A/N: Ok so I'm at uni now! It's very strange…. I'm not 'loving it yet' but I have my first lectures today so maybe I'll meet more people.

And also get this: I'm on anti-biotics so I can't drink during freshers week…I know right…

Chapter 35

Alex POV

"Well this was…" Dad said walking me up to Mom's house.

"Awkward? Strange?" I finished for him.

"Alex!" he said looking hurt.

"Well it was! Come on Dad, what's going on?" I asked suspiciously. Dinner had been good. It was filled with lots of questions from Dad and good food. That was why it is awkward though, because me and Dad didn't do things like that. At home I'd always eat before he got home, and any other plans we made wouldn't be followed through. It felt strange to be sitting in a restaurant with him talking about sports over Italian food.

I'd played along the whole time with this complete different person who I was still debating was my dad and not an alien who had taken over his body. Now though, I wanted an explanation.

He sighed and looked around. I figured he was looking for somewhere to sit, not wanting to do this inside Mom's house so I started walking around the side and sat on the stone bench. He sat next to me and sighed again.

"I spoke to your Mom," he said.

"Well that's new in itself," I said.

"She told me you were considering a renegotiation of the custody plan," he said.

I knew telling her I was considering it to keep her happy wouldn't end well.

"Dad—" I tried to interrupt.

"No, hear me out," he said

"Hold on a second, so you took me out today to make sure I don't switch custody? I know you hate Mom, but—" I said, it hitting me that Mom had threatened him with custody changes and we all know Dad doesn't want to make things easy for Mom or have things her way, so having me on his side would surely put a spanner in the works. I hated being in the middle of their stupid relationship. I was doing it when I was a kid and I was still doing it now.

"No, Alex of course not!"

"Then what? Why are you here?" I said running out of patience.

"Please just hear me out," he said. I had never seen my Dad do anything close to pleading but this was the closest to it. It was only because of the desperation in his eyes that I decided to stay and hear him out. He seemed like he really wanted me to hear this.

"Ok," I said.

"I know I'm not the world's best Dad and I've made a lot of mistakes," he said and paused. If he was waiting for me to interrupt and tell him he was wrong, I wasn't going to do that.

"You're my son Alex, and I really care about you. You're all I have left," he said. I had never in my life heard him say anything like that to me.

"Da—"

"Look I'll understand if you want to live with your Mom, and if that's what you want to do, I'll respect that choice. But I really hope you don't. I promise things will be different at home. I won't spend nights at the office and I won't work on weekends," he said and I was nearly speechless.

"You don't have to do that, "I mumbled.

"No Alex, I really do. I owe it to you. You're my son and I haven't been acting like your father," he said. "I don't even know who you are."

Was he really changing all this just so I wouldn't move?

"Ok Dad," I said.

"I don't want you to say ok now when you really don't believe anything I'm saying," he said practically reading my mind. "I know I've made promises before but this time I'm going to follow through."

"Dad, I'm not moving," I told him sighing.

"You're not?" he asked looking relieved. "You don't hate me?"

"No I'm not moving," I said. "And Dad, even though our relationship isn't how it used to be when I was a kid, you're still my Dad and I still want to live with you. Yeah things are different but I don't hate you or even resent the fact you work a lot. I just adapted I guess."

"You shouldn't have to adapt to be not being around," he said, "I mean it Alex, things are going to change. I'm not going back to the city now. My trips over," he said.

"You don't have to do that for me," I told him.

"I'm doing it for our family," he said.

Call it instinct, but this time I felt like he'd follow through.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Brooke POV

"I'm telling you Lyss, it's amazing. It's exactly how I imagined it would be," I told her, gushing about my store as I swivelled on the chair.

"With both floors?" she asked.

"And the glass stairs," I told her. "I'll send you some pictures tomorrow."

"I can't wait to see," she said, "This is all so great Brooke."

"I know, I can hardly believe it myself sometimes," I told her. "But enough about me, tell me about you. Are you ok?"

"Yeah I'm fine," she said. "Nothing new on my side."

"Really?" I asked her, sensing that she was lying even though I was so far away.

"Yep," she said, reassuring me. "So do you have plans to come and visit soon?"

"Lyss, I've barely been gone a week," I told her, "I miss you tons though."

"Me too," she said.

