"Nathan! You have got to stay still!" a voice said, someone on each side of him pushing down on his shoulders. He struggled against them, but it was no use. At the moment, they had more strength than he did. But he couldn't see Haley. There were two beds in the trauma room. The one he was occupying, and then the one behind the curtain, where she was.

"Open the curtain," he said, his voice so overwrought with fear that he didn't recognize it.

The nurse shook his head. "We're not going to open the curtain. It looks worse than it is, Nathan. But she's going to be fine."

"It's not she," he whispered.

"I didn't hear you," the nurse said.

"Her name is Haley," he said, his voice gaining strength.

The nurse nodded. "That's good to know," he said, disappearing behind the curtain to relay the information.

"Nathan, can you roll up onto your side for me?" someone in a set of dark blue scrubs asked. "We need to get an x-ray of your cervical spine. The neck area," he clarified.

Nathan swallowed and took a deep breath, listening to the chaos on the other side of the room as he mechanically did what was asked of him.

"Get me those I-Stat results!" he heard someone yell.

"We need those X-rays!" came from someone else.

"The bleeding won't stop," he heard another voice say.

"Tell them to get an OR ready," someone said.

"An OR?" Nathan asked, suddenly gaining even more strength. "But they said she was going to be fine!" he said desperately, trying to sit up once again. Medical staff immediately reappeared at his side.

"We need someone over here with an update on the girl!" one of the people at his side yelled.

"We can't give any information," the doctor yelled through the curtain. "HIPAA laws state—"

When the man at Nathan's side suddenly swung the curtain back, Nathan realized then that he must be a doctor, or he wouldn't have said what he said next. "I don't give a fuck about HIPAA," the man said violently. "My patient is so worried about yours, that we can't get him to cooperate over here." The other side of the room went silent while people continued to work on Haley. "So, who's going to update him?" the doctor asked smugly.

One of the people on the other side of the room sighed and made her way over to Nathan's bedside. "Your friends' vital signs are fairly strong," she said softly. "We're waiting on the results of her blood tests and her x-rays so that we can assess how much damage has been done. She has a compound fracture in her leg."

"What's that mean?" Nathan asked.

"The bones in her lower leg broke and they came through the skin."

Nathan took a sharp breath at the explanation.

"It sounds bad, I know," the nurse continued, rubbing Nathan's shoulder to try and comfort him, "but it could have been a lot worse. You and your friend are very lucky," she said. "The truck hit the front passenger's side corner of your vehicle, Nathan. Haley probably locked her leg, bracing herself for impact, which caused the bones to break."

Nathan nodded. "But, she's going to be OK?"

"I think so," the nurse said. "There are no bruises on her face, so I doubt there's a concussion. It's possible, I just don't think it's probable," she said.

"Then why isn't she awake?" Nathan pressed.

"She went into shock. That's the body's way of shutting down when there's too much stress."

"Her body is shutting down?"

The nurse shook her head. "She's coming out of it, Nathan. The pain meds will help to speed that along." She reached down and squeezed his hand. "Now, can we get her to the OR?" she asked softly.

Nathan's eyes met hers. "Are you going to be in there the entire time?" he asked.

"Do you want me to be in there the entire time?" she asked.

Nathan nodded emphatically.

"Then, yes. I'll be in there the entire time," she assured him.

"Thank you," he said.

She nodded and then turned around, making her way back to Haley.

777

"Well, this is getting to be a habit," Dan Scott said as he walked into Nathan's hospital room a few hours later. "Twice in one week."

"Dad," Nathan said dryly. "Glad you could make it."

"You could show a little more appreciation at my arrival," Dan said angrily. "I had to leave an important business conference for this! I bet your mother wouldn't have done that."

Nathan shot his father a dirty look and then moved his gaze to the window. "I'm fine, thanks for asking," he said tersely.

"I know that your fine, Nathan," he said. "I talked to the doctor on my way here."

"And Haley's going to be fine, too," he said.

"Haley was with you?"

Nathan nodded.

"You didn't let her drive your vehicle, did you? Insurance won't cover the damages if you did!"

