DISCLAIMER: I do not own One Tree Hill, lyrics I use in the titles, any of the characters, etc. I do own any characters I may make up during the progress of this story.

Author's Note- I just wanted to say thank you to the three people that reviewed I'm Afraid of Being Hurt. It was a depressing turnout, I was expecting a larger outcome. I was especially looking forward to oth4evernaley's review, but I can't linger on that. My faithful reviewers that are now reading this story, the sequel to the past one, do you mind just adding a little note on how you liked the end? Thank you. ALSO: some of you wondered if the spoilers in the previous story were going to be thrown out. No, they will not. They will follow into this story.

To new readers, I would like if you read the previous story before reading this. You'll understand this more. Of course, you don't have to, but you might be a little lost when the characters refer to past events.

Now onto Chapter One!

Chapter One: My Daddy Owns a Dealership, the Rest is Fucking History

(Lyric in title is from the song I Can't Do It Alone by 3OH!3)

HALEY

It's December 24th. Christmas eve.

A whole month.

My marriage with Nathan ended a month ago at 2:13 AM. I don't really understand currently why I did it, and if it was the right thing. Sure, I was intoxicated, but it felt like the right thing to do. I hope. Maybe my subconscious mind is telling me something I don't know.

Peyton Sawyer died a month ago at 3:38 AM. Her father came home at 5 in the morning, expecting to spend Thanksgiving with his baby girl. Instead he found out that Peyton had passed before he even got home, before he got to say goodbye.

I want it all back, I do. I want laughter and happiness. I want to walk through the halls of Tree Hill High without avoiding Lucas' eyes. I want Nathan out of jail, hell; I'll take a time machine. Anything.

I want Keith and Peyton back.

It seems that just before the summer, I was wanting for it all back. It's depressing, how times in our lives become similar to the pains of our past.

How could our lives be so corrupted so early? I'm only 18, a senior in high school, and I've witnessed more than I would wish upon on my own enemy.

All this hatred, the cruelty in our hearts and the others among us could have been averted with a civil talk.

None of this had to end in blood, tears, pain.

But it has.

Brooke has spiraled into depression, Lucas is growing distant, Nathan's still in jail, I'm struggling to keep everything together.

Tree Hill hasn't won a single basketball game since they lost their two most beloved players- Lucas and Nathan Scott. The cheerleading team has grown pathetic without Brooke Davis and Peyton Sawyer.

Lucas is desperately trying to make sense of this all- why his brother is in jail, why his mother fell back into depression, why his uncle and one of his closest friends is now a whole world away, why Brooke hasn't been to school since what happened, why, why, why…

This tragedy is slowly killing us all, including me. But every day I put on a brave face and stand by my friends, because they need it, but I'm feeling the same hurt as the rest of them.

I need to help Brooke through this, especially with the baby on the way. She turned herself on autopilot; she eats and drinks regularly, but rarely talks. She quit going to school.

She's not even a zombie. Zombie's walk and make occasional groans to when they want something, but no.

She's just… Lost.

Lucas is slightly better off than Brooke, but losing a friend isn't all that easy either. Especially one that he has been pining after for years, someone he so desperately wanted before he met Brooke. Although he's not in love with her, he does miss her.

He'll talk to me, but won't let me in. He'll eat, but not a lot. With a struggling mother, and a depressed son, their family isn't working out. Without Keith, they have no other willing family to fall back onto when the café isn't open.

Everything is horrible. The café is closed often; the only time I see the lights on is when Lucas or Karen has to get something from there. I'm out of a job, but with the allowance Brooke never spends, we're doing well on the rent.

I just wish I could somehow help their family.

I think I'm yearning for the way everything used to be.

But there's no obvious way to get back to that now.

But I will find a way. Don't doubt it.

Don't doubt me.

Nathan sat in his jail cell, his eyes drooping out of boredom. He was waiting. But not for Haley, not again. He wasn't going to wait for her, the woman- no, girl- who had abandoned him twice.

He was waiting for Dan Scott.

So he waited in his freezing jail cell, on the rock solid bed. His were feet planted firmly on the cold floor, he waited. He didn't move an inch. He waited a month since Haley told him that they were over. No visitors.

