Trapped in a Bad Situation But Still Moving Forward (Chapter twenty-five)
Nathan walked out of his bedroom that morning and almost made it out of the house without a word until he ran into his mom in the parking lot as she was getting ready to leave for work. "Oh, hi, sweetie," she said. Nathan just scoffed as he made his way to his own car. Deb shut her door and walked over to him. "So, you're just not going to talk to me now?" she asked.
"I don't know what to say to you, Mom," he said. He turned around to face her so she could see how much pain she was causing him. She looked away when confronted with it.
"I know you're hurting, Nathan, but this is for the best," she said.
"For who, Mom? For me, Haley, our baby?" Nathan asked. Deb looked down. "Or for you?" Deb looked up at him.
"This isn't about me," she said.
"Isn't it? You're doing this because you resent Haley because you think she's like you," Nathan said accusingly.
"That's absurd," Deb said.
"No, it's the truth. When you and Dad were drifting apart, you got pregnant with me and him being the guy that he is, you knew he wouldn't just walk away from us. You got pregnant to make your boyfriend stay with you and even then he didn't do it right away. You resent Haley because you think she's doing the same thing you did and because her boyfriend didn't hesitate to commit himself to her," Nathan said.
"That's not…" Deb started.
"Well, that's not Haley," Nathan said.
"I know that Haley is a good person, Nathan. I wouldn't have allowed you to date her as long as you did if I didn't. But I don't think she deserves all of your praise and adoration. Given the right motivation, there's no telling what people will do," Deb said.
"Well, those 'people' aren't Haley. I know her, Mom. And if you're not concerned with what you're doing to her, then think about what you're doing to me," Nathan said.
"I'm helping you," she said.
"How are you helping me by keeping me away from my pregnant fiancée?" Nathan asked. Deb looked at him as he said 'fiancée'. "I love Haley and I want to be there for her. Why won't you let me be?"
"Because, believe it or not, I want you to have a better life than I did," she said. He looked at her in shock.
"Well, I'm sorry that I ruined your life, but it wasn't my fault that you got pregnant on purpose, so it's no excuse for you to try to ruin mine," Nathan said, getting in his car and pulling away.
Haley sighed as she walked out of school and realized she forgot her purse in her locker that had her car keys in it. Just the thought of walking all that way made her want to vomit, not to mention that she was already feeling sick. She looked around to see if there was anyone she knew that she could walk with, but realized that there wasn't, shrugged and walked back inside. The minute she walked through the second set of doors into the hallway, she saw Nathan and the rest of the basketball team exiting the locker room. Their eyes met and he stopped walking and half-smiled at her. "Scott, come on!" Whitey yelled. Instead of listening to Whitey, he walked over to Haley.
"Is everything all right?" Nathan asked, as he got closer to her. Haley nodded.
"I just have to get my purse from my locker," she replied, pulling away from his touch. It just made her want to throw herself in his arms and while he probably wouldn't have a problem with that, his mom would. He looked at her in concern.
"You're going to walk all that way by yourself?" he asked. She nodded, looking down as Whitey continued to yell at Nathan. The rest of the team was already in the gymnasium. Then, Whitey walked over to them.
"Nathan, when I talk to you, you damn well listen!" Whitey exclaimed.
"I'm sorry, Coach," Nathan said. Whitey looked so shocked that Nathan had apologized, he shut his mouth. They had a routine down. Nathan would do something, sometimes intentionally, to make him yell and when he did, Nathan would talk back and they argued for a few minutes back and forth. "Coach, I'm going to walk Haley to her locker and then back to her car, ok?" Nathan looked at his coach pleadingly and looked at Haley as if he were communicating some sort of secret message that she couldn't interpret.
"Well, all right. Just make sure that you do show up for practice," Whitey said. Haley chuckled.
"Thanks, Coach," Nathan replied. Whitey turned to Haley and smiled. Nathan knew why; Whitey was fond of Haley. Everyone was. Haley smirked back.
"You take care of yourself," Whitey said. Haley smirked and nodded. He walked away from them and when he was in the gymnasium, Nathan put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer to him.
"Thank God he said yes. I've been looking for an excuse to spend a little more than two minutes with you," he said. Haley wrapped her right arm around his waist and hugged him back as she chuckled softly. They started walking towards her locker with Haley leaning against him for support. When they reached it, Haley leaned against the wall for support again. "What's wrong?"
"Oh, nothing," Haley replied, softly chuckling. She put her hand on her stomach as she said, "We're fine. I just get tired when I walk a long time."
