Leaving Town
Night Lights of a Small Town
Haley looked around, the bus stop was the same as it was years ago, dark and depressing, discouraging people to come or go. They had taken a bus from the train station to Tree Hill.
Meredith was now wide awake, taking in her new surroundings. Haley looked at her traveling 'buddy', "So, do you think Karen's changed her hours, and is open at two in the morning," Haley asked looking at her watch.
"Maybe, I could go for a late night snack. Some welcome wagon, though, I must admit, usually there's always someone here doing something they're not supposed to that we can watch, one question, are you here to say good-bye to Coach, or to look on moving back?"
"I don't really know, honestly, I came back for coach's funeral, but now that I'm here, maybe it's the small town air, maybe it's the familiar places I was running from, I don't know, but what I was running from seems to be pulling me back," she looked at her watch, "Tay should be here any-" Taylor started running over to them.
"Hey, Hay! Meredith, baby doll, what're you doing here," Taylor dropped her stuff by Haley and scooped up Meredith, "Haley, can you grab that for me, I have to catch up with my beautiful little niece here."
Haley picked up Taylor's small amount of stuff, "We were just about to go to Karen's, see if we could get something to eat, you in?" Haley looked at Taylor.
"Um… yeah, sure, that's cool, come on Meredith," they all started walking.
They reached Karen's and the light was on, it wasn't very packed, but Haley could make out some familiar faces, Luke, and Brooke, Peyton, with coffee, and Nathan, practically asleep in a booth. They all walked up to the place, and Taylor, the genius she is, tried the door, and obviously it was locked.
"Did you try knocking?" he asked, standing behind her, with his daughter, who was looking kind of sleepy, but before they had a chance, Peyton was up on the door unlocking it, and swinging the door open, ushering them inside.
Brooke looked up at the commotion, nothing got Peyton that excited, especially in the middle of the night on welcome duty. Then she saw him. Jake. She didn't remember calling Jake, or Taylor for that matter, then she saw Haley in the back, short Haley, and put two and two together, Haley called them.
Lucas got up, "Well, I believe that I'm the next up to escort you to your hotel."
"You mean, I travel thousands of miles here, so after two seconds I get escorted to some hotel without even getting to say hello, real nice Luke, real nice, now you can escort my lovely sister to her hotel room, but I think I want to stay here a while, catch up, unless anyone has any objections."
"Haley," Taylor whined, "It's to early to go to bed, besides, look at Meredith, she definitely isn't tired," Taylor said, tickling the little girl. Haley put her stuff down in a booth, the one furthest away from Nathan's and went and took Meredith.
"Great, she can stay here with me, now move it Tay, that's the only reason I let you come, you listen to me, or I will put you on the next bus out of here sending you to who knows where with only the clothes on your back."
"Fine, I'm going, I'm going," she picked up her stuff, "Will I have to carry my stuff, or will my escort, such a fine young man you are."
"Taylor, it's me, Lucas, seriously, you carry your own crap," he smiled and shook his head. Haley walked over to the booth where she had put all her stuff and sat down with Meredith on her lap. Jake had taken the middle booth to lay Jenny down in, with all his stuff, and was catching up with Peyton.
Brooke decided it would be best to make small talk, "So, Haley, care to enlighten us on the past five years?"
"Tomorrow was going to be my one year wedding anniversary-"
"You got married! Haley, this is big, you didn't bother to call us, we so would have come!" Brooke got excited. Nathan also looked up, somehow, those words got his attention and his mind couldn't comprehend. She couldn't have gotten married, he was the one she was supposed to be with. This couldn't be happening. "Do you have pictures," Brooke asked, zoning Nathan back in from his wandering thoughts.
"Um, one, of our wedding day," Haley opened her guitar case that was sitting on the table next to her and pulled out her guitar, and reached into the bottom of the case and pulled out a small, worn picture. They looked really happy. She passed it to Brooke.
"Cute, what's his name?" Brooke said, looking at the picture, then passed it to Peyton.
"Ross… Ross Micheals."
"So, you're Haley Micheals?"
"No, still Haley James, probably always will be." Peyton passed the picture onto Nathan, who said nothing about the guy, just took a quick glance and passed it back to Peyton.
"Okay, Meredith, is she seriously your brother's?" Brooke was giving her the twenty questions, and since Haley had nothing better to do, she answered them.
"Yes, Meredith is my niece. She's three. She's staying with me while my brother, her father, is at war. Her mother died when she was born, some complications, he didn't really go into the whole story, but apparently I'm the most responsible."
"Where have you been the past five years?"
"I can't tell you."
"Okay… Why aren't you spending your anniversary tomorrow with your husband?"
"Well…" Haley took a deep breath, as Brooke handed her the picture back.
Okay, so I'm not really sure, but I don't think Haley will be staying much longer than the funeral. I didn't really want Whitey dead or anything, so don't think that of me, but if anything should come from his death, I think it should be the return of Haley, even if it is for a little while. I also fell in love with the idea of Meredith. I wanted her to have a kid, sort of a little loudmouth who will leak certain things in the future, and I thought it was to cliche to have her have Nathan's kid, or Chris' kid (who by the way seriously really isn't going to be in this story) mostly because that would make a quick drop in really messy. I added Taylor in mostly for the purpose of baby-sitter. Yeah, she was a cheerleader, and knew coach, so it makes it logical, but for the most part, I wanted her as a baby sitter. So I really hope you liked this, and will like upcoming chapters.
Austyn