Chapter Ten

Haley was walking down the quiet halls of the hospital, two plastic cups of coffee in her hands. They had taken Brooke straight to the emergency room and after telling the doctor what had happened, as well as what they suspected had happened, he had gone to attend to her and told them to wait.

Waiting, unfortunately, wasn't something that Haley James did very well. She had been sitting with Lucas and Nathan for a while, but had soon gotten agitated. Once the doctor had left Lucas had immediately gone and sat in a corner and Nathan had tried talk to him. Haley had observed the way he attempted to quietly calm Lucas down, and had noted the 'big brother' thing they had was quite cute, but as it meant she had been waiting alone with no one to talk to, she had ended up getting fidgety so she decided to take a long walk.

While she had been walking around the hospital her mobile phone had started ringing, and it was only when she had checked the caller ID that she remembered she had completely forgotten to call Chris! She had, after all, been gone for over fifteen minutes; he might have thought she had left or something. However, he said he was simply calling to inquire whether she had "fallen into the toilet" and when Haley had filled him in he had replied that he was heading off to some new club with his friends and would call her later.

Now she was heading back to the waiting area to see whether they had heard from the doctor. She was almost there, just turning down the last corridor, but when she got there she only found Nathan. "Where's Lucas?"

Nathan jumped up, surprised by her return. "He's in Brooke's room."

"Is she okay?"

Nathan nodded. "The doctor said she was going to be fine."

"What happened? Was it…"

"Drugs? Yeah. The doctor said the drug was just supposed to cause her to go to sleep, but because she – for whatever reason – didn't have a full dose, the effect was prolonged, enabling you to find her later –"

"In the bathroom," Haley finished.

"Yeah."

Haley shook her head, not knowing how to respond. As well as when she was bored or nervous, she started fidgeting when she was uncomfortable too. She tried to move her arms to cross them in front of her body, alerting herself to the fact that she was carrying something. "This is for you." She handed Nathan a coffee cup.

Nathan was surprised, although he supposed it was the logical explanation for the second cup. "Thank you."

"I didn't know how you liked it so I got creamer and sugar." Haley reached into her pocket with her now free hand and held up the packets.

"I'll just have the sugar." Nathan took it from her and set the coffee down on a ledge beside him so he could make it.

"So…there were no after effects?"

"No." Nathan shook his head. "They just want to keep her here overnight under surveillance but they said they'll release her tomorrow if she feels up to it."

"That's good."

"Well, like I said, Lucas is in her room. I just waited here 'cause otherwise you wouldn't be able to find us. Do you want to go see her now?"

"Sure." Nathan led the way to Brooke's room, which was on the same floor. "Hi," Haley greeted Lucas.

He looked up at her from his chair beside Brooke's bed. "Hey."

"Oh! This is for you." Haley gave him the other coffee cup and the leftover packets of sugar and creamer.

Lucas smiled at her. "Thanks Miss James."

Pushing aside his irrational jealousy upon discovering that the cup she'd been holding had not been hers, Nathan asked Lucas, "Did you call her parents again?"

Lucas nodded. "Still no answer."

"Her parent's aren't at home?" Haley wondered.

"Brooke says they're always away anyway," Lucas explained. "She has their mobile number on her cell though so I've been trying to contact them but no one's picking up."

"So who lives with Brooke?"

"No one really," Nathan informed her. "She has a housekeeper who comes in every other day and she takes care of stuff, but for the most part it's just Brooke."

"But didn't she move here because her Dad has a job here? Why does he have to go away all the time?"

Nathan shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. Brooke seemed kind of used to the situation when she told us, though."

"Yeah, I think this is kind of how it's been since she was a lot younger."

"Well that doesn't make it any better," Haley said, and both Lucas and Nathan silently agreed. Haley then absent-mindedly checked her watch and realized how late it was. "I suppose if everything's okay I should probably be going home."

"How are you going?" Nathan asked.

'Well, there must be some cabs outside the hospital; I thought I would just go in one of those. My apartment's not far away from here."

"Or I could drop you," Nathan volunteered.

Even Lucas stared at him.

"A-are you sure?" Haley wondered.

"Yeah. I mean, if it's not far. And it'll be easier than if you take a taxi."

"Um…well if it's really okay, then I guess…" Haley decided. "Thanks."

