Ok firstly sorry this has taking so long but I anticipated it as much with college starting back up and things have been crazy this month but I have not given up on this story. Really want to say a major thanks to anyone that has read this story so far and to new readers, followers and especially those that encourage me with your reviews. Means so much and I apologise for keeping you waiting.


Somethin' filled up, My heart with nothin', Someone told me not to cry
Now that I'm older, My heart's colder, And I can see that it's a lie
Children wake up, Hold your mistake up, Before they turn the summer into dust
If the children don't grow up, Our bodies get bigger, But our hearts get torn up
We're just a million Little God's causin' rainstorms Turnin' every good thing to rust
I guess we'll just have to adjust
With my lighnin' bolts a glowin'I can see where I am goin' to be When the reaper, reaches And touches my hand
With my lighnin' bolts a glowin'I can see where I am goin' With my lighnin' bolts a glowin' I can see where I am go, goin'
You'd better look out below

Just a reminder of where it left of…

Damien walked over to Jeremy then and started talking to him in hushed whispers that neither Nathan nor Haley could make out. A few seconds later he left the room. Jeremy walked over to Nathan then and got down behind him loosening the ropes while speaking. "If it was up to me you'd be finished a long time ago mate but lucky for you you're the only thing that is going to get us to Dan." He gritted out as he roughly pulled the rope from his hands allowing them to fall lamely at Nathan's side.

Jeremy then stalked over to Haley. She hissed as she felt him roughly untying her, in a second he had her pushed back against the wall. "Whatever lies you two come up with to feed us next will figure you out, we're always one step ahead remember that." He said harshly as he pulled away from her.

"Wait…" Haley cried.

Jeremy turned and glared at her.

"Just give me some ice please…I won't say anything again just…he needs ice." Haley said desperately. She sighed softly when Jeremy said nothing more only turning and slamming the metal door behind him.

Pulling the loosened ropes away from her hands Haley rushed over to Nathan in an instant. She bent down on her knees in front of him and brushed her hand through his hair pushing his wet fringe back from his face. His eyes met hers then and she felt a deep pain bolt through her veins at the anguish across his features. "I'm sorry…" Haley started only to be cut off in surprise as she felt him pull her close into him his arms wrapping around her petite upper body in an instant.

She felt his body weighing heavily on top of her a little too much than was normal for him. "Nathan…" Haley urged as she felt herself being pushed back under his weight. She pulled back then observing his weak form. It was strange. Someone that was always so powerful to her, the epitome of strength, ever since she cast eyes on him he had this tough presence about him. But this was too much. Even for him. All of this was too much.

"Hey…" Haley spoke quietly trying to reassure him as he fell further into her. It was then she realised he was pushing her back softly as he moved himself down off the chair to lie down. Haley turned her head away slightly closing her eyes to the threatening tears willing themselves to charade down her face.

"Hales…"

Her heart clinched hearing his hoarse voice call her ever so softly in that moment. Despite herself she sniffled as the tears began to stream from her eyes…"I'm sorry" She said through broken cries as she lay down beside him clasping his white shirt now stained of dry blood and dirt. "I'm..."

"Stop..." Nathan's raw voice interrupted her. He couldn't take it. He knew how they had left things but none of this was her fault. This was all him. All of it. He was the reason she was here. He was the reason she had to go through this; he brought her into this existence. This world. One he had longed to escape from only the reigns of his father wouldn't permit. And he had been selfish...thinking he could reinvent himself, look at whose son he was. It wasn't possible to break free without bringing everyone down with him. Dan had been right. He would bring everyone else down. He already had.

"This is all my…" Haley started.

"Stop Haley please…..just stop." Nathan pleaded weakly as he pulled back from her casting his gaze down on her; her eyes a painful evidence of everything she had gone through. "This is not your fault." He muttered weakly closing his eyes.

