Chapter 43
Late spring sunlight, shone into the blinds of the quiet, Sunday morning suburbs of One Tree Hill. There was no doubt about it; summer was just around the corner. Finals, Basketball play offs, and then finally, 3 blissful months of vacation.
The bright rays, pierced through the wooden slats that concealed Nathans room from the outside world. They lingered on his eyelids, taunting his subconscious, calling to him to wake. His drowsy mind fought back valiantly, but to no avail. Little slits at first, his eyes blinked open in the brightness. He inhaled disorientated, the smell of something sweet gracing his nostrils. Licking his lips, he opened his eyes fully to let them land on the source of the aroma.
Haley, still asleep, was curled into him, her hair falling against the pillow, and her smooth aromatic neck just under his nose. A lazy smile curved onto his lips, as it did every morning when he awoke to her being the first thing he saw. Still, he reveled in the fact that she was here, back in his arms after all this time.
A sound brought an even bigger smile to his face. The shower down the hall was running, and over the patter of shooting water, drifted the melodic singing voice of his daughter, showing her amazing talents off to the showerhead, as in the room next door to the bathroom, Ephraim seemed to snore, perfectly in time with her singing.
Nathan chuckled lightly and turned his gaze down onto his sleeping wife. Slowly, the brightness getting to her as well, she began to stir to life. Unknowingly, she grabbed for him, as if checking he was really there.
"Hey," he whispered, kissing her on the nose.
She yawned, and stretched out of her ball shape, to look at him, "Hi,"
His arm settled instinctively around her once she seemed comfortable.
"Did you sleep well?" he ran his fingers gentler up and down her shoulder blades.
She nodded, "Did you?"
He smirked, "Of course I did. I always sleep well now you're here."
Grinning at his cheesiness, yet secretly loving it completely, she snuggled a bit closer to him.
"Hey listen." He told her quietly, and she became silent to hear what he was talking about.
Hearing Ollie's beautiful voice synchronized with Ephraim's snores brought an identical expression to her face, as Nathan had had himself when he had heard it.
"They make quite the pair don't they," she laughed.
"Yeah. They always have. They always reminded me of you and Luke.
She nodded, happy for anyone that was blessed with the type of bond that she shared with Lucas.
"I bet she'll tell Rai what you two did yesterday, so you can tell me." He mused.
"Nathan!" she hit his chest softly, he'd been asking about it frequently since she and Ollie arrived home from the Obstetrician yesterday, "Forget it. She was just going through some girl stuff. Nothing you need to know." She assured him, planting a kiss on him to deter him.
He smirked away from her, "What? Was it mother, daughter time?"
She laughed, "Something like that."
Nathan noticed a slight sad edge to her voice, "Her birthdays coming up." He told her, guessing that could be part of the reason.
"Yeah. Two weeks." She sighed, thinking of all the birthdays she had missed. Wondering if the occasion might tear open freshly healed wounds between her and Ollie.
"Do you wish you could do it over again?" he whispered.
"What do you think?"
"I think you did what you had to do."
She stroked his cheek, he was so sweet.
Nathan propped him self up onto an elbow, pecked her temple, and then stared down at her thoughtfully for a moment. "Would you ever want to do it again?"
"What do you mean?" she narrowed her eyes, "Leave?"
He shook his head, "No. Have another kid?"
Shuffling under the blankets, she looked away from him and shrugged. She had always wanted a big family, just like she'd had herself growing up. But now, could she really bring another child into the world after everything she put her first child through.
"Hales?" Nathan whispered against her back.
She shrugged. "Would you risk it? She whispered back.
"Yes." He answered bluntly. "There's not much of a risk though."
She laughed, "You're awfully sure of yourself aren't you Nate?"
"Well." He chuckled back. "I think if you tried a runner, Ollie would come at you with ropes, I'd come at you with tears and Ephraim would do that whole reverse guilty psychology thing that seems to works so well on you." He shrugged, "So Yeah. I'm pretty sure of myself."
She rolled her eyes. "Well in that case. Maybe we better start trying sometime."
Abruptly, she swung out of bed, taking the covers with her, and went into the connecting bathroom. Laughing at his protest, she pulled on the flannel pajamas that had been discarded the previous night in a fit of passion, and left Nathan alone in the bedroom, flashing him a cheeky grin on the way out.
"Hey." She greeted Ollie once in the kitchen.
"Morning." Ollie replied vacantly, her eyes focused on the entertainment section of the morning paper as she ate a bowl of cereal.
