A/N: thanks for all the reviews from last chapter! Sorry if the Katie part was too graphic. I'll try to tone it down when they go to court, but this is going to be a non-dramatic chapter. It'll talk about drama but it won't be dramatic.
"Oh! That was so much fun, especially when Tim flirted with the principal because he drank so much spiked punch!" Brooke laughed.
"Then she was like this may be before the last dance of senior year but I'm giving you detention anyway!" Peyton added as she came over with a bowl of popcorn.
"Then he was like 'Babe, you can give me all the detentions you want-as long as your supervising' he is so lucky she let him graduate!" Haley finished, cracking up so much that her face was turning red.
"Dim is lucky he graduated at all" Peyton said seriously using Tim's old nickname.
"Yes, Tim was not the brightest tool in the shed…or whatever the saying was…is"
"Toolbox, Brooke! It's toolbox!" Peyton exclaimed throwing a handful of popcorn at her.
"Brooke, I think the twins are crying" Haley said.
"Yeah, Peyton must have woken them up. Do you want to get them Haley?" Brooke asked.
"As long as I don't have to change their diaper" She joked, going up the stairs to the babies' room. A few minutes later she returned with a twin in each arm.
"Aw, come to mommy, baby" Brooke cooed taking Erik who was squirming in Haley's arm.
"They're beautiful" Haley whispered setting Fiona down on the floor as she sat down.
"Aw, I want one!" Peyton cooed tickling Erik.
"Aren't you getting one in, like four months?" Haley asked laughing.
"I'm not a patient person!"
"So, have you thought of a name? It's a boy, right?" Haley asked.
"Yeah, it's a boy, but Jake and I want to wait until he's born to decide on a name"
"That's a good idea"
"I can't wait until Lucas comes home for his lunch break. He'll be so excited to see you" Brooke said to Haley.
"I know, I haven't talked to him in forever"
"I remember back when we weren't friends yet, it seemed like the only people you and Lucas hung out with were each other"
"I remember when we first met. Miss Cindy's kindergarten class…."
Flashback: 1991 Tree Hill Elementary School
"No, mommy. I don't want to go! I want to stay with you!" Little Haley James screamed as her mother, Lydia tried to get her to come out of the car.
"No, Taylor and Quinn said kindergarten is really scary! They went here!" Haley shouted referring to her two big sisters.
"They were just trying to scare you. Come on, Haley-bub you'll love kindergarten. I'm sure you'll make all sorts of new friends"
"I'm not pretty! Vivian said boys like pretty girls!"
"You're too young for boys"
"No! Mommy, don't make me go!"
"You are very pretty. You're the prettiest little five year old I've ever seen" Haley just crossed her arms and scowled.
"Don't make that face; it'll get stuck like that if you do it a lot"
"No, it won't. Quinn does it a lot and it's never gotten stuck"
"Well, maybe Quinn has magic powers" Lydia joked.
"Are you saying I don't have magic powers! That's mean"
"That's not what I'm saying. Just let me walk you into the classroom and we'll see if you like it or not. Please Haley-bub…do it for mommy. She's very tired"
"You made me cry!" Haley shouted fake-crying.
"I'll make you a deal. If you put on a brave face and go into that classroom with me, I'll let you leave if you don't like it" She said drying Haley's "tears".
"Only because I love you" Haley said jumping out of the car in her usual happy manner. Lydia smiled, satisfied; it had actually been harder to get Haley's six older siblings to go into kindergarten. The two walked into the classroom.
"Hi, I'm Miss Cindy. What's your name, sweetie?" A tall blonde woman asked bending down to Haley's level.
"I'm Haley James and my mommy said I could leave if I don't like kindergarten"
"Haley!" Lydia scolded "I guess I'm not ready to let my baby go" She explained to Cindy.
"Then take me home mommy" Haley whined.
"Oh, but you'll have so much fun here!" Cindy said happily.
"No, I'll have fun baking cookies with mommy. I won't have fun learning my ABC's and when you throw a ruler at me if I get them wrong" She said to Miss Cindy.
"I won't throw a ruler at you" Cindy said, taken aback.
"Who told you that?" Lydia demanded.
"Brian and Evan" Haley answered talking about her nine year old twin brothers. Lydia shook her head; her twin sons found pleasure in teasing their littlest sister.
"That's not true. Why don't you go play with Lucas while I talk to your mommy?" Cindy suggested gesturing towards a little boy Haley didn't know. She looked at her mom and Lydia gave her an approving smile. She ran over to a little boy playing with legos by himself.
"Hello, I'm Haley!" She said sitting down by him.
"I'm Lucas. Want to play with me?"
"Okay! Let's talk about ourselves!"
"I don't like talking. Let's not talk"
"I love to talk. Talking is so fun. Out of everyone in my family I talk so much. I talk to everyone and anyone! I talked to a homeless man once; he tried to take me with him and he was mean so I kicked him where it only hurts boys. My mommy and daddy were proud of me. So were my brothers and sisters. I have four sisters and two brothers. My daddy calls me Chatterbox or Jabber Jaw or Motor Mouth! What does your daddy call you?"
"I don't know my daddy. My mommy says he's a really mean man. He left me before I was even born"
"He's a toad"
"What?" Lucas asked trying not to laugh. He was probably one of the saddest five year olds.
"My daddy says boys can either be knights with armor, frogs, or toads. The knights are the great boys who will sweep off your feet and do anything for you. Frogs are good boys in the heart, but sometimes they don't do such nice things. Toads are the really mean boys who want to hurt the good girls"
"Am I a knight?" He asked.
"Until you prove me wrong you are a toad"
"That's stupid"
"You said a bad word! Don't make me tell on you!"
"You can't tell on me!"
