In Flames // 9-1-1 Fox (seasons 1-4)

fifty-two

"You're fussing."

"I am not fussing!"

Warm, calloused fingers ran through her sleek curls and rested along her jaw, tilting her head up so her attention was focused on the man before her.

"You're fussing, mariposa. Stop worrying," Eddie chuckled.

"I've just never had to do...this," she said lamely, waving her hand at the school. "Am I dressed fine?"

He stepped back to study her outfit, admiring her figure under the boyfriend jeans and striped t-shirt she was wearing. Her dark hair fell around her face and shoulders, swishing along her back as she moved her head.

"You look like a mom," he said bluntly. She gasped and gently smacked him in the chest, shooting him a murderous glare. "What?! You do!"

"But I'm not a mom," she hissed. "I'm just...Christopher's friend."

"Mari," he said softly. "You're practically his mom and I'm not just saying that as a platitude."

"Can we not talk about this now? I'm nervous enough doing parent teacher conferences. No one ever went to one for me. How does this even work?"

"Relax," he laughed, dropping a kiss to her nose. "You act like you're going to be tested on this."

"Oh shit, there isn't a test, right?"

He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and led her into the school, trying and failing to wipe the grin off of his face. However, he found himself feeling just as nervous as his girlfriend. It wasn't his first parent teacher conference, but it was certainly the first at a school as nice as this. Was Christopher being cared for? Was he keeping up with the classes? Was he making friends? Is there something that they didn't know about?

"Hey, relax," she urged him, a hint of humor in her tone. He glanced down at her and she waved the paper in her hand. "Help me find our first classroom, goober."

"Room 203," he announced as the bell rang. They turned down the hall, staring in confusion at the rooms going from 205 to 201. "Huh."

"Ooo, sign says to take a left," she mused, pointing at the directions on the wall. "Maybe we should have taken Carla."

"While I appreciate Carla very much, she isn't as pretty as you," he flirted. Mariana rolled her eyes and elbowed him in the side as they entered room 203.

"Hi, I'm Mr. Morrison," the math teacher greeted, gesturing for them to take a seat. "You must be Christopher's parents."

Mariana opened her mouth to correct him but Eddie beat her to it. "Nice to meet you. We're very excited to talk about how Christopher is doing."

"Yes! He is easily keeping up with his classwork and he never misses a day of homework. You can tell that even if he wasn't fully grasping it in the classroom, he understands it by the next day. I take it that means someone is working with him at home?"

"Oh, that's all Mariana," Eddie deflected. The latina blinked rapidly and let out a nervous laugh.

"I'm not the best at math but I try to remember stuff from school plus nursing and what I don't know, I look it up on Khan Academy and we go over his homework afterwards," she explained.

Eddie never realized that she did all that. He knew that she helped Christopher with homework and had seen her sitting at the dinner table with her laptop some nights, writing down something in a notebook she kept stuffed in her nursing bag. He just assumed it was stuff for work and never bothered to ask her about it.

They got through math, band, and science with rave reviews about Christopher. The science teacher informed them of Christopher's flippant nature towards tsunamis and Mariana had to disguise her laugh as a cough as Eddie uncomfortably assured her that they would talk to him about it.