Chapter 6 More Involved

October 22, 2003

"What are you up for tomorrow, Hales? Maybe we could go see a movie or stop by the bookstore," Lucas said.

"Uh, neither. I'm going to be hitting the books, I have that calculus midterm on Monday, remember?"

Lucas looked surprised, "I thought that you were ready for that."

"I am, mostly, but I need to review."

"But it's Friday. We always go out on Fridays." The look on his face made Haley smile at him.

"You and Nathan are going to have a great time." Haley lay back on her bed. "Take him to the game."

"What?"

Haley rolled over and opened her drawer. She pulled two tickets out and handed them over to Lucas.

"Bobcats tickets? Where did you get these?"

"I called in a few favors. I'm sorry I couldn't get you guys better seats."

"Are you kidding? This is amazing."

"Luke, how long have you been hanging out with your brother?"

"Almost three months now."

"And how many times has it just been the two of you?"

"A couple times."

"How about never. I'm always there and I always do most of the talking."

"That's because you have the biggest mouth."

Haley gave him a look. "Ha. You two are going to go to the game and you're going to be fine."

Lucas sat down at the edge of her bed, looking at the tickets. "Hey, I was just asking you to come along because I didn't want you to think that you're not welcome."

"Of course you were."

"Because you know that we love having you around."

"Of course you do."

"But if you're busy, that's fine, Nathan and I can hang out without you."

"Of course you can."

Lucas stood up. "I'll see you later."

"Bye."

Lucas got as far as the bedroom door before he turned right back around. "Okay, that was all crap."

"It was?" Haley tried to look surprised.

"You can't leave me alone with him, Hales!"

"Lucas, pretend that I'm a mama bird and you're my little chick. You're ready to fly but you're too scared so I have to push you out of the nest."

"That's a great analogy," sarcasm was dripping off Lucas' voice, "very poetic."

"Thank you." Haley ignored his tone. "I have faith in you, and you're going to have the best time of your life. Trust me."

"Charlotte is an hour away and Deb probably won't let Nathan stay out that late."

"You're probably right. It's good thing I already called and got her permission. She's fine with it. But I did ask her not to tell Nathan, I told her that we wanted to surprise him with the news."

"I don't know how we're going to get there."

"Keith told me that he could lend you his car." Haley tossed the keys to him and Lucas caught them with one hand. "There you go."

Lucas glared at her for a moment before turning to leave. For real this time. "I may never speak to you again."

"Oh, what a tragedy that would be." Haley went back to reading her book.

Haley made a face as Nathan sipped his protein shake. He'd told her that his father was making him drink the disgusting things. He finally finished the last of it, washing down the taste with the big glass of water that she'd brought out for him. Lucas walked into the café and he stood up, ready to go, then looked over at her.

"Haley, are you coming?" Nathan asked.

"Uh, not this time," Haley slung her backpack over one shoulder, "I've got a huge test to study for but you and Luke go have fun."

The look of disappointment on Nathan's face was identical to the expression on Lucas' yesterday, and Haley had to hide her smile.

Nathan turned to his brother. "Are we going down to the Rivercourt?"

"Ah, no. I thought we might try something a little different this time. Haley—"

"Thinks that it's so great that Lucas got you both tickets to the Bobcats versus Hawks game!"

Nathan's jaw dropped. "Are you kidding?"

"Show him, Luke."

Her friend shot her a look like she'd lost her mind and handed Nathan a ticket.

Nathan was practically bouncing off the walls. His dad made him watch game tapes for hours but he usually never had time to take him to see the real thing anymore. He said a quick goodbye and practically yanked Lucas out the door.

"I just wanted to call so that you wouldn't be worried Mrs. Scott. We might get back really late."

"Well, thank you, Lucas." Deb said. "But don't worry about it, I have complete faith in you. But call me before you guys start for home, okay?"

"Sure. Nathan wants to talk to you."

"Mom!"

"Hey, sweetheart."

"We're going all the way up to Charlotte for the game!"

"I know, that's so great."

"Dad's going to be so sorry he couldn't come."

"Well, make sure that you tell us all about it when you get back."

"Okay. I've gotta go."

"Bye."

Deb hung up smiling. Nathan sounded so happy, she was so grateful that he had other people in his life. Sometimes their little family felt so isolated. After her parents had moved to California to retire they only saw them a few times a year and Dan barely saw anyone on his side of the family. When they'd moved to Tree Hill she'd hoped that Nathan would be able to experience having a brother but it felt like he'd also found a place with Karen and Haley.

When Haley had called she jumped at the chance to have Nathan out of the house for a while. She and Dan barely exchanged pleasantries any more. Maybe they could talk if they had one evening alone, without having to worry about Nathan hearing them fight.

