In Flames Extras

The Dance

He saw her when she first entered the club.

Eddie didn't want to be here. He would much rather be back at home with his son but Christopher was currently being doted on by Abuela and Pepa so he wasn't too heartbroken that Eddie was dragged away from the house for a night out with some of his old army buddies.

He thought they would be going to some bar and shooting the shit for a few hours before he casually slipped away to go home to his nearly empty house. Christopher's room was completely decorated and the new furniture assembled, but the rest of the house was bare and sterile. Eddie wasn't one to decorate so they just had the bare minimum of furniture and some photos up.

They were new to Los Angeles thanks to Eddie's new job as a firefighter with the LAFD that he was starting on Monday. When he reached out to Ben to ask about which neighborhoods to look into and such, Ben insisted on taking him out to celebrate with a few other guys.

Which is why Eddie found himself in a club with his attention piqued by the dark haired beauty standing at a table with her friends. She looked exactly how he felt, like she didn't want to be here. Her head turned and their eyes met and for some reason, he felt a jolt in his chest like he had been punched right in his heart. The woman immediately drew her eyes away and Eddie awkwardly looked down at the beer in his hands that was slowly warming up.

And then Liam, evil mastermind that he was who immediately noticed where Eddie's attention had been focused on, dragged him over to the table and started outright flirting with the woman's friend. Eddie took the chance to examine her better, from her dark hair to her broad shoulders and then to her equally dark eyes that seemed like they were going to lock him out and leave him in the cold. She was like anything he had ever seen before with all hard lines and sharp edges but he knew there was something softer behind the exterior facade she held up.

He knew it when she was pressed against him on the dance floor. She was different from Shannon because she understood him. The loud noises of the club and the tightness of the floor and the crush of bodies pressing against you was a disaster waiting to happen for someone who lived through trauma.

Every moment of that night was imprinted in his mind.

Which is why he was remembering it so vividly as he held up the sequined skirt in his hands. The gold band on his finger clinked against the plastic as he picked it up out of the pile shoved far in the back of their closet.

"Hey babe? Do you want to just do pizza for lunch?"

His head raised in response to the voice calling for him. The closet door opened and a head of dark hair tinged with a few streaks of silver poked its way into the small area. Mariana tilted her head to the side like a small puppy and he put a finger to his lips, beckoning her forward with his other hand.

She raised an eyebrow in curiosity but took his hand, letting him pull her into his chest. Eddie tossed the skirt down onto the pile of clothes he had been cleaning out and grabbed her other hand.

"What are you doing? We have four kids downstairs who want food and I don't want to deal with their hangry attitudes," she commented.

"They're all teenagers or older, they can live for five minutes. Is it a crime to want to dance with my wife?"

Her dark eyes searched his face before a small smile settled across her lips. "No. It's not. Why the sudden urge?"

Eddie pressed one hand against her waist and his cheek against her hair as he slowly rocked them back and forth. Mariana's question went unanswered yet she heard the response loud and clear in his actions.

Gone were their days of fast paced, hurried movements, as if they were worried the world would take them away. He had a chance to take it slow with her and love her the way she deserved. He knew from the moment he saw her that she would change everything. He knew that she needed to be loved.

Love her he did and love her he would.

a/n: I've been in a writing slump for two months. I open WIPs and then I close them. I'm getting really frustrated. This morning, I sat down and wrote this so...enjoy.