Chapter 7

"Ice cream for breakfast, Brooke?" Peyton said, laughing a little. It was already two o'clock in the afternoon, but they had just woken up and were about to have 'breakfast'.

"Are you saying you don't like ice cream?" Brooke asked, handing her best friend a pint of Cookies n' Cream ice cream. Peyton didn't answer but just took what her friend was handing her, smiling.

"So..." Peyton said while trying to swallow her spoon full of ice cream, "What are we doing today?" She could have guessed the answer just by seeing Brooke's face.

"Well best friend, we are having a boyfriend-free day. Plus, there is a party at Nathan's coming up, which can only mean that we have got to go-"

"Shopping!" Peyton finished for her. Brooke squealed with excitement. It was true that the two hadn't spend much alone time together lately. Each occupied with their busy love-lives. And although Brooke enjoyed shopping way more than Peyton, Peyton was looking forward to spending quality time with her best friend. And if she got to by a hot outfit for the party, then that was even better!

Jake had been able to get himself a busboy job at Karen's Cafe. He was working there today. He was so grateful that Karen had hired him so quickly, even thought he had no working experience what-so-ever. But when he told Karen about Jenny she had remembered how hard if was when she had Lucas and was near Jake's age, so she decided to help him out, with work and with Jenny.

Jake's shift was now over and be went behind the counter and leaned over the crib to check on Jenny. He was so thankful that she was such a calm baby. She had just slept through his whole shift. He was distracted from his admiration of his daughter by the sound of his cell phone ringing. Not wanting to wake up Jenny, or distract costumers, he went to the back, telling Karen on his way out that he would be back in a sec.

"Hello?" He said into his cell phone.

"Hello Jake. I wa-" Jake hung up the phone so fast and so hard that it fell out of his hands. It took him a while to realize what he had just done and he bent down to pick it back up. The events that had just happened, the person that had just called him, just dawned on him. What did she want, now? He hadn't meant to hang up on her, he was just so shocked! Not that she didn't deserve it... but he was curious at what was going on and what she wanted to say. His cell phone rang again. This time he planned to stay on it.

"Hello?" He said again.

"Jake. I'm here, in Tree Hill. You can't ignore me." The voice was so familiar and he knew the person to whom it belonged so well, yet he felt like she was just a stranger now.

"What do you want Nicki?" He asked to the one person that made him suffer for months and months. The person who broke his heart a long time ago. The person who he had just recently gotten over, or maybe would never get over. The person that walked out of his life.

"Look, Jake. I just want to talk. I made a mistake. You can't keep me away from my own daughter." He recognized a tone of desperation in her voice. Anger got built up inside Jake when Nicki mentioned Jenny as 'her own daughter'. Biologically, this was true. But if she was really her mother, where the hell had she been all this time?

"Your daughter? Nicki are not and will never be Jenny's mother! Oh yeah, and her name is Jenny, just incase you forgot!" Jake spat out to the woman he was once in love with.

"Jake this isn't fair, not to me and not to Jenny. I'm coming to see you and we can just talk."

"This isn't fair? Nicki do you even know what fair is? 'Cause from your past actions it really doesn't seem like it? Let's not even talk about what you did to me, but you want to talk about Jenny. Fine! Let's talk about Jenny." Jake softened up his voice, "You held her in your arms. You carried her for nine months inside you and you gave birth to her. You looked at the angelic face of the child that you and I conceived, and you left. Nicki, when you left you walked out of both our lives. Mine and Jenny's! I won't let you cause the same pain you did to me to Jenny. I just... I won't! There is no way that I am letting you back in."

"Jenny needs a mother!" Nicki protested.

"No, Jenny needs a family! She has me, my parents and a ton of other people who are her family. They love Jenny and would never walk out on her. You gave up your chance on being her family a long time ago. Jenny is doing just fine without you."

"Look Jake, please. I was young, and scared, and I made a mistake."

"So? I was young and I was scared, but I skipped the whole making a mistake part. You made a HUGE mistake. And since I have a daughter I can't afford to make HUGE mistakes like that. But it seems like you had different priorities so..." Jake was tired of bickering. Nicki was probably at his house already and as much as he didn't want to talk to her, he had to try to get her to stay away. And somehow, he didn't think that was going to be easy, especially not over the phone. "Look, either go back where you came from, or wait outside my house. I'm not home yet and I don't want my parents to have to deal with you." He didn't wait for her to respond; he just hung up, sighed a couple times and went back inside.

He didn't think it was the best idea to go home with Jenny in his arms and for Nicki to just be there, so he left Jenny with Karen. He thanked her a million times and promised to be back to get her ASAP. He kissed his baby good-bye and was off.

