Title: Someone to Fuss Over Me
Author: Romantique
Email:
Classification: Eric/Tami Pairing.
Rating: T for language.
Summary: Eric and Tami don't always see eye to eye, leaving Julie in the middle.
Disclaimer: Friday Night Lights fan fiction occurs at the beginning of Season 4.
Legal: These characters do not belong to me. I'm just a fan and have not made a dime. Please email me to obtain permission to post.
East Dillon High
November 4th
12:30 p.m.
Head football coach Eric Taylor had gone to the teacher's lounge to have a discussion with Ted Blakely, English composition teacher, regarding one of his defensive tackles, Hector Flores.
"I'm not askin' you to give him a pass, Ted," Eric pled his case. "I fully understand. If Mr. Flores doesn't pass your class this six week period with a 'C,' he doesn't play. What I'm askin' for is sufficient time to allow him to do some remedial work and an opportunity to dig out of the hole he's in."
The heavy set, balding literature expert peered over his reader glasses at the younger, athletic coach. "Look, Eric, Mr. Flores has had a chance to dig himself out. We devised a plan for him after the last progress report, and he didn't work the plan. So now, it's time for him to face the consequences."
If logic didn't work, Eric decided to play the passion card. "Yeah, but at the end of the last progress report, I didn't know about the severity of his situation. I know now, and that's the difference. You need to cut me some slack; I'm new with these kids. I had to hit the ground runnin' when I came here and am just now gettin' up to speed." Using his hands to explain, he went on, "What if I told you that I will personally help Mr. Flores secure a tutor, and I will guarantee that he attends all said tutorin' sessions until he's proven himself to you?"
"Why?" the older gentleman asked, "because he's on the football team? I have many students who need help to pass this required course for graduation, yet they don't get a guarantee from our head coach for special help."
Eric was contrite and shook his head. "I understand that we should be doin' this for all students, but I'm just one guy hired by the District to form a football team at a school that doesn't have one. My focus is on these players. I'm their coach, their father, their mother, their teacher. Football keeps many of these young men off the streets, out of jail. And like it or not, football brings in money and fundin' to the school. Mr. Flores may not be a good student in your class, but in mine, he's a star. He's worth tryin' to save."
Before Ted could open his mouth to respond, the two teachers were interrupted by Gloria Stanford, one of the Girl's PE teachers. Excited and winded, she blurted out, "Eric, one of your players is fighting another student in the cafeteria. Security is on the way."
Eric looked right at Ted and said, "See what I mean?"
The two men ran down the hall, with Ted huffing and puffing behind the younger coach, and into the student cafeteria where they saw a crowd gathered at the far side of the large, multi-purpose room.
"Excuse me," Eric said as he pushed his way through the small crowd. Less than a moment later, a security guard arrived and looked at Eric in the eyes, nodding his head. Eric understood. There were two of them and two students. With his mouth, the guard silently counted out 'one, two, three.' On the count of three, Eric grabbed his guard, Jim Talbot, by the arms and pulled him off the other student, while the security guard did the same. In a split second, just as Eric spun around and braced his footing so he could push Talbot out of the way, he saw a glint of light and heard a swishing noise in the air. His adrenaline was pumping, and everything moved in relative slow motion.
Seconds later, Eric became aware of a searing pain in his right forearm. Suddenly hearing gasps coming from students around the room, he threw Talbot to the ground and then saw blood seeping from his arm at an alarming rate. After the guard wrestled the other student to the ground, only then did Eric become aware that the other student had a knife. And then it registered ... he had been sliced.
A flustered Ted Blakely grabbed a clean handkerchief out of his back pants pocket and used it to apply direct pressure to Eric's arm. Security then escorted the two young men to the Principal's office.
Midland Memorial
Emergency Room
4:00 p.m.
Some fifteen stitches and a tetanus shot later, Eric was given a prescription for pain medication and an antibiotic, along with written discharge instructions to sign with his good, yet not as adept, left hand. Then, he was directed to a waiting area where he could use his cell phone and wait for his wife to pick him up. After the incident, the East Dillon High school nurse drove him to the Emergency Room, leaving his car behind at the school parking lot. Once he had been registered and triaged to receive treatment, he convinced the school nurse it was okay to leave him there because Tami insisted on picking him up.
And she did. At first sight of her husband, the look on Tami's face was one of utter horror. "Oh, my God. Eric?" she exclaimed. His white athletic shirt, khaki slacks, and sneakers were splattered with dried blood.
"It looks worse than it is, Babe," he cautioned her. "It was a gusher, but I'm fine."
She continued to look him over carefully. Seeing his bandaged arm protectively positioned upright and close to his body in a sling, she raised a skeptical eyebrow. He did seem to be okay, despite all the blood.
"I promise ... I'm okay," Eric tried again to reassure his wife. "See, they cleaned up the wound and stitched me up. I'm fine."
"So, you were breaking up a fight?" she asked. As a Principal at her school, she knew too much about school policy and procedure. "Where was school Security?"
