Part 32

Peyton jerked awake from lightly dozing as a door banged in the apartment. Glancing down at Brooke in her arms she debated whether or not to wake the other girl up, her heart rate began to increase as she heard movement outside the bedroom. As the door started to ease open quietly her eyes widened in panic and she instinctively tightened her grip on Brooke.

A head became visible as the door opened wider with a soft creek and she was a second away from letting out a scream when she recognised who it was.

"Sorry!" Came the quick apology as Haley walked over to the bed, her hands held out in front of her in a calming motion. "Sorry, I've got a spare key and didn't want to wake you."

Peyton let out a heavy sigh as she dropped her head back and tried to get her panic under control. Nothing was wrong, it was just Haley.

Damn, she scared the crap out of me, what the hell would I have done if it wasn't just Haley?

In the process of cursing herself out for letting her guard down and not paying attention, Peyton felt a hand travel up from her hip to rest over her heart.

"What's wrong?" Brooke's drowsy voice asked her breaking her out of the current thoughts of failure going around her mind.

"Nothing." Peyton whispered as she opened her eyes to be met with concerned brown ones. She smiled weakly as Brooke quirked an eyebrow at her. "Haley's here." She informed her friend with a tilt of her head.

Brooke quickly acknowledged their friend with a glance, but the thundering heart under her hand was where the centre of her attention was fixated. She turned back to look at Peyton with a scowl on her face.

"I really am sorry you guys, I didn't mean to scare either of you. I still have a spare key, I thought you might be sleeping when you weren't in the other room." Haley continued to explain. "I just…didn't want to wake you…guess it was a pretty stupid thing to do."

Peyton let out a small laugh as she looked at the pregnant girl. "It's okay Hales I guess I was just more tired than I thought after all." She said as she felt Brooke's hand tenderly pat the surface it rested on just above her heart and in between her breasts. A small detail which she tried not to think too much about.

Brooke let out a deep breath as she laid her head back down onto Peyton's shoulder and watched Haley as she awkwardly moved to sit on the bed beside them.

"So, what brings you back here? Miss the place already?" Brooke asked sleepily as she fought to keep her eyes open. She really hadn't had much rest in the last twenty four hours and being held close to Peyton's warm body was lulling her back to sleep.

"Sure! You do remember what Deb's house looks like right?" Haley laughed as she managed to seat herself with her back resting against the bed's headboard.

"Then to what do we owe the pleasure of your company?" Brooke asked as she let her eyes drift closed, not that she was going to fall asleep, it was just comfier that way.

"Not that you aren't welcome any time." Peyton said quickly, flashing Haley a grin which the other girl easily returned.

"Right, right, anytime." Brooke mumbles as she burrows her face deeper into Peyton's shoulder as the other two girls look on fondly.

Haley watches the brunette for a few seconds before she turns her attention to Peyton.

"Actually," She begins with a lowered voice thinking that Brooke had drifted off to sleep again. "I needed to talk to you, both of you, I guess."

Peyton reluctantly pulls her gaze away from the girl in her arms and looks over at the pregnant girl with a small frown.

Haley shifts slightly under the look, not really wanting to have this conversation with her two friends but after talking it over with her husband she knew she was probably the best person to handle this.

"What?" Peyton asked softly as the other girl fell silent.

With a sigh Haley decided to just get it over with. "Nathan got a call from Lucas a little while ago."

"And?" Peyton prodded her knowing there had to be a lot more to it, something was obviously making the other girl hesitant in saying whatever it was she had come over to say.

"And," Haley starts again as her hand reaches over to delicately adjust a strand of Brooke's hair that had fallen over the girls eyes. "Some of the guys at school have been asking to see her…see Brooke." She clarified.

Peyton frowned at Haley as she tried to relax her arms which had stiffened at the thought of having people coming over to the apartment to see Brooke. She wasn't some freak show that they could come and gawk at, and there was no way in hell she was going to let any of the idiots from school anywhere near her best friend.

"Is Lucas selling tickets?" Brooke asked with a sigh, wishing she had managed to fall back asleep and been able to have missed taking part in this particular discussion.

Nothing wakes you more than finding out you're the latest tourist attraction in town, woopie! Just what I always wanted, mom would be soo proud.

