A/N: This time, it's really the end! Thank you to everyone who reviewed. This is one of those stories where, after I planned and wrote it, it didn't turn out the way I had first thought, but I liked it in the end and I hope you did too. Thanks for the support, and don't forget to review one last time.

Chapter Thirteen

Epilogue Part 3

Surprisingly, Haley thought, her life hadn't been as dramatic as her friends. Well, that wasn't entirely true. She'd had a lot of family drama throughout the years, and she didn't even know where her parents were now as they traveled across America in their RV, but her life with Nathan had been fairly smooth.

Even though she liked him as early as when she was seven, and he had liked her too, she had felt they were too young to do anything then. One day she'd finally told him that they should be friends and if their feelings were still there when they were older then they could date. Nathan had agreedand they had become close friends, as well as Nathan becoming closer to Lucas. However, one day when they were thirteen, and Haley was starting to feel like she was ready to date, she found out that Nathan was going on a date with some other girl!

Deciding that it was because his feelings for her had faded away Haley had tried to be the supportive friend, but she was hurt because her feelings had never wavered and she was also a little mad at herself because she thought that if she had said something earlier they could have dated before. Haley had kept her feelings bottled up until the day she revealed them to Jake when he told her how he felt about Peyton. Unknown to Haley, Jake then conspired with Lucas to find out Nathan's feelings. It didn't take much prodding from them to discover that Nathan still liked Haley, but had been convinced that now she only saw him as a friend.

Brooke, Lucas, Jake and Peyton, with a little help from Tim, had managed set them up and Haley and Nathan finally admitted their feelings for each other. From that day, in the eighth grade, Nathan and Haley had started dating and the only serious drama in their relationship had been caused because of her family; her older sister Taylor, as a matter of fact.

Taylor had come back to Tree Hill when they were in their junior year of high school, and at the most inopportune moment it turned out, as Haley and Nathan were just in the middle of a major fight because Nathan was jealous of Haley's friendship with the new shop assistant at the music store, Chris Keller. Taylor had then moved in on Nathan, but even though he was mad, he still loved Haley. Haley and Brooke had realized what Taylor was up to as well, and even before she left town Nathan and Haley were already back together. The following summer he proposed.

"Haley? Are you ready?" Brooke's voice pulled her out of her thoughts.

She nodded. "Yeah."

Brooke hugged her as did Peyton and now thirteen-year old Hilary Jagielski. Brooke had tears in her eyes.

"Aunt Brooke, are you crying?" Hilary asked.

"No, I'm fine," she told her. "I'm just so happy for you Haley." She squeezed her best friend's hand.

"I'm happy for me too," Haley admitted.

Little Jenny, who had just celebrated her first birthday, wiggled about in Peyton's arms and giggled her agreement.

Just then, there was a knock on the door and Jake and Mr. Durham entered. The girls exited, Peyton giving Jenny to Jake to hold. "You look beautiful Haley," Jake said, before following the girls out.

"Thanks."

Now alone in the room, Mr. Durham smiled at Haley. When they all got older he told them to call him Whitey, and Lucas and Nathan did. But to Haley he'd always be Mr. Durham. "Look at you, Haley-bop. I still remember when you and Lucas had that party together for your sixth birthdays. You were wearing that princess outfit and made Lucas carry everything for you because princess' didn't do hard work." Haley blushed at the memory. "Now…little Haley's not so little anymore."

"Thank you, Mr. Durham," she told him.

"For what?"

"For walking me…"

"Well, I haven't done it yet," he informed her. They both laughed. He held his arm out for her and she linked hers through his. As they walked out the door of the room she heard him whisper, "You're welcome."

Flashback:

"Nathan Scott! You come out here this instant!" Haley yelled. He didn't reply. Again. "Nathan, if you don't come out here right now, I'm leav-"

"Boo."

"Aaaaaaaaah!" she screamed, jumped backwards and knocked over a vase on the shelf next to her.

"Hales, what did you do that for," he chided her, teasingly.

"What did I do?" She started slapping his arm. "It was your fault."

Nathan bent down to pick up the vase, and two pieces came off the top in his hand. "You broke it."

"Well, I wouldn't have broken it if you hadn't scared me," she said, still mad.

He put the vase back down on the floor behind the shelf so it was hidden from a certain viewpoint. He then put the two pieces that had broken off into the vase and took Haley by the arm. "Come on."

"We can't just leave it like that," she protested.

"Well if someone sees us with it they might make us pay for it and it's a damn ugly thing too. Plus, with your scream someone's bound to turn up soon."

"You scared me!"

"I didn't think you'd scream so loud."

They were out of the building now and the sun was burning down on them. Haley stopped walking as Nathan put his sunglasses on. "Why did you bring me here anyway?"

"I wanted to show you something."

"Well, I don't want to see it." She folded her arms and turned away from him like a small child and the eighteen year old that she was.

"Hales, please," Nathan pouted. "I'm sure you'll like it." He turned her around and put on his puppy-dog eyes, knowing she couldn't resist. However, this time it seemed to have no effect. In fact…she seemed to be laughing. "What's funny?"

"N-nothing," she said between giggles.

