AN/ Hope everyone had a great New Year!!

Part 8

Nathan watched as Haley headed into the school, she'd been asked to go see Principal Turner at break this morning leaving him to his own devises for the next fifteen minutes.

School had been the last thing on Peyton's mind that morning and had decided to skip, he had no idea where Lucas was but he had seen him earlier in class.

The atmosphere around school had been very sombre but they where groups of kids that would be huddled together talking but they always fell silent once he, Haley or Lucas had been spotted.

They could only assume that more people had seen the Tonight's News show last night than either one had thought. Along with the news vans currently parked at the front of the school Nathan figured things were about to get as bad as Peyton had feared last night.

"Fucking vultures!"

Turning towards the voice Nathan watches as Peyton tosses her bag on the ground before taking a seat beside him while staring daggers at the crowd at the school entrance.

"Hey, didn't think you were going to show." Nathan says by way of greeting.

Peyton shifts her gaze to the youngest Scott brother her eyes showing pain.

"I wasn't, but anything's better than being alone right now." She says before returning her eyes to the local and not so local news crews. "Maybe not anything."

Nathan follows her gaze. "Yeah, I know what you mean. They cornered me and Hales when we got here asking a bunch of questions. We just walked by them. But they've been talking to a lot of the other kids."

Peyton sighs before looking around the quad. "I guess everyone knows now, huh?"

Nathan reaches over and covers her hand with his. "We'll get her through this Peyton, I promise you we will." He says as Peyton lets him pull her into a hug.

"Thanks." Peyton whisper as she pulls back.

"Hey, dude your married so stay away from my girlfriend." Comes a voice from behind them as Lucas sits down beside Peyton and gives her a kiss on the cheek.

Last night after she had calmed down a little she'd let him hold her for the rest of the night. Even though they had fallen asleep fully dressed, and he'd had to rush home to change before class, he thought Peyton was beginning to let him back in again.

Peyton tried to smile at her boyfriend but she just couldn't manage it, so instead she turned back to Nathan finally noticing someone was missing from their little group.

"Where's Hales?"

"Oh, Turner wanted to see her about something." Nathan responds with a shrug. Seeing Peyton look over his shoulder at the news crews again he slaps lightly at her knee. "Why don't we go see if she's about done?"

"Sure." Peyton answers glad of the excuse to be away from the reporters and the cameras in front of her.

With that the three friends pick up their things and head back into the building.

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"So are you going to stay for the rest of the day or?" Haley asks as she, Peyton and Lucas get out of their English class. Not that much work was getting done over the next two weeks, but they still had to attend until graduation.

"Nah, I'm going to take off soon. I have an appointment to see Turner in ten, then I'm going to head over to the hospital." Peyton answers with a shake over her head as she felt Lucas come up beside her and put his arm around her shoulder.

Turning round the corner as they headed towards their lockers they could hear a group's laughter before they saw them.

"No way man! That's not what happened." Said a tall blonde haired boy as he shoved another boy away as three other friends laughed.

"What really happened was that Brooke was pissed about Peyton writing whore on her prom dress, she went over to her house and Peyton stabbed her." The blonde boy said with the conviction of having been there and seen it happen.

Peyton barely had time to recognize the gasp she heard came from Haley before she was throwing herself at the blonde haired boy in front of her. She was throwing punch after punch as they both fell to the ground, even as she was lifted off the boy she was lashing out with her hands and feet.

"Okay slugger calm down, I've got you." Nathan's voice sounded at her ear as the world came back into focus.

Nathan was griping her tightly around the waist as she stared furiously at the boy still lying on the ground. His friends looking on in shocked silence as the boy wiped the blood from his nose and mouth trying to sit up.

Nathan's grip loosened enough to let Haley slip her hand in to rub her back slowly, but her breathing was still ragged and she could feel herself beginning to shake.

"What the fuck?" The boy on the floor questioned as he got to his feet.

