Disclaimer: I don't own 'Reba' or its characters.
Chapter Nine: Episode 6x21 – Starting Over (Part Two)
"Isn't anybody gonna say hello to me or should I come back later?"
"Lori Ann Garner!" Reba cried out happily to see her oldest friend. "Oh, my God. I can't believe that you're here!"
The redhead walked over to the blonde and gave her a big hug. After they parted, Reba asked, "Now what the heck are you doing here? Do you always have to surprise me by showin' up here without tellin' me you're in town?"
Lori Ann smiled at her best friend and said, "I'm sorry, honey, I guess it's just become an old habit of mine and you what they say about old habits."
"No, what?" Van asked her, looking very confused.
Reba rolled her eyes at her son-in-law and looked back at Lori Ann. "I was actually gonna call you tonight because I've got something that I need to tell you."
"Well I'm here now, so what is it?"
"Mom and Dad are getting back together!" Cheyenne blurted out and Reba shot a look at her daughter.
Lori Ann's eyes widened from the news and couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Okay, I think I'm gonna need to sit down and have a drink of scotch."
Reba decided that it was time for the kids to clear the room so she could talk to her best friend about the situation…and pray to God that she wouldn't kill Brock. "Van, Cheyenne, I think it's best if you two went on home now. Lori Ann and I need to talk about this. And Jake, honey, will you go upstairs to your bedroom for a little while. I'll call you back down here when I've made lunch."
"All right," the brunette teen said and went up the stairs to his room.
Cheyenne walked up to her mother and said, "I'm sorry about blurting that out."
"That's okay. I've gotten that a lot from Barbara Jean over the years so I'm pretty used to it now."
"We'll see you guys later, and I really am sorry that I yelled at you earlier, Mom. It's your life and I really do want you to be happy. I love you."
Reba hugged her oldest daughter with a smile on her face and replied, "Thank you, sweetheart. I love you too. Take care and tell Elizabeth that I love her."
"We will and thanks, Mrs. H," Van said and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.
"You're welcome, honey," she told Van and watched her oldest children walk out the front door and leave.
Her attention was quickly drawn back on Lori Ann when she began flipping out. "Reba, how could you—when did this—why did you—have you completely lost your mind? Why are you and Brock getting back together? You hate him. I hate him. He cheated on you and married that—that ditzy, crazy, psycho! Did you two get drunk some night, have a little ring-a-ding and get pregnant?"
"No!" Reba exclaimed with a grossed out look on her face. "We haven't gotten pregnant and we never got drunk."
"Then I don't get it. How in the world can you even let Brock come back after all the horrible things he did to you? Should I remind you that he'd have to divorce Barbara Jean to be with you again? Do you really want that on conscious for the rest of your life?"
"Of course I don't want to hurt Barbara Jean. She's my friend and I care a lot about her, but I can't stop feeling the way that I do. I love him, Lori Ann, I really do."
They both sat down on the couch and Lori Ann put her purse down on the coffeetable. "Okay. Let's just back it up for a second here. When did all of this start and why didn't you tell me sooner?"
"Because I knew you would act like this."
"Well, as I should! I've known Brock for as long as you have and we both know what kind of man he is. Those divorce papers of yours in that golden frame you bought and display is enough said, and I don't want to see him hurt you again because if he does, I will gladly kill him with my bare hands and throw him out with the rest of the garbage in this house."
"You're not the only one."
"Reba, you never answered my question and if you want to see Brock alive the next time he's over here, I'm gonna need some answers—now."
"All right, I'll tell ya. It all started about a little over a week ago when Brock almost kissed me in the driveway while I was about to wash my car. We ignored each other for the rest of the day and then that same night, I…sort of…kinda…had a dream about him."
"You dreamed about Brock?" Lori Ann looked up at the ceiling and said, "Oh, dear Lord, I've come too late. Reba's already lost her sanity."
