"Do you have everything ready for Lexie's birthday party?" Stephanie asked as she and Haley were eating lunch.
"Yes, which is a relief. There really wasn't that much to do. Nathan and I wanted something really simple, and we wanted just close friends and family. Just the people who have really been here for us this passed year." Haley answered.
"I can't believe it's been a year already. It seems like just yesterday you were bringing her here for the first time to meet everyone." Stephanie stated.
"I know. She's growing up so fast. I can hardly keep up with her now, just wait till she starts walking. Oh, did I tell you that she started crawling?" Haley said.
"No, you didn't, but Nathan did. He came into work gushing about how his daughter was crawling for the first time. He was definitely a proud daddy." Stephanie said. The girls finished eating and headed back to the company. "So, are you going to head home or go see Nathan?" Stephanie asked once they were standing outside of Nathan's office.
"I think I'll just pop in real quick to say hi." Haley answered.
"Okay, well, I'll see you at Lexie's birthday party." Stephanie said as they said goodbye before Haley walked into the office. She noticed Nathan sitting at his desk. He immediately looked up when he heard the door open and close. "Hey, did you girls have fun?" He asked.
"Yeah. We just went over to the cafe for lunch." She answered.
"Are you okay? You seem really tired, and you've been really quiet these passed couple of days." He said.
"I'm fine. I'm just ready for tomorrow to get here, and then, I can relax." She said.
"You're lying. What's going on, Hales?" He asked.
"I'm just kind of stressed and freaking out right now." She said vaguely.
"About what?" He prodded. He watched as she took a deep breath before opening her mouth to speak. "I should have started my period last week." She revealed quietly.
"Okay." He said not understanding where she was going with this.
"I have very regular periods, and I never miss them." She said as he continued to just stare at her. "The last time I missed the date of my period was when I found out about Lexie." She informed him.
"Wait, are you saying that you might be..."
"Pregnant? Yeah." She finishes for him.
"Have you taken a test?" He asks.
"No, not yet." She answered.
"You should take a test. I'll send Stephanie out to go buy one." He says calmly.
"What's up with you?" She asks.
"What do you mean?" He asks confused.
"Why are you being so cavalier about this? I might be pregnant, Nathan, don't you get that?" She states irritated.
"Yes, I get that, Haley." He replies.
"And that doesn't bother you?" She asks. He doesn't say anything. "Nathan!" She yells.
"No, okay. The possibility of you being pregnant doesn't bother me." He answered.
"What? How can you be okay with this?" She asks.
"Why are you so not okay with this? You said you wanted to have another baby." He counters.
"Because Nathan, you and I have no business having another baby together. We..."
"We what, Haley? We're married, we already have Lexie together-what would be the big deal with having another one?" He interrupts her.
"Please, Nathan. Enough with that we're married crap. In two years, this marriage is over. Lexie is already going to have to be passed back and forth between us, and you want to bring another baby into the mix. For what?" She says incredulously.
"Excuse me for wanting Lexie to have a brother or a sister." He spits out.
"She can still have that later after..."
"No, Haley. I want her to have a real brother or sister. I don't want her to have a brother or sister from you and a brother or sister from me. I want her to have another sibling from us. Is that so wrong?" He asks softly.
"Nathan, another baby would complicate things even more than they already are. I'm not ready for another baby right now." She says.
"I'm not saying I want one right now. I'm just saying that..." He begins but stops.
"You're just saying what?" She urges him to continue.
"I'm just saying that I don't want to have another baby with anyone else." He answers quietly.
"I don't want that, Nathan." She says as a deafening silence falls over them.
"Well, then, maybe you should take a pregnancy test. Once we know the results, then, I guess we can start discussing what we're going to do. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a budget meeting to get to. I'll see you at home." He says dejected as he walks out of his office. She flinches as the door slams shut. She sinks down to the couch as her tears fall freely. "Haley, is everything okay?" Stephanie asks cautiously walking into the office. "I heard the door slam and saw Nathan storming off angrily." She continues sitting next to Haley on the couch.
"No, everything's not okay." Haley said wiping away her tears.
"I'm guessing you and Nathan had a fight." Stephanie said stating the obvious. Haley nodded before placing her head in her hands. Stephanie quickly pulled her into her embrace. "It's okay, Haley. Everything will be okay. Whatever this fight was about will be resolved soon, and you and Nathan will be right back to how you are in no time." She reassures.
