Okay I have to rant about last night's episode. If you don't want to see my rant or didn't see last night's episode, skip ahead. First off, I hate Carrie with an immense burning passion. Though I did find it funny that she was talking about seeing Nathan's jealous side and he said something along the lines of You haven't seen my jealous side yet and then she saw it when Jason smacked Haley's butt. I laughed in Carrie's televised face, not gonna lie, but I was kinda sad that Haley got mad for Nathan standing up for her, though I do understand why she was so upset. Then the last few minutes with Carrie the whore and Nathan looking down at the pool when Haley was upset (why didn't Nathan ask her more about the sneaking comment?) just pissed me off again. My friend also told me some spoilers about next week and I might have to track down Mark Schwahn and smack him upside the head if they turn out to be true.

Also, something that bugged me was the repetitiveness of the Lucas/Peyton storyline. I will keep any of my opinions about the Lucas/Peyton/Lindsey/Brooke love rectangle thingy out of this, but I mean does Haley catching Lucas and Peyton making out while he's with someone else seems a lot like, oh I don't know, Hanging By a Moment in the first season? And then Brooke encouraging Peyton to go after Lucas, Brooke knows what it's like to love Lucas and then lose him to Peyton, why would she wish that on someone else even if she really thinks Lucas and Peyton do belong together? It just bugged me…

Ok my rant is over. Sorry.

I meant to update yesterday, but I was busy and after the episode I was too mad at Nathan to write, so sorry this is a day late.

Please Read and Review! Thanks so much to those that do!! I really do enjoy seeing what you think about my story.

Disclaimer: I do not own One Tree Hill or any of the characters and such, if I did Nathan would stay awesome forever.

Bold face is reality with Haley in a coma, Normal is the dream world, and Italics are the thoughts and memories.

The next installment of the story shall now begin, with an excited 18 year old Brooke….

All's Fair in Love and Basketball

"Lucas!" Brooke yelled up the hallway.

"Hey Brooke, have you seen Nathan this morning?" Lucas asked when she caught up to him, lightly tapping him on the shoulder.

"No, but you should hear what Tutor-Girl told me last night—"

Lucas cut her off, "Did Nathan and Haley get in a fight last night?"

"What? Why?" Brooke asked, momentarily forgetting what she wanted to tell Lucas.

"Because Nathan isn't here this morning. In all the time I've known him Nathan has never gotten sick, and he would never risk missing school so close to the championship."

"What does that have to do with Haley?"

"The only thing more important to Nathan than basketball is Haley. If something happened between them it will be just like last year."

"You mean where he sat around all the time without showering and being drunk?"

"Exactly—"

"Hey guys," Haley walked up, a smile on her face. "Where's Nathan? I have to talk to him about something."

"What might that something be?" Brooke asked. Her tone suggested something that caused Lucas to look at her curiously.

"The usual, whether or not I slept with Chris, if I should go back on tour; you know, normal teenager stuff."

"So you guys are good again?"

Haley frowned a little, "Well no. I'm looking for him so I can make things good though, after that blow-out we had last night he's bound to be pretty upset—"

"Crap." Lucas muttered under his breath. "Hey Brooke I gotta go, uh, check on the project we were talking about earlier. Later Hales," Lucas quickly walked down the hallway and outside of the school to his car.

"What was that about?" Haley asked Brooke.

Brooke decided to just brush it off and hopefully Haley would drop it, "Who knows what's going on with Broody."

It didn't work, "What project would Lucas need to check on that isn't here?"

"A smart person class?"

"I'm going to go check on him, you know make sure he's alright. If you see Nathan tell him I need to talk to him!" Haley said to Brooke as she walked out the doors Lucas had exited through just a minute before.

"Tutor Girl, wait!" Brooke yelled after her in the parking lot, but it was too late. Haley was in Brooke's car, the keys Brooke had made a copy of for her having unlocked the door.

Lucas quietly walked inside the Scott residence, "Nate?" He asked. There was no response. He walked through to Nathan's room, "The playstation is back?"

"At least it doesn't say I mean a lot to it, but still leave," Nathan said, bitterness in his voice.

"Nathan…" Lucas said sadly. Nathan was still wearing the work-out clothes Lucas had last seen him in last and his hair, which Nathan had let start growing out since Haley's return, lay flat and unwashed on his head. Lucas was strongly reminded of when Haley left for tour.

"What do you want Lucas?"

"You need to go back to school."

"No, I don't."

"Remember basketball? The big championship is on Saturday, the one you've been working for your entire life, remember that?"

