Chapter Text
Deb drums her fingers onto the steering wheel as anxiety balloons in her stomach. She could drive back now, no one would ever know she was here. Deb barely knew anything about Tree Hill during her short relationship with Dan. Sure, he bragged about his accomplishments on the basketball team, but any further questions were redirected. Maybe that should’ve been a red flag. No happy guy with no secrets is hesitant to talk about his life. All he spoke of was basketball and Keith. Even the latter was sparse and only came up when Deb said she had a younger brother.
“Lucky,” Dan sniped back. “I have an older one.”
“What’s his name?”
“Keith.”
“Is he in Tree Hill?”
Silence. A moment later they were talking about the upcoming game. Deb wouldn’t hear anything more about Keith until Dan was nothing but a cloud of dust. As soon as she found out she was pregnant, he lost all interest. A part of Deb will never be surprised. All he could talk about when they dated was his future in basketball. None of that included a family, Dan barely spoke of the one he had.
Keith showed up at her apartment three weeks ago and Deb barely recognized him from a family photo Dan kept in his dorm. There wasn’t much resemblance between them, both in looks and personality. Keith’s smile was warm, his eyes kind. He held his hand out to shake as soon as she opened the door. Deb felt safe to let him into the apartment as soon as he introduced himself.
“I hear I have a niece or nephew.”
“Nephew,” Deb corrected. “I’m surprised Dan told you. Last I heard he wanted nothing to do with me.”
“Dan didn’t. I have a friend who attends Duke, he filled me in.”
“That makes more sense.” Deb paused, looking down at her outfit. Her mom would have a cow if she found out she answered the door in sweats and a robe. Up until her pregnancy, she wore sundresses and jeans that squeezed her uncomfortably. She’s unsure of the last time she showered. “I’m sorry, if Dan didn’t tell you…why are you here?”
“I know who my brother is. I’m not going to make excuses for him. I can’t even promise our parents will come around. But I can’t turn my back on my family.”
“Dan’s your family.”
Keith scoffed. “Dan wouldn’t piss on me if I were on fire. And after this past year, I’m not sure how much blood matters anyhow.”
Deb pursed her lips together. “And yet you’re here.”
“Yes, not just for…”
“Nathan,” Deb whispered. “His name is Nathan.”
“Nathan,” Keith smiled. “I’m not just here for Nathan, but Lucas as well.”
“Who’s Lucas?”
“Deb, before Dan went to college, he had a girlfriend. He got her pregnant and took off on her.”
He dug through his pocket and pulled out his wallet. Upon opening it, he removed a picture. Deb’s fingers trembled as she accepted it from him. Keith beamed towards the camera, sitting beside a woman with long dark hair. Nestled on her lap is a baby, dressed in all denim like his mother. She gazed down at him in the way only a mother could.
“He can’t be much older than Nathan,” she whispered.
“Lucas is 8 months old.”
“Nathan is 5.” She cleared her throat, breaking her eyes away from the photograph. “Does she know? About me? Him?”
“I told her before I came here. She wants to meet you.”
“Then why are you here?” Deb snapped, shaking her head.
“Karen has faced enough rejection in the past year,” Keith replied, his voice still kind. He really isn’t like his brother. “If you said no, I don’t think she could handle it.” Deb didn’t say anything, clinging tighter to the photograph in hand. “I have a terrible relationship with my brother, I think you can tell that by now. I want more for my nephews. I think they deserve a fair shot. Don’t you?”
Nathan coos from the backseat and Deb gazes back at him. He fussed the entire two-hour ride and only now has grown quiet. His gummy mouth forms a smile once he catches sight of her. She can’t help but match it. In the midst of Dan leaving, being forced to drop out of college and her parents turning their backs, he has truly been the one bright spot in all of this.
“Do you want a brother?” Deb whispers.
Nathan just smiles. Deb sighs, cutting the engine. She doesn’t know Karen. From how Keith’s described her, they have very little in common.
Except their sons share blood.
