What Lies Ahead

Four months have passed since Lucas and Nathan have come together in holy matrimony. Dean and Sam have been following Nathan's pregnancy closely. They've managed to schedule for a c-section operation in mid-January, roughly nine months from the baby's conception.

Since their last conversation, Nathan has turned down all attempts of contact from Dan. Although he has promised Lucas he wouldn't do anything, every fiber of his being wanted to confront his father one last time, and tell him everything. He'd secrety hope that spilling everything to his evil father would shock Dan to death.

School has been going better than Nathan expected. Haley would return with his homework and tutor him, while Lucas left for work immediately after school. Everyone has been bugging him as to the whereabouts of Nathan. Everyone of course had their speculations, but Lucas, Haley, Peyton and Brooke have managed to get together to come up with a believable excuse as to Nathan's absence. Nathan's mom had contacted him, asking for his help. He would be gone until the start of second semester. It seemed like a reasonable excuse since Nathan refused to take one step outside the apartment, even though it was getting to Nathan, being a restless guy and all.

Nathan was doing the one thing he never thought he would do lately...cleaning. Normally he was a slob, and Lucas usually had the unfortunate task of cleaning after him. But Lucas was willing to endure. Although Nathan can be a pain in the ass sometimes, pregnant Nathan however was much worse. But Lucas knew all the tricks to calming his sibling when angered. A few soothing words, sometimes a massage, and if all else fails...a blowjob.

It was during one of Nathan's cleaning moods that he got a call from the person he least expected.

"Hello?" Nathan answered, too distracted to check the caller ID.

"Nathan?" Came the response.

"Mom?" Nathan was shocked, he hadn't heard from his mom in almost two years.

"Hey sweetie. How've you been?" Deb answered.

"Just fine. Where are you?"

"I'm with your Uncle Cooper."

"All this time? Why haven't you come back home?"

"I was scared Nathan. There is nothing your father wouldn't do to when he's angry. I didn't want to stick around when he eventually found out his ledger was missing."

"But that was almost two years ago, Dad's locked away for a very long time."

"I'm just not ready to come back yet, Nathan."

"Fine."

"So how is everyone?"

"We're good. Karen and Keith are getting married, and are expecting a child. Karen opened an all ages club called Tric, with Peyton as her partner."

"That's wonderful. Please give Karen and Keith my congratulations."

"I will."

"So how are you and Haley? Are you still together?"

Nathan knew instantly where this conversation was heading. He could either lie, and let his mom believe whatever bullshit story he'd spew out of his mouth, or he could tell her the truth, which eventually she'll find out anyway. Nathan decided on honesty.

"No mom. Haley and I broke up, but on friendly terms. In fact, she and Peyton set me up with the person I'm with now."

"Wow. Is it serious?"

"Definetely. I enjoy every waking moment with them. It's incredible."

"Careful, Nate...you might just beat Karen to the alter." Deb joked.

"Well, that's the thing...um...we kinda already did." Nathan said.

Silence filled the air.

"Mom?"

"I'm sorry, what did you say?"

"I'm married, mom."

"This is a joke right?"

"No. I got married four months ago."

"Nathan, you are too young to get married!"

"We did it because it was right for us."

"You knocked your...wife...up didn't you?"

"WHAT?!"

"It's the only explaination."

"How about getting married out of love?"

"Nathan, you are ruining your life."

"No I'm not. And by the way, I'm married to a guy!" Nathan yelled, his anger once again getting the best of him.

"Excuse me?"

"I'm gay mom, and I'm married to a guy."

"Nathan, you can't just drop a bomb like that. First you tell me that you're married. Then you tell me that you're gay and married to a guy. Is there anything else you'd like to tell me?"

"I'm pregnant."

Nathan swore he heard Deb drop what sounded like a plate on the other line.

"Nathan..."

"Do you remember when I took those performance enhancing pills?"

"Y-yes?"

"Well the chemical imbalance created a change in my body. I wasn't feeling well one day, and when Lucas was being treated for his heart attack, the doctors checked me out, and that's when I found out I was pregnant."

"You got married because you were knocked up didn't you?"

"No! I told you, we got married out of love. I didn't find out I was pregnant until after we proposed."

"Get an abortion."