Haley observed him fearfully, everything that happened earlier flashing through her mind. "Your head…"

"It's just a bang…"

"Nathan….th…..there was blood…please just let me check it a…"

"And do what?"..Nathan snapped. She flinched at that and he sighed regretfully, his emotions were clouding his rational thoughts. At this stage he didn't even know what rational was anymore, his mind was racing a thousand miles an hour with everything that had conspired the past few hours as well as what was ahead of them. He didn't care what happened now, all he knew was that he had to get her out no matter what the cost. Haley dropped her hands from where they had been clutching his shirt then… "Sorry…" Nathan said quietly after a few minutes.

"What did they do to you?" Haley questioned in a soft broken whisper.

That question held a lot of answers. What had they done to him? What had his family done to him? Nathan swallowed hard. It was all too overwhelming. "I don't know anymore." He muttered brokenly as he turned carefully onto his back. His words were met with an aching, dull silence.

"All I know is I have to get you out."

"I'm not leaving you…" Haley replied her tone adamant.

"Haley." Nathan said sternly. "You can't be here."

She flinched at his cold tone and glanced across at him noticing his jaw was clinched as he gazed up at the ceiling above them. "They're not going to let me go." She tried to reason.

"They will if I…"

"No.." Haley said brokenly.."You're not doing anything for them you hear me…no…" She said as she sat up again…"Nathan." He looked like he was off in some other world right now as though her words had fallen upon empty ears.

Nathan closed his eyes then. "I don't care what it takes I'm going to get you out."

Something inside of her snapped then…"They're not going to let me go Nathan, if they do then I have a straight connection with everyone out there….what's going to stop me telling people where they have you….where they had me for that matter…"

"You'll have to leave Haley, just go somewhere until…"

"Until what?" Haley shouted…"Do you hear yourself right now?...I can't go Nathan and I'm not going…" She argued through tears. Nathan felt his own eyes watering and closed them quickly to the onset of feelings. He didn't want to feel it anymore. Any of it.

Haley scrambled up to her feet then feeling her muscles ache with tiredness, she spotted Nathan's suit jacket in a heap in the corner of the room and went to grab it. She flinched noticing the specks of blood that scarred the collar of the jacket. Quickly snapping herself out of those disturbing thoughts she went back over kneeling beside Nathan again. "Here….t..this is all we have.." She said shakingly as she put the jacket to his head hoping it would help somehow, anything was better than cold concrete.

Nathan swallowed hard again, the pain, the frailty of her voice cutting right through him. He'd damaged her. That much was clear.

"Are you hurt?"

She watched as his eyes scanned every inch of her as though she was trying to hide something from him. "I'm not hurt I promise." She said back softly as she raked her hand through her hair. She'd been so caught up in the adrenaline of it all she'd forgotten she was still in her bridesmaid's dress, the once cheerful peach colour now a vulgar rustic. Quite metaphorical for everything that had happened in the past few hours or weeks for that matter.

Nathan sighed softly, maybe she wasn't hurt physically but emotionally was the worst; the scars on the inside. No one could see it but it was the most powerful, the most damaging. He knew it all too well. "What did Dan do to you?" Haley questioned ever so softly as she sat down across from him keeping some distance this time. His sharp intake of breath at that question didn't go unnoticed by her but she pushed further hoping she could break through him; make some connection. Nathan was putting his boundaries back up fast and she would do anything to tear them down, to make her feel, to believe that everything they did had was not completely lost. With that thought in mind she pinpointed to the one thing that did have and nearly did destroy them. "The pictures…." Haley started apprehensively looking across at him gaging his reaction.

"I can't talk about this Haley." Nathan said coldly, his words so lacking of any emotion she felt the chill that he was no doubt feeling at the mere mention of this subject reverberate through her.

"I'm just trying to understand…" Haley spoke up again unsure of how to say everything that weighed heavily in her heart.

"I think the pictures were pretty self-explanatory." Nathan said ever so quietly she wasn't sure she even heard him.

"I never doubted you." Haley watched as he visibly recoiled at her words.

"You'd every reason too." Nathan said dejectedly as he sat up carefully and turned his back to her.

"No…" Haley cried out to him. "I'm not going to let you do this again!"

