29. A PINCH OF NEWS

Brooke Davis Scott quietly closed the front door to her house and turned the deadbolt lock on.

"What did you do?"

She was so startled that she dropped her keys and purse, some of its contents coming out. She glared up at her husband in annoyance. "Now that's just great. Thanks, honey."

Lucas came down the front hall stairs and picked up her purse for her and handed it to her.

"Keys," Brooke said, pointing them out on the floor.

When he handed them to her, his glare had returned. "Are you going to answer me?" he asked.

"Sure, just as soon as you tell me what you're talking about," Brooke replied.

"Nathan got a call from Haley's dad and in the midst of all the yelling, he told Nathan that you were with Haley at the hospital today and that she was worried about something," Lucas said.

"They actually called Nathan?" Brooke shook her head in amusement. "Haley is right- Melinda is such a drama queen."

"What did you do?" Lucas asked, eyeing her suspiciously.

"I didn't do anything," Brooke said, shaking her head insistently as she walked up the stairs and sat down on the couch in their living room.

"Then what is wrong?" Lucas asked.

"Oh, nothing, Haley's preggers," Brooke replied, putting her purse down on the coffee table in front of her and then lifting her feet up onto the couch, groaning when Lucas sat down and moved her feet into his lap.

Then he started massaging her feet. "Feel better?" he asked, smiling at the dazed expression on his wife's face.

"Yes," she exhaled softly. Her feet had been killing her all day. "Thank you."

"You said Haley's pregnant," Lucas said, returning to the matter.

"She is," Brooke confirmed.

"How do you know?" Lucas asked.

"She had a test done at the hospital and was looking at the results when I went to meet her for lunch," Brooke replied.

"I didn't know you were meeting her for lunch," Lucas said, clearly hurt that his wife had not confided in him.

Brooke smiled at him adoringly. "I didn't know about it until she called me at around eleven this morning and asked me to meet her," she replied.

"Has she told Nathan?" Lucas asked, looking at her more seriously now.

"I don't think so," Brooke replied.

Lucas shook his head in disappointment. "I thought she was different," he said bitterly.

Brooke's eyes narrowed in anger at the statement. "Hey," she snapped at him angrily, trying to get his attention which she had definitely succeeded in doing as her husband turned to her with a fearful look in his eyes, probably wondering what he had done to piss her off.

"What?" he asked.

"Haley is different than Taylor," Brooke said.

"Then why isn't she going to tell Nathan?" Lucas asked.

"I never said that she wasn't going to tell Nathan at all. I simply said that she hadn't told him yet, and it's not fair for you to assume the worst of her," Brooke said.

"I think I have reason to assume that she wouldn't tell Nathan after her sister neglected to tell him about his daughter," Lucas argued.

"You just made my point for me," Brooke said, taking her feet away from his hands and sitting up so that she could talk to him without looking up.

"What point?" Lucas asked.

"That you are judging her because of what her sister did and that's not fair," Brooke said.

"Can you really blame me with her sister's history?" Lucas asked, looking at his wife incredulously.

"Her sister's history, not hers," Brooke retorted.

"All right, I'm sorry," Lucas said, nodding at the fact that his wife was right.

"And she will tell him, no question," Brooke said.

"How do you know?" Lucas asked, looking at her curiously.

"She told me she would after I asked her," Brooke replied.

Lucas looked at her in amusement. "You asked her if she was going to tell Nathan or not?" he asked.

"Yeah," Brooke replied.

"Why?" Lucas asked.

She was about to answer when she realized that he had caught her red-handed as a hypocrite.

He could see the wheels in his wife's mind turning as she tried to think up a reasonable answer to his question without it looking as if she had done the same thing he had.

"Let me get this straight," he said after a while. She turned to him curiously. "It's okay for you to judge Haley because of Taylor's past but when I do it, I'm judging her?"

Brooke rolled her eyes. "All right, I did the same thing you did," she admitted.

"Then why did you get angry with me for doing the same thing?" he asked.

"Because you didn't see Haley's face when she realized why I asked her," Brooke replied.

"What about it?" Lucas asked.

"Well, she was mad but for a split second, I saw it," Brooke replied, remembering her friend's eyes at the time. "It hurt her that I asked."

"She can't blame us for being skeptical," Lucas said indignantly.

"Yes, she can, Luke and she has every right to," Brooke said, feeling profound sympathy for all the things Haley had to endure ever since the truth about her sister's past had been revealed.

"Haley isn't Taylor and she's had to live in the shadow of her sister's mistakes her whole life," Brooke added. "She goes out of her way to be nice to us and respectful of our feelings because we were the ones Taylor had wronged and how did we treat her in return?"

