Fourteen Reviews, nine messages, and a partridge in a pear tree! I can't express how much it means that you guys are reading and taking the time to let me know what you think. I really appreciate it. So thanks again to everyone who is taking the time to read, review, and/or message. You guys are awesome!

I was almost at 200 hundred reviews, and was planning on waiting until I hit that number, but you guys have been so awesome I changed my mind on waiting.

...

And I was actually looking for a little help with something else. Somehow I found this fic a while ago and I was reading the first chapter of it when I had to go to my son's baseball game, I left my computer on to the screen expecting to finish it when I got back, but when I got home my laptop was dead and I was unable to find it again, and now I can't even remember how I got it in the first place. For some reason I wasn't able to restore the previous session with the browser, and I hadn't left a review yet so it's really been irritating me. I don't remember the author or title. Nothing... it's been really hard to find.

If anyone has read a story where Brooke is the main focus and is new to Tree Hill while the guys (Lucas, Nathan, Jake, and Owen) are involved in some kind of fight club, can you let me know the name? The start was really good and I want to make sure that I'll get alerts on it. I'll try to remember more about the story if it'll help. I think Cooper, Haley, Rachel, Peyton etc. are in it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Chapter Twenty-One

November 27, 2007

"Just leave me alone!" Nathan yelled as he tried to leave the room. Dan grabbed his arm halting his progress. "I already got Whitey on my ass I don't need you bitching at me too."

"You need to listen to me son; there is only one game until you play the Cavaliers and you need to make sure you are on top of your game. That means you need to stop hanging around your little girlfriend and get back to conditioning. I never left the court during a game."

"Newsflash dad, I'm not you… thank god." With that Nathan left the room and continued until he was at his car. "Hell… forget this."

Nathan got in his car and took a deep breath, trying to quell the emotions that his father readily brought out in him. He loved his dad, he really did. While Deb was off gallivanting around the globe raising money for people she obviously found more important than him at least Dan was there. His methods and attitude about everything was horrible, but he never questioned that Dan wanted what was best for him. But even that didn't stop him from thinking that Dan was the devil or the fact that Nathan wanted to stop the power Dan had over him.

A little more calm, Nathan started the car and drove off. He didn't really have anywhere to go, and since he wanted to see Haley so he was soon he was pulling up to her house. He sat in his car for a few minutes thinking about how much he had come to depend on her. She was his haven, and he didn't know what he would do without her. It wasn't fair to her, always having to deal with his issues. Even though she didn't talk about it much he knew her life wasn't perfect; she had her problems… her parents abandoning her for one. Haley always told him that it was their chance to do what they wanted but she was fifteen for fucks sake. Who takes off and leaves their fifteen year old alone? Even knowing all this Nathan was always dumping his problems on her and she really didn't need that. He should leave her alone. That would be the right thing to do, but he was too selfish. He wasn't going to give her up.

Nathan took a deep breath and decided not to tell her about his latest argument with Dan; there was nothing she could do and he was starting to feel like he was a baby always running to her with his problems. Knowing that Haley wouldn't like him keeping things from her Nathan was still pleased with his decision. He was doing it for her. He got out and walked to the door and knocked. When no one answered he got out the key she had given him and let himself in.

"Haley?" Nathan called out, "Hales? You here?"

Sitting down on her couch he pulled out his phone and called her.

"Hello?"

Nathan couldn't help smiling, just talking to her made him feel better. "I'm at your house, where are you?"

Muffled words came through the phone, like she had put her hand over the mouthpiece and was saying something to whoever was with her. Then her voice was clearer, "I'm with Brent, tutoring."

Nathan felt the disappointment go through him. "Oh… are you going to be done soon? We could go get some dinner or something."

Nathan could tell that Haley was regretful but she still told him, "I'm sorry Nate I can't. I told Jake that I'd help him with something after. I don't know how late I'll be.

Son of a bitch Jagielski, again. Wonderful. Nathan tamped down his irritation, "Can you cancel? I really wanted to see you tonight."

Haley hesitated, "I can't Nathan, he really needs help and I promised."

"Okay," Nathan told her abruptly. "Talk to you later then."

"Nate," Haley replied, "if you want to- "

"No it's fine; I'm going to the Rivercourt."

"If you change your mind go ahead and wait at my house I'll try to finish as soon as I can. You can say the night. Bye Nathan."

"Bye Haley."

Twenty minutes later Nathan was at the Rivercourt shooting baskets, thinking about Jake and Haley. They were doing something but whenever he asked Haley about it she just said she had to help him and she would change the subject. Haley was an honest person though and he knew she wouldn't lie to him, but he couldn't help but wonder why she wouldn't tell him what they were doing.

