Reunion From Hell

Nathan sighed as he pulled into the James' house. It had been a while since he'd been here and he wasn't looking forward to going back inside that house. It knew too much. It held too many memories for him and he knew that once he stepped back inside they would all come crashing down on him. He never let himself remember those days. It still hurt him to remember a time in his life where he was at his happiest. And then, in one foul swoop, it had all been taken away from him.Nathan shook his head and blocked the thoughts out of his head. He walked up to the door and knocked on it twice. Taylor opened the door and she looked at him in surprise. "What are you doing here, Nathan?" she asked.

"I was invited," he said. Taylor looked back into the kitchen and then at him.

"Uh, well, Brooke is in the living room with Lucas and Peyton. I'm sure you remember where that is," she said. She was being a little too friendly for his comfort. Something was going on but he decided not to press it. Even if he had decided to, it would have been too late because Taylor was already walking away towards the kitchen. Lucas and the others came out of the living room.

"Come sit with us, Nate," Lucas said.

"Tay, I need your help. Come here, please," a shockingly familiar voice said. Nathan stiffened at the sound of it. It couldn't possibly be her, he told himself. Then, he saw Taylor's face and he knew that he wasn't just imagining it. He looked at Lucas and his expression betrayed his worry. Then, as if sensing that something was amiss, she came out of the kitchen. "Tay, what the hell is taking you so…?" she started to say but her sentence trailed off when she saw him. It took her a minute to regain her composure and initial shock at seeing him. But when she did, she put on a friendly smile. "Hi," she said. Nathan stared at her for a few minutes. Instead of saying what he had been feeling all these years, instead of returning the polite welcome, he turned to Brooke and glared at her.

"What is she doing here?" he demanded. Brooke shrank back.

"She's here for the wedding," Lucas said.

"Craig felt that she should be here," Brooke added.

"Well, then, you should have told me that she would be here," he said.

"I didn't know until she showed up," Brooke offered. Haley hit the wall with her hand to get their attention.

"She' is standing right here," Haley said angrily. She walked out of the hallway and went back into the kitchen where her parents were. Nathan, suddenly overcome with anger, followed her.

"Hold on a second. You think that after all this time you have the right to act angry and storm out on me?" he asked.

"It is her pattern," Lucas said.

"Stay out of this, Lucas," Nathan warned. This was something he needed to say. Seeming to get the message, every one left the room, leaving them alone together. Haley turned around and looked at him. Her face betrayed no anger if she was feeling any towards him. There was no sadness and no regret. She actually smiled at him. She nodded and laughed.

"I'm sure you've got a lot on your mind. So, let's hear it," Haley said. It sounded very sarcastic.

"You have no right to talk to me like that. I'm not the one who left you. It was the other way around. So, don't mock me," he said. Haley's face softened.

"I'm not mocking you. I was being serious," she said.

"Well, so am I when I say that I have nothing to say to you," he said. He turned to leave but turned back around to face her. "Sorry if you thought that I was going to spend my time pining after you, but I didn't. I got on with my life and I've found better women," he said.

"Well, good. That's good for you," she said. He didn't like that she was being so nice and understanding. He wanted to know what she was really feeling. He wanted to know if she was hurting right now like he had been when she left. He sighed heavily and stomped out of the room. He walked to the living room and sat down beside Brooke. Brooke put her hand on his knee and gave it a squeeze.

"How are you feeling?" she asked, searching his face for some clue as to what he was feeling, but Nathan had become very good at concealing his emotions. His bearing came down over his eyes like a cloak and he knew that there was no way anyone would be able to tell what he was really feeling. He had wanted to say so much more to Haley. He wanted to yell and to scream and at the same time, run over and kiss her. But instead he had pulled a childish manoeuvre in an attempt to hurt her feelings, but backfired when her reaction had hurt him.

"I'm fine," he said. Lucas looked at him in disbelief and then his expression grew very serious.

"You know that's a lie," Lucas said. Nathan shook his head.

"Don't try to tell me what I do or don't know," he said.

"Nathan, we know that her coming back is hurting you even if you don't," Peyton said. Nathan laughed bitterly as he shook his head.

"She left; Haley forgot about every single thing that meant to her in this town- me, you guys, and her family. She threw everything away for that stupid tour and she never looked back. So she's suddenly grown a conscience and come back to be there at her brother's wedding. Well, good for her, but I couldn't care less." Nathan exploded. Brooke shook her head in annoyance.

"You know what? You can deny it all you want; Nathan, but we know the truth. We've been around for the past seven years when she hasn't. We saw first hand what Haley leaving did to you," Peyton said. They heard footsteps walking in the hall and then upstairs. Nathan could tell without even looking up to see that it had been Haley. Lucas got up and followed her quickly.

Haley sat down on her bed and looked around the old room. Then the door swung open and Lucas walked in. "How much did you hear?" Lucas asked. Haley could practically feel his anger.

"All of it," she said.

"And?" he said. Haley shrugged.

"Don't give me that, Haley," he said.

"What?" she asked.

"This new barrier thing that you've got going. Every time someone confronts you, it's as if you crawl into a shell and it's your protective gear," he said.

"What do you want me to say, Lucas?" Haley asked.

"Something real," he replied. Haley shook her head.

"This is real, Lucas. I don't carry what happened with me anymore," she said.

"You don't feel the least bit guilty?" he asked. Haley shook her head. "Wow. Just what the hell happened to you over the years?" he asked.

"I was guilty at first. But I realized that if I kept feeling sorry for myself, wishing I could change things when I couldn't, it would destroy me. I didn't want to live like that," she said.

"So, what did you do, throw it all out?" he asked in amusement. Haley looked at him sternly as she shook her head.

"It took me a long time to put it behind me, Lucas," she said.

"That doesn't make it ok, Haley!" he exclaimed. Haley looked at him in surprise. He had never yelled at her like that. "If you heard everything downstairs, then you must have heard what Nathan said," he said. Haley nodded. "Did you hear the way he speaks about you?" he asked. Haley nodded. "And that doesn't bother you at all?" he asked. Haley looked at him.

"He's entitled to his opinion," she said.

"That is what's bothering me," he said.

"What?" she asked.

"That you can sit there and act like you and Nathan never meant anything to each other. That you don't love him, that you don't care that you destroyed him," Lucas said.

"I think that you should go back downstairs, Lucas," Haley said.

"Why's that?" he asked as if he didn't care.

"Because you're making me really angry," she warned.

"You don't have the right to be angry," Lucas said.

"And you don't have the right to fight Nathan's battles for him," Haley said.

"He's my brother," Lucas offered. Haley shrugged.

"And he has made it perfectly clear that he's moved on. He told me point blank that he's moved on," she said.

"And you believed him?" Lucas asked incredulously.

"So he hasn't been with other women?" Haley asked, looking at him doubtfully. Lucas looked down. "That's exactly what I thought. I love him; I never said I didn't. I will always care for him, but…" she trailed off.

"But you don't feel bad about hurting him," Lucas pointed out before he left. Haley fought back tears as she looked around her room. You can't lie to yourself anymore. You regret hurting Nathan more than you care to, a voice inside told her. She hated that voice. It always tended to rear its ugly head at the worst possible time and forced her to realize things she didn't want to. She knew she still loved Nathan. She had never denied that. But she had denied why things never really worked with Trey. Trey had meant a lot to her and she cared about him, but Nathan always held her heart and he meant the world to her.

"But it doesn't change anything," she reminded herself. She had changed and so had Nathan. They were different people now and to pretend that they could go back to the way they were was foolish. Haley knew that.