"Are you ready to do this?" Nathan had spent the entire ride from the hospital to Peyton's house watching her curiously out of the side of his eye, one hand gripping the steering wheel firmly and the other continuously brushing over her wedding ring. He still couldn't believe that they were married or even that she had agreed to be his wife. He had managed to land the prettiest girl in all the school, and even through he knew that he was supposed to be over it, he was still a little proud that Peyton was his.

Peyton looked up at the house ominously and shook her head. There were cars everywhere outside lining the street, letting her know that everyone from Brooke and Lucas to Rachel and Haley were going to show their faces at her welcome home party. None of them were aware that this little shindig was about to turn into a wedding reception really quickly. She was already dreading Brooke's shrill cries of protests and the way Haley's face would inevitably fall and the call she would probably have to make to Jake later. "As long as I live, I don't think I'll ever be ready for this," she confessed. "Are you sure we can't just go to the outskirts of town and makeout like we used to?"

She was already sitting right next to him on the seat of the truck, her thigh pressed against his firmly. He liked being able to feel her and know that she was there by his side. For the rest of his life, he would have the comfort of that feeling. "Aren't you a little too classy to make out in the seat of a truck, Mrs. Scott?"

"God, I hope not!" she exclaimed as she turned around to thread her arms around his neck. "If I ever get to a point where I think I am too old or mature to make out with my incredible sexy husband in his truck, you just need to drag me out there and ravage me until I remember where we come from."

"I'm fairly sure that can be arranged," he moaned while Peyton nipped mischievously on his bottom lip. Nathan gave in easily to her advances, opening his mouth for her probing tongue and allowing them to both lose themselves in the moment. Her fingers tangled in his hair as his hands came to rest on her abdomen between them. Just as he was about to press her back against the seat, a sharp knock on the window behind him broke them out of their blissfully happy lover's haze. "I guess we've been caught."

Looking past her husband (Peyton still couldn't get over the fact that Nathan was her husband), her face lit up as she saw Brooke and Mouth standing there with Haley and Lucas. "Well, I guess it's time for us to tell the truth, Mr. Scott," she whispered before he opened the door. Sliding her hand into his, Peyton allowed him to help her from the truck just as Brooke launched herself at her best friend. "Brooke, sweetie, you just saw me last night. I was okay then, and I'm okay now."

"I'm just so happy you're home!" Brooke squealed as she hugged her friend frantically. Peyton's eyes met Haley's over her best friend's shoulder, and Peyton knew immediately that Nathan's ex-wife knew. She had seen the rings the minute Nathan got out of the truck. Haley turned and whispered something into Lucas' ear. He looked at his friend perplexedly before glancing at his brother. A realization flashed in Lucas' eyes. Peyton was ignoring whatever Brooke was rambling about as she watched Lucas and Haley exchange tense words. A minute later, Haley stalked off with Lucas hot on her trail. "What was that about?"

"What?" Peyton asked, snapping back to reality at Brooke's question. "Huh?"

"I got it," Nathan declared as he jogged off after Haley and Lucas.

Brooke turned to her best friend. "Okay, what did I miss?"

"Mouth, can you give us a minute?" Peyton asked. Mouth smiled and nodded before heading back toward the house. Peyton turned to Brooke and took a deep breath, preparing herself for the ball of fury that Brooke could be when she was left out of something. She slowly raised her left hand for her friend to see. "Nathan and I got married today."

Brooke's jaw dropped open as she yanked on her friend's hand so that she could inspect her wedding band. Tracing over the musical notes, the brunette was clearly shocked. "How could you not tell me? How could you not tell any of us, P?" she asked. "I'm supposed to be your best friend. I would have wanted to be there to be your maid of honor. I can understand if you didn't want a lot of people there but we're like sisters."

Peyton reached up and hugged her friend tightly. "B, I know that you would have wanted to be there, but Nathan and I needed to do this on our own. We didn't have anyone there. He wanted to tell you, but this was something that I wanted to be just ours."

"You realize that's how he married Haley."

She really hadn't considered it up until then. The only thing she had been able to focus on was the fact that she was finally marrying Nathan Scott, a boy that she had loved in every way since she was fourteen. "You know that Nate and I are way different than what he had with Haley," she said defensively. She knew that Brooke hadn't meant it that way, but it still left her feeling like she had to stick up for her marriage to Nathan. "Are you mad at me?"

"No, of course not, just disappointed that I wasn't there," Brooke assured her before hugging her friend again. "I mean, we missed out on all the fun stuff like the bachelorette party and the wedding shower. I didn't get to complain about the ugly dresses that you picked out or laugh when you were too fat to fit in your wedding dress. Did you even wear a wedding dress? P, I wanted to make you a dress!"

