A/N: Thankyou to everyone who took the time to review - it was much appreciated!

This chapter is dedicated to everyone who I have hassled with numerous questions relating to football gear and anything else that popped into my head at the time! lol! You will now see the reason for my questions! It might not be exactly what you were picking, or hoping for, but I'm sure with encouragement something could be worked out!

Anyway, read on and enjoy!

--

Despite the fact that it had only just turned nine o'clock on a Saturday morning when she woke up, the house was surprisingly quiet.

Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, Julie shuffled out in the kitchen. Surely she wasn't the only one awake? Her parents had to be up by now, especially with Gracie.

"Mornin' Jules."

Julie blinked and looked over at Tim not having noticed him before sat at one of the breakfast stools eating cereal.

"Hey." She replied, shuffling her feet. She was never at her best in the morning, and while she knew Tim only viewed her as his Coach's daughter, it didn't change the fact that one of the most popular guys in school was sat in her kitchen eating breakfast when she'd not bothered to brush her hair, clean her teeth and probably had crease marks on her face from the covers when she'd been sleeping. She was also once again dressed in his sweatshirt.

"Want some?" He asked, holding up the box of cereal aware that Julie didn't know that he'd gotten up a further three times through the night to fetch her Dad to put her back to bed after she'd first climbed onto the couch with him.

Julie grimaced at the thought of eating, her face creasing in distaste even as Tim chuckled at her response. "No thanks." She said. She'd not even been awake for ten minutes, it was usually at least an hour before she could even contemplate the thought of food.

Shuffling over, she propped herself up on the stools and slumped over, crossing her arms over on the counter and burying her face in them with a tired groan.

Tim snorted in amusement and proceeded to pour another bowl.

"How can you eat this early in the morning?" Julie mumbled.

"I've got practice in an hour." Tim told her. "Need my energy."

This time it was Julie that laughed sleepily, knowing that there had been plenty of times that Tim Riggins had turned up to practice with only beer in his stomach.

Her dad had called a extra football practice for today, pushing his team hard, making sure that they were ready for the game against Arnett Mead the following Friday.

"My Dad left already?"

Tim nodded. "Yeah, he was gone by eight."

"Mom and Shelley?"

"Uh, Shelley's gone off for the day. Your Mom mentioned something about taking Gracie to the clinic and then grocery shopping."

Julie nodded and turned her face towards him.

"Why does Gracie need to go to the clinic?" Tim asked suddenly. "She didn't look sick or nothin'."

"It's just a check up. To make sure that she's eating enough and putting on the correct amount of weight." Explained Julie.

"Oh."

Silence stretched between them, and then as Julie was considering whether or not she had the energy to get up for a shower and get dressed, Tim spoke up again.

"What are you doing today?"

Julie gave a shrug, still too lazy to sit up properly, besides, it was only Tim. "Might sit outside for a bit. Read a book or something."

When the words left his mouth, he didn't know who was more surprised; him or Julie. "Come practice with me. What?" He said seeing the odd look on her face. "You can sit out on the bleachers, read, listen to some music."

"I don't know…" Julie said hesitantly, watching football practice wasn't exactly a highlight for her. She got dragged along to enough games, practices, and saw enough of the game on tv.

"Plus-" Tim broke off abruptly, realising that what he was about to say wouldn't go down that well.

Julie's eyes narrowed, and she gave him a look similar to the one Coach gave just before he was about to drag out an answer no matter how little you wanted to give it. "Plus what?"

Knowing that he had no choice but to bite the bullet, Tim said, "It's just, I know it was only one day that you had off, but there were a few people saying, that you were off cause of, uh, Saracen, and, uh, y'know…" His voice trailed off lamely. "Figured you coming to practice, might help squash the rumours some."

Julie's lips pursed, "So people are saying that because Matt is now involved with this," she paused, "nurse, that I'm too upset to show my face? That I'm going into a decline?"

"'A decline?'" Tim echoed uncertainly.

