Thank you so much for all the wonderful reviews! I've really forgotten what it was like to have people say such positive things about your story, and I appreciate them all so much! It's rare that I'll update this twice in one day, but when I start writing a story that I genuinely like, I usually can churn out a few chapters in a day or two!

Just a little sidenote: I've never written any type of One Tree Hill Fan Fiction before, so I'm sorry if certain people are out of character, I'm just trying to get a handle on everyone! Thank you SO much for reading! :)

"Why love if losing hurts so much? We love to know that we are not alone."- C.S. Lewis

Haley was calling the police; she didn't know why, but she couldn't just keep sitting at home and pacing back in forth in front of the window, waiting to see Nathan, Lucas or an ambulance (in order of which one she wanted to see most) pull into the driveway. She had to feel like she was doing something, that in someway she was helping.

"Hello, Tree Hill Police, how may I help you?"

"Hi.. um, I'm Haley James Scott."

"Please state your emergency, Mrs Scott?"

"My.." Haley blushed furiously and she realized how stupid she must sound. "My husband is missing."

The dispatcher cleared her throat. "How long has he been missing for?"

She glanced over at the clock on the microwave. "Almost an hour." She read in the newspaper once that they wouldn't issue Amber Alerts for missing kids for at least twenty four hours after they were missing, before they'd post the alert on their website, start running it on the ticker tape on CNN. She suddenly realized how all the other terrified parents felt; as though they were the only exception to the rule, not realizing that at this very moment in time, when they were certain that they were the only people going through the agonizing pain and the worry, that there were hundreds of other people making the very same phone call, waiting to hear the answer as to how to get back the person they had lost.

"How old is your husband?" Maybe this lady thought Nathan had some kind of mental disability, maybe she thought Haley had some kind of mental disability.

"He.. he's.. you know what! He just walked in the door right now, I'm so sorry to bother you," Haley hung up the phone before the woman could say anymore, curled up into a tiny ball and sobbed openly.

One Tree Hill

Peyton was riding shotgun beside Lucas and what had started out as a fairly light hearted car drive around Tree Hill, staring half heartedly out the window for Nathan's familiar shape, was quickly creating a pit of fear in the center of Peyton's stomach; it was like a spilled glass of juice in the way that it started out a tiny puddle, barely noticeable, and then in the time it took to get a few paper towels, it had spread all over the place, dripping down the table and staining everything it came into contact with.

"Lucas?" she asked him, peering intently out into the dark night.

"Yeah?"

"Do you think he's okay?"

"I. I don't know. I want to think so, Peyt, I want to think that Nathan is fine."

"But?"

"But I don't know."

"I hope he is," she let out a deep breath she had been holding in. "You think hope is enough?"

He smiled at her. "Maybe."

"Hope didn't keep my mom alive.. or Ellie," she shrugged. "Maybe you're just supposed to hold on tight and never let them go."

"It's like that one band.. what are they called? Named after an insect, one of them's a Lord now, or something?" he teased her gently.

"The Beatles, you ass."

"Oh, right.. totally slipped my mind. I think sometimes all you can do is love. Sometimes it's enough and sometimes it's not," he indicated right and turned down a street littered with beautifully groomed houses, immaculate gardens and porch swings. "But as long as you love them.. I think that's all that matters."

And that's when they saw the cars, the flashing lights, the ambulance, the stretchers. The end.

One Tree Hill

"Shit," Lucas said, under his breath. "Oh, shit."

"Maybe.." Peyton squeezed her hands together. "Is that his car? Maybe.."

Lucas jumped out of the car, parking it haphazardly at the side of the road. "Excuse me," a tall, burly officer gestured back to Lucas's car, "sir, I'm going to have to ask you to vacate the premise, we need to get this man to the hospital as soon as possible."

And they caught a glimpse of Nathan; it was a split second glimpse, but it was all the information they needed: the only thing recognizable as a body part on Nathan's entire face was his nose; the rest was a mix of blood and skin and.. dear god, was there wood in there? Peyton grabbed Lucas's arm, and Lucas's head shot up at the officer. "That's my brother," he said."That's.. that's Nathan Scott."