"Maybe you can come see me soon?" I suggested, not wanting to go back to Tree Hill and face Nathan just yet.

"Sounds like fun," she said.

"Are you sure you're ok?" I asked her again.

"Yeah," she said.

"You know even though I'm not there you can talk still talk to me about anything right? I'm still here for you," I told her.

"Thanks Brooke," Ally said. Before I could ask anything else I could hear Nathan asking Ally something. The sound of his voice made me grip the phone even tighter.

"Listen Ally, I need to go," I said quickly not wanting to put myself in a situation where I had to talk to him just yet. "I'll call you later ok?"

"Ok, bye," she said.

I hung up the phone and took a deep breath calming myself down. Just then I heard footsteps in the silent sound stage and Julian came around the corner with a box of pizza in his hand.

"They're outside," he said sounding annoyed and I didn't need to ask who. The paparazzi had been hounding us constantly ever since our coffee date trying to find a story that wasn't there. We'd left the cocktail party we were supposed to be at early because we couldn't stand the serious debates about Atkins any longer so we escaped to Julian's empty office to indulge in pizza.

"Don't they have a life?" I asked opening the box.

"Apparently we are their lives," Julian said rolling his eyes.

"Well at least it gets out parents off our backs," I said.

Our parents had forced us into two coffee dates but they didn't actually have to do much more than that because we soon found we both got on really well and actually enjoyed having a friend in a similar situation. It was nice to have an actual friend who I didn't have any conflicted tangled up feelings for. It also worked out because Mom was always up for me leaving work to get away from the craziness of it all to go hang out with Julian.

"I love my job, I do but this side of it isn't so fun. It's still weird people know who I am," I told him.

"Do this for another year and you'll be where I am," he said. "If it's any consolation you just learn to live with it because they never go away."

"Great," I said rolling my eyes.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

Ally POV

"Is that Brooke?" Dad asked, stopping in my doorway.

I nodded at him but continued listening to Brooke.

"You know even though I'm not there you can talk still talk to me about anything right? I'm still here for you," she told me, and I wish it didn't upset me more hearing her say that after hearing Dad tell me the complete opposite. I knew full well that Brooke wasn't my Mom. She was better than that—she was Brooke. Dad telling me to just let go of her like that was unfair. He let me grow up with her being a figure in my life and he couldn't just expect me to forget her like that.

"Does she want to speak to me?" Dad asked but I ignored him.

"Thanks Brooke," I told her, appreciative of the fact our relationship wasn't one sided and I still had her even though it wasn't the way I wanted since Dad wouldn't step up.

Brooke gave me an excuse that she had to go and I put the phone down on my bed.

"I guess she's busy," I told him shrugging.

"You didn't even ask," he said looking disappointed. I would have normally felt sorry for him but it was his own fault if Brooke was avoiding him.

"She told me she had to go," I said. "You don't care what happens with Brooke anyway."

"We're not doing this again," he said picking up on my iciness. "What do you want to eat?"

"I'm not hungry," I said.

"You have to eat," he said. "Do you want Chicken Kiev?"

"I'm not hungry," I said, and trust me it was hard to say no to one of my favourites.

"Fine," he said sighing. "When you decide to grow up and realise I was right, there's food downstairs."

Not going to happen, I told myself.

He disappeared downstairs and I picked up my phone again.

I tried dialling Alex but he didn't pick up and after ringing the call went to voicemail. I didn't know if he just wasn't near his phone or he purposely just watched it ring. Either way he hadn't picked it up.

I dialled once more but this time when it got to voicemail, I waited for the beep.

"Hi, It's me," I said, figuring he didn't need me to state my name, "I'm really sorry about my Dad. Whatever he said to you, you didn't deserve it. Alex I miss you ok? Don't pull away from me now. I need you. Call me."

I turned the phone off and lay back wondering how my life got this frustrating.

Truth be told I wasn't even mad at Alex. It wasn't his fault. I was my mad at Dad. I just needed to show Alex somehow that we didn't make a mistake but I could only do that if he would listen to me or take my calls.

I pushed myself off the bed and took the medical form I had to fill out for school out and went downstairs. If I didn't sort this out now, I'd forget.

I went downstairs and Dad was in the kitchen making food.

"Where my immunisation records?" I asked him.

