Where Do We Go From Here? (Chapter Ten)
Haley stayed still for a second. When she opened her eyes, she saw that Nathan's face was inches away from her own. He smiled. Then, he looked down for a second and slid one hand into one of hers and gave it a light squeeze. "I told you that there are people who aren't ready for you to die. When I said that, I was mainly talking about me. I don't want you to die, so please, have the transfusion. I don't want to lose you again," he said. Haley regained her composure. She took her hand out of his and looked at him firmly.
"Nathan, are you telling me the truth or did you do this just to get me to have the transfusion?" Haley asked. Nathan looked at her in disbelief.
"I'm telling you the truth, Haley. Why do you even have to ask me?" he asked.
"I'm being cautious, Nathan. I've been lied to before and I don't have the strength to go through it again," she said. He turned his head to one side.
"One thing I've never lied about is how I feel for you. I love you, Haley, and I'm not ready to let you go," he said. Haley smiled. He looked down for a minute. "I have to get to practice right now, but I'll see you tomorrow," he said. She nodded. He got up and kissed her on the forehead.
A WEEK LATER
"I've got to tell you, Mr. Scott, if it weren't for you, I don't think your friend would've gone through with it," Haley's doctor finished saying. Jimmy James reached out his hand and shook Nathan's.
"Thank you for all your help, Nathan. I owe you big time," he said. Nathan shook his head.
"You don't owe me anything. I did it for me as much as I did it for her," he said. Jimmy smiled.
He looked at the doctor and asked, "Where is my wife?" "She's been taken into recovery. She'll be in room 233," he explained. Nathan walked away from them and headed to Haley's room. He walked into the room and smiled as he saw her sleeping peacefully. It'd been a few days since Haley had had a bone marrow transplant with her mom as the donor. So far, the doctor had given her a clean bill of health. He walked over and sat down in the chair that was conveniently left right by the bed. He suspected Taylor had been the one who put it there. Nobody else in Haley's family had been in to see her. Taylor had been one of the nurses on staff that had brought Haley to her room a few hours ago. He leaned back and folded his arms behind his head to rest his head against and yawned. Haley stirred and opened her eyes slowly. She smiled over at him.
"How are you feeling?" he asked.
"Like I got a chunk of my bone ripped out," she replied. Nathan laughed. It was really her mother who had gotten some of her marrow taken out of her arm. Haley had just received the marrow, though; he guessed it had hurt to have a huge needle poke a hole through your bone.
"And other than that?" he asked. Haley yawned and smiled.
"I feel fine," she said. He smiled. She pushed the button so her bed elevated into a sitting position. Nathan sat up too. Apparently, Haley was ready to wake up. She grew serious. "Nathan, we need to talk," she said. An alarm went off inside his head.
"About?" he asked carefully.
"Two things, actually," she said simply. He looked at her. "I need a little clarification as to what we are now," she said.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"Our relationship- are we friends or something more?" she asked.
He smiled as he said, "Definitely something more." Haley laughed at the glint in his eyes. Then he looked at her for a second. "Haley, we've never been friends," he reminded her. She looked at him in confusion.
"Yes, we have. When I first started tutoring you, we were friends," she said almost immediately. He shook his head.
"That was the flirting stage," he said.
"I didn't flirt when I tutored people," Haley said.
"Well, I'm glad to hear that. Otherwise, I would've had to kick a lot of guys' asses," Nathan said, laughing as Haley grabbed a pillow from behind her and hit him with it. "But you did flirt with me," he said. Haley held the pillow in a threatening position.
"No, I didn't," she said firmly. He smiled.
"Fine. You didn't," he said sarcastically. Then, the pillow came down onto his head.
"Hey! I said that you didn't," he said defensively.
"Do you really think that after all the time we've known each other; I can't tell when you're being sarcastic?" Haley asked. After a few minutes, Haley looked at him again.
"What was the other thing you wanted to talk about?" he asked. Haley continued to look at him for a few seconds until she answered.
"I wanted to thank you," she said.
"For what?" Nathan asked.
"For not giving up on me," she said. He looked at her for a second in confusion. "You didn't let me take the easy way out. No matter how annoying or repetitive your arguments were, you forced me to hear them and I wanted to thank you for doing that. I didn't want to miss out on this," she continued. She was referring to their relationship. He pulled the chair even closer as he put his hand up and cupped her cheek. Then he leaned in and kissed her softly. When the kiss ended, he smiled at her. She smiled one of her killer genuine smiles that made his heart soar.
"You're never going to get rid of me for long. We're a team. What happens to one person, the other one goes through as well. It's my job not to let you give up. The world isn't ready for you to leave, Haley James," he said.
"Haley James-Scott," she corrected him. He looked at her. "I never officially changed my name," she admitted. He smiled at the news and kissed her again. "Always and forever," she said, smiling.
He nodded in agreement as he said, "Always and forever."
