Haley woke up and her throat really hurt. She opened her eyes and looked around. She saw Lucas, Nick, and Quinn all standing around her. They had all obviously been crying. She looked down and saw that she was hooked up to machines and had an IV in her arm. She tried to talk, but her throat hurt too much. She tried again, "Luke."

Lucas turned around, "Haley! Thank God Haley! You're okay!" He started crying again and kissed her forehead. "Haley, don't you ever do that to me again."

She looked at him and started crying too, "I'm sorry."

Nick walked over to her, "I'm sorry Hales. I didn't mean to push you. I love you and I hope you know that."

"I do."

"Then why did you do it?"

Haley just looked away. She didn't want to talk about it. "Quinn? Why are you here?"

"Do you really expect me to stay away when you're in here?"

"Yes."

Quinn's face dropped, "How could you think that Haley? I love you, I could never not be here for you."

"You aren't here for me Quinn. I haven't seen you in years, except for the occasional phone call just to make sure I'm alive. It took this for you to come home. And still, there are six siblings missing."

"Taylor wanted to come back, but I wouldn't let her," Nick said.

"Okay then, five."

"Haley, you know we all love you," Lucas said.

"No, you all don't. I know you love me Luke, but I don't always know about everybody else. How could someone love me who forgets my birthday? How could someone love me if they go a whole year without even talking to me? I don't even have parents who love me. I only have one person in this world that I can count on and he was hurting me. I'm not loved. I'm just a fuck-up like Dad said. You should all just leave."

"We're not leaving Hales," Nick said.

"Why not? In the end everybody leaves. What's the difference between you leaving now and you leaving tomorrow?"

"I'm not leaving tomorrow."

"Yes, you are. You have to. I get it. I'm used to it by now."

"I'm not leaving. I'm calling the school and I'm going to put it off for a semester. You're right, you don't have good parents, which I why you need both me and Lucas. I'm not going."

The doctor walked in as Nick finished his speech. "You gave us all quite a scare there."

"Yeah…" Haley said.

"Well, I'm glad you're awake. We'll give you a few more minutes with your family before we move you."

She looked at Lucas, "Where are they moving me?"

Lucas looked at his siblings unsure of what to say.

"Lucas, where are they moving me?"

"Haley, you need to know that we tried to get you to come home…"

"Where am I going?" she repeated.

"They're taking you to the psych ward."

"What?" She got up and tried to walk away before she remembered that she had tubes in her, "They can't put me in there!"

"Haley, you tried to kill yourself. Any time someone attempts suicide, they have to be admitted to the hospital," Quinn explained.

"You should have just let me die."

"Haley, don't you dare say that. I never want to hear you say that ever again. You have a problem, you need help and we can't give it to you."

"I don't need help. I'm fine."

"Haley, you took all of Dad's pain pills, you are obviously not fine."

"Shut up, Quinn! I don't want to hear it. Especially not from you!"

"Then listen to me," Lucas said taking her hand in his. "You need help. If you hadn't taken the pills, you would have ended up here anyways. You're anorexic and you won't even admit it. You look unhealthy. I can't stand seeing you like this, knowing that I can't help you. You won't listen to anybody. You need this to get better and although I hate it, I know that it'll help. All I want is to have my little bit back," he tried to hold back his tears, but his heart was breaking seeing his sister this helpless.

She looked up into her brother's eyes, "Okay. I'll do it. For you." She gave him a hug before they wheeled her away, "I love you big brother."

It was midnight and Haley couldn't sleep. She was on a cot out in the hall because she was still on suicide watch. She got up and went to the nurse's desk, "Excuse me, do you have a blanket? It's really cold."

"It's supposed to be cold here. If it wasn't, you'd want to stay."

"I guess that's a no."

"That's a get back to bed, sweetie."

She hadn't been there long and she already hated the place. She went back to her cot and laid down in the bright lights of the hall. She couldn't wait until she was actually able to be in a dark room with a blanket.

A nurse walked by and kicked Haley's cot, "Get up. Go pee in this."

"What?" This lady had to be crazy. It was six in the morning.

"Pee in this," she gave Haley a cup and motioned for her to go to the bathroom.

"Why?"

"Because we need to see what drugs you're on."

"I'm not on any drugs."

"So that's how you ended up in here? By not doing drugs?"

Haley took the cup and left. She went into her room and saw her new roommate for the first time. She had been admitted so late last night that she hadn't gotten to meet her, "Hi, I'm Haley."

"Erika."

