Author's Notes: To those who read this story while Karen beautifully wrote it, hello. I am Julianna, and I am new on writing OTH stories. However, when Karen told me she was going to stop writing this, I begged her not to. So she gave it to me. I hope you enjoy this new phase.

On other note, I'm thrilled that in the first day I've uploaded this story I've gotten more than a hundred and fifty hits. You guys rock! Now, I'd love if you left some reviews. We write for you, but it's your kind, constructive reviews that tell us whether we're kicking butt or sucking big time. But I warn you: I'm going to use the flames to dry my puppy's pee.

Thanks for the girls who have read and reviewed. You guys rock! I hope you like this new chapter.

Disclaimer: Nothing is mine. The characters belong to Mark and CW; the plot belongs to Karen.

The Reuniting Song

By Julianna

Chapter Two: Misunderstanding.

"I... I think I might be pregnant".

Silence fell over the small gathering, thick and heavy like a wool quilt. The only sounds that could be heard were Haley's soft sobs, as tears started to once again cascade down her ivory pale cheeks. Brooke slid her hands into Lucas', squeezing it firmly as he both looked stunned at his childhood best friend.

The head cheerleader was, by the way, the first to recover from the shocking information. She walked towards the crying Haley and kneeled in front of her. "Haley, sweetie, are you sure of that?" She asked softly, looking into Haley's red, puffy eyes.

Haley shook her head negatively. "No. I'm not sure, but… Brooke, I'm a week late! My period was never late, never. It always came on the expected day. My body works like a clock. My period always comes on the first week of the month", she told her friend, a faint blush tingeing her wet cheeks.

Brooke nodded slowly. "Okay. But Haley, you have a different lifestyle now. You're a married woman. And I thought you had told me you were on birth control since two weeks before you and Nate eloped?" She asked, trying to ease the silence that still ruled over the two adults and Lucas. "I mean, what if this lateness is a counter-effect of the pills you've been taking for birth control?"

"Oh, God, I think I may have to sit down", Lucas muttered as he leant heavily against the kitchen's small counter. Both Brooke and Haley looked up at him, Haley biting her lower lip and Brooke hurrying to help him into a stool.

"You okay there, Broody?" She asked, placing a hand over his forehead. "You look a little shaken".

"I'll live", he replied softly, his eyes stuck on Haley. She looked so small, so scared and fragile, sitting there on his mother's café's kitchen, the place they had grown up into. She doesn't need you yelling right now, Lucas told herself. This is Haley, this is your bestest friend and she's scared. Be supportive. "Shouldn't you do a test?" He asked quietly, Brooke nodding beside him.

"Broody is right. I mean, those things are never a hundred percent certain-" she rolled her eyes

"- as Brooke and I are fully aware of", Lucas cut in, and Brooke nodded again.

"- but they sure can help us ease the uncertainty. If your period doesn't come until next week, then we worry, okay, Hales?" She looked encouragingly at her friend, who was still chewing on her lower lip, looking doubtful.

Haley looked up at Karen. "What do you think?" She asked timidly.

Karen took a deep breath. "Brooke and Lucas are right, sweetie. You're a newlywed and your body's still adjusting to the pills. What if this is only a counter-effect?"

Karen was clearly giving her best to look reassuring and supportive, for Haley's sake. But this was the second pregnancy scare to happen to a kid she loved like her own in the span of weeks and it had rocked her to the core. Have I been this lousy as a parent, that my kids don't know how to put a condom on? She couldn't help but think.

Haley pondered over the words and nodded slowly. "You guys are right. Maybe it's just something normal". She took a deep breath. "I'm sorry for scaring you guys like this. But I freaked out, and I had nowhere and no one to run to".

Deb gave her a small, tight smile, and awkwardly patted her shoulder. "That's fine, Haley". She said quietly. Deb wasn't close to Haley like Karen, Lucas and even Brooke obviously were, but the girl had saved Nathan from the self-destruction path he was on, and for that Deb would be eternally grateful. Besides, Deb couldn't deny how happier Nathan looked ever since starting to date Haley.

Brooke stepped forward with a smile, openly trying to cheer Haley up. "Come on, Tutorwife, let's make a run to downtown's drugstore and buy that nasty little stick for you. Broody, you tag along. I don't want to stay apart from you more time than I already have to". She said with a loving smile at her boyfriend, who gave her a small smile and nod and got up.

Deb and Karen looked at each other after the three teenagers walked out of the kitchen, and the blonde woman exhaled a deep sigh. "Oh, boy".

"They are going to be fine", Karen said, patting Deb's shoulder comfortingly.

"Are they? I mean – sure, they are married, and they love each other. But they are so young. They're even younger than you and Dan when you got pregnant with Lucas".

"At least we know he won't walk away from Haley and get married to someone else", Karen tried to joke, but realized it had been fruitless when Deb looked blankly at her. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that".

Deb sighed again. "I just hope you're right when you say they are going to be fine".

"They are", Karen said, her tone of voice calm and reassuring. I hope so.


As Brooke babbled nonstop about some inane topics – mainly the new black Ugg boots she had bought at a shoe sale on the mall the previous week (and had showed off for Lucas with some new racy black Victoria's Secret lingerie, an act that began an unforgettable night) – Lucas was trying to read Haley. They were good at this, one always knowing what was on the other's mind.

Haley was valiantly trying to look calm and collected, but her bright hazel eyes gave away how she was really feeling. She was scared, nervous, worried and insecure. Lucas closed his eyes shut, on a quick prayer that whatever gods there were above sent him strength to help his oldest and closest friend through a time like this.

