimmy was just trying to calmly absorb all of this, "When do you find out?"

"Two weeks from now, when the trial is." Haley said trying to ignore Nathan and his upset glances.

Jimmy nodded slowly, "Well, why don't we call it a night. We can all sleep on this."

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It was lunchtime the next school day while Lucas and Haley were finding a table. Haley looked around the cafeteria only to find everyone looking back at her.

"Um..Luke?" She whispered.

He was oblivious to it, "Yeah?"

"Everyone's looking at us." Haley was getting more and more uncomfortable.

Lucas found Haley was right and he had a bad feeling about it, "Huh, let's just sit at that table back there. Nathan'll be able to find us."

Once seated, Lucas was trying to keep Haley distracted from the fact that she was clearly the victim of the latest gossip. He knew that between the stress of her life and of the events of this past weekend, she really really really didn't need this too.

"Crap, I forgot to get my coffee. Can you get me some Haley?" Lucas pleaded.

Haley rolled her eyes and smiled, "Only because I'm too scared of puking to eat more. Stupid lazy ass boys."

Lucas smiled as she walked away and then quickly flagged down Brooke. She came running over and sat down in the chair beside him, "Hey boyfriend. It's not good."

Brooke didn't need straight A's to know what he wanted to know from her at the moment, "What is it exactly?"

Brooke bit her lip, "They found out. She's pregnant, I have no idea how. There are so many rumors going around. Rape, Nathan, a slut, reasons behind her marriage, it's all awful."

Lucas looked up at his innocent little Haley; his innocent little sister, bouncing around getting him a coffee. "How do we break it to her?"

Brooke sighed, "I'll threaten some people and until one of us can tell her in private, we hide her from it."

"Thanks Brooke. Now, go be a bitchy cheerleader!" Lucas joked as Brooke pranced away.

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Haley was about to put a lid on the black coffee when she glanced towards the sugar packets. It's probably artistic to drink your coffee black or something but a little sugar wouldn't hurt him. She grabbed a packet and started pouring it in.

"You...um...shouldn't drink that." Haley heard someone say awkwardly.

She looked up to see a girl staring at her, "Excuse me?"

"I'm not saying this to be a bitch, my mom works in a doctor's office. Pregnant people shouldn't drink coffee." The girl said somewhat matter-of-factly.

Haley's jaw dropped, "H-how, what...wh-who told you that?"

The girl seemed pleased to have officially gotten the rumor confirmed, "Oh, I didn't start this. It's going all around school."

Haley truly could not believe how her life could continually spiral downward, and suddenly she found her body spiraling that way too when instead of feeling the cold tiles she felt something warmer.

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"Haley? Baby, come on, wake up!" Nathan's franctic voice pulled her out of the darkness.

Haley's eyes fluttered open, "Where are we?"

Nathan panicked, "Oh no. Haley? Do you remember your full name? Do you know who I am?"

Haley smiled, "Stop freaking out. I'm fine." She tried to sit up but besides Nathan's firm grip on her shoulders she felt the floor tilt and leaned back down.

Nathan was not convinced yet, "Haley."

Haley rolled her eyes, "I'm Haley James Scott. You are my husband, Nathan Royal Scott. I'm pregnant and the last thing I remember was getting Lucas' coffee."

Nathan's expression changed from concern to anger. He whipped his head around to Lucas who, to Haley's surprise, had apparently been standing behind Nathan this whole time, "You made her get you your drink?!"

Lucas cocked his head, "Dumbass. I was distracting her so I could find out why the whole student body was staring and whispering."

Haley squinted in realization, "Lucas Eugene! You little liar. If I could decide which of your two heads was the real one, I would slap you."

Nathan had been laughing at the realization of Lucas' middle name when Haley's last sentence caught his attention, "You can't see right?!"

Haley smiled and sat up, "You're going to be the mom. The one who stands one the sidelines with a box of bandaids ready to go at any moment and takes the kid to the doctor with anything slightly out of place."

