Daddy Overnight

An OTH Fanfic

By AlexB

35

The card was burning a hole in his pocket. His mother had come back from seeing Keith and he'd asked her to pass the card to the facility where he was staying off to Nathan.

"He's doing better. He's trying, Nathan."

It would have been too much to say that he didn't give a damn how the man was doing. That didn't mean that Nathan was ready to, if he was ever going to, meet Keith at rehab. He still had his gripes with his mother's husband. Even so, if he decided to give this man the chance, the opportunity, to clear the air Nathan couldn't, wouldn't, go see the man without seeing Dan first; not because he owed him. Hell no. He had to talk to Dan first because he had given his mother the benefit of the doubt. Nathan was trying to be fair, even though he knew that it was going to blow up in his face.

He had taken the card out and looked at it he didn't know how many times. Nathan wondered if Dan even knew that Keith was the one who had saved his life. Had Keith tried to call him?

How hard was this going to be?

Nathan could do with some easy.

"Sure you want to do this, man?" Jake asked him. The three of them, Jake, Nathan, and Nic were watching college ball while Jake was reading Nic yet another book because he didn't care about basketball, and he had become spoiled on people reading to him.

Today was Pinocchio.

"Moral to the story, Godson: Lies…they're bad candy. Can't be a real person if you can't tell the truth."

"No, Jake, I'm not sure about this. I'm not sure about any of this. My mom is one thing. She accepts my son. I can't fix things…damn."

"You can barely get that out."

"I don't know if it can be done, J." Nathan sighed washing a hand over his face as he sat back deeper into the couch under him. "Maybe…maybe it's been too long. I don't know. What I do know is that it would be disrespectful to listen to Keith before I listen to Dan."

"You've been listening, and you didn't like what you heard, Nate." Jake told him. "You don't owe Dan dick."

"No, I don't." Nathan conceded. "It's not about him. It's about him." He nodded to his son fighting sleep in Jake's arms. "It's about Nicolas. I can't have my son being disrespectful and spiteful. Shit is poison."

Jake nodded, his lips smiling. Like a damned Obie Wan Kenobi. He knew everything. He had just wanted Nathan to say it.

"If you're not ready, man, don't push it. You and your…Dan, there's a lot there, man. Don't go plowing through it at break neck speed for Nic. This is about you, too. If you're not good with it, you aren't good with it."

"Yeah."

"We're good about the other night?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't we be?"

"Just making sure." There was that damn smirk again.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Something's wrong with you."

"Beg to differ." Jake shrugged. "I'm the master. Been telling you that since college."

"Still waiting on that evidence."

"Oh, son…if you only knew."

"You're not about to start singing are you?" Nathan's brow rose.

"Just might. I just might…"

That's how Nathan found himself sitting parked outside Dan's.

Nathan knew that Jake was right. If he wasn't good with this, he wasn't about to force it. He couldn't play into that 13 year old kid. Especially because he knew what it felt like to break under the weight that was Dan Scott.

"You're holding on to too much anger, Nathan." His mother's words played back to him.

"You gonna come in or stand out there all day?"

Nathan leaned against the body of his car considering. He knew that this was going to probably be the biggest mistake that he ever made, but he would be a coward and an even bigger fool if he didn't at least try.

The two men stood, watching each other from a distance. Nothing had changed about him. Nathan couldn't remember the man looking any other way. He stood atop the brick steps that lead to the house like he was like a king looking down on his subjects. His mile long stare would bury most people. It used to obliterate Nathan. Now? Now it made him want to feed his fist down the man's throat.

Was that good or was that bad?

This was a good thing, Dan thought. He'd come to him. He hadn't had to go to Nathan's house, he hadn't had to pick up the phone, and Nathan had come to him. When he had first seen his son standing there he could have sworn that it was his imagination, that he was seeing things.

He wasn't. He wasn't half dead after surgery seeing his child through a haze of drugs. He was wide awake and alert.

Nathan was here.

Dan watched as his youngest boy pushed away from his car and headed up the drive way.

"We need to talk."

"Okay," Dan nodded. "Come in. Let's talk."

