Disclaimer: I do not own One Tree Hill.
Summary: Nathan Scott is rich, handsome, CEO of a big Software Company and totally reckless. When his dad wants to take the company back, Nathan's brother comes up with a plan to prevent it. But maybe he just pulled the trigger to more trouble. NALEY. AU.
Always There
1. Unexpected
Fuck.
His head was pounding so heavily that he thought he would pass out at any moment. His eyes were heavy and his vision was a little blurry, but he could surely see that the living room was a big mess and that lots of cans of beer and uncountable vodka bottles were lying on the ground.
He sighed heavily, finally taking his time to sit straight, noticing that there were other people in the room, sleeping tight on the floor and on the other sofas. Probably the apartment was still packed with people crashing at the bedrooms, and he couldn't care less about it. Looking down, he noticed he was only wearing a pair of boxers, and a smug smile crossed his face as soon as he remembered how he managed to hook up with more girls than he could count.
Nathan Scott was feeling lucky that day, even though his head was killing him real bad.
Getting up slowly, he made his way to the bathroom down the hall, taking his cell phone with him in the process and thinking about the schedule for the day. It was Monday, and he was pretty sure his dad managed to make this a living hell by assigning him to attend to that stupid meeting with all that old guys, who wanted nothing more than his money. He sighed again, while finally hitting the shower, happy when the water ran trough his body, relaxing him right away. He wished he could just get on his bike and get lost for some weeks, away from his dad and everything else.
Unfortunately, things were not that easy.
His phone started ringing right away when he stepped out of the shower, and his head started hurting again.
When Lucas' name flashed on the screen, he clearly relaxed a bit.
"What?" Nathan answered, rudely, as always. He was not in a good mood in the mornings, especially if he had a headache.
"Hey, Nate, it's good to see you're already up and happy." Lucas' voice was cheery, and for some reason, it just pissed Nathan off.
"Fuck you." Nathan spat. "What do you want, Lucas? It's fucking early for you to be calling, don't you think?"
"Just remind you that you have this meeting today… dad would be really pissed if you skipped it like last week."
"You don't have to remind me about it, man. It's not like I'm in need of a babysitter."
"Are you sure?" Lucas chuckled and Nathan rolled his eyes, pissed off already. "You're not what I would call responsible."
"Like I said before, fuck you. You can take care of your life, and leave mine to me." Nathan said, smirking to himself. Lucas was a good brother, but sometimes he just forgot the fact that Nathan was an adult. "Look, I got to go now."
"Yeah, ok. See you at lunch? We can meet up at the place you like."
"That sounds good. I'll call you as soon as I finish the meeting."
"Right, bro. See you later. Have fun." Lucas laughed, before finally hanging up.
Nathan rolled his eyes again, and made his way to his bedroom, not even bothering to wrap a towel around his waist. He was not surprised to see three girls sleeping on his bed. One of them seemed to be almost awake though.
'It wouldn't kill if I got just a little bit late for the meeting again.'
He smirked, the girl finally sitting up straight, wearing nothing but panties. He was so going to need another shower after that…
XxX
"Where were you, Nathan?"
"I'm here now, right? No need to wonder where I was. Stop bragging about it, Clay…" Nathan continued walking down the corridor. He was wearing a black suit, black pants and a dark blue tie. Black sunglasses were covering his eyes, and he was walking around like he owned everything. Well, yes, he did own the place, but he surely wanted to make sure that everybody knew that he was there already.
"You're crazy." Clay chuckled.
"No, I'm not. I would be, if I skipped the hot sex I had this morning, just to arrive here earlier."
"This is so like you…"
"Don't blame me if you're not getting laid, Clay… I am, and I totally can tell that it's more fun than attending these stupid meetings all the time."
"Yes, but this is your job. You're the fucking CEO for god's sake!"
Clay watched Nathan ignore his comment. Then he greeted some of the secretaries on their way, making them giggle.
"Whatever. Let's get this shit finished, I have to meet Lucas for lunch and I have tons of better things to do later."
"Meaning…"
"Well, it means that I have a hot date." Nathan smiled at him, walking faster. He checked the time on his Rolex and noticed it was getting really late. Dan would be pissed. Well, not that Nathan cared. Dan was always pissed at him, no matter what.
"You're unbelievable." Clay laughed at his friend, as they reached the meeting room. "Let's do it. You at least know what is on the schedule for this meeting?"