"I wore my mom's nightgown," Peyton answered. "Brooke, Nathan thought of everything. He got the same minister that married my parents. He had the hospital chapel play the Ramones and there was candlelight. I know that you had all these thoughts in your head, but this is what I wanted. It was more our style. We're going to have a more formal ceremony so that everyone can be there. Of course I want you to be my maid of honor and you can plan everything. You don't even have to wear an ugly dress, and you can laugh all you want when I'm too fat to fit in my dress."

"Does your dad know?"

Peyton looked down at her hands and shook her head. "No one knew other than Dan."

"Dan?" Brooke cried again. "You didn't tell me but Dan Scott knew?"

"Nate needed his help. He didn't really tell me much more than that," Peyton retorted. "You were the first person I wanted to tell. I guess Haley figured it out before I could tell you. She told Luke, and that's why they both stalked off."

Brooke hadn't even noticed until now that her boyfriend was missing. She had been doing that a lot lately – forgetting that he was around. They had been so connected right after Peyton's accident, but she had felt herself drifting further and further away from him. He had been spending all his time with Haley, comforting her as she tried to deal with everything that had happened in the past year. Brooke hadn't really been upset at first, but now she was beginning to wonder if there was something more to it. In the mean time, she had been hanging out with Mouth again. She had forgotten what a great friend he was and how fun it was just to spend time with someone platonically.

"Lucas always has to save someone," Brooke shrugged as nonchalantly as she could manage before looking down at Peyton's ring. "Alright, so tell me about your wedding, and don't leave a single detail out!"

While Peyton was filling Brooke in on her definition of a perfect marriage, Lucas was standing on the corner a few houses down from Peyton's, holding his bawling best friend in his arms while he tried to sooth his own angry nerves. It wasn't that he was jealous that Nathan had married Peyton. In fact, the opposite couldn't more true. He was happy that they were together. He just wished that Nathan had thought about Haley a little more. He had to have known that this would be hard for her. Instead, he just showed up like it was no big deal, springing it on everyone much like he had with Haley. It all felt a little too familiar for comfort.

"Hales, you okay?"

"No," she murmured through her tears, wiping her face on the soft cotton of his shirt. If it was anyone other than Lucas, Haley would feel silly and insecure for falling apart like this. However, she felt safe with Luca and knew that he understood where she was coming from. "He just married her, Luke."

"You knew it was going to happen."

"I know. I guess I just thought that I was going to have more time to prepare for it."

"We all did, Hales," he assured her as she buried her face in his chest. Lucas rested his chin on top of her head, his eyes shutting while her sobs turned into muffled weeping. "I'm sorry that he did this."

"It's not your fault," she retorted. "It's never your fault."

Lucas was always apologizing for Nathan, even before they had become friends. He hated his brother for the way he had treated Haley, even when it was really his best friend who had caused the end of their marriage. He was really protective when it came to her and had felt even more so in the weeks since Peyton and Nathan had announced their engagement. He loved his brother, but Lucas' first loyalty would forever lie with Haley. She was the one true thing he could count on other than his mother, and there was no one in the world that mattered like her.

"Luke, can I talk to her?"

Looking up, the two Scott brothers could only stare at each other. There was always a girl between them, and this time that girl was Haley James-Scott. "I'm not leaving her alone with you."

"You don't have to go," Nathan shrugged. "What I have to say, I can say to both of you." He reached down and twisted his wedding band self-consciously. "Peyton and I got married today. No one was there and we didn't tell anyone ahead of time. She wanted to do it like this to avoid a big scene. She knew that this would be hard on a lot of people, and that's why she needed it to be about us. We're going to have a more formal ceremony later, but in the mean time, she is my wife. I'm sorry that this is hurting you, Hales."

"C'mon, Nathan, let's not do this," Haley said, peeking her head up from Lucas' chest. "Don't stand here and pretend that this should just be okay for me. I just need a minute, okay? I understand why you married Peyton. I get that I don't really have the right to be upset when I'm the one who left first. I just need a little time to adjust to the fact that I just saw my husband with a wedding ring on that binds him to someone else. I need a moment to get that you're not my husband anymore. You're Peyton's."

"Hales…"

"Just give us a minute, Nate," Lucas interrupted him, wrapping his arm around Haley protectively. "We'll come back in a minute once Haley is calmed down a little. You should go see about your wife."

Nathan didn't like the spiteful way his brother said the last word of his sentence but let it roll off his back. There would be plenty of time to deal with all the consequences of everything, but he was going to be happy tonight. He was going to enjoy being a husband and a father-to-be. His mother could cry, Haley could be angry and Brooke could get hysterical. That was all fine with him. He had all that he needed. He had Peyton.