Chapter Two
Ten minutes after leaving Hailey alone at the hospital Lucas swings his car into the parking lot of Hailey and Nathan's apartment complex, as soon as he had left the hospital he'd checked his cell phone messages only to have a desperate sounding message from Nathan. Getting out of his car Nathan meets Lucas at the front door of his apartment, "she's gone." Nathan's simple statement gives away all of the pain he is experiencing. "Some of her clothes are missing and the bear I gave her for Christmas and I found her ring on the floor of our bedroom."
Lucas had packed the bear for Hailey to find when she got around to unpacking her bag, in the hopes that she would remember how much she actually loved Nathan despite the compromising position she had caught him in only days before. But she hadn't know anything about her removing her wedding ring.
"You know where she is," Nathan reads his half-brother right away. "I have to explain to her what she saw..."
Lucas' eyes narrow, "what, exactly, did she see?"
"Hazel Taylor was all over me at Tim's party last night," Nathan sighs. "And she kissed me...and I may have let the kiss go on to long..."
"Dammit Nate," Lucas swears turning away from his brother. He'd been determined to tell Nathan where Hailey was, but the situation had changed, Hailey had always said that she would never be able to forgive a cheater. And Lucas knew that every deep down fear Hailey had ever had about Nathan and getting married so young had just come true with a five-year-old fear to top it all off.
"Where is she Luke," Nathan asks. "You have to tell me, I have to make her understand that I don't give a rat's ass about Hazel, I want her, forever."
"Nathan there's something I have to tell you, you're going to hate it and it's going to be hard," Lucas sighs. "We should sit down."
When Nathan walks into the hospital his heart nearly stops as he follows Lucas through the maze of corridors that leads to Hailey. "I'm sorry," an older nurse stops Lucas and Nathan as they approach the pediatric oncology ward, "visiting hours are over. You'll have to come back tomorrow to visit your friend, our rules are strict."
"My wife is in there," Nathan's nerves are shot and his anger flares at the nurse.
The nurse shakes her head and laughs lightly, "I'm sorry son, you'll have to come back tomorrow to see your girlfriend."
Nathan walks up to the desk and places both of his hands on the nurses desk and his voice is cold when he speaks, "look it up in your records. I am Nathan Scott and my wife, Hailey Scott, was admitted no more than an hour ago."
The nurse looks startled as she begins typing on her keyboard she speaks sternly, "you are going to have lower your voice." Within minutes the nurse sighs, "I apologize Mr. Scott, you are free to see your wife, but your friend is going to have to come back later."
"He's my..." Nathan begins to protest but Lucas shakes his head.
"Don't worry about it Nathan, Hailes is gonna be pretty pissed at me anyway, just go see your wife."
Nathan nods and taking a deep breath he walks toward the room the nurse has just pointed to, Nathan pauses at the door preparing himself, he doesn't know whether Hailey is going to scream or cry but either way Nathan knows he needs to be ready to be strong for her no matter what. The sight that greets him when he walks in takes Nathan by surprise, he had expected Hailey to be many things, asleep wasn't one of them. Walking over to her bed Nathan sits down in the chair available there and takes Hailey's hand, a bruise is forming on the top of her hand where they have some sort of an IV inserted into a vein on the top of her hand.
Gently Nathan kisses the large bruise before his gaze moves to Hailey's face, ever since they had been married Nathan had spent hours just watching her sleep. Usually just staring at her relaxed him, put him at peace with the world, but now her pale skin tells stories of the secret that's been between them and the reality of how sick Hailey actually was.
With the hand that's not gently holding Hailey's Nathan brushes a lock of her beautiful hair out of her face and begins to pour his heart out to his sleeping wife, "Hailey, baby, I'm so sorry for what happened and I know what you must be thinking but it's not true...I made you a promise a year and a half ago and my feelings haven't changed since then. I just need you to forgive me so that I can be here for you, and I will be here for you. I know I don't deserve you or your forgiveness but whether you forgive me or not I am going to be here for you every step of the way. I'm not going anywhere." It isn't until Nathan is done speaking that he succumbs to the tears that have been threatening since his eyes first settled on Hailey's face and resting his forehead on the bed Nathan let himself cry and pray that Hailey would recover quickly.