"No idea." He answered, a playful smile on his lips.
Nathan walked in fast, a small smile playing on his lips as he heard some gasps. His dad was at the other side of the table, and he looked annoyed. The room was full of people, and they were all just waiting for him to show up about an hour ago.
"Good morning." Nathan greeted them, opening the file in front of him with a smile, without taking his sunglasses off. Dan eyed him again. "How was the weekend? Mine was surely great. I hope you all had some fun."
"We're not waiting here for an hour to hear about your weekend adventures, Nathan." Dan finally spoke up, and some of the people in the room looked away, feeling the tension. Nathan only smiled at him, taking his glasses off and putting them to rest on the table. "Can we please start with the meeting already? There are a lot of things we need to discuss in order to-"
"I know the drill, dad." Nathan cut him off, now with a serious face. "Well, as you might know, we were facing some issues in our filial in Austin, but I already took care of that. I sent someone to fix the problems, and I can assure you guys that it's taken care of."
"Mr. Scott, I'd like to remind you that we need to take a decision about the deal with Chevrolet Motors." One of the men spoke up and Nathan nodded, smiling a bit. "They already called some of our staff to know the answer about the contract. They are really interested in leaving us in charge of the job, and this would be a great advance to-"
"I got it, Mr. Newman." Nathan cut the old man off, shaking his head a little. "But I still don't have a position about this one."
"Nathan. This is a lot of money we're talking about here!" Dan glared at him, visibly mad at his response.
"I know they can do better." Nathan smirked. "If we can make some real money with this one, let's take our best shot. Clay, I want you to reformulate the contract. I think the price you guys set is a little low. This is the best software programming company around and our work is not cheap."
"Sir, I think that this is unnecessary-" One of the directors decided to try and make him accept the contract already.
"I'm certain that this is for the best. Clay, you can work on this today." Nathan insisted, ignoring the guy. "You guys will be thanking me after they sign this tomorrow."
Dan shifted on his chair, muttering things under his breath. Nathan was driving him crazy with his strange way of dealing with his company, and he did not like it. A while ago, before he decided that Nathan would be the new CEO, he thought it was a great decision: his son needed to have more responsibilities and being in charge of a large company like this was certainly something big. Turned out that Nathan was more involved in getting laid and wasted than anything else, and this was starting to worry him a lot.
"The price you want to put in the contract is totally overrated, Nathan. You'll make us lose this one."
"We won't lose it, dad, just trust me. I know what I'm doing." Nathan put his sunglasses back on.
One of the men shook his head at the young man and continued looking trough the papers.
"We still need a decision about keeping or not the sixty employees-"
"We're keeping them." Nathan pointed at the man with his pen, not even bothering to let him finish the sentence. Some of them started whispering around the room, and Nathan couldn't care less about what they thought. He was not going to fire sixty people just because they wanted to cut down on some expenses.
Nathan noticed his dad was about to say something, but he managed to cut him off as soon as the older man opened his mouth.
"I bet they need the job, dad. Besides, I really like Jake, and I don't want to fire him."
"Who the hell is Jake?" Dan asked him, totally mad by now. He couldn't care less about these guys. He just needed Nathan to sign the damn papers so they could just get rid of them already.
"You should get to know your employees better, dad. I know that we're going to extinguish that division of the company, but I'm sure that these guys are good and can work on another one. No real need to fire them. Especially, not right away."
"Great decision, Mr. Scott." Clay praised his best friend, patting his back. He knew it would annoy Dan Scott even more, and he was enjoying it as much as Nathan was. "I'm going to take a note on that… and consider it done about the new contract we'll send to Chevrolet Motors. I'll get it to them first thing tomorrow."
"Good." Nathan clapped his hands together, looked around with a bright smile and then stand up, getting his briefcase. "I guess this is all for now, I'll see you next Monday."
Nathan made his way out of the meeting room with a big smile on his face, Clay following right behind. They walked in silence until they reached Nathan's office and then they finally relaxed.
"Thank God it's finished. There's nothing that I hate more than facing those bastards." Nathan sighed, taking a sit on his comfortable chair. "All they really want is to take the charge of this shit, I know it. Dad is the only one who can't see it."
"You were awesome." Clay let out a laugh. "They seemed pretty mad at you though. Especially your dad."
"He can be mad, I don't really give a fuck about what he thinks. I swear, Clay, I'm really tired of him trying to set rules to me every fucking minute."