Nathan turned sideways as he stepped into the house. He didn't move from the foyer. He looked Dan in the eye.

"Always look a man in the eye." Dan had told him.

"Why did you lie to me?"

"Since when do you knock?" Haley asked suspiciously as she took in her best friend standing on the porch like some stranger. She hasn't seen or heard from Brooke in days. Good thing she had decided to pay her a visit because Haley was about to start kicking shit in.

Brooke was about to offer some flippant, smart ass remark, when Haley's ensemble caught her eye and held. "What the hell are you wearing?" Said ensemble consisted of faded jeans with a hole in the knee tucked into a pair of combat boots, her dad's Water and Power hoodie that he had gotten long before Haley's birth that she had kidnapped in the ninth grade, a beanie and…

"Is that…is that lipstick under you eye?"

"I didn't have shoe polish."

"Why would you…? Haley James, explain."

"My kick shit in gear. The hell have you been, woman?"

"Me?" Brooke asked incredulity laced her words. "Where have you-wait. Whose door were you about to Swat Team? Mine?"

"To start."

"Why?"

"I wonder, Ms. Incommunicado?"

"Again; me? You're the one who…" Brooke's words trailed off as she finally noticed Haley aside from her attire. Her eyes narrowed at the other woman considering, like she was making sure of something, then they widened, the green of her irises dominating the brown that laced through them. "Hussy!"

"What?"

"Haley James, you HUSSY!" Brooke crowded her friend inside the door way, kicking the door shut behind her. "You slept with Hottie McWounded! No wonder your ass has been out of touch, Harlot."

"How-"

"Ha! I knew it!" Brooke crowed then giggled, her voice so tickled that it was almost infectious until her hand dove deep into her purse.

Brooke took AP classes in communication. She could have Jessie and Gracie on a three way call, one handed, in less than 30 seconds.

"Oh, hell, no." That wasn't happening. Haley's nimble fingers plucked the phone from Brooke's hands just as quick as you please and Haley took off like greased lightning.

"Gimme!"

"Nno!"

"Got me runnin'…gimme my phone, woman!"

"No!" Haley hurtled her coffee table, hopped over her couch and got caught behind it. "Who were you gonna call?"

"The President," Brooke deadpanned. "What do you want to bet he and the Secretary of State would bust out in the moonwalk with the news that the world's longest act of foreplay was finally realized? America needs a cigarette! Who do you think I'm calling?"

"No."

"Haley, what better way to connect with those that you have lost time with while remembering what sex tastes like than to dish about your man's abilities? Besides that, we haven't dished in a billion years!"

"You open your trap about Nathan, my whole family will learn about you and Tyler."

Brooke lifted a shoulder. "There is no me and Tyler."

"Lies!" Haley retorted. "And you know it."

The two friends eyed each other…

"Okay fine." Brooke sighed hard, obviously feeling put out. "At least tell me the payoff was worth the eon of teasing that you subjected yourself, and all of North Carolina, to? That man's baby has already graduated college… with four degrees."

"Smartass." Haley chuckled.

"You leapt a coffee table."

"Yeah."

"See, if I'd had my phone, I would have had evidence of the awesomeness."

"My family is well aware of my superpowers. They've been telling me to use them for good since I was two."

"Well?"

"What happened with my brother?"

"What did you say to him?" Brooke seriously wanted to know. Her eyes narrowed. "Did you release confidential, take it to the grave information?"

"No!" Haley replied scandalized. "I would never. You know good and damn well the only way I would rat you out was if you were on the FBI's top ten list, had a spot on 'America's Most Wanted', and a lettered agency had my daddy…all at the same time."

"Not your mama?"

"They're scared of her. And don't change the subject."

"What did you say to him, Haley?"

"Well…"

"Hey, Bear-ulph!"

Haley watched as her favorite brother fell into a ball of pain at her feet. She had sanctioned permission from her mother to conduct this investigation.

"Do what you have to do," Lydia told her baby girl. "But no death, no shovels, no holes dug to the center of the Earth, and no jeopardizing my having more grandbabies to spoil and give back."

"Deal."

"The hell, Haley?!" Tyler wheezed sweating out pain as he held his business.

