Note: I'm already updating Holding on to Love when I was perusing the N & H Spoiler boards on FanForum. Saying that I totally owe the idea of this story to kateschecther who came up with this speculation/possible spoiler. If you don't want to kinda of be spoiled don't read. This story shouldn't be more than 5 chapters. Lemme know what you think. EP
Summary: What If? What if Haley accidentally stumbled onto the truth of Keith's death. What would be the fallout?
Chapter 1
"I knew it would come to this, but I imagined it being years in the future before I would have to kill you. You who never refused to remove yourselves from the lives of my sons. First you infested every aspect of Lucas's life and became his best friend. Then you infected my Nathan's world, my Nathan and became his wife. You have brought two brothers together who were never supposed to be brothers but always enemies. This generation was supposed to repeat from the one before."
She refused to flinch in front of this man. This man that she had tried to respect and love based upon who he was to her. But after the events of the last couple of months the only emotion that she could conjure up when the thoughts of him rose to the surface was disgust. Even after finding out all of the information she still had to be convinced that he was a cold-blooded murderer.
She sat down in the chair across from him, cognizant of the gun that was trained on her. Maybe she had been naïve to think that when she confronted him, he would accept everything and wouldn't try to deny anything nevertheless hold her at gunpoint.
"What do you want to happen here Dan? Do you want the police to arrest the Mayor of One Tree Hill on television or do you want to go to the station and give up willingly? I personally think that after everything you've been through you would opt for the second choice."
"What do you think Haley? Do you think this is a joke? Do you think that after gathering all the evidence that you need to put me away for the murder of my brother, Keith that I will sit here and allow you to do so? You don't know half of the things that I'm capable of. Things that I'm sure Nathan doesn't even know and some things I'm sure he hasn't even told you."
Haley flinched visibly, not wanting to admit to herself the depth of craziness that was in her father-in-law. "So what do you want to happen here Dan? Do you want to shoot me in cold blood just like you did Keith?"
Dan swore, "Why didn't you just stay the hell out of it? Everything was fine as it was. I became the tortured hero who unsuspectingly allowed his brother to go into the school and save my sons but sent him instead to his death. I was the victim in this tragedy and I was getting everything I wanted, why the hell did you interfere?"
That same question had been haunting her sleep for months. Why couldn't she just let the death of Keith and Jimmy go? Maybe because in the back of her mind the memory of all of them innocently playing at the Rivercourt refused to leave her memory. Maybe because she remembered the way that they would giggle together in the stands as Skills and Lucas played. Maybe because even on the day that they were being held hostage she had never thought him capable of murder. Maybe it was all of those things and more that wouldn't let his death go down as a murder/suicide.
"Do you really want to know or are just you looking for an excuse to kill me Dan? You have plenty of them, I'm sure. Because of me, you won't be allowed to play mind games with your sons anymore. Because of me, you won't be allowed within 5 feet of Karen except if she's going to spit on you for the murder of Keith. Because of me, your parents will never look you in the eye again knowing that you were capable of murder. And not just any murder, the murder of your own brother. You want a reason; a way that you messed up how about the moment you thought it was okay to pick up the gun against your own brother?"
Dan snorted in disgust and started clapping, "Got to love how the whoring wife of my son wants to give me morality lessons? You want the reason why I murdered my brother? I'll give it to you, short and sweet. He tried to murder me. I almost died in that fire at my place and if it hadn't been for Lucas, I would've died."
Haley closed her eyes as a single tear fell from her eye. "Is that what this was all about? Retribution? Of course Dan, it couldn't be anyway with you but Retribution? You thought that Keith had tried to take your life so you took his. Sort of how you tried to ruin my life by setting me up with Chris right? You will never grow up and realize that retribution will get you nowhere."
Dan rolled his eyes and said, "Retribution has worked out pretty well for me, up until now that is. I always exact revenge for whatever was done to me. Keith has always wanted to be me and it killed him inside that he wasn't man enough to take everything he wanted like I always did."
Haley shook her head as she listened to his delusional musings, "Keith had everything you wanted so that's why you killed him. You talk about how Keith wanted everything you had but he's always loved Karen and Lucas but that never bothered you. It wasn't until the happiness of them was shoved in your face that you realized there was no turning back and that you lost everything. You want to know the sad part about your little justification Dan? It won't hold up in court, no I'm not talking about the eye for an eye philosophy you've seemed to have adopted. I'm talking about the fact that Keith never tried to kill you. He wasn't the attempted murderer."
Dan flinched and for a second he looked like he was convinced but then he shook his head, "You're just trying to make me second guess myself. He bought the bottle of alcohol, I have the tape."
