One
Carina placed the last of the charts she'd had to finish on table. She wasn't sure quite how long it had been since she'd started, which often happened when she was charting. She reached for her phone, also on the table. There was a message from Andy from about half an hour before. Hey, Carina. I just went to get Maya for dinner, and she was asleep - there was an entire empty box of cough drops in the trash. I don't know if you're working or not, but I figured you'd be mad if I didn't let you know. Carina smiled briefly, before realizing that her girlfriend was sick, and that she had to figure out how she was going to convince Maya to come home. They'd been making a lot of progress since Maya had started seeing a therapist about what had happened to her as a child, but allowing herself to believe that she was allowed to take a break hadn't quite been addressed yet.
Maya managed to force another few signatures before deciding that her throat was attempting to tell her something. She knew there was no reason for her to make things worse on top of deciding to push through and stay at work. Maya wasn't sure of the last time her throat had hurt quite so much; she had definitely never experienced pain that made its way all the way to her ears. Maya hadn't felt ear pain like that since she'd worn headphones for a morning run the day after getting her ears pierced at Claire's during a trip to the mall that she'd snuck off to with her friends while her parents were fighting about Mason. Obviously the gun had not been cleaned properly, and her ears were already close to infection prior to being crushed by a sweaty pair of clunky 80s headphones Maya had found in her one of her mom's boxes in the garage, for two hours. Maya figured that the incident report could wait for just a second while she rested her eyes.
A few hours later, Maya was awoken to the familiar feeling of hands in her hair, a kiss being pressed into her scalp. Carina. Maya quickly jerked up, immediately regretting it as the pain in her ears and throat pounded throughout her head.
"Maya, hey, calmati. Calmati," Carina said, brushing the back of her hand across Maya's cheek. Carina could tell from the heat she was radiating that Maya had been fighting a high-grade fever.
"Carina? Is this a dream?"
"No, bella. Andy texted me, and said she thought you might be sick, so I came to pick you up and take you home." There was a look of confusion on Maya's face.
"But I just rested my eyes for a couple of minutes. How did you get here so fast if Andy just texted you?"
"Maya, bambina, I think you slept un po longer than you think you did." Maya looked around, searching for the clock, before remembering. Her hands immediately went up to her head, covering her ears. Carina smiled sympathetically, and wrapped her shivering girlfriend in a tight hug.
"What time is it?" Maya said after awhile.
"7 o'clock."
"PM?"
"Si." Maya carefully withdrew herself from Carina's arms. She slowly turned, and picked up her pen. After grabbing another report from the pile, she began to read through it.
"I so appreciate you coming, Car, but I really need to get these reports done. Especially since I just took a three hour nap by accident." Carina sighed. Trying to keep the frustration out of her tone, she said, "Maya, you are sick. You need to come home." Maya looked up, realizing how worried Carina looked. Seeing her beautiful, usually so joyful, eyes full of so much anguish broke Maya's heart. She hadn't realized how much her insistence to push through the pain, her eyes forward mantra, were a result of the abuse, and that only her father preferred that she put herself in danger to keep on running.
"Mi dispiace, Carina. Let me just finish this, and then I promise you can take me home."
"Maya…"
"I promise it's just so that I can just spend the next few days in bed with you, healing, and not have to worry about anything at the station." Carina smiled. Maya knew exactly just how to calm her everytime.
"Alright, bambina," she conceded, "I'm going to go get some dinner for us from upstairs." A pause as Maya eyed her, "I lost track of time charting and didn't eat either." Maya smirked.
"What would we do without each other?"
"Non lo so." Carina wasn't sure the last time that she'd been in a common area of the station. With everything that had happened between her and Maya in the past year, she had spent most of her time in Maya's office when she was at the station. Besides the spaghetti dinner, Carina realized, she hadn't really spent any time in any of the common areas. When she reached the top of the stairs, Vic was sitting in one of the chairs, inhaling what looked to be a bowl of chili. She smiled when she saw Carina.
"Hi there, Dr. DeLuca."
"Oh, please, call me Carina."
