Chapter Text
Maya Bishop was seven years old when she met Carina DeLuca. She had hair up to her shoulders, her front teeth missing, and a longing to be anywhere but her home. It had been summertime, June if she could remember correctly. Despite being out of school, she was up early every morning to run and train. She wanted nothing more than to go back to school so her dad would go easy on her.
Carina had been seven years old when she met Maya Bishop. She had just moved to America from Italy and hardly knew a word of English. Her mother and father claimed this would be a new start for them, no fighting, no hate, just love, and new experiences. Carina wanted to be anywhere else but home.
Maya lifted her head from the armrest of her father's armchair, bored out of her mind. Banned from the TV for not beating her running time, her friends were all on trips, and nothing to do but sit and wait. She looked outside her window and observed the home across the street. A family had just moved in, she hadn’t seen them yet except for the glimpse of a small boy.
“Maya, why don’t you go over there and introduce yourself,” her mother suggested and Maya shrugged,
“Dunno,” She answered simply, her mother silently shook her head. Maya never liked to make new friends, she just wanted to run and she wanted to run all the time, she wanted nothing more than to impress her father.
“How about I give you something to take over there? Will you introduce yourself then?” She offered and Maya shrugged her shoulders again, “Maya,” Katherine said with a hand coming to rest on her hip.
“What? I can’t do anything, Dad’s not home. I want to run, Mom,” Maya complained and stood up.
“You can’t run all the time, bug”
“Don’t call me that. I’m not a baby anymore,” Maya crossed her arms over her chest and Katherine only stroked Maya's hair, pushing it behind her ear.
“I love you, Maya. You’re always going to be my baby just like I’m always going to be your mom. I need you to do this one thing for me, please Maya. Please, go make a friend. I bet there’s a kid in that house just as bored as you are,” Maya contemplated her choices, “I’ll try and sneak you ice cream,”
“Fine. What should I bring?” Bingo. Maya's mother had thought and she left for the kitchen, bringing out a case of what looked to be lasagna, that’s why the house must have smelt so good last night. “Let me get my shoes on!” Maya rushed over to the door, grabbed her yellow Converse, and laced them up clumsily. She'd gotten them as a gift and wore them constantly if she wasn’t wearing her running shoes.
“Alright, now, you show off that toothless smile,” Maya immediately began to smile, “Those dimples never get old,” Katherine handed her the lasagna and kissed her forehead. “Be good, if you don’t come home right away remember you have to be home by 5:00, make sure to check your watch,” Katherine motioned to the yellow watch on her wrist and Maya nodded her head. “I love you, Maya,”
“Love you, Mom!” Maya said and walked out the door once it had been opened for her. She felt bad leaving Mason alone for the day, but at least he could watch TV.
Maya approached the house and took a deep breath to calm her racing heart. She hated new people, it’s why she dreaded the beginning of the school year and why she hated large crowded places. She stood on her tiptoes and lifted a single finger to press the button on the home, she looked behind her at her own house and saw her mother watching from the window, she rolled her eyes and jumped when she saw the door open. “Hello!” Maya said when she saw the girl standing there.
“Ciao,” The girl had said quietly. Her hair had been in two French braids, her hair was long. She was in a tank top full of red, blue, and yellow stripes and a pair of shorts sitting on her hips. Ciao. Maya had never heard that word before. “Uhm,” The girl held a finger up and turned back to the house, “Mamma! Vieni qui! (Come here!)” The girl twisted nervously on her feet and looked at Maya, “Carina,” She pointed to herself,
“I’m Maya!” Maya smiled and the girl grinned. Soon a tall woman appeared, she looked just like the girl in front of her except much older.
“Carina, Di che cosa hai bisogno? (What do you need?)” Maya stood there confused and looked between the two girls, Lucia looked down and finally saw the blonde standing there. “Hello,” Lucia said and Maya grinned at the thick accent present.
“Hello, my name is Maya Bishop, I’m seven years old! I live across the street, the white house with a red door,” Maya lifted her right foot and shook it over in the direction of the house.
“Ah, I see,” Lucia nodded and looked at the food, “Carina is seven too,” Lucia motioned toward her daughter, “Did you bring lasagna?” Lucia asked, Carina leaned against her mother, trying to follow the conversation and longing to be close to her mother.
