Chapter Forty-one

Haley turned to run after Deb and Nathan stood barricading the door with his body. "What the hell are you two doing here? I seem to remember telling you that you weren't welcome here only a few hours ago." He said derisively looking at Dan as if he was something he'd scraped off the bottom of his shoe. At that moment all of the angst that had been rearing its ugly head between him and Deb was at least temporarily forgotten. His mother was hurting and the man standing before him who he laughingly called his father was the one causing her pain.

"Deb," Haley called after her, "Deb please just sit down and talk to me." But Deb was beyond hearing Haley's words. She paced from one end of the kitchen to the other muttering to herself as she did, tears flowing down her cheeks. Stopping suddenly she turned to Haley.

"How could he do this to me Haley? I mean I better than anyone know what he's like and I never saw this coming. You have no idea the things that I've had to put up with from him over the years and to have him then turn around and do this. He didn't even try to hide it. Hah hide it he was practically flaunting it. How is this supposed to make me feel? Did he ever care about me at all?"

"Of course he did Deb and I think he still does." A new voice entered the conversation and Haley turned to look at Karen in stunned amazement.

"No," Deb said vehemently, "No you cannot come in here and tell me that after what I just saw. You were standing there with my husband's arms around you and now you come in here to try to talk to me. What the hell is your deal Karen?"

"Um perhaps," Haley tried to interrupt but both women rounded on her.

"Haley this really has nothing to do with you." Karen said harshly. "Deb and I need to talk this out without any interference from you or anyone else."

Haley looked towards Deb not wanting to leave unless she got the go ahead from her. Deb nodded silently "Somehow I doubt that I'll agree with one other thing she has to say for herself but she is right about that? We do need to talk and we need to do it alone."

"If you're sure that's what you want Deb. Um I guess I'll be upstairs with Cory if you need anything." Watching Deb anxiously she backed out of the room before turning to go upstairs.

"So," Deb said turning back to face Karen "what is it you possibly think you can say to me that is going to make a difference to this situation."

"Deb I know you're upset but I really think if you just listen…"

"You know what Karen I really don't care what you think. You turn up back here with my husband and I'm supposed to sit here and be all civil and hear you out as you explain to me just how it occurred. Well excuse me if I don't really want to hear this. Actually you know what I do want to hear this. I want to hear how you can possibly justify this whole scenario how you as a married woman suddenly appear on the arm of my very much married husband."

"Dan and I have a lot of history, Deb you know that."

"So what that's supposed to justify this, this abomination." Deb practically screeched.

"You know Deb," Karen said her anger beginning to get the better of her normally calm demeanour "this is not all about me. You have to take some sort of responsibility for this too."

"Me, oh you do not get to pin this on me. You're not going to try and tell me that this is somehow my fault. I did everything for that man and what did I get in return. I got a pig headed arrogant bull of a man but you know what that doesn't matter because the simple fact is that he was mine and you just didn't care enough aboutit to even give that a thought. Twenty-three years of marriage we had and you just completely destroyed that and for what Karen. What is this, some misguided attempt to recapture your youth? Well sorry to say honey but that ain't going to happen."

Karen looked shocked for a moment as the normally unflappable Deb worked herself up into a rage like she had never seen before. Speaking quietly in the face of Deb's hysterics she looked at her with a glint of her own anger in her eyes. "Well how does it feel Deb? Did it ever occur to you that this is just what you did to me all those years ago? Dan and I may not have been married legally but we were in every way that counted. Admittedly he was struggling to deal with the idea of fatherhood at our age and the possibility of saying goodbye to his basketball career but that's just what women like you were waiting for. Women like you wait for men who are at a low point and confused then you swoop in. Using your feminine wiles to try and lure them away."

"Did it ever occur to you," Deb said "that I wouldn't have been able to take him away from you unless there was something seriously wrong in your relationship already?"

"Yeah well look who's talking." Karen said furiously.

"Oh you did not just say that to me," Deb said advancing towards Karen threateningly.

The two women faced off with barely five inches separating their faces. "If you're going to be honest with yourself Deb than you would have to admit the truth of this situation, the only reason you and Dan ever got married was because you got pregnant with Nathan and trapped him, plus I guess you had the lure of Daddy's money to help seal the deal didn't you."

Deb looked away as if she wasn't going to respond and Karen smiled a small victorious smile which was almost instantly wiped off by the stinging slap delivered to her face.

"Get out," Deb screamed. "You get the hell out of here right now."

Karen recovered quickly from the slap and stared at her with a self satisfied smile. "Actually Deb you're the one who should be leaving. My son and his wife not to mention my grandson live here, whereas you are totally obsolete in this little scenario."

"Actually," came Nathan's voice from somewhere behind them. "Haley and I are the ones staying here at the request of Lucas and Brooke so the way I see it we're the ones who should get to decide who stays and who goes and believe me it sure as hell ain't going to be you." He told Karen harshly "so why don't you get out of here and take your boyfriend with you."

"I'm not going anywhere," Karen replied haughtily "do you really think that Lucas would want you to do this, order his parents to leave his house. Now I'm here to see my grandson and I'm not going anywhere until I do."

