"A ring doesn't erase your past."

Tim's voice was reverberating in Nathan's head. Standard mode of operation was to ignore everything Tim said – sure he could be funny sometimes, usually in the laugh at him, not with him kind of way, but for once something Tim said really stuck with him. Nathan was aware of his past reputation. He hadn't been an angel - hell even Haley knew that. He never tried to hide it. What surprised him was Tim's assumption that he would always be that guy. The guy who takes what ever is offered to him, the cheating, lying jerk he had been. He didn't feel like that guy anymore. If he was being totally honest he didn't really like that guy much – not now and not then either. He silently wondered why Tim didn't see the new Nathan? He felt like the changes he had gone through were so huge they had to show. Tim had known him a long time – longer than any of his other friends so did it mean something that Tim still saw the old Nathan? Couldn't he see that he wasn't that guy anymore?

Nathan knew he was giving Tim too much credit – Tim was not a deep thinker. Tim never even thought about the next words that were coming out of his mouth, let alone pondering the changes in his best friend and what they might mean. Still, what if Tim was right? Would he always be that guy? Nathan had done enough self-reflection to know that being a good guy for Haley was a conscious choice for him. Being an ass came easy – he figured it was hardwired into the Scott genes. Even Lucas exhibited the traits from time to time. In the beginning the main difference between him and Lucas had been simple – although Lucas had done a stereotypical Scott maneuver, he felt remorse for it. Nathan only found that when he met Haley. He cared if he hurt her; he worried that his actions would affect her. Feeling guilt and remorse was something the Scott men had to think about – it was the one thing that didn't come naturally for them.

Nathan shook his head – he was spending entirely too much time thinking about Tim.

"I'm not getting all tweaked about your shower."

Haley had once accused Lucas to holding her to a higher standard than everyone else. As she walked to work she realized that she was guilty of something equally offensive. She set the standards lower for Nathan than she would for anyone else. She automatically assumed that given the opportunity he would cheat on her. Haley knew some that of came from her own insecurity. Sometimes she still wanted to pinch herself, like it couldn't possibly be real – Nathan Scott was in love with her. Haley had never been the most popular girl in school, she wasn't outgoing like Brooke, or classically beautiful like Peyton, but she liked her life. She had never bought into the whole popularity game – for the most part being really happy with who and what she was. There was a line in Forrest Gump that always made her cry. It was when Forrest meets his son for the first time and says, "Is he smart or is he like me?" It struck a chord with her because it showed that, as happy as Forrest was, he knew he was different. Haley was happy with who she was, but on the same note, she knew she wasn't exactly the queen of the Tree Hill social scene. Nathan on the other hand, was the crown prince of the Tree Hill elite, and yet he had picked her. When she met him Nathan was used to getting what ever he wanted with a smirk and his charm. He was a jerk and an ass because people let him. Everyone but her. She saw something else and she refused to let him get by on that smirk and Scott charm. And so he had proved to her that he was more than that. She was almost ashamed of her earlier behavior, because Nathan wasn't that guy anymore. He hadn't been for a long time. If she really thought he was still that guy she never should have married him. Nathan had always trusted her completely, and that felt good. She owed him the same consideration. Sure, he had disappointed her in the past but he was always the one to come to her – to apologize, to convince her, to be there. He made mistakes but everyone does and he always came after her, refusing to give up on them. It was wrong for her to assume that just because there would be a skanky hoe in their apartment that night that he would break his vows. He had proved over and over again how important she was to him. If she was being totally honest, he had put himself on the line more times than she had. He didn't just deserve her trust – he had earned it. She needed to follow his example and just relax about the whole thing. She made a promise to herself in that moment to try harder.

As Nathan watched Simone saunter towards the bedroom so many things went through his head. Although he wasn't positive, he could swear it was Haley hanging out of the sunroof of the "girls gone wild" limo that had passed earlier. Granted, it seemed unlikely – Haley was not the party girl. But what if it was? Tim was still in his head too – and here he was, at a literal and metaphorical crossroads. In the bedroom was an opportunity the old Nathan would not have thought twice about. And ya, she was beautiful, and willing, and he didn't even have to put any effort into it – that was what she was paid to do. Most men would jump at the chance. Hell she could probably do things he'd only seen in porn movies. Then add into the mix that at this very moment his wife was doing god knows what...well, there were just too many things to think about.

Nathan's first thought was, "What if Haley really is doing something? Does that change things?". The thought alone made his stomach turn. Deep down Nathan liked the fact that he was her first. There was something primal about knowing that no one else had ever been as close to her as he was. Then there was the flip side. Could he really do something that he knew would hurt Haley? He had promised her only days before that he would love her forever, be true to her for all his life, and that he would protect her. At the first sign of temptation, would he break that promise?

In the end he asked Simone to leave. The funny part was, he didn't ask her to leave because it would hurt Haley, or because he wanted Tim to see that he wasn't that guy anymore, or to thumb his nose at the dreaded Scott gene. Truthfully he could have slept with her and no one would have known. In the past, before Haley, he used to do shitty things all the time, just because he could. He never needed a reason to do the things he did. The only justification he ever needed was that he wanted to. A smile crept over his face when he realized what he wanted. Nathan wanted Haley, and only Haley. Turns out the old Nathan was still there.

A/N Sorry this took so long, but I was uninspired - maybe because last weeks episode seemed pretty complete or else my muse was on vacation. Either way, with Thanksgiving weekend out of the way (I'm Canadian so it's been a crazy family filled weekend) I finally found an angle I wanted to explore. As always, let me know your thought....Carys