“Yeah! My mom made it, she said to come over with it and introduce myself. It’s the neighborly thing to do,” Maya said with a proud smile,
“Ah, grazie. We moved here from Italy, isn’t that right Carina,” Lucia prompted but all she received was a simple head nod. “Carina doesn’t know English very well. Here, why don’t you come inside, maybe you and Carina can become friends,” Lucia offered and Maya nodded,
“If that’s okay with Carina,” Lucia took Carina's hand and they let Maya come into the house. “How far away is Italy?” Lucia laughed,
“Very far from here,”
**** ***
Maya laughed as Carina danced around to the music Lucia played on the record. It had been nearing four o’clock by that time and they had spent the whole day together. Carina and Maya tried their best to communicate with each other and within a short amount of time they had become close friends. “Music, I like music,” Carina said and Maya nodded,
“Me too. I like the music with pianos,” Carina shook her head,
“No no. No piano! Chitarra e tromba!” Carina exclaimed and Maya tilted her head, Carina made the motion of a guitar and pretended to play the trumpet, it was then that Maya understood finally what she had been saying.
“Guitar and trumpet!”
“Si! Guitar and trumpet,” Carina forced out of her mouth, making a weird face at the way the words fell from her mouth. “Maya,” Carina said. Maya loved the way Carina spoke, especially the way she said her name. “Best friends. Maya and me,” Carina said and Maya nodded,
“Yes, we’re best friends,” Maya looked at her watch and frowned, “I have to go home,” Maya said and Carina frowned.
“Talk to your mama and papa? Stay?” Carina asked and Maya shook her head,
“I can’t, my dad doesn’t let me have sleepovers. But, maybe we can play tomorrow!”
“Domani,” Carina said and Maya nodded, Carina sighed. She took Maya's hand and together the two girls walked to the door Maya knelt and grabbed her shoes. Carina gasped,
“What? What’s wrong!” Carina excitedly pointed at the yellow Converse, “What about them? Carina, you’re scaring me,” Carina lightly tapped her arm held up a finger, and ran away, Maya sat down and pulled her shoes on. Carina returned and held up a pair of red Converse, jumping up and down and pointing at the two. “Oh my goodness! We match!”
“Match! Si!” Carina nodded and squealed, “Converse!” Carina laughed and Maya nodded,
“We’re like ketchup and mustard, Carina!” Maya watched Carina sit down and pull the red Converse onto her feet. “Where are you going?” Maya asked and Carina pointed outside, “You’re gonna walk me home?” Carina nodded her head, “Carina that’s not such a good idea,”
“No, Maya. Silly. Good idea,” Carina said and gave Maya two thumbs up. Maya sighed, she knew there was a 50% chance when she got home her father would be home too and he would be in a bad mood, she also knew she had to get ready for their evening run and try to beat her time, she also knew Mason had probably done something that made him mad. “Dai (Come)” Carina said, waving goodbye to her mother.
“Thank you for having me!” Maya called before she stepped outside with Carina. The two made their way out of the house, stopping on the sidewalk and checking for cars before running over to Maya's house.
Maya pushed open the door and heard the bickering of her parents already, Mason had been sitting on the couch with earplugs in his ear and a sketchbook in front of him. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Carina. I can come over at the same time I did today,” Maya promised,
“Cross your heart?” Maya drew a simple X over her chest and Carina grinned. “Best friends, Maya,”
“We are!” Maya laughed and she wrapped her arms around Carina. “Tomorrow!”
“Domani!” Carina said and Maya stepped inside the house, shutting it behind her and walking over to her little brother, sitting beside him and grabbing a crayon.
**** ***
Maya hadn’t come over the next afternoon or the afternoon after that. Carina each day had been up in the early hours of the morning, dressed and ready for a day of adventure with her best friend, but her best friend hadn’t shown up.
It was on the third day Maya finally showed up. Carina opened the door with crossed arms, “You crossed your heart,”
“Rina, I'm sorry. It was my dad, he was mad and I couldn’t leave, he wouldn’t let me,” Carina knew what that was like, to have an angry father, she hated it. “I wanted to come, I did. I promise, I’m sorry,”
“You cross your heart,” Maya drew an X over her chest. “I was angry,”
“I know, I really did want to come over, you have to believe me,” Maya begged. She had just made a friend, she couldn’t lose her only best friend.
“I forgive you,” Maya let out a sigh of relief and allowed her heart to rest. “Inside,” Carina commanded and Maya came inside the house. “Play outside,”
“Okay! We can go on an adventure!” Maya said and Carina nodded,
“Papa,” Carina motioned to a room and Maya nodded her head, waiting as Carina left her alone to go talk to her father.
