A/N: Thank you so much for your reviews and the love for this story already! I'm SO excited to be writing Naley again, and I'm looking forward to seeing what you all think will happen as we get further along in Nathan's journey.
just a heads up, the bits in italics are basically the little interviews you see of the Bachelor/ette in those separate rooms when they're just telling the audience about what they're feeling. Also, Chris' little segments of dialogues are in that formatting too, just so that it makes it easier to differentiate. Hopefully that makes sense lol I'm really bad at explaining things sometimes!
I will post a photo on my twitter and Tumblr (Most likely in the morning, since it's nearly 11pm here and I have work at 5am lol) of the women who will be portraying each character – both accs are MaddiesSoph if you want to get a look at everyone :)
Alright, now let's meet the ladies!
Week One – Night Two
Welcome back to the Bachelor. We're on Night Two with former NBA star, Nathan Scott, and it's time to meet the 12 lovely ladies that will be spending their time with him over the next ten weeks. Our Bachelor is standing by at the Bachelorette Mansion where, hopefully, he will be meeting the lady who just might be the love of his life.
Be sure to live tweet along with us, using the hashtags, and let us know who you're rooting for! Without further ado, let's get on with the night and meet our bachelorettes. Shall we?
Nathan twists his intertwined fingers and tries to regulate his breathing. In and out for four seconds, in and out for six seconds, in and out for eight seconds. He can't seem to calm his nerves. He's used to the buzzing in his body, the adrenaline rush he's felt every time he stepped foot on the polished maple wood of a professional basketball court. But the confidence he would usually feel is missing because he's not familiar with this arena. There are no plays to execute, no game plan or strategy – only blind faith. And blind faith was never his strongest asset.
"Nathan, welcome to the Mansion." Chris smiles as he steps into the camera frame "How are you feeling?"
"Like this was a bad idea." Nathan mumbles and Chris laughs.
"It's normal to be nervous, but I have a feeling it's all going to work out. Our first girls will be arriving in a minute so I'm going to head inside and let you get to it. Good luck."
"Thanks, man." Nathan shakes Chris' outstretched hand before the younger man walks back out of frame.
"Alright, you can do this. Just relax." Nathan keeps telling himself "Just breathe, you're gonna be fine. This isn't that big a deal. Just breathe."
"Are you getting this?" The producer asks.
The cameraman nods "Yeah. No way America's not going to be rooting for this guy, he's too sweet."
"You got that right."
Nathan straightens up when he hears a car door. He waits with bated breath as the sound of high heels clicking along the cobbled stone pathway grow louder, closer, and he tries to relax his body when he sees the first woman of the night.
She's a little shorter than Nathan, with dirty blonde hair. There's a tattoo on her forearm that piques Nathan's curiosity. She's wearing a dark green wrap dress and her arms are open wide as she walks closer.
"Hi," Nathan says as she reaches him, still trying to shake his nerves "Uh, welcome."
"Hi, it's nice to meet you." The woman gives him a brief hug before saying "I'm Erica Marsh."
"It's nice to meet you too, Erica. I'm Nathan-"
"Scott. I'm familiar."
Nathan lets out a nervous laugh, scratching the back of his head "Yeah. I can't say I'm surprised. Hope you're not a Lakers fan or something."
Erica chuckles "Would you be mad if I told you I don't watch Basketball."
"Uh, no. I might ask the medic to come check you out though." Nathan jokes and Erica laughs loudly.
"I grew up in a hockey-loving family, okay!" Erica giggles.
"Ahhhh alright that explains a bit more. So, tell me a little about yourself Erica."
Erica looks around, trying to think "Oh gosh, there's really not much to tell about me. Uh, I'm a High School teacher in Chicago – I'm born and raised there, never really left for long. I teach mostly AP classes. I have two dogs."
"Oh, I love dogs." Nathan says excitedly "I always wanted to adopt one, but with my basketball schedule it just didn't seem fair if I couldn't give them proper care they deserved, you know?"
"Of course, it's a responsible decision you made." Erica smiles understandingly.
Out of the corner of his eye, Nathan can see the Producer motioning for him to wrap it up. It's only a couple minutes per woman until he gets to the welcome night.
"Well, I should let you get inside," Nathan says hugging her once more "I'll see you in a little bit."
"I'll see you then." Erica says walking past him and down the pathway to the mansion.
"Alright, that wasn't so bad." Nathan says to himself "One down, eleven to go."
Nathan spends the next hour meeting woman after woman. It's a lot, but every single one of them has been so sweet so far. He's not felt an instant spark with anyone, but he can see potential in a lot of these women. That gives him hope.