One Tree Hill

Haley launched for the phone the second she heard the possibility of a ring, shoving it as close as she could to her ear, as though whoever was on the other end would gain physical closeness to her if only she held tightly to the phone. "Nathan?" she hoped.

"Hales."

It was Lucas's voice. She shook her head. "No." her voice was less than a whisper.

"Oh, Haley. There was an accident."

"Lucas," she sobbed into the phone. "Please. Don't."

"I'm coming to get you right now, Hales, bring you to the hospital. He's not.. he's not.. he's still alive, but it's.. it's really bad."

One Tree Hill

Brooke wasn't sure exactly what time it was, all she knew was that the phone was ringing and it was late, and so something must be wrong. She felt ridiculous, stumbling out of bed like she was a very boring character from a very boring movie, but being woken up by the shrill ring of a phone wasn't the most soothing of things. She groped around for the phone for a minute, before finding it down by a pair of socks and an old hairbrush.

"Hello?" she tried to clear her throat. "Hi?"

"Brooke.. it's me."

"Peyton, what's wrong?"

On the other end, Brooke could hear Peyton's breath shudder. "Peyton?"

"Brooke, there's been an accident."

Brooke shook her head, because all this was too much. Why did everything happen to them? "No."

"It was.. Nathan was hit, and he.. he wasn't wearing his seatbelt, Brooke and he.. he flew out the windshield and," Peyton was sobbing now, and Brooke wasn't able to continue just standing there.

"Peyton. What happened," Brooke was gentle, but firm.

"He flew out the windshield and he was hit by a truck."

"In the car?" she said hopefully.

"Uh-uh. When he was.. when he went through the windshield."

"Peyton.."

"It's really bad, Brooke."

"I'm on my way. I'm coming right now and I.. I don't know.. everything is going to be fine. It has to be. This isn't happening again."

One Tree Hill

Deb was in her room, watching the news (one of the few channels they allowed in the place, because anything remotely entertaining promoted excessive use of drugs, alcohol or more often than not, both), when she found out that her son was brain dead, and was probably never going to get to play at the state championship, never going to get to go to prom, or to hold his son.

"Breaking news," a young woman with ridiculously shiny hair was standing solemnly outside of the Tree Hill hospital. "Mayor Dan Scott's youngest son Nathan is in critical condition here at Tree Hill hospital after being struck by an oncoming transport truck. Nathan was flung from his windshield after he was hit from behind by a van, after which he was hit by the truck. Back to you, Patricia."

One Tree Hill

Haley didn't know what was happening or why it was happening (especially to her, to him, to them, all over again but a million times worse), all she knew was that it was happening. She was sitting on the hard floor, her head resting on Lucas's shoulder, his coat wrapped around her shoulders. It seemed impossible to her that only a little over an hour ago, she had been kissing Nathan, he had been going to get her ice cream; they were happy and together fine. And now, he was in a coma, and the doctors said he probably wasn't going to wake up, and that even if he did wake up, he was going to have severe brain damage; he most likely wouldn't remember who she was, he probably wouldn't know how to speak or walk or go to the bathroom for himself.

"Why aren't they doing surgery?" she asked to no one in particular. "They're supposed to be doing surgery and.. fixing him."

"They can't."

"Why the hell not, Lucas?"

"Because Hales.. there's nothing they can do for him, not right now." he squeezed Haley's hand.

"There is," she fought the tears, "there's always something they can do. Always. Why now? Why us?"

One Tree Hill

Brooke and Peyton had somehow ended up on the third floor; the maternity ward. They were staring at rows and rows of babies; babies that were sleeping and crying and just lying there, wiggling their toes and trying to figure out what was going on in this big world with whom they had just been introduced. Mothers held their babies close to their chests, fathers stared in awe as their little girls wrapped their tiny, smooth fingers around their big, rough ones.

They stared at one dad in particular, who was sitting on a chair in the hallway, holding his son. He was talking gently to him, kissing the crown of his head, rubbing his back. And both of them were thinking the exact same thing.

"That's never going to be Nathan," Brooke said, and they turned to each other, crying and clutching onto each other.

They stood out as the only unhappy people on the entire floor; amidst a sea of new beginnings and hope, Peyton and Brooke were facing a heartbreaking dead end.