"Sam?" Ava called.

Her friend hadn't been in class for the past couple of days, and she and Maddie were beginning to worry about her.

Sam never really missed school, so they knew something was up.

So as soon as school let out, Ava went looking for her.

"Hi." Sam forced a smile, lightly rocking on a swing in the park they'd usually play in.

The metal chains creaked as she moved back and forth, keeping a slow and steady pace.

"You haven't been in school." Ava sat down on the swing next to her and dug through her bag, handing her some worksheets. "That's the work you missed…...in case you wanted to catch up."

Of course, by the look on Sam's face, Ava didn't think she really cared about her schoolwork right now.

"Thanks."

"Are you okay, Sam?"

"I'm fine." The girl didn't bother looking at her friend.

"Are you sure? You look really pale…..are you hungry?"

"A little."

"I didn't eat all my lunch today!" Ava perked up and dug through her bag again. "My dad gave me too much! He doesn't know what I eat. Here." She handed her an entire pastrami sandwich with a slice of a pickle.

Dan was so used to having Nathan in the house and catering to his needs, that he didn't really know how much a young, growing girl would eat.

And he figured that giving her more than what she needed was his best bet. Because even if it was far too much to handle, she wouldn't go hungry.

It was sweet, really.

"Aren't you gonna get hungry later?"

"If I do, I'll go home and eat something." Ava shrugged. "Have it. I don't want it."

"Thanks." Sam wasted no time in tearing into the sandwich, alternating bites between the pastrami and the pickle.

She really was hungry.

She looked like she hadn't eaten in a couple days.

"This is really good. Your dad knows how to make a sandwich."

"Yeah…..I told him I liked pastrami once, and then the next thing I knew, the fridge was full of it." Ava smiled. "I wonder what will happen when I tell him I really like sour gummy worms…."

That comment made Sam laugh and momentarily forget about her troubles.

"Why haven't you been in school?"

"Things are kind of…..rough at home." Sam admitted.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay. It's just really tough sometimes, you know?"

Ava didn't, but she nodded all the same.

Sam didn't seem to want to go into big details, so she wasn't going to push her.

That would be counterproductive.

"….But if you needed something….you'd tell me?"

"Sure." Sam finished the food and stood up, dusting off her hands. "I have to go..…my mom needs help with some chores….I'll see you around?"

"Yeah…" Ava nodded and watched her go, leaving her to sit next to an empty, creaky swing.

That sick feeling silently began to creep up in her stomach once again.

And she didn't know what to do about it.

"Ava will be here, Mom." Lucas smiled at Karen as they waited outside the house for the youngest Scott.

Karen had decided to go off to New Zealand to be reunited with Andy for the summer. She felt confident about her decision to leave her two children this time around, because Lucas was older and could take care of himself, and Ava was spending a lot of her time with her father.

She would never get along with Dan, but she was able to admit that he was very good with their daughter.

She was giving them this entire summer to get to know one another better.

Ava deserved this chance...and so did Dan, despite all his faults.

"See?" Lucas pointed to the child, who was running over, carrying her dance bag over her shoulder. "I told you."

"Oh, come here!" Karen pulled Ava into a tight hug.

The hug was so big, it swept Ava right off the ground, dance bag and all.

And as much as she appreciated the love, this was a little too much.

"Mama….too…..tight…"

"I'm sorry." Karen laughed, releasing her iron grip. "I just wanted to get my fill before I leave."

She would always feel guilty about leaving her two babies, but she needed to do this.

"Mom, the meter's running." Lucas laughed.

"I know, I know!" Karen hugged them both again. "Okay, I've spoken with Deb, so she's gonna look after things. And all my numbers are near the phone…..Oh! And if Keith calls—"

"—Mom." Lucas grinned. "Go."

"If you need anything…..well, I'll only be…..half a world away!"

"Go find happiness, Mom. I love you."

"Me, too!"

"I love you both." Karen gave them one last squeeze. "Take care of each other, okay?"

"We will, Mom."

"Alright. I'm just a phone call away." Karen waved one last time and hopped in the cab that had been waiting for her, waving as she was driven away.

They would be okay.

They were good kids with good heads on their shoulders.

And there was nothing to worry about.

"Vroom…vroom….." Ava made the noises of an engine as she played with the toy car models on the floor of her father's office. "Errrrrrr!"

"What are you doing?" Dan chuckled, looking up from his paperwork to watch her.

"Playing a game." Ava answered, not looking up. "The Mustang is racing the Ferrari and the GT. But the Mustang kept racing even after they were done…..he crashed up against the wall and caught on fire."

"I see..….need an ambulance?" Dan looked over his shoulder at the other models he had on his shelf.

"Uh huh." Ava nodded. "And a tow truck. The Mustang was totaled…..they have to get the driver out."