"We acted like she was the one that slept with my dad and hid Nathan's kid from him," Lucas finished his wife's thought for her.

"Exactly, and I'm worried about what's going to happen when they find out she's pregnant," Brooke said.

"I don't think Nathan will really care if they have a problem with it," Lucas said, shaking his head. "He loves Haley."

"I know that but they are his parents," Brooke reminded him.

"I've heard that Haley's dad and stepmother aren't too crazy about our family either but do you think she'll turn her back on Nathan if they aren't happy?" Lucas returned.

"Definitely not," Brooke shook her head, remembering the way Haley had been when she was defending Nathan to them.

"Do we really have to tell them?" Haley asked Nathan as they got out of his car that was parked outside her father and stepmother's house.

"They're going to be our kid's grandparents," Nathan pointed out as he nodded at her pleading gaze.

"I don't really want Melinda around my child, let alone be an influence," Haley said, backing away from the steps once again.

"Haley, we've been over this," Nathan said, smiling at his girlfriend in amusement.

She had spent the whole drive to the countryside of Tree Hill where her father and Melinda had relocated, trying to convince him that they didn't really need to tell her family since they would only be unhappy with the situation.

He had told her that if they were going to be telling his parents, they were going to tell hers too to be fair.

"Yeah, yeah, but your parents are far more grounded than my dad," Haley said.

Nathan cracked up. "My mom and dad are out of control, Hales. When I was in high school, I was more mature than they were and I was a hormonal teenager whereas they were adults," he replied.

Haley couldn't think of a single thing to tell him in response that would make his parents seem mature when the more she knew them, the more she wondered how Lucas and Nathan had turned out to be so normal.

"At least they're not lunatics," Haley finally argued.

"Your dad is not crazy," Nathan said, shaking his head at the description. In his opinion, Jimmy James needed to be crazier.

"I beg to differ," Haley said as she held out her hand and grabbed his, stopping him from walking closer to the house when he thought she wasn't paying attention. "You weren't the one that had to explain why your father always went outside and danced around in the middle of winter to all your friends growing up."

His eyes were bright with amusement as he looked down at his girlfriend. "Why?"

"You know how some people like dancing in the rain?" Haley asked.

He nodded.

"My dad liked dancing in the snow," she replied.

He looked down at her stomach and put his hand on it. "That's some crazy genes that this one might inherit," he said, looking back at her worriedly.

"I didn't inherit them so I think he'll be safe," she replied.

Nathan's head snapped up at the mention of their baby's gender. "I thought it was too early to know that," he said.

Haley nodded at his thought. "It's just a feeling," she explained.

"You mean, like mother's intuition?" he asked curiously.

Haley flinched at the word and took a step away from him.

"What?" he asked, reaching his hand and grasping her, managing to pull her closer back to him.

"You called me a mother," Haley whispered, her skin growing pale.

"You are one," he said, gesturing to her stomach.

"I know, it's just weird," she said.

"It'll start to feel more natural," Nathan said wisely.

Haley stared at him in silence, not noticing that he was staring at her in confusion, and thought to herself that he was the one with the most experience in parenting, having actually been a parent before.

With her sister and that thought alone made her feel sick.

"Hales?" Nathan questioned, waving a hand in front of her face to try and get her attention.

Her eyes grew hard with annoyance at the gesture. "Don't wave your hand at me like I'm a dog," she snapped.

He looked at her again in confusion. "What?"

"Ugh, even that name sounds like you're talking to a dog," she shrivelled her nose in disgust.

"Your name sounds like a dog's?" Nathan questioned.

"No, that nickname," she replied.

"I didn't make it up," he defended himself immediately.

"No, Taylor did," she replied, her voice dripping with annoyance at yet how another way her sister had seeped into her mind.

"So?" Nathan asked.

Then something occurred to her. Did she really want to bring this up right now? Her insecurities about being a mother were valid, and her jealousy over his relationship with her sister might be so too, despite the fact that that relationship had ended in turmoil and with him hating her but she stared at her father's new house and realized that this discussion could wait for another time, like after they told their parents about the pregnancy.

"I'm sorry," she apologized, looking at him sadly now. "I'm being silly."

Nathan relaxed and closed the distance between them again; it was as if he couldn't deal with being more than three feet away from her. "Okay," he said, wrapping his arm around her waist and leading her to the driveway of the house.

Haley stopped dead in her tracks and turned to him. "Now how about we just forget about telling them? We don't need the drama. We can just run away and live someplace where no one knows us or our families," she said, trying to walk back to car only to have Nathan anticipate her every move, trapping her.

"That's tempting but you know we have to do this," he said, looking at her seriously now. He was obviously tired of the avoidance.