The second women he met was April Cooper. She's a surgeon who works in Seattle, also signed up to the show by her mother. She's in her late thirties and has been married to the job for so long, and now she's finally taking the time to find love in her life. Nathan liked her; she was raised in a small town like he was, she was very polite and kind, but she also had this fire behind her eyes – that matched the fieriness of her red hair – and told him she had a certain passion inside of her that intrigued him. She'd given him a little wind-up timer that looked like a heart, which only reassured him of her sweet nature.
Next was Phoebe Miller, a masseuse in New York City. She gave Nathan a 'free-spirit' kind of vibe, but he wasn't turned off by that. She was down to earth, didn't care about materialistic things which he appreciated given that most women were usually attracted to him for the lifestyle he could afford. Phoebe was quirky but she had a refreshing sense of humour that Nathan found refreshing. Phoebe had given him a fake coupon for a happy endings voucher, and it made him burst out laughing.
Alexandra Dane was an entrepreneur, dressed in a sharp, black 'power suit' as she had called it. Nathan couldn't deny that the boldness of her outfit choice was a turn-on. Alexandra was trying to start up a sustainable lifestyle company. She was invested in trying to do all she could to help the planet and change consumer habits, and Nathan admired her dedication. She gave him a reusable coffee cup, telling him that when the rumours started to swirl about him being the Bachelor, she had decided it was a fitting gift because so many of the paparazzi photos she'd seen of him in magazines, he was usually holding a single-use coffee cup. Nathan had felt a bit affronted by that, but he also kind of liked that she wanted to help him better the planet and stuck to her values by gifting him that.
…
The next woman to Nathan by surprise.
"Oh shit." She stopped short, pom poms mid-air when she saw Nathan's jaw-drop in shock.
"I take it you're a Lakers fan." Nathan smirks at the purple and yellow outfit and the way it stands out in a beautiful way against her caramel skin. Her green eyes look nervous as she fiddles with her long ponytail.
"Um, I kind of work for them." She says, motioning to her uniform "Janaya Lewis, official Laker Girl."
"You're shitting me right now." Nathan says, surprised "You're not actually a Laker Girl are you?"
"I wish I was kidding, it would probably make this feel less embrassing." Jayana says
"Oh, hey no, I mean you look great. I just … I'm definitely going to be copping even more shit from my teammates if I give you a rose tonight."
"Well, if I'd known Nathan Scott was for real going to be the Bachelor this year, I would've worn a different uniform."
Nathan laughs and Jayana joins him. Nathan steps forward to give her a hug and she accepts.
"That's wild. Wait, so have you cheered at games I've played?" Nathan asks.
"Oh yeah, funnily enough they're always the ones we lose." Jayana pouts.
"Well maybe that means you're lucky for me." Nathan quips.
"Hmm, maybe." Jayana winks and Nathan feels warm inside.
"I, uh, I should probably go get changed." Jayana walks backwards towards the mansion with her eyes still on Nathan "I'll see you in there, Scott; we can have a nice long chat about who's the better team."
"I look forward to it."
…
Next, Nathan met Paramedic Gloria Williams. She was sassy, bold and confident. Definitely the type of personality that Nathan was drawn to. She was straight to the point and had a cockiness about her that Nathan would've loved if they'd met in a bar in their twenties. He would've taken her home in an instant. He's not sure if it's what he's looking for now, but hopefully he'll get a chance to suss out more of her personality tonight and figure that out for sure.
Monica Goldman was interesting. She was a chef, which Nathan knew his mum would just love. She's always been telling him he needs a girl that can cook because he can't keep himself fed to save his life, and she'd rather not worry about him accidentally burning down his house trying to make two-minute noodles. Monica had brought a box of macarons and Nathan had tried one the second they were in his hands – heavenly. This woman had definitely chosen the right career path for herself.
He'd gotten quite the personality switch-up when Erin Hollinsworth came in. She was a Sergeant in Boston and her unit had signed her up without her knowledge. Needless to say, she hadn't been happy about it, but she was open to the experience. She seemed quite clammed up when she took in all the cameras, but there was something about her that intrigued Nathan. Hopefully he would be able to get to know her better. She's given him a finely aged bottle of scotch to 'calm his nerves and Nathan thought it was such a witty gift. He needed to know more about her – she definitely seemed like his kind of person.
Elise Danvers was a paralegal, she and Nathan hit it off pretty quickly talking about sports legislation and how she got into law. She was definitely the kind of person who would fit so seamlessly into his life and who understood his work now and the hectic hours it can involve sometimes. He liked that they were similar in that sense.