When Hailey woke the next morning she found Nathan in that exact position, "Na..." Hailey stops, one of the medications they had her on had made her mouth dry, clearing her throat Hailey starts over, "Nathan?"
Nathan looks up quickly, the lack of sleep written across his face, "Hailes."
"What are you doing here?" Hailey's lip trembles just at the sight of him.
"Lucas." Nathan responds simply, not knowing what else to say.
Hailey nods, "okay," she at as much of a loss as Nathan is.
"Hailes, I'm not going anywhere," Nathan finally states as Hailey gathers her own thoughts.
"Nate...I..." Tears stream down Hailey's cheeks.
"And I'm sorry about what you saw with Hazel, I don't want her, I don't give a damn about her..." Nathan gently kisses Hailey on her forehead, "you are the only one I want."
Hailey wraps her arms around Nathan, "Nate, I'm so scared."
"Shhh," Nathan gently strokes Hailey's hair, "we'll figure this out, alright? Everything will be fine. We'll just do whatever the doctors tells us we need to do, okay?"
"What if it's not enough, sometimes you can try everything and it's still not enough. It almost wasn't enough last time."
"We're going to get through this," Nathan states fiercely, "together."
"I'm sorry to interrupt but Mrs. Scott you've got your tests this morning," a candy striper steps into Hailey's room.
"Shouldn't she eat something?" Nathan asks.
"It's better if she has the spinal tap on an empty stomach," the candy-striper responds with a shake of her head. "She'll be back in an hour and a half to two hours, you should go home and get some rest."
Nathan shakes his head, "I'll wait here."
As Hailey situates herself in the wheelchair that the candy-striper had brought she shakes her head, "go home Nate."
"But..."
"Could you call my parents?" Hailey asks, "they need to know. And maybe Brooke and PEyton, I don't think I can tell them."
"I could do that from the phone," Nathan gestures to the phone sitting on Hailey's bedside table.
"Nate...please...you need to get rest. Get some rest and then come back after lunch, because I'm not going to be able to visit anyway right after my tap."
"But Hailey..."
"Nathan please..." Hailey snaps.
"Okay fine," Nathan consents, "but I'm going to be here when you get back from your tests."
Hailey sighs, "fine."
"I love you," Nathan kisses Hailey gently.
Hailey sniffs, "I love you too."
"You guys are really married?" The candy-striper asks Hailey as she pushes her in the wheelchair.
"It'll be two years in May," Hailey responds.
"But you're so young..." The girl gasps, "I mean you're on the pediatric ward so that means..."
"I'm 17, I'll be 18 next one," Hailey supplies for the girl.
"Wow," the girl murmurs. "I'm 16 and I can't imagine marrying my boyfriend...unless...I mean..."
"We don't have a baby," Hailey saves the girl the embarrassment of asking the question that most people asked when they found out they were married so young.
"So why'd you get married?"
This question always followed the statement that Hailey didn't have a child at home, "because we are in love and we wanted to be together for the rest of our lives and didn't see the point of waiting until we graduated from high school. We both knew that our feelings weren't going to change..."
"Wow..." The girl lets out another breath, "that's so romantic. And you guys are still so in love. That much is obvious."
"Yeah," Hailey breathes, "we are."
"What the hell are you guys doing here?" Nathan asks when he pushes open his apartment door to find Brooke, Peyton, Jake and Tim sitting on his couch.
"We're here for an intervention," Brooke states. "We aren't letting some stupid whore break up you and Hailey."
"What?" Nathan asks.
"Hazel was bragging around school that you and she were making out at Tim's party." Peyton explains, "so since neither one of you were in school yesterday we thought we'd come over here after school and see what was going on. But neither one of you were here and some things were missing..."
"So we've been waiting here ever since," Jake looks exhausted and Nathan knows he's really only there for Peyton.
Tim nods along with the rest as Nathan lets out a long breath of air, "guys there's something you need to know..."
"Oh my God," Brooke interrupts, "Tutor Girl really is pregnant this time."