Author's note: As noted in the summary this is an AU story that takes place in and around season 4 around the time Matt Saracen leaves Dillon for Chicago. Some things remain as they were on the show, some don't.

Payton Taylor, the wheaten terrier introduced in the story Always Glad To See You makes a return appearance here and is joined by Jordan Taylor, the Taylor's second wheaten terrier, this one a boy, and yes he is named after Michael Jordan because Michael Jordan is AWESOME.

NO ONE DENIES THIS IS TRUE.

Jordan also happens to be Eric and Julie's favorite basketball player.

Eric and Tami are both over at East Dillon as the story begins and the how and why is explained later.

*Shakes command stick*

As usual I demand ENDLESS FAWNING and GUSHING LOVE in your reviews. Or you can write that you LOATHE IT WORSE THAN HITLER AND I SHOULDN'T BE ALLOWED NEAR ANY SORT OF WRITING IMPLEMENT. There shall be NO middle ground in your reviews...okay, maybe there's a small patch of middle ground.

*Shakes command stick*

"People think the ocean's about life, and freedom. But beaches are the most impassable barriers in nature. People worship them like they worship outer space, or death, or anything and anyone else that says no to them and means it."

- Pietro "Bearclaw" Brnwa

"When they strap me in the electric chair, please tell them the murder was just."

- Dr. Perry Cox

"The world breaks everyone and afterwards many are stronger at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills."

- Ernest Hemingway

Julie opened the front door and walked down the hallway. Tami saw her and said, "That better have been a great concert, babe."

Tears streaming down her face, Julie said, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." She sobbed and slumped against the wall then slid to the floor and covered her face with her hands, her shoulders shaking. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."

Tami got out of her chair and came sat beside Julie, putting her arm around her. Payton came trotting over, wagging her tail, then sat and whined when Julie didn't reach out and pat her. "What happened hun, did something happen?"

Between sobs, Julie said, "I think he's leaving. I really think he's leaving. And it's my fault. It's my fault, it's all my fault."

Tami rubbed Julie's shoulder saying, "No, it's not baby. It's not your fault. It's okay."

Two hours later, Tami came into her and Eric's bedroom closed the door and changed into a pair of sweatpants and a Dillon Panthers T-shirt. She slid under the covers as Eric came out of the bathroom and got into bed beside her.

"Is Julie still crying or is she asleep?"

Tami pushed her hair back and sighed. "I'd like to say she's cried out for now, but I really doubt that. And I don't know that I'm gonna get much sleep, let alone Julie. Payton and Jordan are in with her."

"So what's this about Matt leaving?"

"I don't know. I don't know if they got in a huge fight in Austin or on the way back and they broke up, but something happened and I think Matt is leaving Dillon."

"Leavin'—where's he gonna go?"

"I have no idea, and I don't think Julie does either, but from her reaction, he's going somewhere."

"You don't think he's gonna kill himself, or try to?

Tami started to speak, then closed her mouth and thought for a minute. "I don't think so. Not with his Grandmother still around. If she wasn't or if she had died after hearing about Henry's death….maybe, but," she shook her head. "I can't see that. You've always said that Matt is tough and he is I think that maybe he just needs a break from everything. I know Julie has been kind of bugging him about his dad, but maybe it's the whole college thing."

"What about it?"

"Well, Julie told me that she and Matt were at the Alamo Freeze and she was working on one of her college essays and he asked her where she had applied and she told him and she said he kind of shut down, like he does sometimes when he's upset but decides not to show it."

"So she's going away to college, she's no different than millions of high school kids many of whom have boy or girlfriends. And this thing they have, this puppy love, we—"

"Eric Taylor, don't you dare do that. Don't you dare try and denigrate their relationship like that."

"What? All I said was tha—"

"Eric, Matt and Julie are in love. This isn't puppy love. Not now. I'll give you that it probably was puppy love at the beginning, I know that Matt was more interested in Julie than she was in him, he had a crush on her, but they love each other. That love is real and it is important and it is a true thing and I am not going to allow you to make it anything less, so you need to think about the words you say right now."

Eric tossed the sheets aside, went to the bathroom and came back with a glass of water. He drank half of it, then sat on the edge of the bed.

"I think Matt was upset that the only school Julie had applied to that was in state was UT Austin. Everything else is at least 500 miles away. And, I don't know, I know I said that they love each other, but I think that Matt has been more invested in their relationship than Julie has. She kept blowing him off, and she did break up with him once and said she thought they should break up at least twice." She shook her head. "I would like to sit him down and talk with him like a counselor, but I don't think I can. I'm too close and Julie would think I was trying to find out…I don't know things that she can't tell me."