"That's the problem." Haley mumbles inaudibly.
A couple hours later, Nathan was riding up in the elevator waiting to get to his office. He might as well have not even went to the budget meeting. He couldn't focus. His mind was focused on Haley and their arguement they had hours earlier. He couldn't stop replaying it over and over in his head. He didn't understand why it would be such a big deal if she was in fact pregnant. He would understand if it was only because she wasn't ready, but that wasn't all it was about. He felt like the biggest idiot for telling her he wanted to have another baby with her. She made it clear she doesn't want that. He heard the elevator chime as the doors opened. He walked out and headed towards his office. "Hey, Mr. Scott." Stephanie greeted.
"Hey, Stephanie." He returned as he kept walking. He stopped and turned back around once he was in front of his office. "Did Haley leave?" He asked.
"Yes. Probably about half an hour ago. She said she had to go pick up Lexie from daycare." She answered. He nodded solemnly before turning towards the office.
"Nathan." She called out haulting his movements.
"Yeah?" He asked.
"I don't know what you and Haley were fighting about, but I do know she was really upset. I found her crying in here after you left for your meeting. I know she feels horrible about it. And I don't mean to get involved or overstep my boundaries, but maybe you should just go home and talk to your wife and try to fix whatever it was you were fighting about." She said.
"Thanks, Stephanie." He said.
"I'll see you tomorrow at Lexie's birthday party." She said.
"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow." He said before disappearing into his office.
Nathan smiled as he watched Lexie "eat" her birthday cake. She had frosting and cake all over her fingers and hands. He watched as she tore off a small piece and smeared it on Haley's face who was sitting right next to her. Haley started laughing while wiping off the cake and icing from her face. Nathan watched as Lexie began giggling that adorable laugh she has and then smiling that gorgeous smile she has at her mom. For Nathan, it was the perfect, most amazing sight to watch. He and Haley still haven't discussed their arguement they had the previous day. When he returned home from work, Haley was already asleep. When they both awoke this morning, they were so busy getting everything ready for Lexie's birthday party that they have barely said more than ten words to one another all day. He watched as she turned her head as they stared at one another.
Haley laughed as she wiped the food that her daughter had smeared across her face. She was happy Lexie was having what seemed like a good time. She was afraid she would be fussy and tired all day. She could feel his gaze on her. She shifted her head and caught his eyes. A million emotions passed through her body. She had effectively been avoiding him all day.
It's been easy considering all of the other people who were at their house right now. But she knew, eventually, it would be just the two of them again. She has been trying to prepare herself for that all day. Breaking out of her thoughts, she left to go grab a washcloth from the kitchen. She picked up a washcloth and ran it under the water. "Hey." A voice sounded startling her. She turned and saw Nathan standing beside her. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." He said.
"It's okay." She said focussing her attention back to the faucet.
"Lexie seems to be having a great time." He commented trying to end the dreadful silence.
"Yeah, she does." She agreed.
"You seem to be having a great time, too." He stated.
"I am. What about you?" She asks.
"It's been a fun day." He answered. "So, are we going to talk about yesterday?" He asked after a moment.
"I started my period last night." She revealed.
"Oh." He commented. She could hear the disappointment in his voice and see the disappointment on his face. "Well, that's good, I guess." He continued.
"Yeah." She agreed half-heartedly.
"Then, I guess there's nothing more to discuss." He said before turning and walking out of the kitchen. She sighed before moving to follow him. She stopped when she heard a knock on the front door. She walked over to it and opened up. "What are you doing here?" She asked angrily.
"Hi, Haley." Rachel greeted.
"What are you doing here? Did you not get the message last time that you're not welcome here?" Haley asked.
"Is Nathan here?" Rachel asked.
"Yes, but he's busy. We're celebrating Lexie's birthday, so I'm going to have to ask you to leave." Haley replied.
"I figured. But I wanted to drop this off for Lexie." Rachel said holding a present out for Haley.
"She doesn't want it." Haley said pushing it away from her.
"Fine, I deserve that." Rachel stated.
"You deserve a lot more. Well, it's been fun like always. Now if you excuse me, I have to go." Haley said shutting the door. Rachel quickly put her hand up to stop her. "Look, Haley, I don't mean to cause any trouble. I would just really like to speak with Nathan." She said.
"He doesn't want to talk to you." Haley countered.
"Really?" Rachel questioned.
"Really." Haley said.
