AN: Wow, three months since last update. I have no excuses just wanna say SORRYSORRYSORRY! Been a bit sad lately and had a bit of a stress finding a job after graduation and with this economical crisis. No worries though, nothing major going on, just feeling a bit down with fall coming and I've been sick a couple of times. But it's my birthday on Friday which makes me happyhappyhappy. :) Thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing and having patience. This chappie is a short one, but at least it's moving to the right direction with our beloved Naley. :)

Special thanks to ReeseHolden for encouraging me to continue with this. Thank you. :)

Quote of the day: Eurotrip

Scotty (freaking out and revealing embarrassing secrets): "I saw a gay porno once. I didn't know until half way in. The girls never came. THE GIRLS NEVER CAME!!"

Chapter 10. "The C-Word."

Week 5.

Cancer.

It's funny how one little word can define your entire existence.

It's been 7 years, 11 months and 12 days since I found out that I'm sick. Was sick. I guess you never get entirely healthy because of the high risk of cancer renewing. But as far as I'm concerned, I'm healthy. Sure, still anaemic and all but healthy.

It has been totally chaotic here. It all went down last week when some of the others confronted me and Taylor about our actions. I guess our plan to "lay low" with the whole cancer thing didn't quite happen.

Ever since Brooke, Peyton and Nathan demanded to know what's going on and we refused to tell, it has been weird for me and Taylor, to say the least. Brooke isn't talking to us, Nathan is avoiding us, Peyton is acting like nothing happened and the rest are just confused. Taylor and I have been hanging out with Skills and Lucas who seem to be the only people who honestly do not care.

I don't know what to do. We have a challenge in few days and if Nathan and I are still not talking, I don't even want to imagine how badly we'll do. Should I tell him? Maybe, I don't know. He might totally freak out and it could ruin our teamwork. Or it might just strengthen us and maybe even make us into a better team.

I don't know! I need like a sign or something.

What did I do last week? Some competing, hanging out, drinking, partying, oh and I found out my partner who's supposed to have my back through thick and thin and who I'm supposed to win this stupid competition with, doesn't trust me. So yeah, this week sucked and I cannot wait for it to be over.

We all know that there's something major going on with Haley and Taylor. I wouldn't care if it weren't for the fact that Haley's my partner and we kinda need to stick together and be a team to be able to stay until the end and win the money. And I really did think we were starting to grow as a team but obviously I was wrong.

Whatever. It's not like she matters. My initial instinct of not liking her was obviously a correct one so I really don't feel like hanging out with her other than at challenges.

"Ok, this is starting to get ridiculous." Haley muttered.

Haley was sitting by the pool next to her sister, looking around uncomfortably after Brooke gave her yet another mean glare.

It was the beginning of their fifth week in Mexico but to Haley it seemed like it had been five months. Two days ago Anna and Jake had lost the Elimination against Peyton and Mouth, who had won in the last minute thanks to Mouth's memory skills which meant that Anna and Jake were out of the game.

They had been celebrating the final six teams but Brooke was making it hard for Taylor and Haley, shunning them from her group. Taylor had already given up on trying to please her and instead had put all of her energy on something more important and much more fun for her, flirting with Lucas.

This put Haley in an awkward position considering Lucas was pretty much the only one who was talking to her. Brooke was mad at her, Nathan was avoiding her, Skills was usually playing ball with Tim and Chase, Peyton was hanging out with Mouth, and Rachel and Bevin were together as always. Which only left Lucas, who was currently getting a back massage, courtesy of sister dearest.

Haley looked around uncomfortably when Lucas moaned and told Taylor how talented she was. Haley quickly turned her iPod on wanting to escape the voices of her friend and sister. She cursed when the iPod battery died.

Haley got up, gave one disgusted look at Taylor's direction when she, in the midst of giving Lucas a massage, leaned down and sniffed his hair quickly.

Haley opened the back door to the kitchen and headed to the den. She opened the door and froze when she saw Nathan on the computer, slowly turning to stare at her. His face wasn't mean or glaring but it wasn't happy or friendly either.

