A Walk

Home Interrupted

Disclaimer: I own nothing but what you see here. Takes place during the New World episode after Riley and Lucas leave Topanga's.

Summary: The walk to Riley's involves an event neither Riley or Lucas were expecting to happen.

Despite the awkwardness of the whole thing involving the new status between him and Riley, he was at least grateful it was with her and not someone else he didn't know. It made him wonder how in the heck Yogi and Darby were pulling off the whole relationship thing months later since most young couples their age didn't exactly last very long for one reason or another. He seriously considered talking to them about it to see what kept them going and if maybe he could somehow apply it to his relationship with Riley. But a part of him thought it would likely be for nothing since even holding hands felt awkward as Hell and he really wished he hadn't given into the peer pressure everybody had heaped on him and Riley. Which considering it had even been a factor to get to this point was a clear warning sign for him and he wondered if the Pretty Brunette even realized that herself. Hell, considering who he used to be back in Texas, a little peer pressure shouldn't have been a problem but apparently it was!

Riley herself was wondering if it really truly was supposed to be this awkward and honestly, she wasn't liking it. This is the boy she's crushed on for months now for crying out loud so it shouldn't be like this at all! Heck, she kissed him on that train too and it had been really nice for her since it was her first kiss as she would forever deny what Farkle did as being her first kiss. Even if it had unexpectedly given her a feeling of butterflies in her stomach more so then the kiss with Lucas. The daughter of Cory and Topanga realized she was going to have to talk to her parents very soon about all this, or at least talk about it with her mom instead of her dad anyway. Especially since he would be liable to freak out over the whole thing! She wondered how Yogi and Darby were even managing to pull off this whole relationship thing as a boyfriend and girlfriend.

She'd probably laugh if she knew Lucas was thinking along those same lines about those two. She could only hope and pray this whole awkward thing would soon pass so they could be all couple like with one another and be just like her parents. The sounds of whistling and cat calls brought to the two to a standstill as several people came their way and Riley felt a shiver of fear go down her spine at the sight of them. They looked like teenagers but they certainly looked like the type of people her father had warned her about. But surely they couldn't be all that bad right? Here's to hoping they are nice!

The six teenagers were wearing green vests with no shirt, red gloves, ripped black jeans, brown boots, and green bandannas around their heads and Lucas had a very bad feeling about them. "Well, well, well. Lookit what we have here fellas! Two lil cutie pies out enjoyin' this nice Sunny day hand in hand! Makes you wanna puke!" The words from the speaker caused the others to start laughing and Riley honestly thought the guy was just joking around so she smiled at them but couldn't help the nervous laugh that escaped from her.

"Well I would hope it wouldn't make you puke as that would be bad." She told them as they came up to her and Lucas.

She was surprised however when Lucas got in front of her as if he was trying to block their view of her for some reason. "Aww, lookit here fellas, he's tryin' to protect his girlfriend! Isn't that just sweet?"

"The sweetest thing ever boss!" Called out one of the vest wearers with a laugh.

"Yeah, probably sweeter than a candy bar!"

Lucas' bad feeling about these guys was getting stronger and he was really hoping he wouldn't have to do anything as he did NOT want Riley to see that side of him. A side of him he hoped to have buried back in Texas. A side he knew Riley wouldn't like at all and likely make her feel afraid of him while Maya probably would be a bit more accepting of it knowing her. "Look guys, we don't want any trouble okay? We're just on our way to her house is all."

He'd try the Southern Gentleman thing first to see how things would go. "Heh, he sounds Country or somethin' boss!"

Laughter could be heard after that. "I think you're right about that Mick, I think you're right. So where ya from Country Boy?"

"Austin, Texas."

A chorus of moos and other cowboy related things erupted after that and Lucas frowned in annoyance at it while Riley was starting to get really worried about all this. Especially with how Lucas had an arm extended as if to try and block any of those guys from attempting to get to her. "Well hot damn Country Boy! Never met me a Texan before until today!" The apparent leader of the bunch responded after stopping with the moo's and the like.

"Happy to help, but would ya kindly please move aside so that Ah can git muh girlfriend home?"

Anytime he started dipping into his Texan Roots and talked like that, it usually meant bad things were about to happen unless the thing making him angry was stopped before it could escalate into a fight. Riley was a little surprised and concerned to hear her crush and boyfriend's speech patterns change like that and part of her wondered how Maya would react since she liked to try and annoy him a lot any chance she got. No doubt mock him until he did something that wasn't going along with their game and she would shudder in annoyance over it. Laughter could be heard again from the teenagers and the leader got right up in Lucas' face. "Ooh wee! Gettin' a little Country on us are we!? And what if we don't want to move aside?" To emphasize his point of not wanting to do as asked, he pulled out a switch blade and flicked the blade out and put it between him and Lucas.

