Always & Forever No More (Chapter 2)
Nathan stared at Haley in disbelief. She was dressed in scrubs, she had a stethoscope around her neck and now she was holding a chart. She took one look at him and rolled her eyes. She started to look at the chart. Then, she walked over to one side of the bed and pulled out a syringe and a bottle. She put the needle through the top of the bottle and pulled the syringe up to reveal a colourless liquid filling in the tube. He looked at her nervously as he asked, "What is that, cyanide?" Lucas and Peyton cracked a smile at his joke. Haley glared at him and then she chuckled.
"Not a bad idea, but no. Maybe next time. This is morphine; it's for your pain," Haley retorted. Her tone was sharp and satirical, but at least she still had her sense of humour. She took the chart and checked a few boxes as she added another clear liquid into his IV.
"What's that?" Peyton asked.
"It's an antibiotic," Haley replied, as she took a new tube and hooked it up to the plastic fluid bag.
"Well, we should be going," Peyton said, looking at her watch.
"I've got a class in the morning and so does she. We'll be by later tomorrow. Ok?" Lucas said. Nathan nodded. Lucas walked over to Haley and put a hand on her shoulder. She stopped what she was doing and looked at him. "When are you off?" Lucas asked. Haley smiled at him.
"I'm off in five hours," Haley replied.
"Do you need me to come and pick you up?" Lucas asked. Haley shook her head.
"The hospital pays for a cab to take me home," she reminded him. Lucas nodded. When Peyton and Lucas left, Haley came over to Nathan and looked at his chart.
"How am I doing?" he asked tiredly. Haley continued using a pen and never looked up at him.
"I'm not a doctor," she replied flatly.
"Lucas tells me you're attending Raleigh University," he said. Haley looked up at him. That had come out of nowhere. He was just trying to get some sort of reaction out of her to see if she would even look at him. She smirked to herself.
"Part-time," she said.
"Why? And when did you decide to become a nurse?" he asked. Haley laughed. She put the chart under her arm and looked at him.
"Can we not do this?" she asked.
"Do what?" he asked, looking at her in confusion.
"Have the conversation where we tell each other what we've been up to," she replied. He looked at her in confusion. Haley stepped away from his bed and walk towards the door. "We're not friends, Nathan. We don't need to catch up. I'm your nurse. I handle your medications and other things related to why you're here. That's all I need to know," she said before walking out the door. Nathan smirked.
He got it; she was hurt. He didn't blame her. He knew that he had hurt her and she certainly had every right to be angry and go off on him. He was actually amazed that she didn't. He had gone to sleep one night on the couch of their off-campus apartment. She had left early to catch a morning class and he had chosen that time to pack all of his things and left without even leaving a note. The last time he'd seen her was when they had met in a judge's office to sign divorce papers. He shook his head at the memory. She had not been so poised and she had not suppressed her hurt or anger so well then.
(FLASHBACK)
Nathan was dressed in a simple grey suit with no tie as he sat down and waited for Haley. "Are you sure your wife knows that she's supposed to be here?" the judge asked. Nathan nodded. "Well, we'll wait three more minutes for her," he said. Nathan smiled appreciatively.
A few seconds later the door opened and Haley walked into the room. She didn't look at him. She sat down in a chair that was placed beside him. She moved it over a few spaces so that she was away from him. "Okay. Thank you for coming, Mrs. Scott," the judge said. Haley didn't say a word. She gave the judge no sign of acknowledgement at all.
"Okay, now, Mr. Scott, I think it's pretty clear that you're the one who filed for this divorce," the judge said. Nathan nodded. "Do you mind telling me why?" the judge asked. Nathan took a deep breath. He looked over at Haley. She was still sitting still as if she were in a trance.
"Things fell apart in our third year of marriage. College has changed us both so dramatically that we're not the same people we were when we first got married. We barely spoke and when we did, we were arguing. Loudly. I think we're too different to stay married. We're separated right now so we don't live together anymore. I live in California now, while Haley still lives here in North Carolina," he said.
"Have you been separated for a year?" the judge asked. Nathan nodded.
"More than a year. We've been separated for about sixteen months," Nathan replied. The judge nodded.
"Ok, then all you need to do is sign here," the judge said showing them the spots where they needed to sign. Nathan took the pen and signed his name carefully so that people could read it under husband. Then, Haley took the pen in her shaking hands and signed Haley Scott under wife. She kept her face turned away as the judge told them that they were no longer married under North Carolina law and that they could leave.
Haley slowly lifted herself up from the chair and walked to the door. She opened it and left the room. Nathan sighed. He needed to talk to her about this. He got up and nodded to the judge. He left the room and looked for Haley. She was sitting on the bench outside the door. She was shaking and it didn't take Nathan long to realize that she was crying. He sighed. He still loved her and he hated to see her cry. He started to sit down but she finally spoke. "Don't," she choked out. He ignored her and sat down. She calmed down and wiped her face. She was still shaking, though.
"Haley," he started. She shook her head.
"Don't you dare," she said.
"What?" he asked.
"Don't try to calm me down after you're the one who put me through this," she said.
