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The racket of the ever moving emergency room of Grey Sloan Hospital filled Maya’s ears as she was rolled in on the gurney.
“I’m fine, I swear. I don’t need all this fuss,” the blonde grumbled unhappily.
“Shush, Bishop. You’re getting looked at,” Andy fired back at her friend. “A beam fell on you,” she raised an eyebrow at the other woman.
Maya sighed as she let her head fall back. “Ok fine, fine. But there doesn’t have to be all this worry,” the lieutenant waved her good hand around.
They had been called to a middle school. A fire had sparked in the gym and nineteen were ordered to evacuate the building when it was determined that everybody had made it out. There was no saving the old infrastructure that had needed to be updated for the last decade. The school was probably going to get into major trouble for that.
Andy, Vic, and Maya were on their way out when a piece of the ceiling fell right onto Maya. Thankfully the beam had just caught her on the side but she had definitely gone down wrong considering the cry of pain she had let out.
Ben looked her over in the aid car but Andy wanted her to go to the hospital, just to make sure. Besides they were pretty sure she had dislocated her shoulder and there was a deep gash across her forehead. So the Latina was not going to listen to Maya’s claims she was fine as the red blood dripped down the side of her face from the cut.
So here was Andy and Vic walking along the gurney as they were lead over to one of the patient rooms.
“I can walk,” Maya waved off the nurses and interns that went to move her. She leaned on Andy as she got into the stiff patient bed on her own.
She laid back as Vic looked unimpressed with these new doctors fumbling around, really just desperate to work on someone “Can we get a resident in here or something?” The woman asked, she knew Maya wouldn’t want to deal with these interns.
One of them started to argue with Vic that they couldn’t just leave when Maya needed to be attended to. As the voices started to get louder, Teddy Altman passed the room.
She glanced in with a furrowed brow and her eyes quickly widened at the scene in front of her. Vic Hughes arguing with a couple of the interns while Andy Herrera tried to keep Maya Bishop on the hospital bed.
Something about seeing the blonde lieutenant laid up made Teddy’s own heart stutter for a moment. It had been a year and a half since that night in the hospital, since the last time she had treated Maya. Screams and tears popped into her mind for a brief moment before she shook herself from the memory. She straightened her shoulders and strode into the room.
“Ok, everybody out,” the woman called out. The interns looked to her with frowns and wide eyes. They couldn’t lose out on another patient. One of them went to argue with Teddy and the surgeon quickly raised a hand to silence the young man.
“Out,” she ordered more forcefully and pointed to the door. They grumbled and all trotted out of the room to go find other patients to harrass. Vic couldn’t help herself as she giggled at the interns leaving the room. Teddy turned a raised eyebrow toward the firefighter and Vic immediately ceased the noise.
“You are acting no better, Hughes,” the doctor said as she stepped fully into the room.
“Sorry,” Vic mumbled as she stepped out of the other woman's way.
“So what happened here?” Teddy asked as she turned her attention to Andy and Maya.
The blonde was laid out on the bed, grasping at her left arm with her right hand. Her turnout pants were still on and Teddy’s eyes rose to the bleeding wound on Maya’s forehead.
The same place that bruise was the last time she was brought in.
“We were at a call, a middle school,” Andy quickly explained to the doctor. “A beam fell on her,” she nodded her head toward Maya.
“It wasn’t that bad,” Maya spoke up as she rolled her eyes at all the theatrics of her team.
“So a beam didn’t hit you?” Teddy asked with a raised eyebrow as she wrote some things down on the clipboard attached to Maya’s bed.
“Well… I mean,” Maya let out a frustrated sigh. “Yea I guess it did, but it didn’t fall on top of me,” Maya said as her chin rose up in defiance. “It grazed me but it was enough that it knocked me down into some other rubble,” Maya explained with a small pout.
