Day 13

The usually fifteen minute long drive took only ten minutes, yet it seemed much longer. As soon as the car was parked Nathan was out and running to the ICU as Haley tried desperately to keep up. When he got to the waiting room he saw Brooke, Keith and Karen sitting in the corner. He had never seen Keith cry before now. Something was obviously wrong.

"What happened?" he asked as he approached his family.

Brooke wasn't able to speak. Every time she tried, the sobs just came out harder. Karen was silent. So silent it was scary. Keith didn't say anything either, he just stood up and gave Nathan a hug. It wasn't until then that Haley finally caught up with him.

"Will someone just tell me what's going on?" As soon as the words came out of his mouth a voice from behind him broke the silence.

"I can tell you," Clay said calmly. Knowing Clay so well, Haley knew from his tone that it wasn't good. "Your brother had another stroke. It is very common once you have a stroke for another one to occur. He had a brain bleed. There has been irreversible brain damage done. The only thing keeping him alive right now are the machines."

As tears started to form in Nathan's eyes, he felt something that he hadn't expected. He was angry. Yesterday Clay had said that Lucas was doing better. That he had made a lot of progress. Clay was supposed to take care of Lucas, keep him safe. But he didn't. Before he even knew what he was doing, Nathan's fist connected with Clay's jaw, sending him backwards. Nathan's arm went back to strike him again when he felt a small hand on his arm. Turning around he saw his worried girlfriend starring at him with the same look she had the day she broke her wrist and he had attacked Dan.

Realizing what he had done, Nathan broke down and fell to the ground in tears. He whispered an "I'm sorry" as Haley sat down next to him.

"It's okay," she told him as she rubbed his back.

"No it's not okay. Nothing is okay. Clay was supposed to take care of him and he didn't. How is it possible that he ends up worse than he was when he came in here? You go to the hospital to get better, not worse."

"I know."

"So why is he worse?"

"I don't know baby. I know that they did the best they could, but you can't fix everyone."

"Nate, we need to talk," Keith said walking over to him.

"What is there to talk about?"

Putting his hand out for Nathan to take, Keith helped him to his feet and led him over to the rest of the family, while Haley stayed behind. "We need to talk about what we're going to do," Keith told him.

"What do you mean? Is there something we can do?"

"You know what I mean Nate," Keith said solemnly.

He honestly didn't know what Keith was talking about. Was there some experimental treatment they could try? Looking to his side, he thought he'd find Haley, who could answer his questions, but she wasn't there. Where was she? "Haley?" he whispered, confused. He couldn't breath. "Haley?" He didn't know what was going on. "Haley?" Things were closing in on him and all he could see was black.

As Keith led Nathan to the rest of his family, Haley noticed Peyton at the nurse's desk. Wanting to give Nathan time with his family, she went to see her roommate. "What are you doing up here?"

"I was out with Brooke when she got the call."

"He's not gonna make it, is he?" she asked, hoping she was wrong.

"He's already gone Hales."

"I figured. When Nathan said he needed to come down here, I just got this horrible feeling in my gut. What do we do now?"

"I don't know. I guess we just have to be there for them."

"What if they don't want us?" she asked. "What if seeing us reminds them of why we met? What if each time they see us, they blame us because we were supposed to fix him, and we didn't. What if…" Haley's rant was cut short when she heard her name. She turned around and saw Nathan who was white as a ghost. He said her name again before she watched him fall to the ground.

"Nathan! Nathan!" he could hear Haley screaming his name and felt her squeezing his hand. He moved his hand inside of hers to let her know that he could hear her. "Nathan, sweetie, I need you to open your eyes."

Mustering up all of the strength he had, he opened his eyes to see his girlfriend leaning over him. "Hey," she said once she could see his eyes.

"I thought you left," he whispered through the tears.

Wiping his tears away with her thumb, she leaned in and kissed his forehead. "I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere. Do you think you can sit up?"

Nathan nodded his head in confirmation and with Haley's help, he raised up and rested his back against a nearby chair. It wasn't until he was sitting up that he realized he was on the floor of the waiting room. "I guess it really wasn't a bad dream."