"Okay. Hi, Carina. What brings you to our neck of the woods?" Ever since her relationship with Jackson had gone south, Vic had found it hard to think of the doctors as being on the same level as them. They always seemed a step higher on the totem pole.
"La mia ragazza testarda ha il mal di gola ed è venuta al lavoro," Carina mumbled. Vic stared at her with a look of amusement on her face.
"Sorry," Carina said quickly, "Maya has strep throat and didn't stay home from work, and fell asleep at her desk, and Andy texted me to come get her."
"Let me guess, she insisted on finishing the reports so you're getting her some food to take home when she's done?"
"You got it."
"I can't really quite believe that you managed to convince her to come home at all. I've never once, in all of my years working with Maya, seen that girl even consider taking a break."
"It's more the therapy than it is me."
"Oh, Carina, don't you dare sell yourself short. Yeah maybe part of this change in Maya is because she started going to therapy, but most of it is from having you in her life, and falling in love with you, and wanting to be better for you."
"Maybe that's what it took to get her there, but Maya's doing the real work by herself. The therapist is helping her, and sometimes she needs our encouragement to remember to take care of herself, but Maya's the one who's finally putting in that effort to take care of herself." Vic smiled. Hearing Carina talk about her friend that way; especially the friend who used to believe that monogamy made her weak, now having a girlfriend who spoke so highly of her, who she was so in love with. It made Vic forget all about the shitty day that she'd been having prior to deciding she needed a second bowl of chili.
"I'm so proud of her."
"So am I."
"Who are we proud of?" Maya asked. Walking up to the counter, she buried her aching head in Carina's chest. Carina's arms instinctively came up to pull the blonde closer.
"You, bitch," Vic replied.
"Oh." Carina attempted to hide a giggle, and Maya felt her already feverish cheeks turn brighter red. Carina pulled back, her hands grasping Maya's face so that they were making eye contact.
"I'm sorry. Ti amo, bella. I did not mean to laugh. You are just very cute," she assured. Maya smiled, some of the unnatural color dissipating.
"I love you, Carina DeLuca."
"Let me take you home, feed you something soothing for your throat, maybe ice-cream? We can watch one of those Italian soap operas you love so much."
"Sounds perfect." She tucked herself into Carina's side. "Bye, Vic. Could you tell Andy she's in charge, and Jack tomorrow?" Maya mumbled, the after effects of her feverish nap, plus the fever itself, finally hitting her.
"Of course. Go home with your hot Italian girlfriend, Mai." Vic turned to look at Carina, who had a look of confusion but also amusement on her face, "She likes to call you that when she's drunk."
"Okay, that's enough. Carina, take me home please."
"Certo, bambina. I've got you. Let's go."
The rest of the evening made Maya decide that having to stay home from work sick wasn't quite as terrible as she'd always thought it would be. Carina spent the entire night pampering her. Bringing her cough syrup, tea, or Mint Chip ice-cream whenever she needed it. Holding her as they watched another episode of "Il paradiso delle signore," and discovered what happened next in the world of the employees of a 1950s department store. Maya could barely follow what was happening, even with Carina's constant whispered translations, but it was one of her favorite comfort activities. When Maya felt herself drifting off, her head tucked under Carina's chin, she mumbled sleepily, "Grazie, Carina. Grazie."
"You are very welcome. Rest, bambina."
Two
Maya was happy to finally have a full station of A Team firefighters again. There had been a nasty bug making its way through the station for the past month causing a need for many subs as well as extra B team shifts. Maya had missed having all her friends, the people she trusted most with a call, on duty at once. She'd even felt the constant anxiety she'd been experiencing lately lifting itself from her chest that shift. Just as Maya was about to sit down for the first time since coming into work almost a full 24 hours before, the alarm blared once again. Maya set her coffee down on her desk, and sprinted for the trucks, her turnouts already halfway on. Maya took a seat in the passenger's seat. Usually she would drive, but they had a new probie who was driving the aid car for a shift, so Ben had been upgraded to driving the engine. Ben lurched forward, and Maya was immediately struck with a wave of nausea. She reached for her stomach, and grabbed the closest bag, which happened to be an empty McDonalds bag that had fallen onto the floor of the truck during a post call fast food run earlier that day. When she was done, she turned to face Ben.
