His Mother's Last Wish

Author's Note: Sorry for the delay on the stories guys. My time's been really consumed but I'm still working on the updates. I'm not giving up on these stories. Thanks so much for the reviews and for still reading :)

Chapter 7: Walk Slowly For A Moment

The sun hit his eyes, interrupting his somewhat peaceful sleep. He found the blonde wrapped up in his arms, sleeping comfortably up against him. It made him feel a little more at peace with the world to feel her there; to feel her heart beat against his own chest made the world a better place, if only for a few minutes.

"I know you're watching me," she whispered, giggling as he tensed up around her.

"I didn't know you were awake," he stammered, trying to explain what he was doing.

"I've been awake, but I didn't want to move…uh," she paused trying to re-explain herself too, "I mean like if I had moved you would've been awake and you needed sleep…ya know?" her face flushed a red color, making him laugh.

"I think you just liked being here all in my arms," he wiggled his eyebrows again as her face became more red than it was before.

"And if that was the case?" she bit back, slipping out of the covers with a seductive smile.

He didn't know how to answer that, instead he just kind of grinned at her and watched her walk out of the room.

Haley, Nathan and the kids were in different rooms of the house. Haley looked lonely, sitting by herself in front of the TV – Peyton joined her.

"How'd you sleep?" Haley didn't look over when asking the question, just kept her eyes straight ahead.

"Good…you'll," she stopped, "Never mind."

She desperately wanted to tell Haley about her morning, about how much closer her and Lucas were getting. About how much the idea of that terrified her, she didn't know if she could handle it all over again. But she couldn't, they had everyone believing they were real.

"See, I hate when you do that stuff," Haley finally looked over, smiling at the girl beside her.

"You love it," she stuck her tongue out at her small friend before getting serious. "I wanna talk to Nathan, Haley."

"About?"

"This whole thing with you guys. He's being an asshole, Hales, that's not the guy you married. You deserve more than that, and I hate seeing you miserable," Peyton pulled her long legs up to her chest, letting her hands wrap around them near her ankles.

"I don't know if that's a good idea. I don't know if he'd get mad at you…or me," she finished the sentence quietly, wondering if Peyton heard her last two words.

"He won't get mad at you; I'll make sure of that. I'm lookin out for ya, buddy," she nudged her elbow into the girl next to her as a gesture of affection.

"Look, if you really want to…I'm not gonna stop you. Just…Peyton…"

Peyton looked over to find Haley staring at her with the utmost seriousness. She had never seen Haley so serious or so empty looking. It almost scared her.

"Please don't make this any worse for me…I can't stand living here as it is."

Nathan was sitting on a couch in the living room with a newspaper and cup of juice. He seemed content with his life, she hated him for that. Haley was absolutely miserable; just having a hard time making it through every day – and here he was. Just reading and drinking his juice like nothing was wrong here…everything was wrong.

"You and I have some things to talk about, Nathan."

He looked up; his hair was nicely disheveled on top of his head. He looked like he hadn't slept well at all. She didn't feel bad for him.

"Like what?"

"Don't play dumb; don't act like you don't know. Meet me at the River Court in ten minutes…you better be there, Nathan or I will hunt your ass down."

He showed up, he was in no mood to face the rage of Peyton Sawyer. She was sitting on the picnic bench awaiting his arrival, she didn't move when he walked up.

"Okay, I'm here. What's this about?"

"Seriously Nathan, if you honestly don't know you're a bigger asshole than I thought you ever could be," she looked disgusted with him. Rather than fight her, he gave in.

"It's about me and Haley, right? I know she told you everything, it's pretty obvious with the way you've been treating me for the past few days…"

"The way I've been treating you shouldn't even be brought up here. I had every right to be ignoring you and treating you the way I have. After the way you've treated Haley you deserve a lot worse that what I've been doing –"

"What goes on between me and Haley doesn't really concern you, Peyton. What did you think this talk was going to do? Make me straighten out and become a better man?" he was cocky about his answer, very smug and worse than Peyton imagined.

"I didn't expect it to make you a better man, because I've seen you at your best, Nathan. And you have a really good heart, a heart that I was jealous for because it was something I never got from you when we were together. This was the bullshit you gave me when we were together," she pointed at him; referencing what an ass he was being.

"Well maybe this is just me. Maybe this is who I've always been and I was just able to put it away for a little while for Haley. Well maybe the novelty in our marriage has faded and maybe the real me is back now," he smirked at her; she slapped him right across his right cheek.

"You're a real bastard, Nathan Scott. You do not deserve Haley or how much she still loves you, or those beautiful kids for that matter and Haley sure as hell does not deserve the way you've been with her. She's an amazing person, Nathan, and a part of you used to get that. Where the hell is that guy?"

"Not here anymore? Leave a message at the beep," he chuckled at his corny joke, receiving another slap across his left cheek. This one hurt a little worse than before, she watched his eyes tear with satisfaction.

