A/N: Thanks again for your reviews. Here's another update. Sorry if the story seems kind of slow. I need to set the story's premise and introduce some key characters before we can focus on the main plot and delve into the world of Naley angst and romance hehe.

Disclaimer: I don't own One Tree Hill or any of it's characters. If I did, season 6 would not have been so sleep worthy.

WHO KILLED DAN SCOTT?

New York City, Jan 1, -- Nathan Scott's publicist has confirmed reports that Haley James has been hired as head defence attorney in senator Dan Scott's murder case. Predicted as the most controversial case since that of O.J Simpson, Ms. James has a lot riding on her shoulders. As reported previously, Senator Dan Scott was rescued from his burning penthouse apartment, in Washington around 1 am Christmas day. Police reports have confirmed that this was a case of arson and that there was a definite murder attempt. Autopsy reports confirm that the late senator died of poisoning, not the because of the severe burn as was initially thought. The senator passed away the morning after the incident.

The question that's on everyone's mind is who killed Senator Scott and why? Dan Scott's political career started off as mayor in the small town of Tree Hill, North Carolina. Since then, his career escalated so much so that there were talks of him running as a presidential candidate in the coming elections. Now the question is what was the motive behind this incident?

The police have named his son, and two-time MVP Washington wizards starter Nathan Scott as the prime suspect. Mr. Scott's lawyers were unreachable for the moment but as soon as we can get more information, we'll keep you posted on the latest news.

***

The news was everywhere, on every television screen, on every newspaper, everyone in the entire country knew that she was going to be fighting Nathan's case. If it were anyone else, Haley would have taken it up as a challenge. She would have gotten to the bottom of things, pieced together the truth of it all and if she thought that the case was credible, she'd fight for it. She'd give it her everything. That's what everyone admired about her, her intense devotion toward her work. If this case involved anyone else, she would have jumped at the occasion to fight it but in this case she still had doubts.

For as long as she'd been in this field, she'd worked with absolute strangers, she'd always been entirely objective. But for this case she wasn't sure how she'd handle it. This case wasn't just any other murder case, this case was too close to home. If Nathan turned out to be the real killer how would she handle it? When she'd read about Dan Scott's murder she'd been quite overjoyed by the news. Dan Scott was the scum of earth and contrary to what people believed, those close to him knew how much of a bastard he really was. The man was no saint; he was a cunning, manipulative, selfish bastard who deserved what was coming.

Dan Scott was ruthless, he only cared for himself. Even after years, Dan hadn't gotten off her case. She was no longer a Scott, she was no threat to him but still, every so often he'd check up on her. Somewhere in that twisted mind of his, he'd come to the conclusion that in spite of everything that had happened, Haley being the typical money laundering trophy wife, would come back to Nathan grovelling, and Nathan the ever forgiving idiotic son of his would take her back, no questions asked. And together they'd go about on a quest to bring down the great Dan Scott. For man with such a self confident image, he sure was insecure and paranoid. No wonder Deb left him, who could put up with that?

After a long day at work, when Haley finally reached her small but cozy apartment, she collapsed on the living room couch. Just when she thought that she'd finally be able to relax for a bit, the voice of the ever cheerful Brooke Davis echoed from the answering machine.

"Hey tutorwench watcha doing tonight? See I figure we could go down to this party that this guy invited me to --"

It was so like Brooke Davis to start a conversation with an answering machine. Brooke Davis, model extraordinaire was Haley's bestest friend since high school. She knew Haley better than Haley herself.

"What's up Brookie, how'd you know I was here?"

"Oh come on I'm your BFF, I'm psychic! Let me guess, you're on your living room couch, either sleeping or moping or doing both am I right?"

Damn the girl was good, thought Haley.

"Okay what's with this party you speak of? Art thou expecting to make Frére Lucas jealous once more? 'Cause thou knowest that thou canst right?"

"Party? What party? I called to talk about Nathan."

"What the hell Brooke? How do you know about that?"

"Well see the thing is … who do you think suggested that Nathan ask for your umm… expertise?"

"OH MY GOD BROOKE!! I can't believe you did that!" said Haley furious with the person on the other line.

"Oh come on you guys seriously need sort out your issues. How long do you expect us to be on hyper alert when we're around either of you. He's Lucas's brother, how long do you think you can avoid him?"

"Well that's my decision to make isn't it?

"Well that's too bad, what's done is done. Now deal with it. So tell me, what happened?"

"Ugh, what do you think happened? He was the biggest jerk ever. He told me send him a list of questions and he'll have someone get back to me. I mean who does he think he is?"

"Oh come on, you know him, did you really expect him to treat you nicely after everything that happened?"

"Well no, I suppose not. Look Brooke I have to fly to North Carolina, in couple of hours and I need to setup a schedule so I'll call you later okay?"

"Girl you really need to live a little, your life can't be run on a schedule, when are you going to realize that?"

"Never! Bye Brooke"

"Bye"

Now that she'd finished being, interrogated, it was time for her to face what she was dreading the most – going back. She hadn't been to Tree Hill since she graduated from high school. She was afraid to go back, there were too many painful memories attached to the place and the last thing she wanted to do was to relive them. But alas she had no choice, while there she planned to focus on her work and nothing else, hopefully being distracted would help her get through the period.

