Chapter Seventy-Eight: Lonely Nights
Author's note: Sorry I was so slow with the last update. I'm still ahead so they should keep coming, I'm just less ahead then I was. But on a lighter note, here's some brucas happiness: I just planned out how many kids they're going to have, and their names. It took a while.
Haley awoke from her sleep one morning with Nathan lightly kissing her shoulder. She smiled.
"How much time do you have?" she asked, turning to face him.
She scowled as the doorbell rang.
"Who on Earth would be here at ten in the morning on a Saturday?" she asked in irritation. Nathan watched protectively as she went to answer it in her satin dressing gown, and walked quickly to follow her.
Sighing, she pulled open the heavy front door, only to come face to face with someone she hadn't seen in almost two years.
"Seamus?" she said in disbelief, hastily tightening her dressing gown around herself.
"Haley," he said, his voice calm. While Haley stepped forward to hug him, he nodded at Nathan over his head. Impressive, seeing as the last time they'd met they'd both seemed fully willing to start trading blows.
"How are you, Seamus?" asked Nathan, attempting to remain civil. Haley smiled up at him and raised her eyebrows slightly. "I'll go get Eve."
Seamus was silent for a moment as he watched Nathan walk off.
"You guys really are married. You talk to each other without saying things discernable to us lower beings. Place looks different," he said, glancing around.
"We change it all the time. Big source of entertainment," she said, leading him inside.
"Must be. I just graduated. Yale Law," he said awkwardly. Haley smiled.
"Congratulations. That's amazing. I never…" Haley blushed and touched her hands to her flat stomach. He noticed the gesture, but said nothing.
"You've got a good thing going here. Sorry to intrude on it," he said.
"You're not. I mean, I guess you are, but I think I owe you at least a morning every two years. I screwed you over pretty royally," she said.
Seamus looked up at her, but before he could answer Nathan had entered, leading Eve by the hand. She squealed and ran to her mother. Haley grinned and lifted her on to her lap.
"Eve, this is Seamus Warren Foster. Seamus, this is my daughter Eva Elizabeth Scott," said Haley. Eve ducked her head into her mother's shoulder.
"Nice to meet you, Eve. Oh, I think you're having your house robbed," he said mildly, as the front door banged open and two sets of footsteps came quickly toward them.
Haley smiled as Jake and Ryan entered, and Eve immediately catapulted herself off her lap and ran toward her aunt.
"Wyan!" she called joyfully. Eve was far from managing the English language, but she was becoming quite adept at the names of her closest family.
"Baby!" said Ryan, reaching down to pick her up and lifted her into the air. Eve giggled delightedly and clung to Ryan.
Haley glanced across at Seamus and noticed him eyeing Ryan with interest as she lifted Eve again in to the air.
"Guys, come sit," said Haley. Ryan attempted to put Eve back on her feet, but when she attempted to Eve refused to gain solid footing, forcing Ryan to lift her onto her hip again. Ryan rolled her eyes good naturedly before complying.
"Seamus," said Jake in surprise, reaching down to shake his hand. Ryan whipped her head toward him, blonde hair flying in every direction.
"Seamus? You're Seamus?" she said in surprise.
"And you're Ryan," he said, standing. She smiled and nodded.
"Ryan Scott. Nice to meet you," she said. Jake raised his eyebrows as she sat down next to him. Haley looked up and was relieved to see that Nathan had vanished from the room.
"Jake, sit," she said. He reluctantly lowered himself onto the sofa beside her, his eyes on Ryan and Seamus.
"What's up with you?" asked Jake, attempting to appear neutral.
"I just graduated. Thought I'd swing by," said Seamus nonchalantly.
"Congratulations," said Ryan, thoroughly absorbed in a particularly demanding Eve.
"Thanks. Where do you go?" he asked. Ryan looked up from her niece in surprise.
"I'm about to go into my junior year at NYU. Jake's a senior," she said.
