Forever and Always (A Naley fanfiction)

Chapter Twelve

"Haley? She's alive?"

It takes Peyton a moment before she can speak, "Lucas, how much did you hear?"

"Enough," He responds, walking further into the room and closing the door behind him.

"Is she really alive?" Lucas asks quietly.

Peyton is quiet for a moment before responding. "Yeah," She says, smiling gently at him. "Yeah, she is."

Lucas let out a laugh without humor and appeared to be trying not to cry. Haley had been his best friend. Her disappearance and supposed death had killed him just about as much as it had killed Nathan. He just did not let his pain show as much as Nathan did.

"And that little girl you guy's had with you, the one that's missing. She's Haley and Nathans' isn't she?" 

Peyton and Jake both nod.

"Wow, okay," Lucas says and has to sit down on the bed. "How long have you guys known?"

"A couple of months," Peyton responds, not looking Lucas directly in the eye. He wasn't going to like how long they had kept Haley being alive a secret.

As Peyton expected, Lucas looked furious by this news.

"A couple of months?! And you didn't think to tell anybody or to call the cops?!" He asks incredulously.

"Lucas Haley didn't want anybody to know she was still alive! We found her on accident." Peyton exclaims.

"Why?! Why wouldn't she want anybody to know she was alive?! That's just crazy!"

Jake glances worriedly at the door. Peyton and Lucas were were both being pretty loud, and the last thing they needed was to do was alert Brooke that anything was wrong.

"Keep your voices down," Jake reprimands. "Luke, she was just scared, man. The dude who kidnapped her is still out there, and Haley claims there is someone else who hired him that wants to hurt her. She was scared if she came back, someone else would get hurt. Mainly Nathan,"

Lucas is quiet for a while before he speaks again.

"So, where is she?"

"We don't know. She's missing. So is Emma," Peyton answers "I let her visit Nathan for a few minutes yesterday. Afterward, she said she needed to clear her head. I haven't seen or heard from her since. Then this morning Emma was gone too,"

"Nathan said he saw her yesterday," Lucas says quietly, realization in his voice. "When he woke up, he was asking for her, and he kept claiming she had been in the hospital with him. I told him he had dreamt it."

"Its alright man you didn't know, "Jake says gently.

"So, do you think she took Emma and just left, or something else is wrong?"Lucas asks.

Peyton shakes her head "I don't think she would worry everybody like this. Not after what her initial disappearance did. I just have a gut feeling that something is seriously wrong. It's not what Haley wanted, but I think we need to involve the cops somehow. This whole thing has gotten way to out of hand, and somebody's going to get hurt or end up dead if we don't,"

"We need to find a way to do it without drawing too much attention," Jake says, "Maybe a private investigator?" He suggests.

"I might have an idea," Lucas tells them, "Just let me make a call."

XXX

Nathan Scott storms out of the Tree Hill Police Department in a state of absolute fury. He had walked in and asked to speak to the detective on Haley's case. He had shown the detective Haley's bracelet and explained how he had found it only to be told it didn't mean anything, and there was nothing they could do.