Title: Five times Tim Riggins comes through Lyla Garrity's window
Author: koalathebear
Fandom: Friday Night Lights
Characters: Tim Riggins / Lyla Garrity
Rating: PG-13/R for 'language' and sexual situations
Summary: The first time Tim Riggins clambers through Lyla Garrity's window into her bedroom, her parents are downstairs and she says she doesn't want him there.
Spoilers: Set just after episode 122 State

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The first time Tim Riggins clambers through Lyla Garrity's window into her bedroom, her parents are downstairs and she says she doesn't want him there. Even as she's protesting against his mouth and thinking about Jason, she's pulling him closer and kissing him hard. They're both fucked up in more ways than they can count and although the sex is hot and satisfying - they're messed up and hurting. They know this is wrong and they both know that it's only going to lead to more heartache. Neither of them have a clue how they've ended up at like this.

*

The second time Tim Riggins comes through Lyla Garrity's window, he's still feeling like a god. They've won State, he's never known such happiness or satisfaction, but in the midst of the celebrations, he can't help remembering that not everyone's feeling the same joy.

Lyla's lying on her bed motionless and not saying a word. He sits on the mattress beside her and his hands are gentle as he brushes her tangled hair from her face.

Lyla's face is swollen and unlovely. During the day she appears cool and untroubled, but Tim knows Lyla better than anyone realises.

Her break-up with Street is public knowledge now and half of Dillon has seen Jason with some blonde girl who's from out of town. The whole town knows that Buddy Garrity's been stepping out with Angela Collette and now everyone knows that Lyla's parents are splitting up. Although Street is still flushed with the elation of the State win, Tim has seen him glancing over at Lyla from time to time, guilt and regret in his eyes.

"How you holding up, Garrity?" Tim asks her.

"Been better," she tells him. "More to the point, what are you doing in my room again, Tim?"

"Beats me," he tells her. "Probably should be out somewhere having a good time."

"I heard your older woman dumped you. I'm not sleeping with you for comfort," she tells him bluntly.

"Why does everybody always think I'm all about sex?" Tim demands, looking very offended and Lyla laughs despite herself.

"Congratulations on State by the way," she tells him and his grin is filled with pure delight. She can't help being touched that amidst all the euphoria he's taken the time to notice that her life is beyond crappy.

"Thanks. Good effort from everyone," he says, wondering if he's ever going to feel that kind of delight again. "Notice you haven't been out with the others," he says referring to the fact that she hasn't been with the other cheer leaders.

"Let's just say I've decided to hang up my pom poms and turn over a new leaf," she tells him. He looks at her quizzically.

"That really what you want to do?"

"Tyra's still pissed at you for giving away her tickets to the game," she tells him, changing the subject.

Tim sighs. "Since when has Tyra been interested in football?"

"Since you started giving away tickets you promised her to hot single moms," Lyla tells him and Tim rolls his eyes.

"Moving on," he tells her firmly. He stretches out beside her on the bed, props himself up on one elbow and looks at her. Although she looks a lot more animated now than she did earlier, there's still a sad droop about her mouth. "It'll get easier, Lyla," he tells her.

"How do you know that?" she asks him, turning towards his strong body automatically.

"I don't, but it's just what people say," he tells her laconically and for some reason she finds his pathetic attempt to cheer her up inexplicably comforting

He stays all night, they sleep together but there's no sex. Maybe the healing has begun.

*

The third time Tim Riggins clambers through Lyla Garrity's window, her room-mate is very unimpressed.

"Lyla, it's your goddamned boyfriend!" Cameron hisses and turns to stare at Tim who's standing in the darkness of the college dorm room.

"Hey, Cam," he greets her politely and Cam can't help smiling at him despite herself. The football star with his overly long, tousled hair and shy smile is cute, irresistible and knows it.

