A/N: Hiya guys! I didn't exactly plan on updating today, but circumstances are forcing me too. I'm going to see my father tomorrow, third time since we started talking again...I'm not really sure what to feel, to be honest. But he's getting me tickets for JLS so I can't complain(a). And then the best thing ever, I'M GOING TO SEE KATE VOEGELE TOMORROW NIGHT. EEP. I'M SO EXCITED. If anyone else is going, let me know!

I happen to really love this chapter, so PLEASE review it! And after you've read it, tell me what you want to see in the epilouge, because I'm writing it as we speak and I can finally ask you what you want to see because what happens in this chapter kind of leads up to the epilouge, so yeah. Let me know what you want! :) AND PLEASE REVIEW. I don't mean to whine, but I'm only getting like 1 or 2 reviews and a bunch of hits, so PLEASE review if you read! I'll love you forever.

Replies -

naley12: thank you :) I'm glad you like it! Hopefully you'll enjoy the further development of their relationship in this chapter, it's a biggen :) Thanks for reviewing, please keep doing so! X

othfan1919: hiyaaaaa ;) hahaha:) I know you love it, you tell me that every time I send you a chapter! I know you love this chapter, it's one of my favourites, yay. :D So glad we went for this version...but they'll never know about the other version...until chapter 40. hehehehe ;) love you long time! thanks for the review oh so wonderful beta slash best friend :) xx

Chapter 36

A few hours later, it was time to get up and get to the airport for our flight to London. The flight in total was around eleven hours, and we would land around 10:30am their time. It was non-stop flight, and we wouldn't have to change airlines or planes before we got there.

I hadn't gotten any sleep last night; I was up for a while after my talk with Dan and then up for the rest of the night for no reason. I just couldn't sleep, I didn't know why; Isabella had stopped kicking so hard and so frequently, but I still felt restless and uncomfortable. My lack of sleep was going to affect me big time during the day, and hopefully I'd manage to get some sleep on the plane.

I got up and went downstairs with Nathan to get some breakfast. I didn't actually feel like eating anything for breakfast, but I had to eat, if only for the baby's sake. Plus it would sure save me the hassle from Nathan, Deb and Dan insisting that I eat to keep my strength up. I didn't feel like I had any strength left in me, the pregnancy was taking its toll on me now I was getting further along. My body frame was tiny before this, and now it has to adjust itself to cope with pregnancy, something which was harder for me than somebody not in gymnastics.

I ate the food put in front of me, hoping they wouldn't notice that I was eating only for the sake of the baby. Once I finished, I went upstairs to get myself ready for the drive to the airport and then the eight hour flight to London. I decided on a simple cami top with added support for the bump, and a pair of sweatpants, as I wanted to be comfortable as I could. Planes were hard enough to get comfortable on, add in a teen pregnancy to that and I'll probably be uncomfortable before take-off. I couldn't complain, though, we were going together, Nathan and me, as a family, and I wouldn't be left behind.

I came downstairs once I ready, with my hair tied in a loose messy bun on top of my head, to get it off my face, and stood at the door with Nathan while his parents did a final check of the house to be sure they hadn't forgotten anything. I took his hand and leant into him, as he wrapped his arms around me so we wouldn't fall. He occasionally placed kisses on the top of my head, and stroked the back of my hand with his thumb. All of the franticness around us seemed to be forgotten and it was as if we were the only two in the world. We resumed the position once in the car, Nathan sitting in the back with me while his parents were in the front.

"Are you alright, babe?" He asked, as I leant into him once more.

"Mm, I'm fine, just tired." I replied, resting my head on his shoulder.

"Why? Did you not get enough sleep last night?"

"Try no sleep. The baby kept me up half the night and once I tried to get back to sleep I just couldn't. I don't know why, but I just couldn't sleep." I sighed.

"Aw, babe, you should've woken me up. I'd have stayed awake with you, held you and cuddled you if that's what you needed."

"No, it's alright. I didn't want to wake you up; you needed the rest more than I did. Plus you looked so peaceful I couldn't disturb you for the sake of me not being able to sleep."

"You're sweet, but babe, I don't care about anything more than I care about you and our baby. I promise you that. Wake me up at two am for all I care, I'll be there for you." He smiled, placing a kiss on the back of my head.

We stayed like that the whole journey to the airport, and somehow I felt my lack of sleep didn't matter, because if he had his arms around me, I felt safer and a lot more comfortable. As long as Nathan was beside me, maybe the torturous eleven hour flight ahead of us wouldn't be so bad.

