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Maya frowns as she watches the pan of soup bubble in front of her on the stove. Her ears still feel weird, she had water rescue training a couple of days ago and ever since she’s had the annoying sensation of water being trapped in her ears that she just can’t seem to shift.
“Mom?”
“Andrea.”
“Can you help me with my math homework?”
Maya looks up, frowning quizzically at her 12 year old who is standing in the doorway to the kitchen, holding her math book in front of her hopefully.
“You really want mom to help you with your math homework?” Liam asks from where he’s sitting at the kitchen table with his little sister, making more mess with the play-dough than Maya had intended for them to make.
“Hey! I’m not that bad at math,” Maya protests, making sure she keeps stirring the soup. She can’t have her children teasing her over her math and cooking skills in one evening.
“Ehhhh,” Liam replies, a cheeky grin on his face as Maya points her ladle at him.
“I’d love to help you princess but your brother does have a point, math is not my strong suit. Do you not want to wait for mamma to help you when she gets back from work tomorrow?” Maya asks. Carina is on one of her rare 48-hour shifts and her lack of presence in the house is always noticed.
Mostly because the kids complain nonstop about Maya’s cooking.
“See the thing is…” Andrea starts, and Maya raises her eyebrows at her. “It’s due tomorrow.”
“Andrea!” Maya scolds lightly. “We talked about this.”
“I know,” she whines, throwing her hands in the air in exasperation. “I just forgot about this one!”
Maya pinches the bridge of her nose, she already has a headache brewing and she feels quite warm although that’s probably from standing over a hot stove.
“Alright, Liam, could you keep an eye on the soup for me and I’ll help your sister with your homework?”
Liam nods with a shrug, getting up and heading towards the stove. Maya switches places with him, sitting down next to Gianna who is up on her knees, busy smushing together all the different colours of dough.
Andrea settles down next to her, opening her math book and pulling out the homework questions.
“Right, what are we dealing with today?” Maya asks, grabbing a pen.
“Quadratic equations.”
“Oh you’ve gotta be kidding me,” Maya groans dramatically, dropping her head onto her folded arms.
Gianna giggles, reaching over to pat her mommy’s head with a playdough covered hand.
Andrea’s homework had only worsened Maya’s headache and she groans as she finally crawls into bed. Gianna had been difficult to put to bed too, which she usually is when one of her moms is at work at bedtime, but today had felt like it had gone on forever.
Maya curls up on her side, grabbing her phone and sending a text to her wife with the hope that she’ll be free to respond.
Maya: Kids in bed, math homework conquered, how has your shift been so far?”
She only has to wait a few minutes before the reply comes through and she grins.
Carina: It’s been non stop but I’m finally getting a short break, Bailey all but forced me to sit down. And math homework, were you helping?
Maya: Yeah, Andrea had math homework due tomorrow that she forgot about again. It was quadratic equations, pure torture babe, my head hurts.
Carina: Oh poor bambina, that must have been painful!
Maya rolls her eyes, before typing out her reply.
Maya: My head really does hurt, and this stupid water is still trapped in my ears :(
Carina: Take it easy bambina, try and get good sleep if you can and I’ll try and call in the morning, okay? Love you x
Maya: Love you too babe
Maya double checks her alarm is set and then shuts her phone off. She rolls over, pulling Carina’s pillow closer to her and hugging it tight.
She never sleeps well when she’s not sharing a bed with Carina but holding onto her pillow with her smell always helps.
“Mom!”
Maya groans, rubbing her eyes as she squints at her alarm clock.
7:20am.
Shit.
Maya sits up quickly, her head spinning and she grips the edge of her mattress tightly.
“Are you okay?”
Maya squints up at her son, who is standing next to her bed and already dressed.
“Umm…”
She’s still not sure. Something is wrong, it sounds like Liam’s voice is coming from a vacuum and her head feels like it’s no longer connected to her body.
“You slept through your first alarm so I came to check on you but you were fast asleep and you looked really flushed like you have a fever so I left you to sleep. I made breakfast for Gianna and made sure everyone’s lunches were packed and now Andrea is helping Gianna get ready,” Liam explains, reaching out and offering a gentle hand on his mom’s shoulder as she sits up.
The blanket falling away makes her shiver and she realises she’s drenched in sweat but freezing cold.
Well. She definitely has a fever.
“Thank you bud,” Maya smiles, pushing her sweaty hair out of her face but she wavers to one side again, Liam reaching out to stabilise her. “Sorry, I’m super dizzy.”