"Just let it go Haley."

"No you're not shutting me out." Haley argued as she came up behind him pulling on his shoulder.

"I said let it go!" Nathan shouted out as he harshly pulled away from her. She watched as his shoulders moved up and down in a rived motion from his laboured breathing.

"You can be mad at me all you want but I told you I'm not going anywhere." Haley said curtly.

"You know for someone that's meant to be smart you're actually pretty stupid right now."

His words hit their target that was for sure. She knew what he was doing. She felt herself trembling but she refused to let him break her like this, she would not make it easy for him. And if this was the way he wanted to go about it then she would only deal it back double. "So this is it huh….you just want to go back to that? After everything…."

"It's easier isn't it." Nathan said so impassively she felt her stomach recoil.

"It's always easier to run away from your problems." Haley stated watching him carefully now.

Nathan gritted his teeth as he finally found the strength in himself to stand up again. His head fell hot but the pain had long worn off, numbness taken its place quite like every feeling inside of him. "Well you'd know all about that wouldn't you?" He watched as Haley narrowed her eyes at his insinuations. "Jakes name ring a bell."

"Don't you dare." Haley warned him.

"Truth hurts Haley."

"Stop it….just stop being like this, this isn't you."

"Yea well maybe you don't know me…." Nathan placed emphasis on the last 3 words echoing exactly what she had said to him at the wedding.

"Honestly I don't think you know yourself." Haley spoke catching his blazing cobalt eyes head on. She watched the mask of confusion that washed over his face expectant of her words. "Your Dan Scott's son and that's all you see yourself as." She watched as he visibly trembled at her words turning away from her again.

"I told you to stop." There was an eerie calmness in his voice ;the anger that resonated in it palpable through his physical, trembling form.

"What was it you said Nathan…truth hurts."

"You have no idea what you're talking about." Nathan raised his voice as he glared at her.

"So tell me Nathan if I have no idea…" Haley retorted. "Because it's pretty clear from how you're acting right now that I'm on the right track.."

"How I'm acting." Nathan scoffed pointing to himself. "You think you know everything about me Haley but you don't….so stop analysing me ok…just stop all of it!"

"I'm only trying to help you.." Haley reasoned.

"I don't need your help." Nathan shouted back. "I don't need it."

"You're right you don't but I'm here…"

"Dammit Haley..." Nathan shouted. "don't you see where we are…..you don't belong here.."

"Neither do y…"

"No…" Nathan interrupted shaking his head widely as rubbed the palm of his hands down his face. "This is exactly where I belong.."

"Nathan…" Haley tried pulling the hands away from his face but he backed further away from her creating distance between them, his breathing extremely laboured at this stage. "The things I've done Haley…" His words cut off as his anguish penetrated right through every fibre of her being. It scared her to see the person she loved, someone she knew was so full of greatness like this. Dan had turned him against himself and it broke her heart to watch it play out before her very eyes.

Haley walked closer to him again but he held out. "You know I knew all along and I said nothing…" He stumbled out…."I didn't tell my mom and now…" His words cut off at the end and she watched as he slid to the floor in complete defeat, his back hitting against the wall. The tears brewed heavily in his eyes, she wondered if he would ever let them escape or was it just another reminder of the pain that penetrated through him. One he had spent a long time running from.

She couldn't take watching him anymore, without a second thought she made her way across the floor pulling him into her. And he let her. "I'm not going anywhere." She whispered as they held onto each other. He said nothing only holding her tighter but it was enough. Amidst all the wreckage that had occurred they weren't destroyed.

But she couldn't help but feel hollow inside, Nathan's past was catching up with him and she wasn't sure if even he himself could bear the brunt of it any longer.

XXXXXXXXXX


XXXXXXXXXX

"Look I won't say it again you need to get out there.."

"Excuse me sir." Another man walked up to him then trying to alleviate the conflict.

"Lucas…" Brooke tried but he pulled away from her harshly.

"No!" Lucas shouted. "My brother is missing and you're just going to sit here…"

"We understand sir but its preliminary investigation procedure that we check out everything before we file an official missing report."