"Are you sure about that? Because we've been texting each other for the passed few days." Rachel said.
"You expect me to believe you." Haley said.
"No, I don't expect that. But I'm thinking you'll probably believe Nathan." Rachel said.
"I know what you're doing. You're just trying to get me to go get Nathan so you can talk to him." Haley said.
"Actually, I'm not. I can prove it to you without him." She said pulling out her cell phone and handing it over to her.
"What's this?" Haley questioned.
"It's the text messages we've been sending one another." Rachel answered.
"Right. I'm sure you had someone else named Nathan send you these messages making it look like my Nathan." Haley said.
"Your Nathan? Well, look at the phone number." Rachel said as Haley looked down to her phone. "Isn't that your Nathan's phone number?" Rachel said smugly. She smirked when she saw the look on Haley's face. "You can go ahead and borrow my phone for awhile to read through those messages. When you're done with it, just go ahead and give it to Nathan so he can return it to me. I'm staying where I was staying before I left. Tell Lexie I said happy birthday." Rachel said walking away.
Haley walked into the dining room and saw Keith, Karen, and Stephanie sitting around playing with Lexie. She left and found Lucas, Brooke, and Nathan in the kitchen talking. "Haley! Where have you been?" Brooke exclaimed. "What's wrong, sweetie?" She asked noticing the look on her friend's face. Haley didn't say anything. She just walked straight up to Nathan. "You want to know why I don't want to have another baby with you. It's because I don't trust you." She began.
"Another baby?" Lucas and Brooke questioned simaltaneously.
"Here." Haley said shoving the phone into Nathan's chest. "What is this?" He asked confused.
"It's Rachel's phone. She told me to tell you to take it over to her once I was done with it." She answered.
"Rachel's in town? What are you doing with her phone?" He asked even more confused.
"Yeah, she had a few text messages to share with me. I've read what I needed. I don't need it anymore." She said walking out of the kitchen furiously.
"What's going on, Nathan?" Lucas asked. Nathan looked at Rachel's phone and scrolled through some items before finding the text messages. "Damn it." He mumbled.
Later that night, Nathan caustiously walked into Haley's bedroom. Everyone had left a couple hours ago. Haley had been ignoring him ever since their encounter in the kitchen. Once everyone was gone, she took Lexie upstairs for a bath and to get her ready for bed. He stayed downstairs to clean the mess from the party. He figured it was probably best to give Haley some time to herself. He knew she didn't want to speak with him right now-not that he blamed her. He walked further into the bedroom before hearing the bathroom door open. He saw Haley walk out freshly showered and dressed in a tank top and some pajama shorts. Her wet hair was thrown up in a messy bun. "What do you want, Nathan?" She asked annoyed.
"I thought maybe we could talk." He said nervously.
"Why?" She asked as she pulled back the comforters on her bed.
"Haley, could you please just stop and look at me?" He begged. She stopped what she was doing and turned to look at him. "Thank you." He said.
"Why have you been texting her? After all of the lies she's told, why would you even talk to her?" She asked.
"She text me first and..."
"What, are you back in middle school? She text me first, so I had to text her back." She interrupted sarcastically.
"No, Haley, that's not what I meant. I just, I wanted to tell her I didn't want to talk to her and to leave me alone." He said.
"You did a great job with that, Nathan." She shot out.
"I didn't ask her to come here, and you're making it sound like I did." He retorted.
"No, but you encouraged her just by talking to her. And you encouraged her by telling her you miss your friendship and still care about her." She said.
"That wasn't an invitation for her to come back to Tree Hill." He said.
"It doesn't matter. She's a freaken psychotic stalker. And now, she's back here because you're an idiot." She said.
"I'm sorry, Haley." He said.
"You're always sorry." She huffed out before walking out of the bedroom.
Nathan sat in his office. He didn't even know why he came in for the day. That's a lie. He did it to get out of his house. He was avoiding Haley. He didn't want to see that look on her face. The one that displayed just how angry at him she truly was. His text messages to Rachel were completely innocent and straight-forward. She asked him if he would be able to forgive her or if they'll ever be able to be friends again. He told her one day maybe but not now. He told her he needed to focus on Haley and Lexie, and he couldn't deal with any of her problems or her. She told him she understood, but she loved and missed him. He then told her he missed her, too and that he still cared about her. But he also told her he was done with her for right now. That was all there was to it. He didn't understand why Rachel decided to come back here. Things were actually going well for Haley and him. Sure that whole baby arguement was a minor setback, but things were going well. He should have known something like this would happen. His thoughts were broken when he heard his door opening. "Hey." He said surprised at seeing Haley walking in.
