Chapter Three

Disclaimer: I solemnly swear I am only playing with these characters. I don't own them or the places mentioned in here.

Nathan threw the basketball towards the hoop and watched as it sailed easily through the net. Basketball was so simple, so easy to him. It just came as naturally as breathing. Why couldn't Haley be like that? Why couldn't he just breathe her back into his life like the scent she left in the air? He remembered that scent. Like ripe peaches. It had been so comforting that it could smooth even the largest blemishes of his heart and soul. She was his home and she always would be. That's why he was still staying in a Hotel. He didn't want to buy a house because he knew she wouldn't be there when he came home. He hadn't lived in a proper home since she left seven years beforehand. Moving from hotel to hotel as his teams changed. Lucas was always there for him and he had just grown used to never settling in one place for too long.

He shot at the hoop once more and let the feeling of looseness take hold of his body for one moment. It was not often that Nathan Scott got to feel free. His heart was as heavy as stone and his soul much the same. He had his feet so firmly forced into the ground nowadays he might as well have sunk completely into the pits of the earth. He longed to feel free again. Free to fly through life carefree once again. Haley had walked into his life when he was only 16 and since then he could never be carefree again. But having her had made it worth worries. To have her was to live. Now she was gone he was living a tenth of a life. He got up, he practiced, he went out with Lucas, and he came home and slept. Then he would repeat the entire process again the next day. Everything was a repetitive idiocy that he couldn't escape without some help.

"Hey man… You all right?" Asked a concerned Jake as he made his way into the gym and dropped his bag on the stands. He had come to get ready for the big game and had expected the place to be empty.

"What?" Asked Nathan as he had been miles away. He hadn't heard Jake come in but was half glad of the company. Him, Jake and Lucas were meant to be the three musketeers.

"I asked if you were all right?" Laughed the other guy as he went to work defending Nathan's shots. Basketball made sense to both of them and it was easier than having to talk about what had made Nate's face look quite so crestfallen.

"Do I look it?" Asked Nathan seriously.

"No… In fact you look like crap."

"Thanks Jake," Nathan half laughed at his friends crassness and simple come out and say it nature.

"No problem."

"How's Peyton?"

"Pregnant."

"Again? Congratulations man."

"Thanks… We're hoping this one's a girl." Jake stole the ball from right under Nathan's nose and sped off down to the other half.

"Hey! You distracted me!" Called Nate good humouredly as he followed his friend in an attempt to take the ball back from him.

"Tactics mate, tactics." Jake was happy to see Nathan smiling for once, it had been a rarity for the past seven years.

"Whatever…"

"Hey you fancy coming out tonight? Me and Lucas want to hit that new bar downtown."

"Doesn't Brooke mind her fiancé going out to the bar scene?"

"Brooke's coming, and Peyton."

"You're taking your pregnant wife to a bar with alcohol?"

"She's only a month gone mate."

"Do I even have a choice about coming?"

"Not really…"

"Then I'll be there, I can get drunk outside the hotel for once, can't do any harm."

Little did he know at that point that it would do harm, it would set off a chain of events that would turn a lot of people's lives on their heads again.

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Haley James had just gotten herself unpacked in the Hotel and was sitting on her bed. Jesse had gone out to some tedious meeting that he had somehow managed to organise with the President at short notice when he found out he was being forced to come to America and meet the parents. It amazed Hales how he had managed to make the plans within the week it had taken to come over the ocean.

There was knock at the door and Hales jumped to her feet. Maybe Jesse was back early and forgotten his key or something. Pulling at the door handle however she got a bit of a shock, instead of encountering her fiancé she saw to her amazement someone even taller and broader. Lucas Scott. "Oh… Hello." She said plainly as she stepped back to allow him inside the room. He hadn't changed much in the past seven years. Same blonde hair and blue eyes. Same tall, broad frame. But there were a few things different. His hair was slightly longer and there were a few more lines marking his face from what she could only explain away as stress.

Luke walked in at her invitation and looked around. If this was the sort of Hotel room she was staying in it was clear that she had done well for herself. Found her Prince Charming literally. "Where's the fiancé then?" Asked Lucas, getting straight to the point, as he really didn't want to beat around the bush.

"Nice to see you Haley. How you been? Oh I've been good. How have you been Lucas?" Joked Haley as she played out the conversation they should have gone through before he started off at her.

