A/N: Thank you all so much for all your kind words, support and encouragement! I know that chapter was a rough one to come back with but I absolutely love where I'm taking this story, so please stick with me. This chapter is an especially short one, there's only one spoken sentence in the entire chapter, but every word is crucial to the storyline. As always, tell me what you think and enjoy!

Chapter 14

To anyone who had been around Haley Parker for the past three months she appeared to be the perfect wife. She was attentive, sweet, dependable, considerate, understanding, patient, polite, strong and beautiful. There could be no doubt or confusion in that. It was all clear in the way she behaved in public. But the way she cared for Patrick behind closed doors, when no one was looking, was what made it geniune. And it truly was. Haley lived to make Patrick happy. She lived to be a good wife to a good man. But she was dead in every other sense of the word. What Haley was doing every day of the past three months was nothing more than survival.

The best part of Haley's day was the first four seconds. Those were the four blissful seconds that she expected to see Nathan asleep by her side when she turned in the bed. The four seconds that her day had hope, happiness and a bright future. But one second more and it was all gone. It took one second for her to remember the night she walked away and the tears in his eyes. It took one second to turn and see a face she was not in love with. It took one second for her heart to break all over again, as it always did, never failing to rip her apart just as much as the first time, every single morning. From that point on, the rest of the day was simple surviving. Learning how to cope with the pain. Having a goal helped, so Haley completely and entirely dedicated herself to making Patrick happy and caring for him to the best of her abilities.

For that reason, no person could call her a bad wife. But no person had any clue as to what she was feeling all day. She missed Nathan more than she ever thought possible. She felt like a fish out of water, a person without lungs choking for air, a bird without wings. Each beat of her heart felt like a beacon, desperately calling out to it's counterpart, never receiving a reply. Haley felt empty and emptier every time she thought of him, until it felt like there was nothing left of her to lose. Until one day, once more in her life, everything changed.

Haley had a new reason to live; the life growing inside her.

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Anyone who didn't believe in ghosts had not seen Nathan Scott for the past three months. He spent each day in a daze, rarely moving let alone leaving his house. He had lost it all. Nathan defined a broken man. To assist him through the day and keep himself safe from his own thoughts, Nathan turned to alcohol. It relieved him of the blinding pain he spent every day battling. The liquor numbed him so that the pain, though always present, was a little less pronounced.

Nathan had attempted to leave his house one brave day, but it had been a major mistake. He'd hoped for a distraction. Anything to take his mind off of her, however, upon stepping out into the sunlight everything seemed to be screaming her name at him. Every time he blinked Haley flashed through his eyes, blinding him with the beauty of the image of her in his life. Nathan had even tried sleeping, just as a way to pass the torturous, pointless, long, and endless days. But he couldn't close his eyes without seeing her, and he couldn't lay in silence without hearing his mind painstakingly struggle to recollect all it could about her. His mind replayed memories like a broken record, wanting to relive a beautiful moment but never able to recreate it again. And once Nathan finally succeeded in sleeping it only made waking up more hellish. He dreamed of everything he couldn't have but so desperately desired; her.

One time, Nathan tried to think of a reason to wake up anymore. He tried to think of his purpose, of where his life could take him, of what was worth living for now. But all he thought of was her. So Nathan turned to his father's alcohol, letting it slowly hollow him out and watched it waste him away. All that remained was a fragile skeleton of a man. Until one day, when he realized a new way to relieve his agony while serving a purpose.

Nathan opened his mailbox that morning to see an address and telephone number of a 'Coach Whitey Durham' written out in her unmistakable eloquent handwriting. Suddenly the paper burned his hand, causing him to instantly tear the paper apart. It didn't matter anyways, nothing did. Nathan had not played basketball in a long time, not since his knee gave up and his father shortly thereafter. Basketball had been his first love, and like his last, it too had been robbed from him.

Nathan knew what he had to do, it was the only way to serve a purpose, to give his miserable life any meaning. His life was over, but maybe he could finish it in a way that was purposeful, useful and probably less painful than watching himself rot away in his own misery. And though Nathan would never admit it, in some twisted way, it would be dying to protect her. Which was more than worth sacrificing himself for. Nathan did not flinch as he approached the man in uniform, "I would like to volunteer for combat in the army."

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