Knowing she was right but hardly willing to let him know it, she rolled her eyes and started walking down the long driveway to the front door. "Just so you know, I will remember this," she said to him a few seconds later.

"When?" he asked.

"When we go tell your parents and you try to convince me that we don't need to tell them, that we don't need their blessing or support," she replied.

"I won't do that," Nathan said, shaking his head in dismissal.

Haley chuckled. "Right," she said skeptically.

They finally reached the porch and when they made it up the stairs, Nathan made a move for the doorbell only to have Haley grab his hand mid air and shake her head insistently.

"Hales, come on, enough already," he said, dropping his head in frustration at her antics.

"Don't knock!" Haley exclaimed, ignoring his plea.

"Why?" he asked.

Haley looked around the dock and spied the turtle in which her stepmother had told her the Hide-A-Key was hidden in and returned a few seconds later with the key.

"I prefer the sneak attack," she said as she unlocked the front door, returned the key and walked into the house.

"I don't think barging into their house unannounced is the best way to start this," he said, still on the porch outside.

Haley shrugged. "Too late for being considerate now," she said, and waited for him to join her in the house.

"Hello?" Haley called to her father and stepmother as she wandered into the house, taking a few small steps to the stairway before grabbing onto the banister to lean on.

"Haley, is that you?" Melinda called from upstairs and a few seconds later, she materialized at the railing above them.

"Yeah, it's me," she replied, grabbing a hold of Nathan's hand beside her and squeezing it. "And Nathan."

Ten minutes later, they were all sitting in the living room in awkward silence.

Her father would turn to glare at Nathan every five seconds and then switch his gaze to his daughter, looking at her questioningly.

"So," Melinda broke the silence after the fourth time her husband glared at Nathan, "are you here to tell us something?"

Her stepdaughter shifted beside her boyfriend uncomfortably as she raised her gaze to her stepmother's curious emerald eyes. "Yeah," she replied.

"Does it have anything to do with what you were worried about?" she asked.

"I'm not worried anymore," Haley said, looking at her boyfriend and the two shared knowing smiles.

"What's going on?" her father asked after a few minutes of hearing his wife and Haley chat about the happenings at the hospital, his voice filled with a few days' worth of impatience. It had been a few days since he and his wife had seen Haley talking to her friend Brooke in the hospital cafeteria and it had been obvious that something big had been weighing on her mind.

He had been filled with worry and curiosity since then and had even gone as far as to call Nathan Scott and grill him about what was going on but he had proven to be as clueless as he and Melinda had been.

But he was certain that Nathan was involved in whatever was going on with his daughter and so far, he didn't like it.

"Jimmy," Melinda turned to him and shook her head at him. "Give her time to say what she wants."

"I'm sorry, but why are we sitting here pretending to be interested in what's going on at the hospital and not wondering what the news is?" Jimmy asked and then turned to his daughter expectantly.

Sometimes Melinda hated her husband's outspoken nature so much that she wanted to scratch his eyes out. He never engaged in polite conversation first, he always got to the point.

"I'm pregnant," Haley answered with the same bluntness her father had.

Melinda turned around to look at her husband with a shocked expression on her face, only to find that her own reaction didn't come close to his.

Jimmy James face had drained of colour and he stared at his daughter in a way Melinda had never seen him look at any of his daughters.

The surprise in his reaction was as easy to read as his disappointment at the news.

He sat there, staring at Haley in silence for a few minutes before he turned to his wife. "Could you two excuse us?" he asked.

Melinda looked at him in concern. "Why?" she asked.

"I want to talk to my daughter in private," he replied.

"I don't think that's a good idea," Melinda said softly, narrowing her eyes at him in warning.

Jimmy narrowed his in response. "I want to talk to my daughter and if you won't leave, we will," he said.

He could tell just by the calmed expression on his daughter's face that she had no objection to talking to him in private.

But her boyfriend was another story.

"Whatever you have to say, you can say to both of us," Nathan said, gripping Haley's hand tighter in support.

"Oh, I really don't think I can, Nathan and even if I could, I only want to talk to Haley," Jimmy replied.

Nathan was about to respond when Haley turned to him and shook her head.

"I'll be fine, Nathan," she said, smiling at him reassuringly. "It's probably better if you're not here for this."

With that, Nathan gave her a small kiss on the cheek and rose from his place on the couch beside her and walked out of the living room, heading towards the kitchen.

"Don't do something stupid," Melinda whispered in advice to her husband as she kissed him and followed Nathan into the kitchen.

When she was sure that her stepmother and boyfriend were out of earshot, Haley turned her attention to her father. "All right, let's hear it," she said, looking at him expectantly.

