A/N: Thank you everyone for your reviews:)
Chapter Forty-Two
On Saturday Nathan had a doctor's appointment, which his uncle Keith drove him to since Lucas had basketball practice. Unfortunately, the coach was taking out his anger over finding out another boy had taken drugs by making the others work even harder before the Ravens became the laughing stock of all North Carolina.
When they were coming back Nathan didn't notice the car parked in their driveway until Keith pointed it out to him, but when he recognized it as Jake's he realized his friend had decided to pay him another visit. Keith got Nathan's crutches out of the back seat and handed them to Nathan as he got down from the car. "Are you sure you don't need me to help you get into the house?" he checked.
"Yeah, I'm sure. I can manage."
"Okay, well call me if you need anything."
"I'll be fine, Uncle Keith. Lucas will be home from basketball practice now, and it looks like Jake is here as well, so don't worry."
"I know, but your mother made me promise you would be well looked after."
Nathan laughed. "I will be."
"Okay, I have to get some things sorted out at work, but tell Lucas I will see you boys for dinner."
"Will do, Uncle Keith," he told him, before Keith got into the car and drove up. Nathan managed to reach the front door easier than he did the day he came home from hospital, and he was glad that he could feel the improvement, even if it was just slight. Putting one crutch up against the door, he was about to ring the bell when the front door swung open. "Jake!"
"Hey, man. Thought I heard a car outside. Need some help?"
"I can manage, but thanks," Nathan told him as he came inside the house. "What are you doing here? Not that I don't appreciate the visit, but I thought you said that you were meeting Peyton's Dad for lunch today."
"I am, and we have to leave soon, but we thought we'd just drop in and see how you were doing first."
"We?"
"Yeah; me, Peyton and –"
"Nathan!" a female voice exclaimed from the hallway.
Nathan turned and his face lit up into a grin when he saw his girlfriend coming towards him. Girlfriend, he thought to himself. Yep, he definitely liked calling her that.
Haley came up to him and gave him a hug. "Hey! How'd your appointment go? What did the doctor say? Are you feeling better? Oh my gosh, shouldn't you be sitting down or something, Nathan?" she rambled, causing Nathan to grin even more.
"One question at a time, Haley," he laughed.
"Right, sorry."
"That's okay," he assured her. "And I feel fine; the doctor said I was making good progress."
"That's great!" Haley said, walking next to him as they headed back to his room.
When they got there, Peyton was sitting on a chair changing channels on the television. She and Nathan had officially met two days ago when Jake had come to visit him; she seemed quite different to the girls Jake had dated before, but they seemed happy, plus she was Haley's best friend, so Nathan hadn't wasted an opportunity to score some brownie points.
Jake took Nathan's crutches so he could sit back on the bed, and Haley sat down next to him. "Have you guys been here long?" Nathan asked.
Jake shook his head, as he sat down at the foot of the bed, near where Peyton's chair was. "About twenty minutes maybe," Peyton said.
"Sorry, you had to wait."
"It's okay," Jake assured him. "Lucas let us in so it's not like we had to wait in the car or anything."
"Do you want a pillow for your knee, Nathan?" Haley wondered, and without waiting for his answer she took one from behind her head and propped his knee up on it, before she moved back to the headboard to fluff up the pillows his head resting was on.
"Haley," Nathan chuckled, "I'm fine, really."
"But you might be uncomfortable because of your knee and your wound and –"
"I'm very comfortable, now you, come 'ere," he reached out for her hand and pulled her to sit on her side, leaning against him, draping his arm lazily across her back while Haley nuzzled her head into his chest.
Jake glanced at Peyton. "Were we ever this sickening?"
"God, no!"
"Er, actually," Haley piped up, "I was there, and you were."
Peyton and Jake both made faces, causing Nathan to laugh, and Haley, her cheek still on his chest, decided that she liked the way it felt.
Peyton glanced at her watch, and said, "We should probably get going. Dad doesn't like it when people are late."
Jake nodded. "See ya, Nate," he said, standing up. "I'll come by later."
"Don't worry about it," Nathan told him.
"Of course, I worry. If something happens to you, who am I going to fight crime with?"
Peyton, Jake and Nathan all laughed at the comment, but Haley just managed a smile. After they said goodbye to their friends, who let themselves out, Nathan looked down at Haley.
"Are you okay?"
She gave him a curious look. "Am I okay? You're the patient here."
"You just seem a little…"
Haley sighed and moved a little bit out of his embrace. "You'll think I'm being stupid."
"I would never think that."
"Well, I…I guess Jake just reminded me that you'll be going back to Charleston, and I don't like to think about that."
"Hales, that's not for a while yet."
"I know, but before we realize it time is just going to fly by and not only will I have to say goodbye to you, but to Peyton too, and it just sucks because I'm going to be all alone here," she finished sadly.
"Aw, Haley…" Nathan reached out tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, "We'll figure something out."
She didn't say anything at first, but after a moment she nodded and moved back next to him.
"Hey, how will you get home?"
"Peyton said she'll call me when their thing with her Dad finishes, but she's not sure of the time. Otherwise, I'll just call a cab."
"You don't have to do that," Nathan told her.
"You're in no state to drive," she reminded him.
"Lucas could probably drive you home."
"I'm sure Lucas would do it if you forced him too, but I think he'd rather not. And, really, a cab is fine."
"Or…you could just not go back," Nathan suggested, smirking. "You know, spend the night."
"Oh, Lucas would love that."
Nathan laughed. "Okay, he wouldn't. But, I would."
Haley grinned, despite her blush. "You know the doctor told you that you can't…you know, for a little while." Nathan groaned at the reminder, just as Haley realized, "Hey, you never finished saying what the doctor said today."
