I know a lot of you are upset and confused about the rift in Naley's seemingly perfect life, but if you go back and re-read it, you'll read about the stress they've been pushing to the back burner and not dealing with. I'll try to go further into detail in this chapter to clear some things up as best as I can without going too off track. I know someone wanted to know how Nathan was able to come home and everything, and since it was asked I'll try to explain that, although it's simply that he wasn't sent into action.

I have some great faithful readers, and we talk often about how grateful I am for the reviews and feedback they send me, and i wanted to thank everyone that did review for last chapter! It really encouraged me to update even sooner! Being a Full-Time Nanny, and Live in Aunt with 3 nephews, it's not always as easy to get time along to think and write, to when i do, it takes a lot of time, planning, and staying up way past anyone's bedtime! lol So words of encouragement are always welcomed and appreciated! I'm a reviewer that rambles on and on about how much i loved it so dont worry if that's you too, i love those kind of reviews lol. Also, a new reader, Denise REALLLLLY was the reason i updated today! Her review of a chapter really encouraged me and made me realize why i like to write! So enjoy this chapter although it's definitely shorter :) Thanks sooo much everyone and please please please review!

Chapter 17:

I Shall Believe

When you think of the perfect day, you think of waking up to the smell of your favorite breakfast, your favorite beverage at your bedside, your favorite song being played, and your favorite person smiling down at you. So when Nathan Scott looked around, he realized that this would not be a perfect day.

Usually being the first one up, he was surprised to find his bed empty and his house eerily quiet; something it definitely hadn't been lately. He never imagined his homecoming resulting to where he was today.

FLASHBACK:

Nathan stood up straight and tall as his General addressed his unit.

"Now as you might have already heard, out of the eighty men that were in the field yesterday during the attack, only thirty-six came out breathing. We've been given orders to cease all deporting and to fall back. The Secretary of Defense has issued a new approach, and as of now, we are not apart of it. When you are dismissed you will go back to your bunks and pack your belongings. Gentlemen, you're going home."

When the General left the room, the identical-dressed men looked around unbelievingly. It had to be a mistake. They were to be shipped off to join their brothers across the globe in the horrendous fight within ten hours.

Wasn't Ashton Kutcher gonna pop out any second and laugh in their faces? This was Punk'd right?

"Hell's yea!" The ninety-some-odd men in the room turned to look at one of the "class clowns" and saw him clap his feet before running out of the huge room and off to his bunk. Finally getting the memo, and realizing it was real, they all did the same thing and went to pack up.

They were actually going home.

After signing out, Nathan said goodbye to a lot of his friends and loaded his SUV, and soon enough was on the highway. He could imagine the look on Haley's face when he showed up in the middle of the night; she would be so happy to see him.

And although when he first climbed into bed with her, she'd been terrified and tried her best to get away from his grasp, as soon as she heard his hushed voice promising her that it was okay, she was relaxed again.

It had been the homecoming he dreamt about, and the next morning was perfection. He woke up to the smell of Strawberry Toaster Strudels and a bottle of Gatorade at his bedside. This Years Love was playing on the IHome next to the bed, and his beautiful wife was perched up over him, straddling his waist with a dazzling smile covering her face.

END OF FLASHBACK

Yea, it definitely wasn't the perfect morning. Even though his perfect mornings would be altered a little, they were still perfect to him. Whether it was waking up to his wife laying their screaming daughter next to him before retreating to their guest room to get back to sleep, Jay running in the room at the crack of dawn ready to play, or his wife simply snuggling into him further to block out the morning sun; those days were perfect.

He hadn't had one of those in a while.

After a blissed out weekend, and celebration of him coming home with his whole family, reality set back in and things got hectic. In addition to having a four month old and a four year old in the house, he had started back up managing his Auto Repair shop. There had been tons of relearning and catching up to do on all the new equipment they had ordered in, new employees to meet, and sales and bills to check over. He was swamped, but was still happy to be home.

