Authors Note: Hey everyone! I'm so sorry about the late update once again. I have been away visiting family and then when I got home it was time to go back to school so I haven't had much spare time on my hands. I found this chapter hard to write and it hasn't gone in the direction that I had first planned. That being said, I think it might have worked out better. I want to thank Kaitie, Alex & Elli for reviewing last Chapter, it means a lot girls so thanks for sticking by the story :) That being said, onto Chapter 7...Enjoy!

February 2029-

Haley knew exactly where she needed to go and the person that she needed to see. She didn't really know how she was going to tackle the situation, all she knew was that she had to do it sensitively so as not to offend anyone.

"Haley, hi," said the person towards Haley as she walked through the door.

"Dr Copeland, hi," Haley replied as she accepted Dr Copeland's outstretched hand to shake.

"Please sit down," the Doctor indicated at the chair opposite her. Haley made herself comfortable in the chair and placed her bag on the floor. "So what can I do you for? Nothing serious I hope..."

"I'm actually here to talk about Brooke." Haley leant on the doctor's desk in front of her.

"Haley, you know that I cannot discuss patients with other patients, despite how close they may or may not be," Doctor Copeland smiled knowingly. She had been the Scott's family Doctor for years; since the twins were born and Haley had recommended her to Brooke.

"Well this kind of involves me and Brooke," Haley declared.

"Go on," the Doctor insisted. Haley always felt at ease when she went Dr Louisa Copeland. She was only a couple of years older than Haley though had retained the look of her youth so that to many who didn't know her, she looked younger than she was. Her caramel colored hair perfectly co-ordinated with her hazel eyes that were filled with warmth and kindness, despite how cliché it might sound. Haley was extremely comforted by this.

"Well, you see, Brooke and Julian have asked me to be a surrogate for them," stated Haley to which the Doctor nodded knowingly, as if she knew exactly why Haley had come to visit her.

"And you don't really know what to think of it all?"

"Exactly. I'm completely torn about it." Haley sighed, almost as if she was defeated by the situation.

"Maybe you should first do a pros and cons list and try to..." But Dr Copeland was unable to finish as Haley had already placed a blank piece of paper titled, 'Pros & Cons'.

"I've already tried that and as you can see, unable to fill it in. I was hoping you could help me."

"Of course. Well let's start with the cons. Firstly; it's not 100%, because of how these things work and because of your age. It's hard to tell if it would work for you. It's hard for a 30 year old surrogate to get pregnant let alone a woman of your age. That being said, it's not impossible." Dr Copeland took a pause for Haley to finish writing down some notes. She would always be tutor girl. "Secondly, if you do in fact get pregnant then there is still a threat to you and the baby. Complications could occur which could put you and the baby in danger, which brings me to the next con; your family."

Haley stopped writing and looked up at this point, with a hint of confusion upon her face. "My family?"

"If anything was to happen to you during this pregnancy, then three children would grow up without a mother and Nathan without his wife. I know that that is hard for you to consider at the moment but it is definitely a con."

In that moment, Haley thought about her own mother and how badly she was affected when she died. For Haley, it felt like a crucial piece of her jigsaw puzzle of a life had been ripped from the puzzle, unable for it to be fixed again. The pain eased a lot when she had the twins to focus on and eventually Haley got to the point where she had grieved enough, shed all the tears that she possibly could and she was able to think about her mom without breaking down.

"But it's also the stress during the pregnancy that you have to think about too," said Dr Copeland, breaking Haley away from her thoughts. "Pregnancies are tough at the best of times you know with the mood swings, hormones, conflict in emotion; and that's just the men," she joked causing Haley to smile. Nathan had always been her rock through her pregnancies. Never once did he waver in his emotional strength because he knew that Haley needed his constant support and that's what he gave her.

"And there's my job too, I'd have to take time off right?" Haley questioned.

"Right. So there are a lot of cons to think about."

"And the pros?"

"There's really only one."

"Which is?" Haley asked although she knew the answer before it had left the doctors mouth.

"You get to give two of your best friends the greatest gift you possibly could." The Doctor took a pause to let Haley process everything. "A couple of years back now, I recommended to Brooke and Julian the surrogate method. I thought that it was ideal for them considering Brooke's condition, but they didn't want to do it because they didn't want to watch another woman being pregnant with their child. They must really love you to have asked this of you, which I assume makes this even harder for you?"

"I'm really struggling with this decision doctor."