Kylie Johnson was a model, and he'd actually worked with her on a commercial for Rainstorm Body Spray back in the day. Nathan had hated that shoot. He was polite despite her over-flirty attempts, and Nathan knew already that she would be one of the people cut loose tonight. This girl had been crazy back then, and Nathan had a feeling keeping her around would only result in the biggest headache for him.
Katherine Lindsay was the second-last lady of the night. She was a Marketing and Media Manager for Nike, which Nathan thought was pretty cool. He'd worked with them back in his NBA days so he knew a lot about their corporation, and the fact that she was working with a company he liked and knew a lot about interested him. He definitely wanted to talk to her more about the kind of work she was doing with them.
"Oh gosh, I'm so nervous. Why am I so nervous?"
The woman fiddles with her dress, smoothing out the non-existent creases and tugging at her spaghetti straps to make sure she's not showing off too much cleavage. She doesn't want this guy, or the public, thinking she's acting slutty this early into it.
"Relax, you're going to be okay." the cameraman chuckles as he hooks the mic up to her outfit "Don't overthink it."
"Easy for you to say; you're not about to go meet some random man with the whole of America watching you – determining if they think you're compatible enough for him."
the cameraman shakes his head and suddenly says "You know, my niece is a huge fan of your work."
The woman smiles "Really?" He nods in response "How old is she?"
"Just turned nineteen, but she's been inspired by you for years. She's going to college in a couple months, wants to go into the industry and everything because of the trailblaze you've created."
"Aw, seriously!? You have no idea how happy that makes me to hear, I love that my company can inspire young women. Wow, I feel less nervous now." She chuckles.
The cameraman smiles and places his hand on her shoulder reassuringly "I'm glad. Now, take a breath and relax; it's going to be fine."
"Okay," she says, walking out from the prep booth to make her way down the path to this mystery man. She stops and turns around while waiting for her cue, "Hey, what's your name?"
The cameraman sticks his head out from behind the massive recording lens and says "Julian. Julian Baker."
"Thank you, Julian Baker." She smiles widely before the producer prompts her to start walking down the pathway, Julian following from his spot and capturing the moment that Nathan Scott could potentially be meeting his soulmate.
The final woman of the night approaches and Nathan feels exhausted. It's only been about an hour of filming; he's still got about three more hours to go once he goes into the mansion for the welcome night. But his fatigue vanishes when he sees a satin red, form-fitting dress and the familiar woman wearing it.
"Oh my gosh." the shock in her raspy voice makes him laugh and her eyes are wide "Nathan Scott."
"Well, well, Brooke Davis." Nathan beams "What on earth are you doing here?"
"Uh, I could say the same for you." Brooke stands before him, and Nathan leans down to hug her tightly "I heard the rumours, but I really didn't think they were true."
"You can blame my mum for that one." Nathan chuckles, "I can't believe you're here."
Brooke smirks in reply "Well, we're always saying how we never get a chance to just sit and chat. Looks like the universe has finally had given in."
"Yeah, looks like." Nathan smiles.
Brooke steps out of his arms, smoothing out her dress and kissing his cheek "I'll see you in there."
Nathan's eyes stay on her the whole walk to the mansion until she's out of sight, shaking his head with the biggest grin on his face. Of all the women that could've walked through that door …
NATHAN: Brooke is … a force to be reckoned with. We've met at different parties and events – I would say we're more acquaintances than anything. We've always had friend potential but never enough time to really hang out outside of whatever publicity we're doing. I don't know, maybe there could be more to our story. I definitely am interested in finding that out.
BROOKE: Nathan and I have always run in the same circle. I'm honestly shocked that he's here, I mean what are the chances? That I would actually know the one guy who's attention we're essentially competing for. I was so nervous coming into this, that whoever it would be was going to break my heart at the end of it, but I know Nathan's a good guy. Even if I'm not the one he picks at the end, I know he won't string me along or pull the same shady crap that I'm used to people doing. I'm more excited than I was before I started all this honestly – with Nathan, I know we have good chemistry. I guess it's just a matter of seeing whether or not that could be a romantic thing or not.
A/N: Alright, so what do we think of the women? Who do we like for Nathan?
Obviously this is going to be a Naley story, not to worry, but I am curious who you're rooting for otherwise to be let standing at the end lol
And I won't be keeping you in the dark much longer, our dear Haley James will be making her presence known next chapter!
Please leave a review and let me know what you think and what role you think Haley will be playing in all this – Some of y'all are already getting pretty close with these guesses hehe
Until next time :)