All right, I figured that I would respond to a few people before this... they are going to continue the once a month thing, but things are going to be happening in the future... without giving anything away.

randi-jane, that is the beauty of writing these little one shot fanfics... you have to imagine that peyton was able to convincingly decline Brooke's requests to get wasted, I don't know how she did it, but yeah, she did.

The rest of the group will find out soon, and LEYTONALWAYS and foreverlove23, I can see where you're coming from about Lucas and the pregnancy. Remember that absence makes the heart grow fonder... and what about Peyton... nobody has mentioned how she feels about Lucas not getting to see her pregnancy... hmm... hint?

Here goes!!

--

The next month seemed to have dragged on, and the two were getting even more antsy than usual about seeing each other. The fact that Peyton was pregnant added to that hate of being apart. Even with daily updates, Lucas felt like he was missing out on everything, and the guilt he was feeling about not being able to help her through some of this was just too much.

True to his word, he hadn't told anyone about the pregnancy and knew that she hadn't either. It seemed like a little too much to carry at times though, but he knew that regardless of anything, they should wait a while to tell everyone. Five months into their engagement, and everyone was starting to talk wedding plans for the pair, including Peyton herself.

As he sat in the airport waiting for her flight to arrive, he thought about the logistics of this whole arrangement that they had. The next time she would be in Tree Hill, she would be five months pregnant, and they would be at the seventh month of their engagement. That's December, but so close that we should just figure it to be January. If they waited until the spring like they originally planned she would be... well... ready to pop, right? And that would be nearly a year for their engagement. Just thinking about the whole idea made his head spin.

"Luke?"

"Peyton?" he says, snapping out of his daydream and realizing that Peyton had been standing right in front of him for quite some time.

"Wow!" she says, sitting down next to him, "and I thought I had pregnancy brain. Where were you?"

"I was thinking about you and me and the baby and the wedding and moving and..."

"Woah, baby that is a lot of ands that you just said there."

"If we actually waited the year, then you are going to be popping out the kid while were on the altar, you realize that right?"

"So we wait until after the baby is born."

"In Tree Hill, right?"

"Well..." she says, not really knowing how to respond.

He didn't know exactly what her face was telling him, but he couldn't shake a feeling that she really didn't know what was going to happen in the next few months. That fact made his head spin even more, so instead of greeting her with the standard kiss and "I love you" with confessions of how much he missed her, he stood, grabbed her suitcase, and started walking towards the car.

She knew her lack of a response was something that he didn't appreciate. She was ready to marry him, and she was ready to have this baby with him, but she wasn't ready to give up all that she had worked towards in L.A. She knew that her chances of getting another promotion were slim, especially with the addition of her soon to be ever-expanding waistline. Could you blame her for still trying though? What was he expecting? That she was just going to pick up everything next month and move back to Tree Hill, or in with him and Nathan and Haley? She didn't know what she wanted them to do, and frankly her mind had been swimming too.

When they got back to the house, they sat for a moment in the car, letting the silence continue for a while longer.

She had finally gotten up the courage to start talking when the front door shot open and a running toddler came out with Haley at his heels, and the moment was lost.

The pair put on smiles as they hugged the small Scott family and settled down for dinner that evening. After saying that she had wine on the plane, not an eyebrow was raised when Peyton turned down her drink of the evening. It seemed like they slipped back into things very nicely.

That was always the problem. While her relationship with Lucas was not the easiest of things, it fit her well. Once they finally got it together, it was really perfect. A few fights here and there, and a few dramatic moments. If she was lying to herself she could say that she belonged in Los Angeles, but when being honest, she knew that she belonged in Tree Hill or at least near it. The two of them had their family here, and she couldn't deny that.

"I'm sorry about earlier..." she says, later that evening, just a little above a whisper as they laid down for bed.

"Peyton, where do you see us in the next few months?"

