Chapter 15

Brooke swung open the door, seeing Ollie getting out of the car that had just pulled into the driveway.

"Hey, Ollie, finally, where have you been? Karen rang and said you didn't show up ... Wait, what happened to your lip?" She said pausing as she noticed the cut.

She then saw the driver of the car getting out as well.

"Oh my god Haley! You hit her?" She accused glaring shocked at Haley.

"No Brooke! Of course I didn't hit her." Haley looked at her like she was crazy.

"Oh right", she realised she was being a little ridiculous and that even though Haley wasn't up for mother of the year award or anything, it was pretty unlikely for her to hit someone. "What happened then?"

"A cheerleader punched me because she thought I was hitting on her boyfriend." Ollie said bluntly knowing Brooke wouldn't tell Nathan.

"Yeah that makes sense" Brooke shrugged remembering her days as a cheerleader. "You're alright though?"

Ollie nodded and rolled her eyes. People seemed to ask her that a lot lately

"Good. Oh, Karen wants you to call her."

"Ok why?

"You missed work"

"Crap" Ollie muttered as she ran inside to call Karen. She had completely forgotten about work. Brooke followed her inside, leaving the front door wide open.

Haley watched silently as they both disappeared inside, she hadn't said anything during the exchange between Ollie and her godmother. She found it quite funny that Ollie worked for Karen, just like she herself had at that age.

The door was open so she wasn't sure whether to follow Brooke in or to just leave. She knew it was Nathans house, and neither he nor Ollie wanted her there. But Ollie had let her drop her home. Not knowing exactly what to do she stayed exactly where she was.

Inside, Brooke heard Ollie on the phone; Ollie was saying something along the lines of getting hit in the face with a volleyball in gym. Brooke chuckled remembering similar stories she herself had told her various bosses when she was in high school and had missed work.

She plopped down in a seat in the lounge and then out of the corner of her eye she noticed that Haley's car was still in the driveway. Puzzled, she stood and went back out to the front door, she saw Haley standing in the exact same place as she had been a few minutes ago when they had all still been outside.

"Haley what're you doing?" Brooke called from the doorway.

Haley looked up at her with an intense look of sad realisation in her eyes, "I don't know Brooke, I have no idea." And that was the truth; she did have no idea what she was doing right now, or what she had been doing for the past 15 years and she had only just realised it. She was completely lost in her own life.

Brooke sighed, hearing the defeated tone of her voice. "Come in then."

Wide eyed Haley looked up at Brooke, shocked at being invited inside. Brooke had been so hostile before and now she was inviting her into Nathans house. Nodding, Haley quickly walked inside before Brooke changed her mind and threw her out back into the strangers life that actually was her own.

Practice had just finished and the boys had all left to go home. Where he had been coaching, Nathan knew nothing of the fight between his daughter and the cheerleader, because he had been inside the gym for the duration of the fight.

Everyone in his team had been curious as to where he had been lately and why the deputy coach Wilson had taken them for a lot of the last few weeks practices and games without him. He had simply told them he had been too sick with the flu to make it. While he could tell they hadn't believed him, they were all too scared of the thought of doing extra suicides to push the subject further.

Sitting in his office where he was now, he watched the game play from last week's game. Wilson did a good job on strategies and the team had managed a victory in every game except one while he had been gone. The Ravens game had been up at practice since he had come back to work too.

Nathan glanced up when he saw the door to his office open and Wilson entered, dropping into the second chair at the desk.

"Hey Nate."

Nathan paused the game video and turned to him. Wilson was about 24 and very dedicated to coaching. He was going to be a great head coach someday, Nathan could tell.

"Hi Wilson, what's up?" He asked stretching back in his chair comfortably

"Just figured I better tell you bout the itinerary change for the Herons Beach tournament weekend. Final games changed to Monday at 4:00 instead of 1:00 so we will arrive back about a couple of hours later than planned. I told the team last week while you were away."

"Ok, that's fine, 4 o'clocks good." Nathan nodded as did Wilson who stood ready to leave. "Wait, Wilson? Herons Beach isn't this weekend is it?" He asked already knowing the worst.

"Yup we leave Friday remember." Wilson nodded perkily poking his head back into the office not noticing Nathans hopeful tone that he would say no.

"Right, Thanks Wilson."

The door closed behind his co coach.

"Shit", Nathan muttered sinking his head into his hands and groaning.

He had completely forgotten about the tournament until now and he was not looking forward to it. Under normal circumstances a weekend away would have been completely fine even though it was a long weekend and schools had Monday off. But with everything that had happened with his drinking period and with Haley, he really didn't want to leave Ollie. Sure she had Brooke and Chase at the house so she wouldn't need to go and stay with Lucas and Peyton or a friend like she usually did when he went away, but he still wasn't completely sure how well she was taking everything. Since finding out about Haley, she hadn't sang or played music once, things that used to be regular things for her, he also knew her grades were dropping and she hardly seen her friends much in the past two weeks. She even continued to dye her hair dark brown like Brookes.

It had been about a month since Haley's return and Nathan still had yet to talk to her. He knew that Peyton and Lucas had let her back in to their lives and their kids lives, but he couldn't do that. Brooke however shared his opinion of Haley. And Ollie, she was just plain confused and angry about everything that was going on.

So, even though he knew it was going to be hard to leave Ollie, even though she was still so messed up inside from everything going on, he knew he had to, he had a responsibility to his them. It was his job.

Sighing, knowing that there was nothing, he prepared to head home.

Brooke led her into the kitchen, praying that Nathan wouldn't get home anytime soon and see Haley there.

"You want a drink or anything?" Brooke asked, figuring she should try and be polite.

"No thanks" Haley took a seat at the breakfast bar.

There was an awkward silence which Haley decided she had to be the one to break it.

"I came back here 12 years ago." She blurted out.

Brooke's eyes widened and she stared at Haley, "What?" she practically yelled.

"Ollie was three and I was allowed to come home. I didn't know where they lived so I just drove around, looking, hoping they stayed in Tree Hill. When I was driving past the river court, I... I saw them. They looked so happy. Brooke, I couldn't ruin that, I didn't want to take away their happiness by coming back." Haley felt her cheeks become wet as she finally told the memory that anyone but Brooke had yet to hear.

Brooke couldn't make sense of what she'd had just heard. Shaking her head and running her hand through her hair she noticed Haley crying. She was speechless and couldn't believe how stupid Haley was to think her returning twelve years ago would be more damaging to Nathan and Ollie than returning now was. But in a way she also understood that Haley believed time would make things better. So she just shook her head. There was one thing that caught in her mind though, one small detail that made absolutely no sense to her at all. Her head stilling, she looked up at Haley, her eyebrows knotted, trying to think what Haley could mean. So Brooke just asked.

"What do you mean by 'allowed to come home' Haley?"