Hi guys. I know I know, I've been MIA again with this story. I'm really really sorry. I hope this chapter will make it up to you guys. There's not much Naley action in this chappie but it's gonna get the ball rolling. So I hope you'll like it. And of course thank you so much for all your wonderful reviews. They really keep me going. Have fun with this one. Cheers! ;)

Chapter 15

Haley and Nathan waited nervously for their friends to arrive at her house. They hadn't spoken for a few minutes. Nathan had stayed the night after their big fight and they had managed to be cordial to each other. Or at least tried to be.

Flashback

"So what did the doctor say about the baby?" he asked as he watched her stretch her legs on the couch after throwing up for the third time that night. He went over to her and lifted her legs before putting them on his lap and slowly gave them a massage.

"Nathan, you don't have to do that," she said, although his hands felt really good on her aching legs.

"I'm not doing this for you. I'm doing this for the baby. I want our baby to be born healthy and you being sick and achy is not helping," he said, his face expressionless. "So, what did the doctor say?" he repeated.

She felt shocked at the cruelty of his statement but knew that she deserved it. She deserved for him to be angry at her. "The baby's fine. His heartbeat is fine. Everything's fine," she said glumly.

He stared ahead, his eyes fixed on nothing in particular. "I want to be there for your next check up."

"Yeah, of course," she said.

He smirked. "Of course. Right. If I hadn't seen the picture, I wouldn't even know of the baby's existence, and you would already be packing your bags for Chicago." She fell silent, taking in the truth of his words. He sighed and rubbed his eyes tiredly. "I'm sorry. I'm just still a bit upset."

"And you have every right to be. Nathan, I know that I should have been honest with you and I'm sorry. I wish that I could take it all back. And I wish that you would stop looking at me like the way you do right now," she said.

"Like what? Like I don't know you anymore? I'm trying to find something in you that I still recognize, and I can't." He sighed. "Haley, I'm not doing this to hurt you, but you hurt me too."

"Don't you think I know that? Nathan, I swear I never meant to hurt you. You forget that there are two hearts involved in this. Didn't you think that this hurt me too? Nathan, we used to be best friends. I know that's a lot to ask right now and I'm not expecting that from you right now, but can we at least be nice at each other?"

He looked at her fixedly. "Yeah, you were right. We should be nice, for the baby at least."

Haley heaved a sigh of relief. If he couldn't be nice for their sake, she was at least grateful that he thought of their baby. "So I suppose we should tell the rest?"

"Yeah, we should. I'll call them tomorrow and ask them over. Brooke's gonna kill you, you know?" he said and managed to grin. A flash of panic crossed her face. "Hey, don't worry. She can't be mad for long," he assured her.

"What about Rachel? Are you going to tell her?" she asked carefully, watching his reaction.

He fell silent at the question. He suddenly realized that all the time they were talking about the baby, he never once even thought about Rachel.

"Nathan?" she asked, noticing his sudden silence.

"Yeah," he recovered. "I'm gonna tell her."

She touched her arm gently. "Nathan, I'm really sorry. I know it's not fair to you and Rachel but you guys can make it work. Even with the baby."

He looked at her blankly. "Yeah, sure," he said with a note of finality.

End of flashback

"Haley!" Brooke yelling at the top of her lungs made both Haley and Nathan jump. They looked at each other. Nathan took her hand in his and squeezed it gently.

"Yeah, come in!" Haley yelled back nervously. "Okay, here goes nothing," she muttered under her breath.

A moment later Brooke, Lucas, Peyton and Jake bundled into her house. Michael had decided not to come, saying that this was between them and Nathan had agreed. Although he hated to admit it out loud, he was beginning to think that Michael was an alright kind of guy after all. Especially after all he had done for Haley. And as for Rachel, Nathan had decided to talk to her privately.

"What's the big emergency?" Lucas asked as he headed for the fridge to get something to drink. He came back to the living room and noticed that Haley and Nathan were holding hands. "Are you two-" he said, letting his words trail off.

Haley hadn't realized that Nathan had taken her hand and immediately let go. She didn't want them to get the wrong impression.

"What? No!" Nathan said. He looked at their expectant faces and said, "we have something to tell you guys. I think you should sit."

"What's going on man?" Jake asked. "You're starting to freak us out here." He looked at Peyton but she just sat there with a blank look on her face and shrugged.

"Do you want to tell them or should I?" Nathan asked Haley as she sat herself down.

"I'll tell them," she said decidedly. "Emmm guys, I don't want you guys to freak out or anything but we're pregnant. I mean I'm pregnant and Nathan's the father," she said, her face looking flustered as she waited for their reactions.

