A MONTH LATER
Haley sat outside the courtroom with Nathan. She was sitting on one of the benches near the doors to the room she had to walk in and testify in soon. Nathan handed her a plastic cup full of water and Haley smiled gratefully. She was dressed in a very simple and plain light blue shirt and skirt. She had on white sandals and was jiggling her legs nervously. Nathan put his right hand down on her left knee. Haley stopped moving it. "You're going to get through this," he said. Haley put her left hand on his hand that was on her knee.
"There's a reason I haven't been to most of the trial. I don't think I can walk in there and look at him," she said.
"Haley, you're one of three women he's raped. The other two women are, like, in their twenties and they both have had past relationships with him," Nathan said. Haley found it disgusting that a college kid had passed himself off as a high school senior just to find some unsuspecting girl to rape. "The defence can come up with an argument that their rapes were actually consensual sex, but you're the only one of his victims that did not date him. Your testimony will put him in chains, literally," Nathan continued.
"I know that," she said. Haley felt like she was going to jump out of her skin, she was so scared.
Nathan looked at Haley closely. She was shaking. They had watched some classic scary movies together and Haley had not really been scared by any of them, but if she was startled by something in the movie, she would jump and Nathan would have an excuse to pull her closer. She would insist that she was just startled, not scared. But looking at her now, he had never seen her more scared. He put his arm around her and pulled her to him. He massages her right shoulder with his hand and kissed her temple. "You are one of the strongest and courageous people I have ever met. You will be able to do this and then that bastard will go to jail where he can never hurt you again," he said. Then the courtroom doors opened.
"Miss James, we're ready for you," the bailiff said. Haley looked at Nathan and he drew her closer for a second.
"You'll be fine. I'll be in the room the whole time," he promised. Haley nodded. She walked in the courtroom and Nathan waited a few seconds before entering himself. When he entered the room, Haley was already swearing that she would tell the truth and nothing but. He sat down beside Lucas, Peyton and Brooke in the third row on the prosecution's side.
Haley brought her hands to her mouth and blew warm breath on them. They were still ice cold. The prosecutor stood up and smiled at her. "First of all, I want to thank you for coming, Miss James. I know this can't be easy for you," he said.
"You're welcome," she said. To her knowledge, not many of the people in the courtroom knew that Brian had a third victim. They knew he was being charged with statutory rape, but they did not know why. Haley guessed the prosecutor wanted an element of surprise. The media had no idea that Haley was a third victim.
"Can you tell me how you came to know the defendant?" the prosecutor asked. Haley took a deep breath.
"I knew him from school," she said.
"Oh, you mean from the college he was attending right? Duke University?" he asked. Haley shook her head.
"No. I'm not in college," she replied simply.
"Oh, what grade were you in when you met the defendant?" he asked. Haley sighed.
"I was and still am in grade eleven at Tree Hill High," she replied. "So, the defendant was visiting the school in some way?" he asked. Haley shook her head. "He was enrolled as a senior in the school. He claimed that he had just transferred there," Haley said.
"Objection. What relevance does this witness serve?" the defence attorney said.
"I'm establishing relevance, Your Honour. This witness has been on the list for a long time. The defence had a lot of time to review this witness' statement. It is not the state's problem if the defence does not know how to do its job," the prosecutor said.
"Overruled. You may proceed, Mr. Kaiser, but no more petty insults," the judge said. Kaiser nodded and then looked at Haley and smiled reassuringly.
"And what was your relationship with the defendant?" he asked.
"I was his tutor," she said.
"And how long had you been tutoring him?" he asked.
"For about four weeks," she replied.
"And when was the last time you saw the defendant?" he asked.
"There was a party thrown about a month ago on a Friday night. I ran into Brian there," she said.
"Can you describe your interaction with the defendant?" he asked.
"He wanted to talk to me about a test I was tutoring him for that would take place the next Monday. He took me to a room upstairs and then, he…" Haley started.
"What did he do?" Kaiser asked.
"He kissed me. At first, I thought maybe he got the wrong impression so I quickly explained to him that I was here with my boyfriend and that our relationship was strictly tutoring," Haley replied.
"And then what happened?" he asked. Haley took a deep breath.
"He just laughed. He threw me down onto the bed and then…" she started but stopped as she finally caught a glimpse of Brian. He was glaring at her warningly.
"Then, what happened?" Kaiser asked. Haley was paralysed with fear so she didn't even hear him. "Miss James?" Kaiser asked. Haley looked back at him. "What happened?" he asked.
Haley glared right at Brian and said, "He raped me." The whole courtroom erupted in gasps and excitement.
"Order! Order in the court!" The judge exclaimed, slamming his gavel down. He looked to the prosecutor and then to Haley. "Miss James, is your testimony true?" he asked her carefully.
"Yes," she replied.
"Thank you, Miss James. Your witness," Kaiser said and then looked at the defence attorney. The attorney stood up and walked slickly over to the jury.
"Miss James, what happened after my client and you had sex?" he asked.
"After your client raped me, two people walked into the room," she said. He nodded and then looked at her curiously.
"Did you know these two people?" he asked.
"Yes," she replied, shrugging to indicate that she didn't understand where he was going with this.
"Objection. Relevance?" Kaiser said.
"I'm establishing motive, Your Honour," he said.
"I'll allow it. Sustained," he said.
"And who were these people in relation to you?" he asked.
"Well, one of them was my best friend's girlfriend, Brooke Davis," she replied. He nodded.
"And the other?" he asked.
"The other was my boyfriend, Nathan Scott," Haley replied carefully.
Nathan looked at Peyton and the others. "Where's he going with this?" he asked them. Peyton shrugged.