Hearing footsteps behind him Nathan looked over his shoulder and saw Lucas walking up to him.

"Hey man," Lucas held out a fist.

Nathan reached over and tapped fists with Lucas, "What's up Luke?"

Lucas shrugged, "Haley called me and said that you were going to be here playing, so I thought I'd come get in some practice with you. I called the guys, they should be here soon.

A small smile played on Nate's mouth, "She's worried about me eh?"

Lucas rolled his eyes, Nathan's ego had no bounds, "So how is everything?"

Nathan saw that Lucas was avoiding his gaze, "You mean after Dan was a jackass on Thanksgiving?" Pausing for Luke's nod, Nate continued, "Same as usual man. He's pretending that he didn't do anything wrong and bitching about my game."

Lucas grimaced, "I can't believe I spent all those years being jealous when I was the lucky one."

Nathan nodded and sat down on the bleachers, "He's a pain in the ass to live with, but I'm not going to lie he's not bad all the time. At least he cares."

Lucas grimaced when he remembered Dan's type of caring, "He sucks man."

Not wanting to talk about Dan anymore Nathan asked Lucas, "How are things going with Brooke?"

Lucas smiled, "She's great… we have a lot of fun together. I never thought I would say this but she's a lot more than I thought she would be."

"You mean she's more than a shallow bitch?" At Lucas' glare Nathan made an apologetic face, "I was just kidding man, geeze."

Lucas shook his head, "Don't talk about her like that, she deserves better than that."

Nate rolled his eyes, "Fine… I was just pointing out that before you got to know her she wasn't always like this. She could bitch with the best of them."

"The same could be said of you," Lucas pointed out, "before Haley, you know you weren't the nicest guy."

Feeling uncomfortable again, Nathan merely shrugged, "I know…"

"Yeah."

Nathan was debating how to ask Lucas about what was going on with Jake and Haley. He knew she wasn't tutoring him, but he couldn't figure out why Jake always needed her help. Haley wasn't telling, and he had to assume it was just Jake was making something up to try and get Haley away from him. Because really… what guy wouldn't want her? Except Luke, or course, but Nathan had come to accept that there were something about Lucas that he would never understand.

Casually Nathan asked, "Do you know what's going on with Jagielski and Hales?"

"Um, no? What's going on?" Lucas knew that they had been hanging out since they met, but they were just friends.

Nathan scowled, "I think Jake's after her."

Luke laughed, "Oh come on, they're just friends. You know Haley wouldn't do anything like that."

Nathan agreed, "She wouldn't, but that asshole would."

"Dude… you're being pathetic."

"Shut up. Bitch."

"Oh, that hurts Nate… really it does," Lucas was still laughing at him.

"Let's just shoot around until the guys get here."

"You are in the weirdest mood today," Lucas commented as he stole the ball.

Haley stretched, watching the last of the pages being printed. "I think that's it for tonight Jake. Just read over the precedents and it might give you some more ideas on how to stop Nikki from getting custody of Jenny." Haley picked up the stack from the tray and handed it to him. "You are already in pretty good shape, though."

Jake studied the top page, "And these are all cases where the judge awarded custody to the father?"

Haley nodded, "Yeah… most of them had to do with the mother being unfit. Mental or physical abuse, drug addicts, stuff like that. There are a couple there that I think were misruled and the judge should have given some custody to the mother. It sucks that the good guy doesn't always win."

Jake glanced up and said dryly, "Thanks Hales, that does wonders for my confidence."

Haley winced, "Sorry Jake… I didn't mean you. The PI you hired got pictures of Nikki buying drugs and having sex in that public park. I'm sure no judge would award custody to her when you are such a good dad."

Jake pulled at his hair in frustration, "I just wish that it was over already. Because I'm afraid what if all the judge sees in that she is the mother and I'm still in high school… the judge could think that I'm too young to take care of a baby."

"Jake, don't be a loser. You've taken awesome care of her for over a year; they are going to take that into account." Haley looked at her watch.

Jake breathed deeply and tried to stop worrying, "Okay, okay… I'll try to stop being an idiot."

Haley clapped her hands together, "That's the spirit!" Haley stood up and started getting her things together. "Now I've got to go… I think Nathan is still waiting for me."

