A/N: Hello all! I'm back! I know this chapter doesn't have as much Tim/Julie as the past few, but there is another plot in here, and I promise you, there will be more steamy Tim and Julie coming up. Also, I had a couple requests for some appearances of other characters, and they will be coming too, I have a plan. For now, here's the next chapter! Read, review, and enjoy!

Chapter Five

Gracie came back to visit a week and a half after the paint fight. The days between had passed mostly without incident between them. As far as Julie could tell. Tim hadn't attempted to antagonize her anymore, and she had actually managed to think of him platonically somewhat successfully. It was more than she had thought she'd accomplish, so she was considering it a victory.

Julie had managed to get Gracie to agree to help out with the housework for the day. Tim was going to be at work for the majority of the day, and the painting wasn't yet done with the interior. Because he only took off Sundays and she wasn't nearly as efficient with the roller as he was,- or as sexual- it had taken her much longer than she'd anticipated to finish painting the inside of the house.

But despite all of that, she only had two bathrooms left to paint. Hopefully, she and Gracie could finish them so they'd be dry by the end of the day. As much as she envied Gracie and everything that made her Julie's little sister, she loved the younger girl. She was her sister, and through the years, though they hadn't seen each other that often, they'd grown close. Gracie asked Julie for advice on school problems, on some of the older boys in town, on how to deal with her parents.

The doorbell rang. Julie hopped up, excited for the female company. Tim provided enough testosterone to swim in, and even though she loved the intensity of his maleness, she needed an estrogen life preserver. Spending a day with Gracie Belle should fit the bill.

"Hey, there, Gracie girl!" Julie smiled, tugging her sister inside.

"Hi, Julie." Gracie smiled and returned her sister's near crushing hug. "Is Tim here?"

"Not today." Julie smiled. "He has to work until five."

"So it's just us for a while?" The look in Gracie's eyes made Julie wary.

"Maybe. Why?"

"Just curious." Gracie moved inside to take in the newly painted rooms. She seemed unassuming, but Julie knew her sister, and she had a mischievous streak as wide as the Gulf of Mexico. "You said painting today, right?"

"Yep. You feeling up for it?"

"Always." Her sister smiled. Julie took in her outfit, a loose tank, black exercise pants that hugged her trim body, and wondered how it was that Gracie had inherited every style gene their family possessed. She looked down at herself, at the oversized t shirt and baggy shorts that she hadn't minded getting paint on, and thought again of why she wasn't the sister that attracted the boys. Gracie was small and cute and docile, and Julie was… curvier and pricklier than her sister. If she had a good personality, maybe men would be able to look past the softness of her body. But as she wasn't the open and friendly type, it wasn't worth giving her less attractive body a pass.

"We only have two bathrooms left to paint, yours and the master bathroom." Julie said, gesturing for Gracie to follow her down the hallway. "Do you care which we do first?"

"Mine!" Of course, Julie thought, shaking her head ruefully. She may have been the perfect Taylor girl, but she was still a self-involved fourteen year old girl.

"Sounds good to me. I chose light pink for your bedroom and a pale yellow for the bathroom. That okay with you?"

"I love pink!" Julie grinned at the excitement on Gracie's face. She was young and energetic, yet another thing Julie envied about her sister. "And the yellow sounds nice, too."

"Good. Let's get started."

Three hours later, with a few flecks of paint dotting their clothing and skin, Gracie and Julie surveyed their handiwork, eyeing the small room. "We did good, little sister."

"Yeah, it looks nice." Gracie nodded.

"Normally Tim does the ceilings, but you're tall enough that it still looks good."

"Oh, Tim does the ceilings, does he?" Julie glanced over at the lilt in Gracie's voice.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing." Gracie grinned when Julie attempted to level her with a gaze. "You like him."

"I do not!" Julie took a step back, attempting to look offended. Truthfully, she was a little surprised she was that easy to read. Gracie liked to meddle, but it shouldn't be apparent to a fourteen year old that there was something happening between the two of them.

