A/N: Thanks to those that reviewed. To answer the question about who the couples are, they will be revealed in time and I hope you will be patient with me. Here's the next chapter.

Wake Up Call

Nathan opened his eyes and reached for his watch on the bedside table. Having seen the time, he realised that he would need to get out of bed. He quietly got out and tried to look for his clothes. He was trying to make as little noise as possible without waking anybody up.

"Hey, were you going to leave without saying anything?" The voice from the bed said.

"I didn't want to wake you. I thought you would want to get some sleep seeing as we were up late." He had a grin on his face, which spelt out exactly what he was talking about.

"Are you at least going to say goodbye?" Nathan moved to the bed and hovered over the female. She pulled him closer and kissed him on the lips, deepening it as soon as their lips met.

Nathan pulled away, he really wanted to stay but he knew he couldn't. "I better get going before anyone realises that I haven't been home." He gave her a quick peck on the cheek; "I'll see you later." Then he made his way out.

Haley was up earlier than the average person on a weekend, She had a shift at Karen's cafe. She would always work one day at the weekend and a couple of nights in the week. She enjoyed working there, Karen treated her like family and she felt like Lucas was her brother.

It was her job to open up this morning and get everything ready before Karen arrived. She had five minutes before opening time when she heard a knock on the door. "We're not open yet." Despite her shouting, the knock continued.

She walked out, from the back, to get a view of who was out there and spotted a face that she was wasn't expecting. She walked over to the door, unlocked it and opened it. "What are you doing up at this time, in yesterday's clothes?"

"I crashed at a friends and was hoping a could grab something to eat before I went home. Can I come in then?" The other voice replied.

"Sure Nathan. What would you like?" Haley walked into the kitchen with Nathan following behind. He thought for a moment, and then answered. "I'll have a bacon sandwich on wholegrain with red sauce."

"Somehow I was expecting more." She looked back at him.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you." He said sarcastically.

"What happened to you last night? I was looking for you as a certain Miss Davis was slightly on the tipsy side." Haley was frying the bacon while carrying on the conversation.

"Did she do anything stupid?" He asked, thinking that the answer would be a yes.

"No, she did however continue her 'I'm going to be bitchy to Peyton' mode. I left Peyton to look after her." Haley was buttering the bread while keeping an eye on the bacon.

"Aren't you meant to be Peyton's friend?" Nathan was quietly wondering why Haley would even think of letting Peyton look after Brooke, giving their confrontations.

"Yes, I was just worried about Brooke. Since you had disappeared, I couldn't find Lucas and I had to be up early to open so I asked Peyton to look after her."

"And you expect the both of them to be alive after this." Nathan chuckled a bit and wasn't hiding his amusement.

"I have faith in the both of them. It's very fleeting but it's there." Haley was trying to convince herself that it was a good idea in the first place. She then wanted to ask a question that was on her mind since the topic had started. "Do you know why they act this way?"

Haley had handed him the sandwich and he was just about to take a quick bite before the question was asked. "I don't, Brooke's never told me. I've asked and she just ducks out of the question and changes the subject. Has Peyton said anything to you?"

"No she tries to make it look like she doesn't know why Brooke hates her but I have a feeling she knows and doesn't want to say anything." Haley was surprised that Nathan didn't know. If he didn't know then there was no chance of anybody knowing as she and everyone else knew how close Brooke and Nathan are.

"All I know is that I'm getting sick and tired of it. I thought it was over when Peyton left town but it seems to be worse now." Nathan finally took a bite out of the sandwich and made a noise to show how much he liked it.

"I've tried to get them to play nice but it doesn't seem to be working. Maybe them working on this project together will help."

Nathan raised one of his eyebrows. "Or make things worse."

Haley thought about it. "We'll know soon enough."

Brooke was never much of a sleeper. She would have trouble sleeping through the night. She would wake up two or three times during the night. There were also times when it would take her hours before she would actually fall asleep.

Brooke woke up with a thumping headache; memories of the previous night were very sketchy. She was sleeping on her stomach with her head facing the edge of the bed. She felt some movement next to her, 'who have I slept with?' she thought to herself.

She peaked under the covers to see what she was or wasn't wearing. A sense of relief passed through her as she saw that she was fully clothed. She turned her body to see who her bedmate was.

Unfortunately Peyton had her back to Brooke and the sheet was covering her head. Brooke raised herself up, pulling the cover slowly, to try and take a peak.

At this moment Peyton opened her eyes. She was hoping to sneak out before Brooke had woken up. Peyton had a feeling that Brooke wouldn't remember a lot of last night and didn't want a confrontation for the umpteenth time.

Peyton turned her head around and was met with the close proximity of Brooke's face. Brooke was startled and jumped back a little.

"I have the headache from hell and you in my bed." She grunted.

Peyton had seen a different side to Brooke, trusted she was drunk, but it seemed like she was letting her guard down. Seeing that the bitchy Brooke was back, Peyton decided to have some fun.

"Well you were all over me last night and wouldn't let me leave. I had no choice but to stay. You would have threatened to ruin my reputation." Peyton smiled.

Brooke sat up. "You're insufferable."

"Yeah but you keep coming back for more." Peyton winked at the other girl.

