A/N: So sorry it's taken so long to update. I've been moving the past two weeks and was without internet. Boo. Yeah. Plus I totally have this new story working itself out in my head and that's basically been consuming all my inspiration. AND, the amount of reviews dropped off slightly and that kinda bummed me out. But enjoy this chapter and the next one will be up...soon hopefully. Thanks!

Wincing the Night Away

"Slut."

"Fat ass."

Haley rolled her eyes at the banter between her two best friends. Shoving yet another spoonful of ice cream in her mouth she let her body fall back on the pillows behind her. Currently, she was at a much needed girls only sleepover at Brooke's house. After the long week she had, it was a welcome reprieve. School was officially out for Christmas break and Nathan hadn't been around all week. It was somewhat bothering her, but she really trying not to be sad over the whole situation with him. It wasn't like they had technically broken up because they had never been together to begin with.

He just wasn't apart of her life anymore.

Even if the destination wasn't what she had hoped for, the journey was incredible.

She wasn't really sure what she wanted the destination to be exactly. She liked being around him. He was challenging and anything but boring. There were so many walls though and even if she had been given a lifetime, she would have never been able to tear them down. It was for the best even if it didn't feel like it at the moment. She was preparing for college and getting involved with someone who was doubtful to go outside the confines of their small town wasn't a good idea.

"Tutor slut!" Rachel called out, hitting her with a pillow. Haley smacked it away and glared at her. "What? You're the one spacing. Come on, we're insulting one another. Now tell Brooke she's fat."

"I am not fat!" Brooke protested hopping up on the end of the bed. "Tell her Haley!"

"She's not fat." Haley corrected and Brooke gave Rachel's a satisfied smirk. "She just thick."

"Haley!" Brooke screeched, shoving her playfully. "Whatever. You're the one with a bubble butt."

"I do not!"

"Do too."

"You kinda do Haley." Rachel agreed pushing Haley's butt up off the bed to get a better look. Haley quickly pushed her hand away. "Nobody said it was a bad thing. Guy's totally dig that."

"Speaking of guys, I think you're a good match with Damien." Brooke stole Haley's spoon, shoveling some ice cream in her own mouth. "He can be a bit of an ass but oh so yummy."

"I think she'd be a good match with Nathan." Rachel threw in, winking in Haley's direction.

"Yes!" Brooke hit Haley's shoulder in excitement and Haley winced in pain. "What was the deal with that anyway? You were totally giving off a vibe."

"Vibe?" Haley parroted her brow furrowing. "There was no vibe. There was no vibes being given off. There's nothing to vibe on." She realized she was rambling and shut her mouth to think. "I was asking him what he was thinking trying to win me in a bet. I mean really, what the hell?"

"Please Haley. It's not like he's not the guy you shacked up with." Brooke suggested as Haley's eyes grew wide.

"You told her!" Haley smacked the back of Rachel's head to which she immediately smacked Haley back in the same spot. "Oww."

"I didn't tell her, but you just did." Rachel rubbed the back of her head with a look of amusement on her face.

"Oh. My. God." Brooke reached over and wacked the back of Haley's head. "Why didn't you tell me? You hook up with Nathan Scott and can't tell me? And further more what the hell were you thinking?"

"That I wanted to avoid this right here." Haley yelled motioning in between the two of them. She sighed, calming down a bit. "And, and! You just said I would be a good match for him!"

"That was before I knew you were whoring around with him!" Brooke screeched, slamming the bowl of ice cream down on the beside table. "Seriously? Can you just tell me why? Because this is insane."

"Okay cookie, I love you really but you're such a hopeless romantic."

"I am not."

"Yes you are." Rachel nodded settling into enjoying the showdown that was about to take place. "Out of the three of us, you always have been."

"And Rachel's always been the slut and I've always been the cynic." Haley retorted shaking her head. "Now that we have that cleared up, can we move right along? Look Brooke, you have this amazing thing with Jake and that works for you. You've been together since birth and you have that picturesque fairytale ending in your future with him. That's great, really. I knew that if I told you what was going on that it would get blown way out of proportion and be made into a bigger deal than it is. It was over with as soon as it started so it doesn't even matter anymore."

"I just want what's best for you Haley." Brooke responded softly. "I mean I don't know Nathan that well but he seems bad news. He skips school all the time and he even got arrested over the summer for vandalism. That's not like you at all."

"And that's probably why she's with him." Rachel informed Brooke and Haley sent her a grateful smile. "Give her a break Brooke. She needs to live a little bit. I mean you have Jake and I have Lucas, somewhat now, and she has to have someone too."

"Speaking of which, how goes the Lucas situation?" Haley grinned, thankful to turn the attention away from her. "Still doing that non exclusive thing?"

