DISCLAIMER: I do not own One Tree Hill, or any of the characters, except the made up ones.

Quote of the Day:

Owen(to Jamie) Hey. I heard I owe you one. You got me another chance with Brooke, 'What's under all the clothes, Brooke Davis?'
Jamie: So did you find out?

He is so Nathan's son!

Chapter 21

Stealing Cinderella

Looking out the window of the cab he noticed that they entered a very nice neighborhood. I looked exactly like the place that Brooke would live. He felt the cab come to a complete stop in front of a huge white house with a blue door. Handing the driver a hand full of money he grabbed his bag and stepped out of the car. It was already three in the afternoon and he was happy that he was finally here. He watched the cab drive away and suddenly he became very nervous. He couldn't think of anything to say to them. From what everyone told him they were very nice people but this was different. None of them had been the ones asking to marry their daughter. What if they didn't like him? What if they said no?

He hadn't really thought about their answer. In fact they had every right to say no. He had only known their daughter for like a week. What would they think of everything? He looked across the yard to the next house. It looked exactly the same as Haley's but instead of a blue door theirs was red. Just like Brooke had told him.

He finally started walking towards the door. He flew all the way here no point in turning around.

His grip on his bag tighten as he rang the door bell. He said a silent prayer as he waited for the door to be answered. It only took a few minutes before a woman opened the door with a smile. It had to be Haley's mother.

"May I help you?" Lydia asked.

Clearing his throat he finally spoke. "Yeah sorry, I'm Nathan Scott." He held out his hand for her to shake.

"Nathan? As in Haley's Nathan?" Lydia asked while shaking his hand.

"Yep and you must be Mrs. James," Nathan said smiling.

"Well Haley was right you are and I quote 'hot as hell'. Please call me Lydia," Lydia said holding the door open for him to come in. "Come on in."

"Thank you," Nathan said following her into the living room while laughing.

"So you do know that Haley's up at Stanford teaching," Lydia asked as they took a seat. Nathan just nodded his head.

"Yeah that's actually why I'm here," Nathan said starting to get nervous. "I wanted to talk to you and Mr. James."

He noticed the smile that she had on her face drop. He had seen that look before. His mother almost always had that look on her. Concern. He looked around the room nervously before turning his attention back to her. It looked like she couldn't find the words to say.

"Jimmy living room. Haley's pregnant," Lydia shouted. Nathan felt in heart drop.

"She's not –"

"I'm only kidding," Lydia said smiling.

The thought of Haley having his baby felt nice but he knew they weren't ready for that yet. They need time with each other before they could start raising a family. But when the time came he wanted about six or seven of little Haley's running around. He didn't get to grow up in a huge family like her. He wanted lots of kids.

Jimmy walked into the living room a few minutes later.

"Did I just hear correctly? My baby is having a baby?" Jimmy asked approaching his wife making no effort to noticed the raven haired boy sitting across the room. "But she was the only good one. Our last shred of hope that we were good at producing. What has this world come to?"

"It's clearly the end of the world when our little angel has gotten herself knocked up," Lydia said smiling as Jimmy took a seat next to her. "And to think that I gave her the whole safe sex talk when she was seven."

"I told you we should have done it when she was five," Jimmy said nodding his head towards his wife. "We even supplied her with condoms. I don't get it."

Nathan looked at the two amused. His parents never acted this way.

"This is Nathan," Lydia said pointing towards him as Jimmy looked at him.

"You the boy that knocked up my baby girl?" Jimmy asked his face turning furious.

Nathan looked on terrified. "She's not –"

"Well it's about time. We thought she would never have sex at the rate she was going," Jimmy said as him and Lydia started laughing. Standing up Jimmy walked right up to Nathan and held out his hand. "We're only messing with you son. That is unless you really got my Haley-bop pregnant."

"No Sir I didn't," Nathan said nervously as he shook the old mans hand.

"Jimmy this is the boy that Haley-bop was telling us about," Lydia said smiling. Jimmy took the time to observe the boy. He really didn't seem like someone that his Haley would date. Jimmy had always pictured his daughter marrying Lucas. He just knew that one day the best friends would realize that they were in love and get together but Haley knocked that out of his head real quick. In simple terms she told him to dream on because Lucas was like her brother. Still a father could only hope that his daughter would marry a good man like Lucas.

"Now I thought that he had blonde hair?" Jimmy asked raising an eyebrow.

"No that was the other boy she's seeing," Lydia said sending a small frown towards Nathan. Both Lydia and Jimmy watched as Nathan's face dropped. It actually looked like they physically hit him in the stomach. Lydia realized that the boy didn't realize that they were joking.