"What for?" he asked, taking some carrots out the fridge. I looked on the tray and saw that he was putting enough food into the oven, hoping that I'd give in and eat too. Call it stubborn but I just didn't want to give in.

"This medical update form for school," I said.

"It's in my office, in the filing cabinet," he said. "Do you want me to fill it out for you?"

"No I can manage," I said, going into his office. It didn't take me long to find what I was looking for and I filled out the form. I started going through Dad's drawers looking for a loose envelope to put it in, knowing I wouldn't be bothered to do it in the morning.

I never found that envelope though because I got distracted by a piece of paper. Like the last time I was in this room, the name 'Haley James' caught my eye.

I pulled the paper out the drawer and tried to read Dad's handwriting with both her and Dad's signatures at the bottom. What was this? Maybe it was to do with their divorce.

I was about to put it back where I had found it when I saw my name in the paragraph.

'I Haley James Scott all parental rights to Alyssa Brooke Scott' caught my eye and I froze.

What was this? I never really thought Haley had any rights to me anyway, or it just hadn't occurred to me before but this was clearly something recent because of the date. I read on and saw 'following my visit to Tree Hill on…'

They agreed Haley would let go of her rights to me after spending time with me?

I was so confused. Why would they randomly do this?

I left my medical form where it was and took the paper to the kitchen.

"What is this?" I asked, putting the paper on the kitchen work top.

Dad picked it up and I saw panic cross his face for a second.

"You weren't supposed to see this," he said, "it actually doesn't matter anymore."

"What is it?" I pressed. I didn't care if I wasn't supposed to see it. I had seen it, and it involved me so I wanted to know.

"Haley um..wanted to spend time with you," he said.

"Yeah I know that part," I told him. I know she asked to spend time with me, and I had.

"I told her I would only let her if she signed off her rights after," Dad told me.

"Why?" I asked, not seeing his logic, "so you wanted me to get to know her then just have her leave my life?"

"It wasn't like that," he said.

"So you wanted to take another person I care about out my life?" I snapped. "What if I wanted to keep a relationship with Haley? Oh my god, Haley actually agreed to this which means she knew this whole time that she was planning to just disappear again!"

"I wanted what was best for you," he said.

"You are not doing what's best for me!" I yelled, "you can't just make all these choices in my life! I'm not a little kid!"

"Ally—" he tried to speak, moving toward me, but I took a step back. He looked hurt as I moved away from him.

"I just—I can't do this," I said voicing what was going through my head, not actually addressing him. The frustration of Brooke leaving, Dad pushing Alex away when he was the only thing keeping me sane, and finding this proof that my relationship with my newly found mother was completely pointless all hit me at once and I suddenly felt like I couldn't breathe.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Nathan POV

To say I felt bad was putting it mildly. I hated that my daughter was upstairs in her bedroom right now this upset, and I was the cause of it. Ok fine, it wasn't my fault Brooke left, but I hadn't handled the situation well.

At the time when Haley had come back she has was the Haley that hurt people and I didn't want her anywhere near Ally. Getting Haley to agree to sign the document then felt like the right thing to do to protect my daughter. When Ally had shown me the document, it took me a few seconds to even realise what it was. I had completely forgotten about it and considering how things had gotten better with Haley I wasn't even planning on following it through. Just looking at the agreement though looked back, and I could see that.

I so wished we could go back to how things were before Haley was here when me, Brooke and Ally just seemed to live our lives without any stress. That all seemed a life time ago though.

Lying in my bed, I couldn't bring myself to fall asleep knowing she was hurting on the other side of the wall. I pushed the covers off me, looking at my clock which read 2am as I went over to her room. I just needed to check on her to get some sort of peace of mind. If she was sleeping I'd wait to sort things out with her in the morning. I'd probably even keep her home from school and take the day off myself just to fix things between us

I opened her door slowly, to avoid it creaking and waking her up if she was sleeping. Her room was dark, but it was easy to see the lack of a body in her bed. I turned the light on and sure enough the door was empty. I went back into the hall and I could see the bathroom door open, telling me she wasn't in there.

"Ally?" I called, going downstairs. The lights were all off downstairs, just how I'd left them. I went through the rooms downstairs and when they were all empty, that was when I started to worry.

