Chapter Six – That You Will Find the Answers

Flashback

Haley watched from the dance floor as Nathan walked off in the opposite direction of where they were standing. She looked towards Lucas, the hurt apparent in her face. "So is he honestly just going to ignore me all night?" she yelled over the roaring music.

Lucas shrugged his shoulders, not knowing what to tell her. Nathan played by his own rules these days and the only person he listened to was himself. "Let's go somewhere a little quieter and talk," he yelled back, nodding towards the tables in the back of the club.

Haley nodded back and followed Lucas and Brooke to a table, taking a seat across from them. "So how's he been?" she asked, getting straight to the point.

Lucas draped his arm over Brooke's shoulders and laughed. "I'm doing great, Hales, thanks for asking. Business has been good, even though my biggest client's a pain in the ass, I miss my friends most of the time and I've been a little under the weather this week."

Haley smiled and reached across the table to take his hand in hers. "I'm sorry, Luke, I'm so happy to see you and I'm glad that you're doing well. I've just never been worried about you. Now Nathan, that's a whole other story. Is he okay?"

"He's different, Haley. He parties a lot, drinks a lot, and gets angry a lot."

Haley opened her mouth to speak, but Brooke cut her off. "You know, I'm going to need a drink for this serious of a conversation. Anyone else want anything?"

Lucas nodded towards his beer and Haley nodded her head, knowing Brooke would know exactly what to get her. Brooke kissed Lucas on the cheek as she headed off towards the bar, causing Haley to raise an eyebrow in Lucas' direction.

"What?" Lucas asked her. "What's the face for, Hales?"

She smiled innocently and shook her head. "Nothing, just the two of you, that's all."

"What?" he asked again.

"I just don't see how you can both do this. Just go your separate ways, but as soon as you're back together again act as thought nothing has happened, as though you've spent no time apart."

"It's just the way we decided to go about this, Haley. We love spending time together, but we both know it's not fair to only date each other. We don't see each other often enough to put ourselves through that. Now if we were say, I don't know, married…"

"Lucas," Haley took a deep breath, "we're not married anymore and Nathan made his point obvious when I went on tour in the first place."

"Haley, Nathan was hurt when you decided to leave."

"By the looks of it, he still is. I've really screwed everything up, haven't I, Luke?"

Lucas reached for her hands, taking them both in his. "Haley, you went after your dream. You got such a wonderful opportunity and I'm so proud of you for taking that chance. I don't want you to ever regret that. I just wish that the two of you could have both followed your dreams and stayed together at the same time."

"So do I, Lucas, every day."

"Then try again, Hales. Nathan still loves you and I know that you still love him."

"Lucas, it's not that easy. I wish that it were…"

"Just go talk to him, Haley. Will you at least do that much for me?" Lucas pleaded with his best friend.

Haley stalled momentarily, but stood as she saw Brooke returning with the drinks. She took the white wine from her hands and turned towards Lucas. "I'm not making any promises," she told her best friend, turning on her heels and heading off in Nathan's direction.

"What was that about?" Brooke asked as she sat down next to him and handed him his beer.

"Oh nothing, just trying to get Haley to open up her eyes, that's all."

"About Nathan?" she asked.

"Yeah, I guess. They belong together, I just wish they could both stop being so stubborn. Don't they see how similar they are? How is she, Cheery, honestly?"

Brooke smiled at his nickname for her, which he had never stopped calling her. "Well, I mean she has her days when it gets hard, but she loves it on stage. But then again it's weird because she gets up there and gives it her all, and it just shows in her face how much she loves it, but when the shows over it just doesn't seem to make her happy. Maybe it's the touring lifestyle that she doesn't like. I don't think she would make it without the three of us there."

Lucas glanced in the direction of where Haley had just walked away. He understood what Brooke was saying, because he had seen the unhappiness in her eyes. Haley had always been good at covering things up, but she wasn't able to by a long shot with him. He just knew her too well.

It killed him to see her hurting, but he knew that there wasn't anything he could do. It was in Haley and Nathan's hands now.

End Flashback

Haley followed Brooke and Peyton to where the guys were by the bar, smiling as Lucas walked towards her and took her in his arms. "You okay, buddy?" he asked, his chin resting gently on the top of her head.

She nodded. "Yeah, just became a little too much, ya know?"

"Yeah I get it, you just worried us that's all. Especially Nathan." He pulled back from her, his hands resting gently on her shoulders. "You sure you're okay?" he asked again. Just as Nathan was able to read her, and as he was all those years ago, Lucas could tell that there was something bothering Haley below the surface. Something that she wasn't telling him.

"I'm fine, Luke, I promise." She shook her head and laughed. "You don't have to worry about me, I can take care of myself."

"I know you can, but I can't help it."

Nathan watched as Lucas comforted Haley, wishing that it was him instead. But did he really have the right to have that thought? He had pushed her away so many years ago and who was to say that she had wanted his arms around her still after all these years. No, he had seen it in her eyes. She missed him just as much as he missed her. But did that even matter anymore, were they already too far apart from each other?

Haley and Lucas joined them and Peyton handed her a glass of water that she had ordered.

Haley smiled graciously. "Thanks, Peyt. I'm sorry guys, I shouldn't have run out like that."

"God, don't apologize, Hales." Nathan said, feeling as though if anyone should be handing out apologies, it was definitely him.

Haley brought her eyes to his and couldn't help but feel that with the way he was looking back at her, he was looking right into her soul. Nathan always had such an uncanny way of doing that, ever since she had met him. She couldn't help but smile, knowing that he really truly did know her better than all of them.

