Tim stood in the locker room changing for practice when Matt Saracen walked up to him. As he pulled his pads over his shoulders he gave Matt a glance.

"Uh, hey, Tim."

Tim gave him a quick head nod. "How goes it, Saracen?"

"I, uh..." Matt struggled to find the words.

Nothing new, Tim thought as he looked at Matt, knowing full well what this was about...Julie. Today had been a good day in old Timmy Riggins' book so he wasn't about to let this kid piss on his parade and there was no way Tim was going to let Matt off easy by doing the talking for him.

"Uh, can I ask you a, a question?"

"What's up, QB1?"

"Are you, um, you know, uh...interested in Julie Taylor?"

Tim looked at his quarterback. Huh, he actually got it out of his mouth. Riggins was impressed, he had been sure that Julie's ex would wimp out. From the look of him Matt seemed surprised he'd managed to ask as well. Tim knew that Matt had taken notice of the glances he gave Julie during lunch and saw them walk out together. He hadn't given Matt's feelings any consideration then and wasn't about to start.

"I'll tell you this much," Tim said throwing his jersey over his head, "she's sure something to be interested in." He shut his locker and headed out the door to the field without looking back.

--/--/--/--/--/

Practice was a killer. Coach was still fired up about the way the game on Friday went down and he wanted to ensure that this week's game would be a rout. Coach had touched briefly on it at this morning's team meeting and said that there would be no more talk of it. It was over, they had to keep their eyes on the road ahead if they wanted to make the playoffs. That suited Tim just fine. He had been dodging questions about it from people all day, well that is until he decided to step up his pursuit of Julie Taylor and walked her to class after lunch.

As Tim was running stairs, always those fucking stairs, his mind went back to seeing her today. His heart lurched into his throat when he saw those lean dancer's legs of hers while pulling into the parking lot. His heart wasn't the only thing that had gotten a rise. He did have to admit his favorite part of her anatomy was a little north of her waist, but damn, her legs were mighty fine as well. He had enjoyed watching her at lunch too. Her innocence was such a turn on, how could he not stare? Walking her to class had been an impulse move, but it had paid off. He knew he had her when he looked down into her face. It was like she had a flashing neon sign on her forehead that said "KISS ME NOW!" Tim was no dummy, he was going to take this girl to the height of anticipation before giving her everything she wanted and do everything he wanted to her.

With the drill finally over Tim started heading to the showers when Smash caught up to him. Tim wasn't particularly fond of Brian Williams, but as a co-captain he had to be cool with him, up to a point.

"So, Riggs?"

Tim just looked at the running back with his best blank stare.

"Dude, don't go all 'Riggins' on me. Smash knows what you're up to."

"Don't know what you're talking about, Smash." Tim shot back.

"Uh-huh, playa. I'm sure you got no idea about little Miss Juu-lee Taylor."

Tim stopped his walk and looked at Smash like he wanted to beat him into the ground. "You got something to say?"

"Be cool, man. I just wanted to say that you were very smooth today. Very smooth indeed. That girl was all kinds of worked up over your hick country ass. A bold choice, but I got to give you props." Smash chuckled to himself and did a quick look to see who was around. "I mean it ain't every guy with a rep like yours that would target the coach's fine daughter."

Tim figured defusing this right away was his best bet. "It's not like that. She's a cool girl."

"OK, OK. Play it that way, 33. Just know, eyes are on you." Smash shot him an 'I'm watching you' sign and Tim knew he meant. Dillon High wasn't big enough for Tim Riggins to pursue Julie Taylor without there being some talk.

--/--/--/--/--/

The next few days passed with some additional glances and a few brief chats with the object of his affection, but Tim had dialed back his assault a bit. If he wanted this to work out according to his plan he had to be smarter than his desire, which for him had always been a problem. He knew his next step had to be getting time alone with Julie and thanks to her current state of imprisonment that meant getting back into the Taylor house. Tim saw Mrs. Taylor entering her office and thought it was time to put this step of the plan into action.

"Hey, Mrs. T." Tim drawled standing in her door.

"Tim! How are you?" Tami Taylor smiled back at him.

"I'm good. I just wanted to thank you again for dinner the other night."

"Oh, you know it was no problem at all, Tim. We were glad to have you."

Tim stood there for a minute looking down at the floor. Come on, man, he told himself, you can do this.

"Was there something else you wanted, hun?"

"Yeah, actually. Uh, before, when I was staying with y'all, Julie...she had been helping me with some classes."

"I know. It seemed to be helping. Your teachers have been real pleased with your progress."

"I was wondering, ma'am, if maybe she could start doing it again?" He paused, "I wanted to ask you cause Coach let me know about her being grounded and such and I didn't want to mess that up or anything."

Tami looked at Tim with those smiling wide eyes of hers. He laughed inside at his ability to work the ladies. He could tell she was figuring on this being an additional punishment for Julie.

