"Haley? Haley? Where the hell are you Haley?" Lucas screamed as he ran through the many rooms of their house. He walked into Haley's room, but there was no sign of her. He walked into his parents' room and saw on the floor a broken picture frame. He picked up the picture and looked at it. It was of Haley and their father fishing on their big bass boat with huge smiles on their faces. Haley looked about eight at that time. He couldn't remember a time when she looked that happy around their father. In the picture Haley was holding a big fish in her hands obviously proud of her catch. He then noticed in his father's hands a beer. He thought for a moment to think and realized how much their father drank. Tonight's accident seemed to be an eye opener. They had always thought that it was normal, but maybe it wasn't.
Lucas snapped out of his thoughts when he heard the sound of the dead phone. He followed the sound into the master bathroom where he found the phone… right next to his little sister's unconscious body. She looked limp and lifeless. And shir! There was blood coming from her head. He looked around to find what caused it when he saw the marble countertop with drops on blood on it.
He shook her body trying to wake her when he heard mumblings coming from her. "Hales, it's okay. It's me, I'm here. What happened?" She still didn't say anything. "Okay. Shit Hales, we've got to get you to the hospital. Shit man, we need to stop your head from bleeding."
As Taylor walked into the house she heard Lucas shouting expletives. She followed his voice to the bathroom, "What is all the racket? And since when have you become a potty mouth?"
"Oh God Taylor, get over here. Help me! Get a towel and hold it to her head."
"Lucas, what is going on?" Taylor walked around him and finally saw her sister lying on the ground. "Oh my God, Haley! Luke, what happened?"
"I don't know! I was talking to her on the phone and she was fine, then she just quit talking. I came home and found her like this. I think she hit her head on the counter. We need to get her to the hospital."
"Should I call 911?"
"No, we'll take her, pull the car up to the front and I'll carry her out of here. Go!"
Taylor pulled the car around as Lucas had asked her to. She saw him coming out with Haley in his arms. He put her in the back seat and laid her head in his lap, continuing to apply pressure to her wound. Taylor peeled out of the driveway. She was driving like a mad man.
"I never thought you'd actually care if something happened to her."
"Shut up Luke. She's family. No matter how much we fight, I'll always love her. I couldn't stand to lose her." Taylor started tearing up just thinking about it, but she couldn't cry she kept telling herself. If she started crying there was no way she could drive. "Why wasn't anyone home with her?"
"Everyone's at the hospital, but Nick was being an ass and made her stay home."
"Why are they at the hospital?"
"Don't you know? Dad was driving drunk and had a car accident." He was starting to explain everything to her when he felt Haley moving. "Taylor, she's moving, that's good, right?"
Haley heard Lucas's voice and tried to open her eyes. They weren't opening no matter how hard she tried. Her head was throbbing. She felt really tired. She tried to talk, "Lucas? Is that you?"
He could barely hear her whispers, but he knew he heard his name. He definitely heard his name. "Haley, I'm right here, don't worry. We're almost to the hospital. It's gonna be okay."
"My head… Luke. It. hurts. Bad." She lifted her seemingly heavy hand to her head in an effort to relieve her headache when she felt the towel on her head with Lucas's hand on top. "What? Why?" She was barely forming words. Her mouth was extremely dry. She kept opening and closing her mouth trying to moisten it. It wasn't working. She was finally able to open her eyes and saw Lucas staring down at her with worried eyes.
"Don't worry little sister. It's okay, it's all gonna be okay." He looked up to Taylor, "She opened her eyes, Tay! Her eyes are open, she's talking. She's gonna be okay."
He looked up and saw that they were pulling into the hospital. What would usually be a 30 minute drive had taken only taken 15 minutes. Damn Taylor had been hauling ass. She pulled up to the front of the emergency room and Lucas got out picked up Haley and ran inside.
When he got inside he was thankful that the previously full emergency room now seemed to be near empty. "Help! Help! I need help! My sister!" He continued screaming until finally a nurse approached him.