"Well, I need some therapy, but my knee isn't that bad and as long as I don't strain it I should be able to get off the crutches soon."
"No more walking about for you," Haley told him immediately.
Nathan replied with, "Yes, Miss James," and he grinned when she blushed slightly at that.
"Oh, and he said I can take a bath."
Haley wrinkled her nose. "When was the last time you had one?"
Nathan pretended to think about it. "Er…about a week ago?"
"Ew!" Haley exclaimed and moved back to the other side of the bed, but Nathan sat up and put his arms around her so she couldn't get away. "Nathan!" she squealed.
"Yes?"
"You smell! Go have a bath!" she ordered him, between giggles.
"I didn't hear you complaining before," he whispered in her ear, and she laughed again as she squirmed in his grasp. Chuckling, Nathan finally let go of her, not that Haley made much effort to get further away once he did.
"Would you like me to run you a bath?" she offered.
"Actually, that would be pretty good. Any chance of you accompanying me in the bath?" Haley gasped at him, before shaking her head and moving to get down from it. "It's not a ridiculous question; I'm still recovering, I wont be able to reach everywhere," he justified, causing Haley to throw a pillow at him before going into the adjoining bathroom.
Nathan laughed, and took his time stretching before moving to sit upright, with his legs over the side of the bed. He had just finished unbuttoning the three buttons on the collared t-shirt he was wearing, and was trying to pull it off when Haley re-entered the room.
"The water was hot, so your bath's nearly ready," she told him.
"Thanks. Do you think you could give me a hand over here?" Haley scoffed and was about to protest when Nathan continued, "No, seriously. I'm having a little trouble getting this over my head because when I put my arms like that it pulls at my stitches."
Haley immediately snapped to and walked over to him. "Oh, I'm sorry. Here." She took the hem of his shirt in her hands and slowly but surely tugged it over his head. Once she had managed that, she rolled it into a ball in her hands and was about to place it on the bed, when a now shirtless Nathan stood up, presumably to go to the bathroom, putting his upper chest in her direct line of vision.
Haley had been taught that it was impolite to stare, and therefore never did, but somehow she couldn't not look. It wasn't like she hadn't seen a man's naked chest before, of course she had. It was just that none of her previous boyfriends had been quite so…built. Boy, was he built, she thought to herself. And…is that a nipple ring?
Nathan, fully aware that she was staring at his chest, smirked. "Like what you see?" he asked her, causing a blush to spread on Haley's cheeks as she realized she'd been caught.
She looked up, not quite meeting his gaze, and opened her mouth to speak, but was having trouble coming up with something witty to throw back at him. She glanced around to avoid his eyes and, in doing so, noticed something on the lower part of his stomach, just above the waistband of his shorts, that she had missed before.
Haley gasped at the sight of his scar. "Nathan, that looks awful," she exclaimed, taking in the size of it.
"Thanks," he said, wryly.
Ignoring him, she reached a hand out to touch it, but only kept it there for a second before pulling back. "Sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you," she apologized.
"You didn't hurt me." He took her hand in his and guided it back to his stomach. "You couldn't."
Haley smiled sweetly at him, before voicing her concern. "Are you sure that it's okay?"
"The doctor said it was healing right on schedule."
"Okay," Haley conceded, "but don't go straining yourself."
"I'm only going to have a bath. Although, it does hurt when I bend," he admitted.
"I put the shampoo and soap and everything where it'll be easy for you to reach so don't worry about that."
"Thanks," Nathan said, and he spared a moment to flash her a smile because he was touched she had thought of that, before he returned to what he had planned to say, "But, I think I'm going to need help with my shorts too."
To his surprise, Haley smiled and took a step towards him. "Aw, you can't get them off on your own?" she pouted.
Nathan shook his head solemnly. "It's been really difficult getting changed everyday."
"Lucas!" Haley yelled.
Nathan's eyebrows shot up. "What?"
"What?" she looked at him innocently. "You said you needed help changing; I'm sure your cousin will be happy to help."
Nathan raised his eyebrows at her. "Oh, really."
She grinned and had begun to move away when Nathan grabbed her waist. Caught off balance, she fell against him, accidentally pushing Nathan back onto the bed, with her on top of him, causing Nathan's breath to leave his lungs with a "woosh".
Nathan winced in pain since part of Haley was weighing down on his wound.
"Nathan!" Haley exclaimed as she braced her elbows on either side of him, so that she wasn't leaning on him. "Are you okay?"
He nodded, but she could tell it still pained him slightly.
"See, this is why you shouldn't grab people!"
Nathan pouted at her. "It wasn't my fault!"
"Yes, it was," she said sternly, but couldn't help laughing at the look on his face.
At that point, the half closed door swung open wider. "Hey, did you call –" Lucas stopped abruptly when he saw his half naked cousin and his teacher straddling him on all fours.
"Sorry, we were having a bit of a problem, but it's fine now," Nathan said, as if there was nothing weird going on.
"Okay. I'll go back to my room and let you…okay," Lucas repeated and practically ran back up the stairs.
"Why is it that we keep getting caught in these situations?" Haley groaned, as she moved so that she was lying next to him.
"Hey, it's not my fault you can't keep your hands off of me." When Haley scoffed, Nathan added, "Plus, you were the one that called him."
Haley rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Just go have your bath before the water gets cold."
"So, you're using your teacher voice on me now, huh?"
"What! I am not!" Haley exclaimed.
"That's okay; it's kind of hot."
Haley blushed furiously. "Nathan!"
"Yes, Miss James?"
Haley groaned and put her hands on her face.
Chuckling, Nathan informed her, "I'll be back soon. Don't go anywhere."
He moved her hands away and kissed her nose, causing Haley to grin despite her embarrassment. "I wouldn't dream of it."