Here's the next part!
Dean was feeling a little bit nervous as he made his way to Grey Sloan. Pru was six weeks old, and he was taking her for her first pediatrician appointment. He had no idea what to expect, and he was feeling very nervous about everything with his little girl.
He had also only been back at work for a week, and it had been so hard leaving her and made him fear that he was doing something wrong even more.
Vic had offered to come with him, but he had told her he wanted to take her alone. However, as he walked into the hospital, he kinda wished he had someone with him besides just the sleeping baby in the carrier on his chest.
As he walked through the lobby, he saw a large group of doctors all standing around one doctor who was up on a table, yelling about something. He thought the yelling doctor looked familiar, but he couldn't quite place him. Dean sighed, hoping everything was ok, but not really having time to stop and see because he was already running late.
He made it to the appointment, glad that everything seemed to be good with his baby girl. She was a good height and weight, and she was growing well.
Dean discussed some of his fears about JJ leaving and how that would impact Pru, and the doctor assured him that she was going to be ok, that plenty of kids grew up in single parent homes, and that from what he had seen, Dean was a good dad who was doing an amazing job with the little girl.
She also told Dean that many, many kids, including her own had a nanny who stayed with them, and that there was nothing wrong with that. It made him feel a little bit better about how things were going with Pru.
He also got some tips on things to try to help with the colic that had been keeping all of them up for the two or so weeks, hoping that something worked because the sleep deprivation was getting bad.
When the appointment was over, the doctor told Dean that they needed to get some labs on Pru, telling him to go down to the lab to get that done.
Dean nodded, getting ready to head down there when Pru had a massive blow out all over her clothes and the carrier Dean had her in. He sighed, taking her into one of the family bathrooms because the men's bathrooms almost never had changing tables. He quickly got her into clean clothes, shoving the old ones along with the baby carrier into the diaper bag, grateful that at least this time, she had managed to avoid getting him messy.
Once she was cleaned up, he headed out of the bathroom, realizing he had completely forgotten the directions the doctor had given him about how to get to the lab. The bathroom he had found was down a pretty quiet hall so he didn't see anyone around.
However, as he started to walk toward the lobby to get some directions, he spotted a doctor in pink scrubs standing near an equipment cart, her back to him.
"Excuse me," he said, walking over to her.
"Si," the woman said, turning around, wiping the tears off her face.
"Oh," Dean said, realizing she had been crying, "Sorry. I'll go."
"No," the woman said, her Italian accent evident to Dean immediately, "Sorry. Something just happened with my brother, but he will be ok. Can I help you with something?"
"I'm just looking for the lab," Dean said, "I need to take my daughter to get some bloodwork done."
"I'll walk you down there," the woman offered.
"That's ok," Dean said, "You can just point me in the right direction."
"No," the woman said, shaking her head, "It is a little confusing getting down there. Plus, I could use a distraction for a few minutes. Come."
"Thanks," Dean said, following her to the elevators, "I'm Dean Miller by the way."
"Carina Deluca," the Italian said, "And who is this?"
"This is my daughter, Pruitt," Dean said, thinking the name sounded weirdly familiar, but his overtired brain made it impossible for him to remember much of anything, "Or Pru as we call her."
"She is very cute," Carina said, Dean not noticing the spark of recognition in her eye because Pru started fussing a little, "How old is she?"
"She's six weeks old," Dean said, smiling as she settled back down.
"Was she born here?" Carina asked innocently, not letting on that she knew exactly where and how this little girl was born.
"No, actually, she was born where I work," Dean said, "At Fire Station 19. She was born during that big snowstorm we had."
"Wow," Carina said, "Did you help with the delivery?"
"No," Dean said, "I don't really know much about deliveries. My captain, former captain, and one of my lieutenants delivered her."
"That's great that they were able to help," Carina said.
"Yeah," Dean nodded, "It was. Our captain called someone she knows who is an OB and they gave her some advice. It was one of the most terrifying and wonderful days of my life."
"I'm sure," Carina said as they stepped out of the elevator.
