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Carina was exhausted. Apparently the uteri of Seattle were insistent on having complicated births at the most ridiculous hours this week and it felt like she hadn’t been home in days.
Crawling into bed felt like she’d entered heaven, especially when her adorably sleepy wife immediately shuffled closer. “You’re cold,” she mumbled, only half-awake.
“You’ll warm me up,” Carina replied, kissing the top of her head. “Dormi bene amore,” she stroked her hair softly and Maya soon fell back to sleep. Carina knew she wouldn’t be far behind her, but she let her hand drift down to her wife’s small pregnancy bump, smiling to herself at their little miracle growing in there. She’d been a little surprised when Maya had told her she wanted to carry their child, but there was absolutely zero argument from her. She was obsessed with watching her wife grow their baby girl. She was also obsessed with how clingy Maya had been since getting pregnant. Every night she would burrow as tight to Carina as physically possible, and now was no different.
She settled down, shutting her eyes and holding her wife and baby girl close.
“Mamma? Mommy?”
Her eyes opened weakly, her whole being definitely unhappy about being woken up, but she couldn’t ignore that noise. “Stai bene angioletta?” she asked, except as her eyes adjusted she realised that Andrea was standing at the end of the bed with possibly every blanket from her room wrapped around her.
The 6-year-old shuffled over towards her. “Mamma I feel bad.”
Carina sat herself up carefully. There was a sad noise from Maya as she moved, but she remained asleep. Something Carina had noticed since Maya became pregnant was how deeply she slept. “In what way?”
“My head hurts. And I’m cold.”
“Well that explains all the blankets, hm? Can I feel your forehead?” Carina reached out, but despite all the blankets it felt relatively normal. “It feels okay, shall we get you some tylenol and get you tucked back up in bed?”
“No, I want abbracci [hugs],” she held onto Carina’s arm now. “Can I sleep here?”
Normally Carina was very strict on the kids getting into bed with them. She was pretty sure Andrea was okay really, it wouldn’t be the first time she’d played this trick, but to be honest with how exhausted she felt - and the fact it was only about 45 minutes since she’d fallen asleep - she couldn’t be bothered to argue it.
“Just this once,” she mumbled, helping her daughter onto the bed with her pile of blankets. She quickly nipped out to the kitchen, grabbing the children’s Tylenol and bringing it back. Once Andrea had taken it she joined her back in bed. She made sure to keep Andrea the other side of her from Maya, not wanting her wife woken. Soon enough she was settled down with all her girls surrounding her - that wasn’t such a bad thing really. Hopefully she can get some more sleep now.
The 6am alarm was horrific most days, even more so when she’d only got home at 2am, but they had kids to get up for school and Carina always made sure to help if she was home, regardless of the time she’d gone to bed.
She groaned as Maya reached out to turn the alarm off. “That came around way too fast.”
“When did you get in?” Maya asked, snuggling back in for a moment. Another favourite part about Maya’s pregnancy was that she didn’t immediately jump out of bed in the morning, and Carina relished these moments right now.
“Just after 2,” Carina replied, brushing Maya’s hair back from her face. “You were sound asleep.”
Maya tilted her head up and Carina took the invitation for a morning kiss. “Drea didn’t want to go to bed last night, it took me forever to get her to settle.”
“Mmm she came in about 3, she’s asleep behind me now with every blanket she owns,” Carina gestured her head and Maya looked over, seeing Andrea curled up to Carina’s back. “Didn’t have the energy to force her back to bed. She said her head hurt so she had tylenol. She didn’t feel warm though. Can you reach her head now?”
Maya reached over, touching Andrea’s forehead. “Feels okay, we can check properly when she’s awake.”
Carina nodded, yawning and holding a hand to her mouth. “I won’t lie, I can’t wait for you lot to head out so I can go back to bed. I’m also caldo [hot] after being surrounded by all those blankets.”
“I can handle the kids if you need to sleep,” Maya told her.
“No, I will help. Andiamo, let’s do this.”