Julie rolled her eyes and made a mental note to cut back on the number of historical novel's she'd been reading recently and the amount of period drama she'd been watching on tv. When she started picking up words and phrases from books and tv, she knew it was time to move onto something else, at least for a little while.

Time to break out a few action films and Robert Ludlam books.

"That I'm heartbroken." Julie explained.

"Yeah."

"And going to football practice, where he will be, without said girlfriend, with everyone knowing how much I hate football, will make me look less desperate?" She asked sceptically.

"No." Tim answered, his voice cock sure as he continued. "But turning up to football practice with me, Tim Riggins, as my personal cheerleader, will show that you're not going into a 'decline.'" He teased, making quote marks as he spoke the last word.

Julie smiled at the sight. "I'm sure you've got plenty of 'personal cheerleaders,'" she responded using the air quotes as he'd done.

"Yeah, but I don't like any of them." Tim replied, "Ok," he amended seeing Julie's raised eyebrows, "I like them enough to sleep with them, but not to hang out with them."

"Tim," Julie said smirking at the fullback, "Me watching your football practice, does not constitute as hanging out."

"Sure it does. I'll do something, you cheer, it's the same as if we went bowling. Tell you what? I'll even eat lunch with you."

Julie face cracked into a grin. "Well," she said dramatically. "That sure does seal the deal. Tim Riggins eating lunch with lil' ol' me."

"Best go get dressed." He told her taking her friendly mocking words in his stride, "We need to leave in the next ten minutes."

"Yeah, yeah." Julie replied as if it was no big deal, when in fact it was. Ten minutes? She needed to shower as well! Getting off the stool as if she was in not hurry, she ambled down the hallway, her pace picking up when Tim was no longer in sight.

Jumping in and out of the shower in record time and cleaning her teeth, Julie darted across the hallway into her bedroom, quickly getting dressed in jeans, a plain t-shirt and her sneakers before quickly towel drying her hair once again and pulling it up into a pony tail.

Lip gloss, mascara and she was good to go. Grabbing her bag, a book, and her ipod she headed back towards the living area where Tim would be waiting for her.

"Ready?" He asked.

Julie nodded, "Yeah." She replied spying another one of his tops slung over the back of the couch.

"Not bad Jules, only just over ten minutes. I'm impressed."

Rolling her eyes at Tim's teasing once again, Julie snatched up the faded dark blue panthers hoodie and pulled it on.

"What?" She asked in response to the odd look on his face.

Tim shook his head, "Nothing."

"It's comfy,' Julie said defending herself even though he'd not actually said anything as she rolled up the sleeves so they weren't so long on her. "Let's go," she announced as she picked up the item's she'd recently put down leading the way out of the house, Tim close behind.

--

They pulled into the parking lot with just enough time for Tim to head into the locker rooms and suit up in time for practice.

At a leisurely pace Julie headed over to the stands to get a good seat.

Unsurprisingly there were already parents and families milling around waiting for practice to start, there to cheer on their son or brother or cousin or whoever they could claim to be related to.

A few rally girls and cheerleaders had claimed a good portion of the seats along the back, and while Julie didn't have any particular animosity towards them, she didn't particularly want to sit all that close to them either. They'd probably be gossiping about Matt or something.

The front seats were already gone, which left Julie to pick a random spot in the middle.

Setting herself somewhat away from the crowd so she'd be less likely to be drawn into conversation, Julie set her bag by her feet and sat down, cracking open the book she'd brought with her as she did so.

Within seconds she was immersed within the latest Dexter book by Jeff Lindsey.

It wasn't long though until she became aware of the whispers from behind. The speculation that was aimed in her direction.

Discreetly glancing around, Julie didn't notice anyone sitting near her that was cause for talk at the moment.

The stands were beginning to fill up, and a few more people settled down a bit closer to her, but not close enough that she'd be forced into polite conversation and grilled for inside knowledge about the tactic's her father had planned for the game against Arnett Mead.