"I thought you told her that she could talk with you about anything, no matter how hard it was."

"I did, but it's one of the things that you don't really mean. Except I did mean it, but…." Tami ran her hands through her hair. "I think he needs to talk to a counselor, just to let some things out. Someone who isn't going to judge. What happened that night at the dinner table, I don't know."

"Well, Matt's tough. He's always been tough."

"Are you even listening to me? I'm not talking about being physically tough."

"Neither am I."

"Just run through the boy's life for a minute. His dad was not the easiest person to live with, and that's coming from his own mother. I can't imagine the verbal tearing down Matt and his mother must have gotten when he was a child. Then both his mom and dad up and leave. Not his mom leaves and takes Matt with her or his dad takes him. They both abandon him and his grandmother has to pick him up and raise him. And she does a damn good job, but she's also got to earn some money and try and keep that shotgun house from falling down around them. And that boy got his first job when he was what, seven? Which he didn't have a choice in. And then somewhere along the line Lorraine's dementia comes along and starts to take hold, and of course there's no money to get her properly tested, so Matt, in addition to going to school and having at least one job, has to keep the house together, shop for groceries, and cook and clean. I'm just thankful his grandmother didn't smoke, 'cause I'm positive she would have burned the house down. Then he starts playing football, because, well, he's a boy and here in Dillon that's just what you do if you're a boy and he ends up being backup to Jason Street and then when Jason got hurt he gets thrown out there and you and Buddy and the entire damn town expect and demand that he be the second coming of Tom Brady."

Eric opened his mouth, but Tami put her hand up, so he shut it and frowned.

"Then he gets to have Buddy Garrity coming onto the field at practice and say what a horrible job he's doing. This is a teenage boy, Eric, a high school sophomore and you did nothing. You just stood there and let Buddy go on and on about how horrible Matt was and how he had found this 'real' QB who was that Voodoo kid and that turned out so well. Then his dad comes back from Iraq and that was worse than oil and water. Matt NEVER had your full support. He was always looking over his shoulder, whether it was on the football field or when he started taking an interest in Julie, there was always another QB that you or Buddy were pushing to take his place. And when he and Julie started seeing each other you did your hardest to try and force them apart. Then last year, Joe and JD McCoy come sailing in and you yank the carpet out from Matt again, and when he said he could be a wide receiver, you just ignored him; it took Julie speaking for him at dinner for you to give him a chance and even then all you said was that you'd think about it. He gave up art school because he loves Julie, he loves our daughter and also because of his grandmother. And this whole time, he's been trying to juggle going to school, working at least one job nearly 30 hours a week, playing and practicing football, and taking care of his grandmother and himself. And that is not fair. I wouldn't ask that of a college student let alone a teenager. Do you realize Matt has had to pretty much act like an adult and make decisions that only an adult should have to make since he was eight years old? Do you know how awful that is? And despite that, despite all of that, he is one of the nicest, most polite, most decent people you or I have ever met. For that we can probably thank his grandmother." Tami reached over and drank the rest of the water in Eric's glass, and then Eric went and filled it from the tap in the bathroom, and put it on the bedside table. He leaned against the bathroom doorway.

"I know how Matt and Julie feel about each other, it's just….you weren't the one who walked in on them last year."

"Well, Julie was right, you should have knocked."

"I did knock!"

"Well, you should have knocked harder and maybe waited until someone came to the door instead of just waltzing inside."

"Listen, I know how they feel about each other, and I feel horrible about what has happened to him the past few months, but what do you want me to do, go over to his grandmother's house and drag him over here and lock him in our guestroom so he doesn't run away? Wouldn't you say we have our own set of problems right now, with Joe McCoy trying to get both of us fired and run out of town? Yes, I probably went overboard a little bit when Julie and Matt were first seeing each other, but like I said to her, I know what boys, especially football players are like, what they think about, how they act and what they do, and honestly I can't install cameras in their houses to keep an eye on 'em all day and night. So when a boy, who happened to be the starting quarterback on the team I coached started taking an interest in our daughter, I think you'd cut me a little slack in trying to deal with the situation. Looking at it now, I'm….sorry about how the way some things happened, I could have handled some things in a less…."

"Less 'coach' like way?"

"Yeah, less like a coach, more like a father, but honestly Tami, is there really that much difference?"

"With you, sometimes not as much as Julie or I would like."

Eric leaned over and kissed Tami then opened the bedroom door. "I'm gonna check on Julie. I think we should let her sleep in, let her stay home if she wants, unless she says otherwise, ai'ight?"

"All right."