Hey guys, first of all I want to say that I'm sorry that this update was a little late too...I feel bad. I promise I will get with it and go back to updating at least every other day! Ok, reviewers, I love you all. You are amazing and there really aren't enough lovely words to describe you. Keep it up! Anyway, chapter 21 is here...enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own One Tree Hill or any of its characters.
Summary: After 4 years, Nathan, Haley, Brooke, Lucas, Peyton, and Tim are heading back to the beach for another summer of fun. Some hold secrets, some have suffered through heartbreaks, and some are their same old selves. They will encounter a few familiar faces and unimaginable surprises as they return to the past in this sequel to "A Summer to Remember."
Return to the Past
Chapter 21
"When is he going to get here? I thought Whitey said he was going to send him up first thing in the morning?" Nathan asked in frustration as he took another swig of his cold water. "We've been waiting in this toaster for almost an hour."
"I'm sure he'll be here soon." Haley assured him as she emerged from the bedroom in a pair of short shorts and a white cami. The t-shirt she had been wearing had proved to be too hot in this condo so she had decided to change.
"Whoa, Hales, what are you wearing?" Nathan said sternly as he looked at the little shirt she was wearing with the tiny shorts.
"Um, a cami and shorts." Haley laughed a little. "It's so hot in here that you're lucky I'm not walking around in my underwear."
"But Nick's going to be here any minute. You need to go change." He said resolutely as she crossed her arms in protest. There was no way he was letting Nick see her in that outfit.
"Nathan, there is nothing wrong with this outfit. It's the only thing that will keep me from burning alive." She laughed. She was not going to put on that hot t-shirt again. "What do you want me to wear? A snowsuit?"
"Did you pack one of those?" He asked mischievously as she playfully smacked his shoulder. "Seriously Haley, at least put a sweater on."
"What do you think he's just going to jump me right here in front of you?" She laughed as she walked over to the freezer and grabbed herself a popsicle.
"I would." He grinned as she handed him a popsicle as well.
"That doesn't count, you're allowed to." Haley responded as she peeled off the white wrapper exposing the cold red popsicle.
"Am I?" He smiled suggestively at her causing her to giggle a little before correcting her statement.
"Not right now." She clarified. "Nick could be here any minute."
"Does that mean later?"
"Maybe. But only if you're nice to Nick." Haley didn't like Nick at all, especially after what happened, but the more she thought about it, the more she wondered if she had blown the whole situation out of proportion. Nick and Nicki had been home yesterday, that was the first time Nathan and Haley had seen them since the whole incident and talking to Nick in Whitey's office, and they had acted like perfect neighbors. They had been friendly and hadn't done a single thing that would be classified as suspicious. Their behavior the day before, plus her and Nathan's conversations with Whitey, had really made her start to doubt what had happened. How sure was she anyway that Nick had had bad intentions when he pulled her inside and offered her a drink?
"But Haley." Nathan whined. "The guy's a jerk."
"Maybe, but maybe we read him wrong? I mean, I thought you were a jerk before I got to know you." Haley said evenly. She wasn't sure if giving Nick a chance was really a good idea and she wasn't sure how she felt about what happened. At the time she had been really scared, but after thinking about it for the past week she understood why Whitey had said he did nothing wrong. Nick had done nothing wrong.
"Yeah, but I never locked you in my condo with me." Nathan defended himself. "And please do not compare me with Nick."
"I'm not." Haley said quickly. "You're nothing like him. I'm just saying that maybe we should give him a second chance to make a first impression."
"You mean a third chance? Remember when we first met him?" Nathan's blood began to boil just thinking about the way Nick had looked Haley up and down which reminded him of his original point. "You really need to put some more clothes on."
"Nathan, in case you haven't noticed, I'm pregnant." Haley giggled as Nathan looked at her confusedly. "I'm already starting to look like a whale; I don't think that you need to worry about Nick gawking at me."