She knew she needed treatment, she wasn’t stupid. Or at least, maybe not as stupid as she had been at one point in time. She just hated hospitals, she hated people worrying over her. She hated being trapped to the bed. She’d worked on a lot of her trauma in therapy but the need to control, the need to not feel tied down would always be present. Hospitals were places you had to stay, had to be poked and prodded. But Maya took deep breaths and grounded herself.
Teddy nodded at Maya’s explanation as she went over to a cabinet in the room, she pulled a suture kit out that she knew would be needed.
“Why don’t you two step out? Leave me and Bishop for now,” the doctor suggested to the other two firefighters. Vic frowned as she seemed to not want to leave. Andy grasped her arm and nodded at Teddy.
“Of course, we will get out of your way,” Andy supplied quickly as she moved with Vic over to the door.
“Andy,” Maya called out to her friend. The brunette turned back around at the entrance to the room. “Can you go find Carina? Get her paged or something? I don’t want her to worry,” Maya explained with a soft voice. “I don’t want her to not know I’m here,” the blonde explained as shy eyes glanced away from the other lieutenant. Andy couldn’t help the small smile that appeared on her face before she nodded.
“Of course I can, Maya,” she said. Andy and Vic vanished from the room to go locate the Italian. Maya blew out a sigh, she never wanted to worry Carina but the OB should be here. No secrets, not anymore. Communication was something they both focused on a lot now.
Teddy and Maya were alone now and the blonde glanced over to the doctor. Teddy was taking some notes about Maya’s condition before she moved over to wash her hands and grab the suture kit.
“Let’s stitch up that forehead, huh?” Teddy said as she turned back around. She moved to Maya who stayed laying down on the bed.
“Don’t you have interns for this?” Maya asked with a small smirk.
“Do you want me to go grab one of them instead?” Teddy joked back.
“Not really,” Maya quickly quipped with a chuckle. “They’d probably end up stitching my eye shut or something,” Maya said as Teddy laughed happily.
Teddy had witnessed the change in Maya in the last year or so through Carina. She’d spot the blonde slipping into her wife’s office with a coffee or lunch. The two of them were somehow more in love than they had been before. It made Teddy happy to see the two in such a strong spot now, especially compared to the the trauma that she had witnessed.
Seeing Maya up close and personal like this, it was a miraculous change. The light had returned to those sapphire eyes, the glow was back in her cheeks. And she could tell that the want to not be here was nothing more than that usual firefighter stubbornness she often came across. They all claimed they were fine all the time. She didn’t know how Carina or Dr. Bailey ever dealt with it.
The two of them sat in a comfortable silence as Teddy cleaned up Maya’s forehead, she was quick and meticulous with the stitches. The gash closed up easily and she advised Maya on how to take care of it, she didn’t think it would scar. The blonde nodded in understanding, she adjusted herself on the bed and grimaced in pain.
“I’ll get Dr. Lincoln to take a look at that shoulder,” Teddy nodded at Maya’s arm. “Probably just dislocated but let’s get a sling for you,” the doctor said and Maya smiled gratefully. She was getting tired of holding her arm.
___
Vic and Andy hovered just outside of Maya’s room, looking and waiting for a certain Italian. Andy spotted the woman first, her white lab coat flew behind her as she came rushing into the ER. Wide caramel pools immediately zeroed in on the familiar members of Maya’s team. She had just been finishing up a surgery when she had gotten paged.
“Don’t freak out,” Vic said quickly as Carina came storming over. “We had to bring Maya in,” the younger woman said as she nodded toward the room way too casually.
“What!?” Carina nearly cried out, her tone pitched high. “What happened?” she said in a panic. Andy couldn’t help the roll of her eyes at the lack of tact from her teammate. She stepped up to Carina and gently set her hand on Carina’s arm.
“Hey, hey it’s ok. She’s fine, an accident happened at a call. But she should be just fine,” Andy explained with a soft tone. “She’s just in there, go on,” the Latina said as she gestured the Italian to go inside the room.
“ Grazie , Andy,” Carina whispered softly as she rushed into the room.
