Once Upon A December
One Tree Hill S3 A.U. "The Show Must Go On" Nathan/Haley w/ Leyton&Brake
Author's Note:
Brooke, Peyton, Larry, Victoria, Anna, Ellie, Derek (the real one), Felix, Chris K., and a few other characters exist in a different town and never once stepped foot in Tree Hill.
This fic was based off of the song "Once Upon A December" from Anastasia sung by Liz Callaway. I made a video for it that you can view on Youtube. Check out my profile page for the link to the vid it's working now.
Haley James-Scott leaned against her husband Nathan Scott's shoulder as he drove down the road. His arm was around her shoulder and they both started straight ahead. Suddenly, Haley sat up and looked down at the floor. She held on to the dashboard and turned to Nathan. "Aaaww!" She leaned over to the seat to look at the backseat, "I left my purse! It's got everything in it. The plane tickets, everything. We have to go back."
"No, no, no, it's okay," Nathan reached down and grabbed his cell phone, still watching the road, "I'll just have Lucas meet us," He dialed his brother's number, "Hey Luke! Hey man, ah, Haley left her purse and a bunch of stuff at the reception. Could you bring that to us?" He listened as Lucas talked.
"It's in the dressing room," Haley told him.
"Oh, okay. Well, all right we're coming up on Mollina Bridge right now, so, I guess we'll just pull over and wait for you. All right, thanks man. Bye." Nathan closed his cell phone and set it down on the seat of the car, "Done. Here he already had your purse in his car." Haley sighed in relief and Nathan chuckled. She smiled and turned around the right way in her seat.
"You're good in a crisis," Haley mused.
"Nah, I don't know about that," Nathan shrugged.
"No, you are," Haley said, "Good thing too. Especially since I have something I have to tell you."
Nathan quickly glanced at her, still keeping an eye on the road, "What is it?"
"I'm–look out!" Haley's head jerked to the windshield. Their limo, which Rachel and Cooper had left the wedding in, was coming straight toward them. It would crash into them!
Their car collided with the bridge wall, destroying it as it slid across, "Nathan!" Haley screamed as they flew off the bridge and landed in the water.
Rachel Gatina and Cooper Lee raced out of the limo upon seeing the car fly off the bridge, "Cooper, that was Nathan and Haley!"
"I know!" Cooper shouted. He looked at her and shook his head, "Dammit, Rachel!" He went up to edge of the bridge. "Nathan! Haley!" He shouted at the water. "Nathan!"
"I-I . . ." Rachel stared in awe at the sinking water, "I didn't mean it . . ." Tears streamed down her face.
"Do you honestly think it matters if you meant it or not?" Cooper yelled, "The fact is that yougrabbed the wheel and now my nephew and his wife are underwater," He looked at the water one more time before standing up. He went to the other side of the bridge and ran toward the side where Nathan and Haley flown off.
"Cooper!" Rachel shouted as he soared off the edge of the bridge into the water. He hit the water with a huge splash! before disappearing into the depths of the lake, "Cooper!" She knelt down by the edge, her hand over her chest, looking down, "Cooper!" she looked around, "Somebody help! Somebody please help me! Cooper!"
She heard a car and turned around. Lucas and his mother Karen were getting out of the car and running toward her, "What happened!" Lucas shouted.
"Nathan and Haley's car flew off the bridge and Cooper jumped in to save them but he's been under for a really long time!" Rachel sobbed. Lucas looked fearfully in the water.
"Oh god . . ." Karen put her hand on her mouth.
"Call 911!" Lucas said to his mother.
"Cooper!" Rachel yelled. Lucas and Karen's heads snapped in the direction Rachel yelled. Lucas and Karen's heads snapped in the direction Rachel was yelling. There were two bodies floating on the surface of the water. It was visibly two males, in black pants and black suit jackets. Lucas threw off his own jacket and soared off the bridge.
"Lucas!" Karen shouted as he hit the water. She pulled her cell phone out of her purse and dialed 911.
"Lucas help them!" Rachel yelled, on the verge of tears. Lucas swam over to the bodies and dragged them to shore.
"It's Nathan and Cooper!" Lucas shouted. Karen hung up her phone and shoved it back in her purse. She rushed over to the edge of the bridge, going down the hill to help Lucas.
"Where's Haley?" Karen said as she and Lucas turned Nathan and Cooper over so they would face up. Lucas looked out at the water, breathing heavily. Suddenly he lunged back into the lake and disappeared into the water. Karen check Nathan and Cooper's pulses and they were in fact still breathing.
Within moments the ambulances, fire trucks, and cop cars arrived at the scene. They raced down to Karen, Nathan, and Cooper but one went to Rachel to check on her. Lucas still hadn't appeared above water.
"What happened?" the first paramedic to run up to Karen said.
"There was an accident. My son's brother and his wife flew off the bridge. His uncle jumped in to save them. Now my son is out there, looking for his brother's wife," Karen told the paramedic, "He's been down a while."
"Where did your son go look?" The paramedic said. Karen pointed in the water. The paramedic turned back to the others, "We've got two under water. The guy went to go look for the missing woman. Two more guys here, on the shore."
"I can't find her!" Lucas appeared, taking a large breath, "I can't find Haley!"
Karen looked to the paramedic, "What happens now?"
"We're going to do everything we can to find her," the paramedic said. Karen nodded.
"Hey P. Sawyer! Wait up!" Brooke Davis ran down the dock after her best friend Peyton, carrying her purse, two beach chairs, an umbrella, and two towels. The skirt covering her bathing suit and the large, oversized, button-down shirt she wore flapped in the New Jersey wind. Her pink flip-flops flopped as she ran.
