Chapter Text
Leora pulled up in front of the school, smiling when she caught sight of Christopher standing right in front of the building. She came to a stop and climbed out of her car, walking over to them.
“Hello there my love. Did you have a good day?” She asked, crouching down so she was at his level.
“Hi Leia, it was a great day.”
“Excellent, good days are the best. Shall we go home and cook before Dad gets home?”
“Yeah.”
Leora thanked his teacher, took his backpack, and followed the little boy to her car. After getting him situated in his car seat, she settled into the driver’s seat.
“Music or book?”
“Book, please Leia.”
She smiled and turned on the audiobook for ‘The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe’. When she had first met Eddie, it was in the children’s section of the library and he had been looking for a book for his five year old. A year and a half later, she made sure to expand Christopher’s reading catalogue. When they got home, she got him settled at the table to do homework while she started making the stuff for tacos. When Eddie got home, he found his fiance and son setting the table.
“Hello family.” He smiled, putting hsi stuff on the counter.
“Dad!” Christopher exclaimed, making his way over to hug Eddie.
“Hi buddy, are you helping Leia?”
“We made tacos.”
Eddie smiled, hugging Christopher into his side again.
“Hello soldier, good day?”
Leora stood on her toes and pressed a kiss to his cheek.
“Eh, between training and working with the army to finish my discharge, which should be official in a few days.”
He pressed a kiss to her forehead.
“I’m sorry. Why don’t you go shower while we finish dinner? Come on, my little love, we have to finish setting the table.”
She pressed another kiss to Eddie’s cheek. He watched them go back into the kitchen, smiling. Unlike his relationship with his ex-wife, he was with Leora for all the right reasons.
After taking his shower and changing his clothes, he went to eat dinner. Christopher happily told them about his day while they ate, which led to him telling his dad about the most recent chapter of his audiobook. The animation on the little boy’s face made Eddie smile, the day slipping off of his shoulders.
After dinner, the two boys set about cleaning up, much to the disagreement of Leora.
“Baby, you made dinner, the least I can do is clean up.” He said, putting the leftovers away.
“Team effort. You wash, I dry, and Chris can sit over there and he can boss us around.” Leora said, smiling.
“Yeah, Dad, team effort.” Christopher said from his stool. Eddie put his hands up, surrendering.
“Yes ma’am. We know the boss around here is. Don’t we, mi hijo?”
Christopher giggled as Leora rolled her eyes.
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After they got Christopher into bed, and a couple chapters of his book had been read, the couple settled on the couch. Leora leaned back against Eddie’s chest, letting him hug her as tight as he wanted.
“So, we need to talk.” He said, holding her tight.
If it was a bad thing, he wouldn’t have held on tighter, so she knew that it was a serious topic instead.
“Okay, what do we need to talk about?” She asked, tipping her head slightly so she could look up at him.
“I got offered two position today, open firefighter positions. I need to make a decision before I finish the academy. I wanted to talk to you first before I made a decision.”
She shifted so he had her full attention.
“Okay, let’s discuss it then.”
He smiled, dropping a kiss to her forehead.
“I was offered a spot in Chicago and in LA. I am leaning more towards LA, because Chris doesn’t deal with the cold well.”
“I will follow you anywhere, it’s not that hard to get a new job when you are a librarian and a historian.”
She smiled as he chuckled.
“I need your opinion. Do you think that this is a good idea, to take Christopher to California and away from my parents?”
“Eddie, at the end of the day, you are his dad. You get to make the choices that you think will better both of your lives. I am along for the ride, wherever you decide to go and whatever you decide to do, I will back you 100 percent. You get to make the choices that will make you happy. If you want my opinion, your parents are determined to make you miserable just to keep Chris close to them. They hate me, they hate Shannon, and they only care about how much time they get with Chris. Look how they have treated you ever since I started watching him after school, while you are at work.”
He sighed, holding her close and resting his head on top of hers. She was right, of course, they had gotten angry at him when he had informed them that she would be picking Christopher up after school and taking him home.
“You’re right. I have always worried about upsetting my parents, afraid that they were going to try and take him away from me. Before you came into my life, I never would have realized that they were more interested in their grandson than they were in me.”
She buried her face in his neck, taking a deep breath.
“If you want to move to LA, we can start the process of doing just that. It wouldn’t be that hard to pack up the house and get Chris disenrolled from the school. Tell me when and we will start the work.”
“I love you.” He breathed out, resting his head against hers.
“I love you too. Sadly, for you, Chris will always be my favorite Diaz.”
He laughed, turning to press a kiss to her forehead.
“You and me both.”
They sat there for another half an hour, before they headed off to bed. They had to wake up and get Christopher off to school and Eddie had to be at the academy around the same time.
Leora was asleep before her head even hit the pillow, a grip on Eddie’s arm as he laid beside her. He laid there, watching her sleep for a few minutes, taking her in. He had helped her sweep her long, blonde curls into a braid before they had laid down, leaving him free to look over her face. If he hadn’t known any better, he would even swear that she looked way younger than she actually was. With a final kiss to her forehead, he drifted off to sleep.