Chapter 19 - Dinner At The Scott's!

"Lucas, you're finally home..." Andy approached his son with his hands in his pockets as Lucas walked through the front door.

"Yeah sorry, coach kept us in a little longer at practice." Lucas explained putting his bag down on the floor.

"That's okay, I'm still getting dinner ready anyway."

"Uhmmm...Is Haley home dad?" Lucas asked scratching the back of his head.

"Yeah she's up in her room." Andy took his left hand out of his pocket and pointed up the stairs.

"Oh okay..." Lucas looked down, picked his bag up again and headed towards the stairs. As Lucas was about to take the first step up, he got interrupted by his dad's voice.

"Lucas?"

"Yes dad?" he turned around to face him.

"Can we talk for a second?" This can't be good... Lucas thought.

Haley was propped up on her bed doing some of her homework when the phone started to ring. She grabbed it and looked at the screen which read 'Nathan'. She closed her textbook and opened her cell phone to answer.

"Hey Nate, what's up?" Haley asked with a little sigh after picking up her cell phone.

"Hey, just wanted to check up on you...Tim told me Peyton dropped you home." Nathan placed his left hand under his head while lying down on his bed.

"Yeah, cause you told him to tell her to drop me home..." Haley scrunched up her eyebrows a little confused by Nathan's response.

"Oh yeah" Nathan cleared his throat. "Right, just making sure she did..." Nathan mentally slapped himself for almost slipping but sighed in relief after quickly recovering.

"Well yeah, it was nice talking to Peyton. I've never really hung out with her like this before." Haley smiled thinking about how something good came out of this hectic day.

"That's cool, Peyton is a really good friend to have around at times like these. I remember her being the first one there for me back in freshman year high school, you know with my mom and stuff."

"Was that when you guys started dating?" Haley twirled the pencil in her hand anxious to know what Nathan was going to say.

"Well yeah, I suppose. But it was also when we both realized we were better off being good friends rather than girlfriend and boyfriend." Nathan was really getting good at this cover-up gig.

"Well anyway, how was practice?" Haley quickly changed the subject not wanting to really go through past relationships anymore.

"Oh hell, coach really bumped it up a notch after having to forfeit the first game of the season." Nathan sighed still hurting a bit from practice.

"I bet..." Haley giggled. "But sorry for that."

"Why are you sorry?" he asked confused.

"Well it was my fault that half of the team had to run out of the game…" Haley sighed remembering the day oh so well.

"Hales, you have nothing to be sorry about. It was our decision to check up on you."

"Oh yes, my knights in shining armor." Haley giggled.

"No just one. ME." Nathan chuckled, he loved how he could make Haley laugh or smile.

"Oh yeah, maybe you can save me right now from this dinner." Haley scoffed looking at the wall clock across from her.

"Why? It's just dinner…"

"Dinner is never just dinner at my house. Knowing my dad, he would want to fix things with me and Lucas. And right now I'm in no mood to deal with all of that." Haley sighed.

"Well it shouldn't be that bad." Nathan hoped that this dinner would help her relationship with Lucas work out too.

"Well speaking of my big back stabbing brother, how are you guys? Talking yet?" Haley made sure to put much emphasis on the back stabbing.

"Well I did speak to him earlier about settling things between you two, but that's about it." Nathan shrugged not thinking too much about it.

"Oh, so you two are on talking terms now?" Haley couldn't help but smile, as mad as she was at her brother, knowing that things we're good between Lucas and Nathan, she couldn't help but feel a sense of relief to her body.

"Well I wouldn't really call it that, but I just told him that if he ever wanted things to go back to normal between you two, that he should stop stressing about me dating you and more on fixing his relationship with you." he explained.

Haley couldn't but sigh after hearing that. After everything that has happened to her, she didn't think anything would ever be normal with her again.

"Uhmmm...Hey Nate, I'm a little tired. How about I'll call you back later okay?" Haley lied down and stared at the her ceiling waiting for a solution to everything to just fall on top of her, but nothing.

"Did I say something wrong?" Nathan asked confused.

"No, I'm just tired." Haley sighed. "I'm going to take a nap and call you later okay?"