"Afraid not. Are you okay?" she asked, very worried.

"No," he answered flatly.

"I mean, physically, are you lightheaded or anything?"

"I'm fine. As fine as I can be."

"Nathan Royal Scott. Do not do that to me ever again. I refuse to lose both of my Scott boys," Brooke told him as she came over to check on him.

"Don't talk like that Brooke. We're not losing Lucas."

"Nate…" Keith tried to interrupt.

"No! We're not losing him!"

"Nathan, stop it! You are just making this harder. We've already lost him," Karen said, finally breaking her silence.

"What are you talking about?"

Haley looked around at the family and could see their inward struggle with putting the situation into words. Unfortunately she had experience in this kind of situation, so she stepped in, like she would have if she was still Lucas's nurse, "Nathan, that's not Lucas anymore. It's just his body. He is being kept alive by machines. That's not a way to live. You know that. Right now, they're just waiting for you to say goodbye."

"You knew this was going to happen. You knew when I told you that Brooke called, you knew. That's why you wouldn't tell me that it would be okay."

"Nathan…"

"No, Haley. You knew. Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't know for sure."

"You should have told me!" he screamed as he threw his cell phone across the room.

"Nate, calm down," Keith warned him.

"I will not calm down. My brother is in there, practically dead and you are telling me to calm down!?" Looking around, he saw the whole waiting room staring at him. Taking a breath, he turned to walk out. "I gotta get out of here," he said as he raced out of the hospital.

"I'll get him," Brooke said as she chased after him.

"Nate, stop!" Brooke shouted as she jumped in front of his truck.

He rolled down his window to yell at her, "Move out of the way Brooke."

"Nate, I'll move, but you need to know that if you leave right now, that's it."

Nathan put his truck in park and stepped out, "What exactly is that supposed to mean?"

"It means we're unplugging him."

"What?" Nathan screamed.

"He's gone Nate. We've all said our goodbyes, we were just waiting for you. If you leave here now, there's no point in coming back. We're letting him go. It's not natural for him to be like that you know that he doesn't want to be that way. Please, just go back inside, Nate."

"I can't. I won't." Nathan turned around and climbed back into his truck and drove away.

Sitting underneath the nurse's desk, Haley was crying her eyes out. She didn't want anybody to see her, little did she know that even though they couldn't see her, everyone could still hear her. Peyton sat in a chair trying to calm her down, but nothing was working.

Keith came walking up to the counter. "Mind if I try?" he asked Peyton.

Standing up from her chair and offering it to Keith she went to find anything else to do. Keith ignored the chair and climbed underneath the desk with Haley.

"You okay?" he asked.

"I'm supposed to be the one asking you that," she said as she tried to wipe away the never ending tears.

"You know he's not really mad at you, right?"

"Yeah… I just don't like seeing him like this."

"I know what you mean."

"I'm sorry. I'm being so insensitive. I know what you're going through is so much worse."

"It's okay Haley. But you need to know something. When Nathan is hurting, he pushes back. He hurts the people that he loves. He doesn't mean to, it's just how Dan raised him. I've seen him change so much, but without Lucas, I don't know who he's going to be."

Haley just nodded her head, not really knowing how to respond. She knew that she needed to tell Keith something, even if it betrayed Nathan's confidence. "Nathan blames himself," she whispered,

"What?" Keith asked. "What are you talking about?"

"Nathan thinks it's his fault."

"What is his fault?"

"Lucas. The heart attack. He thinks that Lucas had his heart attack because he made him play. Yesterday was the first time he had been able to go to the rivercourt because that was where it happened. He said that he had finally quit blaming himself because Lucas was better, but he's not. I know I probably shouldn't have told you that, but somebody else needs to know. I don't have all the right answers and right now, he's not listening to me at all. I know that you can help him though."

"You can help him too."

"I don't think so," she said as more tears began to fall. "Do you mind if I talk to Lucas real quick?"

"Not at all."

Haley walked into Lucas's room and sat in the chair that Nathan had always been in. She didn't really know what she was doing, but she knew that Nathan was going to regret not saying goodbye, so she was going to do it for him.