They both sat up. Maya went to the bathroom first and Carina started to gently wake Andrea. “Buonjourno angioletta,” she brushed the hair that had practically covered her face, wondering how it was still such a state when she’d not had much room to move in the night.
Andrea hated mornings, possibly more than her mother. While her brother was probably already awake and getting himself ready for school, Drea was the complete opposite. She grumbled, turning over and huffing. Carina chuckled, she looked adorable when she did it. “Drea it’s time to get up, Mommy needs to take you to school before she goes to work.”
“Non voglio andare a scuola. Mi sento male,” Andrea shuffled over and rested her head in Carina’s lap.
At this point Maya returned, and she was holding the thermometer that Carina was going to ask her to get. “How are we doing in here?
“My head hurts mommy,” Andrea replied, “no school.”
Carina caught Maya’s eyeline and gave her an unconvinced look, which Maya seemed to understand. “Can I take your temperature my little love?”
Their daughter didn’t really answer, but she did turn her head so Maya could put the thermometer in her ear. “You don’t have a fever,” Maya explained, showing Carina the normal temperature as she did. “Where does it hurt?”
Andrea just shrugged. Honestly, their daughter was a pretty terrible liar. “Can we have breakfast and see how you feel then?”
“Mamma are you going to have breakfast too?”
Carina was a little perplexed by the question - they always had breakfast together when home. “Of course, we will all go, sí?” Thankfully that was agreed to, and after collecting Liam en route, they all went down for breakfast.
Cereal and toast was consumed by all, and Andrea didn’t protest during, but as soon as it was time to go and get dressed things reverted back. She started crying, clinging onto Carina who was trying to get the washing up done as fast as possible. She’d let Maya go and sort Liam and herself while she tried to tackle Andrea, but it was fast proving difficult on so little sleep which was making her feel dreadful.
She abandoned the washing up and got down to Andrea’s level, deciding that with this much determination there must be some reason Andrea didn’t want to go to school, even if she was pretty sure the headache was a ruse. “You still feel bad?”
Andrea nodded, sniffling a little. “Really bad Mamma.”
“Alright then, can we make a deal? Mommy really needs to go to work for her meeting, so you can stay home with me, but Mamma needs some sleep too so maybe we can take a nap together this morning?”
“Yes please,” she replied so politely it almost made Carina’s heart melt. “Okay bella, let’s go back upstairs.”
When they got back up, Maya was just appearing in her uniform, the baby bump just showing beautifully. Carina explained the decision, whispering her reasoning while Andrea was busy arranging blankets on the bed. Maya agreed, promising she’d be back no later than 11, and then heading out to finish sorting Liam. Carina shut the bedroom door and went over to the bed where Drea was now curled up under her blankets. “I left you room too mamma.”
“That’s very kind of you,” Carina smiled and joined her on the bed. “Are you sleepy?”
“Mhm, and I like snuggles with you mamma,” she added.
This girl and her heart.
They both settled down, Andrea getting as close to her as possible, and Carina soon fell asleep.
When Maya arrived home the house was quiet. She’d texted Carina a couple of times to no response, but she wasn’t really worried.
She left her bag on the side and made her way upstairs. When she got to the top she could hear her daughter’s angelic voice singing softly. Maya smiled, heading to their bedroom.
The sight she found was not what she had expected. Andrea was sitting on the bed next to Carina, who was now covered in all of Andrea’s blankets. “What’s happening here then?” Maya asked calmly, even if internally she was already concerned.
“When I woked up mamma was all shivvery so I gave her my blankets and sung her the bedtime song so she can sleep more,” she explained innocently.
Carina didn’t sleep this much usually, and the shivering definitely wasn’t a great sign. “You did really well sweetheart. How’s your head feeling?”
She walked over to the other side of Carina while Drea answered. “Okay, I’m kinda hungry.”
“Tell you what, why don’t you go and get an apple and eat it downstairs while I see how Mamma’s doing?”
