Well, we are down to the end! This chapter and the one after are the last two! It's sad to be ending this story, but I think it is time. So many people have grown frustrated over their relationship (me included) haha. So this will end after 17 chapters, and our Nathan and Haley will get a happily ever after! Thanks to everyone for the replies and continued reading! You guys are the best! :)

-Lindsay

Haley shoved her sunglasses back on her head as she looked at the large house in front of her. It was on the beach, and she loved that. But she wasn't sure if it was too big for her or not. She wanted a big house when she moved to Tree Hill, but this one was huge…but it was one of the only nicer ones at the beach. She couldn't make up her mind.

She sighed, tired of thinking. Brooke had dropped her off and was running to the grocery store, and then was coming back to get her, so she probably had a half hour to kill at least. She walked around the back of the house so she could spend some time at said beach. It was beautiful, and although there were beaches in California, nothing compared to the one in Tree Hill. Maybe it was because that was where home was though. She wasn't sure.

She'd been in Tree Hill a week now, staying with Lucas and Brooke. They kept telling her they loved having her, that there was plenty of room, and that she could stay as long as she wanted, but she felt like an imposition. She had enough money to get a hotel room obviously, but Brooke told her not to - that she wanted their friend to stay with them. So she did, but still. She couldn't help feeling like she was in their way.

She got to the ocean and pulled off her flip flops, splashing around in the waves. She felt like a child again, and it had been a long time since she'd felt like that. Lately, she was just under stress. And that childlike feeling she used to get hadn't shown up in forever. Until now. She giggled when a wave came up past her knees, loving how she was feeling.

So many good things had happened in her life when she was on the beach. She had married Nathan on the beach, and even now, that was probably the happiest day of her life. She knew her whole future back then, and that it was Nathan. It was always Nathan with her. In fact, one of the first conversations she'd had with Nathan had been on a beach because Lucas had been an ass to her at one of Nathan's fifty thousand parties at the Scott beach house. They had just started their tutoring sessions, but neither really knew each other then. That night, Nathan had completely opened up to her, and it pleased her to know he could do that with her.

Another time they were at the beach, Nathan had snuck the two of them out of school. He didn't want to be there for the rest of the day, and so she had cut with him. She was at that point in their relationship where nothing was more important than him. So she'd gone with him. And they drank, and she got completely wasted, ending the day being caught by Dan Scott and throwing up in his lap. She still laughed every time she thought of that.

She smiled as she thought back on those memories, reminding herself that not everything that had happened with Nathan was bad. A lot of it was good - a lot of good. She was lucky to have spent that year of high school with Nathan. And she was lucky to have seen him again at Peyton and Jake's wedding.

Despite all the crap that had gone down.

A little while later, Haley heard Brooke's car horn honk, and then grabbed the flip flops she'd thrown haphazardly on the beach a little while earlier, and took off for the vehicle waiting in front of the house. She jogged towards the car, smiling when she saw Brooke wave. She opened the car door and settled in the front seat, glancing at the bags of groceries in the backseat. "God," she marveled, looking at Brooke. "Lucas eats a ton."

Brooke laughed. "Yeah. It's like he's a growing boy, only…he's not." She shrugged. "Whatever. It's his money buying all this food."

Haley raised an eyebrow. "What's your money buy?"

"Clothes and kinky sex toys," Brooke said bluntly, causing Haley's eyes to grow wide and send her into a coughing fit. "Whoa there."

"Okay, ew!" Haley held up a finger when she stopped coughing. "I don't ever want to hear about you and Lucas and your kinky sex toys ever again! That's disgusting! He's like my freaking brother!"

"Yes, I know." Brooke rolled her eyes. "Why you never hooked up with him back in high school, I'll never know. I mean, you had plenty of opportunities before Nathan Scott rode through on his white horse to rescue you."

"Sick, Brooke!" Haley burst out, glaring at her friend. "Lucas is like my brother, okay? That's why we never hooked up. And I would have taken a hook up with Nathan over Lucas any day! Lucas and I never swung like that!"

Brooke laughed and had a remark on the tip of her tongue, but before she could get it out, her phone rang. She went to answer it, her eyes widening when she saw who was calling. It was Nathan. She couldn't answer it when Haley was in her car, could she? She frowned, unsure what to do. Nathan might really need her advice or something, and they weren't that far from the house she shared with Lucas. She could pull it off for a few minutes without Haley realizing who it was.

"Hello?" she answered.

"Brooke, hey," Nathan responded. "Look, I need a favor."

"Well, well," she said, looking at Haley. Haley just smiled at her, completely oblivious to who she was talking to. "No 'how are you, how's life, Brooke?' Just you need a favor? I'll be thinking long and hard about that one, let me tell you."

She could practically hear him roll his eyes on the other end. "I'm in Tree Hill," he informed her, ignoring her previous remarks.

"Uh, wow." She didn't know what to say to that. She couldn't say much with Haley in the car. She didn't want her to know she was talking to Nathan, and she doubted Nathan wanted her to know. "What does that require of me?" she asked.

"Can you come get me?" he asked hopefully. "I tried Lucas, and I can't get a hold of him. You're my next bet."

"Well, I have Haley with me now," she said, glancing at her friend. "When do you need those sketches by?" She had to change the story. Otherwise, Haley would have gotten suspicious pretty quickly.

Nathan caught on immediately, grinning a little at the thought of Haley. "Oh," he responded. "Well can't you take her back to your house and come get me?"

She sighed. "An hour, you say?" She nodded to herself. "I can do that. See you in an hour!"