Gracie raised her perfectly shaped eyebrows. "You do."

"Why do you think this?" Julie needed to know if her sister was just meddling or if she truly saw something in Julie that suggested feelings for Tim.

"It's obvious, Julie. Whenever you're around him you always fidget, you try to fix your clothes… not to mention you glare at any woman that looks his way."

"How do you know that? You've never seen me with him and another woman." Though it was true; just saying the words brought an odd taste to her mouth. She didn't like how vulnerable to him she was. She had a hopeless crush on him, something that had carried over since high school. Something she hadn't anticipated was how hard it would be to shake it. She had managed recently to squash her feelings when they surfaced, but as he had stopped with the majority of his innuendos, her success could have been due to the lack of temptation.

Not that sleeping next to him every night wasn't a temptation. But she could suffer in silence when he slept at her back. She didn't have to worry about hiding her emotions, because he couldn't see them on her face. Now that she and Gracie were talking, she wasn't sure she would be able to keep up denying her feelings. But she couldn't be friends with him.

"I've seen you two with me. I may be your sister and way too young for him, but you still got jealous." Gracie lifted that perfectly groomed brow again, challenging her sister to deny her claims.

"I wasn't jealous!-" Julie snapped her mouth shut at the expression of disbelief Gracie sent her way. "-of you two."The younger of the pair stared at the older, curiosity replacing skepticism in her eyes. Julie sighed. "I wasn't jealous of the two of you together. Tim has never had much respect for age differences, but he isn't old enough to need to go younger. Plus, he's trying to straighten out, and being with a minor would put a bit of a hitch in that."

"Okay, Julie, I love you, but can you please get to the fu-" Julie glared at the girl. "-freaking point?"

"The point is, I was jealous of you, not you with him. Well, you with him, but not in the romantic way. I was jealous of how you act around guys, how open you are, how you're natural about it. I have never been the type of girl that attracted men in droves, or knew what to do with them once I had them, but you… you deal with it so easily. You have a natural attractiveness about you that I never had. And you're completely comfortable around guys. The exact opposite of me."

Gracie was silent for a moment, measuring the look in her sister's eyes. "Silly, silly Julie."

"What?"

"I was only that way around Tim because I knew he had no interest in me. He likes you, not me. So I'm completely comfortable around him. But around guys I like, I stutter. It's really bad. I smile a lot, but I think a lot of guys in my class think I'm dumb. And you get way more dates than I do. Believe me, I've always wanted to be more like you." Julie was dumbfounded at her sister's words. For the moment, she was going to pretend she hadn't heard Gracie say Tim liked her, because she wasn't ready to handle that little nugget just yet. So she decided she would try to sift through everything else her sister had said.

"But- why would you want to be when you can be you? And look like you."

"Are you kidding? I look like a boy. Guys don't generally give you a second glance when you have nothing in the boobs or butt department. And I don't play sports, so it's not like I can talk to boys that way. You're lucky, Julie, that you don't have to be in high school anymore. It kind of sucks."

Julie was still trying to process everything in her brain, but her sisterly instincts forced her to wrap an arm around Gracie's shoulders at the hint of pain in her young voice. "I'll tell you what." Gracie's eyes lifted to Julie's. "If you ever have any trouble with a boy, you call me and I'll talk to you about whatever it is. Even if you just want to know how to talk to a boy as a friend, I'll be here. I still think you're a natural at it, but if that makes you feel better, then consider it done. And if you want something closer to home, I'm sure Tim would be happy to beat up anyone you asked him to. Or even a stern talking to. And I've never known him to turn down a hug from a beautiful girl." She nudged Gracie with her shoulder, earning a little giggle from the brunette.

"I don't want you to go, Julie." This was said quietly, almost unheard by the older sister.

"I'm starting to think I don't want to go, either. But I belong in New York. Someday, you're going to find the place that you belong. And you can always come back here, but that's the place that you'll call home."