"I know you are Haley and you have every right to be. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise because it's scary enough babysitting someone else's child for a couple of hours so to have that life be truly dependent on you for nine months, it's kind of a big deal. Look Haley, I'm not going to tell you what to do, no one is. This is a decision that you can only make on your own. When we have to make an extremely hard decision, there comes a time when that decision making becomes easier and we suddenly know what to do. You've just got wait for that time Haley."

Haley walked around Tree Hill for hours, coming to only one conclusion; this was the hardest decision that she had ever had to make. She had never felt so distressed. On one hand she had herself and her family to think of but on the other hand she had her friend to think of. Was not giving Brooke the one thing that she had always wanted selfish? Brooke over the years had stood by and watched each of her friends have children; Haley, Peyton, Alex, all the while knowing that she couldn't. But she had never once complained or distanced herself from them. In fact, she had become the most involved friend out of the group; making sure to spend quality time with the children, offering to babysit and being the first one at the hospital when one of her friends was in labor. So surely Brooke would be able to find it in herself to understand why Haley couldn't do what was being asked of her?

"So I've called this family meeting because your dad and I have got something that we want to discuss with you," Haley started. She was sat around their large dining table with Nathan, Lydia and Quinley. Whenever there was a problem that involved the whole family, the Scott's would often hold a family meeting. "Brooke and Julian have decided to have a baby."

"It's about time," exclaimed Quinley grinning his big Scott smile, just like his dad's.

"I don't understand, I thought that they couldn't have children," questioned Lydia, knowing all about Brooke's baby problems. She had clearly inherited her mom's logics.

"They can't; not naturally anyway," Nathan began to explain to his children. He looked at Haley to continue the explanation knowing that she would be able to explain better.

"They're looking into surrogacy," Haley told them.

"Surro- what?" Quinley asked, puzzled by the new word.

"Surrogacy. It's when another woman would carry the baby for Brooke and Julian. Brooke wouldn't actually get pregnant but it would still be their baby, right?" Lydia turned to her mom to check that she was in fact correct.

"Yeah, they basically use the embryo produced by Brooke's egg and Julian's sperm, then insert it into a woman's uterus."

"Okay but why has it become some big family meeting?"

"Because I'm the lucky lady who gets the joy of being Brooke and Julian's surrogate or at least they want me to," Haley nervously smiled.

"That is so cool...weird but definitely cool," grinned Quinley.

"Really?" asked Haley, slightly taken aback by his reaction.

"Hell yeah!" Quinley cried.

"Do you think the same Lyds?"

"Well yeah, it's a pretty great thing to do for someone mom."

"A lot could go wrong, you understand that right?"

"But it's for Brooke and Julian. Should the other stuff matter?" questioned Lydia leaving Haley speechless. This was not the reaction she was expecting.

Later that night, Haley and Nathan were getting ready for bed. Haley was rubbing moisturiser into her face whilst standing in front of the bathroom mirror and Nathan was brushing his teeth next to her.

"You've been really quiet all night, what are you thinking?" Haley asked Nathan, looking at him through the mirror.

"I don't really know," Nathan shrugged and then spitting some toothpaste into the basin.

"Well I've had everybody else's opinion except the one that means the most," she said softly to her husband. "Please Nathan, just tell me what you think of all this" begged Haley as Nathan placed his toothbrush in the toothbrush holder.

"Hales I don't really think that my opinion counts."

"Of course your opinion counts. We're in this together remember so we make decisions together too. I have a huge emotional conflict going on at the moment Nathan," she said following Nathan into their adjoining bedroom. "My head is telling me that this is crazy. I shouldn't be getting pregnant at this age even if it's for a friend. But then my heart is screaming at me to ignore my head and just do what's right for my friend. I need your help Nathan." Haley was now stood in front of Nathan holding onto his muscular arms, trying to reach out to him.

"What does it matter anyway Hales, we both know that you are going to follow your heart anyway," he looked into her big brown eyes which were looking back at him filled with pain.

"What? Not necessarily."

"Yes necessarily."

"Are you mad at me?" Haley let go of Nathan's arms, feeling herself tense up with anger. She could not understand why he was acting this way.

"I'm not mad at you baby, all I'm saying is that you have a tendency to choose your heart over your head and I love that about you I do because if you didn't, we wouldn't be stood here right now. You took a chance on me all those years ago in high school and by marrying me you followed your heart. I'm pretty sure that that went against any logic. And when you went on tour in high school, you were following your heart..."

"You're right, I follow my heart a lot of the time like I did with you and when I printed Sam Walkers essay in the school paper," Haley cut in. "But I did not follow my heart when I went on tour Nathan and you know it. That was all my head because if I was following my heart, I would have stayed with you in Tree Hill."