A part of Nathan didn't want to let her go, he wanted to help her through this. He wanted to say something, anything, that could possibly make this all go away. But he knew that there was nothing at that moment. He knew he had to let her figure this out on her own. All he could really do is wait for her to come to him. So he said his goodbye and let her go.

Haley closed her eyes after turning off the phone, hoping that the next time she woke up everything would just go away, that all of this was just a terrible mistake. If only…..

"What is it dad?" Lucas sighed as he sat beside his dad on the living room couch, both men hunched over.

"Did something happen between you and Haley today?" Andy looked over at his son and waited for an answer.

"What makes you think that?" Lucas hoped he didn't have to go through the whole explanation to his father.

"Well Haley was pretty upset when she got home today and she told me to ask you about it. So…" busted.

Lucas sighed and looked down on the floor. "I messed up dad. This morning when I was picking up Brooke for school, thinking that Haley would end up going with Nathan anyway, I accidentally slip out to Brooke about the whole Haley situation with Dan and Chris. I didn't mean to, but Brooke gave me this whole thing about not keeping secrets from one another and well..." Lucas ran his fingers threw his hair knowing it was a stupid move make to make after promising his sister that he wouldn't let a word out about the incident to anyone.

"Wow, I guess that's explains it..." Andy clapped his hands and looked towards the stairs, remembering Haley's look on her face upon mentioning Lucas' or Brooke's name.

"Yeah, but that's not all dad..." Lucas paused before continuing.

"What? You didn't tell the whole school did you?" Andy scrunched up his eyebrows, hoping that wasn't it.

"Not exactly, Brooke did." Lucas winced upon saying those words, knowing how much of a jackass he really was.

"What? No, I mean I've known Brooke to tell things to people about other people, but I would've thought she was a better friend to Haley than that."

"Well I thought she was a better girlfriend than that to me and I guess I was wrong thinking that way." Lucas sighed.

"I'm sure, there's something you're missing there. I've known Brooke and I know her family, they're good people."

"Well dad, just because her parents are good people doesn't mean they're daughter is just as innocent." Lucas couldn't help the pain in his chest while saying that.

"Okay...Well we can talk about you and Brooke some other time. How are you and Haley?" he asked even though he knows the answer to that question.

"She hates me dad. And yeah I don't blame her. I don't know how she'll even forgive me dad. I'm suppose to be the one who she could always go to and now..." Lucas kept slamming his head against the palm of his hands.

"Just give her time Luke. I'm sure in time she'll forgive you. Best friends always find a way to forgive each other and so do siblings. How about you help me set dinner up and we'll talk about all of this over dinner." Lucas nodded his head and stood up. Just as he was standing up the doorbell rang.

"Expecting company dad?" Lucas stared at his father waiting for an answer.

"Uhmmm yeah. How about you get the table ready and I'll join you soon okay?" Lucas nodded his head suspiciously and headed towards the kitchen.

Andy stood up and rubbed his hands against his pants. Here goes nothing… Andy thought to himself as he headed towards the front door. Standing in front of the white framed door he took one last deep breathe before opening it.

"Hey Andy, am I too early?" the woman in front of him was holding a casserole dish in her hand and waited for Andy's response.

"Oh no, come in. Let me take that for you." He smiled take the dish off her hands. Boy did she look gorgeous.

"Thanks, so you think this will really work?" she looked over at Andy nervously.

"Hey dad! Is your company going to join-" Lucas appeared in front of them and paused. "Mom?" Lucas was so shock by the appearance of his mom he dropped the fork in his hand on the ground. Andy was just glad it wasn't a glass or a plate.

"Hey Lucas." Karen smiled at his son. It was the first time she had a face to face greeting from his son in so long.

"Oh uh…" Lucas was dumbfounded.

"It's good to see you Lucas. You've grown up to be such a handsome man." Karen decided to take the lead and walked over to his son and gave him a hug.

Lucas pulled away and gave her a confused look. "Mom what are you doing here?"

"Lucas!" Andy called out.

"It's okay, uhmmm, I guess your dad didn't tell you, he invited me for dinner. I hope that's okay?" Karen asked hoping he would say it was okay.

