AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've written and re-written this chapter dozens of times, but Clay and Quinn wouldn't shut up and let me stick to my plan. I can't fight them, so this is what it is.

It's hard because obviously I know Naley's history and I know the best stories 'show, don't tell', so while you learn a lot about the past in this chapter, it's not the full story. It's still important, but it's not all. If my stupid characters decide to do what they're told for a change (do I sound completely nuts talking like this?) you'll find out more soon.

Bear with me until I get chapter 5 worked out - Clay and Quinn left me out on a limb here and it's going to take some time to work out how to get the ship back on course. Thank you for all your incredible feedback, it means the world to me and helps me push past stupid writer's block. M x

Nathan pressed himself back into the wall in the corner, as far as his tall frame would allow. Glancing at his watch, he barely suppressed a sigh when saw that the hands hadn't moved more than a minute since his last time check. It wasn't even 8pm, but he just wanted to go home. It wasn't that moving all of Clay's furniture into his new beach house had exhausted him, but making an appearance at the party had taken more energy than he'd had.

It wasn't meant to be a big party - a few clients and friends that Clay knew from the area and some of Quinn's friends - and by no means comparable to anything Nathan had become accustomed to when he was partying in New York, but after spending every evening sprawled on his ginormous couch, texting her for a couple of hours, all Nathan wanted to do was repeat the newfound ritual before going to bed.

His fingers twitched towards the pocket of his jeans where his phone sat, dying to pull it out. He knew he couldn't, though - Clay was like an excited kid at Christmas, hosting the small celebration and Nathan knew he couldn't get away with spending the night messaging Halo23. She was surprisingly easy to have a conversation with; Nathan had found himself more at ease with her messages than almost anyone in his physical world. They could trade quips and jokes, or talk about their days, it didn't have to be deep or meaningful, but Nathan truthfully felt like he had known her a lot longer than just six days. He appreciated that she never pushed him for more information than he wanted to offer, especially since every girl he'd messaged with since joining MetYet a few weeks ago had insisted on knowing more about his occupation and dating history. Prying questions that Nathan didn't feel comfortable answering yet, preferring to hide behind the relative anonymity of online dating until he could find someone he felt he could trust.

It was early days, but he already felt that Halo23 was that someone.

"Nate!" Clay's loud, cheery voice pulled Nathan out of his thoughts as he moved his way through the living room to Nathan's corner by the window. Behind him, Nathan could see a tall, blonde woman following him closely.

"There you are, buddy," Clay slapped Nathan on the shoulder. "Nate, there's someone I want you to meet... Quinn James, this is my former client and future business partner, not to mention a hell of a furniture mover, Nathan Scott. Nate, this is the love of my life, Quinn James."

Clay beamed like a proud parent as the two most important people in his life stood in front of each other for the first time. Nathan stood up straighter and offered his hand to the woman.. She was beautiful, with bright blue eyes and a wide, happy smile. Multiple thoughts warred inside Nathan's head in the space of a second - how good the new couple looked together, how familiar the woman's face was, had he met her before, shit - he hadn't slept with her, had he...

"Nathan Scott?"

It was Quinn's voice that cut through the jumble in Nathan's mind, her tone questioning, almost accusatory. It was then he realized how their paths had crossed before. James. Quinn James.

"Quinn James?" He repeated, dumbly. "You're with Clay?"

"And you're Clay's best friend? You're going to be working with him at Fortitude?"

"Uh... so I take it you guys know each other?" Clay's voice held a joke but there was no mistaking the underlying concern. Nathan knew his friend's thoughts would be wandering down a similar path to his own earlier, but he was powerless to reassure him through his shock

Quinn found her voice first, clearly not as affected by Nathan as he was by her. "We've never met, but he dated my sister in high school."

Clay laughed, incredulously, although clearly relieved that his girlfriend wasn't one of the many women who had ended up in his former client's bed. "You dated Taylor?"

Before Nathan could react, Quinn barked out a laugh beside him. "God, no. No, Taylor's four years older than Nathan; it was my youngest sister who actually dated him. You couldn't call what happened between Nathan and Taylor dating..." she cast a sly glance at her boyfriend and Nathan could see Clay catch the innuendo.

"Oh man! You're kidding right?" He turned to Nathan, "You slept with sisters? Nate, you dog!"

"Oh, it gets way better than that," Quinn giggled. "Taylor took his virginity. He and Haley didn't get together until two years after that and he didn't realize they were sisters for ages. And anyway," she added, slyly, "he didn't get to sleep with both of them... Let's just say Taylor and Haley are complete opposites; Haley was saving herself for marriage..."

