Chapter Nine
Haley's screams pull Brooke out of her sleep somewhere near three thirty in the morning a couple days later. Brooke bolts out of her room and down the hall, Brooke's over-active imagination jumps to a million fears beside the reality of Haley's obvious nightmare.
"Leave him alone," Haley's screams have changed into tearful pleas.
"Haley," Brooke sits down gently on the bed, carefully shaking her.
"Let me go you son-of-a-bitch!" Haley's hands flail wildly before her fists connect solidly with Brooke's jaw, this motion seems to draw Haley out of whatever nightmare she had been locked in. "Brooke?" Tears are streaming down Haley's cheeks when she finally recognizes her brunette friend.
"Damn Tutor-girl you sure pack a punch, remind me to never piss you off, like ever." Brooke rubs her jaw gently, painfully aware that it'll probably a bruise she'll have to cover before leaving for school in the morning.
"Sorry I was dreaming..." Haley pauses then shakes her head, "never mind. I'm sorry for waking you up and, you know, punching you."
"What were you dreaming about?" Brooke inquires, hoping that talking about it will help Haley heal.
"It's nothing," Haley shakes her head.
"Well, it was obviously something because, you know, I've been bruised."
Haley swipes at her cheeks, "Chris was going to s-sh-oot Na-than."
"Oh Hales," Brooke wraps her arms around Haley, "Chris won't hurt you again, we won't let him."
Haley shivers, "he haunts me, Brooke, every time I fall asleep and you can't protect me from that."
"Haley," Brooke chews on her lower lip, "I know you don't want to hear this, and I know Lucas and Karen have already talked to about this but..."
"Brooke, please don't start this."
"Tutor-girl, you can't just hope that time will make this go away. You have to talk to someone about this and you're not talking to any of us about it. Hell you pushed Nathan away, consequently breaking is heart in the process, so you wouldn't have to talk about it."
"That's not why I told Nathan we're over!" Haley defends quickly.
"Part of it is," Brooke responds, "but that's not the point. If you just let it go without talking about it, it's just going to eat away at you."
"Brooke, stop, God, just stop," Haley brushes Brooke off. "You don't know what you're talking about so just stop. I'm not going to see a councilor, this is how I deal."
"That's the thing Haley, you're not dealing, you're trying to act like it didn't happen. It did happen and you have to talk to someone about that. And yeah, you're right I don't know what this feels like and I don't know how to talk to you about it, that's why you should be talking to someone who does know what you're talking about, and who does know the right things to say to you."
"Brooke, just back off," Haley's voice shakes," Haley's voice shakes as she talks but there are no more tears. "Back off or I might have to hit you again." She's trying to pass it off as a joke but Brooke has a feeling that if she pushes Haley any further she might very well get hit again.
"Just think about it," Brooke suggests moving off of the bed, "do you need anything?"
"No," Haley briefly shakes her head before laying back against her pillow.
"Okay, well I'm gonna go back to bed."
"-k," Haley responds quietly.
Brooke slips out of the guestroom and moves back toward her room, but once she's in the quiet safety of her room she lets the tears fall onto her cheeks. Her heart is breaking for Haley and the fact that there is nothing she can do to help her. Crawling into her bed Brooke grabs her cell phone on her bedside table and hits the speed dial button, "hey, it's me."
"Hey you," Lucas sounds wide awake for it being so late at night or early in the morning as it was. "What's wrong?"
"I'm worried about Haley."
"Me too, but it's Nathan that has me up tonight."
"Oh no, what happened?"
"What's going on Tim?" Lucas meets Tim at the door of the bar he will always remember belonging to his first date with Brooke. He's gotten a call from Tim to meet him here right away, but no details has been shared before Tim had hung the phone up, but Lucas has the suspicion that it was regarding his brother.
"It's Nathan, he's drunk off his ass," Tim sighs, "I thought I'd bring him out to cheer him up..."
"Okay," Lucas runs a hand through his hair, dealing with a drunk Nathan was never his favorite thing to do. Drunk Nathan was always unpredictable, sometimes he was outright cruel and other times he was just an idiot.
"He's all over just about anything in a skirt," Lucas can't help but see the irony in Tim making a comment about this but quickly turns his attention back to the details Tim is giving him. "And he's nearly gotten his ass kicked more then one for it."
Lucas doesn't really need to hear much more so he pushes open the door, immediately spotting Nathan not far away at the par, with his arm draped around a scantily clad blonde. "You know I used to date a blonde, we had nothing in common. But she was hot and we had great sex. Then like an idiot I went and got married."
"You're married?" The blonde moves away, "I don't do married guys."
"No worries," Nathan slurs his assurance, "we're getting a divorce. Do you do divorced guys."
