A/N: Thanks for all of the support and reviews that I've gotten. I'm so glad that people still read One Tree Hill fan fiction, considering it's the greatest show on the planet (still.)
This was the greatest feeling in the world for Nathan, next to being at home with his wife and son. The feeling of the ball beneath his hand and the sweet sound that it made after he released it and it went straight into the net with a resounding swish.
Even though it was just practice, he couldn't help but smile to himself as his eighth three pointer in a row went through the net. "Damn Nate," his teammate Ron said, pushing him against the shoulder. "Calm down and let some other people get the ball in, you hot shot."
Nathan just laughed. "Not my fault you suck, Cooper." He teased back. His team always ribbed him, albeit good naturedly, but they knew that he was the best thing that happened to the team.
"Yeah man, whatever." He said as Whitey blew the whistle.
"Alright team, that's it for practice tonight! Hit the showers and I'll see you all Monday morning, 7am sharp. Have a nice weekend." Whitey said, dismissing them. It was weird for Nathan to be at practice without Lucas riding his ass about trying the fade away, but he was glad that his brother had taken off for the weekend to go see Peyton. He didn't know if he could survive without Haley.
As he was coming out of the shower in his basketball shorts, shaking his wet hair with his towel, a couple of his friends and teammates approached him. "Hey man, get dressed! We going to a paaaar-tay!" Devon shouted.
"Yeah man, plus they're supplying the alcohol. Free booze and hot chicks? I'm totally in." Ron agreed, high fiving his friend. Then, he turned to Nathan. "You in, married man?"
Nathan shrugged, looking at the clock on the wall, seeing that it was almost ten. "Nah, probably not. I've been in class all afternoon, plus with basketball practice Haley's been by herself with Jamie. I should probably get home."
"Man, come on!" The third teammate Ricky exclaimed. "We never see you outside of practice or games, man. We get that you have a family, but you need to have time for your friends too. Just say practice ran late and come for just an hour."
Nathan was still hesitant, but he felt bad because he always declined their offers. "Fine, I'll come for one beer. But I don't have my car, so you're paying for my cab ride home."
"Deal my brother." Ron said, slapping him a high five. "Let's get this show on the road."
Considering Nathan had been in college for almost three months, he had never actually been to a college house party before. Normally between school, homework, basketball and Jamie, he didn't have any free time. He was still a little skeptical, but seeing everyone relaxing and having a good time put his mind a little bit at ease.
He grabbed a beer off the table and met up with his friends, determined to have a good time. "Just one beer." He reminded himself.
Nathan wasn't sure when that one beer turned into ten or eleven, and he also wasn't sure how he ended up on the dance floor with some brunette grinding on him, but he was pretty sure it had something to do with peer pressure.
The girl had a drink in one hand and she was dressed in pretty skimpy clothing and he was pretty sure her name started with an A. Ashley? No, Audrey? "My name is Aubrey." The girl suddenly spoke.
Nathan gave her a confused look. "What?"
"You were talking out loud. My name isn't Ashley or Audrey, It's Aubrey." She laughed and put her hand on his arm. "You're pretty wasted aren't you?"
He shrugged. "I was only supposed to have one beer!" He yelled over the music that had suddenly gotten louder.
"Well obviously you've had more than one, or else you're just a lightweight."
She was flirting with him, clearly, but he wasn't interested. He frantically searched his pockets for his phone and then sighed irritably. He must have left it in his gym locker. "What time is it?" He asked her.
She glanced at her cell phone. "A little after one, why?"
His eyes nearly popped out of his head and he got sober pretty quick. "Shit!" And he turned to make his way out of the crowd. He heard her calling behind him but he kept walking until he found one of his friends. "I need to borrow your phone and some money for a cab, man."
"Yeah sure thing." Ron said, clearly not as drunk as Nathan was. "You alright?"
"I'm just really, really late." He muttered. "Hi, yeah, can I get a cab to …"
Haley was worried. Her son almost had a fever of 102 degrees and her husband was nowhere to be found and wasn't answering his cell and it was already one thirty. She was pretty sure practice should have been over at ten, eleven at the latest.
She tried his cell one more time and when she got the voicemail again, she put the phone down in frustration and kissed the top of Jamie's head. "Shh, you're going to be okay baby." She whispered softly in his ear as he whimpered, rocking him side to side.
Haley felt his pain. He was cranky, tired and fussy, exactly the same as she felt. He hadn't slept since he woke up from his nap when she got back from school, and that was at two, so it had almost been twelve hours. "Come on Jamie, Mommy's going to give you a bath and make everything better."
Jamie's favorite time of the day was bath time, so while Haley was gently washing him with the warm water, he was silent, staring up at her with red-rimmed eyes. After he was dry and in his pajamas, she heard the door close. "Nathan?" She called out, rushing out of the bathroom. He stood in the doorway, fumbling to get his shoes off. "Where have you been? What happened to your phone?" She asked.
"I left it in my locker." He mumbled.
She peered at him, suspicious when Jamie reached out for him and Nathan didn't immediately take him. "What's wrong…?" As she caught a glimpse of his hazy eyes, she glared. "Are you drunk?"