A few hours later and we were sitting in the flight lobby, waiting to be told we could board the plane. We'd met up with the rest of the teams, Tom and any parents coming along, but had split up once we were past security. We had hours to kill, and different people wanted to do different things. All the parents had gone to a coffee shop, probably to sit and gossip about their children, whilst Nathan and I just walked around a few shops and got some sweets for the flight, hard boiled ones for take-off, as they were supposed to prevent your ears popping, and some chocolate for the rest of the flight.

After a few hours, our flight was called over the tannoy system, and said we could wait in the lobby for it to be ready for boarding. We'd met up with everyone once more, and got out our tickets to show on request.

There were so many of us, it was a wonder how any of the other passengers on the plane managed to get on. I thought we'd need a whole plane for the amount of us going. First, there were the six girls on the Women's Olympic team: Brooke, Peyton, Charlie, Rachel, Ciara and Alexis, along with Alicia and Jessica as replacements in case someone got sick or injured. That was the artistic gymnastics team; there were another six girls for the rhythmic gymnastics team, and their two replacements; the six boys on the men's gymnastics team, including Nathan and Lucas, and their two replacements. And that was only the gymnasts. Then all the staff (people like me and Tom) then some of the parents who wanted to come along.

We sat in the flight lobby for a while, waiting to be told we could board, when I started talking to Nathan.

"Nathan, can I tell you something?" I asked, looking up at him. "And you'll promise you won't laugh or anything?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"I'm scared to fly."

"What, why?" He asked.

"I don't know. I've never been scared before. I fly everywhere for all the big meets and competitions, like Nationals and Worlds and all that, and I've never been scared before. Maybe it's just my hormones but I'm just scared." I sighed.

"Aw, baby, come here." He pulled me into his side, wrapping his arms around me. "You're going to be fine. We're all going to be fine. I promise." He said, planting a kiss on my forehead, and holding me closer to him.

"You always know what to say. It makes me feel so much better." I smiled, looking up at him.

"I'm glad to hear it." He replied.

We were soon told we should start boarding the plane, and I held tightly onto Nathans hand as we did so. The original seating plan for the plane journey hadn't enabled us to sit together; Nathan was paired with Ciara, while I was paired with Brooke. Brooke had willingly switched tickets with Nathan, so she was now sitting with Ciara, while I sat with Nathan. But we all knew nobody would stick to the original seating plan. Everyone always switched regardless. But before we boarded Tom approached us and handed me two first-class tickets.

"I figured I would give these to my top gymnasts, Nathan you need to have a comfortable flight so you don't stiffen up being our top male competitor and Haley with you being pregnant these seats will be better on your back and hopefully you will be able to get comfortable. And since we practically bought every ticket on this flight we ended up with them."

"Thank you so much Tom" I said giving him a hug.

Nathan shook his hand. "Yeah thanks, I was worrying about Haley and the seats, this is a blessing."

So I was now sitting with Nathan, whilst Peyton and Brooke sat together, as did Lucas and Julian, Charlie and Chase, Alexis and Jessica, and Ciara and Rachel. Everyone sat in their seats with their belts on and window blinds open, ready for take-off. In first class we had surprisingly gotten a complementary meal and the seats were god for my back.

As expected, the flight went smoothly enough, and apart from my sickness during take-off, it wasn't all that bad. I threw up a few times, and it had taken more than enough convincing the air staff that I would be fine. The landing hadn't been so bad; my stomach felt as though it was doing flips, and I'd resorted to rubbing it every time that it did as if it would prevent it.

We landed smoothly on English turf at 10:00am, on a runway at Heathrow's Terminal five, half an hour earlier than expected. It hadn't taken us long to identify our luggage, so we made our way to the awaiting travel arrangements with the rest of the group, deciding who would go where. We had two coaches of people, gymnasts in one coach, and the accompanying parents/guardians/anyone else who had come along in the other. It was agreed by Tom that I was able to stay with Nathan throughout the trip, as he was quite supportive of us. We were staying in the Olympic village, just across from the stadium we would be competing in. We were basically living in a rent-free apartment for two and a half weeks.

We were one of the lucky ones; we had an apartment to ourselves while the rest were occupied by at least three to four people. The Olympic village would house over 17,000 athletes this summer, and would sell them on to people who could afford them after the games. They were quite luxury apartments, when you looked at them. And the best part was, the Olympic committee paid for it all. Sure, we had to pay for the flight to and from London, but at least we weren't shelling out thousands more for an apartment we would be in for over two weeks.