“Don’t move, I’ll grab the first aid kit,” Liam says and before Maya can protest he disappears out of the room, going in the direction of the kids’ bathroom to grab the first aid kit from the medicine cabinet.
Meanwhile Maya grabs her phone, her head still swimming as she goes to check for any messages from Carina. Sometimes when she’s working overnight Carina will update Maya on her shift when she gets a chance so Maya usually wakes up to a string of messages.
She has this morning and she smiles as she reads through them all before sending her “good morning” text back.
Liam comes back into the room brandishing the first aid kit and Maya sighs, knowing she won’t be getting out of this.
He takes after his mamma way too much.
“You need to take your temperature mom,” he says, producing the thermometer and handing it over. “Then I’m gonna make a list of your other symptoms,” he declares, pulling out the notebook and pencil they use to keep track of things when anyone in the house is sick and turning to a clean page.
Maya rolls her eyes but takes the thermometer anyway, turning it on before inserting it into her ear but she winces, realising that doing that hurts quite a lot.
At the same moment her phone lights up and she goes to grab it but her movements feel sluggish and slow and Liam beats her to it.
“Liam? Where’s your mom?” Carina’s voice comes through her phone, confused.
“I’m here.”
“She’s sick.”
They reply at the same time, as well as the thermometer beeping and Maya pulls it out of her ear, frowning at the number that’s displayed.
“Mom is sick? Is she okay?”
“She is right here,” Maya grumbles again, keeping a tight hold on the edge of her mattress as the world goes a bit wobbly again. “I appear to have a bit of a fever, it’s just come back as 101.6F, so low grade at the moment.”
“Any other symptoms?” Carina asks, and before Maya can say no, Liam chips in.
“She slept through her alarm, and she’s very pale and I think she’s dizzy.”
“Again, she is right here,” Maya protests, leaning back against the headboard, resting her head there in the hopes it will stop it spinning so badly.
“Has she taken anything for it yet?” Carina asks, and Liam shakes his head.
Maya gives up trying to contribute.
She closes her eyes instead, the dizziness getting a bit better now that she’s not trying to see straight. Plus she won’t admit it but she’s exhausted so the chance to close her eyes is actually quite nice.
“Mom?”
Liam’s voice and a tap on her shoulder have Maya opening her eyes again and she blinks at him.
“What did your mamma say?” She asks, pulling the blankets back over herself with a shiver.
“She said to take some paracetamol for your fever, and to make sure to drink plenty and try and eat something for the dizziness. So here are the paracetamol, and I will go and get you some water because I know you can’t really swallow tablets without it,” Liam announces before disappearing in a whirlwind that has Maya struggling to keep up.
Since when did her son get so grown up?
“Mommy!”
“G! Slow down!”
Maya winces at the noise but she can’t help smiling at the sight of Gianna barrelling into her bedroom, half her hair in a pigtail while Andrea chases after her with a hairbrush and the other hair tie.
“Mommy!”
“Hey tiny,” Maya smiles, reaching over to give Gianna’s shoulder a squeeze as she leans on the edge of the bed with her forearms, bouncing up and down.
“Mommy you look gross,” she declares, scrunching her nose up in disgust.
“Gee thanks kid.”
“That’s because mommy is sick, G,” Liam informs her as he comes back into the room with a glass of water as well as one of Maya’s favourite granola bars.
“You’re sick?”
Maya nods, although she regrets that move very quickly. She’s not sure she’s ever been this dizzy and she can’t say she’s enjoying the experience.
“That’s why I was helping you get ready, G. Now will you let me finish doing your hair?” Andrea asks, rolling her eyes slightly but looking at her little sister fondly.
“Okay,” she sighs, flopping forward so her face is smushed into Maya’s thigh. Maya catches Andrea’s eye, trying not to smirk as she rolls her eyes again with a dramatic sigh then stands over her sister and leans forward to try and get the rest of her hair tied back.
“Here mom, take the meds, drink the water and eat that,” Liam interrupts, passing her the glass of water and putting the granola bar on her nightstand.
“You’re very bossy, you know that?”
Liam smirks as Maya shoots a glare at him but she listens, knowing he’s right. “I’m just doing what mamma would do.”
“Yes and she’s my wife, she’s allowed to boss me around. You are son and you might be taller than me now but that doesn’t mean you can tell me what to do,” Maya jokes although she swallows the meds with the water then breaks into the granola bar with shaky fingers.
