A/N: hey guys! as always, thank you times a million to everyone who read and reviewed, you keep me writing! i actually wasn't really sure where to go with this chapter, and so as i'm rewatching episodes, i was struck with some ideas, started writing random scenes, and eventually it all fell into place and somehow became a whole chapter. two major episode influences were 5x10 (i even threw in a flashback, just because i wanted to) and 7x01 (this is more of a loose influence, but you'll see what i mean). hmm, song recommednations for this chapter are Come Home by One Republic, Some Devil by DMB, and Make You Feel My Love (it's really a Bob Dylan song, but I'm hooked on Adele's cover). anywayyy this chapter picks up right after the last one, literally, like seconds after and i hope you guys like it!

twenty five.

She took a breath, composed herself, swept a hand over her hair and clothes. Relaxing her shoulders, she opened the bathroom door and walked into her and Nathan's room.

"Ready?" Nathan asked her, making her jump.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't see you," she said nervously, covering it with a laugh.

He smirked, his eyes puzzled. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah, um..." she looked around, finally settled her gaze on him. "Actually, I just—well, I just took a pregnancy test."

His eyes popped out of his head; if he'd been eating he would have choked.

"I'm not," she rushed to answer his unspoken question. "I thought I might be, but...false alarm," she shrugged.

He moved towards her. "Oh," he breathed. "Are you, um...how are you?"

She bit her lip. "A little shaken, but...okay."

"Okay. Good." He pulled her into his arms. "You're not sad?"

She laid her head on his chest. "I don't think so...I don't really know what I'm feeling," she admitted. "I mean if I had been—do you think we'd be ready for that?"

He sighed and went to sit down on the bed, leading her with him. "We would've had to be," he said, laughing lightly. "But, since you're not, I'm going to have to say no."

"Me too."

He nodded. "Well, I'll tell you what, since you don't have a big announcement for me, I've got one for you."

"You're pregnant?" Haley joked.

He laughed, shaking his head. "I'm coming on tour with you and Jamie."

Her jaw dropped and she began to protest but he interrupted. "I don't care what you say, there's not a chance I'm letting you go on tour alone...again. And I'm definitely not letting you and Jamie go have the time of your lives on tour while I'm at stupid practice."

She inhaled, the grin spreading across her face highlighting her poorly controlled excitement. "You're sure?" she asked.

"Absolutely," he smiled, and laughed when she jumped into his arms.

He wrapped his arms around her, both of them smiling so hard that when they kissed it hardly qualified as one.

After moments of holding each other in silence, Nathan smiled and spoke. "So, it was that night after we saw Shrek with Jamie, huh?" he asked.

"What?" she laughed.

"When you thought you were pregnant, it was because of that night, right? That was, like, amazing," he smirked.

She swatted his face lightly and laughed. "No!"

"Hales, I'm hurt," he pouted.

"I meant no, that's not why I thought it was pregnant, not no it wasn't amazing," she said, rolling her eyes. "I was just late."

He nodded. "So it doesn't matter how good it was? Quality isn't like...a factor?"

"No," she laughed.

"Oh. I guess if it was, we'd have to get a house with more rooms," he smirked.

She clicked her tongue. "Here we go. I can feel your ego inflating," she teased.

He ignored her and kept going. "Like the night of my first NBA game? That was a goooooood night."

"Stop!" she exclaimed, but couldn't help laughing.

"Alright, alright. You're going to the studio today right? I'll take the boy to school, and I'll see you when you get home," he said, kissing her cheek and heading out the doorway.

"Dinner is gonna be so healthy tonight," Haley said. "I don't even want to know what he's eating right now!"

"I'll make sure to get the chocolate smudges off of the counter and his face," he smiled.

"Bye," she laughed, reaching down to grab her jacket. "Forget something?" she asked, when Nathan stormed back into the room and put both hands on her face.

"I love you," he said seriously, kissing her lightly, and she felt her legs turn to jello.

"Thanks baby," she smiled. "I love you too."

Nathan walked quietly into Red Bedroom Records, waving to Peyton who was talking a mile a minute to who he assumed to be someone at the parent label about the release of Haley's first single. He smiled when he entered the studio, seeing Haley leaning over the piano writing in a notebook, her wavy hair spilling over her face. She was wearing the purple dress he loved (and every time he said so she'd thank him but insist that it was fuchsia). He pressed the talk button.

"Bad time?" he asked, always nervous that he was interrupting when she was working on her music.

