The Aftermath 2 (Chapter Twenty-two)
Haley sat at Nathan's bed in the hospital and tasted tears in her mouth before she realized that she was actually crying. "Your boyfriend is in a coma," the doctor had said. "Your efforts at saving Mr. Scott were admirable and impressive. If he had been released to us immediately, perhaps he would be awake right now, but there was just too much blood loss. There's little hope that he'll ever recover," the doctor had said. Three months now of hearing the same hopeless words from the doctors that had taken care of Nathan and the nurses that continued to monitor his activity. Haley was beginning to give up hope that Nathan would recover. Sometimes there would be a slight jerk of his hand.
"It's normal for a coma patient. I'm sorry," a nurse had told her. Haley's response as she remembered had not been very pleasant. She had been through a lot of ups and downs with Nathan throughout the time they had met and started dating, broke up and then got back together again. She remembered the time where they had gone to a party; Nathan had gotten drunk and said a few mean things to her. How she wished that that was her biggest problem with him. And she wished she could go back in time and make the decision not to dump him after she had found out about Heather. She would have no self-respect, but she would still have Nathan and for obvious reasons, that was fine by her. Lack of self-respect is better than comatose boyfriend any day. Anything is better than having a comatose boyfriend in her books.
"Well, except a dead boyfriend," she muttered to herself. As soon as she said the words, she cursed herself. How stupid could she get? Nathan was lying right next to her and it was almost as if she was planning to get her dress for his funeral picked out already. Haley had always been an optimistic person. It was just what came naturally for her. So why couldn't she be optimistic now?
"Haley," someone said. She jumped at the sound of another voice. It was familiar but the reason she couldn't place it was because she was focusing so much on trying to hear Nathan's which was not there. She turned and smiled at Lucas. "How is he?" Haley's face crumpled and Lucas came over and hugged her. "Hey, it's ok," he said soothingly. He knew it wasn't helping but Haley appreciated the effort. Then she pulled away.
"I keep thinking that if I do or say something, he'll wake up and come back, but…" she said. Lucas nodded.
"I think the best thing you can do is what you're doing; coming to see him, being here for him. He would be doing the same thing for you," Lucas said. Haley nodded.
"You know that crocheted poncho thing that my mom made for me?" she asked. Lucas nodded, clearly not getting where she was going. "Well, I wore it yesterday." Her face crumpled.
"Haley, what is it?" he asked in confusion. Haley cleared her face but to no avail. The tears just keep coming.
"Nathan hates it. I mean, really hates it. Every time I wore it, he told me how ridiculous it looked but I didn't care," Haley said. Lucas nodded, still not getting it. "I wore it yesterday not even remembering that Nathan hated it. But then I realized that he did and…" Her words trailed off for a minute as she sobbed again. "He didn't tell me how much he hated it," she finished.
"Hey, it's all right," he said.
"No, it's not all right! Nathan is here clinging to life and I'm just a huge emotional ball of hormones and it's not what he needs right now," Haley said before silently sobbing against Nathan's motionless body.
"Haley, it's perfectly normal to be upset," Lucas said.
"I am not upset," she said. Haley savagely wiped the tears away from her face and turned around to face Lucas. "I am pissed off!" Her eyes were full of anger. Lucas looked down for a minute. He didn't think it was really appropriate for Haley to say that she was pissed off at Nathan, but then, she pointed out that it was not Nathan she was angry with. "Don't you understand?"
"What are you talking about?" he asked.
"I helped them!" she exclaimed. He looked at her in confusion. "I helped them write their list of demands. I defended them against Mr. Raymond and everyone else. I did everything I could to make them let us go."
"And they did," Lucas said. Haley shrugged.
"But what did it get us?" Haley asked.
"Your freedom, Haley, and I can bet there is not a day that will go by where those two and everyone else will not be grateful for what you did," Lucas said.
"What I did wasn't good enough to help Nathan. How ironic is that? I can stop two people who are basically strangers from ruining their lives or ending them, but I couldn't do a thing to help my boyfriend," Haley said.
"Haley, you did everything you could to help Nathan. He wouldn't be in this hospital clinging to life if it weren't for what you did. He'd be six feet under," Lucas said. Haley smirked.
"And those two will most likely get to spend ten years behind bars and then walk free. But Nathan will most likely live as a prisoner in his own body for the next ten months before someone pulls the plug," Haley said.
"Haley," Lucas said.
"It's not fair! Nathan gets sentenced to death just because he was trying to protect me and they get a slap on the wrist," Haley said.
"Their fate hasn't been determined, Haley. They're going on trial and you don't know how it'll turn out," Lucas said. Haley nodded.
"That's true," she agreed.
"There you go," he said.
"For all I know, the jury could come back with a verdict of 'not guilty' or they could even get a mistrial," Haley said cynically.
"Haley, this isn't helping Nathan," Lucas said.
"What?" she asked.
"You're beating yourself up over things that you can't control and that's not what he needs," Lucas said.
"Yeah, what he needs is to be able to turn back time," Haley said. Lucas slammed his fist down on a random counter.
"No damn it! What he needs is his girlfriend and that is you," Lucas said. Haley nodded in agreement and looked at Nathan again. "I'll leave you alone with him," he said. Haley nodded.
"Nathan," Haley said gingerly. There was no response. Not even one number went up on the monitor at all. "I'm sorry that you never got to know. I should've told you sooner but I thought we had all the time in the world."
"Know what?" Dan Scott asked, coming into the room. Haley looked up at him in shock.
"How long have you been standing there?" she asked.
"Since Lucas left. Now, what doesn't Nathan know?" Dan asked. Haley panicked for a second but then relaxed when one of the simplest answers popped into her head.