"WHAT?! Absolutely not!" Nathan cried.

"You're not ready to be married, and you're certainly not ready to be a father. Get an abortion. Now!"

"I can't and won't!"

"Why not?"

"I can't because I'm due any day now. The doctors have scheduled me in for a c-section in two weeks. And I won't because I refuse to kill mine and Lucas' child!" Nathan mentally slapped himself as soon as he blurted out that last part. But he realized that the way this conversation was going, his mom would never support him.

"Lucas? As in..."

"My brother? Yes, mom. Lucas and I are lovers, married, and soon to be expected fathers. I know we're committing incest, but we don't care. If you're just going to be all negative about it, save it. If you're not going to support us, then we don't want to hear from you."

The dial tone suddenly filled Nathan's ear. Deb had hung up. Nathan figured she just couldn't handle everything. Sure, suddenly finding out that your son is gay, married to his brother, and carrying his child, is a lot to take in, but at least Karen didn't react the way his mom did. Nathan was appalled that his mom demanded an abortion. He couldn't even fathom doing something like that.

In the end however, him loosing his relationship with his mom wasn't really a huge loss, just like his dad wasn't. He has the girls, Karen, Uncle Keith, Dean, Sam and most importantly, Lucas. They were his new family. A better family.

"Nathan?"

Nathan broke from his thoughts to find Lucas standing in front of his with a look of deep concern on his face.

"Hey. When did you get home?" Nathan asked, wrapping his arms around Lucas' waist.

"Just now." Lucas answered. He regarded Nathan a bit longer. It was hard not to notice the sullen look on his husband's face when he came home. Next to Nathan was the phone. Lucas surmised that he recieved a phone call, and it didn't end too well.

"Did Dan call again?" Lucas questioned, gesturing to the phone.

"No. It was my mom."

"She finally called? What did she want?"

"To see how I was doing."

"If she was interested in how you were doing, why didn't she just come back to Tree Hill?"

"She said she was scared."

"Of what? Dan? Doesn't she know Dan's locked away?"

"Apparently she wasn't ready to come back yet."

"Does she know..."

"About us? Yeah, I told her."

"She didn't take it too well." It was a statement, not a question.

"That's an understatement. I told her I was married, and she flipped out. She thought I knocked up my wife, and that was the only explaination for getting married."

"Your wife?" Lucas laughed.

"That's when I corrected her and told her I was married to a guy." Nathan chuckled.

"What'd she say?"

"She wanted to know if there was anything else I'd like to tell her."

"And you told her you were pregnant." Lucas said while rubbing Nathan's round belly, feeling several flutters under his touch.

"Yep. She then thought that I got married because I was knocked up. But I told her everything."

"Now when you say everything...do you mean everything but my involvement? Or everything including my involvement."

Nathan looked at him sheepishly.

"Dude, you got angry and blurted it out on accident, didn't you?" Lucas sighed.

"Sorry."

"It's okay." Lucas said as he kissed Nathan on the forehead.

"I then told her that if she wasn't going to support us, then we don't want to hear from her. Then she instantly hung up on me."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I don't want her to be around us if she's only going to disapprove of my choices."

"So you're cutting her off from your life?"

"Shes not really giving me a choice in the matter. If she wants to be apart of my life, she's gonna have to make the-..." Nathan stopped in mid-sentence as he made his awkward way to his feet.

Nathan’s voice broke off and he got a strange look on his face.

Lucas started moved forward. “Nate, are you all right?”

“I don’t know,” Nathan answered. “I feel weird.”

All of a sudden, Nathan clutched his stomach as pain shot through him.

"Nathan!" Lucas quickly grabbed a hold of Nathan to keep him from collapsing, "What’s wrong?” Lucas asked.

Nathan didn’t answer. Just then, Nathan groaned and bent over.

“Fuck,” he gasped.

“Nathan?” Lucas' voice wavered and.

Nathan couldn’t answer for a few moments. After a heartbeat or two, though, he straightened. “Shit, that hurt,” he said to his belly in a betrayed voice.

"Nathan, what's wrong?" Lucas tried again.

"My belly hurts...badly." Nathan gasped as another pain hit.

"I'm calling the Winchesters." Lucas was thankful that the phone was nearby, so that he didn't have to let go of Nathan.

