A.N Just a quick note for those who have been following the story closely to make sure you remember where we left things last time. Haley had just rejected Nathan for what seems like the millionth time and had gone in search of Lucas. She had of course found him with Peyton in a rather compromising position. Now on with the story. Just to let you know though Nathan is going to show a bit of a different side to himself in this chapter. Let me know whether you like this Nathan or not.

Chapter Eleven

"Peyton" Lucas' voice came to Haley as he finally wrenched his lips away from hers "I really should get back in there. Haley's probably wondering where I am."

"Come on Lucas we've managed to be together for two whole months without arousing her suspicions what difference is a few more minutes going to make" Peyton pleaded.

"Yeah ok but only a few more minutes," he agreed.

"That's all I need" Peyton told him with a smile.

Haley stood there frozen, this could not be happening. Lucas had been having it off with a cheerleader for two months and she had been completely oblivious to it. What was worse was she had felt guilty about a few stolen moments with Nathan while all the time this had been going on. She questioned for a moment whether she should confront Lucas about this but then decided why bother. She had obviously been the only one to really care about their friendship. Well you know what Lucas two can play that game and with that she turned and walked purposefully toward the gym.

Nathan stood with all his friends listening half heartedly to their narrative on all the so-called hot chicks and what they would like to do with them. Normally Nathan would have been fully involved in this conversation if not leading it but right now he couldn't care less.

"Hey Nate here comes your latest challenge" Tim said, "She's actually looking pretty good tonight. Since you don't seem to be having any luck with her maybe its time I gave her a try."

Hearing this Nathan grabbed Tim by the front of his shirt practically lifting him off the ground with the force.

"You stay away from her Tim. Do you hear me"?

"Yeah alright man whatever. What's wrong with you? Never known you to get this possessive over a chick before." He laughed.

"Nothing ok she's just not the sort of girl who's going to be interested in a one night stand with you." Nathan told him in no uncertain terms.

He felt a light touch on his arm and released Tim turning to find Haley standing in front of him.

"Nate will you dance with me?" she asked him timidly.

"Ok" he responded looking puzzled wasn't this the same girl who couldn't wait to get away from him just fifteen minutes ago?

Taking his hand in hers she led him out onto the floor turning to face him when she found some space, wrapping her arms around his neck and burying her face into his chest.

"Hales what's going on?" he asked her not understanding why she was back in his arms.

"Nate I really don't want to talk about it can you please just hold me?"

Nathan didn't need to be asked twice as he wrapped his arms around her and slowly rocked their bodies in time to the music. Nathan tried once more to find out what it was that had her so clearly upset

"Haley you know you can talk to me. I know we haven't exactly talked much in the time we've been together but if there's something bothering you I'm happy to listen."

"Nate please I told you I don't want to talk about it" Haley pleaded with him

"no I guess that's the sort of thing you have a best friend for isn't it" he said snidely upset that she didn't feel she could confide in him the way she probably would have with Lucas.

"What best friend?" she asked "I don't have one anymore."

Nathan didn't know how to respond to this so he simply held her tighter and wondered what on earth was going on. Something must have happened with Lucas but what? Surely if he had seen us together earlier then there is no way she would have come back to me obviously looking for comfort.

His thoughts were interrupted by an extremely angry Lucas

"Nathan get the fuck away from her. What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Nathan turned to face his brother keeping his arms around Haley who made no move to pull away.

"Come on Haley lets get out of here and get away from this Neanderthal" Lucas practically ordered her reaching out to grab her arm.

"I'm not going anywhere with you Lucas" Haley replied icily "I'm quite happy where I am".

A crowd began to gather around them everyone interested to see what had caused the latest disagreement between the two brothers.

"Haley you can't be serious" Lucas exclaimed, "You hate Nathan".

"No Lucas you hate Nathan right now the only person I hate is you."

Lucas looked at her dumbfounded this could not be happening. His Haley would never side with Nathan over him. What the hell is going on here?

"Haley" Luke tried a more conciliatory tone "you don't mean that. But you're obviously upset so why don't we get out of here and we can talk about this in private" he said, pointedly looking at the crowd of onlookers gathered around them.

"I AM NOT GOING ANYWHWERE WITH YOU" Haley bit out enunciating every word carefully as if he was deaf or just plain stupid "and don't try to tell me what I mean and don't mean."

Lucas once again tried to reach out and grab her arm but Nathan roughly shoved him away. "You're obviously not wanted here so why don't you just leave," he told his brother barely even looking at him as he focused all his attention on the girl shaking in his arms.

"I'm not going anywhere without Haley" he said stubbornly.

"Fine Lucas" Haley said noticing the look of relief coming onto his face "if you won't leave then we will. Come on Nate" and without another word she walked away from Lucas Nathan's arm staying firmly around her shoulders as he guided her away from the gym and out to his waiting car.

Lucas stared after them for a moment before his shoulders slumped dejectedly and he too left the gym.

"Where do you want me to take you" Nathan asked uncertainly as they drove out of the car park.

She didn't answer for a moment as she stared forlornly out the window. "Should I just take you back to your place" he tried once more.

This earnt him a response as Haley's head shot up "I'd prefer that you didn't" she told him "Lucas is probably already on his way there."

"Ok so where will it be then? Do you want me to drop you at one of your girlfriends houses so you can talk to someone?" He suggested. "Can we just go back to your place?" She asked him her voice had a pleading note to it.

