Chapter Text
Maya opened her eyes, fighting against the bright lights of the ER. She wasn’t surprised to be in the hospital. But she was surprised to wake up in it. When had she passed out?
“Hi there,” a voice next to her said, “I thought Captains didn’t had to run into fires?”
Maya glanced to her side, into the face of someone who looked strangely familiar. Wait, wasn’t this the woman she’d met at Joe’s a few nights back? She blinked again. Yep, definitely her.
“What— What are you doing here?” she asked, coughing and rubbing her throat, that felt scratchy and painfully dry.
The woman handed her a cup of ice chips, which Maya gratefully accepted.
“I work here,” she shrugged, like that explained it all. It didn’t matter, Maya was already distracted by her smile. It made her remember.
Carina.
She was pretty sure her name was Carina.
She narrowed her eyes. “Aren’t you a baby doctor?!”
“Close,” Carina snorted, “But you’ve got a point. I’m not your doctor. I just happened to be in the ER when they brought you in. I recognized Dr. Warren—Ben, I mean—and then saw you were with him. I got to you just in time.”
Maya sat up, propping herself against the pillow. She cleared her throat again. “In time for what?”
“For catching you. You fainted… straight into my arms.” Leaning in a little, as if to share a secret, her smile grew into a mischievous grin. “You know, if you wanted my attention, you didn’t have to go to such extremes.”
To her own astonishment, Maya laughed along, and not just to be polite. There was something very infectious about this woman. And something very commendable. Just like the other night, she managed to make Maya feel better without seemingly trying.
Yet the laughing also reminded her of the reason why she was here. “So, how am I doing?” she asked after another sip of ice chips.
“You’ve got a mild degree of smoke inhalation,” Carina started to explain. “Your throat got the worst of it, but you’ll live. That is, if you keep your mask on when you’re supposed to.”
Maya had no clue what Ben had told them after arriving, but there was no denying this fact. When her team had gotten into trouble, she’d felt forced to join them. And when that beam had come down, hitting Ben in the face and breaking his mask, they’d had no other choice then to buddy breathe their way out of there.
But that didn’t seem like a story Carina wanted to hear. So she just nodded.
“Bene,” Carina smiled once more, while getting up. “It was good to see you again. Not because of this, of course,” she pointed at Maya's throat, before gesturing at her face, “but because of that.”
Maya frowned, not understanding, but then it hit her: she must have been covered in soot!
Instinctively, she covered her face—though clearly way too late—drawing another chuckle from Carina.
“Don’t! You look very, uhm…”
“Dirty?” Maya suggested from behind her arms.
“Badass,” Carina winked, a hint of pride in her voice for finding the right word. “Listen, I’ve got to go, but I want to make a deal with you.”
Praying to herself she hadn’t screwed anything up, Maya slowly lowered her arms, her eyes squinted in expectation.
Carina reached her a piece of paper.
“Here’s my number," she smirked, "Do me a favor, bella. Next time, just call.”
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