Author's Note: Hey, guys. I hope you didn't miss me too much. I'm back with another drive by update. Not much to say, except thanks so much for all the reviews, I'm glad that you guys like this. I hope you enjoy this chapter as well.
--OTH--
"I'm sorry, what did you just say?"
After Nicki greeted Lacy, there had been complete silence in the room. Everyone was confused, even Nicki and Lacy. They hadn't seen each other in nearly three years, so to run into each other here, was very surprising. Jake, for his part was just as surprised and confused as everyone else. He had known Nicki for more than two years and he didn't know she had a sister, let alone it being Lacy. He glanced between the two, trying to see if he could see a resemblance, but he just couldn't see it. They were completely opposite. Lacy was a sweet, innocent girl while Nicki was a bitchy slut.
"She's my sister," Nicki repeated, smiling at the look on Jake's face. She loved it when he got that look. Nicki shook her head and quickly moved around the couch, running to her sister. "Hey, babe."
"Nic," Lacy cheered, hoping her arms to her sister. If felt like she hadn't seen her in years. She wasn't aware of anything that had happened in Nicki's life. All she knew of her was the nice girl that she used to be when they were younger. She didn't know the new and improved version of her big sis.
"Lac," Nicki laughed, pulling out of the embrace to get a good look at Lacy. She couldn't believe how much she had grown up. Last time she saw her, she had braces, pimples and brown hair. "Love the hair. You're definitely supposed to be a blonde," she commented as she held up a few strains for the hair she was referring to.
"Thanks," Lacy smiled. "And maybe a sarcastic thanks for the last comment, I'm not sure how to take that one."
"It was a compliment," Nicki assured her. Jake watched them interact and was even more surprised then he was before. He wasn't used to Nicki being this loving and nice. It felt a little strange to see her with Lacy.
"Well, then thanks." They shared a laugh and continued to converse quietly for a few more moments to themselves. The others stood on and watched in complete shock. Tim was kind of hurt that he didn't know Lacy had a sister while Nathan couldn't believe his own damn luck that the girl he had hooked up with was his baby momma's sister. Was every damn person in Tree Hill related?
"How can you guys be sisters?" Jake questioned causing everyone to turn to him.
"What do you mean?" Lacy asked. She didn't really know Jake that well; he was probably the person in the group she spent the least amount of time with. All she knew was that he had Jenny and that he seemed like a good enough guy.
"Well, you're last name is Roberts," he pointed out. It seemed that it was the first time that the other four had thought about that little detail as they all nodded their heads. "And Nicki's is Baxter. What's that about?"
"When did you change your name back to Roberts?" Nicki asked, turning to regard her little sister. She still couldn't get over how beautiful she grew up to be. She always knew she was going to be a heartbreaker.
"Last year," Lacy replied, frowning at the thought. She hated having to change her name. It screwed everything up with school and health cards and everything else that she was registered as Lacy Baxter. "Mom made me."
"Why would she do that?"
"Cause dad left," Lacy informed her. She wasn't surprised when Nicki didn't seem to upset about it. Nicki and their parents never got along very well, that's why she got kicked out of the house all those years ago because they were tired of always arguing with each other.
"Surprise, surprise," Nicki muttered. Lacy let out a little laugh at her comment, agreeing completely with it. "Let me guess, mom changed back to Roberts just to spite him?"
"Of course."
"I can't believe this," Brooke finally spoke up. They had all been thinking the whole time, so leave it to her to say it out loud. Nicki and Lacy stopped their conversation and turned to look at her.
"What?" Lacy questioned, wrapping an arm around Nicki's waist. When she looked at Brooke, she couldn't help but notice the sad look on Tim's face and she cursed herself for keeping her sister a secret from him.
"You're related to the ho?" Brooke asked, glaring openly at Nicki. She didn't like her in the least and she certainly wasn't afraid to show it. Jake and Luke tried their best to contain the laughter at the statement. Lacy looked taken aback by the question.
"The ho?" she repeated, the confusion could be heard in her voice form a mile away. She looked at Nicki for another moment before turning to regard Brooke again. "No, this is my big sister, Nicki."
"So, you're related to the ho?" she questioned again. She was once again greeted with a confused look from Lacy. Brooke sighed and rolled her eyes. Lacy obviously had no idea what was going on here, and Brooke had a feeling that she herself wasn't completely clued in.
"What are you talking about, Brooke?"
"Your sister there, the ho," Brooke began to explain. "Yeah, she's the girl Nathan brought up here to be his date for the weekend." After watching the shock fall into place on the blonde's face, Brooke turned her attention over to get her usual glare at Nathan. He completely ignored her, used to them by now.
