Chapter 16

For a moment there was only silence. In another instant, the sound of car tires squealing against the street and careening away from the scene, screaming witnesses, and racing sirens invaded the brief moment of peace.

Nathan groaned softly as he slowly came back to consciousness. All his brain was registering was the immense pain in his face and that some sort of foreign object was making it harder than normal to breathe. He lifted his arm that was in less pain and swatted away at the deployed air bag.

"You okay, Hales?" he asked in a scratchy voice and willed his neck to turn in her direction. He blinked a few times to focus his vision and tried as hard as he could to tune out all the noise outside the car. It was then that he realized her eyes were still closed and the voice he was waiting to hear respond to his question wasn't reaching his anxious ears. Now that he thought about it, he hadn't heard Haley make a single sound in the short time he had been awake again for.

In that instant, Nathan's heart stopped beating. Something was telling him that his girlfriend wasn't okay and that made him not okay. "Hales, come on baby, you gotta wake up. You have to be alright," he pleaded brokenly.

When the deafening pitch of the approaching sirens reached a constant decibel, Nathan breathed a silent sigh of relief knowing that help had finally arrived. He faced forward again and shut his eyes tightly, allowing tears to pool behind the closed lids. The sound of running footsteps and someone speaking to him had his eyes shooting open again.

"Son, what's your name?" an EMT who looked to be in his mid twenties asked.

"Nathan. Nathan Scott."

"Okay Nathan, I need you to tell me if you're hurt. Are you in any significant pain?"

"No, I'm fine. You have to help my girlfriend. The other car hit her side and I think she's badly hurt."

The EMT at Nathan's side looked across him and saw a petite girl being carefully looked over by some other paramedics. "My colleagues are gonna help her, Nathan. Right now though, I need to focus on getting you out of this car and in order to do that I'm going to have to pop your shoulder back into place."

Nathan looked down and noticed that his throbbing shoulder looked kind of weird. "Okay, do it," he said and shut his eyes tightly and gritted his teeth in preparation for the pain that was sure to come.

"I will, but it will hurt at less if you're talking to me. Tell me about your girlfriend. What's her name?"

Nathan smiled lazily despite the situation he was currently in. "Her name is Haley James. We've not even been dating for two months and I already love her so much. She's my best friend's cousin that moved in with him and his parents about a month and a half ago."

The paramedic nodded along and gripped the teenage boy's arm and shoulder in his hands. "What about her do you love so much?"

"I love everything about Haley. Her Californian tan, her smile and laugh, how I can always run my hands through her soft hair. She's patient and kind, but can also be such a spitfire. Everything about Haley is so amazing."

The other man smiled softly at how in love this boy sounded. As he listened to Nathan continue on about what he loved about the unconscious girl in the seat next to him, he used all the strength he had to pop the boy's shoulder bone back into its socket.

"Ah, fuck! You couldn't at least have warned me it was coming?" Nathan asked when a searing pain shot through his arm.

"Trust me; it hurts a lot less when I don't warn you."

Nathan grumbled something inaudible under his breath and looked at the guy who just caused him even more pain than he was already in. "Can you get me out of here now so you can help my girlfriend?"

"Yeah, I'm working on it," the guy said and turned to get a few more people to help him get Nathan out.

As he waited, Nathan looked to his right and saw the much larger group of people working on getting Haley's still unconscious form out of the car. He eyed a particularly frantic looking paramedic that appeared to be desperately running his fingers along Haley's neck. "I'm having trouble finding a pulse!" the young man shouted.

Another medic moved her head so her ear was hovering over Haley's mouth and nose. "She's not breathing people! We need to get her out of here now if we want her to even have a shot!"

Nathan screamed as loud as he could and began writhing against his seat to escape the confines of the weak belt that protected him from injury. "Nathan, we need you to calm down!" his medic urged as he tried to avoid slicing the boy while cutting away the seat belt.

Nathan reluctantly stopped with his movements and allowed the group of paramedics pry away the driver's side door from the car's frame and hoist him onto an awaiting gurney. "I don't need a stretcher, or an ambulance. I'm fine."

"Yes you do, I doubt you can actually stand up on your own right now. Even if your legs are fine, the adrenaline and worry you're experiencing right now would be enough for your legs to just give out."

Nathan rolled his eyes but lay back on the pillow attached to the small temporary bed. He looked at the man that had been doing everything he could to help Nathan since arriving on the scene. "What's your name?"

The tall blonde eyed him curiously. "Ryan Lewis."

"Alright, Ryan Lewis, I'm not putting a fight about going to the hospital in this stupid ambulance so you have to make me a promise."

"What's that?" he asked, having an inkling of what the teen might ask of him.

"Make sure Haley is okay. If not, I know your name and I could easily find out where you live. If anything happens to her between now and the time she gets to the hospital, I'll hunt you down," he said stonily, only finishing as the ambulance doors closed after he was lifted in.

