Sorry for another long wait on the updates, I've had my little cousin (well she's 14) staying with me for the last week and I've been trying to take her out and show her a good time. We're actually going to head out and watch 'Mamma Mia' in a couple hours, which is going to be fabulous.

If I'm reading any of your stories and I haven't reviewed the latest chapter, it's coming. I'm going to catch up before the movie.

Thanks to everyone who is reading/reviewing/messaging. You're support and interest is great. :)

Chapter Twenty-Three

December 6, 2007

Jake was walking away when he felt a hand tightly gripping his shoulder whipping him around.

Nathan started whaling on him, Jake fought back but it was like a dark force was possessing Nathan.

Small hands grabbed his arm, before he could hit Jake again.

Nathan lowered his arm, breathing heavily as he watched Haley. She was staring at him, looking horrified at what he had done.

"Haley…." Nathan trailed off, not liking the look in her eyes. Haley's head turned and he followed her gaze to Jake, who propped up against the wall trying to stop the bleeding from his nose.

Nathan reached for her, but she dodged his hands. His arms dropped limply to his sides, and he silently stared at her.

Haley pulled a tissue out of her purse and walked over to Jake and handed it to him.

Jakes took it gratefully, shaking his head in disgust all he wanted to do was leave but he wasn't sure if he should leave Haley alone with Nathan when he was acting like this.

Noticing Jake's wary gaze and correctly interpreting it, Nathan's anger quickly grew. Who did this guy think he was? Like he would ever hurt Haley.

Fuming, he watched Haley shake her head at something Jake said. Haley walked back to Nathan, and Jake started walking away but did throw a couple worried glances over his shoulder.

His anger simmering, Nathan waited until Haley was standing directly in front of him.

Beating him to the punch Haley spoke quietly. "Are you going to tell me what happened?"

Nathan ran a hand over his head, "I don't know, I didn't mean to hit him. I was just talking to him Hales, letting him know that he didn't fool me."

"Fool you?" Still Haley spoke in the same quiet voice.

"He's after you Haley… that's why he's always coming up with excuses to be around you. Why you always need to 'help' him."

"That's what this is about?" Haley yelled. "You couldn't be more wrong! I can't believe that you hit him for no good reason. And even if it had been true, I thought you trusted me!"

"I do trust you, and it's him I don't trust!" Nathan yelled back, his anger boiling over. Why couldn't she understand that he was just looking out for her… for them?

"And you had no reason, no reason at all to not trust him," Haley got quiet again, then softly continued. "You shouldn't have done this Nathan…"

"Haley, look-."

"No you look, you did something really stupid and I can't be around you right now." Haley turned and walked away, muttering, "I can't believe he did this… of all the stupid asinine moves that he could pull…"

Nathan watched her walking around, his anger at the situation visually palpable. All he wanted was to make sure that Haley stayed with him and now he was the bad guy. He figured he should give her some time to get over her upset, so walked in the opposite direction of Haley instead of following her like he really wanted.

"I just wanted to make sure you got home okay," Haley told Jake. When she had arrived home she had called him.

"I'm fine, I'm just worried that the fight is going to come back and bite me in the ass with the whole custody thing. If the judge finds out what happened, he might decided that I'm not responsible enough to take care of Jenny," Jake sighed and on his end pinched the bridge of his nose, wincing at the sharp pain that resulted.

"Jake, I'm sure no one will know. Only the three of us were there and we aren't going to say anything. Nathan wouldn't either; it might get him in trouble too."

"Um, are you guys okay?"

Haley shifted on the couch awkwardly, they hadn't done anything wrong but it didn't feel right to her to discuss this with him. Even though she was pissed at Nathan it felt wrong now that she knew how he felt about Jake. "Everything is going to work out Jake, um... I'm going to go I just wanted to make sure that everything was okay with you."

"I'll be fine, bye Haley."

"Good, okay… bye."

