The Man from Her Past

Summary: A man from Reba's past shows up unexpectedly. How will it affect Reba and the ones she loves? What memories will it bring up in her? What memories will it make?

Disclaimer: I only own one character from this story and that's Bill. The rest are not mine.

Rating: Teen…maybe Mature later on, I'm not that far yet.

Chapter One: The Party

Reba awoke quickly to the sound of a loud crash and a shout from downstairs. She got up, putting a blue robe on over her pajamas and ran down to Van and Cheyenne's room to find it empty. Then to Kyra's room to find the same. Jake's room was empty too. She then ran down the stairs quickly and continued into the kitchen when she couldn't find anyone.

When she got into the kitchen she saw Van and Jake arguing with a pile of clattered dishes on the floor, next to the table. "What's goin' on?" she asked, walking over to them, looking at the pile of dishes. Van was quick to reply.

"It was all Jake!" he said, pointing and backing away. Jake pointed back at him.

"Was not! You were carrying all of them and wouldn't let me help."

"Yeah but you were the one that made me sneeze." Jake just looked at his mom.

"Ok guys; just help me clean it up." Luckily, not much was broken. "What were you guys doin' with the dishes anyways?"

Jake replied, "We all wanted to help you clean the house before the Christmas Eve party tonight. Van and I were trying to do some stuff with the house while Kyra and Cheyenne and Elizabeth went to the store to get some stuff off of that list that you made."

Reba set down the dishes in the sink that she was carrying and went to Jake. "Oh, thank you honey, that was very sweet." She leaned down and gave him a hug and kissed him on the head. When she stood back up, Van was standing there smiling, waiting for his hug. "Keep cleanin' cowboy." Reba said, and pointed to the few dishes that were left on the floor. Van looked a little sad, and kept cleaning. Reba went upstairs to take a shower. "When I come back down, I don't want to find anything else broken. Ok?"

"Don't worry mom, if Van messes anything else up, I'll make him clean under the sink where Dad made that big mess trying to fix it." Jake smiled and walked away. Van went after him, and Reba just laughed to herself and went upstairs.

When Reba came downstairs, Kyra, Cheyenne and Elizabeth were home, and the house looked spotless. "Wow, guys, ya'll did a really good job! I'm impressed. I should tell ya'll we're havin' a party more often."

Cheyenne walked up to Reba and said, "Yeah, don't get too carried away there, Mom. We're only doin' this once. If I have to clean anymore I think I'm gonna have a heart attack."

"Oh yeah, I'm sure that cleaning that one spot off of Van's shirt was so hard." Kyra said as she walked by.

"Hey," Cheyenne said, following her, "it would've stained if I hadn't've gotten it off." Reba walked around, inspecting the house, and seeing that the kids really did do a good job. She walked into the kitchen to start cooking things for the party. She had just started cooking when all the kids came into the kitchen. "Ok, Mom. We're done." Cheyenne said.

"Great, you can help me cook now."

All of the kids protested and made up all kinds of different excuses to leave, and Reba was left alone. She smiled and continued on her cooking.

When Reba was done, she'd just carried the last of the food trays into the living room when she heard a knock on the door. She opened it and Brock, Barbra-Jean and Henry came in. "Hey guys."

"Hey Reba." Brock said as he went straight for the scotch. Reba looked at Barbra-Jean for an explanation. Barbra-Jean just shrugged and did her little 'yeah, whatever' thing and walked in. She put Henry down by Elizabeth and went to Brock.

The kids all walked in and everybody started eating.

A couple of hours later, Reba stood, drinking a Coca-Cola while she talked to Brock. Everybody else stood around talking to someone. Jake and Kyra were talking, while Barbara-Jean was talking to Van and Cheyenne. Henry and Elizabeth were sitting on the floor playing. Barbara-Jean being as scatter brained as she is stood up quickly and walked over to Brock. She whispered, "Did you bring them?"

"Bring what?" Brock whispered back, confused.

"The gifts." She whined.

"Oh, no. They're still at home."

Barbara-Jean sighed and said to everyone in the room, "Ok, nobody move! I got somethin' special for all of you." She took off out the door.

Reba turned to Brock and smiled as she said, "Is the 'somethin' special' her not comin' back?" Brock just gave her that look.

A few minutes later, Reba was facing Brock and the front door opened. She continued to talk, expecting it to be Barbara-Jean coming back. She was laughing at another crack she'd made about BJ when she turned to see Barbara-Jean. When she turned, her laugh and smile faded quickly. "Bill…."