"Ally?" I practically yelled, getting more worried when I was met with no response. It was then that I noticed the keys in the back door. I always locked up at night then put the keys in a drawer and that was exactly what I had done last night. The keys dangling in the door though told me someone had been downstairs after me.

I went outside, and looked around the house and she wasn't there.

I went back in the house and called her cell phone from the house phone. I listened to the ringing for a while, hoping she'd pick up no matter how mad she was, but then I heard what was sure enough one of those irritating songs that was always playing out her bedroom. I followed the sound back to her room and saw her cell phone on the nightstand ringing.

Oh shit.

I tried not to panic but it was hard not to when my seventeen year old was out in the night somewhere by herself at 2am with no means to contact me.

If this was a few months ago, the first place I would have gone would have been Brooke's place because that would have been the only place she would have gone. Brooke was no longer here though which meant I had no idea where she would be.

I dialled Rachel's number, not caring about the time, hoping Ally had still gone to Brooke's house even if it was just Rachel there. I would have hoped Rachel would call me if that was the case but just in case I called anyway.

"Hey," Rachel said laughing, clearly not in the middle of sleeping.

"Have you seen Ally?" I rushed out.

"Hold on, Nate, slow down," she said.

"Ally is gone. Is she at Brooke's with you?" I asked, hoping she would say yes.

"No, sorry," Rachel said, "Did you call her?"

"She left her phone here," I told Brooke as I grabbed my jumper and pulled on my sneakers. "She might be at Luke's."

"No, they're here with me. We were hanging out," Rachel said.

Hearing another option being crossed off my list only worried me more because my list was only that long.

"Call me if you hear anything," I told her, getting into the car.

"We'll help look too and let you know," she said, sounding worried.

"Thanks," I said, thankful I had such good friends.

I drove around the silent streets, hoping she was safe. I couldn't see anyone around anywhere and I couldn't think of anywhere else to look. Why didn't I foresee that this could happen! Ever since she was with Alex and I—

I hit the brakes as realisation set it. Alex! I knew I hated that kid. After I found Ally there my next step after making sure she was safe was killing him.

I turned the car around and headed toward Westchester, calling Dad, not caring he was sleeping because I needed to know which house I was looking for.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Alex POV

I pressed 4 on my phone to listen to the message again, putting the phone to my ear. I'd lost track of how many times I'd listened to it now but I couldn't stop. It was a combination of needing to hear her voice and making myself feel worse when I heard the desperation in her tone wanting me to call her back. I turned back to the address book so many times, intending to call her but I knew that wouldn't solve anything. I'd decided to stay away for her own benefit so I had to follow through no matter how much it sucked. My mind was still playing on it though because of the second message she'd sent only a few hours ago.

'Hey, it's me again. Um..so um…it's ok never mind'

That's all she said but I could detect something in her voice that told me she wasn't ok and that was what was playing on the back of my mind. Something else was wrong, and I actually considered calling her back just to see if she was ok. Last minute though I'd decided not to. She would be fine.

The doorbell rang, sounding louder in the silent house of sleeping people. It only registered the second time it rang that the doorbell wasn't supposed to be ringing at 2.30am.

I got out of bed, pulling on my hoodie over my t-shirt and went downstairs, just a few paces behind my Mom in her robe who was about to open the door.

"Don't, let me," I said to her, moving past her and getting her to move back.

She picked up the phone off the holder and had 911 at the ready and I rolled my eyes that Austin was still in his room letting my Mom deal with an intruder.

I opened it slightly and saw a dripping wet Coach Scott on the other side.

"Errr…Coach Scott," I said.

"Who is it?" Mom said, tapping me on the shoulder wondering why I wasn't trying to fight out an intruder.

"It's fine, go back to sleep," I told her.

"Teenagers," she said irritated and going upstairs, thinking it was a friend.

As soon as she was gone, I opened the door wider.

"Where is she?" he demanded.

"What are you talking about?" I asked, "Should you even be at my house? Isn't this against school rules?"

"I'm not playing Taylor," he said. "Where is Ally?"

"What? What do you mean where is Ally?"

"She left home, I can't find her. I know she's with you," he said. "Call her out now."

"I swear she isn't here," I said seriously.

"If I find out she was here—"

"I'm not screwing with you," I told him seeing the worry on his face. "She's just gone?"

