I'm glad lots of you are enjoying the story. I know lots of you are saying that Lucas is being a really bad best friend and should have noticed something was up with Haley at the hospital but he was worried about Keith so it's understandable that he was distracted. Also hope the story isn't too depressing and I promise it is going to get happier!
After that first night of little sleep Haley had woken early and although she still felt tired she could not get back to sleep. She had gone to the bathroom and taken a look through the medicine cabinet to see if she could find anything for her arm.
There were the usual pain killers and plasters when at the back she found a prescription bottle. They said they belonged to N Scott so she guessed they were from when he had been in the car accident when he told her not to come home. The bottle was only half used and Haley presumed Nathan being his usual self had stopped taking them earlier then he should because he felt he was recovered.
They were strong pain killers nothing you could get over the counter without a prescription and she knew she shouldn't take other peoples medication but it seemed the best solution to her. The label said take two a day one in the morning and one in the evening so she took one and half an hour later the pain in her arm had lessened.
She didn't know what to do with herself, school had been cancelled for the rest of the week, she wanted to help Karen and Lucas but had no idea how. She thought about going to see them but last night neither one had really needed her and she didn't want to get in the way so she did the next best thing.
She decided she would go open up the café, she had keys as Karen often trusted her to lock up, it would be a little way of helping them and one less thing on Karen's mind. To be honest it would be great for her to work Karen's shifts after not working all last week she really needed the money to cover her rent plus she needed to buy some food.
She knew she could grab some breakfast at work she rang Jack the sous chef and Karen's second in control before going in to explain she would be opening up and getting him to come in, he was happy just to be able to help. She grabbed her coat as it was cold out and left for Karen's. She was able to grab a muffin from yesterday before she flipped the sign and opened the café.
It was approaching 1pm when Deb came in. The morning hadn't been too busy and all of the regulars had expressed their condolences as news spread fast in the small town and they were all saddened to hear of the news of Keith's death.
Deb had been surprised to find the café open and Haley working the idea had only come to her an hour ago and she was slightly put out that Haley had thought of it first. Haley was getting quite tired, she hadn't slept much last night and her arm was aching a bit, she wished she hadn't left the pain killers at home. Deb settled herself in and began serving customers with Haley, although Deb was still being cold with her it was a welcome break to have someone else helping her out.
When it got to 3pm she decided to ask Deb if she could have a break and go visit Lucas and Karen. She walked into the back where Deb was sorting out some food.
"Hey, I was wondering if you could let me go for a few hours to go visit Lucas and Karen." Haley asked slightly timidly, it seemed a bit silly she was asking Deb's permission to leave as she had been the one to open up in the first place but Deb was still technically her boss.
"Oh I'm sorry Haley." Deb said not sounding very sorry. "I was just going to go see them, you are doing so well here and I was going to take them some food. Maybe you can see them later, I'll be back before closing." With that Deb took off out the back door.
Haley sighed she had been working for 6 hours straight and had been really looking forward to the chance of a break plus she wanted to be there for Lucas and Karen. Haley was surprised though she felt a little bit of relief, while she was working she could pretend that Karen was sick and that's why she wasn't working and that everything was fine, the fact that it was busy just meant she didn't have to think about yesterday.
She worked for another two hours and finally it was so quiet she closed up for half an hour and had some lunch/dinner, she hadn't been eating well recently so although she only had some pasta it tasted like the best meal ever.
When she opened up again she kept looking up at the clock checking the time and was surprised that Deb wasn't back yet. At 9.15 when the café was closed and Haley was wiping tables Deb returned. Haley stopped what she was doing to greet her.
"Hey, how are they doing?" Haley asked.
"Oh as well as can be expected, can you make me a coffee please." Deb said sitting down at the counter.
"Sure, how about you are you feeling ok?" Haley asked mostly out of politeness.
"Holding up, you know. It helps being able to look after Karen a bit."
"Yeah, I was thinking of going to visit them when I finish clearing up here." Haley said handing Deb her Coffee and carrying on clearing up.