"Who's the driver, Ava?" Dan asked, having a strong hunch that the child was reenacting Nathan's car accident.

He read somewhere that when children witness traumatic things, they tend to process them through acts of play. Ava was proving that to be true.

"Nobody." Ava shrugged, taking the two extra cars. She attached the tow truck to the Mustang and had the ambulance trail behind. "I'm just making it up, Daddy."

That was an obvious lie, but she really didn't want to talk about it. It was bad enough that she was there to witness it. She felt like she she let the words spill out of her mouth, it would somehow make things worse.

Besides, Nathan was pretty much all better now, so the accident didn't really matter anymore.

"Mmhm." Dan nodded, not at all buying it, but he didn't want to press the issue.

Ava was dealing with what she saw in her own way.

But if this escalated, he was taking her to see a psychologist. She was nine years old and she had already seen too much for her age.

"How was dance?" He changed the subject as she reenacted the crash again.

"Fine." She responded, spinning the Mustang around after it hit 'the wall'. "Help! Help!" She screamed quietly. "Help him! Get him out!"

"Nothing special happened?" He asked, trying not to cringe at the thought of how the accident actually happened.

"Nope..…Ms. Stephanie said that I'm getting really good and I can probably do a solo next year."

Ava was really proud of that news. This was her very first year of taking dance classes and her teacher was already talking about performing a solo.

The woman saw her hard work and she knew how often she practiced. She had the utmost confidence that Ava could do this.

"That's great news!" Dan congratulated her. "I'm proud of you."

"You are?"

"Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well….cause I don't play basketball like you, and Nathan, and Lucas."

"Come here." Dan waved her over, pulling her onto his lap once she got close enough. "You think that because you don't play team basketball, I won't be proud of you?"

"Sometimes." Ava shrugged, picking at her nails.

"Well, that couldn't be any more wrong. Ava, I made the mistake of pushing Nathan far too hard in a sport he really did love. I've made a lot of mistakes. And a lot have driven the people I love away from me." Dan explained. "You're giving me a chance to be better. I'm trying to be better. I'll be proud of whatever it is you do, as long as it makes you happy and you do your best. Okay?"

"Okay." Ava smiled at him.

"Good." Dan tickled her side before setting her back on her feet. "It's getting late and I want you to get home before it gets dark out."

"Do I have to?"

Ava loved to spend the evenings with her father in his office.

The dealership was always empty, and they'd always sit and talk about anything that came to mind.

"Yes, you have to." He mocked the whine in her tone. I have some work to catch up on around here, I'll be home in a few hours."

"Awww."

"You're just upset, because you were hoping I'd take you out for ice cream." Dan smirked as she cleaned up her mess.

Well...that wasn't untrue.

"You can't prove that." Ava set the cars on his desk and hugged him. "See you later, Daddy. Don't stay up too late."

"Straight home." Dan instructed, sending her off with a pat. "No detours."

"Fineeeee. Straight home. No detours." She dragged her feet. "But I'd rather stay here."

"Goodbye, Ava."

"Hi!" Ava greeted as her brother entered the house.

Despite the fact that her father told her not to take any detours, she did take a small one.

She really didn't feel like being in the beach house all by herself, so she made her way over to the main house where she knew that Deb would be. Of course, as soon as she got there, she called her father to tell him where she was, but the man didn't mind as long as she wasn't out roaming the streets of Tree Hill so late.

Ava had been waiting for Nathan ever since she got home.

He had decided to go to High Flyers over the summer in order to play ball, so she wanted to spend some time with him before he left.

This would be longest time they'd ever been apart and she was really going to miss him.

She just wasn't going to tell him that.

"Hi." He smiled, tousling her hair. "Take this." He handed her his heavy weekend bag, making her stumble.

"Oof!" Ava fell under its weight and glared up at him when he laughed. "That's not funny."

It was stuff like this that made Ava wonder why she ever wanted to hang out with him in the first place.

He was such a boy.

"Was that the last bag?" Deb asked, trying not to laugh at Ava's expense.

But the little girl looked so cute buried under such a big bag.

It was practically her size

"Yup, that was the last of it." Nathan nodded.

"Good. Ava and I made a big dinner, and it's hot and ready to eat." Deb showed a little mercy and helped the child up.

"Yeah, but you don't get any dessert." Ava wagged a finger at him.

"I don't?" Nathan smirked. "What if I asked the Tickle Monster? Would he say, 'yes'?"

"No!" Ava shrieked before he could even touch her and tried to run away, but he lifted her up like a football, keeping her still.

"Nathan, put her down." Deb shook her head, walking back into the kitchen just as the doorbell rang.

"I've got it." Nathan opened the door, still carrying his giggling sister.

