Remind Me (10/?)
EZ Reyes x OFC (Aanya Reyes)
Request by @noz4a2: Ez & oc are married 2 years, Ez leaves on a run and while he’s gone oc gets into a bad car accident, she almost dies. Instead she is in a coma for 6 months. During that 6 month time Ez goes everyday or as much as he can, reads to her from her favorite book, etc. After 6 months she finally wakes up, but has retrograde amnesia & doesn’t know who Ez is or their life together. So he is determined to help her get her memory back and goes about wooing her again.
Warnings: 18+, we live and breathe melancholy in this fic
Word Count: 4.5k
A/N: She’s a bit of a longer chapter but think of it as my way of making up for the gaps between updates. 😅 I’ve had a couple of these scenes sketched out for a while now and I’m so excited to share them with you guys. Hope you enjoy! xo
Chapter Index
EZ Reyes/Remind Me Taglist: @ly--canthrope @queenbeered @sincerelyasomebody @beautifullboo @thesandbeneathmytoes @appropriate-writers-name @tomhardydallasstarsgirl @kelpies-shed @louisianalady @gemini0410 @paintballkid711 @chibsytelford @yourwonkywriter @sesamepancakes @buckybarneshairpullingkink @behindmyeyes-insidemyhead @plentyoffandoms @georgiaaintnopeach @twistnet @themoonandthewicked @garbinge @bucky-iss-bae @enjoy-the-destruction @encounterthepast @bport76 @rosieposie0624 @mylittlelonelyappreciationtoo @mijop @xladymacbethx @blessedboo @holl2712 @lakamaa12 @masterlistforimagines @lilah1903 @toni9 @shadow-of-wonder @crowfootwrites @redpoodlern @punkgoddess-98 @black-repunzel99 @lexondeck @fanfic-n-tabulous @amorestevens @angelreyesisdaddy04 @mijagif @frattsparty @winchestershiresauce @bellisperennis0 @beardburnsupersoldiers @mveggieburger @thanossexual @xeniarocks @choochoo284 @littlekittymeow @beardsanddetectives @bruxasolta @i-love-scott-mccall @doritosandjellybeans @withmyteeth @flacalatke @samcrobae @langiinspirations @bigcreatorwombatdreamer (If you want to be added to any of my taglists, let me know!)
EZ and Angel walked through the door a few hours later. Aanya watched them walk through the door before peeking out the kitchen window to look at the driveway. It was impossible not to notice that the only vehicles in the driveway were Felipe’s truck, and the van that Angel had shown up in, in the first place. She didn’t say anything at first, just continuing washing the pans that she’d used to make dinner while each of the Reyes brothers grabbed a beer out of the fridge.
When they each sat down at the table, Aanya dried off her hands and turned around to face them, “How’d it go?”
Angel sucked his teeth, shaking his head, “EZ didn’t like any of my suggestions.”
Aanya smiled, shaking her head, “He didn’t?”
“Angel was ready to get you the racing car that you asked for,” EZ laughed.
Aanya laughed, “And you didn’t let him?”
He shook his head, “No, I didn’t,” he took a sip of his beer, “We found a car. Just had to bring it to the yard to tune up a few things on it. Should be good to go in a couple days.”
“Okay,” there was a soft smile on her face, “Sounds good,” she paused, focusing on Angel, “Do you have time to stay for dinner? I made enough.”
Angel’s knee-jerk reaction was to say yes, knowing that Aanya had always been a good cook. But it still felt like he was intruding. She and EZ had hardly any time together, and it felt wrong to hang around when that was the case. Aanya seemed to be handling everything pretty well considering, but there was still hesitancy running around Angel’s mind.
He shook his head, “Nah, that’s alright. ‘Preciate it, querida, but I’ll let you two relax.”
“Angel?” she waited for him to look at her and she offered him a soft smile and a nod, “It’s okay.”
It blew his mind that she was able to stand there and say that so calmly. It felt wrong that she was the one providing him with reassurance, but now he definitely couldn’t turn down the invite. Nodding, he conceded, “Okay.”
“Good,” she waved for him to come over, “Since you’re staying, you can get the plates so I don’t have to climb up on the counter.”
He chuckled, taking a swig of his beer before getting up and walking over to her, “Yes, ma’am.”
Aanya was quiet for most of dinner, content to listen to EZ and Angel banter and bicker back and forth. She listened to them go back and forth about the car, and a little bit about the club. The names didn’t ring any bells for her, but she wondered if she saw any of the men that they were talking about if she would recognize them. It was far reach, she knew, since she didn’t remember EZ and they were married, but she couldn’t give up hope.
