Thanks for all the reviews! We have about 5 chapters left in this story. I do plan to do a sequel to this story. If anyone has watched the clips of Manny on YouTube you know their story goes on a long time. I'm not sure if I'm gonna stop at the "clips" when Joy leaves or keep going with the other actress. The title of the sequel is going to be "Save You". I'll put the summary for the story at the bottom of this chapter.

But, enjoy chapter 49!


Nathan walked into his mother's office and shut the door behind him. "Good. You're both here." He said, seeing Deb and Daunte in the room. "I need you here for the meeting I've called."

"Why? Why did you take this dangerous step?" Deb asked angrily.

"I will do anything to be with Haley."

"You arranged a meeting without consulting me?"

"That's right."

"Who will be here?"

"The heads of the other families. Martin, Frederick and Thomas"

"And they've all accepted?"

"They'll be here any minute."

"All the families under one roof. That hasn't happened since…"

"Since Dad died." Nathan said, finishing her thought.

"And what do you have planned for this meeting?"

"Mom, an attempt was made on your life and no one is taking responsibility. Steps have to be taken."

"Steps? What are you talking about?"

"Someone has to be held accountable. Don't you think?"

"You are accountable. Going around stirring up all this trouble, harassing people, trying to make them talk. You think you can just bring them in here, threaten them, accuse them?"

"I'm not gonna sit around and do nothing. The situation needs to be resolved. Right?"

"So you can go off and be with Haley. Isn't that why you're so determined to do this?"

"You can think what you want. I told you I was going to get to the bottom of this and that is exactly what I'm doing."

"You have no idea what you'll be bringing down on both your heads." Deb warned.

Kenny stepped into the room and cleared his throat. "They're here and they're clean."

"Smile, mom. This is gonna get everyone what they want." Nathan said, following Kenny out to the foyer.

Nathan walked back in with 3 men. Martin Gatina, Frederick Taggaro and Tom Smith. Nathan had known all of these men since he was little. And he had grown up with their children. Martin had a daughter named Rachel, Frederick had twins named Felix and Anna, and Tom had a son named Tim.

Martin walked over to Deb with a smile. "Deb, how are you?"

"Good, thank you. And how are you Martin?"

"Good. Nice to see you."

Deb smiled when she saw Frederick and Tom. "Frederick, Thomas. It's good to see you as well."

"Alright, everybody is here." Nathan said when the three men were seated.

"Everybody who's anybody." Tom chuckled.

"What's the story, Scott?" Frederick asked.

Nathan and Deb stood in front of them. "Well, first of all I want to thank you all for coming." Nathan began.

"Get on with it, Nathan. Why are we here?" Tom said.

"I think this meeting has been long over due. What I'm about to tell you is gonna change everything. You're here because of the recent attempt on my mother's life."

"What's he doing here?" Martin asked, pointing at Daunte. "He's the mouth piece, right?"

"He's our attorney, Daunte Fox and I'm satisfied he didn't have anything to do with the shooting." Nathan answered.

"Well, I'm not satisfied with any of it." Frederick said. "It kind of feels like we're being accused of something here, Nathan."

"Well, you're wrong, Frederick."

"I don't like people telling me that, Nathan."

"Fred, be quiet. Let him tell us why we're here." Martin said.

"I'm just letting Nathan be aware that he has to finish what he starts."

"That's exactly what I'm prepared to do, Frederick." Nathan said staring at him.

"What about you, Deb? You haven't said a word. Where do you stand on all of this?" Tom asked.

"My mother is in complete agreement with everything that I'm doing." Nathan answered.

"Is that true, Deb?" Martin asked.

"You can ask all the questions you want when I'm finished." Nathan cut in.

"What's with the attitude, Scott?" Frederick asked.

"Fred, shut up. Let's hear what Nathan has to say." Martin reprimanded.

"Thank you. As you know, I've been making an effort to find out who was behind the hit on my mother. I've taken the same steps that anyone in this room would take."

"And what have you come up with, Nathan?" Martin asked.

"Nothing…yet. If I started a war tomorrow to get to the bottom of this, it would be justified."

"A war? Is that what you're figuring on doing?" Frederick asked.

"Is that why you called this meeting? To warn us?" Martin asked, slightly confused.

"No, it's not. I called you here because we're gonna break ties. Starting today, the Scott family is out of all illegal activities."

"Out?" Martin asked.

"You heard me. The Scott family business is going completely legitimate."

All three men starting asking questions at the same time. This was not something that was discussed, ever. No one family left the crime business. If one went legitimate, they all went legitimate.

"Is this some kind of joke?" Tom asked.

"Does it look like I'm joking, Tom?"