"Hey Luke. This is Haley. I know we don't really know each other, but I feel like I know all about you. Nathan is so proud of you. He loves you so much, which is why he can't be here right now. He's having trouble letting go, so I guess he's just going to run away. I want you to know that he won't go through this alone. It'll be hard with out his big brother, but I'll protect him for you. I promise I'll watch over him so you don't need to worry about him. I know he's going to regret someday not saying goodbye to you, so that's why I'm here. I just want you to know that he loves you and that you are everything to him."

"So are you…"

Haley nearly jumped a foot in the air when she heard the voice, "Hey Brooke, sorry. He's all yours." Haley got up to leave but Brooke stopped her.

"Hales. Lucas knows that Nathan loves him. But do you?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, Nathan's an ass, okay? We're all going through the same thing feeling the exact same pain as he is right now and he's just being a complete ass. We're used to him yelling at us and you obviously aren't. You should know that no matter how horrible he gets right now, he does love you… he's just an ass!"

"Yeah, you mentioned that."

"Just don't hold it against him."

Haley needed to clear her head of everything, so she went to the one place that she felt safe. The docks. It wasn't just losing a patient this time, it was her boyfriend's brother. Her new friend's fiancé. It was Lucas.

If Nathan blamed Clay for not taking care of Lucas, did that mean that he blamed her too? With the way Haley was feeling now, the thoughts that were swirling around in her head, meant that it was a good day for writing. When Haley finally reached her table, it was occupied.

"What are you doing here?" she asked him.

"You said it helped clear your head. I think that's what I'm needing right about now."

"Is it helping?"

"Not yet."

Haley sat down next to Nathan and held his hand. "I'm sorry. As much as I wish it could take away all your pain, I know that nothing can."

Nathan continued to stare out at the water, saying nothing.

"Is there anything I can do?"

"Just sit here with me." Squeezing his hand tighter and leaning closer to him, she just did as he asked. Just as he needed.

Looking down at her phone, Haley knew that she needed to get Nathan to move. "Are you hungry, Nathan?" she asked, hoping to get some sort of reaction.

"No," was all he said. His gaze never leaving the water.

"Nathan. It's five o'clock. We've been out here for hours. It's getting dark and cold. You haven't had a single thing to eat all day."

"I'm not hungry."

"Okay, but I am."

"No. You can't leave me, Hales." He looked up at her with tears in his eyes.

"Nathan, honey, I'm not leaving you. I promise. Will you just come with me? Your mom has all sorts of food lined up at Brooke's house for us."

"My mom?"

"Yeah. Peyton just sent me a text. Everyone is really worried about you."

"Why?"

"Because they love you. Please, baby, Let's just go be with your family."

"My family is gone. He's dead."

"Nathan Scott. Lucas is not your only family. You have a house full of people waiting for you who love you. They are all wanting to be there for you right now and you need to be there for them too. Please, just come with me." She stood up, grabbing his hand, hoping to pull him along with her, but he didn't move. "I'm going. You can go with me or you can stay here all alone. Your choice." Haley started to walk away, but it wasn't long until Nathan caught up to her.

"I can't go in there," Nathan said as they stood outside of the house.

"Yes, you can," Haley told him as she held both of his hands, hoping to comfort him. "Your family is inside and they need you right now. You're not the only one hurting. I'll be right there with you the whole time."

"Okay." Nathan took a deep breath and walked into the house that used to be his brother's.

As soon as he walked in his mother ran up to him and gave him a hug. "Nathan, we were so worried about you. Are you okay, sweetie?"

"What do you think?" he said plainly, thinking it was obvious how he felt.

"I was just worried you'd do something stupid."

"I'm not you, Mom. I don't try to kill myself every time things don't go my way."

Haley's face was one of pure shock. She couldn't believe that Nathan had just said that to his mother. He had never told her anything about his mother, but his statement made it quite obvious that there was resentment between them.

