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The Deluca-Bishops were laid out in their bed together, sheets tangled around bare bodies, as they relaxed from the last 24 hours they had had. They were grateful for their air conditioned apartment as Carina laid her head on Maya’s chest. The Italian woman loved to curl into her wife’s side after intimate moments. Their sex life had always been healthy and active since the first time they had met each other in Joe’s, the one aspect of their relationship that had never had problems. But falling in love and marriage had definitely changed both women in how they treated sex. The passion was still present, the lustful need for one another was even more intense then when they first met, but neither had ever felt so intimately connected with another person in their life. Maya couldn’t even stand the idea of someone laying in her bed for longer than necessary, let alone letting someone cuddle and hold her close. Carina had always been physical in her general life and she had taught Maya that that didn’t always need to be sleeping with each other. The blonde got butterflies in her stomach when Carina would just reach out and squeeze her hand or when she’d come home from a long shift and the brunette’s arms would wind around her neck to pull her into a soft kiss to welcome her home.
Maya wove her fingers through Carina’s brunette locks and gazed down at her wife with those bright blue irises that reminded Carina of the sea water she used to play in back in Italy as a child. They had finally come to some sort of compromise about children the night before. Of course Carina wanted Maya to just change her mind, but she knew she couldn’t push the blonde on the decision. She had pushed her before and that did not end well the last time. Of course they had both grown a lot since then but the Italian knew it would do no good to prod at her wife. The fact that Maya had admitted that she was at least open to the idea of wanting to have kids was much better than the complete shut down she had received from the firefighter a couple of weeks prior. She didn’t even want to think back on that absolute heartbreak she had felt in her chest as Maya declared that she just couldn’t do children. The complete disregard to even count Carina in the conversation had hurt a lot. But this wasn’t the Maya Bishop she had first met when they had started dating, this was the Maya that was working on herself. The Maya who declared that Carina was her forever and she wanted to spend her life with no other but the brunette at their wedding. The blonde still had slips, she wasn’t perfect and she made mistakes but she had learned to recognize them. She had learned to apologize and own up to those mistakes and that’s why Carina was more than happy to hear Maya acknowledge her feelings the night before and that she was at least open to the idea of children. God she loved this woman so much, she didn’t think she had ever felt like this for anyone in her life before. Even if they never had children, Carina knew she was telling the truth when she said she’d learn to accept that. She wouldn’t lose Maya again and the blonde was more than enough for her. She just knew they had so much love to give and that Maya would make an excellent mother, even if the blonde didn’t believe it herself. But she would stay silent about that for now.
“What you thinking about?” Maya asked softly into the little bubble of peace that had surrounded them.
“You. How much I love you,” Carina answered honestly. Maya blushed lightly, even after almost a whole year of marriage she still hadn’t gotten used to the Italian’s blatant statements of affection.
“I love it when you blush, bambina,” Carina giggled softly and Maya rolled her eyes good-naturedly.
“I love you,” Maya said as she gazed into Carina’s deep pools of caramel. Carina smiled that big beautiful smile and nuzzled into Maya’s neck. The blonde wrapped her arms more securely around Carina’s waist and tugged her somehow closer. Carina leaned up to gently brush her lips against Maya’s before she pressed more firmly into the blonde. They kissed slowly for a few minutes before Carina laid her head back down on Maya’s shoulder.
“Can I ask you something?” Maya asked as she ran her hand up and down Carina’s back.
“Of course bella,” Carina nodded as she reached up to tangle her fingers into Maya’s blonde locks as she so often did.
“Why were you being so… short with that guy?” Maya asked as she thought to phrase her question carefully. Carina furrowed her brow for a moment before realizing who Maya was referring to.
“Oh, the father of the boy who we had to send to the hosptial?” Carina asked. Maya nodded. “Yea it’s just… I know you were frustrated at me and sometimes you can take that out on others without meaning to,” Maya chuckled softly at the thought of her wife’s fiery personality when she was angry. “But this seemed different, this felt like more than you just being angry with me,” Maya pointed out as she looked down at her wife.
Carina blew out a breath before chewing on her lip for a few moments, thinking of how to answer the blonde.
“That man could’ve killed his own son, there are people that really shouldn’t be allowed to be parents,” Carina explained softly as she recalled the words that she had muttered to herself when she informed that man she’d be calling protective services, which she had done later on. Maya nodded as she listened to her wife, she instinctively tugged her a little closer.
“Oh, did it make you think of your Dad? Is that why you got so upset?” She asked in a gentle tone. Carina had always been open to talking about her Father and the things that had gone on growing up with him but Maya was still careful about what she said. She never wanted to upset her wife and say something wrong. Carina couldn’t help the small chuckle that came from her mouth as she shook her head at the firefighter.
“No, he did not remind me of my Papa, bambina,” She twirled Maya’s hair around her fingers as she quirked an eyebrow up at the blonde. She figured the woman would catch on to what she was saying, but Maya just furrowed her brow in confusion.