"No, I got it!" Ava flailed her limbs, making him laugh.

His smile dropped once he saw who was at the door and he immediately put his sister down.

"Hi." Haley spoke softly, tears clouding her eyes.

It took every bit of courage she had just ring the doorbell and now that Nathan was in front of her, it was running out.

"Haley!" Ava squealed happily, rushing into her arms.

She was here!

She had finally come home!

"Hi, Busy Bee." Haley hugged her back. "I missed you."

"I missed you, too." Ava looked up at her. "How long are you staying?"

"I'm not going anywhere, Ava."

"You're home for good?"

"I'm home for good."

"Yay!"

"Ava, why don't you help Mom set the table?" Nathan pulled the child away from Haley.

They needed to talk and it was better if there weren't little ears listening to every word they needed to say to each other.

"But—"

Ava didn't understand why her brother wasn't as happy as she was.

He spent the past few months being so sad because Haley left.

But she was back now...why wasn't he smiling?

"—Hey." Nathan bent down to whisper in her ear so that Haley wouldn't hear him. "Set an extra place."

"Okay!" Ava skipped away, a lot happier than she had been before.

"What're you doing here?" Nathan asked once Ava was safely out of earshot.

"I wanna come home, Nathan."

"Yeah, this is really bad timing. Uh—"

"—Nathan, we have to go." Deb rushed to the front door, holding Ava's hand.

And apparently, the timing was even worse than he had originally thought.

"What's going on?"

"It's urgent. It's your father. We have to go now."

"I'm sorry." Nathan told Haley, following his mother and sister out to the car.

This was the perfect excuse not to talk to Haley about what had gone down between them.

Haley, on the other hand, had no idea what to do.

She wanted to go and be there for Nathan, but she didn't know if he wanted her around.

"Haley?" Deb called her, as if, reading her mind. "Come with us."

"Mrs. Scott?" A fireman approached the matriarch.

There had been a huge fire at the dealership, and Dan had been trapped inside.

Ava was horrified.

The entire building had been engulfed in flames, and it was clearly evident.

Her father had been in there all by himself, with no one to help him.

"My husband was inside!"

"They didn't tell you?" The fireman gave her a look. "Wait here."

The man walked over to his captain and alerted him of Deb's presence, prompting the paramedics to wheel Dan out.

Ava gasped at the sight of him.

Not even a few hours before this, she had been sitting right in the same room with him.

What if she had stayed?

Would anything have turned out differently?

Would they have been able to stop the fire before it started?

What if she had been able to convince him to go home with her?

Why didn't she insist?

They could've gone home together.

Her mind raced as she looked at all the medical equipment he was hooked up to, and all the soot that was covering his body.

He looked awful.

How did this happen?

"That was your mom on the phone." Haley told Nathan, knocking on his bedroom door. "She said she's gonna spend the night at the hospital with your dad."

The night was coming to an end, and it didn't make any sense for everyone to stay at the hospital.

So, Deb sent the kids home, opting to stay with her husband.

"Unbelievable." Nathan scoffed. "They should have a Scott family discount."

"I'm really sorry, Nathan."

"About my dad or about us?"

"About everything."

"So, what're you doing here anyway? Tour playing Tree Hill?"

"No, they wanted me to become a solo artist and record a record or something, but…..it didn't matter without you. None of it mattered without you…..I made a lot of mistakes, Nathan."

"That's right. And if you left the tour for me, you made another one, 'cause I'm leaving in the morning. I'm going to High Flyers."

"Oh! Well, good. Good, you deserve it. You deserve whatever you want."

"Well, listen, there's no more apartment and…I put all your stuff in storage….so you can spend the night in the guest room if you want."

"Nathan." Haley sighed, turning back around before she left the room. "There wasn't a moment when I was away, that my heart wasn't with you in Tree Hill."

"That's great." None of what she said seemed to matter to Nathan. "But I'm still leaving tomorrow and unlike you, I'm taking my heart with me."

The two stood in silence, not really knowing what to say after that.

And honestly, what was there to say?

"Just wanted to make sure you have everything you need." Nathan said, leaning against the doorframe of the guest room.

"You mean other than you?" Haley spoke without thinking as she went through her bag. "I'm sorry, that wasn't fair….this is really weird, Nathan. You know, I can just call Peyton or Lucas, or something."

"No, Haley, it's late. Besides, what's the difference?" Nathan shrugged. "You turn the lights out, it's all the same darkness, right?"

Now he was doing something he vowed never to do. He was trying to hurt her.

But he couldn't help it.

When she left, it hurt him.

So why shouldn't he show her what it feels like?

