Chapter 48: I Wonder If I'm the Only One

It occurred to Nathan that he was driving wayy above the speed limit, but frankly he really didn't care, Haley was in labor, and if he could imagine it, she would rip his fingers off if he was any later than he was now. He chuckled; he could only imagine how Kyle was doing. His friend didn't know anything about women giving birth; he couldn't even watch it in health class in freshman year of high school.

All other thoughts that were in his head two minutes ago completely demolished when he got that phone call. He didn't know if he should be scared, or excited, or maybe even calm, though he didn't think that was possible. Fatherhood was reaching it's climax in Nathan's life, and he wasn't sure if he was ready, if he was ever ready.

But he didn't really think there was a time to be ready. It was just something that happened, and you can't be selfish about it. He wasn't even 20 yet and he had gotten married and was about to become a father. He would be surprised if he met someone just him, but he never would because no one would ever be under the misfortune of having Nathan's childhood growing up that was for sure.

Sometimes he blamed his dad for the way he was, sometimes his mom, even Lucas at times, and himself. But his parents couldn't help him now, even though they had stopped a long time ago. He was alone in this whole fatherhood thing. He had Lucas and he had Kyle, but no one could help him work his way up the Daddy ladder.

He thought about maybe calling everybody else, let them know what was going on, but he would leave that to Nathan. He needed to be with Haley, and she was probably driving Kyle crazy by now. To be honest Nathan had no idea what he would be seeing or doing when he got to the hospital. The baby was on time, so it couldn't have been a miscarriage. And Kyle never said anything about something being wrong.

Maybe he was over exaggerating, but Nathan was too frantic to bother to calm down, his wife was in the middle of labor for Christ's sake. He expected anyone else would've been just as crazy and psycho at Nathan was at this moment.

He pulled into the emergency parking lot. In the corner of his eye he saw Kyle's car parked. He jumped out of his car and ran towards the elevators, not really knowing where he was going, but he guessed Haley was in the maternity ward, which was on level 6.

Nathan couldn't get there fast enough. The elevator doors opened, revealing white washed walls with mint green trimming on the sides with elephants and about every animal, drawn a little more on the cute side. In the lobby were men in his situation, either already had their kid or was waiting. They were all slumped against chairs with styrofoam cups of coffee in their hands, rubbing their eyes until they wore red.

In front of him he saw the nurse desk. Behind it was this teenager girl, probably around sixteen, reading People magazine with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolee, popping a gigantic pink bubble from her mouth. He strode over to her and tapped the silver bell. She rolled her eyes and set her magazine down loudly.

"Can I help you sir?" She asked bored.

"Can you tell me what room Haley James Scott is in? She's having her baby," Nathan said shortly, looking around him for any sign of Kyle.

"How are you of relation to the patient?" She asked, like it had been well rehearsed.

"I'm her husband," Nathan said flatly.

"You look too young to be married," the girl said, still sitting in her chair.

"Yeah well I am. So can you please tell me what room she's in?" Nathan asked frustratingly.

The girl snorted, "I don't see how your parents let you get married,"

Nathan rolled his eyes, "Yeah well I don't see why anyone would let you work in a hospital, but here you are."

--

It had already been twenty minutes since he had called Nathan, and he still was nowhere to be seen or even heard. Not that he didn't want to be there with Haley, but he was starting to feel like Haley wanted to seriously kick him in the head or something. She kept on fidgeting and looking at the clock desperately. And the fact that whenever he asked if she needed anything, she answered back politely, but not in the nice way.

"I'm sure he'll be here soon," Kyle said. "He's probably stuck in traffic or trying to find the floors."

Haley snorted, "Seriously Kyle, how hard is it to find the maternity ward, it's like the only cute looking floor in the whole hospital."

"Well, it is Nathan," Kyle smirked. Nathan could calculate player's stats in less than a minute, and he could figure out the amount of force you had to give to the ball when shooting from behind the three point line. But when it came to other stuff, the guy was pretty clueless.

Haley laughed, "Yeah, I think you're right."

"So, do you think Brooke's coming to the hospital?" Kyle asked. This had been the question that had been bothering him ever since he arrived and actually thought about what he was going to do while Nathan was with Haley. Calling everybody. He knew he had to call Brooke, but he was just so tired of fighting with her, plus they hadn't left on good terms at all.

"Well I'm guessing she will, she's the baby's godmother after all," Haley said, still deep breathing.

"Really? She must be bouncing off the walls," Kyle mused. If Brooke loved anything more than shopping, it was shopping for babies.

"Actually I don't think she knows, well, unless Nathan told her," Haley replied, starting to break a sweat. Kyle stood up and wet a paper towel before bring it to her forehead.

"Yeah so I'm just going to stop talking and let you, concentrate or whatever," Kyle said, dabbing her forehead.

"No it's fine, it gives me something else to think about other than the fact that I'm in serious pain and I feel like my whole stomach just dropped into my butt," Haley said.

"Well I guess that's a good way to put it," Kyle said. "So did they say when you'd be getting those drugs for the pain or whatever?"

"I'm kind of reconsidering it," Haley said, thinking thoughtfully.

"About, the drugs? Why? If they make you feel more comfortable then why not?"

"Because I don't want to hurt the baby. It's not always common, but sometimes when women receive them through an IV, it affects the baby also, and I don't wanna take that chance," Haley explained.

"I understand. Why don't you just wait until Nathan gets here and you guys can decide that together," Kyle suggested.

