First of all, let me just tell you all thank you so much for the replies!! I love reading them all, and they make me want to keep on writing! I swear I get on my laptop every night to crank out another chapter...it doesn't always work out, but I try! Secondly, I just wanted to address something that was brought up in a review...it was kind of brought up that it was confusing why Nathan and Haley thought their kiss was wrong. And I can totally see why it would be, so I wanted to just tell you what I was thinking when I wrote it just to clear up that confusion. In my head, they are both so much older than they were when they were married, and they both have significant others now. They've grown up in the fact that they realize they can't just go kissing other people whenever they want. But at the same time, they're both confused when it comes to each other. Their heads and their hearts are saying two different things, and when it comes to the two of them together, they really can't figure out right from wrong. Anyway, I hope that helps and enough of my rambling! Here's chapter eight...it's pretty big for Nathan so I hope you like it! :)

-Lindsay

"Jared!" Haley snapped out of whatever it was she was in and ran towards her fiancé. "What are you doing here?! I thought you had to work!"

He opened his arms and picked Haley up, spinning her around. It felt so good to hold her again. She hadn't been gone that long, but every time she left for a concert tour or something, he hated it. He hated not having her around. Even though he was busy with work, it was comforting knowing that she was still in the same town as him, just a few minutes away if he needed her. "I got off. I wanted to surprise you."

When Jared set her down, he quickly pecked her lips. "Well, you did!" she replied, bringing her fingertips up to where he had just kissed. As much as she hated the thought rolling around in her head, she was kind of disappointed that he had just kissed over where Nathan had. There was something about Nathan that had always pulled her in, and when he kissed her, she knew it was happening all over again. Even though it was wrong.

"Good!" He kissed her again and then poked his head around Haley to see who else was in her room. He understood why Brooke was there, but Nathan Scott? Why in the hell would a basketball player be in her room? "Hey, Brooke." He smiled at her.

"Hi," she replied, stepping up to give him a quick hug. "It's nice to see you. It's been a while."

"Yes it has," he agreed, nodding. "But I'm here now. Maybe we should all go out sometime while we're here…like we did when you and Lucas came to California."

She told him that was a good idea before excusing herself, saying she was going over to Peyton's. Haley smiled up at Jared…well, she tried to smile. She was still a bit shaken up. So much had happened in one day. "Jared, this is Nathan. He's a, um….a friend of mine from high school."

Realizing that Haley hadn't told Jared about the two of them and their marriage way back when, Nathan jumped in. He owed Haley that. He owed her some help for all the times she had helped him out back in high school. "She, uh, she tutored me. I would have failed junior year if it wasn't for your girlfriend here."

"Fiancée," Jared corrected, shaking Nathan's hand. "Hales, you never told me you went to school with Nathan Scott."

"Ah," Nathan responded, looking down at Haley and then back up at Jared. "You must be a basketball fan."

"Damn right I am. You got screwed last season in that game against the Bobcats, man. Tough call."

"Tell me about it," Nathan muttered. "But hey, we'll kick their asses next season. I guarantee it. They lost Okafor."

"You guys deserve to win. So…Scott? Like as in related to Lucas?"

Nathan's eyes widened. Haley really had not told Jared anything about her past. He figured that Jared would at least know that Lucas was his brother. That wasn't a big secret, and he found it very strange that Haley never even bothered to share that information with the man she was supposed to marry.

As he looked between the two of them, he realized that they just didn't fit together. Haley seemed…nervous around him. And he knew it wasn't just because her ex-husband was in the room. It was because her life was a total lie when she was around him. She'd been faking so much to please him that she wasn't even herself anymore. That scared the hell out him. Haley had never been one to hide who she was. She was always proud of herself, and the fact that she wasn't herself around Jared only proved that she was different - more so than he wanted to believe.

"I'm his brother," Nathan replied as he watched a pleading look come across Haley's eyes. "I'm surprised he never mentioned it. Or Haley even."

"When the four of us get together, it's kind of all about partying," Haley explained, taking hold of Jared's arm. "Right, honey?"

"Yeah," he confirmed. "We have a lot of fun together when they come around…lots of fun with alcohol."

"Really?" Nathan raised an eyebrow. "I always remembered you being a lightweight, Hales."

"Things have changed, Nathan," she said tersely. "Nathan had a mix up with his room so he's been staying with me. That's why we've got the cot set up over there." She pointed. "We were waiting until another room opened up for him…in fact, Nathan, you and I can go see if we can get you another room now. I mean, Jared's here so obviously I'll be rooming with him. But while Jared gets settled, you and I can go down and check about getting you your own room."

"That sounds good to me," Jared said, kicking off his shoes. "Thanks for watching over my girl, Nathan."

He gave a slight smile. "It was no trouble. Hales?" He offered her his arm and they left the room together, catching the elevator. "He doesn't know anything about you," he accused her once they were inside.