"Nathan." Haley stopped him from leaving. "You know….you know when you took those drugs before the game…where you collapsed?" She asked. "You made a mistake. But, I know you promised yourself that if you had a second chance, you would do things differently. I know that I hurt you. But I promised myself that if I could get you to listen, um….I would tell you that…there was never a day on that tour, when I didn't think you were the best part of my life."

"You can't just say that, Haley." Nathan tried to keep his voice down, for fear of waking his sister. "Not after months of silence."

"Why? It's the truth."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Well, what about the day you signed the annulment papers?"

"The papers you initiated?!"

"Yeah, after I drove a thousand miles to see you and you didn't even call me after I left! Must've been some encore!"

"Nathan, you just walked away!"

"Well, it beats running away."

"I did call."

"You called our answering machine, Haley!"

"Because I knew that you were gonna hang up on me anyway, so I had to leave a message!"

"Well, I didn't even play it." Nathan shrugged. "I deleted you."

"Well. Then you deleted this." Haley sighed. "Um, I was being childish when I walked away from you for the tour. You gave me an ultimatum the night that I left and, uh, I fought back for all the wrong reasons…..and I was being stubborn and I can't take that back. I wish that I could. Did I wanna go? Yeah, I loved it. I loved every night of it…..but I want you to know something, Nathan. There was never a night where I loved it more than I loved you."

"Nathan?" Ava mumbled softly, her fists rubbing her eyes, with one arm holding Lady tightly.

"What's wrong, Buddy?" He softened his tone, grateful that they had been interrupted. "Had a bad dream?"

It seemed like more often than not, Ava would be woken up out of a good night's sleep with a nightmare.

She wouldn't tell anyone what they were about, all she ever wanted was the comfort they were more than willing to give her.

"Y-Yeah." She hiccuped.

"I'm sorry. Bad dreams are the worst. It was really scary, huh?"

"Yeah."

"Listen, I'd let you sleep in my bed, but I'm not going to sleep anytime soon and I have to get up really early tomorrow morning….how about we—"

"—Nathan." Haley interrupted their fruitless conversation. "Can I?…..I can take her to bed."

"Not my call."

Ava sniffled and turned to Haley, allowing her to lift her up. "I don't wanna go b-back to sleep…."

"No more nightmares." Haley assured her. "Say, 'goodnight'."

"Goodnight." Ava waved at her brother, taking notice of how loving his features looked when he stared at Haley.

She could see it in his eyes that he was still madly in love with her.

They were going to be okay.

They just needed some time.

"Alright, Trouble." Haley set her down in her bed and tucked her in. "It's time to sleep."

She realized, sadly, that this was something they hadn't done in a long time, even before she left for the tour, and mentally took note to make an effort to do better.

"W-Will you stay with me?" Ava looked up at her with tears leaking from her eyes. "Please?"

"Alright." Haley sighed, knowing that if she tried to put up a fight, she'd lose the battle. "Scoot over. I'm coming in."

She didn't want to fight it anyway.

"Thank y-you." Ava sighed contently, cuddling into her arms.

"Anything for you, kid." Haley sighed. "Thank you for forgiving me. I don't deserve it."

"I love you, Haley." Ava spoke honestly. "Sing to me?"

"Yes, I'll sing to you." Haley obliged. "What song?"

"My song."

"La la lu, la la lu. Oh, my little star sweeper, I'll sweep the the stardust for you." Haley sang softly, stroking Ava's hair and tucking her stuffed and animal safely in her arms.

She hadn't realized, but this was something that they both needed after months of being apart.

Haley had been around since Ava's biological mother had given her to Karen. She had been there when when Ava uttered her first word, which was 'dog!', she had been there for her first steps, and her first day of school. She had been there for everything.

So, in Ava's world, Haley was just as important to her as Lucas was.

"La la lu, la la lu. Little soft fluffy sleeper, here comes a pink cloud for you."

In fact, the first time she had sung this song to her, was when she having a particularly bad day.

Well, as bad as a day could get for a baby.

Karen and Keith had tried everything. Rattles, pacifiers, her rocking chair, bottles, food!

Nothing worked!

"La la lu, la la lu. Little wandering angel, fold up your wings, close your eyes."

Haley had come over to play with Lucas and heard the fussy baby crying, and poor Karen was on the verge of her own breakdown.

So the girl, with permission, held the baby in her arms and sat down on a rocking chair, and began to sing that very same song.

"La la lu. La. La lu. And may love be your keeper. La la lu, la. la lu, la la lu."

To everyone's surprise, Haley, who had no experience with younger kids or babies, managed to sing Ava to sleep, giving Karen a chance to finally rest and regain her bearings.

She was the youngest child, so she didn't have any younger siblings, but when Ava came along, the two instantly connected.

It was almost like history had repeated itself tonight, giving her a second chance to make things right.

"There now, little star sweeper….dream on."