"That's what Brooke felt when you played fast and loose and only an eighth of what you're gonna feel if you hurt her again. Now…how are you fairing?"

"She's barely talking to me." Tyler managed to set himself, propped, up against the wall by the front door.

"It's Brooke." Haley reminded him. "Did you expect it to be easy?"

"Well, no."

"You have to work twice, sometimes three times, as much, for the good ones, Ty-Rex. And my Brooke? She's one of the best."

Tyler thunked his head against the wall behind him, still cradling his business. "I know." He admitted. "I tried, Haley. I tried to move on, find someone new; and, for a while, it worked. Then it stopped. It stopped because it seemed like Brooke was everywhere."

"Tyler Silas James, if you're doing this to exercise some demon, I'm gonna snatch your soul from your body and leave your husk to rot."

"I thought Mama told you to use your powers for good."

"Tyler-"

"It's not, Haley. Swear to God." He told her. "I wish it were. It would be so much easier if it was. If it was…I could have went out and found a woman just like her-"

"Good luck."

"I'm just-"

"What? In love?" Haley shook her head. "You've been back for only a few months and you can't base love on the past, no matter how epic, because it's not fair; to either of you."

"Nothing." Haley said to her friend.

"Lies! Lies and deceit."

"What's next? Did you let him apologize?"

"Not yet. We're supposed to meet for lunch tomorrow. I'm not…getting my hopes up."

"Anyone who faults you is a dickface with the head the size of a pea, fathered by a pocket full of lint."

"Sassy."

"Real." She corrected.

"We still may have to put your brother in a hole. I know that dickface is your favorite-"

"I have two other that I like." Haley put in. "I would still bury them; I would just think twice before I did it."

"You 'tapped' your brother." Brooke said. "For me."

"If you knew my methods, then why did you ask? They should have known that I would have used that self-defense tactic, which they taught me, by the way, for personal gain. And I didn't even hit him that hard. Big baby."

"He said that you hit him with your purse."

"I barely touched him; tattle-tellin', red faced, out of breath on purpose, toddler. He better not call mama on me. Where's my phone?" Haley got up to look for her cell then whirled around. "Wait a minute! You talked to Ty-Rex?"

"He used his injury to get me to agree to lunch."

"Either you fell for it, or you went willingly." Haley crossed her arms over her chest. "Guess which one I'm guessing?"

"You've been out of touch for three days and you're all glowy like a light house at pitch black during a hurricane. Yeah, I didn't forget. My guess is that NBA rang your bell then went into overtime." Brooke's brow rose.

"Never let it be said that a good storm doesn't have its uses."

"Hussy!" Brooke clapped laughing. Haley rolled her eyes unable to pull the smile from her lips. "What does this mean?"

"He wants me to meet his people."

"Nate-"

"Don't try to get out of answering. Don't try to work your way around it." He told the man.

"Why are you here, son?"

"Did you know that Keith saved your life?" The flicker in Dan's gaze was answer enough for Nathan. Dan either flat out knew or had a good idea. "You were dead. No pulse, no sinus rhythm. Keith, your brother, brought you back then threw you in his truck and got you to a hospital."

"Doesn't change anything, or make us even." The elder Scott growled.

"Maybe; but he didn't shoot you in the chest. He didn't take your life. He didn't end you. He's the reason why you're still here."

"He slept with my wife. He fucked your mother and blew apart this family; our family, Nathan. I don't have to forgive him, and neither do you.

"Never said that I was."

"He's why you're here."

"My son is why I'm here."

Dan pointed a finger at him. "I'm not about to get into that with you. You know how I feel about the situation. I won't have it in this house."

"The only reason I haven't beaten you to death and walked out of the door like you don't matter is because of my boy. You say one more word about my son, about Nicolas, I'm going to stop being civil. You should be grateful to him. It's because of him, because I want to teach my child respect, that I haven't gone to Keith without stopping to see you first. His sleeping with your wife, to me, is over shadowed by the fact that he saved your life when he didn't have to, regardless of the past.

"Mom says that I should forgive and forget for my benefit."