"Sup." he mumbled and turned his attention back to the computer again.

"Hey." she piped, gripping her iPod even harder.

Taking a deep breath, she walked to the computer and started to look for the cord to charge her iPod. She saw the white cord leave the side of the computer that was on the floor and disappear somewhere under the desk where all the other computer and phone cords were. Haley cursed when she realized that it was basically somewhere between Nathan's feet.

"Hey, umh, I need to charge this." Haley said.

"Ok." Nathan stated not taking his eyes off of the screen or moving an inch.

"And the cord is somewhere there." Haley said pointing at the floor under the table.

"Ok."

Haley huffed when he still didn't move or show any interest in helping her.

"Fine, don't move!" Haley snapped and then muttered under her breath. "You ass."

Haley took two determined steps and went on all fours on the floor, pushing Nathan's legs out of her way in a completely non-aggressive, non-hostile manner. She fished the white cord somewhere under the other ones and tried to undo the knots on it. She sneezed when the dust hit her nose.

Nathan looked down at Haley when she sneezed and decided in that second that it was officially the cutest thing he had ever witnessed. Haley was right under him on all fours, her butt right between his legs. The small pair of surfer shorts she had on looked definitely good on her.

He smirked when he saw her butt moving a bit from side to side in front of him as she tried to fix the iPod cord. With a mischievous grin, he was about to smack her in the butt but Haley spoke first with a bored sigh.

"You touch my ass and I swear to god I'll chop off your fingers so that the only way for you to play ball is with a pinkie and a thumb."

Nathan retracted his hand and wiggled his pinkie and thumb, trying to decide if it was worth it or even possible. He shrugged his shoulders and was about to slap her butt anyways but she quickly got up, holding the white cord with a victorious look on her face.

"Ha!" she yelled in triumph and plugged her iPod, setting it on the table.

"Highest achievement for this week, I presume." Nathan snorted and added sarcastically. "If only you were this skilled in challenges."

"Oh zip it, I've been doing good and you know it."

"Ha!" he said, mimicking her.

"Whatever." Haley said annoyed and turned on her heels, leaving the room.

Nathan looked after her and turned back to the computer with a sigh. He was about to check his e-mail when the iTunes window popped up and Haley's iPod started to finally charge. He looked at the songs she had selected and started to unclick them and add new ones, the smirk never leaving his face.

"... so then Doug passed me the ball, and I'm not kidding, I jumped like 10 feet and dunked the ball, right at the buzzer." Tim said, proudly finishing his story.

They were all gathered around the pool as a group, all the girls tanning while the guys were talking about their achievements, basically having a bragging competition.

"Oh man, you should've seen the game Luke and I had when we won state." Nathan stared. "I'm not kidding, it was the best game ever. I scored like 30 points and played almost full 32 minutes." he said proudly.

Haley looked at Nathan quickly, wondering if it was the smartest thing for him to brag about all the things he can do.

"...and we used to go to gym six times a week and we still go running 8-mile-runs five times a week." Nathan said.

"I used to train with two personal trainers before coming here and they're all about gym." Skills said.

"Oh, personal trainers are the best, we had 5 for the college team I used to play for and they were all the best ones in the state."

Haley listened the guys brag more and more, trying to make themselves look better. Nathan definitely had the biggest mouth and she could see Chase and Mouth looking at him with bit of irritation every time he said something.

Haley realized that if Chase and Mouth would be irritated with Nathan, they wouldn't care to leave Haley on the game either. And now when Brooke was barely even talking to her, it wouldn't take much for them to vote her and Nathan, if it would come to that.

Haley tied to signal with her eyes for Nathan to stop but he just looked at her with a scoff and continued even more. And the more he continued, the more Mouth and Chase became uncomfortable. Right after Nathan mentioned how much he could lift, Haley saw Mouth give Chase a knowing look and a sarcastic eye roll.

By then Haley was fuming. She got up quickly and motioned for Nathan to follow her but he merely rolled his eyes and continued his discussion. Haley huffed annoyed and stormed inside the house where some of the cast had gone few minutes ago.