The redhead playfully smacked Lori Ann's right arm and continued on. "Anyways, the next day Brock decided to come over and apologize for what he did, but I didn't want to hear it because I was still so mad at him for almost kissing me. And since I was so angry, I blurted out to him that I didn't want to become the other woman. He finally left after I told yelled at me to get out my garage and then he showed up at the house again the following day, trying to get our friendship back on track, but when I told him that I couldn't talk because I was goin' out on a date with another man, Brock started to freak out. He kept tellin' me that we needed to work things out between us and I shouldn't go out on my date. We got into a huge argument and then out of the blue, he came up to me and kissed me…and I just knew. I was still in love with him."
Lori Ann had her mouth open half way and stared at Reba looking stunned with her story. "Wow, Elizabeth was right after all. There is too much drama goin' on in this house. Maybe that's why I haven't been here in the past four years."
"Lori Ann!" Reba laughed and smiled. "Since when do you talk to Brock's mom? I thought she hated you as much as she hated me—or at least until I divorced Brock."
"Yeah, she did, but when she learned about the divorce, Elizabeth finally realized that giving Brock a hard time was a good thing because he was so stupid for leaving you. She called me up one day before I moved back here and told me to try and annoy Brock everytime I saw him. Of course, she really didn't have to ask—I enjoyed doin' it to him just for fun anyway."
Reba and Lori Ann continued to giggle and laugh, acting like the way they used to when she was getting divorced from Brock all those years ago.
"Lori Ann, I have missed you so much. I just can't believe that you're here. It's almost ironic actually. The last time you came back to Houston, I was divorcing Brock and now you're here again and I'm gonna remarry him."
"Over my dead body, peaches!" Barbara Jean yelled as came through the front door of the house with anger flashing in her eyes.
"That can be arranged," Lori Ann chimed in calmly as she looked over her shoulder to see other blonde in the living room.
"Barbara Jean, will ya calm down?" Reba got off of the couch and walked over to her other best friend. "I'm guessing that Brock told you about us."
"Oh, he did," she said with her blue eyes pinned on her. "And I'm here to tell you that you can't have him. He's my husband and he's going to stay my husband. I'm his wife now, not you."
"No, I'm not," Brock said coming through the door, slightly out of breath. "I'm divorcing you to marry—what the heck are you doin' here?!"
Lori Ann smiled mischievously, got up from the couch and walked over to stand next to Reba. "Did you miss me, Brock?"
"When did you get here? Did you know about this, Reba?" Brock was in shock to see his college ex-girlfriend in his ex-wife's house after all this time.
Reba rolled her eyes and said, "No, she didn't tell me. Lori Ann popped in just like she did the last time she came to town."
"Don't you have a fourth husband that you need to go marry and get divorced from?" Brock sarcastically said to Lori Ann.
"Yeah, you should talk," Barbara Jean said with venom in her words. "Your track record is right up there with hers. I'm surprised that you two haven't hooked up again or are you just waiting until you've remarried Reba to have another affair, Brock?"
Reba's eyes widened from what she said and was about to yell her for it, but Brock stepped in before she could say a word. "Barbara Jean, that was low. Now I know that you're upset with me, but that doesn't mean you can—."
Barbara Jean cut him off before he could finish his sentence. "Upset? You think I'm upset! I've just had my heart ripped out and stepped on by my husband because he's leaving me for another woman and you think I'm upset!"
"Join the club," Reba said under her breath.
The blonde stared at her husband and best friend accusingly. "How could you two do this to me? I thought you were my best friend, Reba, but you never were, were you? I mean, I had the decency to let you and Brock continue having a relationship because I knew you two were still such good friends. I respected that because I thought nothing would ever happen between you two, and this is how you repay me? You stab me in the back by taking my husband away from me!"
"You let me and Brock continue to have a relationship? I was his wife for 20 years; we have three children together, went to college together, and have known each other for more than half of our lives so we didn't need your permission to keep our friendship! And another thing, after I found out that he cheated on me with you, Brock's lucky that I was even willing to speak with him again! So I didn't take Brock away from you; you took him away from me!"