Andrea eyed her suspiciously, looking to Carina and back again. Thankfully, the lure of apples won out and she nodded, climbing down from the bed and leaving the room. Maya sat down on the edge of the bed, stroking her wife’s hair back from her face. Carina stirred slightly, her eyes opening briefly but then quickly shutting as if pained. “Hi my love,” Maya kept her calm voice going. “You feel very warm.”
“M’cold,” she mumbled.
“I know, but I think we need to take some of these blankets off, hm?” Maya replied, starting to remove most of them from the pile. She left only one, keeping Carina covered but allowing some of the heat that was radiating off her to escape. “I’m going to check your temperature, okay?”
There was a small noise of agreement and Maya grabbed the thermometer that was handily still on the bedside cabinet. “102.5,” she started, and then realised she should convert it for her European wife. “39.2, that is definitely a fever. Can you tell me what else you feel? Does something hurt?”
She watched as Carina moved her arm and rubbed her lower back. “It hurts there?”
Carina nodded. “At work… hurt when I pee…” she shivered again, hugging herself close to Maya. “M’so tired.”
That pretty much nailed it as a UTI, possibly even a kidney infection. Maya continued stroking her hair. “Okay my love, do you think you’d be able to go to the bathroom before you sleep again? If we get a sample I can go and get it checked,” she explained.
“No… don’t go.” Despite her weakened state, she was now clinging onto Maya’s leg impressively tightly.
“I will be quick, I promise, but we need to get you some antibiotics before this gets any worse,” she explained. “Let me help you to the bathroom?”
It took some persuasion, a bit of support, and a lot of comfort to get it done, but a few minutes later Carina was back in bed. Maya was struggling to fathom a little how her wife had gotten this sick so fast, but it was starting to piece together - her complaints of being warm when they woke, the excessive tiredness (even given her work situation), and with the addition of her stubbornness, Carina probably had been feeling unwell for a while and not mentioned it. Still, Maya wished she’d noticed sooner. She just hoped they could avoid a trip to the ER.
Before she allowed Carina to lie down properly, she made her drink a glass of water - fluids would be important - and take some Tylenol for her fever. “Okay, you can sleep now. I will be back as soon as possible, I promise. I will take Drea with me.”
Carina’s eyes suddenly opened again, “is she okay?! I- she was here and-”
“She’s happily eating an apple downstairs, her head is better - or possibly never was bad. I have a suspicion she just missed her mamma,” Maya told her. “Sleep my love, everything is going to be okay I promise.”
Once soft snores had started to fill the room, she stood up and made her way downstairs.
The urine dipstick had practically glowed. Maya had called in a favour and Bailey had met her at Grey-Sloan, running the tests and prescribing the necessary antibiotics. She was in agreement that it was likely a kidney infection, and had given Maya a list of instructions.
Once they left the hospital, she managed to persuade Andrea that a fun afternoon with Zia Andy would be great, and so she dropped her off there on the way home - also informing Andy that she would need to take a few days off work.
After a final quick trip to the drug store and the grocery store, she made it back home. Unsurprisingly, her wife was still asleep. She left her, instead going to the kitchen and making up Carina’s favourite soup which she then served up along with a large bottle of water and the newly prescribed antibiotics.
Thankfully, because Maya really didn’t want to have to wake her, Carina was awake when she returned to the bedroom. “Hey, I have soup for you,” she told her, placing the tray down and then helping Carina sit up carefully. “Your urine dipstick was very telling. Bailey has sent a sample to the lab too, but she’s already given you antibiotics. She’s pretty sure you have a kidney infection my love,” Maya explained, carefully putting the tray on Carina’s lap.
“I guess that makes sense,” Carina replied quietly. “M’sorry. I was so busy… I didn’t notice.”
“You don’t need to be sorry. We’ve got the drugs now, you’ll be better in no time,” Maya told her, smiling softly. “You just have your soup, the antibiotics are there too, and Drea is with Andy so we have a few hours of peace until Liam comes home from hockey.”
“I’m so lucky to have you.”
Maya nodded, “you are, but that’s okay. I’m lucky to be able to look after you,” she smiled. “Now eat, I’m going nowhere.”