Hello everyone. :) Thank you sooo much for the reviews for the last chapter and all of your encouraging words. They really do mean so much to me. So, you all are in luck. This chapter was longer than I thought, so I added another chapter into my plans. lol. I think there will be two after this and then and epilogue. So, enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own One Tree Hill or any of its characters.
Summary: After 4 years, Nathan, Haley, Brooke, Lucas, Peyton, and Tim are heading back to the beach for another summer of fun. Some hold secrets, some have suffered through heartbreaks, and some are their same old selves. They will encounter a few familiar faces and unimaginable surprises as they return to the past in this sequel to "A Summer to Remember."
Return to the Past
Chapter 37
"I um, I think that my water just broke." Haley's eyes were full of salty tears and her voice was thick with fear.
"What do you mean you think?" Nathan asked softly, brushing the tears from her face. Haley only looked at him and nodded her head, as if saying it out loud would make it more real. Nathan let out a shaky breath; this could not be worse timing for the little guy to make an appearance. "Ok, it's going to be ok Hales, I promise. We just, we're going to get to the hospital," he whispered soothingly as more tears escaped from Haley's eyes.
"You don't know that. Nathan, he can't…it's too early," she stated desperately, "oh God." Another pain that she now knew was a contraction hit her and she grabbed his hands and clamped her eyes and mouth shut as she waited for it to pass.
Nathan watched her, never feeling more helpless or scared in his life. What the hell were they going to do? He knew nothing about problems that could occur when a woman gave birth, but he assumed that if Haley was having some kind of complication that caused her to go into labor early, then she needed to be at a hospital.
She slowly released his hands and her eyes opened slightly and met his. He could see more tears clouding her vision, but knew that they weren't from the pain. He knew she was tough and would put up with the pain for as long as possible, right now she was crying because their baby was coming and she could do nothing about it.
"Nicki! Get your ass in here!" Nick yelled from behind them as he watched the scene.
"Shh, Hales, calm down," Nathan soothed as he pushed more hair out of her face.
Haley shook her head. "How am I supposed to calm down? I'm being held hostage by two psychopaths and I'm having a baby!" she yelled.
"What did you just say?" Nick spat angrily as he took a step towards the couch.
"She didn't mean-"
"Yes I did mean it, Nathan," Haley shouted. "You're psychotic! You and your sister! Do you even care? Do you know what you've done? It's your fault that he's going to be born too early!"
Nathan's stomach dropped as he heard his wife scolding the man in front of her. If he knew one thing about Nick it was that he hated to be criticized. Haley had lost it and Nathan could feel himself reaching his breaking point as well. Nick and Nicki had better hope to God that Haley and James ended up being fine or he would be coming after them. "Haley-"
"What, Nathan? You know I'm right!" Haley's yells were now more of sobs as she tried to maintain her composure long enough to tell Nick what she was thinking. This nightmare had become too real too quick and the only people she could and would blame were the Chavez's. "He's just a baby!" she shouted as she turned back to Nick, "He's just a little boy. How can you sit there and not care that you could be the reason an innocent baby might-"
She couldn't finish her rant before sobbing completely overtook her voice. Nathan quickly gathered her in his arms in hopes of both calming her and keeping a fuming Nick away. "He's going to be ok. I promise, Haley. He's going to be fine," he whispered into her ear as Nicki finally emerged from the bedroom.
"What's going on?" she asked confusedly as she looked from a hysterical Haley, to a frantic Nathan, to a seething Nick. Oh boy.
"The bitch just said I killed her baby!" Nick yelled angrily, not noticing the way Nicki's mouth dropped and her face clearly showed disgust towards him.
"Shut the hell up!" Nathan yelled suddenly, still holding Haley's shaking body to his own. The two things he least wanted to hear were Nick calling his wife a bitch and him referring to his son as dead.
"Maybe you should tell that to your wife!" Nick retorted.
"Nick, you didn't…I mean…God, what the hell did you do?" Nicki asked solemnly, her eyes glued to the young woman on the couch.
"Me?! I didn't do anything!" he exploded. "Her water broke and then she started screaming at me that it was my fault and that I didn't care that the kid might die or something!"
"Was it your fault?" Nicki asked blankly.
"What the hell?! No! I didn't do anything!"
"You mean other than hold us here against our will, hit me, and try to shoot my husband?" Haley snapped impulsively, lifting her tear-stained face from Nathan's now tear-stained shirt.