"Haley…"
"You've got to be kidding me!" She exclaimed.
Nathan narrowed his eyes at her. "What? So I went out and got drunk. It's Friday night and I'm a freshman in college. What's the big deal?"
"The big deal is that you have a wife and a son at home, who were extremely worried about you when you didn't come home! That is the big deal!"
"Jesus Christ, Haley. I went out one time! It's not like I asked to be stuck at home all the time with a kid."
Haley went into a stunned silence for a minute. "You think I asked for this? You think you're the only one who stays home with him? When do I ever go out other than school? Who takes care of Jamie when you have basketball practice almost every day after school, huh? That's pretty selfish of you to say, Nathan. If we're such a damn burden to you, you can just walk out the door right now!" She exclaimed, storming off with Jamie who was now bawling. "And by the way, your son had a fever of 102 degrees while you were out partying." And then she slammed the door to the nursery shut.
Nathan laid in Lucas' bed for hours, wondering what had gotten into him and how he could have said such spiteful words to the love of his life. After a good few hours of tossing and turning, he couldn't take it anymore. He crept out of the room and into his bedroom, only to find the bed empty.
Instead he found her sitting on the couch with a blanket wrapped around her shoulders, staring at the blank screen of the TV. "Hales…" He said, sitting down next to her. She jerked away when he touched her, which made him flinch. "Baby, I'm sorry."
"Don't." She said hollowly, turning away from him.
"Haley please…"
"How could you say those mean things about me? About your son, who loves you so much?" She asked him. "How could you?"
Nathan couldn't come up with an answer that would make this all go away. "I didn't mean it."
"Yes you did."
"Haley, no I didn't."
She turned to him angrily. "Yes, you did! If you didn't mean it, why would you say it!? If there was not a single shred of truth to what you said, why would you say it?"
He ran his hands over his face. "Because I'm an idiot."
"Well at least there's something we can both agree on." She muttered. "And I'm an idiot too. For thinking that you could handle this."
He couldn't believe what she was saying. "That's not true and you know it. I love Jamie and I love you."
"You resent us!" She cried. "Ever since I told you I was pregnant when you got that scholarship, you've resented us!"
"That's not true!" He yelled back, louder than her, hoping that she would understand the words that were coming out of his mouth.
Both of their screaming woke up Jamie, who starting screeching uncontrollably in the other room. Nathan immediately stood up, but Haley locked her hand tightly around his wrist. "I got him. I wouldn't want him to be a burden or anything." She said tightly. Before she walked away, she turned towards him one last time. "You said the words, Nathan. And now you can't take them back."
Nathan had never felt so sick in his life. So he did the only thing he could think of, he called Lucas. "I screwed up, man." He told his older brother after he sleepily picked up the phone. "I screwed up bad, and I don't know how to fix it."
"You're a fucking moron." Was all Lucas could say after Nathan had finished telling him everything.
"I know, man."
"God you're a fucking moron." He muttered again. "How the hell did you convince Haley to marry you twice?"
Nathan sighed. "If you're just going to call me names and not help me, I'm just going to hang up."
"Wait, wait, sorry." Lucas interrupted and then paused. "Fucking moron. Okay, I'm done now I swear. But seriously Nate, I don't know if there's anything I can do to help you right now. Haley will forgive you, she loves you, but right now she's hurting. Just make sure you continuously let her know that you love her, by telling her and showing her. And if that fails, I'll be back Sunday night to pick up the pieces and save the day, as usual."
Nathan rolled his eyes. "You're a real superhero Luke." He said sarcastically. "But thanks, I'll see you in a few days. Tell Peyton I said hey."
After he hung up, he looked over at his clock and saw that it was almost four thirty. She had heard Haley go into their room about forty minutes ago, so he figured she was sleeping by now. He quietly crept through the door and went to her nightstand to grab the handheld monitor. When he stopped to look at her, his heart skipped a beat. She looked beautiful when she slept, hair fanned out against the pillow even though he could tell from the little bit of moonlight illuminating her face that she had been crying.
He planted a kiss on the corner of her eye sadly, and closed the door behind him gently. He placed the monitor beside his head and dozed off, hoping to get a couple hours of sleep in before Jamie got up.
Fortunately, because he had a late night, Jamie slept until eight, which was later than his normal six thirty, seven am routine. Unfortunately for Nathan, that still meant he only got three and a half hours of sleep to get him through his day of hard work and grovelling.
Even more so, Jamie still wasn't feeling well, so he was as cranky as ever. He knew that whenever he wasn't feeling good or was cranky or unable to sleep, Haley always gave him a bath, so that's just what Nathan did. His cries quiet and his fascination with his little rubber ducky that he loved grew, especially as Nathan squeaked it for him. He even managed to get a few smiles and even a laugh out of him.
After he was dry, changed and dressed for the day, Nathan took him into the kitchen and put him in his high chair and started rummaging through the fridge to find the applesauce that they had introduced Jamie to earlier that week.