Clay nodded his head, but didn't say a word. He didn't like Dan Scott that much, but he was not going to feed Nathan's anger towards his own father. It was his problem, and although he and Nathan were real close friends, he tended to stay out of his friend's relationship with his dad.
Dan stormed into the office right after that, and Nathan sighed, clearly tired of his bragging. He was surely not in the mood to deal with his dad now.
"What do you think you're doing, Nathan? Are you trying to ruin my company? Do you think this is some kind of joke? Well, I don't, that's for sure!" Dan's voice boomed and Clay flinched a little. Nathan, on the other hand, was totally calm.
"Who said anything about this being a joke?" Nathan asked with his voice down. "I'm just doing my fucking job."
"Watch your language." Dan narrowed his eyes. "I don't want you to be acting this way anymore. This is the fourth time you arrive late and mess with the meeting. You're not following the directions I gave to you, Nathan! This is not right."
"You should relax, dad. Everything is going to be okay. You'll see."
"Yeah, it really is, son. 'Cause you can be sure that I'll do something about it. I worked a lot to build this company, and you are so not going to burn it down."
"Whatever, dad. I need to go and meet Lucas."
"Just keep that in mind, Nathan. If you continue acting like this, things will get pretty ugly. We'll talk later."
"Yeah, ok." Nathan rolled his eyes.
"Tell your brother to call me tomorrow." Dan told him, before nodding briefly at Clay and leaving the room.
Nathan shook his head and then smiled at his friend.
"He is pissed."
"Yeah, he is going to do something." Clay told him and Nathan didn't seem to care.
"He can do whatever he wants. I'm tired of him bossing me around all the time. C'mon, let's go. Do you need a ride somewhere?"
"No, I'm fine. I actually need to have some work done today, I think I'll stay and work on that contract."
"I really don't know what your problem is." Nathan chuckled.
"Actually, you needed to be here too. There are a lot of things to do-"
"You're starting to sound like Dan now." Nathan stopped him, shaking his hands.
"Are you coming back today?" Clay asked him, although he was sure Nathan would not.
"I don't think so. I'm going to meet Lucas for lunch, after that I'll go to the gym, and then I'll go home and get ready for later."
"So you really have a hot date." Clay smirked.
"Always." Nathan took hold of his briefcase and opened the door, finally deciding to go. "See you tomorrow, man."
"See you!"
XxX
"I bet it was a great meeting." Lucas chuckled and put his fork down, taking a sip of his soda afterwards.
Nathan laughed lightly and shook his head.
"Dan probably wants to murder you now." Lucas continued. "He was very excited about that contract, and you just postponed it."
"I'm not crazy, Luke. I'm pretty sure they'll still want us to do the job, I can tell."
"Well, what if they don't?"
"They will." Nathan smirked. "You know how I'm always right."
Lucas rolled his eyes at his brother.
"Yeah, whatever. Thank god I have nothing to do with this company."
"Lucky you." Nathan smiled, sipping his drink.
"If you hate it so much, Nate, why don't you just quit the job already and go do something else? You see, I'm happy being a lawyer."
"Yeah, and dad thinks you're a loser." Nathan rolled his eyes.
"But I'm not, and I don't care about what he thinks. You don't need to act this way, Nathan… I mean… you don't really need to keep up with his wishes. You can be whatever you want, Nate."
Nathan shook his head slowly. Lucas was probably right, he could be anything else in the world, and he could be whatever he wanted. Truth is, the only thing that he actually wanted to be, was taken off of him long time ago.
"You know that's not the case." Nathan spoke up after a while. "I don't dislike the job… really. I just want to have some fun. And of course, piss dad off plays a big role in this."
Lucas chuckled.
"You're unbelievable. But seriously, Nate, just be careful. You have a big responsibility ahead of you, and you know how the press loves to dig in your affairs and parties, whatever. This is not good for the company and you know it."
"I do." Nathan nodded. "But, really, Luke, this is my fucking life. I can do whatever I want. Dad decided to stand out of the company's decisions, named me as the new CEO and passed to me the major part of the assets. The point is, he doesn't let me do the fucking job, and he wants to tell me what to do all the time."
"He can be an ass and I know it, Nathan, but maybe he's just trying to lead you in the right way."