Ryan nodded to himself; having a feeling the boy was seriously threatening him. He promised himself to do everything in his power to save the young girl and ran over to join the group of medics already working on her.

"Alright Nathan, it looks like everything's fine," the greying doctor told the teen as he finished his examination.

"I could have told you that when we started this half an hour ago," Nathan grumbled lowly.

The doctor chuckled softly at the moody boy. "You know you're very lucky that you aren't more injured. I do want you to keep that shoulder elevated and in the sling for at least a couple days though."

"Yeah, whatever. Can I go now? I need to find out how my girlfriend is."

"Yes, you're free to go as soon as you sign your discharge papers with the administration."

Without a word, Nathan slid of the examination table and stalked out of the small room. He immediately walked to the nurses' station and signed his discharge papers. When he turned to sit in one of the chairs in the quiet waiting room, he saw a large group of people moving towards him quickly.

Deb was the first one to embrace him. "Oh my God, are you okay? I was so worried about you!"

"I'm fine, Mom," Nathan said and brushed her away from him.

Karen stepped forward next with worry shining in her eyes. "Is my niece okay?

Nathan looked down at his feet guiltily. He couldn't help but think the accident was his fault. Haley was the innocent one and yet she obviously had far worse injuries than he did. "I'm so sorry. I should've seen the other car coming, but I didn't and now I don't even know what's wrong with her or where she is."

Karen looked sadly at the guilt ridden boy before the worried group. "It's not your fault, Nathan. I'm going to go find someone who might be able to give us some answers," she informed and walked toward a nearby nurse with Keith following behind her.

Nathan remained silent as his mom, Lucas, Peyton, and Brooke all looked at him sadly. Jake was running a hand through his hair in frustration and quietly walked in the opposite direction that Karen and Keith had gone. "Do you need anything, honey? You should sit down and rest for a little while or something," Deb suggested.

"The only thing I need is to hear Haley will be alright."

"She's gonna be alright, man. We've gotta believe that."

Nathan nodded and focussed on Karen and Keith when they rejoined the group. "I spoke to one of Haley's doctors and they have her in surgery right now. She told us that Haley has a broken ankle and some cuts and bruises, but they big thing is that she was bleeding pretty badly internally so they're trying to get that under control and stopped. As long as they can do that, she's going to be fine."

He still didn't quite feel relieved, but agreed to actually sit down now that he knew what was going on.

"I'm gonna go get some coffee. Does anyone want anything?" Peyton asked. When she had gotten a few orders she walked in the direction of the cafeteria and saw Jake sitting alone at a table near a group of officers when she got there. Opting to let him be for a few more minutes, she walked over to the self serve coffee machines and began filling a couple styrofoam cups with the hot liquid.

The only word to describe what he was feeling right now would be shock. His best friend was in a car accident and could very well be fighting for her life at this very second. He had already lost his surrogate parents in a car accident and now he might lose the most important person his life to one too.

"You know, that Nathan Scott is one lucky kid," a nearby police officer said to one of his colleagues.

"That's for sure. You never see people walk away with as few injuries as he has in an accident that bad."

"Yeah, not to mention his blood alcohol limit was only a couple points below the legal limit. Plus since he's the mayor's son we can't really charge him for underage drinking."

Jake's head snapped up when he heard the officer speak. Did he really just hear that Nathan was drinking and driving? He had some hell of a nerve to do that after what drunk driving had done to Haley's parents. He stood up angrily and started walking quickly back to where he knew everyone was waiting for news on Haley's condition.

Peyton watched from across the cafeteria as Jake stalked angrily down the corridor she had just entered from. Instantly putting the cups she was holding back down, she followed quickly behind him. When she had finally caught up to his fast moving form, she grabbed onto his forearm. "Jake, what's wrong?"

"My best friend is in the hospital. Isn't it obvious what's wrong?"

"I know that. I meant what's got you so angry all of a sudden?"

Jake growled when Nathan came into view. He quickened his pace and grabbed the unsuspecting boy by the collar of his shirt and slammed him against a nearby wall. "Ah, what the fuck?" Nathan cried out defensively. Everyone jumped out of their seats and rushed to the boys' sides to try to get Jake away from Nathan.

"You really are a son of a bitch, you know that?"

"What the hell do you think I did to you now?"

"I trusted you with her!" Jake yelled. "I trusted you to protect her and look what you did! Driving drunk when she's in the fucking seat next to you? Or did you just happen to forget that her parents were killed by a drunk driver? Haley's the only person that I need in my life and so help me God; if she isn't okay you're going to wish you died in this accident."

When Jake finished screaming at the silent boy he pulled one of his arms from Nathan's sleeve and swung it back in preparation to punch him. The feeling of a small hand clasping around his wrist made him hesitate for a moment and look to his side to see Peyton pleading with her eyes.

"Don't do this, Jake. You know Haley wouldn't want you to. She would never blame Nathan for something that was out of his control and wouldn't want you to go around hitting him again."