"It's fine mom. But I don't think Haley will be too happy about this…" Lucas said it quite bluntly.

"Well Haley will just have to deal with it. And so will you, so how about you take this into the kitchen and set up one more plate on the table." Andy stated giving the casserole dish to Lucas.

Karen smiled at Andy as a thanks for coming to her side.

"What?" Andy looked over at Karen who was smiling from ear to ear.

"Thank you." She said clutching on to his arm. Andy just smiled back and lead towards to the kitchen.

After a few minutes, Haley obviously couldn't go to sleep. Her subconscious obviously making her face everything head on. Haley sighed and sat up on her bed. She was about to get back to her homework when her stomach grumbled.

"You really hate me don't you!" Haley spoke to no one but herself.

Haley groaned but nonetheless finally got off her bed. She opened the door and was about to head down the stairs when a voice of a woman coming from the kitchen stopped her in her tracks. The voice sounded familiar to her, but she wasn't sure. After listening a bit longer, curiosity finally got the best of her when she finally decided to head down the stairs. In no time her feet reached the bottom stepped and then the entrance to the kitchen where she saw a vision of what seems to be a perfect family, they we're laughing chatting, just enjoying themselves. Haley's vision quickly faded when reality struck through her. This was anything but a perfect family. There standing in front of her was a broken family. Divorced parents, a back-stabbing brother, who she thought she could trust, and a mom who left her and forgot about her. The only person left who she could stand was her father, but why in the world would he be laughing with the people who hurt her most? Haley finally decided to stop talking to herself and spoke up.

"Dad?" she asked glaring at the three of them. The laughter finally stopped and all three sets of eyes were set on her.

"Oh Haley-bop, you're just in time." Andy smiled and walked up to her and wrapped his arm around her.

"Dad, what's going on…" Haley stared up at her dad looking for an answer.

"Well uhmmm, I thought we would have a nice family dinner tonight." Andy smiled down at his daughter and rubbed her arm.

"Great dad! Only one problem though.." Haley's stare quickly turned into a glare.

Andy looked at his daughter worried about the next thing that would come out of her mouth. "And what is that sweetie?"

"This is anything but nice and we are so far from being a family." Haley turned around and stomped out of the kitchen.

"That's more than one…" Andy sighed and decided to follow suit.

Lucas was about to head down the same way but got stopped by his mother. "Maybe, we should let them have a chat."

Lucas seemed hesitant but agreed nonetheless.

"Haley…." Andy looked at his daughter who was sitting down on the lazy-boy, all scrunched up into a ball.

"What is she doing here dad?" Haley tried to keep her tears from coming down her face.

"We're going to have to face this sooner or later honey. And I say sooner is better than later."

"I can't do this dad." She finally couldn't keep it in anymore as tears slowly fell down her small framed face.

Andy sat down at the little spot left on the chair and grabbed hold of his daughter.

"Haley, just give it a chance okay? You're mother means well. You may feel like she wasn't there for you all those years, but she's here now. She may not be on your good side right now but she's your mother nonetheless, she will always be here for you. So why don't you give this dinner a chance and if you really can't handle it, you can excuse yourself. Okay?" Andy hugged his daughter tighter.

"Can I excuse myself now?" Haley pouted.

"Sweetie…"

"Okay fine dad, I'll do it for you." Haley wiped her tears away and sat up.

"Okay good, let's go." Andy gave her one last tight hug before heading back into the kitchen with Haley by his side.

Lucas and Karen were already sitting at the table talking when Haley and Andy came back.

"Hey guys, look who decided to join us." Andy smiled along with Lucas and Karen upon hearing those words come out of his mouth. Haley just kept her head down.

"So…" Lucas looked down at his plate then towards his parents.

"Well how about you try some of your mom's casserole Haley-bop?" Andy grabbed her plate and served her some of the macaroni and cheese casserole.

"Remember we use to have these every night when we moved to New York?" Karen smiled as she grabbed some salad off the table.

"I also remember you deserting me." Haley just stared at the food in front of her, not even bothering with lifting up a fork.

"Haley" Lucas spoke up to try to lend some comfort words.

"Don't you even start with me." She glared at her brother, a glare that could burn straight through Lucas' eyes.

