I'm back!! And I'm here with the newest chapter, sorry it took so long to get this out but I went down the shore with my friends for about two weeks and I didn't have a computer or internet! But anyway I think you'll all find comfort in the fact that this is like the longest chapter I have ever written lol. Thank you guys so much for the reviews they mean so much to me. Oh! And before I forget I suggest you guys check out the story Slow Dancing In A Burning Summer by b.freeman, its awesome.

So who is excited for the new season of One Tree Hill next week? I know I am! In the words of Karen "Woot Woot!" Hahaha. So anyway just letting you guys know that this story is coming to a close, I am thinking there will only be a couple more chapters left and then the epiloge. But I have my next story planned out and I am leaving the summary at the bottom of the page, I'm really excited about it.

So read and review! This chapter is rated M.

Disclaimer: I don't own One Tree Hill

Chapter 34

"I don't know what came over me." I said while shaking my head. Nathan and I were in the hotel room lying on the bed.

"Hales, it's me. You can tell me the truth." He said comfortingly.

I hesitated before I spoke. "Okay, truth, I saw my dad for the first time in ten years in a hospital bed and to top it all off I saw his new family." I said my voice just above a whisper.

"You don't have to go see him." Nathan told me while pulling my face up so that he could look me in the eyes.

"But that's the thing." I started while moving my head so that I was staring at the ceiling. "I want to see him; I just don't want them there." I said referring to his new family.

"Okay that can be arranged." Nathan said while nodding and standing up from the bed and pulling me up with him.

"Nathan where are we going?" I asked as he pulled me towards the door.

"I am helping you Hales, you don't want them there and visiting hours ended about 45 minutes ago." He said while walking and pulling me down towards his black SUV in the hotel parking lot.

"So?" I asked confused.

"So I am sneaking you in." Nathan said while starting up his car.

"Nathan,"

"Haley, you need to know that I'll do anything to protect you and if what you need is to see your father one on one then I am sure as hell going to help you do it." He said while putting his hand on my cheek.

"God I love you."I whispered while closing my eyes.

"I know, it's hard not to." He said with a smirk on his face which only grew wider as I lightly smacked him across the chest. "Now let's do this."

I looked at him and nodded my head as he drove off towards the hospital.

"Hi, I kind of need your help, I was going to get some coffee from the machine but it's busted." I watched from behind a wall as Nathan approached the nurse at the station.

"Oh well, I really can't leave the desk and I probably wouldn't be able to help you, maybe you could find a janitor around." She replied while looking up from the paperwork she was focused on a few minutes prior.

"See that's the thing I couldn't find a janitor and I really need the coffee, it's been a long day you think you could just check it out for me?" Nathan questioned no doubt he was sporting that famous smirk of his.

Under any other circumstances I would be jealous of Nathan attempting to flirt with other girls but that fact that the nurse was old enough to be his grandmother helped matters.

"Oh okay, come on." The nurse exited from behind the counter and Nathan followed her down the hall where the "busted" coffee machine was located.

Now or never.

I walked out from my place behind the wall and started my journey towards my father's room once I reached his door I hesitated a minute before reaching my hand out to turn the knob. I walked down the hall and the sight of Jimmy in bed engrossed in a book caught my attention. I waited a few minutes for him to acknowledge my presence but when nothing came I cleared my throat loudly.

He looked up from his book his eyes flying to mine and I could see a mixture of shock and confusion written across his face.

"Haley." He whispered.

"Well hey will you look at that!" Nathan exclaimed trying to act surprised when the nurse simply pressed the on button on the coffee machine and sure enough coffee came pouring out into the paper cup.

The nurse eyed him amused. "Doesn't look busted to me."

"You know now that I think about it I think I was pressing the off button instead of the on. Thanks for clearing that up for me." He said lamely.

"No problem." The nurse replied warily. "I have to get back to work now." She moved to walk 

away but Nathan spoke before she could take another step.

"Uh Ruth!" He said putting a hand on her arm. "May I call you Ruth?" He asked while gesturing towards her name tag. "I am so grateful for you getting me this cup of coffee the least I could do is buy you a snack from the cafeteria downstairs."

"What's going on?" Ruth asked suspiciously while turning to face Nathan.

"What makes you think something is going on?" Nathan responded quickly.

"What's your name?" She inquired.

"Nathan." He responded sheepishly.

"Nathan, I'll have you know that I am a mother of four boys and a grandmother to eight grandchildren. I am not stupid." She told him with a smile on her face.

"Look my girlfriend's father had a heart attack and she has not seen or talked to him a really long time and when we came by earlier she couldn't go see him and she finally got the courage to so I promised her I would get her in past the nurses' station which explains why we are here right now." Nathan explained with his hands shoved into his pockets.

Ruth let out a sigh. "Come on son."

"Where are you going?" Nathan asked panicked following her down the hallway back to the nurses' station.

"Look, Nathan, its late and I have a lot of work to do." She said while continuing to walk.

"But--" Nathan started hopelessly.

