A/N: This continues straight on from last chapter when the flashback ended and is about Jeyton.

Chapter Twelve

Epilogue Part 2

Looking at Peyton and the little girl sitting in her lap, Haley reflected that her other friends' lives had been no less lacking in drama either. As they started to grow older, Brooke and Peyton had remained friends but had drifted apart from how close they had been as kids. Brooke hadn't known why at the time, but after much pushing by Haley to get the two closer again Peyton confided in her that she too had feelings for Lucas. A combination of resentment and jealousy had kept Peyton from staying best friends with Brooke but she soon found a new best friend in Jake. Jake's relaxed personality had turned out to perfectly complement Peyton's moody one. Peyton's mum had died in a car accident when they were ten and he had been her strength through the whole ordeal. Jake then took up Brooke's position in Peyton's life – aside for the girly stuff which Peyton shared with Haley, and sometimes Brooke too – and he became the one person who could honestly say they knew everything about Peyton Sawyer, including her life-long crush on Lucas Scott. Peyton had thought that she knew everything about Jake too, but there was one thing that she didn't.

Jake had a secret that only Haley knew for a while, which he had told her one night in junior high when they had been commiserating together about their love lives, or lack thereof. He had fallen in love with Peyton, but she was too infatuated with Lucas to see Jake as anything other than her buddy. As they grew older, Jake took to having casual relationships with a number of women. Enter Nikki.

Nikki or 'crazy psycho bitch' as Brooke termed her was a college student at Tree Hill University whom Jake had met at a party and got involved with on a somewhat more serious level than he had with most of his previous girlfriends. He just hadn't realized how serious. Nikki got pregnant and 9 months later little Jenny Jagielski was born. Less than a month after that Nikki had disappeared.

Even with his parent's support Jake was still struggling to balance life as a teenager and taking care of his daughter at the same time. Peyton came to his rescue, helping to take care of Jenny so Jake didn't have to drop out of school. At this time, Lucas and Brooke still weren't back together, but Peyton's crush on Lucas had fizzled out, as she realized the hard way that he only had eyes for Brooke. She ended up spending even more time with Jake now that she was helping him with Jenny, and her feelings for him had slowly developed.

When Jenny was about 6 months old Nikki had returned demanding custody, but the fact that she had already abandoned her daughter once meant the judge ruled in Jake's favour. When Nikki tried to take Jenny anyway, Peyton had come to the rescue once again.

Flashback:

Peyton tentatively knocked on the door to Jake's bedroom. When she heard him softly call, "Come in," she entered and saw him sitting on the edge of his bed, watching over Jenny, trying to make her stop crying.

"Hey."

"Hi." Peyton walked over to him and sat down near where he was sitting. "So…I'm sorry about today."

Jake was confused. "Sorry about what?"

"Everything with Nikki. And her almost taking Jenny."

"Hey, that's not your fault."

"But the part where I jumped her and ended up getting arrested for assault kind of was."

Jake couldn't help but smile. "I wish I had seen that. Lucas and Nathan said it took the both of them to pry you off of her."

"Well, yeah, I mean we stopped her taking Jenny, but I wasn't gonna let her get away with it that easy," Peyton said. Jake nodded and looked back at Jenny, lying in her crib. She wasn't crying as loudly now, but she was still struggling. "So…what are you gonna do about Nikki?"

"Well, I talked to my lawyer. He said we should get a restraining order on her."

"You think that'll work?"

"As long as you're enforcing it."

Peyton smiled, but didn't reply immediately. The silence created tension in the room, something that seemed to be happening a lot between them lately. It was little things like when they were feeding Jenny and his arm brushed against hers. Or how they couldn't have sleepovers anymore since she was always pulling her nightshirt down, feeling it was too short. As strange as it sounded, it seemed that suddenly she was acutely aware that he was a boy and she was a girl. "Well, thanks for bailing me out today," she said finally.

"Anytime. So, listen," Jake added, "you know how my parents have kind of gotten over the fact that I'm a Dad, but the rest of my family, like the grandmother are still a bit upset about the whole issue?"

"Yeah, but I thought you said you weren't gonna let that bother you."

"I'm not. It's just that, as you know, my grandma is a pretty religious and she's finally managed to accept the situation 'cause there's nothing she can do to change it, but she wants Jenny to be raised in 'the Christian way'," he said putting the last three words in air brackets.

"What does she mean by that? Isn't Jenny too young for Sunday church?"

"I think so, although grandma still wants to take her. But what she really wants me to do now is have Jenny baptized."

"Oh. So are you?"

"Well, my parents think I should, especially since it'll keep grandma happy so I'm going to."

"Okay," Peyton nodded.

"So when she gets baptized, Jenny's gonna need a godmother."

"Yeah…"

"I was thinking of asking Haley."

Oh. She definitely hadn't seen that one coming. Peyton composed herself enough to answer, "I think Haley will like that."

"I think she will too," Jake replied. Then, he grinned at Peyton and the look on his face made her think he wasn't being entirely serious.

"Are-are you joking?"

"No. But you thought I was going to say something else…"

"Um…well…" Of course!

"Peyton…" Jake began, his hand lightly holding hers. "The reason I didn't ask you to be Jenny's godmother is because I think of you more as…her real mother."

"Oh…" Peyton smiled at him widely and found her hand tightening her grip on his. A lock of her hair fell in front of her face and instinctively Jake's free hand reached up to brush it away. The mood changed the moment his fingers touched her cheek and Peyton found herself staring into his eyes, which seemed to be coming closer to hers every second.

And then he was kissing her.

When they both pulled away Peyton blushed and looked at the safest place…Jenny. Jake followed her gaze and observed, "She's stopped crying."

"Yeah…Jake?" she added a few moments later. "Sometimes I think of Jenny as mine too," she admitted.

"She is."

This time it was Peyton who initiated the kiss, leaning up into him, her weight causing him to fall back on the bed. Jake was about to roll her over so she was lying underneath him, when Peyton jerked away.

"What's wrong?" he asked as she jumped off the bed.

"Jenny," she told him. Peyton looked down at the little girl. "She's too little to see us kissing or maybe more."

"'Maybe more'?" Jake wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. "Is that a promise?"

"Jake!" Peyton blushed.

He grabbed her by the waist and pulled Peyton back onto the bed. "She can't see us from there." Peyton gave in and started kissing him back when they were suddenly interrupted by the sound of the door opening, a slight yelp and the door banging shut. Jake groaned. "But, apparently, my mother doesn't know how to knock."

End Flashback