It’s Alright (I’m Only Bleeding)

Crazy Nanny Carrie has killed Haley and everyone is mourning her, especially Nathan (naturally). Meanwhile, Brooke is suffering silently as she deals with the loss of one of her closest friends and also secretly deals with her rape and beating at the hands of a masked man. Nathan and Brooke begin to spend time together and form a deeper bond than they ever imagined possible. Will they eventually give into their feelings or will they run away from them?

Sidenote: This is an AR fic set in October of Season 6. I hope you enjoy it.

Prologue

Nathan Scott looked out over the mourners and clenched his fists angrily. They all acted so sad and contrite but he was sure that by tomorrow they would have gone back to their normal lives and forgotten all about what had brought them to this cemetery today.

Well Nathan Scott did not have that luxury - not at all. He had a son to raise now on his own. A son who was just a little boy and didn’t completely understand the meaning of death in its finality. He had witnessed Nathan’s sadness over Quentin’s death but that was nothing in comparison to the feelings swirling inside Nathan now. The emotions that threatened to pour out in front of his little son. It ate at him -- the knowledge that he would never see Haley again. His Haley. His wife; his lover; his confidant; his best friend …

This was all too much to take in and Nathan was so angry at the world and everyone in it. Everyone who got to go on living while his wife rotted away in a coffin six feet under. His kept looking at the lilacs on her grave and thinking how by tomorrow in this still-warm October heat; they would have wilted away by then. Wilted away like Haley’s life as she lay dying from a wound in her chest administered by the crazy babynapper, Carrie …

Nathan had been at her side as Haley whispered her last words (“I love you, Nathan. Tell Jamie I love him too … Please don’t be afraid to be happy when I’m gone …”), and took her very last breath. He now remembered clutching her in his arms and just crying -- crying and sobbing and wailing at the top of his lungs. Then he lay beside Haley’s body and just went still, unable to breathe or even move his limbs. He might has well have been back in his wheelchair then.

His father had been there watching it all and Nathan had fully expected him to jump in and say what an unmanly, weak emotional “little girl” Nathan had turned into, but Nathan had actually seen pity in Dan’s eyes. Pity from Dan Scott of all people had nearly sent Nathan over the edge.

He hated that people pitied him; looked at him and shook their heads as if to say, “poor, poor man”. It disgusted him. Because no one could feel sorrier for Nathan Scott, than Nathan Scott himself …

Nathan heard Peyton Sawyer sobbing in the seat directly behind him and felt disgusted. If he could keep it together today, why the hell couldn’t she?

He angrily jumped to his feet and quickly strolled away from his friends, family and his fellow “mourners” before he shouted something truly horrible at all of them. Before he did something truly horrible and weak like throw himself on top of Haley’s coffin just as the dirt began to rain down over it.

He had to think about his son now. Jamie needed him although Nathan knew he was a shitty excuse for a Haley fill-in. Everyone was …

Jamie was with Skills today (naturally, Nathan trusted few other people to be around his son now) and Nathan would head home to his son just as soon as he could get control of the heavy emotions sitting on his chest, constricting his air supply.

He made it to his car and unlocked it before slumping inside and leaning his head on the steering wheel. He just sat there for a long moment with silent, pathetic tears running down his face.

He had left the car door open and suddenly felt a soft but firm hand come to rest on his shoulder. He looked up and sneered at the person, “What do you want? What the hell are you bothering me for?”