Deb's face was one that mirrored Haley's. She knew that her son was hurting, but she was surprised that he would stoop that low to try to hurt her. It wasn't that she expected him to take this sitting down, but still. Knowing his pain, she was somehow able to let the comment slide. "Everyone is in the kitchen, they're waiting for you."

Instead of going to the kitchen, Nathan went straight to the bar, grabbing himself a bottle of whiskey. Haley on the other hand went to the kitchen, hoping that he would follow.

"Is he with you?" Brooke asked when Haley entered the room.

"Uh, yeah, he's just…"

"Getting a drink," he finished, holding up the bottle.

"Are you sure that's a good idea, Nate?" Keith asked,. Knowing full well that alcohol does not solve all of your problems.

Nathan ignored his comment and took a swig from the bottle.

"Where the hell have you been?" Brooke asked.

"Around."

"We were worried sick about you. Why didn't you answer your phone?"

"I'm here. Isn't that enough?"

"Thank you Haley for bringing him home," Karen said, ignoring Nathan's rude behavior.

"What? Does she own me now?"

"Nathan…" Haley started, grabbing his hand to try to calm him.

He quickly brushed it away and stormed out of the room. Haley began to follow him, but was stopped.

"Let him go. He needs to cool down," Keith told her.

Peyton immediately came up to her to hug her. "He's a bit more trouble than you thought, isn't he?"

"I promised I wouldn't leave him alone," Haley said as she began to cry. It had been an extremely long day and she was exhausted. Taking care of Nathan in his volatile state was difficult and as Peyton said, more trouble than she had thought. She didn't know what she was supposed to do and the stress was really getting to her.

Peyton took her up to Brooke's bedroom to get away from everybody so that she could calm down and not add more stress to the already hurting family. "Tell me what's going on, sweetie."

"I just don't know what to do Peyton. Normally with families, you just tell them and they're gone. But this, I wasn't prepared for this. Lucas really was doing a lot better."

"Haley, you know the complications of a stroke even better than I do."

"I know. Nathan is just… so… I don't know. Nothing I can say is helping. I just can't do this. I'm not strong enough."

"Haley, that is bull. You are the strongest person I know."

"I thought I knew him really well, but it turns out that I know nothing about him. It's like he's a complete stranger. I'm completely lost and I just can't deal with it, Peyton."

"Haley, I don't know what you expected out of this, but to be honest, you really don't know him. I mean, you've known him for two weeks. You can't expect to know everything about him, especially who he becomes during a tragedy."

"I just can't do this," she said, completely breaking down, collapsing into Peyton's arms.

"What can't you do?" Nathan asked from the doorway.

Keeping her face hidden from Nathan, Haley kept her face in Peyton's shoulder. She didn't want him to see her crying when he was the one in pain.

"I heard crying," he said walking towards them on the bed. "What can't you do, Hales?"

"Nothing," she said staying hidden.

Nathan leaned down at her feet, taking her hands in his, "What's wrong, Hales?"

"Nothing Nathan, I'm fine."

"Don't lie to me Hales. You're crying. Obviously something is wrong. Tell me."

"Nathan, really, I'm fine," she said finally turning to him.

"Come here," he said pulling her in for a hug. "Don't give up on me," he whispered in her ear.

Looking into his eyes, she told him, "I'm not giving up on you Nathan."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure. I just need your help. You've got to let me in. I want to help you, so much, I just don't know how.

"You are helping me. Just by being here, you're helping me."

"It doesn't feel like it," she said as she leaned her forehead against his.

"I love you Haley. You came into my life at the perfect time. I honestly don't know where I'd be right now if I didn't have you."

"You'd be fine."

"No, I wouldn't. I'd be lost without you." He took her face in his hands and kissed her.

"I hate to tell you this, but you're still lost even with me here. Sit," she instructed for the first time noticing that Peyton was no longer in the room. She couldn't help but let out a small laugh. "When did she leave?"

"I have no idea," he said laughing along with her for the first time that day.

"Nathan," she started, getting back to the serious topic at hand, "you've got to stop lashing out at everybody. You are not the only one hurting. What you said to your mom…"

"I know, I need to apologize to her."

"You need to apologize to everyone."