Feeling a combination of pleasure that she wanted to be with him and also nervousness because she was so clearly upset and he still had no idea what was wrong Nathan did a u-turn and headed towards the beach house not wanting to deal with the hassle he would receive from his parents if he were to go home.

They drove in silence until they finally reached his house. "Are you sure you want to be here?" he asked her.

"There's no place I'd rather be" she assured him.

Going inside Nathan put on the lights in a guest room

"I hope this room will be ok for you. The sheets are clean and there should be towels in the cupboard. I'll be just down the hall if you need anything else" he told her.

Haley's voice stopped him as he went to leave "Nathan is it ok if I just stay with you tonight?" she asked quietly "Its just I really don't want to be alone."

"Of course you can Hales. If you're sure that's what you want."

"I'm sure," she told him with certainty.

With his arm around her waist he led her into his room. Releasing her for a moment he rummaged through his closet emerging with one of his t-shirts "Here you can wear this" he offered.

"Thanks" she accepted it gratefully forcing a small smile onto her lips.

"You can change in there," he said pointing to the bathroom.

As Nathan watched her walk across the hall to the bathroom he was struck by how utterly exhausted she appeared. It seemed as if all the life had gone out of her and he wished he knew what he could do to bring that sparkle back into her eyes. He had never seen her like this before. She always seemed to have a certain energy surrounding her whether she was happy, angry or in the grips of passion. They were the sides of Haley he was familiar with but this was something completely new to him. He didn't know how to deal with a sad Haley. Truth was he didn't know how to deal with a sad female period. No other girl had ever come to him for comfort before. They had come to him for plenty of other things but comfort definitely wasn't one of them. There was no point thinking of what his dad would do, Dan was hardly a good role model of how to treat women. This was something he was going to have to figure out on his own he only hoped that hewouldn't screw it up.

He was brought out of his thoughts by Haley re-entering his bedroom, his t-shirt hanging loosely on her petite body. She had removed her make up and her eyes were puffy from crying but Nathan was entranced by her.

"Come here" he said holding out his hand to her.

She placed her hand in his going willingly into his arms as he pulled her close to him wanting to offer comfort and not knowing how else he should do it. She sighed into his chest as some of the tension was released from her body by his warm embrace. Pulling back the covers on the bed he helped her into it before stepping back to remove his clothes. After stripping down to his boxer shorts he walked around to the other side of the bed getting in behind her but keeping a certain distance between their bodies. He didn't want to scare her or make her think that he expected something from her simply because she was in his bed. Looking at her back he sighed and rolled over onto his own back not sure what else he should do. I don't know how I'm possibly going to sleep tonight. As he thought this he felt movement in the bed beside him as Haley turned towards him placing her arm across his waist and resting her head on his chest seeming to need the warmth of Nathan's body close to her. He draped his arm around her shoulders and a feeling of contentment overcame him. For perhaps the first time ever Nathan Scott had a girl in his bed and he was more than content just to hold her.

Nathan felt his eyes start to close ready for sleep but Haley's voice came to him through the dark.

"Nathan I don't understand why you're doing this for me. I was such a bitch earlier on refusing to consider your feelings because I was too caught up in how things were affecting me. Why did you defend me to Lucas? You could have just left me there but you didn't and I guess I just want to know why?" she finished in a rush sounding almost scared to hear what his response would be.

Nathan sighed not knowing how to express what he was feeling in words, not even sure at this stage what he was feeling. "To be honest Haley I really don't know. All I knew was that you were upset and I couldn't just stand by and let somebody do that to you." He responded and immediately wanted to take it back sure that it had come out sounding as if he had just done her some giant favour and now she should be indebted to him. He almost expected her to jump out of the bed in outrage and tell him where he could shove his misguided chivalry.

He held his breath waiting for her response and released it in a whoosh of relief when she simply snuggled in closer to him. "So I guess I owe you an explanation," she said softly.

"Haley its ok you don't owe me anything" Nathan quickly tried to assure her.

"Nathan its ok I want to tell you that is if you still want to hear it?" She said the uncertainty creeping back into her voice.

"Haley you can tell me anything" he assured her and for the next twenty minutes he just lay there quietly listening as she explained what had happened and why it had upset her so much.

Listening to her speak Nathan suddenly understood a whole lot more about Haley James and why she had run so hot and cold with him. She had been caught between a rock and a hard place with him constantly coming onto her and knowing how Lucas her best friend felt about him. It was no wonder that she had seemed so angry with herself on the occasions she had given in to him. He also got a further insight into Lucas and he was not impressed. He could not believe what a jerk his brother had been, hiding his relationship from Haley just because he didn't have the balls to tell her about it. At that moment he would have loved nothing better than to go find Lucas and beat him to a pulp for hurting Haley like this. But he knew that even though it would probably make him feel better about things it wouldn't help Haley. So he buried his anger and instead focused on Haley brushing away the tears that fell in a steady stream and trying to calm her when the anger at Lucas' betrayal manifested. Finally she fell into an exhausted sleep, her head resting on Nathan's chest, his arms holding her securely as if in a silent promise to protect her from anything or anyone that tried to hurt her.

Nathan lay awake for a while longer contemplating all he had learned that night. He hated seeing Haley upset like this and he resolved that no matter what he was going to make sure she enjoyed herself tomorrow. After all he said smiling to himself tomorrow is Valentines Day.