She let go of him and crossed her arms over her chest. "My past is something that I'm not too proud of, Nathan," she replied as she hit the button for the ground floor. "So much happened back then, and I'm sorry that I don't like sharing that."

"Okay, Haley, you know what? I can understand you not wanting to tell like fans or paparazzi or even someone that you've only known two weeks. But the guy you're marrying? You owe him the truth about your life!"

"Why are you so concerned about this, Nathan?" she bit out. "Does your girlfriend know that you used to have a wife back when you were sixteen years old?"

"Don't make this about me," he ordered her. "This is about you and how you're committing your fake life to that guy in our room."

"It is no longer our room. In fact, it was never our room! It was my room, and you just barged in!"

"You let me!" he defended. He knew what she was doing. She was fighting with him so they could avoid the real issue at hand. He'd played that card with her several times when they were together. But Nathan Scott was going to ignore that. He was going to get the truth out of her. One way or another, he would.

"Well so what if I did?" she fired back, putting her hands on her tiny waist. "I was being a nice person which is so much more than you can say the day we finally saw each other again! You were an ass that entire day!"

"I apologized to you for that!" he reminded her heatedly. "I apologized and you accepted, and it's water under the bridge now!"

"Thank God you are getting your own room!" she blew out. She was fed up with this. She was fed up with them being fine and then biting each others' heads off. Plus, Jared was in town now, and she needed to focus on him. The Nathan ship had sailed a long time ago. "I can't handle you anymore!"

"Yeah, it's a good thing we got an annulment, huh?" he screamed just as the elevator doors opened. They both turned to exit and stopped dead in their tracks when they saw Jared Grant standing at the open doors.

"Hey. I took the stairs," he explained. "I left a bag down here that had some work papers in it so I ran…guess it's a good thing I did. Otherwise how would I have known that the woman I'm supposed to marry has already been married?"

"Jared…"

"Don't, Haley," he warned her, shaking his head. There was a fierceness in his eyes that Haley had never seen before. "Just don't."

Nathan stepped up to him to offer some kind of explanation. What that explanation was, he didn't know. He was just going to let it roll off his tongue when his mouth opened. Something would come out. It usually did.

But as soon as his mouth opened, Jared's hand came up. His fist collided with Nathan's widened jaw, causing Haley to gasp. Nathan was sent to the floor and Jared walked away, not even looking back.

"Oh my God!" Haley cried out, dropping down to her knees. Nathan looked up at her, his hand on his aching jaw. "Are you okay?" She gently touched his shoulder and he pulled back.

"This would have been so much less painful if you had just told the truth, Haley," he blew out. "For all of us."

"I'm sorry," she responded, leaning back against the wall. "God, Nathan, I am so sorry. I'm sorry I lied and I'm sorry you got dragged into it. He had no right to hit you. Absolutely none."

He shook his head, getting to his feet. "You owe that guy an explanation." He pointed to the doors where Jared had so angrily left. "You either tell him now, or I'll find him and tell him myself."

He was threatening her. He was seriously going to threaten her and the life she had built for Jared and herself. When she met Jared, she figured it wouldn't have gone further than dating a few months. She never saw herself getting engaged again and so she was never truthful with him about being married to Nathan. She didn't tell him much about high school except that it was hard because so much drama went on in Tree Hill, and he knew that she had left when she was sixteen to tour with the Wreckers and Chris Keller.

When the two of them got engaged, she planned on telling him. After all, he was going to be her husband, and he deserved to know. Except every time she decided to bring it up, she chickened out. And then not too long after they got engaged, she got nervous, and didn't even know if she wanted to marry him. She needed time, and she figured in that time, he didn't need to find out.

And that was how she ended up where she was. On the floor of an elevator in the Covington, watching as her former husband walked away, his jaw already bruising because her fiancé had hit him for once being married to her.

Nathan didn't deserve that. In fact, he didn't deserve anything that had happened to him because of her in all the time that she'd known him. He didn't deserve the lies she told him when she was singing with Chris Keller. He didn't deserve her leaving him at the age of sixteen when he needed her and depended on her. He certainly didn't deserve being hit by Jared. Nathan had never done anything but love her, and she continued to spit on that time and time again.

She had to find Jared. Now that the truth of what had happened back then with her and Nathan was out, she needed to explain it to him. She needed to tell him what had happened in her own words, and just hope that he believed her. If he didn't, though, she couldn't blame him. She had been lying since the day they met.

Pushing herself to her feet, she briefly apologized to the man behind the front desk and walked out onto the street, determined to find Jared. He was going to hear her out.

--

Nathan was fuming as he made his way to the River Court. He couldn't believe the guy had the nerve to hit him! He hadn't lied to him. He hadn't pretended to be something that he wasn't just so they could stay together. He didn't deserve to get hit for Haley's mistakes.

But then again, he was part of the reason she had made the mistakes. He had told her a long time ago that he couldn't be with her anymore, and he pushed the annulment on her. Well, Dan did really, but that was beside the point. It was partly his fault that they had gotten the annulment, and it was partly his fault that she had lied.

