Once their eyes met and the moment passed she shrugged her shoulder so that he was no longer touching her. She narrowed her eyes, "I don't need your help." She ran up her stairs and slammed her door. Nathan watched her go; he knew that there was no way that this was going to happen.

"If you're going to do this, then I'm moving in with dad." He told his mom before he left the house. Deb glanced at Jeff; he reached for her hand and patted it.

"They'll come around, I'm sure of it." He told her not really convincing himself.

"I don't think so, they really seem to hate each other." Jeff nodded at her comment, "I can't let Nathan live with his dad, I just can't." He pulled her into a hug and kissed her cheek.

"You won't lose him, I promise." He whispered in her ear, "We'll work this all out." She stood up, and turned back to him.

"I guess tomorrow is a bad day to start this whole move thing." She said softly, he pulled her back and looked directly into her eyes.

"I think we should do it."

"What?" She asked surprised with him.

"Do we want our children running our lives?" She shook her head no, "Granted I think that we sprung this on them too fast, but I don't want them to think that these tantrums are going to work on us." She couldn't stop looking into his deep brown eyes.

"I agree." She took a deep breath, "Let's do it, and Nathan will not be going to live with his father."

"And Haley will make the transition as easy as possible on you two." He kissed her and followed her to the door. Her eyes shoot up the staircase and then back at her new husband, "I love you Debra James."

"I love you too." She said before kissing him, "Are we going to tell them about the honeymoon?" He grinned thinking about the trip that they planned and paid for before they got married.

"No, I think we should wait, at least until this weekend. We should make the move smooth and then focus on the rest later."

"Ok, I love you." She closed the door behind her and disappeared.


Haley couldn't help but cry after her explosion in the dining room, her father was ruining her life and there was nothing she could do about that. She held a framed picture of her mother and wiped a tear off of the glass. She missed her so much, and wished that she could be here, so that Nathan wouldn't be hounding in on her family.

"Haley?" Her dad's voice came threw the door, and she ignored him, she didn't feel like talking of seeing him. She hoped that he would take the hint and just go away. "I hope your decent, cause I'm coming in." He announced opening the door. She set down the frame and rolled over to the other side of her bed. He sat down next to her and gently touched her arm, "We've never been like this. Talk to me Haley bub." He said the nickname that her mother use to call her, and after her mother passed away he picked it up because she missed it so much. The name made her cry a little more, he felt her sob, "Tell me what's wrong." She had enough, she jumped up and looked at him, not caring that her make-up had smeared down her face or that she was shaking.

"What's the matter?" She said threw gritted teeth, "Why don't you take a guess dad." She needed her body to stop shaking so she crossed her arms around herself.

"Haley, I know she's not your mother…"

"Whatever."

"Stop brushing me off like that. I'm your father and I deserve some respect." He said standing as well.

"You have to earn respect, and after today you've lost all of mine." She spit out.

"Haley…"

"I know you loved mom, and I hope that you love this lady, but what about the memory of my mother? Should we throw it out the window?"

"Come on…"

"That's what I thought." She walked past him and down the stairs with him following closely behind.

"You are talking to me about this." He reached over and shut the door that she had opened.

"I bet if you rack that brain of yours you'll come up with an answer to why I'm so upset. Especially today." She crossed her arms again and tapped her foot waiting. It felt like forever had passed, when he reached out and pulled her into a tight hug. She stood there unable to move, and she felt a tear fall on her head.

"I know exactly what today is," He whispered to her, "I didn't say anything because I thought you had forgotten."

"Why would I forget?"

"Every year the day before your mother died, we eat dinner together, and then you head up to bed. Since the next day is a school day, but around midnight you come downstairs and curl up and watch the little mermaid, and fall asleep on the couch." Tears fell from her eyes remembering the tradition, it was as important to her dad just as it was to her.

"Just like I did with you and mom that night." She said softly, she felt his head nod.

"Last night you didn't come down. I put the tape in and fell asleep watching the movie."

"Dad, I forgot."

"It's ok. We are entitled to forget things and to change traditions."

"But I went to bed before you even got home from your trip." She said remembering the night before.

"I know, so I put your dinner in the oven so it would stay warm for you."

"I'm…"

"Don't be sorry. Your mother knows how we both feel about her, and she's watching over us."

"I miss her."

"Me too. But you have to give Debra a try for me."

"Why?"

"I love her too, and I think your mom sent her to me. Your mom always told me that if she were to die first that she would want me to remarry someone great, who would love you." Haley couldn't speak. "I need you to try." Haley nodded her head and ran up the stairs.

Before closing her door she turned and saw her father crying, "I'll try, but that's all I can promise." She knew that she and Nathan would never be friends, but her dad needed this woman, so she would try.


"You made me look like a fool." Deb said to Nathan once they got back to the apartment.

"How do you think I feel?" He asked her. "You want me to live with Lucas' best friend!" He yelled at her. She closed her eyes and reopened them slowly.