Sighing and feeling the start of a headache coming on Brooke reluctantly shifts out of Peyton's arms and sits back so she can face both of the other girls.

"What? No, Brooke it's nothing like that." Haley replied quickly. "It's just that a lot of people want to see that you're doing okay. Skills, Bevin, some of the other girls on the team as well as Mouth, they all want the chance to see you. None of them have since you were at the prom. There were all at the hospital that night-"

"So, that makes it okay?" Brooke demanded. "Just because I know them means it's okay for them to all come over here, into my home, and what? Just stare at me for five minutes? Do they get to ask questions, or is that what I've got to look forward to tomorrow?"

Haley just stared at her friend sadly, she hadn't thought Brooke would have taken the idea of seeing some of their friends this badly. She'd thought Brooke had been doing really well up until now. The brunette had known most of the other cheerleaders almost as long as she'd known Peyton, why wouldn't she want to see them?

"It might be a good idea." Peyton said speaking up softly but stiffened as Brooke turned accusing and hurt brown eyes on her. She felt a stab of pain as that gaze was directed at her but she knew she was right, she just had to explain to Brooke.

If she'd let her.

"Hear me out, please." Peyton asked and as much as she wanted to reach over to the other girl she had a feeling she wouldn't be welcomed.

"Fine." Brooke hissed at her as she sat back making sure she no longer touched Peyton in any way. "Let's hear it."

Peyton blinked slowly and had to swallow past the lump that formed in her throat as she watched Brooke wrap her arms around her waist in reaction to the way she was feeling now.

Damn, now I'm the one hurting her.

"Just, listen, okay?" Peyton began. "You said you were going to sit your finals, right? Starting on Monday?" She continued and waited for Brooke to nod in agreement. Peyton knew Brooke was willing to go through that even though she would probably be allowed to pass without sitting them given the circumstances.

"What do you think it'll be like turning up at school on Monday?" Peyton asked her softly.

"What do you mean?" Brooke replied not getting what the other girl meant.

"I mean," Peyton started as she thought back to how she felt on her first day back after Ian had attacked her. "When I went back, everybody already knew, about what happened with Ian and everyone stared at me like…like I was-"

"Naked?"

Both Brooke and Peyton turned to Haley as she said that. Peyton had to laugh as the pregnant girl blushed slightly under the attention, but Brooke managed to hold in her own amusement.

"Sorry," Haley apologised for interrupting them. "Bad naked high school dream flashback, I'll be quiet now." She said weakly with a shrug.

"That's okay." Peyton said before turning back to Brooke. "My point is, that it was really horrible being there and having the whole school watching me. I couldn't do it, I didn't last longer than one class before I ditched and went home."

She could see that her words were having an impact as the other girl relaxed her posture a little and turned her eyes to the bed covers instead of glaring at her. Slowly, and making sure to give the brunette enough time to see what she was doing, Peyton placed her hand over Brooke's.

"I don't want you to go through that like I did." She confided, tightening her grip on her friends hand. That was the real reason she thought it was a good idea to have some of their friends come by, it would take some of the pressure of turning up at school on Monday morning away from Brooke.

Back then Lucas had told her that by giving in and going home she was letting Ian win, but he had already won, she was only trying to pick up the pieces and get on with her life. It was a harder process than she had thought it would be, and at the time, facing a school full of prying eyes was just a step too far for her to make.

"I'm not saying invite everyone over at once, I'm not even saying do it today, or tomorrow. But Mouth and Skills, they're two really good friends of all of ours. They'd never do anything to upset you, you know that." Peyton explained. "You don't have to say yes right now, just think about it, okay?" She continued trying to make eye contact with the other girl. "We're all going to be there with you as well, Brooke, you're not doing this by yourself."

Brooke nodded, but her head was still bowed.

"Hey," Peyton says reaching to tilt Brooke's face up, her heart clenched as she saw the tears on her friend's cheeks. "Come here." She said and gently pulled her willing friend back into her arms again.

Damn.

Peyton shared a worried glance with Haley as Brooke clung to her.

After a few moments Brooke swiped at her face and decided to voice her fears. "What if I can't?" She asked in no more than a whisper.

"What was that?" Haley asked not sure she had heard Brooke right.

Sniffling Brooke shifted in Peyton's embrace so she could face her and repeated her question. "What if I can't? What if I can't face them on Monday?"