Brooke stared off in the distance, the official jargon of the officer washing through her mind like the unshed tears which now burned her eyes. How did they let this happen? Her and Lucas had been gone the whole time. For all she knew Jake was angry at Haley for keeping her relationship with Nathan a secret, since then it seemed everything had cascaded past her control. And she was helpless. In everything. She thought she knew Nathan, remembering a time when they had been really close friends, now she felt she knew nothing. Nothing of his life, of Lucas or Haley for that matter. She was on the outside looking in and she couldn't do a thing about it.

She watched in fear as the guard tried to calm Lucas down. She'd never seen him so angry in all her life and once again she never felt so useless. There was nothing she could do. She was always the bondage in the group, the one to hold everything together but what was there to hold onto now?

She heard his weight slam down onto the metal chair beside her. "This is ridiculous…" Lucas sighed running his hand through his already wayward hair.

"Luke…" Brooke started her voice faltering.

"Not now Brooke…" He interrupted her as he hastily got up again and paced the floor.

Brooke swallowed harshly peeling her gaze away from him.

"Where is she?" Jimmy's voice hounded through the automatic doors in an instant.

" .."

"Don't give me that Luke..where's my daughter?"

It was the first time Brooke had ever seen Haley's father so angry. Beneath that anger lay a painful desperation that shook her to her very core.

"As far as we know she is with Nathan." Lucas reasoned trying himself not to let his anger and sheer panic over this situation prompt him to lash out.

"What do you mean with Nathan…what's going on?" His words were met with a painstaking silence. "Lucas…please just don't make this any harder than it is."

Lucas looked across at him in that moment and all he could see was the utter desperation and worry that surfaced his features. How was he supposed to say this, how would anyone understand? This whole investigation was kept under wraps for so long, it had seemed right at the time but now all he could see was the people they loved getting torn apart.

"The Wests have been after Dan for some time, Nathan was caught up in it…" Lucas hedged for a minute not even sure what to say only Jimmy didn't give him much chance.

"And apparently so is my daughter."

"He never.."

"You knew about this Lucas….all of you and you let H..Haley.." Jimmy stuttered off then completely torn up. "My girl…" He whispered to himself then.

"Sorry sir are you family?" The guard Lucas had previously been talking to approached them again.

"Yes my...my daughter…she's missing."

"Ok we are going to need to take statements from each of you."

"Are you serious?" Lucas lashed out again completely fed up. "They are out there, hell we know who has them and you're going to make us go through.."

"Like we said nothing can be done until…"

Lucas scoffed then. "Yea how convenient…for all we know you're working with them huh…I mean you know what's going on in this town and not a thing has been done about it…" He spat out before turning and walking out at the automatic door.

"Until we have full proof nothing can be.."

"You want proof? You know what... I'll go out there and find it myself." Lucas retorted bitterly before pulling away from them altogether and walking out of the station.

Brooke looked on helplessly knowing even she wasn't enough to help him at this stage. She rose from her seat walking up to the guard. "W..What do you need to know?"

"Will take the both of you in for questioning, we will need to talk to Lucas."

"He's not going to come back."

"If he wants to find his brother he will have to, as of now we have no clear evidence who is primary suspect in this case, it is necessary we investigate.."

"He's his brother." Brooke spat out disgusted with this guard's obscene queries.

"I've been in this job ten years, I've seen it all…now if you would come this way Miss."

She followed after him then. But what was the use? She was the only one that held no answers.

She just prayed Nathan and Haley would be okay.

They had to be.

XXXXXXXXXX


XXXXXXXXXX

The metal door slammed shut with a resounding crash jolting Haley awake in an instance. The musky, damp smell of the basement filled her senses at once.

"Well, well someone got a bit too comfy during the night." A man she didn't recognise loomed over her form intimidatingly. It was then she noticed the black suit jacked that adorned her frame, at some point during the night Nathan must have put it over her. One light in the corner of the basement had been left on all night so she couldn't even tell what time of day it was now, heck it could still be night time. She could feel Nathan beside her, extremely tense…she wanted to look across at him, to gauge him but she was just as afraid. The way this man was looking at her, seizing up her every move with his eyes put her on edge. It was like he could read her every instinct.

