Note: This story starts at the end of Season 3. Everything that happened in the first two seasons is the same, anything that came after may or may not be different. I wasn't a big fan of some season 4 Naley storylines and decided to write my own. Hope you enjoy. There may be some other couples in the story, but it is primarily Nathan/Haley.
This was supposed to be the best day of our lives. How did it turn into quite possibly the worst? Was it really only this morning that Nathan and I renewed our wedding vows? He gave me my dream wedding and we were so happy. We were supposed to be on the way to London right now for a brief honeymoon. We were looking forward to getting away from everything for a few days to celebrate (and make love in the rain) before the basketball playoffs took our lives back into crazy mode. Instead, I'm sitting in this hospital in my wedding dress, clinging to Lucas while we wait to find out if my husband is going to survive.
I'm wearing Nathan's suit jacket and every once in while I hold it up to my face because it smells like him and that gives me some comfort. Lucas tried to get me to change my clothes and I almost bit his head off. Having this jacket on is as close as I can get right now to having my husband's arms around me and I'm not giving it up. Not until I can have the real thing again.
It has been almost an hour since we arrived and we still haven't heard any news. Luke has asked at the desk and they keep telling him that someone will be out soon, but the time keeps plodding on and we still don't know what is going on. He has to be alive though right? Somehow, I would know if he wasn't here anymore, we are so connected. It's a small comfort but there it is, I'm still breathing so he must be too.
"You know Hales," Lucas said as he rubbed his hand over the cold ones of his best friend, "the fact that they are still with him means he is hanging in there. This is probably a good thing. They would have told us..." he trailed off as she raised her red rimmed eyes to his.
"Are you really saying we should be relieved right now?" Haley suddenly shouted, swinging her hands out of his and pulling away to stand. "Hey at least they haven't told us he's dead..." she choked on her words as she said them. "I know he's alive, I would feel it if he wasn't" she whispered, "but what if he doesn't wake up? What am I going to do Luke? How am I supposed to live without him? I can't lose him again. I feel like my heart is being torn from my chest" He stood up and pulled her into his chest as she cried against him, her sudden burst of anger turning into helplessness. "Oh God, it looked so bad Luke. What if he really doesn't make it? "
"Hey," Lucas said, pulling back a little and bringing her to sit next to him again and wrapping his arm around her shoulders. "My little brother is one of the toughest guys I know. He's going to pull through this. He loves you so much and I know that he will fight as hard as he can to stay here with you. Always and forever, right?" he added with a soft smile.
Haley reached out and gave Lucas a big hug. "Thank you for being here for us," she said, "who would have thought you would end up being Nathan's cheerleader?" Who would have thought that they would ever be able to get along, these two young men who had been set against each other by circumstances and their own father? Who would have thought they would end up being friends and even real brothers? Haley loved both of them in their own way and couldn't imagine losing either of them.
A commotion drew attention to the emergency room doors and both the figures on the couch jumped up, hoping that it would finally be the doctors with some news, but they were disappointed once again when it was only Dan and Deb, having finally squeezed through the last of the reporters that somehow started arriving at the hospital even before the ambulance arrived.
"What's going on? How is Nathan? What have you heard?" Dan asked as he stepped into the waiting room.
Lucas stood up slowly, gently disentangling himself from his friend and took Dan toward the other side of the room while Deb took his place next Haley on the small couch.
"Rachel and Cooper were unconscious when I got there, but out of the water and breathing. They have both woken up and appear to be out of the woods. Nathan saved both of them. He's a hero," Lucas started, trying to avoid the next part of the conversation.
"I don't care about them, this is all their fault anyway. What about my son?" Dan interrupted angrily.
Lucas looked over at Haley before quietly continuing, "We haven't heard anything about Nathan since we got here but I have to tell you, it's pretty bad. When I got down there his head was bleeding all over the place and he wasn't breathing. He was still half in the water and I pulled him out and started doing CPR, but there was so much blood and I just..." Lucas broke down as Dan pulled him in for a surprising hug. "He was alive when they took him in the ambulance, but it really didn't look good." In fact, that was an understatement, Luke thought. He meant what he said about Nathan being tough and strong. If he wasn't, he was sure they would have already lost him.
"Thank you," Dan said, tears filling his eyes too as Lucas jerked his head up in surprise. "For being there for your brother."