“Oh um… then why?” She couldn’t think of what else to say, not understanding why Carina was so forceful with this particular parent.
“Bambina, he did remind me of someone. But not my Father,” Carina tried to urge the blonde to realize who she was talking about for herself.
“Then who?” Maya asked and Carina sighed, apparently she’d have to be a little blunt with her wife. Maya had done so well these past couple of years but sometimes she still pushed things away.
“A father who was pushing his child physically too far, who was making him practice in dangerous conditions, and for what? Some type of athletic award? Who do you think that reminds me of bella?” She explained gently to the blonde not wanting to upset her. Clarity shown in Maya’s blue eyes before she bit her lip for a moment. She glanced away before looking back toward Carina.
“My father?” Maya asked in the quietest voice and Carina nodded as she reached up to stroke at Maya’s strong jaw.
“Yes bambina, Davey more specifically reminded me of you. And so it made me think of your father,” Carina explained and didn’t break eye contact with the blonde. Maya nodded at that as she laid there in thought for a moment.
“Nothing like that ever happened to me,” She said a little stubbornly with a small frown.
“Bambina, he made you run on a sprained ankle in the Olympics,” Carina gently reminded her. Maya puffed out a sigh and nodded.
“Well yea… but that was the Olympics. I had worked so hard to get there and I couldn’t let a sprained ankle ruin my chances. I would’ve run on it whether my Dad was around or not,” Maya explained softly. Carina held back from telling the blonde that the only reason she had that mindset was because of the man in the first place.
“So he never made you overwork yourself like that?” The brunette questioned knowing that pushing Maya past her physical breaking point did not just start with the Olympics.
“Well I mean I always trained, even in the off seasons. It gets hot in the Summer of course so I mean it was definitely uncomfortable to run when it was really starting to heat up but I don’t think we ever had a heatwave like that when I was growing up, not one where it was actually dangerous to be doing any sort of activity.” Maya said with a furrowed brow as she thought back on her younger years. Maya then sighed and gazed down into her wifes eyes. “I guess I can’t deny that he probably would’ve made me train in weather like this if it had occurred back then,” the firefighter admitted softly.
Carina nodded and stroked her fingers down Maya’s bicep in comfort. She could sense that Maya wanted to say something more, she didn’t want to push her. If the blonde felt comfortable enough then she would share and the Italian was always happy to listen to her wife share her feelings.
“He um… he never made me run in the heat like that,” Maya started with a soft voice as her bright blue eyes drifted to stare at the wall. “But… There was one time, in the winter, we were out training on the track. Like I said, we always trained in the off seasons, it didn’t matter what kind of weather it was. We had had the big snow storm we seem to get every year around January and it was the weekend, so nobody else was around. It was a day where anybody else would’ve been inside curled up in blankets next to a fireplace, relaxing,” Maya said. Carina stayed silent as she listened to the blonde.
“I was running and parts of the track had frozen, so there were some icey patches. I made sure to watch out for them but my Dad had yelled something out to me, I think something about speeding up. That I was lacking on my normal time and my attention was on him for just a moment. At that moment I ran right over some ice and I went down, hard. The pain was pretty immediate as I twisted my ankle, honestly surprised I didn’t break it,” the blonde said with a shrug. “I couldn’t get back up, it hurt so bad. Normally if I had sprained or twisted my ankle before I could at least stand back up and hobble the rest of the way. Push through the pain,” She repeated the mantra she had heard her whole life. “But it felt like knives were being shoved into my leg whenever I tried to put any weight on it so I stayed there on the ground, my Dad was shouting at me the whole time to get up and I couldn’t,” Maya took a deep breath not wanting to trigger some sort of panic attack. She curled in closer to Carina wanting to feel her as close as possible. The Italian bit down on her lip as she stroked up and down Maya’s back, she tried to keep her anger at bay for this man she had never once met. But she knew she might murder him if they ever crossed paths.
“My Dad comes running over to me eventually when it’s clear that I’m not getting up, I tried to explain that I couldn’t stand. That it hurt too bad, that maybe I needed to go to the hospital because the pain has never been like this before. He starts yelling at me, telling me how lazy I am and that I just don’t want to work hard. He thinks I’m lying about my injury and that I’ve just forgotten how to work through the pain. That the pain makes me stronger and I’ve just decided to be pathetic. He won’t help me up and I still can’t get up on my own, I’m begging him at this point to at least take me home. I’m in tears and he just stares at me and shakes his head in disappointment. He said that he didn’t raise his daughter to be hysterical and to give up so easily.” Maya has buried her face into Carina’s neck at this point as she carried on with the story. The brunette could see how hard this was getting for her wife as she shared the story.
“Bella, you don’t have to go on if you don’t want to. This is hard and I don’t want you to hurt anymore,” Carina said softly into her ear. Maya shook her head after a moment and took another deep breath.