"It's no joke. I can assure you." Deb finally said.

"We've worked hard and family comes first for all of us. I'm doing this for the people I love."

Frederick stood up and got closer to Nathan. "Let me get this straight, Scott. You want to walk away from the business because somebody shot up some of your furniture?"

"Frederick, I lost my father because somebody had a grudge. And my sister was almost killed because of this last attack."

"So you're gonna cut and run?"

"If that's how you want to look at it. I don't want to live this way."

"What about the rest of your family? Huh?"

"The rest of the family and I have discussed this for a long time. And we're ready to do it."

"Have you thought this through, Nathan? Have you considered all the repercussions?" Martin asked.

"I've considered everything, Martin."

"You know, this kind of change is gonna raise a lot of questions around town."

"There's no need to worry. The code of silence our families have had will remain in effect. You have my word." Nathan assured them.

"And he's speaking for you too, Deb?" Martin asked.

"He is my son."

"We'll be dividing all our operations among all of you. Mr. Fox will handle the legal aspects of the transition and that will be it."

"Well, then let's shake on it then, Scott." Frederick said.

Nathan stuck out his hand to shake Frederick's. "No. Wait." Deb said, stopping them. "Nathan and I have a few things to discuss before we finalize anything. We'll only be a few minutes."

"Take all the time you need." Frederick said.

Nathan followed his mother to the hallway and she shut the door behind them. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" she asked, angrily.

"What am I doing? Mom, I'm getting you what you say you want."

"How dare you pull something like this on me in front of the other families."

"I'm sorry. I wasn't aware I was pulling anything."

"You know very well I wouldn't question anything you say in front of them."

"Why would you want to?"

"Why?"

"Yes, why? Didn't you swear to me and Brooke that you wanted to do exactly what I just did in there and make the family legitimate?"

"Yes, I did. But-"

"You weren't lying to us, were you?"

"I am still the head of this family and you are still my son."

"Are you saying you don't want to make the family business legitimate?"

"You do not give the orders around here, Nathan. You take them from me. This business will go legitimate when I say so. You tricked me, Nathan. You set this whole thing up so that you could get what you wanted."

"I thought this is what you wanted."

"It's dangerous. This doesn't just affect us. There are a whole lot of other people involved. Word gets out and it could all unravel."

"That's not true. We can arrange it so that everyone is satisfied."

"How? By letting the other families take what's ours?"

"Yea. They're welcome to it. Let it be their problem."

"You're so naïve. It's not all that simple, Nathan."

"Ok. Then why don't you tell me your idea, mom. How were you planning to make the business legitimate? Because Brooke and I didn't take your vow lightly. We don't plan on committing the rest of our lives to a family of crime."

"You paint such a dark picture."

"Well, we're not gonna live that way, always afraid for the people we love. If you want your children to be a part of your life, the way you claim you do-"

"I want that more than anything in the world."

"Good. Then we understand each other. This is how it's gonna be."

"Alright, Nathan. We'll do it your way."


Haley had called Julian and told him she wanted to tell him something important, something that would help the situation with Nathan and Brooke being back in the house. They had met up at the diner so that she could tell him.

"You went into her house and stole her clock?" Julian asked, stunned.

"Yes, I did."

"You stole Deb's clock?"

"Yes."

"Hales, have you lost your mind? You don't steal from Deb Scott."

"Julian, it doesn't matter how I got it. It only matters that I have it and it's evidence."

"Anything that she can use to nail you, Haley, she's gonna do it."

"I know that, but not if I nail her first. The clock froze at 9:10."

"Yea, right."

"Right. And Daunte told Nathan about the shooting at nine o'clock. What does that tell you?"

"So what are you gonna do if it is true?"

"It is true, Julian. Are you not listening to me at all?"

"Yes. So are you gonna tell Nathan?"

"Well, that's what I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"I don't know. How many ways can I tell you? I mean, I don't know if it's really worth it. But she did set up her own son and the tables are kind of turning on her now. I know she planned this whole thing to get Nathan back in the family, but he's so intent on legitimizing it."

"Is he serious about that? About cleaning up his family business?"

"Absolutely."

"How do you know that?"

"Because he told me and he called last night and said that he's telling the other families today. He's really doing this. I mean, he's doing this for me. He wants us to be together." Haley smiled thinking about it.

"Yea, well I just hope we can trust him."

"I can trust him. I trust him completely. It's Deb that I don't trust."

"You know, in a way I'm glad this was a scam. I've been living afraid, looking over my shoulder, not knowing who the bad guy was. At least now I do know who the bad guy was. It was mommy dearest."

"I think you are being way too rational about this."