Lucas can't hear the blonde's responds but whatever she whispered in Nathan's ear causes both of them to get to their unsteady feet. "Lucas!" Nathan pulls the girl along until they stop in front of Lucas, "Brenda this is my brother Lucas, Lucas this is Brenda my hot new friend we're going to head back to her apartment and she is going to help me get over Haley."
"Nate, come on, why don't we go back to my house and talk?"
"Hell no," Nathan responds, "I'm getting over Haley, like I'm supposed to!"
"No one expects that to happen overnight," Lucas states, "it's going to take time. Don't do this, just throw yourself at any random girl."
"Whatever Luke," Nathan brushes him off but Lucas reaches out to grab his arm, "get off me bastard!" Something in this strikes Nathan as fun because he doubles over in laughter, "no pun intended of course. I'll see you around Luke."
"He didn't really say that Luke, did he?" Brooke gasps into the cell phone, she'd listened to Lucas' story silently but she couldn't keep quiet about this part of the story.
"He did," Lucas sighs, "it's like he's Nathan from the beginning of the year, before he and Haley got together."
"So you just let him go?" Brooke asks.
"What was I supposed to do, chase after him and follow them back to her apartment and attempt to stop them from having sex."
It's Brooke's turn to sigh, "I suppose that's not the most mature plan. But I can't believe he just went off with some skanky whore-bag."
"Well that's the thing..."
"Hey," Lucas greets his mother when he walks into the kitchen half an hour past curfew, "I'm sorry. I was at the Rivercourt, I just had to blow off some steam. This whole thing with Nathan and Haley is getting to me."
"They're really going through with this divorce?" Karen asks as she hands her sweaty son a bottle of water.
"I guess," Lucas drinks the water down, after playing at the court for an hour without water he was thirsty.
Karen jumps at the banging on the front door, "who in the world would be here?"
"Lucas, open up! I've got to talk to you!" Nathan's voice comes clearly through the door and into the kitchen, it's low and still slurred.
"I'm going to bed," Karen gently kisses Lucas' cheek, "take care of your brother."
"Night Mom," Lucas sighs before he walks toward the front door, pulling it open he doesn't expect Nathan to be leaning against it or for Nathan to come tumbling onto him, sobbing. "Nate what happened?"
"I couldn't do it."
"Do what?" All of this has thrown Lucas off to much to fully understand what's going on in front of him.
"What the fuck do you think? The girl she was hot but I just couldn't do it. I couldn't bring myself to touch her or...damnit it Luke what the hell is wrong with me?" Nathan demands loudly leaning back against the door, his anger has replaced the previous tears.
"You're still in love with Haley," Lucas responds simply.
"I don't want to be in love with her anymore," Nathan's back to sobs, "I just want to be over her. She doesn't want me."
"Oh Luke," Brooke whispers not bothering to wipe at her cheeks, "what'd you tell him?"
"That Haley did love him, but it doesn't matter he's so drunk that he's not going to remember any of that in the morning." Lucas' voice sounds tired and strained.
"Where is he now?"
"Passed out on my bed. I don't know what to do Brooke, for either one of them. They won't talk about it, unless their drunk apparently but they need to talk about it and, call me a romantic, but Haley can't do this without Nathan by her side."
"Haley woke up screaming, she had a dream Chris was trying to kill Nathan. She loves him and she misses him but it's like she punishing herself or protecting herself or both, but she won't talk to me about it. She threatened to hit me if I pushed the counseling topic anymore. We have to do something Lucas..."
"I'm not sure that's such a good idea," Lucas responds.
"Why not? We can't just sit around and do nothing."
"Because last time we had a genius idea to help them work through their problems they decided to get divorced." Lucas lets out a long breath, "I think we need to stay out of it, I realize that's not the most proactive solution but...us pushing them isn't going to help."
"So we're just supposed to sit back and let them fall apart?" Brooke asks, "I can't do that Luke."
"We just have to give them time, I've got tickets to a basketball game at UNC next week I'll take Nathan. Get him out of Tree Hill and away from Haley for the weekend."
Brooke sighs, "maybe we'll have a girls night, try to keep Haley's mind off of everything." There's a lull in the conversation but finally Brooke states, "I wish things could go back to the way they were before. When everyone was happy, no Chris, no Niki...there was a time that we were all happy right?"
"It's hard to remember," Lucas responds.
"Yeah," Brooke whispers, "it is."