When he first arrived home, there was still help. Jake had already left, but Peyton had a few days left in town, and had been an amazing help to Haley while he wasn't there. Lucas and Brooke helped as much as possible, but they still had a son to take care of and a house to fix up while working. They were also going through a small rough patch. The question of having another baby were on their minds and they weren't able to agree on the now or later aspect. He didn't want to over exert them like he already was.

He also had to get back into the role of being a full time dad again. He hadn't been home with his kids for six-plus months, and the things that had come natural to him, had to be oiled and polished. Jay had gotten used to not having him around, so he automatically went to Haley for every need that he had. The hours that Nathan were used to, were way off his families schedule and he had to wean himself off his military schedule immediately. He knew that Haley wasn't happy with him at the moment and knew that he had to make more time for them, but he had no idea how to do that. By the time they were done with work, and the kids, there was no real time for them as a couple.

He hadn't even gotten a chance to catch up with his brothers' family and all their traveling adventures.

Nathan Scott was a basket case, trying to get by as easily as possible without going completely insane. Falling back against his pillow, he let out an aggravated sigh, praying for a miracle today. He'd never felt so disconnected from his wife and it was wearing on their family.

One Hour Earlier

Haley Scott grimaced at the pain that she felt in her abdomen that morning and knew she couldn't ignore it any longer. She hadn't eaten anything the previous day, and was now feeling the consequences of her immature actions. Lying back against her pillows she looked next to her and realized that her day would suck once again. Her husband was lying on his stomach, faced down in his pillow on the further end of the large bed.

Neither cuddled to the other that night, no legs rubbing against one another to break the ice; it was complete avoidance on both ends.

Haley didn't expect to keep things from Nathan, and allow her feelings to be bottled up inside, she just didn't want to stress him out even more than he already was. Needless to say, her pushing-it-to-the-back-burner approach only did them bad. Yesterday was the first argument they'd had with the kids awake and present, and she felt terrible about it. Yes, families fought, but she never wanted her kids to witness it at that young age.

Even when Nathan crawled into bed last night, all Haley could do was think of how disgusted she was at herself. The hostility in her voice, and how she treated him was something she wasn't proud of at all. All things simply led back to her insecurities.

She was away from her husband for nearly six and a half months, and it brought her back to when they first started going out, and needing all of him. She had been in love with him for as long as she could remember, but it had taken her a while to reveal those feelings simply because there was always so much distance between them.

The visits had been great, but the fact that they hardly saw each other played with her mind and emotions. It brought her back to the saying Out of sight, Out of mind, and would slowly eat away her trust in their relationship. She didn't know if it were her parents' disapproval of her getting married and having Jay so early, or to the horrible memories of her senior year of college.

Whatever it was, she allowed it to cloud her judgment and hold a grudge against her stressed out husband.

Climbing out of bed, she quietly freshened up and got dressed before getting a glass of orange juice to hold her over until she could get some breakfast. Going to Madeline's nursery, she changed and dressed the half sleep baby, and strapped her in her car seat by the garage door. Turning on her automatic start, she let the car warm up, while she got Jay up and dressed. Once he was done, she loaded the kids in with the diaper bag, and left.

Just thirty minutes later, after a small breakfast at Panera, Haley found herself contemplating the conversation she had to have with Nathan, while keeping an eye on Jay at the park. She had planned on dropping by Brooke's to see her sister and venting to her about the past few weeks, but Jay's puppy dog eyes begged her to stop at the park for a while. She did feel bad for dragging them out of bed and interrupting their sleep so it was the least she could do. Maddie still hadn't woken up, and Jay was running around like a wild child. She had talked to a few of the parents she knew from Jay's school that were there, before she sat down at a nearby bench with Madeline asleep in her stroller simply wanting to be alone.

When she felt her phone vibrating against her thigh, she wondered if it were Nathan, and checked her phone to see Brooke's picture and name flashing. Glancing at Jay and seeing that he was fine, she answered the call.

"Hey" she said casually

"Hey Love, what's up?"

"Nothing at all, Jay begged me to take him to the park this morning"

"Oh, does Nate have Scottie?" Haley grimaced at the nickname her best friend had started calling her daughter. Brooke knew she hated it the name, it sounded like a dog's name.