"Nice to meet you."

"Yeah."

Haley went to the lobby where everyone had to meet and walk to the cafeteria together. The food was disgusting. There were eggs and bacon and sausage, but they were gross. She decided that the food must suck too so you don't want to stay there. They were assigned seats so that no one had to sit alone and feel isolated. Girls and boys weren't allowed to talk to each other during lunch. At her table was her roommate and two other girls.

"So, what'd you do to get in here?" one girl asked. She was big. Very tall and thick. Definitely someone you want on your side.

"Umm. I took a few pills."

"What'd you take?" asked the other girl. This girl was beautiful. Haley had no idea how anything in this girl's life could be bad.

"I took about nine Vicodin and twelve Hydrocodone."

"Wow, you're a champ.," said the first girl. "I'm Meg."

"Haley."

"That's a pretty name. I'm Annie," said the pretty girl.

"So what got you in here?"

"When I was little, my brother raped me. He left, but when he came back, I attacked him. No one believed what he had done to me, so they put me in here and just said I was crazy."

"I'm sorry."

"I'm coping. At least that's what they tell me."

"What about you?" Haley turned to Annie.

"A bit of anorexia mixed with drugs. What can I say? The drugs helped make me skinny," she chuckled.

Haley couldn't understand how these girls were so okay with everything. "What about you?" she asked Erika.

"She doesn't talk about it," Meg said to Haley. Then she looked over at Erika, "Which is why she will be here the longest." She looked back at Haley, "The more you talk, the quicker you get out of here."

A male nurse walked over to their table. "Annie, I haven't seen you eat any of your food."

"I'm working on it. It's hard to eat when the food is this gross."

"Well, get started. You too, Haley. You have to eat at least half of what you have on your plate. We'll be watching you, so don't even think of trying to give it to Meg."

"Are you holding out on us Haley?" Annie asked.

"What do you mean?"

"You're on food watch too. So tell me, anorexic or bulimic?"

"I'm not either."

"Don't bullshit a bullshitter."

"Language Annie," came a nurse's voice.

"They only watch people with eating disorders eat, so which are you? You can't possibly be a binger, you're too damn skinny. You're ana, right?"

"I'm not anorexic, I'm just not hungry."

Annie and Meg looked at each other, "Denial," they both said.

"Whatever," Haley got up to throw away her breakfast but she was stopped.

"Haley," it was the male nurse, "I told you that you had to eat."

"I'm not hungry. I can't eat when I'm not hungry. It'll make me sick. Besides I haven't eaten breakfast since I was five."

"Well when you're here, you eat breakfast. Now come and sit with us until you're finished."

Haley reluctantly walked over to sit with the other nurses. It was finally time for them to go back to the adolescent wing. Thank God, Haley thought. She started to get up, but the man didn't let her, "Nope. You still haven't eaten. Nancy will stay down here with you until you done."

Haley sat back down dejected. Of course, Nancy had to be the bitch that woke her up that morning. She immediately started eating hoping to spend the least amount of time with the woman as possible.

It was time for their first group session, Haley didn't know what to expect. She walked in and saw the chairs in a circle, she immediately ran to sit next to Annie. After everyone trailed in, they started the session.

"Hello everyone, as most of you know, my name is Nancy. Since we have some new people today, we're going to go around the circle and introduce ourselves and say what has brought us here. Who would like to start us out?" The room was silent, "How about you, Shawn?"

"No, thanks."

"That wasn't actually a question. You can start us out now."

"Whatever. Obviously my name is Shawn as Nancy so nicely introduced me," he gave her a fake smile. "I'm here because I'm a cutter." He gave Nancy another fake smile and then a scowl.

"Thank you Shawn. Meg?"

"Hey guys, I'm Meg. As you all know, I have a temper and I am in here because I let that temper get the best of me, but I'm not gonna let that happen anymore." She gave Nancy a smile, that if you didn't know her, you would have thought was genuine.

"Annie?"

"I'm Annie. I'm in here because I have an eating disorder."

"And?"

"That's it, Ms. Nancy. Yes, I've done drugs before, but I'm not an addict, however much you want me to be. If I was an addict, I'd be in rehab and not stuck here with your fat ass."

"Annie, go to your room. Someone will be there in a minute."

"Whatever, whore."

Haley couldn't help but laugh at what was coming out of the little girl's mouth.

"Is something funny, Haley?"

She tried to wipe the smile off her face, but she couldn't. "No ma'am, nothing is funny. Nothing at all," she said still smiling.

