Author's Notes: I have a few HUGE apologies to hand out. I really didn't mean to take so long, but it just happened. The last few days, I've been getting a few despite pleas for updates, and that was when I realized really how long I haven't updated, and then my original chapter three was deleted from my hard drive… I just have the most severe case of writers block I have ever suffered from, and after examining my writing, I feel like nothing sounded how I wanted it to, and like I should go back and fix everything… But I don't have time if I intend to give you guys an update any time in this century… Anyways, I'm sorry, and I hope you like this chapter, even though it isn't exactly the length or content I intended, it's more of my peace offering to ensure you guys that I am in fact still alive…

Hey baby, is that you?
Wow, your hair got so long
Yeah, yeah, I love it, I really do
'Norma Jean', ain't that the song
We'd sing in the car
Drivin' downtown, top down
Making the rounds
Checking out the bands on Doheeney Avenue
Yeah, life throws you curves
But you learned to swerve
Me I swung and I missed
And the next thing ya know
I'm reminiscin' dreaming old dreams
Wishing on wishes
Like you would be back again
-Rascal Flatts

Haley stood before a green door. A faded, chipping, wooden, green door that she hoped would bring her back to a life of happiness. It was a lot to ask of a door. She knew that asking so much would ultimately disappoint her, but she couldn't help but imagine the elaborate reunion of long lost friends that would play into a long night of gabbing about what they had done since last seeing each other. She hoped for a huge hug and a smile; but she doubted she'd get any of it. Life didn't work like television shows and movies. Life didn't have to be perfect at the end of the hour. Life was shitty. Life had cliff hangers. Life threw stupid-ass curve balls like having your stupid-ass boyfriend asking if you wanted to go to the same place that you were already planning on going to get away from him… And life needed deep breaths. Yes, breathing would be good when thinking about stupid-ass Jason, because he is bigger and could throw you off if you tried to strangle him.

She brought her balled hand up from lying lank at her side so that it was positioned in a place where she could knock; though she didn't. Knocking would require courage, and she had none of that. The scene that would await her on the other side of the door could either be catastrophic or euphoric.

But that's when the worst case scenario hit her. What if Nathan were in there? Brooke had only just moved in; there was a huge possibility that Nathan and Lucas had helped her move, and were currently seated around a coffee table inside like in some old episode of FRIENDS where they were in Monica's apartment. The simple thought made her heart drop and leap at the same time.

On one hand, the thought of seeing Nathan Scott thrilled her beyond belief; while the look on his face when he saw her would be the terrifying part. She knew that he must hate her. She didn't blame him.

She tapped her knuckles against the wood as she attempted to drop her arm. She hadn't meant to do it. It was supposed to be defeat, not the beginning that she felt she didn't deserve. But the damage had been done. She could hear light footsteps on the other side of the door.

She could hear the sound of pressure against the other side of the wood as someone checked the pee-hole, and then a shrill scream. "OhMaGod!"

That was definitely Brooke Penelope Davis.

The sound of several locks being displaced were heard by Haley, the scraping of the medal wearing away at her sadness, making her realize that Brooke was standing mere feet from her. Brooke was always her splash of light. Brooke could make sense out of the most nonsense situations, and could always see the bright side. Brooke was exactly what Haley needed.

The door flew open, and before Haley could see or do anything else, a hundred pound body was on top of her, making her stumble in the embrace, and hold tighter to the body that was squishing her insides. "Brooke? Are we being robbed?" A tentative voice spoke through the empty space between it and the two girls. Peyton Sawyer emerged in the doorway holding a bat in the prelude to a swing. But when she saw the two girls, she dropped the heavy metal piece of sports equipment to the scratched wooden floor, and joined in on the hug-fest.

Haley could feel a tear fall down her cheek as she realized what was happening. Her fears of only moments before were unfounded. They were hugging her, not cursing her. (And no one was emerging from the apartment wearing basketball shorts and an amazingly accentuating wife beater.)

Brooke pushed her best friend away to arms-length, and let the tears glisten in her eyes joyously, not even bothering to wipe them away as they fell from her lightly lidded eyes. "Baby James, you're blonde!" Brooke wailed, pulling her friend back tight to her body, and drenching her shoulder in tears as Peyton stood back from the mushy moment.

"Brooke. She can't breathe." Peyton stated dryly, exhibiting her knack to state the obvious in sarcasm.

Brooke kept grinning hugely as she backed away, and swept Haley's bag from the ground where it had fallen when she had attacked her. "Sorry." Brooke ran into the apartment in a whirl wind. Haley knew that look.

Peyton gave her an odd look. Haley had always been the one to understand Brooke's odd tendencies. "We're supposed to stay here." And no doubt, ten seconds later, Brooke was flying out of the apartment again, a small device in her hands, and grabbing the hands of her two friends.

"Come on!" Brooke was insane. But it made Haley smile, which was what she had been waiting months for. Smiling seemed so foreign to her now.

But now was the time when everything seemed alright. All doubt had been rid from her body, and swept under the vintage decorative rugs that Brooke spent so much time choosing. She was in a place where she was truly happy for the first time since she could properly remember.

Brooke drug her two friends down three flights of stairs,a dn out into the early summer sun light with a look of triumph on her face. She displayed the small device she had retrieved from her room to he friends, and started typing feverishly.

Haley smiled again as she watched Brooke type up the new label for the door buzzer downstairs, she felt a full smile coming on. She lived in New York with two of tha best friends she had ever had in her whole life, and she was already beaming after not even speaking a word. Peyton and Brooke would make sure that she didn't completely wallow in self-pity, and they would make sure that she would be happy. The green door had come through for her after all, and that was more than anything she could ever ask for.

Brooke smiled her usual pearly-white dimpled smile as she stuck the sticker over the old one. It was their new start. All of them; together again.

Davis/Sawyer/Scott.