Haley hung up, and settled back on the couch. She was worn out from everything that happened that day.

Haley had been sitting alone for about fifteen minutes when she heard the front door open. Tensing because she thought it might be Nathan; Haley sat still on the couch waiting for whoever entered her house to find her.

"Hales… you okay buddy?"

Her body released its tension as soon as she heard his voice. Haley opened her eyes, "I'm okay Lucas. What are you doing here? I thought you had plans with Brooke?"

"I did until I got a phone call saying that you probably needed me."

"Nathan called you?"

Lucas shook his head, eyeing her with concern, "Jake called me." Sitting down next to her on the couch he put and arm over her shoulders, holding her close to him. "What happened?"

Haley explained to Lucas about the fight and what Nathan had told her after.

Lucas shook his head, "Brooke was right."

"About what?" Haley was confused about what Brooke had to do with this.

"During the party last week she mentioned that Nathan was jealous of Jake," Lucas explained. "Haley… I know that Nathan shouldn't have gotten into it with Jake, but you have been spending a lot of time with Jake. Are you completely sure that he doesn't have some sort of feelings for you?"

Haley nodded emphatically, "I'm sure, Jake just needed a friend and I've tried to be there for him and help him with some stuff."

"What does he need help with?"

"I can't tell you Lucas, it's not my secret to tell. And that is the problem; I haven't been able to talk about this with Nathan. If I had told him what was going on before he probably would have understood and none of this would have happened."

"Don't do that Haley, it's not your fault that Nathan overreacted and hit Jake."

"But you do think that he was owed some sort of explanation before right?"

Lucas stayed silent, giving Haley her answer.

Haley stood up and started pacing. "I don't even know why I'm so concerned. I should be mad… but I can't help being worried about him."

"You care about him; I'm not surprised that you are worried. Add to that the fact that you are a naturally caring person…"

Haley leaned against the mantle and got lost in her thoughts. They stayed together in a comfortable silence until Haley broke it by softly asking him, "Do you ever think about what it was like before you joined the team?"

"Of course I do."

"Do you miss it?"

"I miss parts of it, but I don't regret where we are now." Haley smiled at his use of we, but the serious look didn't leave her eyes. "Haley what's going on? Why are you thinking about this?"

"If you really think about it Lucas, we've only been in this world for two months. A flicker of time, a moment in the millions of moments that will make up our life, but so much has changed. We've changed… I would like to think for the better…"

Lucas got up and stooped down to meet Haley's eyes, lightly gripping her forearms. "Haley you're still the same person, you just like some different things now and care about more people."

"I see myself differently! Today, after the fight, I just wanted to tell him that it didn't matter because I was afraid that if I pushed it, if I let him see how upset it made me, it would break us up! I was never like that before, I would say whatever I wanted, do whatever I wanted. Now I have this person… this person that I want and think about so much… it's like I'm losing a piece of myself to be with him and I don't care. I'll lose that piece if it means that I can have him."

Lucas was shocked that Haley felt this way, both about herself and about Nathan. He knew she really liked him, but he didn't realize that she had actually fallen in love with him. Lucas cursed himself for being so preoccupied about his own life that he didn't notice what Haley feeling.

"Haley…. I'm sorry. I didn't notice-."

Haley rolled her eyes, "Don't be lame Luke, this is hardly you fault. You have your own life." Haley put her arms around Lucas and they held each other for awhile.

Lucas pulled back, "I understand why you are worried, but you're in love Hales. When you love someone else you give a piece of yourself away. You're no longer concerned for only yourself; you have someone else's goals, desires, and happiness to think about. That's the way it should be."

Haley smiled a little, thinking Lucas must be going through the same thing. "You're really falling for Brooke aren't you?"

If Haley hadn't been thinking about her own problems she would have noticed the guilt that flashed through Luke's eyes. Briefly Lucas said, "Brooke's great."

"She really is… you guys seem really happy."

