The Walk Home
Author's note: This is a 'missing scene' from the Season 4 Episode The Son, sparked by a PM Surly Coach sent me. My earlier and since unfairly banned self-posted and then took it down, it's back with an addition or two.
I demand GUSHING PRAISE AND ENDLESS FAWNING LOVE IN YOUR REVIEWS.
Or you can say dogs wouldn't piss on it.
"Matt. Matt!"
He heard Coach Taylor calling his name but Matt kept running. That was the only thought in his mind. Keep running. Away from Dillon. Away from Coach. Away from Julie. Away from Grandma. Away from his dad. Away from everything. Just keep on running forever, into the darkness. But he stopped and stood, chest heaving, sobs wracking his body, tears streaming down his cheeks and into his mouth.
Eric jogged over to him and stood there hands on his hips until Matt got his sobbing under control. "I'm going to walk to you home."
Matt stood there for a few moments, then nodded his head and set off down the street with Eric at his side. As they passed under a streetlight Eric glanced back and saw Tami and Julie looking at them from the front porch. He reached over and put his arm around Matt's shoulder. They walked for a few minutes, listening to the breeze rustle the leaves and the crickets singing.
"Coach, will you tell Mrs. Taylor and Julie how sorry I am for what just happened? I'm really sorry."
"Aww hell, you're a'ight. You didn't do anything wrong."
"Yes sir, but will you tell them I'm sorry and apologize to them for me. I mean, I'll say I'm sorry when I see them tomorrow, but there was no excuse for what I did. I didn't mean to scare Julie or Mrs. Taylor like that."
Eric stopped. "Hey. I need you to hear this. You did nothing wrong. You understand me. Nothing wrong. I half expected you to throw your plate against the wall and even that would have been understandable given the circumstances. You did nothing wrong, you hear me?"
"I hear you, but will you please just apologize for me and them how sorry I am?"
Eric could tell Matt wasn't going to let it go so he said, "Yes, I'll tell them." They walked for a few minutes; Eric glanced up at the sky and then said "Where were you?"
"We…we were at Dillon at the field."
"You were at my field? You and who else? You didn't leave my lights on did you?"
"No sir. We weren't at East Dillon, we were at Dillon. Me and Landry and Tim and Billy. But yeah, we left the lights on."
"Good." Eric grinned and Matt did too when he saw Eric's face. That made up a little for Joe and JD's showing up at the wake with that ridiculous fruit basket. "Tim still has the key to the press box."
"You gave him a key?"
"No, I think it was Buddy. I was tired of having him complain to me because the lock or the door was busted or that the lights had been on all night. Or that I'd left beer cans all over the place. I did tell Tim that I didn't mind if he was at the field but to try and remember to turn the lights off."
"I guess it'll be two out of three tonight."
"That'll have to do. I'm glad that you made it to our house and that you and the others are safe, especially Heckle and Jeckyl. Tim and Billy Riggins." Eric shook his head. "I'm just happy that it was just y'all out on the field drinking beer. Those two have a horrible habit of not thinking things through, but blowing past the consequences at high speed and if there's a horribly dumb idea floating around, you can be sure it'll land in one of their heads and be put into practice before long."
"That wasn't the only place we were. We…uh….we….we went, well I started saying how I have to give a eulogy tomorrow and how I don't even know if my dad is really in the coffin, you know. Because I've heard and read some stories about people faking their deaths and how the coffin is filled with rocks or sandbags or something and the person goes off and is living on some island in the South Pacific or starting a brand new life in a new state on the other side of the country or something. And Tim said something like, 'Well, you're dad's at the funeral home, right? Let's go check it out and see.'" Eric shook his head and hissed softly. "No, coach, it's okay. I'd been thinking about for a while, a couple of days and I guess I wanted to know. So that's what we did. We kind of broke in to the place, but the guy, the undertaker was pretty nice about it." Matt stopped walked over and sat on the curb, so Eric sat beside him. "He didn't want to open the casket, but we…I was pretty insistent." Matt swallowed a few times. "You know what an IED is coach?"
"It's like a land mine, except civilians make them I think."
"Yeah, like an amateur land mine. I guess that's where most of the injuries and deaths are coming from now over there." Matt lay back on the grass. "That's what my dad was hit by. Killed by. So….the undertaker unlocked the casket and I looked."