"No, Dad, she wasn't driving. I was driving."

"Were you paying attention?"

"The light was green," Nathan said. "Someone ran a red and hit us."

"You couldn't swerve?"

"Yeah, I could have," Nathan said sarcastically. "But then we'd be missing out on this off the charts father/son moment."

"I don't like it when you're sarcastic," Dan said.

"And I don't like it when you're here," Nathan shot back. He lifted his hands to rub his eyes, and then let out a deep sigh. "I'm tired, Dad. Exhausted, really. Can you come back in the morning?"

Dan nodded. "Get some sleep. Maybe you'll be in a better mood tomorrow," he said over his shoulder as he walked out.

Nathan let out the breath he'd been holding since his father walked in and looked at the clock. It was 10:00. The nurse had come in to let him know that Haley's surgery was going well and she should be out in a few hours. He shut his eyes to try and rest, but every time he closed them, he heard Haley shouting his name and a big bang followed by the sound of glass shattering. He hit the call button for his nurse, deciding to take her up on the pain pill she'd offered him earlier.

777

When Nathan opened his eyes again, it was three o'clock in the morning. He shot up in bed—clearly that hadn't been the right thing to do if his swimming head was any indication—and wondered why the nurse hadn't woken him when Haley came out of surgery. Speak of the devil, he thought, as she walked into the room. He knew something was wrong from her expression. "There was a complication following the surgery," she said softly.

"Is she…" Nathan asked, his voice trailing off.

"She's fine now," the nurse explained. "When she was coming out of the anesthesia, she bit down on the tube as it was being pulled out of her throat, and her lungs filled with fluid."

Nathan swallowed, his eyes widening. "That sounds bad," he said.

The nurse nodded. "It can be. And it was. But she's fine now."

"Can I see her?" he asked.

The nurse cleared her throat. "No," she said. "She's in ICU and they only allow immediate family except for visiting hours during the day. However, she is in room 502. And if you…happened to accidentally find her room…well, I don't suppose anyone would have to know if you were sneaky enough."

"Thank you," Nathan said.

She nodded and stood up, heading for the door.

"What's your name?" Nathan asked.

She turned around and smiled at him. "Lisa," she told him.

"Thanks for everything, Lisa," he told her.

One more smile, and she made her way out of the room.

777

When Nathan walked into Haley's room, he flinched at the sight of all the tubes and the pallor of her skin. He sighed and grabbing his IV pole, walked towards her. He didn't notice the figure in the corner of the room until it stood. "What are you doing here?" Lucas demanded.

"I came to see her," Nathan said raggedly.

Lucas studied his brother's face for a moment and for the first time ever, felt like he had the upper hand. "Yeah? The last time you saw her, you almost killed her," he reminded Nathan.

Nathan didn't say anything, just looked longingly at Haley, took his IV, and slowly departed from the room. He was walking down the hallway when he heard a voice behind him.

"Scott?"

He turned around, recognizing the woman standing there as the one who Haley had been with at the grocery store. And if the height was any indication, clearly her mother.

"You are…Haley's Scott, aren't you?" she asked, approaching him cautiously.

Nathan slowly nodded and his eyes filled with pain.

"I'm Lydia," she said.

He stood there, studying her face as she came near.

"Accidents happen," Haley's mother whispered, finally reaching him.

He didn't say anything, just swallowed past the lump in his throat.

"If it makes you feel any better Nathan, Haley's father and I don't blame you."

Still, nothing.

"She's gonna need you when she wakes up," Lydia told him.

"Not as much as I'm going to need her," he said, tears silently falling down his cheeks. It didn't escape her attention that he wouldn't even wipe at them. He refused to acknowledge them, as if they somehow made him less of a man.

Lydia took a tentative step towards this young man, who in that moment looked so much like a little boy, so visibly broken. Her face came no higher than the middle of his chest, but still she wrapped her arms around him. He waited for a moment before slowly lifting his arms around her, as if giving her time to turn away if she wanted to. When he finally realized she wasn't going anywhere, the young man who was more than a foot taller than she was rested his head awkwardly on her shoulder and wept openly in the hallway of the hospital.