She kept thinking about what she wanted to say to her husband, he was becoming more and more distant. Even when she'd brought up Nathan going to the game he'd just shrugged and said, "You do whatever you want."

She was beginning to have serious doubts about them and that scared her more than anything. Even though finding out about Lucas had been a huge hit to their relationship it wasn't the only thing that had gone wrong, after all they'd stayed together for years after that bombshell had been dropped.

For the first time she was taking a hard look at their history. Dan had come into her life pretty quickly, she'd been pregnant and then married before she'd really realized what was happening. At the time she'd thought that it was romantic that their relationship had progressed so quickly but now she felt that maybe Dan had rushed into it to forget about the people he'd left behind.

She'd been drawn to him because he'd seemed so confident—almost cocky—but he used to have moments of sweetness. But the longer they were married the more rare those moments became.

She heard Dan's car pull up into the driveway and she moved into the kitchen to grab a drink before dealing with him. He wasn't happy at the dealership and it was really beginning to show. She didn't know what to do about it, they were fighting all the time now. He wanted her to start using her MBA to get a more lucrative job but she loved her work and now that they were both working full time she didn't have to worry about borrowing more money from her parents.

"Hey," Dan walked in, "what's for dinner?"

"I bought a roast chicken from the grocery store."

"It wouldn't hurt if we could have a home-cooked meal once in a while."

Deb gritted her teeth and didn't say anything. She just turned away and slid the biscuits in the oven to warm them. She pulled out the bags of pre-packaged salad and dumped them into a bowl. "How was your day?"

"The same."

"Dan, I was hoping that we could talk."

"About what?"

"Us."

"Do you have a problem?"

"I don't want to spend the rest of my life like this."

"Like what? As far as I can see, everything is going your way."

"What are you talking about?"

"You wanted to move to Tree Hill, and here we are. You wanted Nathan to spend most of his time with that boy, and he is. You wanted to keep the same job, and you did."

Deb gave up on trying to control her frustration. "First off, 'that boy' is Lucas. Your son. Second, I didn't want to move here. We had to because your business didn't get off the ground and we were broke."

"And if you'd just gotten a different job like I'd asked you to, we could have stayed afloat long enough for me to turn things around."

"I think seven years is long enough to determine whether or not something is going to work."

"Do we have to talk about this now? I'm hungry, can we just eat?"

"Fine."

Deb got out plates and dished up the chicken, mashed potatoes, and green beans. After pulling the rolls out of the oven she put a few of them in a napkin lined basket and put it on the dinner table. They sat down to eat and the only sound in the room was the clinking of their utensils on their plates.

Deb finished her dinner and looked up. "I want Nathan to spend more time with his big brother," she said firmly.

"No." Dan glared at his wife. "Are you crazy? They already see each other once a week. What more do you want? There's no way Nathan is going to be spending more time with Karen's son."

"Wow," Deb cocked her head, "you'd think that Karen was the one who abandoned you."

"Don't start," Dan bit out.

"The boys are getting along great and I think they're ready to see more of each other. Nathan could go over to hang out with him after school while we're still at work."

"No, I won't allow it."

"Dan." Deb was dead serious. "What makes you think it's up to you?"

"I'm his father . . ."

"Well, you're Lucas' father, too."

Dan pursed his lips and was silent.

"We never really talked about how you had another son out there that you 'forgot' to mention. Don't think that because I haven't said anything about it yet that that means you're not going to have to have that conversation with me."

"Fine, we'll talk. But you shouldn't make Nathan go over there. Do you want him to get his head filled with what they have to say to me?"

"Karen and Lucas aren't going to take their very justifiable anger at you out on Nathan. We already talked about it and they're both handling it fine."

Dan shook his head. "No, this is just a bad idea."

"Let me be clear, Dan." Deb locked her eyes on him. "Either you become supportive of Nathan building a better relationship with Lucas, or we can get a divorce and Nathan will see his brother—when he's not with you every other weekend."

Dan glared stonily at her. "You'd never divorce me."

"Try me." Deb was completely calm. "You never even apologized for lying to me for almost five years, Dan. Nathan was four before I even found out that he had an older brother. But I don't lie and I don't bluff—especially when it comes to our marriage."

"Do you really want to give me an ultimatum?" Dan asked softly.

"I'm stating a fact. Nathan's going to spend time with his brother and you aren't going to interfere. You aren't going to say one word about it or we are done."

Dan looked furious but for the first time in a long time Deb wasn't afraid. She'd pushed past some barrier in herself and she wasn't going to hide behind it ever again.

Dan threw his napkin down on the table and stalked out of the room.