"Why not? You look pretty damn hot to me." He huffed. She needed to go change or he would end up beating the crap out of Nick if he even looked her way.
"Well maybe that's because it's your fault I look like a balloon that is slowly being inflated." She said playfully as she walked up to stand right in front of him.
"Yeah, that might be part of it." He laughed as he put the hand that wasn't holding his popsicle on her back to bring her a little closer. "But the bigger part is because you are just naturally sexy. Which brings me back to my original argument, you need to put something else on before Nick gets here."
"But if I put on more clothes, then I won't get to see you beat up Nick for looking at me." She smiled playfully.
"Yeah, but if you do put on some more clothes, then I won't have to beat up Nick for looking at you which means I'll be allowed to take them off of you later." He smirked. No matter how much he wanted to give Nick a piece of his mind, he would hold back if she was his reward.
"You, Nathan Scott, have one dirty mind." She smiled as she took a bite out of her popsicle.
"I can't help it." He shrugged before mimicking her actions and biting the top off of his own popsicle. "You make my mind dirty."
"Oh, so now you're going to blame your filthy thoughts on me?" She laughed coyly.
"Of course I am. It's not my fault you look so hot all the time." He laughed as she playfully swatted at his shoulder again. The moment was interrupted by a loud knock at the door and they both turned to stare at it. "That must be Nick. Please go put something else on, you'll feel more comfortable that way."
Haley thought about this for a few seconds, her eyes never leaving the door. Sure, she wanted to give Nick a chance, but that didn't change the fact that he creeped her out a little bit. No matter how hot it was in the condo, Nathan was right; she would feel a lot more comfortable around Nick with her regular t-shirt on. She looked up at Nathan who nodded in understanding.
He watched as she quickly made her way back into the bedroom and shut the door before throwing the rest of his popsicle away and advancing to the source of the loud thumping that had not ceased. He flung the door open to reveal a slightly annoyed Nick, probably because it took Nathan more than a minute to answer the door.
"Jeez, what took you so long?" Nick mumbled under his breath as he stepped inside with his small toolbox. Nathan only rolled his eyes as Nick set the toolbox on the table and then took a look around the condo. "So, where's the problem?"
Nathan motioned towards the thermostat by the front door just as Haley walked out of the bedroom in a t-shirt now instead of her cami. Both men turned to look at her and Nick instantly started laughing. "What the hell is your problem?" Nathan said hotly.
"Nothing…I have a question for you Nathan." Nick smiled, his eyes still on Haley making both Nathan and Haley extremely uneasy. "So, I've never banged a pregnant girl, is it true that the sex is better?"
Haley's face twisted in disgust as she put her hand on Nathan's arm to hold him back. "Shut the hell up asshole and fix the damn air conditioner." Nathan spat out angrily. He wanted the AC fixed and Nick out of here right now.
"Ok, jeez, it was a joke." Nick laughed. Nicki had suggested that he act rude but not in a way that he could cause suspicion. That way, the incident last week would be seen as just a misunderstanding because of his personality. At first he hadn't understood what Nicki was talking about, but then he realized that if Nathan and Haley thought he was always rude like that, then maybe they would dismiss the whole thing.
"Yeah, well it wasn't funny." Nathan said bitterly as Nick grabbed a few tools from his toolbox. Nick was so annoying. What kind of sick pervert asks a question like that? Especially when Haley's right there.
"Sorry, my bad." Nick apologized in a very unapologetic voice as he walked over to where the thermostat was to look at it. "I took a look at the air conditioner outside and it seems to be working fine, therefore the problem must be with this thing."
"Wow, I never would have guessed that from the sparks coming out if it." Nathan said sarcastically as Haley gave him a warning look.
"Nathan, can I talk to you for a minute?" She smiled sweetly as she started to pull him towards the bedroom.
"Yes." Nathan sighed. He knew what this meant; she was going to yell at him for being rude to Nick. The irony of the whole thing was that she hadn't yelled at Nick. What he had said was completely inappropriate and yet Haley didn't get mad at him!
