"There goes my dream," Nathan sighs dramatically.
"Don't you mean fantasy?" Haley says, wiggling in her seat to find a comfortable position.
"Dream, fantasy, wish. Why couldn't we be flying to Paris or New York or someplace big? I'm sure you can get away with some things on those huge commercial flights."
She shakes her head at his disappointment to them not joining the mile high club. He's never been ashamed to tell her what he wants, and that includes whispering things to her during a family gathering. The aircraft isn't built for more than fifty people, and if they were to be locked up in the bathroom together, people would notice.
"They can't use a huge plane to Montana. I don't think there are too many people from this area who fly there often. This is the only flight each week."
Tree Hill has the largest regional airport, and commuter flights to less-common destinations are compacted there. She wouldn't be surprised if someone had driven an hour to make the flight.
"Show me some solidarity, Hales."
"I'm only saying."
He twists in his seat, the process of buckling his seat belt forgotten. "I'm tempted to go board a plane bound for New York."
"On whose dime?"
"Haley."
She laughs, looking at him through half closed eyes. "Alright. You need to let it go, baby. I'm sure we have a very nice hotel room waiting for us in Billings. We'll do it loud, wild and hot like you want. Not to mention when you're in the pros…"
She lets the sentence hang back suggestively. She realizes that her temperature has spiked a little from her response.
"Yeah?"
His face carries that buoyant look that reminds her so much of their boy and she can't help but laugh. "Double yeah."
Eyes twinkling with mischief, mouth turned up in a grin, he brings his face closer to hers and touches his lips to hers briefly. He leans back on the headrest, securing the seat belt over his waist.
"You are such cool beans, Haley Scott."
She lays her head on his shoulder, feeling drowsy even before take-off. It's been a hectic few weeks with moving back home, unpacking, and organising for this trip. "You're a pretty cool burrito, too, Nathan Scott."
"You need help with that?" Allan asks, pointing to the basketball that seems enormous in the boy's small hands.
"No. I'm okay."
Jamie attempts to tuck the ball under his arm like his father does, but it slips to the floor. It bounces lightly up and down, and he runs after it before his grandmother scolds him for scuffing her hardwood floors.
Allan shakes his head in amusement. "Are you sure you don't want any help?"
Nodding defiantly in a way that makes him look older than his four years, Jamie answers, "I'm sure. Are you gonna play?"
Allan pulls the front door open. "Maybe. Hang on." He crouches, tightening the laces on the boy's shoes. "Wouldn't want you to trip."
"Thank you."
His parents always tell him that it is polite to show gratitude when someone says or does something nice for him.
"Has Mama called?"
Allan ruffles the boy's hair affectionately. "Not yet. They're still on the plane but I'm sure they'll call when they get there."
Jamie frowns. "What if I'm sleeping?"
"You want me to wake you up?"
"Yes," he grins.
"Don't be late for dinner."
They both turn to Deb, answering in chorus, "Okay."
It's a short drive to the River Court, made faster because it's evening and they are heading in a direction that's against traffic. Dusk is settling, and the summer sun has splashed the sky with vibrant colours of pink, red, orange and gold. There are two figures playing a heated game on the court. They both stop at the hum of the car's engine, the one known as Skills stealing the ball and dunking it in the net with a victorious roar.
"Cheater," the blonde-haired one grumbles.
"Smart," his friend retorts with a laugh, teeth bright against his honey-brown skin.
"Uncle Lucas!" Jamie yells when he steps out of the car, gripping the basketball firmly in his hands as he runs towards his uncle.
"Hey, sport! Long time no see."
The boy places the ball at his feet to return his uncle's high five. "I saw you today, remember?"
Lucas laughs, picking up the giggling boy and carrying him under his arm. "And you beat me in the game. You'll pay for that, little rascal," his uncle says playfully, running in a circle.
Jamie is laughing delightedly, the sound echoing in the empty basketball court.
"Yo, J-Luke."
"Tell Uncle Lucas I'm sorry for winning, Uncle Skills!"
The boy shrieks again, spreading his arms out as if to fly.
"And I'm telling your uncle Lucas to put you down because your mother will kill me if anything happens to you," Allan says from behind them.
Knowing how crazy his friend is over her son's safety, Lucas puts his nephew back on his feet. "Are you dizzy?" he asks, a hand on Jamie's small shoulder.
