A/N: A thousand apologies that it has been so long since my last update. I went on vacation and forgot to let you guys know that it would be a while. Anyway, I'm back now and I think there may only be one or two chapters at the most after this. Please enjoy and remember to review!!

Chapter 10

A New Life

"Peyton, what in god's name do you think you're doing?" Lucas asked as he took in the sight before him as he walked through the front door.

Peyton was bent over a box on the floor and was pushing it down the hallway using the hardwood floor to slide it.

"Not that I would normally complain about coming home to the sight of your ass in the air waiting for me." He added with his irresistible smirk.

Peyton stood and placed her hands on her hips as she rolled her eyes at him.

"I was just moving the last of my albums into the guest room, where you're going to build shelves for me" she said sweetly as she put her arms around his neck and pecked his lips.

"The guest room? You mean my mom's room? And why didn't you wait for me to do that? You shouldn't be moving heavy things like that in your condition." He chastised.

Peyton pulled away slightly annoyed.

"Ok, first of all, your mom gave you the house so it's not her room any more, so it's the guest room. Second of all, please don't start treating me like I'm going to break. The doctor said I can do everything I was doing before just not to lift anything heavy."

Lucas couldn't help but smile. The week following the discovery that Peyton was pregnant had been busy. She was saw the doctor right away and was referred to an OB/GYN, and through the rest of the week, they had slowly been moving her stuff into Lucas' house.

During Lindsey's long absences and the many times Peyton had been to the house, she had noted that it still seemed to be very much Lucas' house. There was really nothing to indicate another person lived there, let alone his wife.

She had instantly set to placing her things around the house and moved the furniture around in the living room and had let Lucas know that she wanted to redecorate their bedroom. According to her, it still felt like it belonged to an 18 year old boy obsessed with basketball. He retorted that the only thing that had changed was that he wasn't 18 anymore, but readily agreed that the room did need to take on a more grown up look and perhaps a little bit of femininity.

They had both been surprised at how seamless and easy the transition to not only being a couple, but a couple living together and having a baby had been. It wasn't as if Peyton even had to move much stuff since a lot of her things were already there.

Brooke joked that the only thing different about their relationship now was that they were actually having sex. They had always seemed like a married couple even when Lucas was married to someone else, and especially after his divorce.

Flashback

Lucas tried to save his marriage, he really did. He spent a little more time in New York with Lindsey, but their argument over having children always sat in the back of both their minds. They let it go on a lot longer than they should have. They finally decided amicably to separate the week after Lucas and Peyton's 28th birthday. Lindsey missed it yet again and Lucas had had enough of commuting between Tree Hill and New York twice a month for a hopeless cause. The divorce was uncomplicated with Lucas keeping his house and Lindsey keeping her New York apartment. One trip to Tree Hill with two empty suitcases is all it took for her to remove her possessions from the house. Lucas didn't have anything at the apartment.

Brooke and Julian got married that same year in a truly splendid affair with many celebrities in attendance that either she had dressed in her clothing line or Julian had worked with in movies. Peyton was the maid of honor and Lucas was the best man, and when they had to dance the first dance together with the bride and groom, anyone who didn't know them would have been dumbfounded to discover they were not a couple.

Brooke and Julian left on a two week honeymoon and Peyton didn't like being in the house on her own so she would go and stay at Lucas' or he would come and stay with her. They shared a bed and kissed each other chastely good night, but always awoke tangled up in each other in the morning.

When Brooke and Julian returned, Peyton felt a little awkward sharing the house with them now they were married, but Brooke insisted she didn't have to move out. She slept most nights in her own bed, but didn't really like not waking up with Lucas once she had done if for two weeks straight. At least one night on weekends, usually Saturday, she would spend at Lucas' house just to give Brooke and Julian some 'alone time'.

They fell into an easy routine. Lucas would call Peyton every morning at 8 a.m. to make sure she was awake and getting ready to go to work. She would call him at noon to make sure he was going to eat something for lunch. He would call her at 6 to find out what they were doing for dinner. On Sunday mornings when she had slept over, he would make her French Toast for breakfast which they would eat while he read the Sports section of the Sunday paper and she read the Entertainment section and the cartoons, then they would do the crossword together.

Nathan would often ask Lucas when he was going to make his move on Peyton, and Haley and Brooke were constantly telling Peyton that she should be getting some 'benefit' from her friendship with Lucas.

Both of them had the same clear response to all attempts to make them into a couple. They were friends, the best of friends, and there could not be any risk of losing that. It almost happened once, and they did not ever want that to happen again. They were happy with how things were. No one failed to notice that neither one was dating anyone else or even showed any interest in anyone else.