"Think about this Nathan, or I won't hesitate about telling Lucas. You know…she's always gonna come before you in his priorities. Especially if he finds out from her and sees the condition she's in emotionally. You know he wouldn't think twice about kicking your ass."

"You wanna play rough, Peyton? I did everything for you when you went through your little stress breakdown –"

"So did Haley. This is why I won't watch her go through this. You're so much better than this –"

"According to you I'm a bastard and I remind you of the way we were in high school. Well If I remind you of high school maybe this will jog your memory a little more," she didn't have time to react when he stepped in and kissed her in anger and lust. The way he used to freshman year when all they were was rough sex and insults.

She pushed him away immediately slapping him repeatedly on both cheeks.

"WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE! YOU ARE SUCH AN ASSHOLE! She loves you so much, you're throwing it away. I don't know why you would do that, there are guys who would kill for her, but you choose to be a dick and try to kiss her best friend. Yeah, real good idea, you deserve to rot. You're such a fucking asshole, you come near me at all for the next however many weeks I'm at your house I'll make sure you're castrated before you can even apologize. Don't think Luke won't hear about this either. You'll be outta that house by tonight, so you better have a fucking place to go. I won't let Haley live like this," she stormed off in complete disbelief.

She had thought of him as an older brother for so long, as a guy she would always be able to turn to. Now it was like he was scum on the bottom of her shoe, she wanted to throw up thinking about the way he treated the petite brunette who meant the world to her.

Peyton knew how hard this was going to be to break to Haley. She had even debated not telling the girl, but in the end if she found out later it would just be a lot worse. Haley needed to know now so she could figure out what to do with the information.

Nathan didn't follow her back to the house, he walked the opposite way. She was glad; she would have seriously debated hurting him if he had followed.

"Hey, Haley!" she shouted through the house, finding the small girl in the backyard with Lucas and the two kids.

"Hey, how'd it go?" Haley walked up to meet Peyton, making sure they were out of earshot before Peyton could answer her.

"Hey, Luke, you wanna take the kids to the park so Haley and I can catch up on a few things. Girl talk and whatnot, you definitely wouldn't want the details," she winked at her fake boyfriend – he just gave her a lopsided smile that didn't quite reach his blue eyes.

"Uh…yeah, sure. You guys wanna go swing and stuff?" they both nodded enthusiastically at their uncle. They had taken to him rather quickly; he realized he would have no more peace while he stayed with them. They had become like little leeches and didn't let him go to the bathroom in peace. There was always someone banging at the door begging to go outside or watch a movie or read a book.

"Thank ya, darling," she feigned a very overly southern accent, much worse than the one that occupied her now. He chuckled, giving her a small kiss on the cheek before leaving with the two children following just behind.

"This can't be good, you sent Luke and the kids away," she ran a hand through her thick hair, heaving a sigh when she hit the iron of the chair on the patio.

"Just…don't freak out. I'll tell you everything, promise you won't freak out…"

"I can't promise that, Peyton. I don't even know what happened yet."

"Alright…" Peyton matched Haley's sigh before beginning her story from the moment she saw him at the River Court.

The blonde watched he friend's reactions as she talked about Nathan's cocky attitude toward her. She watched her eyes fill as she told of Nathan's denial of the man he'd once been. And then finally she watched the brunette breakdown when she choked through the telling of his violent kiss and abrupt leave.

"Haley, I'm so sorry…" she didn't know what else to say to the girl in front of her. She could barely imagine how much it hurt to hear all of that.

"No…I just – thanks for telling me," she tore away from the table and walked through the gate that led back to Tree Hill. Peyton didn't know where she was going, it worried her, but she chose to give Haley some space. It's what she needed.

Nathan didn't return home that night, Peyton and Lucas stayed the night again. Lucas watched Haley walk around in a daze, he knew something was up, but she refused to tell. He watched Peyton care for the kids and constantly try to comfort his best friend – she also would not tell him of the circumstances.

Haley went to bed when the sun was still up; she knew he wouldn't be home. Peyton sat Lucas down and re-told the events of the afternoon. His face went blood red when he heard of his treatment of both girls; it took Peyton a lot of coaxing to stop him from hunting his little brother down.

"Look, that's not what she needs right now. I don't even know if she wanted you to know, it would mean a lot to me if you would just go along like you don't know and just let me take care of her for now. She'll come to you with it when she's ready. Do you mind if I stay with her tonight?"

He took a deep breath, really and truly considering telling her Nathan needed to be punched and taking off out the front door. Instead he nodded through his anger and headed to the room where they had slept the previous night.

Before he was able to enter the room she grabbed him for a hug, giggling when he nuzzled his beard against her cheek. She had to admit, even if they were just pretending it was nice to have intimacy back in her life. She'd missed having this closeness with him, even if they were just pretending.

Thanks a lot for reading. I know this didn't focus on Karen much or Lucas and Peyton really. But really the story has a lot to do with tragedy bringing them closer. I think with this new revelation of Nathan and Haley it will in fact improve their relationship. Next chapter should have more to do with Karen.

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