Summary: She just wants him in her arms again, safe and sound. She'll do whatever she needs to do to bring him home again. NH, short drabble, Haley-centric. Set during 9x08.

AN: Hey everyone! This is the first time I've ever written just solely Nathan and Haley, but I hope I did somewhat good with it. This is completely dedicated to the lovely KTxx. Happy Birthday, Katie! You're amazing and you totally deserve this, I love you!

Story title comes from Taylor Swift's Safe and Sound. I'm not much of a Taylor Swift fan, but this song is gorgeous. I'm completely in love with it.

I hope you'll all enjoy this, and you know, reviews are always nice ;)

Safe and Sound

You were doing everything for me all along, for your family.

Cry. Fight. Scream.

Cry again.

And then some more.

Until you simply can't anymore.

Haley sits on the edge of the couch, elbows resting on her knees, hands in her hair.

There is nothing she can do anymore, that's what people keep telling her. The detectives are doing everything they can, or that's what they say at least. She should just wait and let them do their work.

But she can't.

Nathan is missing. Her husband is missing and she knows he'd do anything to escape whatever situation he's facing right now and just come back to her. To her and to their children.

She knows that.

But he's nowhere to be seen, right?

Nowhere to be found.

Just nowhere.

She wants to cry, she doesn't know why, because it seems so useless. Tears are not going to bring him back. She still wants to cry though, even though she can't.

It's like she's used all her tears and now there's just emptiness. Cold emptiness that seems so be consuming her whole body and she simply can't anymore.

She just wants him to be safe.

And then there's that one thought again, the one she had to think of all the time while driving to the morgue. The one about his birthday and the ice cream and how it struck her that all he does in his life is for her and their family, their two beautiful children.

And she knows she needs to do the same. No matter how hard the detectives are working, if they are at all actually, it isn't enough. It's never going to be enough until she can hold her husband in her arms again. It won't be enough until she knows he's safe and sound again.

She gets up, smoothing down some invisible wrinkles in her clothes and walks away from that damned couch that isn't going to bring her any answers either. As she walks her way into the kitchen, she notices some pictures standing in the cupboards. They've been there so long but it's as if it's the first time she really sees them. Her eyes trail his face in the photo, that handsome face she's grown to love so much over the years, and all she wishes for is to just wake up next to it again. Before she realizes it, she's down on the ground, her legs giving up on her. She screams, because she just can't cry anymore, and then she stays silent and she doesn't even know anymore what's worse.

When she's finally able to get up again and walk into the kitchen, she knows Deb has a point.

She doesn't want to trust Dan, she really doesn't, but she misses Nathan and she just wants him to be home and safe and she just doesn't want to worry anymore. She doesn't want to keep imagining every single possible scenario, every new one worse than the previous.

All Nathan ever did was for her, for their family. Now, she needs to do everything she can to get their family back. Even if that means trusting Dan.

If trusting Dan means having Nathan be safe and sound again, she'll do it.

She just hopes now that that small glimmer of hope she doesn't want to feel but still does, will lead to something. She doesn't want to feel any more of that crushing pain she's already feeling in her whole body.

She doesn't really think she can handle more.