"Okay so maybe not the tour, but every other time, your heart is always screaming louder than your head." He had already made his way to his side of the bed and was arranging the pillows for him to get in.

"Only when it's the best thing for me to do. Are you saying that you don't want me to go through with the surrogacy because if that's what you're saying then I won't do it?"

"I don't know what I'm saying. Look can we talk about it in the morning, I'm tired and it's been a long day." He climbed under the covers, turning away from Haley as she lay next to him.

"You're telling me!" she whispered, annoyed at what just happened.

Another new day and Haley's head was still not clear. It didn't help that her and Nathan were not speaking due to their argument last night. The tension at breakfast was hardly bearable. Lydia and Quinley had picked up on it but never mentioned anything. They had learnt that if their parents ever did argue, it was best to stay out of their ways.

Her day had gone by quite calmly and drama free for Haley. Even Jonathan had chose today to act like a normal, well behaved teenager, pleasing Haley and Sawyer. Maybe it was the fact that he had done a great paper on decisions which Haley had given him a B+ for. Most of the papers from her sophomore class had been a pleasant surprise and she was able to relate to a lot of them, making her grades more generous than was probably necessary. There was a certain line from one of her student's papers that made her laugh though she thought that it was appropriate for how she was feeling:

'We usually have to make decisions when we sure as hell wish we didn't have to, but that's life so I guess we just have to go ahead and make them. Deal with the consequences later!'

It wasn't an A+ essay but it did put some things into perspective for Haley. She knew that she couldn't prolong going to see Brooke any longer. She just had to get it over with and deal with the consequences. That's why straight after school, she was going to see Brooke.

"Nate! Long time no see buddy. How've you been?" Peyton asked excitedly as Nathan entered the house, Annie following closely behind in her Raven's jersey. "Hey Chicken, good practice?"

"Not bad. We've got this next game in the bag," Annie grinned confidently and ran into the kitchen to get a bottle of water from the refrigerator. "Uncle Nate, you want one?" she indicated to the bottle of water in her hand.

"No thanks Ann," he replied entering the kitchen with Peyton.

Annie made her way upstairs to her bedroom leaving Nathan and Peyton to sit at the kitchen counter on the stools.

"So how are ya, you never answered before," repeated Peyton.

"I'm good. What about you? How's Red Bedroom doing?"

"Oh you know me, just going with the flow. I'm currently on the lookout for a new artist to sign."

"Any luck?"

Peyton shook her head. "Not yet."

"You'll find someone Peyton, you're good at what you do, people would be stupid to not sign with your label," he reassured her.

"Thanks. So what's going on in Nathan's world? Where have you been man?"

"Come on, it hasn't been that long since we last saw each other."

"It feels like it. You never usually stick around long enough when you drop Annie off for me to even say hi. Are you avoiding going home today or something?"

"Me and Haley had an argument last night," he confessed. "So if Annie complains that I was hard on the team today, that could be why. It's kind of why I'm here. I wanted to speak to Luke, where is he?"

"He went to the library about an hour ago; he's on his way back though because he's taking Annie to the Rivercourt before dinner so they can practice for the game's this week."

"Do you mind if I wait for him?"

"No problem, you can stay as long as you like. But first you gotta tell me what's up with you and Haley."

"Peyt it's nothing," Nathan tried to avoid the question.

"Nathan, I like to think that I know you pretty well or at least well enough to know that something's on your mind. So how bad is it, this argument between you and Haley?"

"Not bad enough that I had to sleep in the guest bedroom but bad enough that we didn't speak this morning."

"What've you done now, Dan?" Peyton winked at Nathan to show that she was only joking. She sometimes called Nathan by his father's name when he made mistakes.

"Brooke's told you about the surrogacy thing, right?"

"Yeah, we've talked about it," Peyton tried to choose her words wisely. She didn't think that it was the right time to tell Nathan that she was the one who recommended it to her best friend. "How are you dealing with that?"

"Honestly? Not good. I don't want Haley to do it in case I lose her, is that selfish?" Nathan's voice suddenly became serious and Peyton knew that he was genuinely concerned for Haley's well being.

"No, not at all Nate. Have you told her how you feel?"

"No that's what we argued about. She wanted to know my opinion but I didn't want to tell her. I think she knows though, you know that I don't want to do it. I don't want to give her my opinion because I don't want to...to..." he couldn't think of the right word to use.

"Cloud her judgement?" Peyton offered.

"Exactly. What would you do if Brooke asked you?"

"Dude, I'm totally not the right person to ask," Peyton shook her head.

"Why not?"

