Chapter Eight

TREE HILL HOSPITAL (FOUR HOURS LATER)

Nathan sat by Haley's side. She was semi-conscious now that the doctors had finally stabled her. She continued to go in and out as if she were straddling life and death. Nathan didn't know what else to do besides sit by her side and wait for the doctor to decide to come and talk to him. He hated hospitals. He wasn't fond of doctors at the moment and he was even less fond of Haley's heart monitor that beeped every second. At that moment, he saw a young woman in a white coat approach him. "Are you her husband?" she asked. She brought out a clipboard and took her pen out.

"Yes, I am," Nathan replied.

"I'm Dr. Montgomery. I'm the physician who treated her when she came in," she explained. Nathan shook her outstretched hand.

"Is she ok?" he asked anxiously.

Dr. Montgomery bit her lip as she said, "We managed to get her stable. We're monitoring her and the baby before we bring her up for surgery."

"So, the baby's ok?" he asked.

"She went into fetal distress, but our obstetrician managed to reverse the problem," Dr. Montgomery said.

"So, the baby is ok?" Nathan repeated, not understanding what she really meant. Dr. Montgomery smiled sympathetically as she nodded.

"Yes, as far as we can tell, the baby is fine," she said. He nodded as he knew that when she said that as far as they knew was the hospital just covering it's ass in case something happened.

"What about Haley?" Nathan asked. Dr. Montgomery took a deep breath as she started to explain that the fall caused a lot of injuries. "Is she paralysed? Is that what you're trying to tell me?" Nathan asked. He felt as if her were reliving the time when she was in a coma and ended up paralysed in one leg. The doctor shook her head.

"No. She has a few pair of broken ribs and spleen was damaged, so we're going to operate to see if we can repair the damage," she explained. Nathan nodded, signalling that he was fine with the operation.

"So, will my wife be okay?" he asked.

"She should be fine," she said.

"Then, why is she still unconscious?" Nathan asked.

"We've got her on a few medications. She's not unconscious. She's just heavily sedated," the doctor explained. Nathan nodded and he was about to turn away when Dr. Montgomery said, "The police are going to want to talk to you."

"What?" he asked.

"We called the police. Your wife was murmuring something about how she was pushed out of the window," Dr. Montgomery said. Nathan nodded. He certainly didn't think that Haley merely fell out of the window, but it was just surprising to him that someone hated her enough to push her out of the window. Fifteen minutes later, the police came to Haley's room.

He sighed as the police officer said, "Hi, Nathan."

"Hi, Tim," Nathan said to his old high school friend, Tim Smith, who was now a police detective.

"Look, I'm really sorry to do this, but, uh, we need to figure out who did this to Haley," Tim explained.

"I understand. Believe me, I want to find whoever did this as much as anyone," Nathan said. He looked back at Haley.

"Can you think of anyone who might want to hurt Haley?" Tim asked. Nathan sighed.

"No," he said.

"Can you think of anyone who might not like her?" Tim asked.

"Well, not everyone is her biggest fan, but I hardly think people hate her enough to want to throw her out of a window," Nathan said. Tim nodded as he jotted down some notes.

"Can you tell me some of the people who don't like her?" Tim asked. Nathan shrugged.

"Well, my father's never really been that fond of her because she helped me get emancipated from him and my mom back then, but he doesn't hate her," Nathan said. Tim nodded. "Haley's said there are a few students who aren't too fond of her because she failed them on a project, but even that's-" Nathan said.

"Not reason enough to try to kill her?" Tim asked. Nathan nodded. "You'd be surprised how the smallest thing can sometimes push people over the edge," Tim said. Nathan tilted his head at him.

"Come on, Tim. You weren't very fond of Haley at one point. Does that mean you would have thrown her out a window?" Nathan asked. Tim laughed.

"Okay. That was a long time ago and I was jealous of the time you two spent together when you first got married. I never didn't like her," Tim reminded him. "I know you think this is ridiculous, Nathan, but it's not. Someone did try to kill your wife. This is not a normal thing for me to be dealing with a victim that's actually alive," Tim said.

"It was probably an accident. It was probably a robbery gone wrong when the robber found Haley there," Nathan said.

"There was no sign of forced entry, Nathan. Haley let that person in, so it's probably someone she or both of you know. Why are you being so difficult with this?" Tim said.

"Because you're asking me to realize that someone tried to kill my wife! I can't accept that anyone would purposely try to hurt her," Nathan said. Tim nodded.

"Ok. How about we wait until she wakes up? Maybe she can tell us," Tim suggested. Nathan sighed as he nodded. Just then, Lucas came into the room. There was a look of panic on his face as he approached Nathan.

"How is she?" Luke asked. Nathan had called him a few minutes after he had arrived at the hospital while the doctors were working on Haley.

"She'll be fine, Luke," Nathan assured him.

"What happened? You said you found her outside on the ground," Brooke asked. He sighed.

"It seems that Haley was pushed out of a window," Tim said for him.

"So someone did this to her?" Peyton asked as she came into view. Nathan nodded and shrugged.

"I don't know what happened because I wasn't there, but it does look like someone pushed her out, yeah," Nathan said.

