Okay so here is chapter 2! I'm so sorry it's taken so long to update! Everything just started to pile up, and then I got distracted with Always Attract (which you should go read, then vote on my profile for which one you would like to see continued)! But here is Chapter 2, which is much longer than chapter 1 as promised...

I know exactly where this story is going and have a detailed 20 chapter plan so far, which i did last night, so hopefully it won't take as long for the next update.

Hope you enjoy this chapter, though it is quite slow (they're stuck in an elevator... not much can really happen) but I promise more is to come!

DISCLAIMER - bla bla bla I don't own Nathan or Haley... bla bla bla or One Tree Hill... bla bla bla... I merely borrow them for my own amusement.


Shit.

Glancing up at the little sign above the doors that told you what floor you were on, she saw that the light there had gone out too. Great. She knew that the maintenance guy hadn't been able to make it in for the past couple of days due to the bad weather, and she didn't know how long it would be until an engineer could be sent to fix the buildings power issue. Turning to the button panel next to her pressed the button that should contact the engineers.

"Hello how can we help you?" an annoyingly cheery voice spoke out of the speaker. Didn't the person on the other side of the call understand that there was nothing cheery about being stuck in an elevator during a power cut?

"Hi, we're stuck in the elevator in my apartment block and the lights have gone out. How long will it be until it can get it fixed?" she spoke urgently into the little microphone. She wanted out as soon as possible. How was she supposed to enjoy the storm stuck inside a small metal box suspended in mid air, 5 floors up?

"Sorry, it doesn't look like anybody is going to be able to get out to you until tomorrow morning because of the storm. Most roads are being closed and we've had to send many of our technicians home. Sorry for the inconvenience."

"Inconvenience? You're sorry for the inconvenience? We're stuck in an elevator, with no power and no way of getting out! What if we get run out of oxygen? Oh my god we're going to run out of oxygen..."

Nathan couldn't help the slight chuckle that came to him as he watched the woman opposite him shout hysterically into the elevator wall. Although there was nothing remotely funny about the fact he was stuck here until morning, he had an inkling that his company would definitely make it interesting.

Watching her get all hot and bothered rambling into the microphone about the ways in which she could die, he couldn't help the way his eyes roamed her body once again, now from the back. Damn this girl had a serious ass. And amazing curves, but he instantly felt bad for thinking it since he barely knew her. She didn't seem like the kind of person that would appreciate it if she found out a total stranger was perving on her.

On that note, he decided to take pity on the poor woman in the technician's office and made the few steps over to where the woman was standing, leaning over her, putting a hand on her waist to still her, and spoke into the microphone, effectively interrupting her rants.

"Thanks for the help, just please get someone over here as soon as possible. Thanks." He took a step back and went back to 'his' side of the elevator and slid down the wall so that he was sitting, his smirk widening at the slight blush that covered the face of the woman opposite him, his smirk turning into a grin as she copied his position and slid down the wall opposite him.

Of course she had to blush when the extremely handsome, good looking guy opposite her, whom she would be spending the next 14 hours in close proximity with, smiled at her. God, he had to practically remove her from where she was shouting at a wall. She could feel her face heat up even more, when thinking of the way his hand brushed up against he hip as he pressed against her...

Only two minutes into her 'sentence' in the confined place and she was already going crazy. When had she become a hormonal teenager all over again? Surely she was passed the stage of practically giggling whenever a good looking guy spoke to her.

"Nathan Scott." He nodded over at her, but she had been too busy with her internal discussion that she had no idea what he had said and she returned his bemused look with a confused one of her own.

"What? Who? Where?" she babbled back, inwardly cringing at the fact she had completely zoned out on him, and had most probably embarrassed herself. What a great first impression, he probably thinks she's a complete idiot.

"My name? My name is Nathan. Scott. Nathan Scott." he teased back, mockingly speaking extremely slowly. He didn't care if he was grinning like an idiot; this girl was just too adorable. He looked pointedly at her, and nodded, but when she continued to stare at him blankly he chuckled, adding, "I thought I may as well introduce myself seeing as though we are going to be spending the night together." Adding a joking wink just for good measure.

"Wait wait wait... What exactly are you implying with that? That just because we're stuck together all night I'm going to have sex with a complete stranger just so..."

"Whoa... I was only joking, just trying to lighten the mood. I'm not expecting anything... Like that! I'm not some creepy pervert, I promise! I'm not that guy..." Anymore. He added internally. He wasn't they guy anymore. Hadn't been in a long while. Gone were the days of bedding random women in order to fill some kind of void in his life. He'd learned living that way wasn't good the wrong way...