"Okay, I think that's enough!" Brock got in between the catfight and looked over at his wife. "Barbara Jean, Reba is right. She didn't take me away from you; I wanted to be with her again. She's the woman in my heart and the one that I truly love."
"Oh, gimme a break," Lori Ann whispered to herself and rolled her eyes.
"And what am I to you, Brock? What have I been to you for the past six years? I mean, did you even love me? Or was I just your second place trophy wife since you divorced Reba?" Barbara Jean asked her husband with a mixture of sadness and anger written on her face.
He gave her a look of sympathy. "No, I did love you. I do love you, but it's not the same way as I feel for Reba. We have a lot of history together and we know each other better than anyone. And when I'm with her, no matter what the reason, I feel like I'm the luckiest guy in the world just to even know her. She makes me feel complete inside and I love her for that. I always will."
"You really mean that, Brock?" Reba asked her ex-husband as she stepped closer to him.
"Every word," he told her. Brock kissed her softly on the forehead and wrapped his arm around her waist.
Barbara Jean looked at Reba and Brock and saw they're love for each other. She saw their chemistry and knew what they were saying really was true. Brock was really going to leave her for Reba. "I can't believe this is happening. God, I knew it. I knew it! Somehow I always knew that you still loved her, Brock. The way you always looked her whenever she was talking, the way you held onto her that night I caught you two hugging, the way you always tried to be near her whenever we were here in her house. I always had all these signs in front of me, but I could never see them because I trusted you with Reba."
"See, that's where you went wrong, honey," Lori Ann spoke up with a smirk on her face. "You trusted a man who never stops lying, which is what I was trying to tell Reba earlier before you barged in on us."
"Lori Ann, that's enough," Reba said and walked back over to Barbara Jean. "Look, I'm sorry that this happened to you, but I'm not sorry for loving Brock. Believe me, I never thought Brock and I would ever get back together, but we did and I can't change that."
She stared straight at Reba, still in shock over the whole situation. "So after six years of marriage my husband is leaving me for his ex-wife? Could this family get any weirder?!"
"Try seeing things from where I'm standing and then we'll talk," Lori Ann chimed once again and then left for the kitchen and grabbed something from one of the cupboards. "I'm going outside to drink while you three work out your issues," and then she left through the backdoor.
Reba was about to speak up again when she suddenly realized that her youngest daughter wasn't with them. "Hey, where's Kyra at? Wasn't she with you guys?"
Barbara Jean shook her head and pointed at her. "Don't try and change the subject, Reba. We're not through talking about this yet."
Brock ignored her and answered his ex-wife's question. He said, "I had her go pick up Henry from church. She'll be over here soon."
"How did she take the news about us getting back together? Was she mad?" Reba asked him with concern expressed on her face.
"Now there's an understatement," Barbara Jean said rudely and Brock glared at her.
He remained silent for a few more seconds and finally said, "She's pretty upset about it. After Barbara Jean slapped me in the face, she ran off after her. I had to calm her down a lot just to get her to even look at me again."
The redhead looked down at herself for a moment. She walked away from Brock and stared up at the current family photo in the top of the bookshelf. Reba suddenly felt someone gently touch her shoulder and then she looked up to see Brock right next to her again. "She hates us, doesn't she?"
Brock placed both of his hands on her arms and softly whispered to her, "No, Kyra doesn't hate us. She's just upset because of Barbara Jean and we both knew that she would be, but Kyra will learn to accept us getting back together eventually so don't blame this on yourself, Reba. Okay? I love you."
The redhead smiled, brought a hand up to his face, and touched his cheek softly. "I know. I love you too, Brock. I always have."
Barbara Jean loudly cleared her throat to get their attention back and the divorced couple looked back around at her. "You know, as touching as it is for me to see my husband and his ex-wife having a Hallmark moment, I'd really like to how long this has been going on between you two."
"Do we really have to discuss this?" Brock complained.
"Well, you did with me," Reba reminded him with sarcasm in her tone.