Nick watched them disappear into the bedroom and shut the door. This was his chance. He quickly made his way back to his toolbox and dropped his wrench in there. Then he took a moment to slowly survey the big room he was in. It was much like his own condo, the kitchen and living room were open and only separated by the strategic placement of furniture, the only difference was that theirs didn't smell like smoke. He began to walk around quietly looking for anything that seemed out of place or like it could be a good hiding spot for what he was looking for. The object of his desire was somewhere on the third floor…
"Haley, the guy had it coming to him!" Nathan defended himself once the door was safely closed behind him.
"Nathan, I thought we talked about this? It doesn't matter if he has it coming to him or not, you still have to be nice." Haley said back evenly.
"Are you kidding me? Didn't you hear what he said?" Nathan asked incredulously. How could she expect him to act civil when the bastard makes lame ass comments like that?
"I heard it." Haley said softly as she looked to the floor and then back up at Nathan. "It was rude and inconsiderate, but you have to be the bigger man." She had wanted to say exactly what Nathan said when Nick asked that vulgar question, but she was also still trying to decide how she felt about him.
Part of her thought he really was some kind of criminal with an agenda. Everything he did sent up red flags in her mind. He always stared intently at everything, especially things he had never seen before. She had also noticed that he had hushed conversations with Nicki quite frequently when he thought no one was around. Yesterday when she was out by the pool she had heard them talking behind a tree about something. It was just really out of the ordinary.
But there was also another part to her, one that said she was only searching for drama and that Nick was just a little rough around the edges. Maybe that whole incident last week had actually been a misunderstanding? Maybe the way he acted, with his rude remarks and crude humor, was just his personality? Every time she thought about Nick, she became more confused.
Nathan looked into her eyes and could tell that she was confused about what to believe about Nick. Her nature was to assume that he was a good person and treat him that way, while his was to impulsively beat the crap out of the guy. "Haley, he's obnoxious. Can you please let go of the whole 'Nick is misunderstood' crap?"
"Nathan, please? Do it for me?" She begged. She had no idea if Nick was a bad person or not, but either way it definitely wouldn't hurt to be on his good side. She didn't want Nathan picking fights with Nick just because the guy said some offensive things.
Nathan sighed as he looked at her again. He needed to be the bigger man if that's what she wanted. "Fine, I'll try. Again." He sighed. He didn't want to give Nick the benefit of the doubt over anything, but if that's what Haley wanted, then that's what he would do.
"Thank you. We'll talk later ok? I promise." She smiled as she pecked him on the cheek and then walked out through the door.
Nathan watched her go with a smile. How was it possible for him to love her so much? The talk that she had promised him was definitely needed though. Either she was going to have to persuade him to like Nick, or he was going to have to make her hate him.
"What are you doing?" He heard Haley say from the other room and quickly made his way to the doorway to see Nick fingering the intricate designs on the blanket that Whitey had given to them the day before. He gave Nick a stern look as if to say 'answer her'.
"Where did you get this blanket?"
Haley eyed Nick suspiciously as Nathan bit his tongue to keep from saying something mean. "Whitey gave it to us." She responded as she stepped forward and gently took the blanket from him and started to refold it.
"Did he say where he got it from?" Nick asked eagerly. This proved that what he and Nicki were looking for exits…
"Is that any of your business?" Nathan snapped before receiving a stern look from Haley. Hadn't they just talked about this? "It was Camilla's." Nathan corrected himself. "Don't you have an air conditioner to fix?"
Nick rolled his eyes as he went back to his toolbox and removed several different size screwdrivers. Ok, so now he knew that Whitey knew about Camilla's ancestry and that the old man obviously knew the location of what it was he and his sister was searching for. With any luck at all, he would get the old man to spill the whereabouts…
A few hours later, the air conditioner had been successfully fixed and Nick made a grumpy exit. He had not gotten to do nearly enough snooping with those two watching his every move. The only interesting thing he learned was that Whitey was close enough to the Scotts to have given them a valuable blanket. That blanket wasn't only sentimental.
