Daddy Overnight

An OTH Fan Fic

By AlexB

Chapter 9

When she was younger, Haley thought that there was no better father on the Earth, no better man than her dad. She still believed that. She knew that no matter what choices she made, mistakes that she stepped into, Jimmy James would always be there. Right there in her corner. As she grew up and saw that not all men, all fathers, were like her own, she didn't understand it.

Haley still didn't understand it now.

She didn't know anything about Nathan's relationship with his father, but from what she saw it couldn't be all that great.

"How much did you hear?"

He wasn't afraid of her running to the nearest tabloid and telling anyone anything, but Nathan was worried. He just couldn't put his finger on the reason why.

"I should have gone."

That wasn't what he had asked her. Nathan banked down his irritation. He wouldn't take out his anger on an innocent person.

"This is none of my business."

"No," he agreed. "It isn't."

"You asked me to stay." She told him, her eyes flashing. "You asked me to take your son away from whatever was coming and I did."

Nathan nodded.

"I get that you're upset," Haley went on. "Sounds like you have every conceivable right to be, but don't take that out on me because you kicked the two of them out of your home. You should have kicked your size twelve foot off in both their backsides." She looked at him, the question plain in her eyes before she voiced it. "Why didn't you?"

She was amazing. Haley James went from rightfully pissed at him to somewhat in his corner.

This did not bode well for Nathan's determination and need to stay far away from this woman. She had so many faces it was hard to get any kind of hold on her. It made him want to get close to who she was all the more.

Haley knew that she had crossed a line. She would not apologize for defending herself, but asking a man that she barely knew why she didn't hem the men who had come into his home like they had right up against the nearest wall was way off base.

His father especially.

She could only guess what his relationship was with the man that wasn't his father. She had a pretty good idea what that was all about. Haley wasn't a violent person, well, for the most part, but she ached for the kid who had to go through that and wanted to deck both men who had made this man hurt in any way.

"It's complicated." Nathan finally answered.

"Is that a polite way of telling me to mind my own business?"

"You don't know," he said to her. "How badly I wish that was the way it was. It is complicated," he said to her again. "Me wanting to tell you all of it anyway just makes it that much more complex."

She swallowed hard. This was how it always happened; she could feel that ever powerful pull to take care of him. Heal him. She had to remind herself that she was out of the savior business, and this wasn't some broken heart that she was trying to cure. She could not let herself be sucked into this man, she could not.

Her breath stuttered out of her. "I should go." Words could not expressed how relieved she was that the quiver she felt all over her body didn't make itself known in her voice.

She moved around him toward the door. Her own breaths sounded in her ears. This was not good. This was very bad. She should have just put the man's mail in his mailbox. She had the door barely open when it closed softly. Her hand held on loosely to the knob.

She could feel his heat behind her, his breaths warm on the nape of her neck. He had one hand on the door, the other hung at his side. Nathan forced himself to relax. Not to touch her.

"Wait," she heard him say. "Don't go. Don't leave just yet."

He knew, knew that he was playing with fire. He should let her go, get her the hell out of his house and away from him before he made good on that image of putting Haley James on that couch. And she would let him. No. No, she would give as good as she got. Nathan could feel that about her.

He was so close, Haley could fell him pull in those deep breaths. When he stepped away, taking that warmth with him, she felt cold despite the weather. Haley had to pull in a breath of her own. She turned to him, the door behind her practically holding her up.

"I'm sorry."

She looked at him then. She watched his chest rise and fall letting the words sink in.

"I'm sorry that I took my anger out on you and I'm grateful. I'm grateful to you that you took Nic away. I'm trying to keep that far away from him."

She couldn't stop herself. "What about you?"

"Both a pawn and a casualty." He admitted. "I don't want that for him. You asked me why I didn't do more."

"I was out of line."

"Maybe." He conceded.

"Don't try and butter me up." She deadpanned.

"I'm being honest." Nathan replied. "It doesn't matter what I do. My father always comes back. He pushes his way inside and I let him. It's that stupid kid inside me still hoping against hope that he'll change and be the father that I need.

"Keith," he shook his head. "He's married to my mother."

It was more than that, his father had told the tale, but Haley wasn't about to push. She barely knew him, and he knew nothing about her.