"Oh... Right..." she smiled. She had been worried for a minute there, thinking she had been potentially stuck with some creepy leering guy in a confined space for a whole night. That could have been nasty. He seemed genuinely worried that he had offended her, and she couldn't help but smile a little, as she noticed she wasn't the only one who rambled. It was actually kind of cute. Seeing the sombre look on his face she decided to give the guy a chance. "Haley. Haley James."

His head snapped up, smiling. "Nice to meet you Haley James." and whoa... She could practically feel her insides melt as he said her name. It seemed that teenage Haley was here to stay, as his voice saying her name just kept repeating over and over again in her head.

"Nice to meet you too Nathan."

They both collapsed into a comfortable silence. He with his eyes closed and his head tilted backwards, legs stretched out in front of him. Her with her legs in a basket, her arms wrapped around her body, sneaking glances at the man across from her.

She was sure she had never seen him before in her life, but there was something about him that she recognised from somewhere. He seemed lost, both by being in New York and lost in himself, she was sure of it. He definitely wasn't from around here. Although appearing relaxed in his stretched out form, he was tense about something, and relieved in the way he had sighed as he had slid down the wall. There was something mysterious about this man. And for some strange reason, she had the feeling that she wanted to get to know him.

"I haven't seen you around here before... Where are you from?" she spoke into the silence, smiling warmly at him as he opened his eyes and returned with a smile of his own. Small talk was a good start. They were going to be spending a full night together; they might as well make a start on the small talk.

"I grew up in California, a small town just outside Los Angeles," he replied. So he must be a long way from home. She wondered if he was working in New York City, or just visiting.

"I went to California for college. Stanford University" she butt in, a little smugly. Stanford had been her dream come true, everything she had worked for. She was proud of being a Stanford graduate. Both she and Luke had had a great four years there before returning East and moving to New York. "But I'm from North Carolina, a little town on the coast. Moved to Manhattan with my best friend after college."

"Stanford's a great school. Funnily enough I went to school in North Carolina. Duke on basketball scholarship." he replied. "I live in back in LA now."

"That's so weird! Go Tar Heels!" she attempted to impress him, for god knows why. She knew absolutely nothing about basketball and college sport, but the fact that her best friend had played all through high school, had dragged her to a few games, and never stopped watching, playing and talking about it, she had picked up some things.

Nathan couldn't help it. He burst out laughing, his booming laugh filling up the small space. Once again he found himself calling this girl adorable. Getting Duke University and the Tar Heels could get her into trouble one day. And she was supposed to be a North Carolina girl!

"Blue Devils, Hales. Duke's team are the Blue Devils. Tar Heels are UNC's team... Duke's rival?" he said between chuckles. He noticed the blush rise up her cheeks. "I'm guessing you're not a fan of college sport then?"

"Not really. I'm pretty useless at sport in general. Most of my guy friends in high school played basketball, though I see I failed to pick anything up." Haley does it again. Completely embarrasses herself in front of strangers. She should really just keep her mouth shut in the future.

He laughed, surprised at how relaxed they were with each other - well as relaxed as you could be in a jammed elevator. "I'm guessing you live in this building? Or are you visiting someone?"

"Oh, yeah I live on the tenth floor with my best friend. You're visiting someone?"

"Yeah... I'm visiting... Family." he struggled with the words. How had his life gotten this complicated? Surely it couldn't get any more confusing?

"Shoot. I should probably ring Luke actually. He thinks I'm at my friend Brooke's house. She's getting married in a few months..."

She continued to ramble on while searching through her pockets, not noticing how Nathan's head snapped up. Luke? Surely this woman sitting across from him wasn't living with his estranged brother?

"Luke?" he interrupted, trying to hide the desperation in his voice, which fortunately she didn't notice as she continued searching for her phone.

"Yeah Lucas. That's my best friend, and roommate. Once we get out of here you can come meet him if you want... And I seem to have left my phone upstairs! Gah, Lucas'll probably think I'm just crashing at Brooke's because of the storm."

"And I left mine back at my hotel room since it had no battery life, and I didn't think to bring my charger to New York with me. Super." he replied distracted. Lucas lived with the woman he was stuck in an elevator all night with. What kind of sick joke was that?

He quickly steered the conversation away from that, and they both sat talking about their jobs. He learned that she was a high school English teacher in the city. It was obvious how much she loved it, with the way her eyes sparkled as she told him all about the schemes she's put in place for the kids, and all of the things she wanted to do for them.

He told her all about how he'd made it as a pro basketball player with the Seattle Sonics, but after only a few games playing he'd badly injured his back and had been working at his father's business since,. Though it wasn't what he wanted to do.