As they expected, everybody looked shell shocked except for Peyton, who was looking down at her feet.

"What? When did this happen? How come I didn't know about this?" Brooke asked incredulously.

"Luke remember I told you when the night you and Brooke got back from you honeymoon?" Nathan said to remind Lucas of their conversation.

"You told Lucas?" Haley asked although Nathan ignored her question.

"So I guess I can lay off the acting now, now that everybody knows," Jake said with a sigh of relief and leaned back against the couch. Peyton gave him a sharp nudge making him yell in pain.

"What?" he asked innocently.

"You two knew?" Brooke asked. "This is unbelievable. Why am I the last to know about anything? You know what? I'm out of here. And by the way, congratulations to you two," she said with mock sweetness before storming out of the house.

"Brooke wait," Haley called out after her but was answered with the slamming of the door.

"Nice work, Jake," Peyton said angrily. "Now look what you did."

Jake looked at them guiltily. "I'm sorry. Anyway, it's their news and you guys should know that we're happy for you. Even Brooke," he said.

"Yeah man. Congratulations," Lucas said and patted Nathan on the back. "So are you guys gonna get together or what?" he asked. "How is this gonna work out for you?"

Nathan looked at Haley who appeared to be upset. "Well, we haven't actually figured out the details yet but I told Haley that I'm gonna be there for her every step of the way."

"That's really great Nathan. And can I just ask, what about Rachel?" Lucas asked.

"Yeah of course I'm gonna tell her. I'm supposed to meet her tonight."

"Any idea what you're gonna say?" Jake asked.

"Yeah I'm gonna tell her I got my best friend pregnant, although I haven't figured out how to tell her yet," he said sheepishly.

Lucas stood to face him. "Well, you'd better figure it out real soon, coz tonight's only a few hours away. Anyway, we'd better go. I'm gonna look for Brooke. She looked pretty darn upset when she left."

"Hey Luke, if you don't mind could I talk to her first. I've got a lot of apologizing to do," Haley said and got up.

Nathan smirked at her. "Yeah, you seem to be doing that a lot lately," he said.

"Nathan," Peyton started to say. "That's not fair," she said in defence of Haley.

"Peyton, it's okay. I deserve that," Haley said to her. "Do you want to come with me?" Peyton took one last look at Nathan and nodded before following her out of the door, leaving the boys to themselves.

Lucas looked at Nathan in confusion. "Hey what did you mean when you said Haley seemed to be doing a lot of apologizing lately?" he asked.

They found Brooke at the Rivercourt, a place where they used to hang out when they were kids. A place where they still went to every now and then to shoot hoops and chill out. Haley spotted her first, sitting on the bleachers with her head bent low. She took a seat next to her, followed by Peyton.

"Hey Brooke. I know you must be really mad at me right now. I'm so sorry I didn't tell you about me and Nathan," she said. "I know this is gonna sound lame, but you and Lucas were so happy with your wedding and honeymoon, I didn't want to spoil that for you guys."

Brooke looked at her with eyes full of hurt. "How could the news that you're pregnant spoil it for me? Haley, you're one of my best friends and you're carrying Nathan's baby. Tell me, which part of that would upset me? Which part of that wouldn't make me happy? I just thought that you would give me more credit than that."

"I'm sorry Brooke. I've just got a lot going on right now and the decisions I've made lately haven't actually been the best I've made in my life." Haley looked down at her feet as she waited for Brooke to say something. Moments later she could feel her arm around her shoulder, pulling her close.

"Okay, I forgive you. Just don't keep anything else from me okay?"

Peyton looked guilty upon hearing her words. "Emmm Brooke. There's actually more," she said and looked at Haley straight in the eye. Haley glared at her but Peyton just shrugged it off.

"What? What's going on?" Brooke asked, looking at them both for answers.

Haley sighed before turning back her attention at Brooke. "When I found out that I was pregnant, I thought about leaving Tree Hill."

Brooke pulled away from her and got up abruptly. "What?" she asked. "Leave Tree Hill? Where were you going? Were you ever gonna tell me this? Were you even gonna say goodbye?" she asked angrily. "You know what? Forget it. I don't want to hear it." She then turned to Peyton. "You knew about this?" Peyton nodded silently.

"Brooke, please. You have to understand. I was scared and for the first time in my adult life, I had no clue what to do and leaving Tree Hill seemed like the easiest choice to make," Haley said, tears already forming in her eyes. It was bad enough that Nathan was angry at her. She didn't think she could take if Brooke was too.

Brooke closed her eyes as she listened to her friend's explanation. She could tell that Haley was scared and felt her anger ebb away. She turned slowly to face her. "Is there anything else I should know about?" she asked.