Lucas pulled away, not sure what to make of Dan's sentimental moment. He knew the kind of mind games Dan played and to never take anything he said at face value. He returned to Haley, reaching out to take her hands as Deb kept her arm around her young daughter-in-law's shoulders from the other side. She knew that she had been unfair to Haley when she and Nathan got married the first time, but she had come to admit that the girl loved her son so much more than she had given her credit for. She hadn't been the kind of mother she wanted to be for a long time and she was willing to do whatever it took to make it up to her son and his wife. She just prayed she would get that chance.
"Is there anything I can get you?" Karen asked, returning to the waiting room with the coffee she had gone to get for herself and Lucas. "Are you sure you don't want something to drink at least Haley?"
Haley shook her head no. She wasn't hungry. In fact, the thought of food made her stomach churn unpleasantly. All she could seem to do was stare silently across the room, willing someone to come through those doors and tell her this was all a nightmare, that her husband was fine and they could go home. "Why won't they tell us anything?" she whispered, "I need to know what is going on." Dan had gone over to the desk and pitched a fit over their lack of updates but so far, it hadn't done any good. The desk just kept saying that someone would come talk to them as soon as they could and they were all getting impatient.
Peyton and Brooke had each arrived and were now sitting on opposite sides of the waiting room. Neither one was sure how they could help, but wanting to be there for their friends, even if they didn't really want to be in the same room as each other.
Deb finally left to go check on her brother and Dan was heading back toward the desk when a harried looking doctor finally stepped through the doors. "Mr. and Mrs. Scott?" she asked, walking toward their group.
"I'm Dan Scott, I'm Nathan's father" Dan said stepping forward and automatically taking charge. He was the mayor and was sick of being put off. Didn't these people know who they were dealing with?
"This is Haley Scott," Lucas said, giving his father a glare as he helped his friend to her feet. "She is Nathan's wife and I'm his brother." No way was he going to allow Dan control over his brother's care. He had already done enough to hurt Nathan. Who knew what kind of crap he would try and pull?
"Oh," the doctor said, trying to hide her surprise as she looked at the two teenagers before her. She had been told that the accident was after a wedding, she just hadn't realized her 17 year old patient was the groom. "We finally got your husband stabilized," she said, "his heart stopped en route but the EMTs were able to bring him back. He has a large gash on his head that was bleeding heavily and we got the bleeding stopped and closed the wound, but he has a rare antigen in his blood so we had to locate a supply and then get him stable enough to get an MRI. He has some intracranial swelling and we are going to have to take him into surgery to try and relieve the pressure. I'm going to need you to sign consent forms Mrs. Scott" she said, handing Haley a clipboard with several papers clipped on. "we need to get him in there as soon as we can."
"What does this mean? Is he going to be ok? When will he be able to play basketball again?" Dan asked, towering over a now shaking Haley.
"We are doing everything we can to help your son," she said, looking at Dan and shaking her head at his question before looking back at Haley, "but the swelling is definitely a concern. The next several hours are critical. This is a very serious injury, but we won't know the full extent of the damage until he wakes up."
Haley started to leave the room and Lucas followed after her before she stopped and put her hand up. "I know you are worried about me Luke," she said, "but I'm just going to the chapel." He started to say something and she stopped him. "Alone. I really just... I really need to be alone for a little while. "
She made her way to a pew in the chapel, remembering the last time she had been in that room after Dan's heart attack.
"Wow, she was really upset," Haley said, coming around the pew to stand in front of her husband. Her mother in law had just lit into them about getting married and her father in law had a heart attack and might not survive. This was not the reception she expected to the news of their wedding. A little worry maybe and a lot of surprise, but not this vicious anger.
"She's just worried about my dad," Nathan said, reaching for her small hands and enveloping them in his much larger ones. "She likes you and she'll come around. We just have to give her a little time."
"I don't know, it didn't sound like that to me. She was really angry with us, especially with me. What if she doesn't come around?" Haley asked, "I don't want to make things even worse with your family."
"Hey, things couldn't get much worse," he laughed, pulling her down onto his lap and kissing her on the forehead. "Besides, you are my family now and she's going to have to accept that if she wants to be in my life."
"Nathan," Haley said, staring straight into his beautiful blue eyes. "She's your mother."
"And you are my wife. You come first. She is going to have to accept that. You are my life now, the best most important thing I have. I promise you Haley James Scott that I will always be here for you. I'm never letting you go. You are stuck with me forever," he said, cupping her cheek and giving her a soft kiss.