"Stop talking," Nick commanded gruffly, "or I'll try harder to shoot him."
"Nick, you're only making it worse," Nicki groaned. "Nathan, take her into the bedroom so she can change into some dry shorts.
Nathan nodded appreciatively before reaching out to take Haley's hand and help her stand up. "I'll go in and make sure they don't try anything," Nick offered with a devious smile. "In fact, I should probably be the one to help her change, just in case."
"Over my dead body," Nathan snapped.
"Now there's a thought," Nick laughed heartily.
"Nick, just leave them alone," Nicki said flatly. She didn't think it was necessary for him to mock the two like that. If he wanted to scare them a little just to keep them in line, that was fine, but she found herself strangely unsettled by anything and everything he did to physically hurt Nathan and especially Haley. She supposed it was her maternal instinct that was making her empathize with the young woman, but if that was true she had to wonder why that instinct hadn't surfaced years ago when she had become a mother herself. "You two," she said, turning to Nathan and Haley, "hurry up."
Nathan and Haley both nodded before making their way towards the bedroom, her hand holding his arm tightly for support. As soon as they were inside and Haley was sitting as comfortably as possible on the bed, Nathan closed the door and locked it, not caring whether or not the two outside would like it. There was no way that he was going to take the chance of Nick barging in with the idea in his head that he was going to help Haley change her clothes.
The first thing he saw when he turned around was Haley already hunched over by the closet, one hand gripping her stomach and one pulling a pair of his basketball shorts off of their assigned shelf. "You don't care if I wear these, right?" she asked faintly, already sure that she knew the answer.
He shook his head before walking over and helping her back to the bed. "Here, just sit and I'll help you put them on-"
"I'm not disabled," she responded lightly, obviously trying to relieve some of the tension in the air. As if proving that she was capable of changing her own shorts, she took them from Nathan's hand and started to remove her own. Nathan almost winced as he watched her in so much pain, more than anything he wanted to take it away. "No, I can do it myself," she assured him as she swatted his hand away from her feet where he started to take off her shoes for her. "Ok, you can do the shoes," she half-smiled as she realized that she couldn't reach her own feet.
Once she had successfully changed into Nathan's looser and more comfortable shorts, she let herself lay back comfortably on the bed, propping herself up with her elbows, as she tried to calm herself down. "Stop it," she commanded lightly as felt Nathan's worried eyes on her. "I'm fine."
"No you're not, you need a doctor," he said as he jammed his hand through his hair. Right now it seemed like he was more worried about the situation than she was, and he didn't like it. "I don't know what to do, Haley. We can't stay here, but we can't leave-"
He stopped short when he witnessed her sharp intake of breath and she reached one of her hands out in search of his. He hurried to her side, taking her hand and letting her squeeze it as she fought through the pain of the contraction. We've got to get out of here now, Nathan thought desperately. There was no way he was letting his son be born here with two maniacs in the same condo.
Once the pain subsided a little, Haley relaxed her grip on his hand as she battled the tears that were once again welling in her eyes. She didn't want to cry anymore. She had to be strong for her baby, and crying would get her nowhere. She kept telling herself this, but it did little to stop the tears from falling and ease her anxiety.
"Don't cry, Hales, I'm right here," Nathan tried his hardest to soothe her, but knew that his efforts were probably worthless since he was in the same place as her. He felt hopeless and trapped and he had no idea how they would get out of this safely. "I love you, you know that?"
A ghost of a smile crossed her lips as she nodded her head and bit at her lip to keep from sobbing. "I love you too."
Nathan easily leaned over, brushing his lips softly against hers before moving his face down to her oversized middle. "James, buddy, I know you can hear me so listen up. You're not allowed to come out yet, ok? Just wait a little while longer, until we get to the hospital at least."
"Nathan-"
He looked up at her and watched her nod her head towards the door. Upon shifting his eyes to follow hers he saw what she was worried about. The doorknob was juggling slightly and they were both sure that they would have company in the room in a few seconds. Damn locks. Why are they even on the door if they can be picked?
Their assumptions were correct and moments later the door swung open and both Nick and Nicki walked in stone faced. "You," Nicki commanded as she pointed at Nathan, "go stand by Nick. I'm going to look at her."