"You and Nathan seem really happy too. Talk to him okay?"

"Tomorrow…"

December 7, 2007

Haley bit her lip and speeded up, trying to catch Nathan before he entered the gym. For some reason she hadn't been able to find him before now. If she didn't know better she would think that he was avoiding her. Ignoring the knot forming in her stomach at that thought she called out, "Nathan… wait!"

Nathan turned around, no emotion flickering on his usually expressive face. "What is it Haley?"

Taken aback by the dull tone in his voice, Haley hesitated. She managed to get her point across, "I just wanted to talk."

"Well I wanted to talk yesterday, and you walked away. Now I have a game and you want to talk? Forget it. We'll talk later… not now"

"Nathan!"

"I said not now Haley."

"What are you acting like this?"

"Because I can, alright? People are mean and life's a bitch. Now I have a game to win and 43 points to make. On the other side of the wall there are people just waiting to eat me alive, and if I'm not perfect that is what is going to happen."

Nathan turned and walked away as Haley watched in shock.

Nathan went straight to his locker and after opening it he just stood there. He couldn't believe that he just talked to Haley that way. It was like he heard what he was saying and he hated it but he couldn't stop.

He pulled out the bag of pills that Tim gave him. There were two left, and he only had to take one for the game.

Nathan's fist closed around the two pills and he thought back to the night before. He had been working out in their home gym, fighting the urge to go see Haley when Dan walked in. Almost immediately he had started harassing Nathan about living up to the Scott name. Of course Dan had been quick to point out that Nathan would never been as good as him.

Scowling Nathan relaxed his fist and swallowed both pills, pushing Haley to the corner of his mind. He would fix things with her as soon as he showed Dan who was the better player.

Biting her lip, Haley watched as Nathan slammed the ball into the net. There were only a couple minutes left in the fourth quarter and Nathan had just hit 41 points. There was no doubt that he was playing well, but she thought that there was something wrong with him. There was something in the way he was moving, the way he was acting…

Nathan stole the ball and dribbled to the hoop; he made another basket but was called for the charge.

"What's he doing?" Haley breathed out, not bothering to cheer. Unhappy with the call Nathan had started yelling at the referee. Tim had to pull him back and Whitey called a time out.

"I don't know what's in your head Scott, but you do that again and I don't care how many points you have I'll move you so far down the bench you'll be lucky to play in the next three games!"

Nathan rolled his eyes, but kept quiet as he drank some Gatorade.

Whitey blew his whistle and Tim yelled out, "Come on fellas, let's go! Defense on Three."

"One! Two! Three! Defense!"

The team ran back to the court and Lucas asked Nathan "You okay man?"

"Just give me the ball and I'll be okay two points from now."

Nathan breathed heavily and waited for the game to resume. He was almost there, he could hear the crowd chanting his name and he stole a look at Haley. She looked a little blurry but when he blinked she didn't clear up.

Shaking his head Nathan brought his attention back to the game. Lucas inbounded the ball to him. Nathan quickly made a basket, and brought his total for the night to 43 points. Instead of the jubilation he expected to feel when he beat Dan's record he was empty, like he still had something to prove.

The game was basically over, there was only thirty seconds left in the quarter and The Ravens were up by 24 points.

Still… Nathan felt that he still need to keep on scoring, wondering which number he had to hit to get that feeling he was waiting for.

Tim passed the ball to Nathan and he tried to find the basket but his vision started to close up and he was unable to focus on any fixed point. Holding on tightly to the ball he tried to think, but everything went black.

Gasps were heard through the gym when Nathan fell to the floor.

Peyton tried to hold her back, but Haley ran out to the court where everyone was gathering around Nathan.

Haley moved to get closer but was stopped by Lucas, "Hales… you got to give them room to work on him."

So Haley stood back, watching as a stretcher came in and following it out to the parking lot. When she tried to get in the back, she was nudged back and shot an incredulous look by Dan.

