Resurrection of the One Presumed Dead (Chapter Ten)
Nathan and Lucas sat by Haley's bedside with her parents in the hallway bickering about something. Haley's brother, Anthony had been in earlier, but was now outside joining in the bickering. "I really thought she was awake," Lucas said, referring to the time Haley had called out Nathan's name. Nathan nodded.
"So did I. I had no idea that coma patients could actually talk and remain in a coma," he said. Lucas smiled in amusement.
"It is kind of funny, but the doctor said that it was a probably good sign that she's talking at all. And she said the name of someone she knows. So, there's no brain damage for sure now," Lucas said. Nathan nodded and counted his blessings for that. He would never forgive himself if Haley had been damaged that way. Lucas sighed. "Look, Nathan, I wanted to apologize for the way I've been acting," he said. Nathan looked at him in confusion. "Before when I first found out about you and Haley, I was a jerk. I guess it threw me, but she's right; you really are good to her," Lucas said.
"Obviously not good enough," Nathan said.
"This isn't your fault. Whoever shot Haley was not after you and there's no way you could've predicted it," Lucas said.
"I was there. I knew something wasn't right when Haley was arguing with her father in the backyard. I just didn't realize…" Nathan started.
"That there would be a shoot out in the backyard. I wouldn't have either. If anyone's to blame, it would be Haley's parents, not you," Lucas said.
"What are you talking about? Do you think they, like, ordered a hit on her?" Nathan asked. Lucas burst out laughing.
"Of course not. The shooter was clearly after Haley's father and they both know what it's about. And Haley didn't. So they put their daughter in danger. I heard Anthony saying that they needed to tell her the truth but Lydia objected. So, the James have a secret that they haven't shared with her and when she wakes up and if she remembers what happened, Haley will probably want answers, if she doesn't already have them," Lucas said.
"I thought you said that they haven't told her," Nathan said.
"That doesn't mean she didn't figure it out on her own," Lucas said, smirking. Nathan nodded.
A week later…
"I think you should leave immediately, Mayor," Jimmy James said, looking at the monstrous mayor of Tree Hill angrily. Dan Scott laughed at him.
"I'll be happy to as soon as my son comes with me," he said. They were standing on the other side of the room but their voices carried. Nathan was ignoring them both. He was sitting by Haley while Lucas sat on her other side and Brooke was seated in a chair directly behind him, with her hands on his shoulders. Peyton was sitting beside Lucas and Jake was beside her. He had his left hand resting on Peyton's lap, while his right hand was touching part of Haley's right hand.
Nathan was by himself, sitting on Haley's left side, holding her left hand in between both of his hands and bringing it close to his head. He had received a panicked call from Haley's mother, Lydia James, telling him that Haley was now in critical condition again. "This may be one of her last nights with us, Nathan. It's important that her friends spend all the time they can with her while she's still among us," Lydia had said on the phone when Nathan said that his father refused to allow him to visit Haley anymore. As soon as he had heard that Haley was in critical condition he had jumped out of his chair at his desk and gotten dressed into better clothes, thrown his jacket and shoes on, grabbed his keys and raced to his car without a word to his parents. He had picked Lucas and everyone else up from their houses and dragged them over to see Haley.
He knew that Brooke and Haley weren't the best of friends, but he figured that Lucas might need some moral support and while they might not have been tight, he knew Brooke cared about Haley. Jake and Haley had been friends ever since grade school. They palled around with Lucas and they were all best friends. Lucas and Jake had their love of basketball in common, while Haley and Jake shared a love of music and they all had the fact that they were outsiders in common. "So we decided to be friends to escape being outsiders. Well, at least to each other anyway," Haley had told him one day.
Haley and Peyton were not very close friends, but they were friends. Haley was the person Peyton came to when she wanted advice from someone she knew wouldn't judge her. They had found out that they both loved music and Peyton gave Haley the courage to pursue music in school. Nathan had often questioned why she never tried to become a professional singer. Haley had just laughed and said: "Singing is a hobby to me, Nathan. I might perform every once in a while, but it's not about a career for me. It's an escape. Besides, I don't want to be on the road all the time and be away from the people I care about."
"Don't you have any decency? My daughter is dying not ten feet from you and you're here insulting her and trying to drag her boyfriend away in her time of need," Jimmy said.
"Well, maybe if you had told your daughter the truth about what it is that you do, your daughter would not be in her current state. And my son has been by her side for the past few weeks and she's only gotten worse. It's destroying him watching her and I don't want him to suffer years from now because of her," he said.