"Then why are you smiling?"

"I'm just a happy person."

"A happy person that tried to kill herself?"

Haley's smile disappeared. She got up and walked out of the room.

"Haley, you aren't allowed to leave unless instructed to do so."

"Fuck you," she ignored the woman and went to her room.

Haley waited in her room expecting to be scolded for her outburst. She laid on her bed with her head in her pillow when she heard someone enter the room, "Hello?"

Haley sat up, "Hi."

"Hi, Haley. My name is Tara. Want to tell me what's going on?"

"Nancy is a bitch."

"Yeah, but that's nothing new. Why do you say she is a bitch?"

"Well, first she kicks my bed this morning to wake me up and then accuses me of doing drugs. Then she embarrassed me in front of everyone in group."

"What did she do?"

"I was laughing because Annie flipped out on her. I mean, it was funny, I'm sure you would have had trouble not laughing too, but she got mad at me for it. She asked me if something was funny, I said no, she asked why I was smiling, and I said that it was because I was a happy person. Then she said in front of everyone, 'a happy person who tried to kill herself?' I can't believe she did that."

"That's just who she is. She's a big fan of tough love."

"That would be no love."

"You know, I'm not supposed to say anything bad about my co-workers, but I have to agree. She is a bitch. She's just upset because she hasn't gotten any in months."

"Months? Talk about a dry spell," they both laughed.

"I hope you're not talking from experience."

"Heck no. I'm the youngest of ten though, so I know a bit too much for my own good."

"That must have been cool, growing up with so many siblings. I was an only child."

"Not really. It was a lot of being ignored, unless I did something wrong. That was pretty much the only time they paid attention to me. Or to compare me to all the perfect ones."

"So is that why you did it?"

"What?"

"Did you try to kill yourself so they'd pay attention?"

"No. Even if I had, it didn't make a difference. They didn't even come to the hospital. They probably didn't notice."

"So why did you do it?"

Haley didn't know why she was telling Tara all of this, but she made her feel comfortable. She needed to get it all out and Tara was much easier to talk to than Nancy. "I was just tired of it all. I only have one person in this world that I can count on and he was turning against me. I hate my school. I get picked on every day. I can't go back to that."

"Well, how about we see if we can do something about that."

"What do you mean?"

"We can talk to your parents and see if we can get you into another school."

"That won't help. My parents don't care."

"Why do you think that?"

"I don't think it, I know it. My father told me that I was a fuck-up and that he's ashamed to call me his daughter."

"What about your mom?"

"She doesn't get out of the bed anymore. Ever since my dad and I went into the hospital, she hasn't been the same."

"Why were you both in the hospital?"

"Well, I kind of messed up at school and so my parents went a bit crazy. My dad got really drunk and drove. He had a car accident and went into a coma for a week. I don't really know what happened with me. I just woke up in the hospital. I passed out for some reason when I was on the phone with Lucas and hit my head. I had a concussion and amnesia so I don't remember anything that happened that day. Just a few foggy memories of the morning."

"Who's Lucas?"

"He's my best friend and my brother."

"It must be hard raising yourself."

"My brothers take care of me. Nick's leaving now though. He's going to Harvard and we'll never see him again. Just like everyone else. As soon as they go to college, they forget all about me. No one ever comes home."

"So I take it you didn't want to lose him?"

"Of course not."

"Could that have been part of why you did it?"

"No, I'm used to everyone leaving by now."

"Well, I'll go ahead and tell you that you're doing better than a lot of other kids here. Just by talking to me it shows that you're willing to give us a chance. The more you talk, the sooner you'll be able to leave. You do need to watch out for Nancy though. Nobody likes her, not even the other nurses. It's about time for school, are you ready to face the masses?"

"School? It's summer."

"Yeah, but this isn't the real world."

Haley was glad that school hadn't been too hard. Even though they were all different ages, they all pretty much did the same thing. It was simple math and grammar worksheets that Haley could probably had done when she was 8, but it seemed everyone else was having trouble with them. Maybe she was smarter than she gave herself credit for.

The night group session went well. Mainly because Nancy wasn't leading it. Before bed they were given two hours of free time. They could either stay in their own room or hang out in the group room and eat a snack. During this time each person got to call their parents. The nurses dialed the number just to make sure everyone was calling family and not boyfriends or girlfriends.

"Haley, it's time for your phone call."

"No thanks, I'm good." She had seen that other kids didn't talk to their parents and so if they didn't have to then she wouldn't either.

