Reaction and response to events will occur in this chapter.
Thank you to my reviewers: lilmonkeygirl31, deli41321, krizue, Nataliegirl1214, loppa, xSmile, JlsNaley, iftheyonlyknewthetruth, hybridwolf10, NaLeYBaBiixo, chicaespanola, JeniRose, and OTHlover04.
I hope you like the new chapter – it was fun to write and took a lot of effort to post, given that my newly downloaded virus protection software screwed my computer up so badly last night that it wouldn't actually turn on! Luckily, the company's help centre (definitely in India) was great, and I managed to fix everything. Of course, then my email wouldn't work because that company was having network issues! But everything's working right now, so I feel great!
Anyway, enjoy!
Brooke Davis, eyes at half mast, hair a tumbled mess, and stunning regardless, stumbled off the plane from Paris to New York at 7 in the morning. After receiving a frantic call from Lucas Scott twelve hours earlier, she had decided to skip the day's fashion show and rush back to the States. As a fashion reviewer with Vogue, Brooke put her talents to the best possible use, in advising others of what was hot, and what was not.
And now here she was, half dead on her feet, and yet with a nervous energy and sense of anxious anticipation that was making her more awake by the second.
Looking around, getting her bearings, Brooke shook her head in an attempt to rid herself of any remaining malaise, rolled her back, stood for a couple of seconds, and then, with a purposeful stride, began to head for the exit.
Almost there, she stopped, backtracked. Looked to her side.
A display of daily papers and magazines elicited a wry smirk. She reached out and grabbed one, then another, and another, until she had more than half a dozen nestled in the crook of her arm. Smiling widely at the dazzled vendor, she handed over a twenty and walked off, heading for a taxi.
Snagging the last one from the rank, Brooke directed the driver to the Plaza Hotel, and sat back, fishing out the stack of reading material she'd just located.
Songstress and Sportsman's Secret Sadness
Faith Returns: But to whom?
Bad Boy Scott and Good Girl James: Their Personal Tragedy
A Child Recovered
James Not Scott-Free
Faith James Scott? Her Father Says Yes!
Brooke sighed, cocked her head to one side, and started reading as her taxi wound through the busy streets.
Peyton Sawyer Jagielski leaned into her husband's side, holding the hand of her stepdaughter, Jenny, tightly enough to make Jenny squeeze back. She knew how freaked out her mother got whenever she thought of what had happened to her Aunt Haley's kid.
Peyton loosed her hold a little, and looked down at Jenny with a smile and an apologetic air.
"I'm sorry, Jenny."
Jenny rolled her eyes. "It's alright, Mom. I understand."
Peyton squeezed her daughter's hand again, and turned to her husband.
"Jake, I don't understand why this is taking so long. Surely it's not that difficult to get urgent tickets to New York when we're at an airport. It's not like they don't have planes."
Speaking into his cell phone as his wife complained, Jake nodded, absently. A few seconds later, he hung up.
"Look, Luke says Haley's really broken up, but so excited, and so positive. He says it's probably best that we're delayed a little, though, because the red tape's stretching out about as far as even red tape can."
Peyton nodded. "That's good, I suppose." There was a pause. "But I'm just so worried about Haley, and there's no way we can do anything from Boston. Did Luke say how Nate was doing, too?"
Jake sighed. "You know Nate. He's not saying a lot. Although apparently what he has said is quite – um – forceful."
"And that means what, exactly?"
Jake rolled his eyes.
"Apparently there have been a few photographers hanging around. And once the FBI released the statement they grew, and the paparazzi arrived, and he got into, well, a bit of a confrontation."
"Meaning?"
Jake sighed again. "Look, hold on, okay?" He moved away from Peyton, getting her settled in a chair in the airport lobby as she looked at him quizzically.
"What are you doing?"
He smiled down at her before turning to walk away. "You'll see."
Peyton watched her husband as he walked across to a newsstand, clearly looking for something specific. Finding it, he grabbed it, and went to pay. Just as he got to the counter, he turned around and went back to the papers, and grabbed a few more.
Bringing them back, Jake set a stack on Peyton's knees.
She quirked an eyebrow at her husband, and looked down.
Faith James Scott? Her Father Says Yes!
The dramatic return of the kidnapped daughter of celebrated singer / songwriter Haley James has resulted in something of a furore in New York as an estranged husband stakes his claim to the daughter he lost.
At yesterday's press conference, the FBI acknowledged that Haley James' daughter, long known to have been kidnapped at age fourteen months before James' rise to fame, had been located, five years to the day after her kidnap from a children's clothing store in New York city.
"We received a tip-off from her elementary school teacher," said Agent Streiker from the New York office. "She is a huge fan of Miss James', and was concerned that one of her students, about the same age as the daughter Miss James lost, had a very similar appearance. Knowing what she did about the girl's home life, upon noticing the pronounced resemblance, the teacher contacted the principal, who decided to call us."
"Upon investigation, we found that the girl's assumed father, David Knight, had never had a daughter, and had lived in the same area of New York as Miss James five years ago. We have since confirmed through DNA testing that the girl in question is, indeed, Faith James."
Or is she?
Although the tragedy of Faith's kidnapping led to a virtual blanketing upon all investigation into that period of Haley James' life, out of sympathy for her loss, since her return there has been a huge surge of interest, and it seems as if most of our questions have been answered.
Previous behind-the-scenes speculation was that the father of James's child was long-time friend and supposed lover, Chris Keller. While Keller and James have been silent on this for several years, a statement released by Keller's people today indicates that, while he is "overjoyed" at Faith's return, and looks forward to seeing her again, and to seeing her mother, he has categorically denied being the father. According to Keller, "Haley and I have been friends and colleagues since for close to seven years, but it never got any further than that."
Apparently Keller was asked by James not to go with her to retrieve her daughter. Keller has indicated that James saw this event as a family matter, "and so she went with family – hers and Faith's."
But who is this family?
Recent research has uncovered an interesting, previously unknown, fact about Haley James. It appears that, in 2005, when James was sixteen, she gained permission from her parents to marry an emancipated minor. The name of this minor was Nathan Scott. There is no record of a divorce or annulment.
It was therefore extremely interesting to see Haley James coming out of the New York State Orphanage where her daughter is currently being kept, pending the processing of her release into Miss James' custody, arm in arm with Lakers player Lucas Scott.
Two steps behind was Nathan Scott, the Lakers' leading scorer and resident bad boy.
The friendship between Miss James and Lucas Scott has been noted before, but until records of this 2005 marriage were unearthed yesterday, there was no indication that she and Nathan Scott were even aware who each other were, despite both being from the same small town, and her close relationship with his half brother.
Haley James acknowledges the marriage, but her spokespeople state: "Miss James has not been in contact with Mr Scott for five years, and prior to that, contact was rare and intermittent for about two years. Faith is Faith James for a reason."
However, maybe this reason no longer exists. According to Nathan Scott, who later lashed out at members of the press in the lobby of his hotel after being approached for a quote, "get the hell away from Haley and my daughter!".
It seems the mystery is solved.
At opposite ends of the country, Peyton Sawyer Jagielski and Brooke Davis let out aggrieved huffs of air.
So – next chapter will focus on Nathan and Haley, and how they're dealing with this situation, and with each other.
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