Ruth stopped in her tracks and turned around to face Nathan. "If you let me go back to my work I promise I won't say a thing about your girlfriend." She replied with a smile on her face.

"Thank you." Nathan breathed out.

Ruth studied Nathan's face for several seconds. "You really love her don't you?" She asked.

Nathan nodded his head. "She's the one."

"Hi." I said warily.

"What are you--"

"Mom called me." I interrupted him. "She said grandma and grandpa called her and they wanted me to know what was going on and I probably shouldn't of come but I thought that I would regret it if I didn't and mom said that you were asking for me and now that I think about it I probably shouldn't have come so I am just going to get going." I rambled while moving toward the door.

"No Haley wait!" He called out and I closed my eyes.

So close.

"I don't want you to go." He said while sitting up in his bed his book long forgotten.

"Yeah well I didn't want you to go either and look how that turned out." I mumbled.

"What was that?" he asked confused.

"Nothing." I said with a shake of my head.

"How have you been?" He asked sheepishly.

"Perfect." I scoffed. "But of course you would know that if you actually talked to me." I said while shaking my head. "This was a bad idea."

"Haley-bop." He called out as I moved for the door.

"Don't call me that." I bit back fiercely as he called me that nickname he and my mother gave me many years ago.

"What did you expect Jimmy?" I saw him wince when I used Jimmy instead of dad. "You ignore me practically all my life and all of the sudden all is forgotten because you decide that you want to start over or whatever. Guess what, it doesn't work like that." He looked surprised at the way I snapped at him and frankly I was surprised with myself.

"Haley I didn't expect anything." He said while shaking his head.

"Why did you ignore me for so long?" I asked at this point I had tears brimming out of my eyes.

"I was ashamed okay!" He admitted looking defeated.

"Ashamed?" I asked back, my voice in a whisper.

"Haley you are an incredible human being with so much potential and yeah in the earlier years when your mother and I split up I was a horrible father to you. I wasn't the type of father you needed, I wasn't there to encourage you or support you and somewhere along the way I knew that you would be better off without me in your life so I stopped speaking to you."

"That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard!" I yelled furious.

"Do you even know how much it killed me to think that my own father didn't even love me anymore?" I said with a broken voice. "Don't you think it shouldn't have been my decision to cut you out of my life or not?" I asked sarcastically.

"Haley I don't know what to say besides that was the stupidest thing I have done." He said.

"Yeah well you have a lot of contenders for that title." I bit back.

"I deserved that." He said with a shrug.

"I saw them you know." I said and Jimmy looked at me confused. "I came by earlier today and I saw your family."

"Haley I never meant to hurt you."

"It's a little too late for that." I said crossing my arms over my chest.

"Who was the little boy?" I asked.

"Your half-brother."

I scoffed. "This is unbelievable."

"Haley will you just hear me out?" He pleaded.

I looked at him for a few minutes before obliging and nodding my head. He let out a breath and pointed to the chair situated beside his bed. I walked over to it and uneasily sat down mentally preparing myself for what he was about to say.

"Your mother and I drifted apart, we were fighting constantly and we just weren't the couple we used to be so I found comfort in someone else. It was stupid and wrong but I couldn't take it back so your mother and I got a divorce. After that it was really hard for me, I lost everything in one night. I became a man I never wanted to be… I wasn't a good father to you and I hated myself for it so I thought it would be best if you didn't see me anymore. I stopped calling and visiting and every time you tried to contact me I ignored it. And it killed me inside because I knew I was hurting my baby girl, but I did what I thought was best for you." He took a deep breath and continued on with his story. I now had tears falling from my eyes from the painful memories that we flooding back into my brain. I was surprised to look up and see my father crying too.

"I stayed in California for a while but I found myself stopping my your school to check on you, or standing outside your house ready to knock on the door and see if you were okay while your mom was away on business trips. I thought that me coming back into your life would just ruin things for you. You had a great life, you had your friends and your mom and I thought I would just make everything worse. So I moved to North Carolina, I didn't tell anyone. I was here for a couple of years I got a new job and this advertisement company and I was becoming the old Jimmy again. And then I met Elizabeth, the woman you saw earlier. She saw past all my mistakes and she helped me to become that better person. We never intended on having any children, she already had three grown boys from a previous marriage but then out of now where she got pregnant, and that's how we got Matthew."

"Are you okay?" He asked me after a while of silence.

"Its just a lot to take in." I said my voice betraying me and cracking as I spoke. "You have no idea," I started while shaking my head and willing the tears to subside. "How hard it was for me to grow up without a father in my life."

"Haley," Jimmy said while reaching to grab my hand. I instantly pulled it away as if I was just burned and I heard him take a deep breath. "Having this heart attack made me realize that life is short and that I need to mend the mistakes that I have made, so I asked my parents to call you because I need you to know how sorry I am for everything I have done to you." I looked up at him and all I could see in his eyes were regret and sincerity.

It seemed like at that point my brain had no control over my emotions due to the tears that were still falling out of my eyes. "Sorry doesn't make everything better." I said in a whisper.