Haley walked to the playpen in the corner of the room and bent down to give Jenny a kiss goodbye. She picked her up and pressed a kiss to Jenny's cheek and inhaled her fresh, baby scent. There was something so pleasing about holding a child. Leaning down she blew a raspberry on Jenny's neck, causing her to giggle, "Okay sweetie you be good for daddy, and Auntie Haley will see you later okay?" Giving the baby one last kiss Haley set her back down.

Jake walked Haley to the door and gave her a hug after he opened the door, "I can't thank you enough for all the help you've given me Haley, I suck using computers and I never would have been able to find all this information. And you've been great with Jenny. She's not around too many people and I can tell she really enjoys the time you spend with her."

Haley returned the hug, "Jenny is a doll Jake, it's not exactly a hardship to spend time with her. Later Jake" Haley pulled back and walked to her car.

"Bye Hales," Jake watched until she got into the car.

When she was backing out of the driveway she waved to Jake, causing her to not notice the dark eyes that were burning into her as she drove away. The dark eyes that had been trained on her since the door opened.

Haley lightly sang as she drove home, thinking about the phone call she got earlier from Nathan. He sounded upset, but as much as she wanted to be with him she couldn't forget her commitments to other people. Brent still needed her help to bring up his grades and Jake's situation was just crappy. He could lose his daughter because his psycho ex was pissed he wouldn't take her back.

I hope that Lucas was able to find Nathan and get him to talk, Haley frowned when she thought about Lucas¸ he never did call me back and let me know… but… I guess they could still be at the Rivercourt playing basketball. Haley decided to drive by and see if the guys were still there. Quickly making a turn she headed in that direction, but when she passed by the court it was empty. Heading back in the direction of her house Haley hoped that Nathan would be there.

The door slammed behind him and Nathan walked to the stairs, stopping when a voice came from behind him.

"I see you worked up a sweat. That's good, that's what you should be doing, getting ready for the game."

"I know what I have to do Dad… stop worrying about it." Nathan said without turning around.

Dan continued talking as if Nathan hadn't spoken, "You have the Bulldogs this week and that game should be no problem, but next week you have Cove City."

"Oh wow Dad; I don't know what I would do without you telling me the schedule to my games. Because that is something that I am really going to forget."

"Don't forget who score the most points against Cove City."

Nathan rolled his eyes at his dad's ability to block out everything but the sound of his own voice. "Yeah 42, and don't worry. I'll be beating that next weekend."

Finally Dan looked at him and laughed, "Don't be an idiot. You won't and you want to know why? Because you aren't tough enough on the inside, you're too scrawny. I got garbage buckets that you'll never get because you can't bang down low like I did. That and the fact that your conditioning's for crap. I never left the floor during a game."

"…never left the floor during a game," Nathan finished with him. "Whatever dad, you'll see."

Nathan started walking to the stairs and when he reached them he saw that Deb was coming down. She stopped when they passed each other, "Hi honey, I've missed you….." Deb trailed off and watched as Nathan shrugged her hand off his arm and continue up the stairs without acknowledging her.

Deb frowned and turned to Dan, "What did you do to him?"

Dan rolled his eyes and started toward his study, "Why don't you go get another drink Deb?"

"Hello? You in here?" Lucas knocked on the door to her bedroom and stepped in. Noticing that the room was empty he ran a hand through his hair and sat on the clothes strewn bed. It looked like she had gotten dressed and left in a hurry. Glancing at the closet he saw that there was a shirt thrown over the web camera.

He didn't really know what he was doing here other than he missed her and he wanted to make things okay between them again. They had talked a couple times since Thanksgiving, but it was only a few short conversations. He needed to reach out to her… make her see that they could be friends. Not just for his sake but for Brooke's, he could tell that she was missing her P. Sawyer. Lucas picked up the shirt that was brushing against his thigh and rubbed the material between his thumb and forefinger, enjoying the cool silky feeling.

What I am doing… I'm acting like some stalker freak. And what about Brooke? Dropping the shirt with repulsion he left the room quickly. You didn't do anything wrong Lucas… you were just worried about a friend and wanted to reach out. Lucas put the car in gear and drove a now familiar route. Reaching her house he let himself in and walked up to her room.

He smiled when he saw her staring intently at the screen. She looked so cute lying on her stomach watching TV mumbling.

"Peter Petrelli is so fucking hot, even if he's being an idiot now," was the next thing that came out of her mouth.

Lucas had moved closer so he was next to the bed when he started to laughed and it caused Brooke to shriek, "Oh my god! You scared me!" Brooke reached over and hit his arm.

"Ow! Damn girl, have you been taking steroids?" Lucas rubbed his arm, reminding himself not to piss off Brooke.