"Why do I care? Plans can change in the blink of an eye." As Nathan said this he made a slam dunk on his game.

"Because you love it, it matters Nathan."

"Love doesn't guarantee anything Lucas—" Nathan was cut off by Lucas' cell phone.

Lucas quickly hit ignore, without even checking who it was, "You're right, love by itself doesn't guarantee anything Nate, you have totry. You have to make it work."

"Sometimes trying isn't good enough. No matter how hard you work for something it can still go away, making you waste time and energy for nothing. Then, when you realize you have nothing after all your work, you're left with pain."

"You made your point Nate, that's sometimes. Sometimes isn't always."

"Whatever Luke."

"We need you Nate, at the game. You're the star."

"I'll be at the game, can you go now?"

"You need to be at practice too. You know better than to test Whitey, missing two practices and your make-up practice in a row is going to piss him off and he won't give you preferential treatment."

"Then the old man won't win his championship."

"Nathan, why can't you just go to school?!" Lucas yelled. He was frustrated, Nathan hadn't been this hard to deal with in a while.

Nathan stared intently at the screen, he said nothing. Suddenly, realization hit Lucas. He remembered Haley mentioning the blow-out and he figured out the only reason Nathan would be this upset, "She told you she wasn't staying."

"I can't see her Luke. Whenever I see her I remember the good times, and then I realize I'll never have those times again….and that she doesn't even care."

"She does care Nathan."

"Well she has a great way of showing it."

"Look Nate, I see I can't convince you right now, but please come to practice tonight, maybe you'll remember there's more to life."

"Are the cheerleaders practicing in the gym?"

"I'll ask Brooke to change location."

"I'll think about it."

Lucas shook his head and began to walk out of the room, he paused at the door, "She really does love you Nate, she just needs time."

Lucas didn't hear Nathan's reply, "We don't have time. We only have until graduation."

As Lucas walked down Nathan Scott's driveway his cell phone went off for the third time. He glanced at the Caller ID to see it was Brooke, he knew she wouldn't give up unless he picked up, "What's up?" He asked as he walked down the driveway towards his car.

"Haley's following you."

"What?"

"She wanted to know what 'project' you were working on so she left in the direction you did. I don't know if she ended up turning around or if she is by you now."

Lucas glanced up and saw none other than Brooke's bug parked across the street, "Does she have your car?"

"Yeah, I made her a copy of the keys in case she needed to do party control and I had misplaced mine."

"I gotta go Brooke." Lucas said with fear in his voice as he noticed an angry Haley leaning against his car, glaring murderously. He had been her best friend long enough to know whenever that look was on her face things were not going to turn out well.

"Good luck Luke."

"This was your 'project' Lucas?" Haley asked him, fury radiating from her eyes.

"Hales, you don't understand…"

"You're right, I don't. Why couldn't have you told me you were going to see Nathan?"

"He wouldn't want you to know."

"Know what? That he's skipping school, because that's pretty easy to figure out."

Lucas shook his head. His eyes were a mixture of anger and sadness, "He doesn't want you to know the effect you have on him."

"What effect? Luke we got in one little fight last night, I really doubt he cares all that much."

This struck a nerve with Lucas, how can she accuse Nathan of not caring? "You don't know how much what you say affects him, you have no idea Haley! You weren't there last year when he went through the toughest time in his life!"

"Because I was following my dreams! The dreams HE encouraged me to follow!"

"But not without him! And definitely not with Chris Keller!"

"Why does everyone have to bring Chris into it?"

"Because you made out with him Haley! Because Nathan asked you to not work with him, but you did anyway! Because Chris was the one who convinced you to leave! Chris is intertwined with your music Hales, even if you don't want him to be."

"There was nothing going on between Chris and me. I thought you knew that Lucas."

"I do, but back then Haley, none of us did. We didn't hear from you for days after you left." Lucas looked away shaking his head, the hurt he had felt in those days coming back in a sharp focus, "What kind of best friend doesn't call when they finally get their dreams?"

Haley was shocked to hear real hurt in Lucas' voice, "Lucas…I'm sorry, but you have to believe me. You were always my best friend throughout this whole ordeal."

"Just like you loved Nathan most of all?"

"Yes."

"You know what Hales, you treat the ones you love the worst! You want a preview of what Nathan was like when you left, go inside. Go see yourhusband, like you should have a year ago. You say you love him, but your actions speak differently. He doesn't say he loves you, but his actions speak differently."

Lucas angrily walked back to his car and climbed inside. He drove off without another word to Haley.