"What's your major?" he asked.
"Art history. You're a lawyer?" she asked.
"Yeah. I just got an internship, actually."
"Really." She shrieked in surprise when Eve grabbed a lock of her long blonde hair and pulled hard.
Through the high-pitched shriek, Haley could hear Nathan walking down the hall toward them. She hurriedly took Jake's hand and pulled him out of the room behind her, leaving Ryan, Seamus and Eve on the couch.
"What are you doing? He's probably mauling her right now!" he said furiously. Haley raised her eyebrows.
"With my daughter a foot away? If he is, I give you full permission to kick his ass," she said sarcastically.
"He's not good enough for her," said Jake protectively. Haley smacked the back of his head in annoyance before he'd realized his error.
"What are you guys doing out here?" asked Nathan in surprise, coming down the hall.
"Just, uh talking. Hey Nathan," she said, speaking louder than necessary. She pressed a kiss onto his lips. His hands fell to her hips and he pulled her in closer until Jake coughed politely, and the three of them re-entered the room.
Ryan had gotten the message. She had moved to the armchair, and was bouncing Eve in her lap.
Jake went to side beside Seamus, and Nathan sat opposite them. Haley rolled her eyes as Nathan pulled her onto his lap and secured his arms around her.
"You guys swing by for any particular reason?" asked Nathan. He angled Haley on his lap so that she was directly facing Seamus. He slipped his hand under her shirt and slowly began to move it upwards, feeling her nerves tense in response. He watched in amusement as she tried to regulate her shallow, labored breaths to appear calm and collected to the assembled crowd. She attempted to slide off his lap, but he held her firmly.
She breathed a sigh in relief as he stopped running his fingers down her back and withdrew his hand from her shirt, and began to relax. Slowly his hand moved up to her hair and began to tangle in it, brushing his fingers down the back of her neck and causing shivers to run down her spine.
Nathan and Haley had reached new compassion in their relationship, but even she couldn't deny that forcing her to look at her old love while her lover slowly made her desire him was cruel.
It was torture. Slow, excruciating torture.
His strong arms still preventing her from changing position, he brushed a kiss on her temple and dropped his hand down to fondle the outside of her thigh. Slowly his hand moved toward the inside, between her legs, and she gasped in surprise as he moved in closer.
"Can you guys watch Eve for a second? Nathan has a conference call," lied Haley, finally wrenching herself free from his grasp and standing up. He stood as well, and took her hand. They walked out of the room, leaving Seamus in confusion, and Jake and Ryan smiling indulgently.
He pressed her against a pillar in the hall and kissed her deeply before she could even open her mouth to speak.
"You couldn't resist, could you? You had to make me compare," she said, between kisses.
"No," he said, running his lips over the hickey he'd left only days previously. "I had to show you there was no comparison."
He moved her arms around her neck and puts his own arm behind her knees. She didn't even bother to protest as he carried her back upstairs and into the bedroom. Her obvious want of him made it pointless.
After temporarily quenching their need, Haley and Nathan hurried back downstairs to rejoin their guests.
"Oh, you're going?" asked Haley, upon reentering the living room.
"Uh, yeah. I have an interview," he said awkwardly. Haley wondered how blatant they'd been to him.
"Wait a sec. We have something to announce," said Nathan, slipping an arm around Haley's waist. She looked up at him in horror, amazed that he felt such a strong need to claim her as his.
"What?" asked Ryan, looking expectantly.
Nathan glanced down at Haley. She scowled, realized he was toying with her mind again-he wasn't going to give her the easy out. He was going to make her say.
"I'm pregnant," she said at last, smiling honestly. Ryan hugged her while Jake and Nathan did their manly hug routine. Seamus walked up to Haley.
"Congratulations," he said simply, wrapping his arms around her. She smile gratefully at him, briefly imagining what sort of reaction Nathan would have if she ever were to be impregnated by someone else. But she didn't feel guilty about the comparison.
