Chapter Nine: Light Years Away

"That will be $4.50"

"Are you serious? For a cup of coffee. Wow, Tree Hill has changed a lot" said Brooke to the teenage cashier at a coffee shop down the block from Karen's Café.

"Brooke, is that you?"

Brooke turns around and sees a friendly and familiar face

"Mouth!! Oh my god!! Look at you, you look great." Brooke said as she hugged her friend. Mouth looked pretty much the same except he had a little more facial hair and was a bit taller.

"So you here because of Karen too?" Mouth said

"Yeah, me and Rachel came in the other day. It's just terrible about what's happening."

Brooke and Mouth sat and rank their coffee and reminisced about the good times and what they've been up to since high school. An hour had gone by when Nathan walked into the coffee shop and saw his old friends sitting there.

"Mouth, Brooke? How are you?"

"Nathan, man, I'm good, how are you? I heard you were doing some coaching?" said Mouth.

"Yeah, I'm coaching at a college up in Pinehurst. We're second in our division. So what are you doing?" Nathan said as he got his coffee and joined his two friends.

"Oh, I'm a junior sports reporter at ESPN. I don't get to be on T.V yet but I do get to go to the games and report on the games."

"What about you Brooke?"

Brooke hesitated with her answer. All she could think about was that little boy and how much he looked like the man sitting in front of her. She had the urge to just blurt out that your son is here in Tree Hill, but she knew that if she did that she would be opening a big can of worms.

"Oh, I'm just trying to expand my clothing line."

"You still have "Clothes over Bros"?"

"Yeah, after high school it just took off. And while I was college things just started to snow ball over. I was getting orders left and right, so I decided to make this into a full time gig. And here I am, 5 years later having meetings with the biggest designers and the biggest retail stores."

"Wow, that's amazing Brooke. I'm so proud of you. Hey, did any of you see Karen yet?"

"Yeah, I did. She didn't look so good when I went."

"I was about to go over there in a little bit, I just wanted to get some coffee. Do you guys want to go with me?"

"Sure, I haven't been yet" said Mouth

They all pick up their drinks and then walk out of the coffee shop.

"I can't wait till Karen gets better and then there will be good coffee in Tree Hill again. No offence Nate, but your mom can't make coffee." Brooke said with a smile on her face.

"You should have her cooking." They all laugh as they get into Nathan's car and drive to the hospital.

As they pull up to the hospital Brooke sees Haley's car in the parking lot. She starts to get nervous and hopes that she didn't bring James. They park the Ford Focus and get out and start walking to the entrance. To some degree they are all nervous about seeing Karen. Nathan and Mouth don't know what to expect when they see her. Brooke on the other was nervous because deep down she knew that something bad was going to happen when Nathan saw Haley.

All three of them got into the elevator and took it to the forth floor which was the ICU. When the got off Brooke was very hesitant and stepped lightly wondering if she was in the room. Brooke led the way to Karen's room which was at the end of the hallway. When they got to the door right before Karen's, Brooke heard James' voice and it felt as if a rock was lodged into her throat. Brooke entered the room first and saw Karen of the bed with James right beside her and Haley sitting in the visitor's chair. Next to enter was Mouth followed by Nathan. Who when he saw this boy sitting next to Karen he knew it was the boy in the picture he had saw on his mom's mantle. But who was this boy? Then his eyes moved to Haley and their eyes met. Haley's eyes watered up some but no tears emerged.

Now awake, Karen beckoned for the boys to come in and have a seat. Both Nathan and Mouth leaned in and gave Karen a hug and kiss. Nathan had seen how much weight that Karen had lost and how pail she had looked. She no longer had that gorgeous dark hair. Now all she had on was a scarf on her head hiding the effect of the Chemo Therapy.

"Come, sit, let me see you guys" Karen said with a whisper of a voice.

"Karen, me and James are gonna go so I'll see you tomorrow after work. Lucas said that he was going to bring Lily by later, Okay?" Haley said to Karen as she took James' hand and gave Karen a kiss goodbye.

As she and James walked out of the room Haley kept her head down to avoid eye contact with Nathan. Nathan couldn't help but notice the way that she held this boy. Who was this boy? Was this her son? Was this his son? As they left the room and Mouth and Brooke took a seat next to Karen, Nathan left the room to catch up with Haley.

"Haley, Haley!! Wait up." Nathan said as he jogged down the hall to meet them at the elevator. When he turned the corner he saw them get into the elevator and the doors close behind them. He turned around and went to take the stairs down. Nathan ran so fast he was skipping steps at a time to beat the elevator down. When he finally got down to the first floor he stood in front of the elevator to try and catch his breath. Suddenly the elevator doors opened and there she was. Nathan thought that she looked as beautiful as ever with her golden brown hair in a high ponytail, wearing a beautiful flower print dress.

"I have to go Nathan" Haley said sternly as she grabbed James' hand and headed for the door.

"Can we just talk? Don't you owe me that much?"

"Owe You? Nathan I don't owe you anything. We broke up a long time ago and now just because we are here now, you believe I owe you something? Nathan, just go upstairs and visit with Karen. She is what you owe something to."

Nathan stood there as he watched Haley walk away with James in tow and get into her car. He thought to himself how'd he let her go a second time. Now all he could do now was go back up stairs and visit with Karen, which is what he came to do.

When he got back upstairs he and Brooke exchanged a look and right then Brooke knew what happened.

Karen turned to Nathan and asked him, "Nathan, What's wrong?"

Nathan didn't have the heart or strength to answer.

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