A/N: Hey everyone, thanks for reading. I'm sorry the updates keep getting slower, I try to get chapters up as regularly as i can.
OthNaley23, 8 Million Minutes does stand for roughly the amount of minutes in 15 years and being a bit of a math nerd myself, I thought it fit the story quite
well. Glad you made the connection :)

Chapter 31

Pacing. Back and forth. Over and over. That is what Haley James was doing in the head coach's office at Tree Hill High. It was second period, a free one, the day after the big blow up between Nathan and Ollie. The previous night, surprisingly, had been fairly uneventful after Nathan stormed out of Haley's house, leaving Ollie there. In fact, Ollie had hardly spoken, just ate dinner and went to bed then got up for school the next morning. Almost numbly.

So now, here Haley was, in Nathans office, pacing. Nathan just sat in his desk chair waiting for her to speak. After a couple more rounds of pacing, Haley managed to conjure up words.

"You can't just kick her out Nathan." Haley stated turning to face him with her arms firmly crossed.

"What you think I wanted to?" Nathan asked incredulously.

"Well you did it, so yeah."

"Of course I didn't want to!" he exclaimed shocked Haley would even think that.

"Then why did you? If you had of just given Kaleb the slightest chance, none of this would have been triggered."

"I don't want her seeing that boy."

"Why not?" Haley demanded.

"She's too young and it will only lead to trouble."

"Too young? Nathan come on. She's nearly 16, we were pretty much married with a kid on they way by that age." She pointed out, hoping he would see his hypocrisy.

"Well, sorry I don't want her going through everything we did," he muttered wryly.

"And how is kicking her out of her home going to help? Its not that I don't want her with me but you need to support her, not push her away like your parents did to you."

"Look, it was the heat of the moment. I didn't mean it. It's her home and of course I want her there, she knows that." He sighed.

"I don't think she does know that right now," Haley told him sadly.

"Well she used to."

Haley shrugged, "So what changed?"

"Everything," Nathan muttered ashamed of himself, "While I was too drunk to even notice."

"Oh Nathan" she murmured, gently putting a hand on his shoulder to comfort him. It was clear he was still pretty torn up and guilty about it. The second her hand touched him though, she realised that the contact would probably just cause awkwardness between them, so, she quickly withdrew her hand. "Maybe she just needs time. To deal with it all" she said quickly, hoping Nathan hadn't noticed the moment of awkward contact.

"What if she won't come home?" he asked helplessly not having noticed the moment at all.

"She will, you know that. It may not be straight away, but she will Nathan." Haley told him firmly.

"What if I give Kaleb a chance, you know get to know him?" Nathan asked hopefully.

Haley shrugged, "Honestly, It might help a little, but I think that the whole thing with Kaleb isn't the problem. I think that as you say, she changed somewhere along the line but it wasn't until last night that both of you chose to acknowledge it, and that's why it all blew up."

"Maybe" he sighed, knowing she was right. "Maybe she should stay with you for a bit longer anyway."

"Why?" Haley asked, wondering why Nathan wanted Ollie with her instead of him.

"Maybe all of it, the changing and the fighting, was so she would have an excuse to go to you, and get to know her mom without feeling guilty about hurting me."

Haley nodded, "It's easier to hurt someone when you're angry at them and they're angry at you." She concluded for him, understanding completely where he was coming from.

"Yeah." He nodded sullenly.

"Well she can stay with me as long as she wants."

"And she can come home whenever she wants too." He added.

"Maybe those two things are what we should tell her, Nathan."

"Ok. I will. Just, if she wants to stay with you," he started resignedly, "Please look after her."

She nodded and sent him the most reassuring smile she could conjure, wanting nothing more than to wrap her arms around him and tell him everything would work out. But she couldn't, not yet. So, instead she sent him a small wave and left his office.

Once out the door, she sighed and sank down onto one of the benches in the boy's locker room. There didn't appear to be any boys in there for the period, so she figured it was safe.