Haley shook her head. "No, that was it. I promise." She bit her lip anxiously. She saw Brooke moving slowly towards her and before she knew it, two arms had enveloped her.

"Haley, I could kill you for this but you're lucky I'm in a generous mood today." She then turned to Peyton who was watching them with a smile. "Hey blondie, come over here," she said. Peyton walked over to them and joined in on the hug.

They pulled away seconds later. "Haley, are you alright now? How are you feeling? How are you and Nathan?"

"I'm okay," Haley answered, wiping away her tears. "Nathan and I are trying to work this out. I'm not sure how but we are trying."

"You know that you can always talk to me, right?" Brooke said, to which Haley nodded. "Good, now come on. It's getting cold. Not good for the baby mama to be out in the cold."

Peyton rolled her eyes. "Okay here it comes. Haley, you know that Brooke's gonna fuss all over you know, right?"

Haley laughed. Her first real laugh that day. "I kinda saw that coming already."

"And I'm really happy for you Haley. You have to know that," Brooke said.

Haley smiled. "I know."

Nathan tapped his fingers on the table as he waited. He looked around glumly at the crowded restaurant and saw people laughing as they were having their dinner. It seemed like a lifetime ago that he last felt happy. He fished around in his jeans pocket and found what he was looking for. He pulled out the sonogram of his baby and gave a small smile. Even in black and white, it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. He couldn't believe that he had made that, and having it with Haley made it more surreal, but in a good way although he couldn't bring himself to tell Haley that. He looked up and saw her approaching him and quickly slipped the picture back in his pocket before she could see it. He got up and gave her a hug.

"Hey you. I was wondering when will I be able to see you," Rachel said and leaned over to kiss him. He pulled away quickly and sat down.

"Yeah, sorry. I've been busy lately," he said and managed to smile.

Rachel groaned. "Oh God tell me about it. Guess who called me the other day? Michael did. He wanted help with some Chicago deal and I said I could help him out. Turns out that he just bought a company in Chicago and wanted someone to deal with the legal issues and trust me, there were plenty of issues. Plus, I need to go there for a couple of weeks to sort it out. Thank God the money's good," she said without skipping a beat.

Nathan listened to her ranting and bit back a smile. Good old Michael. Trust you to do something like this. And despite all her complaining, Nathan knew that Rachel loved her job and wouldn't think twice about taking Michael's offer.

"So, what about you? Why haven't you called?" she asked as she took a break from her rant.

"There's something I have to tell you," he said and indicated to the waiter that they needed more time before placing their orders. God knows if Rachel wouldn't throw her plate of food in his face when he was done telling her.

She took his hand in hers and smiled. "What is it?" Her smile faltered when he didn't return hers. "Nathan, what's going on?"

"Rachel, there's no easy way to say this. Haley's pregnant," he blurted out.

Her eyes went wide with shock. "That's great isn't it?" she finally said and searched Nathan's face. Her eyes narrowed when she understood. "It's yours, isn't it?" she asked and let go of his hand. "Wow," she said and leaned back against her chair as she took the news in.

After what seemed an eternity, Nathan said, "Please say something."

She looked at him calmly, "what do you want me to say? That I'm happy for you two?"

"I know. I know this is too much to take," Nathan said exasperatedly. "But this happened before you and me got together. You have to know that I never cheated on you."

She leaned forward and looked at him. "Maybe not physically Nathan, but I always knew that you love her." He started to protest when she cut him short. "Don't you dare deny it Nathan Scott." Nathan kept quiet, silently admitting the truth of her words. "Nathan, I've always known that what we have is not going to last forever, but at least I tried. I'm not gonna force you to stay with me, especially with all this going on. So right now, the ball is in your court. What are you gonna do?"

He looked down at the table and shook his head. "I don't know Rachel. Me being a dad is just starting to sink in. I honestly don't know what to do." He looked up at her in wonder. "Why are you so calm by the way? I would have expected you to-"

"Go all psycho?" Rachel asked with a laugh. "You know I love you Nathan, but love is not something you can shove down someone's throat. I know who your heart belongs to and it's not with me. I think I've learned to accept it. And I am really happy for you."

He took her hands and kissed them. "You are amazing Rachel. You are going to meet someone who can love you the way that you deserve to be loved. I'm just sorry it can't be me."

"It's okay. Just promise me something," she said.

"What is it?"

"Promise me that you're gonna stop being an idiot and sweep Haley off her feet already."

He smiled sadly and sighed. "It's easier said than done Rachel."

"Trust me Nathan. If anybody can make it work, it's gotta be you guys. Now come on, are we gonna order or what? All this news is making me hungry," she said grinning.