They were probably talking about her, and the fact that she was there in a lame attempt to get Matt Saracen to look in her direction again.

Damnit! Tim had been right, one day off from school because she'd genuinely been having nightmares and needed to catch up her sleep and the rumours were already getting out of hand. One day! That was all it had taken.

Wasn't showing up at practice with Tim meant to dissolve that talk? That had been what he'd said right?

Focusing her eyes back on the page in front of her, Julie stared at the black printed words in front of her uncomprehendingly.

She looked up as a shadow fell across the page she'd been studying.

"Hi, Julie right?" A fellow blonde asked, decked out in a pair of short shorts and a white Dillon Panthers sweater.

"Yeah," Julie replied cautiously. Who was the girl trying to fool? She wasn't being big headed, but being Coach Taylor's daughter and having dated the QB1 meant that people knew who she was even if she didn't know who they were.

"We were just wondering," she said, glancing over her shoulder towards the group of Rally Girls Julie had avoided earlier, "Is that Tim Riggins top you're wearing?"

Reflectively Julie glanced down at the top she was wearing. The question was rhetorical. Stamped onto the upper left hand side on the front of the top, stood the number 33. Visibly faded from washing, it was still clear enough to be seen without difficulty.

She hadn't noticed the distinction when she'd picked it up and pulled it on.

No wonder Tim had given her an odd look!

Why hadn't he said anything?

Relax, Julie told herself. Don't let them see that you're unnerved, don't let them smell blood. Downplay the situation.

"Yeah," Julie said casually, shrugging her shoulders as if it wasn't a big deal. "He lent it to me on the way over."

"Right," Faking a smile at Julie, the unknown girl tossed her hair and strutted back towards the group of girls watching her. It was almost as if she was trying to prove that although Julie might have been lent Tim Riggins' top, it was only out of pity and that she was still far more pretty and popular than Coach Taylor's daughter.

Julie sighed hearing the chatter pick up again from their direction and frowned at the weight of their stares on her back.

Get over it. She told herself sternly. It was no different from how they'd acted when she'd been dating Matt, and then they'd had even more cause for their resentment.

The sound of hollering filled the field as practice commenced and the Coaching staff began putting the Dillon Panther players through their drills.

It was going to be a long morning.

Hell, she amended. It was going to be a long day.

Pulling out her ipod, Julie hooked the ear pieces in place and cranked up the volume to drown out as much of the noise surrounding her as possible.

--

Julie jumped as the bleacher she was sat on gave a jolt as someone collapsed onto the seating space available next to her.

Turning off her ipod, Julie swung round to face Tim.

His face was still flushed from the hard practice Coach Taylor had just run, a thin layer of sweat covering his skin, his hair also damp from exertion as he brushed it back off his face.

He was still dressed in his football gear, which, Julie presumed meant that there would be a weight room training session after lunch. That, or they'd be in the film room studying plays.

"Hey," Julie said in greeting as Tim set his helmet down on the seating space next to him and passed her one of the three brown bags that he had hold of. "Where did you get these from?" She asked opening the bag to be confronted with sandwiches, fruit and a bottle of water.

"Ronnie Wilkinson's Dad owns the Deli in town, whenever we have practice on the weekend or during summer training camp, he always provides lunch." Tim explained, making no effort to open his own lunch bags.

"What about the others?" Julie asked wondering if one of the players would go short because she'd eaten his lunch. Which now thinking about it, she was actually pretty hungry.

Shrugging unconcerned Tim replied, "They always make extra."

"Oh…well…thanks." Julie mumbled. Her eyes strayed across the majority of players collapsed out on the football field eating their own lunches. "You don't have to sit with me, y'know." Julie commented self consciously. "If you'd rather sit with them I don't mind."

"Tryin' to get rid of me Jules?"

"No," she shifted awkwardly sitting next to him. "Just sayin'."

"Y'know you're the only one for me Jules!" Tim drawled, playfully turning on the Riggins charm as he hooked an arm about her neck and pulled her towards him.