Nathan tuned Clay's reaction out as he felt his body turn to stone. He couldn't believe it - of all the girls Clay had to settle down with, it was Quinn James. He clenched his fists in anger over how easily she threw around her sister's name, as if it meant nothing, as if it didn't feel like a hammer was being thrown at his heart each time. For someone he'd never actually met before, Quinn knew far too much about his teenage self.

Then, her words caught up with him and he felt the hammer being replaced by a wrecking ball; his body physically coiled up with the impact. Haley was saving herself for marriage... past tense. Had Haley gotten married? Either that, or she hadn't waited, and Nathan didn't know which hurt more. It almost didn't matter, Haley James wasn't his and would never be.

"You know, for someone who I've never met, you sure as hell think you know everything about me," Nathan's voice was laced with the anger he felt masking his thoughts. "I'm not a professional sportsman anymore - I left those cheap, nasty reporters behind in New York."

"Nate!"

"No, Clay, it's ok," Quinn put a calming hand on Clay's chest, turning to face Nathan. "You're right, I do think I know everything about you, seeing as I was the one Haley always turned to. It was me she came to when she was confused about her feelings for the jackass jock she'd been tutoring, the one who had been bullying his own brother - her best friend. It was me she vented to when she found out about Taylor taking your virginity when you were just a Freshman. And it was me who tried to pick up the pieces you broke when you dumped her before graduation. So yeah, Nathan, forgive me if I'm a little familiar with something else apart from your basketball career."

Quinn's calm tone unnerved Nathan as he fought to keep his cool. He could feel his heart pounding hard against his ribs, as if it was beating him for his previous sins, and his blood roared in his ears. He hadn't heard Haley's name in ten years; the last few minutes had been too much, like a tsunami surging over his weakened body.

"What does it matter, anyway?" Nathan threw his hands out, trying to expel his emotions from his head and out into the air. "It was ten years ago! Yeah, I was an ass, what else is new? She'd hardly care about all of that now, she's bound to be married to some insanely smart guy who treats her like a queen, little kids running around behind a white picket fence, probably a dog..." He trailed off with a shrug. "I'm not that 18 year old jerk anymore and I don't deserve to have you throw his stupid actions back in my face."

To Nathan's surprise, Quinn simply cocked her head, her eyebrows drawing close. "Do you... I mean, do you know anything about my sister's life these days?"

"Why would I?" Nathan shrugged again. "I haven't seen her since high school."

"But she's best friends with your brother..."

The leather of Nathan's jacket creaked slightly as he shifted uncomfortably. "So? Sitting around and braiding each other's hair and talking about our lives is Luke's thing, not mine."

He couldn't help how he sounded like an ass, like the defensive boy who was doing so badly at school that his starting spot in the Varsity basketball team's lineup was in jeopardy. Meeting Quinn had brought it out in him. Truthfully, he and his half brother had grown close over the years - Lucas doing his fair share of cleaning up as Nathan rampaged through his first year at Duke. Lucas, however, was far more knowledgeable, more sensitive to Nathan's feelings about his small brunette best friend. He'd learned the hard way that Nathan wouldn't - and couldn't - talk about Haley James without things ending very badly. Whether Luke still purposely refrained from talking about her, or whether it had now simply become habit over the past decade, Nathan didn't know. He wanted to keep it that way, it was easier not to question it

Quinn shut her eyes and inhaled, opening them again as she released the breath. Turning to Clay, she gave him a reassuring smile. "I'm just going to get a drink and say hi to a few people. Come find me?"

Silent for once, Clay nodded, and both men watched her walk towards the kitchen at the far end of the open-plan room.

"Welcome to Tree Hill," Nathan chuckled nervously, desperate to dispel the tension that had built up in his body. "Everyone knows everything about each other."

"Yeah..." Clay commented, dryly. "I should've known you would have slept with half the town. I'm just glad it wasn't Quinn herself."

Nathan huffed out a breath, which without words, conveyed his agreement.

"Listen, man... is this going to be ok?"

"What? You dating my ex's sister? Come on, Clay. It was ten years ago. Ancient history. Why would I care?"

Nathan hoped he'd pulled off nonchalance, but Clay's eyebrow rose, explaining without words what Nathan already expected; his former agent thought he knew everything about the basketball player and the man and he wasn't going to let this one go lightly.

"I needed tutoring to keep me eligible to play during high school, Haley James happened to be the most highly recommended tutor at Tree Hill High... bonus points that she was Luke's best friend and her helping me pissed him off completely, because at the time that's all I really wanted."

The prominent brown brow rose even higher, but Clay remained silent. "Haley has... had, I don't know... this way of getting under your skin. She doesn't pry, she doesn't lecture, but she doesn't take any shit. I don't know if it was easy or hard to fall in love with her because I'd never been in love before, and for some reason only God knows, she fell in love with me, too. Lucas got used to us being a couple, she helped us work together as a a team and then eventually brothers... but obviously it was never going to last, so I ended it before graduation. That's it."