"I don't know," Peyton replied. Brooke looked at him and then at Brian. "Uh oh," she said softly.
"What?" he asked.
"I know where he's going with this," Brooke said.
"How long had you been dating your boyfriend?" he asked.
"I don't see what that has to do with anything," Haley replied.
"Answer the question, Miss James," the judge instructed.
"About three or four months," she replied.
"And when your boyfriend walked in on you and my client, what was his reaction?" he asked.
"He was mad," she replied.
"Why?" he asked.
"He thought that I was cheating on him," she replied. The lawyer nodded.
"Interesting. So what happened?" he asked.
"He broke up with me," Haley admitted. The attorney nodded again.
"Isn't it true that when you went to school the following Monday every one had known that you had cheated on your boyfriend, so your reputation was destroyed?" he asked. Haley shook her head.
"Everyone assumed that what Nathan said was true. No one but the police knew the whole story at that point. And I guess you could say that people didn't see me how they once did when they believed what Nathan had told them," Haley replied. Nathan felt so guilty about what he had put her through. If only he had not reacted the way he did when he walked in the room that night. If only he had let her explain things to him.
"I see. So your boyfriend had dumped you and you were probably devastated by that, right?" he asked.
"Of course I was," Haley replied. Her eyes were narrowed in anger now.
"So devastated that you would say that my client raped you just to redeem yourself in your boyfriend's eyes?" he suggested. Haley shook her head.
"Your client did rape me," she clarified.
"How is anyone supposed to take you seriously?" he asked.
"Because the rape kit that the hospital performed collected your client's semen," she replied.
"You and my client had consensual sex," the lawyer offered. Haley laughed.
"In your client's dreams," she replied flatly. Nathan smirked proudly at her. She was handling herself very well.
"Just one more question, Miss James. Are you and your boyfriend back together?" he asked. Haley nodded. "Because you told him that you had been raped?" he asked. Haley smiled at him sarcastically as she shook her head.
"No, I didn't tell him. A friend betrayed my confidence and told him," she replied. The defence attorney sighed heavily. He knew his plan had just blown up in his face.
"No further questions," he said. The judge nodded and looked over to Haley.
"You may step down," he said. Haley nodded and stood up slowly. The bailiff came over to help her but she waved him off and then smiled at him appreciatively. She walked passed the prosecution and defence tables and stopped in front of the first row where the other two victims sat. She was about to sit down and then thought better of it. She shook her head and walked to the third row and sat down beside Nathan. She would not live in the role of a victim anymore.
TWO WEEKS LATERHaley walked into Nathan's house and smiled as she walked into the kitchen. "Wow, you certainly seem happy about something," Deb announced as she saw Haley.
"How did you get in here?" she asked.
"Mr. Scott let me in," Haley replied. "Is Nathan here?" she asked. Deb nodded.
"He's in his room getting ready for the game. I didn't realize that he wanted you to come here," Deb said.
"He usually needs his time alone before a big game," Dan said, coming into the room.
"Oh, I know that. I just have really good news that I need to tell him. I just can't wait until after the game to tell him," she said.
"Nevertheless, I think it should wait. I don't want my boy distracted," Dan said. Haley nodded in understanding.
"I know that, Mr. Scott and I promise that Nathan will be fully aware for tonight's game. If anything, this should take a distraction away from him," she replied.
"Haley, go on into Nathan's room," Deb said, glaring at Dan. Haley smiled appreciatively at Deb and walked up the stairs and down the hall. She knocked on Nathan's door.
"Come in," he said. Haley opened the door and walked in. Nathan was just pulling a shirt over his head. He smiled when he saw her. "Well, this is a pleasant surprise. What are you doing here?" he asked, hugging her when she walked over to him. She kissed him lightly on the lips.
"Well, I don't want to take up too much of your time but I have something to tell you," she said. He faltered for a minute.
"Contrary to what my dad says, Haley, my whole life is not about basketball. There are other things that I care about," he said, smiling as he looked at her. She smiled.
"Well, that being said, I hope I'm one of those things," she said. He nodded.
"You already know the answer to that. What did you want to tell me?" he asked.
"I was in court today," she announced. He stopped moving things into his bag and turned around and looked at her. He sat down.
"Why would you ever go back there?" he asked.
"Because I wanted to see it to its end, Nathan," she replied.
"Okay. What happened?" he asked.
"The jury came back," she replied. He couldn't tell if she was happy or not. Her face remained emotionless, but there was a sense of unhappiness in her eyes. "They found him guilty of two counts of rape in the second degree, one count of rape in the first degree and one count of statutory rape," she replied smiling.
"That's amazing! How long is he going away?" Nathan asked.
"I don't know. Sentencing is tomorrow, but the prosecutor is going to ask for the maximum sentence," she replied. He pulled her closer and kissed her head.
"You're safe now," he said. She smiled.
"I'm always safe when I'm with you, Nathan. Now, I just have reassurance," she corrected him.
"Maybe now I'll actually be able to win this game," he said, smiling. She laughed.
"I love you," she said quietly. He looked at her and nodded.
"I love you too," he said. Then, he lowered his head and met her lips and kissed her deeply. First, it was gentle, but then it became more passionate and Haley put her arms around his neck. He gently brought her down to the bed and wrapped her in his arms as he continued to kiss her. She began to squirm nervous and he stopped kissing her. He knew it was going to be a while before she felt comfortable around a guy again. He could see the fear in her eyes as he looked down at her, but he smiled reassuringly. He would never hurt her like that and he said, "I'm glad that everything worked out." He pushed himself up and pulled her up gently with him. "I'll see you at the game," he said kissing her gently one last time for now. She smiled.