"Dan, why don't you just leave? Nathan is not complaining about being here, is he? Every one just wants to say goodbye to a wonderful person that we'll all miss. We don't need you here trashing her and making trouble," Lucas said, walking over. Brooke came over with him. Dan turned around and looked at him menacingly.
"And the disappointments just keep coming," he said.
"Go to hell," Lucas said. They started bickering back and forth then Nathan came over and pushed them both away from each other. His force was so strong that Dan fell against the wall.
"I don't care where you go, just as long as you go," Nathan said. Dan got up and walked over to Nathan. He towered over him and looked down at him threateningly.
"Do not lay your hands on me again," he warned. Nathan scoffed. Feeling that there was about to be a huge blow out, Jake came over and pulled Nathan away from behind just as he was about to take a swing at his father. "You want to hit me, Nathan? Go right ahead, but I guarantee that it won't do any good," Dan said.
"Maybe not. But, you know, I'll feel a lot better," Nathan said. They continued to argue back and forth.
"All of you need to stop this. It's not helping anything," Peyton said. Brooke nodded in agreement with her and they both continued to tell them to stop arguing, but the yelling had between Lucas, Nathan and Dan had become so loud that they weren't heard.
And no one noticed the change in Haley's heart monitor. It began beeping rapidly as there was now more brain activity and she started moving her fingers on the bed trying to feel for the people she thought might be there. They were all on the other side of the room, but she didn't know that. An overwhelming feeling of confusion washed through her as all sorts of questions raced through her mind. Why was she lying down? Why did her eyes hurt so much that she couldn't open them yet? Why did her gut hurt? Why was she reaching out for people? Where was she? Why couldn't she speak?
A few minutes later, Haley finally slowly opened her eyes. She looked around and realized that she must be in the hospital. She couldn't talk because there was a tube down her throat preventing her from doing so. But she wanted to so she could scream at the people who were yelling to shut up. She slowly moved her arms to look for something to move to get attention. But there was nothing. Now she was panicking. She was awake and there was people in the room with her but no one seemed to notice that she was awake, desperately wanting their help. She gathered her strength and slammed her fists down on her bed around ten times, hoping the noise would get someone's attention. Nothing. She strained her head and felt pain as the tube had severely restricted her movements but not enough for her to notice that there was a wooden chair within her reach beside the bed. She moved her arm and banged on it a couple of times.
Nathan looked over at the banging and noticed a very familiar, delicate fist on the chair he had been sitting on. "Haley?" he asked from where he was standing. The banging stopped and he raced over to her side. He grabbed her hand and she squeezed his tightly as she looked at him in panic. There were tears coming out of her eyes. He wiped her tears away with his sleeve, careful not to disturb the tube in her throat. "Welcome back. I guess you're wondering what's going on," he said. She squeezed his hand again. "I'll go get a nurse or doctor," Lucas said quickly and ran out of the room. "Well, you were shot twice, Hales. You've been in a coma for about a month or so," he said. Haley looked at him in disbelief. The doctor came running in and smiled when he saw that Haley was awake. He started talking to her about what had happened. She blinked at him, telling him that she understood. Then she looked down at the tube. He smiled.
"Oh, right. I'll take that out. Now, when I tell you to I want you take a deep breath and then exhale," he said.
He did something with another part of the tube and told her to breathe in and then told her to exhale as he pulled the tube out. Haley started coughing as she gasped for air. "What the hell is going on?" she demanded a few minutes later, looking at all of the people in her room. She recognized her father, Brooke, Peyton, Jake, Lucas, Nathan and the mayor, Nathan and Lucas' father. Nathan explained to her why they were there. "I realized that. I was wondering what you were yelling about," she said, looking at Lucas and Nathan warningly.
"We weren't fighting," Lucas assured her, referring to himself and Nathan. Then, Nathan explained the fight. About a half an hour later, it was just her and Nathan in her hospital room.
"So, you've been here all this time?" Haley asked.
"Well, mostly. I came here after school all the time and I practically lived here on the weekends. Lucas was here a lot of the time too. We've actually become friends," Nathan said. Haley looked at him in disbelief.
"Are you sure I was only out for a month?" she joked. He laughed and leaned in and kissed her lightly. When the kiss ended, Nathan brought his hands to her face and pulled her head closer to him and kissed her hungrily.
"You were gone too long," he said a few minutes later. Haley smiled.
"I was five," she said out of nowhere. Nathan looked at her in confusion.
"What?" he asked. Haley smirked at him.
"When I drew that map of the Stanford campus, I was five," she said. He looked at her in bewilderment for a few minutes. Then, he laughed.
"You heard all of that?" he asked in amazement.
"I heard everything," she said, "and I love you too." He smiled and hugged her.