Standard disclaimer - I don't own any of these characters. I'm just playing.
Haley looked around the therapist's office.
"You know why I asked to see you alone?" the redhead asked. Her lilting accent echoing.
Haley laughed. A short harsh laugh.
"Because only I can fix myself?"
"Haley, you were very close to your mother. How are you balancing your own responsibilities as a wife and a mother while you grieve for your mother?
"Look, doc, this isn't going to work. No amount of talking is going to fix me."
"Tell me what you're thinking, Haley."
"What I'm thinking," another disdainful laugh, "I'm thinking my family would have been better off without me. I'm thinking everything that has gone wrong in Nathan's life, went wrong because of me. I'm thinking, I wish we never met. This whole life, it's just too much. I don't deserve them. They don't deserve me."
"Haley…"
The redhead's voice followed Haley as she walked out the door.
Nathan heard the door open and close. He took a deep breathe. Game time.
"Haley, we're in the kitchen. Dinner's ready."
He watched her walk into kitchen. His wife. His beautiful, kind, graceful, intelligent wife. His Haley. Her eyes were filled with such sadness. His eyes lingered on her face. The smoothness of her cheek. The slope of her neck. The rich pink of her lips. God he loved this woman. And it was killing him that he couldn't fix this for her.
"Momma, Daddy and I made mac and cheese. Just enough cheese, just enough mac."
"Food of the Gods," Nathan said with a smirk.
"Whatever."
"You say the sweetest things, Haley James."
"This won't fix anything, Nathan."
"It'll fix your hungry, Momma."
"Momma, isn't hungry baby. I'm going to bed."
"Hales, Haley.."
Haley stopped at the stairs. She looked back at her husband, her son. Her family. They deserved so much better than she could give them.
"I'm tired, Nathan. I'm going to bed."
She turned and continued up the stairs.
Haley James Scott awoke to a pounding on her door.
"Hales, if you don't get a move on we're going to be late."
"Lucas?"
"Who else? Now, light a fire buddy. We've got to motor if you want to make the bus."
The bus? Haley opened her eyes and looked around this room. The walls were painted a light gray. There was a desk under a window, piled with books. There was a cork board on the wall to the left of the desk, with schedules and photos pinned to it. There was a wardrobe on one side of her bed and a small bedside table of the other. This was not her room. This wasn't her house. She slowly got up. She walked over to the cork board. The photos were of her and Lucas, her family; brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews. No Nathan. No Jamie. No Brooke or Peyton. Haley trailed her fingers over the desk; books, pens, pencils, day planner, an older ipod, a flip cell phone. On the other side of the window hung a calendar. It was filled with her handwriting. Streaks of blue, yellow, and pink highlighter filled the days. This was her organization system. The days were crossed off, stopping on the 15th. September 15th, 2008.
"Where the fuck am I?" she whispered under her breathe.
She obviously lived in this room. The photos of her and Lucas. Her family. The study schedule. The calendar. But where was Nathan? Where was Jamie? When she went to sleep it was 2012. How was it 2009? Where is Jamie!
"What the fuck is going on?"
"HALEY!"
Haley looked down at herself. She was wearing a pale blue tank top and pajama bottoms. Definitely not the nightgown she had gone to sleep in. She looked at her hands. Dark blue nail polish painted her fingers. Also, different. Then with a jolt and a sharp empty pang in her heart she noticed her finger. Her bare ring finger. No wedding ring. Where was her ring?
Haley ran back to the bed. She tore off the covers. Ran her hands over the fitted sheet. Looked on the bedside table. Looked under the bed. She found dust bunnies, a few highlighters, a smattering of hair ties. No ring. She ran to the cabinet drawers. Found a jewelry box. Emptied it on her bed. A few earrings. A necklace. No wedding ring.
"HALES! We gotta go!"
Haley jumped into action. She needed to know what was going on here and she wasn't going to get answers by staring at a smattering of half remembered jewelry. She grabbed clothes out of the cabinet. Pants. Shirt. Sweater. There was a winter jacket hanging on the door. She found a backpack next to her desk and dumped all her books into it. She grabbed the day planner. She opened the desk draw and froze. A Duke University Tutor Center catalogue. Duke University? DUKE? She grabbed the catalogue. She found a campus map under a few notebooks in a different drawer. Cell phone. ipod.
Suddenly, her door burst open. And there he was. Lucas Scott. He was younger. His eyes dancing with annoyance and amusement and a touch of consternation.
"Hey, there slow-poke. I thought you had an early tutoring session today."
"Luke. Hey. That's right. I do." She opened her planner. Saw a blue highlighted 8AM appointment with NEW STUDENT. "So you're dropping me off at Duke?" she asked fishing for information.
"No, Haley. I'm dropping your off at the bus that will take you Duke. I have to be at UNC early for that writing workshop I told you about."
"UNC. Writing workshop. Right. Of course. Silly me. Guess, I'm just a cotton-headed ninnymuggins this morning."
Lucas laughed and threw an arm over her shoulder.
"You? You could never be a cotton-headed ninnymuggins. Coffee's on the counter next to your ID and a bagel that your amazing best friend toasted for you this morning. Grab 'em and we're out."
Haley took note of the apartment as they walked into the kitchen. There were signs of her and Lucas everywhere. Schedules on wall. Piles of books all around the living room. A collage of postcards above the couch. A CD collection prominently displayed. More photos. Lily, Karen, Keith, Andy. It was so reminiscent of the apartment they had shared at Gilmore. Shared with Nathan and Jamie. But here there were no toys littering the floor. No playpen. She'd bet a lot of money there was no rap in the CD collection. It was only half right. Half a life.
Haley grabbed the bagel, coffee, and ID. She lifted her messenger bag over her shoulder and followed Luke out the door.