While Maya eats the older kids finish helping Gianna grab her stuff and generally hover around Maya. It's annoying, she’d rather be left on her own if she’s being honest, as the pain in her head continues to climb but she gets why, and she appreciates the thoughtfulness from them.
However she is still the only parent in the house right now and she needs to figure out how to get all three kids to school when she does not feel like she should even stand up, let alone drive.
“Liam, Drea, are you guys okay to walk to your bus stop by yourself?” she asks - at least she doesn’t have to physically take them anyway, although she and Carina normally prefer to at least walk them to their stop, given it’s on the other side of a fairly busy road.
“Mom we’re teenagers, not little kids,” Andrea huffs.
She’s very much over being walked to and from the bus stop by her moms.
“Excuse me ma’am, you’re not quite a teenager yet.”
“Yes mom we’re fine, we’ll text you once we get there and then when we’re on each of our buses,” Liam interrupts, picking the glass back up now that Maya has drunk all the water.
“Thanks bud. And you, little miss, I’m going to see if Scarlett’s mommy can pick you up and you can go to preschool with them?” Maya asks, turning her attention to her littlest one. There is zero deliberation from Gianna, the tiny blonde bouncing up and down and squealing in excitement before dashing back to her bedroom yelling something about finding bows for her hair.
“Okay we’ve got like ten minutes until we need to leave for the bus then, is there anything else you need mom? Are you going to make a doctor’s appointment?” Andrea asks, seemingly having gotten over her little moment of sass. They didn’t really get that with Liam, so it’s new territory for both Maya and Carina.
“No I’m going to wait on going to the doctor, I’ll keep an eye on my fever and keep taking paracetamol, and hope it comes down on its own. Right now I’m going to text Scarlett’s mom to sort Gianna out then I’m going to let your mamma know what the plan is. And I was supposed to be off today anyway so I don’t need to worry about that.”
Both Liam and Andrea nod before drifting towards the door, presumably on the way to make sure they and Gianna have everything and to get lunches into backpacks and shoes on.
“Oh, Liam?”
“Yeah mom?”
“Did you put deodorant on today?”
Liam hesitates for just a second too long before he answers, and Maya knows that he hasn’t.
“Umm … I think so?”
She’s tempted to roll her eyes but she stops herself for fear of making the dizziness worse.
“Go put some on, and if you already have then a little extra won’t hurt.”
Liam grumbles as he trudges out of the room, while Andrea starts to giggle as she follows him.
“Yeah nobody needs to smell your stinky boy smell!”
“I do not smell!”
“Yeah you do!” Gianna chips up and Maya groans, holding her head in her hands.
Carina has a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach as she trudges up the driveway and fumbles her house keys out of her pocket.
Maya is sick, which is unusual in itself.
Carina had asked her to check in regularly throughout the day and she had been up until a couple of hours ago when her messages had just stopped being read.
Logically, Carina knows Maya has probably just fallen asleep.
But her gut says something is wrong.
So, with her afternoon only being filled with filling out applications for research grants, she had come home early to check on her wife.
The house is dead silent when she pushes open the front door and she steps inside, the click of her heeled boots on the tiled entranceway feeling far too loud.
“Maya?” she calls out, slipping her jacket off and hanging it up on the hook.
Nothing.
“Bambina? I’m home,” she tries, removing her boots this time and placing them neatly on the shoe rack next to Gianna’s pink sparkly light up sneakers.
There’s still no answer and Carina’s concern grows as she moves through the house.
She finds Maya curled up on the window seat in the dining room, pale, flushed and sweaty.
Carina hurries over, putting the back of her hand to Maya’s forehead. Her concern deepens when she feels just how warm her wife is, especially when she takes one of her hands to squeeze to wake her up and it’s freezing cold.
“Maya? Bambina can you hear me?” she asks, giving her hand another squeeze and using the other to stroke her cheek.
Maya twitches in her sleep then wakes with a small gasp, her face going about three shades paler as she tries to sit up.
“Woah, careful, I got you,” Carina soothes, stabilising her shoulders and helping her to lie back down again.
“What?” Maya mumbles, wincing as she presses her hand over her ear and squeezes her eyes shut.
“You’re sick, bambina. Why are you here and not on the couch resting?” Carina asks, rubbing her thumb over the back of Maya’s hand.
Maya blinks in confusion, as if only just realising she’s not where she should be. “Umm … I don’t remember.”
