Hey everyone! I have just decided to NOW begin responding to the lovely reviews I've been getting, so here you go!

IloveQuinnAndClay: Thank you so much for all the encouraging reviews! It's really nice to get someone that actually asks you to update! :D Merry Christmas!

Tp404: thanks very much! Well I did update, but only about a million years after I started.

Lucy: I hope you're still enjoying the story!

Lpfan4ever: Ahh, sorry to disappoint you. :( I would have loved to have Nathan come out of the 'coma' ish thing, but I didn't really see it happening and then it would just be a very happy, cheerful story and I'm not much for those.

Pxscott06: Well no need to go crazy! I'm going to make a point to try and update this story on a regular basis, and I hope you like the chapter!

Leona: Yeah, that's the nice thing about the show, they're all such a great group of friends that you know they'd all totally be there for her. I just hope I'm not getting repetitive, writing the same sad scenes over and over.

Tammy: Thanks so much! Yeah, I've actually already written the chapter where Haley gives birth, even though it will be a little while before that happens in the story! Aha it was just sitting in my head and I absolutely had to get it written down. Sorry to make you sad BUT IT IS ALMOST CHRISTMAS!! :D

And on that note! I hope you guys all have a great safe, happy holiday season!

"I let the day go by, I always say goodbye, I watch the stars from my window sill, the whole world is moving and I'm standing still."- The Weepies; World Spins Madly On

All sorts of words were being thrown at Haley; she felt like it was third grade gym all over again and she was standing on third base, knees bent, hand rhythmically pounding into her dad's oversized glove, because it made her feel tougher. Her job, they always told her, was to catch the ball and then touch the person that was running towards her. It sounded pretty simple, when put like that: "Haley. Just catch the ball. A monkey could do it." But it was never as easy as they made it sound, and she always ended up standing there, frozen, while all around her people were running and screaming and motioning for her to do something; everything moved too quickly for her, so she just gave up.

And now it was like that, but a million times worse, because this wasn't just a game of third grade base ball, where mistakes and screw ups were forgotten by last recess; this was her life, her husband, her baby. This was all so real, but she understood none of it, so she retreated, backed off. She knew it wasn't like her, wasn't like the Haley James Scott everyone else knew, but it was the only thing she could do. She couldn't stand there and listen to them talk about Nathan like he was just another vegetable man, because he wasn't, damn it, he was her husband and she loved him more than was possible, and now he was going to be taken away from her.

"Haley," Lucas said, rubbing her arm, "Hales, the doctor said you should go say bye."

"No," she whispered, arms crossed. "I.. no. Lucas I can't do this."

Lucas had no words for this, so instead he kissed the top of Haley's head, held her close for a moment, and then watched as she walked into the hospital room to say goodbye to her husband.

One Tree Hill

Dan didn't know the protocol for this. What were you supposed to say to a son that had no idea you were there? The idea was too big and overwhelming for even the mighty Dan Scott to wrap his head around; his son was there, in that bed, beside that crying girl, and there were machines beeping, and his chest moved up and down, and yet all these people were telling him that Nathan Scott was as good as dead.

Dan was a very bullshit kind of guy. He said a lot of things, used a lot of big words, but the majority of the time the things he said carried no weight and meant nothing. And now he needed to say something important and powerful, something that wasn't a load of bullshit, and there was nothing he could come up with. He sat on the hospital bed, and he traced Nathan's veins gently with the tip of his fingernail, and he said nothing.

"I love you," was what he came up with, and he kissed Nathan's forehead, and felt that was all that needed to be said, even though he knew he could spend the entire day spewing out apologies that would be of no use to anyone anymore.

He he felt as though those were the three words that Nathan had been trying to get out of his dad his entire life; the words he wanted to hear after a basketball game, whether he played well or poorly (although, Dan reminded himself, Nathan never, ever played poorly), the words he wanted to hear when he was sick or upset, words that should have come naturally for him but that never did.

And then Dan Scott, the god damn mayor, was sobbing like a child into his son's shoulder, creating an ever expanding circle of tears on the paper gown Nathan wore. He clung to him, and he tried to make up for all the times he'd kept his arms and heart closed off from Catha (from everyone), and he said sorry without ever saying a word at all.

One Tree Hill

"This is kind of a bonus, almost," Peyton was whispering, although she didn't know why. It wasn't like there was anyone around to hear her or tell her to be quiet. "I mean usually, you don't get the chance to say bye like this.. so organized and it's.. you know."