"What was that?" Rachel snarled sitting next to Nathan while looking after Haley.

"Don't know, don't care." Nathan mumbled, wanting to avoid the subject of Haley.

"Yeah, tell me about it." Brooke said. "And I'm stuck living with her for god knows how long."

Nathan whipped his head to glare at the two girls. How dare they! Nathan thought angrily. He then furred his brows surprised that he was defending Haley, even if it was only in his head.

"Has anyone noticed that she does this thing that she looks at you like she's so much better than you are?" Rachel said annoyed.

Rachel didn't really even dislike Haley but she was jealous that Haley was partnered up with Nathan. Rachel had seen the change in Nathan and how he was starting to like her as a partner. The more time had gone by, the more Nathan had started to talk about Haley, and not in the hostile, annoyed way he did when they got to Mexico.

"Really? Well she does have that whole I-went-to-Stanford attitude so I'm not surprised." Brooke huffed annoyed.

Nathan looked at the two girls with an annoyed glare, his hands in tight fists.

"And how about when she-"

"How about you both shut up about Haley?!" Nathan snapped when Brooke was about to say something more.

"What's up your ass?" Brooke snapped.

"You two with your little trash talking. Better watch out before it comes back to bite you in the ass." he said and girls gasped at the threat.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Rachel snapped as Lucas just shook his head not wanting to interfere on the fight and be forced to choose sides between his brother and his team mate.

"Whatever you want it to mean." Nathan said not caring how bad it sounded.

"What the hell's going on?" Chase asked when he saw the shocked look on Brooke's face.

Nathan rolled his eyes knowing fully well that Chase had a crush on Brooke.

"Nothing, man. Just keep your girl on check so she doesn't go talking shit about mine." Nathan snapped, not even noticing that he had just called Haley his girl.

"Hey, show some respect!" Chase said.

"Oh, whatever." Nathan said not bothering to make amends.

"What's your problem, man?!" Chase said standing up to face him.

Nathan did the same and noticed with a smirk how much smaller Chase was.

"How about you apologize to the girls!" Chase said.

For dissing Haley? Nathan thought and then huffed.

"Make me."

"You little-"

"What the hell!"

The guys turned to look at an angry Haley who was storming towards them.

"Nathan! Kitchen! Now!" she said and dragged Nathan by his arm.

"What the hell-" Nathan started when they got inside the kitchen. He was confused why Haley was so mad and not thanking him for defending her.

"Shut up!" Haley snapped, not having any idea why Nathan had been almost fighting with Chase. "What the hell are you doing?! Are you insane?!"

"What?" Nathan asked truly confused. "Look, if this is about your iPod-"

"What? No! It's about- Wait, what did you do to my iPod?"

"Nuthin'." he said innocently.

Haley took a long breath, trying to think of the best way to start.

"Nathan, do you want to win this stupid thing? Get the money?"

When Nathan didn't answer, she crossed her arms.

"Well, do you?"

"Wait, that wasn't a rhetorical question?" Nathan asked. "Of course I wanna win."

"Then keep your mouth shut."

"Wha-"

"Don't tell people how much you can bench press or how fast you can run a mile. Don't tell them all the things you're awesome at. Don't fight with people, don't antagonize people, don't brag, and for god's sakes, keep your opinions to yourself. If someone annoys you, be quiet. Never ever under any circumstances say something because odds are that someone else will say it."

"Whatev-"

"Talk less and listen more. Because the less you say, the less people think of you. And the less people think of you, the less they will think of us. And the less they think of us, the less they vote us. And the less they vote us, the less we have to go to Elimination. And the less we have to go to Elimination, the more of a chance we have of winning the 200 000 dollars. Do you see the pattern here?!"

"Jeez, relax. You're spazzing out." Nathan said when Haley finally stopped to take in breath.

"No, I won't relax! Nathan, listen to me. I'm not here for the fame, the TV, the cameras or getting to know new people. I'm here to win this. I'm here because of the money and the money only. I need it and I'm going to get it. But I can't do it alone and as much as this sucks, we need to work together. We need to trust each other."

"I can't believe you're lecturing me about trust." Nathan snarled.