"Obviously?

"Huh?" Mentally exhausted from his brief history lesson of a subject previously unspoken, Nathan frowned in confusion.

"You said 'obviously'. I don't see 'obviously'".

"She was going to Stanford, I was going to Duke."

Clay's face warred with rebuttals and Nathan tensed in anticipation of what was coming. Instead, his friend simply asked, "and you've never seen her since?"

"No. I went off to Duke. I told her we would be too far apart and I needed to focus on college ball if I wanted to make it pro and I couldn't deal with a girlfriend. I moved to Durham and got on with my life. She probably went to Stanford and did the same."

The fact that there were still questions all over Clay's face annoyed Nathan, especially when just nodded and kept silent, which wasn't Clay's style at all.

"Right, of course. It is obvious."

Nathan nodded, mutely, still unsure if what his friend had on his mind. When Clay next opened his mouth, he simply said, "I better go and check on Quinn. Catch up with you later."

Nathan watched, stunned, as the other man moved through the growing crowd. The air around him was heavy with memories, so thick and dense that he could almost smell the subtle floral fragrance Haley James used to wear. Shaking his head, Nathan moved towards to balcony, hoping the fresh hair would free his head from the past.

"Hey, babe."

Quinn turned to find her boyfriend behind her and shifted across the couch to make room for him. Sighing, Clay plopped down on the plush cushions and took a long swallow from the bottle in his hand.

"Welcome to Tree Hill," Quinn smiled at him. "There's no secrets in a town this small."

Clay chuckled. "That's pretty much exactly what Nate said to me."

A frown took over Quinn's pretty features. "I can't believe your best friend is Nathan Scott. I wish I'd known that sooner, I felt so unprepared."

"I didn't mean to ambush you, babe," Clay protested. "It just didn't come up - and I don't mean that in like an ex girlfriend, hiding secrets kind of way. I just didn't expect him to mean anything to you."

"Well, still... you should have known that Nathan Scott had half this town in his bed at some point over the 18 years he lived here."

"That's pretty much exactly what I said to Nate," Clay laughed. "But he and Haley never slept together?"

"Nope... you'd think it was a miracle, Nathan staying with her for nearly two years and not getting any, but that's the power of my sister."

"He loved her."

Quinn snorted delicately into her wine glass. "I doubt that."

"I don't."

"You weren't there, Clay."

"Neither were you," Clay countered. Taking a deep breath, he pushed himself deeper into the couch cushions. "Look, Nathan had five years in the pros and was at the top of his game before that fucker Damien West took out his knee. Three weeks to the day after he woke up from surgery, his dad died of a heart attack. Every day without fail, Lucas or I would go to his house and find him absolutely wasted, drunk off his face. He couldn't move, we had no idea how he had access to that much alcohol. One day, I think it was close to two months after his accident, he completely lost it at me, screaming. I'd never seen a man so broken, Quinn. He'd said, and I quote, 'I've already lost everything that I've ever loved - the game, my dad, Haley. And I'm never getting any of it back, so why bother?'

It was the first time I'd ever heard her name, and I'd known him for six years. We'd talked about girls before, we'd talked about his father, but he had to be at his absolute lowest, shattered into the most pieces possible, to even mention her name to me. Haley meant something to him, Quinn. I don't think he ever wanted to lose her."

Quin glanced at her boyfriend, skepticism all over her face. "It sounds like he was just feeling sorry for himself. He was more than happy to leave her behind when he went to college. Did you know that Haley was going to follow him there? All her life, it had only been Stanford, but she was going to turn them down and go to Duke to be with him. She'd had the letter stamped and ready to send, but he dumped her first. And wasted no time getting acquainted with all the local supporters there," she added, sarcasm and disgust lacing her voice.

Clay sighed, heavily, rubbing his forehand with a tired hand. "I'm not going to lie about Nathan's past, but I am worried about his future. He's been back in Tree hill for a month and he obviously doesn't know your sister lives here, too."

At the concern lacing the agent's voice, Quinn leaned into him for comfort. "I don't know if Haley knows, either. She's never mentioned him to me, not since her freshman year. Personally, I'm surprised he came back here after what I've heard about him."

"He needs stability, it was his idea to come here. I'd be happy setting up Fortitude anywhere, but Nathan said he'd finish off his last few credits at Tree Hill Community College and we'd start up here. I think he wants to see what this town feels like without Dan Scott. Either way, he and Haley are going to come together sooner or later."

Quinn bit her lip. "Actually, it's sooner. I invited her to come tonight. She said she'd wait for her friend Brooke to lock up her store and they'd come straight here.

She's due to turn up any minute now."