Without a word to anyone she ran back into the gym and got her bag.

SHIT

She didn't have her keys or her car.

Haley rolled her eyes and started running to her house. It was quicker than calling a cab or waiting for the game to end and finding someone to drive her.

Haley reached her house faster than usual, breathless. Wasting no times she quickly found her keys and left for the hospital. Before she reached her destination she remembered that Deb working alone at the café. As much as she wanted to see Nathan… needed to see him. His mother probably needed him more.

Making a U-Turn Haley headed towards the café.

Nathan woke to bright lights and the sound of beeps. Trying to remember what happened he slowly opened his eyes and saw that he was in a hospital.

"Take it easy son. You're going to be okay Nate. Can you hear me?"

Clearing his throat, he roughly coughed out a "Yeah." He heart pounded and he realized that Dan actually seemed to be concerned over him.

Dan continued talking, "You collapsed during the game. I'm sorry Nate; I shouldn't have been pushing you so hard. We'll cut back on that."

Before Nathan could answer that surprising comment a doctor walked up to them. "Glad you see you're wake Nathan. How are you feeling?"

Nathan shrugged.

"Well you were severely dehydrated, so we had to put you in ice packs to lower your temperature. It was very, very high."

Nathan nodded, showing he understood.

"Now I have to ask you some questions about what kind of supplements you were taking."

Dan looked at Nathan with realization dawning on his face.

"Uh… Benzedrine? Mephedrine?" Nathan shook his head, " Anabolic steroids? Anadrol? Dianabol?" Nathan looked at his hands and shook his head no. The truth was that he didn't know what he was taking, but he couldn't admit that he actually took pills. He was too ashamed to admit what he did and maybe if he kept quiet they would just let it go. "What about Ecstasy? Cocaine? Uh... Speed?"

Before he could answer Dan spoke up "Doc he's just an athlete, not a junkie okay? Back off."

"Can I talk to you in the hallway Mr. Scott?"

Dan reassuringly told Nathan before he followed the doctor out of the room. "Don't worry son I'll take care of this.

Nathan listened to them speaking in the hall.

"While the early results are showing that you son is going to be fine physically, they also tell me that he's taking some kind of amphetamine."

Nathan winced when he heard Dan's cold voice say, "Then they are mistaken."

"Mr. Scott you'd be surprised at how many of these cases we get. These kids are under a lot of pressure to perform and while I would hope that this is an isolated case, it could also be indicative of a more serious problem."

Nathan closed his eyes when he heard Dan's voice grow even frostier, "I appreciate the concern, I really do. But I know my son and if he says he's clean then he is. So before you go and label him an addict, taking away his future, you better make sure those results are 100 percent accurate, you are looking at a lawsuit. Are we clear?"

Nathan didn't hear anything else, but assumed that the doctor gave in. Everyone eventually does. Opening his eyes he looked around the sterile room and felt even more alone, I've got to get out of here.

Haley rushed into the café, startling Deb. "I'm so sorry, I would have been here sooner but I only remembered just now that you were working tonight. I was on my way to the hospital and had to turn around. I'm sure you want to go but can you tell me how he is before you leave?"

Deb slipped the pill bottle into her apron pocket, making sure Haley didn't see it. Casually she rose an eyebrow, "How who is?"

"Nathan, didn't Dan call you?"

Deb shook her head, "What happened?"

"He collapsed during the game, look I don't know anything else. You should get to the hospital."

Haley rummaged beneath the counter for her purse, handing it to Deb. "Thank you Haley."

"Call me when you…." Haley trailed off. Deb was already gone.

Haley looked around the empty café and decided to close early.

"Where's my son?" Deb barked out at Dan, who was standing by the elevators sticking some quarters into the payphone.

"He's find Deb, I was just calling you."

"A little late Dan! How long have you been here?"

"I'm sorry I was a little focused on making sure that my son was okay. Don't overreact."

