Hello everyone...so, you can probably guess what I'm going to say...I'm soooo incredibly sorry for the wait for this chapter. I've been so busy with school and everything. Again, I apologize and I hope this chapter is worth the wait. I want to thank all of you amazing people who reviewed the last chapter. I never expected to get as many as I did and it completely warmed my heart. So thank you. Lastly, I want to dedicate this chapter to Kirstie for being the first to give me the good news that James got his hair cut. You made my day. :-)

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 36

"Here, I'll make it easy for you." That one statement sent chills down Haley's spine. She grabbed Nathan's arm as if holding on to it for dear life. Nathan watched Nick intently as his index finder seemed to move to the trigger of the gun in slow motion. Haley saw it too and in that moment she quickly pushed Nathan in the side as hard as she possibly could, causing him to lose his balance and fall to the ground just at the shot rang out.

"Oh my God!" Haley screamed as she sunk to the ground herself and covered her head with her arms instinctively.

Nathan looked up at the smug smile on Nick's face incredulously before looking at the wall behind him. Sure enough, a small hole was clearly visible in the door frame right where Nathan had been standing a second ago. Nick started laughing menacingly at the torment he was causing as Nathan looked over at Haley, concerned when she didn't look up but still held her head in her arms terrified.

"Nick! Are you insane! What the hell?! I cannot believe you just shot off the gun! You are so damn stupid! Oh my God! You're the biggest dumbass in the world!" Nicki exploded as she hurried out of Tim's bedroom.

"Relax, I didn't kill either of them thanks to the bitch," Nick shrugged.

"Haley?" Nathan called worriedly as she got up to his knees and inched towards her still hunched over and slightly shaking figure. "Hales, are you ok?"

Haley heard his alarmed voice, but couldn't seem to move from the little ball she had rolled herself into. This wasn't happening. This was a nightmare. A nightmare that she was going to wake up from any minute. It had to be. Any time now she would wake up and Nathan would sweetly kiss her temple as she recounted the terrifying dream. Yeah, that was it. This was all just one bad dream.

"Haley?" Nathan asked again, this time more sharply. He needed an answer; he needed to know that she was scared, but otherwise fine.

This time Haley responded by looking over at him and then up at Nick who chuckled upon seeing her large brown eyes wide with fear and shock.

Nicki grabbed the gun from Nick's hand in her fury before clicking the safety back on and then tossing it haphazardly onto the bed in Tim's room. "Do you have any idea what you just did with your moronic torture?" she asked in a tone so low that Nick was a little scared. "Because of you we only have a maximum of 10 minutes before the police get here."

"Oh please, you think the police actually heard that?" Nick scoffed.

"Hales, you're ok, right?" Nathan asked softly as he moved closer to her. Her looking at him had reassured him that she wasn't hurt and now that Nick and Nicki were arguing and the gun was in a different room he felt more confident in moving about as he pleased. He could beat Nick in a fist fight any day.

Haley nodded her head before reaching out and pulling him closer to her, resting her forehead on his. A few tears rolled down her cheeks as the thoughts of what had just happened and what could have just happened invaded her mind. That bullet could have easily hit Nathan instead of the doorframe. The mere thought of it made her hold onto him a little tighter.

Why hadn't she listened to him? She could have fought through the then small pain in her back and gone to the store. At the time, she had thought that he was just being over protective and the notion that either of the Chavez's would show up had seemed ridiculous. They were three days away from moving home, so close that she had thought that there was no chance of something like this happening before they left.

She had been wrong, and she would admit it. Of course, if she had gone, then they would have come home to find Nick and Nicki in their condo all the same, but either way here they were. Now they had to find some way out.

"Just go into the bedroom and look some more," Nicki ordered, "and don't even think about touching the gun again. We need to be gone in 10 minutes, necklace or no necklace." Nick gave her a hard stare before grunting and stomping past her into the bedroom, slamming the door in the midst of his tantrum. "You two, go sit on the couch."