"Seriously what is it with guys and basketball? Lucas is obsessed with it!" she laughed. Basketball. It had once been everything in his life. Now it was something he had in common with his brother.

Subtly steering the conversation away from Lucas again, they started to banter about their male and female stereotypes, until she looked at her watch and realised how long they had been stuck for.

"Whoa it's been 3 hours. Time goes by when you're having fun!" she joked. They still had a long time together in this elevator. And it was starting to get cold too; she couldn't help the small shiver that ran through her body.

"Really? It's longer than I thought." he replied, before noticing how she shivered, realising how cold it had gotten. "You cold?"

"A little bit... I guess they don't have heaters in the elevator system," she joked.

Nathan immediately shrugged off his still slightly damp jacket, and took off the sweater he was wearing underneath, handing it to Haley with a smile. She was shocked at his thoughtfulness, but put the jumper on nonetheless, thanking him. God it smelled so good.

"So tell me about you're family." she asked, hitting the one subject he'd been trying his best to avoid.

"I'd rather hear about yours." he replied, his tone, leaving no room for expansion of discussion. There was some kind of mystery to this man that made Haley yearn to learn everything there was to know about him, but for now, she let it slide. They'd only known each other for a few hours, he didn't owe her anything.

"Well, I'm the youngest child of 7, and I have three sisters and three brothers. It was a little chaotic growing up, but it was fun." she smiled. Although they had sometimes struggled to get by, there was never a dull moment in the James home.

"What about your parents, do they still live in... Tree Hill?" he asked, imagining their home filled with kids, growing up with brothers and sisters. It was the kind of life he had always wanted.

"They're a little hippy-like and totally crazy to tell you the truth. But they loved us all equally and never let us feel angry or annoyed at each other for very long. They still own our home in Tree Hill, but they bought an SUV a couple years back, and have been travelling around the country in it ever since. They visit us all though, we're all pretty spread out."

She wrapped his sweater around herself some more and started telling him all about each member of her family, and what they were all doing and where they were. Nathan was surprised by how interested he was. She sounded pretty close to them all, even though she only saw most of them a few times a year, and it made him think about the kind of relationship he and Lucas could have had.

They continued talking to each other, about everything and anything, both finding the conversation coming easy to them. The discussion on books versus movie versions was coming to a close, both agreeing that mostly movie versions of books were awful, when Nathan found himself wanting to confide in her about the mess that was his family.

"My Mom's in rehab." He suddenly blurted out, to the surprise with Haley, who was now beginning to understand why he looked so lost. "The reason I didn't want to talk about my family is because it's so messed up. And hearing about your family and how you grew up is making me realise how messed up it really was."

"Nathan, believe me, my family is far from perfect." She began, before realising that that probably wasn't going to help. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Did he want to talk about it? Not really, but for some reason he wanted to open up to this girl, wanted her to know him. He had never really told anyone, except his best friend any of the problems his family had had over the years, but with Haley it felt natural to talk about it.

"My dad… Is a bully for lack of a better term. All he ever really cares about is basketball. He always pushed me harder, forcing me to get better, telling me I would never be good enough. When I made it to the pros, I still wasn't good enough. I still hadn't beaten him. He would phone me and tell me everything I was doing wrong. Tell me I was stupid and worthless and didn't deserve what I had become, because I would only lose it. I wasn't good enough to keep my spot on the Sonics." He was pouring his heart out to her, letting it all go. Even Peyton hadn't known most of this. Haley just sat and listened. She looked at him with sympathy, but not the fake "I feel sorry for you" kind… the real kind in which, if he hadn't only known her for a couple hours, he would have thought she actually cared.

"My mom had been drinking for years, which Dad had just ignored, and I hate myself for it, ignored it too. But after my back injury, when I had to come home, Dan's bullying just got worse. We found my mom a few months ago, overdosed. Apparently she'd been abusing with prescription drugs for a while. None of us even noticed." He could feel his anger and frustration ebbing away at him as he relived finding his mom passed out on the kitchen floor. He had his eyes closed, and his head in his hands. He jumped when he felt a hand on his shoulder, and opened his eyes to see that Haley had come over to his side of the elevator.

Haley felt her heart break for Nathan. His life just sounded awful, at least from what he told her it had been. He covered her hand with his own, gripping it gently as he told her all about how he had been your average 'bad boy' at school, as a way of releasing some of that anger he felt towards his family life. How he had had to move his mother into a rehabilitation centre on his own, as his dad had been too busy 'working' to even bother helping.

"And that brings us to here. Why I'm in New York City," he finished, looking at her for the first time since he had let loose. She had tears in her eyes, but looked at him encouragingly to continue.