Andy looked over at Vic and shoved at her shoulder, Vic raised her hands in defense.
“Hey, what else was I supposed to say?” the woman asked with wide eyes.
“Anything else,” Andy supplied with a shake of her head.
___
“Bambina,” Carina said, on the verge of tears. Maya was sitting up on the patient bed now, Teddy was just adjusting the sling she had found for the blonde. Maya looked over to her wife with loving eyes, Teddy smiled softly to herself at the sparkle in those intense eyes at the sight of Carina.
“Hey, babe,” Maya said happily, she would never complain about being able to see her wife. “I’m fine, I promise. I”m sorry I must’ve scared you,” she quickly explained as Carina came over to her.
She reached out her good arm and wrapped it around the Italian’s waist. She pulled her between her legs as Carina’s arms slid around Maya’s neck. They held each other there for a few moments, basking in the comfort they always felt in each others arms.
Teddy cleaned up silently, letting the couple have a moment. Carina pulled back slightly to look down into her favorite pair of eyes.
“ Bella , what happened?” she asked, her voice cracked in worry as her delicate fingers brushed over the sitched up cut along her love’s forehead.
“It was just an accident, I promise,” Maya said as she took that same hand that had drifted down to her jaw. She placed a gentle kiss to her knuckles. “We got called to a school, we were evacuating and a beam fell,” she could feel Carina stiffen in her arms at that.
“Hey, hey look at me,” Maya said to her softly. Those scared brown eyes connected with blue. All she found was the calm of an ocean, waves that lapped against the shore as Maya held her gaze. “It grazed me but the force of it made me go down. Dr. Altman said I only dislocated my shoulder,” she nodded to Teddy.
The Italian seemed to take notice of the other doctor in the room for the first time. Teddy nodded her head with a soft smile. “I’ll get Link down here to double check, but I’m pretty sure it’s just dislocated. And that cut should heal up just fine,” the surgeon supplied. Carina could feel her heart rate slow just slightly as she took in all the information. Her wife was here, in her arms. With a nasty cut, a hurt shoulder, but was smiling and held her close in comfort.
“I’m fine, io prometto ,” Maya whispered to her. Carina pressed her forehead to Maya’s as she let the warmth of her native tongue seep into her bones. The firefighter had picked up on more and more the last year, it made her heart sore every time Maya tried.
“ Ti amo ,” Carina said back and she pressed a short but gentle kiss to Maya’s lips.
“ Ti amo ,” Maya replied back with a smile. “I love you both,” the blonde said and she let her hand glide down Carina’s front to settle on the small bump that had started to grow.
Carina giggled at the sweet act as she laid her own hand against Maya’s, the blonde stroked her fingers against the Italian’s pregnant tummy.
Teddy looked down with a soft smile at the sight of the couple. Sometimes she couldn’t believe the vast difference of this moment to before. The love between the pair never lacked. That’s what had broken her heart watching Maya fall apart in that hospital room so long ago, they both loved each other so deeply. But Maya had trapped herself in the web of a huge mental break, she couldn’t see past her own pain and trauma. She looked on helplessly as the blonde had tore into her wife. Vile words and cruel ultimatums had ripped them apart. But they couldn’t just let one another go. The work they had done on themselves and their relationship was a true inspiration to Teddy. She’d value the years to come as the couple finally had settled into a place of utmost happiness and true contentment.
“I’ll leave you two alone,” Teddy spoke, once again reminding the pair they weren’t alone. “Link will be here soon and then I’m sure Maya will be discharged fairly quickly,” the doctor smiled. The couple nodded at her in thanks.
“Thanks, Teddy,” Maya said with a smile.
“Si, grazie.” Carina added on.
“Oh,” Teddy said as she turned around at the door. “Congrats by the way,” she said and gestured down to Carina’s baby bump. The couple had finally shared the news a couple weeks prior with their respective work families. One last smile shared between the three before they parted. The connection between what they had shared and witnessed in that hospital room well over a year ago would stay with them forever. But it was beautiful to see the growth that had come from that traumatic moment.