Nathan and Haley looked at each other, both knowing that once they were on the couch and away from the door, they weren't going to leave until Nick and Nicki did.

"I said go!" she yelled when Nathan didn't remove his arms from around Haley and neither of them made a move to get up and walk to the couch. God, the last thing they needed was a hostage revolt.

"Come on, Hales. We have to get up," Nathan whispered softly in her ear as one of his hands ran soothingly down her back. Nicki was being fairly level headed at the moment and he didn't want to do anything to set her off.

"I can't," Haley choked out as she forced herself to look away from the floor and up at him.

"Yes you can. I'm right here, I'll help you," Nathan encouraged. "We're only going over there to the couch and then you can sit down again-"

"No, I can't, Nathan. I can't get up," she responded adamantly. Nathan was relieved to hear her raise her voice at him in a way, he felt like that meant she was going to be fine after this was over. However, his short-lived sense of calm faded with her next words. "It hurts," she whispered. "I think something's wrong."

"What do you mean something's wrong?" Nathan asked quietly, praying that she wasn't talking about what he thought she was.

"She means something's not right," Nicki supplied sarcastically. "Now get on the couch, both of you before I show you something 'not right'."

Haley bit her bottom lip as she grabbed Nathan's arm and tried to stand up, only to be met by a sharp ache in her side that caused her to double over in pain. With the pain, she started to cry again. This time not out of fear of the two people holding her captive, but out of fear for her baby. Something was wrong with him. She could feel it.

"It's ok, baby. I got you," Nathan said as he wrapped his arm around her waist, all but carrying her, and helped her over to the couch where she sat down. Nathan had never felt more helpless in his life. Here she was, in pain, crying, and he could do nothing because of the woman watching him over his shoulder. His eyes grew wide with panic when Haley bent over in pain again upon sitting on the couch. His mind thought of thousands of things that could be wrong with James, the one that stuck out in his mind the most was that he was dying.

No, he quickly shook that thought out of his head as he fought the urge to throw up. He couldn't think like that. James was going to be fine. Haley was going to be fine. They had to be.

"Ok, it's a little bit better now," Haley said softly as she rubbed a hand over her stomach as if to calm the little boy and tell him that he was fine. The pain had subsided for the most part and now she was praying that it didn't come back. Maybe it had been some kind of stress related cramp? She didn't know and she didn't want to know as long as it didn't happen again.

"I want you each on opposite ends of the couch," Nicki ordered as she watched them. She had been pregnant before, and although the two sitting on the couch probably would never guess this, but she did have a small conscience. She cared about her daughter. Not enough to give up her dreams of one day taking over the family business, but she would never want anything bad to happen to Jenny. Something about seeing another mother in pain like that didn't sit well with her. "No talking either."

Nathan looked back at Nicki to see if she was actually serious about them not talking and was met by a hard warning stare. I guess she's serious. He was expecting the police to show up any minute now. He had left the store about 10 minutes ago and may have 'accidentally' run a small number of red lights and might have gone a few miles over the speed limit on his way here, so it would make sense for the police to arrive in the next five minutes. At that realization, Nathan suddenly felt reassured. The police would get here, Nick and Nicki would be arrested, and Haley could see a doctor. Only a few more minutes.

"Nicki! I can't find a damn thing in here! Are we sure that the necklace is even in this room?" Nick yelled angrily from the bedroom. They only had about 10 minutes left to search and he was fairly certain that he had already turned over every square inch of Tim's bedroom. Strangely, the room looked pretty much the same as before they had trashed it.

"No, we're not sure," Nicki stated calmly as Nick came out from the bedroom and met her in the doorway. "Why don't you start in the other bedroom and I'll look out here."

"What if I want to look out here?" Nick asked defiantly. He didn't like his sister giving orders and if she insisted on doing it, he wasn't going to make it easy for her.

"You're not looking out here, Nick. The last time you were in a room alone with them you practically set off an alarm! You might as well have sent the police a text message telling them where we were! So, since you royally screwed us over, you're going to do what I say. And I say that you're going to look in the other bedroom!"