"Brooke!" he tried to object, but she had already clicked off. Great. Now he was stuck in the airport for an hour. What the hell was he supposed to do with his time? Read the magazines? Sign autographs for little boys who just happened to recognize him? Well, that wouldn't work. He'd broken his hand.

"Who was that?" Haley asked Brooke after she'd hung up.

"Work," she said dully, secretly pleased with herself for being such a great liar. "I have to get some sketches to them that I'd completely forgotten about, and I need to have them there within the hour. Would you mind terribly if I took you and the groceries back to my house, and you put them away for me? You don't have to if you don't want, but you'd be really helping me out." Oh. She was so lying through her teeth.

"Sure." Haley smiled. "I don't mind at all."

After Brooke dropped Haley off, she immediately headed to the airport to get Nathan. She was guessing they had some things to talk about…mainly his plan on how he was going to get Haley back. After all, that was what he was there for, and it was kind of Brooke's idea for him to come. She'd given away Haley's whereabouts, and she deserved to know what the plan was! It was only fair!

She strutted into the airport, her purse swinging back and forth from her hand. She spotted Nathan sitting on a chair, some random gossip magazine on his lap. Oh, the things boys do when they're bored. She laughed at him. His blue eyes were wide with interest as he read whatever trouble some random celebrity was in. "Nathan!" Brooke waved her hand in front of him, and his head snapped up. She could see his face turn red. He was embarrassed because of what he was reading, she could tell.

"You were supposed to be an hour!" he exclaimed, trying to tuck the magazine into his carry on bag discreetly, but failing at that miserably.

"I lied." She shrugged at him, a devious smile on her face. "How's it going, Soon-To-Be-Brother-In-Law?"

"Oh, God." He rolled his eyes. "I forgot you would be in my family soon. The horror!"

"Funny," she deadpanned. "You want a ride or not?"

"Yeah, I do," he replied as he stood up. He grabbed the bags setting at his feet and looked at Brooke. "Does she know I'm in town?"

"No. She thinks I'm taking sketches to a meeting or something. I don't really know…did you want her to know you were in town?" She eyed him suspiciously as they started walking through the airport.

"I don't think that's the best idea," he admitted.

She nodded and glanced down, noticing his hand. "Hmm. Angry much?"

"What?" He looked at her.

"Your hand." She pointed. "I'm willing to bet you hit something because you were mad about this little predicament you've gotten yourself into."

"Guilty," he said simply, sighing. "Brooke, what am I gonna do? I've gotta get her back!"

"You don't have a plan?" she asked incredulously. "Shouldn't you have a plan? You did fly across the country for her!"

"I figured I'd kind of just…wing it. Bad idea?"

"Probably," she blew out as they walked into the parking garage. "Well, we'll just have to come up with one on the way to wherever you're staying! Where is that, by the way?"

"Just take me to some hotel." He sighed. "I really didn't think any of this through. I just got my shit together, drove to the airport, and flew here."

"You must really love her," Brooke said softly, already knowing what his response would be.

"I do," he replied, smiling. "I really do."

---

"Luke!" Haley glared at her friend while she sat in his truck. She didn't even know where they were going. He'd just told her they were going for a ride, and so she'd agreed, figuring they would at least go mini golfing or something, but they hadn't! She'd been sitting in his car for an hour, and he wouldn't tell her anything! He would barely talk to her, and she was getting pissed.

Lucas could tell she was getting pissed too. But he couldn't do much about it. He was supposed to drop her off somewhere - he hadn't figured out where yet because neither Brooke nor Nathan had texted him the exact location yet. He knew if he talked to her much, he'd probably spill the beans, and no one would be very appreciative of him then.

"You could tell me where we're going!" she practically yelled at him. He glanced over at her, noticing the anger in her eyes. "Lucas Scott, I am so close to just punching you in your goodies, shoving you out of this truck, and driving myself far, far away from you!"

"God." He shuddered at her threat. "Relax. I just felt like driving, and I figured you would go, and just, like, respect that I wanted company but some quiet time too."

She raised an eyebrow. "But you're going to blast Kiss and Metallica while we drive?" She shook her head. "I'm not buying that. I don't believe you."

"Music sounds better than your voice right now, alright?" he blew out. He knew it was pretty rude, but he was going to blurt it out any minute. He was horrible at keeping exciting secrets. The sucky, life is horrible secrets? He could keep those for about a hundred years! But the exciting ones? They just would not stay in his mouth. They just always escaped it.

"Rude!" She rolled her eyes at him and looked out the window.

Twenty minutes later, as they were driving by Karen's Café for like the fifteenth time, his phone buzzed, and he grabbed it immediately. It told him to take her to the docks, tell her that Brooke was there, and just drive away. Oh, Haley was not going to like that one. He could already tell.

They arrived at the docks and Haley turned to him with a questioning look on her face. "Brooke's here," he explained. "She told me to drop you off for lunch. Her car's around here somewhere."

"Okay." She nodded. "Can we wait until I see her before you just leave me here?"

"No," he denied her, wincing at her expression. "Sorry, Hales. I've got to make it to lunch with Mouth."

"What? Luke!" she whined. He shrugged and opened the door for her, tossing her purse to her as he shut the door. "Lucas Scott!" She stomped her foot as he drove away, and turned around. She was pissed as hell now!

"Hi."

Haley whipped around at the word, her mouth dropping when she saw who was standing in front of her. Nathan! What the hell was Nathan doing in Tree Hill?

Lucas was so dead when she saw him next.