"So, everything has been ok, right? Your doctor's appointments. Everything's checked out?" he asked. Haley laughed at his wording but nodded. "I hate that I can't be there with you," he said. She nodded.
"I know. I do have a few things to tell you, though. And I have something to give you, but it's in my car," she replied.
"Well, when we get there, you can tell me whatever it is," Nathan said. She opened her locker and grabbed her purse off of the hook she had placed it on when she was loading her bag and then closed the locker. When they reached the car, Haley took off on her own and opened the door. She sat down in the driver's seat and opened the glove box and grabbed a small bag. She turned her legs so they were hanging out the side of the car to face Nathan who was leaning against the rear passenger door. She opened the bag and grabbed a small piece of paper and handed it to him. He took a look at it and saw that there was a caption on the weird picture. It said "James-Scott baby". He looked at her and smiled.
"We're having a daughter," she replied, smiling at his expression that was filled with love. He leaned down and kissed her. When he pulled away, there were a few tears running down his face.
"I love you so much. Thank you for giving this to me," he said, leaning into kiss her again before she could get a word out.
"That's not all," she said. He looked at her in expectance. "I told my parents everything."
"Everything?" he repeated.
"That I'm pregnant, that you're the father and that we're engaged," Haley replied.
"How'd they take the news?" he asked.
"Not well," Haley replied. He frowned. "At first, anyway." He brightened and looked at her again. "After talking about it, they have given us their support and my mom gave me this to give to you." She reached in the bag and pulled out a small box and handed it to him. He opened it and inside was a ring.
"What is this for?" he asked.
"It was my grandmother's engagement ring and my mom wants you to have it to give to me," she replied.
"Are you serious? Your mom actually gave you this?" he asked. Haley nodded as he took her hand and slipped the ring on her finger. It fit perfectly, almost as if the ring knew that it would wind up on Haley's finger at some time.
"But she stresses that we're to wait until we have your parents' permission to get married," Haley said, laughing. Nathan nodded and kissed her left hand.
"My mom will come around, Haley. I promise she will. And if she doesn't come around on her own, then I'll talk to my dad," he replied. Haley looked at him for a minute.
"Nathan, I'm not sure your mother will ever be all right with this," she said.
"Well, I'm willing to accept that, but I will not let her let me become an absent father or just your boyfriend," Nathan said. Haley scrunched her eyebrows.
"Just my boyfriend?" Haley repeated. She didn't realize that being her boyfriend was such a bad thing. He shook his head as if he knew what she was thinking.
"I know what you're thinking and that's not what I mean," he said, looking at her insistently.
"Then, what do you mean?" she asked, a little bit of frustration in her voice. Nathan took her hands into his and squeezed them lightly.
"When I asked you to marry me, I didn't do that just because you're pregnant. Yes, that was a contributing factor but I didn't have to ask you. I wanted to," he replied. Haley nodded.
"Ok," she said.
"I mean it, Haley. I want us to stand before God and swear that we'll always love each other. I want to be your husband. I want a future with you. I want to be with you in every sense of the word," he said. Haley smiled but then started crying. Nathan looked at her in concern. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing. It's just these damn hormones!" Haley exclaimed as she grabbed three tissues at a time and started wiping her face. Nathan smirked at her in amusement. "It's not funny! I've just about had it with them. I cry all the time. I cry when I'm sad, when I'm mad and when I'm happy. I'm like a huge crying machine," Haley said, still wiping her face. Nathan took a fresh tissue and started dabbing at her the bottom of her eyes, careful not to poke her in the eye with it.
"I think you're cute," he said.
"Yeah, I bet you do. You're the one that did this to me," she said. He laughed at her again. "Don't laugh at me or I will make you cry." He looked at her in amusement.
"And what would you do?" he asked.
"I'd, um… take away that picture I gave you," she said. He looked at her in shock. Then she shook her head. "No, I wouldn't. I would never do that. I love you and I want to be with you too." He smirked and leaned in for one last kiss.
"I'm glad we agree. I'll see you…" he said, but his sentence trailed off when he realized he had no idea when he'd see her next. Haley smirked and nodded.
"Soon," she finished. He smiled and waited until she had closed the door to start walking away.
Two hours later…
Haley arrived at the café with a few minutes to spare. She got behind the counter and smiled at Karen. She was so glad that Deb didn't work there anymore. Deb had gotten involved in the Foundation she had worked at before the café again. While she was still Karen's business partner, she never worked behind the counter anymore which was good because they got to keep more of their dishes, as Karen had put it. "Cutting it a little close today, aren't we?" Karen asked.
