Title: Unnecessary Roughness (5/11)

Author: Romantique

Email:

Classification: Eric/Tami Pairing.

Rating: M for suggestive, non-explicit adult themes.

Summary: After accepting the District's offer of Head Coach of the East Dillon Lions, the new contract continues to test Coach Taylor's patience and his pride.

Disclaimer: Friday Night Lights fan fiction occurs at the end of Season 3 and is a Prequel to Season 4 which has yet to air.

Legal: These characters do not belong to me. I'm just a fan and have not made a dime. Please email me to obtain permission to post.

Taylor Home

Monday, June 29th

9:00 p.m.

Arriving home, Eric joined Tami in their bedroom. She was putting fresh linens on their bed.

"Hey," he groaned, walking straight into their adjoining bathroom. All he wanted to do was to brush his teeth. The thought occurred to him that, if Mia had come onto him, no telling how many others she'd had contact with.

"Hey, Hon," she said. "You look beat."

"I've got a problem with my drivin' student," he said from the nearby room.

"What's that?" she asked as she tucked in the freshly laundered top sheet.

Poking his head out of the door with his electric tooth brush in his hand, he said, "Mia's developed some kind of a crush on me."

"Oh, that's so cute," Tami smiled.

"No, it is not cute." Eric explained, "She actually 'came onto' me."

"Did you let her down easy, Honey? You know first-hand how vulnerable these young girls can be." Tami sounded unconcerned. "Remember when Julie had that little crush on her English teacher?"

Eric began to vigorously brush his teeth. "This isn't the same thing as Julie's little crush," he said with his mouth full of the vibrating brush head and toothpaste. "You need to take this more seriously."

"Why? I know you would never take advantage of a student," Tami put fresh pillow cases on their pillows.

"Excuse me, but I'm the one who's been taken advantage of here," he said, working diligently on one side of his mouth, talking over the sound of the brush. "I've been nothin' but professional. She 'came onto' me." He then moved the brush to the inside of his top teeth. "Here you're so worried about me givin' preferential treatment because of football … and now I'm in a sexual harassment situation."

"How exactly did she 'come onto' you, Honey?" Tami asked with a raised eyebrow, now putting their duvet back on their bed.

Shifting the brush to the other side of his mouth, he answered, "Durin' the lesson, a truck almost sideswiped our car on the Expressway. I had her pull the car off onto the shoulder of the road. She was pretty shaken up and said she didn't want to drive anymore. I gave her the 'fallin' off a horse' speech; then, she started to cry, leaned over, and kissed me." He continued brushing the inside of his bottom teeth.

"Where did she kiss you?" she asked, now giving him her undivided attention.

"In the front seat of the car," he said in between spits of toothpaste into the bathroom sink.

"No, I mean, where? On the cheek?" Tami had now walked over to the bathroom door.

"She planted one, square on the mouth." Looking at her through the mirror in the medicine cabinet he added, "I literally pulled her off me and put her back in her seat." He swished his mouth out with mouthwash. Then, he reached up into the medicine cabinet and pulled out a brown bottle of hydrogen peroxide. Taking a mouthful straight from the bottle, he swished the bubbling, foaming liquid all through his mouth for good measure.

"Then, what happened?" Tami asked, still standing in the doorway, watching her husband at the sink.

Eric walked back into the bedroom, passing by his wife. He kicked off his shoes and began stripping down to his boxers and t-shirt. "I explained the law to her, and that I'm a very happily married man who would never cheat on the love of my life nor enter into an illicit relationship with a student."

Tami interrupted, "Well there's your problem. You said all the right things that would make any girl fall in love with you. Hon, I'm falling in love with you all over again, right now." She smiled, as she was enjoying her husband's inexperience in teaching young females. She thought maybe he was overreacting a little. "Not to mention you are cute." After a beat, she added, "You're a stand up guy, Eric Taylor. There aren't very many of you left!"

"No, you don't understand," he said, taking off his socks. He was upset. "This girl was aggressive. She caught me off guard and put her tongue in my mouth. She said she wanted to 'hook up' with me at her trailer where no one was home. Those were her words not mine. She kept on sayin' no one would have to know. Honey, she even started pullin' off her shirt!"

Taking a seat on the corner of their freshly made bed, Eric looked up at his wife with great angst on his face and asked, "What do I do?" He put his head in hands, raking his hair.

Tami sat down next to her husband on the bed, allowing the information to settle in. "I definitely don't think I would be alone with her anymore."

"I'm thinkin' what you're thinkin'. Can't we just switch students?" he asked, putting an arm around Tami.

"Well," Tami sighed, "she may not agree to have your wife as her instructor." She looked disturbed. "I'm concerned the same thing could happen to me with Zach. You know, these are potential 'he said, she said' situations."

Eric had never before considered that she could have the same situation with Zach. Not that he didn't think his wife would attract young male attention; quite the contrary. He only had experience with his players being around his daughter which was bad enough. The thought of his players being around his wife in that context suddenly shook him.

Tami's mind was churning, "We could have both Zach and Mia always ride in the car together with one of us. We could take turns instructing them, you one night, me the next."

Putting his other arm around he wife, he said, "That could work."

His wife laid her head on his shoulder. "I think Principal Taylor should also have a little chat with Mia about our proposal. I don't want her to think that she's harassing just any old coach." She looked up at Eric.

Eric kissed the top of her head. "I love it when you protect me," he said, kissing her head again.

Tami hugged her husband. "Hon, I've always got your back."