After wrestling with the car seat that Nathan is quickly outgrowing, Deb is making her way up the steps to the apartment. She holds her breath as she knocks, trying to keep Nathan from squirming out of her grasp. The door opens and Karen stands there. She’s in sweats of her own, long hair thrown back in a ponytail. Like Deb, her face is makeup free.
“Deb?” Karen asks.
She nods. “And you must be Karen.”
“I am.” A beat passes. “This is…”
“Nathan. Nathan Scott.”
Karen tilts her head. “Scott?”
“Dan may want to deny him, but he’s a Scott.”
“I um…I gave Lucas his last name too.”
A bit of warmth fills Deb’s stomach. She opens her mouth to speak, but a cry rings out the door. Karen turns around, heading for the living room. Deb lingers in the doorway a moment, watching as she lifts a baby bigger than Nathan from a colorful playpen in the center of the room.
“You can come in,” Karen calls above the shrieking.
Deb’s legs shake a bit as she crosses the threshold. Nathan begins to fuss himself and Deb moves to rock and shush him. For a moment, she forgets where she is. In a stranger’s living room, just a foot away from her son’s older brother. All that matters is her own child, disturbed by the sudden fussing. There’s about 5 minutes where the only things said by either woman are comforting words to their babies. Lucas settles first, Nathan calming not long after. Karen plants a kiss to the top of Lucas’ head and for the first time, Deb gets a good look at him. While Nathan has dark fuzz, Lucas already has some blonde hair, nearly white. Both boys have big blue eyes, staring at their respective mother.
“He’s blonde,” Deb murmurs.
“Yeah, I’m wondering if it’ll darken soon. I have no one in my family. Dan’s mom is blonde though.”
“I never met her.”
Karen nods, shifting Lucas to her hip. “So.”
“So.”
“Fuck Dan, huh?”
The laughter bubbles out before Deb can help it. Karen is giggling right alongside of her. Deb lowers Nathan into the playpen, afraid she’ll drop him otherwise. She leans against it, tears burning her eyes. This is the most she’s laughed in the past year and she had no clue just how much she needed it.
“You’re right,” she finally manages to get out. “It is weird how much I used to love him and now…I can’t fucking stand him.”
Karen’s laughter roars, nodding her head. The two women stand there, laughing as the tears fall until finally, Deb needs to catch her breath. She focuses in on the playpen, where Lucas now sits too. Both brothers stare curiously at one another, a small, foam basketball clutched in Lucas’ grip.
“Do you think they can tell?” Deb whispers. “I mean…do you think they feel something?”
“I don’t know. I once read about these twins that were separated at birth. They said they always felt like something was missing but they never knew what until they met one another.”
Deb swallows. “Nathan’s already growing up without a father. Heaven knows what that’ll do to him. But to know that he could’ve had a brother…”
“He doesn’t have to wonder, you know?”
“I live in Durham, you’re all the way here…”
“We can make it work.”
“You don’t even know me. I could be a serial killer.”
“So could I and yet here you are.”
“Yeah, well,” Deb shrugs. “Keith vouched for you. Not even sure why I trusted him.”
“Because he’s Keith. He picked his nephews over a relationship with his brother. I think he’s probably the sweetest man I’ve ever known.”
Deb cocks an eyebrow. “Are you two…”
Karen waves her hand. “God, no. He’s just a friend. But a good one, at the end of it all. I know he’d be that for you. If you wanted to open the door that is.”
Deb gazes down at the boys. Lucas has gone to suck on his basketball and Nathan is on his back, wiggling about. They’re too young to play with one another, but one day they could be friends. Brothers. Better than their father and uncle ever were.
“I want to do right by Nathan,” Deb says. “So, maybe I could come down here? A couple of weekends a month?”
“We could come to you as well, if I don’t have to work.”
“I’d like that,” Deb whispers.
“Look, I know it’s awkward,” Karen shrugs. “And I doubt we’ll ever be best friends. But we owe it to the boys to try to get along.”
“Yeah,” Deb admits. “I’d say we do.”