All three of the other people in the condo were silent after Nicki's outburst and an uncomfortable air filled the room. Haley was sure that Nick was getting ready to lose his temper yet again and one look at Nathan told he was about to do the same. She knew that he was probably scared too, but was more angry than scared. It made her even more on edge to know that he was angry because when he was angry he was a loose cannon. The last thing she wanted was for him to act on his anger and get himself hurt.

"Fine, I'll look in the damn bedroom," Nick conceded solemnly. "But we're switching places in a few minutes."

Nicki rolled her eyes as Nick disappeared into the bedroom. "I meant it when I said you two can't talk," she warned as she turned back to the two sitting on the couch. "In fact, don't even look at each other unless you want unnecessary attention."

Haley let out a deep breath before facing forward. She could feel Nathan looking at her defiantly, wanting her to look at him so their eyes could speak to each other, but she couldn't. There was no way she would knowingly put them in any more danger than they were already in. She had to think of a way out of this, and fast. She could already feel the familiar pain in her abdomen building up again and she was terrified that it was going to get worse.

Why weren't the police here? If Nathan had called them before he left the grocery store, then they would have had over 10 minutes to get here, and the police station was only about 10 minutes away. Maybe somehow they didn't get the message? No, Nathan had called them. He had said they were on the way, so that meant that he had called them. They were just taking their sweet time and would be here any minute.

Nathan was a little unnerved that Haley didn't look at him, but knew why she didn't. He had no doubt that she knew that he wanted her to look, but she wasn't the type of person to break the 'rules' like that. She would never do something to knowingly get both of them in trouble. He was sure that they were thinking the same thing though, where were the police?

The security guard had called them, Nathan knew that for sure, and he had gotten the address from a business card in Nathan's wallet…that was when it hit him. There was no business card for the condo complex in his wallet. At the time, Nathan had been too frazzled and in a hurry to even realize it, but the only business card he had in his wallet was one that Tim had given him and written his new cell phone number on the back of.

Shit. The police were headed to the wrong condo complex. Nathan racked his brain trying to think of what address was on the front, if it was close enough, there was a chance that the police had head the gunshot and were on their way here right now. He remembered that Tim had gotten a new cell phone a few weeks ago and had gotten one of those customized numbers, one that spelled out 'Timster'. He had complained about having to go half way up the beach just to find a store with the model he wanted…damn it. The business card was for a large hotel that Nathan remembered being about a half an hour up the beach.

Perfect. So the police weren't coming and they hadn't heard the gunshot. Of course, there was a possibility that someone else had and had called the police, but Nathan knew that that was unlikely. There were too many sounds that resembled gunshots these days, cars backfiring, fireworks, balloons popping, there were so many possibilities and he doubted that many people would risk calling the police and then looking like idiots if it turned out to be something else.

Haley looked up suddenly when she heard Nathan mutter something under his breath. Their eyes locked for a second before she quickly turned her head away when Nicki cleared her throat. That second was all she needed to get the message that the police weren't coming. She could see it in his eyes, the way he looked so helplessly at her.

She had to think of something, some way to get away from here safely. Nick and Nicki were too paranoid to let them go, but also too paranoid to let them stay. Haley could tell that when they were finished here they would no doubt find a way to shut her and Nathan up, and that was what had her most concerned.

She racked her brain trying to think of some way to distract them, or persuade them to let them both go, or even some way to contact the police. Then something her mom taught her when she was younger popped into her head.

Haley had been about 6 years old when her mother rounded up all children and sat them down to give them a lesson on the hazards of talking with your mouth full and choking. Lydia had stressed over and over again that if you try to speak while your mouth is full of food, something will go down the wrong pipe. Then she had said that if any of them were ever alone when they were choking, they were to call 911 and then hang up. 911 would then call back automatically and if no one answered, they would send someone over to see what was wrong.

At the time, Haley had thought that to be useless information. She was a polite child who always chewed with her mouth closed, but now she was glad she had listened. If only she could get a hold of the only other phone in the condo, a cordless phone that happened to be sitting on top of the coffee table in front of her, then she could call 911 and be certain that neither Nick nor Nicki would pick up when they called back.