She lifted her head and a smile spread across her face. "Hey! No, come on in."

He walked towards her. "Are you sure? Cause if you're writing the next Wanted Dead Or Alive I don't want to interrupt."

She turned to face him and wrapped an arm around his shoulder. "Bon Jovi? Really?"

"I love that song," he protested before they kissed.

"So," she started as he sat down on the piano bench, looking up at her intensely. "What's up?"

"Nothing," he shrugged. "Just thought I'd...say hi."

She tilted her head and gave him a look a he knew well. "You don't have to check up on me, you know."

"I know no such thing," he said with a laugh.

She smiled. "I'm really okay," she assured him.

"Okay." He shrugged and looked away.

"You don't believe me!"

"Nope."

"Why not?"

"Because Hales, come on. After everything that happened, it's, well, it's a little much."

She sighed, "I know. I know it is, but...I think maybe I just need some time to think."

A wave of panic washed over his face. He remembered the last time she'd said that a little too vividly.

"Look, I need to go to Dan's parole hearing but before I do, I need you to hear me out."

She stopped. "Dan's up for parole?"

He rambled his way through explaining what was going on with Dan, but looking back he had no idea why he'd wasted time on that when there was so much he should've been telling her.

"But that's not why I'm here."

She sighed, pursed her lips, and by some miracle, she told him she was listening.

"There is absolutely NOTHING going on between me and Carrie," he told her, praying that she'd hear the truth in his voice.

"It didn't look like nothing," she said quietly. He knew that. But he also knew her, and he knew that she couldn't really believe that anything had happened.

"Damn it, Nathan," she said after he was done nearly begging her to believe that. "I really thought we were, like, rounding this corner of everything, you know. I don't—I don't know how to...I just, I need some time to think and just be alone."

"Haley, please—" he'd tried to protest and moved toward her, but she flinched and backed away. She had never once looked at him like that, not since they'd gotten married, not since they'd met. Something broke inside of him and he realized that she didn't want him to touch her; she didn't even want him here.

The circumstances were different, but he was afraid that she would do what she always did when she was hurt and overwhelmed. Shut down and push him away. He didn't think he could handle that this time around. "Time to think...without me?" he asked, dreading the answer.

"No, God no," she rushed out, sitting next to him on the piano bench. "No, being away from you is the last thing I need, okay?" she smiled, running her palm over his cheek. "I just meant that I'm not—I don't know, I don't want you to think that I'm devastated or something. I'm just a little...shocked I guess. But you don't need to worry, and I know this is the first time I've said 'I'm okay' and actually meant it but I'm really okay."

"Really?" he asked skeptically, and at her reprimanding look surrendered an "Okay, okay, I believe you."

"Good," she said contentedly, leaning in to kiss him softly.

"I always worry about you, Hales," he whispered. "Whether I need to or not."

"Noted," she smiled.

"Hey, Luke texted me earlier," Nathan remembered. "They want to get together for dinner tonight, he said they have news."

"Brooke told me the same thing on the phone this morning," she told him, puzzled.

"Weird," Nathan commented.

Haley contemplated this for a while. "We need news."

"What?"

"Well if it's gonna be a big announcement dinner, we can't just sit there without one!"

"Hm, you're right." He paused. "Wanna give the pregnancy thing another try?" he asked, raising his eyebrows and glancing toward the top of the piano.

"Shut up," she laughed. "Oh! Jamie got an A in English this quarter!"

"Lame."

"You come up with something then!"

"The tour," he suggested.

"Peyton already knows about that, which means so does Lucas, and Brooke which means so does Julian. We've got to come up with something, we're losing cool points."

"I think you lose cool points just by saying 'cool points'."

Haley stuck out her tongue at him. "Whatever. You should get out of here before Peyton comes in and kicks your ass...and mine for getting nothing done. I'll see you at home. Text me if you think of something!"

"So who's first?" Haley asked, putting down the last food dish and sitting at the head of the table, opposite Nathan, with Brooke and Julian on her left side and Lucas and Peyton on her right. "Everyone's got big news, so spill."

"You first," Brooke nodded to Peyton excitedly.

"You already know what theirs is?" Haley asked Brooke. "Unfair!"

"No, I don't, I just want mine to be last so it gets the most attention. We'll go after them" she answered with a devilish grin.

"What makes you think Nathan and I don't have an announcement to make?" Haley asked with a lifted eyebrow.