"Haley, I didn't do this to hurt you," he said. Haley laughed bitterly.
"Well, that worked out well, didn't it?" she asked. He looked down.
"Haley, you know as well as I do that our marriage wasn't working," he said. Haley looked at him in disbelief.
"And whose fault is that?" she retorted. He looked down. He knew she thought he was the one who had changed and he had. "You were so caught up in being the big man on campus that you hardly ever came home. I'm surprised you still remember my name," Haley said. He looked at her in annoyance.
"You changed too," he reminded her. Haley looked at him.
"Yeah, I did change. It's called 'growing up'. But at least I still made an effort. You just disappeared one morning and I never heard from you again," she said.
"I was trying to make a clean break," he said defensively.
"You're a coward," Haley said. He looked at her in confusion. "You broke up with me- through your father!" Haley exclaimed, but she was nowhere near finished.
"Do you have any idea what went through my mind when I came home and found you gone? I thought something had happened to you. For the first five minutes, I was in complete terror as all kinds of scenarios raced through my mind. Then I noticed all of your stuff was gone. Then, your father called me and told me that you and I were now separated," she said. She was smirking at him sarcastically.
"Your father is quite the character. Do you know that he came to my apartment and personally handed me the divorce papers?" she asked.
"I'm sorry," he said.
"Don't bother apologizing to me now, Nathan. It's a little late," she snapped. He put his hands up in surrender. He got up and started to walk away. "Always and forever, huh?" she called to him.
He froze and stayed that way for a few seconds. He turned around to see that Haley was standing too. Her face was stained with tears and her delicate features were washed with pain. "I guess forever isn't as long as I thought it was," she said shakily. Then, she turned around and left.
(END OF FLASHBACK)
Nathan shook his head at the memory. It still hurt him to remember how she had thrown his vow back in his face. The contempt in her tone alone had rocked him to his core.
Haley walked away from Nathan's room and to the patient in curtain five who she had to run a tox screen on. She quickly took the blood and then noticed a little boy who was crying. Haley walked over and kneeled down so she was face-to-face with him. "What's wrong, Mathew?" Haley asked.
"Nurse Scott, my stomach is still bothering me," he said. Haley nodded.
"Did you tell your doctor?" she asked softly. He nodded.
"And what did he do?" Haley asked. Mathew looked up at her.
"He told me that I probably ate too much," he said.
"Did he check your stomach?" Haley asked. Mathew shook his head. Haley took his chart that was hanging on the side of his bed. She read it over and as soon as she saw that Steve Crane was the doctor who had looked at him, she sighed and shook her head in annoyance. "I'll go get a doctor for you," she said. She walked to the admitting desk and put the blood she had taken from one patient in the basket that needed to go to the lab. Another nurse came and took it.
"Thanks, Sharon," she said. Sharon nodded.
"I swear, when Dr. Crane gets back, he's going to get an earful," Haley said. She started to explain about the little kid.
"If he doesn't smarten up and actually do what he's supposed to when he comes back, I'm inclined to make life a living hell for him," Haley said. It was a well-known fact that the nurses kept the ER going smoothly. They could make a doctor's life so easy or they could make it very difficult. Another nurse, Marie, smirked at her.
"It's about time he learned the cardinal rule," Marie said. Haley laughed.
"What's the cardinal rule?" a med student asked.
"Don't piss off the nurses," Haley replied. The student nodded and smiled. Then she looked around and noticed that Noah Shane was walking towards them.
"Did you run that tox screen?" he asked Haley.
"Already on its way to the lab," Haley replied.
"You're a godsend," he said. Haley smiled appreciatively. She and Noah had always gotten along pretty well. She was one of the few nurses who actually cut him a break when he first started working as the newest third-year resident.
"Can you do me a favour?" she asked. He looked at her.
"Sure. As long as it doesn't take too long. I've got a date in an hour and I hope to actually make it there," he said. Haley laughed.
"It shouldn't take that long. Can you take a look at the kid in curtain five? His name is Mathew and he's complaining about a sore stomach," Haley said.
"Whose patient is he?" he asked. Haley narrowed her eyes at him for a second. Then she smiled.
"Who do you think?" Haley asked. Noah laughed. He knew now that Steve was Mathew's original doctor. He nodded.
"Thanks," she replied as he walked towards Mathew. Then, another nurse, Tina Maine, walked in.
"Did you guys get a look at that MVA in two?" she asked. She made a face and whistled. "He definitely makes my day so much brighter. He's cute and to top it off, he always says hello to me when I walk in to look at the other patients," Tina said. The other nurses nodded in agreement.
"Hey, his last name is Scott too," Marie said, as she looked at one of the dozens of charts.
"Same last name. Any relation?" Tina said. Haley smirked as she rolled her eyes.
"Yeah," Haley said.
"Cousin?" Marie asked.
"No, ex-husband," she replied. They looked at her in shock.
"You were married?" Tina asked in shock. Haley nodded.
"For how long?" Marie asked. Haley stopped to think for a minute.
"Two and a half years, but we were together for three years," she replied. They started to ask her something else, but she glared at them. She hoped that made it clear that she didn't want to talk about it anymore. They all nodded.