"You know it's not the case, Luke. I wish he would leave me the fuck alone. It seems like he doesn't want me in charge of anything. I mean, I'm the one who should make the decisions, but he always want to have his way with everything. I know the company is his too, but it's not like he can use me to do what he wants. I'm really getting tired of this, Luke."
Nathan knew it had to be just another vile plan of his to make his life a living hell. Dan was always like that since Nathan could remember. Everything he wanted to achieve, Dan would be happy to snatch it from his hands. First it was basketball, and then, everything else. Since their mother passed away years ago, things became really difficult for him, more than for Lucas. Dan was a real asshole to the two of them, but Nathan always got the worst part. Dan always told Nathan that he was the one that looked like him the most. He would make sure that Nathan knew that they looked like each other, and how Nathan was great with the ladies, just like his dad was back in the day.
"I already told you, Nate… there's no need to keep going with this if you don't enjoy it."
"I do." Nathan smirked, washing the thoughts away. "I love the money, and it's so much easier to get girls this way."
"I knew you'd say something like that…" Lucas laughed and shook his head.
"By the way, what about you? Seeing someone?"
"Not right now." Lucas shrugged. He was a little busy with work, and he didn't have the time to deal with girls. At least not for now.
"Right." Nathan chuckled. "You are always the lazy one when it comes to girls."
"It's not like that. But anyway, I'm not like you, who screw everything that walks."
"You're offending me, Luke."
Nathan laughed. He just wanted to have fun. He was twenty five, he was rich, charming, handsome and very intelligent. He deserved to have some fun… and girls and parties were his way to do it.
"You didn't come to the party last night." Nathan pointed at him.
"Sorry, bro, I had to wake early today… I bet you had lots of people to keep you busy."
"You can count on that." Nathan smiled. "Look, man, I gotta go. I'll call you later this week, let's see if we can watch the game together on Saturday at my apartment. I'll invite Clay and Jake too."
"Sounds great to me. I'll be there." Lucas smiled at him. His younger brother was always struggling with Dan and these same issues since he was a kid. It hurt him to see Nathan this way, always trying to keep up with Dan's hopes. "And Nate… don't let him get to you, ok? But please, try to be reasonable when taking decisions inside and outside the office. You know, you're a public person now, and you're the image of the company. It's not good to them, and to you, if you're acting so reckless everyday. Keep that in mind."
"I will, Luke. Really."
"And if you ever need any kind of help, you know you can count on me, okay?" Lucas assured him, his blue eyes gazing at his brother's, to make sure that he got the message. He would never let anyone mess with his little brother. "You know I'm your brother, and also, a great lawyer."
"Thanks, man. It means a lot. But that's enough of chick flick. I'll get going. See you Saturday."
Nathan pumped fists with his brother and got up, making sure to hand him enough money to pay for his part. Then, it was time for him to hit the gym, and try to forget about everything else.
XxX
Nathan sighed. He was tired after the day, and for the first time in a long time he decided not to take the girl to his apartment. His head was full, and even though most of the time he tried to block Dan of his mind, his dad always managed to get to him. It was hard to just let it go. He knew that he was thinking about doing something, and even as Nathan tried to act like it was nothing, it bugged him.
He turned around on the bed, now facing the ceiling. It was three o'clock in the morning and he was sure that he wouldn't be getting any sleep that night. It was like that most times. Some nights were harder, and the only way to get some rest was to get wasted first. He sighed and got up, walking slowly to the large living room, grabbing a bottle of whisky in the process. Nathan turned the TV on right away and yawned, taking a large sip of the whisky after that.
On the table in front of him, a magazine was laying open since last Friday. Dan stopped by and threw that thing on him after storming off. Nathan took the magazine on his hands and then sighed, seeing his name all over the middle pages. Pictures of him half naked in a club, pictures of him in bar fights, and so on. Things were slowly getting out of hand, and he knew his dad. He would do something. Soon.
Slowly, Nathan drifted to sleep. The bottle stayed in his hands, and the TV continued showing the rerun of some game. His eyes were closed, and he was finally sleeping, but his mind was surely not resting.
XxX
"Did you hear about this?"
Clay threw an envelope on Nathan's desk and sat down in front of him. His friend opened it, and he saw when a smile emerged on his lips.
"A charity ball… These shits are always a little on the boring side... But we're going anyway. I always get lucky on these things..." Nathan declared with a smug smile on his face.
"Yeah, but you do know that it's not your usual type of party… lot's of important people and a bunch of journalists and paparazzi… you know they're dying to make your life miserable."