"Don't you mean hers?" Dan asked. "I didn't sleep with your wife, Nathan. I haven't blown up your family. I am your family. I'm still here, no matter how much you hate it. No matter how much you want me gone. I'm the reason why you have what you have, son. You're where you are, where you've been, because I helped you get there. No one truly does anything alone."

Nathan nodded. "You're right. No one ever truly does anything alone. I run a business with family. I have people helping me to raise my son."

"Nathan-" Dan barked.

"Deal with it." He shot. "Nic exists even though you don't want him to. By the time I left home, I couldn't wait to get away from you. You only think that you know what it's like to hate until you start to feel it. You begin to hate yourself and do stupid shit because you're having this war, you're fighting yourself, because you're trying to figure out the hate that you have is for person that is supposed to love and protect you, that even though that person is constantly putting restrictions on that love; beating you self-worth into the dirt every chance they got, yet you still love them anyway.

"You're in limbo, fucking purgatory, because you really don't know which way to go. What you do know, is if you don't find a way out, there won't be a damned thing left to fight for; to live for."

"Nate, seriously."

"Do you remember when I went to that party and had to go to the hospital?"

"You went to a lot of parties, son. Every damned weekend if I recall."

"And I was only laid up in the hospital behind one." Nathan told him. "Don't act like it's slipped your mind. You were going to pull me off the team, refuse consent to play because you didn't like my game against Pinkerton."

"That game was weak son."

"They were a weak team." He shot. "I was doing what I was supposed to do. I was being serious about the game, about what I put into it. I was establishing a base so that I wouldn't be gassed and useless in long time play. You were pissed because I started taking cues from my coach instead of you. You threatened to pull me, bench me indefinitely, because of your own damned ego. We won, we decimated, on team play. That party wasn't a celebration. It was an escape. I got tanked on purpose because I was scared.

"I was a sixteen year old kid; I didn't see that I could have walked away from you and chosen to live with mom. She would have let me play. Like I said, stupid kid. That's my excuse. What's yours for driving me to it?"

"You will not blame ME for your drinking too much!" Dan shouted. "A man takes responsibility for his own actions. I taught you that. Your mother, she taught you that 'blame game' bullshit."

"Drinking too much? I tried to kill myself that night, Dan." The room fell quiet around them at Nathan's admission. "Mom was gone, I made the biggest mistake of my life by staying here, in this house, and you were going to take away the only thing that I had left, my ticket, and my way out, my escape. I couldn't see any other way around it. I couldn't breathe; and I would have rather fallen asleep and never woken up than to be smothered to death."

"You will not…blame me for your being weak."

"How is it blame when I'm standing here telling you that I fucked up, that we fucked up?"

"No, you fucked up, son." Dan told him. "Not me."

He wasn't surprised. "That's the difference between you and I. 'Do as I say, not as I do.' 'No one ever truly does anything alone' right? You say that then you want to back out and turn things around when those things are far from good. I own my bull. I drank to shut you up in here." Nathan tapped his fingers to his temples. "When that didn't work, I decide to go for broke."

Dan eyed his son. "You give your mother this bullshit, Nathan?" He asked. "You feed her this bullshit when she willingly slept with Keith? Chose Keith over you and me? I stayed damnit! I stayed, and yet all of your loyalty goes to her. Why? You tell me why?"

"You didn't."

"What?"

"You didn't stay." Nathan told him. "I did. I stayed when I could have left. I chose you. What you adults did had nothing to do with me. I was a kid, and you, all of you, were supposed to protect me. None of you did. Everyone was too wrapped up in their own shit. Fuck, this was a mistake." Nathan pulled his hands through his hair more in disappointment and frustration than in defeat. Anxiety pinched in his chest. He felt like he was on fire.

"Nathan-"

"No." He told him. "No more. It's too much. Fuck if I carry all this shit alone."

"Son-"

"Take the medication, Dad." Nathan told him as he threw the door open and stepped out into the air around him. "Your brother won't be here next time to save you."

Nathan shut the door behind him before Dan could follow not that he had noticed. Instead he stood in the foyer in shock, his heart beating wildly as the last 30 seconds played on a constant loop. His son, his baby boy, had done something that he hadn't done in years.

"He called me Dad."