He was in a rush, running into the airport out of Nathan's car. The team meeting ran late and speeding the entire way was still leaving him to cut it close to the gate.

"Luke!" he hears someone call out.

Turning around, he was frustrated, thinking about the little time that he had to get to his flight. That was until he saw her, standing in a pale pink sweater, her stomach proudly on display and her face flushed from her obvious running around the airport. She never looked more beautiful.

"Peyton?"

She runs up to him, holding on to him amidst a fury of people trying to go this way and that, "I'm coming home..."

"What? Peyton, what are you doing here? I'm supposed to be..."

"I know! I just... I can't do this anymore. I want you there! I want you to be there to take me on my stupid ice cream cravings, and I want you to tell me how beautiful I am every day even though I feel like I'm the size of a whale, and I want to wake up next to you, and I want to stop missing you!" she says, the tears readily flowing down her face as she lets out the emotions that she has been hiding for some time.

"Slow down, Peyton... It's fine, you're home." he says, leading her to the nearest chairs and dragging both of their bags behind them. "Why didn't you tell me that you were unhappy about all this?"

"Because, I didn't think that I was. Every now and then I would get upset, but after Christmas it just got worse and it made me miss this more, and I just wanted to come home."

"Why didn't you call me?"

She stayed silent for a moment, not knowing exactly what to tell him had transpired in Los Angeles that day before.

"Take me home, and then we can talk about it..."

It was a surprise to him, but Nathan didn't mind turning back around to come pick up his brother and friend, stating that he knew that it was just a matter of time before she was going to end up in Tree Hill for good.

"Shut up, Nathan." Peyton says, rolling her eyes at him in the rearview mirror.

Haley screamed when she looked up from playing with Jamie to see Nathan come back with Lucas, letting out another scream when Peyton was there behind him.

"What are you doing here?"

"I don't know yet..." Peyton says, scrunching up her face.

"Well, are you hungry? Of course you're hungry, you're pregnant!"

"Thank you for that! But, yeah, I'm hungry."

"All right, then we'll need some more food, so I vote pizza for all!" Haley says, throwing the phone at her husband.

"Why do I have to do it?"

"Because I want to talk to my soon to be sister-in-law, and I have been here all night playing with your son, who refuses to go to bed, so you can figure it out!"

"Okay, me and Luke will go get the pizza."

As the girls sat down, it all came rushing out.

"What are you doing here? What about your job? I thought that you guys were still going to wait another few months."

"I quit."

"What... Peyton?" Haley says, confused as to why Peyton would quit something that was her dream job since they were in high school.

"John came in the other day and asked me to check out this one new act, and I went along with it, not knowing that she was an absolute bimbo... even worse when you talked to her. So I went around to a new place that I hadn't been to and found someone else. He's a singer/songwriter who blew my mind. Inspiring lyrics, a faithful following from what I could see, and when I spoke to him, he actually had a brain."

"So ten times better than bimbo chick, then?"

"Yes... but do you know which one John still wanted me to pursue?"

"Bimbo chick?"

"Yes!" she says, standing up and frustrated. "I can't believe that he would pass up this other guy, and it pissed me off. Then he goes into this massive speech about how I don't know anything about the music business, and this girl is what the music business is about. And then I got upset and told him that isn't how it is supposed to be, and..." she stops, getting a few tears in her eyes.

"Why do I have a feeling this is going to be bad?"

"...and then he just called me a hormonal pregnant woman. Which at first made me upset, because yes... I am hormonal and pregnant. Then it pissed me off."

"And a pissed off, hormonal Peyton is really not something that you want to cross in any way."

"I slapped him."

"WHAT!" Haley says laughing nearly uncontrollably.

Sitting down with a huff, Peyton puts her feet up on the coffee table and waits for Haley to stop with the laughter for a moment. "Well, he deserved it..."

Of course that led to more laughing, which was contagious, because then Peyton started to laugh along with her, finally realizing how stupid it all was for her to do.

And this is how Nathan and Lucas found their respective others, in a fit of giggles on the couch with tears streaming down their faces.

"What is so funny?" Lucas asks, putting the pizza down in front of the girls.

Peyton then wipes her eyes, and looks up at Lucas with a look that he certainly couldn't describe, "I quit my job... and I slapped my boss..."

"WHAT?"

"He deserved it!" she jokingly screams back at him as she and Haley still let out a few giggles. "I realized that if I want to do this, then I'm going to do this the right way. I'm going to get a business degree, and I'm going to come into the music business my own way. Maybe start my own label or something like that. I can't be working for a major label who only cares about the bra size of whatever bimbo they have at the microphone."

"Okay." Luke says, sitting down next to her on the couch.

"We'll figure this out, right?" she says, turning and resting her head on his shoulder.

"Yeah, we will."

"Good, cause I don't want to talk about this any more... and me and baby want some pizza."