Tucking her long hair behind her ear she replied, "You know what, Tim? I think that's an excellent idea. Julie helping you out will be good for the both of you."

If you only knew, he thought to himself. "Thanks, Mrs. T. I really appreciate it."

"I'm really proud of you for asking for help, Tim. Real proud. Do you want me to talk to Julie about it then?"

"No, that's OK, Mrs. Taylor. I'll check with her and set something up. Thanks again."

He left her office with the world's biggest shit eating grin plastered across his face. "That, my friend," he said to himself, "is what you call killing two birds with one stone."

--/--/--/--/--/

"Riggins! Could you step into my office, please?"

Tim looked up from the bench by his locker to see Coach standing in front of him. He finished lacing up his cleats and gave the coach a questioning look.

"Please, son. Come with me."

What the hell? Tim had no clue what was going on but his balls crawled up inside him with the thought that Coach might know Julie was his intended target. Tim saw a few guys wearing suits standing in Coach's office and quickly figured this had nothing to do with his desire to nail Julie Taylor.

"Have a seat, Tim. These gentlemen are from the district office and the Dillon police department. They want to talk to you about Friday."

"Hello, Tim. I'm Wade Bennett and I'm the legal representation for the school district's athletic department." The man offered his hand to Tim who shook it. "This is Detective Simms. We just wanted to have a talk with you about Coach Dickey."

"Sure, what's going on?"

"Well, Tim, what Coach Dickey did to you is considered an assault." Simms stated, "We've opened an investigation at the request of the school district and as the victim wanted to contact you about pressing charges."

Tim sat speechless. Charges? All Tim wanted was for this to go away. The dude's wife was going to die and they wanted to throw him in jail. It didn't sit right with him.

"Well I honestly hadn't thought about that." Tim shared. "I mean I thought it was a done deal and we all would just move on. Coach?"

"Tim, I appreciate how you've dealt with this, I do, but it's gone beyond our control. National media has picked up on this and folks outside of Dillon are talking about it."

"What!" Tim exclaimed rising to his feet. "What do you mean, Coach?"

"Now sit down, son. I was contacted by a few media outlets for comment, of which I had none, but you should know that the film has been and is being shown on all the major sports and news channels."

Tim slumped back down in his seat. He couldn't believe his first ESPN highlight was of him getting shit-clocked by some old fart coach. Fucking perfect. He sat for a few minutes and finally spoke up.

"Nuh-uh, no. I don't want to press charges. We've got games to win, our focus is on making it back to State. This would just be a distraction, count me out."

Coach Taylor looked at Tim with pride in his eyes. "I wish it was that easy, Tim."

Mr. Bennett spoke up then, "Tim, you're a minor and the district needs to act in your best interest. We need to send a message that behavior like this will not go unpunished and that our zero tolerance policy of violence against students is upheld. The district is moving forward with pressing charges. You were only contacted as a courtesy. We hope you understand and will give us your full cooperation."

The men stood up and told Coach Taylor they would be in touch, shaking hands they left him and Tim alone in the office. Tim was at a loss, what the hell had just happened? Coach spoke first.

"Now you listen to me, Riggins. This changes nothing. Nothing, you hear me? I can't do anything about the footage being out there or what people are saying, but I can control how this team responds, do you understand what I'm saying to you? We focus on what is ahead of us. We don't look back. The team will follow your lead, you show them what's important, you got that?"

"Yes, sir." Tim got up to leave, but before he left the room Coach stopped him.

"You keep it up, Tim."

"What's that, Coach?"

"Surprising me."

Tim looked back at this man, Julie's dad, his coach. Letting him down wasn't an option if he wanted to be with Julie.

"Will do, Coach."

"All right, well get your ass on the field, I have a practice to run."

--/--/--/--/--/

Tim sat in his beat up truck after a grueling practice that day. He was weighing his options for the night, getting shit-faced was in the lead so far. He didn't want to have to go home though as he knew Billy would be all jacked up over the damn clip making ESPN. Resting his head on the back window he closed his eyes and let out a long sigh. A tap on his window made him jump. Tim looked over and saw Eric Taylor's face staring back at him.

Rolling down the window, Tim greeted him. "Hey."

"What are you still doing out here, son?"

"I, uh..." Tim let out a grunt. "I don't really know, sir."

Tim could see the gears turning in Coach Taylor's head. He could tell the fear of his all-star fullback falling apart was something the man wasn't willing to risk.

"Come on over to the house," Coach offered, "let's get some food in you."

Tim nodded in acceptance and fired up the truck. As he followed the Coach home he laughed to himself. Maybe there was a God in Heaven and he was on Tim's side. He was going to get to see Julie and after the day he'd had it quickly became clear to him that was a much better option than drowning his sorrows in a six-pack.

AN: Thanks again for all the nice reviews. It helps so much to know others enjoy this too! A special shout out to WhoJ, aka The Tulie Master, for all the encouragement.