"I won't tell on you. I'm hungry and I don't like my lunch"
"Do you want to play with me after school at my mom's café?"
"What is it called?"
"Karen's Café"
"I like that name"
Back to Present day:
"Oh, that's so cute" Peyton said after Haley told the story of how she and Lucas first met.
"I remember for years I would go to Karen's Café or Lucas's house after school. It was a ritual or something. It was also partly because being around all my siblings too much can be nauseating "
"That's so funny how he was so broody back when he was five years old" Brooke said.
"Yes, I was the sunshine in his life" Haley joked.
"Yeah, but I taught him to have fun" Brooke said.
"By getting him drunk and skinny-dipping with you in a stranger's hot tub" Haley finished.
"You forgot the part where I helped him come to the realization that he needed a tattoo…badly" Brooke said laughing.
"And I was his deep emotional whatever" Peyton said also laughing.
"Yeah, that's why he liked dating the two of us at the same time. You and him shared an emotional connection and me and Lucas we…well I'm sure you don't want to know exactly what we did" Brooke said winking.
"I'm so sorry he cheated on you with me. I mean I knew I was betraying you but for some reason we-I couldn't stop. We talked about telling you, but then you found out on your own and I felt so bad because you hated me so much-"
"It's okay Peyton; I forgave you like sixteen years ago. Remember?"
"Yeah, but sometimes I still feel bad"
"At least you didn't have sex with him while he was with me. You waited until a year later for that" Brooke joked
"True. But, there are still nights where I just lie awake and think of all the bad things I've done and people that have been affected by my choices"
"So do I, Haley said "I mean what if I had fought for Nathan? And told him that I was still in love with him and there was nobody else in the world that I love as much as him. Then maybe we would still be together today, raising our children together or at least I could say I fought for him"
"He's still in love with you. He never goes on dates except when Peyton and I force him to. He's practically a male nun; that's how little he dates"
"No, he can't still love me. It's been too long. He's different and I'm different and-no it just wouldn't work" Haley said shaking her head.
"He does and you don't know how much it hurts him to see you hurting"
"I don't know…"
"Hey! This is a girl's day. We're not talking about boys unless we're talking about my cute little baby boy" Brooke said jokingly.
"I agree" Haley said bouncing Fiona up and down on her leg as she started to cry; the baby suddenly smiled after a minute of bouncing.
"Haley! That's her first smile! Oh my gosh, I have to get the camera!" Brooke exclaimed. She was back in a minute with a camera in hand.
"Smile, Fi-fi baby" She said, taking the picture, using the nickname she'd made for her daughter.
"Brooke, I'm home and I brought food!" They heard a voice shout from the kitchen.
The girls walked into the kitchen with the babies. Lucas looked, surprised as he saw Haley. She gave him a small smile as she set Fiona down in her carrier. Peyton did the same with Erik.
"Hey, hales" Lucas said enveloping her in a hug. He whispered to Brooke that Jake had told him what happened.
"I heard that" Haley said with a laugh.
""Whoops" He joked taking Erik out of his carrier.
"Guess what, Luke?" Brooke asked happily.
"We both know I'm the worst guesser ever, so why don't you tell me?" He asked laughing.
"You're right; you are the worst at guessing and Fiona smiled!"
"Are you serious? That's amazing!" Lucas exclaimed immediately turning to Fiona and trying to get her to smile.
"She's not going to smile on command. She's not a dolphin" Peyton joked rolling her eyes.
"Hey, where's everybody?" they heard a voice call from the front door.
"Oh, I forgot to tell you. I invited Nathan over" Lucas said.
'You're smart" Brooke said sarcastically. Lucas looked hurt so she smiled to let him know she wasn't serious.
"Haley…" Nathan said with surprise when he saw Haley in the kitchen.
"Come, on Peyton let's go" Brooke said as they grabbed the food containers and Fiona.
"Yeah, I'll go with them" Lucas said uncomfortably taking Erik and an extra food container, but he left one for Nathan and Haley.
"So, would it be safe to guess that Jake told you everything?" Haley asked as Nathan put the food on two separate plates for them and got a couple of forks.
"If by everything you mean that they arrested and Ben and you're staying with Peyton now"
"That's not everything, but that's all you need to know for now"
"Yeah, he said there was something else but you would have to tell me on your own"
"Is Katie okay?"
"Yeah, I know this is probably about the last thing you want to worry about right now but we should talk about the custody situation. I mean, do you still want to do this?"
"Not really. I mean, I don't even have a permanent place to live right now…and I don't want to back to that house"
"Maybe we could drop the case and I could keep them until you have a place to live and then we can have joint custody"
"Yeah, that would be good"
"Are you pressing charges?"
"Yea, Jake found a good lawyer for me to talk to"
"Well, um if you get tired of staying at Jake's place you could always come live with me" Nathan said not realizing that he shouldn't have said that.
"It's a little too soon for that. Way too soon, in fact"
"I'm sorry Haley. That came out wrong"
"Yeah, but It's okay. I never thanked you"
"Thanked me for what?" Without realizing it the two took a few steps closer to each other.
"Without you trying to get custody, I never would have realized how important it was to leave Ben"
"I still love you. I know that couldn't have come at a worse time, but there it is"
"Wow, there it is" Haley whispered. The two were inches apart now.
"Haley, if-" Nathan started to say. She interrupted him by putting her finger over his mouth and kissing him gently. They pulled apart and smiled, then started kissing again. Brooke, Peyton, and Lucas who had been listening came into the kitchen; the girls were clapping.
"It's about time!" Peyton exclaimed laughing. Nathan and Haley just smiled at each other.
A/N: Okay, I think that was one of the longest chapters. I hope you liked it! Review! I think there's going to be about five more chapters left, then it's done.