A/N: Thanks for all the reviews. Sorry I dont have time for a longer author's note, but it is nearly midnight and I just wanted to post this so ya'll dont have to wait longer :) I'm glad you guys are still reading and enjoying

Chapter 40

Nathan shifted about on the bed as he tried to get more comfortable. He had been released from hospital the previous afternoon, and although he was allowed to walk about a little, the doctor had said most of his day should be spent in bed. Along with his bullet wound, Nathan had also sustained an injury to his knee; when he had been shot he had fallen onto his left knee, the same knee he had damaged in high school that had ruined his chance of getting a basketball scholarship. Since it had already been slightly weak, the pain had been greater and Nathan now had to wear a knee guard until it was fully functional again.

As a result of that he had been moved to the downstairs guest bedroom. Nathan didn't really mind, the only problem was that the sun shone directly into the window in this bedroom, and he been awake since not long after dawn thanks to the light.

Ever since he had woken up in hospital Karen had been with him practically 24/7. It wasn't that he didn't appreciate his mother's concern, but he would have rather she stopped treating him like he was 5, instead of his 25 years of age. There had been some problems at the café though since she had been away longer than she planned and the person Karen had left in charge couldn't take care of all the ordering on their own, so, safe in the knowledge that the doctor had seen fit for Nathan to be discharged, Karen had gone back to Charleston that morning not long after Nathan had woken up.

Keith was at work so Lucas was on "Nathan watch", although he was currently preparing for his date with Brooke; not that it was going to be much of a date. Since someone had to stay to look after Nathan, they had to stay in the house.

Nathan picked up the remote beside him and changed the channel on the small TV that had been moved in there for him, in anticipation of his program being about to start. Placing the remote back on the side table, Nathan shifted on the bed once more, and had begun to fluff up the pillow he had placed under his knee when he heard the doorbell ring.

Glancing at the clock, Nathan realized it must be Brooke, but Lucas didn't come out of his room. Nathan was surprised when, a few moments later, he didn't hear any noise from upstairs indicating that Lucas was about to do so. "Luke?" he yelled. "Brooke's here!" Another minute went by, and still no sound of him.

The doorbell rang again.

Grumbling, Nathan managed to sit on the side of the bed and grab his crutches, before hobbling out of the room and towards the front door. In the time it took him to get there he was surprised that Brooke didn't ring the bell again. Leaning on the left crutch, he opened the door with his right hand and found it odd that she was going back down the steps. "Where are you going?"

She turned and Nathan's mouth fell open slightly as he realized that it wasn't Brooke. It was Haley.

She stood three steps below him and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, I thought maybe no one was home."

"Oh…yeah, well, I can't exactly go out much so…"

"Right." They stood there for a second before Haley snapped to her senses. "Oh my gosh, Nathan, you should be resting, not answering the door!" she exclaimed as she climbed up the steps and stood on the landing next to him. "Shall I help you to the couch or something?" she offered, gesturing to the living room on their left.

"No, actually I was in bed. I just got the door because Lucas didn't hear it," Nathan explained.

"Oh, I'm so sorry."

"No, it's okay. I mean, I'm glad you came," he added with a smile, and he was happy when she smiled back. He kicked the door shut before mentioning, "You left pretty quickly that day at the hospital."

"Yeah, I had to get to school…and your family was there, I didn't want to intrude and…I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

Nathan nodded. "I'm doing better."

"That's good…But, Nathan, you're still standing!" she realized, and he laughed at that.

"It's this way," Nathan told her as he went back to the guest room, Haley following him. He waited for Haley to enter before gently kicking the door shut using his crutch.

As Nathan moved back to the bed, Haley asked, "Need some help?"

"Er, if you could just take my crutches –"

"Sure."

"Thanks," Nathan said as he gave them to Haley, who put them by the side of the wall as Nathan maneuvered himself so that he was sitting with his legs out on top of the covers.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, thanks," he told her.

Haley nodded before starting to play with her hands as she stood uncomfortable next to where she had put the crutches debating whether to sit next to Nathan on the bed, or on the chair next to her. She was about to move to sit on the chair when Nathan patted down the space beside him and told her to sit.

With a smile Haley walked around the bed and sat on the other side; not too far, but not too close to Nathan. "So, er…does it hurt a lot?" Haley asked after a few moments of silence, save for the noise of the television.