"Then why are you laughing?"

"You're tr-trying to show me your puppy-dog eyes…" Here she stopped and snorted.

"So!"

"You're wearing your sunglasses!"

Oh. Nathan took them off and showed her the eyes again.

"That's not fair," Haley whined, her resolve crumbling.

"It's for our wedding," he told her sweetly.

"Our wedding! Well, why didn't you say so? Let's go!" She started walking in the way he'd been trying to take her, but then she stopped and faced him. "But any more behavior like what you did inside and then maybe there won't be a wedding." She narrowed her eyes and pointed her finger at him to show she wasn't joking, but her small nose ruffled up too and the look became more comic than serious.

Grinning, Nathan took the hand she was using to point at him and kissed it, before moving forward to slowly kiss a trail up her neck to her ear. "You know you can't resist me, baby."

"Mmmm…" Haley sighed as her hands came into his hair. "But I have to at least have some control in this relationship."

Who was she kidding? Nathan thought. She had all the control. As much as he sometimes acted otherwise all she had to do was say the word and he'd be there. He was well and truly whipped, as Tim continuously reminded him. Not that he was complaining though, Nathan reminded himself as Haley's hands started to massage his scalp.

Forcing himself to break away, Nathan looked into her eyes. "So do you wanna see it now?"

"Uh-huh." Haley nodded dimly, her mind still on the sensations he'd been creating the second before.

Nathan took Haley's hand in his and led her to the garden located behind the building they'd just come out of.

After proposing to her the summer before senior year, Nathan and Haley had first decided to wait until their high school graduation to get married. However, as the weeks had worn on, neither wanted to wait a whole year before the wedding took place. The location for Haley's dream wedding had been a spot on the back of the beach, hidden by piles of rocks where all these lovely purple flowers grew. She had liked that spot when they were younger, always going there on days they went to the beach, and Nathan had proposed to her there in memory of the first time they talked to each other on a part of the beach not too far away from there when they were only seven years old. Unfortunately, when they went to visit that place again to see if they could have their wedding there, there were lots of trucks digging it up because of a new building being constructed.

Wedding preparations had gone on but they were still without a location. If they couldn't find anywhere they would have to just have it at one of their houses, but Nathan knew Haley wanted it to be somewhere special and because she did so did he. He had been searching for the perfect location, but hadn't found anything. Until now.

"Close your eyes," he told her as they approached the small garden.

"Nathan," she whined, but complied anyway. He directed her to the front, and when she was standing directly in the centre of the entrance he told her to open them.

Haley opened her eyes to the most beautiful garden she had ever seen. There were two big rectangles of grass on either side and they were lined with lots of colourful flowers, little ones in the middle and tall ones on the far edge, including, if her eyes weren't deceiving her, those purple ones like there used to be on the beach that she liked so much. In between the two patches of grass was a straight pathway leading up to an archway which was lined with small red and white roses.

"Nathan," she breathed, "it's amazing."

"I talked to the guy who owns this whole place. They let it out for weddings. He said what most couples do is have the ceremony out here and then the reception inside where you broke the vase –"

"You mean where you broke the vase," she retorted, still staring at the garden.

"It's not expensive either," Nathan added. Nathan was willing to dig deep into his family's money to give Haley her dream wedding, but she was always checking the price of everything to make sure they weren't spending too much. "That is, if you want to have the wedding here."

She spun around and stared at him incredulously. "Of course I want to!" she exclaimed, before jumping up into his arms.

End Flashback

Haley grinned at the memory of that day. She was so lost in her thoughts that she almost didn't here the music playing, telling her that Hilary, Peyton and her maid of honour Brooke had all gone it was now her turn to walk down the aisle. Mr. Durham sort of nudged her to bring her back and she sent him a small smile to show him she was ready.

They began walking down the aisle, and Haley immediately looked to find Nathan who was standing straight ahead, his gaze locked on her. Her grin widened, as did his as she made her way towards him, past all the guests, including Karen and Keith, who were now married, Deb, and surprisingly even Dan.

Without even realizing it, they had finished walking, and she was at the beautiful little archway already. She took her place opposite Nathan and let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. As the ceremony began, Haley found she was only half-paying attention; she was more engrossed with how handsome Nathan looked in his tux. "I love you," she mouthed.

"I like your dress," he mouthed back, and winked at her.

Haley blushed, and felt herself turning to mush as she always did when he sent that smirk. She hoped no one noticed her turning red, but then again, she doubted there were many people who weren't looking their way.

Looking back at Nathan, Haley saw him mouth, "I love you."

Haley smiled as she thought, not of their past, but of their future. It wasn't going be easy, that she knew. They were both going to Duke together, but there would probably be other problems that came their way. When they started dating after being friends so long, they fought with each other more, although they always made up. Haley knew Nathan hated chores and housework of any kind, and those would probably be sore pots between them when they began living together. Yet, as Nathan started to say his vow, she knew that they would be able to get past it all.

"Someday, this beach might wash away. The oceans may dry. The sun could dim. But on that day, I'll still be loving you. Always and forever. I promise you, Haley."

Because in the end, she realized, that was all that really mattered.

The end.