Haley, Lucas, and Brooke sat in the waiting room for hours while the doctor's ran tests over and over on. Lucas had his arms around both of the girls who were napping. Around 1 in the morning, Paige came out in tears, and the three kids jumped up.
"Mom?" Brooke asked "Mom, what's wrong?"
"Oh honey." Paige said, catching her breath "Nate has leukemia."
Brooke buried her head in Lucas' chest and sobbed. Haley leaned against the wall and sat down..
"He's gonna be okay though, right?" Brooke asked, gaining composure.
"They didn't catch it very early…..so we don't know." Paige said before walking back into Nathan's room.
"He has to be okay Luke." Brooke said quietly "He has to be."
"Shhh, I know." Lucas said softly into her ear "I know."
About an hour later, Paige walked back into the waiting room "Haley?" she said, looking a bit better than the last time they saw her "Nathan wants to see you."
Haley stood up and quietly walked into Nathan's room. He was sitting there quietly, looking out the window, and turned when Haley walked in "Hey."
"Hi." Haley said quietly, though she stood at the doorway.
"You gonna sit down?" Nathan asked with a slight laugh "Or just stand there?"
Haley tried to smile, though she didn't accomplish much of one, and walked over to Nathan's bed. Nathan swung his feet back over the side of the bed, and Haley sat next to him. When she sat down, he put an arm around her "I'm gonna be fine Hales, you don't have to worry."
"I'm not worried." She protested, wanting to stay strong for Nathan.
"Hales…" he said with a smile, waiting for her to admit it.
"Okay.' She sighed "I am a little bit worried."
"I'm gonna be okay." He promised, leaning over and kissed her softly "I pinky promise."
Haley laughed "I haven't pink promised since, like, kindergarten." She held out her pinky and enveloped it in Nathan's.
--
After school the next day, Brooke suggested going to the movies, but Nathan declined the offer.
"I'm gonna take Haley out." He told Brooke.
"Oh yea?" Brooke asked "Where to?"
"It's a surprise."
"C'mon tell me." She begged her brother.
"Nope." He smiled "You'll tell her."
"Will not!" she protested, but then paused a second "Okay, maybe I will."
Nathan laughed "You two have fun at the movies."
After Brooke and Lucas left, Nathan went upstairs to find Haley. He felt okay, surprisingly, although he knew that wasn't gonna last for long, the treatment started in two days. And he was pretty happy that everything was normal, and no one was treating him weird. Of course though, the only people that know are his Mom, his sister, and Lucas and Haley.
Nathan thought Haley was out back, but he couldn't find her. Then he walked upstairs to her room and slowly opened the door, she had a notebook in her lap and sat Indian style on her bed.
"Whatcha doing?" he asked, strolling over and sitting next to her, peering over her shoulder to see what she was doing.
"I wrote this list with my Mom a few years ago. We decided to write down everything that made us happy and what we loved to do. Cheesy, I know, but I like to re-read it sometimes."
"Oh yea?" Nathan asked, truthfully interested "What's the first one?" he asked as he put his head on her lap.
"Falling in love." Haley said with a smile.
Nathan sat up and kissed her lightly on the lips "I'm glad that makes you happy."
"It's not love itself that makes me happy, it's the person I love." She clarified, kissing him again.
"I have an idea." He broke away from the kiss "Let's make a new and improved list, we both learned that life is shorter than we sometimes think, so let's write our list and try to accomplish everything in our list."
"That's sooooo cheesy." Haley laughed "But it's the best idea I've heard in a while." She got out another piece of paper and leaned against the headboard, Nathan sat next to her and put his head on her shoulder as she started number one.
"Falling in love" she wrote down without asking.
"Laughing."
"The beach."
"Your first kiss."
"Cookies." Haley said with a smile.
'Sex." Nathan said.
"Nathan! I'm not putting that down, what if you're parents read this?" Haley laughed.
"What? It makes me happy and I like to do it." He joked with her.
"Whoa, what's going on in here?" Brooke walked in with a grin on her face, obviously overhearing the conversation; Lucas walked in behind her.
Haley laughed "Nothing."
"Doesn't sound like nothing." Brooke said on the bed next to Haley "Whatcha writing?"
Haley handed the paper to Brooke "A list of everything that makes us happy and that we like to do."
"Best friends." Brooke said with a smile towards Haley.
Lucas walked around the bed and sat next to Brooke, putting his arm around her. The four gave input on their list for the rest of the night, until their list was pages long.
"We have a lot to be happy about." Brooke said to the three kids sitting with her.
"Yea, we really do." Haley agreed "After everything we've been through…and are going through, we still have so much."
The four kids just sat there and realized that this moment, sitting together, laughing, with the people they most care about, this is their happiness.