He bent down snatching the jacket angrily from her body and she immediately felt the cold air wash over her.

"Leave her alone." Nathan's tone was cold, demanding almost. He couldn't watch it any longer, the way he kept eying her like that made him sick to his stomach. Aaron West, Damien's father….figures he was to make an appearance soon enough.

Aaron got down in an instance pulling Nathan up and slamming him against the stone wall hard, Haley wanted to close her susceptible eardrums to the yelp of pain she heard escaping him from the hit.

"What was that you said? Huh?" Aaron said evilly. He slung his right hook at Nathan then letting him slide back down against the wall. Nathan held his hand over his left eye, a slight wheeze of a painful sound escaping his throat.

"Speak when you're spoken to boy." Aaron said not an ounce of shame in his voice at what he'd done.

Haley put her hand over her mouth to stop her weeping, she felt Nathan grab her free right hand intertwining it with his left and squeezing it. She wasn't even sure if it was to let her know he was okay or to help her but it didn't matter anymore. She watched fearfully as Aaron started shredding his suit jacket up before tossing it in the corner.

He then came back over pulling Haley up to her feet so fast she lost Nathan's hand instantly. "Don't worry sweetheart I'm not going to touch you as long as I get answers." He clarified pulling Haley down roughly into the chair Nathan had previously been on.

"What do you want to know?" Nathan spoke up, his voice painfully hoarse at this stage.

Aaron chuckled as he went around gagging Haley with the shredded black material.

"Who's been lying to me…?"

Nathan said nothing as he looked up to him his hand still covering his now bruising left eye. Aaron tightened the gag around Haley's mouth then causing her to squeeze her eyes closed with the onset of pain.

"I'll tell you everything….just let her go.."

"It's a simple question Nathan."

He couldn't do it. If he said his name they were sure to kill him instantly and what about Keith?...He couldn't do it. He had to figure out another way. It was then Nathan remembered how he'd been watching Aaron earlier when he came into the room. He's been very much awake then, having not gotten any sleep all night...something he was sure probably wouldn't have been very peaceful anyway.

Aaron rubbed his hands down the sides of Haley's arms getting ready to tie her. "I'm waiting Nathan." Haley whimpered against the muffled fabric across her mouth.

"It's a long story….I need some water. Please." Aaron watched him sceptically for a moment before he stalked off towards the tap. Nathan reached across in that moment to the phone he'd placed down on the cemented table the moment he came in. Haley watched him panicking and he could tell from her look alone she was urging him not to go there.

He quickly placed the phone behind his back as Aaron turned around, midway through the text. He flung the bottle towards Nathan as he went back to tying Haley. "The less you say the tighter the ropes."

Muffled by Nathan's silence Aaron looked up. Silencing his thoughts he then stalked over to Nathan grabbing the item from behind his back. "You little shit."

He chuckled menacingly then seeing Andy's name on the screen. "Thought you could win won over on me Scott…..just like your father." Andy spat out. Without a second thought he tied the rope he was planning to use for Haley around Nathan's arm tightly before punching him to the ground again.

Haley yelled out against the fabric clasped around her mouth.

Nathan lay completely helpless on the ground as Aaron went to grab for Haley. "You're work here is done. Trust me you don't want to be around for the rest of it."

I know it's not my best chapter and I had planned for it to be longer but there is going to be a considerable time jump in the chapters ahead and a good lot of this will be told in flashbacks, so we will be moving from the dark parts. I know this chapter was quite dark and not an awful lot happened but it was more of a chapter to move the story forward to the next turning point. I've still a good lot ahead for this story in terms of Nathan and Haley and I'm really enjoying writing everything that's to come. I'm writing the next chapter already so hopefully won't be as long a wait.

(Song used: Arcade Fire – Wake Up)