"Here we are" Brooke said, the nervousness of the moment finally catching up with her and subduing her usually cheerful mood. The brunette exchanged a meaningful look with Haley, who suddenly looked rooted on her spot.

"I can't do this", the strawberry blonde whispered, her voice tiny and shaky. "I can't go in there and buy a… you-know-what", she whispered again, and turned pleading eyes to Brooke.

"Oh, no. No. I'm not doing that. You go in, you choose you, you pay it, we go back home. It's easy, Tutorwife. Now go", Brooke said, gently nudging Haley towards the drugstore's open door. Haley however refused to budge, pleading eyes still fixated on Brooke.

"I'll go", Lucas said and straightened up, tugging at the hem of his white and striped-red T-shirt. Brooke however put an arm in front of him, effectively stopping him.

"You can't go in there and buy a…" She looked around and added in a whisper, "… A pregnancy test, Luke. People will think we're the ones expecting a baby, everyone knows we're a couple. And if you say it's for Haley, it'll be worse. People will think Haley's cheating on Nate with you".

"I don't care if people think we're having a child", Lucas hissed softly in response. "Everyone knows we had a scare earlier this year. Besides, once Haley goes out in the open about the baby – we don't even know there is a baby, mind you – we tell people we were buying the test for her use".

Brooke sighed. "Fine. I'll take the burn for this. But you so owe me, tutorwife".

Haley looked thankfully at her oldest friend and slipped a twenty-dollar bill on his jeans' back pocket. Brooke rolled her eyes and they followed Lucas inside the store, standing near the magazines' section. Haley chose a Newsweek, and Brooke leafed through the newest issue of Cosmo, both however keeping a close, watchful eye over Lucas as he tried to buy a pregnancy test without arising more suspicions than it already would.

Both froze, however, at the sight of a very familiar curly blond head showing up on the store.


Peyton Sawyer had planned not to stay in and not leave her holy sanctuary – her loved bedroom – that morning. She had planned to do some sketches and listen to some new music she had read about on a blog, earlier that same week. But her period had come a few days earlier and she had run out of tampons; thus, needing to go over the town for a drugstore to buy some new boxes.

She walked in the store, her head bobbing gently up and down at the sound of Fall Out Boy's Champagne for my Real Friends, Real Pain for my Sham Friends, which was blaring from the earphones plugged to her ears. She looked around the place, scanning it to see if there were any of her friends around – and her eyes lit up as she recognized a tall, lean frame hunched next to a shelf.

"Lucas!" She squealed as she crossed the space between them. Lucas startled a little bit, apparently not expecting to see her, and turned around to her direction, quickly hiding something behind his back. Peyton was too excited to catch him – and alone, for that matter – to notice it.

"Peyton! Hey!" He said awkwardly, his eyes quickly flying to where Brooke and Haley stood, the latter looking honestly torn, and the former staring murderously at her blonde former friend. "I wasn't expecting to see you here!" He said as conversationally as possible, sending Brooke a silent plea of help with his eyes.

"Don't steal my lines, Scott", Peyton joked with a playful wink. "I was supposed to say that, since I haven't seen you since God know when and you were supposed to be living at Charleston with Keith".

"Oh, yeah, about that", he said, looking clearly uneasy. "I moved back".

Peyton looked like a little girl on Christmas morning. "You did? That's so cool! Why don't we go out for lunch and catch up?"


Having hit on several guys who had girlfriends and being an expert on it, Brooke instantly recognized the signs when she realized Peyton was making the moves on her boyfriend, and had to take a very deep, a very calming breath. She then turned to Haley and hissed at her, "Remember I've just said you owe me?" Haley nodded weakly. "I'm doubling the debt".

The brunette then stalked towards her boyfriend, purposefully bumping her shoulder against Peyton's as she walked past her. "Hey, Luke, come on! We promised your mother we weren't going to take long!" She then pretended having noticed Peyton there for the first time. "Oh, I'm so sorry, Sawyer, I didn't see you there! How are you this morning?" She asked with a smile.

Brooke's face was so open, and her grin so charming, that everyone could believe she was actually pleased to see the girl in front of her – everyone that didn't know Brooke Davis, that was. Peyton suddenly felt very out of place as she realized that Brooke and Lucas had made through the long-distance relationship and were more smitten with each other than ever.

"Hi, Brooke", she said uncomfortably. "I'm… I'm fine. What about you?" She then looked at the couple, something just hitting her. "I'm sorry, but what are you buying here?"

Brooke sobered immediately. "Nothing of your business", she snapped, quickly and discretely snatching the pregnancy test's box from Lucas's hand and slipping it in a carrier. "Now, if you excuse us, we have to run before Karen calls us in a panic". The brunette then started tugging at her boyfriend's hand, his arm tightly wrapped around her waist.

Peyton sighed deeply as she watched the couple walking away. She had been the first in their gang to know Brooke and Lucas were back together but she had expected, just like it had been the first time they were a couple, that Lucas ran to her and they hooked up behind Brooke's back.

But apparently, this was a whole new beginning for Brooke and Lucas, whose eyes didn't light up when he saw her. On the contraire: he looked pretty tense and uneasy around Peyton, like he wanted to be anywhere but near her. However, his whole body language had changed once Brooke approached them – he looked relaxed and… happy. And everyone in Tree Hill knew Lucas Scott didn't do happy.

Yeah, blondie… It seems this time you're on the sidelines for good, Peyton told herself with a grunt. She then went to the tampons' shelf, picking a box of the brand she usually bought. Then it clicked. Lucas was standing by the shelf where it laid the pregnancy tests. She frowned slightly. Why did Lucas want a pregnancy test?

Then she widened her eyes. "Oh, my God!" She whispered, quickly paying for the tampons and hurriedly leaving the drugstore.