As Nathan prepped, Jamie whined, banging his hands on the highchair irritably. "Shh, buddy. We don't want to wake up Mommy okay? She needs her rest." Nathan whispered as he brought over the bowl and his little plastic spoon over. "Are you ready for some applesauce Jimmy Jam?" He scooped a little on to the end of the spoon. "Nathan Scott steals the ball and dribbles down the court. He's wide open behind the line, and he goes in for the shot…" He swished the spoon into Jamie's mouth and pulled it out slowly. "And he makes the shot to win the game! The Tree Hill Ravens are champions again!" And then Jamie spit the food out across Nathan's face and started to cry. "Okay, apparently we are not champions." He muttered, wiping off his face with his sleeve and scooping up his son. "And apparently cranky Jamie isn't in the mood for solid foods. Lets try a bottle instead huh?"
He ate happily from the bottle, and Nathan felt relieved to see that he was eating, which meant he felt better. Jamie was notorious for starving himself when he wasn't feeling well. By touching his forehead, Nathan could see that his skin was starting to cool down also.
After he was sufficiently full and seemingly content, Nathan placed him in his high chair, gave him his plastic keys, a wooden spoon a couple other toys and begged his son, who looked like he was getting ready to bawl, to just play with his toys for ten minutes while Nathan made breakfast. After he managed to distract him by banging the spoon off of his high chair, he turned to the stove. He had planned to make Haley pancakes from scratch, but Jamie had other plans for him. "Pancake mix it is." He muttered, pouring in into a bowl with all the ingredients and mixing it.
Nathan smiled when he was finished, placing a separate plate for himself off to the side and starting fixing up Haley's plate. He was no five star chef, but at least he knew he could make instant pancakes. After stacking them on a plate with butter, layering them with syrup, pouring a glass of orange juice and placing a small flower in a vase and putting everything onto a tray, he snuck into their room and placed it on his wife's nightstand.
He debated on waking her so she could eat, but it was already ten and he saw her still cuddled up in her blankets, not even stirring and he knew that she desperately needed the extra rest and he let her be. She could eat it when she woke up.
He closed the door again and went back into the kitchen, where his son was quickly tiring of the toys in front of him and desperate for his dad's attention. Nathan brought him into the living room to play, knowing that he would go down for his nap soon. Or at least he hoped, because he was exhausted.
Two hours later, after his bottle, he finally dozed off. But that was after Nathan had to deal with two messy diapers and a spit up accident. Now that they had introduced him to solid foods, his diapers were getting stinkier and more frequent and there was nothing Nathan hated more than being on diaper duty. Both times he had almost woken Haley up but he promised himself that he would man up and get through it, considering she did it on a regular basis.
Nathan put him down in his crib gently, happy that he went down easily and without a fuss today and then went out to clean up Jamie's toys and the mess he had made in the kitchen. When he realized it was almost twelve thirty, he sighed and went to achieve the cold, soggy pancakes and lukewarm juice from their room to throw out. And as he was doing those dishes, Haley stumbled out of the room with squinted eyes. "What time is it?" She mumbled.
He had unplugged her alarm clock this morning, just in case she stirred and woke up in a panic after seeing the time. "Just about twelve thirty." He replied.
Her eyes widened in panic. "What? Where's Jamie? Has he slept this long too?"
"No, I got up with him at eight. I took the monitor out of your room so you could sleep in. We also made you breakfast in bed, but it got cold because I didn't want to wake you up to eat it. I just put him down for his nap if you want to go back to sleep."
Haley looked at the floor. "No, I'm fine." She muttered, going to sit on the couch.
Nathan sighed, drying his hands on the dishtowel and following her over. 'Haley, I need to talk to you." He said as he sat down next to her. She still shrugged off his touch, but it was more out of lingering anger than the rage that she had last night. "I spent all last night and this morning thinking that I wanted to do something special for you, and how I wanted to tell you how much I love you and appreciate you. But after spending only four and a half hours watching Jamie and cooking and cleaning, I finally realize that there is absolutely nothing that I can say or do that will accomplish that."
"Nathan…"
"I finally realized today how hard you work every single day to get good grades and take care of the house and make sure that Jamie is well taken care of and well loved, and me as well. And after today, Haley James Scott, I now love and appreciate you even more than I already did and I promise on everything that I will never, ever take you for granted again."
Nathan reached over and wiped a single tear that had fallen from Haley's cheek. "God damn you, Nathan!" She exclaimed half-heartedly. "I wake up determined to be mad at you, and then you have to go and say something like that!"
And then she was kissing his mouth and he was so happy to have her in his arms and feel her body through her thin white pajama t-shirt. "I love you so goddamn much, Haley." He mumbled through their kisses.
And he really, truly did.
OTH Quote of the day: "Okay, listen sister. I joined cheerleading, and I stayed in this stupid draft because of who? You. Now I am this close to getting an actual date with Nathan, so if you don't suck it up and go out with Chris Keller, I swear the only pus-infected sores you're going to be licking are your own when I get through with you, do you get it?" – Haley James Scott 3x07