Haley's Story

It’s a rule in One Tree Hill that when a character says the line “Things are great right now” things will go drastically wrong for the person or family of the person who said it. This line was said by Haley and true to form 2 episodes later her whole world comes crashing down.

Her mum Lydia who you may, or may not remember from season 2 comes to Tree Hill with (for the viewer) 2 pieces of news, firstly husband Jimmy died several years ago (viewers never knew this, Haley did) and secondly Lydia was about to go too, she had pancreatic cancer and even with agressive treatment things were not going to get better.

In Haley's words as soon as she knew that her whole world chaged and she was mad that Lydia just spung that on her and just expected her to be strong for her 2 sisters Quinn and Taylor because they couldn't be, but Haley didn't want to be strong this time. 

Taylor saw that by Lydia just accepting this was her fate now that she was giving up and she promtly left Haley and Quinn to deal with the news alone, which Lydia said was ok because everyone had to deal with it in their own way, but Tay was being selfish as always.

The the time came for Lydia to share her news with her grandson Jamie, that this christmas she would be with his grandfather, not with him. Jamie took it hard, what 7 year old boy wouldn't though, but then again for a 7 year old he had experienced so much death and trauma he understood what was going on, but still Haley wanted to be the one to break that news to her son but was gracious enough to understand why Lydia did it with him.

Haley told Jamie that it's ok for him to cry if he needed to and he said if he did want to, it wouldn't be for him, it would be for Haley because her mum is going to die and the one thing he never wants to lose is Haley or Nathan and she promised him they weren't going anywhere.

Haley wanted to give Lydias medical records to Nathan's team doctor, a one final shot that she hoped would save Lydia, but she knew it might come back with the same diagnosis and Lydia agreed to let Haley try, on the condition that when it did come back with  the same result she had to accept it, reluctantly Haley agreed because she was at least happy Lydia was doing this for her.

Unfortunately the result was the same so Haley was forced to accept it and put on a brave face for her son who had planned an early christmas so he could spend one final christmas with his grandma.

Then while making her special chicken dumpling soup with Haley (a 2 person recipe) Lydia shared some memories of all the times they had made it together while Haley was growing up and Haley for the 1000th time since she learned of Lydia's illness told her she loved her and Lydia joked that she wasn't about to keel over in the soup bowl.

Meanwhile Nathan was in the study and found Lydia's funeral arrangements and called Haley to tell her she had left them lying around, Haley went back to the kitchen to mention this to Lydia but she had collapsed and split the soup all over the floor.

In the hospital Lydia and the rest of the James-Scott family were told she doesn't have long left so the girls went in and Lydia asked if she had ruined the soup, that would depend on wether she felt Haley's floor was clean enough to eat it off joked Haley and the 2 sisters tried to be strong for Lydia and told her she would be around long enough to make lots of soup, but Lydia already knew that wasn't going to happen.

People came and went all day, Quinn tried to make Taylor see that if she wanted to say goodbye to Lydia she had to do it now, and besides Haley and Quinn needed their big sister right now, but she couldn't face any of it so Quinn left her with a picture of them all as children that showed how close they all were and the sister that Taylor used to be, she wished she would come back.

 Haley realised she didn;t know much about Lydia or Jimmy and soon it would be too late to ask so she asked what she could and learnt some things like Lydia's and Jimmy's song and what her dad was like before he became a father. Then she realised she didnt have the reciepe of Lydia's special chicken dumpling soup so she wrote it down for her and shared with Haley the secrets of getting the soup just perfect using whole peppercorns not the table stuff.

Nathan breaks the news to Jamie that Lydia had collapsed while he was at his friends and he guesses that Lydia will die soon. Jamie shares with Nathan that he is greatful that Lydia helped him get his rabbit Chester but Nathan is confused because he and Hayley got Chester but Jamie says they didn't have a choice because Lydia taught him to wish on a star and he wished for Chester.

Haley is home trying to make the soup but Nathan tells her Jamie knows about Lydia and she says i thought we wasnt telling him but Nathan tells her he guessed and she gets in a mess when she realises that Jamie is so familar with death that it's easy for him to work out what is coming and cuts her finger with the knife while chopping carrots and getting hysterical and Nathan asked if it was bad, but Haley gave him the answer but different to what he was expecting "Yeah its bad, it's freaking bad, my mum's dying and i am making soup because that's all I can do because i can't stop this i don't know what the right questions are to ask it's all going just so freaking fast." 

Haley took her attempt at the soup to Lydia, when she tried it she told her daughter it was just perfect the way she did it but Haley didn't think it was because it is a 2 person recipe.

Eventually Taylor turns up and says sorry for being such a dissapointment to Lydia but Lydia has news for her troublesome daughter, Taylor is the one out of all the kids that reminds Lydia most of herself but Taylor doesn't believe it, that is because Lydia says she only knows Lydia James the mother/wife, but back in the day there was a very Taylorish Lydia and she knows Taylor can get past that just the way she did. 

Clay comes back to the hospital with Quinn with a computer in his hand and Lydia asks what is with all the hardware it seems him and Quinn have been working on something special for Lydia.
  
Jamie brings his special lamp that puts stars around the room to the hospital and tells Lydia to make a wish, then Taylor says sorry to Haley and Quinn for being a bad sister and wants to start again they all make up and Lydia turns to Jamie and says Thank you, that was clearly her dying wish.

Clay puts on the suprise he and Quinn made for Lydia its a slide show of all the pictures from Lydia's boxes of photos and when the slide show finishes she says she thinks she did ok and Haley says she did everything Lydia smiles and says hello handsome having clearly seen Jimmy and takes her final breath and the 3 sisters sit cuddled up to her crying.

Life is never the same again for Haley or her family.