Lucas spoke, breaking the momentary silence that had encased them all. "Hey, I have a great idea. Nathan and I are staying in this hotel and I really only came here to see you guys, so who's up for heading to our room and catching up? I feel as though it will be a lot more fun than this suck fest."

They all laughed, glad that Lucas had finally voiced the opinion they had all been thinking. Jake patted him on the back. "I like the way you think, man. I knew I missed you for some reason."

"Well, I always thought you just missed my good looks. I'm hurt, Jake, I really am." Lucas joked back.

They were just about to head upstairs when a voice from the stage caught their attention.

"Good evening Tree Hill High class of '06. As most of you know, I'm Coach Whitey Durham and I'm here to start off this evening festivities. Now many of you will remember that silly thing you all had a part in called 'Senior Superlatives'. We thought it would be a great way to start off this shindig by seeing where all of your picks are now. So we're going to go through all the categories and bring those certain people on stage. Let the show begin."

Whitey stepped off stage and two other female teachers took over for him. The six of them watched as the categories were listed off: best eyes, most artistic, most likely to end up in jail. They hollered as Peyton and Jake graciously accepted the mock award for cutest couple.

A few more awards were passed out before Whitey returned to the microphone. "Now this last award is pretty meaningful considering these two have really done so much with their lives and I can't help but feel, well at least in his case, that I had something to do with it. It's my pleasure to hand the 'Most Likely to Succeed' awards to Nathan Scott and Haley James."

Haley couldn't believe her ears. She had completely forgotten about Senior Superlatives, especially considering she hadn't actually been attending school when the final list came out. The look on Nathan's face told her that he had forgotten also and all he could do was smile. She laughed at the surprised look on his face and walked with him towards the stage. He motioned for her to climb the few stairs first, gently placing his hand on the small of her back as she did so. Haley could swear that she felt her skin melting to his touch.

Haley laughed as Whitey pulled her into a bear hug. "You look pretty good, little lady," Whitey said, touching her chin in a fatherly way. "And you," he said, turning towards Nathan, "look like crap."

Nathan laughed as Whitey pulled him into a hug as well. "You don't look too good yourself, old man."

Whitey handed each of them little plastic trophy's and laughed. "Maybe you guys can get them covered in gold, that way they'll be a little more your style." He turned to the microphone. "I think we all know what these two are up to these days. I don't want them to bore you more than we already have, so I'm not letting them talk."

Haley smiled amiably at Whitey considering the last thing she wanted to do right now was talk in front of her former classmates. She followed Nathan and Whitey offstage and Whitey pulled her in for another hug. "It's so good to see you two," he said genuinely. "Are you guys going to be sticking around?"

"Actually Coach, we were going to head up to our hotel room." Nathan said. "By all means, you're welcome to come up if you want."

"Wait, your hotel room?" Whitey asked, pointing at each of them individually.

Nathan shook his head and Haley blushed awkwardly. "No, no, Coach. I'm staying here with Lucas," Nathan corrected him.

"Well that makes a hell of a lot more sense. And thanks for the invite, but you don't need an old man bringing your night down. How long are you in town for?"

"Lucas and I are heading out tomorrow, but our flight's not until late afternoon. We could stop by and see you in the morning, if you're not too busy." Nathan wanted to talk to Whitey, he really had missed his companionship throughout the years.

"I would love that. And how about you, young lady?" Whitey asked, turning his attention to Haley.

"Well, you will be seeing me around, because I'm taking a break from the tour and staying in Tree Hill for awhile." Haley couldn't help but saying it with a smile. It felt good to be staying home considering she hadn't truly had a home the past 11 years of her life.

Whitey mirrored her smile with his own. "That is very good news and you better come visit me."

Haley laughed. "I definitely will."

"Well, I don't want to keep you kids waiting. Go have your fun and I will see you both later."

Haley pulled Whitey into one last hug, so glad to finally be back to the familiar. It felt so good to see everyone from her past, so good that she almost wondered why she had been so scared in the first place. There was something about Tree Hill that was so comforting and even though she had given Peyton a hard time about coming back here to take some time off, she was actually very happy to be doing so.

Nathan and Haley walked back to the group in a comfortable silence, each contemplating exactly how they wanted the rest of the night to go.

"All set?" Lucas asked.

They both nodded and followed everyone to the lobby where they caught an elevator. Nathan couldn't help but stare at Haley on the ride up to their floor. His mind was still replaying the moment that she had run from his arms and he couldn't help but try to decipher what it had all meant. There was something different about her, something that he couldn't quite place his finger on. She seemed so overly emotional tonight- when they first made contact at the beginning of the night, when she had left him on the dance floor, and just now when she had seen Whitey. Was it just being back in Tree Hill that was bringing it out of her, or was there something else? Something much, much deeper perhaps?

Haley brought her eyes to his, obviously conscious to the fact that he was staring, and he immediately stopped. He focused on the numbers above the elevator doors as they climbed higher and higher past numerous floors.

Everything was so different when he only talked to her on the phone every once and awhile. She had never seemed completely herself over the phone, but he figured it was just her way of making everything easier. But now that she was standing in front of him, he could tell that it wasn't just that. It was bugging him and he couldn't help but wonder what the truth really was.

The question was, though, would Haley actually admit to that truth? And would he be able to find out before he left tomorrow, when he would quite possibly be out of her life all over again?

Thanks for reading guys and for all of the feedbacks so far! I know I left you with a bit of a cliffhanger last time and some people were upset, but all I have to say is think back to the first chapter. And there are some other little hints in Haley's dialogue and inner thoughts ;)

Kylie