Through The Dark

Dance With Me

I wake up to an empty bed as the morning sun pierces through the curtains. I roll over and stretch my arms above my head. I can't believe I even slept in. I'm usually always awake before the sunrise. I walk down the first landing. All of the kids are out of bed. I peek in the spare room. Louis and Katie and both asleep in the queen size bed. I head back down the last landing and the kitchen is quiet. Meredith is drinking from a sippy cup in front of the TV. Olivia silently feeding herself in her high chair and Sam is getting Mason ready for breakfast. I come up behind her as she stands in the kitchen. She reaches past me to grab the cereal and I sneak a kiss on her cheek. I pull her into me, her back against my chest. "Do I get breakfast, too?" I smile and lay another kiss on her cheeks.

"Just cereal." She says, seeing right through my suggestion.

"Captain Crunch?" Sam asks Mason and shows him the Peanut Butter Captain Crunch box. He nods and she pours him a bowl, then fills it with milk. "Eat up kiddo." I sip my cup of tea; it's just cool enough not to burn my lips. "You could have woke me up earlier." I say and stick my bread in the toaster.

"No, you came up to bed late last night...You deserve to sleep in once in a while." The kitchen stays quiet for another short moment, then Mason begins to cough. I look up and his face is completely red and he itches at his neck. "Niall! Shit! This is peanut butter!" She throws the bowl in the sink, as instant tears fall down her face. I try to remain come as she panics. I run around to the other side of the counter and pick him up. "What do we do?" She asks frantically.

"Go get Katie..." I calmly say, even though I'm as scared as she is.She doesn't respond, and just runs up the stairs. I sit down on the floor with him in my arms. "You'll be okay, Mason." I sit him up right. Katie rushes down next to us and stabs an Epi Pen into the side of his leg. When Katie takes him from my lap, I stand up and pull Sam into my grip.

"Listen, Samantha, it'll be okay." I move her face to look up at me. "He will be okay. Everything will be okay." I kiss her cheek and she wraps her arms around me. I haven't seen her cry this hard in a long time.

"I did this!" She continues to cry and I pull her down to the couch. "I'm already a shit mom. I can't do this! I'm going to ruin their lives!" She shakes. I just rub her back, as everything calm's down.

"Samantha, you didn't know... I didn't mention it. I'm sorry.." Katie says with Mason resting on her hip. "It's not your fault." We sit quietly in the living room. "This happened the first time I nannied for them. Zayn didn't even know he was allergic to peanut butter until then. He'll be just fine. It's not as severe as it can be, and the epi pen takes care of it." Just as Sam calms down, Olivia starts screaming from across the room.

"I got her." I peel away from Sam. Olivia looks down at her bottle and cries louder. "Oh, Olive. I think you're overreacting." I pick it up off the ground and hand it to her. She continues to whimper as she feeds herself and I pick her up. "You're such a drama queen, Olive." We go sit back by Sam and settle back in. Sam leans against me and turns the TV up louder.

"Good morning everyone." Louis comes down the stares and plops himself down next to Katie. It was strange seeing Louis with another girl. He obviously got over the fact they weren't dating.

Everything is quiet for the rest of the morning. Meredith comes up to Katie and crawls up onto her lap. "Tummy hurts." She says and leans against her. Before Katie can even respond, Meredith throws up. Sam jumps up and grabs a towel from the kitchen. When she comes back, I can already see the tears in her eyes.

"Can you help her for a second...?" I say to Louis and pull Sam aside. "Please relax, Sam. It's going to be okay. This isn't your fault." I kiss her forehead.

***

Later that night, after all the stress that Sam had to face, everyone is in bed. It leaves just the two of us here. Louis and Katie just turned in for the night, as they're staying for the rest of week. There really was no reason for Louis to stay, though.

"What are we gonna do...?" I hear Sam say, as she lays on my lap. I pause for a second, scoot out from under her, flip off the tv, and stand up. She looks confused as I walk off to the corner of the living room. Frank Sinatra, Elvis, The Eagles... I finger through my pile of records and gently place the Sinatra record on the turn table. There was a crackle, followed by a brief pause, then my music began.

"Dance with me." I ofter her my hand and pull her up. I pull her closer to me as I set my hand in the small of her back. We slowly sway in the dark living room, only lit by the candle on the coffee table. "Remember the first time we did this..?" I ask her as I spin her, my hand over her head.

"How could I forget...? You got distracted and danced into your coffee table." She shakes her head, smiling. It was her eyes I always noticed first. The eyes she hated and thought were so boring. She wanted them to be any other color than what she had. Hazel. But I loved them. They were beautiful. They lit up when she smiled. I loved looking into them every night, like tonight. I just stare down at her. Down at her dimples, down at her smile, down at the crinkles at the corner of her eyes. "What?" She says, in response to my stares.

"Nothing." I just shake my head, then dip her. She giggles and pulls herself back into me. "I love your laugh..." She rests her head on my chest. "I love you so much." I kiss the top of her head. "Remember the first time I told you I loved you...?" I couldn't help it, looking back at our relationship. "We just got home from a date. It was awful. The waiter was rude, they got the order wrong. Nothing was going right. You laughed it off when they brought you the shrimp alfredo instead of the pepper steak. I was so ready to yell at someone, but you just laughed it off. Then you suggested picking up a some chicken and some champagne and going home..."

"And we watched The Avengers for the third Friday in a row. " She adds. I continue to sway her to the music. "That's when you knew you wanted to marry me?"

"Yes, that's when I was sure.." I look down at her, her eyes closed. "What about you? When did you realize you wanted to marry me?" The only sound in the room is the record player, as she doesn't speak for more than a few minutes.

"When I backed your car into a pole, back in New York. I was so scared you would be mad at me, but when I told you, the first thing you asked was if I was okay..." She answers and I smile. The room is quiet as the record continued to the next song. "Remember when you were nervous about me sleeping in the same bed as you." She says and I feel my face turn red. "You told me you farted a lot, and you didn't want to scare me off." I smile and shake my head. Slowly, as she spoke, a smile grew across her lips. It grew and grew until she collapsed against my chest in a fit of giggles. I, too, began to laugh and pull her in closer to me.

"You're so amazing..." I say through a smile. She pushes against me and I fall back onto the couch, causing her to giggle a bit louder. I loved the feeling of her against me, as pure and organic as this. She was glowing and couldn't be happier to share this with her. She pulls herself into my neck to hide her growing laughter. "I love you.."I press my lips against her forehead.  It's so amazing how people are capable of pouring all their love into someones hands, having faith that they'll catch it. Loving her is the easiest thing I've ever done.