"Okay," he relented. "You ready to go back down?"

"Yeah," she said getting up. "And to answer your question earlier, I do own you now."

After Nathan and Haley returned to the family, he immediately said his apologies to everyone. The family sat down to plan what would happen over the next few days as Haley and Peyton went back to their apartment.

Haley's phone rang as she was cleaning her already too clean room. "Hey sweetie," she said without even checking the caller ID.

"Hey. What are you doing?"

"Just worrying about you and taking out my frustrations on the dust that has accumulated in this apartment. What are you doing?"

"Sitting on my bed. Thinking about you. They're doing some sort of visitation tomorrow and then the funeral will be the next day. I just wanted to make sure you'd be there with me."

"Of course I will, Nathan. You know that."

"Yeah. I do. Are you and Peyton busy right now?"

"Not really, why?"

"Well, Brooke and I were kind of lonely…"

"And you can't keep each other company?"

"We can… but I would rather be holding you when I fall asleep tonight."

"Okay, I'll be there in a little bit."

"Don't forget Peyton."

Haley hung up the phone and went to Peyton's room. "You game for a slumber party?"

"What?" Peyton asked confused.

"Brooke and Nathan wanted us to come back over."

"Really? They're not into anything too kinky are they? I draw the line at a threesome."

"Really funny, Peyton. They're hurting and you're making a joke out of it."

"Hales. You've got to lighten up. The last thing they need is another party pooper."

"Peyton. They just lost their brother and fiancé, you can not honestly call them party poopers for that!"

"Calm down Hales. I know the pain Brooke is feeling right now much better than you. I even understand Nathan's pain better. I lost both my mother and the love of my life, so don't for a second think I don't understand the gravity of the situation."

The look on Haley's face pained Peyton. She hadn't meant to hurt her feelings, but Haley needed to know that she wasn't ignoring what happened. "I'm just saying… I know what it feels like to lose someone. To have your whole life fall apart in a second flat. I know what they're going through, which also proves that you know how to handle it. You were the one who took care of me both times and I made it through because of you. Don't doubt that you can do this. We can do this."

"I hate you," Haley muttered as she walked back to her own room.

"What? I thought that was a nice recovery," Peyton shouted at her as she followed Haley back into her room.

"Yeah, it was. Which is why I hate you. You piss me off so much, but you don't let me stay mad at you. You suck and you're a bitch!"

Peyton looked at her best friend and laughed. "Is all of the shouting out of your system now?"

Haley looked back at her with a matching smile, "I think so. Wanna stop by Walmart and get a cake on our way? That always helped you."

Before even ringing the doorbell, the door opened up to the girls. Brooke darted in front of Nathan who had opened the door and grabbed the cake from Haley's hands as she muttered a quick "thank you".

Peyton followed Brooke to the kitchen, ready to dive into the cake herself.

"It's a girl thing," Haley told Nathan as they watched the girls run away with the cake.

"Thanks for coming," he said as pulled her into the house and gave her a long hug.

"Of course," she said smiling up at him as she placed her chin on his chest. "There's no place I'd rather be."

"I love you so much," he told her before he kissed her. "I didn't tell you when you left before. I want to always say that to you, because you never know when you'll say your last words."

Haley wiped the tears that were threatening to fall from her boyfriend's eyes. "Nathan, sweetie, don't think that way. I know you love me, okay? I know. Lucas knew."

"He didn't. I didn't tell him."

"Nathan, I was there the last time you saw your brother. You told him you loved him."

"But I didn't today. I was a coward. I ran away."

"He knew Nathan."

"Maybe he didn't."

"I promise you, cross my heart, that he knew."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because I told him."

"What?"

"After you left, I talked to Lucas. I knew you'd regret it, like right now, so I did it for you."

"What'd you tell him?"

"I told him that you love him. That it's going to be hard for you without him because he was so important to you. He was your big brother and it hurt you to see him like he was. I told him that was why you couldn't be there, but that you wanted to. And I promised him that I'd take care of you for him… as long as you let me."

"Thank you Haley. Thank you so much. I love you even more for that."