As she took the seat beside him, Eric knew his wife knew too much, and he began to explain what happened. "One of my players was in a fight, and it took Security awhile to get there. When the guard finally arrived, I grabbed my player, and he grabbed the other guy, not knowin' he had a knife. It happened so fast, at first, I didn't even know I'd been cut. Security wrestled the other guy down to the ground and disarmed him."
The expression on Tami's face flashed from one of horror, to one of anger, to one of fear ... as she transformed from Eric's wife, to a school principal, and back into Eric's wife ... right before her eyes. Then, tears began to form in her blue eyes. Her face scrunched up, and her lip began to quiver.
"Oh, c'mere," Eric said with much sympathy, as he wrapped his good arm around his wife and gave her a hug. "I'm sorry if I scared you," and he kissed her on the side of her temple. "It's gonna be okay."
"My God, Eric," she whimpered. "You could have been seriously hurt or even ... killed."
He lifted her head up by the chin with the fingers of his good hand and turned his head to look into her eyes with a little smile. "But that didn't happen."
She searched his eyes with hers when he leaned towards her and gave her a soft kiss. She gently returned his kiss, ever aware of his injured arm between them.
"Babe," he whispered into her ear. "Let's go home."
Taylor Home
7:30 p.m.
"Julie, would you help me give your sister a bath when we're finished eating? It takes two to keep her from escaping from the tub," Tami asked. She and Eric had been giving Gracie Belle her bath, but not tonight.
"Sure," Julie answered from her place at the dinner table.
Tami then stood up and left the table. When she returned, she placed Eric's prescriptions in front of him. "You need to take these with food, Hon." Seeing that he wouldn't be able to open the bottles with one hand, she reached over and opened the two bottles and placed a pill from each in front of him.
"Thank you." Eric began to stand up with his now empty glass in his left hand, but Tami stopped him.
"Stay put," Tami ordered, as she stood up and took his glass. "I'll get you some more water."
Eric sighed in exasperation and began poking at his food.
Tami saw this when she returned with his water. "What's wrong?" she asked, placing his water on the table within reach of his good arm. "Is there something wrong with your roast?"
"Nothin's wrong," Eric lied. The lidocaine injection he was given at the hospital had worn off. His entire arm and hand were throbbing.
"Are you not hungry?" she asked, looking at he barely touched plate of food.
Eric complained, "Babe, I love you, truly I do. But would you please stop fussin' over me?" He instinctively grabbed the bicep of his injured arm and gave it a squeeze. Then, he popped the two pills and chased them with the glass of water.
Tami defended herself by saying, "I'm not fussing over you, Hon."
"Yes ... you are. You cut up my meat like I'm an infant; you won't let me get a glass of water," he gave examples to support his contention. Then, he took in a deep breath to hide the pain. He was hurting much more than he was willing to admit for fear of further worrying his wife.
Tami was starting to become offended, "I'm not fussing. I'm concerned. There's a difference."
"No, you're fussin'," he shook his head. "If you need someone to fuss over, you can fuss over Gracie because that's what she's here for." That statement came out short.
Tami repeated his off the wall statement back to him, "Our baby's purpose in life is so I can have someone to fuss over?"
Between the pain and coming down from the adrenaline rush from breaking up the fight, earlier in the day, Eric was in rare form. "Well, that's not her sole purpose, but, yeah … it's her turn. I did my stint. Julie did hers. Now, it's Gracie's turn. Plus she can't talk yet, so she won't complain."
Moving to the corner of the room, Julie piped in, "Hey, don't drag me into this!"
"Well, a thousand pardons, Eric. I won't fuss over you anymore," Tami responded with great sarcasm in her voice, and she stood up from the table and turned to walk away. It had been a long day for her, too.
Realizing he had gone too far, he tried to counter. "Awwww, Tami, I didn't mean it like that … not like I don't ever want you to fuss over me."
Within seconds, he heard their bedroom door slam.
That night, Eric ended up sleeping on the sofa in the living room. Tami wouldn't speak to him. They had both been through enough for one day.
Taylor Home
November 5th
7:20 a.m.
Everyone at the Taylor house was up and showered, getting ready for the school day when Eric finally broke the silence between him and Tami. "Babe, as much as I tried to keep my bandage dry in the shower, it got wet. Would you please help me change it?"
Clearly not interested, Tami said, "Nope, you're on your own, Hon. I told you, I won't fuss over you, anymore."
"C'mon, Tami. I'm sorry," Eric pleaded. "I told you I didn't mean it the way it sounded. I can't change the bandages with one hand."
"No, no, no," Tami said firmly. "Maybe you can talk your daughter into helping you out. I fuss exclusively over the baby, now." She never even made eye contact with him.
"Oh, hell," he swore, his pleading turning to begging. "I need your help. I can't do this by myself. It says in the discharge instructions the bandage can't get wet."
"Sorry, Hon," she said with a superficial lilt. "I can't help you."
"Julie!" Eric yelled down the hall in frustration.
"What, Dad?" his eldest daughter yelled back.
"Would you come here for a minute?" he asked.