Lyla blinks herself awake and sits up abruptly. "He's not my boyfriend," Lyla mumbles automatically and it's true. She and Tim have remained close, they're good friends - after he got his scholarship, she even picked out the same college as him so that they could be together - but she refuses to call him her boyfriend.

"Tim Riggins what in hell are you doin' here?" she demands, glaring at him. He looks slightly bruised and very dishevelled in his grubby football jersey and faded jeans.

"Can't go back without a girl's brassiere," he explains as if should be patently obvious. "It's an honour thing - can't welsh on a bet, you know."

"Football players!" she exclaims in disgust. "God could you be bigger losers if you tried? Get lost!" she tells him.

"Want one of mine?" Cam asks him and Tim laughs out loud. They all know that if he'd gone to his fraternity's affiliate sorority dorm he could have left with enough bras to start an online shop.

"Garrity you can't expect me to go back with some other girl's bra. It'd feel like I was bein' unfaithful or something," he protests.

"My god you are such a pain," Lyla mutters, lurching to her feet and staggering over to her underwear drawer.

"The cute, little, white, sporty one," Riggins suggests helpfully and Lyla slaps the bra in question against his chest.

"Now get out - pervert!"

Tim waves her bra at her and disappears out the window.

"He really is cute, you know," Cam comments as she watches him leave

"Shut up," Lyla says into her pillow, but she's smiling.

*

The fourth time Tim Riggins climbs through Lyla's window, he claims he's drunk and that it's his room.

Lyla smiles. Riggins doesn't drink any more. At graduation they both got high and juiced up - on lemonade. At Street's wedding, Lyla challenged Riggins to see who could out drink the other - with carbonated mineral water.

As Riggins, the best man slams another empty glass down on the table, grimacing at the bubbles, he looks up and Lyla's grinning and pulling him to the dance floor.

"How you holdin' up, Garrity?" he asks her and she's laughing up at him.

"Just fine, just fine. You?"

"Not too shabby," he tells her and the happiness in his eyes matches hers.

They sway to the music. "Where'd Street dig up this crap band?" Riggins whispers in her ear and Lyla laughs.

"Be nice. Landry's supposed to be your friend, remember?" she reminds him.

"Oh yeah."

Lyla closes her eyes and leans against him as they dance. He's wearing the aftershave she bought him for his birthday. That makes her smile even more and she inhales deeply.

She's twenty five, a college grad and not married - to Street or anyone else. Life is a constant surprise. She can hear Jason whooing and whooping with his new bride and she finds it amusing that her whole world and future once revolved around the QB1 Jason Street. Back when her world was so tiny. Back then.

"Yee haw, Texas forever," Riggins mutters as his hands slide down her back. His hands linger on her warm skin.

Despite their closeness, they haven't slept together since high school. They've dated other people and comforted one another through each painful break-up. Deep down, Lyla's always known why things haven't worked out with the other boys.

Now as Riggins is standing in the darkness of her bedroom, he doesn't look like the respectable professional that he's become. His friends all joke that he must have bought his degree online, that he must have slept with his professors to pass or at least menaced them. Lyla knows different. She knows just how hard Riggins has worked to get where he is, to escape from Dillon, get through college and to better himself. She's done it, too - clawing herself forward every single painful inch of the way.

"Get out of my room," she tells him as she walks up to him slowly and slides her arms around his neck invitingly.

"Could have sworn this was my room," he tells her, smiling down at her with the smile that no one in the world gets to see except Lyla Garrity.

She kisses him first, pulling his mouth down to hers. He raises an eyebrow quizzically.

"And what are you waiting for, Tim?" she asks him softly. "Did you come here to stare at me all morose and silent again?" He backs her against the wall, his hand going beneath her t-shirt. His mouth is hard and hungry against hers.

"Nice. Let's go," he taunts her in a low, hoarse voice as her hands fumble with his clothes clumsily.

"Macho jerk," she retorts, her hand moving across his bare chest lingeringly. His eyes are dark and soft as they kiss again. His breathing is ragged, her heart is pounding so hard she wonders if the world can hear it. The tenderness in his eyes makes her want to cry even as his clever fingers sliding inside her make her want to moan.