Angel took off shortly after dinner was over, leaving Aanya with a hug and a chaste kiss on the side of her head out of habit. She didn’t recoil or pull away, which was a relief because Angel had regretted the action as soon as he’d done it. The headlights of the van came through the kitchen window and then disappeared as he pulled out of the driveway, leaving just his brother and Aanya behind as they finished cleaning up everything from dinner.
“Thank you,” EZ said as he stacked the freshly washed and dried plates back into the cabinet, “for cooking, and for inviting Angel.”
She smiled, nodding as she packed up what little there was for leftovers, “Of course,” she felt EZ staring at her, and when she turned around to face him, she saw the pensive look on his face, “You okay?”
He nodded, “Yea, yea. I just, I feel like I should be asking you that. But I know that getting asked that over and over again gets old fast.”
“It’s all still a lot,” she told him, “but I can’t just hide and not do anything. I’ve just been trying to think about, you know, what exactly I’m supposed to be doing.”
It was impossible for him to miss the way that she was toying with the wedding band around her finger. He never mentioned it at all, and Angel’s words had been running on repeat in his mind—she didn’t need a husband right now, she just needed someone to be there for her. He tried to remember that. He had no intentions of taking his wedding ring off. No matter what the immediate future looked like for the two of them, she was still his wife as far as he was concerned. He wondered if she just left her band on because it was there when she woke up, if maybe she was hoping that one day she’d look down at it and it would jog some memories of some kind.
He pried his eyes away from her fingers, “I don’t think there’s a rulebook for this, Aanya. I think we just gotta…figure it out along the way. One day at a time.”
She gave a slow nod, “Right,” she paused, tucking her hands into her pockets before meeting EZ’s eyes, “Can I ask you something, Ezekiel?”
“Always.”
“Was this…did they talk to you about any of this? All the time that I was, you know, did the doctors ever tell you that this was a possibility? Give you some sort of plan?”
He shook his head, “No. The main question was, um,” he felt tears stinging at his eyes and he tried to ignore them, “Most of what we talked about was about whether,” he sucked in a breath, pinching the bridge of his nose to try and combat the tears, “whether or not you were going to wake up.”
Her lips dipped into a frown, and she wished that she knew what to say or do to try and provide some comfort. But she was adrift without a paddle. There were a few beats of silence between them before Aanya took the time to change the topic, hoping for something a little lighter to talk about, “Can I ask you something else?” she asked as she walked the containers of leftovers to the refrigerator, setting them down and trading them for a beer bottle.
A tiny smile curled the edge of his mouth as he watched her twist the top off the bottle, “Sure.”
“What do you…do?” she laughed when she heard how ridiculous the question sounded and took a sip of her beer, “All we’ve talked about is me. But what about you? When you don’t feel like you have to hover over me,” her smile was soft, understanding, “what do you do?”
Having this conversation with her once when they had first started dating had been one thing. The stakes had been so much lower back then—he wasn’t in love with something to lose yet. Now he was, though, and he wished that he didn’t have to dump everything on her.
“I, uh, I work at a scrap yard,” he nodded towards the door, “Angel, too. Nothing glamorous,” he shook his head.
Aanya didn’t have to know him well to be able to see that he was holding something back, “Something else?”
“We’re also both in the MC…”
She nodded, “I saw your bike. And your brother’s,” she motioned to her torso, “vest.”
“Kutte,” he offered up the proper word for it, “It’s called a kutte.”
“I’m assuming that you have a kutte too?”
“Yea.”
“What aren’t you telling me?”
He sighed, “The things we do with the club. It’s not…it’s not all one-hundred percent legal.”
“Right.”
Neither of them said anything for a bit. EZ was trying to figure out how many curveballs he should be throwing at her at once. She was in the unfortunate position of everything being a curveball. She didn’t seem fazed by the information, though. EZ wondered if nothing was surprising to her now that everything was. He remembered what it was like when he told her about all of it the first time around—it definitely put things on pause between them for a minute and EZ had been nothing but understanding. But she knew him back then. He wondered if she was going to be just as understanding with a stranger now. After all, he hadn’t even gotten into the worst of it.