___
The Deluca-Bishops found themselves home a few hours later. Link had cleared Maya, she had indeed dislocated her shoulder. He had done some X-rays just to make sure. Thankfully there were no breaks, no surgery needed, and she would just need to be in the sling for about a week. She’d be able to return to most of her normal activity in about two weeks but she knew for her job she wouldn’t be able to return fully for about a month. The blonde wasn’t ecstatic about that but she’d have to make due. Desk duty would be tortuous but she was glad nothing more serious had happened.
She had been discharged and Bailey had allowed Carina to take off early so she could take Maya home. They had stopped by the station on the way, the team happy to see that Maya was ok. Carina had helped her wife change back into her normal clothes and had gathered up her backpack for her.
The rest of the night went smoothly in the apartment. Carina had made Maya settle on the couch, she wanted her to take it easy. And the firefighter could never say no to her favorite person. So she followed orders.
Carina cooked dinner, the blonde’s favorite lasagna, and they had eaten curled up on the couch in front of the fire. They shared what else had gone on during their work days, but Maya could see that distant look in the Italian’s eyes.
Maya had tried to poke around to get the doctor to talk, to share what she was feeling. Communication was important, but they had also both learned not to push. They gave each other a healthy amount of time when needed. The blonde could see that her wife needed space for the moment. That whatever was scratching at her brain would come to the surface eventually.
In the meantime, Maya spoke sweet nothings into her ear. She held her close and kissed her temple, told her how much she loved her. How much she loved their ‘Peanut,’ as Maya had started referring to the baby as.
“They need some type of name!” Maya had declared one evening. “They’ll be Peanut until they’re born,” the lieutenant had said with a firm nod. Carina couldn’t help her giggles that night at her adorable wife.
The couple fell asleep together that night in bed, both thankful that work would not come for the next couple of days. Maya had to lay on her back because of the sling but the Italian had no problem curling into her side. She attached to the blonde like a cute koala. With her face nuzzle into Maya’s neck and the firefighter’s good arm wrapped around her waist, the pair had slowly drifted off to sleep.
___
Maya’s fluttered open as the pain in her shoulder became uncomfortable. She glanced around through the darkness of her bedroom. As her eyes adjusted she instinctively reached out to the person next to her.
She frowned when she found the bed empty. The realization that her wife’s warm body was no longer wrapped around her side. By the feel of the sheets, the Italian hadn’t been gone long. Maya slowly sat up and looked around. The white glow of moonlight snuck through the slightly open curtain, streams of lunar magic illuminated random parts of the room.
She furrowed her brow when Carina didn’t seem to be anywhere, the bathroom was dark so she wasn’t in there. The blonde spotted their door that was slightly ajar into the hallway. Perhaps Carina was in the kitchen, or the living room.
The firefighter stepped out in the hallway, she glanced around the apartment and grew worried as she didn’t spot her wife anywhere. Darkness encapsulated the rest of their home as Maya didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. But then light caught her blue eyes. A dim glow shown under the door of the guest room.
Well it wasn’t really the guest room anymore. Clipboard Maya Bishop had come out in full force the minute Carina had shown her the positive pregnancy test. So the nursery had slowly been coming together. The blonde knew they still had five months left but she wanted to be prepared.
So one day when Carina came back from work, almost all the furniture had been cleared out of the guest room. Those caramel pools had darkened with lust as she leaned against the door frame and watched her wife. Maya had on short shorts and a workout tank, paint covered different parts of her as she had decided she was going to paint the nursery. They had settled on a light sage green for the walls a few weeks ago but the Italian had no idea her wife was going to take it upon herself to jump into painting already.
Although, knowing her wife, she wasn’t that shocked. Maya was adamant about being gender neutral for the decorating of the nursery. She had claimed she didn’t want to put any expectations on their baby, that they’d love them in any shape or form. Carina had dragged her firefighter into the bedroom after that comment.