"Yeah, don't I know it?" Brock rolled his eyes in response and let go of his first wife to turn back around, facing Barbara Jean once again.
"Answer the question," the blonde demanded with a firmer voice. "I deserve to know the truth, Brock—even though you seem to have a hard time doing that with people."
Reba didn't want to upset her anymore than she already was, but she knew that Barbara Jean did deserve the truth. "It's been less than a week," the redhead told her flat out. "I wanted to tell you as soon as possible and not lie to everyone about our relationship—unlike what you two did when Brock and I were still married."
"It's been less than a week and you're already sleeping together! Brock and I didn't have our affair until—."
Brock's eyes widened and he cut her off quickly. "Barbara Jean, Reba doesn't need to know exactly when we started having our affair."
"Then answer my question. When did you realize that you were still in love with Reba?"
Reba looked over at Brock, subconsciously wanting an answer to her question as well and listened intently as he started to speak quietly.
"Do you remember when I came over last Saturday to watch college football with Jake? Before I came into the house, I offered to help Reba wash her car, but soon we started arguing and after we stopped, we hugged each other. And then I almost kissed her." Brock stopped speaking for a moment, taking a quick glance at his ex-wife, and then continued on. "That night after you fell asleep, I couldn't go to sleep because of what I almost did and I decided to call my mom to get some advice from her on how to resolve things with Reba."
Barbara Jean continued not to say a word, but looked more and more stunned as Brock went along with his explanations. "I told her the whole story and she thought that I was still in love with Reba. I denied it and kept telling her that I loved you because you're my wife, but she wouldn't listen. And then she asked me how I would feel about Reba being a serious relationship with someone else or even getting married again. I couldn't answer her, but something inside of me snapped. My mom told me that I wouldn't be able to handle it—and I found out quickly that she was proven right. I couldn't see Reba with anyone else because when I came over the following day to work things out once and for all, she told me that she had a date with another man and…it killed me. It felt like I had been punched in the stomach while someone ripped my heart out at the same time."
Reba sighed heavily and quickly thought about how he took it when she told him that she a date with Jeff. "Brock…"
He turned around and looked at her. "No, she was right, Reba. In the beginning of our divorce, I tried to tell myself that I wanted to see you happy with someone else because you deserved it, but after awhile things started to change. I saw how it didn't work out when you dated Brian and Dr. Morgan and I guess in some ways I still thought of you as my wife because you never ended up with anyone else after our divorce. Then when I saw how excited you were about going out with Jeff, it felt like you were cheating on me. And I don't want to sound like I'm better than any of the other men that you've dated, but I love you with all of my heart and soul."
Barbara Jean had heard enough and stepped into the conversation once more. "Okay, I can't listen to this anymore. I'll be sitting outside with Lori Ann while you two finish up here. Call me in when you've finished saying your new wedding vows to each other."
Then she left, however, Brock and Reba didn't even seem to notice that she even there anymore. Their blue eyes were locked into a gaze, looking into each other's souls, seeing the love that they felt for one another.
"Brock, you know how much I love you, but if this is going to work then it's gonna be a long road for the both of us to travel on. We've been divorced for six years and you broke my heart by leaving me for Barbara Jean. I can't just forgive and forget everything that's happened between us since the separation. So if we're really going to get back together, then I need to know that you're really committed to me and our family."
The front door swung open and there stood Cheyenne, Kyra and Van.
Both Reba and Brock were a little confused to see them, but they immediately looked straight at Kyra, wondering if she was going to blow a gasket out of anger towards them. However, she looked rather calm. "So what's it gonna be, Dad?"
"Were you guys eavesdropping on us?" Reba asked them scoldingly.
"Yeah, and thanks again for talking slower," Van said while eating some potato chips.
Reba rolled her eyes and asked, "Where are the kids at?"
"In the backyard with Barbara Jean and Lori Ann," Cheyenne informed her parents.
"Dad?" Kyra grabbed a hold of her father's attention again, still standing in the doorway.