"And she's Jenny's mother," Jake added in for good measure. If they were going to be sharing, he figured he might as well join in. Plus, he could the added bonus of sticking it to both Nathan and Nicki, two of his least favorite people right now. He was pissed at Nathan for causing Peyton so much pain over the crap with Haley and he hated Nicki for the obvious reason. "Just thought you would all like to know."
If it was even possible, Nathan felt even worse about this whole situation. This was all his fault. Every time he tried to do something, he just screwed it up. This whole thing had turned into a disaster and it seemed to take down everyone in its path. Haley was broken and missing, Peyton was best friendless, Brooke was pissed, Lacy was pregnant, and Tim felt betrayed, the list just went on. And if he traced it all back, it all started with him, the night at the club when he made the stupid mistake of cheating on Haley.
"This just got a lot more interesting on so many levels," Lucas commented, being the only one that didn't hold a strong grudge here. The only person he felt any anger towards was Nathan and even that wasn't as strong as it should be. Brooke elbowed him in the stomach and he immediately shut up.
"Jenny's mother?" Brooke and Lacy asked at the same time. They both looked at Jake for a moment before simultaneously turning to look at Nicki, obviously expecting an answer.
"It's a long story," Nicki said, directing her answer entirely to Lacy. She didn't need to explain herself to Brooke; she didn't know anything about her. Her sister, however, she deserved an answer. "I moved to Tree Hill after mom and dad kicked me out. I ended up staying with Whitey for a while."
"You know Whitey?" Lucas questioned, finally showing somewhat of a personal interest. Both Lacy and Nicki nodded their heads.
"Yeah, he's our grandpa," Lacy answered. It took her a while to figure out what was so interesting about that. "Oh, yeah, you guys are all on the basketball team, aren't you? I never thought to tell you guys he was my grandfather. I always forget he's the basketball coach."
"That's so cool," Tim replied, speaking for the first time since they entered they entered the cabin. He was passed all the original hurt feelings of being kept in the dark. It's not like this was the biggest thing that Lacy's kept from him and he was sure there was a reason she didn't tell him.
"Dude," Lucas laughed, slapping him on the back goodheartedly. "Whitey's so gonna kill you when he finds out you're screwing his granddaughter." Tim's eyes shoot open. He hadn't thought of that.
"Aw, crap."
"I met Jake a bit after," Nicki continued, ignoring Tim and Luke's little comments. It took her a second to process what Tim had said. "Wait, you're screwing my baby sister?" Nicki asked Tim, walking slowly towards him.
"Um, yeah," he answered, taking his own step back. He wasn't ashamed to admit that he was a little bit scared of Nicki; she was a scary looking girl. She kind of reminded him of Brooke when she got really pissed off. "But I'm not the one that got her pregnant." Nicki stopped in her tracks. She stared at Tim for a moment longer before spinning on her heels to face her guilty looking sister.
"You're pregnant?"
"A little bit," Lacy admitted. She didn't know what it was, but there was just something in her that hated to disappoint her big sister. Maybe it was because she had always sort of looked up to Nicki when she was younger. She looked up to see that Nicki was about to yell at her. "Hey, you're one to talk."
"It doesn't matter, Lacy," Nicki snapped. She couldn't believe that her sister had been just as stupid as she had. She always thought Lacy was smarter than her, never in her wildest dreams did she think Lacy would be pregnant at seventeen. She saw how guilty Lacy was and her features softened. "Who's the father?"
"Uh, that'd be me," Nathan spoke up. Nicki rolled her eyes and shook her head. She really should have known. That was the only other thing that could possibly go wrong with this situation was if she slept with the father of her sister's baby. God, they were messed up.
"Hey, Jake?" Tim called out, having just thought of something else. Jake tore his gaze away from the sisters to look at his friend. "Does that mean I'm Jenny's uncle?"
"No, man," Jake answered, shaking his head. "Lacy is Jenny's aunt, though, I guess." Tim nodded, and thought about that some more. Lacy's eyes widened when she realized what Tim was about to do.
"But since we just got married doesn't that mean I'm Jenny's uncle now?" Tim clarified for Jake. Lacy let out a groan and shut her eyes. She should have known Tim wasn't going to be able to keep this a secret.
"Tim…" Lacy moaned. He looked at her in confusion before scanning the room to find that everyone was looking at him.
"What?"
--OTH--
"Finally," Peyton cheered, glad that they had finally made it to the cabin. Haley had long since stopped talking and Peyton wasn't sure if she was sleeping or not. She didn't think so, since Haley was still kind of walking on her own. If Haley was completely gone, there was no way she would be able to get them as far as she did. "Up we get."
