"I understand if you don't love me anymore" Haley said.

She slowly got of the bed and made her way to the doorway, her heart breaking with each step.

"Always and forever", she heard him say.

She stopped and turned around. He was sitting up and staring at her with a pained expression.

"That's what sucks, Haley. I still do love you", he shaked his head in despair. "I always will".

Haley puts her hand on her throat and looks at him, longingly.

"I just can't trust you."

----------

"I want us to be together", she said, looking at his face, illuminated by the bonfire.

"Why", he winced at her hurt expression. "I mean, we're so far away from… who we used to be. Why even fight for it?".

"Because I love you", she said, simply.

He looks away. He wished it was that simple. But it wasn't. Nothing ever is.

"Well, listen, basketball season's coming up and I'm… I'm gonna concentrate on that. So, you should do your thing, whatever it is; school, music. Something other than me", he said, finally looking at her in the eye. "Because,… I really don't know when I'm gonna be ready for us again". He shrugged. "Or even if… I'll be ready for us at all".

"Oh, Nathan, don't say that, god!", Haley yanked at her hair, distraught.

"Haley, I'm not saying it to be mean, ok? I don't like hurting you. I'm just trying to be honest", he said.

She stared into space, barely moving. She wished she could turn back the clock and erased what she had done. She wished she never Chris Keller and that she never went on tour. She looked at Nathan and wished she didn't love him so much.

"I'm gonna head back", Nathan said, uncomfortably. "Alright?".

He walks off, leaving her to consume in her own grief. She looked after him before shouting "Nathan".

He turned around.

"I'm not going anywhere".

----------

"So, instead of an annulment, I've looked into a divorce", he looks at the ground, then straight ahead, anywhere but at him.

He keeps on walking, then he turns back and realizes that Haley had stopped.

"I've called my lawyer so you should call yours too", he said.

"What-", she broke off, shocked. "What are you saying?".

"I'm saying that we should make it official... Our separation", he said.

"Nathan? You can't... I- I love you", she said.

It's a dream. It's all a stupid weird dream. I going to wake up and laugh about it with Nathan, my husband, the most important person in my life, she thought, desperately.

"Haley..", he said, pleadingly.

"No, Nathan! This isn't the way it should be. I-I won't...I-I can't", she said, the tears coming down now, her shoulders heaving.

Nathan , without thinking, without hesitation wraps his arms around her. She leans her head against his shoulder. He held her as she cries.

"I can't lose you", she cries softly.

Nathan tightens his grip on her. Why?! Why is everything so hard?!, he shouted in his mind. He looked down at the crumpled figure in his arms. Can't I just forgive her and get over it? I need her more than I need my pride.

She finally stopped crying and looks up into his face. She wanted to say something meaningful, something that would get make it all okay.

"I'm sorry. I thing I got snot on your shirt", she croaked out. She mentally slapped herself for her lack of intelligence. She looked down so he doesn't have to see her embarasement.

"It's okay", he lifted her chin up so they could see eye to eye. "It's all going to be..".

"Well, well, if it isn't my son and his wife. I mean ex-wife", they broke apart.

Dan Scott. The Grinch himself.