Disclaimer: I don't own anything here (except for Al) and am just doing this for fun and to pass the long months until Season 4.
Since Jason's recruiting job kept him busy on the weekends, he and Lyla decided to have their wedding on a Wednesday near the end of August. Lyla planned a simple church ceremony for the morning, then time for picturing taking and relaxing before the black-tie reception at Buddy's country club in the evening. Tim hadn't been inside the country club since that embarrassing dinner with the McCoys in high school. He hated the place, truth be told, but he'd do anything for Six.
Ever since Tim and Al had moved into their house, Jason had been living in Al's old house with Noah and Lyla, when she was home from med school. Tim agreed to spend the night before the wedding at the old house with Jason. It felt a bit strange to be there, in the place where so much of his early relationship with Al had happened. But it also felt right to be with Six, hanging out like they were twelve-year olds on a sleepover.
Tim even slept on the floor in Jason's room, just like they always used to. Jason had encouraged him to use Noah's room, since the boy was with Jay's parents for the night, but Tim had insisted. He didn't think either one of them slept very well, and they were up and moving around well before the alarm went off.
"You are going to blow-dry your hair, right? Lyla specifically asked me to ask you," said Jason as he got dressed.
Tim yawned and rubbed his eyes. "Yes, Six. And I think you mean that Lyla told you to tell me. In fact, I bet she even demanded, just a little bit."
"I'm just trying to be polite about it, Timmy."
Tim stumbled off to have his shower, blow-dry his hair, and get dressed. Forty-five minutes later, they were ready to go but the wedding wasn't for another two hours.
"C'mon, Six. Let's go for a drive. I want to show you something."
"So help me, Riggins, if we're late...."
Tim sighed and held the front door open. "We're not going to be late. I promise."
Minutes later, they were headed down the road in Tim's truck, which had been specially washed and waxed just for this big occasion. Jason had his arm out the window and was watching the familiar scenery pass by. Even though the day was early, it was already hot and Tim knew that by noon, it would be downright oppressive.
Tim took the long way around so they approached the ranch from the far side of his and Al's house. They'd had another road put in that went from the main road, curved through a small forest of trees, and cut across the Jason's plot of land before splitting off with one path heading down to the lake while the other continued on to Al and Tim's house. Tim turned onto the new road, casting a sideways glance at Six, who looked confused.
"This is by your place, Timmy, but this isn't your road, is it?"
"Nope," agreed Tim, trying to keep the corners of his mouth from turning up. He took the turnoff for the lake and pulled up next to the boat dock.
"What's going on, Timmy? Is this where you leave me for dead or something?" asked Jay, fiddling with his cuff links as he looked around.
"Not hardly," said Tim as he leaned over to open the glove compartment. He took out a roll of papers that were wrapped with a ribbon and handed it to his friend.
Jay looked at Tim with a raised eyebrow, then eased the ribbon off and unrolled the papers to examine them: some architectural drawings, a map, and a deed.
"Remember when I showed you my present from Al, at our wedding, and you asked me what the pink plot was for?"
"Yeah, you said Al had some sort of girly plans for it."
"Well, I lied. It's yours, Six. Yours and Lyla's. You can do whatever you want with it, but what we're really hoping is you'll build a house here, be our neighbors."
Jason flipped through the pages, shaking his head slowly. "No....c'mon Timmy, if y'all wanted neighbors, you wouldn't have moved to the middle of nowhere."
"Six, we moved to the middle of nowhere because we like it here. Does get lonely though and it'd be nice to have some company."
"Seriously?"
"Seriously. Those plans are just something Al's brother did up – he's happy to make changes or you can hire your own architect. We can give you the name of a decent builder too – didn't rip us off too bad and finished the place mostly on time. Al said we have to register the deed or some such thing, but, as far as we 're concerned, this is all yours.
Jason was silent for several minutes, looking from the drawings to the lake and the woods, then back at the drawings. Tim avoided his eyes, not wanting to get overly emotional before they even got to the damn wedding.
"Thanks....this is really.....it's going to be perfect."