Nathan grabbed our luggage from the bottom of the coach as we arrived outside the village, and we walked towards the apartment we were told we'd be sharing. The list was posted just before we left, during practice Tom had assigned each apartment allocated to the US gymnastics teams to its owners for the two weeks, and posted a list of who would be staying where. I hadn't taken much notice to where the others were staying, I was happy enough to be with Nathan and that was that.

We reached the housing officer for the games, who welcomed us to their country and their city, before handing us the key to our apartment, and giving us directions to the apartment. I held the map he had given us to follow, and lead Nathan towards our apartment.

"This is it." I said, as I stopped outside the door. "You ready?" I looked to Nathan as he brought the luggage to the door, and put the key inside the lock, turning it to open the door. We walked inside and admired the modern design of the spacious apartment, entwining our hands as Nathan shut the door behind him after bringing our luggage inside. "Wow." I breathed out; looking around at the space we would be calling home for the next two and a half weeks.

"It's perfect, isn't it?" Nathan smiled.

"It is. Come on, I wanna see everywhere else." I grinned in return, tugging on his hand and leading him around the rest of the apartment. "This is the best and most important room of the place." I threw him a cheeky smile with an added wink as we walked into the bedroom.

The room was spacious, as was the rest of the apartment, with a hardwood floor. The bedframe was made of black metal, with a white mattress, duvet and sheets with a pink throw on the end of the bed. The bed was surrounded by four white curtains; each tied up at the moment but would be untied later, with pink and white pillows on the bed.

"What do you think?" Nathan asked, standing behind me with his arms around me.

"I think that it's perfect." I replied, turning around in his arms and placing a soft kiss on his lips. "And I think it looks very comfortable, you willing to try it out with me?" I smiled seductively, adding a wink for extra cheekiness.

"I think that sounds good to me." He replied, crashing his lips on mine and leading me backwards to the bed.

A while later, the two of us were sitting together on the couch. We had no plans for the day, as the opening ceremony was still two days away. Nathan would be training the day before the ceremony, but had the rest of today and all of tomorrow to spend with me. I was grateful for the time that we had together, and knew that it would be a rare opportunity whilst we were here, as he would be training pretty much every day to make sure he had the best possible chance at winning the gold. I knew he could easily do it in his sleep, but I knew the importance of training and adding in final moves to your routines, making sure you could pull them off without a hitch.

It was still only 11:45am, yet we had no plans for the rest of the day. I was comfortable enough where we sitting, but I knew we couldn't spend all day there.

"Haley, baby?" Nathan asked, looking down at me.

"Mm?" I replied, feeling his eyes on me but making no attempt to look to them.

"What do you say we get out of here and go sightseeing? We can go for lunch in the city, and look at all the great landmarks." He suggested.

"I think that sounds great. We'll get dressed and go now, yeah?" I asked.

"Okay, sounds good to me." He smiled, as we moved off the sofa and into our room.

I walked over to the suitcase that we had yet to unpack, and tried to bend down to open it. Nathan found it hysterical that I couldn't bend down with my bump in the way, so I slapped him for laughing and he soon didn't find it as funny. He pulled the suitcase onto the bed, and opened it for me. I gave him my thanks before pulling out a set of underwear, top and white jeans. The top was pink in colour, with a brown ribbon wrapped around it, just on top of the bump. It had short sleeves, which were long enough to cover my shoulders and the top of my arms. Once I was dressed, I pulled my fringe back and clipped it in place to keep it off my face, leaving the rest down and flowing past my shoulders.

"You ready to go?" I asked, standing in front of Nathan.

"Yeah, I'm ready. You got everything?" He replied.

"Got it. Come on." I smiled, taking his hand and walking out of the apartment.

We got a bus to the city, as we were on the outskirts of it, and sat in a café along the river Thames for lunch. We got a few looks, considering my ever expanding stomach was now clearly obvious, and it's not every day you see the World champion with an Olympic gymnast, especially not a pregnant World champion. Nathan politely told them to stop staring; I wasn't so patient with them. By the time the fifth girl looked at me funnily, I told her where to stick her snobby British attitude. Nathan had laughed and said it was hot, but I was mortally embarrassed. We left soon after, walking hand in hand through the city of London.

We'd walked across Tower Bridge, and were now at the top of the London eye. I sat on the seat in the middle of the pod, the view across the city was wonderfully beautiful, but after a minute of looking and taking it all in, I started to feel a bit sick. Nathan had taken a few pictures from my camera for me, before taking a seat next to me and rubbing my stomach.