Nathan didn't really know what she meant by that, but he complied upon seeing the shining metal of the gun tucked safely in her back pocket. At least it wasn't Nick who was going to 'look at her'.
Haley watched questioningly from her seat on the bed as Nicki made her way over towards her, sitting on the bed and then reaching over to rest her hand on Haley's stomach.
"What are you doing?" she snapped as she swatted her captor's hand away from the one thing she wanted most to protect.
"Relax, I'm trying to help. In case you forgot, I've had a baby myself," Nicki responded, hostility evident in her voice. Deciding that she shouldn't anger the woman holding the gun, she didn't move when Nicki tried again to put her hand on her belly. "How far apart are your contractions?"
"Um, about five minutes I guess," Haley answered softly, knowing that that wasn't a good thing.
"Five minutes?" Nicki asked, shocked. "Damn you're having a fast labor."
Haley didn't need to be reminded of that fact and she instantly shot Nicki a look that told her so. She knew that most mothers would love to have a quick birth, but she was not one of them at the moment. Right then she would have traded a one hour birth for a ten hour one in a heartbeat.
"Maybe I should check to see how far she's dilated?" Nick suggested with a ominous grin. Haley's mouth fell open and Nicki jerked her head around to give Nick her evil eye. "What? Isn't that what the doctors do? You know, look down there and-"
Before he could finish, Nathan had him pinned against the wall by his neck, obviously having met his breaking point. "First of all, don't even think about it," he warned loudly. "Secondly, you're not a damn doctor which is what she needs!"
"Get the hell off of me!" Nick squeaked through a raspy voice. "Nicki, shoot him!"
Haley's eyes went wide as she watched the scene, looking from her husband to the woman next to her who, to Haley's relief, wasn't making a move to reach for the gun. "No way, Nick, you deserve this you jackass."
"Nathan, let him go," Haley pleaded from her seat on the bed. Normally, she would have been next to him holding his arm, knowing how much physical contact always calmed him down, but with each passing minute it seemed to be becoming harder and harder to try and stand up. "It's ok, what he said, just let him go."
Upon hearing her words, Nathan reluctantly loosened his grip on Nick's neck slightly. "You see that, Nicki? The bitch even controls him!" Nick's face was met a moment later by Nathan's fist and he immediately fell to the floor in pain.
"You deserved that too, you moron," Nicki responded, shaking her head. If Nick was going to try and play his little mind games with the Scotts instead of focusing on the job they still had yet to do, then he deserved to be hit.
"We're leaving," Nathan said firmly as he hurriedly wrapped Haley's arm around his neck and helped her stand up.
"No you're not," Nicki's voice matched the firmness of his own as she reached back and brought the gun into plain view. "If you leave, it will only be when I say so."
"You tell them, sis," Nick cheered from the floor where he was slowly sitting up and holding his nose.
"Shut up, Nick. Stop being a wuss and go in the other room and find the damn necklace!" she screamed. Nicki had clearly reached her breaking point as well and Haley couldn't help but fear that that was a very bad thing. "You two, since you're already up, go back to the couch where we can keep an eye on you."
Nick struggled to his feet and then walked with his hand on his face back into the living room, followed by Nathan and Haley who were quietly making their way back to the couch, hoping not to set Nicki off any more.
Once they had made it to the couch, Nathan helped Haley lower herself onto it as he himself stayed standing. He just couldn't bring himself to sit. He felt like he needed to pace the floor or something. There had to be a way out of this, some type of loophole. He glanced at the clock and realized that it had been a little over 10 minutes since Haley had called 911. Where are the damn police?
"Nicki, my nose feels better now, give me the gun," Nick commanded gruffly as he came up behind his sister, his hands outstretched expectantly.
"Why?" she responded warily, tightening her grip on the gun.
"Because I'm going to kill that bastard for touching me!" Nick yelled as if that should have been obvious. No one made him look like a fool and got away with it. "Either you kill him or I will."
Haley looked desperately over at Nathan, their eyes locking. This cannot be happening, she thought. It's ok, Nathan's going to be fine, James is going to be fine, the police will be here in a minute or two, she told herself calmingly. She had to believe that in order to keep her sanity. What would she do if something happened to either one of them? The thought had her reaching out for Nathan's hand and he instantly grabbed it as if needing to touch her as much as she needed to touch him.
"You're not going to kill him," Nicki stated flatly.