"Okay, I need you to calm down. Can you tell me what happened?"
"I don't know," Lucas frantically answered. Damn it, he just wanted the woman to take Haley in the back and fix her. "I came home and found her on the floor. She was unconscious, but on the way over here she woke up. My family is all back there. Our dad was just in a car accident. Jimmy James."
James. Yeah, she knew who that was. The way over the limit drunk driver. But she tried to remind herself that she couldn't hold that against them. If anything she should feel bad for them. "Okay, wait right here. I'll go get her a gurney."
Thirty minutes later Lucas was waiting with the rest of their family to hear any news about Haley. Lydia was distraught. Dealing with her husband's condition was hard enough, but now her daughter too? Taylor was crying. None of them had remembered a time when Taylor cried for any reason other than getting out of trouble or breaking up with a boy. Nick's face was stone cold. He hadn't cared about his sister when Lucas left. He had tried to make him stay. If Lucas had listened to him, his little sister would still be lying on the floor at home, alone. He had blamed her for his father's accident. What if he couldn't take it back?
About five nurses later they finally heard, "Haley James's family?"
Lucas was the first to jump up, "That's us!"
The nurse pulled Lydia aside to talk to her, "We ran a few tests on your daughter and everything seemed to come back fine. She did however have a grade III concussion. It seems that she also has a bit of retrograde amnesia." Lydia's face went white when she heard this, but the nurse continued, "It is only minor. We're not sure how much she remembers, but she doesn't know what happened tonight and she is repeating the same questions, so don't be afraid when she does this. It is normal for this type of injury. She will most likely experience headaches, but that is more of a result from hitting her head than anything else. We haven't found any reason for her passing out yet due to the amnesia she can't exactly tell us what happened. She'll be okay to go home shortly, but you'll need to set an alarm to go off every hour to wake her to make sure she remains responsive, that is just the normal precaution taken after a concussion. But you don't need to worry, your daughter is going to be just fine. You can go in and see her now."
Lydia could finally breathe. She had momentarily forgotten that her husband was still unconscious, all she knew was that her daughter was going to be okay. "Thank God!" She went out to find her kids and tell them the good news.
Lucas and Taylor scrambled to the door in an all out run to see their little sister. "Little bit!" Lucas screamed when he saw her.
"Hey big brother."
Taylor walked over to her sister and gave her a hug. "I love you little sis. I'm so glad you're okay!"
Haley looked at her confused, "Why wouldn't I be okay? Where are we?"
Taylor and Lucas looked at each other. Their mother told them that she might not remember things, but they thought she'd at least know where she was. Lucas finally spoke, "Hales, you fell and hit your head. We're at the hospital right now. We were all really worried about you."
"Oh." Haley said trying to look at them from behind her heavy eyelids. "Where's Nick?"
Taylor and Lucas met eyes once again, unsure of what to say. This time it was Taylor who broke the silence, "Ummm… I think he's in the hall, do you want me to go get him?"
"Please."
Taylor went out into the hall but Nick was nowhere to be found. She couldn't find her mother either. Her father's room was empty. She decided to call Nick, but he didn't answer. She called her mother and was told that their father was moved to the ICU, but Nick wasn't with her. She went outside into the bay and found him sitting there smoking a cigarette. "Since when do you smoke, oh holy one?"
"Since now. Tay, in the span of hours I found out that my 12 year old sister is an alki, my father could possibly die, and then my little sister is hospitalized. I told Luke not to go check on her. I was so mad at her, I just didn't care. Then she ended up here. I said it was her fault Dad was in here. I meant it too." Nick just looked broken.
"Nick…" Taylor paused wondering if she should tell him the truth. "It's my fault. None of this is her fault. I gave her the alcohol."
"What the hell Taylor? Why would you do that? She's just a little kid!"
