Work Text:
Maya watched as Carina slept on the other side of the bed, mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted after the day's events. Maya could still feel the remnants of the panic and adrenaline that had rushed through her when she heard about the accident. It didn't help that she could also feel her ribs and knees throbbing painfully after Stella had almost pulled her off the ledge in the cave.
***
Maya was waiting with Ben when Pru ran up to her and asked to be picked up. The lieutenant was doing just that when the girl's foot accidentally touched her stomach, and she cried out loudly from the sting she felt.
"Are you okay?" asked Ben when he saw the pained look on Maya's face.
"I-I'm n-n-not very sure." Stammered the blonde, her breath catching in her throat. Quickly, she set Pru down on one of the chairs and untucked her shirt from her pants.
"Oh, geez, Maya, this doesn't look good. What did you do?" The lieutenant's entire abdomen was covered in deep, dark bruises and scratches.
"Must have happened on the call. This crazy annoying woman, an influencer, was more worried about her phone than her safety and almost pulled me head first off the ledge. I wasn't really thinking about it, I had more important things to worry about."
"You should get that checked out, it looks like you could have broken a rib or two." Ben advised.
"Yes, I'll do that while I wait for Carina."
"You’re staying?" Ben looked at Miranda as she walked towards them. "You're still on shift."
"I don't care, I'll let the Chief know about my little bruise, I'm sure she'll let me stay." She smiled at Miranda. "Hey, Dr. Bailey! You wouldn't happen to know where someone could check me out, would you?"
"Why do you need to be checked out? Did something happen?" Instead of answering, the blonde just held up her shirt and showed it to Bailey. "Wow, okay. Come with me. Ben, I'll be quick."
After leaving Maya in Link's capable hands, Miranda left the hospital with Ben. Maya explained to Link what had happened and then told him that her knees hurt too. While Maya waited for the x-rays, she called the chief and explained the situation, of course Ross directly instructed the lieutenant to get someone to look at her ribs and knees and not to come in until she was properly attended to.
It turned out that she badly bruised her ribs and knees, she would have to take it easy for the next few weeks until the bones healed and Link advised her to be careful when going on scenes so as not to cause further injury.
***
Maya wanted to tell her wife about her injuries, however minor the blonde thought they were, but decided that the Italian woman had enough on her plate and didn't need to deal with Maya. Then she asked the blonde to stay the night with her, and the lieutenant couldn't have been happier to comfort the brunette. So she lay awake next to her wife, unable to sleep, and in pain.
Maya fell asleep at some point, and the next thing she knew, Carina was thanking her for being there for her, and then she left the room to meet Miranda. As soon as the door closed behind the Italian, Maya carefully sat down on the bed and held her ribs, which were screaming in pain.
---
Carina had dinner with Ben and Miranda after the protest.
"Oh, I almost forgot!" exclaimed Ben. "How's Maya?" he asked Carina, who looked stunned.
"Fine, I guess? She just said that she broke a window today and that she and Andy had to crawl through it to get to a man who was trapped between the floor and the wall of the house after it started to slide". She didn't understand what had brought up this sudden and random question.
"What did she do?" Miranda was furious, she knew what Link had said to the blonde. "I thought..."
"It's okay, I was just asking, no big deal.” Ben knew when Carina answered that the lieutenant hadn't said anything about her injuries to her wife.
"Was there anything I should know about?"
"Yes!"
"No."
Came the reply from Miranda and Ben at the same time. The brunette raised only one eyebrow at the situation.
"You should ask Maya." Ben didn't want to interfere in his friend's relationship. If Maya hadn't mentioned the bruising to Carina, she must have had a good reason.
"Yeah, ask her." Bailey smiled and tried to steer the conversation in a different direction, but the Italian's thoughts kept returning to Ben's question.
After the meal Carina decided to go to the station to talk to her wife, whom she found cleaning one of the trucks. She was about to say yes to the date when Ruiz stopped behind Maya, who turned at the sound of his name.
“Bishop, Larsson will finish what you started, go take his place at the desk! I know today was hard on your body after the cave, and the doc said to take it easy, so desk duty for now.”
“Thank you, Captain!” the blonde said with obvious relief. She was in so much pain after today's call that she saw black spots dancing in her peripheral vision on the way back. She told Ruiz as much and informed him of Link’s recommendations.
She stepped back to let Larsson get up the steps when she bumped into a body behind her. Dread filled her in an instant, she completely forgot Carina was there and she probably heard everything that was said. So she hung her head and headed to reception, knowing that her wife was following.
“I know you’re mad at me.” The blonde began as she sat down, her back still to Carina.
“W-why didn’t you tell me?”
“Considering the events of yesterday, I just didn't think it was important or fair that you should have to take care of my pathetic self. I thought last night should be about you and your comfort, and I stand by that decision.”
“Can you- can I- Will you show me?”
“I- yes, of course.” The blonde grabbed the brunette's hand and pulled her into the bathroom to find some privacy. She untucked her shirt and lifted it so her wife could see her black and blue torso. “It-it’s not… I had worse.”
“Can I ask what happened?” the Italian asked, trying not to touch the soft but very painful looking skin.
“Oh, uhm, sure? It’s not a big deal, I guess. We were called to a cave, where an influencer and her boyfriend had fallen into a pit and we had to rappel down, that’s when we heard about the car accident.” Maya took a deep breath before continuing. “I-I’m... I had a panic attack, Travis had to- had to calm me down cause I kept sliding down.” She paused for a few seconds to compose herself. “When I came back with the boyfriend, Montgomery strapped the influencer, Stella into the ropes so we could pull her up, but she kept videoing the rescue and then dropped her phone when she was about halfway up. After that, she didn't stop reaching for it, in fact she even started to unstrap herself. I was trying to pull her up by grabbing one of her hands but with all her struggling she too kept slipping, almost pulling me headfirst into the pit. That's when I initially bruised my ribs and knee, but Link said the 10-block run I did after that actually made it worse."
“A 10-block run?” There was too much information for Carina to really know what part to concentrate on. Maya having a panic attack? Almost falling headfirst into a pit?
“Yeah, I had to make sure you were okay, and the truck was stuck in traffic, so I told the Chief I could get there faster if I ran. So they let me out about 10 blocks from the hospital.”
“Bambina, I- h-have you b-been in pain the w-whole night?” Tears welled up in Carina's eyes at the thought of Maya being hurt but not saying anything, sacrificing her own comfort to help Carina feel safe.
“Well I slept a little, but it wasn’t pleasant. But otherwise, I’m fine.” The blonde thought the Italian voice trembled with anger, not Carina’s own pain, still not really looking into her eyes. “I understand if you no longer want to go on that date. I told you I’d do better and I still didn’t tell you everything. You must think me a liar.”
“No! No! I want to go on that date with you, so much, bella!” the lieutenant finally looked into her wife’s eyes.
“You do?” the taller woman could hear the hope in the blonde’s voice.
“More than anything. This just proves to me how important I am to you.”
“The most important, Carina. I love you so much.” whispered the firefighter while looking into Carina’s eyes.
“I love you too. And we’ll talk more on our date.”