"Ok, maybe you didn't hear me, but I said I'm killing him, and I'm the boss so hand it over!"
"Who exactly made you boss? I'm the one holding the gun," she countered, her eyes locked on her brother.
"I'm the boss because I'm older, and I'm a guy. That gives me authority over you."
At this Nicki let out a loud snort followed by a laugh. "You're kidding me, right? I'm going to pretend you didn't just say that."
"I did say that, now hand over the gun!" Nick demanded. Nathan and Haley watched the argument intently, knowing that their lives were dependant on the outcome.
"Nick, you're stupid, that's why you're not the boss," she snapped back. "Think about it. It's been almost 20 minutes since you fired the first shot and the police haven't shown up. Are you really going to test fate like that again?"
"Hell yes I am!"
"No, you're not," Nicki sighed dramatically. "You're going to go start looking over by the TV while I finish the kitchen. And don't even think about pulling the superior gender card again, it makes you sound like a bigger moron than you already are."
Nick only rolled his eyes, deciding to give up the argument for the time being, and turned towards the living room area to see Haley obviously suffering from another contraction. "Hey, does it hurt?" he asked her casually as he passed and made his way towards the TV. When she didn't answer, he assumed that it did. "Good."
Haley could sense Nathan beside her starting to lose it again so she grasped his hand tighter. They had both made it this far and were still alive, and she didn't want a malicious comment to ruin that. She didn't even care what Nick said anymore. She was past the point of showing any emotion whatsoever towards the man. He could sit there and criticize her as much as he wanted and she wouldn't care. As far as she was concerned, he didn't even deserve to be listened to.
Nicki rolled her eyes at Nick's rude remark and then her eyes landed on Haley, whose most recent contraction seemed to be subsiding. As she watched Haley rub a soft hand over her swollen stomach affectionately and then whisper something, a sudden pang of pity hit her like a bucket of cold water. "Nick, I think we should let them go to the hospital," she said resolutely as the other three people in the condo snapped their heads up to stare at her. "Her labor's moving really fast, she needs a doctor."
"No way, Nicki! If we let them go they'll tell on us!" Nick yelled defensively. This whole situation had turned into way more than he had bargained for. All he wanted was to steal the necklace and move on with his life. He never asked for a pregnant woman to go into labor as he held her hostage.
"What are you, two years old?" Nathan snapped. "She needs a doctor!"
"Nick, if we don't let them go and the baby dies, we could end up with murder charges on top of everything else," Nicki stated calmly, trying to justify what she was pleading.
"You're talking as if we've already been caught," Nick responded gravely. They were in an impossible situation now. If they let Haley go, they would surely be caught, but if they kept her here then he was going to have to endure the bloodcurdling screams that women always let out when they were in labor. "Ok, go, get out of here," he conceded quietly as he waved his hand dismissively.
Nathan let out a deep breath, was there some kind of catch to this? After all that had happened in the half an hour he had been here he had trouble believing that Nick was just going to let them go. Nevertheless, they had to get out of there if he was letting them. Haley reached for his hand and he instinctively took it as he wrapped the other one around her waist to help her stand up.
"Whoa, not you hero boy," Nick commanded suddenly. "I said she could go, I said nothing about you."
"What?" Haley gasped, convincing herself that she had heard wrong.
"I'm pretty sure that you heard me," he laughed. Nicki watched him, not saying a word.
"You're not serious," Nathan said more like a question than a statement.
"Of course I'm serious!" Nick roared. "You think I joke about things like this when my ass is on the line? She goes, you stay."
Haley looked at Nathan and knew what he was thinking because she was thinking the same thing. What good was her freedom without his? She couldn't drive in her condition, she didn't have a cell phone with her, Lucas, Brooke, and Peyton were all out enjoying their last Wednesday night of summer, and Whitey was in Raleigh for a funeral. That only left one person in the condo complex that she even knew…Chris.
"I want to stay here," Haley said weakly.
"You can't, I'm kicking you out," Nick shrugged. "I don't want to listen to your whining any more, so go."
Haley shuddered as she turned to look at Nathan. She already knew that he was going to tell her to go, but that didn't make it any easier to hear it. She knew she had to go and she knew that Chris was basically her only chance; she could only hope that he was there.
"It's ok, go," Nathan said softly, the conflict she was feeling plainly written on her face.