She was talking in circles and making no sense, but she didn't care. All that mattered today was that Nathan Scott was going to be known forever more as that 'poor kid that was taken off life support and left his pregnant wife.. he was supposed to be a really good basketball player, you know?' They'd whisper about him at the grocery store and silent auctions and school dances, hands fanning their mouths so their words couldn't reach other people, people that actually knew and loved Nathan, knew the person he was, not just the sob story he had become.

"Well," her lips trembled, memories and arguments and love danced on them, unspoken, too afraid to make themselves heard. Her eyes closed, and tears leaked out from underneath, dropping steadily off her cheeks and landing gently on her wrist. "You're a really great man," she told him, "and you would have been a great dad. We're all going to make sure they're okay."

She couldn't say anymore or else she was going to grow hysterical so she stared long and hard at Nathan, committing every single part of him to memory, promising that she'd never, ever forget him. She ran her hands over his face, those lips that she used to kiss, those pretty eyes and the fair cheek bones, and then it occurred to her that she didn't want to remember Nathan like this, a lifeless corpse that couldn't do anything for himself. She wanted to remember the way he'd been before, alive and happy and selfless and.. wonderful. So she pressed her lips to his temple and made herself believe that the Nathan lying on the hospital bed wasn't the Nathan they could remember, that this was all just a ceremonial thing and that nothing would be any different when that machine was unplugged.

One Tree Hill

Brooke was standing in the corner of the hospital room, as far away from Nathan as she could get, as though a coma was a disease, fast spreading and easy to catch so long as you were around long enough to care. Lucas was sitting in a chair that he'd pulled up beside the hospital bed.

"Brooke? You wanna say anything?" he offered. Lucas didn't seem to need words to say goodbye to Nathan. For Lucas, it seemed to just be a type of closure; he'd been sitting there for maybe ten minutes and had said barely anything at all.

"I.. I don't know," she said quietly, her voice cracking. "I guess not."

"Okay," Lucas stood up suddenly and nodded. He pounded his fist gently into Nathan's lifeless one. "Bye, little brother." His hands shook slightly as he offered one to Brooke. She took it, carefully.

"I feel like I should have this big poignant speech planned out. But I don't.. I don't just want to leave here and have said nothing to him, Lucas."

"You don't have to say anything poignant, Brooke. You don't.. you don't even need to say anything at all."

She nodded, and then stepped away from him carefully, moving over to Nathan. She lowered her voice, whispering into his ear. "You don't deserve this, and I'm sorry. We love you, Nathan, and nobody's ever going to forget you. We'll make sure of it."

One Tree Hill

Haley figured that if she just laid there like that, the way they used to, her head on his chest, hair tickling the tip of his chin, fingers intertwining, that eventually he'd realize she was there, his wife, with their son, and that he'd wake up and she wouldn't have to do this. But nothing was happening, the doctor kept standing there, outside the door, waiting for her to be ready; how were you ever supposed to be ready for this?

She kneeled by the bed, head pressed into his side, squeezing his hands, tightly. "Nathan, baby," she was rocking on her heels, shaking his arms, "come on. Just.. just open your eyes, and everything's gonna be fine. You can come home and we'll pretend like none of this ever happened. Come on.. Nathan."

Those were the words she meant to say, but what came out was incoherent sobbing and childish gurgling, as she tugged at his hands, and urged him to defy all odds once again, prove everyone wrong and to just be okay. "I can't make it without you," she told him, meaning it more than anything she'd ever said in her life. "I just can't."

Doctor Gould opened the door. "Haley," he said, "can.. I think we should do it now."

"Why? Because you have surgeries you have to do and people you have to help? What about my husband, damn it, what about Nathan?"

"Haley," his eyes were full of pain, "I am so sorry about your husband. You know that. But there are people out there that I can actually help, people that have a chance. There's nothing left for us to do with Nathan. Okay?" he gently placed his hand on the curve of her spine, and she jumped at his touch, and then she was screaming because none of this could be happening and if she screamed loud enough she'd wake herself up from this nightmare, wake Nathan up.

And then the machine that was keeping Nathan alive stopped beeping, the line went flat and he was dead. Officially. Just like that they had taken him away and he was never coming back. This was it.

She didn't know how long she was there, lying with him, trying to pretend like none of it had happened, before Lucas came. It could have been five minutes or five months. It didn't matter, because Nathan wasn't there. That was what mattered.

He didn't say anything for a while, he just sat down in the hospital chair and let her cry, and then after a little while he made his way over to the bed, and she didn't know if she reached for him first or if he got to her, but either way, he had soon effortlessly picked her up, cradling her in his arms.

"Haley," he whispered her name over and over again, and she held onto him so tightly, because she couldn't lose anyone again, ever, because Nathan was gone and as long as she stayed there forever, Lucas holding onto her, she would never have to face this fact.