"I don't think that's a good idea. Lucas had gone to Brooke's for the night and when I was leaving Karen was saying she had had enough visitors for one day." Deb answered.
"Oh ok, I guess I should go see how Nathan is then." Haley said, they had gotten on so well at the hospital
"He went to Peyton's" She answered "You don't mind opening up again tomorrow do you, there's a few things I need to do but I'll come in and join you later." She said smiling at Haley. Deb then left without really waiting for an answer. Haley sighed; she would like to see Nathan but knew she would not get a friendly reception at Peyton's so decided to leave it.
She had finished cleaning up and went behind the counter to get her bag which she had tossed there earlier, she was searching around under the counter which was a bit of a mess when she noticed a photo. It had been taken just two weeks earlier it was of Karen in Keith's arms smiling madly and just off in the corner you could see Haley smiling at them.
She remembered it being taken, Lucas had come in from seeing Brooke and Karen and Keith had been tidying up the café after closing. Lucas had taken the picture while Karen and Keith were messing around like school children and Lucas and Haley had been teasing them. It had been a nice moment for her, she had felt part of a proper family again just for a little while.
She looked at the picture and couldn't hold it in any more, she started to cry and sunk to her knees, she missed Keith, it was him that sat with her at the basketball games when Karen was working it was Keith who would stick up for Haley when she was younger and the river court boys good naturedly teased her.
She continued to cry under the counter until the tears refused to come any more. By the time she had finished crying her head was pounding, she always got a head ache after crying and she was exhausted. She hauled herself up and walked over to one of the sofas telling her self she was only going to rest for a few minutes before her walk home but before she knew it she had drifted off to sleep.
Half an hour later Haley woke up with a start scared out of her mind. She had had a nightmare where she had been back in the tutor centre reliving the moment Marcus and her were shot only in her dream Jimmy just kept shooting both of them.
She was confused for a second until she realised she was in the café. She got to her feet and realised she was covered in sweat, she grabbed her coat and locked up before walking home.
When she arrived home she was still tired but she did not want to go back to sleep afraid of having another dream. Instead she had a shower and grabbed some homework which she had piles of. It was 3am when she could no longer go on with homework as she was so tired, she went into her bed room and set her alarm before she feel asleep almost instantly.
She woke up on Wednesday and felt tired, she'd had another bad dream last night and when she'd finally got back to sleep her dreamless sleep was interrupted by her alarm going off. She went and showered and took another of Nathan's Pain killers and put the bottle in her bag in case she needed another one while she was working.
The day of work was pretty much the same as the last with people coming in and giving their condolences. Deb came in again at 1ish and helped her for a bit, at 3 Haley went into the kitchen to once again ask if she could have some time off to go visit Karen and Lucas.
"I'm sorry Haley but I was just about to go." Deb replied when Haley asked.
"Yes but you got to go yesterday and I haven't seen them since Monday." Haley replied knowing she sounded slightly childish.
"Well I would but Karen wanted me to help with funeral arrangements." Deb said. This is stupid Haley thought she shouldn't be here working they could close the café for a few hours without causing any problems. As if sensing what Haley was about to say Deb said
"Karen is so grateful though for all you've been doing she says it's a massive help." That silenced Haley she didn't want to disappoint Karen.
"I'll see you later then" Haley said.
"Yes later." Deb replied distractedly from the looks of it she was back on the prescription drugs, she hoped Nathan was ok. The rest of Wednesday went quickly and much the same as before. After seeing Deb's behaviour Haley had restrained from taking another pain killer even though her arm was hurting.
She was generally exhausted but when she started working if she just went into automatic work mode she could get through it. Deb did return at the end of the day again and told her Lucas and Karen had gone out somewhere together and that Nathan was with Dan so there was no point seeing any of them.
Haley tidied up quicker that night and did not sit down until she got home afraid she would fall asleep again in the café. She had eaten at work and so when she got home at 10 she had got down to homework.
Again when she could stay awake no long she went to bed and had another restless night full of nightmares of the shooting.
Thursday was much the same apart from Deb didn't come in but phoned instead to say she had other stuff to do and it would mean lots if Haley could work all day.
