He'd been driving himself crazy worrying about her, opening the door to her bedroom and going in to check on her every fifteen minutes. He had tried to talk to her, but she wouldn't say a word. He lay in bed still unable to sleep even at two in the morning. He got up out of bed and went down into the kitchen to have a bowl of cereal. He was sitting on the couch watching ESPN game high lights when Craig came home from a night out with his current girlfriend—whoever that was. Nathan really couldn't keep up with him. Craig plopped down onto the couch beside him

"What are you watching?" he asked.

"High lights from the Bulls-Spurs game," Nathan told him, spooning some more Lucky Charms into his mouth.

"Nice," Craig said with a nod.

"Yeah," Nathan agreed.

"Who won?"

"The Spurs," Nathan told his friend.

They had been watching ESPN for a few minutes when Craig said, "Hey, were you home when Haley got home from her date with Adam tonight?"

Nathan's head snapped up. "She went out with Adam tonight?" he asked.

"Yeah," Craig said. "It was a big night for her. Her first date and all," he said with a frown He hated the thought of his little sister dating.

"Hmm…no, I wasn't home," Nathan lied, standing up.

"Where are you going?" Craig asked.

"To take care of my bowl," Nathan said. "And then I'm going for a midnight run."

"It's two thirty in the morning," Craig said with an amused grin. "You're not going anywhere."

"Look—I had a run in with my father today," he lied. "I really need to work off some steam."

Craig stood up. "Let me change into some shorts and I'll go with you," he said.

Nathan shook his head. "I don't want you slowing me down," he joked. "I won't be long."

"Look—I know that Tree Hill isn't a hotbed of criminal activity, but things could still happen."

Nathan grinned at his friends warning. He wasn't worried. Tonight—he was the one on the prowl.

777

Nathan had just taken a left at the end of the driveway and was already running at a fast pace. His fury was propelling him forward step by hurried step. He was running up one block and down another when he saw him. He was at the River court, by himself, shooting the ball around at a leisurely rate. Nathan's rage intensified, watching him playing around as if he didn't have a care in the world. Meanwhile Haley was home in bed with her eyes wide open too terrified to give in to sleep. Fueled by his anger, he ran forward so fast that Adam hadn't even seen him. When Nathan ran up behind him and gave him a shove, he went sprawling forward on the concrete. "What the hell is wrong with you?" Adam yelled, trying to get to his feet. But Nathan wouldn't let him. He kicked him in the stomach so hard it earneda groan, giving him a just a small sense of satisfaction. "What are you doing?" Adam asked again.

"What's the matter, Adam? You don't like to be on the receiving end of an attack?" Nathan spat furiously. Adam's eyes immediately filled with fear.

"Look—I don't know what Haley told you," he said. "Maybe she regrets what we did—"

Nathan kicked him in the stomach again and he fell to the ground clutching his midsection.

"She didn't do anything," Nathan said. "You forced yourself on her!"

"I don't know what she said," Adam sputtered, trying to get up on his knees, "but she—"

"She didn't say anything! She's not talking!" he yelled angrily. "She's too damn scared!"

Nathan went over and grabbed the fabric of his shirt, rolling him over onto his back. He punched first one cheek, and then the other. He grabbed him by the shirt again, lifting him a few inches off the ground, ready to slam his head into the concrete. But a voice stopped him.

"Nathan!" he heard someone yell out urgently.

Nathan looked up and Lucas was running towards him.

He was breathing heavily when he finally came to a stop beside Nathan. "What the hell is wrong with you!?" Lucas yelled.

Nathan just looked at his older brother and it was then that Lucas noticed the rage in his eyes.

"Nathan?" he said in a composed tone of voice. He was trying to calm his brother down. "Let him go," he said firmly.

"He raped Haley," Nathan whispered raggedly. And to his shock, his eyes filled with tears.

Lucas swallowed past the lump in his throat and tried to get a grip on his own emotions. The tears in his brothers' eyes shook him to the core.

Nathan watched as his brothers eyes clouded with fury and his jaw began to tick. But luckily, Lucas had always been the more level headed one of the Scott boys. "You can't kill him, Nathan," he said.

But Nathan lifted his head with a look of defiance that told Lucas he could.

"Listen—if you kill him, who's gonna take care of Haley, huh?" Lucas asked him desperately, trying to get through to him. "He's not worth it, Little Brother."

That, more than anything else Lucas ever could have said got Nathan's attention. He'd never called him that before, never acknowledged the fact that they were brothers. Neither one of them had. Nathan looked down at Adam and unclenched his fists, letting him fall to the ground

"We gotta get outta here," Nathan said.

"Is he OK?" Lucas asked.

"He's gonna live if that's what you mean," Nathan told him.

"Good enough," Lucas said, and they took off together at a dead run.

"So, how's Haley?" Adam asked with a depraved grin, purposefully goading Nathan.

Lucas saw his brother move out of the corner of his eye and put a firm hand on his chest. "Nathan—"

"What the hell is going on?" Jake asked.

"Does she miss me?" Adam asked, continuing his taunt.

Lucas' eyes widened and he licked his lips nervously. He looked at Nathan and his brother gave him a pleading look.

"Tell her I was asking about her," he said, turning to walk away.

Lucas sighed and looked at his brother. "Two punches, and then I'm pulling you off," he said.

Nathan nodded and took off after him.

"Nate!" Lucas yelled, running to catch up with him.

Nate stopped and looked at his brother.

"And then two punches, and you pull me off," Lucas told him.

"Deal," Nathan said, continuing towards Adam.

Just like that night all those years ago on this very court, Nathan gave him a shove from behind. "What do you want, Adam?" he asked. "Are you trying to get me to hit you?"