Nathan smiled at the fact that for once she was finally allowing herself to think that baby might be his but then he heard Lucas snickering and remembered his pride, "I'll be very dad like. The alpha male."

"Okay, okay. Don't worry, I want you to be just as manly as you do, you are my husband after all." Haley said as Nathan helped her up. "The parking lot?"

The three of them were sitting on the curb by Nathan's car now, "Well, I got you out of there as fast as possible and I was going to lay you down in the back of the car but Luke pointed out that you needed fresh air."

Haley shook her head, "Leave it to men. Just for future reference. Don't put passed out people on pavement."

"Noted." Lucas looked at his watch, "Sorry, but I really have to go to class. I would normally stay but I have a test this period."

Nathan wrapped his arm around Haley's shoulders, pulling her into him, "It's okay, I got it. Thanks man." Lucas walked away, waving goodbye to them.

Haley groaned, "I'm sick of always being rescued."

"But isn't it sexy when I save you Haley? I'm like a super hero." Nathan smirked

Haley shook her head, laughing, "Super is right, super cocky."

"But what do you want me to do then, just leave you there? Let you suffer and fend for yourself? I could never do that Hales. I'm always going to rescue you." Nathan hated the idea of anything else, he knew how it felt too well.

Haley positioned herself so her legs were over one of his and she could look up at him, "It's not that I don't want to be rescued. I don't want to have to need to be rescued."

Nathan kissed her head, "Everyone needs some help from time to time."

Haley laughed, "Yeah, but I'm the only one who needs it everytime!"

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Haley and Nathan had just gone straight home. Haley hadn't even tried arguing anything else. Her parents were out to dinner so it was just them for a little bit.

Haley was laying on the couch, typing a paper on her laptop while Nathan was putting slices of pizza onto paper plates. "You feel good still?"

Haley's reply was delayed, "...yeah."

Nathan sat down on the floor beside her and handed her plate to her, "What is it?"

Haley shook her head, "I'm just wondering how. How did they all figure it out?"

"Stop thinking about it." Nathan didn't want her to worry anymore, it wasn't good for her.

Haley was about to swallow the large chunk of pizza in her mouth when a thought came to her, "Nathan. Is it because I show now? Am I fat?"

Nathan knew from many movies and TV shows that this question would come up, "No! You're not fat."

"Then how!?" Haley cried out.

Nathan sighed, "I'll figure this out and straighten it out. Please stop worrying, okay?"

Haley didn't like worrying him, "Fine."

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Nathan was in the locker room after practice the next day and there was dead silence. It was clear that the conversation would have been about Haley and Nathan had Lucas and Nathan not been there.

"Damnit. Would you guys just quit this?!" Nathan finally gave up.

The guys all looked around.

"Oh come on, I know the whole school is talking about Haley and I can't believe that you are all caught up in this crap too." Nathan didn't need to get this from them too.

"So, it's not true then?" One teammate had the guts to ask.

Nathan glared at him, "Do you not understand shut the hell up?!"

Skills piped in, "Wait...I thought that you wanted us to talk?"

Nathan opened his mouth to yell but saw Skills smiling. "I was just kidding with you man. The team's got your back. Don't worry, we won't talk about it anymore and we'll defend Haley."

The other guys looked around and all nodded in approval. Lucas looked pleased, "Thanks guys, Haley will appreciate that."

Nathan agreed, "But there's one thing I have to know. Who started this? Who's behind it?"

Everyone looked at Tim who was whistling and combing his hair, "Oh. Hey Nate."

Nathan moved towards him, "Who started this Tim? As my best friend, I need you to tell me."

Tim had been looking hesitant but was convinced now, "Mike Gera told his team and they told their school who then passed it on to our school. But Mike told me himself. He said he was 100 positive that Haley's knocked up."

Lucas swore that if it were possible for someone to explode from sudden burst of rage and fury, Nathan would have.

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