"I know this is an emergency, but could you drive a little smoother maybe." Maya had tried not to snap, but it had been a long shift, and she was feeling so terrible all of a sudden.
"I think the cap finally got the virus." There were cheers from behind them. Maya rolled her eyes, trying to hold back the laughter at the relief of being with her own team again.
"Okay, Cap, we're in a hurry, and you are not going to be any good on this call so unless you want to be the reason that we're late, you should go ahead and get off the truck."
"Fine, but I want updates."
"Of course." Maya opened the door, and swung around the side before hopping off. She waved at Ben, Vic, and Andy as the engine took off, lights flashing, sirens blaring. Maya decided to go sit in the break room, just at least until they got back from the call. She didn't want to fall asleep, and not be able to help later on, so she decided that the break room was a better option than her office bunk. Some medical drama was on, and Maya was so sick that she didn't even have the energy to change the channel. She just wouldn't mention this part of her evening to Carina. Before Maya could even fully process that thought, Carina was standing in the doorway.
"Hi, bella."
"I should have known."
"Known what?"
"That Andy was going to call you." Carina smiled sweetly, and took a seat next to her girlfriend on the couch. Maya found Carina's hand with her own, sighing at the contact.
"Actually it was Ben. I heard you got sick on the way to a call, in a McDonalds takeout bag?"
"I guess it was a good thing we decided to stop there for McGriddles this morning," Maya said sheepishly.
"I guess so."
"I'm really glad you're here." Maya had been getting so much better at communicating her true feelings for Carina, and not trying to hide when she was in pain and/or needed comforting.
"Does that mean I can take you home?" Carina asked, already pretty sure of what the answer was going to be, and that she wasn't going to be happy with it. She knew her girlfriend, sometimes better than Maya knew herself.
"I-well-," Maya hesitated, "This is the first time the whole team has been here in so long. I feel weird about leaving." Carina sighed, and soothingly tucked her hand under Maya's ponytail.
"I understand."
"You do?" Maya was confused. She'd figured she'd have more push back from Carina, especially given that Maya had spent the whole past month telling Carina horror stories from her friends about how bad this virus was.
"Yes, but will you hear me out, bambina, per favore?" There it was.
"Si."
"I know that it has been a long time since you were all here at once, and you feel some obligation to be here because everyone else is. But the sooner that you come home, and actually heal, the sooner you can come back and all be healthy together, which will be so much better for everyone, especially you."
"I guess."
"Maya, you got off of that engine. You didn't go on the call. You took the first step on your own, and you've come so far in the past year, and I'm so incredibilmente proud of you." Maya looked up, trying to hide the prideful smile she couldn't stop from covering her face. Carina kissed her, hard, trying to capture the smile forever. Before Maya could respond, she felt the familiar pull in her stomach, and dashed for the bathroom. Carina followed close behind her, sitting next to her on the floor to be the source of comfort that she knew Maya would need when she was finished. Maya fell back against the Italian, her sweaty hair sticking to her neck until Carina gently brushed it off. After a few minutes of relishing in the comfort of Carina's arms, Maya sat up.
"Okay, maybe we can go home. But just because I'd way rather you hold me in our bed than have to sit on the floor of this public bathroom."
"I will take it!" Carina exclaimed. Maya smiled. She still couldn't quite believe how lucky she'd gotten. Carina DeLuca, who'd started at Grey Sloan working on a clinical trial that involved women masturbating to orgasm in an MRI machine, was just about to take her home to their apartment that they owned together to cuddle with her in their shared bed.
"I love you," she blurted out before she could stop herself. It had been over a year since the first time they'd said it to each other, but Maya still felt her heart rate speed up everytime she did. There was still a small part of her that was worried that one day she wasn't going to hear back what she wanted to hear back.
"I love you more, Maya." Today was not that day. Maya went to stand up, and immediately had to lean over the toilet once again. Carina placed a hand on the small of Maya's back, taking one of her hands with the other. "Scusami you don't feel well, bambina." Maya shook her head, and turned to hug her girlfriend, to try to get across just how much she appreciated Carina being there in this moment.
