12.
They both sat next to her hospital bed just waiting for her to wake up. The doctors had said Haley would be ok and should wake up soon.
Nathan had been able to quickly pull Haley out of the water and luckily she had missed any rocks when she fell in the water.
A few minutes later Lucas had also managed to pull Brooke out, an ambulance had come and both girls taken away.
They had been at hospital for 4 hours but neither had been to check on Brooke, as far as both Scott boys were concerned they never wanted to see her again.
They had been sat in silence for most of the time, both still in shock never imagining how the afternoon would go. Lucas was trying to wrestle with all the guilt he felt and Nathan was nervous, the doctors had said Haley was going to wake up but until she actually did part of him didn't believe she would.
"I'm really grateful you know for looking after Haley for the past few weeks." Lucas said to Nathan.
"No problem." Nathan replied slightly confused as to why he needed any thanks.
"You're such a great older brother, looking after my best friend while I was being an idiot." Lucas said "like today helping me look for Haley not everyone would help look for some psycho or jump off a cliff for their brother."
Nathan began to feel uneasy, did his brother really think he was just here for him, hadn't he noticed all the time he and Haley had spent together over the past few months.
"Once Haley is better it's going to go back to just me and her like it was before." Lucas stated.
Nathan could stay silent to longer.
"You know your not Haley's only friend, I mean do you think she wants to go back to just hanging out with you." Nathan stated.
"Sure Haley had other friends but you don't know her Nathan she doesn't like hanging out with a big group of people." Lucas answered. Nathan was starting to get angry now. Both forgot Haley was still in the room in their anger.
"Yes she does she gets on really well with Peyton and Jake and me, we have become good friends, in fact we've kissed." Nathan said angered that Lucas was trying to control her life.
"What, so all this time you've ment to be looking after her you've been taking advantage of her. There's no way I'm letting you go out with her." Lucas said angrily.
"Like you have a choice in it, you think she's just going forget everything you've done, that you're just going to just go back to how you were before. You didn't believe her and you left her alone over these past few weeks that have been so hard for her." Nathan replied angrily.
"She's my best friend she'll forgive me." Lucas stated uncertainly.
"Will she, these last weeks the things that have made her feel worse is the fact that you didn't believe her and she doubted herself, doubted what a great person she was and that's all your fault. You chose your psycho girlfriend over Haley every time." Nathan angrily said, if Lucas hadn't pissed him off so much he would never have been so harsh or got so angry in a hospital.
"I should go." Lucas said standing up and going, he knew it was all true what Nathan had said and he was ashamed, Haley wouldn't want him there when she woke up.
Nathan sighed, wishing he had handled the situation better, he knew his brother was really upset about all of this and lost the love of his life but being told that he couldn't have Haley had wound him up as he knew Haley would never go out with him if Lucas was set against them.
"Nathan." Haley's croaky voice brought him out of his thoughts. He immediately grabbed her hand.
"I thought I heard fighting." She said slowly looking round the room for another person.
"Um no." Nathan weakly replied , he had no idea what to say now he was finally alone with her.
"I don't know how I got here." Haley said sounding scared "I'm not sure I want to either."
"What's the last thing you remember?" Nathan asked unsure of what to tell her in her fragile state.
"Being at school, feeling really crappy. It's all really hazy though" Haley replied her eyes shining with tears.
Nathan decided he should try and talk to her about what happened at the party first.
"Was it Brooke who touched you?" He asked gently rubbing her hand with his thumb.
"Yes, I wanted to tell you but it just sounded so unbelievable and I wasn't sure I should have been feeling so bad." Haley said the tears pouring down her cheeks.
Nathan's other hand came up and wiped away her tears.
"That must have been so hard for you, if you don't want someone to touch you then it's wrong who ever it is.
"It's just so horrible she didn't even do it to get off she did it just to hurt me." Haley said and started sobbing.
Nathan sat on the edge of her bed and pulled her into his arms.
"It's alright she can't hurt you any more." Nathan said stroking her back her head still against his neck. Haley pulled back from him.
"What happen, why am I here, where's Brooke?" Haley asked quickly.
Nathan slowly recounted the events of the afternoon and Haley quietly absorbed it all, like all of the events recently it all seemed so surreal, even Brooke's attack on the beach just a night ago seemed like a distant but scary dream.
At the moment her head was aching and her body tender, she guessed from falling into the water, and she was just exhausted.
She couldn't help but start drifting off.
"Can you get Lucas to come visit me tomorrow?" Haley asked as her eye lids were getting heavy.
"I promise, I'll be back at lunch tomorrow but if you need me ring me." Nathan said and gently kissed her forehead. "Sleep well".