Haley scanned the map. She was heading for the tutor center. Duke University. A dream from half a lifetime ago. She couldn't imagine how she would have wound up at Duke in whatever reality this was. Haley had decided to treat this as a very elaborate, very detailed, very bizzare dream. On the car ride Luke had, in a very round about way, let Haley know he still played basketball, pickup games on the weekends with friends. He had never played for the Ravens. She was studying education. Oh, and also, apparently, she had never learned how to cook.
Haley signed and breathed in the crisp winter air. The cool air calmed her racing mind. This was just a strange dream. She just had to play it out and eventually she would wake up. She spotted her destination across the way and tucked the map and her chilled hand into her pocket. She took another deep, invigorating breathe. Onward into the fray. Or something like that.
She scanned her ID card at the Tutor Center entrance and made her way up a set of stairs. At the top of the stairs was a large room with many desks. There were small rooms all along one wall. Each with a large desk and two chairs. Probably for private sessions. The opposite wall was floor to ceiling windows. The bright winter morning light filled the space. Haley saw several students hanging around. A few waved or gave her the nod and she lifted her coffee in greeting. She picked a desk in the middle of the room and sat. Hoping this "New Student" would be able to recognize her. She pulled out her day planner, the campus map, and her ipod. She put in her ear buds and found the perfect song to match her mood. She opened the day planner, hoping she might have indicated somewhere which buildings her classes were in. She sipped her coffee and went to work.
Twenty minutes later, Haley had mapped out her day. Then she sighed in frustration. What was the point? Why even bother attending the classes? She was a 25 year old mother. A wife. A retired teacher. She checked her watch. "New Student" was late.
Haley scanned the room again. The sun was streaming down casting a tall student's profile into darkness. She didn't need to see the details to know this man. She already knew every detail. Every inch.
"Nathan!"
Haley almost shouted popping out of her chair. Just as she gained her feet, her headphone cord pulled tight, knocking into her coffee. The coffee knocked over spilling onto the floor and the chair.
She didn't notice. She couldn't see anything but Nathan. As soon as she had said his name, Nathan's gaze had locked onto her. She could see his deep blue eyes. His face was young and bitter. He looked happy and angry and curious. She soaked him in. His hair was growing out. The almost-end-of-season shag. He was wearing a bright blue nike jacket with the Duke Blue Devil on the chest. Nathan turned to say something to the taller boys he had been chatting with then started walking toward her. A small smirk played across his lips. He was amused and curious and, if she wasn't mistaken, he thought she was hot. But there was no sign of recognition in his eyes. No connection. This man. This Nathan. He didn't know her at all.
"Are you…" he looked down at a piece of paper, "...Haley James?" He smiled down at her. Not a full smile. Not a real smile. Not his smile for her. He was so young and so handsome. Haley loved the way the light formed a slight halo around his head. She drank in the slope of his aquiline nose. The arch of his brows. Her eyes lingered on his lips before working her way back to his eyes. There was so much sadness hiding there.
"Eh-Haley...?"
She jumped again. Coming out of her daze.
"That is you? Right?"
"Right, yes. Haley. Haley James. Thats me. And you are Nathan Scott. Of course. My new student, Nathan Scott. HAH. Of course. We're at Duke and I'm your tutor. Naturally, this is what's happening. Right. Well, what are the odd? So. Um…." Haley looked down and noticed her spilled coffee for the first time. "Looks like my coffee is taking up residence in your chair. So, um just let me just, ahhhh, you don't happen to have an extra napkin or anything do you?"
"Ahhh" Nathan pulled out his pockets and found an old receipt. "I don't think this going to be much of a help."
"No, not so much."
"Well then, what the hell. I say we bail."
She absolutely could not deal with this.
"What?-"
"I mean you're almost 20 minutes late. You don't seem to have any books with you. And your chair has very rudely hogged all my coffee."
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying, Nathan, that you, Nathan, are obviously not that interested in having a tutor. And I, Haley, can't really deal with this right now. So, I vote we call it a day."
"You're just going to leave? You're giving up on me? Is that even allowed?"
"I don't know and right now I don't really care."
"Are you kidding me?"
"Do you know who I am Nathan?"
"Um, Haley James. The world's worst tutor?"
"I'm Lucas's best friend."
"Lucas….?
"Lucas Scott. You know, Nathan. Your brother. Lucas. The one you spent an inordinate amount of time making miserable during High School."
"You went to Tree Hill?"
Haley turned around and started re-packing her bag. Muttering to herself. "This can't be happening."
"Are you serious right now? I haven't even seen that guys since High School. I've barely even spoken to him since I embarrassed his ass in that one-on-one game."
Haley froze. "What? What did you say?"
"I said, Hay-lee, I haven't spoken to him since I beat his ass in one-on-one. I don't -"
"You won?"
"Of course, I won. Like that poser could ever-
"You won. And Luke never joined the team. And we never met? I'm right. Aren't I"
"What do you mean?"
"You don't know me? We've never met?"
Nathan looked extremely confused. "No. We've never met before."
Haley shook her head. "One stupid fucking game and it's all different."
Nathan raised a skeptical brow. "Sure. OK."
Haley returned her focus to her bag. She tucked her phone and the campus map into her coat pocket. She picked up her ipod and placed an ear bud in her left ear. She turned back to Nathan.
"I need to go, but I'll be here tomorrow. If you want my help then don't waste my time. Show up on time and bring your books."
Haley pressed play and positioned her second earbud. She turned and walked out of the building without looking back. She wanted to scream and laugh and cry. She wanted a drink.
One stupid fucking game and everything is different. One game. One game. Three baskets. And their love story never got written. So much for always and forever.