All Aanya could think, though, was that at one point in her life she had trusted this man enough to decide to spend forever with him. At some point in the last five years of her life, he made it clear to her that whatever the level of risk was, whatever complications there might be, it would be worth it. And he had believed him. Even now, knowing that she had nothing to offer him anymore, he still did his best to be what she needed. Despite whatever he was trying to protect her from with what he and his brother did with the club, he had never spoken to or looked at her with anything but softness. That had to count for something.
“Did I know?” it felt strange to talk about herself like she was a stranger, “Before the accident, I mean, did I know what you all did?”
He nodded, fighting the urge to let his eyes drop to the floor, “Yea.”
“And I stayed?”
He couldn’t help but to laugh, “For some reason, yea.”
She smiled, shaking her head, “I’m assuming the reason was probably you, Ezekiel.”
He shrugged, feeling a little more at ease as a smile crossed his face, “Maybe.”
What was left of their evening was quiet. Each of them was occupying an opposite end of the couch. EZ was scrolling through one TV show after another, trying to find something that would keep his attention. Meanwhile, Aanya was curled up on the other end of the couch, her nose in a book that she had chosen after spending a long few minutes sitting in front of a shelf and reading over each title. EZ had watched her with interest, and even though almost everything about the situation felt heavy most of the time, he couldn’t help but to think that she was going to get to experience some little things for the first time again. He wondered if all the books would still hold up and be as loved as they were the first time around. He wondered that about himself, too.
As the end credits started to roll on the television, he turned and looked over at her. A tired smile stretched across his face as he took in the sight of her. She was still curled up, but she was fast sleep with the book propped open against her chest. The familiar sight of it got a laugh out of him—she’d never been good at putting a book down even when she was dropping off from exhaustion.
Shutting off the television, he got up with every intention to go to bed. If it had been six months ago, he would’ve simply scooped her up and carried her. That felt like an uncrossable boundary right now, though. Gnawing at his bottom lip, he tried to decide if he should wake her, or just drape a blanket over her and let her sleep on the couch.
Lifting the book off of her, he tucked a bookmark into it before setting it on the coffee table. Reaching for her, he gently rested his hand on her shoulder, giving it a light shake to rouse her from her sleep. She let out a grumble to fight it off, and EZ just laughed and shook her a little more.
“C’mon,” he held his hand out to pull her up off the couch, “it’s been a long day. You should get some real sleep in your bed,” he helped her up, smiling as she stretched, tiredly rubbing at her eyes, “Head up, I’m just gonna shut all the lights off down here.”
She yawned as she nodded, already shuffling off towards the stairs, “Okay.”
Hardly a couple minutes had gone by when he went upstairs. The hallway light was still on, Aanya’s bedroom door still open. He flipped the switch as he made his way down the hall. Aanya’s door was open so he looked inside as he passed, and he smiled at the sight of her completely passed out, arm hanging off the edge of the bed. He let himself linger for a moment before heading down to the guest room.
When Aanya woke up the next morning, the house was silent. Pulling herself out of bed, she changed into a comfortable set of clothes, brushing her teeth and doing her hair before heading downstairs to find something to eat.
She noticed the note stuck to the coffee pot, smiling to herself at EZ’s scratchy handwriting, “Had to bring the truck to Pop and head to the scrap yard. Call you later about the car. -EZ”
Once she had finished eating and cleaning up after her breakfast, she was forced to reckon with a silent house. She had never done well with silence, always playing music or leaving the television on. Walking into the living room, she contemplated turning the TV on just for some background noise. Something about the silence felt heavier than it should’ve, though.
It was the first time that she was left completely to her own devices since she got out of the hospital. She didn’t have a task to complete, something concrete to focus on, or any company to distract her. It should’ve felt like a relief, but it quickly started to feel overwhelming. Gnawing at her bottom lip, she pulled her phone from her back pocket and contemplated calling EZ. She didn’t know what she would even say, though. It felt childish to say that she just didn’t want to be alone. And she had a feeling that there was more on his plate for the day than just putting in a shift at the scrap yard. If that was the case, she wasn’t going to try and meddle with that, either. But, as she looked around the house, this place that was apparently hers but no longer felt like it, she knew that she couldn’t spend the entire day cooped up by herself. Swiping on her phone, she looked up the numbers for any local taxi companies.
EZ had reached out a few times throughout the day, a few texts and a couple phone calls. All of them had gone unanswered. He tried not to let it affect him too much, knowing that she probably just wanted and needed the space for a bit. It was a lot of reminding himself that she didn’t see him as her husband right now, that checking in with him might not be at the top of her priority list. He wished that she’d answer, though.