He makes a retching sound, his hand clutching his stomach.
Alarmed, Lucas groans, "Jamie…"
Haley will definitely kill him if Jamie lands on his face and scrapes or swells something.
And then Jamie is laughing, his blue eyes shining in the twilight. "Gotcha!" he laughs, and runs towards Skills.
Luke shakes his head, unable to stop the laugh that escapes his lips. "He is unquestionably Nathan's son," he says to Allan, looking at his nephew as he dribbles the ball around an amused Skills.
"You don't have to tell me twice," Allan replies. "Have you seen how obscenely gratifying it is to them when they pull off a prank?"
Over spring break, during the chaos before Nathan and Haley's wedding, Deb just about had a heart attack after Nathan set up a prosthetic severed hand and a fake rubber pool of blood on the kitchen counter, while Jamie shouted to her for help. They recorded the entire thing, and they played it over and over again. Deb is still unable to locate the video, no matter how many cookies and passion pudding cups she bribes Jamie with.
"Don't remind me," Lucas visibly shudders, a victim of several tricks. "Can you imagine what mischief they'll get up to now that they've moved back?"
"I think I can handle it. Having them back is much better," Allan grins, slapping Luke's back lightly. "Come on. I'm expected to play tonight. That is, if you can keep up?"
He raises an eyebrow, teasingly challenging him.
"Don't let my defective heart fool you, old man," Lucas counters, rubbing his palms together.
The older man rolls the sleeves of his shirt towards his elbows. "Old? I'm forty-eight years young, my friend."
"Jamie and Lucy call you grandpa. That certifies you as old."
A hard jolt wakes her up. With a start, Haley runs a hand over her face and rubs the sleep out of her eyes. The blue blanket around her shoulders that wasn't there when she fell asleep slips slowly to the floor.
She looks out past Nathan and through the window. A few hours ago, she had peered at the hodgepodge of countryside and edifices as they flew high above, and she fell asleep just as the drizzle began. Now she can hardly see outside with the haze and pouring rain.
"What's happening?" she asks uneasily as she turns to Nathan.
"Must be turbulence," he answers, touching his seat belt to make sure it's intact.
The murmurings rippling through the plane give her more than a little nervousness. Sitting up straighter, she checks her own belt and clutches the supports of her seat. She feels tense as she glances around. It all seems confusing with seat belts clicking closed echoing around her.
Lightning flashes to illuminate the dark cabin. She has never found the idea of flying appealing and she had butterflies about flying, but it wasn't a paralyzing fear. Logically, planes are the safest medium of long-distance transportation, and odds of her first plane ride crashing were low. She does not like the looks of this.
There's a deafening rumble that makes the plane lurch and shake violently. It's so sudden, and people cry out. Adrenaline shoots through her. She doesn't make a sound, frozen in place, her thoughts whirling. Her grip on the armrests is so tight that her knuckles are white.
The flight attendant's voice comes over the intercom, calm and professional. "Ladies and gentlemen, please remain in your seats with your seat belts fastened until the captain has turned off the overhead signs. Thank you. I repeat, please remain…"
Is this what that dark feeling she had been having was all about? Plummeting to their death? Or being blown up to pieces in the stratosphere?
"Hey."
She doesn't respond. She's so traumatized that she can barely move.
Nathan reaches his hand to touch her face, his knuckles brushing against her skin. She turns her head slowly to him, her eyes focusing on him.
"Hey," he repeats softly.
Blue eyes stare back at her with worry, knitted brows causing creases on his forehead. Her hand grabs his, and she instantly feels comforted at the contact.
"Is this normal?" she whispers, afraid.
"Yeah. It's the storm."
There's a flash of lightning that illuminates the stricken faces of the plane's passengers. Everyone seems to be concluding that this may be more than turbulence.
Again, the plane pitches. It's more violent this time, as if it hit something, jutting them from side to side. She's faced this kind of terror before, over four years ago in the bathroom of a moving train. That had been bad enough, ending in death and destruction, the stuff of nightmares. She survived. Her body was smashed around, she bled brutally, and her womb was torn apart. There was nothing she could do about dying then and there's not a thing she can do about it now; all that terror roars at her from a thousand corners of her mind.
Haley grabs Nathan as people scream around them. The plane starts to drift downwards. Oxygen masks drop down from the ceiling. Overhead bins open. Carry-on luggage fall and scatter down the aisle. Something solid lands on her kneecap before hitting the floor.