"Guess again," came his rejoinder "now do you need some help to find the door or can you do that on your own?"

"Do you have any idea how upset Lucas is going to be about this?" Karen tried one last time. "He would want me to be here and he is going to be extremely distressed when he hears about it."

"You are not going to tell Lucas anything about this. In case you haven't noticed he has a lot on his plate right now trying to deal with recuperating from a fairly serious accident. Not to mention the fact that his wife is in a coma.The last thing he needs is to hear you whinging about how unfairly you've been treated."

For a moment Karen appeared as if she was going to continue the argument but then thought better of it.

"Nathan I can understand why you feel the need to defend your mother but what you both have to understand is that Dan was and always will be the only man I love. We've been lucky enough to be given a second chance now I'm sorry that means having to hurt you and your mother but surely you better than anyone can understand why I want this to work and am not going to let anything get in my way."

Nathan stared at her in disbelief. Was she serious? Did she really think that there were similarities between her situation with Dan and his own with Haley? He wanted to tell her that she was completely nuts but the words wouldn't form. No matter how much he wanted to he couldn't refute the truth in her words. Somewhere in the background he heard a strange buzzing sound and for a moment stopped to wonder about it before he noticed the two women still watching him expectantly. He could see Karen was watching him with the hope in her eyes that he might see things from her side and Deb obviously hoping that he would follow through on his threat to throw Karen out of the house.

Before he could act though Dan strolled into the kitchen with Cory in his arms as if it were the most natural thing in the world and to him it seemed it was. Nathan however was not moved by the sight of grandfather and child and glared at him acrimoniously. Moving past him quickly he headed to the doorway. "Haley," he bellowed. "Haley."

Dan looked at him smugly "I think you'll find she went to finish the laundry."

At that moment Haley came bustling in with an armful of washing. "What," she said breathlessly. "What's wrong?" she asked before her gaze fell on Dan. "What are you doing with him? I just left him upstairs for a moment while I went to do the laundry."

"Yes I know," Dan said smugly "but I couldn't leave this poor little guy up there all on his own."

Haley turned to Nathan seeing the look of cold fury cross his eyes. "Nathan I promise I only left him alone for a moment. I had no idea that Dan was planning to go up there. In fact I didn't even know he was still here."

Karen had moved over to stand by Dan stroking a finger gently over Cory's cheek. "Oh Dan look at him, he's so beautiful, our first grandchild. She said with a touch of awe."

Haley heard Deb choke back a sob at the sound of her words and looked sympathetically at her. She knew how close Deb had gotten to Lucas and Brooke over the last couple of years especially since Karen had been gone in the last eight monthsand she knew it must be killing her to have it so blatantly thrust in her face that this child that she had so eagerly looked forward to was now being kept from her. She tried to send her a reassuring smile but she knew it wasn't enough to even partially soothe the ache that was present in her heart at that moment.

Nathan's attention was on Haley as he watched her trying so hard to make his mother feel even slightly better. "Haley I know that this wasn't your fault. I don't think anyone could possibly have any control over what he does." He said without looking at his father. "Now if you'll just hand Cory over I'm sure the two of you have an elsewhere to be."

"No actually," Dan began but Nathan cut him off "Well then find one."

Karen looked at Dan "perhaps we should go," she said with her hand resting on his sleeve. "I'd really like to get back to see Lucas tonight."

Dan looked at her clearly wanting to argue but she looked at him almost pleadingly and he sighed and handed Cory back to Nathan. "We'd better get going but we'll be sure to come back and visit this little guy soon." He told them.

Nathan grimaced at the thought but said nothing.

Dan smirked at them all before wrapping an arm around Karen's shoulders. "Bye Nathan, goodbye Haley," he barely glanced in Deb's direction as he threw a sardonic "Deb," back over his shoulder in her general direction and with that they both left.

Haley looked at Nathan and Deb who now standing awkwardly together barely were looking in the other one's direction. "Um well I think this little guy is probably in need of a nappy change," Haley said uncomfortably taking Cory from Nathan. "We'll be back soon," she said walking out of the room.

"Nathan I just want to say thank-you so much for the way you defended me. It ah really meant a lot."

Nathan looked at his feet shuffling them nervously. "Look mom I know there's been a lot of drama between us lately and I'm not sure that I'm totally past it. I mean you kept the news that Haley was calling you from me when you knew how worried I was."

"Nathan you'll never know how sorry…"

Nathan held up his hand indicating that he did not want to hear Deb's apology. "I know you're sorry Mom, you've told me plenty of times, I still don't know why you did it and I'm not sure how long it will take me to be able to completely forgive you for it, but I couldn't let Karen speak to you like that. You had done nothing to deserve it. I guess what I'm trying to say is you shouldn't read too much into my actions today. I just did what anyone would do."

Deb nodded solemnly but inside she felt a flutter of joy. Nathan may not be totally ready to forgive her yet but at least now she felt as if they were on the right track. Now if she could just get Nathan to forgive Haley maybe things would be on the way to normal.