- - - 000 - - -

Lucas sat in the waiting room with his mom, Keith, Haley, Peyton and Brooke. He'd been in their for two hours since Lucas, Dean and Sam brought Nathan to the hospital for emergency surgery. After telling the Winchesters about Nathan's increasing stomach pains, Lucas was told that the baby was ready to be born.

After the first hour passed, Lucas suddenly remembered to call everyone regarding Nathan's current situation, and in no time at all, Lucas found himself surrounded by his family and friends.

Noticing her son's worried expression, Karen decided to lighten the mood.

"Have you or Nathan decided on any names?" She asked.

Lucas quickly took notice of her tactic, and smiled, grateful of the distraction, "We have a few names we like."

"Such as?" Haley implored.

"Nathan likes Chad or Jensen if it's a boy, Amanda or Emma if its a girl."

"Emma is a pretty name for a girl." Brooke cooed.

"What do you think?" Peyton asked.

"I don't know. Personally, I'm not really feeling Chad for some reason, and there's no way in hell I'm naming my son Jensen. That name just screams asskicking." Lucas laughed, "In fact, Amanda and Emma are the only two girl names Nathan and I agree on."

"What boy names do you like?" Keith asked.

"I like Ben and Jared."

"Let me guess, Nathan doesn't like them?" Peyton teased.

"Nope." Lucas chuckled.

"Are there any boy names that you both like?" Karen questioned.

"There were a couple. But we were going to wait until the baby is born before making a final decision."

"Why didn't you just find out the sex of the baby as soon as you could?" Brooke asked.

"Nathan and I wanted to be suprised." Lucas stated.

"Lucas!" someone shouted.

Everyone turned to find Dean heading their way. Lucas quickly got up and walked towards the elder Winchester.

"Hey. How's Nathan?"

"Nathan's fine. There were no complications during the surgery. There was, however, an unexpected surprise." Dean replied with a knowing smirk.

"Good or bad surprise?" Lucas asked, afraid to know the answer.

"You'll have to see for yourself, come on. I'll take you to him." Dean said, then brought attention to the group behind Lucas, "I'm going to have Lucas go first, if that's okay. Nathan's been asking for him"

"Sure. We'll be here." Karen said.

Dean lead Lucas down what seemed like a maze of hallways before finally coming to a stop. Lucas kept firing one question after another regarding Nathan and the baby, but Dean refused to respond, and quite frankly, it was starting to piss Lucas off. When they finally stopped, so did the questions as Dean lightly pushed Lucas through the door in from of him. There Lucas walked in and took the seat next to the bed. He only sat there a moment, though, too restless to stay still. He stood next to the bed and looked down at his brother’s face. Lucas kissed each closed eyelid and then, exceptionally gentle, on the mouth.

Nathan stirred. His eyes blinked open and focused on Lucas. “Hey.”

“Hey yourself,” Lucas' face felt like it would break from the size of his smile.

“You scared the shit out of me,” Lucas chastised the other man as he perched on the side of Nathan’s bed. “Don’t ever do that again.”

Nathan squirmed and then flinched when the movement caused discomfort. “How’s the baby? I heard Sam say he was gonna help look it over.”

“I don't know,” Lucas told his brother. “In fact, I kept asking about the baby, but Dean has been a pain in the ass about answering me.”

"Do you think something's wrong?"

"No. I didn't get the impression something was wrong. But I was told there was a surprise in store for us." Lucas answered.

“Glad to see you looking better, Nate,” Sam greeted them from the door, holding an infant in his arms. He approached the bed and gently placed the baby in Nathan’s arms. “Got somebody here I thought you’d like to meet.”

Lucas watched his brother’s face as Nathan held their baby wrapped in a blue blanket, indicating that Nathan gave birth to a baby boy. His brother didn’t normally wear his emotions on his sleeve, but this was an exception. Nathan bent and kissed the newborn on the top of the head. When he raised up, Lucas could see a single tear trailing down Nathan’s cheek.

Lucas reached over and wiped that tear away before gently kissing his brother. “Look at him,” Lucas whispered to Nathan. “He’s beautiful.”

The room fell into a comfortable silence, until Dean's voice interupted them, "Hey, I hope there's room for one more."