So that was her plan. She had to grab the phone in front of her without letting Nicki see her, then she had to call 911 silently and hang up before the operator's voice could be heard from the tiny speaker. It was her only chance of getting the police here and subsequently saving herself and her family.

Nathan watched her curiously from the corner of his eye and noticed that she was thinking. She always chewed on her bottom lip when she was thinking and right now that was exactly what she was doing. For a spilt second, she looked up at him before her eyes glanced at the phone on the table and then back to the floor. So that's what she was thinking. She was planning on getting the phone and she needed his help.

He casually glanced over his shoulder to see Nicki bent over going through the pantry and motioned to Haley with his hand that she was clear. Nodding slightly, she eased forward and reached her arm out to grab the phone knowing that Nathan was keeping a close eye on Nicki.

Almost as soon as her hand came into contact with the phone, Nathan noticed Nicki starting to stand up and quickly tapped Haley's thigh to warn her. Reacting quickly, Haley tossed the phone onto the couch where Nathan put it between two couch cushions.

"What the hell are you doing?" Nicki asked suspiciously as she turned around to see Haley sitting somewhat more towards the edge of the couch and leaning over a little.

"I-" Before she cold finish, the throbbing in her lower abdomen returned and sent her bending forward in pain.

Nathan quickly grabbed her hand to offer what little support he could before looking at Nicki to dare her to tell him it was against her rules. If they weren't going to let them leave, then they sure as hell weren't going to keep him from trying to help his wife.

"You're in labor, you know," Nicki pointed out nonchalantly as she bent back over to throw more of the foods in the pantry out of the way.

At this, Haley's head shot up. "No I'm not."

"I've been in labor before so I know what it feels like, looks like, and sounds like. Trust me, you're in labor."

"Why the hell would we trust you for anything?" Nathan spat back. Haley's pain seemed to have subsided somewhat because she loosened her death grip on his hand.

"You're right, that was an unfortunate choice of words," Nicki smirked. "I was only trying to help. You might want to help us find the necklace so we can get out of here and you can get to the hospital."

"I'm not in labor," Haley said adamantly.

"Why do you think that?" Nicki laughed.

"It's too early. It's only cramps from stress or something," she responded coldly as she stared at the dark haired girl in their kitchen. There was no way she was in labor like Nicki said. James wasn't ready to come out yet.

"Believe me, I've had those too. They're way different," Nicki stated before turning back to the task at hand. "You'll see that I'm right when the kid pops out in a couple of hours."

Nathan and Haley looked at each other worriedly. Nicki is wrong, Haley thought desperately, he can't come out for another month. Then Haley remembered the phone and what she had to do in order to get them out of there. Glancing over her shoulder to make sure Nicki was still bent over; she reached in between the couch cushions and slowly pulled out the phone, her family's lifeline.

Nathan watched Nicki carefully as he glanced back and forth from her to the phone in Haley's hand. He could hear the muffled beep of each of the three numbers as Haley dialed them while keeping her other hand pressed firmly over the speaker.

As soon as Haley saw on the small screen of the phone that the operator had picked up, she counted to five and then hung up, praying that her plan would work. It would, as long as neither Nick nor Nicki answered the phone. Haley quickly and carefully placed the phone back where she had found it while she waited for 911 to call back.

"Nicki! We're switching spots!" Nick commanded as he stomped out of the bedroom, one of Nathan's t-shirts in his right hand and Haley's favorite bathing suit top in the left. "I'm sick of looking through clothes! I want to go through the food and smash the dishes and stuff."

"Nick, you don't have to go through the clothes, just throw them out of the closet and look behind them," Nicki groaned. He always made everything so difficult.

"Well, if it's so easy, then why don't you do it?" Before Nicki could say anything in her defense, the phone in the condo started ringing. Both of their heads shot over to the closest source of the ringing which happened to be a cordless phone sitting on the coffee table.