She tried to lift some of Haley's weight and they got up the stairs with only a little bit of trouble. The door was just how she left it and she opened it. Once they were inside, Peyton immediately brought them into one of the bedroom, laying Haley gently down on the bed.
She stood back to look at Haley's almost blue form. Haley was no longer shaking, but Peyton didn't think that was a good thing. She was debating whether or not she should get Haley changed first or call the hospital. She let out a frustrated groan and grabbed the phone that was on the dresser beside her, dialing 911.
"911, please state your emergency."
"Me and my friend got stuck out in the rain," Peyton began to explain, slight franticness slipping into her voice. "She must have been out there maybe four hours. I think she might have hypothermia or something."
"Is your friend still awake?" the lady asked. She could easily tell that Peyton was starting to freak out and she needed to get her to calm down so she could tell her what to do. Peyton looked over at Haley on the bed.
"I'm not sure," Peyton answered. "I think so, but her eyes are closed."
"Okay, I need you to listen to me…" The lady told Peyton exactly what she needed to do to get Haley warm while the ambulance was on it's way. Since Peyton had no idea where they were, it was going to take them a while to get there. "Do you think you can do that?"
"Yeah," Peyton replied, trying to sound as confident as possible. She nodded emphatically even thought the operator couldn't see her. "I'll do that right now. Thank you for all the help."
"That's what I'm here for," the woman said. "The ambulance should be there soon, just make sure you do everything I told you."
"I will," Peyton promised. "Bye."
As soon as she hung up the phone, she pulled out the top drawer of the dresser. She pulled out shirt and examined it, smiling happily when she saw it was a man's t-shirt. I would be so much easier to get Haley into this than it would a woman's shirt. She grabbed the rest of the clothes she would need to dress Haley and moved over to the bed.
After she got Haley completely out of the wet clothes, she replaced them with the dry ones she had just taken. As she carefully pulled the shirt over Haley's head, she tried her best to ignore how limp Haley was as she basically had to hold her up. Once she got Haley redressed, she grabbed herself some clothes and quickly changed in the next room. When she reentered she was surprised to find Haley with her eyes opened slightly.
"Hey," Haley tried to say, but her voice cracked slightly as she said it. Peyton gave her the brightest smile she could muster and moved over to the bed. She leaned down and pulled the covers over Haley's body.
"Hey, baby," Peyton greeted sweetly. "I was really starting to get scared there for a while. No matter what I tried, you won't open your eyes." Haley attempted to laugh, but it just came out as a cough.
"Sorry," was all she could say. She moved her eyes to look at Peyton, trying to indicate she was asking about her clothes.
"Oh, I stole some clothes from these people," Peyton informed her, waving her hand around the room. "When I called 911, the lady told me I had to get you into dry clothes immediately." Haley nodded.
"Okay." Peyton pulled up the comforter and shifted in her position to lie down beside Haley. As soon as she was still, Haley moved closer to her, seeking out the body warmth. Ignoring the ice cold feeling of Haley's skin against her's, Peyton wrapped her arms around Haley and pulled her closer.
"The lady said I should get you into a nice warm bed," Peyton continued, hoping the sound of her voice would both calm Haley and keep her awake. "She also said that if worse came to worse, I was supposed to get naked and get in bed with you." A small, but genuine smile graced Haley's lips. "She said that the best way to get you warm was from body warmth."
"Likely story," Haley teased. Peyton laughed softly into her hair and nodded. She was happy that Haley at least still had her sense of humor, which was always a good sign with Haley.
"You caught me," she laughed. "I was just looking for an excuse to you naked and in bed." Haley gave her an 'I knew it' look and smirk. "I love you, Hales, with all my heart, but there is no way I'm getting naked with you."
"Thanks."
"Well, I guess if your life depended on it…" They shared a small smile, Peyton making sure that she knew if it was needed, she'd do it instantly, before they fell into silence. Peyton could tell that Haley was scared, even if she was trying to hide it so she gave her a little squeeze, rubbing her hands up and down her best friend's arm. "We're gonna be okay, I promise, you'll make it. We're gonna get home."
"Yeah," was all Haley said. She could still hear Peyton talking, but her voice was starting to become distant to her ears. All she kept hearing over and over again was; 'We're gonna get home'. Home to what, exactly? Home to her supportive parents? Nope. Home to all her wonderful brothers and sisters? Don't think so. Or home to her loving boyfriend?
There was no one to go home to for Haley. She had no one left. So what was the point in all of this? Why should she be fighting so hard to get back home when there would be no one there waiting for her?
--OTH--
That's all for now. Hope that you all liked it. I promise to post the next chapter soon. Peace.
