Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 43rd cycle. Now cycle 44!

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** UPDATED WITH CYCLE 44 CHEAT SHEET ** Check it out to find out about shift days!

This is a shift day [see above]. There will be another upload this afternoon: Steps 16-36, Time Is On Your Side, chapter 7.

"Back in the Saddle"
Beiste & Ewan, Beiste/Rich (OC), Mike/Tina
Ewan series #7 (following 'There's That Smile')

Ewan had been curious to see the outfit, so she humored him, parading out in her long abandoned ensemble, ready to hit Rosalita's Road House. It would be the first time she went in months, since before Ewan had come to live with her. When he saw her come out of her room, he looked up and his eyes went wide. She laughed, taking the hat off her head and planting it on his.

"This is it," she nodded down to herself as he got up off the couch, adjusting the hat on his head.

"So you go there a lot?" he guessed.

"Well it has been a while," she told him, and she didn't have to say the reason why that was. He smiled to her, doing much as she had, taking the hat off his head and putting it on hers.

"Maybe I could go with you sometime," he smiled, though his face told her he wasn't sure he'd go so far as to put on the clothes.

"Probably not until you're twenty-one," she chuckled apologetically.

"They won't let me in even if I don't drink?" he frowned. "Back in…"

"I know, it's three more years for you over here. I will ask, alright?" she gave him a smile. "So what are you doing tonight?"

"Going to see a movie with Tina and Mike," he nodded.

"Want me to drop you off?"

So she'd driven him to theater, after which she had made her way to the Road House. She had to admit she was thrilled just knowing that she was going. She had missed the place, the people… She missed being Shannon the Cannon.

She arrived, getting out of her car and slipping on her hat, which she took off while she drove, for visibility and motion's sake. Walking up to the door, everything felt familiar and foreign at once. It had been so long since she had been there, so it felt as though she'd lost that rhythm in her life, but at the same time the closer she got the more it just came back to her.

Going in, her arrival was met with much enthusiasm. People were thrilled to see her, which honestly touched her deep down. If they asked why she hadn't come in so long, she'd tell them her schedule had kept her. She could have told them the truth, but it would have been a long story she didn't want to repeat over and over. Also the longer it took her to get in to the main area, the more her chances for surprising him diminished.

She and Rich had been having their lunches every other day or so since the day she had bumped into him at McKinley and told him about Ewan. Apart from spending time with her nephew, those lunches were the best part of her day. She already knew how much he seemed a good man, but the lunches made that even clearer. He had become a dear friend and confidant. Still she missed who they were when they were at the Road House, too.

When she saw him sitting at the bar, she actually felt her breath catch. She had forgotten how great he looked in this whole attire. She came up from behind him so he wouldn't see her even as she planted herself there, smirking.

"Keeping my seat warm there, Rich?" her voice practically boomed and he looked over his shoulder, indeed surprised.

"Well I'll be…" he smiled, getting up to greet her, a quick hug… "I almost didn't come tonight, that would have been a shame," he shook his head.

"You got that right," she laughed, nodding to the bar. They sat – her in the seat he'd vacated and him in the one next to hers – and Rich signalled toward the bartender.

"So what's your boy up to tonight?" he asked, and she smiled at hearing him refer to Ewan as 'her boy.'

"Went to the movies with some friends. Yours?"

"I think he did, too," Rich frowned, thinking. "Maybe they'll run into each other." They had introduced the boys after Mitch had returned from being out with an injury. They got along fine, though they hadn't struck up an immediate friendship either.

After that, the evening had turned into a lot of what being at the Road House used to be, and before long it didn't seem like she'd ever really been away. She talked with this person and that, Rich by her side through it all. They danced, they drank… She thought about Ewan, his question… She wasn't sure how he'd fare here, but oh how she wished she could share it with him. It made her joyful, and people could always use more of that in their lives, no matter their age. She'd have a talk with the bartender, see how that might work out, and then who knew?

Her favorite part of the evening was definitely spending time with Rich. It wasn't like they never saw each other, with their lunches and all, but again in the Road House it was different. There was something in them, in any and all regular of Rosalita's, in the way they could connect to the place, and it was a quality in them, in him, that she knew in herself. When it came to her, and to Rich, maybe she knew there was more to it, but she was just scared for the leap. She was not the most successful in that department, and the thought of losing him…

At the end of the night, with most people gone or on their way out, it was the two of them, still at the bar, talking, inwardly just not wanting to have to draw the conversation to a close. But then they had to, both of them having to get back to 'their boys.' Rich had walked her to her car, and there he'd stopped for a moment. "It was really good to have you back here, Shannon," he nodded to her, pulling his hat off, pressing it to his chest, which made her smile.

"It was great being back," she nodded. "I…"

And then he'd kissed her. It had caught her by surprise – she guessed after her surprise he owed her one – but that only lasted a moment before she could just bask in the fact that Rich Henley was kissing her, and what she'd thought was a fantastic night already had just gotten even better. She was speechless as he pulled back, but she smiled, and so did he. He'd been nervous, she could see, and that only made it more memorable to her; her knees had been quaking too…

She didn't remember the drive home at all, just suddenly that she was back home, and when she'd walked in, there was Ewan on the couch with Mike and Tina.

"Hey… you three," she blinked, not having expected to see them there. "How was the movie?"

"The film burned up," Tina reported. "Halfway through, just…" she mimed it.

"They gave us these tickets to go back for free another time," Ewan went on. "We came back here to watch something else."

"Well that's good," Shannon told them. "Make sure you two get home alright, yes?" she addressed their guests before going on to her room. When she was gone, the trio looked to one another, puzzled.

"Was she okay?" Mike asked.

"She didn't look drunk or anything…" Ewan shook his head. Tina smirked to herself, taking a wild guess as to what was 'afflicting' the football coach.

"Let's just… Let's get back to the movie."

THE END

A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.
In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are
always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!