Sorry it's taken so long to update. Right now I'm juggling being a good mom, wife, and college student, so I'm not able to write as much as I used to. Hopefully this will tide y'all over for a bit. I'm working on updated "Abused" too and I started a new story for those of you who haven't checked it out. It's called "Last Night". Of course it is also AU Naley.

"Morning," Brooke said as she watched her brother's eyes open.

"Morning," Nathan groaned back. "What time is it?" he asked as he closed his eyes again, hoping to go back to sleep.

"Nine thirty."

"Dammit. That means we have to get up, doesn't it?"

"Well, I'm already up," Brooke said with a smile as she showed him that she was dressed and ready for practice at ten. Nathan smiled at the sight of a smile on his sister's face. It was a new day and for Brooke that meant everything.

Nathan and Brooke walked into the gym and noticed that Quinn was already there.

"Hey, where's your sister?" he asked.

Quinn just shrugged her shoulders and went back to playing with Lily. "She's at the café," Karen explained. "She was going to bring Lily in for me today, but when she got there, she asked to stay. Something about needing more hours."

As soon as practice was over, Nathan gathered up Brooke and Quinn and headed towards Karen's Café. When they walked in the door, Haley looked up from the table she was cleaning, but quickly went back to work. "What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Bringing you Quinn."

"Karen was supposed to bring her back."

"Well I took her off of Karen's hands. I hadn't talked to you in a while and I guess I just wanted to see you."

"You hadn't talked to me in a while because I've been ignoring your calls."

Nathan hadn't actually thought about that. He had never had a girl ignore his calls before so when she didn't answer, he had just assumed that she was busy. "I'm confused."

"That's too bad. Thanks for bringing Quinn by anyways." Haley disappeared into the back of the café leaving Nathan even more confused than before. He looked at the two little girls next to him for guidance, but Quinn seemed to be just as lost as him. Brooke on the other hand knew exactly what was wrong.

"I told you she would be pissed!"

"About what?" Nathan asked, still lost.

"You said it wasn't a date!" Brooke shouted.

"That's embarrassing, Nathan," Haley said as she came back out from behind the counter. "You have to have a ten year old tell you what is wrong with your relationship."

"Well, at least she's still calling it a relationship," Nathan mumbled.

"I heard that. And not for long. I mean, really, was being on a date with me really that embarrassing?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I mean, I'm a poor homeless girl and you're rich Nathan Scott. Of course you would never admit to liking me in public."

"Hales… I was on the phone with my sister, who just so happens to want us to be together. Just like I do. And I thought you did. But she needed me and if she knew that I was with you, she wouldn't let me help her. You should know better than anyone the lengths I have to go to for her. You knew I was on the phone with her too. What is up with you?"

"Okay, fine, maybe I'm blowing it a little out of proportion, but who's to say that the second the team comes around, I won't be out of the picture. I'm not a cheerleader or even known by anyone around school. I just don't see how when school starts back there would be any reason for you to claim me."

"School is two months away. I don't know why you're even thinking about that. And I'm not that kind of guy. I get it, this is new, but you've got to get over that."

"Well, I think I still have a bit of a right to be pissed at you for yelling at me last night."

"You yelled at her?" Brooke asked, obviously pissed at Nathan.

"When did I yell at you?"

Haley tried to think back to him yelling at her. She knew that he had, because it had seriously pissed her off, but at the moment she was blanking. Then she remembered, he had said that she was annoying him. But then he said she was gorgeous. And a good kisser. Okay, maybe she could let the yelling slide.

Unfortunately for her, Nathan seemed to remember at the exact same time. "That's right. I did yell. Right about the time you doubted me and my character. Kind of like you're doing right now." Nathan turned around, frustrated. That was when he fully realized that their sisters were still there. "Can we not fight about this right now?" he asked without turning around. His sister had seen enough fights with his parents. He didn't need to restart the trend.

"Right now? Does that mean we'll argue later?" Haley heard a familiar ding on her phone and just looked at it, not really caring at the moment.

"Aren't you going to check that?" he asked.

"It's not important," she said knowingly.

Nathan sent his sister a look and she quickly ran to Haley's phone, opening the message. "You might want to see this," she said with a smile.

Haley let out an annoyed sigh before taking the phone from Brooke and looking at it. She let out a small laugh before sending Nathan a look. How had she not noticed him fiddling with his phone? "Really?" she asked looking down at the facebook confirmation on her phone.

"Still think I'm embarrassed?" Haley didn't respond as she still stared at her phone. Nathan was getting worried and couldn't stand the silence. "What do you say?"

Haley smiled before confirming that she was indeed in a relationship with Nathan Scott. Nathan's phone then buzzed as he got the message and he sent her a matching smile.

"I guess we should get going. Let you get back to work."

"Stay. I'm off in a bit. We can do something."

Haley quickly discovered that when Nathan did something, he did it big. When normal people hang out, they just go back home, especially the Scott home. They have a pool, any video game you could ever want, a ping pong table, pretty much anything you can imagine. But no, they couldn't just go back there, they had to go to a bowling alley to hang out.

"Do you have a job?" Haley asked between frames.

"Other than coaching, no. Why?"

"You just… seem to be able to go out and spend money. I can never afford to take Quinn bowling or skating, yet you seem to do it all the time."

"I'm on a full scholarship, so that helps."