"You don't have to explain anything to me, Nathan." She said to him. "We don't know each other; we haven't decided to know each other. I'm just the woman next door."

That's all that she could be. Nathan read that very fact in her eyes. He knew that she was right. Hadn't he been saying just the same thing? Hearing her voice it cut him deeper than he could have ever imagined. More than anything, this was the reason they couldn't be. He could see himself giving too much to this woman, way too much. Haley James wasn't just that woman he could see himself waking up to every morning for the rest of his life. Haley James could take his heart and cream him with it.

-

She closed the door. Leaning back against the wood, Haley closed his eyes letting out a breath. She tired to push it out of her mind, but she couldn't, it was impossible. It was like he was imprinted on her everywhere. It had to be her stubborn mind messing with her or her body's refusal to get with the program, but Haley could still feel him as if he was still standing behind her.

"Hales?"

"Shut up." She kept her eyes closed. The breathing wasn't helping. Dammit, this was not good at all.

"You okay?"

Haley's eyes opened. "No. No I'm not."

"What happened?"

"That man is dangerous." She told her friend. Unconsciously, she pressed a hand to her rapidly beating heart. Never had anyone made her feel like this…this crazy. She was burning up from the inside out and it scared her. Maybe Nathan Scott wasn't a man on the rebound. No, she knew that he wasn't a man on the rebound, that was a plus, but after today, she wasn't going anywhere near him.

Brooke took in her frazzled friend and immediately thought back to what Mr. Mail Tampering had said.

"Your friend wouldn't be a rebound chick."

She'd only met the man one time and while he had that wounded look about him, but something told Brooke that he didn't need Haley James to "fix" him or "rebuild" him. That's what scared her. That was why she was freaking out, hyperventilating. Brooke loved her friend, but Haley's tastes, whether she could see it or if it was some unconscious thing, took to guys who needed her to put a band-aid on whatever it was has bleeding and broken. She was the one taking care of them, giving, while they took, took, took.

She wasn't going to push her very best friend toward the man until she knew for sure, but Brooke knew that Nathan would be the kind of guy to give. Even though he didn't want to. The man was a fighter. He may not get in the ring and trade blows for a living, but that didn't change his stripes.

Brooke tired not to smirk. This was going to be good.

Becasue Ms. Haley James was a fighter, too.

She could feel Brooke's eyes so intent on her, but before she could do anything about it, she had to sit down before her knees gave out on her and she crumpled into a puddle of female mess on her floor.

"Are you going to tell me or not?"

"Not." She caught her friend's look. "I can't, Brooke. Not without getting into something that isn't your business or mine. Just know that I won't be seeing Nathan Scott again."

That's what she thought. "Can you tell me why?"

"I told you already."

Brooke sighed impatiently, rolling her eyes. "Dangerous how?" She wanted to know. "I'm pretty sure he's not some ax wielding maniac."

"Despite your rain woman tendencies, not even you know that much about the man. Unless you have some crystal ball or some magic eight ball on you that I don't know about.

"Haley-"

"Leave it, Brooke." Haley sighed. "Please."

The other woman nodded. She would leave it. For now.

-

Nathan sat in the dark. He pulled the heavy blinds, blocking out the sun and turned off the air conditioner. At the moment, he would rather sweat then have to listen to the noise. No matter how quiet.

"This is a mistake, Nathan. You have no idea what you're getting yourself into."

"Don't go."

"Me wanting to tell you makes it that much more complex."

He rubbed a hand over the back of his neck, trying, but failing to relieve the tension that sat there.

She was absolutely right. They were just neighbors, but they had decided. They had decided not to know each other. It was the right thing for the both of them. He had too much coming at him and it didn't look like it would be stopping soon.

But there wasn't a woman he wanted more.

Being near her like that had been a monumental mistake because he wanted more. He wanted to be closer. Strawberries. That's what her hair had smelled like. Strawberries and flowers. He liked that combination.

Nathan shook his head in a bad attempt to jerk himself back to reality. He leaned his head back in the chair that he sat in. He told himself that this was the right thing. The responsible, unselfish thing. It wasn't just him putting on the breaks when he would love nothing more than to rev his engine.

They didn't even know each other.

A soft knock at the door jolted him. He stayed where he was, not moving until it sounded again.