"Sometimes, but I'm on painkillers so it's not too bad," Nathan admitted.

"Peyton said that Jake mentioned the case might be wrapped up soon."

"Yeah. I mean, Damien confessed, but he's claiming he was working for someone else."

"Someone else in school?" Haley inquired, suddenly worried.

"No, no," Nathan reassured her. "Just another big dealer. There's some more work to be done, but as far as Tree Hill High goes I think the investigation there is pretty much finished."

Haley nodded, unable to miss what that suggested; that Nathan, like Jake, would be going back to Charlotte. But, she decided to avoid that for now. Realizing she still had her handbag on her shoulder, Haley started to slide it off to put it on the table, but as she was doing so, she remembered what was in it. "Oh! I-I brought you something," she said quickly, causing Nathan to look over at her.

"You bought something for me?"

"I, uh…" she paused while she unzipped the bag and fished it out, as Nathan tried to catch a peek of what it was, his curiosity aroused.

That's not all that was aroused, Nathan thought as he took in her outfit; her purple spaghetti strapped top revealed her tanned shoulders nicely, while her denim skirt showed off her long legs that were stretched out on the bed, mere inches away from his. At school she always wore trousers and a shirt, and most of the time her hair was tied up. Today it was loose, just the way Nathan liked it on her.

Noticing her hand emerging from the bag Nathan dragged his eyes away from where they had strayed to her legs, and back to her face and realized she was holding a container of some sort. Nathan's brow furrowed.

"Um, I, er, baked you some brownies," Haley explained sheepishly, but was rewarded when Nathan's face lit up in a grin, encouraging her to go on. "I just always like to have chocolate when I'm sick or not feeling well so I thought I would bring you some. You do like chocolate, right?" she added.

"I love chocolate," Nathan assured her, as he took the box and looked through the transparent sides at the tasty treats it contained. "You made these for me?"

"Er, yeah. It's just a 'Get Well Soon', you know," she said, as if it was no big deal.

But it was. "Thank you, Haley. These look really good, and it means a lot to me."

She smiled and blushed simultaneously as she noticed that he had called her, "Haley", and it hadn't sounded quite as unnatural as it should have done, coming from his lips. "It's just brownies," she said quietly. "Do you want me to put them in the fridge for you?" she offered, wanting something to do.

"No, that's okay. My program's about to start so I'll them some now."

"Oh, okay. Um, what's your program?"

"Seinfeld. They're showing repeats."

"Oh, I love Seinfeld," she said immediately.

"Well, you're just in time," Nathan said, as Jerry appeared on their screens, doing his stand-up. Nathan opened the lid of the container and took a brownie out before offering one to Haley.

"Don't mind if I do," she replied with a smile, and took one out for herself. As Nathan put the container down on the bed in between them, Haley found herself watching him in anticipation as he took a bite out of the brownie. Only giving him time to chew for a few seconds Haley asked, "What do you think?"

He signaled that his mouth was full and finished swallowing his bite before answering, "It's really good," he grinned at her.

"Thanks," she said shyly.

"You bake a lot?" he inquired before taking another bite.

"Some things…mostly cake or brownies. But, not lots of different kinds of cakes, just different chocolate ones. You know, from basic chocolate to dark and milk chocolate. My favourite thing to bake is chocolate chip cake."

"Wow. Well, I'll have to try that sometime." Nathan grinned at her as he said it, and Haley found herself grinning back.

Both continued to just look at each other for a few moments, until they were jerked back to reality by the sound of laughter coming from the television. Nathan looked back at Haley, but she was concentrating on the television set, so he had no choice but to do the same.

As they watched the show, the silence between them resumed, but rather than awkward, it now felt comfortable, the both of them relaxing. They continued watching and eating brownies, until the commercial break started. It was easy to get sucked into the program, Haley realized, but not that easy to concentrate on the crummy adverts. She reached into the box for a brownie without looking, and accidentally brushed Nathan's hand. "Sorry," she said quickly, pulling her hand away.

"That's okay." Nathan held up the box and offered what turned out to be the last brownie to her. "You have it."

Haley shook her head. "No, they were for you. I shouldn't have eaten so many."

"I don't mind," Nathan said honestly. "You know what, here." He took the brownie and broke it in half. "Let's share."