"No, he does not have Madeline, she's in her stroller asleep. I have no idea where he is, nor do I care.

"Well everything is finally moved in and random people are done coming in and out of my house" she knew the world of Naley wasn't doing great as of now, but didn't want to get into that until they were face to face.

Haley could only laugh at her. "Brooke you guys have been back for months, you're just done unpacking?

"Not really, we had a whole 'nother room to decorate, then the guest bedroom and we got Drew a new room set. The one he had before was Lucas' old one, and had to be thrown out. So now that all of the new editions are finally done, you guys should come over for dinner. I promise it's clutter free, paint fumes free, and it's lovely."

"Well that depends on what you're making" she knew her sister in law could only conjure up a few meals without the poison control being called.

"Chicken Parmesan" she said proudly with an all knowing smile on her face.

"We'll be there by seven sharp. I'm gonna go, so I'll see you later"

Haley looked up at Jay, and saw him hanging upside down on the large jungle gym. As loudly as she could without waking Madeline, she called out to her adventurous son, "Jay, get down before you fall"

The short statured boy swung down and once his feet were on the ground, he ran over to his mother and baby sister.

"Jay, you need to stay off that thing..."

"But mommy" he said interrupting her. "Daddy taught me how to climb it, I can do it" he said pleadingly.

"No, you're gonna get hurt. You can go and play on the slide, and I don't want to see you on that thing again.

With Jay running off, and the wind picking up, she instantly caught a whiff of her sleeping daughter.

"Woo, toots baby, you stink!"

Haley got out the changing pad, and laid her across her lap and started to change the dirty diaper. Being the observant mother that she was, once she got the wipes out, she glanced over at the slide searching for Jay. When she couldn't find him after looking through the dozen kids running around, she looked over at the jungle gym and once again saw him atop the jungle gym upside down. "Jay! Get down right now before I have to hurt you young man!"

Her loud screams frightened Madeline, and she promptly let out a shrill, heartbreaking cry. Trying her best to wipe her bottom faster, Haley could feel something bad about to happen. Strapping the diaper on the infant, and still trying to calm her cries, she heard Jay scream out her name.

By the time her eyes locked on his, she'd witnessed him fall off the top bar and his leg hit the rail below him before he finally hit the ground; face first.

Laying the screaming baby into the stroller, Haley rushed over to where Jay's lifeless body lay on the woodchips. She didn't want to move him since she wasn't sure of his injuries, but turned him over on his back anyway.

"Jay! Wake up baby, come on" she started to pick the woodchips off his face, noticing that some were cut into his skin and used her sleeve to wipe away the blood that covered his face. She heard one of the parents behind her on the phone with the police and telling them to send an ambulance right away.

"Can someone please get my daughter, please help me" she was hysterical now seeing her son unresponsive to her request. She knew he had a pulse and could clearly see that he was breathing, but he wasn't awake and she wasn't sure what to do next. Pulling the cell phone out of her jacket pocket, she hit the speed dial button and he picked up on the third ring.

"Hello?"

"Nathan!" she sobbed into the phone relieved to hear his voice at the moment.

"Hales? What's wrong?" he could tell she was crying and knew immediately that something was wrong. He instantly stood up from bed and started pacing.

"Nathan, you need to come now" it was only a second later that she heard the EMT's running up to her and moving her aside so that they could tend to Jay.

"Haley, calm down. Where are Jay and Maddie?" He was quick to slip his tennis shoes on before throwing on a shirt, and running to his car.

"We're at the park, Jay fell and he's hurt bad, I don't know how hurt he is, but he won't wake up Nathan. I'm so scared, I need you here."

"I'm on my way now, did anyone call 911?"

"Yea, one of the parents did, they're about to load him in the ambulance."

"Okay, I'll meet you at the hospital, I'm on my way Hales. I love you" he wanted to do whatever he could to calm her down, but knew she wouldn't really be calm until Jay was safe in her arms.

