Chapter Sixty-Eight

"So who is this Lucy?" asked Haley, later in the day. The four of us (Sawyer, Nathan, Haley and I) were in the kitchen, while Tess showed around the houseguest.

"Oh, a daughter of a friend," said Nathan.

"You keep saying that. Which friend?" she pressed.

"No one you know," he said.

"They can't be that good of a friend if you haven't seen them in twenty years, which, by the way, is how long we've been married. Too long to keep secrets, don't you agree?" said Haley, her voice tinged with annoyance.

"It's a family friend-the kind your Dad wants you to like, but you don't want to like because you Dad likes them. It's no biggie," he said soothingly.

"It is if you're not telling me something! Who is she really? She has Scott eyes!" pointed out Haley. Her words suddenly made sense-Lucy did have the cobalt blue eyes that so many Scott men possessed. Including Nathan. What was Haley insinuating?

Nathan's reaction surprised the whole room. He slammed the down the knife he was using to chop vegetables down onto the wooden cutting board-it plunged into the wood and remained stationary. The three of us stared at it as he spun around and looked upon us, his eyes flashing.

"She does not. Her name is Wheeler, not Scott, and she's just a friend. One would think you'd think more of me than that after those twenty years," he said coolly, departing from the kitchen at a swift pace.

"Should I…?" asked Sawyer awkwardly of his mother. She stared after her husband, tears dwelling in her brown eyes before looking at her son and shaking her head.

"No, he needs to cool off. I didn't mean to say that, he just wasn't telling me," she said.

"It was weird," said Sawyer carefully.

"Totally. Haley…" I said softly, as I saw her turn around as a tear streaked down her cheek. I went around to her and put my arms around her. She hugged me back in relief, her maternal feelings for me mixed with her sadness.

"Hey," said Lucy's voice uncomfortably as she and Tess came back into the kitchen. Tess had her hands protectively on her stomach – at four and a half months she was just beginning to show.

"Hello Lucy. Would you like something to eat?" asked Haley as her tears dried, instantly turning back into a perfect wife and mother.

"If it's not to much trouble," she said politely.

"None at all. Dinner's almost ready. You guys are staying?" asked Haley, looking between Sawyer and I. We both nodded.

Nathan appeared just as the five of us were sitting down at the long, shiny mahogany table. He leaned down to gently kiss his wife's forehead, but mentioned nothing of his outburst and where he'd been for the past hour.

"Are you settling in, Lucy?" he asked, as we all began to eat.

"Yeah. Your house is beautiful. I live in Charlotte, and my house is an apartment. Very tiny," she said.

"Sawyer and Tess were born in the two room apartment Nathan and I lived in when we got married, twenty years ago. It was a tight squeeze until we moved to the new house," laughed Haley.

"I remember that apartment," said Sawyer.

"You were like five when we moved," pointed out Tess.

"So? Remember the year we moved down the street from the Jagielskis?" asked Sawyer.

"Mm, good year," I agreed. As he bestowed upon me his smile, I suddenly pictured the anger on his face if I told him everything.

"Who are the Jagielskis?" asked Lucy, who'd been listening to our conversation.

"Me, I'm a Jagielski. Or I was. And my Daddy, Jake, and my Mom, Peyton, and my big sister Jenny and my little sister Lauren. We all kind of grew up together," I explained.

"Right. I met Lauren," said Lucy.

"Yeah. She's like my best friend, you can hang with us at school if you want," offered Tess, slightly intimidated by the newcomer.

"She's like your best friend, or she is?" asked Lucy cattily. The five of us turned out heads to face her. I saw a reprimand rise in Haley's throat before Lucy broke the silence by giggling. I smiled at Tess across the table, who shrugged easily.

I chattered meaninglessly to fill the silence as Sawyer and I drove home in his car.

"I wonder who Lucy really is," I said thoughtfully.

"I know who Mom thinks she is," said Sawyer, his face tightening.

"Yeah. But Nathan would never…" I left the words unspoken.

"I hope not. He was away a lot during those times. If he did that to her, I don't even want to think about what she'd do to him," he said.

"He didn't. He couldn't have. I wish he'd just tell Haley though, so she wouldn't be so worried," I said.

"Yeah, me too. So are you even going to tell me what's wrong with you?" he asked.

"What?"

"Come on, you're acting strange, you're nervous, you're worried about being alone… and I hate to say this, but it's been a while since we've done it," he said.

"What are you talking about? It's not like we do it every five minutes," I retorted, hoping the darkness would hide my blush.

"True, and I know I sound like a pig for saying this, but we used to pretty often. And now you're scared of it. Why?" he asked.

"Why are you so sure something's wrong?" I asked.

"Why are you avoiding my question? And once again, I've known you since the day you were born. I know you pretty damn well by now," he said.

"I'm fine! You're so damn protective!" I said, my voice rising.

"I'm not being protective, I'm just being concerned because I know something's up. I'm worried about you, I still would have been worried if this was six months ago," he said.

"We were together six months ago," I reminded him.

"Then a year ago, whatever. It's seriously been six months?" he said.

"Something like that. We've been married for two," I said.

"Time flies when you're having fun," he said, smiling.

"Time flies… yeah," I echoed falsely.

Lucy Wheeler quickly brought attention to herself at Tree Hill High. The fact that she hung around with Tess and Lauren brought her major points, the fact that she was gorgeous brought her major points (in the summer she'd been pretty, but her makeup and her fall clothing elevated her greatly) and the fact that she was a smooth talker and a bit of a bitch surprisingly brought her major points.

From the outside, it was obvious that she was beginning to lose points in the eyes of Tessa Lydia Scott. This began when John was holding back her hair in the bathroom while she threw up and Lucy walked in, paid no heed to Tess and began to flirt obviously with John. It continued while he looked at her and began to flirt back.

At first I wondered why this affected Tess so deeply. John was her hair holder, her book carrier, her appointment escort, her shoulder to cry on. I thought he meant nothing to her, aside from the gratitude she felt. I thought that despite what she should have felt, despite what was true, she was still in love with the father of her child. But the display of anger made me wonder if she was in love with the other father of her child-that which was not biological, but the father in every other sense.

Author's note: Guess what? School's over, so I'm on vacation again. Remember spring break, when I used to update three times a night? It's possible I'll get back into that. Lucky you, huh? Oh, and I added a Gilmore Girl's fic, so go read it.