Summary: Riggins and Collette, together. Spoilers: through season 5. Note: These characters are not mine.

Billy rubbed his forehead again, a habit of his that expressed pretty much every emotion. This time it was happy disbelief.

"You're tellin' me that Mom wants you to help her build a house on this property that her aunt left her, on Red Ridge Lake? And that she wants us back in her life?," Billy asked, shaking his head.

"That's exactly what I'm saying, Billy," Tim said, levitating Stevie like an airplane. "Honest to god, she seems for real about this reconciling crap. If I wasn't there, I wouldn't believe it either. She was real sick, ya know. I think coming that close to meeting her maker made her think about stuff."

"Yeah, well don't forget how she just up and abandoned us with that son-of-a-bitch," Billy said. "It's not like I can just erase all that, those years when I was responsible for feeding you."

"Brrrrrrrrr….whooosh!," Tim said, dipping Stevie right to left, like a plane banking. "I know, Billy. She wants to try and make up for some of that. I'm pretty sure she means it."

Stevie laughed and clapped his hands. "Bah!" he squealed. Tim did another swoop and dip as commanded.

There was a knock at the door, a familiar one-two-and-three.

"Tyra," Tim whispered. "Your Aunt Tyra's here, Stevie!"

He swung Stevie to one hip and opened the door.

Tyra stood there grinning. Her hair had grown past her shoulders, and she seemed taller and more gorgeous than ever.

"Helloooo, Aunt Tyra," he said in a low voice. "Meet your nephew, Stevie," Tim said, receiving a lingering kiss on the cheek from her.

"Well thank you Uncle Tim," she said, in a proper manner. "Now I'll need to relieve you of this little guy, if you don't mind," she said, flinging her bag onto the floor and grabbing Stevie. "Hey Billy!," she shouted out casually, as if she'd just seen him, even though it'd been nearly a year.

"Hey Tyra," Billy yelled back, waving. "Nice of you to come visit, finally."

"Yeah, well, this scholarship leaves me zero time for anything but work and studies. Believe me, I'd have rather been home over the holidays, not working in the computer lab. Jesus, what do you feed this kid, steak?"

Billy hugged her. "Mindy's shift ends at 7. They put her on the day shift," he smirked. She frowned.

Tyra and Tim spent the next hour with their feet dangling over the pool edge, catching up on all that had happened since they'd last seen one another. The sunset was particularly beautiful that evening.

Tyra knew Tim had been to prison, but she didn't expect him to be so chastened, so forgiving, at least outwardly. He also looked extremely hot, tanned, his hair cut short for the first time in her memory, his muscles bigger than ever.

"So you were okay in jail?," she asked hesitantly. "I mean, you hear all these stories about getting roughed up, and becoming someone's bitch…"

He turned his head away, gazing into the distance for a moment before answering. "Let's just say I took care of myself. I got approached early on, took care of it, and after that no one bothered me."

"You mean you were a badass in jail, too, right?," she said teasingly. She'd always loved that about Tim, he didn't give a shit about being popular. He just did whatever the hell he wanted, like she used to…

"Call it what you want. They left me alone," he said.

She took his hand, threading her fingers through his.

"This'll sound lame, but I went through a similar thing at UT. That mean girl thing… it's probly worse than a bunch of cons!" They both laughed. "I put this one chick in her place when she made some cut about me being all boobs and no brains, and after that, no problems."

Tim smiled. "You always were the baddest cat around, Collette," he murmured, caressing her cheek and leaning in to kiss her. It felt like no time had passed since those years ago when they'd started dating and she'd wear his shirts around his house, when they'd spend all afternoon making out.

That was partly why he broke up that first time… they were too similar, like trains on a collision course.

But now she seemed different, and he felt different.

"You and me, Tyra… some history together, hunh?," he murmured.

"Like two peas in pod," she answered, kissing him long and deep, once and again.

"Ahem. Hey guys!," They pulled apart to see Becky standing behind them. She looked distraught.

Tim ran his hand through his ghost hair. "Shit," he whispered. Things felt so good and natural with Tyra that he'd forgotten all about Becky.

"Becky, Tyra. Tyra, Becky."