"Okay. Thanks," Haley said as she took her piece from his hand.

Nathan just smiled and turned back to look at the TV screen as he resumed eating, but Haley played around with the food in her hands, and after a few moments Nathan noticed. "You don't like it?" he asked, jokingly. "'Cause I'll be happy to finish it for you."

Haley smiled half-heartedly, but then put the brownie into the empty box so her hands were free. "I think we need to talk."

"Um…about what?"

Haley sighed. "You know. About that night…outside my apartment."

"We don't really need to talk about that," Nathan said quickly.

"Nathan –"

"Hey, look," he pointed at the screen, "Seinfeld's back."

"Nathan!" When he didn't look at her, she decided to continue anyway. "Nathan, I'm sorry for what I said that night."

Nathan's shoulders gave a little shrug, although he didn't move his gaze from the television set. "You don't need to apologize for saying how you feel."

"I guess…that's true, but…" Haley took a deep breath, before finishing, "I didn't exactly say how I feel."

At that, Nathan's head turned and he took in the somewhat shy, nervous girl sitting next to him. "Well…how do you feel?" he forced himself to ask.

"I…confused, I guess. I mean, I suppose I did notice some things…between us," she said quietly. "But, I didn't really look at it seriously. I always thought…"

"That I was your student," he finished for her.

"Yeah."

"But, now you know I'm not…"

"I know. But that doesn't mean we can just jump into something!"

"Who said 'jump'?" Nathan asked, now turning his body slightly, so he faced her better. "I was thinking dinner or coffee. See each other outside school, for once. Was this," Nathan gestured around them, "so bad?"

"Well, no –"

"Okay, so –"

"But this was barely fifteen minutes, Nathan. It doesn't tell us anything."

"It tells me something. Look, Haley, if you don't want anything to do with me then what are you doing here?"

"I-I wanted to make sure that you were okay."

"And that's it?" When she didn't reply, he prodded, "Haley, come on, you have to tell me something."

"I…no, not just that," she admitted, "but it doesn't matter."

"It matters to me. Look, Haley, I'm not your 'student' anymore and –"

"You're not going to be in Tree Hill anymore either, though, are you?" she interrupted. "You said it yourself, the case is over, and you live in Charleston. Don't you have to go back?"

"Uh…well, yeah. I suppose I do," Nathan said, finally.

"Right. So there's no point making a big deal out of this since it can't work anyway."

"Haley, Peyton and Jake are going to be apart too; they're not breaking up just because Jake's going back to Charleston."

"Peyton is moving to Charleston with him!" Haley exclaimed. "And since they've been dating for a while, they can make that kind of decision."

"Well, it's not my fault Jake got to be the teacher!" Nathan sputtered.

"I know that, but you can't start off a relationship long-distance, that'll never work."

"How do you know? Ever tried it?"

"No, but –"

"Well, you don't know if it could work then, do you?" Haley shook her head at what Nathan was saying, but before she could reply, he continued, "Look, I don't have to go back right away."

"You just said –"

"I said I have to go back; yes, that's true. But I don't have to go back tomorrow. Or even when Jake goes back. Because of my injury my boss is giving me extended leave."

"Well…" Haley stuttered, feeling as if she was losing steam, and fast, "for how long?"

"It depends on what the doctor says when I go see him tomorrow. We already did a set of tests, but he wanted to run them again, just to be sure. But, based on the first tests I did, about a month at least."

"A month? So, what, you're saying we try this for a month, and then we break up?"

"No, I'm just saying that we have a month to see what we want to do. And I know that I want to try this."

Haley squeezed her eyes shut as she tried to think, but everything was so cluttered in her head.

"Don't say that it's too hard, Haley. Remember what you always told me, when you tutored me?" She opened her eyes and looked at him curiously, but didn't say anything. "You always said that, 'you can't say it's too hard if you haven't tried.' Now, I know that a relationship is not the same as writing an essay, but, I figure, what you said kind of applies to both," Nathan finished, and looked at Haley hopefully, who had a strange smile on her face.

She swallowed hard and then whispered, "You did listen to what I said."

Nathan laughed softly and then tucked a stray hair that had fallen in front of her face behind her ear. "Every word," he whispered back. And then he kissed her.