She's No Beauty Queen

Nothing Eddie said was ringing any bells aside from having epilepsy. Somehow that seemed familiar to Angel.

Still, she listened to him intently for hours in a state of disbelief but eventually he had to leave. "I need to go check in on Aria. I'll be back first thing in the morning to take you home. Is there anything you want me to bring you?"

Angel couldn't think of anything. Her vision was blurry but she didn't realize that was already a problem before she hit her head. She thought it was the result of her injury so she sent him off to take care of their daughter.

Eddie hesitated a moment before giving her a short but tender kiss on the forehead, scurrying away before she could say anything in response. She frowned at his retreating back. Isn't kissing normal between fiancés? What sort of relationship did they normally have?

He seemed nice enough, if a bit distant. She got the feeling he didn't know how to properly express himself but cared a lot. If she didn't normally understand that she could see how it would cause problems.

Processing everything he told her about her life was giving her a headache. Remembering was important though. She had a family to worry about and they were depending on her.

Family…why did the thought of family bring a very different feeling to mind than what Angel felt when talking to Eddie? For some reason she felt like family was supposed to be warm yet chaotic instead of cold and stilted.

Maybe that was how things were with Aria. Toddlers could be plenty chaotic, couldn't they? She felt like she had experience with them and the fact that they could be like human tornados.

The picture from before was proof she was a mother—she saw her reflection in the mirror earlier when she went to the bathroom—but why did the thought of having a child feel so strange? How old was she anyway? Some faces were ageless but she didn't look very old at all to have a child.

Another thing that was strange was the story Eddie told her about how their relationship and their daughter factored into her career. Why would a pageant queen get into a relationship that could jeopardize her future in the first place? If pageants mattered to her as much as he said, how had any of this happened?

Angel had a hard time imagining herself as a mother but an even harder time imagining herself competing in beauty pageants. That seemed wrong somehow.

She sighed. Overthinking this wasn't going to get her anywhere. Maybe being at home around familiar objects would help her get a better handle on things. For now she needed to sleep and maybe the ache in her head would go away…

The following morning Eddie showed up bright and early at the hospital to help with her discharge. She did have a concussion after all but it didn't seem to be as serious as the doctors had feared. They did an MRI before they let her go to be sure there wasn't any lasting damage—especially because she was already epileptic—before handing her off to her fiancé.

"Did anything come back to you?" he asked hesitantly on the drive home.

"No, sorry." Angel felt guilty about it because this man was obviously worried sick about her but she didn't know him at all.

"It's fine; we'll figure this out. I won't let anything happen to you even if it takes a while for your memories to come back," Eddie reassured her. "I…I love you, Angel. You're still you even if you can't remember that right now."

She smiled. That was awfully sweet of him. Especially since the blurred outline of his face that she could see from the passenger seat was turning red due to his confession.

"Thank you for being patient with me."

What a good dad! Angel might be confused and in pain right now but she was lucky to have someone so considerate watching out for her. Maybe she had been imagining their relationship being awkward before. How could she not appreciate having someone like this in her life?

"Yeah I can do that."

They pulled up in front of a humongous house and Angel's eyes widened. She lived here?! Eddie never mentioned that he was rich!

He carried her inside and she couldn't see very much because of her blurred vision. While she was being discharged she mentioned this symptom to the doctor and he asked Eddie if she was normally nearsighted.

He had frowned and leaned in close to her face to check something and discovered she wasn't wearing her contact lenses. That explained the blurred vision perfectly but the doctor said to come back if it persisted once she got her contacts back in.

For some reason Angel didn't like the thought of sticking something on her eyeball. After Eddie set her down on a luxuriously soft bed to rest she asked if he could bring her glasses to her.

Once she put them on she could see better but her vision still wasn't completely clear. Maybe it was a side effect of hitting her head.

However, she could see a small blonde blur running up on her little legs to climb onto the bed. Eddie stopped her just in time by scooping her up into her arms and Aria giggled. "Daddy!"

"Hi princess," he said softly. "We need to be extra soft with Mommy today because she got hurt, okay?"

Those big green eyes rounded on Angel and she felt her breath catch in her throat. This was her baby. Unreal. Aria twisted around and reached out with her tiny hands. "Okay! Awi be soft!"

Eddie set her down on the bed and the toddler crawled over before practically headbutting Angel in the chest in an attempt to snuggle. "Awi miss Mommy."

She gently patted the girl's arm and replied in the best way she could considering the circumstances. "Mommy missed you too."