"Honestly, Luke, I don't know. I know that I've really got a chance in LA, but I come here and it fits so perfectly. Being around Nathan and Haley and Jamie, getting to see your mom. It fits. It is where I belong."

"But?"

"But... I want to try to make a name for myself in LA a bit longer. I want to see what I can do."

"We have seven months Peyton, you realize that? Seven months until it isn't just you and me that we have to think about. It's a baby too."

"I know that Luke... believe me, I do... I'm just so scared."

"About us?" he asks, a bit hesitantly.

"No... that's the thing. I see myself with you. I see myself with this baby. I see my whole personal life set out before me, and I love it. It is everything else that is so unclear right now."

"I told you once that you were destined for greatness, and I meant it."

"You have that confidence in me, and I know that, but I need that confidence in me."

"You do realize that we're 19, right? We don't have to be thinking about all of this?"

"We're 19, but we're about to get married and have a child... I think that we have a different situation than most." she says, turning to him with an eyebrow raised.

"A day at a time. Can we just do that?"

"Most definitely." she says, settling into his embrace with a sigh.

"Hi... I missed you..." he says then, leaning down to kiss her.

She giggles, realizing that he is trying to make up for their sad excuse for a greeting earlier at the airport, "I missed you too baby. We both did."

The next morning came faster than they were ready for, and they were awoken by an unlikely source that had mysteriously crept into their room.

"Pey!" Jamie screamed, hitting his soon to be aunt on the shoulder.

She woke up rubbing her eyes, and turned to the small little boy clad in spiderman footie pajamas at her side.

"James Lucas, what are you doing in here?" she says, gliding a finger across his nose.

"Wake up." he says, like she asked the dumbest question in the entire universe.

As she glanced at the clock and noticed that it was certainly not the time to wake up, but the time to sleep in for at least a few more hours, she pulled the little boy down into a hug.

"Sweetness, it is too early... we need to go night night for a little longer."

"Night Night? No Wake Up?" he asks, looking up with big blue eyes.

"No wake up..."

"I stay with you?"

She nods, running fingers through his baby hair, watching his eyes start to droop a little bit more as his breathing became deeper and he drifted back into sleep.

When Haley woke up a few hours later, she woke with a start. Normally Jamie would be in their room an hour ago trying to wake them up. She got up and walked into his bedroom to find it empty, but before panicking checked Lucas' room to see if he was in there.

Of course what she saw was something that she could get very used to seeing. Jamie had curled into Peyton's side and thrown a leg out towards his uncle. Peyton had an arm securely around him and a hand placed gently on his head. She didn't have the heart to wake any of them, so instead crawled back into bed, hoping to catch a few more minutes of sleep.

When Lucas woke, he was awarded the same scene as Haley an hour ago. He took it in with such different eyes though, seeing it as their future. A baby flung between them, with Peyton protecting him or her even in her sleep. He knew that she loved Jamie, and she had become such a quick member of the family after they had started dating. That was what he loved the most about her, and he was so glad that his family felt the same way.

Glancing at the clock though, he realized that he really did need to wake up the pair or they weren't going to get to spend as much time in Tree Hill as they had hoped that day.

"Peyton..." he says, whispering and stroking her cheek softly.

"hmmm?"

"We have to get up if we want any time in Tree Hill today."

Still with her eyes closed she stretched out a bit and answered with a soft "okay" and a huff of air.

When she opened her eyes, she met the smiling one of her fiance, who was still allowing himself happiness at the sight of her and his nephew.

She glanced down to the bright blond hair that was resting on her chest and just smiled, turning back to Lucas with the same smile.

"He loves you, you know that?"

"Yeah, and I'm sad that I don't get to spend as much time with him."

"Well, obviously it doesn't phase him, because it's like you never left." he says, laughing at the sight.

"Can we do this?"

"We're going to be awesome at this." he says, sitting up in bed and pulling his nephew up into his arms.