Julie walked into the kitchen to find out what he wanted.
"Would you please help me change the bandage on my arm?" he asked with desperation all over his face. "It got wet in the shower.
Feeling bad for her Dad, Julie asked, "You made Mom mad, again?"
"Oh, she's still upset about what I said last night," he admitted. "It wasn't my finest moment."
Julie started to pull off the surgical tape, but she found that the adhesive was stuck to hair on his forearm.
Seeing what she saw, Eric instructed, "Just pull it off ... fast."
She did as she was told.
"Owww," he winced in pain and took in a deep breath. Then, he said, "I'm alright. Keep goin'."
Then, Julie began to unwrap the yards of the damp gauze. Eric removed the gauze pads which had also become damp.
"Whoa!" his oldest gasped, as the stitched wound was revealed. "Dad, that looks horrible. Does it hurt?"
The wound was still oozing a little, but it showed no signs of infection.
"It's pretty sore. Looks like fifty miles of bad road, doesn't it?" The stitches made it look especially bad.
Julie couldn't help but smile. She loved some of her Dad's colorful Southern expressions. He asked her to open an antiseptic pad, and he used it to gently blot around the stitches with his other hand.
"It's definitely gonna leave a scar," he nodded.
He then asked Julie to squeeze out some of the antibiotic ointment from the tube which he gently applied to the length of the wound with a Q-Tip. After everything looked clean and dry, he handed his daughter some new gauze pads. Julie placed them over the entire length of the wound and then, she began to re-wrap his arm with fresh gauze to hold the pads in place.
"I think you should try to go easy on Mom," Julie finally spoke, still wrapping the gauze around and around his forearm.
"Ya' think?" he asked. "Pull it a little tighter, Sweetie." He coached her on how to wrap his arm.
She replied, "Yeah, this whole East Dillon High, bad school thing has had Mom really worried about you. You getting sliced while breaking up a fight sure didn't help that. It's more like it justified her reasons to worry."
Eric looked up at his daughter. "I apologized to her for scarin' her at the hospital. I thought we were okay."
His oldest daughter shook her head. "Mom's not okay. Fussing over you is her way of dealing with it. I guess it makes her feel like she can take care of you, even though she knows she really can't."
Julie then reached for the surgical tape, while Eric held one of the ends of gauze in place with his other hand. She taped one end securely, and then the other.
"Good job," Eric smiled at his oldest with approval of her handy work.
Then, Julie helped her Dad slide the sling over his head and smoothed out the twisted strap.
"Thank you," Eric said as he adjusted his arm into the sling.
"You're welcome," Julie answered back.
"And thank you," he tapped her on the arm and gave her a nod.
Julie knew what he meant. "Dad, don't you need a ride to school this morning? Mom and Gracie already left."
"Yeah, I do. Do you think Principal Taylor will accept a note from me if you're late to your first period class?" he winced.
"I'll write out the note, and you sign," Julie smiled.
Taylor Home
November 5th
5:00 p.m.
Tami came home with Gracie in tow and found Eric in the living room, sitting in the recliner.
After she unloaded her arms, Gracie toddled into the living room to see her Daddy.
"Hey, you," he smiled. "Come give Daddy a kiss."
Eric leaned over and Gracie puckered her lips and gave him a kiss on the lips.
"I got the flowers. Thank you," Tami acknowledged. "They're in water on my desk. Very nice." She reached over and swooped up Gracie and placed her in her play pen in the corner of the room with her toys.
Eric had roses delivered to his wife at work earlier in the day. "Did you get the note, too?" he turned around to look at her.
She walked towards him. "I did. I'm sorry you were hurting last night."
"I'm sorry if I hurt you ... took it out on you," he said, "and I believe I did."
"It scares me with you over at that school with the druggies and the gang bangers," she confessed. "I'm just sorry I couldn't come out and say that to you."
He reached out for her hand with his good arm. "I don't think you're gonna to have to worry about me breakin' up any more fights at school," he reported. "I was reprimanded this afternoon by the District for puttin' myself in harm's way. I received a warnin' in my personnel file and was told in the future, I'm to let the kids kill each other while I wait for Security to arrive."
"Well, that doesn't sound right. You weren't the cause of the altercation. The kid who brought the knife to school was the cause," Tami immediately defended her husband. "I'd go and talk to an attorney about that one, Hon."
He pulled his wife over to sit on the arm of the recliner. "I already have a call into one," he winked. "If the District is out to get me, they're gonna to have to try a lot harder than that," Eric declared.
"Yeah, I don't think the Teacher's Union will be very supportive of the District in this instance, either," Tami added. After a silent beat, she asked, "Eric, you don't think I'm fussing over you, do you?"
"C'mere, beautiful," he smiled and pulled her towards him.
The two came close until their lips and met and gave one another a long, soulful kiss. "Promise me you'll fuss over me tonight?" he asked in a low voice and resumed kissing his wife.
"If you want me to, Babe. Only if you want me to," she whispered.
Eric flashed a devilish smile. "Oh, I want you to." And he kissed her again.
fin-