A.N. Thanks again for all of the reviews, I love you guys for the reviews! I know you guys are sad for Haley and Nathan but they both have to do some growing before they can even start to think about getting back together and who's to say that when they're done growing they won't have grown out of each other. Hmm, I am dark like that after all. Oh and there's a language warning in this chapter! So I'm not 100 thrilled with this chapter, but I can't pinpoint what it is exactly that I don't like about it so I can't change it...I guess cause it's kind of a transition chapter...
Haley's screams pull Brooke out of her sleep somewhere near three thirty in the morning a couple days later. Brooke bolts out of her room and down the hall, Brooke's over-active imagination jumps to a million fears beside the reality of Haley's obvious nightmare.
"Leave him alone," Haley's screams have changed into tearful pleas.
"Haley," Brooke sits down gently on the bed, carefully shaking her.
"Let me go you son-of-a-bitch!" Haley's hands flail wildly before her fists connect solidly with Brooke's jaw, this motion seems to draw Haley out of whatever nightmare she had been locked in. "Brooke?" Tears are streaming down Haley's cheeks when she finally recognizes her brunette friend.
"Damn Tutor-girl you sure pack a punch, remind me to never piss you off, like ever." Brooke rubs her jaw gently, painfully aware that it'll probably a bruise she'll have to cover before leaving for school in the morning.
"Sorry I was dreaming..." Haley pauses then shakes her head, "never mind. I'm sorry for waking you up and, you know, punching you."
"What were you dreaming about?" Brooke inquires, hoping that talking about it will help Haley heal.
"It's nothing," Haley shakes her head.
"Well, it was obviously something because, you know, I've been bruised."
Haley swipes at her cheeks, "Chris was going to s-sh-oot Na-than."
"Oh Hales," Brooke wraps her arms around Haley, "Chris won't hurt you again, we won't let him."
Haley shivers, "he haunts me, Brooke, every time I fall asleep and you can't protect me from that."
"Haley," Brooke chews on her lower lip, "I know you don't want to hear this, and I know Lucas and Karen have already talked to about this but..."
"Brooke, please don't start this."
"Tutor-girl, you can't just hope that time will make this go away. You have to talk to someone about this and you're not talking to any of us about it. Hell you pushed Nathan away, consequently breaking is heart in the process, so you wouldn't have to talk about it."
"That's not why I told Nathan we're over!" Haley defends quickly.
"Part of it is," Brooke responds, "but that's not the point. If you just let it go without talking about it, it's just going to eat away at you."
"Brooke, stop, God, just stop," Haley brushes Brooke off. "You don't know what you're talking about so just stop. I'm not going to see a councilor, this is how I deal."
"That's the thing Haley, you're not dealing, you're trying to act like it didn't happen. It did happen and you have to talk to someone about that. And yeah, you're right I don't know what this feels like and I don't know how to talk to you about it, that's why you should be talking to someone who does know what you're talking about, and who does know the right things to say to you."
"Brooke, just back off," Haley's voice shakes," Haley's voice shakes as she talks but there are no more tears. "Back off or I might have to hit you again." She's trying to pass it off as a joke but Brooke has a feeling that if she pushes Haley any further she might very well get hit again.
"Just think about it," Brooke suggests moving off of the bed, "do you need anything?"
"No," Haley briefly shakes her head before laying back against her pillow.
"Okay, well I'm gonna go back to bed."
"-k," Haley responds quietly.
Brooke slips out of the guestroom and moves back toward her room, but once she's in the quiet safety of her room she lets the tears fall onto her cheeks. Her heart is breaking for Haley and the fact that there is nothing she can do to help her. Crawling into her bed Brooke grabs her cell phone on her bedside table and hits the speed dial button, "hey, it's me."
"Hey you," Lucas sounds wide awake for it being so late at night or early in the morning as it was. "What's wrong?"
"I'm worried about Haley."
"Me too, but it's Nathan that has me up tonight."
"Oh no, what happened?"
"What's going on Tim?" Lucas meets Tim at the door of the bar he will always remember belonging to his first date with Brooke. He's gotten a call from Tim to meet him here right away, but no details has been shared before Tim had hung the phone up, but Lucas has the suspicion that it was regarding his brother.
"It's Nathan, he's drunk off his ass," Tim sighs, "I thought I'd bring him out to cheer him up..."
"Okay," Lucas runs a hand through his hair, dealing with a drunk Nathan was never his favorite thing to do. Drunk Nathan was always unpredictable, sometimes he was outright cruel and other times he was just an idiot.
"He's all over just about anything in a skirt," Lucas can't help but see the irony in Tim making a comment about this but quickly turns his attention back to the details Tim is giving him. "And he's nearly gotten his ass kicked more then one for it."
Lucas doesn't really need to hear much more so he pushes open the door, immediately spotting Nathan not far away at the par, with his arm draped around a scantily clad blonde. "You know I used to date a blonde, we had nothing in common. But she was hot and we had great sex. Then like an idiot I went and got married."