Haley poured herself a bowl and sat down too. Absentmindedly crunching at her food, her eyes flicked over the opposite side of the paper to what Ollie was reading. When she came to read the very top headline, she nearly upchucked.
'Haley James, Junior? Junior?' it read, with a picture of Ollie and Haley outside the Obstetrician office from the previous day. Haley wrenched it toward her, so she could read it causing Ollie to blink at her in surprise.
"Something interesting?" Ollie mused.
Gulping, Haley shook her head, as she took in the words on the page.
Ollie's curiosity climbed. "What is it?"
"You're not going to like this," Haley breathed, turning the paper around so that Ollie could see.
"Shit!" Ollie cursed, her eyes widening as she read the page. It fully detailed, quite possibly the worst time for the paparazzi to find out about Haley's secret family.
"Hey language." Nathan joked, coming into the room, oblivious to their tension.
Both Haley and Ollie stiffened simultaneously, staring at Nathan frozen. He chuckled uncomfortably. "What's going on?"
Trying to be discrete, Ollie tucked the page under the table, but her dad was too quick and got to it before it was completely concealed. He snatched it off her, and for the third time in the last few minutes, the article got scanned by Scott eyes.
Slamming it down on the table, he bellowed, "You're pregnant Ollie?"
She flinched, "No."
He made sure to keep his temper in check. "That's not what the article seems to say, and show." He gestured toward the picture.
Ollie felt a slight sweat rise to her body, "Um…They must have edited it or something. To make it into a big uh Haley James drama." She attempted, lying terribly.
Looking at her, and then Haley suspiciously, he asked, "And the truth?"
"Nate, she is telling the truth. She isn't pregnant." Haley assured him.
"Are you then?" he questioned, thinking of their earlier conversation. "Did the article just get it round the wrong way?"
Haley glanced at Ollie who shrugged helplessly. "No, I'm not pregnant either." She told him, "No one is."
He sat down at the counter, "Then what the hell is going on?"
Before anyone had a chance to answer, the front door of the house burst open. Crazed looking, with disheveled hair and wild eyes, Kaleb stumbled into the room.
Not even noticing Haley or Nathan in the room, his eyes locked onto Ollie terrified, "I came right here when I saw it." He spluttered, "Is it true?"
Uncomfortably, Ollie glanced from Kaleb to her dad and then to her mom. When Ollie's eye fell on to her, Haley could feel the silent need for advice, for help.
"Kaleb, why don't you sit down?" Haley suggested softly.
Kaleb flinched, as if, for the first time noticing He and Ollie weren't alone. He double flinched, when he saw Nathan's murderous glare. Eyes wide, he trembled and clumsily fell onto a stool.
There was a tense silence.
Ollie chuckled fakely, trying to break the tension. "So I guess you both want to know what's going on then."
They just stared at her, Kaleb looking like he was about to faint, and Nathan unable to keep a protective glint out of his eyes.
"Well," she began nervously seeing a little nod from Haley. "My period was a couple of weeks late, so I bought a home pregnancy test and it came out positive."
"You did have sex?" Nathan accused angrily wit his head in his hands, at the same time Kaleb blurted, "I'll marry you." Both males turned to glare at each other.
"Argh this is horrible!" Ollie groaned. "Just let me finish."
Grudgingly, they turned back to her.
"Anyway, we went to an obstetrician, and I'm not pregnant," she looked pointedly a Kaleb, who looked somewhat relieved. "It's all just a big mistake that it got photographed."
His face full of relief, and the wild look significantly faded, Kaleb pulled Ollie into his arms, not caring what her parents thought or did, "I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault that those people won't leave mom alone."
"Yeah, I know." He squeezed her, "Um about what I said before..."
"Don't worry about it. Thanks though." She said with a little laugh, squeezing him back, knowing that next time, if anything like this happened, she didn't have to be afraid of him finding out. The grunt of Nathan clearing his throat brought them back to reality.
The scared look popped back onto Kaleb's face, "I'll uh go. I lo…" he glanced sidelong at Nathan. "Bye."
Ollie turned reluctantly to Nathan. It was bad enough to have to face all the whispering kids at school, let alone the lecture her dad was surely about to give her. She stared at the table.
Nathan cleared his throat again, the ability to speak nearly escaping him, "Just be careful."
"That's all?" both Ollie and Haley looked shocked.
"Yes. Anymore would actually involve me thinking about... it. Something which a father should never have to do." He concluded dispairedly.
The two Scott girls just continued to stare at him shocked, as he wandered off toward the hearth with a box of matches, and the news page that started it all.