Maya looked around the house, they had gotten a lot unpacked within a few days. They had cheese and pots and pans hanging everywhere, it was clear to Maya this family cooked and they cooked with love. Maya wished she could be there for dinner one day, she bet they laughed at the table and could eat whatever they wanted, no mean fathers taking away food or ignoring her.
“Maya! We go!” Carina said, bouncing upon her arrival. Carina was always hopping and jumping, moving as quickly as a rabbit but as delicately as a bunny. “Where go?” Carina asked her and Maya tapped her chin,
“We can go play in the woods, nobody will bother us there,” Carina gave her two thumbs up and Maya grabbed her hand, pulling Carina out of the home.
**** ***
Maya laughed as Carina pushed her higher on the swing, together they had been outside for two hours, going deeper and deeper into the woods, losing themselves in a painting of laughter, love, and trees. “Okay! Down!” Maya said and Carina let Maya swing on her own, no longer pushing the swing. “Carina, what was Italy like?” Maya asked when she returned to the ground safely, she moved over to the swing and Carina sat down.
“Bellissima,” Carina said simply. “I like it here too, Seattle is Bellissima, but Italy was more,” Carina let her longer legs push the swing lightly. They should have been worried about the swing breaking, but with the two of them together there was no fear, they hadn’t been afraid. There was nothing to be afraid of.
“I like the woods. It’s different out here than anywhere else. It’s quiet,” Maya said and Carina rested her head on Maya's shoulder,
“Maya, does your dad get angry?” Maya nodded,
“All the time,”
“Mine too,” Carina whispered and Maya looked at Carina. “Run away,” Carina said,
“Okay, we will,” Their houses were haunted by threats much larger than they could understand. Damage had been caused to their two small souls that they would not understand for a long time, together the two were slowly trying to close those wounds. Together they found safety that not even their mothers could provide. “We’re gonna be pirates,”
“Arrrrrgh,” Carina said, crooking her finger up and closing an eye. Maya laughed and nodded her head. “We will go on a boat to Italy!” Carina hopped off the swing, Maya followed her lead and stood.
“We will! We’re captain bishop and captain DeLuca! Nobody will mess with us on our ships,” Maya brought her voice down to a whisper, “Not our idiot little brothers, not our dads, not the whole world!” Maya's voice gradually gained volume until she jumped, her body looking like a star with her hands above her head. “We’re not afraid of anything or anyone!” Maya screamed, birds flew off,
“We’re brave!” Carina screamed at the same volume and with that, the two girls took off dancing under the leaves of the tree.
**** ***
June had passed, and Maya and Carina met every single day for as long as they could, Maya trained extra hard in her running so her father wouldn’t be mad at her. Together Maya and Carina faced the world with an ease that was rare to them.
Maya jumped up on a fallen tree, using her tanned arms to pull Carina's tanner ones onto the fallen tree. Carina laughed and held her arms out at her side, pretending to balance. Maya had never felt like this, so light. She never thought she’d feel like this, like she was floating on a cloud. “Maya! Look!” Carina squealed and pointed to their left, Maya turned her head and looked over at the moving water. “It’s the ocean!”
“It’s a creek,”
“Ocean!” Carina refuted and jumped off the trunk, running over. Maya had been teaching Carina English every day and in turn, Maya had been learning Italian, the two of them speaking with each other in ways their fathers never could. Maya jumped off the log and followed Carina. Carina looked up and began to climb the tree to the shortest limb.
“Be careful!”
“You’re scared! We aren’t allowed to be scared out here! We’re invisible!”
“Invincible!” Maya corrected with a laugh,
“The same thing, Maya” Carina said and then climbed down, pulling off her socks and shoes and jumping into the lake. “Come on,” Maya looked at the water hesitantly, “Maya,” Carina whined
“I don’t want to get hurt. My dad’ll get mad,”
“Your papa is always mad,” Carina argued and crossed her arms. Maya felt her eyes burn, “Your house is filled with it. Ghosts are angry. Maybe your house is haunted,” Carina said and Maya shook her head. “It is! You can move in with me, Maya, we have a room in our house. It can be your room,”
“I can’t. I have to stay, for Mason and my Mom,” Carina sighed and smirked evilly before splashing Maya. Maya shrieked and jumped up. “Carina! Oh, that’s it!” Maya jumped into the lake, disregarded her shoes and socks and the two of them began a water fight, laughter accompanying the buzz and hum of the warm summer day.
**** ***
“Dad! Dad! Stop it, let me go you’re hurting me!” Maya shouted and tried to pull her arm away from her dad's grip, he wasn’t hurting her but he was scaring her, something that hit Maya's soul and made it ache for the safety of Carina.