Having finished his coffee Nathan threw the plastic cup in the bin. Haley said goodbye and left first, leaving Nathan and Lucas alone in the room with Brooke. "I'll just take her home and then come back," Nathan told Lucas. "You already told your parents that we're here, right?"

Lucas nodded. "You know…I've been trying to remember what Brooke said earlier tonight…"

"She said who she was with?"

"No, she didn't mention any names. But she did say that it had been some people from school."

"We could ask her in the morning."

"If she remembers. She had had a lot to drink as well."

"Yeah…" Nathan was on the verge of leaving when Lucas stopped him again.

"Hey, Nate? If you and Jake need me to do anything to help with the case, just ask."

Nathan nodded, understandingly. He left Lucas and in a few minutes was in the parking lot, where Haley was waiting for him, by his car. "Sorry about that."

"It's okay," she told him.

He unlocked the car and they both got in. After she told him the address of her apartment building he turned on the engine and reversed out of the car park.

Haley and Nathan alternated looking at each other and then the window in the uncomfortable silence. "So-" they suddenly said at the same time, then stopped and looked away.

"Um…" Haley began a few moments later. "Can I turn the radio on?"

"Sure." Haley switched the knob on and the cassette tape automatically went in. Nathan saw it happening and tried to stop the tape, but it was already inside. "Oh no."

"What's wrong?"

The faint strains of music could be heard so Haley turned the volume up.

Holiday. Holiday.

"What is this song?" Haley asked.

"I don't know," Nathan told her. "This is my Uncle Keith's old car. Apparently this tape came with it and it usually gets jammed inside when you try to turn the radio on. I forgot."

It's an ice cream day!

"Pretty catchy," Haley commented, causing Nathan to laugh.

"If you fiddle around with the radio, sometimes it comes out."

Haley reached over and played around with the buttons for a little and managed to eject the tape. The radio came on; the Macarena was playing. "Okay, what music taste does your uncle have?"

Nathan chuckled. "What, you don't like the Macarena?"

"You do?" Haley asked, shocked, before she noticed the teasing glint in his eye. "For a minute there I thought you were actually serious."

"I might be," Nathan remarked and started move slightly in his seat, as if he was dancing.

Haley giggled. "You look so ridiculous!"

"Yeah, so did the millions of people who actually did the dance for this song."

"Oh my God, I know! I saw this thing on VH1 and apparently it was number one here for like ages…"

"Like?" Nathan raised his eyebrow at her. "Is that grammatically correct?"

Haley blushed. "Just because I'm an English teacher doesn't mean I have to get it right all the time."

"Actually I think it – like – kind of does," Nathan quipped.

"Okay, but I do when writing. I didn't mean to say like," Haley responded, embarrassed.

"I know," Nathan smirked at her. "It doesn't really matter."

Haley gave him a small smile and then returned to her window. Nathan guiltily thought that maybe she'd been actually annoyed, but that wasn't it. Somewhere in the conversation she'd just felt like they had been crossing some kind of border – one that shouldn't be crossed – and so she had felt the need to keep quiet again. Especially after she'd remembered that that sort of playful banter had fizzled out of her relationship with Chris weeks, maybe even months ago.

"Is this it?" Nathan asked as they neared a tall building.

"Yeah, this is the place. Thanks so much for giving me a lift."

"No problem," Nathan stated, as he put the car in parked mode.

Haley unlocked her door before turning back to him. "So I guess I'll see you in school on Monday."

Nathan nodded.

"Bye."

"Bye, H-Miss James."

She shut the door behind her and was inside the gate when she suddenly turned around and jogged back up to the car, and crouched so that her head was level with the window. "I almost forgot. On Monday could you just tell me how Brooke was, or if the doctor said anything else or something?"

"Sure, but don't you want to ask Brooke?"

"I was thinking of, but, you know, she might not mention everything – and it'll probably be kind of embarrassing for her; so if you or Lucas could just –"

"I'll come tell you in the morning," Nathan jumped in.

"Okay, thanks. Bye." With a final smile Haley turned away from the car and went to the steps leading up to the main entrance into the building. As she took out her keys from her purse, she noticed that Nathan was still there. It was only when she was closing the glass door behind her, and she saw the car start to drive away that she realized he had been waiting for her to go inside before he left.