They had given her something to make her sleep so she was still groggy when Nathan came to visit her at lunch but as the afternoon wore on and she was in the hospital on her own waiting for the end of school when Nathan said he would take her home she started to worry about the fact Lucas hadn't come to see her. The worst scenarios went through her mind and she couldn't help but feel guilty, maybe Lucas hated her because Brooke would now be gone and that made her think of Peyton too would they all be mad at her, that they had to lose a girl who had ment so much to them and so many other people.
Haley was sitting up in bed when Nathan arrived and he could tell she was agitated she was biting her lower lip and twisting her hands together.
"Have you come to take me home?" Haley asked as Nathan came and sat on the chair next to her bed.
"Yep." He said trying to sound cheerful to put her at ease.
"Just you." She asked unable to hide her fears.
"Yeah Lucas couldn't make it." Nathan said sounding awkward.
"It's because he hates me isn't it, he hates me because I'm the reason he's not with Brooke anymore." Haley said and started to sob her head in her hands and before she knew it she had a strong pair of arms wrapped round her and when she looked up she was surprised to see it was Lucas and her tears stopped.
"I could never hate you Haley, I'm so sorry I am so sorry." Lucas said and it was his turn to cry into Haley's shoulder.
Relief filled Haley that Lucas still loved her but that relief quickly was replaced by anger, she didn't want Lucas hurting but she knew she couldn't just forgive him either.
She continued rubbing his back but kept quiet not knowing what to say next.
"How can you forgive me so easily." Lucas said sounding muffled as he was still lying on her shoulder.
"Lucas I haven't forgiven you yet, I can't forgive you just yet." She said her voice full of the sadness she felt, she hated saying those words to Lucas but she couldn't help how she felt. Lucas was quiet for a second just looking at her.
"I am going to work to get our friendship back on track." Lucas said seriously.
"I'm going to get changed so I can leave." Haley said getting up and going to the bath room, she also needed some privacy to shed a few more tears as she still worried that maybe their friendship would never be the same again.
"I'm sorry about what I said earlier. I have no jurisdiction over Haley especially at the moment." Lucas said still looking ashamed.
"I care for her so much, I would never hurt her." Nathan said seriously "I'm going to stay with her tonight."
"I really want to be there for her." Lucas said
"I know big brother but I just think you need to give it some time, you just lost Brooke I think you need to look after yourself a bit more before you can truly be there for Haley and try and make things right." Nathan said surprising Lucas with his insightfulness.
"You're right." Lucas sighed "I might go see Peyton I know she's really upset."
"Tell her I'm there for her if she needs me." Nathan said.
"I'm sure she already knows." Lucas said then paused the next words he was going to say still hard to say even though he ment them "I know that you are good enough for Haley."
"Thanks man." Nathan said and they hugged.
Lucas had driven them both back to Haley's and Nathan had said he was staying to help settle her in, he hadn't wanted to seemed pushy and tell her he was staying but he was going to wait and see how things went.
Even though Brooke was still in hospital then going to a psychiatric unit in California where her parents were he was still worried about Haley.
She seemed quite cheerful and he was just waiting for everything to sink in, he had known Brooke since they were little and everything had just come out of the blue for him even though he knew she had been affected by being spoilt and never having her parents around.
Haley had felt quite happy since leaving the hospital, the main thing that had been bothering her was the physical pain. .
They had decided to watch a film and Nathan had let Haley chose, he was surprised instead of her choosing some boring chic flick she had chosen a film called Howl's moving castle.
At first he had been unsure about it as it was a cartoon but he actually found himself getting really engrossed in it.
They had been sat side by side on the sofa with her duvet over them but as Haley began to get sleepy she was gradually leaning more and more on Nathan not that he minded but it did make it harder for him to concentrate on the film.
He could feel her soft breath tickling his neck and he could feel his body temperature rising.
After an hour she had fallen asleep and he gently eased himself off the sofa so he could go cool down. He was just in the kitchen drinking some water when he heard Haley calling out his name.
He made his way quickly back into the living room where Haley was sat up on the sofa the duvet wrapped around her small body.
"I thought you had gone." Haley said "Your not leaving soon are you?" She questioned looking small and lost.
"I'm not going anywhere." Nathan said sitting down on the other side of the sofa, he was silent while Haley seemed to wrestle with what she wanted to say next.
"She really tried to kill me didn't she." Haley said in a quiet voice, her body shaking slightly.
Nathan leaned forward to pull her into his arms but she resisted knowing that every time she got upset she couldn't rely on crumbling into Nathan's arms.
"My head's kind of all over the place, I still don't think it's sunk in really."