He didn't allow his mind to trail off to Haley, or the brutal beating he gave Chris that forced him here. He closed it off and not once had a single face pushed it's way into his mind besides the one belonging to Dan Scott.

So he barely slept, waiting. He watched the sun go up and down day after day. Simply waiting, a smirk on his face.

He was smirking because he knew his father; he knew that Dan would somehow get him out of this to win him back. Anything to get out of the damn jail cell.

Nathan allowed his loneliness in the jail cell to cloud his vision, forgetting Dan brutally killed Keith. He forgot being associated with Dan Scott was a big risk in itself.

He counted the days, and sure enough, on the 30th day, he heard the same voice he had lived with for years.

"Son."

Nathan looked up, where his father was, looking just as malicious as ever with the same smirk on his lips as Nathan had.

The guards led them out to the courtyard, and to a picnic table. It was much warmer outside; Nathan was convinced the guards had turned the air conditioning on only in the winter just to torture the inmates.

"Looking a bit pale." Dan chuckled, and Nathan took his seat across his from Dan, hands neatly folded on the table out of annoyance.

"Oh, and scruffy."

"Guess you know what you would look like if you didn't destroy the evidence." Nathan said in a low voice, his eyes not quite meeting Dan's.

"Son-"

"Don't," Nathan laughed. "The only reason you're here is to help me get out of this hellhole, got it? Conditions will follow. You will not apologize for what you did to Keith because you're not worthy of me accepting it. I will not call you father, because you're nothing close to it. You will not help train me for Duke, you will not make my food, you will simply provide me with a place to sleep and as far as I'm concerned, you can pretty much die. Do you get that, Dan? You're dead to everyone in Tree Hill who knows the twisted truth. You're even dead to me. You killed my uncle, kidnapped Peyton, and convinced a cop to destroy the damn evidence, never mind all the horrible shit you've done prior to that-"

"I'm sorry about Peyton's death."

Nathan wasn't buying it, so he replied with a spiteful laugh, "Just regretful you didn't get to it first? That a drunk driver had beaten you to the punch? That makes you a loser, doesn't it?"

Dan waited calmly for his son to stop.

"That's what you always told me, right? 'Always get first place, son. The person that gets second is no less than a loser.' Did I get it right? Did I miss anything, Dan fucking Scott?"

Dan cleared his throat, but shook his head. "No, I've think you've got it right." He said in a low voice, and Nathan finally looked at Dan, the smirk still on his face.

"Excuse me? What did you say?" Nathan said, with a laugh. "Dan Scott thinks someone else is right?!"

"Yes, Nathan. I would like repentance-" Dan was cut off by Nathan, who stood up.

"Dan Scott wants repentance, you hear that?! AND he thinks someone besides himself is right! You hear that, ladies and gentlemen?!" He yelled loudly in the courtyard, his arms waving around like a maniac. The courtyard was was scattered with visitors and inmates who didn't appreciate the disturbance.

Nathan sat down finally, smiling ignorantly. "It's like fucking Christmas." Nathan said sarcastically, and Dan nodded.

"Well, it is Christmas Eve." Dan said, and the smirk fell off Nathan's face. "What?" His voice was slightly shaky, his mind slipping, bringing in a face he tried so hard to forget.

FLASHBACK- October

"What are you doing?" Nathan said, entering the house after a workout at the River Court. He put his basketball on the couch as he watched Haley go through boxes.

"Christmas decorations!" Haley said, chipper. Nathan laughed, walking over to the kitchen island, where the boxes were. He wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her closer.

"Christmas isn't until December, Hales." He murmured, kissing the top of her head. She shrugged, putting an elf's hat on her head. "Christmas is early!"

Nathan laughed, pulling away and going to the refrigerator to get a drink.

"What was Christmas like at your house, anyways?" Nathan said, taking a sip from his Gatorade and leaning against the counter.

"I never told you?" Haley frowned, and he shook his head. "We never really talked about holidays, you always thought I would be uncomfortable with never truly celebrating one. But it's alright, I want to know."

Haley took a deep breath, deciding it was okay, before launching into her story.

