Chapter 32

The dinner table in Nathan Scott's home was almost eerily quiet. While less than a month ago, Brooke, Chase, Nathan, Ephraim and Ollie had squeezed around the small square table, now only Ephraim and Nathan remained. They dined on a meal of rare steak with some lettuce leaves dumped on the side in somewhat of an afterthought.

"I dropped some of Ollie's stuff round to her earlier," Ephraim told him in an attempt to break the silence.

"Thanks" Nathan mumbled playing with his food.

They continued to eat in silence again until Nathan threw his fork down onto the plate frustratedly, deciding he didn't feel like food.

"Ephraim?" he began questioningly and continued when the boy looked up at him, "Have I changed?"

Ephraim raised his eyebrows at first a little amused but then realising maybe he shouldn't be, he was not too sure if Nathan meant it as a serious question or not. It sounded like the type of question that started the type of conversations Ollie and all her girl friends were having constantly. Not the type a manly man like Nathan would ask. But he seemed serious so Ephraim dropped the amused look.

"Uhm I dunno Nate," Ephraim answered uncertainly not sure what the answer should be, "How do you mean anyway?"

"You know, am I different than before all the stuff with Haley happened?" Nathan pushed.

Ephraim shrugged. Honestly, he hadn't really seen that much of Nathan recently, sure they lived in the same house and generally ate at the same time, but since Nathan had come back from his tournament weekend, maybe even before that things had been pretty distant. He figured maybe that's what Nathan meant about changing.

"You're less, I dunno, here than before I suppose. Distant."

Dejectedly he picked his fork back up and pushed his food around on his plate some more. Nathan pondered what Ephraim had just said. "I'm here all the time though"

"Yeah, but you don't get involved in anything like you did before, well, since Haley came back I guess. Have had more of a temper too," he added before taking a sip of his juice.

Nathan nodded, accepting Ephraim's answer. It was true really. He honestly couldn't remember the last time he had played with his little niece and nephew, shot around with Ollie at the river court, or had a full on Playstation battle against Ephraim. Just being sober and around the house, didn't equate to really being there.

Maybe, because he had been unknowingly shutting everyone out, especially Ollie, now that he wanted to be involved again he was using anger toward Kaleb as the excuse to be. In reality though, he had ended up the least involved in his daughter life than he ever had been.

"Mom said this would happen though." Ephraim told him reflectively once he had swallowed his mouthful.

Nathan frowned, not too sure what Ephraim was talking about, "What would happen?"

"That everything would start to get better but then get worse again before they got good, for good." Ephraim tried to explain from his memory of what his mom had prattled to him over the phone a couple of days ago.

He had really lost Nathan now though, "Shouldn't everything be completely perfect by now then?" he asked drily, thinking that surely they must have already been through the 'worse' section of the stages to which Ephraim was referring to.

"Not really. When Haley came, at first things were as bad as they could probably get and in the rush to get away from how shit everyone felt, you all tried to get everything good again by just sort of letting it drift back to normal with the hope that it would come perfectly right. But it can't because now Haley is here and no matter how much you try, it won't go back to how it was without her here. That's why even though it all seemed to be getting ok again, it really wasn't because aiming for the old normal doesn't work anymore and it was only a matter of time until it all blew up." Ephraim tried to outline the sitution as best he could.

"So how do I get into back into the 'good' stage?" he asked trying to follow along with what Ephraim was saying.

"Uhh," he paused "I have no idea. You might have to ask mom on that one." He smirked slightly shaking his head.

Nathan nodded. Sometimes he wished he had been born with slightly less physical abilities and some of that skill, had instead been part of whatever the hell helped people like Ephraim and Brooke seem to understand this type of stuff so easily.

The door to Haley's was locked. That didn't matter though, because Ollie had a key. She felt a bit strange using it as she let herself in after work. Sort of like, really she should be knocking instead. But she supposed she should get used to it. Once inside she closed the door behind her.

It was pretty late; she had been making up some of the many hours at the café that she had missed of late. Having already eaten at the café, she headed to the spare bedroom that she was using instead of going to the kitchen. She threw her stuff on the bed and sat down. There were some bags in the corner and she figured her dad, or Ephraim had dropped off some of her stuff. Maybe even Haley had picked it up. Silently thanking whoever had brought them, she hunted through the bags until she found some more comfortable clothes than the uniform she wore to work. Slipping them on, she, for the first time noticed the sound of the shower going in the bathroom down the hall. She couldn't be sure though whether it had just started or if it had been going since she got back.

Walking softly out of her room she peered both ways as if she were about to cross a road and then padded across the hallway into the door opposite her own. Haley's room. It wasn't so much snooping as it was pure curiosity. Haley was nice and seemed to care and everything, but Ollie just felt like Haley should be different than she was. More superficial and famous than she seemed, Ollie was still looking for clues as to whether, so far Haley had been being real or whether it was for her image.

So in other words, maybe she was just snooping.

The room looked pretty much like most bedrooms did. A double bed, bed side table, closet, draws and a bookshelf. It wasn't over the top like the celebrities rooms that were often showed on TV as bright perfect and immaculately shiny looking. Instead it looked lived in with a couple of clothes over a chair and some much loved looking books open on the side table. Where she had expected framed golden records or something like that to be, there were photos instead.

Some were pretty old. She recognized a lanky little blonde boy who looked about 6 to be Lucas with a young Haley wedged between him and a little nerdy looking kid with a big mouth at the river court. That was probably the oldest one, there were more though of her Uncle, Haley and their friends at different ages, sometimes featuring Nathan, Brooke and Peyton as they got older. Some were of an older couple and people she didn't recognize. The thought struck her for the first time that she probably had grandparents and other aunts and uncles, cousins too, that might be the people in some of the photos. It wasn't them that caught her attention though; it was 3, set on the bedside table. Two of them she had seen before, recently. They were exact copies of the two from the box where she had found her birth certificate. Lastly, was a picture of Ollie herself, as a kid, grinning widely as Nathan piggy backed her in the park. The memory of it brought a small smile to Ollie's mouth. She remembered the day in the park. It had just been she, her dad, Lucas and Elise who had been about 4 at the time. Even though she had never seen this photo before, she could still see Lucas snapping it in the back of her mind.

It touched her that Haley had all the photos there. In her room for her alone, it obviously wasn't for the world to see. It wasn't for publicity or good image.

It was because Haley was being real after all.