"Look, Nick, I didn't know what to do. She was crying all the time. One night I couldn't sleep because she was crying so damn loud. I went to her room to check on her and for some reason she opened up to me. She only has one friend at that school. Remember when she started? She was the most popular kid at her old school and all of those girls went to Girls Prep with her, but none of them would talk to her. She lost all of her friends. Everyone but Peyton. Everyone else thought they were too good for her and she started to believe it. I stayed with her that night and she just cried herself to sleep, but she seemed to feel better after she got it all out. Then that Friday I found her crying, so I let her come out with me and my friends. She told me it made her feel cool and she felt special feeling popular again. Everyone was drinking so in her mind we were popular because we were drinking. She asked for some alcohol, so I gave her a little bottle of vodka. I poured most of it out and filled it with water, but I left a little bit so that she would think it really was alcohol. She came home from school the next day and she was smiling for the first time in I don't know how long. I thought I had helped."
"Well, we have to tell the school that it was just water!"
"Nick, if we tell the school, we have to tell Mom and Dad. Dad won't hit Haley, but he has no problem going after me. And I'll be kicked out of school. If I'm kicked out of school, I can't get away. I'm supposed to be going to Texas next year. I can't stay in Tree Hill, you know that. You can't tell. I just wanted to help her," Taylor was once again crying. Haley was safe, she was the baby, no matter what she did wrong, she somehow seemed to stay protected. Probably because Lucas and Nick would always stand up for her when their father got mad.
Nick looked at his twin, finally seeing who she really was. "Who knew you were more than a heartless bitch," he said jokingly.
"Yeah, apparently no one. Anyways, you better put that out before Haley kicks your ass. She wanted me to come find you."
"Really? After everything she still wants to see me?"
Taylor looked at him, "I guess mom didn't tell you. Nick, she has amnesia. We don't actually know what she remembers, but she asked for you. So let's go see her."
Taylor stood outside the door to Haley's room and held her twin brother's hand trying to urge him into the room. They stood outside for a minute listening to her talk to Lucas.
"Hey Luke, where's Nick? Why isn't he here?" Haley still sounded very groggy.
"He's coming Hales. Taylor went to get him, remember?"
"Taylor's here? Why is Taylor here?"
"She was worried about you. She wanted to make sure you were okay."
"Why was she worried? Of course I'm okay. Where are we?"
"We're at the hospital, Hales."
"Why are we at the hospital?"
Lucas was starting to get annoyed. He had just told her why. Why did she keep asking the same questions over and over? "I just told you why Hales."
"No you didn't… Luke, I'm tired. I'm going to go to sleep. Will you wake me up when Nick gets here?" She closed her eyes again and immediately fell asleep.
"Taylor, I can't go in there. I can't see her like this," Nick said.
"Nick, she looks just fine. She has a little bit of gauze on her head, but it's just like a big band-aid. She just looks tired. You heard her, she wants to see you."
"I think she needs to sleep."
"I think she needs her brother," Taylor wouldn't take no for an answer this time and dragged him into the room.
Nick walked over to his sister's sleeping body and pushed her hair out of her face. She looked so peaceful. He whispered her name, "Hales, little bit, it's me."
Haley's eyes fluttered open and a huge smile came to her face, "Nick. Where were you?"
"I was just getting some fresh air."
"You don't smell like fresh air. You smell like smoke. Give me your hand," Haley took his hand and raised it to her nose. Definitely smoke. "You know you're going to get cancer and die now. Just like Papa and Mimi and Nana and Poppee…"
Even in her semi-conscious state she could still ride his ass. He should have known. "I'm sorry Hales, I was just worried about you and Dad."
"Why? I'm fine. Why were you worried about Dad?" Haley noticed her siblings giving each other scared looks. Then she remembered something. Her father was in the hospital, but why? She remembered Nick saying it was her fault. She started to cry, "I did something to Dad, didn't I? What did I do? Is he dead?" She was starting to panic as tears were flowing from her eyes.
"No Haley, you didn't do anything. Dad's fine, just like you."
"No. You said it was my fault."