Haley took a deep breath. After Lucas yelling at her, she was scared to go inside and face the one she hurt most of all. Though Lucas revealing his hurt did inspire Haley to own up to what she did and make things right, starting with Nathan. So she slowly walked up to the door and discovered it unlocked, she slowly opened the door and took a step inside.

She looked around the house and discovered how foreboding it really was. All the nice furniture and pictures of Nathan and Dan managed to instill more fear into Haley, but she kept walking to Nathan's bedroom.

She stood in the doorway and just stared, Nathan hadn't noticed her yet. He was angled away from the door, but she could still see his flat unwashed hair and that he was wearing the same clothes from the night before. She could also see the hurt in just the way he sat and how he stared so intently on the little video game figures on the screen.

"What do you want Luke?" Nathan started to ask as he scored a basket, "I already told you I would be at practice this afternoon."

"It's not Lucas, Nathan…" Haley said quietly.

Nathan suddenly paused the game and turned around so he now faced the doorway. Haley noticed how his eyes seemed almost asleep.

"Hales? What are you doing here?"

"I saw you weren't at school and I wanted to check on you and your hand."

"Lucas told you, I'm gonna kill him."

"No he didn't Nathan." Haley looked out through Nathan's window, "He kinda let me have it when he realized I followed him here."

"About what?"

Haley paused, this is my chance, "For not being there for you last year. For leaving in the first place and how I handled it."

"He shouldn't have done that. It's old news now." Nathan said. He turned back to his game.

"He was right, I deserved it Nathan."

"Whatever Hales."

"Nathan, will you listen to me?"

"Haley, will you go away?"

Haley glared at Nathan, she wanted to yell at him, but she remembered all she put him through and calmed down, "I have a deal for you."

Nathan rolled his eyes, but he knew he better accept if he wanted Haley to ever leave. He didn't like her seeing him like this, "What?"

"If I beat you in NBA Live you listen, but if you win, I leave."

Nathan looked at her with a confused expression, is she serious? Haley never understood video games, I'll easily win. "Deal."

"AH!" Nathan yelled as Haley scored another basket. "When did you get so good Hales?" He asked seriously. Originally Nathan had been going easy on Haley, but then she started playing well and he needed to actually try. He only had a 3 point lead on her now.

"When you're on a bus for hours and hours you need to find a way to entertain yourself, and lucky for me they had lots of playstation games."

"Hm." Nathan said as Haley stole the ball from him and made a three, tying the score and the third quarter ended.

"Next basket wins," Haley challenged.

"You got yourself a challenge, James."

Haley flinched at being called her stage name, by Nathan of all people, but regained her composure. Nathan had underestimated her and let her win the jump off so the ball would start off as hers in the fourth quarter.

She passed the ball in and led it down the court. She noticed Nathan eyeing her controller so she angled it away. She pressed L2 and passed the ball to a player she rarely used, Nathan was obviously not expecting that.

She had the player put up a jump shot, but Nathan knew the game better. He managed to quickly switch players and somehow block the pass so it got into one of his teammate's hands.

"Hey! How'd you do that? That wasn't fair!" Haley shouted as Nathan's player immediately ran down the court.

"Talent, all's fair in love and basketball Hales."

Haley smirked, we'll see how you like this one Scott, and she had a player run down the court, she was going to steal the ball with a move Nathan had once tried to teach her. It was a hard one to do, only possible on a fast break.

Nathan saw it coming. Haley was going to get the ball, right before she got to his player and as he was starting to the lay up, Haley paused the game.

"You know, if you wanna win so bad go ahead. I'll give it to you." Haley said quietly, still looking at the paused screen.

Now it was Nathan's turn to flinch. He remembered the father-son game, before he and Haley had even gotten together. He remembered telling Dan what Haley had just said only to have Dan put the ball into the hoop, proving how little he cared about Nathan. Nathan remembered telling Haley how it made Nathan feel one afternoon in this very room. Nathan didn't want to be like Dan, but he didn't want to get hurt even more by what Haley was going to say to him.

Nathan realized he had a decision to make, and he had to make it soon.

Haley waited a few seconds and unpaused the game, her player no longer moved to steal the ball.

At the last possible second, Nathan pressed the pass button, not allowing the shot to go into the hoop, but Haley never saw this. The blood in her veins had frozen to ice and she was looking towards Nathan's open door.

Nathan and Haley had both heard the door open and the voice of Nathan's worst adversary—besides Chris Keller—call in his pompous voice, "Honey, I'm home!"