When he heard a car pull up behind him, he turned around, finding his older brother. Lucas slowed the car, rolling down the window. Nathan rolled his eyes and stopped walking. He really didn't feel like talking, but Lucas was persistent, and he wouldn't give up. Nathan knew that.

"Need a ride?"

Nathan shook his head. "Thanks, but, uh, I think I'll just walk."

Lucas looked around. "Where are you going?"

"The River Court. I need to blow off some steam," he answered, beginning to walk again.

"Nathan." The tone in Lucas's voice stopped him and he turned around again. He didn't say a word, just waited on his brother to speak again. "What happened with Haley?"

"How do you know something happened with Haley?" he questioned, crossing his arms.

"You used to have a tendency to run when you two got in fights way back when. You're running now, so I figured something must have happened." Nathan sighed and nodded. "Come on, little brother. Get in the car."

He pulled open the door and settled in beside his brother. "I kissed her," he blurted out, not even thinking.

Lucas slammed on the brakes. "You what?!"

Nathan pulled back a little bit, surprised at Lucas's reaction. After all, he was the one that said there was something still there with Haley. "I kissed her, Lucas. We were talking about how everyone thought we still had a thing for each other, and she basically asked me if I did…and then I kissed her."

"Is that how you got that bruise on your jaw?" He snickered a little, earning a glare from Nathan. "Sorry. Please continue."

"We kissed, and we basically told each other some of our feelings, and it felt really good, you know? I actually felt like I was home when I was with her, Lucas, and I haven't felt that in years. And she told me that she wasn't truly happy with her life, and she didn't realize it until I kissed her."

"Damn." Lucas let out a low whistle.

"It was a really good moment, and then the phone rang, and we both realized how much we fucked up. She's got Jared, and I've got Alyssa, and we realized how wrong we were to do that…no matter how good it felt."

Lucas nodded. "Understandable…but that still doesn't explain how you got that bruise on your jaw? Did you say something stupid and she hit you? What happened?"

"Get this," Nathan started, running his hand along the bruise. "Brooke stopped in, realized what had happened, and gave us a little lecture about how we need to realize we belong together before it's too late. And then as she was leaving, Jared showed up."

"No shit?" His eyes grew wide. That was just Nathan and Haley's luck…to finally realize how they felt about each other, and then have it ruined. It seemed like timing was never good with them.

"No shit," he repeated. "Anyway, while Jared was getting settled, Haley and I go downstairs to get me another room, and we start fighting. I screamed something at her about how it was good we got that annulment, and Jared heard because he left a bag down there and had taken the stairs pretty damn fast to get it. He heard me say it, hit me, and walked out." Nathan took a deep breath when he was finished. It was a heck of a long story, and Lucas had gotten the condensed version.

"What did Hales do?" he inquired, parking the car at the River Court.

"She asked if I was okay, and I told her that she needed to tell that guy the truth or I would. And then I left."

"What? You just left her there?"

"Well, shit, Lucas. What was I supposed to do? Cradle her in my arms and tell her it was okay? Kiss her and make it all better? It doesn't work like that anymore, and in fact, it never did. I was never enough for Haley."

"You've got to be kidding me," Lucas scoffed. "You were her everything! She was just a scared teenager back then, Nate! That was why she left you! She didn't leave because you weren't enough. She left because she was scared and she had a dream, and you were too stubborn and full of pride to admit that. Hell, you still are."

Nathan ignored his brother and the two of them got out of the car and made their way onto the court. It was the one place in Tree Hill that always made Nathan feel better. No matter what was going on in his life, he would go out there and find peace. It was kind of like his sanctuary, and he spent a lot of time out there when Haley had left him. And anytime he went back to Tree Hill since then, that's usually where he ended up.

He just found himself at peace there. He could think without other people jumping down his throats. And when he was thinking, it came out clearly. He didn't have fifty thousand thoughts rushing together in his mind. Everything made sense there, but then again, most things did when he had a basketball in his hands.

As Lucas took a shot, Nathan reflected on what his brother's words had been just a few minutes before. He told him that he was too stubborn and full of pride to admit that what he did and who he was had been enough for Haley back then. And he was still the same way now. Okay, so maybe Lucas was right. Nathan knew that part of the reason he sent Haley away six years ago was because of his pride. He didn't want to take her back, and damage what little pride he had left.

But he was older now. He was Nathan Scott, star basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers. He didn't need to worry about what others thought of him anymore. He could do whatever he wanted and get respect for it. That was one of the perks of his career.

He could get back with Haley now, and not worry about how it would look to the kids in his class or whatever. That kiss had sent his mind rolling with thoughts of what-ifs even more than it had been. And the one that just kept repeating in his mind dealt was, "What if I get back with Haley now?"

And there was a part of him that really, really wanted to find out what the answer to that question was.

"Lucas." He stopped his brother from chasing after the ball and took a deep breath. "I think I want her back."