"You won't hit me," Adam said confidently.

"Why won't I?" Nathan asked.

"Because you don't want the lawsuit," he said smugly.

Nathan shrugged nonchalantly, and then quickly drew back and punched him in the jaw. "I can afford it," he said, just as Adam's fist connected with his eye. Not expecting it, Nathan stumbled back a few steps, and Adam took that opportunity to punch a surprised Lucas in the face, too. Nathan ran towards him and bent down at the waist so his shoulder connected with Adam's stomach, both of them falling to the ground, Nathan on top. He got up on his knees, straddling him and punched him in the face, then lifted his fist to do it again, but he felt a hand on it. He looked up and Lucas shook his head. "My turn," he said dangerously.

Nathan didn't want to, but he stood up, letting his brother get his turn in. Lucas punched Adam once in the face. "That was for Haley," he said. Then he punched him in the stomach "And that was for anyone else who you did the same thing to!" He went to hit him again, but Jake put a firm hand on his shoulder. "No, Lucas," he commanded.

Lucas sighed and stood up.

Adam immediately jumped to his feet, holding onto his jaw. "What the hell is wrong with you?" he shouted.

"We get a little crazy about the women we love," Lucas said with a shrug and a smirk, as if it was no big deal. "It runs in the family. Just look at what our dad did to our moms," he continued. "Let's go," he said, as the three of them started walking away. He turned around one last time. "Oh, and if you wanna do this again, the Scott boys are always game," he told him.

They got into the SUV and headed back to Brooke's parents house. "What in the hell was that about?" Jake asked angrily.

"Just an old score that needed to be settled," Nathan said from the passenger's seat, looking out the window.

Jake cleared his throat. "You mentioned Haley. Did he do what I think he did?" he asked quietly.

When neither one of them would look him in the eye, he knew it was true. He sighed. "If you had told me, I could have gotten my two in," he said.

Nathan looked over at him and grinned.

777

"I need to see Haley," Nathan said abruptly when they drove into the driveway. He got out of the passengers seat and started walking over to the driver's side.

"Whoa!" Lucas said, not taking heed of his brothers ticking jaw. "You're going to go see Haley looking like that?"he asked him. Nathan could feel his eye swelling and he was pretty sure that it was bruising, but he didn't care.

"Yeah," he said firmly. "I'm going to see Haley like this." He got into the vehicle and took off for the Jagielski residence.

777

It was only eight-thirty, but Haley was already in bed when she heard her phone beep in her purse. Brooke had insisted that they all need a good night sleep before their shopping expedition tomorrow. She turned the bedside lamp on and pulled her cell out of her bag. The screen said she had a text message, so she hit the appropriate button to read it. It was from Nathan. I need to see you. I'm right outside, it read. She sat up and got out of bed, grabbing her jeans from the bag and putting them on, then her sneakers. She crept down the stairs, and grabbed the coat off the hook by the door and put it on over Nathan's Celtics sweatshirt. She turned the outside light on and opened the door. Before she even had it open all the way, Nathan grabbed her and roughly pulled her against his chest. He wrapped her arms around her and squeezed her so tight she could barely breathe. "Nathan," she whispered. "What are you doing here?"

"Are you OK?" he asked.

"Are you?" she asked desperately, pulling away and putting her hands on each side of his head. "Nathan, what happened?" she asked, noticing his bruised eye. She touched it tenderly and heard him wince. She gave him a questioning look. He could tell she was scared, so he pulled her to him again.

"I'm OK," he assured her.

"Well you don't look it," she said, her voice muffled from her face being buried in his chest. "What the hell happened?" she asked, forcefully pulling away.

Nathan swallowed nervously. He knew she was going to be mad, and he was sorry for that, but he'd just given the jerk what he'd deserved. "I saw Adam tonight," he said quietly.

Haley pulled all the way out of his arms and looked up at him. "What…is that why you have a black eye?" she asked, her anger rising.

"Yeah," he admitted.

"What happened?" she asked.

"He started saying things about you and…I couldn't help it," he said. "I had to punch him."

"You didn't have to," she argued, and then sighed. "Where were you?"

"We were at the River court," he told her.

"We?!" she asked in a shrill voice. "Jake and Lucas were there?"

He nodded.

"Do they know?" she asked softly.

He nodded again, remaining silent.

She started pacing. "My God, Nathan! Now everyone knows!" she said angrily.

"It's just Lucas and Jake," he said desperately.

"And how long before Brooke and Peyton find out?"

"Haley—you didn't do anything wrong," he reminded her.

"I know I didn't do anything wrong! But do you realize how weak this makes me look?"

"What?" Nathan asked, confused.

"I can't even take care of myself!" she said.

"Haley, you are not weak," Nathan said. "You're the strongest person I know. Because of what happened to you. In spite of it, even!"

"You should go," she said.

"Haley—"

"Go!" she said with more force.

Nathan sighed and took her by the hand. She tried to pull away, but he wouldn't let her. He leaned down and kissed her on the forehead. "Don't leave this house tonight, Haley," he begged her.

"Nathan—"

"For me," he said softly. "I need to know that you're going to be OK."

"I promise I won't go anywhere. But he can't hurt me," she assured Nathan. "I won't let him."

Nathan knew she was right. Adam couldn't be that stupid. But it made him feel better to know that Haley wouldn't be running into him.

"I'll see you tomorrow," he said, as she shut the door behind her without another word.

He sighed. Sure, Haley thought she'd be OK. Nathan thought he'd be OK, too, but one look at the guy and he thought his heart was going to pound right out of his chest. As it turned out, his anger hadn't dissipated over the years like he'd thought it had.