Disclaimer: I don't own anything here (except for Al, the car-fixing, football-playing, hand-crushing, ass-kicking gal) and am just doing this for fun and to pass the long months until Season 4.
Tim knew that on one hand, nothing had really radically changed. His wife was still the same old Al he knew and loved. But the fact that he knew she was having his baby.....well, that changed everything for him. He felt incredibly protective of her. At least that's how he would describe it. He knew if you asked her, she'd probably call it something like "ridiculously and annoyingly over-protective."
It pretty much started the minute he saw those two blue lines on the pregnancy test. He'd wanted her to take the day off sick and go immediately to the doctor. She'd laughed and told him it was just a pregnancy, not a medical emergency. Besides, she had a transmission to rebuild that she'd been looking forward to starting.
A week later, she insisted on going to the first doctor's appointment by herself. She promised him that nothing excited happened at the first appointment and that he'd come for the ultrasound, which was the fun part. When Al came back from her appointment, she headed straight for Billy's office and Tim was right behind her.
"Hey Al, how was the doctor?" Billy said absentmindedly as he went through an inventory spreadsheet.
"Fine. I've apparently hurt my back though and can't lift more than 25 pounds."
Billy looked up. "Is this some sort of work-related thing? Do I have to file a workers comp or anything?"
"No, Billy, it's fine. I just have to be careful what I do for the next few weeks is all."
"Yeah, sure, Tim or one of the interns can help you," he said, his attention drifting back to the spreadsheet.
Al went from Billy's office to the break room to get a juice. Tim cornered her by the fridge.
"Why didn't you tell me you hurt your back?" he asked, his quiet voice full of concern.
Al looked up at him, trying and failing to keep from laughing. "I haven't hurt anything, the doctor just said I should take it easy, try to keep the lifting under 25 pounds. That's all. You know the real reason – the back thing is just my cover story."
Tim hadn't realized he'd been holding his breath until he let it go. He hugged Al and then pulled back so he could look down at her. "What else did the doctor say?"
"Nothing really. Everything's fine, everything's good, have an appointment at the beginning of April for the ultrasound." She pulled him down into a kiss, which he knew was her way of distracting him and it annoyed him how it always worked.
"You guys know this is a work place and that there are minors around," said Jake, the intern who had been at the garage the longest, which was unfortunate because Tim found him and his smart mouth too much to take most of the time.
Al had just smiled, slipped out of his arms and gone back to work.
Working together, an aspect of their life he had previously enjoyed, became extremely difficult. He felt himself fussing around her like a mother hen, trying to do things for her, trying to keep her from hurting herself. The garage suddenly seemed like a menacing place, potential accidents around every corner. He found himself becoming short-tempered, barking at the interns to clean up oil spills and complaining when he found boxes or tools left where someone could trip over them. When he found out that Jake was calling him the Safety Monitor, he knew he had to dial it down, but it was hard.
Al, for her part, was doing fine. She had a little bit of morning sickness and was exhausted when they got home from work, but that was all to be expected.
It was a sunny Friday afternoon in mid-March when Principal Taylor brought her car in for a quick oil change. Al was always coming up with ideas to improve the business and the oil change facility was one of her best. She had convinced Billy to build a dedicated oil-change garage right next to Riggins' Rigs. Then she staffed it with interns from the high school. The interns pretty much ran the oil change place themselves, handling all aspects of management and maintenance with oversight from Billy and Al.
The program was a win for the garage, which got cheap labor and a good profit margin from the oil changes, and for the school, which now had a new vocational education program to offer students. Principal Taylor had asked Al to assist on the creation of a curriculum for the program to incorporate more formal classroom education that combined automotive principles with the subjects the high school was required to teach. Although Tim had scoffed at a "Math for Mechanics" class, the principal seemed to think that this could be a revolutionary way to modernize vocational education and had applied for grants and other assistance for it
Tim happened to be at the front desk when Principle Taylor arrived.
"Afternoon, Mrs. Coach. What can I do for you today?" he asked with a smile. Even though he'd been out of high school seven years and went golfing with Coach Taylor every Saturday, he couldn't bring himself to call either of them by their first names.
She returned his smile and handed over her car keys. "My car needs an oil change and I need to talk to Al."