"Because it would be different for me with my Placenta Previa condition, so it would be stupid for me to even consider doing it for Brooke. But if I didn't have the condition, I would still find it hard. I can totally see where Haley's coming from Nate."

Before Nathan could respond, he and Peyton heard someone walk through the front door.

"Hey!" Lucas' cheery voice echoed through the house.

"We're in here babe," Peyton called back.

"Hey good looking," Lucas smiled entering the kitchen and then capturing his wife's lips in his with a tender peck. He realised that Nathan was in the kitchen too. "Not so good looking," he greeted Nathan. "Only joking, how are you doing little brother?"

"Not bad. Have fun at the library you dork?"

"I did actually, you should go sometime. Try and educate yourself. Read a book."

"Hey I read man..."

"An Unkindness of Ravens doesn't count," Lucas interrupted. "Because you only skipped to the pages that were about you anyway," he laughed. "Do you want to come with me and Annie to the Rivercourt?"

"Yeah I need to talk to you about Haley."

"Okay I'll shout Annie and then we can go," Lucas retreated to the bottom of the stairs to shout his youngest daughter and then made his way back into the kitchen to grab some books from his bag. "Could you give these to Ella for me, she's waiting on them?" He handed over 'Little Women' & 'Jane Eyre'.

"Sure," answered Peyton. "Have fun at the Rivercourt," she added as Annie entered the kitchen, basketball in hand, dressed in her favourite team's jersey; the Charlotte Bobcats- though she did heavily support the Knicks too- with her jersey number 13 on the back.

Once they arrived at the Rivercourt, the three Scott's played a couple of games of horse; Nathan winning one and Annie winning another, then the two brothers left Annie to practice on her own whilst they sat on the nearby bench. Every time Lucas set foot back on the Rivercourt he felt like he was 17 again and just playing with Skills, Junk and Fergie, listening to the commentary from Mouth and Jimmy as they sat at the very bench that Lucas and Nathan were sat at. It was the same bench that bore the signatures of Lucas, Haley, Skills, Junk, Fergie, Mouth and Jimmy, that they did in 8th grade.

"So what did you want to talk about Nate?" asked Lucas once he and Nathan were settled on the bench.

"Me and Haley had an argument about Brooke and the surrogacy. She wanted to know my opinion and I wouldn't tell her. I feel like such a jerk. Only a few days ago I was promising her that we would be in this together and decide together and now I won't even give her my opinion."

"So what's changed in the last few days?"

"I had a dream and I lost her in my dream Luke. She died and there was nothing I could do to save her. I don't want her to do it but I don't want to stop her from doing it either so I was hoping you could help me relax a little. You know how did you let Peyton go ahead with her pregnancies knowing about the risks?"

"Because she wanted to do it so badly. I couldn't stand in her way, I just had to try and deal with it. Nate, try not to panic. We all know how vivid the Scott's imagination can be," Lucas said reassuringly. He had pictured his dead uncle and his wife whilst dreaming and Nathan had apparently seen his Uncle Keith too. So it wasn't an uncommon thing for the two brothers to do. "Show her your there for her okay?"

Haley pulled up into the parking space opposite the Clothes over Bros store. Her nerves were getting the better of her but she refused to turn around and go home so she continued to the door of CoB's and opened it to the familiar sound of the bell. It's now or never, she thought.

Authors Note: As you can see, the Braley talk didn't happen in this chapter like I had initially planned. Things took a life of their own and I thought that we should see how Nathan's coping. I was going to put some of the Braley convo in this chapter but I thought that this was a good place to stop. A lot happens this chapter so I'm going to give my opinions:

-I thought that Haley would turn to logics when struggling with a decision and would therefore see a Doctor, especially one that she knows quite well. The Doctor also mentions the title of the story for those who noticed ;) I've been waiting for the right place to put it in and it seemed to fit here.

-Scott's family meeting. I imagine that Naley would be very open with their children and tell them most things. Family has always come first for them and it was a good way to get the children's opinions.

-Over the years I've realised that Nathan keeps his biggest fears to himself for as long as possible so I thought that he wouldn't tell Haley how he was feeling. Plus this adds extra drama ;) I hope everyone can sympathise with both Haley & Nathan.

-I LOVE Pathan scenes in the show & didn't think that we got enough of them so I wanted to add a scene with them. I always thought that Nathan was happy to tell Peyton how he was feeling because of how close they were. They had a great friendship in my opinion and I wanted to incorporate that into the chapter along with Lathan scenes.

-Kind of a cliff hanger ending. Hopefully an update soon so review if you can please, get me to update soon :P