They jointly decided that their 29th birthday should be a big celebration. Lucas' second book was doing well, and the Tree Hill Ravens were looking like they might make it to the State Championship. Peyton had signed several artists and was working with a few other local bands on perfecting their sound before pulling them into the recording studio.

In the back of both their minds was what would be hanging over them on their 30th birthday, so big bash for 29 it was. The invitations went out to all their friends and acquaintances and the location of the party was listed as 'Lucas and Peyton's' and no one questioned it or even considered that it was anywhere other than Lucas' house. Peyton was always there anyway.

The party was amazing and they had a great time seeing all their friends together. They received tons of gifts, and there was some laughter when they opened a gift addressed to both of them from their high school friend, Bevin. It was a toaster. Everyone eyed Bevin with some confusion until she explained innocently that she thought this was an engagement party. When it was explained to her that this was a birthday party and Lucas and Peyton were not a couple, she responded with 'Whatever, we all know they're going to get married eventually anyway'. The laughter that ensued was genuine from everyone although Lucas and Peyton looked at each other a little uncomfortably. Neither wanted to admit that the mention of them getting married someday had them both suppressing butterflies in their stomachs.

For both of them, their feelings for the other were rising dangerously close to the surface, and now it was only one more year until they would have to talk about their deal.

End flashback

Lucas walked up to Peyton where she was standing with her hands akimbo on her hips and placed his hands over hers.

"Babe, I promise I won't be overbearingly protective, but you are precious to me and you are carrying equally precious cargo and I don't think bending over and pushing heavy boxes of albums counts as 'doing what you've always done'." He stated simply. "Where did they come from anyway? I thought I had already put all the boxes of albums from Brooke's in the guest room." He emphasized the word to tease her.

"I found them in your, I mean our room. They were all ones that I'd brought over at one time or another to play here. It's only as we've been doing this move that I realized just how much of my stuff was already here. How did we not do this sooner?" she pulled her hands out from under his and placed them around his neck, then moved on to her tip toes to kiss him gently on the lips.

"You know, Brooke was right" she continued with a seductive tone to her voice "the only thing different is that we are actually having sex now, and I think we should actually" she moved her hands to his waist and began to lift his shirt "have sex" Lucas eyes darkened as her hands moved to his belt buckle "now".

Lucas pulled her hips in tight to his so she could feel what her words had done to him and kissed her passionately, his tongue assaulting her mouth in the most pleasurable way.

"Who am I to deny the mother of my child?" he said as he began to pull them towards their bedroom.

"Uh uh" Peyton responded as she pulled him the other way to the guest room. "Let's christen another room. This is the only one left that we haven't…" She already had his belt undone and was working on the button of his jeans. Lucas hesitated for a moment at the thought of having sex in his mom's old bedroom and Peyton seemed to sense his hesitation.

"It's the guest room, honey, and you're not going to have a chance to think about anything else." She pulled Lucas to the bed by his open jeans and sat down at the end with him standing in front of her. Soon all thoughts of what room they were in were completely forgotten.

As they lay in bed some time later, fully sated and heavy eyed, Lucas rolled on to his side and rested on his elbow and stared adoringly at Peyton as she laid on her back her eyes droopy as she was almost asleep. He slowly pulled the covers down from her chest and settled them just below her navel.

Peyton opened one eye as she raised her eyebrow at him.

"I'm guessing the guest room is working for you" she smirked as Lucas began to trace circles all over her abdomen.

"Babe, you could make any room work for me, but I actually just wanted to see our baby for a bit." He leaned over to kiss her belly tenderly as Peyton stroked her fingers through his hair.

Their tender family moment was interrupted by both their cell phones ringing at the same time. They exchanged concerned glances as they both got up to find their phones in their discarded clothes. Lucas was the first to find his as he looked at the caller ID.

"Julian, man, how's it going?"

"Luke, it's Brooke, she's calling Peyton right now" Julian rasped sounding very out of breath. "We're on our way to the hospital."

Peyton located her phone just as Lucas turned to her with a look of complete panic on his face.

"B. Davis! What's shakin' honey?"

"P! I'm in labor, and I'm scared." She cried into the phone.

Lucas had now hung up with Julian and was now hurriedly getting dressed. Peyton began grabbing clothes as she talked to Brooke.

"Brooke, honey, you're gonna be fine. Julian will have you at the hospital in no time and we'll be there as soon as we can." She hung up without even saying goodbye and began throwing her clothes on.

Lucas was already in the car with it started by the time she had her shoes on. Peyton ran out the door and into the car where she breathed out heavily.

Lucas reached over to squeeze her hand.

"Hey, everything will be ok" he reassured her.

"I hope so. She's six weeks early." Lucas could read Peyton like a book and he knew exactly what she was thinking.

"Peyton, she is going to be fine, their baby will be fine, and so will ours."

She smiled weakly at him and nodded silently as she let the tears fall.