"You're married?" The blonde moves away, "I don't do married guys."
"No worries," Nathan slurs his assurance, "we're getting a divorce. Do you do divorced guys."
Lucas can't hear the blonde's responds but whatever she whispered in Nathan's ear causes both of them to get to their unsteady feet. "Lucas!" Nathan pulls the girl along until they stop in front of Lucas, "Brenda this is my brother Lucas, Lucas this is Brenda my hot new friend we're going to head back to her apartment and she is going to help me get over Haley."
"Nate, come on, why don't we go back to my house and talk?"
"Hell no," Nathan responds, "I'm getting over Haley, like I'm supposed to!"
"No one expects that to happen overnight," Lucas states, "it's going to take time. Don't do this, just throw yourself at any random girl."
"Whatever Luke," Nathan brushes him off but Lucas reaches out to grab his arm, "get off me bastard!" Something in this strikes Nathan as fun because he doubles over in laughter, "no pun intended of course. I'll see you around Luke."
"He didn't really say that Luke, did he?" Brooke gasps into the cell phone, she'd listened to Lucas' story silently but she couldn't keep quiet about this part of the story.
"He did," Lucas sighs, "it's like he's Nathan from the beginning of the year, before he and Haley got together."
"So you just let him go?" Brooke asks.
"What was I supposed to do, chase after him and follow them back to her apartment and attempt to stop them from having sex."
It's Brooke's turn to sigh, "I suppose that's not the most mature plan. But I can't believe he just went off with some skanky whore-bag."
"Well that's the thing..."
"Hey," Lucas greets his mother when he walks into the kitchen half an hour past curfew, "I'm sorry. I was at the Rivercourt, I just had to blow off some steam. This whole thing with Nathan and Haley is getting to me."
"They're really going through with this divorce?" Karen asks as she hands her sweaty son a bottle of water.
"I guess," Lucas drinks the water down, after playing at the court for an hour without water he was thirsty.
Karen jumps at the banging on the front door, "who in the world would be here?"
"Lucas, open up! I've got to talk to you!" Nathan's voice comes clearly through the door and into the kitchen, it's low and still slurred.
"I'm going to bed," Karen gently kisses Lucas' cheek, "take care of your brother."
"Night Mom," Lucas sighs before he walks toward the front door, pulling it open he doesn't expect Nathan to be leaning against it or for Nathan to come tumbling onto him, sobbing. "Nate what happened?"
"I couldn't do it."
"Do what?" All of this has thrown Lucas off to much to fully understand what's going on in front of him.
"What the fuck do you think? The girl she was hot but I just couldn't do it. I couldn't bring myself to touch her or...damnit it Luke what the hell is wrong with me?" Nathan demands loudly leaning back against the door, his anger has replaced the previous tears.
"You're still in love with Haley," Lucas responds simply.
"I don't want to be in love with her anymore," Nathan's back to sobs, "I just want to be over her. She doesn't want me."
"Oh Luke," Brooke whispers not bothering to wipe at her cheeks, "what'd you tell him?"
"That Haley did love him, but it doesn't matter he's so drunk that he's not going to remember any of that in the morning." Lucas' voice sounds tired and strained.
"Where is he now?"
"Passed out on my bed. I don't know what to do Brooke, for either one of them. They won't talk about it, unless their drunk apparently but they need to talk about it and, call me a romantic, but Haley can't do this without Nathan by her side."
"Haley woke up screaming, she had a dream Chris was trying to kill Nathan. She loves him and she misses him but it's like she punishing herself or protecting herself or both, but she won't talk to me about it. She threatened to hit me if I pushed the counseling topic anymore. We have to do something Lucas..."
"I'm not sure that's such a good idea," Lucas responds.
"Why not? We can't just sit around and do nothing."
"Because last time we had a genius idea to help them work through their problems they decided to get divorced." Lucas lets out a long breath, "I think we need to stay out of it, I realize that's not the most proactive solution but...us pushing them isn't going to help."
"So we're just supposed to sit back and let them fall apart?" Brooke asks, "I can't do that Luke."
"We just have to give them time, I've got tickets to a basketball game at UNC next week I'll take Nathan. Get him out of Tree Hill and away from Haley for the weekend."
Brooke sighs, "maybe we'll have a girls night, try to keep Haley's mind off of everything." There's a lull in the conversation but finally Brooke states, "I wish things could go back to the way they were before. When everyone was happy, no Chris, no Niki...there was a time that we were all happy right?"
"It's hard to remember," Lucas responds.
"Yeah," Brooke whispers, "it is."