"Brooke, if anyone can do this it's you; you're the strongest person I know." Peyton replied. "Of course you can do this."

Haley moved over enough so that she was able to stroke a hand along her upset friend's back.

"You can do this Brooke." Peyton repeated.

"You really think so?" Brooke asked with a sniffle looking up at the blonde, needing to be convinced.

"Yes, I do, you're Brooke Davis; you can do anything you want to!"

"Yeah, I mean come on Brooke, anyone that can stand in front of the whole student body and have a sock puppet as her peer advocate," Haley said with a laugh. "Has to have more than enough guts to face Mouth!"

Brooke groans and tries to hide her face as she remembers what it felt like to walk onto that stage with her hand shoved up some guy's warm smelly sock.

"What?" Peyton asked smiling at the thought but having no idea what Haley was talking about. "A puppet?"

"Did it have a name?" Peyton asked trying hard not to laugh as Brooke turned her head into her upper arm. "And where the hell was I when this was happening?" She continued trying to nudge Brooke into looking at her.

Haley giggled and answered for her. "She called it Erica!"

Brooke frowned and shot her a glance. "How would you know that? You weren't even in school when that happened."

Haley sighed remembering exactly what she had been doing at the time, screwing up her marriage, but thankfully she had been able to work everything out with Nathan.

"Yeah, well Lucas filled me in later." She responded as her son gave her a healthy kick to the ribs.

"You okay?" Brooke asks as she and Peyton watch her grimace and adjust her position beside them.

"Yeah." Haley breathes out unconvincingly. After a few seconds the pain subsides and she laughs softly as she catches the worried looks on her friend's faces.

"Come here," She says smiling as she grabs first Brooke's hand and then Peyton's, placing them both on her swelled mid section. "He's complaining that we're talking too loudly, we're keeping him up."

It takes a few moments, but eventually they all feel a sharp movement directed towards where their hands rested.

"Wow, that had to have hurt." Peyton said, not sure what she felt as she watched her pregnant friend relax back and close her eyes. Haley was letting them experience the life growing inside her. Her child.

One of Tree Hill's next generation was just an inch or two beneath her hand, a boy, another Scott, was about to enter this world. She could only hope that the girls of his age group would be ready for him, because as Peyton looked from Haley to Brooke and then to their hands above this unborn child, she acknowledged that sometimes the Scott boys were more trouble than they were worth.

"You okay?" Brooke asks softly, placing her hand over the blondes as she sees the far away look on her face.

"What?" Peyton asks, snapping out of her thoughts and looking down at Brooke. "Yeah, guess I am kinda tired after all." She says hoping it would be enough of an explanation.

Brooke narrows her eyes at her, knowing that was a lie but letting it go anyway. "Fine," She says resting her head back down onto Peyton shoulder. "I guess we could all use some more sleep." It was still a while before four o'clock, so she didn't have to worry about that.

With a final pat to Hales' stomach Peyton lifted both her and Brookes hands away, and as Brooke's moved to rest on her arm, she placed both of hers back around Brooke in the same position they had been when Haley had first shown up.

"You did lock the door, right?" Peyton asked with a frown before she could let herself fall asleep again.

"Yes, all locked and bolted." She assured them.

"You know," Haley spoke again after a long silence, keeping her eyes firmly closed. "One of these days I'm going to come over to see you guys and you aren't going to be all snuggled up in bed together." She continued holding in a grin as she heard Brooke's laughter ring out. And if she was inclined to open her eyes, she guessed she'd even see Peyton blushing, but she was just too damn comfy to bother right now.

There'd be other times anyway, she was sure of it.

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AN/Well this should have been part of the last chapter but I hadn't finished it, which works out great because I haven't had the time to write this week, I'll try to make it up to you guys next time.

Little Jamie is an absolute cutie, and such a great baby so far, sadly his sister has asked to take him back and get a girl instead LOL, we're sure she'll learn to love him it just might take some time.

Sorry, but as most of you can tell I haven't answered the reviews from the last chapter :( I just don't have the time right now, but please know that I'm very grateful to each and every one of you that reads this fic, whether you take the time to review or not.

Thank you, you guys rock!!

Shout outs to the Newbies – glad you could join us ;)

Later!