Rescued

Full Summary: "Another Saturday night; another high school party. At least it should have been just another party." But Nathan Scott's 17th birthday is going to lead to so much more; for him and for Haley James.

Details: The first two episodes of season 1 took place, only Peyton and Nathan never dated and everyone was in sophomore year. Nathan never went to Haley for tutoring. This takes place about a year after that, when they're juniors. Everything else that happened is explained in the story.

A/N: I got the idea for this in June, but with writing my other story Always Love and having exams then I didn't have the time to write this. However, I liked the idea too much to wait until Always Love is finished to start it so I'm going to be writing both stories at the same time. This story is going to be about 10 chapters long, epilogue included (I still haven't finished writing it so I'm not definite yet). I've made a banner for this story too; if you want to see it this is the link:

img59.imageshack.us/img59/1034/30naleykd9.jpg

Chapter One

Another Saturday night; another high school party. At least it should have been just another party. It was the night of Nathan's 17th birthday, so to celebrate the occasion his friends Tim and Vegas had decided to throw him a party at his own beach house and everyone considered anyone at Tree Hill High was there.

Haley James had only been invited by association; she was neither a cheerleader nor someone's girlfriend, but she was the best friend of Lucas Scott, Nathan's half brother. A year ago she wouldn't have thought it possible but despite all the fights and the hazing, Lucas and Nathan had managed to become friends, at times even brothers. Of course, that didn't explain why she was standing where she was; inside a tiny closet, with a blindfolded Nathan Scott standing opposite her.

Haley was inclined to blame it on Tim. After all, he was the one who came up with the stupid game. His 'present' to Nathan was a twist on the game seven minutes in heaven. However, instead of many couples going into the closet for seven minutes each, Nathan had been stuck in there, blindfold already on, and every seven minutes a different girl went inside, to do with him as she pleased. And, somehow, Haley had become one of those girls.

The sad truth was that she had a crush on him. Well, it was definitely more than a crush. Even at the time when Lucas still hated Nathan, Haley couldn't help but wonder if there was more to him that met the eye; and she had even risked her friendship with Lucas by stating that aloud. But, there was no way she could tell her best friend that she had inexplicably fallen in love with his brother. No way.

As a result, she had kept it to herself, confiding in no one, not even Peyton Sawyer whom she had become close friends with after Peyton's boyfriend Jake Jagielski had been the first player on the basketball team to befriend Lucas. She had tried her best to get over it, knowing Nathan would never be interested in her, but those brief, split second moments when she saw him at Lucas', where he was his real self, and he noticed her and smiled, made it impossible for her to stop. She had even attempted to change the times she went to Lucas' so she wouldn't see him. Lucas hung out with Jake, Nathan and Tim separately to his time with Haley so she had endeavored not to be leaving when they were coming or vice versa. But, she lived for those moments, and in the end she couldn't help herself. Just like she hadn't been able to help herself when she had overheard those girls talking about the game.

She had only intended to see if it was real – after all, she had told herself, who wanted to go make out with him when he had just made out with tons of other girls. But, when she had searched around a bit – having told Lucas, Peyton, Jake and Lucas' new girlfriend Brooke Davis that she was going to the bathroom – and discovered that it was real, she had realized she was only kidding herself. Of course she wanted to make out with him! What sane girl wouldn't? Which brought her to where she was now; locked in a closet with the boy of her dreams – literally. And she didn't have the guts to get within 2 feet of him.

She had entered, checking very carefully that no one she knew was around, and locked the door behind her. The light was on so she could clearly see Nathan standing at the other end of the closet, not that far away, looking handsome as always in a light blue polo shirt and dark blue jeans. The blue made her think of his eyes, which was her favourite feature of his, and for a moment she wished she could see them. However, if she could see his eyes then that meant he could see her, and if he could see her there was no way she would be there right now. Not that she was making much, if any, use of her current position.

The problem was that it was only after she had come in had she realized the enormity of what she was doing. She was actually locked in a closet with Nathan Scott – and would be for a whole seven minutes – and he was expecting her to make out with him. Except, she had never even kissed a boy before. Okay, so one day when they were eleven Skills had tried to kiss her – because he needed practice before he kissed the girl he really liked, had been his reason when she asked him why – but she had moved her head and his mouth had ended up half on her lips and half on her cheek. And Haley was pretty sure that that didn't count as a real kiss.

So, she who had no experience was stuck in a dimly-lit closet with a boy who probably had too much experience for his age, and she was the one expected to make the first move. And there were other problems too. None of her friends had been there when she went in, but what if they were walking by when she came out? And it had been Vegas, not Tim outside the door, but Tim could come back. Haley mentally berated herself for not thinking the situation through and simply acting on impulse and the pure adrenaline rush she'd derived from the fact that she'd finally get to kiss Nathan.

Suddenly, her thoughts were interrupted when Nathan said two words, "Er, hello?"