Jake took a few deep breaths and dropped Nathan just in time for a couple of security guards to round the corner and take in the scene. "Break it up you two, this is a hospital not a playground," one of them spoke gruffly and then they both exited the silent waiting room.

Jake looked at Peyton awkwardly and tugged his arm from out of her tight hold. "I need some air," he told the group and broke out into a jog in the direction of the main entrance of the hospital.

"What is he talking about, Nate?" Lucas asked on edge.

"I wasn't drunk, Lucas. I had a couple glasses of scotch with dinner, but I don't think I was hit by it enough for it to affect my driving."

Lucas' jaw tightened and he shook his head disappointedly. "You don't think? Maybe you should've thought about it a little harder before getting behind the wheel with alcohol running through your veins."

"I wasn't drunk," Nathan repeated, but he didn't have a chance to say anything further before his best friend shook his head one last time and followed the path Jake took out of the room. Nathan sighed and stalked off in the opposite direction. He just couldn't win today. No matter what he did this evening, everything was going south. First the fight with his grandfather, then his father bullying Haley, and finally being the driver in a car accident that left her injured. Now, the icing on the cake was his friends and family thinking him drinking was the reason he didn't see the other car coming. All Nathan could feel was helplessness. He was surrounded by people that love him, but still felt completely alone. As he walked down a desolate corridor deep within the hospital, Nathan turned the knob on a plain looking door and walked into the quiet room. He sat down in one of the old wooden pews and put his head in his hands. Maybe all he needed was to have a little faith.

"Hey, are you alright?" the blonde asked and gently laid a hand on the boy's rigid form.

"No, not really. I just really need for her to be okay," Jake whispered vulnerably. "She's all I have."

"I know," Peyton said soothingly. "You've just got to believe that she's going to pull through this. Haley is a remarkably strong girl and I just know the doctors are going to fix her up and she'll be good as new when she wakes up."

"What if she isn't, Peyton? What if the doctors can't do anything to fix her?"

"Shh, Jake. You can't think things like that, all the what ifs will eat you up. You have to stay positive and optimistic that Haley will be fine."

"How do you know?"

"When I was little my mom was in a car accident," Peyton supplied softly.

"Was she okay?"

Peyton shook her head softly. "No, she died. But her situation was nothing like Haley's. My mom forgot to buckle her seat belt and was thrown from the car."

Jake wiped a solitary tear off his cheek. "That's what happened to Jimmy too. The seatbelt snapped in half and he was thrown through the windshield."

"Nothing like that happened to Haley, though," Peyton stated upbeat and rubbed Jake's arm to comfort him. "She'll be fine," she repeated her mantra.

He nodded his head slowly. "I really hope you're right."

" I am. Now come on, let's go back inside. You should be with the people that are praying for the same thing you are."

They duo stood up off the stone bench they were sitting on and started making their way back to the gloomy waiting room. "Hey, Peyton?"

"Yeah?" Peyton answered in acknowledgement.

"Thanks for stopping me from hitting Nathan. If I had, I'm sure Haley would disown me as her best friend again, and thanks for coming out here and making me feel a little better. It means a lot to have someone to lean on through this."

"You don't have to thank me, Jake. I wanted to do it."

Jake smiled shyly at the blonde beauty and continued walking alongside her back through the hospital. Despite the situation, he felt an unfamiliar sense of excitement roll through his stomach and sparks shoot through his arm where Peyton's hand grazed.

"Just please let her be okay," Nathan said aloud in the empty chapel. He had been sitting in there by himself for about twenty minutes now and these were the first words he had said. "Don't punish Haley because I've been a bad guy for most of my life. If you need to hurt me, don't hurt her in the process because she doesn't deserve that after some of the shit she's been through lately. Whatever you throw at me I can take it, just let Haley come out of this okay."

The door to the chapel opened silently and Brooke stood watching Nathan sadly. He looked so broken that her heart almost couldn't handle being there any longer. She pushed past her own hurt though and slid into the pew Nathan was sitting in and huddled up next to him. Just by sitting next to him, she comforted him in almost all the ways he needed, not even uttering a single word.

"We all know you would never drink and drive, especially with Haley in the passenger seat. Lucas is just worried about Haley and you became an easy target to pin his anger on."

"It still hurts all the same."

"I know it does, Nate, but when Haley wakes up and she's healthy again, I'm sure Lucas will apologize for not believing you."

"What if she doesn't wake up? It'll be my entire fault."

"That's not going to happen, and the only fault lies with the stupid driver who ran a red light."

Nathan didn't respond and Brooke wrapped a comforting arm around his defeated form. She gently rubbed his arm and allowed him to rest his head on her small shoulder.

Little did the worrisome teens know that two floors below them, the heart rate monitor of a certain blonde was reaching an erratic pace. The surgeons and nurses froze in confusion before beginning an organized, frantic rush when the line instantly went flat.

"She's going to be fine. I can feel it," the brunette whispered softly.