"I understand that you are angry and this has all come as a shock, but Nathan, I love that man."

"Love just isn't enough." He told her before turning away. She grabbed his arm and twisted him back around.

"What's that supposed to me?"

"That's what you told me five months ago when I asked you if you still loved dad, when you first told me about the divorce."

"I'm sorry that you are hurt about your father and I not staying together. So many things happened, that you just wouldn't understand." She tried to explain it to him.

"Whatever." He said taking his arm back and going into his room.

"Nate, I love you. You are my world, but he makes me laugh and smile and he makes me feel everything that a person should feel."

"Mom, I've never interfered in anything you've done in your life. You're my mom, you know best, but did you stop to think about me and what this would do to me."

"You know Haley mentioned at the house that her dad and I were doing this for self fish reasons, and you agreed. But all I'm hearing from you is me, me, me."

"Well maybe if you'd listen."

"Your 16 years old, and you are almost a man, what am I supposed to do after you leave?"

"You went ever supposed to leave dad." He yelled.

"I didn't love your father, not like I use to."

"Whatever."

"What is it with you and that word. That's all you ever say to me, whatever, whatever. Stop and actually speak. I want to know what your big problem is."

"Well I don't want to tell you."

"Fine, then don't forget to start packing." She tried to close his bedroom door, but he caught it.

"You can't be serious about me moving into that house." He protested.

"You aren't going to threaten me. I have custody of you, and your dad has limited visitations, per what you said to the judge. Nathan if you really want to live with him, then have him start up a custody battle and we'll go from there." She turned and left him standing there speechless. His mother had never stood up for herself like that before.


"So you never told me how the whole family dinner thing went," Lucas said as they were walking to school the next day. Haley rolled her eyes and flipped her hair.

"It was the worst."

"Do you at least like them?"

"Nope."

"Did you give them a chance?"

"Lucas, can we please talk about something else?" She wasn't ready to share the horrible news with him just yet, because truthfully it hadn't sunk in her own head yet.

"Sure." He said, but they walked in silence, silence that she wished would go away, because all she heard in her head was Nathan Scott, Nathan Scott. She shook her head and stopped walking; Lucas smiled and stopped with her, knowing that silence would get to her. "You ready to talk yet?" He knew her too well.

"It's Nathan."

"What?" He asked confused.

"My dad's new wife is none other than Nathan Scott's mom." Haley said the words out loud but still didn't let them sink into her own head. He stood there not knowing what to say or how to act. "Say something." She said exasperated.

"I think…"

"I mean how is this ever going to work? He and I hate each other, and we hate each others friends." She paused looking at him.

"Well…"

"Sure our parents love each other, but is love really enough when you have two teenagers who can't stand each other?"

"Um…"

"It's ridiculous, and there's going to be nothing but pain." She paused but he wouldn't dare try to talk again, "Thanks for helping me with this Luke, you're a great friend." She smiled and walked into their first period classroom. He followed her in shaking his head.


"SO for the last 15 minuets of class I want you paired up with your partners and discussing this story." The teacher said holing up a copy of the short story we just had to read. Nathan shot an irritated glance towards the teacher and then glanced up and saw Lucas walking towards him.

"You wanna just switch seats?" Lucas asked straight to the point.

"No what I really want is for you to go back up there and sit with your girlfriend and let me work with mine." Nathan said angrily, Tim laughed.

"Well that's not going to happen, so why don't you make this as painless as possible for all of us and just get up and work with Haley."

"I knew you guys were dating." Brooke said laughing.

"Brooke." Peyton said watching the whole scene, Brooke glanced over, and shrugged. Nathan and Lucas continued staring at each other until the teacher stepped up.

"Is there a problem here?"

"No sir." Nathan said standing up and walking to the front of the room, he didn't need any more problems at school, so he decided to leave this alone. Haley kept her back to the whole scene and was busy scribbling on her notebook. She was going to try and pull off a good grade in this class, even though she was being forced to work with him. "So you gonna turn around and work with me?" He whispered in her ear. Her body stiffened at the sound of his voice.

"I would rather choke on my own spit."

"I think we could arrange that."

"Ha. Very funny."

"So, why don't you be a good little sister and tell me the answers to this homework and then we'll go back to pretending like we don't know each other." He said and she knew he was smirking behind her.

She spun her head around, "Why don't you shut the fu…" The bell rang and the rest of her sentence was lost in the loud noise that surrounded them. He continued to smirk, amused by setting her off.

"Come on baby, I'm tired of this class." Brooke said standing next to his desk whining.

He didn't take his eyes off Haley as she was throwing her things in her bag, he couldn't figure this girl out. "Yea let's go." He stood up and Brooke headed for the door, he bent down as he stepped passed Haley and whispered, "See you home."


Thanks to everyone who posted a review...please kepp them coming. I really haven't decided on the couples yet, but I will say that I am obsseively huge Naley fan, so you can count on the sooner or later. Thanks!