"Look, the whole thing from last week... You need to forget it. It has nothing to do with us or the game." Haley said though she knew it had everything to do with the game and winning it.

"I just..." Nathan started. He didn't exactly want to tell her how much it had hurt him when she hadn't trusted him.

"Nathan, trust me on this." she said and continued with a quieter voice. "Leave it be."

Nathan looked at her and the desperate look on her face. He had never seen her look so worried and he could see tears forming under her eye lids.

Whatever Haley's secret was, it was something big and painful and she wasn't ready to talk about it yet. Nathan ran his hand through his hair while looking at her and feeling guilty for making her feel upset again. God, what's wrong with me?

"Ok." he said softly.

"Ok, as in...?"

"Ok, as in I'll let it go." he said and felt instantly better when she gave him a relieved smile and jumped up to give him a tight hug.

"You are the best, you now that." she said.

"If only we were best in the challenges." he stated with a smile.

"We'll get there." Haley said while hopping to sit on the kitchen counter.

"You really think so?" Nathan asked taking a chair and turning it around so that he was leaning on the back of it.

"Hell yeah!" she said. "We've been doing better every time. We'll get our win."

"I need to know you're gonna give your all and not give up." Nathan said.

"I promise to do my best." Haley said.

"Likewise."

"Okay, we need to go over our weaknesses and strengths." Haley said getting into full tutor girl mode.

"Like...?"

"For example, I know that my weakness is that athletically I'm…" Haley said trying to search for the right word.

"Useless?" Nathan suggested with a grin.

"I was gonna go with 'challenged' but that's fine too. Thanks, I feel so much better now." Haley said but smiled to let him know she wasn't offended.

"So, I'm good with the physical stuff and you're good with the puzzles, numbers, questions, anything that requires-"

"A brain?" Haley suggested with a grin.

"Hey!" Nathan protested and Haley held her hands up in surrender. "As I was saying, you're good with numbers because I'm-"

"Dumb as a rock?" Haley interrupted.

"I am this close to kicking your bony ass, James." Nathan said holding his thumb and index finger about an inch apart.

"Oh, bring it on. I'm always gonna out-smart you." she said.

"That's it. You're going in the pool." he said standing up from the chair, picking her up and throwing her over his shoulder.

"No, no, no, no!" Haley screamed laughing.

"Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes!" he said kicking the kitchen door open and running towards the pool with the screaming Haley on his shoulder.

Brooke, Rachel and the rest of the group who were still outside, stared at the laughing twosome who were now both in the pool, trying to dunk the other while laughing like crazy.

"Those two have worse mood swings than a pregnant teenager." Rachel said while the others just nodded their heads in agreement as they listened to Haley scream when Nathan tickled her.

"Nathan! Stop it..."

"Fine, fine..." he said and pulled her to the side of the pool so she could lean on the edge.

Nathan looked at her for a second, never having felt so connected to her before.

"We are gonna kick some major ass tomorrow." he said referring to the challenge.

"Yep." she said.

They both leaned on the edge on the pool in silence, enjoying the warm sun on their faces and peace between them.

It felt like the water was somehow lighter, warmer and nicer, until they both realized that it was just the weight that had been lifted from their shoulders. They both gave out a small, blissful sigh.

Haley, still keeping her eyes closed while enjoying the warm sun on her face, suddenly furred her brows in confusion.

"Nathan?"

"Mmhmm?"

"What exactly did you do to my iPod?"

AN: So, that was chapter 10, hope you liked it. This is the first time in three months (since my last update) that I'm on this fanfiction site. I'm kinda missing reading fanfiction but I have too little patience searching for any specific story. :) So, while you leave a review (which you better! :D ) if you happen to have in mind any good, funny, well written story, please post a link. I usually like all the AU stuff, nothing too cheesy and an interesting plot. Humor is important. :) If it's One Tree Hill, it must be Naley. :) I also like Gossip Girl (Blair/Chuck), The Office (Jim/Pam), 24 and Band of Brothers.

So, any good stories in mind that fit the desciption, please let me know. :)

xoxo,

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