They spend the rest of the evening talking about their situation, trying to figure out the best way to get all of Peyton's stuff back from Los Angeles, trying to figure out where they were going to stay once the baby came in just a few short months.

Then there was that whole idea of a wedding.

"You know that Brooke is still planning a wedding for us, right?" she says as they lay in bed that night.

"That certainly doesn't surprise me."

"I don't want to get married until after the baby is born though, Luke. I don't want to be huge on my wedding day."

"I will do whatever you want me to do. I just want you to be happy. Okay?"

"Yeah."

"And next time you decide to go around hitting guys and flying across the country, please let me know first! What if I would have gotten on that plane, Peyton?"

"I was waiting for you at the gate, you couldn't have gotten past me." she says as if it isn't a big deal.

"Beside the point."

"I know, I'm sorry. It just didn't hit me all the time. One minute I was fine and I was thinking that we were okay with everything, and that I was okay with you not really being there for most of the pregnancy. I really was okay with it, Luke." she says, turning to face him and attempt to rest her head on his chest. "And then there were times when I would wake up in the middle of the night cause she was doing somersaults down there, or when I hear some ridiculous suggestion for a baby name, and I would want you there with me."

"Well, I'm glad that you chose to come out here."

"Really?"

"I was having the same issues that you were... I missed you, Peyton."

"What are we going to do, Lucas??"

"You can go to school here... after stuff with the baby settles down. Maybe on the days that we don't have anyone to watch her, we can meet my mom halfway and she can have her for the day, or something like that."

"Okay, but where are we going to live, Lucas?"

"That, I haven't figured out yet."

"Maybe we could just wait a little while longer, you know?"

"Peyton, this decision kind of has a deadline, in case you haven't noticed..."

"Oh really? THAT is why my pants don't fit anymore!" she says, laughing and try to be as sarcastic as possible. "Lucas, I get it, but maybe we should focus on you finishing this year of school, and maybe we can talk Nathan and Haley into all of us staying here for a little bit."

"Two kids under the age of two and four adults? You really think that's a wise idea?"

"I never got to have that big family, Luke, and neither did you. If Nathan and Haley go for it, it could be perfect."

"Okay, I'm all for that, but after the summer, what is going to happen, Peyton? I just accepted a coaching job for next season."

"I know that you did, but by the time school starts the baby is only going to be like three months old. Maybe that's too soon for me to go back to school. Two of us in school?"

"You're forgetting that by the time the baby is born, my book will hopefully be getting us some income as well. That is if it doesn't totally tank."

"It won't, Lucas, I know that it won't."

"Then--"

"Can we just cross that road when we come to it?"

"Okay..." he says, letting her rest her head on his chest, and resting his hand on her stomach. "You weren't joking about the somersaults."

"Yeah, its her latest plan... gymnastics to keep mommy up in the middle of the night."

"Well, let's see if I can help that." he says, scooting down so he could talk to her stomach.

After a few minutes of silly conversation and Peyton's laughter, it got more sentimental, with Lucas sharing stories with her stomach. Soon after he began the story of how they finally got their act together, he looked up to see Peyton fast asleep, and feel that the baby's somersaults had turned into gentle kicks every now and then.

He was too wired to sleep though, and opted to go into the kitchen for a later night snack, finding his brother sitting up as well.

"Can't sleep?"

"Nope, you?"

"Nah... it's weird cause it was a long day, but I can't let the head fall asleep."

"What's racking your brain?"

"You and Peyton can stay here, you know that, right?"

"What?" he says, wondering how he knew about that conversation.

"Haley and I talked about it after you guys went to bed. You can stay here as long as you like. We've got the room and Jamie and little girl Scott can share a bedroom for a few years if need be. We'd like you guys to stay."

"Really?"

"Luke, we grew up with such screwed up family situations... you, me, Peyton... this seems right."

"Did you ever think?" Lucas asks, referring to the situation that the men were in.

"Never in a million years."

"The girl I thought I could never have, the girl that was WAY too good for you, and two kids?"

"I'm gonna let that comment slide just because you're still in shock that Peyton flew back out here, but yeah, I get it."

"I think we're going to stay for a while."

"I think you can stay as long as you'd like. You helped us out so much with Jamie, and we want to help you and Peyton as much as we can too."

"Thanks Nate." he says, grabbing a glass of water and walking back towards the bedroom.

"Hey Luke?" Nathan calls after him.

"Yeah?"

"I'm glad we got our heads out of our asses and stopped hating each other."

"Yeah, that was probably a good idea."

–

Okay, I know that everybody hates me... I'm trying to update fics now, because I feel SOOOO bad for being so absent these past few weeks. So, this weekend the goal is to make up for all of it, and write updates to all fics, and in some cases, more than one!!!

Love me... don't Hate... and REVIEW!!!