East Dillon Acres Trailer Park

Tuesday, June 30th

6 p.m.

Eric and Tami drove together to Mia's trailer park the next day at her scheduled lesson time. Tami cancelled tonight's lesson with Zach.

Once inside the entrance, they saw Mia. Eric lowered his window, and the girl approached the driver's side of the car.

"I wasn't sure if you would be here or not," Mia said to Eric. She couldn't help but notice his female passenger.

Eric had a very stoic look on his face. "Mia Wagner, I'd like you to meet my wife, Tami Taylor," Eric made the introduction.

"Hello, Mia," Tami leaned over from the passenger seat and gave a weak smile.

Mia gave a small nod of acknowledgement. She thought her instructor's wife was a very pretty woman, way out of her league. Why should she be surprised? Of course Eric Taylor would have a hot wife.

Tami said, "I know there's been a huge misunderstanding between you and my husband, your instructor. I also understand you need a driver's license in order to work. We hope this misunderstanding will not get in the way of you accomplishing your goal."

Mia acted as if she didn't know what Tami was talking about.

"I'm the one who suggested that Coach Taylor take you out for your driving instruction while I took on another student. We're going to change our approach. Beginning tomorrow night, both you and the other student will ride together for your lessons. And Coach Taylor and I will alternate as instructors."

Mia shifted her weight onto the other foot. "Well, uh, I don't know if I can do that if each lesson is going to be longer than it is now."

"That's entirely your choice, Mia," Tami said, raising an eyebrow, changing her tone. "Coach Taylor and I volunteered our time to a few students who don't have parental availability to be able to obtain their drivers' licenses. He and I are no longer offering private instruction. Instructing you with the other student, as well as alternating instructors between Eric and myself, is what our family is able to offer."

Tami had her. It was obvious the student hand more than met her match, so she shook her head in the affirmative and said, "Okay."

"And, Mia, there's one other thing." Tami added, "In addition to being Coach Taylor's devoted wife and mother of our beautiful children, I'm also the principal at Dillon High School. I better not ever again hear of a misunderstanding involving you and my husband."

Mia looked down to the ground. "Yeah, okay." She had not only more than met her match, this woman could pulverize her.

Eric clenched his jaw. "Good. One of us will see you here tomorrow evenin' at 6:00."

And the two left her to inform Zach of their change of plans.

Taylor Home

Wednesday, July 1st

9 p.m.

Tami decided the first night of their new driving instruction schedule would be hers, and she decided to pick up Mia, before picking up Zach. She had the young, female student take the wheel and drive to Zach's house. The one hour lesson turned into over two. After dropping both students off at their homes, Tami headed home to Dillon.

At the house, exhausted, Eric took advantage of his night off by heading to bed early after he put Gracie down for the night. It would be his turn to instruct Zach and Mia, tomorrow night.

Soon after, Tami arrived home. Julie was working late at Appleby's. Tami peeked in on Gracie who was fast asleep. Then, she headed to her darkened bedroom where she saw her husband's sleeping form in bed, gently snoring. She allowed her eyes adjust to the darkness and changed into her Panther t-shirt and climbed into bed.

"Hrrrrrmph?" Eric mumbled, as he stirred in his sleep. He was lying on his side turned away from the bed.

Tami knew how hard he'd been working and how tired he was. So was she. "Go back to sleep, Hon," she whispered in his ear, kissing him on the cheek.

Then, Tami snuggled up to her husband's back, spooning behind him. She wrapped her arm around his waist and laid her head against his back. In his sleep, he hugged her arm.

Taylor Home

Thursday, July 2nd

5 a.m.

Still close to the summer solstice, birds chirped before the early morning sunrise, waking Eric before the alarm. Tami was still nuzzled next to him; and when he stirred, she nuzzled even closer. He reached down and gently stroked the side of her peaceful face in the pre-dawn darkness. She eventually opened her eyes to find him watching her sleep.

"Hey," she whispered and smiled a sleepy smile.

Propped up on one elbow, Eric returned the smile. "Hey," he said in a hushed tone. He lightly traced the outline of her lips with his index finger.

Tami gently kissed his fingertip and began to lightly stroke his arm and shoulder. He put his same arm around her and pulled her closer. She could feel his urgency as well as see it in his eyes. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him towards her while rolling onto her back and pulling him on top of her. Her breath quickened as her body responded to the sheer weight of him, and she pulled his head down toward hers. They kissed, slowly at first as he awakened her desire.

Eric proceeded to make salient love to her. With his horrid summer schedule, it had been a while.

Lying together in the afterglow, Tami whispered. "Last night went okay."

"Yeah?" Eric hugged her even tighter with his eyes closed; he was deliciously spent.

"Mia's not as tough as she puts on," Tami continued to speak very quietly. "I suggest you pick up Zach first tonight. It'll be easier for you to deal with Mia with him already in the car."

She turned to look over at her husband's face. Now, it was he who looked peaceful. She gave him a soft kiss on his lips. "Are you going back to sleep?"

He opened his eyes. In the rising sunlight, his hazel eyes looked brown this morning. "No," he whispered and gently kissed her.

With lingering touches of tongues and fingertips, they began again in an exercise of smoldering subtlety which was in stark contrast to their earlier, blazing interlude. Slow, tantalizing caresses soon re-ignited their passions into a sultry tantric union of body, mind, and spirit which resulted with their souls shaking to their cores to carry one another through rest of the day.

To be continued ...