"Do you?"

"Nah, we got nothing," she said, putting her chin on her hand as Nathan laughed. "Go," she told Peyton.

"Well," Peyton started, reaching for Lucas's hand. "We're, we're leaving."

Haley and Brooke's faces went blank. "The house, right, you mean you're leaving the house right now."

"No," Lucas said solemnly. "We're leaving Tree Hill."

The entire table broke out in protests and yelling, but Haley's voice won out. "Why?"

"There's a job at the parent label in L.A. I just have to take, I'm sorry," Peyton answered apologetically.

"L.A?" Brooke screamed as Haley said, "You're leaving Red Bedroom Records? How could you do that Peyton, it's your label, how can you just abandon it? It's going to fall under!"

"I'm not abandoning it! I want you to take over Red Bedroom Records."

Haley's mouth dropped open in shock. "Peyton, I—" she started, but then turned her gaze to Lucas. "You! How could you let this happen?"

"It's something we thought really hard about, Hales. It's the best move for our family and both our careers. I mean, book publishers are so much more accessible out there..."

"Your family includes us," Haley stated stubbornly.

"I'm sorry, Haley, really, we'll visit as much as we can," he said softly, reaching out to rub her arm.

Meanwhile, Brooke and Peyton were having an intense stare-down. "You cannot leave," Brooke said in a small voice.

"Brooke, honey," Peyton started.

"No. No, you have to be my maid of honor, this is isn't fair..."

Peyton's eyes went wide. "Yeah, it really isn't," Haley agreed. "Wait, what did you just say?" she spun toward Brooke.

Brooke shrugged and gave everyone a small smile. "We're getting married, Julian proposed a few days ago."

The room again erupted in shouts, this time of congratulations.

"Yeah, yeah," Brooke said, annoyed. She turned to Peyton. "How long?"

"A few weeks," Peyton said quietly.

"Better be a hell of a few weeks," she mumbled.

"How dare she?" Brooke ranted, storming through her living room as Julian watched from the couch.

"Babe, she didn't know."

She rolled her eyes. "Peyton used to say people always leave. I never knew she was talking about her stupid ass."

There was a knock at the door. "Peyton, if that's you, you better tell me I was just Punk'd or you're still not forgiven," she called as she walked towards it.

"Oh, Luke," she greeted, embarrassed. "Hi."

"Brooke, listen. Peyton feels awful...she had no idea you were getting married, I mean, the timing's just screwed up."

She nodded. "I know, it just sucks."

"You guys can call and video chat all the time. We're going to fly in for the wedding, I promise."

"Thank you," Brooke said. "I'm going to hold you to that."

Lucas held out his arms and Brooke hesitantly stepped into them. "I guess you'll be taking Anna and Keith too?" she asked over his shoulder.

He laughed. "Um, yeah."

"It's just not fair! I already didn't get to see one godson grow up; I was banking on Keith! I mean how can you guys leave? Tree Hill is home. She's the one that came back here because of that."

Lucas shrugged. "It's just time for us to go, Brooke."

"And what about Haley?" she challenged. "After everything she's been through this year, you're just going to leave her? You're her best friend. She needs you."

"I'm gonna miss them too, Hales," Nathan tried, sitting on their couch and watching her pace back and forth.

"Peyton is just dropping Red Bedroom on me? I mean, I'm honored but I can't run a record label! I can't do this without her!"

"I don't believe that, you're an amazing—"

"And Lucas! We have been best friends our entire lives. Our entire freaking lives. And he's just leaving because Peyton is taking another position across the freaking country?"

"Peyton is his wife and the mother of his kids," Nathan reasoned.

"Well I had him first," Haley pouted.

Nathan chuckled. "Do you remember when we had just gotten out of college and I was supposed to get signed with the Sonics? We were going to move to Seattle. And as horrible it would be to leave Tree Hill and all our friends, that's what we had to do because we're a family. I mean if I got traded to another team in a different state, you and Jamie would move with me, right?"

Her mouth opened to answer him, an "of course!" about to fall from her lips when she stopped herself. "That's not the point," she said stubbornly.

"I know this sucks," Nathan sighed, pulling her down on the couch with him. "And I know you're going to miss him, but they'll visit. He's not gonna be completely out of your life, you'll still talk."

She leaned into him, laying her head between his shoulder and his neck. "I'm just tired of people not being here."

"I am," he said quietly, kissing her forehead.

so what did you think? let me know! =)