"You know, I always thought there was something special about this place. You went through a lot of stuff here. But so did Tim. He might have even gone through more than you. And he still calls Dillon home. So does Lyla, who was condemned for being the town slut."

"Gracie!" Julie herself had no problem with such language, but Gracie was too young and pure for that kind of talk.

Gracie rolled her eyes. "Julie, boys at school say much worse than that. It's true, though. I kind of always thought this would be the place you'd end up staying."

"I can't stay here, Gracie Belle." Julie watched her sister with a measure of sadness in her eyes. "My job is in New York. My apartment. My friends. All possible people I could end up married to. None of those things are here."

"Tim is here." Gracie returned after a moment of somewhat tense silence. "I'm here. Mom and Dad are here. This house is here. The town you fell in love with is here."

"It's not the same place as it was."

"But you fell in love with it then. Mom told me about how you threw a fit when you almost had to move after Dad's first season. If you felt that strongly about it then, how could you leave?"

Because Tim left. Matt left. Tyra left. Everyone left to go to school. And so did Julie. But not everyone returned to town, and she had discovered that living outside of Dillon, where people didn't have as much of a hold over her as they did in Texas, was much easier. Less painful. The good times never felt as sweet, but she never got hurt. But she said none of this. "Matt and I got engaged. He was headed for New York anyway, and I liked it there. I made a life there."

"That doesn't mean it was home. And you and Matt broke up."

"By that time, everything was already done. I was already set up in New York. I couldn't pull up my roots and move back here."

"Why not? People love you here. Can you say the same about New York?"

Julie was silent for a moment. "Are you ready to paint the other room?"

Gracie sighed. "Yeah, I am." Julie nodded sharply and motioned for her sister to follow her down the hall into the other bathroom. "Julie, he does like you. I know you think he just thinks of you as a sister, but I'm telling you now he has real feelings for you. He cares about you way more than you think he's capable of."

Julie tore her gaze away from the too-insightful one of her younger sister. She couldn't be convinced by Gracie's words. Gracie cared about her, but she had no clue about the inner workings of Tim's mind. She would not get her hopes up for something to happen when every fiber in her being would be devastated when it didn't.

Tim dropped his boots on the floor and his flannel shirt on he hook by the door. "Jules?"

"In the kitchen!" She called. The kitchen was still unfurnished. It didn't make any sense for her to be in there. All there was in there were cabinets and a sink. He turned the corner and spotted containers of Chinese food littered on the countertops. And he spotted Julie and Gracie sitting cross-legged on top of the island. He couldn't help but smile at the picture they presented. It was like a day with her sister had transported her back to her teenage years.

But as much as he liked the idea of the Julie he knew so well, he liked the new Julie even better. In the nearly two weeks they'd spent together, he'd fallen in love with not only the woman she had been but the woman she'd become. He'd noticed her getting more and more relaxed around him as time went on, and he'd decided to back off a little bit. He still flirted with her, still cherished touching her, but he'd tried to hold back the majority of his advances. She needed to get used to him before she could get used to them.

"I didn't know you were going to be here, Gracie Belle." They had moved the mini fridge into the kitchen after it had been painted, and he reached inside to pull out a beer and popped the top with the bottle ring on his keys.

"I helped Julie paint the bathrooms today." Gracie nodded triumphantly, lifting a chopstick-ful of junk pao chicken into her mouth and grinning smugly as she chewed.

Julie shook her head. "I really was wrong. You are an animal." Gracie grinned a toothy smile, giving them both a view into her mouthful of partially chewed food.

Tim groaned alongside Julie. "I knew you were silly, I didn't know you were gross."

"Clearly, we're both getting to know my sister a little better today." Julie handed one of the boxes to him, a pair of chopsticks already inside the container. "Orange chicken?"

After a day of working hard and sweating as he worked on restoring Buddy Garrity's suspension system, he could eat a horse, and orange chicken was a good place to start. He grabbed the box, digging in with his fingers and ignoring the wooden chopsticks. Julie and Gracie looked on in disbelief. "Now who's the animal?"