"It's not her," Nathan told himself. He scowled at the acute disappointment that filled him when he saw that it really wasn't.

"I've only come to check on you, Nathan."

"You shouldn't have, Mom." He told her. "I'm fine."

"Can I come in?"

Nathan knew that he stood blocking the door and his stance was defensive as ever, but no one could blame him. He didn't want to get into it with his mother. He was drained. He knew that letting her in would start something that wasn't up for. He told his mother as much, but the woman would not be deterred.

"This can't wait, Nathan. We've put it off for long enough."

He sighed, backing away from the door and moving deeper into the house. Deb followed her son inside watching as he fell into a chair.

The place was stuffy as hell. It was bordering on 100 degrees outside and he didn't even have the air conditioner on. She glanced down the hall toward the baby's bedroom. The door was closed. Deb left her son in the living room while she went to check, to make sure that Nathan hadn't had her grandson sweltering. He was fine. And Nathan hadn't moved.

"Keith came by today?" She began.

"I'm sure he told you all about it. I didn't accept his apology."

The woman sighed. "Nathan-"

"Don't." He warned her. "Don't even. I don't wan anything from that man. Not even his apology. Those are just words."

"They're more than that, and you know it. Is this how things are going to be? Are you going to hate him forever? Are you going to hate me?"

When he didn't deny the way that he felt, Deb felt dizzy. Her son hated her? "Nathan, I-"

"You're what? Sorry? It's too late for that."

"I don't know what else to say."

"How about you were selfish?" He suggested. "How about you were wrong? How about you were a coward? How about you weren't a mother to your son when you should have been?"

"You left me."

"I would have gone anywhere with you, Mom." His voice came mouth came out hoarse. "You knew how dad was. He was suffocating me. He took something that use to be fun, something that I was good at just because and made it into my the only way that I could get away from him. You were supposed to protect me!"

The woman's chest hitched on shuddered breath. Her eyes burned, but she couldn't open her mouth to say one word in her defense.

"You didn't." Nathan went on. "You didn't protect me, mom. You didn't choose me. You chose him. You chose your lover. You could have divorced dad. You could have left and I would have gone with you. You didn't protect me from him, so I protected myself from the both of you."

"I…"

"Save it." He shook his head. "Why did you come?"

She shook her head as if she didn't understand. "Why did you come to me?" She asked her son. "The night you found out that you had a child, you didn't go to you father, you didn't go to Jake or to Peyton, you came to me. Why Nathan? If you hate me, why did you come?"

Nathan pulled in a deep breath, his jaw clenching. "It would be so easy," he told his mother. "It would be so easy to hate you. It would be so easy to hate dad, and it's harder than ever to hate Keith, but I do. I hate that man. I can't even look at him without wanting to rip his head off. In the end, you're my mother and Dan's my father. It shouldn't mean a damn thing to me on either end, but it does. That's my curse."

Inside Deb felt like she was coming a part. Everything inside her burned like she was dying.

"I never meant for any of this to happen." She got out. "I never meant…" she cried.

He wouldn't let himself look at her. His own eyes burned, but he would not, Nathan would not let that kid inside him go to her. He felt the lowest of the low. His mother was crying, but could not stop feeling the way that he felt. He could not. And he refused to be guilty. He didn't blow their relationship to hell. She did.

"I won't keep you away from him." Nathan spoke. You're Nic's grandmother. I won't let this thing with us get in the way of what you already have with him. You accept him. You and Jake and Peyton."

"Keith accepts him."

"I don't give a damn what Keith accepts."

"How long are you going to hold on to this, Nate?"

"When it stops, Mom." He told her. "When I can stop thinking about it. When I stop being pissed. When it stops hurting. I'll get over him going to Dan, because to me that just shows what an asshole the man you married is. But this other thing," Nathan shook his head. "I'm not making any promises to either one of you, I can't, because the day it all stops may never come. When I think about it, Mom, the only thing that shouts in me head is that I would have gone with you. I would have chosen you."

Nicolas soft cries sounded on the monitor. Nathan nodded his head in the direction of the baby's room. "Go ahead," he told his mother. 'I meant it when I say that I wouldn't keep you away from him."

