AN: So I will be completely honest. I have no clue where I plan on taking this story. I was cleaning my room and found this old folder and inside were the beginnings to a couple of stories I don't even remember writing, this being one of them. So, bear with me on this one, the updates may take longer than usual…if you can believe they could possibly get any longer between updates. But hopefully, you all are intrigued by the story, enough to patiently wait for me to update. This chapter is pretty short since it is the prologue and when I write the next chapter it should be longer. I guess I have rambled on long enough. Without further word from me, here is the prologue. Read, Review, Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own One Tree Hill or the song lyrics used in this prologue.

In Fates Hands

Prologue

The campus of Duke University was unusually empty, the normal loud hordes of people surprisingly absent. Every now and then, when the wind was strong enough to carry sound, voices could be heard but as soon as the wind was gone, the voices vanished too. The university was on spring break and everyone, except for a few students, had gone home to spend the holidays with their families.

He was one of those students who had stayed behind, not once regretting his decision to be alone. He sat underneath a large oak tree, blocking out his surroundings, and staring intently at the heavy, wooden double doors across the quad. Suddenly, the doors swung open and he looked away, unable to watch his past. A group of fifteen guys, maybe less, stood around the doorway, talking loudly and inadvertently catching the attention of the few students left on campus. He looked back at them, remembering what it was like, what he was like. He used to be the one that demanded attention, but not anymore.

He sat alone, thinking of his life and how it had gotten to this point. There were so many things that could have affected this and yet not even one could he himself have done. It had been out of his hands since the day he was born and there was no way to stop it, only a way to slow it down. If only he had stopped before he had gotten too attached. If he hadn't been so attached, so involved, it wouldn't have hurt as much when it was so suddenly ripped away from him. He might have even been okay with it. He might have even found something else. But now, it was just too late…

As he looked in on his past and watched the guys around the door, he noticed the lines on the wooden door from years of use and was surprised at this. Surprised that the maintenance workers of the university had allowed the doors of the great Cameron Indoor Stadium, to become so worn looking. Those doors represented the Duke Basketball legacy, well, the once Duke Basketball legacy. The basketball program was still intact, although not what it used to be nor as great as it used to be. Mostly because they had lost their will and their spirit. Duke Basketball had lost the heart of their program, as the students so called it. Like the voices in the wind, the legacy was gone, and it was most likely gone for good; vanished.

Nathan Scott stood up from the ground where he previously sat, and quietly, attracting no attention like he used to, walked away from those heavy wooden doors and his past. No one noticed as he made his way to his dorm, not once looking back at the quad behind him.

Spending all your money

Ain't it funny how the time goes by?

First you start believing

Then you're leaving for no reason

And you're wondering why

So till the morning breaks

Go and make your mistakes

Don't be surprised if your head hurts

Life is for the living, the forgiven, and for leaving town alive.

The soft, soothing sounds of an acoustic guitar along with an equally soft and soothing voice, floated through the open window from the old, brick house. The house was set at the end of the block, the window facing the sidewalk outside. People passing by were able to hear the talented young musician play and would stop for a moment or two to soak in the lyrics of the song. But the moment would pass and the people would leave, no longer preoccupied with the calm melodies, but instead thinking about their own lives.

The wind flowed in through the open window and the music stopped. The young blonde who had been playing the guitar set it gently on its stand and scribbled quickly into her notebook. She had to write down her thoughts, the sudden inspiration, before it was gone. Finished with the notebook, she closed it and placed it underneath the many other books on her beside table. The plain, blue notebook lost in the clutter of the table, hidden.

She stood up slowly, stretching her muscles that had become strained from hunching over her guitar and notebook all afternoon and looked around the room. It looked the same as it had when she left. The light blue, painted walls were covered by assorted posters of plays she had seen and bands she had liked. A silver framed mirror hung alongside the 'Les Miserables' poster and she stared into it, studying the reflection that looked back at her.

"Nothing special." She mused, silently to herself. Her blonde hair hung loosely down past her shoulders in long waves, curling under at the ends. She squinted her eyes in the mirror, wishing she had a more memorable eye color. She wished she had any color but the brown eyes she had. "Maybe green." She said out loud, then shook her head when she realized she was speaking to herself. Moving on next to her skin, she even surprised herself. She liked her skin, she had no complaints. Her skin was like porcelain, untainted. She took one last lingering look in the mirror before turning on her heel and walking out of the door.

Haley James walked out of her childhood bedroom and past the mourners that had congregated in her living room. No one paid her much attention as she quietly slipped through the front door in her knee length, black dress. Haley James walked out of the door and through the wooden gate at the front of the neatly groomed yard, not once looking back at the house behind her.

At that moment, they are no longer two separate people going down two separate paths. They are two halves that Fate picked to make one. They are destined to be together, to find each other. Fate chose them for a specific reason. They are going to save each other from themselves. They are going to live again and they are going to do it together. Fate has plans for them, and it won't be long before Time and Fate join forces and these two halves find their missing pieces, and become whole again. Fate has been set into motion. Their lives are in Fates hands.

AN: The song lyrics in the prologue (italicized) are from the song 'Leaving Town Alive' by Bethany Joy Lenz.