Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine.
Authors Note: This chapter is a small recap of what happened during the ten years since the group was in high school. There's a little background on Nathan and Haley and some extra stuff with Peyton and Lucas.
Chapter 2"I'm worried about Lucas." Peyton said aloud while she browsed through a rack of clothes. Haley had happily agreed to spend the day with her best friend after Peyton had called her a few nights ago.
"Why, what's up?" Haley asked peering over the top of the clothes rack across from Peyton.
"He's just been acting a little off. That night I called you? I went back into our room and Lucas was thrashing around in bed and mumbling in his sleep. It was like he was having a nightmare, I had to wake him up. He was shaking Haley and it scared me. I asked him what was going on but he just brushed it off."
"What do you think is the matter?"
"I don't know. He did this same thing before Dan died, closing himself off I mean. I know he thinks he's somehow protecting me by keeping things from me. But I need him to open up."
"How's everything else going with you guys."
Peyton sighed. "This whole moving thing is ridiculous. We're fighting more than we ever have before. I blew up at him the other night for no reason."
"Well the good thing about pregnancy is you can blame it all on the hormones." Haley laughed and Peyton smiled.
"So do you have any of that classic Haley advice to share with me?"
"I think you and Lucas just need to sit down and talk. Tell him you're worried, he'll talk Peyton I know he will."
"Dear Abby herself couldn't have given better advice." Peyton laughed.
"Oh it wasn't that great, I think we both know that talking this stuff out is the best advice." Haley walked over and gave Peyton a quick hug.
"Thanks Haley."
"Oh come on, I love you both. You never have to thank me for anything."
Peyton smiled and shifted her feet. Her legs were beginning to feel like lead and her back had begun to ache. She was beginning to feel the effects of carrying around another human being, no matter how small they were. Haley noticed her discomfort.
"Does you back hurt."
"Yeah, I've just been on my feet for awhile." Peyton answered.
"Ok let's go down to the food court, we can sit and talk for awhile." Haley put back the t-shirt she was looking at and grabbed Peyton's hand.
"That sounds good."
The two women made their way through the droves of Saturday shoppers. Peyton had noticed more and more over the past few months that there were so many young babies in this town. And they all seemed to be at the mall on this day, mothers pushing strollers were everywhere. A little boy was being pushed past her and he looked up at her suddenly and waved his little hand wildly in her direction. Peyton smiled and waved back.
She looked back over at Haley. "So how are things with you and Nathan?"
Haley suddenly had a goofy grin plastered across her face. "Things are really good. I wish he could be home a little more often, but the dealership is doing so good right now I can understand." Nathan was now in control of Dan's dealership and business was beginning to pick up again.
"That's good to hear, when I talked to Karen the other day she said the café was having it's best month in years."
"It is, we're doing really well. Hopefully our numbers will keep going up." After college, Haley had returned to Tree Hill with a degree in business and an offer from Karen to become a full partner in the café. Haley, of course, had gladly accepted.
"So anything new in the lives of my two favorite people?"
"Well, let's see, we painted the living room a new color, I bought some new sheets for the guest bedroom and Nathan had a sinus infection last week." Haley rambled off.
"So that exciting huh?" Peyton laughed.
"Yeah , we're just a bunch of crazy kids." Haley said sarcastically. "But I'm not complaining, we've just gotten comfortable in our routine. That's not a bad thing, right?"
"No it's not a bad thing." She said softly. "You and Nathan have had a lot of ups and downs, now you're back on and you're both in a good place together." Haley nodded.
Saying Nathan and Haley had had some ups and downs was a pretty big understatement. After high school they had tried to keep their relationship going over the long distance between them. She was in college three thousand miles away in California and he was back in North Carolina at UNC with Peyton and Lucas. The distance had eventually become too much and they parted amicably, although they were soon miserable without each other. When college was over and they both eventually made their way back to the familiarity of the town where they had grown up and fallen in love, it was obvious to the people closest to them that those sparks were still there. It just took them awhile to realize it and find each other again. They were together now and had been for two years, and neither of them could picture a life without the other.
The girls found a table near the edge of the food court and Peyton breathed a small sigh of relief as she sat in her chair, her feet wouldn't have been able to hold out much longer.
"I'm gonna grab a coffee, you want a water or a decaf?" Haley asked.
"I'm staying away from coffee, including decaf, just to be safe. A water would be good, thanks Haley."