As they did, Carina's phone buzzed and she paused, pulling it out and looking at it, a small smile crossing her lips. Dean wasn't totally sure what to do because he still wasn't totally sure where the lab was.
"Sorry," Carina said, realizing she had left him hanging, "That was just my girlfriend. She is apparently on her way over here."
"That's ok," Dean said as they kept walking, "I can probably figure it out from here. You should go see your girlfriend."
"The lab is right here," Carina said, "Good luck with the blood draw on the bambina. She really is beautiful."
"Thanks," Dean said, nodding, "Good luck with your brother."
"Grazie," Carina nodded, walking back toward the elevator, looking at her phone.
It took a few minutes of waiting, one heel prick, and several minutes of tears, but soon enough, Pru had had her blood drawn and fell asleep in her daddy's arms as he comforted her. He headed back upstairs, careful not to wake the little girl. He walked out of the hospital, heading towards his car.
As he was walking, he saw Carina sitting on a bench, leaning her cheek on her hand as her elbow rested on the armrest. Dean was about to walk over to her and see if she was ok, figuring he owed it to her because she had been so kind to him even when she was clearly going through something, when suddenly, someone else approached the Italian.
Dean looked, rubbing at his eyes because he figured it was just exhaustion making him see what he saw. However, as he watched, he realized that he was not mistaken. His captain had just approached Carina, wrapping her arms around her as Carina leaned into her. He watched in total disbelief as Maya rubbed her back, saying something Dean was too far away to hear before leaning down and kissing the top of her head. Dean genuinely could not believe what he was seeing. Maya just sat there, holding Carina.
Dean watched the scene for another minute before Pru started moving a little, bringing his attention back to his daughter.
"Ok," he said, realizing it was almost time for her to eat, "Let's get you home."
He glanced up at Maya and Carina one more time before heading to his car, trying to wrap his mind around what he had just seen. He got Pru in her car seat before climbing in himself and heading home.
As he drove, he suddenly realized a lot of things all at once.
First, was that Carina was the name of the woman Maya had said she had called while she was helping JJ through having Pru, and he was 99.99% sure that must be the woman he had just met.
Second was that the doctor he had seen standing on the table yelling was Andrew Deluca from when they had rescued the boy in the storm drain.
Third was that Carina must be Andrew's sister because Deluca was not a popular name, unlike his own, and what was the likelihood that there were two unrelated Delucas at Grey Sloan, one of whom had a mental breakdown on the same day the other one was having problems with her brother.
All of that blew Dean's mind a little, but the even crazier thing was that Maya was at the hospital with Carina, clearly comforting her and taking care of her. He then remembered Carina had said her girlfriend was on her way. His jaw dropped as he put together that his boss was dating the Italian doctor he had just met.
He and Maya weren't very close, but he did know she did not call anyone her girlfriend and did not comfort people like he had just seen. He had had to listen to Gibson bitch about how terrible she was when she broke up with him to try to become captain.
He didn't necessarily think she should have been captain, and he was not a fan of her intensity, but he did think she was a better captain than Jack would have been or Andy, not that he would ever tell them that, but they were both going through a lot and brought their drama into the station.
Maya, on the other hand, usually kept her personal life out of the station, with the exception of her thing with Gibson. She also studied fires more than anyone he knew, and she was dedicated to the job with everything she had. Whenever anyone in the station was in a relationship, everyone knew and that drama was usually brought into the station, but the fact that he had heard nothing about this girlfriend of Maya's just proved that she knew how to keep her personal and professional life separate which he thought was important for a captain because it kept them focused on the job.
Dean was drawn out of his thoughts about his boss by his daughter's screams from the back seat. He immediately got out, bringing her back to the house.
As he walked down the dock, he decided to not mention what he had seen at the hospital, knowing that if Maya wanted to keep her personal life out of the station, that was her right and she should be allowed to do that. It would be best if no one in the station knew if Maya didn't want to tell them because it would allow her to keep her personal life private so as he walked into the house and Vic asked him if anything interesting had happened, he told her everything had been completely normal, choosing to respect his captain's privacy.
What did you think?