A/N: Hi all! This is my first fdtd fic. This show is my new addiction. Hope you all enjoy. I have no beta, mistakes are my own. :)

Disclaimer: this is the work and play of fan fiction. i don't own anything. everything belongs to their respective owners.

warnings: underage drinking

throw me a life line i've got nothing to lose (once in a lifetime)

He buys her a pretty white summer dress for her eighteenth birthday. She absolutely loves it. He tells her to wear it that night and when she finally puts it on the material of the dress feels amazing against her skin. He isn't taking her to a bar but he does tell her he's taking her to the restaurant a few blocks from their motel; something about her deserving something nice and all.

The summer nights in Mexico are perfect, neither too hot nor too cool. There's a gentle breeze as they walk over to the restaurant in silence, a normality between them. They've never said more than needs to be said. There's no need to fill up a void with more emptiness she once said. He hadn't argued, said something about been doing so for a long time; saying things just to say them. It's all bullshit in the end. He also mumbled something like, look where that's brought me. She didn't take it personal. She felt the truth of it seep further into her bones.

She can't help but think about how it's her first birthday without her family. She misses them dearly but, one glance in his direction and she corrects herself, without the majority of her family because he's family, too. Has been for longer than she'd care to admit to him. There are times in which she wonders if he thinks the same of her. There are moments in which she catches him staring at her and she thinks he just might. It makes her missing her daddy, her momma and Scott a little more bearable.

It's been six months since everything that went down at the temple-bar. Since they've been on their own trying not to build a home with each other, inside of one another. She needs him more than she lets on, and she knows it's the same way with him. It's in the way she waits for his hourly check up messages at night when he's out working, and in the way his body eases down on the mattress completely when she walks into their room every after noon after her shift is done. She knows it's going to be a long way out before they completely know one another but they've been with each other long enough to be able to read each other if they played close attention.

He's pensive. It's in the furrow of his eyebrows, the slight down turn of his lips. She bumps him with her elbow lightly and he turns his head in her direction. His gaze refocuses on her and she knows what he was thinking, particularly, of whom. She smiles at him and he reciprocates, it's a gentle tug of his lips and he looks almost sad. A few months ago he would've never shown this much vulnerability but things have changed since then.

She slips her hand in his and tugs him in the opposite direction of the restaurant. It may be her birthday but they both need this. Tells him about how they can eat there any other time. About how right now she just wants to have fun. He smirks and teases about preacher daughters and surprises. The teasing glint in his eyes bringing out the real him she's used to seeing.

He ends up buying a 12-pack of beer and a bottle of tequila, the good smooth kind. The kind people end up drinking like water and leaves them spilling their secrets at 3 in the morning. He also buys her a small tres leches cake and a candle for her to blow out. Something about how proper birthdays always have cake and tequila shots and making wishes on barely lit candles. She just laughs and helps carry their things back to their dingy motel room.

Two shots in and they're laughing hysterically. There's an old black and white comedy playing in Spanish that has them rolling. They're fluent enough to understand parts of it and the parts they don't he's taken to improvise what the actors are saying.

Three beers and another shot later, the movie comes to an end. She's still laughing and he's trying not to double over in hysterics. She doesn't remember a time when they've laughed this much. She can't help but feel like it's definitely a good day.

They finally calm down and she gets up from her chair and walks over to the small radio that's settled in the corner. If this is going to keep working out the way she wants then they have to keep going. Don't stop, just go, were the first words that came out of her mouth the first time they hit a small town. It'll have to be just like that tonight. There will be no stopping.

She turns on the radio and a familiar song comes on. She knows it because Lupe from the panaderia she works in plays it sometimes while they're working. It's a Spanish song, the melody isn't harsh and the tempo isn't fast: Bachata she remembers Lupe saying. A smile sets on her lips and she turns to look at him. She starts swaying her hips and moving her feet similarly to what she recalls from watching Lupe.

She's not trying to seduce him but she is trying to get him to forget. She moves toward him, cautious not to lose her rhythm. He watches her and takes a swig of his beer. When she's close enough she grabs his free hand and pulls him to stand, he protests, mumbling about how he doesn't know how to dance. She shrugs; it's just them in the dim-lighted room any way. Who cares? He takes her hand and twirls her. She lets out a surprised laugh. He starts swaying to the music as best as he can and twirls her every other chance he gets. Why the hell not? No one else is there.

At some point they stop so she can blow out the candle on her cake and make a wish. She doesn't tell him what she wishes for of course or else it won't come true. Not even after he's given her his second present; a press of his lips against the corner of her mouth because he may be a bastard, but he's not a fucking bastard, he mumbles as he pulls away. She doesn't tell him that she's wished to feel his lips on her skin. She does tell him how amazing the cake tastes and proceeds to shove some into his mouth.

They laugh and dance and drink all night. They don't stop; they keep on going until dusk turns to dawn.