Her brown eyes scan his. Sweat has broken out all over her body. "This is not normal, is it?"
It's a question that doesn't need an answer.
"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking," the commanding voice says over the speakers.
The whimpers stop. Silence follows. Everyone must be wondering what is going on up in that cockpit.
"Please listen carefully. I'm sorry to report that we have a problem with our engines. Please reach under your seats for your life vest. We are crash landing this plane into the water."
Her stomach rocks. From air to water? From being blown up to being torn into shreds on impact? It's going to be an agonizing death.
"Nathan…"
"I'm right here."
She clings to him, her body trembling, her eyes shut, praying that it's just some turbulence that will pass.
The plane tilts all of a sudden, and they are pushed forward, but firmly held in place by their seat belts. She panics this time. She screams and holds onto him tightly, afraid of letting go. The plane is vibrating and shaking, careening towards the earth.
"We're going to die!" the man behind them cries out, voice muffled behind his mask but words clear.
Nathan's jaw clenches. He wants to tell the man to shut up but he can't. It fills him with more horror than he can contemplate that this could be the end.
"One in eight million," she says, her voice a mutter.
"What?"
Haley pulls a long breath, repeating just as quietly, "Only one in eight million planes crashes."
She raises her head, shaken by the thought that the plane has not levelled out and it's dropped several hundred feet in the last minute. "It's happening all over again, Nathan."
In that horrible moment, Jamie's face flashes in her mind. That nearly stops her heart. The crater in her stomach grows. Her whole body shakes from a central part so deep that she can't pinpoint.
"We're here and he's…This time, Ja—"
She can't complete the sentence from the stark terror. What if they'd agreed to let him come along? That puts the fear of God in her.
Death has caught up with them. They've been dodging Death with all they've been through and he has finally come to collect.
He looks into her eyes, trying not to show distress. "We'll be okay, Hales. We'll get back home safely."
He's not sure he believes it himself.
Suddenly, there's a thunderous grinding sound from one side of the plane. The plane shifts, and the roar of the aircraft engine tears around the cabin. They're in trouble, more so if the engine stops or blows up while the plane is in free fall.
Gulping, Haley nods, out of self-preservation than anything else. Nathan hastily finds the life vests beneath their seats and assists her with hers before adorning his own. He reaches above them for the dangling masks, helping her with hers, too, before placing his own. He may look calm as he does all of that, but he's scared out of his mind from the knowledge that they may not be okay.
Another jerk brings forth another round of ear-splitting screams and cries around the cabin. Cries and screams resonate. Someone is reciting the Lord's Prayer aloud in staccato over their tears. Someone else is singing a hymn that sounds a lot like a dirge.
Nathan pulls away the mask from his nose and mouth, leaning in closer to Haley. He kisses her forehead, his lips lingering on her warm skin. He inhales softly to remember her scent, breathing in that fragrance that encompasses her. He could shout to be heard over the screaming passengers and roaring engines but this…this is for her ears only.
"I love you."
Even amidst the consuming chaos, there's a certain calmness that overcomes him as he whispers the words to her. If this is it, as gruesome as it sounds, there's no one he'd rather be next to.
She lifts up her head from his shoulder, pulling away her own mask with trembling fingers. Her eyes are swimming with tears, her mind replaying their life together. She doesn't want to die. She doesn't want to leave their son alone. She wants a career and a life, she wants to see her boy grow up, she wants to grow old with Nathan. Stomach-twisting and earth-shattering panic sets in, over and over and over.
"Always?"
He smiles, his eyes travelling over her face, memorizing each feature that he already knows by heart; the eyes he's always losing himself in, the cheeks he pinches playfully, the lips that he loves kissing. "Always, baby. Always and forever."
She starts crying then. He captures her mouth in a sweet kiss, a flood of memories washing down of the hundreds of kisses they've shared before. The divinity, warmth and love that's been in all of them is not lacking in this one, but there's a desperation, a hunger, and a need of that to survive. Together.
"And I love you, Nathan. So much. I l-love you so, so much…" she says brokenly against his lips.
It's all they have left, all they can do, sharing their love one more time before they are torn to pieces.
They kiss again before replacing the masks and intertwining their hands and fingers.
The screams in the cabin never stop. The rumbling engine mocks them all. The plane plummets faster and faster towards the ground, down, down, down…