Lucas and Nathan looked up at Dean, only to find him craddling a newborn wrapped in a blue blanket, "Congratulations, guys. You have twin boys." Dean said as he handed Lucas the second infant.

"What?" Lucas was bewildered.

"Was this the surprise?" Nathan asked, looking at the baby in his husband's arms.

"Yep." Dean said with a grin.

"How is it that we never knew about this. The ultrasound should have picked up two babies." Lucas asked.

"Sometimes, one baby can overlap the other." Sam said.

"Come on, Sammy. Let's give the new daddies some time alone with their kids." Dean said ushering his brother out the door.

"Oh my god," Nathan whispered in awe, "twins."

Lucas took a long look at the infant I his arms. It looked like he had more of Nathan's features than his own, and the baby boy in Nathan's arms looked more of his own features. But it was plainly clear that both he and Nathan were the twin's fathers. After a few more minutes, Lucas and Nathan swapped babies to enjoy the sons they haven't held yet.

"You know...we still need to give them names." Lucas whispered.

"How about we go with the ones we agreed on?" Nathan suggested.

"Okay, how about..."

It wasn't until a half hour passed that Lucas returned to the waiting room to retrieve the others. When he got there, he was shocked to see an extra person their conversing with Keith and his mom.

"Whitey?" Lucas asked.

"Hey, son." Whitey greeted warmly.

"What are you doing here?"

"I got a call from your mother, informing me of Nathan's situation. I figured I come down and offer my support."

"Thank you." Lucas smiled, "Actually, you're just in time. Nathan's ready for more visitors."

"Really?" Brooke was practically giddy.

"Calm down, Cheery. Yes, really. Come on." Lucas gestured for everyone to follow him.

Like Dean had done to him, Lucas refused to answer anyone's questions, and found their frustration amusing. He how understood Dean's reason for keeping him in the dark before. They stopped when Lucas stopped and turned to them.

"You guys ready?"

"Yes!" They all said, and Lucas opened the door and immediately went to Nathan's side.

Everyone came up to get a look at the small bundle in Nathan's arms.

"Guys, I'd like you to meet, Landon Michael Scott." Nathan said.

"He looks so much like Lucas." Karen said, softly touching the baby's cheek.

Everyone was to engrossed in Nathan and the baby Landon that they failed to take notice of Lucas producing his other son from the hospital crib in the corner of the room. Both Nathan and Lucas had planned a way to announce the arrival of their twins. Lucas knew that they would be too focused on Landon than they wouldn't notice Lucas and the other baby.

"And this is Ryan James Scott." Lucas said, getting everyone's attention.

A collective gasp was heard from all the girls in the room as soon as they saw the infant in Lucas' arms.

"Twins? You guys had twins?" Haley asked.

"Yep." Lucas said as he walked over to the group.

"He looks a lot like Nathan." Peyton said.

"I know." Lucas whispered.

They spent the next hour passing the twins around and creating small talk. The Winchester doctors made appearances made frequent appearances from time to time to check up on the babies and Nathan. During one of those visits, Lucas and Nathan asked Dean and Sam to be Landon and Ryan's godfathers, and without hesitation, they agreed. Nathan looked on in silence at the people surrounding him, making idle chit-chat. There was Karen, who proved to be a better mother figure to him than his own mother ever could. Keith has always been the only true father figure in his life, the fact that he's the complete opposite of his own bastard father. Haley and Peyton, who he owes the most for originally setting him up with Lucas at the Boy Toy auction. Brooke, well, she always had a knack of getting things done when she put her mind to it, especially when it came to his and Lucas' wedding. Whitey, although can be one hell of a pain in the ass, had always managed to make sure he didn't become obsessed with basketball like Dan and his grandfather. Dean and Sam, who have been the greatest of friends and have been with them every step of the way during his pregnancy. And finally Lucas, his brother, best friend, lover, husband, and now a father to his children. Nathan never thought Lucas would be mainly responsible for his happiness. And he thanked God every day for having Lucas in his life.

Thinking back to earlier today and his conversation with his mother, Nathan was right in thinking that he had a new family. A family that just gained two new members: Landon Michael Scott and Ryan James Scott.

- - - 000 - - -