"Sweetie it was a joke," Lydia said with a soft smile as the color started coming back to his face.

"Yeah. You're actually the first boy to come into our house for Haley. Well except for Lucas and Jake," Jimmy said sitting next to his wife. He held her hand as they looked towards the nervous man sitting in their living room.

"So Nathan what do you have to talk to Jimmy and me about?" Lydia asked.

Nathan took a few moments to collect his thoughts. Haley's parents were something else. He had never met anyone like them. The only other married couple that could even come close to them was his Uncle Keith and Karen. I guess this is what marriage is like when you love the person.

"I actually came here to ask you if I could…if I could marry your daughter?" Nathan said nervously as both her parents continued to look at him not saying a word. He sat there just watching their shocked expressions. He thought that maybe he should say something but he couldn't think of the words. What could he possible tell them? It's not like he had been dating Haley for years or something. They had only been together in such a short period of time. No wonder they looked like he just asked them for one of their body organs.

"You're serious?" Lydia finally asked.

"I love Haley very much and I want to spend the rest of my life with her," Nathan said genuinely.

"I'm sorry but what is it that you do for a living?" Jimmy asked.

Nathan noticed that the funny joking Jimmy James had just disappeared. "I um –own a construction business back in Tree Hill Sir."

"So you expect my daughter to give up her dream and follow you to Tree Hill?" Jimmy asked.

"Jimmy –"

"No Lydia the boy wants to marry my little girl and I want to know what he expects," Jimmy said glancing at his wife before turning his attention back to Nathan.

"No Sir I don't expect her to give up anything for me. I've thought about it a lot and I've talked to a few people this morning and if it's what Haley wants then I'll sell my business and move to wherever she is. I just want to make her happy."

"Nathan marriage is a really big step –"

"No disrespect but I know that. Now I want to spend the rest of my life with your daughter. If it takes me following her to the end of the world and back then that's what I'm gonna do because I love her more than anything," Nathan said holding his hands together to stop them from shaking. Out of all the things that he imagined he didn't anticipate this.

"You guys never guess who I ran into at the mall," a girl said walking into the room. "I'm sorry I didn't realize that we had company."

Nathan glanced at the girl.

"Taylor this is Nathan," Lydia said still trying to rap her mind around the idea of Haley getting married.

"Nathan can you give my wife and me a little time to think about this," Jimmy asked nicely.

"Yes Sir," Nathan said nodding his head.

"Tay maybe you should show him around the house," Lydia said looking at her daughter. Taylor smirked as she looked at Nathan. "And before you leave this room you should know that this is your sister's boyfriend so don't try anything."

Nathan followed the girl upstairs. He could hear Lydia and Jimmy start talking and he was trying really hard to listen to what they were saying.

"Right this way handsome," Taylor said opening a door.

He really felt uncomfortable at the way that she was looking at him.

"Do I know you from somewhere?" Taylor asked as the entered the room.

"I played basketball for the Tree Hill Ravens," Nathan said answering her question.

"I'm a little surprised that my little sister snagged such a hottie. I usually get to them first," Taylor said with a grin.

"Think again," Nathan said taking out the ring from his pocket and handing it to Taylor.

"You can't be serious," Taylor said looking at the ring. "What you and Haley have been together for like a week? Why the hell do you want to get married?"

"Because I love her," Nathan said as he took the ring back from her.

"No wonder my parents looked like zombies," Taylor said laughing. "Way to stick it to the parents."

"I thought Haley said something about you in Vegas?" Nathan questioned.

"Yeah I was working at this little bar," Taylor said looking around. "But I just decided to come back home and get my life back on track. Even though Haley's younger I'm like the little sister. She's always had it together while I was falling apart. Look Nathan, Haley-bop means the world to my parents so sorry if they seemed a little mean. If you truly love her then they'll come around. I think out of my three sister's boyfriends you're the only one that came down to ask for her hand in marriage."

"Yeah well I just want to do this the right way," Nathan said giving her a small smile.

"Well thank you for giving me another reason to envy my baby sister," Taylor said looking at a picture of Haley.

"She's pretty amazing," Nathan said smiling.

Taylor just nodded her head. "Yeah the girl is something else. Man what I wouldn't give to have it together like she does. I just wish that she wouldn't put so much pressure on herself. She's just always trying so hard to be perfect I don't think that she gives herself a break."

"She is perfect," Nathan said softly looking at one of Haley's baby pictures.

"That's her favorite one with my dad," Taylor said smiling. "She was four years old. We brought her to the beach and she just fell in love with the ocean. My mom had taken this while her and my dad was building a sand castle. Of course ten minutes later Tanner threw his football right into it. Haley cried for hours. So everyone got together and built an even bigger one than before. My dad had brought her over and simply said look what we made Haley-bop. The name kind of stuck."

