Notes: I'm so sorry about the wait. I'd forgotten I had uploaded OTH fic here at ff.net. This is the final part of Baby Steps. The endings kind of weird but I find I of like it that way.

Part Two:

It was all Nathan's fault. And Haley absolutely itched to tell him that sometimes. She knew that it would piss him off. He had his screwed up notion that nothing was ever his fault. Oh, how she loved trying to kick down his delusions. If he hadn't stolen the school bus (and she knew it was him. The whole school did) Lucas would have continued playing at Riverside Courts. Even Nathan's taunts and pranks had an effect opposite to what he intended. Lucas was the most stubborn person she knew. If you challenged him, he wouldn't back down.

Actually, she saw the same trait in Nathan. That worried her. It meant that he would keep upping his efforts to make Lucas quit and Lucas would just dig his heels in more, refusing to be defeated. She was fairly certain that something very, very bad was going to come of the situation.

Which was why she was here, every morning at the docks, at a damnable hour. She knew, from the very second Nathan had walked into the tutoring center that her had an agenda. She wasn't stupid. Nathan and his sizable ego thought he could charm her onto his side against Lucas. But, in hope of possibly defusing a very volatile situation, she had played the dumb little lamb heading for the slaughter.

Then Lucas had found out. That had been a thorny situation. He had frozen her out for a while until she had gotten fed up with the silent treatment and stood on his porch, yelling at him for being a child and then refusing to go home until he talked to her. She had sat there for two hours until she had heard him come downstairs. Then, being far too much of a softy to let his best friend freeze her ass to his porch, he had come out, bearing tea and an extra sweater no less. Luke truly was the greatest guy she knew.

She had been completely honest with him. Had apologized profusely for not telling him and explained that she was only trying to protect him.

"Haley, I really don't need you to protect me."

"I know you don't. Just as I don't need *you* to protect *me*. But you try anyway, don't you?"

Lucas, knowing better then to play the gender card, acquiesced grudgingly, made her promise to be careful, and promised to beat the snot out of Nathan should he hurt her, suspension or no.

Haley, quite seriously, promised to help.

And then things had been back to normal between them. Nathan and Haley began to meet regularly, same time, same place. He'd whined about it, as was his nature, saying that since Lucas knew, there was no need for the remote location. Haley, wisely, had insisted to continue meeting at the docks. Public Nathan was a person she wanted to avoid if at all possible. Besides, she'd countered, did he really want all his jock friends knowing he needed tutoring?

The first few sessions had tried her patience. He did, as she anticipated, try to worm his way into her good graces, trying to impress her with his wealth and popularity and charm. She had shut him down every time. Additionally, at least the first five minutes of each of those sessions she spent reaming him out for whatever his latest effort to antagonize Lucas was. He was, in short, a colossal pain in the ass. And she honestly considered giving up on him. It would have been the first black mark on her otherwise excellent tutoring record, but he was just that much of an irritant.

Then, the Tuesday of the second week he had been early. A first. "I have something for you Haley."

Haley had been suspicious, thinking that whatever it was, it could not be anything good (although the crackerjack bracelet had been a little cute), had said, her usual sarcasm alive and kicking, "Animal, vegetable, or mineral?"

Unfazed, Nathan had replied, "Vegetable. I think. Paper comes from trees and trees would fall under vegetable, right?"

"Just give it to me."

"You're no fun," but he slid the paper he had been holding to her and sat down across from her.

She glanced at it. It appeared to be a math quiz on the concepts they had spent much of the last week drilling. And on top, was a big fat red B. Haley, despite herself, felt the usual jubilation she felt when someone she helped succeed well up, "Well smack my ass and call me Betty! You're not hopeless after all!"

Nathan, still not accustomed to the weirdness she occasionally spewed was mystified, "Uh… yay?"

She reached over and patted him on the head as one would a child, "It's awesome. Be happy!"

"Oh, I am. It's the best I've done on a math test since… well… ever. I guess. My mom wants to put it on the fridge."

"Mine still does that too. Parents are so cute sometimes."

And so followed the first session that Haley left not having the urge to bang her head against a hard surface afterwards.

Then, as the sessions progressed, that feeling became the rule rather than the exception. She began to enjoy the sessions, just a tiny bit. She looked at her snooze button less longingly every morning. Nathan mellowed slightly, at least outside of school. The incidents of Lucas torment lessened.