"Was that phone there the whole time?" Nicki asked as she eyed the two sitting on the couch suspiciously.

"Yeah, I remember when I threw the phone before I thought it was ironic that it broke only about 3 feet from the other one," Nick chuckled menacingly.

"That's not ironic you moron. Use a dictionary every now and then. God," Nicki cursed. "You know I hate it when you try to sound smart because it makes you sound even more stupid."

"Whatever, are you going to answer the damn phone?" Nick spat. If there was one thing he was through tolerating from his sister it was her incessant insults and her undermining of his authority.

"No I'm not going to answer the phone!" Nicki yelled incredulously. "What would I say? Sorry, the people who live here are being held captive right now while we ransack their condo, again, in hopes of stealing a priceless necklace? That will go over well," she scoffed. "Try using your brain, moron."

"Well, maybe whoever it is will get suspicious if no one answers," Nick mumbled, knowing his logic was not as good as his sister's. "Never mind, just go into the bedroom and keep looking."

"Don't mess anything up," Nicki warned as she disappeared into the bedroom and Nick grunted in triumph. Haley watched the scene and then looked over at Nathan, the concern evident in her eyes. Nicki had been more merciful that Nick was known to be, and Haley was extremely worried that he was going to hold a grudge against Nathan for sneaking in.

"So, hero boy, how the hell did you get in here?" Nick laughed.

"You're not as secluded in here as you might like to think," Nathan said coolly as he looked directly at Nick. He wasn't going to tell Nick that he had watched the shadows under the door until he saw them disappear into a different room because Nick didn't deserve to know. The phone had stopped ringing by now and he could only hope that the police would be here in a matter of minutes.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean? Did your little whore call you or something?"

"Hey-" Haley protested before falling silent.

"It means that if I can get in, anyone can," Nathan replied.

"No they can't! I locked the door!" Nick yelled back. "No one's coming in and no one's going out. Got it?" Nick looked pointedly at Haley whose eyes were large and starting to fill with tears. Good, looks like I scared her.

"Stop looking at her," Nathan commanded.

"Or what?" Nick challenged with a mocking grin.

"Nathan-"

"Look man, I don't know what the hell your problem is, but we just want to get out of here and go to the hospital," Nathan started. "We're not going to stop at the damn police station on the way and turn you in."

"Damn right you're not, because you're not leaving."

"It's not like it would matter anyway," Nathan continued antagonistically.

"Nathan-"

"The police already know that you're the ones who trashed the place last time. Hell, you probably have your own satellite by now."

"Shut up, no we don't. It's impossible to use a satellite to track people," Nick grumbled. Nathan had to be bluffing. Only bad ass people like terrorists and people who steal gasoline got satellites put out for them. Or is it terrorists and whale killers? Nick couldn't remember what he had read in the New York Times, but either way, he was no gasoline stealer or whale killer. Terrorist maybe, but not those other things. That would be pretty cool to be on America's Most Wanted…

"Are you kidding me? Yes they can. Did you even finish grade school?" Nathan laughed as he watched Nick's anger flare. He just couldn't help himself. Nick didn't have the gun with him so he felt relatively safe when saying all this. Besides, he was never going to get a chance to bring Nick down a notch again.

"Yes I did! My mom said that once you get past 5th grade it doesn't really matter anymore anyway," Nick defended himself before realizing what he was doing. "Just shut up before I go get my handy little gun and make your whore pay for your mean words-"

"Nathan!" Both men were taken off guard by Haley screaming his name in order to get his attention. As soon as Nathan looked over at her tear stained face and wide desperate eyes, he knew something was wrong. Very wrong.

"Uh, Nicki!" Nick shouted as soon as he saw Haley's face. He had a feeling that he wasn't going to be able to handle what she was about to say and that Nicki would know what to do.

"Hales, baby, what's wrong?" Nathan asked in a panicked voice as he reached over to cup her face with his hands, scared to death by her sudden tears.

Haley took a deep breath in an attempt to regain her voice before speaking. "I um, I think that my water just broke."