"I'm proud of you for sucking it up and being pleasant to Nick today." Haley beamed as she wrapped her arms around her husband.
"Pleasant? Where were you today?" Nathan joked. He had been far from pleasant and he knew it. He had tried really hard to do what Haley asked, but it seemed like sarcastic remarks just slipped out when he wasn't thinking…
"Well, you didn't start a fight or anything, so I think that deserves a reward." Haley said coyly as she reached her hand up to run a finger down Nathan's face, stopping on his lips.
He kissed her finger before smiling. "What exactly is this reward?"
Haley looked up as if to think about it. "Um…ice cream." She giggled as Nathan laughed. "We need some after being stuck in this condo all day."
"That we do." He smiled as he leaned down and kissed her forehead. "Let's go."
"I can't believe you actually got all of that on your ice cream." Nathan smiled as he watched Haley stuff a spoonful of ice cream with about 6 different toppings on it into her mouth.
"Your son made me." She pouted as she dipped the spoon in the ice cream again. This stuff was so addicting.
"Oh, so now you're going to use him as an excuse?" Nathan teased as he stole a spoonful of her ice cream and put it in his own mouth.
"Of course I am!" Haley laughed. "If I have to carry him around and look like an elephant while I do it, then I should get to eat whatever ice cream I want and blame it on him."
"That sounds fair." Nathan conceded before he finished off his own ice cream. "So, Nick…"
"Ugh, I just had to promise to talk about this didn't I?" Haley sighed jokingly.
"Something is seriously up with him." Nathan said seriously as Haley looked at him. "Don't you think so?"
"I don't know, Nathan…that's just so weird. I can't imagine actually living above a pair of criminals. That just doesn't happen in real life." She really did want to believe Nathan, but the whole idea was just so bizarre that she couldn't.
"How do you know?"
"Because. Things that happen on TV and in movies don't really happen." She justified. Criminals didn't just move into the condo below people, it wasn't normal.
"What if it did?" Nathan challenged. There was something weird going on with Nick and Nicki, he just knew it.
"It won't." Haley answered back. "Nick's not some kind of con artist, and that's why you need to be nice to him."
"How do you know he's not a con artist?"
"That's not the point. Even if he was a con artist you would still have to be nice to him." She countered. "If he really was one, then you would have to be extra nice."
"Why is that?" Nathan chuckled. As far as he was concerned, Nick being a con artist was a good enough reason to treat the guy like one.
"Because, I wouldn't want him to get mad and blow your brains out or anything." Haley smiled.
"That's nice." Nathan smiled sarcastically. "I'm glad to know that my wife doesn't want my neighbor to put a bullet through my head."
"Aw, I really don't want that." She pouted playfully.
"Good, because I don't want him to blow your brains out either." He smiled as he picked up his empty ice cream container as well as hers and threw them basketball style into the garbage can.
"That's why you need to be on your best behavior around him. If he is what you think he is, then you need to be nice." Haley smiled.
Nathan looked at her closely. She was right. He really believed that Nick had some kind of ulterior motive, and if that was the case, then Nick was dangerous. If Nick was dangerous, then he should think about lying low around him. He didn't want to end up in any trouble with Nick. "You're right. I don't want to get on that psychopath's bad side."
"I told you so." Haley smiled as she stood up and stretched her arms out. "Why are you so convinced that Nick and Nicki are bad news?"
"Well, let's see, first of all, Nick locked you in his condo with him and wouldn't let me in-" Nathan started as Haley sat back down again.
"But I'm not even sure what happened anymore." Haley said. "I mean, maybe I was just do freaked out by the whole thing that I overreacted?"
