Disclaimer: No, I do not own One Tree Hill. If I did, there would be a lot more Naley moments.

"Nathan, stop being a stubborn ass and get yourself to physical therapy," Jake Jagielski yelled into the phone, slamming his fist down onto his paper covered desk. "I got the Lakers to give you a year to get yourself back together, but only if you are actively trying to get your game back. It doesn't count if you're sitting around in that damn wheelchair drinking."

"Whatever, Jake," Nathan mumbled and then took another swig from the bottle of whiskey in his hand.

"I'm serious," Jake sighed, running his fingers through his short brown hair. "If you don't hold up your end of the bargain, they're going to sue you for breach of contract."

"My right leg was freakin' crushed Jagielski!" Nathan yelled.

"And the doctors said that if you work hard enough you'll regain full mobility," Jake said.
"You'll be able to do everything you could before the accident if you would just go to physical therapy! Don't you dare hang up on me, Nathan Scott! Dammit!"

Jake looked down at his Blackberry, seeing that Nathan had hung up on him. He wanted more than anything to throw the phone across the room, but thought better of it. He set the phone down and instead grabbed the foam basketball off the corner of his desk. He chucked it as hard as he could at the door and sighed in frustration. He knew it was better than throwing his phone, but the noise it made was never very satisfying. He'd thrown that stupid little basketball a lot over the last four months. Jake felt like he'd been living in some sort of nightmare ever since Nathan Scott had been hit by a drunk driver on his way home from a game.

The Lakers had just made the playoffs and the entire town was celebrating. Nathan had actually listened to Jake for once and agreed to take the town car Jake had called for to get home. A drunk driver had hit the rear passenger side of the car where he'd been sitting. He was in the hospital for three weeks and had undergone ten reconstructive surgeries. The doctors were hopeful. Nathan Scott, however, was not, and there was nothing Jake could do to make him want to get better.

Jake pushed his plush leather office chair back away from his desk and rose to his feet. He grabbed his car keys out of the dish on the side table by the door and walked out into the main part of the office.

"Lorena," he said. "Hold my calls. I'm getting Nathan Scott to rehab if I have to drag his ass kicking and screaming."

Nathan sat in his wheelchair staring out the sliding glass door of his Malibu mansion watching the tide come in. He'd barely moved from that spot for days. He hadn't showered, hadn't really slept. He hadn't shaved, brushed his teeth, or done anything else to contribute towards basic hygiene. He just went through bottle after bottle of Jack Daniels, his drink of choice, and watched as the world turned around him. It didn't matter anymore. None of it mattered anymore if he couldn't play basketball. No one had ever come back from a shattered leg, not in a year anyway.

It would just be easier if he didn't even try. It would be harder if he tried and failed. He couldn't imagine working to rehab his leg for months and then not getting back in shape in time to play and losing basketball anyway. So, instead he sat there and drank. It was a hell of a lot easier.

Suddenly his front door burst open and Jake walked in.

"Get your ass in the shower," Jake commanded. "You stink and we're leaving in thirty minutes."

"No," Nathan said, taking another swig from the bottle. It was still early and he hadn't really gotten started with his drinking yet, but Jake was totally killing his buzz.

"You don't have a choice here, Nathan," Jake said.

"In case you've forgotten," Nathan said, raising his voice as he talked. "I can't walk!"

"You can walk just fine," Jake replied. "You got your cast off last week. You can walk well enough to take a shower. Here's your crutches. Now get your ass out of that chair and get cleaned up."

"Fine," Nathan grumbled, slowly standing up, grabbing the crutches from Jake and making his way towards the stairs. "I'll check out the facility. But if I don't like it, I'm not going back"

"As long as you go," Jake said with a sigh, shaking his head . "As long as you go."

…

"You're doing great, Haley," Lucas said encouragingly as Haley reached the end of the pool he was sitting at.

"It hurts," she whimpered, grabbing onto the ledge with one hand to pull herself partially up out of the water and pulling up her goggles to rest on top of her head. "Can I stop yet?"

'Not if you want to be ready to go on that tour of yours," he said. "Now come on, just a few more laps and then you can call it a day."

Haley nodded and then pulled her goggles back down over her eyes. She kicked off the wall with her good leg and took a firmer grip on the green foam kickboard. She had eight months until she was supposed to leave for her tour and she had to be able to stand for more than twenty minutes without her leg giving out from beneath her.

She hadn't wanted to take that stupid movie deal, but her manager, Brooke, had pushed her into it. The studio had wanted to get a singer to play the lead female role to give the movie a more authentic feel. It was some sappy western musical with a crappy script. Haley had never even ridden a horse before the first day of shooting. The accident happened one day in a thunderstorm. It was a pretty low budget film and the director was terrified of getting behind schedule and running out of money.

