Reunion

Reunion
Prologue

Jason pulled up in the school parking lot and looked over at the building. Not that much had changed in ten years. He shook his head, reached behind his seat and pulled his wheelchair over onto the passenger seat. He opened the door of the truck, pulled the chair past him and put it on the ground. After ten years he barely thought about the process of getting in and out of vehicles. He popped the seat open, raised the steering column, grabbed the bar on the doorframe and carefully transferred from the seat down into his chair. He moved the brake lever down and headed toward the door.

Damn you, Lyla Garrity. What have you gotten me into this time?

"Okay, I'm just going to be down at the school a couple of hours and Mrs. Anderson's gonna check in here around 9 pm to see if you need anything. You okay with that?"

Tim looked up to make sure that Billy understood.

"Yeah," Billy answered slowly as he turned the TV on. "You're goin' down to the school and I'm stayin' right here and I can call your phone if I need somethin'."

Tim paused for a minute at the mirror next to the door, straightening his tie. "Call me if it's an emergency."

"Have fun with your friends, Timmy," Billy said, not looking away from the TV.

"Yeah," Tim replied as he looked around the room one more time. "I can barely think of something I'd rather do."

"Why are we even going to this?" Tyra said, turning in her seat. "You didn't even play football and it's not like I was a rally girl or something."

"When else are we going to have a chance to see this many of our old friends in one place," Landry responded. "Plus, I want them to see that I turned out okay."

"You want them to see that you hooked up with a hot babe," Tyra teased.

"Hey, you can't fault me for being proud of you," Landry responded.

"And what about everything else?" Tyra asked, looking at the sleeping form in the back seat of the car.

"That's up to you," Landry answered.

"Come on, hon. We have got to go," Tami Taylor called from the bedroom.

The toilet flushed as Coach Taylor walked out and quickly washed his hands. He reached up and finished tightening his tie. "You have my jacket out there, babe?"

"Of course," Tami responded. "And if we hurry, we'll have time to drive past the old house."

"Why did you tell your parents to stay in a hotel?" Matt asked as he pulled a sweater over his shirt.

"Because you got that look on your face the last time they were in Dillon," Julie replied. "The wedding is in four months and I need you to be able to handle maximum Mom and Dad Taylor exposure for that week. I'm not using any of it up for a football reunion."

"Okay," Matt answered as he leaned in to kiss her. "But did you tell them about the job?"

"Nah, I thought we should leave the good news for after the whole sparkling grape juice delight I'm sure we're about to endure."

"Miss, we're about to land. Would you please put your seat up?"

Lyla Garrity looked up at the flight attendant and smiled. "Of course," she responded as she reached for the seat lever. She took one last deep sip of the white wine she had asked for and handed the glass to the woman. She looked out the window at the lights in the distance. She didn't usually miss Dillon, but for some reason this trip was making her stomach flip.

She had been surprised when the invitation found her in New York. She left it on the kitchen counter for about a week until her regular Sunday night conversation with Jason.

"You going?" she asked.

"I don't know…" Jason had responded.

And before she knew what she was doing, the words were coming out. "We should go. Let's both go."

Sitting behind and to the left of Lyla, Smash watched her hand over her glass, and then offered up his scotch to the same attendant. He wasn't going to come back, but his agent said it would be good press, and so they'd booked him a last minute ticket that morning. Just his luck he wound up on the same plane as Lyla Garrity.

He braced himself for the landing, leaning back and closing his eyes. All these years flying around the country with his team and he still dreaded the landing. The plane bumped and shimmied and finally came to a skidding halt on the runway.

Smash waited until Lyla had gathered her things, then followed her down the jetway. He hung back to let her go through the arrival doors first. Maybe her family was out there, maybe Jason Street was still all hung up on his high school sweetheart. Either way, once Smash Williams stepped through the doors the place was going to go crazy.

Smash took a deep breath and counted to 10. Then he flashed a winning smile at an ogling security guard and pushed through the doors. Welcome home.

/tbc/