Things had started appearing in the room in the weeks after the painting. A changing table, a new shelf, the rocking chair that Carina had casually mentioned she wanted for when she’d have to nurse. Baby clothes and toys had yet to be acquired but that could wait for now.
Maya was just happy she had been able to start pulling together all the bigger items. The crib would be next, but definitely not until after her shoulder healed.
So when she slowly opened the door, she was not surprised to see Carina in her rocking chair. The gentle movement of the chair made the shadows jump around the wall, lit up by the floor lamp just off to the side.
“My love?” Maya called out curiously. She wondered if Carina had fallen asleep when there was no response. So the blonde moved over to the other side of the room and looked down at her wife.
“Baby,” she called once more, the soft voice soothing to Carina’s nerves. Maya looked down at the brunette and her heart stutterd at the sight of tears staining her wife’s cheeks.
“Car, Car what’s wrong?” she asked, feeling the worry consume her. She leaned down on her knee next to the chair and reached out her good hand to Carina’s. She intertwined ther fingers as the Italian seemed to snap out of her stupor.
“Maya?” she whispered.
“Hey, hey I’m here,” Maya said back, her voice cracked in concern. She brushed her lips against her wife’s knuckles, the soothing act calmed Carina’s racing heart. “Can you talk to me?” Maya asked gently.
“I… I had a nightmare,” the brunette whispered as she looked down at her lap, she squeezed her eyes shut to try to quell the tears.
The blonde’s own heart constricted at that admittance. Nightmares had plagued her wife’s sleep for a long time after their separation. After the night she had nearly destroyed them.
But then she had started to go to therapy, she had gotten help and figured herself out. They worked hard to get to the place they were now. Their love, their connection, was stronger than ever before. Communication was key, Maya knew she could rely on her wife and she tried every day to be that for the brunette.
Bad days still happened, that was a normal part of any relationship. And the good far outweighed the bad. Maya had recognized that far off look in her wife’s eyes. The moment Carina had flown into that hospital room today, the firefighter saw the concern and the worry. But she had also seen the pain, the doctor had tried to shove it away. Tried to not let it consume her, but PTSD could be a powerful force. Maya wasn’t sure if that’s what it would formally be called but she knew the situation had triggered her wife.
She thought maybe it had only been in the moment. She had seen Maya was fine, the blonde had gotten checked, and they went home. Unfortunately, that’s not how triggers often worked. Carina might contumaciously try to bury the feelings away, but they’d fester and burn away at her well being eventually. Maya was glad it was sooner rather than later. She didn’t want her wife suffering in some sort of traumatic episode of the past, especially alone.
“About that night?” Maya asked gently as she ran her thumb against Carina’s smooth skin. The other woman nodded and took a breath.
“The screams… they were so loud,” she whispered, her voice choked through the emotion.
“I’m sorry, my love,” Maya said, feeling awful that her wife was dealing with these feelings again.
“It’s not your fault, bambina ,” Carina shook her head.
“If I hadn’t gotten hurt, you wouldn’t be feeling like this,” Maya argued back as she clenched her jaw in frustration.
“Hey, I’m just glad you’re ok,” the brunette replied and ran the back of her hand down Maya’s cheek. “I… I’m glad you let them take care of you today,” Carina said. Maya had come such a long way when it came to letting people care. It was such a foreign concept to her. People wanting to help, wanting to look out for her. She didn’t always understand it.
But the blonde had come to accept it, to appreciate it. Sometimes she even sought it out now. Carina had always been a comforting presence to her, the person that she could tell anything to. But now Maya knew she could turn to Andy, she could turn to Vic, or even Diane when it was needed. She didn’t have to be alone, she had a family she could rely on.