"To visit family, right?"

"Well, yes, but not exactly." And he told her all about finding out he had a brother, but leaving who his brother out of it.

Haley was taking it all in. She couldn't imagine growing up in the hostile environment he had. Adding on the fact that his father had kept his brother hidden from him all these years was just the icing on the cake. He was really just some poor lost soul trying to find where he belonged in this world, looking for the family he always wished he had. She thought of her own growing up, how close her family had been to her, including her unofficial family of Brooke and Lucas, who were closer to her than any sibling had ever been. Just as she was thinking of Lucas, something clicked.

"Scott. Your last name is Scott." She cut him off, looking at him in shock. It was then she realised why he had seemed slightly familiar. His eyes. His eyes were the same as Lucas's, though where Lucas's were more a light greyish blue, Nathan's were a deeper sky blue. They were both the same age, from what she could tell. Both were very tall. Both loved basketball. She was starting to feel dizzy as it all dawned on her.

Nathan watched her warily as he saw the different emotions cross her face as she found realisation in their situation.

"Lucas is your brother?" she stammered. It all made so much sense. Lucas's father had abandoned Karen, leaving her to raise him all on her own, but Keith, his father's brother had taken place and helped Karen. Keith hadn't had any contact with Dan since, but whenever Lucas's father was mentioned or brought up in conversation, Keith simply said he was an ass and that was it. Did Keith know about Nathan? Surely not or he would have said something.

"I was on my way to see if I could meet him. Even if just to see he was real, if it was all true. Though I would understand if he didn't want to see me." Haley grabbed his hand, still feeling a little overwhelmed by it all. "And then the elevator got stuck. And I found out you were… you! It just… Can you tell me about him?"

He looked to Haley, who was sitting to his right, looking up at him with a sad expression. She started telling him about the things Lucas and she had done together, sometimes with Brooke. He laughed at some of the things, like when they would go to the Lost and Found and claim random things, and smiled at the times she told him how Lucas had helped her through tough times like crushed gone wrong, and breakups.

They both got closer and closer together as the time passed quickly, and both were soon huddling together under an arrangements of their jackets and sweaters as it got colder in the small elevator. Neither knew when the conversation stopped, but both had soon fallen asleep, Haley with her head resting on Nathan's shoulder, Nathan with his resting on top of hers. And despite the excitement and shock of what they had both discovered in the elevator, and the uncomfortable sleeping arrangements, both were surprised by how well they had slept.


Nathan stretched as he woke up, before opening his eyes, taking in his surroundings. It took a few minutes for him to wake up, and remember why he was in a strange metal box, and quickly glancing down to his shoulder he saw the weight he could feel against the right side of him. Haley James. He couldn't even remember when they had fallen asleep, but checking his watch he saw it was morning so they must have been sleeping for some time.

He continued to watch her sleep, fascinated with analysing her face as she slept. He had entrusted in her last night, things he had never told anyone, and he didn't even really know her. But want to know her, he did. He was so drawn to her, and he prayed everything would work out with Lucas, so that he could stay in contact with her, become her friend, get closer to her.

Haley's eyes started to flutter, and she felt the ache in her back from the way she had been lying seep in. Quickly pushing up, she was met with the most intense gaze from the brightest blue eyes she had ever seen, and was hit with everything that had happened the night before. The things he had told her, the way they got on with each other last night, and the way he was staring at her, she couldn't look away.

They didn't know how long they stayed like that, sitting so close, just staring at each other with intense gazes, Haley with a shy smile, Nathan with a serious look on his face, almost scared. But before Nathan could even comprehend what he was doing, he was leaning in ever so slowly. She could feel his breath on her face, and her eyes snapped shut.

He was literally a millimetre away from brushing his lips with hers, when that annoying voice called through the elevator, alerting them that an engineer was looking at the elevator, and it would be working again in a few seconds.

Both broke out of the trance, and jumped away from each other, pressing against opposite sides of the elevator, picking up their things and composing themselves, as they felt the elevator start to move.

"Just press the button of the floor you would like to go to, and you should be on your way. Thank you for your patience." The voice told them, and both Nathan and Haley reached over to press the button for floor 10, their fingers bumping, causing them to look anywhere but each other as they felt a small electric shock. What just happened?

As the elevator started to climb back up, Haley managed to compose herself, and glancing over at Nathan, she remembered why he was there in the first place.

"Ready to meet your brother?"


Okay so there you have it... I promise it does get better...

How do you think Lucas will react to having a brother? Will Naley forget about their almost-kiss?

So please review and read my little fun drabbles in Always Attract! thank you for taking the time to read my fic!