“No… No, I want to finish.” She nodded determinedly. “He started to walk away at that point and I screamed out for him, he turned around one more time and said he was going home and that when I decided to grow up that I could walk home.” Maya said as she clenched her jaw for a moment. Carina was sure she’d kill the man now if she ever saw him, how could any parent treat their child like that. How could anybody treat her Maya like that? This woman was her whole world, she had never felt like this for anybody in her entire life. Her beautiful, strong, wonderful wife. She wished she had been able to be there for a young Maya back then.
“So he left me there, in the cold and the snow. I was in running shorts and a sweater, so not much protection in terms of the weather. My ankle was definitely swollen at this point and if it were possible, it hurt even more than it did before. It got dark and I thought I was just gonna die out there on the track. Some teacher would come to the school on Monday and they’d find my body just laying there.” Maya whispered as she played with Carina’s fingers to occupy her mind. “It was at least three hours before my Mom came and found me. She had questioned why my Dad had come back without me from our training session, but it wasn’t an uncommon occurrence for him to force me to walk home,” She shrugged before continuing. “She told me later that she could sense that it was different this time. But he wouldn’t let her leave to come find me, it had never taken me this long to come home. I don’t know what she did but somehow she was able to sneak out of the house and came to the track. She found me lying there, freezing cold and shaking. I couldn’t talk, I could barely move and I don’t really remember much. She managed to get me to the car and she immediately drove me to the hospital.” Carina pulled Maya even closer in her arms as she continued to talk.
“Frostbite had started to form in my hands and it was shocking that I didn’t lose any fingers or my nose for that matter. I had twisted my ankle real bad, like I said I very nearly broke it. I had to be on bedrest for at least a month after that, my Dad was not happy about that later on. I had to get an IV and they tended to the frostbite in my hands and put a splint on my ankle. I was in the hospital all night with my Mom. The doctors of course questioned us and we lied and said that I had gone off to train by myself and that I must’ve slipped and was unable to get back up. And of course it’s not like cellphones are on everybody’s person like they are now so I couldn’t call my parents. I have no idea if that doctor bought the story but he didn’t question us further.” Maya said softly and Carina bit her lip at that, if somebody had reported that then maybe her wife could’ve been helped way back then. But there’s no point in questioning the what-ifs, what had happened had happened.
“I’m so sorry that happened to you Bambina,” Carina whispered into the blonde’s ear. Maya shrugged once more and bit down on her lip.
“I guess you were right to compare that father today to mine,” She said with a sigh. The blonde had grown so much in the past couple of years, she went to therapy regularly but it still hit her sometimes how horrible her Dad really was. That incident had been one of the many she had blocked out of her mind for many years at this point. She felt a sense of relief at being able to share it with the Italian, she had never told anyone about that day. If anybody asked about it at school that following week, she just said she had fallen while training. It wasn’t a lie but it wasn’t the whole truth either. She could’ve died out on that track that night and that’s not a thought the firefighter had ever fully processed until now. That father from today was exactly the same as her Dad, Davey could’ve died if he hadn’t come in. If Carina hadn’t recognized what was going on with him. Sometimes Maya wished she had had a Carina back then, an adult that saw what was going on and actually did something about it.
“I love you so much,” Maya said softly as she looked at her wife and without hesitation pressed their lips together in a deep kiss. They slowly kissed for a few moments as Carina wove her arms around Maya’s neck and the blonde wrapped hers around the doctor's waist.
“Mm I love you too, Bella,” Carina hummed against her lips as they bumped their noses together gently. “Thank you for sharing that with me, I know it wasn’t easy,” Carina said.
“Honestly… I’m glad I did. I don’t think anyone knows about that except my Mom. It felt good to finally tell somebody,” Maya admitted.
“You are so brave and strong Maya, and you didn’t deserve to go through any of that,” Carina said with a steady tone as she gazed into those pools of blue she loved so much.
Maya nodded after a moment and took a breath. “I know. I know that now at least,” she had come such a long way, the Maya before Carina would’ve fully agreed with her father. That she deserved that pain, that it only made her stronger. Eyes forward at all times.
“I wish I could’ve been there for you back then,” Carina whispered to her wife as she ran her fingers through blonde locks and tugged gently.
“I know… but you’re here now. And I think I kind of prefer that,” Maya said with a soft smile to lighten the mood a bit. Carina giggled at that and nodded in agreement.
“I think I prefer that too, I love you Maya Bishop,” Carina leaned in for a kiss but the firefighter pulled back slightly. The Italian woman pouted adorably at her wife. “Hey,” she whined.
“That’s Maya Deluca-Bishop,” the blonde corrected with a grin. Carina chuckled and rolled her eyes playfully.
“Va bene, baciami Mrs. Deluca-Bishop,” Carina demanded as she moved forward once more.
“I remember that one,” Maya said with a smirk and leaned forward to connect their lips. The two women disappeared under the sheets once more to show how much they loved one another. It had been a long couple of days, full of a rollercoaster of emotion, but neither of them would want to spend it with anybody else but each other.