Thank you to JamesLover23, SnowWhite213, naleyluv, hybridwolf10, xSmile, iftheyonlyknewthetruth, utterlylost1108, tardychick, elosie09, luvnaley23.

This is a really short chapter, and for that I really do apologise. However, I hope at least that you find it reasonably interesting – I definitely do. If it makes you feel better, I have brainstormed with my sister a way to resolve the hole I'd dug for Nathan and Haley, so hopefully will soon be able to write some good new material.

Nathan's movements were graceful. Fluid. Faultless. Almost mechanically, he scored goal after goal as the crowd roared and his team shot ahead on the scoreboard.

Yes, this night, Nathan Scott could do nothing wrong.

The fact that he was operating in some kind of fog, automated and unaware, was not at all evident to the screaming hordes of excited fans cheering his every move.

It was the best game of his career so far.

And he remembered nothing of it. Everything was blurred, and hazy, and all he could see was Haley's face, and all he could feel was the touch of her lips on his, and all he could smell was the sweetness of her breath.

Haley.

Maybe he had a chance.

Haley, still bright red with mortification half an hour later, was also supremely unaware of her surroundings. As she stared at the court, her eye movement involuntarily following the movement of the game (and, coincidentally, that of her husband, who was at the very centre of virtually every play).

Faith, sitting next to her, was oddly silent, even though Haley could feel the excited energy radiating off her. She was still smiling, though – it seemed as if Faith was unable to stop.

Haley could imagine the coverage this was going to get in the media the following day. For all she knew, it had already started. And yet it was so difficult to even think about the ramifications of the events of that evening.

All she could think about was what had actually happened.

And how it had felt.

To be so close to Nathan, after so long apart, and knowing that it was wrong, had been one of the most horrific moments of Haley's life.

Because all she had been able to think about was how much she had trusted him six years ago. And how much he had betrayed that trust.

Or, at least, that is how that kiss had started out. But it hadn't lasted. Because Haley knew that at least some of what had happened had been her fault. Yes, she had been faithful, and truthful, and had had her heart broken as a result – but, after all, Nathan's heart had been broken too. And it had been his father's fault. Dan's fault, and the fault of jealousy and insecurity that Haley couldn't help wondering whether she might have engendered in her husband.

Sure, so she'd been nothing other than faithful and truthful. But she hadn't always told the whole truth. About how it'd felt, up there, in front of a crowd of screaming fans. About how much she'd loved it even though she had left him behind.

She definitely hadn't told him that she knew Chris was in love with her. That had maybe been the problem. She couldn't have told Nathan, because then she'd have felt obligated to come home when he asked, and she didn't want to leave the tour. So she'd denied it to him, even though she'd known it was the truth. Because it hadn't mattered.

Not to her. Not when she'd had Nathan.

And never since.

Chris was her friend, and her colleague, and in her own way, Haley loved him now. But she hadn't then, and she'd known that because of that he would never be a threat to what she and Nathan shared.

But Nathan wouldn't have believed that.

And, in the end, denying the truth and trusting to love had meant that Chris had become a problem by default.

So, she had denied the truth of Chris's love, and her own heart, and Nathan's, had broken because of the fissures caused by that simple denial.

Maybe Haley really had chosen the music over Nathan. She'd never intended to do so, but it was how it had all turned out, after all.

And that kiss . . .

After the first angry second or two, Haley had remembered how it had used to feel.

How safe she'd felt with Nathan.

How loved.

How much she'd always been able to see forever when she was with him.

And now, as she sat there, the bright blush still staining her cheeks, she could still taste him. Still feel his lips on hers, as gentle as they'd always been.

As perfect as they'd always been.

For all that it was the first of her father's games that Faith had ever been to, she had great difficulty on actually focusing on it.

Her father had kissed her mother.

Faith had never seen real grown-ups kiss, except on television (and, as she hadn't been allowed to watch that unsupervised, rarely even then). But she knew what it meant, and that it was good.

Mommy and daddy had talked with Faith about living together, and while they had agreed to do so, they explained that it was only temporary, while Faith was getting settled. Apparently they didn't think there was anything wrong with parents living separately, although they had said that it was better if they were able to live together.

Faith had decided to trust them about that. They definitely seemed more trustworthy than her father ever had, anyway. He always used to avoid answering her questions.

But now, even though she knew that it wasn't wrong that her parents would be living apart again when they knew she was properly settled, she still wanted them to live together.

They seemed sad when they were apart, sometimes.

Of course, they seemed sad when they were together, too. But they also seemed more alive. It was as if there was some kind of energy in the air.

Faith believed that amazing things could happen when her parents were together.

They had found her, after all.

Please review.

Next chapter: Faith and her uncle Luke and great-uncle Keith. What do you think can happen when three generations of Scotts actually work together? Me – I'm scared.

Especially with Brooke added into the line-up.