“Car should be good to go in a few,” Creeper’s voice snapped him out of his train of thought.
EZ turned to him, eyebrows raised, “Shit, really? That was fast.”
He wiped the grease on his hands onto a rag before toying with it as he spoke, not able to meet EZ’s eyes, “Anything for Aanya.”
He could still hear the guilt in the man’s voice, but he knew better than to try and debate the feeling away. He was living with enough of his own guilt to know. Instead, EZ nodded, “Appreciate it, man.”
It looked like Creeper was on the brink of saying something else, but before he could, Angel’s voice interrupted the conversation, “Yo, EZ,” he walked, standing between the two men, “Bish needs us to run to the warehouse.”
EZ hesitated. It was local, and it wouldn’t take long, but he wanted to get back home as quickly as possible, especially if the car was about to be ready. Running his hands back over his head, he replied, “It’s gotta be today? The car, I just—”
“I can drop it off,” Creeper offered, “Imma be a little late here tonight but I can bring it over when it’s done. Catch a ride back here after.”
“Perfect,” Angel was just relieved that he wasn’t going to have to tell Bishop no, “Let’s go, Boy Scout.”
EZ huffed out a sigh but he couldn’t shoot down the idea. Clapping Creeper on the shoulder, he thanked him before heading off to change out of his work shirt and into something clean before slipping into his kutte. As he walked towards the clubhouse, he typed out a quick message to Aanya to let her know that one of the guys might be stopping by later to drop off the car. He wasn’t expecting an answer at that point, but he didn’t want to not let her know.
The day came and went faster than EZ had expected it to. However, when he came home, he came home to an empty driveway. This meant one of two things—either Creeper had dropped the car off early and Aanya had left with it, or she was still just home by herself. Assuming that it was the latter, EZ walked inside and was met with a silent house, no music, no television, no sounds of her rustling around in her restless ways. He called out for her and was met with silence, and it was only then that he started to feel a slight sense of panic. He walked quickly through the kitchen and saw that everything was as he left it in the morning with the exception of his note to her being moved. He made his way through the house, still calling out for her, hoping that maybe she just didn’t hear him, or that she had her headphones in and was listening to music too loud to notice anything happening.
But still, the deeper he went into the house, the lack of response persisted. The living room was empty, eerily untouched with no television on. He ran upstairs, his voice becoming more frantic as he continued to call out for her.
“Aanya!” he yelled, clearly distraught.
He opened up the door to what was once their room and saw the bed perfectly made, but all of her belongings were still there which provided a slight sense of comfort, but the fact that there was no trace of her was making him worry. Surely, she would’ve reached out if she had left for the day. That was all that was running through his head. He went down to the guest room and threw open the door, but was met with another empty room.
He could feel the anxiety starting to bubble up, a burning feeling in the back of his mind. He continued calling out her name despite the fact that it was blatantly evident that she wasn’t home. He raced down the stairs, boots clomping loudly against the hardwood. He was just about to race back through the kitchen and out the door when he heard the front door opening with its signature creak.
Aanya stepped inside, eyes wide when she not only saw the frantic look on EZ’s face, but also the sound of his labored breathing. She held a large box tight to her chest, eyebrows raised, she looked at him, clearly very confused.
“What’s going on?” she asked, “Is everything okay?”
He stopped, shoulders dropping along with all of the worry that he had just been experiencing. All he said was, “Hey.”
She tilted her head, shifting to better accommodate the large box in her arms, “Are you alright? Is something wrong? You sounded worried.”
He shook his head, “I just, I didn’t think that, I didn’t know where you were. You weren’t home, there was no car in the driveway but Creep didn’t tell me he already came over—”
“He didn’t,” her voice was still soft even though she was cutting him off, “I just called a cab. I just…needed to get out of the house for a bit. Was going a little stir-crazy. I was going to call you but I figured you had more important things to take care of after the last few days…last few months.”
She finally took a step towards the kitchen table and set the box down. When she turned around and fully faced EZ, his eyes were wide—he was finally clam enough to really take in the way that she looked.
He tilted his head, “You…cut your hair.”
She laughed, a little bit of nerves flashing across her face, “Yea, I just, I figured if I’m not feeling like myself there’s really no harm in changing things up, right?”
He chuckled, nodding, “Yea, I guess not.”
She tugged at the now shoulder-length curls, “Well, what do you think? Does it look good?”
He smiled, immediately nodding without a shred of hesitation in his response, “Yea, of course it looks good. Looks great. You, you always do.”