Haley had agreed and the day had gone by in a blur. She was just sweeping up at closing time when she heard the door open, she guessed it was Deb but when she looked up she found it was Karen. Haley dropped her broom and ran over and hugged her.
"It's so good to see you, I'm sorry I haven't come to see you. I know I'm so awful." Haley said quickly. Karen just gave her a small smile.
"It's ok Haley from the sound of it you've been running this place single handed and I can't thank you enough." Karen said kindly, Haley blushed glad someone had noticed all the work she'd been doing.
"How are you holding together?" Haley asked her as they went and sat at the counter.
"I'm still not good, it hasn't really sunk in yet, I guess that's what the funerals for. It's on Sunday." Karen said sadly her eyes getting slightly teary "It's good to leave the house I've been going crazy over the last two days." Haley smiled at her sympathetically
"I am really sorry I haven't been over. How's Lucas?" Haley asked.
"He's doing ok but how about you you're looking very pale and tired." Karen said looking concerned.
"Don't worry about me, you know it's just been a long couple of days, I'm fine just happy to be able to help." Haley said earnestly "I'm a bit surprised though I thought Luke would want to talk to me about this stuff as I kind of have experience" Haley said trailing off. Karen looked at her sadly.
"You shouldn't have lost someone else so soon Haley and I think Luke's head is a little all over the place at the moment he's not thinking straight." Karen said.
"I guess I should just be happy he's got someone who can help him through this" Haley said with only a hint of jealousy in her voice partly because it wasn't her who was there for Lucas and partly because she wished she had someone.
"Me and Lucas have been talking and were going to go on a bit of a road trip from Monday for a few weeks. We need to get away from here for a while and look at some colleges for Lucas and we were wondering if you would like to come with us, as it's a family trip." Karen asked her. Haley felt tears come to her eyes again and she thought about how wonderful a trip right now would be with Karen and Lucas but she knew she couldn't.
"Karen you don't know how great that sounds but I just have too much school work to do I'm already behind. I can't take the time off" Haley said sadly.
"I thought you might say that, well I've hired some part time staff for the café from next week so you only need to do your normal shifts and if you wanted you could stay at ours." Karen offered she could see Haley looked tired and thin and she was worried about her.
"I would take you up on that but I'd still have to pay rent so I may as well stay in the flat. Plus it would be weird being in your house without you and Lucas there. I will check up on it though make sure its ok." Haley said. Karen smiled at her again she loved the way Haley was always doing things for other people always trying to help.
"I found this." Haley said getting up and bringing Karen the picture she had found the other night "It's such a great picture." Haley gave it to Karen and smiled sadly. Karen looked at the picture for a few minutes in silence as tears rolled down her cheeks.
"It was just so sudden." Karen said sadly.
"I know one minute everything's normal and the next they're gone." Haley looked down letting a few tears escape her eyes. Karen got up and hugged Haley.
"I know this is going to be hard for you Haley I know you haven't been to the cemetery since the summer but we'll get through this together." Karen said gently.
"You don't need to look after me on Sunday ok, I wouldn't do that I know it's going to be so hard for you too but just don't worry about me ok. You need your closure." Haley said looking up at her, she appreciated so much what Karen was doing for her but on the day of Keith's funeral she did not want to be a burden on Karen.
"Ok" Karen said. "Have you been talking to Nathan much have you thought about telling him about your parents?" She asked gently.
"I'm always working or he's with Peyton or his dad so I don't seem to be able to see him, I think we are ok though, we're friends." Haley said trying to sound happy about it "and now's not a good time to bring up stuff like that." She finished sighing.
"Ok" said Karen she knew it was best not too push these things. "I'll send Lucas over to give you a hand here, I know Deb's not being great at the moment."
"Well everyone's dealing with it in their own way but don't force Lucas to come over if Brooke's helping him then just leave it be." Karen just nodded.
"It looks all done here how about I give you a lift home." Haley just nodded. She felt happier though that Karen seemed to be dealing with things and she was glad that someone had come to see her to make sure she was ok.