Julie squealed in response, ducking out of his hold and pushing him away in protest. "Get off! You're all sweaty!"

Tim chuckled in response, ignoring the curious glances being cast their way.

Standing up, Tim tugged off his football shirt and Julie watched for a moment as he fiddled with the lacing at the front of his shoulder pads, blunt fingernails picking at the white thread that had formed a tight knot.

Rising to her feet, Julie stepped towards the Fullback that had persuaded her to go watch him at practice. "Let me," she ordered, batting his hands away as she spoke.

Tim remained silent and dropped his hands, but she could sense his eyes boring into her as she concentrated on the problem in front of her.

A small growl of annoyance escaped her as her fingers slipped and Julie took a step closer in an attempt to see a bit easier. She resisted the urge to breathe in deeply or let out a girlish sigh; Tim really shouldn't smell as good as he did considering he was all sweaty.

"Why didn't you tell me that your top had a big thirty-three on it?" She asked quietly as her fingers continued picking at the knot.

"Thought you realised." Tim responded simply, his voice also quiet so their conversation wouldn't be overheard.

"It's causing waves." Julie warned him, but no doubt he'd hear about it later on from his team mates.

"Surprise, surprise," he sneered sarcastically, "Fucked up Riggins boy is screwin' around with the Coaches daughter not even one week after he's made it back on the team. And Coach letting the boy live with him as well; what's that for a thank you?"

Julie's hand whipped down and pinched at the skin on his ribcage where the pads ended. "Don't talk about yourself like that." She told him sternly. "If that's what they want to say, that is what they are gonna say. But it doesn't make it true."

"Ouch Jules," Tim protested despite the fact that the pinch wasn't painful. Barely a blip on his radar compared to some of the hits he'd taken on field and the fights he'd gotten into off of it.

Julie rolled her eyes and glanced at him, laughter clear on her face. She pouted at him, unaware of his eyes zeroing in on her plump lower lip sticking out. "Ah, poor baby, do you want me to kiss it better?"

The flirtatious words fell from her lips without any conscious thought as she settled into the teasing banter with him. It was just what she needed to get her back into the swing of things, in what was, really, a 'safe' environment. With the girls hanging around Tim, there was no way he'd ever look in her direction.

"Well, y'know if you're offering," Tim replied with a smirk, "Just make sure you keep heading south…" he drawled, his voice trailing off suggestively.

Julie gasped, looking up at him with round eyes and a disbelieving grin on her face. "I can't believe you just said that!" She exclaimed, slapping his stomach with the back of her hand.

"What can I say? I have a thing for pretty girls that like to knock me around."

"Please!" Julie snorted, laughter falling from her lips. "Ah ha!" She exclaimed suddenly as the knot she'd spent the last few minutes trying to undo came free. Her fingers worked quickly loosening the lacing and the slipping beneath his arms to release the straps that connected the front and back parts of his pads and gave him a brief pat on the waist.

"There you go," she said stepping back and sitting down once again. "Tim?" Julie asked hearing no reply from the Fullback as she picked up the paper bag containing her lunch.

She glanced up at him, catching sight of an odd look on his face that she wasn't sure how to interpret. "You ok?"

"Yeah, yeah…" He said absently before removing his pads.

The subtle sign of affection had caught him off guard, the same as when they'd both been awake the other night at gone three in the morning and he'd propped his feet in her lap and Julie had started tracing her fingers up and down his ankle without even realising it.

Such subtle, little things that most people didn't even notice, didn't even miss when they went without it.

He'd never known anything like it.

He'd watched people like that interact throughout his whole life, but it had never happened to him.

The girls he usually hung out with at parties, there was always a purpose to their caresses, an invitation behind the silent words they said with their bodies.

In some ways his relationship with Tyra had been the same, heavy make out sessions in public and displays of affection from her that were designed to show all that he was involved with her as she'd often done to annoy Lyla when her and Jason had still been together.