Tim nodded. He considered it one of the miracles of his life that Six was still his best friend, that he'd forgiven Tim for everything. That Jason had moved back to Dillon was an unexpected bonus, yet also, somehow, the way things were supposed to be.
Jason reached over and squeezed Tim's hand tightly, then dropped it. They still didn't look at each other, but they didn't have to know the other's thoughts. Tim took a deep breath and started the truck.
"OK with you if I make a quick stop at home?"
Jason looked at his watch. "Yeah, we're still a little ahead of schedule."
Tim smiled and drove quickly, pulling up in front of his house about thirty seconds later.
"I'll wait here, obviously," said Jason with a smile as Tim climbed out of the truck.
Tim called Al's name as he opened the front door, but he doubted she could hear him over the sound of the blow dryer. He followed the noise back to their room, where he found her blow drying her hair in front of the mirror by her dresser. She was wearing one of his shirts, and not much else from the looks of it. When she caught sight of him in the mirror, she turned off the blow dryer and put it down, seeming surprised but happy.
He came up behind her and slipped his hands around her waist before she could turn around. He rested his chin on her head and enjoyed the view down her top. She'd always been reasonably, proportionately curvy but this whole pregnancy thing just exaggerated everything, in a good way.
"You're beautiful, you know that, right?" he whispered in her ear, his voice the throaty growl that always drove her crazy.
She looked for a minute like she might argue with him. Instead, she broke out into a huge grin while her eyes teared up. "I'm hormonal and emotional is what I am."
"Mmm, just the way I like my gals." He kissed her neck, smiling as she relaxed against him.
She laughed and reached a hand up to his face, stroking his cheek and then running her fingers through his hair.
"How about I help you get dressed?" he said, unbuttoning her shirt while he continued to kiss her neck, her collarbone, the curve of her jawline.
"Timmy, this doesn't look like getting dressed to me. It looks remarkably like getting undressed, in fact."
"Well, you have to do one before you can do the other, else you'd look pretty silly," he drawled.
"Billy's going to be here soon," she protested, but didn't pull away. Tim was grateful that Billy had agreed to be Al's date for the wedding and the first part of the reception, until Tim had completed his official duties as Best Man.
"We got plenty of time, Al." Tim was about to ease off her shirt when he heard several long, sharp blasts from his truck's horn. He groaned, stepped away from her and picked up her blue and white sundress from the bed.
"Jason's waiting for you?"
"Yeah," Tim mumbled, helping her into her dress. Even though the zipper was within easy reach for her, on the side, he still zipped it up for her. He kissed her sweetly and then leaned down and kissed her bump. "Love you both."
"And we love you...you know, you seem to be saying that a lot more recently. Not that I'm complaining, I like hearing it, but I was just curious."
He took her hand but kept his eyes down. They'd been married for three years, together for two years before that, but somehow, she still had a way of pushing him right to the edge of his comfort zone. It was hard to share his feelings, to open up his heart that bit wider and let her in further. He felt so closely entwined with Al, it scared him. If anything ever happened to her, he didn't know how he'd be able to survive it. To love someone that much was terrifying, which had been the reason he didn't say it so much.
But he didn't let her in on the whole background. Instead, he cut right to the simple chase. "Well, you know, wasn't something I heard a lot when I was a kid. So I guess....I'm practicing. I want our kid to have a different life."
Al put her free hand on his cheek. "Our kid is going to have a good life. I promise. Now, you better go before Jay comes in here and drags you out himself.
She pulled him down for a kiss then gave him a gentle push. "Go. We'll see you at the wedding."
Tim backed out of the room, wanting to savor the view for as long as he could. He was honored, thrilled, to be Six's Best Man, but at that very moment, he would have preferred to just be able to stay with his wife.
He had the truck in gear and moving before his seatbelt was completely fastened. Jason took one look at his flushed cheeks and shook his head.
"Jesus, Riggs, it's my wedding day and you're going to make me late because you couldn't wait for tonight to be with your wife."
Tim shrugged and grinned lazily. "Well, you know....." He let the sentence trail off. Six knew everything about him, could probably predict what he was going to do next down to the second. It was comforting to be with someone who knew you so well. Tim counted himself as lucky that he had not one, but two people, like that in his life.