Chapter Five

"Deb! How are you?" I asked as we kissed each other's cheeks and smiled falsely. She wasn't true, but at least she was civil.

"Mom," said Nathan, hugging his mother.

"Mr. Scott," I said, shaking his hand formally. Nathan greeted his father in the same way.

"Haley you look fantastic-home's working out for you?" asked Deb pleasantly. I glanced sideways at Nathan and blushed-I was dreadful at holding in my secret.

"How's work going son?" asked Dan. Nathan kept his face stiff-he was relatively proud of working under a sport's agent, but Dan had never been. And his picking up extra shifts at the movie theatre didn't exactly endear him.

"It's great. We're doing fine," said Nathan.

"Bet you're wife's a big help there," said Dan, with his customary smirk. I gently laid my hand on Nathan's arm, hoping to calm him down.

"Unlike you, of course," said Nathan.

"Okay, new topic. When's the big move scheduled?" asked Deb.

"Oh, we're not moving," I said hastily. We'd changed our plans upon receiving my news.

"What?" asked Nathan in surprise. The two of them looked at the two of us.

"What? We can't. Didn't we talk about this?"

"Uh no. Why shouldn't we be moving?" he asked. His face was beginning to lose it's composure-he hated when our marriage appeared as a failure in front of his parents.

"Nathan, you know why," I said covertly.

"Actually, Haley, I don't. As far as I knew, three weeks ago we were both looking forward to this. Now it's off? So suddenly?" He wasn't being good at picking up signs.

"Nate don't make me spell it out for you."

"Actually Haley I think that's exactly what you should do," said Dan smoothly. I turned back to them-Deb was looking politely inquisitive, he was looking smug. I smiled up to Nathan for reassurance-even in a fight we were together against his parents. He put his arm around my shoulders, and I leaned into him.

"Haley's pregnant."

Dan was the first to speak after a long silence-

"Well, I thought that was more your brother's style," he said.

"Yeah, like you know. You've never talked to him," I said spitefully. I'd grown up next to Lucas, watching him in pain over this.

"Watch your mouth," he warned me.

"I won't! I'm a grown woman, this is my house, my baby and I'll say whatever the hell I please," I said. Nathan gripped my shoulder.

"And anyway, Brooke never was pregnant," added Nathan calmly.

"Haley, how did this happen?" asked Deb.

"It was a fluke, I guess. We're happy about it now," I said honestly. "I just always figured we'd come back here to raise our kids."

"That sounds sensible," she said agreeably.

"Sensible. My son got some slut knocked up and my wife says sensible," said Dan. Nathan stood.

"Dad, you can't come here and talk about my wife like that and choose how we should live our lives," said Nathan, his anger bordering on being furious.

"Watch me."

"Actually, I won't watch you, except for to watch you walk out of those doors."

"Do you know the mistake you're making? If you weren't a stupid kid like I was a stupid kid you wouldn't have to have a kid and I'd only have to have one."

"IT'S NOT A MISTAKE!" I yelled.

"So why is it that I deserve to be here and not my brother," asked Nathan. I glanced at Deb and we exchanged surprisingly familiar looks.

"What a pair of sons I've raised," said Dan incredulously.

"A pair? You've raised one son, Dan, and did a half ass job at that," I said.

"I hate to admit that she's right-I was an asshole before she came into my life," said Nathan. I smiled a small smile at him.

"Oh come on, you had the perfect life before she came along and tried to convince you to give up your spot on the team, abandon your parents and marry her," said Dan.

"I'm warning you…"

"Of what? What can you possibly do to me that you haven't done already?" asked Dan, smirking. Nathan smirked back-

"Oh, repetition never bothered me," he said, swinging a punch at his father's nose.

Deb shrieked. I shrieked Dan swore. Blood began to spurt out of his nose as his wife and I exchanged looks of horror. She dropped to her knees.

"Dan? Dan, are you okay?" she asked.

"Don't worry about me-worry about him," Dan managed to say.

"What are you talking about?" she asked. They dropped their voices to audible whispers.

"He just punched me!"

"You were inexcusably rude to his wife, his job, his way of living," said Deb. I've never seen Dan look more like he wanted to hit her. She looked as though she noticed the same thing.

"We're going," he said quietly.

"No, that's not actually true. You're going away, and staying away until my wife and I deem it appropriate for you to darken our doors away. Mom, we spent all day trying to prepare a meal that you're welcome to join us with," said Nathan courteously.

"That sounds nice," she said. I saw him give her another spiteful glance before he skulked off.

"I should have known that that would happen," I said sadly.

"Yeah. Not many scenes have 'Dan' written on them quite as clearly," said Nathan, flexing his hand. "You wouldn't believe how much this hurts."

"Well believe it or not, I'm actually very happy for you two. Tell me everything," said Deb, with a show of sincerity.

"Well we found out a few days ago and we went to the Doctor and he confirmed that I was indeed pregnant and that I'm almost eleven weeks along, and all is looking well. We had an ultrasound, it's a tiny thing. We don't know if it's a girl or boy, the only thing we do know for sure of it's singularity," I said. She laughed.

"Twins seem nice in stories, but taking care of this one was enough, believe you me," said Deb. To my intense relief, he laughed along with us.

"I'm glad you're not moving," she confessed.

"Me too. It would have been fun to be away for a while, but I'd have missed this place too much, and I always thought I'd raise my own kids here," I said thoughtfully.

"How many, do you think?" asked Deb. I understood her caution-after all, I was one of seven.

"Two. Maybe three. At least one of each, anyway," I said. Nathan and I had briefly discussed this.

"I wanted another child, but Dan thought that one was plenty," she said, holding in a sigh.

"Who knows what the future holds," said Nathan philosophically. We all giggled.

"I'm just worried about the tabloids getting wind of this and spreading it around-you know, 'Haley James and Love Child Shocker!' 'Chris Kellar is Proud to Announce…'" I said jokingly.

"Babe, don't finish that sentence," he said.

"So when are you due?"

"February or March," I said. Soon.

"Are you going to raise it here?" she asked.

"We haven't talked about it-but we and this place go way back," said Nathan. I nodded in agreement, though I knew that my 'two-maybe three' kids wouldn't fit in this one bedroom apartment.