"Don't joke around Haley."

"Why shouldn't I? I've got every reason to be laughing," she smirked as she gestured around her. Over seven years a little of Haley's shy, humble nature had been stolen by the darkness of the world that everyone had to live in.

"You've changed," stated Luke in surprise at her sudden confidence. This was not the Haley that had left seven years. She was stronger, harder, colder. Her heart must have been a tad bit stonier as well.

"It's been seven years Lucas," she pointed out as she sat down on her bed. Luke took the moment to survey her for appearance changes as well as personality ones. Unfortunately he could find very little that had changed with time. Same curves, same doe eyes, same earth-shattering smile. All the things that Nathan had fallen in love with were there and accounted for. This realisation annoyed Lucas, as he knew that this would only make the task of getting over her harder.

"Yes I know… But we have spoken on the phone."

"Once a month so I could ask how Nathan was getting on. Not the best opportunity to map my personality," she pointed out teasingly and Luke saw a glimmer of the Haley he had been so close to for so long. The teasing, quick wit and fast tongue.

"Yeah, I suppose you're right. Now where's the fiancé?"

"Out. He's meeting with the President for some tiresome reason."

"He's meeting the President?"

"Yeah… He called and set it up on Thursday."

"When will he be back?"

"Tomorrow."

"So you're free tonight?"

"I suppose."

"You want to come out with me, Brooke, Peyton and Jake?"

"Why do I feel that there's a catch to this offer."

"Nathan will be there as well."

"You have to be kidding me Luke… I just got here and already you want me to see him?"

"Yeah pretty much."

"Luke I can't see him tonight, I'm not ready."

"I've already told the others that you'll be there."

"Then you'll have to un-tell them."

"I can't Haley. Please come. I know that the owner really wants someone to provide the music tonight."

"So you want me to meet my ex-husband and sing at the same time?" Her voice was getting higher and higher with disbelief as stared at him in amazement. He was asking all this of her on her first night? Surely he wasn't serious.

"Well yeah basically."

"I gave up singing a long time Luke."

"Why?" She had left Nathan for her music? Why would she give up on it if she had already forfeited the love of her life for it.

"There was no point in singing when I had no one to share it with."

"Come on Haley, come and sing tonight."

"I'll see,"

X------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------X

That night a terrified Haley James stood backstage of Honey Club. She had already handed the backing CD to the organiser and they were more than pleased to have such a great celebrity entertainer on their opening night. The owner hadn't had time to book everyone so most of the night would be done by a DJ but they had promised live talent of some sort. If Haley hadn't turned up they would have been stuck with some very bad teenage band that wailed instead of sung. Hales put a hand on her stomach and tried to settle it. The knowledge that Nathan was out there was enough to make her puke and then run away.

"Miss James we're ready for you," announced the organiser and Haley took a deep breath. Stepping out onto the stage and in a moment changing her destiny forever…

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"Now that live talent that we promised you…" Nathan was at the bar when he heard the organiser of the night talking into the mike but he wasn't paying attention to what the guy was saying, he was more interested in getting some booze down his throat. But then next two words that fell from the man on stage's lips brought him to attention with a bump. "…Haley James!"

Nathan looked to his friends with a highly pissed off expression. "What the hell?! Did you know? Did you?" He demanded and the faces before him looked down in guilt. They had all known of Lucas' request to Haley and they had all known that deep down she would cave. They all looked up at the stage and there she was. After seven long years, as if they were back in Tree Hill, in Tric. "Hey guys!" Haley's voice rang over the PA system as she settled herself down on a stool. "Thanks for putting up with my awful singing but at least it'll give you a laugh." She joked into the mike. The audience laughed appreciating the young woman's humour about her talent. Haley launched into her set but her friends were too busy trying to calm an outraged Nathan to listen properly for the first round of songs. The club was buzzing along to her mixture of pop and alternative music that she had released over the years when she had sung.

"What is she doing here?" Asked Nathan of them all and it was Brooke who piped up first.

"She's here so her fiancé can meet her parents," she lied. Hoping that the lie would help ease the tension. Brooke didn't want anyone to admit that they had made a joint decision to invite her to help him move on.

