Disclaimer: I do not own One Tree Hill or any of its characters.

A/N: Hey all. First of all, I apologize for the bit of delay in this update. School has been hectic, taking up most of my time. But enough with the excuses. Thanks for all your wonderful feedback on the last chapter and to all of you who continue to read this story. It means a lot and you guys/gals all rock.

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"Tell me you're not saying what I think you're saying," Lucas said, his face full of concern. "Haley?" he pushed when she didn't reply.

But she just cried harder, her sobs choking her, rendering her speechless.

"Hales, what happened? Who did this?"

She racked her brain, trying to recall, but her mind was still hazy. She shook her head, indicating she didn't remember.

Lucas jumped to his feet angrily. He really didn't need to hear her say it to know what had happened. His hands ran through his hair as he helplessly paced the room, not quite sure how to handle the situation. However, he didn't ponder it long. Instead he picked up her discarded clothing and placed them gently on the bed beside her, trying, as best he could, to remain calm with her while rage burned within him. Someone had drugged her and she was naked in a strange bedroom. That could only mean one thing, and he swore to himself that there would be hell to pay for the person responsible.

"Put these on," he said more gruffly than he'd intended. "You're going to the hospital."

She shook her head, humiliation washing over her.

It made Lucas wanted to yell at her. But he didn't. Instead he urged her softly. "Hales, we need to know what happened."

"I already know what happened," she said between sobs. She didn't remember any of it, but that throbbing between her legs told her loud and clear. She wasn't a virgin anymore. And she was willing to bet that beneath her, the blood-stained sheets would only prove that further.

"Haley," Luke began. "You can't not report this, ok? Please don't let whoever did this get away with it. He doesn't deserve to walk around free."

"I know," she admitted. "But the thought of some doctor…prodding at me…Lucas, I can't."

"Hales, you have to," he urged. "If not for yourself, then for the other girls he'll do this to in the future." It didn't exactly sit right with him to guilt-trip her right now, but he knew it was the best way to get her to agree to an examination.

She nodded, as he knew she would, and stood up on shaky legs, pulling the blanket up with her. She let out a wail when she noticed that there was, indeed, blood on the sheet. Because that just confirmed her fears and made the situation more real. And it took away any shred of hope she had that maybe she was wrong.

Lucas too, frowned at the sight before him, and his fists clenched beside him, anger consuming him as he thought of what had been done to his sweet, innocent Haley.

"I need to take a shower," she said blandly, suddenly feeling dirty.

"No, Haley, you can't." He knew that she was aware that a shower would wash away any trace of evidence that may be on her body. She'd watched enough law shows to realize that. But he also understood that, unlike her level-headed self, she was reacting from pure emotion.

He walked over to the door. "I'll be right out here, ok. And I'll be with you every step of the way. I won't let you go through this alone."

"Shall I get some aspirin?" Mouth asked in amusement after Lucas closed the door.

"No," Luke replied, his tone pure ice. "Gets the cops over here," he ordered. "And this room doesn't get touched," he added when he spotted the cleaning rag in his friend's hand.

"Why? What's going on?" Mouth asked.

"There was a rape here last night," Luke replied, his voice deadly.

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Nathan shoved his hands in his pockets and sighed deeply. Of the numerous reactions he could imagine from Peyton, this one was nowhere on that list. He couldn't believe it.

She was laughing. Laughing.

He looked down, feeling like he'd really gotten nowhere with his confession. He honestly thought telling her would be the hardest part, which was why he'd just blurted it out to get it over with before he could change his mind. But now it seemed she thought he was joking, and he was going to have to convince her that he wasn't.

Wasn't that just great? The one thing he truly regrets doing more than anything else, he needed to convince her that he'd really done it. The one time he was completely honest, and she thought it was a joke.