Of course the one thing she would remember was him being an ass. Nick looked at his sister with apologetic eyes. He didn't say anything.
Haley quit crying. "I'm tired. Where are we?"
The three siblings looked at each other. What was going on? Taylor went to find a nurse. The nurse came in to check on Haley, but told them that it was normal to act that way after a head trauma. She then told them that they could take her whenever because they needed the bed. They called Lydia down to talk before they left.
"Mom, I can just take her home so that you can stay with Dad if you want," Lucas offered.
"No, I think we should all go home. There's nothing we can do here. How is she?"
Hearing her mother's voice Haley woke up, "Momma? I'm so tired. Do I have to go to school tomorrow?"
"Don't worry honey, you won't be going back to school for a while."
"Why not? Is it summer?"
"No honey. Don't worry about it. We're gonna go home now, okay?"
"Okay Momma. I'm sorry."
"What are you sorry about, sweetie?"
"I don't know, but you look really sad and it's usually my fault. I'm sorry I always make you so sad." Haley started crying again and her mother took her into a hug.
"It's okay baby. Let's just get you home."
By no means was Haley's punishment called off, but it was a little bit more lenient. Several times that night she would remember her father and start crying, but just as soon after she would forget again. It wasn't until the next morning when she was making sense and did she form new memories. She had to be told again about the meeting with her principal and her father being in the hospital. She was confused as to how she could ever forget any of that happening. Maybe it was just her brain telling her to slow down. The maid ended up working that week, Haley's headaches were really bad and she didn't leave the bed because she just got dizzy and too tired.
Periodically throughout the first few days Lucas and Nick would check on her. Sometimes Taylor would even kick the boys out to be with her sister. Haley couldn't help but feel loved. Even her other six siblings across the globe called to make sure she was okay. The only person that she hadn't seen much of was her mother. Her mother was spending all of her time at the hospital. Haley wondered if her mother blamed her for the accident as much as she blamed herself.
"Hales, why are you crying?"
Haley looked up. She hadn't even realized she was crying. She'd experienced so many emotions this week her world just seemed to be crumbling around her. "I'm not crying, Tay. I'm just tired so my eyes are a bit watery."
"I will not accept lies from you Haley James. Tell your big sister what's going on."
"I don't know, Tay. I'm just worn out. It's been a long week… Do you think it's my fault? Do you blame me for Dad being in the hospital?"
"Of course not! None of this is your fault! I should never have given you the alcohol. I'm sorry that I got you into so much trouble. Thank you for not saying anything to them. You need to know that this is not your fault. You can't think that way. If anything it's mine." Taylor broke down in tears with her sister as they held each other tight.
"It isn't either of your faults'," Nick blurted out from the doorway. "It's his own damn fault for being an asshole. He has a problem. He never should have driven drunk. Neither of you made him do that. He did it. It is his fault. I don't want to hear either of you blame yourself ever again. He's supposed to be the adult in this situation." Nick joined them on the bed sitting beside his twin.
"Even if you don't think it's my fault, do you think Mom does?" Haley asked, still worried.
"No. She knows it's not your fault. You didn't force drinks down his throat and put him behind the wheel. No one did but himself."
Lucas was walking by the door when he saw all of his siblings in Haley's room. "So you're having a party and you didn't invite me?" he acted completely offended.
Haley waved him over and he climbed into the king sized bed beside her. "Can we have a slumber party tonight?"
The boys looked at each other. They knew they were way too old to all be sleeping in the same bed but whatever Haley wants, Haley gets. "Of course. But I think we need a few things first, we'll be back." The jumped off the bed and went to work.
Fifteen minutes later the boys came back. Lucas was carrying an overwhelming amount of popcorn and candy. He was closely followed by Nick who was carrying his TV with DVD player. They all settled onto the bed. When they hit play Happy Gilmore came on the screen. Haley became giddy. "Aww, you guys are the best! I love you!"
"We love you too," they all said in unison.