The Readers:
Cheerleadergirl: Saddly, I'm not familiar with One Tree Hill or Glee, but I suppose I could do some research into the characters and try to pump out some quick ficlets if my spare time allows it. Tyler/Ruby sounds like it might be fun, as does Tyler/Bela. I've definitly taken your suggestion under advisement! :D
Gem158: Glad you're looking forward to it. Tyler/Katherine is one I'm looking forward towards writing.
So here's the second oneshot, one that takes a look at where Tyler kind of is during season one as a character, and how I think he would deal with loss. I also don't think there's a name for the Vicki/Tyler pairing, so I just made one up on a whim. It sucks, but what are you gonna do?
There's also the tiniest, most painful little hint of Forbewood at the end.
****/Lockovan: One Chance He'll Never Have\****
"No, wait, this isn't supposed to happen. It isn't supposed to happen like this. I'm supposed to get a second chance. I want a second chance. I'm Tyler Fucking Lockwood and I always get what I want. I need a second chance. I saw what I did wrong; I know how I screwed up. I'll do it better this time I promise. Not like this, it's not supposed to end like this. She's supposed to be with me. She's supposed to be mine. I could have any girl in this town, but I want her."
A lot sucks about Vicki's death.
It sucks that no one knows how she died, it sucks that her body was so decomposed that they had to have a closed casket ceremony. It sucks that Tyler will never see her again in school, even if she ultimately choose that little Jeremy dweeb over him. It sucks he'll never have to make amends for how horribly he treated her, it sucks that he'll never get the chance to get on his knees and beg her for a second chance like he should have before but his damned Lockwood stubbornness and pride prevented him from doing.
He keeps his peace, swallows his grief and walks on standing tall just like his parents taught him. It wouldn't do for the heir to the proud Lockwood family legacy to break down crying in the middle of football practice over white trash like Vicki Donovan. He never lets his sorrow show to the people around him just like he never showed Vicki how much she really meant to him.
What really sucks is the fact that he's pretty sure she died hating him. He'd known they'd been having problems, but right up until the end when she had walked away from him for the last time he'd thought that that was just the way couples were because frankly that's the way things were in his house hold. The fact of the matter was he never had any idea how miserable he had made her and it really sucks that she would never know, that despite all the fighting and screaming and cheating and dysfunction, how happy she had made him.
So he sits and listens to the pastor speak of all the other, more obvious tragedies of Vicki's death. The holy man laments how she would never graduate from high school, amusing since some would argue that Vicki wouldn't have graduated even if she lived, and while that had been a common insult Tyler would hurl at her in the midst of their fights, when he hears other people say it his lips curl and his hands tighten into fists. The pastor reminds them that she would never graduate college, and he actually hears a few people snicker at the thought. Tyler fights the urge to start handing out asskickings because he knew that she was damn well capable of it, sure she would have had to get her shit together but if she needed a good kick in the ass he would have provided it because he would never have been with an uneducated woman.
The pastor moves on to latter events in Vicki's life that would never come to pass. Marriage (Tyler always liked the sound of Vicki Lockwood) or the birth of her children (that's a laugh, Vicki told Tyler she hated kids and would probably balk at the idea of giving up her kick-ass body to the ravages of pregnancy and childbirth.) and other little milestones in her life. As the old man talks, Tyler starts to tune him out. He wraps himself up in his own loss and pays no mind to the loss of others. His vision closes in to a narrow field, his eyes only on Vicki's casket. He doesn't see the raw, flowing tears of Matt. All he hears is Vicki's voice as she breaks it off with him, so he can't listen to the shuddering sobs of Vicki's mother.
In a way, he doesn't really want to care about other people's grief because he's afraid it might be too much for him to bear alone. He is alone, and that loneliness threatens to swallow him up. Vicki would have made it easier. He didn't feel so isolated and static when they had been together. The anger, the frustration. It had all been worth it because when he had been with her all his emotions had felt real and wild and completely and utterly out of control and he liked it.
And as they lower Vicki, his Vicki, the one who belongs to him, into the ground he gets the low and cold feeling in his gut that he'll never feel that way again. After the funeral Caroline comes up to him to offer her regards, she's the only high school kid who does.
He barely listens to what she has to say and shrugs off her hand when she places it on his arm. Caroline Forbes' neurosis is the last thing in the world he wants to deal with.
"And now I can't have her anymore and there's this big sucking hole in my stomach. I want Vicki. I want what's mine. I'll do better this time, I promise.
Just give me one more chance and I'll fix it. I promise. Just one more chance."
The title has more to do with the quotes book ending the actual story itself. While they may seem slightly disconnected I imagine that's what went through Tyler's mind when he heard that Vicki was dead. If Tyler seems slightly selfish and a bit offputting…well, yeah. It's season one Tyler.
He's kind of a dick.
But he's also kind of pathetic and miserable, which is kind of what I think of season one Tyler too, so I definitly tried to add a bit of tragedy to the story. He's still the bullying, spoiled, entitled kid from season one but he's not a complete monster. He's a human being capable of love and affection and heartache. What do you think of the opening and closing quotes. I think I might do it for all the entries…or just when I feel like it. Yay or nay?