"How I feel about him and how glad I was that I had him back," she said. Dan nodded. There was nothing really that bad about Dan Scott. He had never said or done anything to insult Haley personally or anyone else she cared about. He cared about his son and nephew and was a relatively good husband to his wife. But she knew that he was not the best father in the world. His sick obsession with basketball caused him to put pressure on Nathan and Nathan in turn did stupid things to try to please his father.
"I miss him too, Haley. We all do," he said. Haley nodded. She knew that and she was determined not to let Ethan and Jason get away with what happened. The DA had wanted her to testify for her in the trial because she had most interaction with Jason and Ethan and was obviously one of the closest people to the person who had gotten injured. Now Haley had made up her mind and she sincerely hoped that her testimony would help put them away.
"Ms. James, I want to thank you for taking time out of your day to come and testify," the DA Marilyn James, Haley's own aunt, said. Haley nodded. "Now, I'm going to start to ask you a few questions and I apologize in advance if they seem too personal or painful."
"It's fine," Haley said.
"How did you know the defendants?" she asked. Haley sighed.
"We all went to school together," Haley replied.
"How well did you know them?" Marilyn asked.
"I didn't know either one of them very well," Haley replied. "I tutored Jason for a while but I never really got to know him personally. I knew his grades. Ethan I didn't know at all other than by name."
"And how were Mr. Trip's grades?" Marilyn asked.
"Objection. The People have no right to know about that and this witness is not a teacher," the defence lawyer argued.
"If their defence is that they went to kill a teacher who made fun of them for their lack of performance, they must be talking about grades. If the jury is to believe them, surely Mr. Trip's tutor can provide some insight," her aunt said. The judge nodded.
"Overruled. You may answer the question, Ms. James," he said. Haley nodded.
"They were below normal," Haley said.
"How much below?" her aunt asked. Haley sighed.
"If he wasn't failing a class, his grades were borderline," she replied.
"So, he's not the brightest tool in the shed, is he?" Marilyn asked. The judge looked at her warningly for the comment, but the defence lawyer was either not paying attention or didn't realize that it was prejudicial.
"He had difficulty in a lot of areas," Haley replied politely. She would never openly call someone stupid no matter how much she hated them. She was a tutor, after all.
"During the time you were held captive, would you say the defendants were hostile?" Marilyn asked. Haley actually scoffed as she nodded.
"They were very aggressive and not shy at all about using their weapons as methods of persuasion," Haley replied.
"But you still defended them?" Marilyn asked. Haley nodded. "So you agree with their methods?"
"Of course not. I defended them, not their actions," Haley said.
"Nothing further," Marilyn said, walking away. "Your witness."
The defence lawyer got up and introduced himself as Joseph Chase. "Throughout the trial, many people have stated that you were sympathetic to the defendants," Chase said. Haley nodded. "Why?"
"I didn't think that the way Mr. Raymond treated them was ok," Haley said.
"So you knew that Mr. Raymond didn't treat them well prior to the attack?" Chase asked. Haley shook her head. "How could you not?"
"I guess I didn't realize it or I didn't pay any particular attention to them," she replied.
"So no one did anything. No one stood up for them; no one went to the principal or anyone else. They were left to deal with the situation on their own," Chase said. Haley scoffed. "Is there something funny, Miss James?"
"Your clients didn't have to deal with it that way," Haley said.
"You admitted that you yourself didn't agree with what Mr. Raymond did. Are you surprised that my clients reacted the way they did?" Chase said. Haley laughed.
"Being mad and upset is one thing. But coming into the school, armed and holding people, who had absolutely nothing to do with it, hostage?" Haley said. She turned to look at Jason and Ethan. "That reaction was beyond outrageous," she said firmly.
"Nothing further for this witness," Chase said angrily.
"You may step down," the judge said appreciatively but her aunt stood up.
"Your Honour, I wish to question this witness," she said. Haley looked at her aunt in confusion. What more was there left to say?
"Objection. This witness has nothing useful left to say," Chase argued.
"Sidebar," the judge said. They argued back and forth but even Haley couldn't hear what they were saying. Then, they all looked at her in shock but the judge turned to her and removed his hand from the microphone. "This is highly irregular," he said.
"I apologize, Your Honour, but I feel that this is something that needs to be touched upon," her aunt said.
"All right," he said.
"Miss James, I apologize in advance for this. I know it won't be easy," she said. Haley looked at her in confusion but nodded. "You were sympathetic. Has that opinion changed?"
"Yes," Haley replied.
"Why?" Marilyn asked.
"There was someone who was injured in the classroom," Haley replied.
"Did you know him?" she asked.
"Yes, I know him. He's my boyfriend," Haley replied.
"And what is his current condition?" Marilyn asked.
"He's in a coma," Haley replied. She expanded on his condition and Haley nodded.
"Now, you obviously miss your boyfriend. But is there something that you were never able to tell him? Something that he'll most likely miss out on?" Marilyn asked. Haley looked at her in confusion.
"I don't know what you mean," Haley replied. Her aunt widened her eyes.
"You know what I mean, Haley. Tell them," Marilyn said. Haley widened her eyes in shock.
"I told you that in confidence not so you can use it to further your career," Haley argued.
"And I apologize for doing this, but it needs to be done. Tell them," Marilyn said. Haley closed her mouth defiantly. Marilyn smirked at the judge.
"Tell the Court or I'll find you in contempt," he said. Haley's jaw tightened.
"What did you find out the day before you were held hostage?" Marilyn asked.
"I found out that…" Haley started.
"Yes?" Marilyn asked. Haley exhaled.
"I'm pregnant," Haley said.