"God, you're so full of yourself." Brooke turned to pick up the water on the bedside table.

"Isn't that normally you?" Peyton threw back.

Brooke turned back in the direction of Peyton. "Very funny Sawyer."

"I aim to please." Peyton decided to end the playfulness and change the subject. "Listen, are we ever gonna talk about the elephant in the room?"

"What elephant?" Brooke asked trying to seem like she didn't know what Peyton was talking about.

"Don't play dumb Brooke. I'm talking about the elephant that's in every room that the both of us are in." Peyton had raised her voice slightly.

Brooke looked down at her hands and started playing with them. She was feeling like a little child that had just been told off by her parents. "I'm not sure I'm ready to."

Peyton saw Brooke's reaction and instantly softened her voice. "Don't you think we should sometime soon?"

Brooke looked up and made eye contact with the blonde. "Like the past year."

Those words seemed to invoke anger in Peyton and her voice was raised again. "Don't you dare." Peyton felt uneasy and wanted to just get out of there. "I'm just gonna go before I say something I'll regret." She started to put her shoes on and grab her jacket. "Maybe it's not a good idea for us to do this project."

Brooke watched the other girl and just said the first thing that came into her head. "Wait, I'm sorry."

Peyton looked back at Brooke before answering. "Like you were before."

"Even more so." Brooke had genuinely meant her words and wanted to get past it. "How about we make a deal?"

She thought about it before she answered. "Ok, I'm listening." Peyton stood waiting for Brooke to continue.

"We get through this project, starting today, and we'll talk about the elephant afterwards." Brooke's voice didn't sound her usual confidence but she was determined to sound like she was serious.

Peyton thought about her options. Don't do the project together and probably get a low mark or do it and finally lay the cards on the table. "You've got yourself a deal. Do you need help cleaning up or am I being stupid for asking?"

"You're obviously being stupid. You should know by now that I don't clean." Both girls laughed. "I am sorry about everything, including the gifts in your car."

"Why did you pick condoms and nappies?" Peyton quizzed.

"I just went with the rumours. I wasn't about to put anything linked to the truth, Peyton."

Peyton had a confused look on her face. "You called me by my first name. I think there's some drink left to toast this momentous occasion."

Brooke couldn't help but smile at the blonde's sarcasm. "Very cute."

"Yes I am. You're just stating the obvious now." Peyton looked down on the ground. "I should go. I'll see you later and I'll try not to run you over again."

Jake had been walking around town for a bit. He wasn't your ordinary teenager, he didn't have super powers but he had a daughter. He was raising her, with the help of his parents, without his girlfriend. She had died giving birth to Jenny.

Every time he looked at the nine-month-old girl, it would remind him of Nikki. It broke his heart to know that his daughter would grow up without knowing her mother.

Jake found himself outside Karen's café. This wasn't unusual for the young father. He would always get a couple of hours to himself, at the weekend, and just walk. Then he would find himself sitting and having a cup of coffee and cake in the café.

"Hey Jake, how are you?" Haley greeted him at the front counter.

"Not too bad. Is Karen around?" He asked having a glance round himself.

"She's just out back. Anything I can help you with?" Haley asked while she was cleaning the counter.

"I just wanted to know if she had a job vacancy." He replied.

Karen walked through to the front. Haley spotted her and spoke. "I'm gonna head off now but Jake wants to speak to you."

"Thanks Haley, bye." Karen turned to Jake, "So what can I do for you."

"I was wondering if you had any vacancies. I'll do anything from serving to cleaning windows, dishes, you name it."

"Do you have any experience?" Karen asked.

"Not really, just helping with the housework at home and looking after my daughter." Jake replied hoping that his lack of experience wouldn't be held against him but that the fact he was a single parent might buy him some brownie points.

The door opened and Peyton, in a clean set of clothes, walked in. "Aunt Karen, I have a brilliant idea that I wanna run by you."

"Hold on Peyton." Karen turned back to the young man. "Jake I'm not sure I have much work going. I might be able to give you a couple of shifts but I don't open very late."

"That's where my idea can help the both of you. We can have a couple of feature nights like an open mic-night. The café stays open a bit longer, Jake gets to work and you get more business." Peyton elaborated.

"That isn't a bad idea. Write me a business proposal and I'll take a look." Karen addressed Peyton. She looked at her aunt thinking 'why'.

"Hey, you're a senior now so you should do things properly." Karen continued.

"Well I better go and work on it later. Got a project to get done." Peyton started walking towards the exit.

"Wait, I'll walk out with you." Jake shouted to Peyton "Thanks Miss Rowe."

"Call me Karen. Come by any day after school this week and we'll talk properly."

Jake waved as he walked to the door where Peyton was waiting. He opened the front door and followed Peyton outside. "How are you and the little one doing?" Peyton asked.

"She's great. I'm doing ok. It's hard sometimes but my parents are a big help. Not sure what I'll do without them. I'm not even sure what I'm gonna do after high school." Jake replied.

"I don't think many people do. Do you want a ride home?" She asked assuming that he didn't have his parents' car.

"No thanks. I think I'm going to walk." Jake started to walk in the other direction to where Peyton was parked. "See you at school."

"Bye" Peyton jumped in her car and headed over to Brooke's.