They'd known a storm was coming and Haley could feel how skittish her horse was. She'd begged the director to stop for the day, but he thought the storm would be the perfect backdrop. A particularly close bolt of lightning had terrified the already nervous house and he'd reared up, throwing Haley from his back and onto a fence, breaking her leg in four places. The doctors had been able to put it back together, with a few pins and a bit of medical ingenuity, but she couldn't stand for more than twenty minutes at a time, which really wasn't practical for a touring recording artist. Besides, she had her first headlining tour coming up. It was all she'd dreamed of since she was seven and learned you could sing for a living. She wasn't about to miss it for anything.

As she reached the end of the pool where Lucas was waiting for her, she looked up to see two other men with her physical therapist. One was standing and the other was sitting in a wheelchair. She stopped kicking and quietly made her way to the end of the pool. The three men were embroiled in a conversation and she took off her goggles and swim cap without anyone noticing.

"Of all the physical therapists you could force me to go to," the dark haired man in the wheel chair said. "You take me to my ass of a half brother?"

"I'm the ass?" she heard Lucas yell. "I'm sorry, Jake. But I can't help him."

"I don't want your help!" the dark haired man retorted.

Haley carefully pushed herself up out of the pool to sit on the edge. She adjusted her black and aqua bikini top and then rewrapped her long auburn hair in a bun at the nape of her neck. She sat there on the edge of the pool watching as the three men interacted. Luke was obviously agitated as he talked to the two other men. The one who was standing was tall with short light brown hair and deep brown eyes. He looked like a nice guy and was cute in the 'boy next door' kind of way, but he didn't hold a candle to the man on crutches.

His face was kind of familiar and Haley knew he had to be some sort of celebrity because most of Lucas' clients were. His strong sculpted facial features were to die for. His dark hair was probably the color of melted dark chocolate and Haley wanted more than anything to run her fingers through it. She'd never felt like that about a man before. His piercing blue eyes cut straight to her soul. But the arrogant scowl on his face was a bit of a turn off as far as she was concerned.

"Luke," the other man said. "You're the best physical therapist in California, maybe even in the whole country, and if Nathan is going to make it back to the NBA, he's going to need the best."

"Hey Tutor Girl," Brooke said as she stepped out onto the pool deck, carefully picking her way over towards Lucas to keep her designer shoes out of any puddles of water. "Oh, did I interrupt something?"

"Oh, Haley!" Lucas exclaimed. "I'm so sorry. I completely forgot about you."

"It's okay, Luke," she said. "I could see that you were busy. "Brooke, can you grab my towel and my crutches?"

"You really don't need those crutches," Luke admonished as Brooke went over to a nearby lounge chair and grabbed the items Haley had requested.

"But you worked me really hard today," Haley said with a little pout. "And now my leg really hurts."

"Hey…"

"No pain, no gain," Haley laughed and rolled her eyes. "I know. You've only told me that a thousand times since my first session."

"So, how'd Tutor Girl do today?" Brooke said to Luke.

"They're going to be flirting for a while now," Haley said to the two other men, hobbling over towards them on her crutches. "They've been doing it since college. I'm Haley."

"Haley James," the man who was standing said. "My girlfriend, Peyton, is a big fan. She loves your music. I'm Jake Jagielski."

"Nice to meet you," she said, shaking his hand. "And you are?'

"You don't know who I am?" the dark haired man scoffed. "What? Do you live under a rock or something?"

"No…"

"Nathan Scott," he said. "I play for the Lakers. Well, I played for the Lakers anyway."

"I'm sorry," she said, shifting her weight a little. "I don't follow baseball."

Nathan stared at her for a moment like she'd grown another head and Jake burst out laughing. Haley looked between the two of them in confusion and shifted a bit on her crutches again. Her left leg was really sore and it was awfully hard to stand on one foot for such a long time.

"I heard about your accident," Jake said. "How's the physical therapy coming?"

"It's coming," Haley said. "Some days are better than others."

"What happened?" Nathan said with a frown.

"And you think I live under a rock?" she laughed. "I was thrown from a horse while filming a movie. Unfortunately there was a fence to break my fall. I broke my leg in four places. I'm rehabbing for my big tour next year."

"Why does it matter?" Nathan said. "You're just a singer."

"I need to be able to move just like you do," Haley replied indignantly. "I may not be scoring touchdowns or whatever it is that you do, but no one's going to pay to watch me sit on a stool for two hours."