A lot had happened over the past two days, over the past few months really and Haley was still just getting her head around it. If Ollie did decide to stay with her, she wasn't fully sure how to handle it. As much as being able to see her daughter everyday filled her with joy, she didn't know how to be a proper mom. Up until now, Haley had just been trying to be Ollie's friend. But, she knew she had to be more than that now.

Many people had told her that the maternal gene just sort of kicked in when around a child, especially your own child. Haley wasn't so sure though. Maybe that rule only applied when your there from birth. She remembered feeling like she would do anything to protect her baby 15 years ago; she figured that was the maternal gene doing its thing. But after all this time she sort of feared that due to not needing it for so long, the gene may have just sort of disappeared.

Without a doubt, she knew that although she hardly knew her, she did love Ollie like she assumed all mothers loved their children. There was more to love than being a good parent though, and Haley just wasn't sure yet whether she possessed it.

Nathan too was having a hard time with his thoughts. Teenage girls. In all honesty, he'd never really understood them. Sure, he was very popular among them when he was in High School, but that in no way meant he had idea about how they thought. As a teenager himself, he'd gotten annoyed countless times when overprotective fathers were afraid he would hurt their daughters. Most of the time, their dads were right as he had usually just wanted to sleep with them. That was the problem, for while he didn't have a clue about teenage girls, he knew all about teenage boys.

Haley was right though, for although he didn't trust Kaleb, he couldn't blame this on him, or Ollie. It wasn't anyone's fault really. So, he knew that he shouldn't be angry, but for some reason he was, angry that he could only protect her so much. That is why, for now, Ollie spending time with Haley was for the best. She needed someone that had been through it all and could understand and be there without feeling angry and a compulsive need to control the situation.

Even though yesterday had been the heat of the moment and it would hurt him to say, he knew he had to give Ollie the choice of living with him or Haley for the next little while. And even though he was the one that had always been there, he knew from now on that he wouldn't always be the one chosen. For now it was probably for the best anyway. To give everyone, mostly himself, a chance to calm down and get accustomed to everything that still seemed so new.

The school day had just finished for Ollie. She was standing at the school gate chatting with some friends about to leave for work. As of yet, she had no idea about the resolve her parents had come to earlier in the day. That was about to change.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw her dad approaching. Making a quick excuse to her friends about being late for work, she took off at a quick pace toward the café.

Just as she rounded the corner to take her away from the school, she heard her dad call from not too far behind,

"Ollie, wait up. Please, I just wanna talk."

She slowed and turned to face him with a blank expression, not saying anything. Secretly, she wanted her old dad back, the one before Haley's return. Even though the drinking had stopped, just as he thought of her, he had changed. The old Dad she knew was always laughing or playing some kind of fun game to entertain people, even when the going got tough. Sure, occasionally he had seemed down and serious, but not constantly like he did now. Also, he'd always been protective, but not to this extent, he had never blamed Ollie herself, like it seemed to her he was doing now.

"I'm sorry about yesterday," he started and seeing her nod continued, "I overreacted. I've talked to Haley, and she said you can stay with her as long as you like. But whenever you're ready to come home you can. Okay?" Ollie nodded again, "I mean it's just with everything going on and all the changes, we thought maybe it's for the best if you have a female round for a while who wont get so wound up at everything. It's your choice though."

Ollie frowned and thought about it for a second. She was sick of everything at home, both of them dealing with their own stuff while trying to deal with the other too. Maybe, she thought, some time with her mother would help them, "I'm sorry too about yesterday but I think I might stay with Haley for a while," she muttered quietly not meeting his eyes.

Nathan nodded and shoved his hands into his pockets. Even though he had expected it and knew it was for the best, hearing her say it still hurt a little.

"I have to get to work," Ollie told him after a short silence.

"Okay", he smiled softly, "I'll see you soon bud." He told her to reassure her that even though she was with Haley, he would be there as much as he could.

"Yeah"

He sent her a small goodbye smile and then turned to walk back up the street in the opposite direction to where she was going.

"Dad," he heard her call after him, so he looked back and saw that she hadn't moved and had a sad look on her face, "I might have changed. But so did you."

Then she walked away and disappeared around the corner leaving him to stare guiltily at the abandoned sidewalk.