"I think you should," Tara said from behind her.

"Why?"

"Because Nick called earlier wanting to talk to you, but it wasn't at the right time. I told him what time you'd be able to talk, so he's probably sitting by the phone waiting."

"Okay." Haley went over to the phone.

It only rang once before it was picked up, "Hales?"

"Hey Nick."

"Hey guys! Haley's on the phone! Hey, Luke and Quinn are going to pick up too. We miss you Hales."

"Hey little bit," Luke said. "How are you?"

"Uhh, I guess I'm okay. It really sucks being here. You'd be happy though, they're pretty much force feeding me."

"Hales?"

"Hey Quinn. I'm sorry about the other day. I didn't mean it."

"Yes, you did. But you were right. I haven't been the greatest sister. That's all going to change. I'm gonna move back to Tree Hill so that I can keep an eye on you."

"Really?"

"Really. And we can have sleepovers every time you get pissed at Lucas."

"Hey!" Lucas said acting offended, "She never gets pissed at me!"

"Right, Luke..." Nick laughed. "So, have they told you when you'll be able to come home?"

"No. It's kind of complicated. I'll be really good, but then I just sort of explode."

"Isn't that how you've always been though?"

"Shut up, Luke! Hey, could y'all do me a favor?"

"Anything," they all said.

"Can you try to convince Mom and Dad to let me change schools. I really think that would help. I was talking to a nurse today and she agreed that school seemed to be my biggest issue right now. Not that it's too hard, just the people there. I hate waking up knowing that I have to go there and it just makes me not want to wake up. which is what got me in here."

"Don't worry Hales. I'll talk to Dad about it," Quinn said.

"Good, because he'll do anything you ask. Guys, they're telling me I have to go. I love you and I miss you guys."

"We love you too, Hales. Hopefully we'll get to see you soon," Lucas said.

"Sweet dreams," Nick added.

She hung up the phone and started back to the group room. "Haley," Tara said, "it's time for your medicine."

"What medicine?"

"We have a sleeping pill for you tonight. You didn't sleep last night. You'll like it. I promise. It'll help you go to sleep and you'll feel a lot better in the morning."

"Thanks, I guess." Haley put the pill in her mouth and dipped her head back to swallow it with the water Tara had given her.

"Open up, let me see."

"What?"

"You have to show me that you really swallowed it. We don't want you cheeking it and giving it off to someone else. We don't need any lawsuits, you know."

Haley opened her mouth obligingly to show that she had actually swallowed the pill.

"Oh yeah," Tara leaned in to whisper in Haley's ear. "We got your drug test results back and you were clean other than what you had last night. You definitely made Nancy eat her words." Tara gave her a wink and went back to distributing everyone's medicine.

Haley smiled. She was glad that she had found someone nice there. She wouldn't have been able to handle it if everyone had been like Nancy.

Two weeks later after spending every single day doing the exact same thing, Haley was ready to be released from the hospital. She stood by the nurses' table thanking them all for being so kind during her stay. It had sucked being there, but some of the nurses were able to make it tolerable.

"Hales!" Quinn ran in and gave her sister a hug. "Are you ready to get out of here?" She was strangely out of breath.

"Yeah, but where are the guys?"

"They're coming. We were racing, but they took the elevator and I took the stairs. And I kind of stopped on every floor to push the button and stop them." Haley gave her a crazy look. "What? I was excited to see you and I knew the second they got here they'd steal you away from me."

"Well, I'm glad you beat them," Haley said with smile knowing that they were excited to see her.

Just then busting through the doors came Nick followed closely by Lucas who kept getting elbows to the gut that seemed to be slowing him down. "Hales!" Nick screamed as he reached her first and pulled her into a hug.

Lucas threw Nick off of her and grabbed Haley for his own hug, "Back off, she's mine!"

By this time all of the patients and nurses were staring. Tara smiled, "It looks like everyone's happy to see you."

"Oh my God, Haley. You have no idea how horrible it was with these two without you. I didn't think I was going to make it," Lucas said refusing to let go of her. "Nick, why don't you grab her bags so we can get out of here?"

"Why should I get her bags?"

"Well, you wouldn't want her to carry them herself, would you?" Lucas said hoping Nick wouldn't realize that he himself was capable of carrying them too.

"I guess not," Nick sighed.

Score one for Luke, he thought. He pulled Haley into his side, "Let's get you out of this place, little bit."

"Finally!"

okay, it's not that great of an end to a chapter, but i wanted to get something up. hope you liked it.