He must have believed me because he told me they had a fight a few hours ago and now she was gone without her phone.

The message she'd left for me a few hours ago played in my memory and I instantly wondered if she would still be at home all safe if I had called her back. If anything happened to her, I knew it would be my fault. She clearly needed me and I'd ignored her, forcing her to run.

"Do you have any idea where she might be?" he asked me. "I already called Lisa and Danny."

"I don't know," I said trying to think but I came up with a blank. The only places I'd ever been with her were school related and her spot in the—.

"Ok i—"

"Wait! I think I know where she is!" I told Coach Scott.

"Where?" he asked, oblivious to the rain pelting down on his face.

In response I grabbed my shoes and went toward his car. In any other case he probably would have stopped me but he didn't say anything and just got into the driver's seat.

"Go left," I told him, and he turned the car the way I wanted him to.

We drove in silence for a few minutes with only me telling him where to go.

I watched the rain outside and hoped I wasn't right because it meant Ally was out in the rain and cold, but on the other hand I hoped she was there just to make sure she was safe.

Coach Scott drove with determination and I knew he just wanted her to be safe just like I did. He just wanted to protect her and for those reasons I sort of couldn't hate him for warning me away. We were on the same side, rooting for the same person.

"Coach Scott?"

"Yeah?"

"You know that favour you owed me?"

"You mean how you were blackmailing me?" he said curtly.

"Yeah, well I don't need it anymore. Forget about it," I said.

He looked away from the road for a second and gave me a questioning look.

"What's the catch?" he asked, "Or do you want me favour to be to let you and Ally be together?"

"No catch. I just don't need it," I told him, "and I wouldn't blackmail you into letting me date your daughter. If you're going to let us do that I want it to be because you're happy with it."

"Really?" he asked like he didn't believe it, "and if I never let you date her then you'd just be ok with that?"

"Well I'd respect your decision because I guess I understand it," I told him.

Coach Scott nodded like he couldn't believe we just had a genuine conversation, and I could hardly believe it either.

"Go right," I told him.

"The River Court?" he asked, "You didn't have to give me directions to here. She wouldn't be here, why would she be in the park in a thunder storm? She hates thunderstorms and she knows it's not safe."

I just got out the car and started walking down the path. He followed me reluctantly.

"Alex this is a dead end," he told me.

"Well it's better than the lack of ideas you have," I told him, continuing to walk through the rain.

We walked down the park in silence. On the way Coach Scott was looking around as if he was searching for her, but I knew if she was here at all she'd be where I was heading.

"Is this going anywhere?" Coach Scott asked as he checked his phone for any messages and when he didn't see any put it back in his pocket.

We were approaching the big secluded boulder by the river so I didn't bother answering him.

"Ally?" I called out hopefully.

Coach Scott stopped a few feet behind me as he realised this is where we were going.

We were both silent. If she wasn't here I had no idea where else to look.

"Ally!" I called again, louder this time.

Suddenly, I saw Ally look around the side of the boulder from her position on the floor.

I let out the breath I didn't know I was holding in relief as I saw her. It was in that moment that I realised I needed her just as much as she said she needed me and I wasn't going to push her away anymore.

Ally stood up, and I saw she was dripping wet in only leggings and a thin white t-shirt. She didn't look like she cared though because she'd been sitting in the rain all this time. She saw us standing there and squinted for a second, as if she didn't think we were actually there and I'd imagined it all.

Once she was satisfied it was really me, she ran past the boulder and past the trees and launched herself into my arms, clinging on for dear life. I wrapped my arms around her, holding her close. I could feel her warm breath against my neck and the reminder that she was ok and here made me not want to let her go.

"I'm sorry," I whispered into her hair. I was telling her I was sorry for losing faith in the first place, not picking up her phone call and then pushing her away.

"Don't leave me," she breathed into my neck, "I kinda need you around."

"I kinda need you around too," I told her smiling even though she couldn't see.

I reluctantly let go of her when the reality of how cold she was hit me and I instantly pulled off my hoodie. It was slightly damp but the inside was warm and dry so I put it over her head and she put her arms through. Her eyes went to Nathan and she walked over to him and started crying.

He pulled her closer and she wrapped her arms around his waist.

"I'm sorry I left," she said.

"It's ok, you're safe now," he told her.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A/N: Ok, so how was that?