“You’re irresponsible Maya! I did not raise you to act like this! Ruining your clothes and your shoes! Messing up your hair!” He had shouted at her and Maya finally removed herself from his grasp, “You won’t go hang out with that Caroline girl,”
“Her name is Carina, Dad! She’s my best friend!”
“You will forget her soon enough, Maya! We won’t be here next year, not for the school year, we’re moving,”
“What?” Maya said, her dad had started silent treatment. After that Maya ran to her mother, pulling at her arm. “We can’t leave! I wanna stay!”
“Maya-”
“Mom, please! Don’t make me go! Carina said I could move in with her! I’ll stay here in Seattle and you can visit me! Mama please,” Maya started to cry.
“Maya” She heard her dad’s angry voice and Maya only cried harder.
“Mom,” Maya whimpered and began to see red. She shoved and pushed at her mother, little fists doing nothing against her but making her father angrier.
She had gotten in a lot of trouble for that. Maya hadn’t been able to see Carina for a week because of it, Maya had spent every second of it curled up on her bed, arms hugging herself and giving herself the comfort she only found with Carina. Carina. She didn’t want to leave Carina. Mason had tried to comfort her to the best of his abilities, but there was only so much a person could do to help a child's grief.
Maya had told Carina the news with a broken heart. They cried together for hours, promising to never forget each other and to write, to call, to do anything they could to see each other again. “Carina, I have to tell you something,” Maya had whispered to her as they lay in the grass with the sun hitting them.
“Okay,” Carina whispered and Maya sighed,
“You can’t tell anyone,”
“I won’t. Cross my heart,” Carina placed an X over her heart,
“I love you,” Carina laughed. What a silly thing to say to her, love had been all around them. At the time, Carina hadn’t realized just how big of a deal saying that was for Maya. She wouldn’t realize until she was an adult, an OB-GYN at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital, and Maya Bishop was captain of Station 19.
**** ***
“You look familiar,” Carina had said after seeing the blonde's face, she looked too familiar.
“Oh, I drink here a lot,” The woman had said and Carina shook her head. There had to be more than that.
“Uh, no,” Carina said and then she took a wild guess, “Were you at the hospital earlier?”
“Yeah, I was,” Carina smiled, a victory for her. “I’m a firefighter. I was bringing….something,”
“Ah!” The way she had said it reminded herself of her mother as a young girl “Yes! You are the one who ran in with the nose!” The girls both began to laugh and they nodded their heads, this situation felt all too familiar, almost like when she was a kid running through trees with her best friend beside her.
“Captain Maya Bishop,” That name was so familiar. Maya held out her hand and Carina shook it,
“Dr. Carina DeLuca,” A gasp left Maya's mouth immediately,
“Carina?” Maya asked and the woman nodded her head confused. “Carina DeLuca. Lived in Seattle, Washington, moved from Italy when she was seven years old?” Maya asked and Carina nodded her head, once again confused. Maya laughed excitedly and pushed her drink away from her.
“How do you know that?”
“I’ve been trying to remember your name all this time! Maya Bishop, I was this high” Maya stood up and motioned to how tall she had been, “Tiny little thing, missing my two front teeth. I taught you English-” Carina gasped as the pieces finally clicked in her head, “Oh my gosh,” Maya whispered and felt her soul immediately begin to ache,
“All this time!” Carina said and Maya nodded, “What happened to us?” Maya grabbed her drink,
“My dad,”
“Always angry,”
“Always,” Maya confirmed and Carina looked at her, her soul felt at peace around Maya even if they hadn’t been near each other for over a decade.
“If I buy you a drink will you tell me the story of how you ended up carrying a nose in a plastic bag?” Carina asked and Maya hesitated,
“I’m sorry, Carina. I’m drinking alone tonight,” Carina nodded her head.
“Okay,” Carina wasn’t going to push it, but she was desperate to catch up with the woman. “Are you sure?” One tiny little push and Maya began to smirk and took a sip of her drink.
“Maybe not,” Maya said and Carina silently cheered.
They talked the rest of the night. It was like they never left their giggling age of seven. Yellow and red converse. Blonde and brunette hair. One braided, the other in a ponytail. One is still taller than the other.
Somewhere, Carina found the toothless smile of Maya, and somewhere Maya found the shy yet fearless girl in Carina. Somewhere, in the mesh of it all, they had fallen in love with each other, and they would fall in love again, without fear and with the laughter that they last had when they were seven and learning the secrets of the world.