"Haley, your mom has some news for you both." Andy quickly tried to get a hold of things.

"And what would that be?" Haley glared at her mom.

"Uhmmm…" Karen looked at Andy who nodded at her for conformation. "I'm pregnant…" Karen tried to let out a smile.

"You're what!" Lucas almost choked on the water he was drinking.

"Pregnant Lucas. I'm 2 months along…" Karen confirmed.

Haley started to laugh which earned her weird looks from the three. "This is just great mom! Now you're having a baby with the devil. Congratulations!" Haley shook her head looking down at her plate with disgust.

"Haley, I know that you've never liked Dan, but this is his baby and your little brother or sister. I thought you'd be a little more happy." Andy wiped his mouth with his napkin and looked over at his daughter.

"You think having a baby will just make everything go away! Well you guessed wrong! Especially when you are having it with that monster. God how much more messed up can my life get!"

Andy just tried to keep the peace "Haley how about…" but once Haley gets started there was no stopping her.

"Why are you really here mom? I mean not just here at the this house which by the way you also bailed on but here in Tree Hill?" Haley took her glare towards her mother.

"Haley I was worried about you." Karen looked at Haley with the most sincere look.

"Worried? Since when did you start caring?" Haley stood up and slammed her napkin on the table. Andy quickly stood up also and sat her back down.

"Haley I love you, you're my daughter, how could you even ask me that?" Karen's eyes started to well up.

"Love me! Yeah you loved me soooo much that you always left me alone with those monsters! Do you even know what kind of sh-t I had to put up with!"

"Haley!"

"No dad she should know what her dear husband and step-son has done to make my life a living hell! I mean you're obviously still sleeping in his bed right?" Haley said pointing at her mom stomach.

"Haley what are you talking about…" Karen's eyes started to fill up with more tears as she held her stomach.

"Haley stop this right now!" Andy demanded worried that if Haley told Karen about Dan and Chris, it could seriously harm the baby and Karen.

"NO! Why are you here mom!"

"I told you already…" Karen placed her head into her palms.

"No you didn't! Who told you to come here! Was it Lucas? Rachel!" By this time Haley couldn't keep herself from sitting anymore.

"What? Rachel? Who's Rachel?"

"Who told you!" Haley's eyes filled with anger but full of hurt at the same time. Tears flooded down her face as she couldn't hold it in anymore.

"I did." The voice beside her spoke up.

Haley turned to face the person who's voice it belonged to.

"What?" Haley said with a more calm voice.

"Haley I was worried about you. You're brother was telling me about your dreams and how you've been avoiding speaking with your mom. I thought if she was here, we could solve whatever was bothering you as a family." Andy explained.

Haley let out a little laugh. "This is unbelievable. To think the last person I could trust was actually the person who betrayed me the most! But why should I even be surprised. I mean Lucas telling you, Lucas just loves telling everyone my problem. And you dad, why couldn't you just leave this one thing alone! You always want to solve things, but did you even consider that I don't want any of your help! God well I hope you guys got what you wanted. You'd think your family should be there for you, but you guys have done nothing but made everything worse! You've all ruined my life! And soon enough you'll probably ruined that little baby's life too!"

"Haley look-"

"NO! You know what dad, I've heard enough from any of you. I hope you guys will have a wonderful family together cause I will have no part of this family anymore!" And with that Haley stomped right out of there and out the front door.

"Well that went well…" Lucas sighed and wiped his mouth with his napkin before leaving the table himself.

"I'm so sorry…" Karen cried some more into her napkin.

Andy stood up and went beside her and hugged her tight. "I'm sorry too…" Andy sighed.

A/N: Love it, hate it? Sorry for not updating for so long. I got too caught up with the whole premier and I just got my season 3 dvd so I've been occupying myself with that..lol..so yeah..heres the dinner chapter! I hope you enjoyed it. I kinda had a writers block too so I apologize for any grammar mistakes or any lack of oomph! Lol anyway just review. I've also noticed that my reviews has been going down lately. I don't know if everyone else is in this whole season premier hype too but yeah…if my story is really that bad just let me know and I'll stop…I mean no point in continuing if no one will even read it anymore right? So just let me know….