Once again Jimmy reached out to grab my hand and surprisingly this time I didn't pull away. I felt him move his thumb over my knuckles, the way he used to when I was a little girl and upset about something. "But it's a start right?" He asked hopefully.

I looked up at his face his tear stained cheeks equally matching mine and I nodded at him as he immediately pulled me into a hug while whispering 'I love you' and 'Sorry' into my ear repeatedly.

"Ruth can we like take a break or something?" I walked out of my dad's room looking like a mess to see Nathan helping the nurse at the station filing some folders into a cabinet.

"You said that you would help me." The nurse responded with a chuckle.

I cleared my throat and both Nathan and the nurse turned to look at me. Nathan dropped the folder that he was holding and ran to my side. "Are you okay Hales?" He asked me while grabbing my hand. I mustered a smile and nodded my head. "I think I'll be okay."

"So I'm guessing I'm in trouble?" I turned to the nurse behind the counter.

"Were you just visiting a patient?" She asked my with a smile on her face.

"No she wasn't, Ruth honestly, it's after visiting hours." Nathan answered her back with a smile on his face. He turned to look at me and he took my hand in his while intertwining our fingers. "We better get going." I nodded and turned towards the nurse.

"Thanks for everything."

"Not a problem dear. Oh and Nathan next time you want to sneak somebody in after visiting hours come up with a better excuse than a busted coffee machine. And here I thought kids these days were more creative." She said jokingly.

"Will do." Nathan walked toward the exit doors of the hospital and I felt him place his hand on the small of my back leading me to his car. When we got outside I stopped and pulled him towards the nearest bench and sat down pulling him with me.

"I just wanted to say thank you for everything." I said. "You doing this meant so much to me." And I meant it, the fact that Nathan would go through all this for me really just makes me fall in love with him all over again.

"I told you Hales, I would do anything for you. I love you." He told me while laying a hand on my cheek and I immediately leaned into his touch.

"I love you too." I said while leaning up to capture his lips in mine.

"Come on. Let's go back to the hotel; it's been a long day."

Twenty minutes we both stumbled into the hotel room laughing and soaked. It started pouring when we were halfway to the hotel and then we had to run from the parking lot to the lobby and we got extremely wet in the process.

"Ya know Hales, I'm starting to think that rain's our thing." Nathan said teasingly while walking into the bathroom and grabbing us some towels peeling off his shirt in the process I froze with my towel in my hand and look at him sitting on the bed trying to dry himself off.

"What?" He questioned me with a bewildered look. And I realized I was just standing there starting off into space

"I wanna do something okay." I said while a small smile graced my lips. I dropped the towel on the floor and lifted my soaking wet shirt over my head and threw it on the floor leaving me in only a black bra and jeans. Nathan looked surprised and started to speak. "Hales…"

"No, it's okay, it's okay." I said while smiling and leaning down to capture his lips I leaned down on top of him and he pulled me down onto the bed with him. My lips roughly collided with his and soon our tongues were fighting for dominance. We broke apart for air a couple of minutes later. Nathan was holding a piece of my blond hair between his thumb and forefinger and rubbing it. "Are you sure about this?" He asked.

"I could love you forever Nathan Scott." I said while leaning up to plant a soft kiss on the side of his neck.

"So could I." He responded while looking at me in the eyes.

"I'm sure." I said and without any warning Nathan leaned down and pressed his lips against mine in a slow and passionate kiss. Without thinking my hand traveled down his chest and made their way to his basketball shorts, I pushed them down leaving him in his boxers. My heart rate sped up at the sight of him.

"I love you for choosing me to be your first." He mumbled as he unclasped my bra and started massaging my breasts. I found my voice and threw my head back. "Only you baby."

Soon enough my jeans were off leaving me and him in our underwear. "God you are so beautiful." Nathan breathed out while looking at me up and down.

"I need you." I breathed out while pulling his head down into another kiss. Boldly I moved my hands down to his boxers and discarded those as well leaving him completely naked. Soon enough he did the same to me.

"Wait." He reached down and pulled a condom out of his shorts and rolled it onto his length. He positioned himself at my entrance and leaned down to place his forehead against mine. "I love you so much."

"I love you too." I said while nodding.

"I don't want to hurt you." Nathan said scared.

"You won't."

With one last look from me Nathan eased himself into me and slowly rocked us back and forth. "God baby." He mumbled against my lips.

I was feeling this knew sensation I had never felt before as Nathan moved on top of me. "You're almost there baby." He whispered in my ear while leaving a kiss on my earlobe.

A few minutes later Nathan collapsed beside me and our heavy panting filled the room. I was trying to get my heart rate to decrease when I heard Nathan's voice.

"It's going to be you and me Hales. Always and forever."

Tonight

Nathan is going nowhere fast, drowning himself in self-pity every night his friends and family worry that no one will be able to save him. But Nathan knows the truth, the only person who can save him is the one he pushed away years ago. What happens when Haley returns to Tree Hill and realizes that love doesn't fade as easily as people think. NH