"But why is she here? Seems a bit too much to be a coincidence," pointed out Nate as he knew full well that Brooke was lying. He found his eyes kept straying back to the stage and every time he felt a tug within his very heart. A tug to jump up on stage, grab Haley and run off into the night with her. He was having a very hard time fighting the urge and knew it would only get worse the longer he stayed. She was like a drug and he was more than addicted. Her beautiful voice just managed to filter through his anger and he was once more enraptured by it. He breathed in the sight of her as for a moment he took the chance to drink her in.

"Because I invited her down," admitted Lucas as he looked at his little brother slowly fall more in love. There was nothing to stop Nathan's heart aching for Haley and Luke began to realise that his old friend had been right to begin with. She had left him for seven years and still knew Nate better than Lucas ever could. The thought annoyed Luke and he watched as the information filtered through Nathan's thick skin and hit his brain.

"Wh..a… what? But no one's talked to her in seven years?" Again he was greeted with four guilty faces. All of them had been in touch with Haley over the years, not wanting to lose their friendships with the girl. "Oh… I see how it was…" Said Nathan as his voice grew more pissed off and he turned to go.

"Where are you going?" Asked Jake as he found his voice.

"To get very very drunk."

"Don't Nate…"

"Why shouldn't I?!" He demanded as he saw red all around him. He needed a drink, he needed to null the ache in his head and replace it with a different sort. "I find out that four of my supposed best friends have been talking to the one person that I needed more than anyone else. You knew! You all knew where she was and how to get in touch with her! But you said nothing! You bloody said nothing!" With his words hanging in the air between the four he stormed off just as Haley stepped down from the stage after her bows.

The DJ started playing and Hales approached the bar, it was only after she had ordered her drink that she noticed him. She felt her breath hitch annoyingly and her heart skip a few vital beats. Haley swore to herself that he still had this affect on her. She was meant to be over this. She was meant to be in love and engaged to the next part of her life. How could she head off into the future when her heart and body wanted to cling to the past? The past she had with him. She looked away when she noticed his head move to look at her.

Nathan noticed the young woman and his heart sped up to dangerous proportions. The same blonde hair, the glittering brown orbs, the tantalising curves. She hadn't changed at all. She was still his Haley. He backtracked at the personal pronoun she wasn't his anymore. But how he wished she were. Why had he been so stupid as to let her go? He could have gone after her and cling on for dear life. Convinced her that she was his world and his home. His heart and his angel. The one sent specially to be with him, to make his life worth living. He wanted her to look up, to meet his eyes and see what she had done to him. The broken shell he had become with no goodness to fill it. Haley radiated light to him no matter what, her very smile could fill him to the hilt with the warmth of it and make even the darkest day full of sunshine. She was his own very personal sun and he knew he wanted that sensation back. Haley made Nathan complete in every way.

No longer able to resist he closed the space between them. His nose instantly latching onto the smell that he had wished to clasp at for so many years. Ripe peaches. She hadn't even changed her smell over the years. "Hales." He finally managed to let fall from his lips but it came out strangled and full of the conflict his heart was yelling at him. One option was to seize her in his arms and never let go again, to just carry her around like a backpack. The other option was to yell at her for how much she had put him through. The second was more sensible but the first appealed to every fibre of his body. In the end he picked neither and just waited for her response.

Hales. No one had called her Hales in seven years and it sounded good to her starved ears. She looked up and encountered a pair of bright blue eyes that seemed to freeze her very heart. He would always be the one for her and she knew that. But that stage of her life was over, it had to be for everyone's sanity. "Nathan." She replied in a shaking tone that clearly showed all that was happening within her body. The urge to jump up and wrap her arms around his neck, to breath in his scent again was so overpowering she wanted to give in and just let him make all the conflict go away. She had always felt at peace and happy in Nathan's arms.

Lucas watched the reunion from across the room and swore under his breath. She would do it again. He knew that now. Nate was powerless against her. However much she had hurt him Luke knew that if she offered to have him back he would jump literally at the chance. It soothed Lucas to know that this wasn't going to happen, she was engaged to someone else after all.

Someone who had just walked through the door of the club to see his fiancé after her performance. Jesse had heard that Haley was going to sing in public again and wanted to show that he completely supported the idea. This had led to him leaving the President's company early and flying back on the jet to be there for her. If he missed her performance it wouldn't matter, as long as he showed his face.

Little did know what his face was about to be put through…

A/N: Reviews are my loves! Like it/Hate it?