Brooke and Peyton were at Forever 21, trying on almost the whole store. They had been in there for about an hour already and were no where near done. "Oh My Gosh!" Peyton heard Brooke squeal from the dressing room next to hers.

"What?" Peyton yelled back.

"I found it! I found the perfect outfit for the party! YES! Peyton get out of there I need to show you this!" Brooke said as she stepped out of her dressing room in a pink halter-top and a black mini. Peyton came out of her room wearing a vintage t-shirt and a jean mini skirt. It was always like this. Brooke was dressed cute and flirty and Peyton was more edgy yet still sexily dressed.

"You look hot!" They both said to each other at the same time, then laughed a little.

"Alright, here's the plan," Brooke said, "We buy these clothes as our party clothes, but hit all the other stores just incase."

"Sounds good." Peyton said, and they went back into their changing rooms to change back into their original clothes.

Jake hoped out of his car to find Nicki sitting on his front steps. He knew that this was going to happen, yet he was still surprised at her being there for some reason. He sighed and started to walk towards her. As he got closer he could see that she had been crying. But he knew better than to fall for that. He wasn't going to pity her, he knew she was still the same, partly because he could just sense it, and partly because of what she was wearing. She had on a low-cut top and her jeans were all purposely ripped up.

"Where's Jenny?" She asked.

"That's none of your business, Nicki. What more do you have to say to me? I'm not letting you back into my life, and that's that." He stated, full with confidence.

"I don't need to be in your life Jake, just in Jenny's. You can't change the fact that I'm her mother."

"A mother is someone who loves their child. Who cares for them and protects them with all their heart. Jenny has no such thing. She doesn't have a mother. You are too late to try and be one for her. Look Nicki, to tell the truth, I thought that you leaving was the worst thing that could have ever happened to me. But it turns out you leaving was not the worst thing ever to happen to me, "He paused, "You coming back now is." He got out his key and put it in the lock on his front door, his back to Nicki now.

"I'm going to be in her life, Jake. With you, or without you." Jake knew that the words she had just spoken would never actually happen. He wouldn't let it. But the confidence in her voice scared him like nothing had ever scared him before. He opened the door and walked into his house, closing the door behind him just as Nicki turned around and walked away. He knew she would be back soon and he was really dreading it.

He remembered that he had to pick up Jenny at Karen's Cafe. He knew that he probably shouldn't go out of his house now, because Nicki could just follow him there and back, so he grabbed his cell phone and called the only person he could think of calling. It rang once before she picked up.

"Hello?" Peyton said. Her and Brooke were walking around in the mall, multiple bags in each hand.

"Hey, Peyton, sorry if I'm interrupting something." He could hear Brooke and Peyton laughing in the background and felt bad for interrupting and maybe cutting short their outing together.

"Oh, hey Jake! No, not at all. What's up?" She did a gesture to Brooke as if to say 'just a sec'.

"Well, uh. This is kind of a long story, I'll explain later, but could you um..." Just say it, Jake demanded to himself! He knew that Peyton would do it for him, but he felt so bad for asking her to. "Could you pick Jenny up? She's at Karen's. I'm uh, kind of having troubles at home so I can't really go pick her up and-" He was interrupted by Peyton.

"Yeah, of course, don't worry about it. I'll um, I'll be there as soon as I can." Peyton said, sorry to cut her shopping with Brooke short. But she knew that Brooke would be OK with it and understand.

"Thank you so much, Peyton. I owe you so much, I'll explain everything when you drop her off at my place. K, see you soon." They hung up and Peyton went to tell Brooke what was going on. Brooke, of course was fine with it. She had been missing Luc a lot and had gotten a really sweet message from him on her phone and wanted to go see him.

Peyton dropped Brooke off at Luc's and then went to Karen's to pick up Jenny. She wondered what trouble Jake was having and hoped it wasn't too serious. Things were just starting to pick up for her and Jake and the last thing they needed was some huge disaster to tear them apart. But Peyton wasn't too worried Jake seemed OK when he called her, just a little preoccupied.

Peyton walked into Karen's Cafe and saw Karen.

"Hey Karen. How are you?" Peyton asked, out of politeness. She liked Luc's mom, and from what she heard, she was really helping out with Jenny.

"Good, thanks. You're here to pick up Jenny aren't you? Jake called me to tell me." She said as she walked behind the counter. "You want some coffee?"

"Oh, no thanks. I should just go and bring Jenny back home." Karen took Jenny out of her crib and handed her over to Peyton. Jenny was crying, but as soon as Peyton started bouncing her around in her arms for a bit, she stopped. Peyton was surprised at how well she was at the whole baby thing. She wouldn't have thought she liked it but it turns out she enjoyed baby-sitting. And there was no better baby to baby-sit than Jenny.