"Forever and always," she smiled. Sometimes, she loved him so much that she was sure her heart would burst and yet there were moments like these that no matter how impossible it seemed, she somehow fell in love even more.
Two hours later Haley was finally able to see her husband. He still hadn't regained consciousness since Luke found him at the edge of the water and while it wasn't a big concern yet, the longer it took, the more worrisome it would be. The hospital only allowed two people at a time since he was still in the ICU at the moment and Dan had tried his best to be one of them, but as his official next of kin, Haley put her foot down and brought his mother in with her instead. The last thing any of them needed in this situation was to put up with Dan. That man was seriously obnoxious. It had already been bad enough dealing with him in the waiting room, trying order people around and complaining about anything and everything. How Nathan and his mom put up with him for as long as they did was beyond her. She would be perfectly happy to never see his smug face again.
Deb reached for her daughter in law's hand as they walked into the room. She wasn't sure if it was more to give Haley support or to accept some in return, but they both loved Nathan and they were going to find a way to get him through this, together.
Tears welled in both of their eyes as they took in the scene before them. Nathan was pale, with dark bruises along one side of his handsome face. A large portion of his head had been cleanly shaved and there was a white bandage covering a large portion of his scalp.
He looked awful and so young lying there amidst the white sheets, the tubes, and machines attached to him and Haley found herself crying all over again. This wasn't her Nathan. Her Nathan was so vibrant, so full of life. He was always moving, running, playing, laughing. Even in sleep he often shifted his body or twitched his lips, or rubbed his hands up and down his wife's body. I was like he couldn't be bothered with laying still long enough to rest. She had never seen him so still and somehow, that terrified her.
She had to shake herself out of this. She couldn't let herself fall apart. She had to be strong.
Both women found themselves taking a seat, one on each side of the young man they each loved and holding on to his hands, praying that he would wake up soon.
By 9 that night, everyone except for Haley, Lucas, and Nathan's mom had gone home for the evening. They tried to convince Haley to do so as well but she was adamant that she wasn't leaving his side, determined that she would be there when he opened his eyes. "I can't leave him, I need to be here. I won't be able to sleep without him there anyway," she told them for what seemed like the 100th time. "Brooke is bringing me some of my things. I'll be fine." They finally gave up, promising to be back first thing in the morning.
"I haven't always been there for Nathan the way that I should. I have made so many mistakes and let him down so many times, but I promise I'm going to do my best to make up for all of it," Deb said. "I'm going to do anything I can to help you guys through this. I promise."
Haley gave her a smile, "we would really like that," she said. "I know Nathan has been upset, but he misses you. Maybe something good will come out of this."
"I miss him too," Deb said, kissing her son's forehead.
"I promise to call if there is any news"
Lucas gave Haley one more hug and he and Deb also left for the evening, leaving husband and wife alone for the first time since he jumped into the river. "You are a wonderful man Nathan Scott, but for once I almost wish you weren't so selfless. When you dove into that water..." she sighed, trying to hold back her tears. "I was so proud and scared at the same time."
Frankly, she was surprised she had any tears left. "I don't know what I would do if we lost you," she said. "I really need you to open those beautiful blue eyes and tell me everything is going to be okay. You have so many people that love you." She scooted her chair as close as she could to the bed and placed a kiss on his hand. She took off his jacket and placed it on the bed so she could fall asleep to the comforting smell. She held onto his hand as she laid her head down on the jacket next to him. "I don't think I could live without you Nathan Scott. You promised me I would never have to. I'm going to hold you to that."
The nurse walked in to check on the patient, surprised to find that he still had a guest. It was after visiting hours and no one was supposed to be there but she couldn't help but feel for the girl asleep at her young husband's side. She knew she should wake her up and send her home, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. She was sleeping so peacefully and who knew when that would happen again or what the next days would bring. Instead, she picked up a spare blanket and placed it over the girl's bare shoulders and exited the room as quietly as she could.
Beep, beep, beep... the steady sound was starting to get on his nerves and he opened his eyes a slit to look around. The room was mostly dark, illuminated only by moonlight filtering through the uncovered window and he closed his eyes as a sharp pain stabbed through his skull. Taking a deep breath, he pushed his them open again and this time noticed a beautiful girl in a chair on his left side, her blonde hair fanned across his bed, her white dress flowing around her. He was so tired and he closed his eyes and drifted off again, figuring wherever he was, he was safely being guarded by an angel.