"Haley-bop," Nathan said laughing. "I like it."

"I'll just leave you in here and make sure their still breathing."

"Is this your room?" Nathan asked.

"Haley-bops room," Taylor said smiling before walking out of the room and closing the door.

Nathan took the time to look around her room. The walls were light blue with random posters on all over the walls. On her nightstand there was a picture of Peyton, Lucas, and her at the rivercourt. In the center of her bed was a little brown bear. Looking up he noticed all the pictures of her and her friends. Most of them with Brooke and Jake from here and then there were the ones from back in Tree Hill. She seemed so happy in all of them.

He noticed the huge bookshelf next to her desk. There were too many books for him to count. No wonder her and Lucas were such good friends.

He felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. Pulling it out he noticed that it was Haley.

"Hey you," Nathan said once he put the phone to his ear.

"Hey I was worried about you. You haven't picked up all day," Haley asked worried.

"I'm sorry. I'm just a little busy."

"Is everything okay? It sounds like something's wrong," Haley asked.

"No it's just –"

"Nathan you can come back down now," Taylor said opening the door.

"Nathan, who was that?" Haley asked.

"I'm sorry I gotta go but I'll talk to you later," Nathan said before hanging up the phone. Placing it back in his pocket he walked back down stairs with Taylor. They went back in the living room where Jimmy and Lydia were talking.

"Nathan if you're serious about this then we give you our blessing," Jimmy said holding out his hand.

"Seriously?" Nathan asked shocked.

"Yes but marriage is a huge step son make sure it's what you want," Lydia said while pulling him into a hug. "Haley means the world to us and if you're what makes her happy then all we can say is welcome to the family."

"Oh and Nate no rush on the grandkids," Jimmy said laughing.

"Welcome to the family," Taylor said hugging him.

"Thank you guys so much," Nathan said smiling. "This means so much to me and I know it will to Haley once I ask her."

"Now that we got that out of the way, why don't you stay for dinner?" Lydia asked.

"I don't know –"

"Oh stay Vivian and her family are already on their way here," Jimmy said. "We can watch a basketball game until it's ready. Give me sometime to get to know my new son-in-law. Haley tells us you used to play basketball."

"Yes Sir," Nathan said taking a seat.

"You boys have fun while we ladies slave over a hot stove," Lydia said laughing as her and Taylor walked out of the room.

"Do I have to help?" Taylor whined.

"Oh we will," Jimmy said grabbing the remote and turning on a game.

"Okay so what's the plan?" Lucas asked as they all stood in a café across the street from Haley's hotel.

"She's not answering her phone guys," Brooke said walking up to them.

"She might still be out," Peyton added.

"Okay here's what we're gonna do," Nathan said looking out the window. "I need to get into her hotel room."

"I think we can help with that," Brooke said standing up. "Peyton follow me. Boys come meet us in ten minutes." Giving Lucas a quick kiss on the cheek both girls left the café.

Nathan was so relived that it had gone so good with Haley's parents. After they had told him that he had their blessing everything was wonderful. Jimmy and him had watched an old game on ESPN. Vivian and her family arrived right before dinner. Mark was just so great. He had played basketball in high school also. Vivian was really nice to him and thought that it was the sweetest thing in the world that he had asked her parents permission to marry Haley. Then she proceeded to fuss her husband for not being that sweet. Their three triplets were just wonderful –a handful but still wonderful.

There was Mackenzie the little blonde haired blue eyed girl that made Nathan's heart melt every time she gave him puppy dog eyes. She made him hold one of her baby dolls and play princesses with her. Then there was Michael dressed in a Tanner James football jersey. He had made Nathan play football with him before dinner. Then there was Marcus. Instead of running around the whole time they were there, he just kept playing his PSP. The kids were great and he loved them. They even started calling him Uncle Nate. Nathan even had a good time talking to Taylor. She kept on telling him stories about Haley which he enjoyed. It seemed like she really wanted to get her life together and Nathan knew that it would make Haley happy.

At dinner they all talked. Well it was mostly them all asking questions about him but he didn't mind. They would be family soon if Haley said yes.

"What are you thinking about?" Lucas asked as he watched his brother zone out.

"Oh just Haley's family," Nathan said smiling. "They were pretty great. Especially the triplets."

"Yeah Haley really loves them," Lucas said smiling. Looking at his watch he noticed that ten minutes had passed. "Well let's get going."

"Why isn't she answering her phone?" Nathan said as he tried calling her again. It was only eight at night. Where could she possibly be? Making their way into the hotel they noticed Peyton and Brooke standing by the elevator. Quickly walking towards them they noticed the receptionist smiling at them. It kind of looked like she was crying.

