Disclaimer: I don't own anything here (except for Al) and am just doing this for fun and to pass the long months until Season 4.

TJ's fight acted as a sort of wake up call for Billy, Tim also thought that the school psychologist's calling Billy in after TJ's first session also had something to do with the turn around. Whatever the reason, Billy seemed to be taking a greater interest in the kids, helping out more around the house, and he even started driving alone again.

On a Friday night a few weeks after the fight, Billy, Tim and Al were sitting on the back porch. The kids were all in bed and the evening was warm and peaceful.

"So, you know, Amber's birthday's at the end of this month," said Billy.

Tim and Al both nodded.

"Well, she's asked for a sleepover party. She wanted to invite twelve girls, but I talked her down to four."

Al gave Tim a look that he knew was a low-level sort of ominous. She wasn't thrilled about the idea of four more kids in the house. Tim shrugged and took a pull from his beer.

"Nice, when's this?" said Al without a lot of enthusiasm.

"Last weekend this month. It's going to be a costume party sleepover too, since it's so close to Halloween."

"You come up with that idea?" asked Tim with a grin.

"Nah, that was all Amby. She's got the whole thing planned although she's going to be disappointed when she figures out that the DVD for Camp Rock is as close as she's going to get to the Jonas Brothers."

Tim laughed.

"Oh, and I've decided – the kids and I are moving back home tomorrow," said Billy.

"Tomorrow? Are you sure you're ready?" asked Al, her forehead wrinkled with concern. It was a reaction that Tim didn't understand, since he knew that she'd been struggling with having them living in the house. He'd have thought she would've been jumping up and down with excitement.

"Yeah. I went to the doctor yesterday and he said everything is healed perfectly. And, you know, your help has been great. I don't know how I would have survived this alone, but it's time for me to try."

"Well...I'll miss having you around," said Tim. He meant it too. Even though it had been difficult, he liked seeing Billy all the time and he enjoyed the kids, even if Jack was too much to handle most of the time.

"You know where we are if you need anything. And I expect y'all to come over for dinner at least once a week," said Al, her voice wavering.

"Yeah, we will."

"And since you're going to have your hands full for the birthday party, TJ and Cody can sleep over here that weekend," said Al.

"Any way I can convince you to take Jack as well?"

Al shook her head hard enough to send her curls flying. "No way, Billy. I love him to death but I know my limits. If I could figure out how to hook that kid up to the power grid, I'd win a Nobel Prize and solve the world's energy problems."

Billy laughed and it made Tim realize that it was a sound he hadn't heard very much lately. It felt good, right, like things were looking up.

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With Billy and the kids out of the house, Tim expected that Al's mood would improve, that she would be less cranky and more relaxed. But it didn't seem to work that way. Things were better, to be sure, but they weren't the way they were before Nicky was born.

Or was it that they weren't the way they were before Mindy had died? He knew Mindy was Al's best friend and that Al had relied on her for advice, since Mins was never short of opinions.

He tried to ask Al about it, but she'd dodged the question. When he pressed it, she'd leaned over and kissed him, a blatant attempt to distract him. And damn if it didn't work, even though he knew exactly what she was doing at the time.

When Coach Taylor brought his car in for an oil change, Tim had a chance to talk to him. Tim asked when things would go back to how they were before and the Coach had just chuckled and rubbed his jaw. After adjusting the brim of his baseball cap, he'd said, "There's no back in this game, there's only forward. You just have to find your new normal. It'll take some time and it might get rocky, but you'll get there. You'll get there."

It was advice that covered both the addition of a son into their lives and the loss of a dear friend. Whenever Al snapped at him, he remembered the advice, holding it as tightly as he ever had a football.

A few days before Amber's birthday party, Tim and Al were curled up together on the couch in the living room. Al was reading The Gathering and Tim was drinking a beer, absently running his fingers through Al's hair while thinking about not much at all. It was nearly a perfectly evening, until Al started crying.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah. This book....it's just so sad."

Tim gently took the book out of her hands, careful to keep her place. He turned it over to read the summary on the back.

"You're reading a book about an Irish family getting together for a funeral of a brother who committed suicide by drowning himself. Is that really the best idea?"

Al shrugged, took the book back, slid her bookmark in between the pages and closed the book.

"Hey, if I talk to you about something, will you promise to just listen to me and not get mad?" he asked suddenly, surprising even himself with the words.

She wiped her eyes and started to pull away from him, but he stopped her. "No, no. C'mon, Just stay here. I hate when you go into armadillo mode. I just want to talk to you and it's easier for me like this."

He meant it, too. Something about the closeness without the pressure of eye contact made it much easier for him.

"Okay," said Al, settling back against him.

He set his beer on the end table so he could take her hand, his thumb rubbing small circles on her wrist.

"You haven't been yourself lately. I thought with Billy gone, things would get easier, which they have and you'd be happier, but you're not. Not really," he said softly.

Al sighed. "I don't know what to tell you."

"Tell me what's bothering you. Even if you don't think it's important, even if you don't think I can help, just tell me what's going on in your head because I really don't know."

She was quiet for what seemed like several minutes. Tim waited, trying to keep his mind from wandering into dark corners and bad conclusions.

"I'm just terrified, every day. That something bad will happen to Nicky. Or you. I worry about Billy and the kids. In one way, it was easier when they were here, since I had some control over what happened to them........It's like this constant buzz in my head, like my heart is always just a little too fast, waiting for bad news to come. It's exhausting, Timmy. Even when I sleep, my dreams are frantic and when I wake up, it's like I haven't slept at all."

Tim wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close, wishing he could take away her worrying. He understood it, since he had a little bit of it himself, especially where Nicky was concerned. He'd even asked Six if it was normal to check to see that the baby was breathing when he was asleep. Tim wanted to tell her it would all be okay, but they both knew that there were no guarantees of that.

They were both quiet for awhile until Al broke the silence. "You wanted to talk, but you haven't said very much."

Tim laughed. "I guess that was just my trick to get you to talk."

She playfully poked her elbow into his ribs in a way that tickled more than it hurt. "Well, it worked then, didn't it."

"I just don't know what to say. You know I was always better at listening than talking."

"Yeah, I know." She traced a pattern on his arm and he closed his eyes.

"There is one thing though, about Billy, you really think he isn't doing good? I mean, he moved out of the house and everything. I thought that was a good thing."

"I don't think I said that, although I don't think it's irrational to worry about him right now. The last couple of times they came over for dinner, the kids' clothes were a little dirty. And I don't think TJ has had a haircut in months. His hair is nearly longer than yours."

"Maybe he just likes long hair." Tim shrugged, but a tiny memory in the back of his head nagged at him, reminding him that he'd first begun to like long hair mostly because when his mother had deteriorated, his haircuts had become much less frequent.

"I'm not saying that there's anything wrong, exactly. I'm just saying we need to not take it for granted that just because Billy pulled himself together and moved back home that everything is magically fine now. Because it's not," said Al.

Tim wanted to say, but didn't, that it never would be fine. At least not the same kind of fine. They were all just struggling to find their new fine, their new normal.