Chapter 11

Haley James opened the door and was surprised by who was standing on her doorstep.

"We need to talk", the person said, anger laced within each word.

She nodded and moved aside to allow the person to enter through the door into the house.

"You must be Ephraim", she stated, not needing to ask.

Ephraim nodded, even though he knew it hadn't been aimed as a question. He felt like a traitor coming here, Nathan wanted nothing to do with Haley and as far as he knew Ollie had no idea about her. But he knew that if she was going to stick around, Nathan and Haley had to face each other eventually, or everything would continue to get worse and worse for everyone. He also knew there was no way Nathan would be the one to make the first move.

Once they were in the sitting room, Haley offered him a seat.

"I'll stand", Ephraim said gruffly.

"Ok." She took a seat herself.

"I know who you are Haley, what you did to Ollie and Nathan."

She nervously clasped her hands together, "Oh". Now, Ephraim knew for sure that Haley was indeed Ollie's mother and his assumptions had ben correct.

"I'm not here to tell you what to do or anything, but you made Ollie lose one parent when you left. Don't make her lose Nathan too."

"I.. I'm not. That's not what I want at all" she didn't know what he was accusing her of, she didn't want to take Nathan away from their daughter. "What do you mean, Ephraim?

"Nathan's a drunk Haley. Ever since you came back that's all he's done, drink. He wont listen to anyone. This is your fault and you have to talk to him about it." His voice was steadily rising, tense with emotion. "You can't just walk back into their lives as if you've been gone a week. You have to sort it out. You!"

"Its complicated." She sighed. "Nathan doesn't want to hear what I have to say."

"If you're too much of a coward to even talk to him, why'd you even bother to come back?" He shouted.

She sat shocked, not expecting so much honesty from the young man. Looking into his eyes she could hardly bear to hold his gaze. His eyes burned with such intensity that she knew everything he said was right. She was a coward and she knew exactly what she had to do now.

"I will. I'll talk to him. I'm not trying to make anything worse. I promise." She whispered.

"Good." He looked deeply into her eyes, knowing that she spoke the truth.

Standing, he nodded to her, giving her a silent goodbye, knowing that he had said all that he needed to say. He made his way toward the door and stepped out into the cool dark night.

Sighing and crossing his arms, he looked sadly back at the house. He didn't feel like leaving the house of one broken person, only to enter the house of another equally as broken person so instead of going home, he just walked, letting his feet take him down to the river that ran through Tree Hill.

On the bank, he pulled his shoes off and dangled his feet in the water, letting the soothing rush of water calm him. Drifting down the bank from the wind, the sound of sobbing reached his ears. Hastily pulling his feet out of the water and grabbing his shoes, he ran toward the sound, worried that some one may be in trouble.

As he approached the river court, he saw the figure of a girl with dark hair hunched over in the middle of the concrete slab sobbing. Worriedly he ran over to her.

"Excuse me? Are ok?" He put a hand gently on the girls shoulder hoping he hadn't scared her.

She glanced up, recoiling a little when she felt the hand, "Ephraim?" it came out as sort of a whimper.

Recognising her as soon he saw her eyes, he kneeled down beside her and wiped the tears off her cheeks. "Ollie what happened?" He questioned gently.

"I don't want to be like her Ephraim." She murmured it, her throat hoarse.

He pulled her to him and wrapped his arm around her protectively. "Shh it's ok. Tell me what happened?"

She hiccupped, "I found these pictures and my birth certificate and..", sniffling, she buried her head in his chest.

"You know about Haley?"

"You knew?" The tears pausing as she wrenched away from him, she looked at him with wide eyed astonishment, angry as if she had just been betrayed.

"Not for sure until tonight but I had a feeling. I didn't want you to get hurt though." Sympathy shone in his eyes.

She nodded accepting his answer and smiled a weak, forced, sad smile at him, she was a little angry that he hadn't told her, but right now her anger wasn't focussed at him or her dad, or anyone else who had hid this from her. It was only Haley that she was really mad at.

"Come on, let me take you home", He gently pulled her to her feet and let her lean against him. Then they slowly made their way home.

While Ephraim felt for Nathan and Haley, and thought that they needed to sort things out for their own sakes, if everything went wrong it wouldn't be them left with no chance of surviving. They were adults; they could handle the outcomes of their own screw ups. The real victim would be the girl leaning against his shoulder, the one who was completely innocent in all of this, yet already battling to hold on. And Ephraim knew that this was only the beginning.

For the first time in a while, Nathan was actually relatively sober. Not fully but a lot less drunk than he had been recently. The door to his house was wide open. Normally, this would have troubled him somewhat considering it was quite late and dark outside, but not tonight; he hardly noticed it was out of the ordinary. He walked right in, breathing in the fresh air that now flowed through his house from the ventilation through the door.

Placing the paper bag he was holding onto the kitchen table, he pulled out its contents. Inside the bag were his recent purchases from the liquor store. Satisfied with the bottles lined on the table, he threw the bag onto the floor, no longer wanting its presence.

The only reason he wasn't as drunk as usual was the fact that he had felt earlier in the day, that he had run out of alcohol.

Nathan couldn't see that his actions were hurting his daughter and Ephraim. He only saw that it was making himself feel better. Also, he had lost all sense of time and had no idea how long it had really been since he had started to binge.

"Nate?" he heard a knock on the still open door. Frantically, recognising his brother's voice he stuffed the bottles into the microwave, hoping they were well enough hidden. He smoothed his hair and collected himself as much as possible. Lucas could not know that he had been drinking.

"In the kitchen Luke" he called to his brother in the soberest voice he could manage.

"Hey Nathan", Luke said, pulling Nathan into a man hug once he had entered the kitchen. For the past week, he had given Nathan the space he knew his brother needed, but now he needed to make sure his little brother was Ok. "How're you holding up?

Nathan sat down at the kitchen table so that Lucas would not see him swaying. "I dunno, its so hard Luke. I never thought she'd be back." Even though what he said was true he knew he was still leaving most things out. He just hoped his brother couldn't tell.

"Have you talked to her?"

"No, I can't" Nathan said stiffly.

"What about Ollie? She deserves to know."

Nathan just shook his head struggling to maintain his composure.

"She's a smart kid Nate, it would be better for you to tell her, than for her to figure it out herself."

Silently, Nathan just sat there staring at the ground refusing to accept what Luke was saying.

Lucas stood and squeezed his brother's shoulder. "Just please don't push everyone away again, or drink like you did when she left. Peyt and I are here if you need us, and Brooke, she's coming down too."

Nathan continued to say nothing.

"Well, I guess you just wanna be alone." He paused frowning," Bye Nate" Luke looked at him troubled, not completely sure of what to say or do.

"Bye Luke" Nathan replied looking up, which to Luke was a good sign.

The door closed with a snap and Nathan sighed, standing and walking over to the microwave. Pulling out the full bottle he glared down at it, suddenly passionately hating the liquid inside and the control it had over him, after being reminded of the pain it had caused him before by someone who had witnessed it the first time. He could finally see how wrong what he had been doing was. How wrong it was to drink away his problems. Alcohol had forced him away from his daughter once when she was just a baby and he went into rehab. He wouldn't leave her this time even if she did hate him for the drinking and lying.

Raising the bottle in his trembling hand, he flung it hard against the wall. It hit just above the sink, smashing into millions of pieces. The glass fell to the ground and the sink. He watched panting, in a twisted way, the brokenness of the bottle making him feel less broken himself.

Nathan Scott was not going to let alcohol control him. Not like it had in the weeks after Haley had left him. Not this time.