"If he gets here," Haley mumbled. "You know what? Why don't you just go out and get some coffee or something? I'll be fine for a couple of minutes."

"You sure?" Kyle asked. "I can just wait here with you until Nate gets here."

"Nooo go Kyle. I'd feel kind of bad if you were cooped up here with your best friend's wife who's in labor," Haley laughed.

Kyle stood up, "Alright, I'll be back in a few minutes."

He let out a sigh of relief as he stepped out into the dim and quiet that was the maternity ward. No offense, but this whole pregnant thing wasn't his forte, and something told him that it would never be until he actually had a family of his own. But he didn't want to think about that either.

Further down the hall he walked, not really knowing where he was going, only knowing that he was in search for coffee. He stopped in front in the lobby, where tired fathers read the paper and drank coffee, almost anything to avoid holding their wife's strong hand.

He heard the jogging of footsteps, and turned to his right to see Nathan running from the nurses station, where he noticed an annoyed looking teenager girl popping a bright pink bubble as big as her heard.

"Nathan!"

"Hey, how is she?" Nathan asked frantically, stopping right in front of Kyle

"Good so far, she's about 6 centimeters dialated, they haven't said when she's going to go into actual labor yet," Kyle explained.

"She's not mad or anything is she?" Nathan asked cautiously.

"Hmm well let's just say she really wants you with her," Kyle said slowly.

He sighed, "So she's pissed at me."

"Don't worry about that. You guys are having the baby, she can't be mad at you for long."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. So what are you doing out here?"

"Haley wanted me to go out and track down some coffee," Kyle said, walking into the lobby kitchen and pouring coffee into a styrofoam cup.

"So in other words, you couldn't stand the awkwardness of watching my wife basically dry heaving?" Nathan asked.

Kyle nodded, "Yeah, that's pretty much it."

"Alright, well I better get in there before she gets anymore irritated," Nathan said.

"Yeah, that might be the best thing to do at this point," Kyle warned.

Nathan turned around and headed for their room but not before turning around, "Oh yeah, and just so you know, I was at Brooke's house when you called me. She knows that Haley's in labor, so she might be here in a little bit."

Kyle looked around the hospital awkwardly, that was what he had been afraid of. "Oh, umm, okay. I guess we'll just hang out here then."

"You sure about that?"

Kyle rolled his eyes, "Well what do you want me to say? Brooke's coming because she's the godmother; she has every right to be here."

"I'm just saying, maybe you guys should talk or just, stay away from one another."

"Yeah well it's a little late for that now isn't it?" Kyle asked.

Nathan looked down; wishing he could just keep his mouth shut or once, "You know, just do whatever you want. You can leave if you want, you can yell, shout, scream, I don't want to tell you and Brooke how to live your lives, because let's face it, I have a whole other responsibility now."

Kyle watched Nathan walk into the room, kind of feeling bad. Just once he wished that he didn't have to think about Brooke, he did that enough already. Another being that he didn't have to explain himself almost every second of everyday; no one always knew why they did the things they do.

Nathan was his best friend for as long as he believed that boys could have best friends. And he was right, he had a whole other responsibility on his shoulders, he shouldn't have to be concerned about his relationship with Brooke, or lack there of. But it only told him one thing: that his situation with Brooke was a lot worse and a lot more complicated than he originally thought.

What was so hard about loving somebody? Personally, Kyle never thought that love could ever be as hard. You just loved someone, and spent the rest of your life making each other happy.

But Nathan and Haley had been a protest to that. Love was never easy, but sometimes the most hardest situations and problems make you ever more in love than you started out with, and Kyle was pretty sure that no matter what he did, no matter how long we went without talking to her, no matter what happened, he could only love Brooke more and more with everyday that went by.

He was brought out of his thoughts by the dinging of the elevator, and a petite brunette stepped out in plain jeans and a shirt, looking both ways, trying to figure out where she was going, but in by far the classiest way possible.

Surprisingly it only took Kyle 3 seconds to realize that girl was Brooke, and she was looking for Haley's room number. He considered maybe stepping out of the way without her ever really seeing him, not until he absolutely had to.

But he didn't. He didn't know why, and maybe he would never know. But this time he didn't even bother to run away, like he had the last time she didn't know he was there. She was still looking to her right, craning her neck to look for some kind of information station, which was the nurse's station. This time the teenage girl wasn't there. He guessed she was down at the gift shop buying some other magazine tabloid.

Her head turned and she looked at him completely. He would've laughed if this wasn't such a serious moment, but Kyle couldn't help but smile a little at her reaction. Her eyes were wide, and her mouth was slightly open, all in all the deer in headlights look. And all this time he thought that no one could look beautiful with that kind of look.

Then his brain went into panic mode. What the hell was he supposed to say? Was he supposed to tell her what was going on with Haley, what room she was in? Or was he supposed to apologize for turning his back on her, in more ways than one?

Her hands were in her back pockets and her shoulders were lifted slightly, giving her an uncomfortable vibe. Kyle didn't really blame her, but yet at the same time he felt more eased with her right in front of him. He didn't know what to say, and he was probably going to say something completely stupid or irrelevant, but if he could just stand across from her as long as possible, maybe everything would be okay. Maybe they wouldn't even have to talk.

It was only then he realized that if Brooke Davis loved anything more than shopping, it was talking.

He shrugged awkwardly, "Hey."