And Lyla…Lyla had been nothing lustful, angry sex and she'd pulled away from him as if he had the plague as soon as they'd climaxed.

Similarly, Jackie had been the same way. No small touches in front of her son or the general community of Dillon, nothing but those evenings after Bo had gone to sleep until he woke up again the following morning. And generally after the sex was done they both just crashed out.

It was so different with Julie.

There was no agenda behind the touches.

She did it because…just because.

The novelty of it was amazing. He just hoped she didn't realise what she was doing any time soon.

He liked being treated by her in this way.

Liked that she didn't try to watch what she said or how she acted.

She wasn't worried that he could explode on her at any given time without the smallest provocation.

She didn't treat him any different for being a fucked up, messed up guy.

He was just Tim to her.

Setting his shoulder pads down next to his helmet, Tim sat down next to Julie, tugging at the neckline of his under armour top he wore beneath his shoulder pads to help prevent rubbing.

Out of perverse curiosity he let his legs fall open slightly, allowing his knee come into contact with Julie's leg.

Sure she hadn't pulled away the night before when they'd sat on the couch and he'd stuck his feet in her lap once again, but there was no one there to witness that.

No one to see her body degraded by contact with Dillon's biggest fuck up.

In public though, well that was probably a whole other matter now wasn't it?

After all how many times had Lyla and Jackie let him touch them while no one else was around? And yet the second another person entered the equation he was suddenly the scum of the earth.

How long would it take Julie Taylor to push him away and treat him like the piece of crap he was?

"What sandwiches have you got?" She asked a bite already missing from one half of hers while leaning across him to peer into the bag he'd been staring at while waiting for her reaction of disgust.

"Uh…" Reaching into pull the foil wrapped sandwich out, Tim pulled away the wrapping and lifted a piece of the bread to expose it's contents. "Roast beef and horseradish."

She made a sound of agreement, and then hesitatingly took another bite of her sandwich.

Tim frowned. He knew she like beef, he'd seen her eat burgers and steak. "What's the matter?"

Julie blushed and tried to brush the question off feeling embarrassed and ungrateful at being fussy when Tim had gone out of his way to invite her along and then bring her lunch even if it had been provided to the football team. "Nothing," she replied with a smile. "Just wondering. That was all."

Not buying her reply at all, Tim asked again, his question a little more terse. "What's the matter?"

Julie offered him another smile, slowly chewing another mouthful of her sandwich as she gave a brief shake of her head. "Nothing. Don't worry."

"Fine." Tim muttered, his eyes suddenly avoiding hers as a shuttered look came across his face. Unobtrusively he withdrew his knee from where it had been pressed against her own.

Emotionally, physically, in every way possible Tim was drawing away from her Julie realised. She was shocked at how quickly he'd managed it.

He'd taken her refusal to discuss what was wrong as rejection.

He'd never done that to her before.

He'd never had reason too.

It hurt much more than it should have as he pulled away from her considering they'd only recently begun hanging out together. Not that they'd done a great deal of that outside her house apart from that time at the diner and the grocery store.

He probably only put up with her at home because she was his Coach's daughter and it was good manners to be nice to her since he was staying with her family.

After all, she reminded herself, it wasn't him that sought her out, she was the one to join him on the sofa out of choice. He might have sat down with her to watch the movie last night, but that was only because he didn't have anywhere else to go to in the house. The living room was his bedroom after all, and he'd disappeared off for a shower as well. Didn't that prove that he was trying to spend as little time in her company as possible?

He probably thought that she wouldn't even take him up on his offer to come football practice with him.

Stuffing her mouth full of the roast beef sandwich so she wasn't tempted to say some offhand snaky or stupid comment without having thoroughly thought it through and making matters worse, Julie momentarily forgot about the amount of horseradish slapped between the pieces of bread and the cause of their current situation.

The strong sauce hit the back of her mouth and exploded across her tongue, wiping away the taste of anything else in her mouth.