The sound of that made Riley look over Lucas' shoulder and her eyes widened when she saw the knife! Oh God, he has a knife! Doesn't he know how dangerous those things are!?

The appearance of the knife didn't even so much as make Lucas blink, not even when the guy's friends pulled out switch blades of their own. Instead, it only made him that much more angrier. "Then if ya don't, yer gonna be in fer a world of hurt." Came the response from Lucas in a cold but calm voice that actually scared even more Riley then what she already was feeling as that was not something she ever would have thought to hear from him!

And quite frankly, she never wanted to hear it again. The six teenagers all laughed again as if what they heard was the funniest damn thing ever. "Hot damn Country Boy! I needed that laugh! But tell ya what, hand over any money you two got on you and we'll let you both go about your day. Easy as pie."

"Ah'm afraid Ah can't agree tah that request."

"Lucas..." Tried Riley, as really giving any money they had to these guys would be a lot more preferable to potentially getting hurt.

"Aww, I think that cutie pie of yours would prefer if you agreed!"

The boy from Texas knew that his old fighting days were about to come back but at least it was for a good cause. As he was not about to give in to what these yahoos were wanting from him and the Pretty Brunette. "Riley, Ah'm sorry fer what yer about tah see." Lucas said with a look over his shoulder at his girlfriend who was quite confused by what he meant by that.

She'd get her answer soon afterwards in a most shocking way as the leader was in the middle of saying something that was probably going to be mean when he got knocked in the jaw. And it was enough to knock him to the ground and make his friends look on in shock! "Deeks! You alright man!?"

The now known as Deeks looked up at Lucas with an angry look on his face as he wiped blood away from his mouth. "Yeah, I'm just peachy, but Country Boy here won't be for long. GET EM!"

His pals obeyed and charged at Lucas as Riley backed up in fear. Fear of seeing this happen, fear for Lucas getting hurt by these guys, fear of what they might do to her. It was honestly the most scared she'd ever been in her whole entire life and if she never felt that way again, she would be happy with that. Lucas however proved to be more then any of them thought he would. Even when they managed to cut him with their knives he still kept going. Soon, all of them including Deeks were on the ground in pain and more then one broken bone as well. The cut and somewhat bloody Lucas was holding Deeks by the top of his vest with a fist cocked back ready to him one final time. "What… The… Hell?" Got out the battered gang leader.

"Da thang 'bout me is dat Ah'm as strong as a Horse and easily as angry as a wild chargin' Bull when those Ah care 'bout are threatened." Came the response from Lucas in that same cold but calm sounding voice.

Young Riley Matthews could hardly believe what she had just seen happen right in front of her. She never in a million years would have thought Lucas Friar capable of such a thing. And it gave her a scary image of what he might would have done to Billy if Maya hadn't jumped on his back to keep him from doing something he would regret to their fellow classmate. "L-Lucas?"

The sound of a frightened voice brought the Huckleberry out of the angry haze he was in and he looked to where it had came from. Seeing a highly frightened Riley Matthews made him drop Deeks quickly as he rushed over to her. "Come on, let's get you home." He told her softly and flinched when she pulled away from him.

Thankfully however she let him take her the rest of the way home as she knew he needed something for those cuts. Once they got into her apartment, he was quickly patched up as Cory called the police to let them know what had happened. His mother was also called and she got over there pretty darn quickly and was frightened and worried by what she had been told. Thankfully Lucas wasn't punished as he had been protecting Riley from those with bad intentions. Both Cory and Lucas' mother were quite proud of him for what he'd done even though both felt something else could have been done but didn't voice that opinion. The two teenagers wound up breaking up as Riley was having trouble in dealing with the whole thing. Plus the awkwardness of the whole thing was also part of the reason.

Lucas was somewhat relieved but also hurt at the same time as he was feeling rejected by the girl now after seeing what he did. Cory and Topanga had quickly reassured him however that she would just need time to come to grips with it as not everyday you saw something like that. And that soon things would be okay between the two of them. Lucas hoped they were right about it as he didn't want to lose Riley from his life. But her view of him was unfortunately forever changed and it'd be awhile before she could wrap her head around it. It certainly wouldn't help any when Zay showed up two weeks later and rocked her world even more where Lucas Friar was concerned. Maya and Farkle not treating him any differently helped out a great deal for the young Texan as well. Especially since a majority of his classmates had walked around on eggshells where he was concerned until Maya said something about it and they stopped.

No one was really sure of when things would get better between Lucas and Riley since there would be moments where it seemed like things would be okay until Riley would remember what happened. But the fiasco with the yearbooks would start to help bring the two back into a good orbit after Lucas got all fired up over how she and the others were acting.

Author's Notes: Hope you guys enjoyed this and or at least didn't curse my name all that much! R and R!