"Pardon?" her father asked.

"I know you didn't ask them to leave so you could congratulate me in private, Dad, so come on," Haley replied, waving her hands in welcome of his reaction. "Out with it."

His father frowned at her daughter but couldn't help but see the humour in her actions. She had no idea just how much she was like her mother.

Lydia James had the same sweet-sarcastic charm that his daughter possessed. She had a soothing presence that made it hard for him to get angry with her and looking at their youngest daughter, he felt some of his anger dissipate but there was still a healthy amount left behind that caused him to look at her harshly.

"Do you have any idea what you've gotten yourself into?" he asked.

"Did you?" Haley retorted, averting her gaze to the kitchen pointedly.

"Leave Melinda out of this," he snapped.

"Then don't ask stupid questions," she replied.

"It's not a stupid question, Haley. A baby is a big deal and I want to make sure you realize how difficult raising a child can be," he replied.

"It can't be too difficult. You did it," his daughter shot back.

"Having that man's child destroyed your sister," Jimmy shouted.

"What are you talking about?" Haley asked.

"He got Taylor pregnant and she was never the same. You saw how it destroyed her," Jimmy replied.

"So you knocked up another one of my stepdaughters," Melinda said as she walked into the kitchen after Nathan.

He sighed as he turned around to glare at Melinda. "What do you want?" he asked.

"Just wondering what you're trying to do to this family," she replied.

"Bye, Melinda," Nathan said, heading out of the room and down the hall so he could listen in on Haley's conversation with her father.

"No, I saw how losing her daughter destroyed her," Haley replied, shaking her head at him.

"Think about what she would have been like if she had never met Nathan Scott," Jimmy said.

Haley chuckled at her father's delusion. "You think Nathan is responsible for what she was like?" she asked.

His silence made it clear that he blamed Nathan for the way Taylor ended up.

"Well, I hate to break it to you, but Taylor is to blame for the way she was," Haley replied.

"Her pregnancy made her better because when Anne was born, she seemed better until Anne died," Haley replied.

"Then why did she keep her pregnancy a secret?" her father demanded.

"Because she didn't want you to be disappointed in her and she didn't want you to force her to tell Nathan," Haley replied.

"I was never disappointed in her," her father exclaimed.

"But you are disappointed in me?" Haley demanded incredulously.

"Yes, because you always had more sense than your sister," Jimmy replied.

"I told you, didn't I?" Haley retorted, shaking her head in disbelief. How was it possible that even in death, she was still compared to her sister? "Because that's some thing Taylor never did."

"Well, she should have," Jimmy said.

"But she didn't," Haley reminded him.

"And you did," Jimmy said softly, looking at her curiously now. "Why?"

"Because I'm not Taylor," Haley said simply. "I don't want to make the same mistakes she did."

"You got pregnant by Nathan," her father pointed out.

Haley shook her head. "This is not a mistake," she said seriously. "It happened and I'm dealing with it responsibly."

"You're sure that this is what you want?" Jimmy asked.

"Yes, and I'm also sure that I love Nathan," she replied.

"I don't trust him," Jimmy informed her.

Haley shrugged. "You don't know him like I do, Dad, and he isn't responsible for what happened to Tay," she replied.

He looked at her in surprise. "He told you about that, huh?" he asked, referring to the phone conversation he had had with Nathan when he wanted to know what was going on.

"Yeah," Haley nodded.

"I don't know if I agree," he said honestly.

"That's fine. Just don't attack him for a choice that Taylor made," she said.

A few minutes later, Nathan and Melinda returned.

"Are you okay?" he asked as he sat down beside her.

Haley looked at Nathan and smiled. "I'm fine," she said and nodded at his uncertain gaze for emphasis.

"It's not like I attacked her, I am her father," Jimmy said defensively, noticing the doubtful look in Nathan's eyes.

"Dad," Haley warned.

Their gazes locked and they seemed to reach a silent understanding.

"Sorry," he apologized.

"So when is the wedding?" Melinda asked, breaking the silence once again.

"What wedding?" Haley asked.

"Yours, of course," Melinda replied simply.

"Uh," Haley began as she and Nathan exchanged uncertain glances.

Melinda leaned forward, realizing what the couple was saying to each other. "You are getting married, right?"

"No," Haley and Nathan replied simultaneously.

"But you have to get married now," Melinda said.

"Why?" Haley asked.

"Because you're going to have a baby together," she replied.

"We're not getting married," Haley said, sending Melinda a warning glare.

"But," Melinda began.

"Dear, leave them be," Jimmy interrupted and he gave her a look that warned her to back off.

"Fine, but this is far from over," Melinda conceded and smirked in amusement when Haley rolled her eyes.