She laughed, and couldn’t deny the fact that she felt her cheeks starting to warm, “Well, that’s reassuring. I think I like it. I’ll see how I feel about it in a couple days. Regardless, it’s not like I can glue it back on.”
He smiled and shook his head before his eyes finally fell to the box on the table. He gestured towards it, “So what’s this?”
She sighed, giving a shrug, “You know, I had such a great vinyl collection,” she looked from the box back to EZ, “Did I ever have it, any of my records? Did I ever bring those here?”
His brows knitted and he shook his head, “I never…I never knew that you collected them. You must’ve stopped before we met?”
She sighed, “What a bummer. I had a lot. I wonder if I ended up giving them away to somebody, or donating them somewhere. They crossed my mind today, though,” she gave a nervous shrug, “I went to town today, just to get out and wander around. Upside of this town being so small—I can’t get too lost. I found this little second-hand shop that had a little bit of everything, but this was just sitting at the back of one of the shelves. They offered a good deal,” she smiled sheepishly, “and I couldn’t just say no, so I had them set it aside for me and then I went and picked a couple records to bring home and get my collection started again,” she glanced at the box, “Of all the things I can remember, of course that’s one.”
Despite the fact that there was a little tinge of exasperation in her voice when she said it, both of them had to laugh, because of course, why wouldn’t she remember that?
EZ walked over and pulled the lid of the box open to take a look at the records that were inside. He laughed, “Quite the diverse collection.”
Aanya smiled, “What can I say? I guess I like a little bit of everything.”
“Where do you think you wanna put it?”
She shrugged, unable to stop her laughter, “I didn’t think that far ahead. Maybe the living room? Part of me thinks the bedroom, but we’re down here more often so it’d probably be best to keep it downstairs, right?”
He nodded, “Yea, we can find some room for it. We can clear off part of one of the bookshelves and keep it there.”
With no hesitation, he picked up the box and carried it out to the living room. Aanya chuckled, not thinking that he would take to the idea so quickly. Maybe she should’ve known better. She might not remember everything that he’d ever done for her, but he seemed extremely quick to accommodate her whenever he could.
She followed him with a couple records tucked underneath her arm. He started reorganizing everything for her, finding the perfect spot. It was like it was supposed to be there the entire time. She tossed one of the records on to make sure that everything was actually working properly, and both of them had satisfied little grins on their faces when music began to fill their living room.
Before he could stop himself, EZ shook his head, “I can’t believe that I never knew you were into vinyl records. How did that never come up?”
She shrugged, “I don’t know. I mean, is it something that you’re into?”
He had to admit to her that he sure he enjoyed music, but it wasn’t something that he was exactly passionate about. He liked it well enough, he enjoyed not having a completely silent house, especially once she came into his life, but if someone was to ask him, he wasn’t sure he wasn’t sure how many different artists or songs he could say that he truly loved. He just knew that whatever she was into, she enjoyed it so much that it was hard for him not to enjoy it too. He didn’t exactly know how to say all of that, but he did try his best.
For a couple minutes, he allowed the only sound in the house to come from the record player. Finally, though, he couldn’t help himself anymore and he asked, “So…how are you?” her statement about needing to get out hadn’t slipped his mind at all, “Are you okay?”
There was a long pause and he could tell that she was truly thinking hard about it. But she finally gave a small nod, “I think so. I don’t know, when I woke up, everything just felt wrong. I know I need to face it, and I know that everything that I did today isn’t going to fix whatever it is that’s wrong with me, but it didn’t hurt either. I feel a little better,” she shook her head, “But I was sitting here, trying to think of a plan, something to do to get my mind working the way it’s supposed to again and it just got overwhelming. And all of a sudden I just, I couldn’t be here anymore, you know? So I called a cab, and I went to town. And, I don’t know, I think it worked out alright. I could’ve come home in a lot worse shape than just with a new haircut and a record player.”
It got EZ to laugh despite the fact that his heart ached at hearing how lost inside her own head she was. But he agreed, “Yea, things definitely could’ve gone a lot worse.”
“Is your friend still coming by with the car?” she asked as she finished unpacking the records she’d picked up that day.
“Oh, um, good question. I’ll give him a call. If he can’t make it tonight, we can always go pick it up tomorrow.”
Aanya nodded, “Okay, sounds good.”
He couldn’t not watch her as she fussed with her records, organizing them just so. He smiled past the strange heaviness in his chest, “Okay.”
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