"I'm sorry," she said, catching her breath. "I didn't mean to laugh. It's just I thought I heard you say that you slept with Haley, only that would be totally insane since she doesn't plan to have sex until her wedding day, with her husband. You two didn't get married last night, did ya?" she joked.

"No, but…"

"I didn't think so, so apparently I need to get my ears checked."

He looked back down to the ground, too ashamed to meet her eyes.

That's when her smile faded. Still, she didn't want to believe it. "It's impossible," she began. "She's a virgin…"

"If she was, she's not anymore," Nathan told her.

Her eyes narrowed as it seemed more and more like he was telling the truth. "You're serious? You slept with Haley?"

He nodded faintly but she caught it. "I wish I wasn't serious, Peyton. I wish…"

"Why are you even telling me this?" she blew up at him. "I told you I didn't want to know!"

"I'm just trying to be honest…"

"Honest? Since when?"

"Since I don't want to make the same mistakes as before. I want you to see that I'm trying to be better."

"By sleeping with Haley?"

"No. By telling you the truth."

For a long moment, she was silent. It was excruciating waiting for her to respond. "Would you say something?" he said when he couldn't take the silence any longer.

"Yeah," she replied, looking up at him sharply and fixing him with a penetrating glare. "You should've lied."

His face fell at her words. Honesty was definitely overrated. He was even more disheartened when she turned on her heel and headed down the driveway toward her car.

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The ride to the hospital was silent. Haley kept her eyes downcast and her arms crossed protectively over her chest, feelings of shame overwhelming her. Her tears had dried up, but inside she was still crying. How could this have happened to her? Why couldn't she remember?

"What am I supposed to tell them?" she finally spoke when they pulled up to the hospital's emergency room entrance.

"Tell them what you know," Luke replied.

"I don't know anything," she screamed. "I can't remember."

"Then tell them that. They'll know what to do."

"You know what? This was a bad idea. I just want to go home, ok? Can you just take me home?"

"Hales, you can do this."

"What if I don't want to? What if I just want to forget…" She choked on the last word, "Oh, what am I talking about? I already did forget. Luke, please just take me home. I don't want to be here."

"I can do that if you really want me to," he told her.

She nodded vigorously. "Ok, good, let's go."

"But I think you'd regret it," he challenged. "Especially if he does this to another girl. And you know the chances of that are almost guaranteed."

"And why should I care?"

"Because it's who you are and you'd never forgive yourself if he did do it again when you could have prevented it."

"Well, why can't somebody else come forward and report it? Why does it have to be me?"

"Because you're stronger than most people. You can be the one to stop this guy."

"And if I'm not feeling all that strong?"

"Then you lean on me."

She took a deep breath and nodded agreeably. "Ok."

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Nathan sat sullenly on the bench and buried his face in his hands. He hadn't chased after Peyton, and now she was gone. He would have run after her if he thought it would make the least bit of difference. But he knew it wouldn't. She was too angry. It was his own fault. He never should have hooked up with Haley. He'd blown his last chance with Peyton before he'd even known he had it. If only he'd known this last night.

Why couldn't he have gotten completely trashed and just passed out somewhere instead of only half trashed and fucked Haley? Damn it! He could kick himself for this. He would never get Peyton back now.

Of course, she'd already had him believing he wouldn't by leaving his bed to go back to Lucas, which is what had led him to his actions last night in the first place. He sighed deeply, wishing he'd just thought things through for once before making a stupid decision. It's not like he'd felt all that great about it afterwards anyway. His victory hadn't really paid off and it ended up costing him everything. Peyton.

He mulled over it a good twenty minutes before he heard the car pull up. He lifted his head, surprised to see she had returned. It gave him a rush of hope that maybe things weren't as bad as he thought. But that hope quickly vanished as she approached him again, fury raging in her emerald eyes.

"Ok, you want to be honest?" she threw out bitingly. "Then tell me this. Why Haley? She's my friend. Sorry, make that was my friend. Out of all the girls you could have screwed last night, why her?"