A foot or so away, Peyton walked down the dock. A cell phone was plastered to her ear and she waved around her hands–and her own purse–emphatically. "Peyton!"
Brooke finally caught up to her friend. She could hear her talk on the phone, ". . . no, this is ridiculous! I'm not going to duck out on my best friend just because you wanna go hang with the guys at the studio! Ugh!" With that, Peyton hung up the phone and stuffed it in her jean-shorts pocket. Along with the shorts, Peyton wore a vintage rock-band t-shirt (Brooke didn't recognize the band) over her bathing suit and a pair of old black and white sneakers without socks.
"Geez, you couldn't have waited for me?" Brooke said.
"Sorry, Brooke," Peyton took the umbrella and a beach chair from Brooke's load, "That was—"
"Yeah, yeah. I know. It was that asshole you call a boyfriend," Brooke rolled her eyes. They stepped off the dock and crossed through the hot, white sand to their usual hang out when they wanted to either tan or just, well, hang out and get away from certain people in each of their lives. Their hang out was near a shady cliff where a small waterfall trickled. There were also rocks around the waterfall—including a huge, heavy, sturdy flat rock where they could put prop up their umbrella and put their chairs without getting them all full of sand.
"Chris is not an asshole!" Peyton defended her boyfriend.
"Chris Keller is a total asshole," Brooke said, "I still don't know why you haven't dumped that loser yet." They climbed up to their rock and began to unfold their beach chairs and Peyton propped up the umbrella.
"What about Felix? He's not exactly a 'kindly gentleman' either," Peyton backfired.
"Felix is notmy boyfriend," Brooke sat down on her chair and set her purse and the towels next to her. Peyton did the same.
"Oh really?" Peyton pulled out a large drawing pad and marker from her purse. Brooke nodded, "'Cause you two seem awfully cosy lately."
"It's called 'friend with benefit'," Brooke, on the other hand, extracted a Cosmo-Girl magazine from her purse, "Wherein I make the rules and he has to dutifully follow them."
Peyton shook her head, "Whatever."
"Let's just get off the subject of guys altogether," Brooke suggested, flipping through the magazine.
"Sounds like a plan," Peyton agreed.
For a few minutes, the two set off on their particular tasks. Brooke learned what the new fashion trend was for the moment and Peyton channeled her emotions through her art. She drew a picture of the ocean, waves crashing on the shore, shells on the beach. She looked up a couple of times at the water, just watching the sereness of the calm waves. This was her favorite part when Brooke and she would ditch their boy-toys and parents and just go to the beach and relax.
The two of them had been friends for as long as either could remember. Together they'd dealt with Brooke's two parents who were never around, Peyton's father who was never around either, also Peyton's two dead mothers. This year, their senior year of high school, Peyton had found out she was adopted when she'd been born. Her adoptive mother had died in a car accident when she'd been eight. Then this year her biological mother had shown up and had died of cancer not long after. Plus neither of them had a great track record with guys.
"Peyt . . ."
Peyton looked up and over to Brooke, "What?"
Brooke stuttered and her hand shakily pointed to the water, "There–-there's someone out there!"
"They're probably just swimming," Peyton said.
Brooke shook her head, throwing her magazine down and getting up, "I don't think so." The brunette jumped off the rock and across the hot sand. Peyton set her drawing pad and marker down and followed Brooke across the beach.
"What is it?" Peyton said.
Brooke covered her hand with her mouth, "Oh god . . ."
Then Peyton saw what Brooke was freaking out over. There, washed up on the shore, not moving, was a girl who could not have been much older than Brooke and Peyton. She was wearing a wedding dress that was now torn, tattered, wet, and dirty, "We've gotta get her out."
The two of them jumped into the water and each grabbed one of the girl's arms, "Peyton, I don't think she's breathing!" They dragged the girl onto the beach and out of the water, laying her flat on her back.
Peyton pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and handed it off to Brooke, "Call an ambulance!" Brooke nodded and took the phone. Peyton checked the mysterious girl's pulse, "She isn't breathing!" Peyton got up on her knees and started to give the girl CPR, simultaneously giving chest compressions and breathing for her.
"The hospital is just around the corner so it won't take them long to get here," Brooke announced.
Just then the girl coughed and spit out water, "Are you okay?" Peyton asked.
The girl displayed fear on her face, glancing back and forth between Peyton and Brooke, "Who are you? What's going on?"
"We found you in the water and pulled you out. You weren't breathing," Peyton said, "How do you feel? Do you feel hurt?" The girl appeared to be frozen, "What about your name. Do you know your name?"
"Haley . . .?" The girl didn't appear to be entirely confident about her name.
Brooke knelt down beside her on the opposite side as Peyton, "It's going to be okay, Haley. The ambulance will be here any minute."
"What do you mean they can't find her?" Nathan yelled from his bed. He was sitting up, his legs hanging over the side, "Where the hell is Haley, Lucas?"
"That's what I've been trying to tell you," Lucas said, "She's disappeared. I looked, Cooper looked, and the entire search and rescue crew in Tree Hill is looking for her. Nobody can find her anywhere." Lucas put his hand on his brother's shoulder, "I'm sorry, little brother, but the cops don't know if they'll be able to find her."
"But that's not possible!" Nathan shouted, "I was just with her. We were on our way to the bridge to wait for you for Haley's purse and then we were going on our honeymoon. I just saw her, held her hand, kissed her . . . She can't be gone, Luke. She just can't be . . ."
"She'll come back," Lucas said, "She will."
To Be Continued . . .