Chapter Twenty-Two: The Itch We Know We Are Gonna Scratch

"Married," said Brooke, her voice flat. Haley quickly looked at Nathan, but his eyes were on Brooke.

"Are you okay?" asked Haley.

"Are you okay? I mean, are you sure you haven't gone insane? Because last time I checked you guys are seventeen and should be thinking about college, not lifelong commitment," she spat out. Haley recoiled slightly in surprise.

"What?"

"How could you do this? Nate, she cheated on you! With my boyfriend! Don't you care about…" Nathan cut her off swiftly.

"Brooke, don't make this about you," he said. She scowled at him.

"You're just not seeing the big picture here," said Brooke, talking slowly, as she would to a child.

"I don't think you are, either," said Haley.

"Shut up Haley," said Brooke, giving her a withering look. Six months previously, such an insult wouldn't have fazed her. Now it hit her like a slap on the face.

"Can you give us a moment, Hales?" asked Nathan, looking angrily at Brooke. Haley nodded and left without making eye contact with either of them.

Brooke stared at him, looking betrayed and furious. He matched her look with one of his own.

"Why are you doing this?" she asked eventually.

"Because we're in love. I know your love didn't work out but that doesn't mean we have to tiptoe around you forever," he said.

"I'm not in love with Lucas. He's a bastard, and I hope I never see him again," said Brooke. Her eyes said differently.

"Who'sJack then, your boyfriend?" asked Nathan. Brooke didn't say anything. Nathan didn't need her to say anything.Jack wasn't her boyfriend. He knew that.

"Get out," she said angrily. He compiled.

Brooke fell beck onto the couch and buried her face in her hands. Haley walked silently back into the room and folded her arms, staring at her sister.

"What do you want?" asked Brooke in annoyance.

"I know how you feel. I just wish you'd talk to me," said Haley simply. Brooke looked up, her dark eyes flashing.

"Like hell you do. You fucked my boyfriend. You're my sister, and I was in love with him," said Brooke.

"You still are. And although that's not what I was talking about, let's go there. I know how he feels, too. How's he's beating himself up for being such a moron. How he'd take it back in a second if he could. How badly hurt he is, for hurting you. He loves you, you know he does. What he did-what we did-doesn't change that," said Haley.

"If he loved me he wouldn't have slept with you," said Brooke, seemingly ignorant to all else.

"That's not true. He does love you. He was confused. He was scared to lose you. It's something he never felt with me," said Haley softly. Slowly she went to sit by her sister.

"Why do you think you know what I'm feeling?" asked Brooke. For a moment, Haley considered telling Brooke the truth. That what had happened with her and Lucas hadn't been a one time mistake, it was a pattern.

"I know what it feels like to lose someone," said Haley, taking Brooke's hand in comfort.

XxxxxxX

"Justine should be here," said Haley, looking sideways at Nathan.

"And my Mom," said Nathan.

"And Lucas," said Brooke, silently to herself.

The cab pulled up to their destination, an Anglican church. The three of them got out and stared at it, it's fairly modern architecture. Haley, standing in the middle, took Nathan's hand and Brooke's, uniting the three. Brooke squeezed her hand.

"You'll do great. Come on," she said. She pulled on her hand, making a train out of the three of them, with Nathan following along in the end. As he drew behind Haley, he caught a glimpse of her tattoo. Of the proclamation that she was his. He smiled.

XxxxxxX

As night fell, Brooke made herself scarce but directed the cab toward her apartment.

Haley tucked her head into Nathan's shoulder in the cab, but neither of them spoke. They had too many things too say, or maybe not enough. The idea that they would be together forever was unfathomable. Especially considering that less than a year ago, both thought that they'd end up with completely different people, who they now hoped would end up with each other.

Nathan lifted Haley into his arms as they reached the door, and carried her inside. He dropped her on the bed Brooke had told him was the spare, and shed the belt he was wearing.

His hands were shaky as he climbed on top of her. He didn't know what to do. This was far out of his area of expertise. He knew all about angry sex, make up sex. But loving, married sex seemed like a different thing altogether. Or should he call it making love?

Haley looked into his eyes as she felt his hands cautiously run over her upper body. She leaned up to kiss him, but it didn't prompt him to feverishly rip her shirt from her shoulders. They were beyond that.

Haley knew it was time for action. Nathan reacted instantly as she pushed him off of her, and lay back on the pillows beside her. She quickly sat up and straddled him, letting her hair down in one fluid moment.

"Come on, are you going to get me there or am I going to have to do it myself?" she asked, sliding out of her shirt and enjoying the look in his eyes.

XxxxxxX

Nathan was fairly sure that Haley was asleep when they lay together on the bed much later. He kissed her hair and admired its freshly washed scent. It was a scent he could get used to waking up next to. He thought about his mother's face when she'd told him he was going to get married, the triumphant gleam in the eyes of Justine Lee as she realized that her scheme had been successful.

Brooke's hurt look when she told him. Was it because of her feelings for him, or because of what she still felt for Lucas? Nathan knew better than to pry. She still wasn't ready.

His thoughts went back to Haley as she sighed in her sleep and muttered something unintelligible. He fingered the band on her left hand. His left arm was beginning to go numb with her head resting on it, but he didn't want to disturb her.

XxxxxxX

Brooke pulled her cell phone out of her purse and stared at it. Her finger blindly fingered the "1", the first number she'd programmed into it when she'd received it. She hadn't reprogrammed it. She didn't have the heart.

There were so many reasons to call him. Because of Nathan and Haley, because of Ben. Because she still loved him.

Her finger pressed down slightly, and the phone began to dial. Hesitantly she brought it to her ear. She held her breath as it rang, and picked up.

"Lucas?" she said.

"No, this is just his phone," said a female voice.

"And who's this?" demanded Brooke. It didn't sound like anyone it could be that she wouldn't mind. Namely his mother.

"I'm Davis, his girlfriend. He's not around, but I can take a message," said the same bright, friendly voice. A tear slipped from Brooke's eye.

"Just tell him that Nathan and Haley are safe," she said, hanging up abruptly.

XxxxxxX

Haley ran to the bathroom as her own cell rang, and answered it, her voice quiet to keep Nathan from waking.

"Haley?" came Lucas' voice.

"Luke," she whispered.

"Where are you?" he asked, sounding worried.

"New York," she said. She paused. "With Brooke."

"Is she coming back?"

Haley was silent for a long moment, trying to decide how to respond. Then she did so in the only way she knew how:

"I guess that's up to you, isn't it, Luke?" she said, taking the phone away from her ear and hanging up on him.

Nathan was sitting up in bed when she came back. He smiled at her, and glanced at her legs which were mostly revealed in the t-shirt of his that she wore. She walked over and sat in her lap.

"I love you," she whispered. He smiled, and kissed the top of her head again.

"I could get used to this," he thought to himself.