Nights Like This
Chapter 1

Dillon's infamous three amigos reflect on their past and how it lead to the present, a present unlike any future they imagined.

They sat under the stars, the stale Texas wind drifting around the four figures sharing a beer.

"So what time's your flight tomorrow?" Lyla asked, breaking the silence.

"I think around noon?" Jason said somewhat-confidently, "Gotta get back to work now that the season's starting." His wife, Erin rolled her eyes.

"It's 12:25. Jason's parents are dropping us off at the airport."

Jason smiled, "See I was almost right, but I need this woman to keep me straight."

Erin and Lyla laughed, admiring that signature Jason Street smile.

"Well, I'm gonna check on the baby and make sure our girls aren't making your son partake in a tea party."

Lyla smiled thinking about her son sitting amongst the teddy bears and tea cups, "Oh they would see real quickly that Sam isn't tea party material."

"Yeah, he's a Dillon Panther!" Jason declared proudly, "He needs to rub some of that onto Noah."

Erin kissed Jason's head as she got up and walked inside the house.

"Noah doesn't like football?" Lyla asked, curious about her friend's eight-year old boy, "He's the flesh and blood of Jason Street!"

"Yeah, yeah." Jason brushed it off, "In New York it's all about scouting and recruiting and living in the wealthiest district you know. Not like here, there isn't that town-consuming pride that we got to experience."

"Sam isn't gonna go to Dillon, we live in Austin, remember?" Lyla reminded him cautiously.

"I know that." Jason said matter-of-factly, "But you still got this land and the house in Panther country so him and the old man can come and practice on the weekends."

Lyla looked over at the 'old man' whose lap she was sitting on. He was being awfully quiet, which was nothing new. Everytime they came out here on the weekends he would drag his wife and son down in the dirt and "take it in" as he called it, breathing in the little slice of Texas that he so proudly owned.

"You calling me old, six?" he finally grumbled with a small smile, twirling his beer in his hands.

"We got a live one here!" Jason said, throwing some chips at him.

"Hey man, I ain't the old one who's got four kids."

"Leave Noah, Anna, Emily and Sydney out of this!" Street joked right back, "Besides you've been a daddy for like two years now, you can't even jab me for that anymore!"

"The best dad in the world!" Lyla affectionately rubbed her hand over Tim Riggins' chest, defending her man.

"I got a fridge filled with "dad of the year" awards that beg to differ." Jason called out his best friend with a non-wavering smile.

"You two idiots are both fathers" Lyla reflected in awe, receiving a playful smack from her husband which she was a hundred percent prepared for.

"What the hell does that mean?" Jason drunkenly smiled.

"Yeah, you do remember that I'm the father of your son right?" Tim informed her with a raised eyebrow.

"Ah, I miss you guys." Jason said over the harmless bickering.

"I miss you too, man." Tim replied, somewhat genuinely, "But I don't miss her though, like at all…" he joked, trailing off as Lyla smacked him right back, "Shut up." she whispered, leaving small kisses all over his face.

"I'm serious I mean, I love New York and being an agent and all but...Texas forever, right?"

Tim took a swig and started drawing parallels from a night much like this one, where the 16 and 17 year old versions of Tim, Lyla, and Jason sat under the Texas stars ready to begin that infamous Dillon Panthers season.

"You guys remember like 12 years ago when we were all at that party before our sophomore football season?" he said.

Lyla and Jason nodded quietly. There was a pause for reflection until Jason spoke up, "Man, who the hell would've predicted how much our lives changed since that night. I mean I got paralyzed for God's sake!"

"Yeah no one was callin' that one." Tim was able to sadly laugh at the hell they'd been through that week, "We thought we had it all figured out."

"I was a cheerleader.." Lyla whispered as if she didn't want to believe it anymore.

"And you were gonna marry him!" Tim chuckled, pointing to the man across from him.

Lyla playfully rolled her eyes at her husband of four years, but on the inside she was thinking the same exact thing. It was nights like this when she remembered how stupidly ready she was to walk down the aisle with NFL sure-thing Jason Street. Somewhere in her heart she knew he wasn't the one, even back then, but the shallow facade she built convinced herself that the 100 million dollar paycheck and prestige that came with marrying her high school sweetheart was enough.

Now she was married to that other high school sweetheart. Tim Riggins, in all his mystery had captured her heart 12 years ago and the way she loved him, in that all-consuming, crazy-wonderful way, hadn't stopped for a second in those 12 years. He had great hair, let's start with that. But it was the evenings she spent at his place, tangled up in him on the couch with way too many beers where she got to see just how deep and smart 33 was. He was the resident bad boy in Dillon which is why she was attracted to him in highschool, but he brought out so much good in her...a playful spirit, relaxed mind, and what it felt like to completely fall in love with someone. She remembered how hesitant she was to "get into this" with Tim, how his relationships lasted twenty minutes and his attention span lasted twenty seconds. That was then, and this was now. And now she was Lyla Riggins, his wife, mother of his child, the woman who woke up next to him every morning, and his best friend. It was nights like this she thanked her Texas stars that she never gave up on that other high school sweetheart.