Tim called Lauren over from the hydraulic lift, where she was helping Billy replace the brakes on a Mitsubishi Eclipse. He knew they weren't supposed to have favorites, but he'd be the first to admit that Lauren was the intern he liked best. She worked hard and listened carefully.
He tossed Lauren the keys and instructed her to change the oil in the car. Then he looked around for Al, spotting her working under the hood of an ancient Dodge Dart. Rather than bellow across the garage, he headed over and put his hand on her back.
"Principal wants to see you. You been cutting class again?"
A look of concern crossed her face. "No. Does she seem mad? Am I in trouble?"
"No, she just brought her car in for an oil change, but she asked to talk to you."
She headed over the front desk, wiping her hands on a rag as she walked. It was near the end of a long day and her curls were struggling to escape from the rubber band that held them into a ponytail. Her shirt tail was hanging out and Tim thought she never looked cuter than when she was all dishevelled.
"Tami! This is a nice surprise."
"Hi Al. Well, Eric couldn't say enough good things about the oil change he got here so I thought I should come see for myself. Plus, it's kind of a two-birds, one-stone sort of a thing since I kinda needed to talk to you anyway."
"Sure, let's find a quieter place," said Al as she headed first toward the waiting room, but then changed course when she saw two children jumping up on down on the couch while their mother scolded them ineffectually.
"On second thought, the break room is probably better," she said.
Tim waited until the two women had disappeared down the corridor before he followed them. He stood in the doorway of Billy's office, which allowed him to eavesdrop fairly effectively since it was right next door. George and Bruno, Tim and Al's dogs, napped on the floor in the office. Tim was concerned that George might blow his cover, but the dog didn't seem aware that he was there.
He heard Principal Taylor say that she had good news, that the curriculum had been approved and the funding had been secured to hire a full-time teacher. Al made the appropriate congratulatory response, then the principal thanked her for all her hard work and was leading up to asking Al something when Billy rounded the corner into his office and crashed right into Tim.
"What the hell-" was all Billy managed to get out before Tim clamped a hand over his mouth. Holding a finger up to his own lips to reinforce the point that silence was required, Tim removed his hand from his brother's surprised face and returned to the listening. But all he heard now was Al politely declining and the principal urging her to think on it, that no decisions would be made right away but that they'd really like Al to do it.
Al then changed the subject by offering to give Tami a tour of the oil-change facility. Tim closed the door to the office before the women walked past.
"Timmy, you want to tell me what the hell is going on here?" asked Billy.
"I'd tell you if I knew, Billy, believe me," said Tim with a sigh as he left the office. He went to the storeroom to unpack a parts shipment. When that was done, he looked for Al, finding her just finishing up the Dodge Dart.
He leaned against the car in a casual way. "So, what did Mrs. Coach want?"
He might be able to lean casually, but his words missed casual by at least three or four miles.
"You tell me – you were the big ears hanging out in Billy's office," Al's mouth was smiling but her words carried a bit of a sharp edge.
"Busted. But Billy ruined everything by walking in just as it was getting interesting."
Al carried a few wrenches back to the tool storage area and cleaned them before putting them away.
"Tami said the program's been approved and they need to hire a teacher. She wanted it to be me, which was kind of sweet, I guess, but I'm not interested."
"What do you mean you're not interested?"
Al shrugged. "I've got a job that I really love – why would I want to be a teacher?"
"Summers off? Easier work? Being inside a warm classroom all day? I can think of plenty of reasons why teaching would be a better job for you. Especially now."
Al's eyes narrowed "Now, later, last week, two years ago, it don't matter when.... I. Do. Not. Want. To. Teach."
Tim hated when she got like that. When she dug in her heels, bit off each word, and generally became an angry, stubborn mule. He sighed, stuffed his hands in his pockets, and hung his head.
"OK, Timmy. I'm exhausted and done for the day, so I'm going to go home. You stay here with the dogs and have a beer or two with Billy."
"Yeah sure. We still friends, though?"
She grabbed his shirt, pulled him down and kissed him in a way that left him in no doubt that not only were they still friends, they were still much, much more than that.
"Don't be home too late," she said as she walked away, giving him a look that made him want to follow her straight home.