There was a knock on Lucas' door. He opened it with his basketball in hand. "Hey I was just on my way out," Lucas said.

"Oh," Nathan said sounding disappointed, "I'll just go then," he said turning to leave.

Lucas could sense something was wrong, "Nate wait," Nathan turned and looked at him, "I was just gonna walk down to the river court do you wanna come? We could talk."

"Yeah ok," Nathan said and they set out.

"So what's up," Lucas asked as he dribbled the ball down the street.

"Uh I'm a freakin' idiot," Nathan answered.

"What happened?"

"Keith had a fever this weekend. My mom said it was no big deal kids get sick all the time. She said it was no reason to ruin my plans for the weekend so I didn't mention it to Haley," he answered.

"Man you are an idiot," Lucas said.

"It gets worse," Nathan continued, "the fever broke but he was acting funny the last few days. You saw him. Well this morning I was checking on him and his fever came back. I panicked and we took him to the doctor. It's just a strep infection but I had to mention the fever over the weekend. Of course Haley is mad and I don't blame her but she won't even talk to me."

"It's just a strep infection," Lucas said, "its not serious so she'll get over it."

"I know but why do I do things like this," Nathan asked.

Lucas didn't know exactly what that meant or what he should say so he just shook his head.

"I screw up make stupid choice out of love of course and then I don't tell her. I'm afraid of how she'll react when I do but instead of taking that risk I don't mention it then when the truth does come out it's worse than if I had just said something," he was shaking. "I didn't mention Daunte because I though I was doing the right think fixing our problems it was no big deal until he came after me. Now Keith had a fever no big deal I didn't want to ruin my plans for Tric but it bit me in the ass with Keith still being sick. That's my kid too so I get it I should have said something sooner but he's ok, it's ok but she won't talk to me," he finally stopped.

"So stop screwing up or at least start talking to her tell her things stop worrying about how she'll react, she's not going to leave," Lucas said. "Look Haley loves you. You messed up with Daunte but somehow you found your way back so you'll get through this it's small but you gotta stop screwing up or talk to her if you do or hell maybe try both."

Nathan took the ball from Lucas and started shooting around. "Are you sure you should be shooting?"

"Doctors say no but you know the kind of therapy it is," Nathan answered.

"Hey its Nathan leave a message," his voicemail said.

"Where are you," Haley asked then continued, "look I'm sorry I'm being stubborn will you come home so we can talk please," she said sounding angry at the end. She hung up and dialed Lucas, "hey is he with you?"
"Yes," Lucas answered.

"Well will you send him home please," she said firmly.

"Ok, will do," he replied.

Twenty minutes later Nathan walked in the door looking very nervous. He put his keys on the table never breaking eye contact with Haley. "Your phone's off," she said. He reached into his pocket and turned his phone on. "I left you a message," she said grabbing something from the coffee table and handing it to him, "read this."

He looked at the magazine, he had called it but that wasn't what he wanted to talk about, "is this really why you wanted me to come home," he asked.

"Just read it," she said sounding frustrated.

When he finished he said, "wow, who do you think their source was?"

"Who cares," she answered, "it's what they said that made me want to talk to you."

"Oh," he said. "So someone thinks we can survive anything or anyone," he paused, "too bad anyone and anything happens to be me and my stupidity."

"Nathan," Haley said sympathetically.

"No, Hales I don't know why but I used to open up to you and tell you anything and not worry about how you would react. I mean even when things were bad between us like when you came back from the tour and I came back from High Flyers. Even then when I was hurt and angry and confused I still felt like I could tell you exactly how I felt even if it wasn't what you wanted to hear and I knew I wouldn't stress about your reaction. Then Daunte happened. I thought I was doing what was best but I knew deep down you wouldn't like it. Then things got bad so I felt I couldn't tell you 'cuz it would put you in danger. I know it was stupid. Now I go and be stupid by not mentioning Keith's fever just because I was worried about how you would react."

"He's gonna be ok," Haley said, "so will we. You're not to blame Nathan. Think about it I left you twice in reaction to you telling me something, the first time you gave me an ultimatum which was wrong but I handled that wrong too and the second time you were being honest even though it was after the fact and I shouldn't have left then either. You should be able to tell me anything and trust that we will deal with it together and I haven't made that easy in the past for us but I want to so you need to start telling me things and I need to deal with that instead of getting angry and leaving, but you need to tell me things before they get bad."

He walked over to her, "I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry too," she said.

"I'll try harder."

"Don't try Nathan, just do," she said hugging him, "and I will too."

"Ok," he said wrapping his arms around her, "so what are we gonna do about the tabloids? They got it right minus the details of Daunte which could ruin my career."

"Do you want to address it then," she asked.

"Do you?"

"I don't know. What else can we say that they don't already know? We could confirm it tell it our way," she answered.

"I guess, let them know shit happens but we're happy and it's our life our business they shouldn't care about it," he said.

"Well we have an interview tomorrow with people magazine at the café if we want," she said.

"Ok," he said.