Learning to rely on others had made her realize the kind of person she wanted to be for their child. She wanted their kid to feel safe and comfortable. To not be scared to come to her or Carina when they needed it. She had come to a point of content that she’d make her own mistakes when it came to parenting, but she sure as hell wouldn’t repeat anything her Dad had done to her. She loved their child so much already, it made her heart ache. And that; that was already leagues above the damage that Lane Bishop had reaped on his daughter. It was a question whether he had ever loved her, a quandary that Maya chose not to put to much thought into unless she was in therapy. That man and his abuse didn’t deserve any amount of attention in her personal life, except as a guide of what not to do.
“I was so scared when I got paged,” Carina admitted. “It took me back to that day,” she took a deep breath.
“I’m sorry… I had Andy tell them to page you. I didn’t want to not tell you I was there but I was also worried that it would upset you,” Maya explained with a small pout. “But we promised no secrets, I knew you’d be more unhappy if you had found out I was there from someone else,” the blonde told her wife as she kept her eyes cast downward.
The brunette let a small smile grace her face. Her wife had matured so much, she’d grown immensely in the last year. Once upon a time Maya would’ve done anything to avoid Carina knowing about things that would upset her, just for it come back in play in the long run. The blonde being scared that she’d upset Carina was endearing, and seeing that she realized it was more important to be honest with the Italian made Carina love the woman in front of her all the more.
She had wanted Carina there when she was hurt. She didn’t argue about not being able to work, she wasn’t happy but she understood that, for right now, she’d have to take it easy. Carina had been terrified for a long time that Maya would slip back into ‘eyes forward’ mode. That she’d push herself too hard again, but this time it would be for good.
Her own trauma of their past had been triggered today but Maya showed how far they had come. How much she had been working and trying to get better over the past year. She had gotten her wife back, had gotten their love story back. But this time it was stronger, the bond was tighter. Her life was not going to be lived alone.
She had a stubborn blonde firefighter that was the most caring, compassionate woman in the world. A woman who had begged her to marry her because she couldn’t bare the thought of being away from the brunette. A woman who cried tears of joy when they finally got that positive pregnancy test they had tried so long for. A woman who spoke softly to the growing baby bump at night when she thought Carina was asleep. A woman that the Italian loved with everything she had.
“I love you, bambina ,” the brunette whispered as she leaned down to connect their lips. Maya hummed happily against that delectable mouth. God, how she wished she could swoop Carina up into her arms and take her to bed. For now, that would have to wait. The moment this sling came off and she got the all clear, lots of bedroom time would be had.
“I love you too, Car,” Maya said back as she gazed up at her wife, the blue shown bright. A sparkle of love made the sapphire glow.
“Let’s go back to bed,” the Italian suggested and Maya nodded with a smile.
“Good idea, back to bed for you and Peanut,” the firefighter smiled as she let her hand fall back to the baby bump.
Carina giggled at her wife before she stood up.
“You can’t keep calling them, Peanut,” the brunette teased as she took Maya’s good hand into hers and guided them out of the nursery.
“They are Peanut for the foreseeable future,” Maya said a determined nod. “And maybe even after they’re born,” the blonde smirked.
“They’ll have a name after they’re born,” Carina argued back as they climbed back into their own bed.
“Yea but everybody needs a nickname,” Maya shrugged with a playful grin. Carina rolled her eyes with a small smirk as she curled back up into Maya’s body.
“Well Peanut and I love you, very much,” the brunette said softly and brushed her lips against Maya’s strong jaw.
“I love you both as well, with everything I have,” the blonde kissed Carina’s temple.
The couple cuddled together and drifted back to sleep. Nightmares would continue to come and go. But the good days would far outweigh the bad. Their love was not to be reckoned with. Their connection was stronger than it ever was before because they fought. They worked to come back together. They both had climbed over hurdles and knocked down anything in their path to find their way back to one another. It was a long journey but they knew they’d both do it over again in a heartbeat.
As long as it meant they’d end up snuggled together in their bed, with baby Deluca-Bishop on the way. Their love story was beautiful and they knew that it would never be lost again.