"You moved one lap over." Jason put it eloquently, remembering how Lyla sat on his lap and dreamed with him that September night in 2006. Now she clung to his best friend who was a alcohol-fueled combination of sad, alone, and hopeful back in 2006. Jason watched from across the hand-built fire as Tim lightly kissed her forehead as she rested on his lap, leaned against a tree in the front yard. He wasn't jealous, far far far from it. He had an amazing wife and four awesome kids in a life that they built from scratch in New York, almost independent from his life here in Dillon. It made him happy to see that the two important people in his life found their other half just like he did. It was just rare nights like this where he remembered all the things the three friends thought their lives would be.

Tim, meanwhile, wrapped his arm around Lyla a little bit tighter to almost convince himself that she was real. It was nights like this where he remembered the love of his life wrapped up in the aura of the eccentric and suave quarterback. He never ever would have wished Jason's injury on anyone, let alone his best friend, but as soon as 6 went down things started to change in Dillon. He started to become a better guy, a better friend, a better brother, hell even a better student. He changed because of Jason but changed for her. He always wanted to be that guy the one who could get the grades and smile for the cameras and go to college and actually be something. But once he became her guy there was this power surge in his blood, he felt like he could do anything.

He got her the first time fresh off the football field after Jason's accident. To this day it was something that he (and she for that matter) wasn't proud of, but in that moment of pure devastation, Street's sidekicks needed each other. He lost her because he never really had her. Shortly after the shockwave of the accident, the stubborn cheerleader tried desperately to play God and turn things back to normal. It was in that turmoil that the it-couple was forced to weave through the fragile strings that were holding up their relationship. The panic-button that they pushed was an engagement, and Tim watched as it lead to the bitter discovery that there never really was enough structure or substance to sustain what they thought was gonna be their 'forever'.

It was a back-and-forth story from there, one that Tim would repeat over and over again. In the end, as he often tells his football players, the journey is the most important step in reaching the destination. And his destination was one that he couldn't have dreamed of as that 16 year-old guzzling beer at a pre-game party in 2006. He never gave up on the love of his life because the all-consuming, crazy-terrible pain that he felt kissing Lyla's head to send her back to Vanderbilt meant that they had created something worth feeling the pain and that meant everything.

So he went to get her back four weeks later, displaying that fortitude that Coach Taylor had proudly seen in him. An engagement ring later she was his officially and finally. She graduated with a law degree and he got a job as a high school football coach. They bought a house in the suburbs of Austin and he actually liked it. They got married in a church and had the reception at his land, their land, where everyone drank to a Riggins level and passed out looking at the Texas sky...just the way he liked it. Tim's glad that he doesn't remember most of their reception, but he's also glad that the part he does remember is Lyla in her gorgeous white dress sprawled out on the dirt ground, pressed up against him with a bottle of whiskey in her hand. He took in the sight and kissed her forehead, "I hope that when you wake up tomorrow you remember that you just married Tim Riggins."

Lyla giggled quietly, dropping the whiskey to grab his hand. She twirled the silver wedding band around his finger and giggled, closing her eyes, "Of course I will, you idiot. I'm not going anywhere."

The next day (well, the day after the built-in hangover day) they got the words, "I'm not going anywhere" inscribed in their rings.

Every weekend they came back to Dillon and helped finish Tim's dream home on his land. It became a retreat for the Riggins family, even as their baby boy Samuel Riggins came into the world. Tim remembered frantically driving Lyla to the hospital, every bit the stereotypical nervous husband who asked every ten seconds if the baby was coming out yet. The instant the nurse placed the baby boy in his arms he was in awe. He turned to look at his wife with the kid in his arms with a look that said 'can you believe this is happening right now?'. She immediately covered her mouth and began to cry, barely able to mutter, "Oh, Tim" through the tears. When he passed Sam over to her, he knew exactly why she cried. People tried to describe the feeling of becoming a father to him, how amazing it was and how quickly it would overtake him. But seeing the love of his life holding the life that they created together was a moment more extraordinary than he could have imagined. Lyla looked breathtaking and it hit him that this was real. God, he became something. He created this little family; Tim, Lyla, and Sam Riggins. Every time Tim looked at Sam he thought of his dad and how he abandoned him and Billy. Tim couldn't imagine what kind of man could do that because the second he saw his baby boy he vowed to give him everything in the world.

"Thank God we had no idea what the hell we we're talking about back in '06." Tim finally spat out. Crickets chirped and the wind blew by while the three friends kept the thoughts of their internal conversations close. All of a sudden Lyla burst out laughing. Jason flashed his signature grin and Tim cracked a smile. They had been through a lot, more than they could have imagined. But it was nights like this that made them realize how much it had all been worth it.