Just as Peyton tried to pull herself out of Nathan's arms Lucas did her the favour of grabbing the boy and pushing him up against a locker.

"Watch your fucking mouth in future! Or I'll shut it for you, you moron!" Lucas shouted with his face only inches away from the younger boys.

"Yeah, or next time I'll be the one throwing the punches!" Nathan threatened as Lucas gave the boy a shove and he took off down the corridor along with his friends.

Peyton looked on as the hallway emptied leaving just the four friends, turning she held onto Nathan frantically as her mind replayed the boy's words over and over again.

Nathan held her as she began to cry wishing he had gotten to them a few minutes before he had. He'd been at the other end of the hall as he watched his three friends walk towards him, his smile had turned to shock as he watched Peyton throw herself at a group of junior boys. He had sprinted towards them and pulled Peyton away before Lucas had even moved.

Thinking that asking what had caused the blonde to get into the fight would be one of his dumber moves, Nathan just held Peyton for a while letting her cry as both Lucas and Haley looked on in concern.

"Come on lets get you home Peyt." Nathan says softly as her crying begins to slow. Placing a kiss to her temple he gently begins to guide them towards the car park without releasing his hold on her.

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Nathan Scott paced up and down the living room floor trying to stay calm, but he was failing badly. He'd waited as patiently as he was capable of while he and Haley got Peyton settled into their bed, where she'd quickly cried herself to sleep holding onto his wife.

In fact she had cried in Haley's arms all through the car ride home. Now it was just the three of them in the room and he wanted answers.

"Would one of you tell me what the fuck is going on?" He demanded hotly looking from Lucas to Haley.

"Well?" He continued as he watched the two friends look at each other.

"Nathan-" Haley begins holding her hands up to try to calm her husband down.

"Don't 'Nathan' me Hales, something happened. Peyton doesn't just start laying into people for no fucking reason! And she hasn't stopped crying, now just tell me." Nathan says cutting her off.

Lucas sighed. "That kid just mouthed off about what happened to Brooke."

Nathan looked unconvinced at that explanation and turned to look at his wife.

"Well, yeah that's kinda what happened Nate." Haley replied not really wanting to repeat exactly what the boy had said to upset Peyton so much.

"What he said was that I was the one that stabbed her."

The three friends turned to look at Peyton who stood just inside the room, her arms rapped around her waist. It was clear from her red, puffy eyes that she'd been crying again.

Nathan watches as tears begin to fall down her face. Not being able to watch for long he walks over to her, happy that she lets him pull her into a hug. He couldn't believe what she had just said and looked back at Lucas and Haley who both nodded.

"The little shit didn't have a clue what he was talking about Peyton." Nathan says holding her head against his shoulder. His eyes darken as he thinks about the boy from the hallway and just what he'll do to him the next time they crossed paths.

"Come on lets get you back into bed okay." He says softly.

Peyton shakes her head and pulls herself out of his arms giving him a pat on the side. She had things to do, so as much as she would have liked to get a few hours sleep she couldn't.

"No. Visiting starts soon, I've got to go." She continues as she moves to pick up her car keys. Lucas had driven her car over while she'd been driven home by Nathan and Haley.

"Okay, so how about we come with you?" Nathan asks not wanting to leave the blonde alone.

"I think that's a great idea." Haley says standing from the couch with a little help from Lucas.

Before Peyton can reply Haley walks over to her and gives her a hug quickly followed by her boyfriend.

"As much as I'd like that, you guys still can't come in." Peyton tries to object.

"Then we'll just hang around until visiting is over and bring you home." Nathan says not taking no for an answer. There was no way he wanted to let Peyton out of his sight right now.

Peyton looks at her friends, thankful that they were there so much for her at the moment.

"Fine, but don't complain when you all get bored waiting around for me." She says with a small smile as Lucas takes her hand in his.

"Won't dream of it baby." Lucas says giving her hand a squeeze.

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AN/ Hope you all enjoyed that and thanks for reading folks!!