Chapter 13: "Nothings changing anyway"

Peyton ordered another cup of coffee.

"So you were evicted?" Lucas asked

Peyton nodded.

"Three days after we got back from Florida we got a one week eviction notice on the door. I picked up extra shifts to try to get the money on time, but it turns out it didn't work."

"What'd you do then?"

"Spencer and I went and stayed with Gladys for three… but I really didn't want to intrude. She already has six kids. So then we went to a motel for a little over a week… Then I couldn't afford it anymore, and Spencers medicine and all since he is always sick with something, … so we drove up here."

"Did you drive straight through, or stay in a hotel?" Luke asked

"I um… we slept in my car in a motel parking lot for two nights." She said quietly, blushing a bit.

"Well I am glad you are here." Lucas said sincerely. "I started to miss Spence so bad I was considering going back down to Wexford to stay."

"Oh please. You' re nothing in that town from the moment you hit the welcome sign." Peyton said sipping her coffee.

"Is that why you chose it?" He asked looking her in the eye

"What?"

"Wexford. When you left Tree Hill… because you don't have to worry about being anything."

Peyton shrugged.

"I drove the car right out of North Carolina… it was raining really hard that night… I hit a pot hole… got stuck right in front of the diner… turns out to be the same pot hole you hit. Nothing in that town is ever fixed… I guess cause there's not much to be broken besides the people… I went in, met Gladys, and got my job." Peyton said, talking of it as though it happened to someone else, and not herself.

"Was that all before Spencer was born?" Luke asked

Peyton shook her head no.

"Spencer was three months old at the time." Peyton said

"What did you do before that?"

"When?"

"When you were pregnant with Spencer."

Peyton takes a long pause, and thinks carefully before she speaks…

"I never… I never really thought of myself as being pregnant… I mean I did, … but it, it never really felt real until I held Spencer for the first time… When I left Tree Hill I stayed in North Carolina… I slept in my car for about seven months, I got fired from my witnessing job because I could not fit the uniform. I had enough money to get a hotel room, but with a baby on the way I had to save up… I don't even know why. I guess even back then deep down in my heart I knew I was going to keep him…"

"Were you thinking about not?" Lucas asked surprised

"I went to this clinic… I was going to-" She clenched her jaw. "I saw so many girls in high school that got abortions, I remember swearing to myself that I would never be like them… I couldn't go through with it. I ran from the room before the doctor even came in."

Luke wasn't sure what to think. She almost got rid of his child without talking to him first… But she didn't. But that didn't make it okay, did it?

"The rest of the pregnancy I tried to tell myself that I was going to give it up… but I… I held him and I couldn't do it. I saw him and he looked so much like you…" She said beginning to tear up.

"It's okay." Luke said kissing her forehead.

"No Luke… It's not." Peyton said.

"You gave him everything that you had!" Luke said

"I kept him locked up in a diner all day and worst of all kept him away from you!" Peyton said.

"It's alright." He grabbed her hand, and pulled her out of the booth tossing a 20 dollar bill on the table.

"Where are we going?" She asked wiping her eyes.

"To talk to our son." Luke said.

"Didn't we already?"

"The only time that you told me what you went through was during our fight at the hospital. The only thing that we told him about me being his father was when we came out of the janitors closet at the wedding. I bet he is as confused as we were."

Peyton nodded as they headed back to the apartment. They picked Spencer up from Jakes, where they found Spencer and Jenny playing Nintendo, and Haley and Nathan passed out on the couch. Jake had rocked Logan to sleep. They thanked Jake and then headed up to their apartment.

Lucas went into his room and laid Logan down, and then rejoined Peyton and Spencer in the living room.

"Hey." Luke said. Spencer was sitting on the couch in the middle of the room, with Peyton and Lucas sitting across from him, their chairs adjacent to one another.

Spencer raised his eyebrows in anticipation.

"What?" He asked

"Luke…I mean-" Peyton stared over "your dad and I have something to talk to you about."

"What's going on?" Spencer asked

"You and your mom are going to stay here in New York with me and Logan for awhile." Lucas explained.

"Logan's gonna stay too?" He asked

Lucas nodded.

"She is my daughter."

"But shes not my moms!" Spencer said

"I know, it's kind of hard to explain honey." Peyton said

"I also wanted to tell you I am going to make up for everything I missed." Luke said to his son

"Where were you?" Spencer asked

"I didn't really know that I had a son, but if I did I would have been there."

"Ya didn' know me?" Spencer asked crooking his head to the side.

"No." Luke said rubbing the stubble growing on his face.

"Why not?" Spencer asked

"I never told him." Peyton said.

"Why?" Spencer said frowning

"A lot of adult stuff." Peyton said trying to put it how a four and a half year old would understand it. "We had a lot of stuff to figure out. Mom and Luke were younger than a lot of people usually when they have babies."

"Like you're t'enty-two and Dougs mom is 47..."

Peyton and Luke both cringed at the thought of a woman almost 50 trying keep up with a four year old boy. They may be young to have him but it was much better then being really old.

"Exactly." Lucas said

Spencer thought for a second.

"I can deal with that." Spencer said, trying to sound big before smiling ad then going off to his room to shoot baskets and color… maybe with a color other than black…

"How do you think it went?" Lucas asked

"I think it went well…" She said as they both looked down the hall where Spencer just disappeared.

The doorbell rang,

"who is it?" Luke asked before he opened it.

"Marcy!" The woman on the toher side said in an all too cheery voice.

Peyton raised her eyebrow and leaned back in her chair as Luke opened the door. A red head bounced inside and kissed him.

"Who is that?" The girl asked pointing to Peyton.

"Marcy, Peyton, Peyton, Marcy." Luke said nervously

"His fiancée." Marcy said smiling and flashing a huge ring…

Peytons jaw dropped.

r&r