Although she knew Nathan was still talking, all she could focus on was her baby boy lying across the stretcher with a breathing mask and neck brace attached to him. When she brought her hands to cover the sob that threatened to escape, her phone landed in the mulch, and she only recovered it when another thought entered her mind.

Asking the EMT's to give her one second, she dialed one more number.

"Hey, what's up, I just talked to you" Brooke asked when she saw it was Haley calling her once again.

"Brooke, there was an accident, Jay fell off the playground and he's unconscious. The ambulance is here and we're about to leave, but Maddie's here with Rachel from Jay's school, Lila's mom. Can you come get her?"

"Yea, okay. But he's gonna be okay right Haley?" She immediately thought the worse as she got Drew from his room, and started towards the car.

"I hope so"

"Well I'm on my way now, so I'll call you when I have her"

"Hold on one second Brooke." Haley walked over to where Rachel was holding her howling daughter. "Umm, my sister Brooke Scott is coming to pick her up right now, you can give her the bottle in her bag, it should calm her. Thank you so much Rachel, she'll be right here." She kissed Madeline's head and walked away from the screaming child, hating to do so. "Brooke, they'll be here waiting for you, she's getting a bottle now and it's her first one, I'll call you soon."

Once she hung up, she called her husband back, as she climbed into the ambulance beside Jay.

"Haley! What happened?" he had been worried sick when she'd just hung the phone up.

"I'm sorry I'm okay, we're in the ambulance now so we'll meet you there. I gotta get off the phone though, I love you."

"Love you too"

He hung up the phone and tried his best to concentrate on the road in front of him. He could tell his wife was scared by her high-pitched cries, and wished he could have already been there. About twelve and a half minutes later, his car was parked and he raced into the emergency room doing the only thing he could think of.

Scream his wife's name.

He was terrified, and being in the actual hospital only caused his worry to increase. His son, his baby boy was somewhere in the hospital and Nathan felt like someone was stabbing him in the heart. He knew he should be thinking positive, but the only thing that ran through his mind was the last time his boy was in a hospital. He was only an infant and his terrible cold had gotten worse leaving his mother to rush him to the ER alone. It was the worse day of his life knowing that his baby was hurting and even more so since he wasn't there to help.

Come to me now
And lay your hands over me
Even if it's a lie
Say it will be alright
And I shall believe

All of his screaming paid off when he heard his name being called by the most recognizable voice to him. Haley. Turning around, he saw her come through the double doors, and clobbering into his awaiting arms sobbing. He looked up when he felt a tap on his shoulder and saw a nurse motioning for him to follow her. Still holding his wife against him, Nathan followed the women back to a small empty room that he could only assume to be his son's. Asking the nurse to give them a minute, he took a seat in the chair next to the bed and pulled his wife into his lap, allowing her to let out all her emotions and tears.

Minutes later, Haley looked up and felt her heart break at the site of her husband's tears making a path from his eyes. Kissing him softly, she wiped his tearstained face, allowing him to do the same to her.

"First, I love you, so much Haley"

"I know. I love you too."

"Second, where's Maddie?" he had been worried when he'd seen his wife empty handed.

"She's still at the park, I left her with one of the parent's I know well from Jay's school. I umm, I called Brooke and asked her to get her. She should have gotten her by now and called, but she's okay"

Nodding his head, he asked his final question. "Third, what happened baby?" His question was soft and understanding, knowing that his wife had already started to blame herself and question her parenting skills.

I'm broken in two
And I know you're on to me
That I only come home
When I'm so all alone
But I do believe

"We went to the park, and I was sitting with Toots and I saw him climbing the jungle gym and when I told him to get down and he didn't listen, I threatened him"

She smiled at the last part, as did Nathan. Jay was like his daddy, and didn't take too well to threats.

"Then what?" he said kissing her hand that was slightly shaking.

She continued to tell him the rest of the story from changing Maddie to her feeling something bad was about to happen.

"...then I heard him yell my name and when I looked up at him, I saw his eyes, and he was so scared Nathan. It broke my heart just to see him that scared..."