Peyton took the time to call Lucas at home, just to see what he was doing.
"Hey," She smiled when he answered. "I miss you."
"You've only been gone for two hours, and you already miss me."
"Yeah, I do. So what are you up to today?" she asked.
"I'm just finishing setting up my office. And I just got off the phone with my editor actually."
"What did he have to say?"
"He just wanted to let me know that I'm all clear to work from home, I'll still have to go back to Raleigh every few weeks for staff meetings and stuff. But for the most part I can work entirely from home."
"That's great Luke, it'll be nice to be home with you more."
"I know. So how's the shopping trip going?"
"It's good, Haley and I are just catching up on the stuff we've missed over the past few months. And speaking of Haley, she's heading back over here. I'll see you when I get home, I love you."
"I love you too."
She closed her phone and smiled knowing that even a simple phone call could still make her feel incredible.
"So how is Lucas?" Haley set Peyton's water bottle on the table in front of her.
"How did you know who that was?"
"You have that 'I'm so in love' look that you always get when you talk to Lucas."
Peyton blushed, a large smile creeping across her face.
"Nathan and I have talked about it." Haley said sipping from her iced coffee.
"Talked about what?"
"Getting married." Peyton was genuinely surprised Haley nodded.
"Nathan is the one who's brought it up. It's nothing serious, we've just talked casually about it."
"Well that's great Hales." Peyton sensed her hesitation. "Isn't it?"
"How did you know you wanted to marry Lucas?"
Peyton raised her eyebrows. "Are you not sure you want to get married?"
"I don't know. I love Nathan I really do, I'm just not sure I'm ready to get married yet." She looked at Peyton. "How did you know with Lucas?"
"I don't know really. I mean I know why I married him. Do you really want to hear all this?" Peyton laughed.
"Yeah come on." Haley encouraged.
"Alright, Lucas was the one who always talked about getting married but I never saw myself as the marrying type. It was never a question of loving Lucas, I've been in love with him since I was 17. I was just never sure that marriage was something I wanted. But after we graduated from college things started changing, we were renting this little apartment in Raleigh. It was the first time we had ever really lived together and I suddenly had a whole new perspective on our relationship."
"Living together will definitely do that." Haley nodded.
"Yeah, it was an incredible experience. I was waking up next to him every morning and on the mornings I would wake up before the alarm I'd just lay in bed and watch him sleep. And every breath he would take, I could feel myself loving him more." Peyton looked over at Haley. "That sounded corny didn't it?"
Haley shook her head and smiled. "It doesn't sound corny at all."
"I just can't even explain it Haley, the littlest things had me loving him more. The way he ate his cereal in the morning, he would always leave two Froot Loops in the bottom of his bowl, god I loved that." She smiled to herself. "And when he was working on an article and concentrating really hard he would stick his tongue out one side of his mouth, or when he would sing Sinatra songs in the shower. I just loved him so much." She looked over at Haley who was grinning, Peyton just laughed.
"So that's how you knew you wanted to marry Lucas, he ate his cereal weird?"
"Well you didn't let me finish Haley. A few weeks after we moved into our apartment I came down with a really nasty case of the flu, I mean really bad. I couldn't keep anything down for days, I lost over eight pounds in three days. I felt like absolute crap, and to top it all off I ended up sleeping on the bathroom floor because I would spend the whole night throwing up. Lucas had this important job interview the next day for a pretty big sports magazine, but instead of going to bed and resting he stayed up the entire night with me. He'd hold my hair back when I got sick and then he would rub my back while I tried to get some sleep. He was supposed to be up early the next morning to catch his flight to New York, but when I woke up he was right next on the bathroom floor holding me in his arms. I woke him up but he said he couldn't leave me when I needed him."
Haley shook her head. "That's so†wow"
Peyton nodded. "He missed the interview, didn't get the job. And to this day he's never brought it up, never blamed me for not getting the job. When I woke up next to him that morning and saw what he had sacrificed for me I knew I couldn't ever let him go, that I had to spend the rest of my life loving him as much as he did me. That is when I knew I wanted to marry him."
"Who knew my best friend could be so romantic, that's amazing Peyton."
"Peyton Sawyer?" A familiar voice came from behind the table where Peyton was currently sitting. She saw Haley's eyes widen as she recognized the face, and she spun around quickly in her seat and saw someone she hadn't seen in almost ten years.
"Brooke?"
Please read and review. We'll find out where Brooke has been in the next chapter.