Haley stood up and walked behind the chair all the while having Dan's gun trained on her every move. "I have to stand up because the next words that will come out of my mouth will make a reality every nightmare I've had since uncovering this bit of information. Keith didn't try to kill you Dan and I know it's a fact because I know who did."
Dan shook his head violently, "You're lying, you just want to make me feel remorse. Fact of the matter is, Keith is the one who tried to kill me. I just exacted revenge for the injustice committed against me."
Haley snorted in disbelief, "That's what you're using isn't it? That's what's helping you sleep at night isn't it? I killed my brother in cold blood because he tried to kill me. Never mind the fact that the evidence doesn't point to my brother. You just assumed because he purchased a bottle of liquor that he was a murder. What are you Perry Mason? If he had tried to murder you they would've kept him in jail, no this was about something more basic. Jealousy. You were jealous that Keith was getting everything you never had a chance to get and so you lashed out. You shot him in cold blood over jealousy. You wouldn't have given a flying flip if he tried to kill you not after everything you put him through…"
Dan was saved from having to respond to that question when he heard the sirens blazing and the horns honking. He swung to his daughter-in-law in disgust, "You didn't have a phone when you came in here, I checked you. How the hell did you alert the authorities?"
Haley shook her head, "After everything I've learned about being a Scott in the past month, I was prepared for you. I knew you wouldn't let me go peacefully so I alerted my brother-in-law just in case. I'm sure my husband and Lucas are downstairs with the cops waiting to get their hands on you."
Dan grabbed her to him and walked over to the window and pointed the gun at her forehead. He pressed the gun into her temple as he looked downstairs at the squadron of cars that had collected outside his mayoral office. He hung back in disgust as he realized that his options were limited. He looked at his daughter-in-law in shock. "So you really did call the cavalry?"
Haley flinched against the gun pressed at her temple and nodded. She refused to look down for fear she might actually look upon the eyes of her husband or her brother in law and see the fear there. Fear wouldn't help the task that she had been given. "I warned you that being a Scott has taught me a thing or two about backup."
Dan took one last look downstairs at the faces of the officers, his ex-wife, his sons and Karen and felt the defeat rise up in his throat.
"So you really did call in the cavalry I see? Well, I've no other option than to wait them out."
Haley was pulled away from the window and shoved back into the chair across from his desk. Dan sat across from her, "So Haley tell me… If Keith didn't try to kill me, who do you suppose did?"
Haley looked at him and shook her head, "You have no remorse at all do you? You are just set in your ways and just assume that you know it all. Well I'll tell you I've exonerated Keith's name for your attempted murder by the easiest thing in the world. A confession, a confession from the real attempted murderer."
Dan shook his head, "You are just trying to make doubt myself, you have no proof, there is nothing that you could possibly tell me that would make me doubt that Keith wasn't the one who tried to kill me."
Haley reached for her purse and pulled out a micro cassette recorder and pushed play. The soft, dulcet, tones of his ex-wife filled the otherwise silent room.
"Why did I try to kill Dan, my then husband? It was simple really love. I love my family; I love Nathan because he's the only good, worthwhile thing that I ever got out of Dan. I never wanted him to suffer at the hands of his father but because of my own stupidity at times, he suffered and he suffered greatly. When Dan set in motion, with my help of course to break up Nathan and Haley's marriage I was behind him 100. I was behind him until, I saw how broken my son was. He was so broken that the reality of what I had become because of Dan slapped me in the face. I decided to pull back and I did and decided to support my son. Then Dan kept coming back at me and at Nathan. He just wouldn't stop. I guess the last straw was him trying to pit me against my son. My own son, and that's when I realized that he would never stop. So the night of the fire, I went to Keith and confessed to him how Dan would never stop and told him that I had tried to kill Dan. He protected me, just like the big brother that he was. He protected me and then left town to make it look like he was guilty. I'm only confessing this now, because Haley, my daughter-in-law wants to create a video tribute to Keith and one of the items hanging over his head was his arrest for Dan's attempted murder."
Haley clicked the tape recorder off and met Dan's eyes. His eyes were cold with hatred and disgust.
"That bitch."
Haley snorted softly, "Only thing you have to say Dan? I told you that Keith wasn't responsible for your attempted murder but let's not kid ourselves here. This was the least of the reasons you wanted him dead. It all started with him taking your place in Karen and Lucas's life right?"
Dan waved the gun around at her in disgust, "Since you seem to know so much maybe you can explain to me, how you found out that I killed Keith and not Jimmy?"
Haley leaned back in her chair as the memories of the past month washed over her and she began to speak……
Thanks EP :)