"Haley, you did not overreact." Nathan assured her. "I was there. I may not have been inside, but I was there. Nick definitely didn't pull you inside to offer you a glass of milk and a cookie. That guy is evil."
Haley couldn't help but laugh at his explanation. "Maybe you're right…I don't know. Let's just avoid both of them like we've been doing?" Haley suggested.
"Fine by me. As long as you're away from Nick, I'll be happy." Nathan said seriously.
"What was up with what he said today before he fixed the air conditioner?" Haley wondered aloud.
"I knew you didn't like that!" Nathan said triumphantly. "Why didn't you just let me kick his ass?"
"We've already gone over that reason." Haley laughed. "And no, I did not like that comment." It amazed her that someone could have so little respect for a woman that they would say something like that. She knew that guys talked about that stuff all the time, but she had never actually heard it before and the way Nick had said it was just so offensive.
"Yeah, well, neither did I." Nathan admitted. He had some to the conclusion that Nick was just an over all son of a bitch.
"I could tell." Haley laughed. "And what was up with his weirdo obsession with that blanket? You'd think he was looking at gold or something the way he was staring at it."
"Yeah, maybe he's jealous because my baby is going to be much better looking than his." Nathan smirked as Haley shrugged in agreement.
"Speaking of your baby," Haley smiled as she placed an emphasis on 'your'. "Have you thought of any names yet?"
"No." Nathan said shortly. He wanted to find the perfect name for the baby, but that name just hadn't come to him yet. "Have you?"
"No." She sighed. It was becoming increasingly frustrating to not have a name for the little guy. "It'll come. I'm sure of it."
"Just like you were sure that if you close your eyes and wish really hard when you shoot a basketball, it will go in?" Nathan teased.
"Hey! I was only kidding when I said that!" Haley defended herself with a smile. "And you shouldn't be talking Mr. washing the red clothes with the whites is ok."
"One time, Haley. One time." Nathan shook his head. Would she ever let him live that down?
"Yes, but after that one load of laundry I couldn't wear my favorite sweater anymore." She pouted as he rolled his eyes good-naturedly.
As if on cue, a loud rumble was heard in the distance, foreshadowing a heavy rainstorm. "Of course it rains after we get our AC fixed."
"We should probably get going." Haley smiled. "Mr. Scott, would you mind walking me home? I could use the company."
"Well Mrs. Scott, how about to my car?" Nathan played along.
"Even better!" She giggled as she stood up again and reached out to grab his hand. "Hurry up so we will be in the car by the time it starts to rain. We wouldn't want to catch colds now would we?"
"Oh, of course not." Nathan smiled as he took her hand and pulled her down on top of him. "But I'm not motivated to get up without a kiss."
"What if I don't want to give you a kiss?" Haley asked playfully as she wrapped her arms around the back of his neck.
"Who in their right mind wouldn't want to kiss me?" He joked as she hit him on the shoulder. "Fine, but with no kiss I guess we'll just sit here all day."
"We?" She laughed back. "I don't think so." She sat up straighter and tried to remover herself from his lap only to feel his arms around her waist tighten. "Nathan, you let go right now. You know that's not fair."
"I don't want to let go." Nathan smirked. "Not until I get a kiss."
This time it was Haley's turn to smirk, she could have fun with this. She brought her hands up to rest on the side of his face and moved her own so that it was just inches from his. "I'm going to stay like this all day."
"Haley." Nathan groaned. "That's not fair." If he moved his arms to pull her to him, she would be able to get up and he would lose. But if she was going to stay this close to him, he was going to go crazy.
"What's not fair?" She asked innocently as she rested her forehead against his. "Oh, you mean this?" She said teasingly as she kissed the corner of his mouth softly, letting her warm lips linger there before pulling back to look in his eyes again.
Nathan couldn't take it anymore. "Damn it" He whispered with a laugh as he removed his arms from her waist and pulled her face down to his own, all the while the rumble in the distance growing louder.