“Va bene bambina, it’s okay don’t worry, va bene,” Carina reassures. She knows Maya was on the couch at one point, because Liam had texted and said he’d helped her down the stairs and made sure she had everything she needed there so she wouldn’t have to get up with how dizzy she was feeling.
“I’m just going to grab the sickness book and a thermometer, I’ll be right back, okay? Don’t move.”
She leans in to kiss Maya’s damp forehead and then hurries into the lounge, assuming that that’s probably where Maya left everything before she decided to get up.
She realises that she’s right, and she grabs the little book and flicks to the most recent page. She sees Liam’s neat handwriting at first recording Maya’s temperature at 7:30 and a note that she’d had two paracetamol. But then two hours later there’s Maya’s handwriting, shakier than usual, recording a slight increase in temperature.
Then there’s been nothing for the past five hours.
Back in the dining room Maya is visibly trembling and Carina crouches down beside her, taking the thermometer.
“I’m just going to take your temperature bambina,” Carina says softly, sitting on the floor next to Maya.
“Not … not in my ear,” Maya mumbles, covering her ear with one shaky hand.
“Okay, we can do an oral temperature. Do your ears hurt?” Carina asks as she turns the thermometer on then slips it into Maya’s mouth.
“Yeah,” Maya sighs.
“And you’re dizzy?”
“Mmhmm.”
“It sounds like you have an ear infection bambina, you had water trapped in your ears after that water rescue training remember?”
Maya hums again in response, her eyelids fluttering as she fights to stay awake.
“And we’re going to urgent care,” Carina sighs.
“What?”
“Your temp is 104.4 bambina, which is high and it’s climbed quite quickly since this morning.”
Maya sighs heavily, her head flopping back down against her arm and she squeezes her eyes shut.
“Can’t I just-”
“No bambina,” Carina interrupts. “Your temperature is climbing quite quickly and you almost definitely have an ear infection so you’ll need to get checked out anyway. So we are going to go to urgent care and get it sorted so you can get better, sì?”
She watches her wife’s face as it goes through all of the emotions, knowing Maya won’t want to go to urgent care; it’s not what she was expecting today, it’s probably going to mess up their evening plans and it means it’s serious enough that she’ll have to call in sick to work and it will mess up their plans with the kids for the weekend.
Maya hates being sick.
But she hates plans changing even more.
Carina waits her out until she gives a tiny nod, starting to struggle with sitting up. Carina puts a hand on her elbow to support her, steadying Maya as she wavers slightly.
“I don’t know if I - I might need-”
“I got you,” Carina says simply, standing up and putting her hands under Maya’s elbows. “I won’t let you fall.”
Urgent care takes longer than Carina was expecting.
They had confirmed quickly that Maya had an ear infection, in both ears, just to make things worse. But her fever had climbed slightly again since Carina had checked it at home so they’d admitted her for a couple of hours with IV fluids and paracetamol as well as cool compresses to try and get her fever down.
Privately, Carina was glad Maya had been forced to slow down - she knows her wife doesn’t do it on purpose but she doesn’t always recognise when she really is sick, when it’s not just a minor cold she can work through.
Unsurprisingly Maya had fallen asleep so Carina had taken the opportunity to step out for a second, arranging for the kids to go to their Aunt Amelia’s for an impromptu sleepover since she didn’t know when she would be getting home with Maya, and it just completely removed the added layer of complication of having the kids in the house.
So now at almost 9pm as they walk through the door the house is quiet and with her arm wrapped snugly around Maya’s waist Carina leads her straight up the stairs to their bedroom, helping her to settle into bed and kneeling down to take her shoes off for her. She then helps her strip off her joggers and jumper, getting her changed into some lightweight pyjamas which will help bring her temperature down too.
“I’m just going to grab the supplies we need and I’ll be right back, okay?” Carina says quietly - she knows the pain in Maya’s ears is starting to spike and noise is making it worse.
Maya nods, slowly lying down in bed and curling up into a little ball.
Carina watches for a moment with a heavy sigh and then slips out, grabbing what she needs and putting it all into a little basket so it stays in one place.
She then makes her way back to the bedroom, grabbing some more washclothes that she runs under cool water and brings to Maya, putting one of the back of her neck and holding the other to her forehead. She slides into bed next to her wife, pulling her into a hug and rubbing slow, gentle circles on her back.
“You rest bambina. Ear infections are the worst but I’ve got you.”