"Tutor Girl!" Brooke exclaimed. "I'm totally neglecting you again. Come on. I'll help you back inside and then you can get changed and we'll be off to the studio. I swear, I'm like the worst manager/best friend ever."

"It's okay, Brookie," Haley laughed. "I'll see you on Friday, Luke."

"See you then, Hales," Luke said as Haley and Brooke made their way back into the building.

"I didn't know you were rehabbing Haley James," Jake said after the glass doors had closed behind Haley and Brooke.

"Yeah," Luke said. "I mostly work with athletes, but Brooke and Haley are old friends. We met in college."

"They went to Duke?" Nathan interjected.

"No," Luke replied. "I transferred from Duke to UCLA where I met Brooke. Brooke and Haley were friends in high school and Haley went to Stanford."

"Why'd you leave Duke?" Nathan frowned.

"I didn't see much point in staying there if I couldn't play basketball," Lucas shrugged. "So I transferred."

"Why couldn't you play basketball anymore?"

"What is this, twenty questions?" Luke asked irritably. "I just couldn't, so I transferred and got my degree in physical therapy. I figured if I couldn't play anymore, I could still be part of the game somehow. Why am I telling you all of this? It's not like you even care."

"I was just curious," Nathan shrugged. "Can we get out of here now, Jake? It's obvious that he's not going to help me."

"If you're going to play basketball again, you're going to need Lucas's help," Jake said firmly. "Luke, please. You told me that you owed me after those really awesome Bobcats tickets I scored you last year."

"I don't owe you that much," Lucas grumbled. "Fine, but you have to show up for every session on time, no alcohol until you've finished with your physical therapy, and you do exactly as I say with no arguments."

"Why no alcohol?" Nathan asked indignantly.

"Because I said so," Lucas replied. "Alcohol impairs your judgment. So, you're less likely to do anything stupid and cause yourself to have any setbacks if you don't drink while in my program."

"And you really think that you can get me to the point where I can play ball again?" Nathan said quietly, staring down at his sneakers

"If you do exactly what I tell you," Lucas said, crossing his arms over his chest. "I haven't failed with a client yet."

"Okay," Nathan said. "I'll do whatever you say. Just get me to where I can play basketball again."

…

"So, who's Nathan Scott?" Haley asked as she hobbled into the kitchen on her crutches. She'd just gotten out of the shower and was glad to have washed all of the chlorine out of her hair. She had changed into her comfortable yoga pants and an old Stanford t-shirt, clearly settled in for the night.

Brooke looked up from where she was standing behind the dark marble counter of their kitchen island chopping vegetables for a salad and laughed. She'd shed her suit jacket and was standing in the kitchen barefoot in her white silky blouse and navy blue pencil skirt.

"He's the star shooting guard for the Lakers and Lucas's half brother" she said, slicing a tomato and tossing the pieces into the salad bowl to her right. "He's a total hottie isn't he? I thought I saw you checking him out."

"So he's that Nathan," Haley said, making her way to the fridge. "He's a total ass is what he is. Did you hear the way he talked to Lucas?"

"Nathan and Luke have a lot of history," Brooke shrugged, grabbing a cucumber and slicing it as well. "They've both made a lot of mistakes where the other is concerned. You know they cost their high school basketball team the state championship, right?"

"Luke mentioned it once," Haley replied, pulling out a package of chicken breasts. "He never really told me all the details. Can you get a pan out for me? It's hard to bend down on crutches."

"Sure thing, Tutor Girl," Brooke said. "Believe me, you don't want to hear the whole story about Lucas, Nathan and Dan Scott. Their high school years sound like some crazy teenage soap opera. Whenever Lucas would drink too much at a party back in college, I had to hear the whole story over and over again."

Brooke grabbed the baking sheet out of the cabinet for Haley and then Haley covered it in foil. She washed her hands and then carefully opened the package of chicken breast and laid out the chicken on the pan. She washed her hands again before grabbing the seasoning she wanted out of the cabinet above her head and shook some on the chicken before putting it in the oven that Brooke had already preheated for her.

"Dan is both Luke and Nathan's dad, right?" Haley said. "But they have different moms?"

"Yep," Brooke said, dumping the cucumber in the salad as well. "From what Luke has told me, Dan's a total jackass. He's like totally denied Luke's existence his whole life and is just not a good guy. If you ask me, Luke is pretty lucky not to have had him in his life."

"I can't believe that guy Jake knew both of them and didn't know that they're brothers."

" I know as far as Luke is concerned they're not," Brooke exclaimed. "He only talks about Nathan when he's drunk. I only know anything about him from what I've seen on ESPN."