"I don't do chopsticks," he said, not bothering to look up at them.

Julie chuckled and shook her head. "I guess I'm the only one here who's capable of being a dignified human being."

Gracie and Tim exchanged a look. "What about that taco you had last week?" Tim raised an eyebrow, his trademark smirk beginning to spread across his face. "You wolfed that down in two bites. You had lettuce and cheese hanging out of your mouth. The chips of the taco fell onto the carpet and we had to buy a vacuum to clean it up."

"What about the milkshake you drank at lunch today?" Gracie asked, crossing her arms over her chest. "You spilled it all down your shirt and had to change."

Julie's smile dropped off her face. "You both suck."

"But you love us anyways, don't you?" Gracie stuck her tongue out. Julie screwed up her face.

"We're still eating. And to think I thought you were this docile little Southern belle."

"I am half of that. But I've come out of my shell today, Julie. This is why you can't go back to New York in September. No one will be with me like this if you leave."

"I'm sure Tim will. Right, Timmy?"

She had said it. She had called him Timmy. He'd been waiting for a sign like this the entire two weeks they'd been staying together. And despite the fact that she'd called him a nickname made him want to lay her down on the countertop and kiss her until she begged him to take her and admit that she loved him, too, he forced himself to remain still. "Of course, little Taylor. I'll spend as much time as you want me to with you."

Her little face brightened. He was seeing more and more of Julie in her. They were very different,- Julie had clearly matured much more than Gracie had- but Gracie had Julie's enthusiasm for the things she cared about. She had a lighthearted side that came out when she was comfortable with the situation. She had a deep love for her family. Without a doubt, Julie had an amazing impact on her sister.

For a moment, Tim thought he'd enjoy seeing her raise a baby girl; their baby girl. She'd be an incredible mother. But that thought was almost too far ahead even for him, so he reigned in that image and dropped the empty box on the counter.

"It's almost nine, Gracie. When are you getting picked up?" Julie looked over at her sister just as the younger girl's cell phone rang.

"Now, I guess." Gracie smiled at the two of them. "I'll see you around, Julie. Bye, Timmy!" She hopped off the counter and hugged each of them in turn and bounced down the hallway and out the front door.

He turned to her once they'd heard the door slam shut. "She has much more energy than she did the last time I saw her."

"What can I say? I have a way with kids." She grinned and hopped down from the counter herself. The movement did interesting things for her breasts and he found himself following the movement with his eyes. Sometime soon he was going to make a move. It was a matter of time before he could take her in his arms and kiss the hell out of her. All he needed was a display from her that she felt something remotely like what he felt for her. And luckily for him, Mindy was going to be with her aunt for a few days and Billy had been willing to take Tim's shifts at Riggins' Rigs. Hopefully the few days they were spending together would help him make a breakthrough in their relationship.

"I don't have to go into work tomorrow. Do you want to make a trip to Home Depot for some appliances?" Julie shot him an odd look. "What?"

"It's not like you to offer that."

"It's not?"

"No, it's like you to come up with some scheme, like selling stolen wire, to pay for it."

"I can't believe you remember that."

"Of course I remember, you broke the law. And Tyra knew we were friends. She told me about it."

"Well, I've changed. And now I want to do something nice for you. You know, for putting up with me all the time in high school."

"I think I should be the one doing something nice for you. You were the one that took the fall for the Riley fiasco."

"That was years ago. And to be honest, I was more worried about you being safe than me having a place to stay. I was Tim Riggins. I was loved by the whole town and I had a way with the wrong side of the law. I was going to be okay. And I was already thinking about going back to Billy. He may have been an asshole, but he was still my brother."

"We're more like each other than I though, Tim." She smirked and dumped the empty containers in the trash. "I'll see you in the morning."

When he finally dropped down onto the air mattress that night, she was already asleep. But she had revealed enough to him that day for him to go to sleep with a smile on his face.