He Has Changed

Ch. 2

A/N: Re-watched a couple of FNL episodes the other day and this happened, figured it fit into this story and my fake (aka what I wish was so so real) post-series fate of Tim/Lyla. This one is a flashback, and takes place a year or so before the first chapter. Enjoy!


"Is this Mr. Tim Riggins speaking?"

Tim wiped his eyes and exhaled, "Yeah, it's me."

"This is Paul from Congresswoman Garrity's office."

With one word, Tim's ears perked up and he stood up immediately. Paul on the other side of the phone must have felt the urgency transmitted through tele-space so he cleared his throat and continued, "The congresswoman is…."

Tim could feel Paul search his Ivy League education for how to put this eloquently.

"...ill."

"Ill, what the hell does ill mean?" Tim barked back a little harder than he probably should have.

"Um, she's in her lavatory right now actually and-"

"I'm coming over now." Tim looked at his watch, and focused on the ticking hands just long enough to register that the day was barely at 10 am.

"Very well, sir, she requested your presence."

"Thanks, man." Tim huffed with the slightest bit of sincerity in his voice. As the phone clicked off in his palm, he stared at it for a bit and smiled. Lyla's employees were bat shit scared of him, and he loved every second of it.

Grabbing his keys, he shoved them in his pocket, feeling them prick against his leg as he began walking down the empty halls. The walk wasn't long, though, as Tim opted to pop his head into the next door, "Hey, Lou, tell Adams that I'm gonna be out for the morning."

"Everything alright, boss?" The older man inquired, taking off his reading glasses slowly and putting down the playbook he was studying.

"Yeah, just gotta check on the wife," Tim nodded back, "Her minions called me a few minutes ago said she wasn't feeling well."

"Minions." Lou chuckled, "I tell you what, that nice woman's been putting up with you too long, maybe it finally set her over the edge."

Tim rolled his eyes playfully, "I'll tell her you said that."

"Alrighty there Timmy," Lou stood up, "I'll see you at practice this afternoon, hope everything's alright with your missus."

Tim sped off, seeing the gates of Austin Prep in the rearview mirror of his truck. He made it into town in about ten minutes and felt his Nike's squeak on the polished tile in the lobby of the town hall.


"Hello, sir." a young woman gave him her best sultry smile.

"Hey," Tim exhaled back. "I'm…."

"I know who you are. Coach Tim Riggins. I love Austin Prep."

"Right. Yeah." Tim couldn't argue with that. He tapped against the counter, "Um, I need to see my wife, Congresswoman Garrity."

"Sure thing, Coach." she winked, handing him a pass for the fifth floor of the building. He grabbed it and sped off, but not before the woman said, "Lyla Garrity is one lucky woman."

"It's Lyla Riggins." he muttered under his breath.


After making it to the fifth floor, Tim broke open the doors like he owned the place. The young interns just looked down, staffers started walking the other way. Bravely, Paul tried to step in front of him, "Mr. Riggins, the congresswoman is right in-"

"I got it."

Knocking on the closed bathroom door, Tim pressed his ear against it and feigned Paul's annoying voice, "Congresswoman Garrity!..."

He heard a stifled chuckle through the door, "Shut up, Tim."

Laughing, he walked into the private bathroom to find his wife leaned over the toilet.

"Those burgers last night do you in, babe?" he sauntered in, dragging a chair sitting in a corner. over to the toilet.

She groaned and sat back from her relief mechanism, "No, it's not that."

"Well what's going on?" he ruffled his hand through his shorter hair, "Pauly sounded pretty serious on the phone."

"That's because he's terrified of you." she covered her face with her hands to hide her smile, "My entire staff is terrified of you."

"I'm not that scary of a guy am I?" he asked, pulling her up so that she could rest in his lap.

"I probably smell…" she muttered as an aside.

"You smell wonderful to me." Tim proudly announced, placing a kiss on her cheek.

"Thanks for coming, honey." Lyla whispered, nuzzling her nose against her husband's jawline, "I always feel better when you're around."

"No problem, babe." he responded a moment later, peering down to examine her perfect face, "You know how much I hate school anyway, I'd much rather be skipping class sneaking around with my hot wife."

She rolled her eyes, "You're a football coach."

"It's in a school."

"Whatever." she laughed back quietly.

They sat in silence for a little while until Tim broke it, "So you going to tell me what's going on then?"

"I haven't told you…" she swallowed, "But this has been happening the past few days."

"This...what's that mean, the, the-" Tim looked around as if someone could hear him, "...puking?"

"Yes." she nodded, "The puking."

"So, you think you have a bug or something-" he strained his brain for an answer to help his wife and Lyla internally rolled her eyes, Riggins men were so, so clueless.