"Listen to me, Haley. What you need to be looking at here is the results of this thing and what you have. You've gotten Nathan to do exactly what you wanted him to do, everything you want is right there. So what would be the point of hitting him with this?"

"Because he should know what kind of person his mother is. He should know that, Julian."

"Yea, maybe. Or maybe you're just starting to think like Deb Scott. Maybe this whole thing is about revenge."

Haley scoffed at the comment. "Julian, this is not about revenge. This is about stopping Deb from doing something terrible to somebody that I care about and somebody that you care about too."

Haley noticed that Julian smiled at something behind her. She turned around and saw Nathan and Brooke walking toward them. Julian got up to meet Brooke and Nathan sat down in his seat.

"Hi." He said smiling.

"Hi." Nathan grabbed her hands that were sitting on top of the table. "Well? How'd it go?" she asked.

"Good. We are so close to being together. Here's how it's gonna work. Chase is gonna be giving his first mass on Friday. Immediately after the ceremony, my mother is gonna make a formal announcement to the entire family that the Scott family is stripping itself of all illegal interests."

"I can't believe your mother is going along with this." Haley said honestly.

"Well, I didn't really give her any choice." Nathan smiled at her. "Listen, I was thinking that Chase's first official act of a priest should be something special. So immediately after the mass, he's gonna marry us. Privately, just you and me for the last time."

Haley smiled. "What?"

"Hales, first we got married to save your skin, then we did it for my family and now…"

"And now?"

"Now it's just for us. Just you and me."

Haley smiled at him. "I would love to."

"Yea?"

"Yea."

Nathan stood up and sat down beside her. He wrapped his arms around her waist. "You know what?"

"What?"

"I can't wait until Friday. We are gonna be really married on Friday."

Haley brought her hand up and caressed his cheek. "Friday." She smiled. Nathan leaned in and pecked her on the lips.

He would be counting down the hours until they were married again.


The week had gone by slowly. Nathan and Haley had been counting down the days ever since Nathan suggested they get remarried. It was Friday afternoon and now they were counting the hours.

Nathan had decided to take Haley out to lunch to semi celebrate and to spend some time together. They wouldn't get to be alone until after the mass.

"I'm telling you, third time's the charm. First we got married to keep you safe, then we got married for my family and this time, the last time is for us. I want to say my vows to you with no distractions except those beautiful brown eyes of yours."

Haley smiled. "I can't believe this and I can't believe you. I can't wait. I want it to be this minute, right now."

"Well, then your mac and cheese will get cold." Nathan joked.

"I can't eat. It's gonna get cold anyway." Haley laughed.

"I love the way you smile."

"I can't believe we're really going to do this."

"Believe it. I'm telling you, we earned this and we deserve it. And when we come home today after the wedding, we're going to be together for the rest of our lives. We're never gonna be apart again. I promise. Now listen, when we get to the church, not a word about our secret ceremony."

"I won't. I won't say anything. But I have to tell you. I woke up this morning and I couldn't believe it was my wedding day. I wanted to shout it from the rooftops."

"What? You didn't?"

"No, I didn't. I had breakfast with Uncle Whitey instead."

"Well, I'm sure that brought you back down to earth."

"Yes. It was extremely exhilarating, but I am still so excited that I want to scream. I'm gonna burst. It's so incredible. It's going to be the most amazing day."

"Why is it so amazing?" They heard Jake say.

Haley turned around and saw him standing behind her. "Jake, hi." She said, smiling.

"Hey."

"What are you doing here?"

"Same as you. I'm gonna grab some lunch. So what's going on?"

"Nothing. What's going on with you?" Nathan asked.

"Well, this is a huge day for the James family. You ready?" he asked, looking at Haley.

"Yea. Why? What's up?"

"Abby had the implant turned on and she can hear." Jake said.

"Oh my God!" Haley said, as she stood up to hug Jake. Abby had chosen to get the implants two weeks ago. She said that she didn't want to live without being able to hear Jake's voice anymore and when she remembered the article that Haley had tried to show her, she did some research and decided it was the best thing for her.

"It's great."

"I am so excited for you guys." Haley said, letting go of Jake.

"Thank you."

"So when can I see her? Is she ok?"

"Well, she's at the hospital right now. There was a small mechanical problem. It's not a big deal. When she's done Whitey is gonna drop her off here so you guys can visit."

"Great."

"That's fantastic. Congratulations." Nathan said, standing up and shaking Jake's hand.

"So you guys sounded like you had some wonderful news. What's going on?" Jake asked again.

"We were just…" Haley began.

"We were just talking about the…weather." Nathan finished.

"Yea. It's supposed to be a really incredible day." Haley said, wrapping her arm around Nathan's waist.

"What are you talking about? It's supposed to rain today."