"I'm glad you guys are here. Can you think of who might have done this?" Tim asked. Lucas and Jake looked almost as perplexed with the issue as Nathan. Peyton and Brooke both looked at each other knowingly. He recognized the look on their faces. They knew something but they were afraid to tell them.

"What do you know?" Nathan asked.

"It's ridiculous," Peyton said, shaking her head in disbelief.

"Is it?" Brooke asked. Peyton narrowed her eyes at her.

"Come on, Peyton. You didn't see the two arguing that time," Brooke said.

"Who?" Tim asked.

Brooke looked at Nathan apologetically as she said, "Rachel Moore." Nathan laughed.

"Come on, Brooke. Rachel could never do this," he said.

"Nathan, you know as well as anyone else that Rachel has motive. She wants you for herself," Peyton said.

"I'm not denying that she had motive. I'm saying there's no way she'd be able to pull it off. Rachel's so messed up on drugs that she couldn't have done it. Besides, she's not even in town anymore. She sent a letter to me telling me that she was leaving town and that she was sorry for all the problems she'd caused," Nathan said.

"Maybe that was to get you to lower your guard. Think about it, Nathan. This is making perfect sense. I remember that crazy girl from the time I visited you on campus in between training. She was mad for you and with Haley out of the way, you would be ripe for the picking," Tim said. Nathan shook his head.

"Haley out of the way?'" Nathan repeated. He knew what it was like to not have Haley with him, but to not even have the possibility of seeing her at all seemed like the most devastating blow to him.

"Allow me to try this a different way," Tim said. Nathan nodded. "You were the one that found Haley, right?" he asked. Nathan nodded. "So you saw her with shards of glass inside her skin and her nearly drowning in her own blood that surrounded her. Now, add the fact that she's pregnant to that image. Your baby went into fetal distress. That means that for a few moments, she was deprived of oxygen for a few seconds because Haley was surrounded by a pool of blood," Tim said. Nathan's hand balled into a fist as he remembered finding Haley. "Now, are you still going to tell me that you think that was an accident?" Tim asked. Lucas could tell that Tim's scenario was starting to affect Nathan. He looked about ready to pummel someone. Nathan's jaw was clenched and his eyes were narrowed.

"It wasn't an accident," Nathan concluded angrily.

Then, a small voice called out, "Nathan?" It was quiet and it was weak, but there was no denying who it came from. Lucas turned around as Nathan did and saw that Haley was awake and struggling to sit up. Nathan was by her side in an instant. He put his arm around Haley's back to help her.

"Just take it slow, Hales," he said soothingly. Haley flinched as she moved one of her legs.

"What happened?" she asked. Lucas felt his blood turn to ice. Haley didn't seem to remember. "You don't know?" Nathan asked.

Haley turned her head up to face him, silently swearing in her head at the shooting pain.

"Know what?" she asked.

"Haley, try to remember what happened today," Tim said softly. What was he doing here? Haley ignored the question and tried to concentrate.

"Uh, I remember leaving school and going to the doctor's with Peyton and Brooke. Everything was fine with the baby. Then, I went home and…" Haley trailed off.

"And?" Brooke asked softly.

"What happened next, Haley?" Tim pressed. Haley shook her head as she tried to concentrate.

"Take it easy, Hales. The doctor said you shouldn't try to push yourself," Nathan said. Haley nodded, but she wanted to know what happened to her. She concentrated.

(FLASHBACK)

Haley backed away from Rachel. She didn't like the look in her eyes and she regretted letting the psycho in the house now as she held a knife in her hands. "I'm sorry, Haley. I really am. I didn't want to do this," Rachel said. Haley looked at the knife.

"Do what?" Haley asked out of fear. Rachel sighed.

"I have no choice. You've got to believe that," Rachel said. Haley scoffed.

"No choice? Rachel, just exactly what do you think you're going to accomplish by doing this? Do you really think that killing me is going to convince Nathan to be with you?" Haley asked. Rachel shook her head.

"This isn't about Nathan," Rachel said.

"Then what's it about?" Haley asked, as she backed away again. Rachel sighed.

"It's about you. It's all about you," she said.

"What are you babbling about?" Haley asked. Rachel shook her head. She walked forward and held up her hand, ready to stab Haley, but Haley caught her arm before Rachel was able to stab her. Now, they were struggling with the knife. Rachel grabbed a hold of Haley's right shoulder and tried to move her around so she would let go of Rachel. But Haley seemed to anticipate it and grabbed the back of Rachel's neck and dug her nails into the tender skin. Rachel screamed in pain and let go of Haley and the knife clattered to the ground. Then she got angry as she became more forceful. They continued to struggle for a few minutes as the neared the window. Without thinking, Rachel gave Haley a powerful shove. Rachel didn't know just how close to the window Haley actually was as she fell screaming out of the shattered window.

"No!" Rachel screamed. She walked to the edge and looked out the window. Haley was laying down on the ground and was not moving.

(END OF FLASHBACK)

Haley gasped. "Haley?" Nathan asked.

"Do you remember something?" Brooke asked. Haley nodded.

"It was Rachel," she said.