"Did you get the key?" Nathan asked.

"Who do you think you're dealing with?" Brooke asked with a hand on her hip.

"She got the key," Lucas said nodding as he looked at his brother.

"She told the lady your plan and even though it is against policy and she could get fired she gave us the key," Peyton said laughing as they all got into the elevator. "Poor girl started crying."

"Anyway I still can't get Haley to answer her phone so hopefully she's not in her room," Brooke said putting her head on Lucas's shoulder.

"We did get everything, right?" Nathan asked looking at the two bags his brother was holding.

"Yes," Peyton said smiling. "There is a flower shop just a few blocks down. I'll go get as much as I can once we make sure she's not in her room."

"Okay."

The elevator stopped as they all stepped out and followed Brooke. They reached room 523. "Wait right here." Brooke slid the card and turned the handle on the door. Nathan watched her walk inside the room and call out Haley's name. Seconds later Brooke opened the door for them. "She's not here."

"Okay. I'll be right back," Peyton said going to get the flowers.

"Don't forget which ones," Nathan shouted after her.

"I got it," Peyton said laughing.

Finally walking into her hotel room, he took a look around. It looked more like an apartment than a hotel. There was like a little living room with a door leading to the bed room. He noticed Brooke and Lucas setting up the candles.

"She's really going to love this Nate," Brooke said looking over her shoulder and smiling at him. He nodded his head before he took off into the bedroom. The bed was made and her bags were all in the corner. He took a seat on the side of the bed that he assumed she slept on.

"A little help here," Lucas said in the door way. "This is for you, not us."

"Hey I figure since you two flew all the way here you might as well do something," Nathan said standing up. "Besides this is the easy part. I have to do the hard part."

"Oh please," Lucas said tossing a candle at him. "Get your ass out here and help."

"Alight," Nathan said laughing. Thirty minutes later they were all sitting in the living room looking around.

"It's perfect," Brooke mumbled looking around.

"She's still not answering," Nathan said closing his phone.

"Okay you stay here," Brooke said standing up and taking Lucas's hand with her making him stand up as well. "We'll go look around for her. There are a couple of places that we used to hang out that I could check. She might just be having dinner with someone from work or she might have gone out with some of our old college friends."

"We'll find her," Lucas told his brother before they all left the room.

His day had been so hectic that he didn't really get a chance to talk to her and when he did Taylor had told him that her parents wanted to see him. He realized that he didn't even have a chance to tell her that he loved her. She was just probably out to dinner or even still on campus grading papers or something. Maybe she went see a movie. There were all sorts of things she could be doing. Answering her phone wasn't one of them. She always answered her phone. In just a few short hours since he met up with everyone, they had tried calling her several times.

Pulling out his cell phone he dialed her number. Maybe this time she would pick up.

You've reached Haley James, congratulations!

"Hey baby it's me. I'm really worried about you. You're not picking up your phone. Please call me as soon as you get this. Please Hales. I just realized that I didn't get a chance to tell you how much I love you," Nathan said into the phone before hanging up.

Standing up he reached for the lighter that Peyton had left. Making his way around the room he took his time lighting every single candle. Lilies were spread across the room as well. It all looked really beautiful. Perfect just like Haley. Making his way to the front door, he turned off the lights. The candles had the room glowing. Taking a seat he held a hand full of lilies. She would be here soon, he just knew it. She had to be, because if she wasn't then he was going to look for her. Four people looking would be better than three.

He reached for the ring in his pocket. He remembered the day that he had bought it. It was right before he had gone into work. He had stopped by the local jewelry store just to look around. That's when he saw the ring. It was so perfect. He even imagined what her face would look like once he asked her. He could see it so vividly. Her eyes sparkling as her face beamed at him. He knew that was the ring. Her ring. Placing it back in his pocket he began to wonder what he would say.

Will you marry me just didn't seem like enough. She deserved so much more than that. He would get down on one knee and tell her everything that he felt in his heart. How she saved him. How much he loved her and wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. Whatever he said had to be perfect. He needed to make her understand how much he needed her and wanted her. He heard talking outside the room as he quickly stood up. The flowers still in his hand. There was a chance that it was just Brooke, Lucas, and Peyton returning but there was also that chance that it was Haley. The door slowly opened and Nathan's heart stopped beating as he saw her.

"Oh wow," Haley said smiling looking around. She absorbed everything in the room before bringing her eyes to Nathan. She wanted to run right over to him and jump in his arms but he wasn't looking back at her. His eyes were glued to the man standing right behind her. Oh no…..

AN: I know right way to end it. I suck, I know. Please tell me what you think.