"Really? Well, I've always loved the rain." Nathan said, smiling at Haley.

"Ok." Jake said, giving up. "Do you mind if we sit so I can eat?"

The three of them sat down at the table. Jake sat in Haley's seat and Haley sat on Nathan's lap. "We're really happy for you and Abby. It's wonderful news." Nathan said.

"I can't wait for you to talk to her. But she's extremely sensitive to sound right now, Haley. So no shrieking."

"I'm not a shrieker. Do I shriek?" she asked, looking at Nathan.

"I'm not saying anything." Nathan smirked.

Haley wacked his shoulder playfully. "Shut up!"

"Just keep your voice down. Please just do that."

"Ok. I'm surprised you're bringing her here. It's kind of loud."

"We're not gonna stay long. We'll probably just go home and pull some tissues out of a box."

"Tissues?" Nathan asked.

"She likes that sound. And she also likes tapping and ticking."

"Well, just hold off on exposing her to anything terrible. You know, loud, obnoxious noises like your singing or…" Haley joked.

"I have a striking voice, Haley. I can't help it that you're tone deaf." He and Haley chuckled. "I'm gonna go grab a menu and get something to eat." He stood up and looked at Haley.

"What?"

"I don't know. You just look different today." Haley smiled and he walked toward the bar to order something.

Haley got off of Nathan's lap and he walked over to Jake. "Hey, Jake. Can I talk to you for a sec?" Jake turned around and looked at him.

"Sure. What's up?"

"Um, I'm not really sure how to say this. It has to do with me and Haley."

"You and Haley? What's going on?"

Haley stood up from the table and walked over to them. She stood next to Nathan and grabbed his hand, silently comforting him.

"Look, you know we didn't really start out like most couples. You could say we had the odds stacked against us. But since we've been separated, our feelings for each other have grown stronger. And I know that I come from a particular life, but Haley makes me want to be a better man, a man that she can be proud of. I've changed."

"He really is gonna do it, Jake." Haley said.

"Do what, Haley?"

"I'm gonna make…well, I'm gonna change my family's business. I'm gonna make it legitimate. And I wanted to do with Haley by my side." Nathan answered.

"Is that all you wanted to tell me, Nathan?"

"No. Jake, I know that I'm not exactly the guy that you would want for Haley, but I want to be with her and I can take care of her."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because I never asked you for your blessing before we were married and I'm a traditional guy so I'm asking you now. May I have Haley's hand in marriage?"

"You want my blessing? Nathan, I'm just gonna be straight with you. This is not the life I would choose for my sister. It's not even close. And I respect what you're trying to do with your family and I believe that you mean it, but you live in a dangerous world. And now you're asking me permission to make her part of that world. Do you understand?"

"I understand, but my world is changing. I will protect Haley with my life. I give you my word, Jake."

"Just take care of her."

"Are you kidding? I'll make her the happiest woman in the world."

"I just want my little sister to be safe. That's all."

"Of course."

Jake saw Abby come into the diner out of the corner of his eye. She walked over to them and smiled. "Be quiet." Jake whispered.

Haley smiled at her. "Hi! Sorry." She hugged Abby. "Hi. Congratulations. How are you?" She whispered.

"I'm fine. I'm not 100 percent yet, but I'm doing ok. What's going on?"

"Nathan just asked Haley to get married." Jake informed her.

"Oh, well…I don't understand."

"You know we had the ceremony already. You were there. But our marriage never really started out the way Haley and I had hoped so Jake has just given us his blessing."

"Well, congratulations. And you have a beautiful voice. Doesn't he have a beautiful voice?" Abby asked Haley.

"Yea." Haley smiled.

Nathan checked his watch. "Hales, we've got to get to the church. It's time. We don't want to be late."

"What's going on?" Jake asked.

"His cousin Chase is doing his first mass today."

"Maybe we could come with you." Abby suggested.

"Don't you think you've had enough noise for today?" Jake asked.

"No. I think the church will be a nice and quiet place. And it would be a really good time for me to thank God for this miracle." Abby assured him. "Is that ok with you two?"

"Of course. I think it's a great idea. It's Saint Michael's, just up the road." Nathan said.

"Yea, I know where it is."

"Do you want to follow us?" Nathan asked.

"No, I've got it. Thanks."

"Ok. We'll see you there." Haley said, grabbing Nathan's hand and heading out the door.


Summary of "Save You"

Nathan and Haley have finally started a life together. But the obstacles don't end with their families. Now forces beyond their control threaten to tear them apart. Nathan and Haley will have to fight for their marriage and fight for each other in ways they never thought would happen. Will they be able to withstand what comes next? AU Naley, with BJ and LP