There's a question in his eyes and she smiles at him tearfully. "Yes you idiot, yes yes and yes," she says, pulling him back against her and he laughs with boyish delight, wrapping a strong arm around her waist and pulling her to the bed as he promises her things that make her blush.

"Let's go, Garrity."

*

The fifth time Tim Riggins climbs through Lyla's window, Lyla's name isn't Garrity anymore, it's Riggins - and its his window, too.

"The neighbours see a man climbing in my window at night, they're going to think I'm cheating on you," she tells him severely.

"I didn't want to wake the baby," he explains. He's lying. He was just in Bronte's room, listening to his daughter's snuffles of babyish contentment before kissing her good night. After that, he walked out the front door and stood on the lawn staring up at the sky thoughtfully before rapping on his bedroom window and making his wife let him in.

"Besides, who'd believe that you could ever cheat on me?" he teases her, sliding into bed beside her and drawing her slim body against his.

"Lyla Garritty, that two timing cheatin' skank, daughter of that no-good unfaithful Buddy Garrity," Lyla tells him balefully.

Tim's smile fades. He knows that coming back here hasn't been easy for her. When he first talked with her about him giving up a successful corporate career and heading back to Dillon to take on the coaching position, he saw her brave smile slip slightly. He didn't force her but when she had seen the light of excitement and anticipation in his eyes at the opportunity, she had been happy for him even though her heart had ached at the same time.

After seeing how thrilled he'd been at the opportunity, she'd packed up their home, her business and bought into a local practice that was doing relatively well. It was doing even better now.

"Funny. I don't know any Lyla Garrity," Tim muses. He kisses her forehead. "There's a Mrs Timothy Riggins, there's a Mrs Coach, there's a Lyla Riggins the best CPA in the whole damned state of Texas, there's my wife ..."

"Who says I'm the best CPA?" she demands, unable to stop herself smiling at his nonsense.

"I say it and no one better say anything different," he retorts. Lyla lies in her husband's arms, staring up at the ceiling. She smiles as he holds her, his hands stroking her bare arms reassuringly. Her taciturn husband is fiercely protective and she knows that he'd probably even use his fists to defend her honour if it came down to it. The defiant, morose Texan delinquent is still in there sometimes.

"Mrs Coach," she says aloud, laughing a little. It has been tough coming back here, but there has also been a feeling of coming home. She and Tim have achieved things no one thought they would, they've graduated, they've travelled abroad and despite the inevitable problems - they're happy.

"Don't laugh - it's a cool name," Tim tells her and means it. Being married and having a family has been like a dream come true for him.

Lyla shakes her head.

"You are still a retard," she tells him, turning in his arms to kiss him. "How am I going to tell our poor baby girl when she grows up that her daddy's a retard?"

"I think I already caught Billy tellin' her that yesterday," Tim says dryly and Lyla laughs. His brother doted on their baby. Both their families did and even Mr and Mrs Garrity were honouring an uneasy truce these days for the sake of grandparenting visitation rights.

Lyla squeezes her husband tight, burying her face in his neck and he smiles and hugs her.

The town had always predicted that he was destined for a bad end - the Riggins boys were no good just like their folks. He'd believed it himself for a lot of his life, but these days, when he ran along the field and bellowed at the young Panthers who looked to him for guidance, he knew that it was possible for a boy to change his fate.

"I love you, even though you're a retard," Lyla whispers against his mouth.

"Thank you, that means a lot," he tells her and they dissolve into laughter that they make sure is quiet so that they don't wake the baby.

Lyla smiles. The town will come around, this place will be home again and it will be a safe and happy place for their daughter to blossom into rebellious adolescence.

As she kisses her husband, she realises that although she hasn't always loved Timothy Riggins, she knows that she always will.

End

J'adore cette fic Tyla forever!