"But-"
"I'll be ok, just take care of yourself," he assured her. The last thing wanted to see was her staying here and something happening to her. She was their only chance now. It seemed that the police weren't coming, so now it was up to her to get them out of this.
"I love you," she whispered as she pulled him into a tight hug. "I'll come back for you."
"No, you need to get to a hospital first," he whispered back into her ear. His first and only priority was he and their baby. He didn't want to be safe until they were.
"Nathan…please don't make me leave you here, you know I can't," she choked out, tears starting to flow from her eyes.
"I'm not," he assured her as he fought the lump that was forming in his own throat. "Take care of yourself and the baby first. Don't worry about me." Haley pushed herself up on her toes to leave a quick kiss on his lips. "And I love you too," he whispered. "Now go."
"No Ashley, you're not hearing what I'm saying. I went to the grocery store to get that special tea that's supposed to help you build muscle, but they were all out. So I got some milk instead," Chris said evenly into his cell phone as he sat on the couch flipping through the TV channels. "I figured strong bones are just as good as strong muscles."
Just then, Chris heard a strange noise outside of his door. "Whoa, Ash, I think- sorry, Ashley- I think there's a seagull eating something on the other side of my door. Yes that's possible!"
He held the phone to his shoulder so he could listen better. It sounded like soft footsteps and heavy breathing accompanied by a few low whimpers. "You're not going to believe this, but I think the seagull is eating something live! Like a dog or something…they do too eat dogs!"
Then Chris was interrupted by a soft tap at the door. "Shit! Ashley, save me! The seagull is knocking on my door! You've seen The Birds right? I think it's going to attack me!"
The knocking stopped suddenly and Chris could have sworn he heard someone crying, but that wouldn't make sense since birds didn't cry. "What? Of course I'm sure it's a bird!" he snapped into his phone. "Well, actually I'm not, but bird was the first thing to pop into my head. You know what they say about first instincts."
Chris cautiously approached the door and looked out the peephole. "Ashley, I gotta go, It's not a bird, it's my hot neighbor," he said into the phone upon seeing Haley leaning against the doorframe with her head in her hands. She must have had a fight with the shoplifting hubby, he thought, which means it's time for Chris Keller to pounce.
He quickly shut his phone and opened the door to be met by the shocked and somewhat relieved face of Haley Scott. Before he could say anything, she wrapped her arms around him and started sobbing. "Um…ok…"
Haley couldn't describe how happy she was to see him right now. A few minutes ago she had left her husband in a condo with two criminals and now, after struggling to make it down the steps to the first floor, she had found someone who could help her.
"You're not looking so good, Haley," Chris pointed out as he lightly dislodged her arms from around him and stepped out of her embrace, motioning for her to come inside. "Jesus, you do know you have a bruise on your face, right?"
Haley nodded as she slowly made her way to the couch clutching her stomach, needing to sit down somewhere. "Chris, I need you to, um, I need you to call the police," she managed to say just before she reached the couch.
"Why would I do that when they're already here?" he asked confusedly.
As soon as she heard his words, her head shot up and she turned around. "What?"
"Yeah, I saw a few police cars pull up like a minute ago," Chris shrugged. "Why?"
"I…we…they're here?" Tears were still coming steadily out of her eyes as she started moving slowly towards the door again to see for herself.
"Yeah…seriously, what's wrong with you?" he asked, completely baffled by what was going on. She seemed to be in some kind of pain and she was sweating a lot, but he she hadn't said anything about being in pain so he couldn't really assume that. This was all just a little weird. Most of the time she wouldn't get any where near him, and then she randomly showed up at his door and hugged him?
"I'm just... I need to sit down," she gasped as she reached to door and gripped the frame to keep herself steady. She looked out and could see the faint flash of blue and red lights. The police were here, everything was going to be ok.
Then they heard it, the loud echo of a shot from a small handgun and everything seemed to move on high-speed. There was a rush of commotion from out by the police cars and Haley could feel her head spinning. "Nathan!" she screamed desperately as her vision clouded completely with tears and she started to make her way back towards the steps, one hand on her stomach, one on the wall.
"What the hell was that?" Chris yelled, stunned eyes wide. "Are you sure you're ok?" he asked when he noticed Haley approaching the steps, shaking and bent over as she held her stomach. But before she could say anything, she collapsed, her body laying motionless at the bottom of the stairs.