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"I'm sorry, sir," the doctor said to Lucas. "You'll have to step out for this part."

He seemed reluctant to go until Haley told him it was ok. He'd stuck by her through the whole questioning process, but she really didn't want him there for the examination, which would be humiliating enough in itself. She was at least grateful that they'd given her a female doctor. Nonetheless she kept her eyes on the ceiling throughout the entire procedure.

"Ok, all done," the doctor said several minutes later, revealing none of her findings. "We're going to need a urine sample from you and after that your friend can come back in, if you want," she added kindly.

Haley nodded. "Ok," she spoke quietly. "Umm, do you know if…did this exam, ummm…" She sighed, unable to continue. But she needed to know for absolute certainty.

The older woman sensed this and answered her, rather than let the girl struggle with the question. "At this point the only thing I can tell you for sure is that penetration did occur. We'll send this sample out to the lab to check for traces of semen so we'll know more after we get those results."

But for Haley, she knew enough. Penetration had occurred, now making it a 0% chance that she was wrong. That information alone brought a fresh onslaught of tears.

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Peyton paced impatiently as she waited for Nathan's reply. For twenty minutes, she had driven around aimlessly, her mind a whirl of emotions and flooded with questions she wanted answers to. Well, just that one question really, and she'd realized that to get her answer she'd have to go back to the Scott residence.

But he was just sitting there, not saying a word, and she was becoming more and more furious by the second. "Damn it, Nathan! You could at least answer me!"

He ran his hands over his face in dread. He really, really didn't want to. He knew how pathetic it would sound and how angry it would make her. But she was staring at him expectantly, demanding a reply. He didn't have a choice.

"Because I wanted to stick it to Lucas," he mumbled shame-faced. "For taking you away from me. I wanted him to know how it feels to have your girl hook up with your worst enemy." Fuck, it sounded even worse when he said it out loud. "I know it was stupid…"

"Yeah," Peyton agreed. "Considering they're not even a couple."

He shrugged. Maybe they weren't a couple but Lucas very obviously cared about her, and Nathan knew this was going to piss him off big time. "I guess I kinda wanted to get back at you too."

"Well, mission accomplished. Congratulations," she returned snidely. "I never thought you'd screw one of my friends. That's beneath even you."

"She's not your friend, Peyton."

"No, not anymore."

"Not at all," he countered. "She was all over me," he revealed from memory. "And she didn't act like any virgin I've ever met."

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"There were no traces of semen," the doctor said to Haley a while later. Lucas had come back in by now and sat by her side, holding her hand comfortingly. "Which tells me he used a condom. But we did find traces of GHB, short for gamma hydroxyburyric acid, in your urine. It can be detected in the urine for up to twelve hours, so it's a good thing you came in when you did."

"I'm sorry," Luke cut in. "But what is that exactly?"

"You might recognize its street name better. It's known under several names really, one of them being liquid ecstasy. It's becoming quite popular in sexual assaults because it takes effect rather quickly – sometimes in as little as fifteen minutes – and the immediate effect on a victim is generally similar to ecstasy as in it decreases inhibitions, heightens sexual experiences, can make a person quite touchy-feely, for lack of better wording. It can actually act as a strong aphrodisiac in many women."

"So rather than being paralyzed, the woman participates?" Lucas asked with disgust.

"Yes, exactly. But then as the drug kicks in more, it starts to act more as a relaxant. It can cause dizziness, drowsiness, nausea, among other things."

"Memory loss?" Haley asked.

"Absolutely, depending on the dosage. You're actually lucky since it can also cause seizures, coma, or even death. It's very easy to overdose on GHB. And it's a good thing you weren't drinking as well. Alcohol increases the drug's effect."

Even though she heard the words and could logically agree, Haley was hard put to consider herself lucky at this moment.

"So, how did she get it?" Luke asked. "Can it be slipped in a drink?"

