Author's Note : I know, I know, it's been a really long time since I've updated this story. I'm sorry! I'm a bad person. If you want to throw fruit at me, I'll understand. I don't even know if anyone will still be interested in this, but I found myself thinking about it the other day, and then I went back and saw all of you who had left such wonderful encouragement here and I realized that I have to get this done. Thank you so much for your comments, believe it or not they do help(I wouldn't have gotten this one out if it hadn't been for you, that's for sure). I promise it won't be so long before I get the next chapter up!

"So what do we do now?"

Haley opened her mouth to reply, but only a sigh escaped her lips when she saw his imploring gaze on her. He was looking to her for an answer to their problems, but she honestly didn't have one for him. What now? They could continue to drift apart and head for divorce or they could try to fix things. One was decisively easier than the other, but it sounded like hell. The other would be tiring and long and hard, and it could still fail. But if it worked, the rewards could more than make up for the battle.

"I don't know," she finally stated honestly. "What do you think we should do?"

There was a considerable pause and then Nathan sighed softly. He hadn't ever truly considered losing her an option, though he saw now that it was a very real one. "I'm not a quitter, Haley."

It was a poor choice of words on his part. "Ending it is not about quitting, Nathan, it's about our entire lives. You don't stay in a marriage if you're unhappy just because you don't like the thought of giving up," she cried out. If that was the only reason he would stay with her, she would rather that he leave. Staying together, miserable but fighting an uphill battle, was not good enough for her.

Silently, he cursed himself. It was happening again; he knew exactly how he felt—his insides were fairly screaming with opposition to the thought of a permanent split—but expressing himself without putting his foot in his mouth was a daunting challenge. He didn't want to say the wrong thing and give the wrong impression. "I know. I didn't mean that…"

"Well, what did you mean?" she demanded, her voice taking on a desperate quality despite her resolve to keep her composure. God, she was going to fall apart right there on the couch. She could already see it happening in her head—the tears, the sobbing, the babbling, the look of panic that would enter his eyes when he realized that he'd finally broken her.

Nathan hesitated, searching inside for the right words. Haley was right, this was the rest of their lives they were talking about. It was time for him to face reality and do what his mother had encouraged. He couldn't mess it up, and he couldn't afford to hold back because he was chicken, worrying about what her reaction would be if he finally laid himself out on the line. Maybe that was what had been missing for so long, anyway. At the start of their relationship, he'd fought for her—fought his father, his friends, what had been considered the social norm. He'd thought, by working and building a life for them, that he'd still been fighting, but now he could see that she hadn't seen things that way.

He needed to keep her in his life, no matter what it took. He hadn't been lying when he said she was the one he ran to when something was wrong in his life—which was perhaps why their problems had gone on so long. He hadn't been able to run to Haley when his uncertainty regarding her was his problem, so he'd pushed it to the back of his mind. It was time for that to change. "You're right, Haley. It's not about quitting. It's about what we want, what makes us happy. And we haven't been happy together for a while now."

Her eyes slide closed to block the tears from falling even as she nodded her head, a silent acceptance of something she didn't think she could verbally respond to. So this was really the end. How was it that it was still such a blow, after everything they'd been through? She'd been expecting it, even since before she moved out she'd been expecting it, and yet…

And yet she'd always entertained the hope that things would be put back together, that she'd have her happy life again. To have that hope blown to shreds was the most painful thing she'd ever experienced.

"I want to change that. I want to fix it."

Suddenly, her eyes flew open, unmindful of the lone tear that escaped and started to trace its way down her cheek. His eyes, when they met hers, were fiercely intense. "What?" The surprised word was little more than a croak from her throat, the confusion written across her face. He wanted to fix it? But he'd just said…

"I don't want to give up, Haley. Not because of the bet, and not because it would be quitting. I just… we were happy before we screwed everything up," he pointed out. "If we figured out what went wrong, we could fix it. We could be us again."

For a moment, she didn't even know how to respond to that. She thought she'd just been given a staggering blow, only to be yanked back up again. Oddly enough, it almost made her want to smile. It was so classically Nathan, fumbling with words, that it would have been funny had it not scared the hell out of her. Then the words really sank in and registered in her mind, and her stomach felt so muddled that she feared she'd be sick. He wanted to fix things. What did she want?

Nathan. The mental answer was swift and powerful. Maybe for a while she'd been able to convince herself that she could be on her own and be happy with her apartment and her work, but her time pretending with him had convinced her of otherwise. He might have hurt her and driven her crazy when they were together, but he was still the guy who would hold her hand and stand up to his father for her and buy her something impractical because it would make her happy. And he was still the only man to make her heart pound and her insides turn to mush. She had knowingly put herself in this hellish charade for him, and that had to mean something.

She wanted them but she was still so afraid of trying and failing again. "How do you know we can do it?" she asked quietly.

"I just do," he answered, his lips curving up into a smile that seemed more confident than he truly was. Really, he was experiencing a fear that rivaled anything he'd ever felt in his life. "We'll figure something out, Haley. I can cut back on my hours at work, maybe hand off a few of the clients I'm working with." He reached out to take her hand in his, was relieved when she didn't tense up or try to pull away but instead laced her fingers with his.

The feel of his larger hand in hers was comforting. It made her feel, as much as his words did, that he was right. They knew, at least to some degree, what had gone wrong now and could work on it. Their relationship deserved the effort. "I can stop taking all the extra stories I've been volunteering for," she offered, using their connected hands to give him a gentle pull in her direction.

His grin widened as relief spread through him like a tidal wave. Without needing any more encouragement, he moved over so that the space between them was minimal. "And we'll talk this time when something's wrong. We won't let it happen again."

"We can have weekly dates, like we used to," she suggested, getting into the idea of it now.

"Deal," Nathan replied, lifting their joined hands to drop a kiss on hers.

Haley smiled. She was no longer so idealistic as to believe that they would be able to fix everything right away, but at least it seemed possible. If they tried, if they made sure they had time together to talk and laugh and have fun like they used to, they had a chance.

And, after a long time of wondering helplessly what they were going to do, that was enough.