By the time they reached their apartment, Maya had been sick three more times. When Travis had mentioned spending more time throwing up than sleeping, he hadn't been exaggerating. It was going to be a long night. Carina helped Maya into their bedroom, before placing an order for groceries. She couldn't remember the last time that either of them had had a stomach issue, and they didn't have much proper food equipped for that. Carina had never seen Maya sick to her stomach due to illness, but she had a tendency to enjoy banana slices on saltines for breakfast when she'd drunk a little too much the night before. When the order was placed, Carina helped Maya change out of her dirty uniform into a tank top and some boxer shorts. Carina had barely climbed into bed next to Maya before she heard the soft snores. Carina smiled, draping an arm over Maya, glad that she was getting some sleep before the worst of it. She moved closer her girlfriend, but not close enough to overheat her, and felt herself begin to drift off as well.
Three
Usually Maya would have eaten dinner with the rest of the station, but they'd been on call. Maya had found herself missing more and more calls lately, which made her sad, but also less anxious because it made Carina worry less. She'd decided to order in from one of her favorite takeout spots in Seattle. It had been about an hour, and her stomach was starting to rumble. Not in a, "thank you for feeding me delicious food way," but more a "what did you put in me?" way. There had been reviews of Teriyaki Paradise in the past that were sketchy, but Maya had never had a bad experience so she had ignored them. However, being aware of their existence, the feeling in Maya's stomach worried her. She figured maybe she just needed to use the bathroom.
This is where Andy and Vic found her, three hours later, half asleep on the toilet. Vic reached forward, touching Maya's shoulder lightly. Maya jumped, looking up.
"Oh, hey," she said once she'd registered that Vic and Andy were truly standing in front of her.
"Oh hey? What's going on, Mai, and why does it smell like the dumpster behind a mall food court in here?" Vic asked.
"I wanted teriyaki." Maya looked down, embarrassed, because this was not the first time she'd ordered Teriyaki Paradise at work, and last time was when she'd found out about the reviews because Jack had looked them up in front of everyone.
"Maya, you were literally warned."
"I know."
"How bad is it?"
"It's pretty bad. I've been in here for hours." Vic and Andy looked at her with sad, sympathetic, smiles.
"Okay, I'm going to go find some Pepto Bismol. Vic, you call Carina. Maya, get off the toilet when you're ready and go chill in your bunk," Andy said after awhile. Maya's eyes widened.
"No, you can't call Carina. She can't see me like this. It's so not sexy. I'll just stay here tonight," she replied frantically. Andy glared at her.
"Maya, she's your fiancé."
"Yeah, Maya, she might judge you for continuing to order from a place known to cause food poisoning, but she's not going to love you any less just because you make your apartment smell like a dead animal," Vic cut in. Now it was Vic that Andy was glaring at.
"Don't listen to her. Carina adores you. She isn't going to think any less of you. If anything she'll find some way to think this is cute."
"So can I call your hot doctor fiancé to come rescue you now?" Vic asked. Maya thought about it for awhile. She decided that her friends were right, and it wasn't like she was going to be able to hide this from Carina. If Carina found out that Maya was asleep in her bunk, she was going to know something was up and come to the station anyways because that's just the kind of person that she was.
"Yes, you can call Carina."
After some Pepto Bismol, and a scolding from Jack, Maya was asleep in her bunk. The A team, as they called themselves, were in the bistro going over what had happened on the call and collecting money from the bets they'd placed on how long it was going to take for Maya to get food poisoning from Teriyaki Paradise. That was where Carina found them, surprised to see that Maya was not among them, pushing through the food poisoning like it was just another obstacle she'd brought upon herself.
"Your lady is sleeping off her bad decisions in her bunk," Vic struggled to hold in a giggle as she spoke.
"I thought you said she ate bad chicken."
"Yes, but she was aware of the reviews before she ordered it, so I would say it's along the same lines as getting wasted." Carina chuckled to herself.
"That's my girl."
"I told Maya you would think this was cute," Andy said. Carina looked at her with concern. "Maya didn't want us to call you, because she was worried that you'd think less of her."