"It's going to take some time." Nathan said "but it's understandable you've been through a lot."
"Everyone has as well though." Haley said still softly then looked up at Nathan "I should be grateful I haven't lost anything." She said looking into his eyes.
"I'm glad you didn't just forgive Lucas, I mean you're an amazing person but he really let you down." Nathan said Haley blushed slightly at the amazing comment but the conversation was serious so she didn't smile.
"He has really hurt me and I know it's just not the same at any more I don't feel I can rely on him. I'm hoping that might change in time though and you know some good things have come out of this I got to know Poppy and you better." Haley said trying to point out the bright side of the situation.
Nathan couldn't help but smile at her positive attitude but he was saddened when he thought of Poppy being gone.
"I really truly miss her. I know it probably seems like I've been coping well since Poppy's been gone but I think it's just all the drama that's distracted me from thinking about it too much." He said honestly and Haley reached out for his hand and stroked it reassuringly.
"You know you never told me why you didn't want your parents to come back, why they were off in the first place." He asked gently not wanting upset her but wanting to find out all about this amazing girl.
Haley sighed but she trusted Nathan and she hadn't really talked about it much apart from with Lucas.
She turned around so she was laying against his chest so she didn't have to look at him as she told him the story but she would still be able to feel him for comfort.
"When I was 14 my parents had a baby and so I had a little sister. It was really great, Poppy reminded me a lot of her apart from Gracie cried a lot more." Haley said a faint wistful smile on her face. "It was the first night that my parents went out after she was born and I was babysitting." Haley stopped for a second and Nathan held onto her tighter she took a deep breath before continuing.
"I was just watching a film and I actually kept thinking how weird it was that Gracie was sleeping through the night but I just kept watching the film."Her voice was starting to crack but he kept silent holding her tight. "I went up to check up on her afterwards and she just wasn't breathing." The tears were streaming down Haley's face but she continued the pain evident in her voice.
"It was cot death and they said there was nothing I could have done, my parents were devastated and since then they're always off travelling because they find it hard to be here." Haley finished furiously wiping her eyes not wanting to be crying again, sick of how depressing her life had been lately.
"I'm sure they don't blame you." Nathan said sensing that that was the doubts going through her head. "And however long it takes they will come back and they will realise they shouldn't have been away so long." Nathan said and kissed her shoulder gently.
They were silent for a while and Haley feel slightly better for getting things off her chest.
"Our lives are so depressing." She said trying to lighten the mood, she had been crying so much lately and she just didn't want to dwell on the bad stuff any more.
She knew she'd been through a lot but the teenage girl deep down in her couldn't help but marvel at the fact she was in senior basketball hotshot Nathan Scott's arms and she knew a good way to take her mind off all the bad stuff.
"I can think of a distraction for both of us if that will help." She said leaning a bit closer to him. He stayed frozen unsure if she ment what he was thinking, unsure if this was a good idea.
"I know you are never going to hurt me, I know you will protect and look after me like you have been doing."
Nathan stayed silent as he continued to stare into her big brown eyes, her hand slowly came up and stroked his cheek.
He knew he should be the one comforting her right now but he could see how much looking after other people helped her heal herself. He couldn't help but marvel about how he had managed to get such an incredible girl but before he could wonder for too long her felt her round soft lips gently caress him and he kissed back safe in the knowledge that as long as they both had each other they would be ok.
The need to kiss him and make all her pain go away was too much, maybe it wouldn't work forever to just get lost in him but while it did and until she could sort out everything she was just enjoying his soft hot lips on hers and his hands caressing her skin.
Ok so this story is all done and I really hope you've all enjoyed it. I did however change the story slightly due to popular demand, at the end I was going to let Haley forgive Lucas but so many of you seemed to be adamant that she shouldn't forgive him (it was like you knew what I had planned for the end) so I changed the ending and I hope you all like it.
I am still so sad about the end of episode 5.10 but I have hope and think things were maybe said in the heat of the moment that weren't ment because they had just had a big scare. I just hope Nathan fights enough.
I would love it!! if you are going to write a review if you could give an over view of how you think the story was and possibly say what your favourite chapter or bit of the story was just so it will help me in the future write better stories, also if there was any bit you hated and why. Plus if you could say which of my stories you prefer and why would be great. Please Please Please!
So I am working on new stories but I should think it will be another couple of months before my next story I'm afraid but I defiantly have some ideas.
Also if people want an epilogue for this story I can write something just to tie up lose ends and see where all the characters are in a couple of months time but I haven't written one as of yet so it maybe a while before it appears.
Once again thank you for all your lovely words it does mean so much to me.