Tree Hill, North Carolina

The first thing she noticed as she stepped foot in Tree Hill was that things hadn't changed much. As she drove past the high school, a group cheerleaders and jocks caught her eye. There was this one boy, tall, handsome, probably the new king of Tree Hill High and it reminded her of Nathan. Then there was this other kid sitting under a tree, pretending to read a book but in reality gazing at the popular crowd,imagining herself among them, that girl was she, a couple of years ago. No, things hadn't changed one bit. Sure they were a different set of kids but in a way they were all the same. Their parents had once been like them and so had their grandparents. It was sort of a vicious cycle. There were so many memories attached to this town. Sure, no one recognized her anymore but that didn't make things much easier. It was like she could relive the incidents kind of like scenes of a movie. The beach where they'd been married, the docks, her old house, it was all just so painful to look at.

After wandering around for some time, Haley found herself standing in front of Karen's Café. From the outside, it looked pretty much the same, but inside it was a whole new world. Once upon a time this used to be a small little café, with Karen running on marginal profit. Now this tiny little place had become part of a large chain of stores spread across the country, kind of like Starbucks or 2nd Cup. Through the window she saw herself waiting tables, talking to the customers, and in between taking a jab at the latest algebra problem. It felt good to remember the days when things had been so simple, back when it had been only her and Luke. She wondered if Karen still had the mini golf set up on the roof. For a moment, Haley considered going in, but then decided against it, she wasn't ready to face those memories just yet. The café was like her second home, and for some reason she was terrified of the thought that if she went inside, she'd feel like a stranger.

She hadn't spoken to Karen in years, now that she thought about it, it really was kind of a shame because Karen had been one of the few people that were still nice to her. The more Haley explored the town she once lived in, the more she realized how much she'd missed it. She hated herself for being weak, she'd given up and fled the scene rather than fight it. If she hadn't run away from her problems back then, maybe her life would have been different – better. She wanted to blame it all on Nathan but in her heart she knew that they were both responsible for their broken marriage.

Rather than dwelling on the past, as she had been doing from the moment she set foot in Tree Hill, Haley decided to get down to business. Her first task would be to visit those close to Dan, see if they'd noticed anything suspicious. The first place on her list – Keith's Auto Shop.

The first thing she noticed when she arrived was that what once used to be a small auto repair shop, overflowing with all kinds of gadgets had now become sort of a giant hardware store. Sure they still repaired cars, but now that was only a small part of the business. As she admired the brilliant transformation around her, a well dressed medium height, brown haired man approached. For a moment she couldn't recognize the man in front of her but once he let out a familiar kind-hearted grin, it all came back to her. The man in front of her was none other than Keith Scott, only clean shaven and a hell of a lot more sophisticated.

"Hello Hales, it's good to see you again"

"Same here Uncle Keith"

And without a moment hesitation, Keith enveloped her into a warm hug. She realized that she'd really missed this. Being that she'd lived most of her life with Karen and Luke, Keith had become sort of a second father to her. It felt good to be back. Being in Keith's loving arms made her feel so safe, a feeling she'd shared with only two other men in her life, Nathan and Lucas.

"So how are you doing, you know with Dan gone and Nathan being accused of it all?"

"Dan had it coming, the way he treated people in this town, something like this was bound to happen sooner or later. As for Nathan, I just can't imagine how he could do something like this. Do you really think he's capable of doing such a thing?"

To be honest, she didn't know what to think. All she could do was hope that it wasn't true. Partly because she believed that no matter how ruthless Nathan was, he wasn't capable of being a killer. And partly because if Nathan did turn out to be the culprit then it would mean that she'd fallen in love with a criminal, a thought that she simply couldn't get past.

"Well I don't know if he's done it or not. That's what I'm here to find out. Would you mind if I ask you some questions?"

"Of course not, go ahead" he replied with the same familiar grin.

Haley had to remind herself that she was here on official business, and that no matter how much she adored the man sitting in front of her, he could very well turn out to be the culprit. After all, he had motive, and opportunity thereby making him one of the prime suspects of this case, at least in her book.

"Do you mind going on record?"

"No, that's no problem"

"Right, so where were you the night of 24th December"

"At Dan's Christmas Party"

"How long were you there?"

For a moment his face went blank but as soon as it came, it was gone and he was back to being good 'ol Keith Scott.

"I'm not entirely sure, I was pretty out of it. You know how Dan is, its hard to be around him while you're sober."

"I know what you mean" chuckled Haley. If anything, they were probably the two most hated people in Dan's Scott's book.

"Do you remember anything? Was Nathan at the party?"

"Yeah, he came in sometime around 10 I think. Had a blonde woman with him, I think she's reporter or something. I know I've seen her somewhere."

"How was he that night? Did you notice anything strange in the days before the incident? Did you notice anything odd about Dan's behaviour?"

"He seemed pretty fine to me, nothing out of the ordinary."

"The last I heard, you and Dan weren't on particularly good terms. So why go visit him all the way to Washington?"

"He said he had something important to say. He said he wanted a second chance."

"And you believed him?"

"Yeah, he seemed genuine when he said it" said Keith with a sad smile.

Was he actually missing Dan?

"Alright thanks Keith. Let me know if you remember anything else. Here's my number" said Haley as she handed him the small piece of paper.

"Don't be a stranger now Haley. You might be a big shot lawyer now but we're still your family. Come see me again before you leave will you?"

"I will, I promise", replied Haley as she walked out.

Next on the list: Deb Scott, scratch that, Deb Lee. Dan and Deb had gotten divorced shortly after Haley left.

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