"My son almost dies and he tells me I'm overreacting," Deb huffed out. "Forget it, where is he?"

Dan led the way to a closed off bed, but when he pulled back the curtain the bed was empty.

"I'm surprised that you aren't with Nathan or Haley."

Lucas shook his head, "I wanted to be there, but I think that his parents and Haley are enough. I don't want to crowd him or be around my jackass of a father. Keith called me, told me that he talked to Dan and that Nathan is okay. That's enough. For now." She pulled him closer, and they lay intertwined with one another on the bed. "I just want to hold you for a while, okay?"

"Okay."

Haley had managed to close the café in record time, and like yesterday was pacing. But this time she was in her room, speaking into her cell phone.

"Hey it's me again. I know I've been calling you a lot, but I'm really worried about you. Just call…." Haley voice trailed off when she saw the tall figure standing in her darkened doorway."

"Jerk never bothered to call you?" He joked weakly.

Haley unfroze and darted forward to help him move onto the bed.

"No one answered the door…"

"How are you?" Haley rubbed a comfortably up and down his back.

With his voice cracking Nathan answered, "Not so good… I know I messed up and I know it."

"Nathan…"

"Hales I know I have a lot to explain and I will. Now if you want or in the morning but can I just stay with you tonight?"

Haley got up and walked to the door, shutting it. Giving him his answer without words.

AN.2: I know there was a serious lack of Naley talk, but it's coming in the next chapter. Then in chapter 25 it's another flash forward chapter.

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

xxktnxx: Thanks for taking time to read and review! :)

RedRoom323: I have a thing for jealous Nathan so while he might pop his head up again, it'll be nothing like this whole Jake thing. I'm glad you could see why Nathan was worried. And yeah, the pill thing worked out pretty much the same. Haley's reaction wasn't what you expected right? LOL

Thanks for the kind words about my wrist, it's feeling much better now.

Thanks Em! :)

unomega: Thanks! I'm so happy you are into the story. You want spoilers, lol. Hmmm, not sure what to reveal sorry. :(

luvnaley23: 'Wow! Nathan is off his freaking rocker.' I snorted LOL. I wouldn't be too worried about Naley; I firmly believe that they can work through anything. Glad you enjoyed the Naley fluff and jealous Nathan. Thanks! :)

Drama4zashley-Naley: Haley pointed out the same thing, LOL. I don't really think Nathan doesn't trust Haley. It's just that he can't believe that someone wouldn't want her since he does so much. Sorry for the long wait. Thanks for reading and reviewing :)

preenad: Thanks for taking time to read and review! :)

LuvNaley: Thanks for taking time to read and review! :)

Marta: Thanks for taking time to read and review! :)

NaleyIsLove23: Naley is awesome! I'm so glad you enjoyed jealous Nathan. Haley was a pussycat, lol. Really she should have been more upset. Typing with a sore wrist sucks, lol. It feels much better right now. Thanks! :)

Colviper8: Glad you enjoyed the chapter! Thanks! :)

b.freeman: yeah the drugs and the jealously mixed together turned out to be bad. And exactly Nathan would do anything for Haley :) Glad you enjoyed the chapter.

Heee, I recognize your name. It's on my list of fics to start, and I'm starting your story next as soon as I catch up with my updates. So I'm excited to see what you've come up with, the summary was really interesting.

iluvnaley: Thanks! I'm glad that you think it's good.

Naley: Pills are gone, just like on the show it was a one game thing. Thanks for taking the time to read and review :)

naley19: Honestly I think Nathan is jealous of Jake because Jakes spends so much time with Haley and he doesn't think that it's possible not to like her. A lot of projecting. Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter.

Carrie: Thanks for taking time to read and review! :)

Jess2303: I'm sure that you'll be glad to know that Nathan's jealous is pretty much done with. Except for the odd moment here and there :) Thanks for taking the time to read and review Jess :)