Nathan sat there trying his best to be strong and not shed anymore tears, but it was clearly hard not to.

That not everything is gonna be the way
You think it ought to be
It seems like every time I try to make it right
It all comes down on me
Please say honestly you won't give up on me
And I shall believe
And I shall believe

"...so I flipped him over and there were woodchips all over his face, and some had cut him and I tried wiping the blood off his face with my sleeve but there... there.."

"There what?" he said when she couldn't finish.

"There was a lot of blood, and in the ambulance his eye was swelling up and he doesn't even look like my baby anymore. He has a cracked bone in his leg and a concussion for sure. He has to get stitches for the cuts on his lip, and it's all my fault. When I saw him on the ground I couldn't even help him. I'm a nurse Nathan, and I froze instead of helping the most important patient ever. I couldn't... I couldn't even help our son." She said crying once again.

"He'll be fine Haley. We both know how strong and stubborn he is. He would have climbed that jungle gym either way; he's headstrong like his momma"

"He's four Nathan! He shouldn't have to be in a hospital getting some CT scan and being sedated."

"But he's alive right? Just a few bumps and bruises?" he had to make her see how lucky they were. Their son was still alive.

Open the door
And show me your face tonight
I know it's true
No one heals me like you
And you hold the key

He continued once she nodded her head. "Then thank God, because he could have hit his head or neck instead of his leg. We're so blessed Haley"

"I know, I just..."

Before she could finish, her phone vibrated, and she answered it.

"Hey Brooke"

"Hey, I got her and we're back at my house"

"How is she" she had been worried about leaving her daughter, but she did trust Rachel.

"She's good now, but was pissed off and being dramatic when I got there. Once I got her, she calmed down and I finished feeding her, then she fell asleep on the ride home. Did you get in touch with Nate?"

"Yea, he's here now"

"How's Jay doing? Any word?"

"Not too much, I know that he's got a concussion, gonna have to get stitches, and a cracked bone on his leg maybe. Other than that, we're just waiting around. He's getting a CT scan right now and I demanded an ultrasound to make sure there's no internal bleeding. But I've just been really freaking out"

"And you have every right to. Keep me posted, and don't worry about Mads tonight. If I need anything, I'll go over and get it. Oh, you left your purse with her stroller and I have it, so let me know if you want me or Luke to bring it up there"

After hanging up, she turned to her husband. "Toots is good, Brooke is gonna keep her for the night. I could swipe my ID and go back there, but I left my purse and it's with Brooke."

Never again
would I turn away from you
I'm so heavy tonight
But your love is alright
And I do believe

"It's okay, just try to calm down. And remember, no matter what you think, it's not your fault. None of it okay"

"I know but I should have been watching him more closely. What was thinking taking him there anyway? I know it was too big for him to play on and that I couldn't run around after him with Madeline there too."

"Hey! It's not your fault, and that's final. In all honesty, it's my fault."

"What? You weren't even there Nathan"

"Exactly! I should have been there. Letting you take a four year old and a four month old to the park alone..."

"But you didn't know I was taking them there... I never told you" she spoke softly. Underneath it all, it was her fault.

"No ones to blame. Tonight, we talk. Once Jay's in bed we talk. We know better than this Haley, we have to communicate with each other. I love you too much to let some fight between us put our lives and our kids' lives at risk. I know you feel the same."

"Always and forever right"

"Always and forever Hales"

That not everything is gonna be the way
You think it ought to be
It seems like every time I try to make it right
It all comes down on me
Please say honestly
You won't give up on me
And I shall believe
I shall believe

Pulling her head towards his, he kissed her lips softly.

Their love could and would never fail. Things were skewed at times, but overall, they'd always find their way back. They had too much to lose.

Thanks guys so much for reading, and I hoped that you truly enjoyed this and that all your questions were answered. So things aren't exactly back on track with our Naley, but they've straightened up and acknowledged that they have to fix what's obviously broken in their relationship right now. So... we shall see what happens in the next chapter! Please Review! 10 REVIEWS UNLOCK THE NEXT CHAPTER! Thanks... Jen