"You're welcome. Now, if you don't mind, I'd really like some cake."

"Just a few more kisses before we go in there?" He gave her another kiss before she could protest, not that she would if he had let her.

"Hair's lookin' a little tousled there Hales," Peyton noted as soon as they entered the kitchen.

Patting down her hair, Haley just hoped that her blush wasn't as noticeable as her hair. She gave Peyton the death glare before she got down to business. "You haven't eaten all of the cake yet, have you Piggy?"

"You know, the names might hurt if I didn't look like this," Peyton said spinning around showing off her skinny figure.

"Wow. Someone's modest," Brooke laughed. She was definitely glad she had these two girls here to make her laugh. After today, she felt like she would never laugh again.

Haley served Nathan a piece of cake before getting some for herself. Seeing the difference in Brooke now and when they had left earlier, she thought that maybe Peyton's more humorous approach wasn't so bad. "So, what did we miss?"

"Nothing too big. We're just moping about losing the loves of our lives," Peyton told her as if it was no big deal. "We can't talk about that with you two though. It'll just piss us off."

"You really do know how to make someone feel welcome," Haley grinned back at her friend.

"I don't really feel like talking about it anymore anyways. Lucas wouldn't want us to mope. Maybe brood a little, but not mope. So I say we have some fun."

"I agree," Peyton said, glad her plan was working. "I know how those two will have fun, but how exactly are we expected to have fun?"

"Marco Polo!" Brooke shouted, obviously excited.

Haley moaned, not wanting to swim. "I don't have a swimsuit."

"Go naked," Peyton offered. "I'm sure Nathan doesn't have a problem with that."

That did it. Haley was fed up with Peyton's jokes about her and Nathan. Now was not the time for that and it was pissing her off. "No thanks," Haley said, trying to remain calm. No matter how annoyed she was with Peyton, she didn't want to show those feelings to Nathan and Brooke. "I think I'm just gonna go to bed."

"Afraid you'll melt?" Peyton pushed.

Not even thinking about what she was doing, Haley took the cake in her hands and smashed it in Peyton's face. "Oops," she said as she took her hand away to reveal a very pissed off Peyton.

"What the hell, Hales?"

"I'm tired of taking your shit Peyton." Haley began to storm off, but was quickly stopped when she felt cake come in contact with her hair.

"Oops," Peyton said mimicking Haley. "I guess now you really do need to go for a swim. Wash off a bit."

Haley looked to her side where she saw a laughing Nathan. "You think this is funny?" Before he could answer, Nathan found cake covering his face, just like Peyton's had been moments before.

"You are so going down." Nathan grabbed a handful of cake and threw it at Haley, but she ducked just in time.

"You are NOT messing up my house AGAIN Nathan Scott!"

"You bet your ass I am." Nathan threw some icing at Brooke, but she wasn't as quick at ducking at Haley and got hit hard.

Peyton looked at Brooke and laughed. "You wanted fun."

Soon a battle had begun with Nathan and Haley fighting against the team of Brooke and Peyton. Especially with Haley attacking Peyton. At present, Haley was rubbing cake in Peyton's hair as she held her in a chokehold. They soon ran out of cake and Brooke ran to her fridge grabbing chocolate sauce. She squeezed the bottle and soaked Nathan in chocolate. Seeing no other way out, Nathan picked her up and threw her over his shoulder before running outside and jumping in the pool.

Haley stood watching the whole exchange happily as she heard genuine laughs coming from the two. Moments later she was thrown over Peyton's shoulder and joining them in the pool.

"Bitch!" she screamed as she dunked Peyton under the water.

Nathan and Brooke watched on in amazement of the spunk coming from the small girl.

"Feel better?" Peyton asked when she came up for air.

"A little," Haley smiled. As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Haley went underwater, but not by Peyton. Turning around she saw a very smug looking Nathan. With all the strength she had, she jumped up and pushed all of her weight down on Nathan's shoulders, but he didn't budge. "Go… under… water!!!" she screamed as she tried desperately to dunk him.

