Author's Notes:Thank you to all those members who have been subscribing to this, I've been getting so much mail it's unbelievable! I've been thinking about writing another one… Anywho here's another chapter to say thank you. Hopefully I'll be able to get another one up before Christmas… Until than read and review like always and enjoy!

Chapter 8:

Nathan was half hoping that he wouldn't answer the door. It would have given him a chance to retreat and rethink about asking his only father for help.

"What are you doing here?"

"I need to tell you something," he said. "I thought you ought to know."

Dan stepped aside so that Nathan could walk in. The house he grew up in hadn't changed at all. The hallway which led into the main living room was still the same colour, a rich burgundy. The living room itself still had photo frames of him and his parents, lining the mantel and the bookcases. Nathan turned around to face his dad. He had a good two days' worth of whiskers and his eyes looked tired from all the paperwork stacked up on the coffee table. He was wearing a grey button down shirt with a pair of jeans. You'd think the mayor would try and keep up his appearance. Dan offered him to take a seat.

"What is it you need to tell me son?" Nathan cringed at the mention of Dan calling him his son. After everything that's happened that was the last thing he wanted to be called, especially from him. He leaned his arms on his knees fiddling with his keys in his hands.

"I made it into Duke."

Completely and utterly shocked, Dan Scott was speechless for the very first time in his life.

"Dad! Please can we stop? Can't I take a break?"

"No! I told you, breaks come after you make five three pointers in a row. You missed that one, let's start again! Duke won't take a failure. So get it right this time." On the verge of walking off, fourteen year old Nathan did what he was told. He was much taller than anyone in his class and he made it in every basketball team. 'I swear as soon as I get accepted into Duke, I'll run away from this hell hole.'

Frozen in place, pure unimaginable pride ripped through him.

"Well done Nathan!"

But Nathan wasn't sharing the same joy his father was. "I can't go."

Dan scoffed. "Of course you can go. What's stopping..."

"Haley's pregnant."

Dan didn't even know he was leaning after he fell back in his chair. It was as if history was repeating itself but to his son. At first he was frustrated to the point in which he wanted to scold him for not being careful. He warned him about the possibility of fathering a child quite frankly it wasn't one of his finest moments and it ended him never speaking to Nathan anymore. Until today.

"Didn't I tell you Nathan? My goodness I thought you would have learnt this lesson by now!"

"Do you think I did this on purpose? To piss you off? No!"

"Really? Because I know why you're here. You want me to help you don't you? You really think that it's that easy?"

Nathan gulped.

"Yeah see! I know how all this works, trust me I've been there."

Man do I want to choke this guy. "Look I'm not here to listen you lecture me about what I did wrong okay. Yes I came here for help that was my intention in the first place, along with telling you about what happened."

Dan gave him a piercing glare.

"URGH! I knew I shouldn't have come here. I was so stupid! I'm sorry I wasted your valuable time doing whatever you do best. Being and asshole!" He got up and headed to the front door.

"Nathan! Come back here! Nathan!" Dan shouted.

But it was too late. He slammed the door as loud as he could making the frame rattle, then he jogged down the steps and in the driver's seat he went. Stepping on the accelerator he drove back to the apartment.

In the fit of anger Dan threw the closest thing to him at the wall. Breaking glass is echoed throughout the house. As he goes to bend down and pick it up, he turns it over to see a picture of him and Nathan. At age four he was already shooting hoops. Although not yet able to reach the basket, Dan piggybacks him on his shoulders and pretends to run towards it. The photo is a stolen shot taken by Nathan's mother Deb. "He shoots and he scores! Well done son! You'll make a fine player one day." He sat him back on his feet and held his hand out to give him a high-five.

"Again!" Nathan said.

"All right, here we go again."

Those were the days where Dan Scott wasn't the wicked bastard everyone thought he was. He did have a heart but it was rarely ever seen due to his evil schemes getting in the way. He brushed off the broken glass and took out the photo. Setting it on the coffee table he went to go clean up the mess he made.

Nathan threw his bag against the couch. "I should have known he'd say that! Jackass!" He flopped himself down rubbing his forehead.

"Hey! What's going on?" Haley peered from the bedroom door wrapped tightly in her robe.

"What are you doing here?" He could smell her strawberry shampoo as she made her way towards him.

"I wasn't feeling well and I asked Karen if I could go home," she winced. "She saw straight through me Nate. She knows I'm pregnant so that's on less person we need to tell."

"Two actually."

"What do you mean?" She sat on the couch lifting her legs and placing them on Nathan's lap.

"I went to go see Dan today, after I dropped you off at work. I told him that you were pregnant and he just gave me a lecture about how thoughtless I was on getting you knocked up. He thought I did it on purpose!"

"You told him you got into Duke too didn't you?"

He knew she knew about the acceptance letter ever since this morning but he thought it was best not to bring it up. And knowing Haley she would have forced him to go even if he didn't want to, but luckily he did.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you."

"Why didn't you? You know I would have supported you. It's your dream Nathan, why can't you have it?"

"I thought it wouldn't have mattered anymore. I want to put you and the baby first before my dream."

Haley smiled at his attempt to explain his emotions, "Listen to me. I'm not going anywhere and no matter what happens the three of us aren't going to get separated okay? If you want to play college basketball, you're going to play college basketball. Please don't think anything's pulling you back." He looked at her straight in the eyes to catch her meaning.

"Hay- Oh baby, you're not holding me back. Why would you even think that?" He grabbed her hand and gave it a tight squeeze.

"It's just how I feel…"

"Your turn to listen. From the first time I held a basketball in my hands, the goal of going to Duke has been drilled into my brain. You need to go to Stanford Hales."

"But-"

"No but's. Look, a couple weeks ago Tim told me that a guy from Duke would come to our State Championship game and he'd offer a few scholarships to players who deserve them. Now if the Ravens work twice as hard and make it to the championships I could be one of them. And during lunch today Luke said he'd back me up."

Haley surprised him by raining kisses all over his face. "I love you so much Nathan Scott."

They ended up making out on the couch and when morning came they woke up caught in each other's arms smiling at one another. "Nathan move I really need to pee!"

"What?"

"You're pushing up against my bladder, now move." Struggling to push him off the couch they both fell to the ground with her landing on top of him.

"Omoof!"

He laughed. "You know you look really sexy from this angle. If each morning started out like this… I don't think we'd get anything productive done." She giggled and then kissed him on the lips before she got up and bolted to the toilet. Suddenly there was a knock on the door. He dusted himself off and got up to answer it, he was surprised to see… "Brooke?"

She looked away shyly. "Hi Nathan is Haley home?"

"Yeah, uhmm… come in. Are you okay?" he asked, closing the door behind her. She shook her head before she started to cry. Nathan quickly went to comfort her, "Hey what's wrong?"

"Brooke?" Haley called.

"Yeah I'm here."

"What are… Oh sweetie what happened?" She took over Nathan's place on comforting their friend.

"It's about Lucas."

"What about him? Is he okay?" Nathan asked worried about his older brother.

"No… I only found out this morning and I drove all the way over here to tell you guys in person."

Haley was starting to get worried too. "Brooke what happened? What happened to Lucas?"

"He's in hospital, he collapsed at work."