"Sometimes I claim him as my boyfriend. But yes, for the most part we're just goofing around." Rachel blushed, slightly uncomfortable with the attention being turned on her. Both of her friends gave her blank looks. "Well I don't want to be betrothed like Brooke and I don't want to be whoring around anymore like you Haley. This works for me."

"Hey! I'm not whoring around!" Haley exclaimed and both of her friends gave her a pointed look. "Okay, so I'm not doing it anymore. Jeez!"

"Tutor slut."

"Fat ass."

"Bitch."

X-x-X

Nathan ran a hand over his tired face and let it rest on his chin once more. He had never given much credit to Nikki before, but as he sat with his back up against the bedroom door, his knees propped up, he was beginning to appreciate her a lot more by the second. He banged the back of his head against the wood and groaned. The infant in the next room had been screaming non stop for the past several hours and it was now well into the wee hours of the morning. In fact, it was only a continuation from the past several days and he was now at his wits end.

Pushing himself off the floor, he tiredly stumbled into the kitchen and searched around in the dark for his cell phone. Upon finding it, he flipped it open and scrolled down; pausing once he reached her name. It was late, really late, and he had avoided her since that night at the rivercourt. In fact, he had avoided everyone going as far as skipping school and work all together. Clenching his eyes shut after hearing yet another piercing scream he clicked the send button without hesitation and waited in bated breath for an answer.

"Hell-" he winced hearing a small crashing sound in the background. Before long though he heard her tired and ragged voice filter through the phone line. "Hello?"

"Haley." He simply answered, hoping that his voice would wake her up enough. When he didn't get an answer right away he slightly panicked. "Haley? Are you there?"

"Yeah, no I'm here. Nathan?" she asked, looking to her side to make sure her friends were still sleeping. Affirming that they were, she slipped out of the bed and padded into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her quietly. She pulled her phone away from her and squinted at the time rubbing her swollen eyes awake. "It's late, um early. What are you doing?"

"I need you're help."

"My help?" she repeated, suddenly wondering what could possibly be bad enough for him to want her help. "What's going on?"

"Can you come over here?" he pleaded and she could hear the desperation in his voice. He felt her about to protest but cut her off before she got a chance. "Haley please. I wouldn't call unless I really need you and you know that. Just come over here, please."

X-x-X

Her knock fell on dead air as he swung open the door the moment she had stepped in front of it. She noted he looked about as rough as she felt, his hair in a complete disarray on his head. He was shirtless, as per the usual with him but once again, the chilly night air did not seem to faze him in the slightest. He on the other hand, took notice right away with how tired and irritated she looked all at the same time. Clearly she was ticked but it somewhat warmed and disturbed him that even with multiple violent thoughts running through her head she was still standing on his doorstep.

"You're wearing pajamas." Was the first thing out of his mouth. Dressed in polka dot pajamas with thick, unlaced snow boats, and an oversized fur coat, a messy bun on top of her head and green bunny slipper feet, she looked an absolute mess. Even with his current desperate state he couldn't hold back the chuckle in his throat. She looked at him curiously, her eyes narrowing in annoyance.

"Well sorry I didn't have time to throw on my ball gown!" she snapped, pulling her jacket tighter around her body. "It's nearly three in the morning and you may not be getting blue balls being half naked in the snow but I sure as hell am! Are you going to let me in or what?!"

Being harsh was not something she was usually but the whole thing with Nathan seemed to go from good to bad to worse in an instant. Something was up, something she was sure she wasn't going to necessarily like. But she was here, against her probable better judgment and he obviously needed something big or he wouldn't have called her. She sighed, stepping past him and threw her coat over the back of the bar stool. Just when she was about to ask what the big emergency was, her head snapped to his bed room where crying was now ringing throughout the apartment.

"Is that," she whipped her head to face him, pointing to the bedroom door. "No, please tell me that it's some freshman who's heart you broke and now she won't leave." He looked away guilty and her eyes widened slightly. "God Nathan. Is it? Is that a baby?

Not wanting to answer and dodging as any questions as possibly, Nathan bolted into the bedroom. Rubbing his hand over the top of the infants head, he gently picked him up, playing him on his hip. The little boy hiccupped once, placing his fist in his mouth looking up at Nathan with wide eyes before he started wailing again. He didn't know how he was going to explain this to her but at this point, he would've said anything just to make the baby in his possession stop screaming. After days of trying to get a hold of Nikki to no avail, Haley was his last and only shot.

Haley had remained pacing around the living room, her finger in between her teeth, pinching herself every few seconds to wake herself up. Because this; it was just a nightmare. It was bad enough she had thrown herself at him; like a fool, lost her virginity to him; and secretly been pining for him all week but now he had a kid. She knew he had secrets; it was one of the things that had attracted her most to him. A box full of secrets waiting to be found. Him being a father, even with his reputation had not even entered into her brain.

She wasn't such a smart tutor girl anymore.

"Haley."