"OK, well take care, Peyton." Karen said, waving good-bye.

"Bye!" Peyton said, walking out the door. "Hey Jenny!" She said in her best baby-voice. "Hey there girly!" Jenny gurgled and Peyton laughed. Jenny had her father's eyebrows, Peyton thought.

Brooke knocked on Luc's door that lead to his room. Lucas opened the door and was pleased to see Brooke.

"Boyfriend, hi!" She said and she gave him a peck on the lips.

"Hey, Cheery. I didn't think I would see you today, you didn't return my call." Lucas said as they walked into his room and sat on his bed.

"Nah, I was just shopping with Peyton, but then she had to do something for Jake so I came here!" She explained, not wanting to go into the details. "So, what's up?"

"Well," Lucas said, "Actually a lot has been going on lately."

"Like what?" Brooke asked, actually concerned. Her and Luc had been talking way more now, ever since their little confessions. And she liked it a lot, she was never bored at what he was saying and vise-versa.

"Alright you can't tell anyone this, but I was hanging out with Haley yesterday and I saw something. She got Nathan's jersey number tattooed on right above her $$." Lucas said, recalling yesterdays conversation between him and Haley. He had been surprised by her telling him that she was in love with Nathan, but he didn't doubt that it was real and that Nathan loved her back even thought Haley seemed unsure.

"Ok, I'm not going to ask why you were looking right above her $$..." Brooke laughed and Luc made a face. He considered Haley like a sister and it sort of disgusted him whenever people made romantic references to them. But he knew Brooke was just kidding, she knew that he only had eyes for her. "But wow! That's seems so unlike Tutorgirl! Are you sure it was real?"

"Yeah. Brooke, I think she's really in love with him. But she hasn't even told him about it yet, let alone told anybody else except me so you have to keep quiet about this." He said, knowing that Brooke was like the Gossip Queen. But he knew that she wouldn't say a word.

"My lips are sealed," She said. And she intended to keep it a secret. She knew how self conscious Haley could get. She would let her tell Nathan on her own time. And meanwhile, Brooke wouldn't comment at all about it. But she wondered when it would come out?

"As if that isn't enough news for me to handle," Lucas started, "It turns out that after I was born, Dan approached my mom about Joint Custody." He said.

"No way!" Brooke almost screamed. "But if he wanted to be a real dad to you, why is he always being such a jacka$$ to you?"

"I don't know. But I mean, this whole joint custody thing... It's really gotten me thinking. You know, maybe my mom telling him no was the thing that started it all?" Lucas told Brooke, honestly.

"Look Luc, I really don't think that that's it. I mean, look at how controlling Dan is with Nathan. Do you really want that? I'm not saying that you have a better life or anything, but it seems like there are more bad things about Dan than good. I don't think you should stress about it. Your mom loves you so much, and was trying to do what's best for you, and she was probably right to say no to him." Lucas nodded, understanding what Brooke had said. He was so thankful that he had her. Sure, he had Haley, but Haley was now spending so much time with Nathan. Brooke was always there to just make him feel so good about himself. Hearing Haley talk about Nathan yesterday, about how she loved him and why she loved him, got him thinking about Brooke a lot more than he already did lately.

Nathan was at Haley's house. They had just finished their study session and were talking about the party that was going to be at Nathan's beach house.

"You know, it's going to be out first party since we got together." Nathan said.

"I know! It's so exciting!" Haley said. She rarely acted all giddy and almost ditzy but she liked getting overly excited about things. Nathan looked at her a little funny. He had never seen her this excited. "Sorry," Haley laughed, "It's just. I don't know. All the parties and popularity and dating a basketball jock stuff, it's just all knew to me. I never did that stuff before, and I'm excited because I'm starting to like it more and more! I never would have thought that I would have fun at a party, but I think I am really going to. I mean, it's kind of stupid, but I'm so happy that I get to have fun! It was always just studying before. And sure, I had fun with Lucas and all, but it wasn't the same. I mean, now: I'm dating you, and I'm friends with Peyton and Brooke, and random people in the halls say hi to me and know my name."

"It's called popularity, babe. Welcome to it! But you know that I like you the way you are. I don't want this whole popularity thing to change you, OK? I don't care how many people know your name, as long as you stay the same." Nathan said, seriously. "I didn't mean for that to rhyme." He said, embarrassed. Both him and Haley started laughing. When they had relaxed a little, Haley put her arms around Nathan's neck and he automatically put his around her waist.