After all, it was Nathan that had brought it up.
"She went out with him!" Haley answered her cell phone later on in the evening to hear Jake Jagielski, not even bothering to announce himself.
"Slow down. Ryan and Seamus?" she asked.
"Yeah! In her little red dress! I should never have let her buy that dress," he said angrily. Haley giggled.
"If I didn't know better I'd say you were jealous, Jake," she said. He scoffed.
"Doorbell, I have to go. My date's here," he said.
Jake dropped the phone onto his bed, abruptly hanging up on her. Slowly he walked down the hallway to the door and opened it.
"Hi. You're Jake Jagielski? I'm Nikki Turner," said his blind date, a blatantly attractive brunette, complete with a nose piercing, hoop earring and eyeliner.
He stared at her a moment longer.
"No, sorry, you have the wrong apartment," he said abruptly, slamming the door and walking toward the couch, dropping on to it to watch TV until Ryan got home.
She arrived back two hours later, at ten. He smiled in amusement when she arrived home hours before he'd scheduled to start worrying in earnest.
"Not such a successful date?" he asked, trying not to sound hopeful.
"God that guy is dull. And he's in the midst of all this drama with his girlfriend. Amanda. Want to know more about her? Because I swear I know everything. What are we watching?" she asked. And so Ryan Scott, in her little red dress, after her first date in months, dropped down onto the sofa beside her roommate to watch reruns of Arrested Development.
"I just tried to call Ryan, but her phone's off. Did she and Jake go out?" asked Nathan in surprise, walking into the bathroom where Haley was drying her hair. She flicked off her hair dryer and slowly turned to him.
"No," she said honestly. Sensing it would take a while to get an honest answer out of her, Nathan slipped an arm around her waist to pull her in closer to him, and tilted her chin upward with his other hand. She looked into his clear blue eyes and sighed.
"Ryan went out with Seamus."
As the doorbell rang, Haley broke away from him and ran downstairs to get it. He followed her dazedly, his mind slowly coming to conclusions.
"Seamus," said Haley worriedly, upon answering the door. Nathan came up behind her, moved her out of the way, brought back his fist and took a swing at Seamus' jaw.
Still reeling from the blow, it took a moment for him to gain enough focus to pull back his own fist to punch Nathan's jaw. After Nathan had socked him once more, Seamus launched himself angrily at him and they fell to the floor, kicking and punching wherever possible. Quickly Nathan found his stride and flipped them over so he had the advantage, beating his head again and again.
"Guys! Stop!" said Haley in frustration. Reaching down to pull them apart, she caught the side impact of one of Seamus' blows and went flying.
This caused Nathan to hit him extra hard one more time before jumping up and running to her. Falling to the floor, he cradled her in his arms and looked to where he'd hit her.
Seamus' eyes widened in horror as Haley looked up and he saw the noticeable swelling around her right eye.
"Got yourself a nice shiner there. You okay?" asked Nathan. She nodded, trying to block her tears. Nathan placed a comforting hand on her stomach.
"I'm fine," she muttered. Nathan looked over his shoulder at Seamus.
"Get out," he said coolly, eying what a mess he'd made of the younger man.
"Haley, I'm sorry, I…" Haley glanced up at him.
"Get out," she said, repeating her husband's words. Seamus nodded slowly and left out the front door.
"Sure you're okay?" he asked. She slowly stood.
"Why did you punch him?" she asked.
"He went out with Ryan to get you jealous. Screwing with you is bad enough, I won't have him screwing with her. And no one hits my woman and gets away with it," he said, his angry words gradually flowing into playfulness.
"He didn't. He's over me. I should be pissed at you for this," she said.
"But you're too overwhelmed by my sense of family loyalty to be?" he said hopefully. She laughed and put her arm around his waist.
"Something like that. Come on, let's go to bed," she said, sounding eager to end her long, confusing day.