"Well, it was always pure chaos on Christmas Eve. Vivian, Quinn, Taylor, even my brothers would come over. No matter where anyone was- if Vivian was traveling or Taylor was at college, didn't matter. By two in the afternoon, everyone would be home. And we'd open all our presents right before we went to bed, some presents would be pranks that would shoot out at us, others completely thoughtful our parents would deny ever buying in the first place. No matter how goofy it was, it was home."

Haley smiled, searching through the box, finding a picture of her family dressed up in elf hats, matching the one Haley was wearing.

"What about Christmas day?" Nathan asked, obviously curious.

"Well, that was about the only time my parents would become serious. It was like they were someone else took over their bodies. Our grandparents would come over, only my mother's side because my father's were in another continent most of the time," Haley smiled, looking down at the picture, knowing where her parents got their love of travel.

"But my grandparents- They were something else, I tell you. They were so judging of my mom, telling her she didn't know how to cook a ham or clean a house, then they would cast sideway glares at my dad just because they thought he corrupted her poor little daughter. My parents would have us go crazy; cleaning every little speck of dust she could see. By the time our grandparents got over, all the kids would be dirty from cleaning we'd look like beggars in rags. That didn't go over well for our grandparents. There would be a few fights, whether it was Taylor back talking Grandma, or Quinn forgetting to make the macaroni and Mom would blow up. It was just because of the crazy tension of the holidays and the need to impress. But at four, every Christmas, we'd put aside our differences and just sit at the table and eat this killer Christmas dinner."

"Your parents were serious?" Was all Nathan said, eyebrows raised in disbelief.

Haley laughed, throwing a little Christmas teddy bear at him, "Yes, I know, unbelievable."

Nathan laughed, shooting the green teddy bear at the plastic bin all the holiday things were in. "How's your arm been from the accident?" Haley asked as it went in, remembering Nathan telling her he had hurt it when Rachel's car crashed with Haley's.

Nathan frowned slightly. "It's not like before, but I'll be better by the first game."

Haley grinned, "Better be. Because if you're not a basketball player anymore, mostly all of your sex appeal is gone."

"Mostly?" Nathan laughed, putting the Gatorade in the fridge.

"Do you still have that mechanic suit?" Haley winked at him, making him grin. "I could look."

Haley nodded, but looked back down at the picture of her family. She frowned suddenly, missing them. She felt an empty hole in her heart, feeling secluded from them.

"What's wrong?" Nathan asked, coming behind her and pulling her close to him. "This will be my first Christmas without any of my family here." Haley frowned, holding tightly onto the frame.

"You're wrong. You have family right here."

END OF FLASHBACK

Nathan scowled, remembering Haley for the first time in a while. Why did he let her do that? Sneak up on him, giving him memories of when they were still functional? Nathan felt a twinge of guilt that this would be her first Christmas alone, but that quickly evaporated when he remembered what she did.

"Reminiscing, son?" Dan chuckled, and Nathan's gaze snapped up to Dan's. "Another condition. Stop calling me son."

"Help me with this one," Dan said, his voice serious and slightly menacing. "Why the hell would I want to help you, follow your conditions, just to have you as a dead weight around the house? I have my own conditions."

Nathan's eyes turned into angry slits as Dan laughed. "You look like Lucas, son. Trying to steal his squinting abilities?"

Nathan took a deep breath, ignoring Dan.

"Two conditions." Nathan sighed. How bad can Dan's conditions be?

"They're going to contradict what one of your conditions." Dan said, but Nathan shrugged impatiently. He was tired of being fenced in like some kind of animal in this jail. He wanted to play basketball; he wanted to have fun, even if it was involved with Tim. To feel alive.

"First, I will train you for Duke. You're getting rusty, no doubt. That means morning runs, dawn work-outs at the gym, everything. Duke will not allow some low graded, idiotic kid who's been in jail into their institution without the help of me. And two, you will have nothing to do with Haley James."

Dan smirked at the look that briefly passed across Nathan's face. This was all part of Dan's plan to reel Nathan back in, get Dan's old life back.

"Fine, done. Whatever." Nathan gave in, and Dan smiled triumphantly.

"It's bad to make deals with the devil, son."

If only you knew.