Brooke kinked her eyebrow, "Don't mess with this cheerleader, you can't handle these guns." Brooke flexed her arms.

Lucas reached over and kissed Brooke, causing her guard to go down and allowing Lucas to flip her on her back so she was under him on the bed. He smirked smugly until he felt where her knee was.

Brooke giggled when she felt Lucas tense and applied a little more pressure with her knee.

"Okay…. you proved your point," Lucas eased off her and sighed in relief when she didn't follow through on her implied threat.

"So what are you doing here boyfriend?"

"I was playing basketball with Nate, and I missed you."

Brooke propped herself on her elbow, "So you missed me and you were sweaty? Wait… let's see how far my imagination can take this fantasy."

Lucas watched as Brooke got a dreamy smile on her face, "Wait! Why would you need to fantasize while I'm here?"

Brooke shrugged, "Not that you aren't great, but sometimes a girl likes to… Brooke herself."

Lucas was confused, "Brooke herself?"

Brooke tried to emphasize, "You know… take care of matters on her own?"

When Lucas still looked confused Brooke blew out an annoyed breath and explained in graphic terms.

Trying to wrap his mind around it Lucas wanted clarification, "And…. you like to do that?" Brooke nodded, "By yourself?"

Brooke nodded again and giggled, "You can watch if you want." Luke's expression was wiped of any excitement it might have contained when Brooke smirked and got a devilish look on his face.

"What? Why are you looking at me like that?" Lucas was apprehensive, that look couldn't mean anything good.

Brooke shrugged, "Are you sure you want to know?" Brooke paused for Luke's agreement and then continued, "I thought of what I'm going to get Haley for Christmas."

Lucas asked with not a little trepidation, "What?"

"I saw this really cute leopard print vibrator an-."

"No! No no no," Lucas repeated. "That is all kinds of wrong."

Brooke blinked innocently, "But Lucas… it's pink!"

"She hates pink!" Lucas smiled triumphantly.

"I guess I can't get it for her then," Brooke waited for the smug smile to settle on his face before she continued slyly, "The green one was really cute too."

"What are you watching?" Lucas abruptly asked, trying to push any image of Haley and a… thing out of his mind.

Brooke let out a throaty laugh, "The episode of 'Heroes' from last night. I wanted to watch it with P. Sawyer but she didn't answer her phone and her web cam is covered."

Lucas coughed and decided to mention that he was just at her house, "Peyton likes this show?"

"Oh no… but I know if she gives it a chance she will." Brooke was confident that she's get Peyton hooked and then she's have a buddy to watch it with.

Luke's eyebrows knitted, "Actually I think Haley watches this show too… I've heard her talking about it."

Brooke squealed. "I'm going to call her and P. Sawyer right now! We have to have a sleepover and we can have a 'Heroes' season one marathon for Peyton to catch up."

Lucas reached over and stilled her hand, "Haley is tutoring, at least I think she is and Peyton's not home."

"How do you know she isn't home?"

"Oh… well you said you called her and she didn't pick up right? I figured that meant she wasn't home."

Brooke shrugged, "She could still be home. But since Haley's busy I'll just call them later or talk to them at school about it tomorrow."

Brooke laid down next to Luke and stared at the ceiling, "I wonder where she is."

"Hey Tim."

"What's up my brotha?"

Nathan rolled his eyes, "You do know that you're white, Tim, right?"

"I know that man," Nathan could hear Tim's pout over the phone. "What's wrong with you?"

Nathan shook his head and said shortly, "Dan… look I shouldn't be taking it out on you. Sorry" Nathan hesitated until that picture of him and his father on his dresser caught his eye, "is your brother still dealing?"

"Why?"

"Cuz, I need to tear it up against Cove City next week."

Baffled, Tim asked him, "So how is getting high going to help you?"

Nathan sat on the edge of his bed, and bent over to pick up the weight that was tucked under the edge, "I don't need weed Tim. I need performance enhancers. Look just tell your brother that I'm going to be on the floor for forty minutes and I need to be in a different gear."

Tim hesitated; he knew how much Dan pushed Nathan, but even knowing that he didn't want Nathan to something on an impulse and screw things up, "Are you sure about this Nate?"

"Yeah, I am. Just tell him, he'll know what he needs to get."

Tim agreed, "Fine I'll tell Rick when he gets home from the party he went to."

"Good… and thanks Tim."

"Don't thank me. I don't want any part of this." Tim hung up the phone before Nathan could reply.

