Author's Note: Because of the multiple updates, make sure you guys check the chapter numbers and titles to make sure you're reading them in the correct order and not missing anything...

Haley crept to the kitchen. It was well after midnight and she didn't want to disturb her parents. It had been a bit of a surprise but a welcome one just the same. They didn't see each other that often, no more than a few times a year if that. After what she had been through in Santa Domingo, all she really wanted was to come home and relax. It wouldn't be that easy.

Chris, along with her manager, Joe Martin had been there at JFK International airport to greet her arrival. They weren't the only ones there. A host of reporters had accompanied them. Weary and slightly disoriented from her ordeal, the last thing she was prepared to do was answer a bunch of questions and handle dozens of flashbulbs going off in her face.

Putting a jacket over her face, Chris had gallantly led the way to a waiting car that whisked them back to the loft. There were more paparazzi waiting at the residence and Haley cringed. It was just a matter of time and she knew it. They were like vultures. They never stopped until they got their story. The seedier and juicier, the better. And nothing would sell more papers and magazines than the secret teenage marriage of the sports star and the pop star and the rollercoaster that had taken place from the vows to the final chapter.

Once inside the loft, she chatted with Joe and Chris for a while and after they left to give her privacy, she had taken CAT and sat by the window watching the streets and putting her young life into perspective. Then she had seen it. The large, awkward RV pulling up to the curb. In typical unannounced James fashion, her concerned and loving parents had just shown up.

They hugged each other and cried softly. Haley spoke vaguely about what had happened and assured Jim and Lydia that her broken arm would heal. She talked little about Nathan and mentioned nothing that had happened between them during their sequestration in the abandoned shack.

Still it was nice to have them around. She forgot how much she missed them. And loved them. Jim always made her laugh and Lydia's comforting, maternal arms had always been a source of home for all six of her children.

"Can't sleep, huh?"

Haley jumped in the darkness.

"God, Mom, you scared the crap out of me. What are you doing up? Did I wake you?"

"Nah, just couldn't sleep that's all. What about you? You okay?"

"I'm fine", Haley shrugged.

"You sure?"

"Positive. The doctors say this stupid cast will be off in a few weeks and I'm actually getting ready to go back on the road with Chris."

"Another tour?" Lydia questioned. "So soon?"

"It's fine. I can handle it."

"I know hon, but after everything you've been through…I don't know. Maybe you should rest."

"Rest?"

"Yes. Hang out here with your cat. Go visit your brothers and sisters. Come on the road with Dad and me. Get a massage or a pedicure or a facial or whatever rich stars are supposed to do."

Haley smiled at her mother. Lydia Begard James probably had never been completely serious a single day in her whole life.

"Mom, I don't need any of that stuff. I'm okay. Really."

"Okay. So you go on tour, throw yourself into work, live out of a suitcase on a bus and planes, perform five nights a week, and then come back and go right into the studio for another album."

"That about sums it up", Haley smiled.

Lydia sighed as she took a seat on the couch and motioned for her youngest child to join her.

"Come here, Haley bub."

Haley did as she was told, taking a seat and placing her head in her mother's lap. Lydia gently ran her hands through the curly locks just like she used to when Haley was a little girl.

"Mom…"

"I'm worried about you, kiddo."

"Don't be. I'm fine. Everything is okay."

"Is it? I'm your mother. I gave birth to you. I was in labor with you for…"

"13 hours, 28 minutes and 6 seconds, Mom", Haley laughed. "I know, I know."

"That's right. That means I know you like a book. Probably better than you know yourself. And I know how you are about your work. You've practically been married to the music for the last seven years. On tour and in the studio you're focused and dedicated and meticulous…nothing else matters."

"It's important to me. I want it to be right."

"But it's also a welcome distraction. A defense mechanism you use when you don't want to deal with other things in your life."

Haley sighed.

"You're right in that I don't want to think about all the stuff that just happened. I'm ready to put it all behind me. The earthquake and the tsunami and being stranded and being scared thinking I was going to die…all that's over with now, Mom. I just want it out of my head."

"You experienced a super frightening ordeal and you survived it. It's all very traumatic but I know if anyone can go through something like that and be okay in the end, then it's you, Haley bub. I wasn't there, I don't know what it was like. Maybe it's best for you if you do try to forget but um…I just don't think that's the only thing you're trying to forget."

"What?"

"I'm talking about Nathan."

"Oh Mom…"

"That must have been a real doozy finding out you guys were still hitched all these years, huh?"

"Yeah, it was a shock, to say the least."

"So how was it in the Dominican?"

"How do you think?" Haley frowned, her voice taking on an edge. "I went to the Dominican Republic with my evil Dan Scott cloned estranged husband to get a quickie divorce so he can hurry up and marry his extremely beautiful, quite successful, college educated, Congressman for a father having, so genuinely syrupy sweet that you can't hate her, trophy fiancée. As if that weren't bad enough, an earthquake and a freaking tsunami nearly washed us away. I almost drowned a hundred times and I watched other innocent people, some women and children get swept under and it was Nathan who risked his life to rescue me. We clung to a flimsy tree for hours and endured the blistering sun and killer mosquitoes before we took a huge chance and swam miles to a little hut literally made out of sticks and mud where we were stranded for days, living on coconuts. I kept praying to God for help that never came and all I saw when I looked outside was water for miles and miles. So if you want to hear some fun Carnival Cruise like fairytale of a vacation, sorry, Mom, you won't get it here because mine absolutely sucked!"

"Are you done?" Lydia asked, not missing a beat.

"Yes", a flustered Haley hesitated, almost in tears.

"You still love him, don't you?"

"Mom…"

"No! No, okay? No, I don't love Nathan Scott."

Lydia laughed out loud.

"It's funny. You've been my daughter for 23 years and this is the first time you've ever lied to me."

"I'm not lying", she protested.

"It's written all over your face, girl. I see it in your eyes. And what did I tell you about people's eyes?"

"They never lie", Haley answered softly.

"Exactly. Listen, it's not too late, maybe…"

"Yes, it is, Mom. Our time has passed. Nathan has moved on. It doesn't matter how I feel. This isn't a movie or a TV show. It's real life. It's my life. There won't be a happily ever after ending for Nathan and me. Too much has happened. A long time ago, I made a choice, a choice that very well may have been a mistake. Regardless, it cost me. It cost me the life I had and the chance to ever get it back again. I traded Haley Scott, Tutor Wife for Haley James the rock star. There's no going back now…even if I wanted to."

Lydia listened intently and nodded.

"You believe in fate? That things happen for a reason? Well, I do. I always felt that you and Nate were meant to be, that your love was and is real. I don't know if you two are truly meant to be but I do believe you're soul mates. And soul mates always have a special connection, even if they aren't together. If it is really meant to be, somehow, someway you two will find your way back to one another."

"Through all this?" Haley laughed bitterly and sarcastically in spite of herself. "Through annulments and divorces and fiancées and tours and even natural disasters?"

"Stranger things have happened", Lydia hugged her daughter close.

"I don't know, Mom. I just think it's too late."

"Maybe…maybe not. But never say never."