"Don't worry, Nate. I won't change." She said, thinking of the tattoo she got a couple days ago, hoping that he wouldn't consider that a change. She didn't think that then would be the greatest time to tell him about it. Later, she thought, later is better. Nathan leaned down and kissed Haley sweetly.

Peyton parked her car right infront of Jake's house. She took Jenny out of her car seat (luckily, Jake had left Jenny's car seat at the cafe) and picked her up in her arms. As Peyton approached Jake's house, a woman to her left was coming near her. Peyton turned towards her.

"Aw, what a sweet baby." Nicki said, in a fake-sweet voice. "Can I hold her?" She asked innocently. Peyton knew better than to hand off a child that wasn't even hers to a stranger. She didn't think that anything bad would happen, but still... better safe then sorry, right?

"Um... actually, "Peyton thought of something to say, "I really have to get inside. Kind of in a rush, sorry." She started to walk towards the house but Nicki grabbed her arm and pulled her back. Jenny started crying and Peyton got a little aggravated. What was up with this woman?

"Hey! What is your problem?" Peyton said, close to yelling. She tried to calm Jenny, but she didn't succeed.

"I just want to hold Jenny." Nicki said. Peyton was surprised that she knew her name. She doubted it was a lucky guess.

Jake was inside, but close enough to the door to hear a baby crying. He rushed as fast as he could out the door to see if Jenny was OK. He got out just to see Peyton holding a crying Jenny and tell Nicki:

"How do you know her?" Peyton asked, noticing that Jake had come out of his house.

"Nicki!" Jake said, not yelling yet, but close to it. "What are you doing, Nicki?" He exclaimed, fully angry. The only reason he didn't go get Jenny was because he didn't want Nicki to see her. Of course that didn't work out as he had planned.

Nicki walked closer to Jake and whispered so that Peyton, who was staying back, couldn't hear her.

"You seriously don't think that you can replace me with her." Nicki said as she shot a quick glare at Peyton, who was glaring right back. "You won't let me see my own daughter, but you'll hand her off to some baby-sitter?"

"Nicki... Just leave Peyton out of this OK?" Jake said. How did this get so out of hand? He thought.

"I can't make any promises," Nicki said as she started walking away. Jake suddenly got scared that she would do something to Peyton. He knew how awful she could get and he didn't want Peyton to be caught in the middle of all this. He hated Nicki so much, and the fact that she had had the last word killed him, so as she was walking away, still close enough to hear him, he shouted at her:

"Sure you can. It's keeping them that seems to be the hard part for you!" She turned around to stare at him for a bit. Then she turned back around and just kept walking. If this wasn't such a tragic circumstance, Jake would have been happy with himself for having the last word. But considering that Nicki was still a threat to him, his daughter and his girlfriend, he needed to figure some things out.

"Who was that?" Peyton asked, finally getting Jenny to calm down.

"Nicki... she's uh..." Jake figured the truth was the only way to go in this one, "Nicki's Jenny's mom. She um, she left right after she gave birth." Jake looked at Peyton who seemed to be processing everything.

"Oh," Was all Peyton could say right now. She tried something else, "I'm sorry." She said.

"Don't be. She's a btch. Jenny's better off without her," Jake said. Peyton stopped the 'well, duh,' from coming out of her mouth and just nodded. There was a silence, both teens needing to think things over. Jake was thinking about what Nicki had said about Peyton and Peyton thinking about what was going to happen between her and Jake next.

"Why don't you come in, Peyton?" Jake proposed. Peyton followed him inside, and handed Jenny to him. Jake kissed Jenny and laid her down in her crib.

"How do you feel? About all this? Nicki coming back and all?" Peyton asked. Maybe if Jake could have someone to talk to it would make things better. Jake didn't answer right away. He took several deep breaths and when he spoke to her, he didn't look her in the eye.

"You know, Peyton, I think that with Nicki around and all..." Come on man, just said it, he thought. "There's going to be a lot going on, what with Jenny and Nicki and probably legal matters, and I'll probably need another job to pay for a lawyer, and well... I don't know... Maybe we should just..." Peyton could guess what his next words would be but she didn't want to believe it. Was this actually happening? It was. And it hit her harder than a ten pound brick. "I think we should take a break... from us." For the first time in his whole speech he looked at her. Her eyes were glicening, but she wasn't crying... yet. He felt like such a jerk to do this to the girls he cared so much about.

"Oh, right, well, I should get going. Um, good luck. I'll see you around," Peyton mumbled as she ran out the door and into her car and sped off. What have you done, Jake thought to himself. He wished he could tell her the real reason why he had to do that. But he just... couldn't.

AN: OK that long chapter should make up for the delay. Sorry for the minimal Brucas and Naley! there will be more of those too later! PLEASE REVIEW! I will be so happy if you do!