"That's generally the case in sexual assaults, yes," the doctor replied. "But also, I'm not sure if you're aware, but, like ecstasy, it's a popular drug, especially at parties, and many will take it on their own, voluntarily."

"I didn't," Haley stressed defensively to make sure there was no misunderstanding there.

"That's why I've reported it, as is my legal obligation to do with any assault. The police will want to question you and they'll likely be an investigation. I understand they'd already been notified?"

"Yeah, we called them earlier," Luke stated. "They said they'd have somebody look into it."

"Good," the woman replied. "Haley, I'm going to leave you a card to a rape crisis center. I suggest you get into counseling as soon as you can."

Haley nodded her head even though she hadn't heard anything past talking to the police. "How am I supposed to cooperate with the police when I don't even know how this happened?" she asked Lucas once the doctor was gone. "What am I supposed to say?"

"Maybe if you close your eyes and relax, it'll come to you," Lucas offered, not knowing what else he should say. "After I left, what's the last thing you remember doing?"

She did close her eyes as he suggested. "I was…" She went through the steps in her mind. "I was talking to Nathan. He came up to me and we just started talking."

Lucas froze instantly. "About?"

She shook her head, trying to recall. "Just random stuff," she said. "And then, I felt warm so we went out to the front steps to get some air." Her eyes suddenly shot open. "Oh God, I think he kissed me. Or I kissed him. I'm not sure."

"And then?" Lucas asked tightly.

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"And how exactly do virgins usually act, Nathan?" Peyton demanded irately.

"Nervous, shy, self conscious," he responded. "She wasn't any of those. She was…pretty eager to please."

"Uh huh, and did she?"

"What?"

"Please you? Was she good in bed?" she nearly screamed.

"Peyton…"

"Was she? Did you like it?"

"It was sex," he replied with a shrug.

"So that's a yes?"

"Come on, Peyt. I was half-drunk. I don't really remember it that much."

"And from what you do remember, it was good?"

"I guess."

"You guess?"

"What do you want me to say, Peyton? That I enjoyed it? That I didn't? What?"

"No. What I want you to say is that this is just some practical joke and didn't really happen."

He looked down. "I wish I could," he stated earnestly. If there was anything he wished he could take back, it would be this.

"How could you do this?" she asked him in torment. "Do I really mean so little to you? Do you hate me that much?"

"God, Peyton, I don't hate you. How can you think that? You're everything to me."

"Then why?"

"You went back to Lucas," he replied emotionally. "After what had just happened between us, you told me you didn't love me anymore and you went back to him. That killed me, Peyton. You have no idea."

"But I didn't mean it."

"I didn't know that. You told me to go back to Shelly. I thought you were done with me for good. And I wanted Lucas to pay for that because he's the one who got you. He won and I was pissed, ok. I know you think I'm imagining it, but he's gone after everything of mine. And he got it. He got everything. I wanted him to suffer a bit too." He stopped to take a deep breath before continuing. "I know it was stupid, all right. Just another mistake to add to my like, thousands that I've already made. And I know you've forgiven me a lot of things and I probably don't have any right to ask you this, but if you could just forgive this one last thing, I swear, Peyton, I'll be a better guy."

"Just like that, huh?" she asked in bewilderment. "Just forgive you? It's not that simple. This is a lot to forgive."

"I know, but you did come here originally to get back with me, right. And, like you said, we weren't together last night…"

"Meaning you really did nothing wrong and I'm just being a bitch as usual?"

He shook his head. "No. I'm just asking, begging, you to stick by what you said earlier. That nothing I did before right now matters."

"But it does matter, Nathan. You want me to just let this go and I'm not sure I can do that."

"You could try," he countered pleadingly. "If you wanted to."

Neither of them heard the car pull up or Lucas walk up the drive. Until he was right on them, his arm raised threateningly. "You son of a bitch!" he thundered just before his fist connected with Nathan's jaw.