"Brooke Davis actually watched ESPN?" Haley said, leaning back against the counter next to the oven. "Is the sky going to start falling in around our heads?

"Very funny," Brooke said, moving on to the carrots. "If this whole singing thing doesn't work out, you should look into becoming a comedian. Some of those boys are damn fine though. But I had to learn about Nathan because he had a brief fling with one of my other clients last year, that model, Angelica. Reporters were constantly calling me with questions about him. Besides, Lucas goes on and on about him whenever he's drunk. It's kind of weird, but I think he's strangely proud of him."

"Hmm," Haley replied, making her way over to where Brooke was standing to grab a piece of carrot off the cutting board. "Well, it's not like I'll be seeing much of him anyway. We'll probably have completely different therapy times."

"You never know," Brooke shrugged. "Oh my god! You two could be Naley!"

"What?"

"If you were a couple," she clarified. "Your celebrity couple name would be Naley! That's so cute! Way better than Brangelina or Beniffer."

"I think you're crazy, Brookie," Haley laughed. "Besides, like I said, he's an ass."

"Well, he's kind of got a reason to be bitter," Brooke said thoughtfully. "I mean, basketball was his life and then he was in an accident that could mean he'll never play again. That's pretty rough. Need I remind you how bitchy you got after your accident when the label started talking about cancelling your tour?"

"I've worked my ass off for that tour," Haley replied indignantly.

"And don't you think Nathan's worked his ass off for his career too?"

"When did you get so wise, Brooke Davis?" Haley chuckled.

"Eh," Brooke shrugged. "It comes and goes. Tutor Girl, step away from the pasta. You've had macaroni and cheese with dinner every night for the last week and a half. It's time to start eating like a big girl."

"It's the food of the gods, Brooke," Haley said.

"Yeah," Brooke said. "If the gods are five year olds."

"Says the girl who was on the couch pigging out on macaroni and cheese next to me last night."

"Shut up," Brooke said, throwing a piece of carrot at Haley. "That was moral support and you know it."

"For what?"

"Lucas said Monday that your session today was going to be hard," Brook shrugged. "You needed to load up on carbs for energy, so I ate macaroni and cheese with you."

"That's a load of crap B. Davis and you know it," Haley laughed as the oven timer went off and Haley grabbed a pair of oven mitts to pull out the chicken. She got out a spatula and moved the chicken from the pan to a cutting board that was on the counter next to the stove to cut it up while Brooke dished up the salad she'd made into two separate bowls. Haley put some of the sliced chicken in both bowls while Brooke poured them each a glass of white wine and then they took their dinner into the living room of their apartment to eat it in front of the television.

"Oh, look," Brooke said after taking a seat on their tan suede sectional turning on the TV. "There's Nathan Scott. Looks like his finally making a trip to physical therapy is news worthy."

"I think he'd be a lot hotter without all the facial hair," Haley commented and then took a bite of her salad. "And maybe if his hair was shorter."

"But you do think he's hott," Brooke smirked, taking a sip of her wine.

"He's not completely unfortunate looking," Haley said, tilting her head to one side.

"I knew it!" Brooke exclaimed. "Tutor Girl has a crush on Boy Toy!"

"First of all, I do not have a crush on him," Haley replied indignantly. "And a crush? Seriously? What are we in second grade again? And second of all, Boy Toy?"

"I think it fits him," Brooke shrugged and then took a bite of her salad. "Well, it fit him before his accident anyway. Seriously, look at that picture they're showing of him. You're right. He is much cuter without the facial hair. Those cheek bones are to die for!"

"And you think I've got a crush on him," Haley scoffed. "If Lucas isn't careful, it sounds like he's going to have some competition."

"I can appreciate a male specimen without having a crush on him, Tutor Girl," Brooke said. "And you know Lucas and I are just friends."

"Friends who have been dancing around a relationship for the last six years," Haley said. "It's beyond obvious that you two like each other to everyone but the two of you."

"Shut up and eat your dinner," Brooke snapped, scowling playfully at Haley. "Oh, look! Gilmore Girls is on!"

Haley rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to her salad. Brooke and Lucas's relationship was quite the sore spot for Brooke and Haley only brought it up when she wanted to shut her up. It wasn't very kind of her, but Haley was more than tired of talking about Nathan Scott. She wasn't sure how she felt about him as a human being. She knew from what Lucas had said over the years that he'd had a hard life. It didn't really matter though. She'd had one chance encounter with him. It wasn't like she was going to have the opportunity to get to know him or anything.