Seeing Haley struggle, Brooke came over to help her and they each took one shoulder to push under the water, but Nathan still didn't move. Now he was just laughing at the girls.

"You've got to be kidding me," Haley huffed, frustrated.

"One more time," Peyton whispered in her ear.

"One… two… three…" Haley counted. Once she got to three, both she and Brooke pushed on Nathan's head and shoulders as Peyton went underwater and knocked Nathan's legs out from under him, effectively forcing him underwater.

"Finally!" Brooke shouted victoriously when Nathan came back up. Looking around at everyone in the pool she asked giddily, "Do we get to play Marco Polo now?"

"Not it!" Peyton and Haley screamed simultaneously after a quick look at each other. Brooke quickly followed suit and Nathan was deemed 'it'.

Quickly whispering something in Nathan's ear, Haley swam to the other end of the pool with the girls.

"Marco," Nathan shouted with his eyes closed.

"Polo," Haley answered back. The other girls said nothing because they had gone underwater. Constantly standing in a place where another girl was in between her and Nathan, she stayed above water shouting "Polo" so loud, she was sure the neighbors were awake. Nathan made a quick dive in Haley's direction and landed right on Peyton.

Nathan opened his eyes to see Haley laughing underwater and a very pissed Peyton staring him down. "You're it," he said quickly before swimming away hoping to avoid her wrath.

The four of them spent the next hour playing Marco Polo in the dark of the night, forgetting all about their problems if only for a moment.

"How are you not tired?" Haley asked as she watched Nathan reading the sports page of the newspaper in bed.

"Who said I wasn't tired?" He put down the paper so that he could have a better view of his girlfriend who had just come out of his bathroom.

"I just figured you'd already be asleep," she said climbing into the bed next to him. "I mean, I took a pretty long shower and we have been up for about twenty-four hours now."

"So why aren't you tired?"

"Oh, I definitely am, but I wouldn't be able to just sit there and read. I would already be out."

"I was waiting for you," he confessed. Haley scooted closer to him and gave him a kiss. "I couldn't go to sleep without a goodnight kiss."

Looking in Nathan's eyes, Haley could tell that their fun was over and he was once again thinking about his brother. "I'm sorry, baby. I wish I could do something for you."

"Hales, tonight, you and Peyton did so much for us. If y'all hadn't come over, we would have just sat around crying."

They heard a knock on the door and turned to see both Peyton and Brooke standing there. "Are we interrupting something?" Brooke asked wearily, not wanting to cut into their couple time.

"No, y'all can come in," Haley offered.

Brooke walked in and immediately climbed onto the bed next to Nathan. "I can't go in that room," she whispered as she laid her head on his shoulder and her tears began to fall. "It's too hard. Without him there. I could handle it before, because I knew… I thought… he was coming back. But now that I know he's not, I just can't be in there."

Putting his arm around Brooke, Nathan tried to calm down the girl who would have been his sister. "It's different now, isn't it? Everything's different."

"Yeah…"

"You can stay with us tonight. This is going to take a lot of getting used to," Nathan kissed the top of Brooke's head and whispered, "I'm gonna need my little sis to get through this."

Brooke started crying even harder, "I'm never going to be your sister now."

"You already are my sister," he told her. "It's been a long day, we all need some sleep." Brooke crawled into bed and motioned for Peyton to join them.

The bed was crowded that night, but Nathan held Haley even tighter, not caring if they had visitors. He pulled her close to him and kissed her neck before whispering "I love you."

Haley brought her hand back and massaged the back of his head, whispering her own "I love you" before giving him another kiss. Even with the others around them, their quick intimate exchange was all that Nathan needed to be able to have a peaceful night sleep.

I was thinking that I could have had Nathan running away to the rivercourt, but it'd be more fun if he ran away to her special place, maybe secretly hoping she'd find him. I don't know if any of you noticed, but I had to make sure that the day before Nathan spent time with Lucas and not only Haley, otherwise he could have resented her for taking him away from Lucas. I didn't want to cause too much drama though, because in real life resentment like that is something that can ruin a couple.

P.S. If you like this story, check out another one I just started called "Abused". Of course it's Naley as well.