"She kicks harder whenever you're around." I smiled.

"Daddy's little girl already." He laughed. "I'm going to spoil her rotten."

"No you're not. We can spoil her together, but only occasionally. I don't want her to grow up thinking she gets everything she wants at the snap of her fingers." I replied.

"That's what I meant." He smiled. "Isn't it beautiful?"

"It is. There's no one I'd rather share it with then you." I replied, leaning up and placing a soft kiss on his lips.

"And the same goes to you. You, me, and our baby; that's all that matters now. We'll get through college and we'll graduate with our beautiful daughter. She can come to all the competitions. Right by your side." He smiled, returning the kiss.

"I can't wait." I spoke. "In little over four months, we're going to have our own little baby." I grinned.

"Our baby girl." He agreed. "I have to tell you something, I didn't want to tell you if it didn't go through and you be disappointed and I just found out yesterday. I called the head of UCLA, and explained our situation. Obviously, you wouldn't be able to fly out there anyway, even if you had the baby on time to start the semester. Isabella shouldn't fly until she is at least six months old, plus you would have just given birth. They spoke to our doctor, to confirm that I wasn't making it up, why someone would do that in the first place is beyond me, but whatever. So after he spoke to Doctor Song, he said he'd call me back, and he did."

"What'd he say?"

"He convinced the head of NCAA scholarships to transfer my scholarship to Duke, and your grades managed to get you a full scholarship to Duke, too. We'll be attending there in September, if the doctor says that you're healthy enough to start. I then spoke to the head of Duke, to be sure, and he said that if you weren't healthy enough to start right on time for the semester, he could set up a way for you to do your work while you were at home. He's very supportive of our situation, and says as long as we complete all our work and manage looking after the baby; he has no problems with us housing together with her." He laughed.

"Well I'm glad that's sorted. Our little girl can grow up to be whatever she wants to be, and we'll support her every dream and her every goal." I smiled, placing our entwined hands on top of my stomach. "And I'm guessing she likes the sound of that." I laughed as she kicked.

"She should. I like the sound of it." He smiled.

"So do I. Our life together for the next four years is going to be great."

"You know it." He smiled once more, placing a light kiss on my lips.

We soon reached the bottom of the eye again, and stepped out of the pod hand in hand. We walked through the city, admiring the view as the sun set. We were now sat on a bench on the top of Primrose Hill, which had an overview of the city of London. It was just like the London eye, however only a tad smaller. I was resting my head on Nathans shoulder, watching the sunset over the city ahead of us. The sky was a midnight blue, with a tint of purple in the underlying part. There were few stars, shining bright as a diamond in the dark sky. The city seemed to be at peace, there was nobody around and the lights were lighting up the buildings. It was as if the carnival had come to town, and despite all the chaos and the madness, there seemed a sense of stillness and peace, where the lights shone brightly like stars and gave the city the magical effect.

Nathan placed a light kiss on the side of my head, before he let go of my hand and stood up.

"What was that for?" I smiled.

"Because I love you." He smiled back.

"I love you, too, you know that." I laughed.

"I do. And that's why I wanted to ask you this." I watched on in shock as he kneeled down and got down onto one knee. "Haley, will you marry me?" What? Was this even real? Was this really happening?

"What?" I stuttered out in shock.

"Marry me, Haley. Marry me in front of all our friends and our family, just like you've always dreamed. Let me prove my love for you to everyone, and let me officially make you Mrs. Haley Scott. We can get married straight away; wait until after college, during college, whenever you want. I want you to be my wife, Haley. There is nothing more in this world that I want more than to be a proper family, just you, me, and our baby. So how about it, make me the happiest man on earth and agree to be my wife?" I felt myself tearing up at the words he was speaking. "Haley James, will you marry me?"

"Yes." I sobbed, through the tears that now fell rapidly down my cheeks. "Yes! Yes, Nathan, yes. And a hundred times yes. I want to be your wife." I giggled, through happiness, tears and nervousness. He placed the ring on my finger, before standing up and placing his lips over mine.

I felt as though the sparks were flying around us, and the fireworks were exploding from inside of me. This moment, the moment I had always dreamed of, was more than perfect. Standing in front of me was the man I was going to spend the rest of my life with; the man who would love and protect me through everything; no matter what. I knew in that moment that nobody would ever be as important to me as he was. My love for him now only grew, and despite any bad thing that had ever happened to us, we were happy.