"I was talking to someone," Haley replied. Karen raised her eyebrows in fascination.
"Who?" Karen asked. Haley was about to answer but closed her mouth when she remembered that Karen and Deb were friends as well as family. Karen noticed her hesitation and asked, "Well, who was it?"
"I'm not sure I should tell you," Haley replied, as she began filling some sugar canisters. She had long since stopped going from each individual table and filing them. She brought them all to the counter, filled them and if someone else didn't put them back which they usually did, she put them back.
"I am friends with Deb, Haley, but that doesn't mean I agree with everything she does," Karen said.
"What does that have to do with anything?" Haley asked.
"It was Nathan you were talking to, wasn't it?" Karen asked. Haley looked at her in confusion. Karen pointed to the ring on her finger. "Your mom told me about it." Haley smiled.
"Yeah, it was Nathan," Haley confirmed. She looked around and almost dropped the sugar bag when Dan and Keith Scott walked in.
"Hey, you two!" Karen said. She kissed Keith and nodded at Dan, who smiled at her in acknowledgement. "What brings you here?"
"Well, I wanted to see my wife," Keith said. Keith looked at Dan and gestured something with his eyes. Dan cleared his throat.
"I wanted to talk to Haley," he admitted. Haley rolled her eyes but turned to face him. "How are you doing?" He gestured to her and then her stomach.
"I am fine," she said pointing to herself. "But I'm sure that if the baby were born, she would miss her father." She was through with the good little girl routine when it came to Nathan's parents. She had been patient and understanding for three whole months. She was tired of having just moments with Nathan. She wanted him back for good.
"Her?" Keith, Karen and Dan all repeated. Haley nodded.
"Look, Haley, I'm not the one that forbid Nathan to see you," Dan said.
"Right," Haley said unconvinced. Dan nodded insistently at her. She nodded. "But you didn't do anything about it, did you? You didn't try to talk to your wife."
"Deb is not always what you call a reasonable woman," Dan said. Haley smirked at him.
"I got that. Most people would find it reasonable for a guy to be there for his pregnant fiancée," Haley said. Dan nodded.
"I understand how you feel and no one blames you for being angry, but as you said, Deb is my wife and I have to support her," Dan said.
"Of course you have to support her," Haley said agreeably. He nodded in appreciation, missing Haley's sarcasm. Then Haley frowned. "But not when she's being crazy." Then, she turned around and walked away with the sugar canisters. Dan nodded.
"Enough said," he muttered before turning back to his brother and sister-in-law.
"So, a funny thing happened today," Peyton commented as Jake, Nathan, Tim, Brooke and Lucas were all eating in the cafeteria the next day.
"What's that?" Brooke asked. Peyton smiled.
"I walked into the tutoring centre to talk to Mouth, who was getting tutored by Haley," Peyton said.
"That's not very interesting," Brooke commented, but Peyton held up a finger.
"So, naturally, I chatted with Haley and I noticed a little something on one of her fingers," Peyton commented and smirked when she saw Nathan visibly stiffen.
"What?" Jake asked.
"I saw an engagement ring on her finger," she announced. They all turned to look at Nathan for an explanation.
"You gave Haley a ring?" Lucas asked.
"You two are engaged?" Tim asked.
"When did you speak to Haley?" Jake asked.
"Where'd you get the ring?" Brooke asked. They all asked simultaneously but very quickly so Nathan shook his head in annoyance.
"We've been engaged since I found out she was pregnant. I gave her, her grandmother's ring which her mother gave to her to give to me and I spoke to her yesterday," Nathan replied.
"Aunt Deb hasn't seen it, has she?" Luke asked. Nathan looked at Lucas and smirked.
"And when would my mom see Haley?" Nathan retorted. All of a sudden, a student came running into the cafeteria looking around frantically. She walked over to their table. Brooke looked like she was going to pounce on her.
"You're that pregnant tutor's fiancé right?" she asked. Nathan looked up at her and nodded. "Come quick. Something's wrong with her. She's in pain, she wants you and they called an ambulance," the girl explained on the way to the tutoring centre. Nathan raced to Haley's side. She was wincing and grunting in pain.
"Nathan!" Haley managed to say in between the crushing waves of pain flowing through her. "It hurts. Something's wrong." He sat behind her cross-legged so Haley could lean against him. He kissed her forehead.
"It's ok. They called an ambulance. Help's on the way. Just hold on," he said, soothingly, though he was scared out of his mind.