Forcing herself to swallow the remaining food in her mouth, Julie coughed, dropping the half eaten sandwich into her lap as her hands scrabbled for the bottle of water in the brown lunch bag by her feet.

"Jules?" Tim asked watching her take hold of the bottle of water and struggle to open it during her coughing fit.

Taking it from her hands he unscrewed the cap and passed it back to her as quickly as he as able and gave her a few hard thumps on her back before she brought the drink up to her mouth.

Downing the precious liquid, Julie let the water wash away a good majority of the horseradish sauce coating her mouth and wiped away the tears that had gathered in her eyes from a combination of the sauce itself and the couching fit it had brought on.

"Jules?" Tim asked again seeing that she had herself under control. "You alright?"

Nodding, Julie cleared her throat before she replied. "Yeah. They sure do put a lot of horseradish in these sandwiches don't they?"

"Yeah. Don't you like it?"

"Yeah I like it. But I also like to be able to taste the other food that I am eating as well." Julie commented looking across at the Fullback sitting next to her that was fiddling with the screw cap to her drink, his sandwich already eaten.

"Oh…I didn't -"

"Why do you think I didn't say anything?" Julie interrupted ignoring good manners for the moment and seizing the opportunity that had come along and put the back onto more equal footing. She didn't relish the thought of trying to cope with Tim Riggins when he seemed intent on ignoring her because of some mis-communication. "You didn't know, and it's not like to you can do anything. I didn't want to bitch at you for something you haven't got any control over, especially since you've been so gracious to bring me lunch." She teased giving Tim a nudge with her shoulder.

His body relaxed next to her, tension flowing out of his limbs into the air around them and instantly dissipating.

"There is something I can do." Tim said, reaching down into another brown bag and lifting out his remaining sandwich. Unwrapping it, he balanced it on his knee and then motioned to Julie to give him her own sandwich which was only missing a few bites. Balancing her sandwich on his other knee he started peeling back one side of bread on each sandwich as he explained, "The horseradish is only ever put on one side of the sandwich, and it's applied on the bread, not on the meat itself."

Swapping the bread over, he handed Julie back her newly made sandwich.

"But you'll have spoilt your own." Julie protested.

Tim shrugged. "Nah. Can't tell you the number of times back home with Billy that there was more horseradish than cow in our sandwiches."

"Still…"

"Relax Jules," Tim told her, knocking his knee against her leg as he started eating his sandwich.

"Thanks," Julie said with a small smile reciprocating his movement and allowing her leg to rest against his.

It didn't take them long to finish their sandwiches. Tim was famished after the hard training practice, and Julie had skipped breakfast.

Instead of doing the healthy, responsible thing, once she had finished her sandwich Julie ignored the fruit in the brown bag and rifled through her bag for the chocolate bar she knew she had stashed there.

Pulling it out, she snapped it in half and then tore the wrapper open and took out one half.

Passing the second half across to Tim, Julie bit into the chocolate with a small sigh.

Surprised Tim stared dumbly at the chocolate bar in his hand for a moment.

She'd not even asked if he wanted some. She'd just handed half over to him.

She'd not said that she was full and made a big deal out of giving him the whole bar.

Noticing Tim's silence, Julie glanced across at him as he sat looking at the chocolate bar without really seeing it.

"Don't be like that Tim!" She teased him. "I'm not a rally girl or cheerleader, you're not getting the whole thing."

"You gave me the bigger half." He pointed out.

Eyebrows raised, Julie looked at him in disbelief. "Tim," she said, "there wasn't a whole lot of difference between the two pieces. Plus, I figure your bigger than me, so it's only fair you get the bigger bit of chocolate this time seeing as you brought lunch."

His lips twitched, "Thanks," he mumbled the words feeling uncomfortable in his mouth. Taking a bite of the chocolate bar he put an end to the conversation for a short while.

Yeah, a rally girl might give him the whole chocolate bar, but he'd much rather share half with Julie.

--

A/N: So? What did you think? Personally I love that last little line, it has to be my fave line of the whole chapter!