She paused her pacing to turn and look in his direction. "A baby. It's a baby." She nodded her head, trying to block out the ear piercing screams. She marched up to Nathan taking the infant out of his hands and cuddling him in her arms. "Shh. It's okay baby. Nathan, he's burning up."

"I know." He rubbed his hand over the baby's forehead. "I tried everything I could think of. He, Caleb, he hasn't stopped crying and his medicine ran out."

"We have to get him to a hospital." Haley placed the baby over her shoulder, beginning to massage soothing circles on his back.

"No, we can't. His insurance ran out."

"He's sick! Infants can die with such a high fever!" Haley reasoned, taking a seat on the sofa and placing a blanket over the baby. "I don't know what you want me to do."

"Haley please, just do something!" he pleaded, sitting down next to her and taking her free hand in his. "You're siblings are babies. What do you do when they get a fever?"

She quenched her eyes shut and blew out her breath. "Okay. Okay look. Run about this much of warm water in the bathtub." She instructed placing her thumb and forefinger a few inches apart. He nodded, rushing to get up but she latched onto forearm, stopping him. "Warm water Nathan. Don't make it too hot or too cold."

Watching him rush away, she placed Caleb down on the sofa, gently removing his onesie from his body. The poor child was burning up and clearly miserable as his crying died down slightly and was replaced with somewhat loud sniffling. He wiped at his swollen and red eyes tiredly looking up at Haley. He was absolutely adorable and she couldn't help but see the resemblance between the two. And it broke her heart. Kissing his belly, she picked him up and padded into the bathroom where Nathan was just finished up the bath water.

"Take his diaper off." She told Nathan, placing Caleb in his arms. She pushed up her sleeves, getting on her knees beside the bathtub in front of Nathan. Checking the water she took the baby back from Nathan, gently placing him in the tub. She put Nathan's hand underneath Caleb's head, supporting him as she took to ringing out the wash cloth over the baby's body. "The water vapor will help regulate his body temperature. Nathan, if this doesn't work we're taking them to the hospital."

"Fine." Nathan reluctantly agreed. "He's looking like he's feeling better though."

"He does." She traced the baby's face with her fingers, soothing him as his fever broke. "He looks like he's about to fall asleep too. We should probably get him out and into the bed. The poor thing is exhausted."

"Yeah, he's not the only one." Nathan slid against the wall running his hand over his worn face. "I haven't slept in days."

Haley cleared her throat, picking Caleb up and wrapping a towel around his body that Nathan held out for. She really didn't want to talk to him because she knew her curiosity would get the better of her. Knowing her she would end up asking all the questions plaguing her mind. She wanted to know where he came from, where he had been all this time, and most importantly where his mother was; who is mother was. She supposed she would never know and she choose to accept that fact as she walked into the bedroom to dress Caleb.

When Nathan came in several minutes later, Haley was lying down on his bed with Caleb directly beside her. Nathan crawled into the other side of the baby, placing his hand on the child's stomach next to Haley's. Her eyes fluttered open and she gave him a yawn and a small smile. He thought for a moment before taking her fingers in between his. Surprisingly, whether it was because she wanted it or because she was just too exhausted to care she allowed him too.

"He's beautiful." She whispered softly glancing at Caleb's dark lock of hair. "He looks just like you."

He wanted to protest so somehow soothe the worry lines on her forehead but he stopped himself. This night couldn't go any further than it had. Calling her had been a last resort, one he regretted and was thankful for at the same time. He knew she would come through and of course she had. But he was beginning to think Nikki wasn't going to come back, at least anytime soon. Dragging Haley into his life was something he had wanted to avoid before Caleb had somehow ended up in his life but now it was definitely out of the question. It just wasn't fair to her.

"I think I'm going to go. I would've left earlier but he wouldn't let me go. I was just making sure he was okay and asleep." She got up and he covered the baby with a blanket and followed her to the living room.

"Thank you." He said sincerely as she placed her coat on her small frame. "You didn't have to do this but I'm glad you came."

"You're welcome." She said simply turning to leave. Just as she was about to go through the open door but instead she spun around to face him. "He's yours. I get that you want to keep your life a secret, I do, but a baby?"

"Haley don't do this." He pleaded, running a hand through his hair. "Just don't okay?"

"Right." She nodded, her jaw clenching. "Right. Because it's okay for you to nip pick about my life but it's not okay for me to know anything about yours. What? You have any more offspring running around?"

"He's not mine!" Nathan exploded catching Haley off guard. "He's family, yes. But he's not mine and I'm not going to explain it any further to you. Either accept that or not. Thank you for coming, I really do appreciate it. If you want to go then go, I won't stop you. But it's late and if you can just accept the situation for what it then just get in the bed and let's go to sleep. It's been a long night. Just think about it."

Shutting the door she gave him a small shrug. "Okay."