"I am too, but between paying rent and simply buying food, we barely make it by."

"Our house is paid for. And my parents had really good life insurance policies. Don't know how we still got it… considering how they died."

"Sorry," Haley said, simply out of habit. She hated talking about when her mom died and figured that Nathan did too.

"You don't need to apologize."

"I just mean that I didn't mean to bring that up."

"It really doesn't bother me. They were horrible people. Brooke's better without them. I just wish she hadn't had to see it."

"Brooke's better? What about you?"

"You're up, Natey-poo," Brooke said running up to them.

"What did I tell you about calling me that?"

"Not in public… I know, but that's your name," she laughed as she pointed to the scoreboard above them.

"You've got to be kidding me. You let them put that in there?" Nathan asked, looking at Haley who had helped the two girls set things up while Nathan was getting their shoes.

"I thought it was sweet."

"Right… totally sweet. That's exactly what my teammates would say if they showed up here."

"Nathan. You need to stop caring about what everybody thinks. Isn't that what you always tell me?"

"Shut up, Brooke," he said as he pushed her out of the way by her face.

"You're mean," she shouted at him as she fell back onto a chair.

"You're annoying."

"Jerk!"

"Brat," he shouted back as he rolled the ball down the lane, getting a strike.

Turning to Haley, Brooke just sighed, "Times like these I really wish I had a mom that could ground him for being so mean. Can you ground him for me?"

"I wish I could sweetie, but I don't think he'll listen to me."

"You're his girlfriend. He has to listen to you."

Haley couldn't help but laugh, Nathan on the other hand, didn't find it so funny. "Brooke, I hate to tell you there's a rule for grounding," Nathan informed her.

"What is it?"

"You must be older than the person you are grounding. And sadly, I happen to be older than Haley. Sorry."

"You're not sorry! I know a better way to ground you anyways."

"And how are you going to do that pipsqueak?"

"Well, actually, I'll need Haley's help."

"And how can I do that?" she asked, unable to hide the smile from watching the two siblings squabble.

"You can ground him from sex," Brooke announced very matter-of-factly.

Nathan's mouth nearly hit the floor at his sister's proclamation. For once, he might actually be speechless.

Haley was quick to respond though. "Your brother and I are NOT having sex."

"Yeah, they're not. Haley's a virgin," Quinn said in the same tone Brooke had just used.

"Quinn!" Haley screamed, embarrassed by her sister's outburst.

"What? You are one."

"And how would you know that? How do you even know the word virgin?"

"We learned it in school. Really, Hales, it's okay. Brooke and I are virgins too."

"You're ten!"

"Actually…" Brooke said, sneakily coming to life.

"Whoa! What do you mean actually?" Nathan screamed, quickly coming out of his trance and pouncing on his sister.

Brooke burst out laughing at how quickly she could get the conversation turned around. "I'm kidding Nathan! Seriously, you've got to lighten up. Think about it, really. I don't even have boobs yet. What guy would want to have sex with me?"

Nathan covered his ears and closed his eyes, trying to block out any thought of his sister EVER having sex. If he had anything to do with it, she would die a virgin. She could get married and have kids, but they would have to be adopted because no guy should ever see his sister without clothes… Maybe he was taking it a bit far, but as the only man in her life, he had sworn to protect her. He finally opened his eyes so that could bring himself back to reality and saw all three girls staring at him. "I think it's your bowl, Hales," he finally said as he slowly removed his fingers from his ears.

"Ummm… yeah... I'm really horrible at this. Maybe you could bowl for me?"

"How about I teach you instead?"

Haley smiled. Exactly what she hoped he would say. She handed her sister five dollars to take Brooke and play the game with the claw where you try to grab a stuffed animal. She walked over to Nathan with a look on her face that he couldn't quite decipher. "You okay?" she asked wearily.

"I'm fine," he said, plastering on a smile as he grabbed her bowling ball. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"You just seem a little upset."

"I'm not, I'm fine," he tried to reassure her. "You ready to learn how to bowl?"

Haley laughed, "I already know how to bowl babe. You obviously haven't been paying attention to the score. I'm kicking your butt."

"Which is what I've been staring at instead of the score," he grinned back at her.

She playfully hit him across the chest before taking the ball from him and rolling a perfect strike. "I was on my high school's bowling team. P.E. was required and I can't do anything that involves running, so I took bowling."

"So then why did you ask for help?" Nathan asked, confused about the whole thing.

"I just wanted to make sure that you're okay. You kind of zoned out there for a minute. I figured you might actually talk to me if the girls weren't right underneath us."

For the first time Nathan noticed that the girls weren't around and momentarily freaked out as his father senses took over. Haley noticed immediately and just pointed over to where the girls were safely playing.

"I wanna talk," Haley told him.

"About what?" Nathan asked wearily. He knew that anytime a girl wanted to talk, it was bad news.

"I don't know. But I feel like we should talk. Maybe about how incredibly stressful our lives are because we're raising ten year olds. Even if they are as advanced as they sounded a moment ago. I just need someone to talk to. And I guess a bit selfishly, I want to be the person you talk to."

"That actually doesn't sound too bad."

"So we can go?"

"After the game. They girls would be devastated if we didn't finish."

"I think they'll be okay about it," Haley laughed as she saw the two girls running towards them, each with a prize in their hands.