It was well into the fourth week of their arrangement that Haley realized something. Nathan Scott was not, contrary to her previously held conclusion, entirely evil.

It was a shocking.

Furthermore, in addition to not being evil, he could, occasionally, be something approaching likable. The revelation somehow managed to break through Haley's anti-Nathan shields. He could be funny. He was considerate enough to find out how she liked her coffee and brought her a cup everyday. He wasn't even stupid. Just undisciplined and kind of spastic.

It was an entirely normal day. A Thursday, slightly overcast. Nathan had basketball practice later, Haley, a shift at Karen's. They were discussing his latest English assignment, a paper on the themes present in Lord of the Flies. They disagreed, as they often did, about one of the main issues, the nature of good and evil.

Haley had one of those moments. The one of those where her brain stepped back to analyze the situation dispassionately. There she was. Sitting at a table with Nathan Scott who should, quite rightly, be on her list of top ten most detestable people. But there she was, listening to him talk, honestly interested in what he had to say, drinking the coffee he had bought for her, leaning towards him slightly... It struck her as wrong. A betrayal of Lucas. And so she hurriedly began to pack up her stuff.

Nathan allowed his sentence to trail off as he watched her, "What are you doing?"

"I have to… I just remembered… Damn!" And just like that she left.

Nathan watched her go, feeling like he had missed something very important.

Haley did not head to school but in the opposite direction. It was instinctive. She needed advice so her body found Karen. She barreled through the door, the bells announcing her presence loudly. No one was there yet as the place had just opened.

Karen walked out of the back, wiping her hands, preparing to greet a customer, "Haley!" she glanced at the clock, "shouldn't you be going to school?"

"I should. But I'm not. I need a brownie." Wordlessly, Karen got her one. "Karen? Can I ask you something that I really have no business asking?"

"If you feel you really need to know something, I'll try to answer you."

"What did you see in Dan?"

"Haley… why…" Whatever Karen had been expecting, that was not it.

"See, you know I've been tutoring Nathan, right?" Karen nodded. "Well, today, he was talking and thought I saw something. For a second there it was like… he ceased to be Nathan Scott, basketball player, and was just this guy named Nathan, you know? Just a kid I go to high school with who isn't good at math. And I think I could kind of like that kid."

"I don't think I should tell you what Dan was like."

"What? Why?"

"Because I think it would influence what you think about Nathan, and that's not fair. Not to him. Not to you. Don't hold who his father is or was against him."

"Why? Don't you hate Nathan?"

"Of course not. Haley, he's just a kid."

"Must you be so fair all the time?"

"I'm a mom. It's my job."

Haley smiled, "Thanks anyway. I'll see you this afternoon?"

"Three sharp."

Haley got to school fairly quickly. She was a little bit of an overachiever and the thought of missing class bothered her more than she would ever admit out loud. She slid into the desk of her second period class only two minutes after the bell. She got a glare from the teacher, but nothing more. The rest of the day flew by as she got into her school groove. Taking notes, answering questions, and all the stuff she was good at.

She and Luke were walking across the front lawn when she heard someone call her name. She turned and it was Nathan, speed walking towards them. It was a bit of an unusual occurrence. They'd nodded to each other in the hallways lately, but had never acknowledged their tutoring relationship.

Luke tensed as Nathan neared. "Hey," Nathan said, not really excluding Lucas from the greeting.

"Hi," Haley said. Lucas was silent. She turned to him, looked the secret look to show she was okay and said, "I'll meet you at the café?"

"Sure. Bye." And he walked away, shooting warning glances at Nathan.

Haley turned her full attention to him, "Wow. No carnage. I do believe you're evolving." But her tone wasn't in the least bit biting.

"Yeah. Don't tell anyone," he paused and groped for words, "Listen, I just wanted to make sure we were cool. This morning you seemed a little…"

"Schizophrenic? Yeah, don't worry. I'm back on the meds."

Nathan laughed and Haley liked the sound. "So I'll see you tomorrow? Same time same place?"

"Sure. Where else would I be? Getting my beauty sleep like a normal person?"

He smirked, not the one that made her want to slap him, but a different one, "It's not like you need it."

She rolled her eyes, "That was so lame."

"When a gentleman compliments you you're supposed to say thank you."

"When a gentleman compliments me I'll remember that," she paused, expecting a smart-ass comeback that never came. Again, the eyes rolled, "Whatever, I'll see you." She began to walk away.

"Have fun at work."

She kept walking.

END.