He stayed where he was until he heard his mom speaking to Nic in that voice that made him nauseous. He walked through the kitchen and out the backdoor. The concrete of the patio burned the bottoms of his feet. They were quickly cooled when he stepped into the grass. He went to the fence between the houses, resting his arms across the top of the wood. Hanging his head, Nathan closed his eyes, wishing that he was anywhere at that very moment than where he was standing.

Haley watched him from her kitchen window.

-

When he hauled himself back inside, the house was quiet. He thought that his mother had gone. When he heard the bedroom door open he learned that he was wrong.

Nathan stood in the living room waiting when his mother saw him, she stopped. While she had been seeing to her grandson, Deb thought about her little boy with the bright blue eyes and the mischievous smile that matched their sparkle.

Nathan had been right. She hadn't protected him. Instead she had stood back and let Dan take the reigns. She let her son feel the brunt of what his father was because she just couldn't do it anymore. She let Dan take something that was so much apart of Nathan and turn it into something unbearable, something that her son had learned to depend on because he couldn't depend on her. She sat back and watched while her son floundered trying to find his own means of escape. She hadn't been there for him, she hadn't helped him. Deb had found her escape and used it frequently, her child be damned.

"I would have chosen you."

She should have chosen him. The sad truth was that when it came down to it, Deb didn't believe. She didn't believe that Nathan would have chosen her. Not against Dan, because even though he was who he was, Dan had been there. He chose Nathan. She thought that the man's hooks were in too deep. She had been so wrong, so very wrong, and she had no idea how to make things right with her son. If they could be made right at all.

But she wanted her son back.

"Nathan, I want to fix this." She told him. "Tell me what needs to be done and I'll do it."

The earnestness in her eyes, her need…Nathan had to fight not to let it sap him.

"If you had asked me this years ago, I would have told you to leave Keith and never see him again. He botched our family. But what we had wasn't really all that much to begin with." He admitted. "I won't ask you to do that now. I can see how you feel about that man, and I'm not a child anymore."

"Thank you."

He laughed humorlessly. "Don't do that," he told her. "Don't thank me because despite what I just said, I do blame him. I blame him for taking my mother away from me when I needed her. I blame you, but I blame him too for blowing up our relationship like a damn cannon. I wasn't enough-"

"No, Nathan-"

"Just stop." His anger rose again. "Stop. I don't want to know how it was or what it was. It's done. You asked me what needed to be done to fix this, and I don't know. I don't know, Mom."

"I want my son back."

"I want my game back. People in hell want ice water, Mom. All the want in the world doesn't change anything because at the end, we don't know. We don't know how to fix this."

"Do you want to?"

-

"You did what?"

"The guy was being a mule-headed jackass, Peyton. I did what any guy would do for his friend. I committed a felony to make my best friend stop avoiding, stop being a chickenshit, to go after what could be a good thing."

"You don't know a damn thing about this woman, Cupid." What the hell had gotten into Jagielski?

"Stop looking at me like that? What if this blows up in your face? Nathan finds out and he'll be jumping on your head."

"I'm not going to open my trap. You?"

"No, but that doesn't mean that the bony big mouth won't."

"She's not going to say anything."

"Give you her 'guarantee' did she?"

Jake lifted a brow. "Jealous?"

"Please."

"Uh-huh." He liked this side of Ms. Sawyer. Her gold-green eyes blazed at the thought of another woman giving him…guarantees. He had to laugh at her description of the other woman. He was pretty sure that she thought of Peyton the same way.

"Look, I just don't want the guy to miss out on something great because he's a moron. Maybe something will come of it."

Maybe Nathan Scott will stop hiding.

"And if this attempt didn't work?"

"Then it didn't work."

"And you'll leave it?" She asked him. "Jake?"

"If he gives me a reason. She, this woman, could be good for him, Peyton."

"Okay, who are you doing chick flicks with, and what's the bitch's name?"

"There's no chick and no flick."

"I don't believe you. You're either watching the damn movies with someone else or watching daytime TV. One of the two. Which is it?"

"Look woman, next time she come into the bar and he's here, watch it. You'll see."

"And if I don't?"

"You will." He promised. Jake backed her up into the bar. Peyton's eyes grew wide and he loved it. "And, FYI, the only person I'm watching chick flicks with is you."