"Hey." She greeted.
"What are you doing here?" He asked.
"We need to talk." She responded.
"Okay. Where's Lexie?" He asked.
"Brooke's watching her." She answered walking further into the office until she was standing in front of his desk. "Look, we need to talk about Rachel." She continued.
"What about her?" He asked already dreading this conversation.
"You need to get her to leave town." She said.
"What do you want me to do, Haley?" He asked.
"I don't know, but you need to do something. I can't handle her being here. I can't, and I won't deal with it again." She said sternly.
"I'm sure if we just ignore her, she'll go away." He said.
"She won't, Nathan! Do you not get that?" She yelled.
"Well, I don't know what you want me to do! I can't force her out of town! I already gave up my friendship with her because of you! What more do you want me to do?" He retorted.
"I never made you give up your friendship with Rachel. If I recall, you did that yourself when you found out what a lying, manipulative bitch she was. Don't you dare try to blame that on me! If you miss Rachel so much, then, go to her. I don't care anymore, okay. I don't give a damn about what you do! I'm tired of this. I'm sick of hearing her name, and I'm sick of her. You want to know what I want. That's what I want-Rachel gone completely!" Haley retorted.
"I don't miss her, okay. And I'm not blaming you for Rachel and me not being friends anymore. But I can't make her go away, Haley." He said.
"I know you can't." She said calmly. He stood up from his chair as she took a defeated seat on his desk. He walked until he was standing in front of her. "Haley, I'm sorry. I know I sound like a broken record, but I honestly didn't think she would come back here. I never gave her any indication that I wanted her here." He said.
"I know you didn't. And it's not your fault she's such a crazy bi...person." She said as he laughed slightly at her. "I'm not trying to blame you. I'm really not. I just...I don't want her here." She said looking up at him.
"If it makes you feel any better-neither do I." He stated.
"I know she thinks she can worm her way back into your life, and I don't want to deal with this all over again." She said.
"Haley, I don't want her in my life anymore. If someone put a gun to my head and made me choose between her or you and Lexie, it would be you guys. It would be you." He said cupping her face in his hands.
"Really?" She asked quietly and full of doubt.
"Yes. It would be a no brainer. I wouldn't have to think twice." He confirmed as he gently leaned forward and kissed her. The two got lost in the moment, and they deepened their kiss. She placed her hands on his chest and began unbottoning his shirt. He gripped her hips and pulled her closer to the edge of the desk. He tore his lips away from hers and latched them to her neck. She threw her head back and gripped his hair as he sucked vigorously on her exposed skin. "You're who I want in my life. You and Lexie. I don't care about Rachel, and I don't want her. I want you-right now." He mumbled into her skin.
"I want you, too." She breathed out grabbing his face and bringing him back up to her for a kiss.
"Mr. Scott, there's a phone call for you." Stephanie's voice sounded through the intercom. He detached his lips from Haley's once again to answer her. "Stephanie, could you, umm...could you take a message for me?" He stammered out over the intercom as he felt Haley planting kisses along his chest.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Scott, but it's your mom's doctor. He said it's important." Stephanie replied.
"Fine. Connect him through and ask him to hold for a minute." He relented. He and Haley hesitantly broke apart still trying to catch their breaths. "I'm sorry." He said.
"It...it's okay." She said. He took a couple more seconds and picked up the phone while buttoning his shirt back up. Haley jumped off of his desk and straightened her clothes out. She vaguely heard Nathan talking to Deb's doctor on the phone. All of a sudden, she turned around at the sound of his voice. She saw the many expressions playing across his face. She couldn't quite read what they were. She waited impatiently for him to finish his conversation and let out a sigh of relief when he muttered a goodbye before hanging up. He didn't look up right away, though. He just continued staring down at the phone. "Nathan, is everything okay?" She asked quietly causing him to finally look up at her. "What happened?" She asked concerned.
"My mom's awake." He revealed.
Okay, there you go. So, Rachel's back! I know you all love that, don't you? LOL! Anyway, thanks again for reading and/or reviewing this story. I love hearing what you guys think and enjoy and what not. I am off tomorrow, so I should be able to get another chapter out to you guys. Until then! Have a great Sunday!