"Oh, bambina. Okay, I'm going to go ease her worries, and take her home. Thank you for calling me. We're both so lucky that she has all of you."
"Thank you, Carina, for revealing the real Maya that was under that hard exterior." Carina smiled. She paused when she got to Maya's office, just enjoying getting to let her sleep for awhile. Something about seeing Maya take care of herself, after all this time, was so sexy. It also just made Carina feel good, proud.
"Are you deciding whether or not this is a deal breaker for you?"
"No, bella, no. I was just thinking about how proud I am of you for how far you've come, but that question takes you back just a little."
"What do you mean how far I've come?"
"Well there was a time that you wouldn't have even allowed yourself to register that your body was fighting something, and now you're letting your teammates call me and sleeping in your bunk instead of trying to work."
"Maybe I should just stay here tonight."
"Maya, you're going to feel so much more comfortable on a real mattress. Plus we have soft toilet paper and a plush toilet seat cover," Carina protested, sitting on the bed. She brushed Maya's hair out of her eyes.
"Maybe you should stay here?"
"I get your hesitation, bambina. I know that this must be scary and embarrassing, but I am not going anywhere, no matter whether you blow at our toilet or not." Maya laughed. Carina cocked her head.
"Blow up."
"Mi scusi?"
"Blow up our toilet."
"Oh." Maya sat up, kissing Carina deeply.
"Okay we can both go home." Carina smiled against Maya's lips, kissing her harder. She tangled her hands in Maya's hair, leaving a trail of kisses down her neck. They were soon interrupted by Maya's stomach's protests.
"Oh, Maya, okay. Let's get you home." Thankfully they made it home in time for Maya's next round on the toilet. Maya was blasting music from the speaker in an attempt to prevent Carina from knowing every detail of what was going on. Carina was scouring the whole apartment, looking for the other switch controller. Her plan was to set up Mario Kart on the TV, and airplay it to the one in the bathroom. It wasn't much, but at least it would make it possible for Carina and Maya to be connected in a way that wasn't going to make Maya feel too embarrassed. It wasn't long after she got the switch connected to the TV that she heard the door to the bathroom open. Maya was standing in the doorway, tears threatening to fall.
"So we can be together while we're apart?"
"Si, bella."
"Ti amo."
"Ti amo."
One
Her head was pounding in time with the alarm. Maya shot up, thinking there was a call, before realizing that it was just the phone alarm that she'd set a few hours before to ensure that she wouldn't sleep in too much. It felt like someone had taken a hammer, and hit her with it in the face repeatedly. On top of that her whole body felt hot and cold at the same time, her nose was stuffy, she couldn't stop sneezing, and every few minutes she was taken over by a racking cough. Normally she would push through to the end of the shift, but she still had a whole twelve hours to go, and Maya wasn't sure she could make it if she tried. Carina was supposed to be getting off her shift right about then. Sure enough there was a text from her that she was getting ready to head home, and that she hoped that Maya had gotten some sleep. Maya thought about texting Carina back, telling her that she wasn't feeling well, to wait for Carina to insist on coming to pick her up. However, Maya had done that before, she'd already taken that step. In order for this to really mean something, she had to decide to go home on her own.
Carina had just gotten home; she was juggling her tote bag of charts in one hand, her coffee and breakfast in the other. She was about to set the bag down on one of the chairs in the living room area when the sound of the door unlocking made her stop in her tracks. She turned to the door, half expecting Andrea to walk in. He was the only person other than Carina and Maya who had ever had a key to this apartment, besides Andy, and she was at the station with Maya. When the door opened, Carina was surprised to see her wife. Her hair was shelved, like she'd just woken up. She looked especially pale, aside from the bright red circles on her cheeks.
"Maya, is everything okay?"
"I didn't feel well." She paused. "So I came home."
"You did?"
"I did." Carina smiled just about as big as she could with the obvious prerequisite to her wife coming home, that Maya was sick. She emptied her hands, and pulled Maya into a tight embrace.
"Grazie."
"What?"
"Thank you for realizing that you were sick, and coming home." Maya sniffled, and hugged Carina back, just as tight. If she'd known that this was the way that Carina would act if she came home sick, she would have done it years ago.