"Still, it's going to be fun."
"Nate, really… go easy on this one, ok? You know how the press loves this fuss about you. It's only going to make things harder for you."
"I'm not going to do anything stupid, Clay." Nathan rolled his eyes. "Are you coming or not?"
"Of course I am. Besides, I have to take care of you."
Nathan rolled his eyes, suddenly aware of the fact that everybody thought he was always careless and immature. Of course he knew he was no saint, but still, sometimes he just wanted people to give him more credit
"You're teaming up with Lucas now?" He turned to Clay again, frowning.
"I should. By the way, is he coming?"
"I really don't know, man. Don't even know if he heard about this shit. Lucas is trying to get away from Dan for a while, but I'll make sure that he'll go. That is going to make my dad go crazy."
"Are they still not talking?" Clay asked, resting his legs on Nathan's large desk.
"No. They were never in good terms, you know… dad always wanted us to be like him and be in charge of the company, but you know how Lucas is. He never really wanted it. And dad never accepted it."
"Yeah." Clay nodded. "But I think Lucas does a great job as a lawyer."
"He does." Nathan sighed. "And I think it's great for me that my brother is such a good lawyer."
"Let's pray you don't need to play this card."
Nathan nodded, and started working again. Clay was right, and he needed to get some work done before it started to bring him more problems. He gazed at the invitation a little later and smiled for a second. He could use some fun, and this would be great. He couldn't wait for it.
Suddenly the telephone started ringing and he picked up fast.
"Mr. Scott, I'm sorry to interrupt you." His secretary started.
"It's ok, Lindsay, I was not busy. What is it?"
"Mr. Goodman asked me to inform you that Chevrolet Motors accepted the new contract, and they want you to contact them as soon as possible."
A bright smile crossed his lips, and Nathan was suddenly happy.
"Thanks, Lindsay. I'll do it right away."
He hung up and looked at his friend with a huge smile.
"Seems that I really am always right, Clay…"
XxX
Lucas grabbed another beer without taking his eyes off the game. He and Nathan were playing NBA Live on Nathan's apartment, and he was probably going to crash there. It was Saturday the next day, and it would be more fun than being home alone.
"You suck." Nathan declared, as soon as he beat Lucas up another time.
"Whatever." Lucas rolled his eyes and took a large sip of his beer. "You can be better than me in this stupid video game thing, but you know who is really good in real basketball."
"Yeah, it's me." Nathan chuckled.
"In your dreams."
"Look, what about the girl you invited to come?"
"She must be here any time now." Lucas answered with a mischievous smile.
"Great. Is she hot?" Nathan asked, getting up from the couch and grabbing a can of beer that was on the small table near the TV.
"You have to wait and see, bro." Lucas chuckled. "She moved here some weeks ago, and since I'm pretty much the only person she knows around for now, I thought it would be nice to invite her over."
"Yeah, really nice." Nathan smirked. "Why didn't she come with you?"
"She had some extra work to do or something." Lucas shrugged.
"So, are you into her or anything?" Nathan looked interested. Lucas made a strange face and shook his head.
"No, we're just friends."
"Great, so I'm free to make a move on her if she's hot?" Nathan asked, just to be sure.
"You can do whatever you want." His brother smiled at him and Nathan nodded happily.
"Sweet."
It didn't take long for her to arrive, and Lucas told Nathan that he should totally go and open the door for her.
"Are you sure?" Nathan asked. "Dude, I'm not going to back off now, you said you were not interested."
"And I'm not." Lucas rolled his eyes. "Go get the door already."
Nathan smirked and made his way to the door, opening it a second later. When his eyes finally landed on hers, he was taken aback, and so was she. The girl in front of him was hot, he could see it now, but in a totally different way from the girls he usually hooked up with.
His blue eyes softened a little bit as soon as her brown ones gazed back at him, and he almost smiled down at her.
Almost.
"Haley?"
She broke the eye contact and looked inside the apartment, glancing at Lucas, who was now smiling brightly at her.
"Is this some kind of sick joke?" She asked seconds later, her eyes now darker. Nathan felt his body become tense. "Lucas!" She looked at the other Scott, who was currently grinning like crazy, still sitting at the couch. She could not believe he did something like that to her.
"Probably it is." Nathan answered her instead, still taken aback by her sudden appearance.
Lucas was so going to pay for that…
To be Continued…
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