Brock looked a little nervous at his youngest daughter. "Kyra, if I answer that question, are you gonna hit me?"
The redheaded teen cracked a small smile and said, "No, I'm not gonna hit you—even though I think you deserve it."
"We saw Kyra picking up Henry at the church party and she looked pretty upset," the blonde explained. "She told us that she found out with Barbara Jean about you guys getting back together and we all sat down and talked about it."
"And?" Reba wondered what their conclusion was.
"We just need to know one thing. Is this really going to happen? Are you going to divorce Barbara Jean and remarry Mom, Dad?"
Brock wrapped his arm around Reba's shoulder and pulled him closer to his body. "Yes, Cheyenne, I am. I love your mother with all of my heart and I promise you that things are going to be different this time."
"How can you be so sure?" Kyra questioned him. "How can any of us be sure that you're going to stay this time? I mean, you've done this to Mom already once and now you've done it again with Barbara Jean. How can we be sure that you're really going to stick around this time, Dad?"
Her father let out a heavy sigh and looked her in the eyes. "Kyra, I know that this is really hard for everyone to believe and stomach down, especially for you, but I swear that things are going to work out with me and your mom this time. I do love Barbara Jean and a part of me will always love her, but we didn't get married because we loved each other. We got married because I got her pregnant, and I have to admit now that that wasn't the right thing to do. At the time, I thought it was because I believed things were finished between me and Reba, but they weren't. They never were, and that's why I know we'll make things work again."
Van was the first one to step fully inside the house and he patted his father-in-law in the back. "True love never dies, huh, Mr. H?"
Brock gave Reba a warm smile and replied, "No, I guess not."
"Okay, hold on a second!" Cheyenne grabbed her family's attention. "Before everybody starts breaking out the champagne and wine glasses, there's one more thing I need to say."
Kyra rolled her eyes in annoyance. "And once again, the whole world must revolve around Cheyenne Montgomery. What a surprise."
"Shut up, Kyra," the blonde snapped at her younger sister. "What I was going to say before I was so rudely interrupted was that Dad better watch himself."
"What? Why?" Brock gave his oldest daughter a quizzical look.
"Because if anything like this ever happens again, Dad, I won't rest until you're hunted down like a dog, shot with a gun to the heart and left in the road to die."
Reba laughed at her threatening statement while Brock looked completely horrified.
Van wrapped an arm around his wife and said, "Don't worry about it, Mr. H. I've been gettin' the same threats from Cheyenne too about stupid stuff that I do. It's just the pregnancy talking, although you really should stop saying that stuff, honey, or else people will start thinking we're insane."
Kyra scoffed at them. "Yeah, like they don't already."
"So everyone's willing to accept me and your father getting back together without World War 3 breaking out?" Reba asked her children.
"I think if we all take things slow and just take it one day at a time we'll be able to work things out and become a family," Kyra told her mother with seriousness in her tone.
Reba smiled at her daughter, walked over to her, and wrapped her in a hug. "Okay, too much love, Mom!" Kyra muffled out.
"Group hug!" Van shouted out and joined in with his two favorite redheads. Cheyenne and Brock soon followed.
"Hey! What about me!" Jake yelled out and ran down the rest of the stairs to join in on the family hug.
The five family members held onto each other tightly, smiles going around as they all realized that were starting all over again. It was going to be a fresh start, a new beginning for everyone, and they were going to be prepared for what lied ahead in the next chapter of their lives.
"Mom?" Jake caught his mother's attention as all began to let out of each other. "Can we have lunch now? I'm starving."
"You can say that again," Brock added with a chuckle.
Reba smiled at the boys. "All right, I'll go make us some grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch."
"Yes!" Brock and Van gave each other high fives and ran to the kitchen while the others followed.
OMG! I am so glad that this chapter is finally finished. It was pretty hard for me to write because I really had to think about what everyone in the show would've reacted in this situation. I hope you guys think I did alright with it. Only one more chapter to go! Thanks again for reading!
Please review!!!