"Oh my god, Tim." she groaned, "You're gonna make me say it-"

"Say what?" he looked around, puzzled, "Babe, I don't-"

"If you...if you look in that drawer over there." she pointed slowly to the drawer under the vanity,

"I just took a pregnancy test."

Tim stiffled a grunt and his jaw opened, "Oh my god, Garrity..."

Whenever he called her Garrity, it was serious. He didn't know what to say first, as she hung her head, as if it hung on his reaction.

"Babe are you...pregnant?" he whispered, taking the chance to grab her hand and cradle it gently in his.

"That's why I called you," she looked him in the eyes, "I wanted to find out, together."

"Together." he smiled.

"Yeah." she chuckled, "For better or for worse, that's what you promised."

"Guess it's too late to hide this thing." he slowly pretended to take off his wedding ring, and Lyla grabbed it playfully and shoved it back on. She loved how he was able to make her laugh no matter what, and provide her much-needed levity in these points of high stress.

But at some point they had to stop laughing and face this. She knew it, and she knew he knew it, so she narrowed her eyes and asked for some support from the man who was always, always able to provide it for her.

"Tim."

That's all it took. If anyone knew Lyla's mannerisms, it was the man who spent years studying her from afar while his perfect best friend got to be with her.

Tim nodded, and shuffled forward to face his wife with her body still cradled in his lap.

"Well if you are..if we are pregnant." he whispered again, like they were in their own secret world, "Would that be for better or for worse?"

Lyla looked up as if the ceiling held all the answers to the universe, "I know we talked about having kids someday, you know. But someday was as far as it ever got, what does someday even mean? You're busy coaching and I'm a freaking state congresswoman, do we even-"

"Babe, babe, babe," he captured her babbling mouth in a kiss to make her shut up, "I know how you are, you want to have everything planned too the specific sperm…"

"Shut up." she groaned.

"But there's no one else I'd rather do this with, now or in ten minutes, if you're interested." he winked, to receive a pretty hefty lip bite from his wife, "Or in ten years okay, I think we're gonna make pretty kick ass parents. So if someday is right now...then I cannot wait."

She sighed and smiled that unmistakable smile that Tim Riggins always got out of her. She reached out to cup his cheeks in her hand and pull them close to kiss him.

She exhaled abnormally and practically huffed, "Holy shit."

"What?"

"I can't believe I've been married to Tim Riggins for three years and am about to find out if I'm going to have a kid with him." she covered her eyes and shook her head in disbelief.

He smirked, "Now, why are you talking about me like I'm not even here?"

She sighed and answered the most simple question in the world, "I just love you."

"I love you more." he sweetly winked and haphazardly played with a strand of hair, "We've done pretty good, babe."

"We have." his wife bowed her head, feeling the blush come on, "We've done really good."

"You ready?"

She nodded, "Yes."

Tapping his knees, with his palms, he stood up. Lyla watched as her husband seemingly moved in slow motion.

Tim ran his hands through his hair and put his hand on the drawer handle. Just before he opened it, he looked back at her and smiled the most genuinely excited smile she'd ever seen.

"No matter what's in this weird ass drawer, we're in it together, got it?"

Lyla gave him a small smile and nodded back, "Got it."

He opened the drawer and looked down, and Lyla's breath stopped.

Tim lay frozen, staring at the stick at the bottom of the drawer. She couldn't read his face, and she wasn't able to speak to ask him the results, so she waited.

"It's positive." he whispered, looking back at her with disbelief in his eyes.

"Positive?" she breathed back, "Oh my god."

At the end of her sentence, she uncontrollably began to smile, and she couldn't stop. Lyla looked up at her husband whose smile shared the same wattage.

"We're going to have a baby!" Tim practically screamed, talking the two steps back to scoop her up in his arms. Lyla covered his mouth with her hand and laughed.

"Shhhh shhhh! We're…." she looked around in a fit of giggles, "We're in my office!"

"Shit, we are." he looked around with her, still rocking her back and forth in his arms, "I'm just so happy right now."

Looking into those dangerous green eyes that had captivated her since she was 15, the 30 year old version of Lyla Garrity Riggins saw her future. She saw happiness, love, faith, fun, adventure...everything he promised her three years ago and worked hard every single day to ensure that he kept that promise.

"Thank you." she replied simply.

He frowned, "Thank you? For what?"

"For this, for...for all of this, our life." Lyla emphasized, "I'm the happiest woman alive."

"Hey, you can thank me after we found out if we're gonna have to raise a girl or a little badass Tim Jr."

Lyla's eyes grew wide, remembering the wild Dillon Panther she fell in love with fifteen years ago, "God, let's hope for a girl."