Telling her to get ready, he carried Jamie out and to his room, placing him back into his own toddler bed.

By the time everybody was ready, Jamie was up and talking as much as he could.

The group seemed to make the trip to Tree Hill in record time, and it was almost instantaneously that the women split off into their own little group to talk about wedding plans.

"Lucas and I want to wait until the summer."

"Why not the spring? I thought that you guys said that you wanted to get married in the spring" Haley asks, confused at the change in plans.

"Spring in North Carolina is so unpredictable, and if we did it right after the school year ended then the weather might not be what we want it to be."

"And hurricane season is any better?" Haley counters with her voice dripping of sarcasm.

"We just talked about it last night and thought that it might be better. It will help break up the summer a bit too before you guys go back to school."

"What about you? What are your plans?" Karen asks, the ever concerned mother that she has always been.

"That is something that we still need to talk about. Lucas is still going to be in school, and I need to figure out what exactly I want to do with my LA job and everything."

"You aren't staying out there, are you?"

"No, but I don't know exactly what I want to happen. It is going to be a lot to juggle! That is another reason why we want to wait for the summer, because if I move here in the spring, that will give us enough time to get adjusted to everything."

In true Haley style, she felt the need to point out that when they were seniors and dating they practically lived together anyways, "You know that you are more than welcome to move in the house with us. I don't know what we would have done without Luke here to help us with Jamie, and you know that little boy is in love with his Aunt Peyton"

"Well, the feeling is mutual... even if he wakes me from my much needed slumber at 5 o'clock in the morning."

"Sorry about that."

Before she could think about what she was saying, she casually threw out a, "well, eventually there will be payback for that..."

Thankfully Karen and Haley viewed that as the hopeful bride glancing into her future and not as the pregnant fiance spilling the beans. When she was in LA it was easy to hide the fact that she was pregnant, because everyone knew. That didn't make any sense, but everyone in LA knew, and she didn't have to worry about anyone finding out and telling anyone across the continent about her condition. With Tree Hill, she had a whole other family that was taking everything in, and there were many more opportunities to slip up.

Two days later, they were at the airport again, this time with Haley, Nathan, and Jamie in tow.

"You know how much this sucks?" Nathan says, "now we have to deal with a mopey Lucas for at least a week.

"Shut up... I don't mope."

"Oh, really.... because sitting in your room, playing your Peyton mix and reading your own novel isn't moping?" Haley interjects, laughing at her best friend, while pulling Peyton into a hug.

They hugged, they kissed cheeks and then knew that it was time for Peyton to be off. Haley picked up on the two wanting to have their goodbyes, and directed her family out towards the car.

"So the truth comes out that you can't live without me." she says playfully, putting her arms around his shoulders.

"I could have told you that a while ago Peyton Sawyer.."

"Well, I mope too."

"Really?"

"Don't you ever notice that you have a t-shirt missing every time I leave? I curl up in one, put on all my saddest songs, and let out a good cry."

He takes in this knowledge and chooses to respond by kissing her with wild abandon, not caring that they were in public, just knowing that he wasn't going to see her for another month.

After they separate, she asks, "What's the count?"

"32 days."

"Okay, well I will see you then... me and baby will be waiting patiently for you in 32 days."

"I love you Peyton."

"I love you too Lucas Scott."

With a final kiss and a small rub to Peyton's still flat tummy, he squeezes her hands and turns towards the door as she turns towards her gate.

–

Okay, so what are we thinking so far. I'm kinda enjoying it, but I think that I might be a little biased. I like making a fic with not too much drama and with these little snippets, because the detail doesn't have to be too crazy and it can just focus on the few sweet Leyton fluffy moments....

However, I can't decide what I want to do when the year is up.... What do you think? Should I do another year in the life with another month to month thing? Should I just leave it at the end? Do I need to re ask this question at the end of the fic? Let me know folks!!

Review, cause it makes me happy!!