Nathan was still staring at the picture of himself and Dan, until he got so sick of looking at it that he threw his phone, causing the frame to break and knocking some of his trophies down. He didn't notice that when he threw the phone the cover slipped off the back and the battery fell out.

"Nathan?" Haley called out as she walked into the house.

Nothing.

Haley bit her lip; he probably ended up going back home. Pulling out her phone she dialed his number, wanting to say goodnight.

Haley pulled the phone back and frowned when it went straight to voicemail. It almost never went straight to voicemail.

Picking up her back she started up the stairs, phone probably died or something.

Disclaimer: I own nothing; not OTH or its characters.

RedRoom323: I'm all caught up on all the stories by you that I've started! Luckily you have a ton so I'll be reading 'The Invisible' soon. (I love that it's completed so I don't have to wait. I am NOT patient :p so it's great). I've never watched the movie so I'm not really sure what's going to happen but I'm sure it'll be awesome. coughupdatecought ;)

Dan is a control freak and sucks a lot, but he is partially a product of his environment. Not saying that is the only reason, but Keith turned out normal, but if you think about it Nathan could have become him. He is being raised by Dan tthe way Royal raised Dan… luckily Nathan got out before it got too far.

Glad you enjoy all the Naley cuteness and the story :)

Thanks for reading and reviewing

luvnaley23: Peyton really is trying to do the right thing, she's a good person. beams Naley are love. Glad you enjoyed the dinner and Dan. Even though he ruined the cuteness.

Thanks! :)

Drama4zashely-Naley: See below review about Dan, lol. You're a Peyton fan right? (I'm assuming you are because you suggested the Paley friendship scenes) If so I'm glad there is a Peyton fan who is sticking with the story. The story isn't really doing her any favors right now so I think some of them will probably be dropping the story before they find out what happens.

Thanks for the review :)

Jess 2303: Dan is bad now… Dan always invokes weird feelings in me. On one hand I think that he is evil and on the other I do think he has moments of real regret or longing. On the show even after he killed Keith there were moments when I felt bad for him until I had to remind myself that he was bad. I totally blame Paul Johansen for that though. (Hint to the Dan situation ;)- )

Glad you enjoyed the dinner. And Peyton is trying to do the right thing, she's just a little messed up right now.

Nathan really should tell the truth, but you have to remember that he doesn't even know about Peyton. He thinks that Mike and Tim are the only ones who know about the bet, and they called it off. Peyton is the wild card in the story. Lucas has feeling for her. Brooke doesn't know that Peyton's in love with her boyfriend. Nathan doesn't know what Peyton thinks happened. Haley and Peyton aren't close, so Peyton really has no loyalty to her, Peyton is not acting like herself, etc.

Thanks for reading and the review. Hope everything goes okay with your surgery

Colviper8: Hey thanks for taking the time to read and review. I actually saw that I have an author alert from you and recognized your name so I am planning on reading it tonight or tomorrow. I'm excited to see what your story is about. I'll be sure to review to let you know. :)

LuvNaley: Thanks for reading and reviewing

Naley: Thanks for taking the time to read and review! I really appreciate it.

xxktnxx: Thanks for the review and I'm glad you liked the chapter.

LiasonFan2: I think you were telling me that if Leyton ends up together that it would suck, but by the way you phrased it I'm not sure. Since you wrote 'make no mistake whether you put Leyton together or not, yes that would suck' So did you mean that even if Leyton end up apart it would suck? And what would suck? The story? Leyton? Because it kinda sounds like you are saying that the story is going to suck no matter what. And if you do mean Leyton, then yes if they end up together then you, as a Brucas fan, would think that it sucks but the Leyton fans who have been reading the story would enjoy it. Really, there is no way to please everyone so I'm going to stick with the ending that I planned out from the start.

Since you didn't specify I'm not sure which parts you find contrived or off balanced, so I can't really comment on that.

I do disagree that I'm trying to write too much and not focusing on the actual story. This is the story. What is happening now has consequences that are revealed later on in the story. I am adding some things that I think are fun, but only if I don't think it takes away from the story.

You have issues with Haley and Peyton; lol but what popped into my head when I read that is at least you don't have issues with all six of them. ;)

Thanks for reading and taking time to review (not sure if you are even going to read this since you didn't read the last two chapters that were up when you left this review) and for being honest about what you thought. Sorry about the long response.

Loving Naley: Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter

Felicity: Thanks :)

naley19: Thanks for the review! :)

moneecue82: Hey! Thanks for reading and the review. The next flash-forward will be soon and I promise some (well at least one) of the questions will be answered soon.

Marty: Thanks! Glad you like it