The Tiger

Carina had just gotten out of surgery, and she was so hungry that the thought of eating in the caf, which she usually hated doing, didn't even seem that bad. She wasn't sure that she could make it through waiting for delivery from somewhere else. Amelia had been pretty much the only actual friend Carina had, had at the hospital since Arizona left, or she would have gone to see if someone wanted to eat with her. There was always Andrew, but things had been different between them since his treatment and Carina didn't feel awake enough to have to navigate that new dynamic right now.

"Hi, Dr. DeLuca." It was Maggie. She was dressed in street clothes, which meant that she was either just arriving or about to leave. Carina hoped it was the former; maybe it was time to start making more friends.

"Hi, Dr. Pierce. How is everything going?"

"As well as it can be right now, I guess. I've only had two deaths so far today," she paused, "Damn I never thought I would be happy about that." Carina adjusted her mask. The emergency c-section she'd just performed was yet another mom who'd missed her prenatal appointments due to the fear of contracting Covid, and had ended up with unanticipated complications during labor.

"This disease is absolutely devastating," Carina said, "I am ready for it to be done."

"Me too." Maggie looked down, shifting from one foot to the other. Carina had forgotten for a second that for Maggie, the implications of this disease meant a lot more. With her sister in the ICU on a vent, the end must have seemed even further away.

"Oh, Maggie, I am so sorry. I did not even think-"

"It's okay, Carina. Meredith's a fighter. She's survived so much worse than this. I know she can handle it, it's just scary."

"I cannot even imagine. It is scary enough for those of us whose family members have not been affected."

"How's Andrew doing?" Maggie asked.

"He is okay, I think. He does not really trust me right now, so I do not know for sure. But I am sure he would love if you checked in with him yourself," Carina replied, "I hope you know, Maggie, that he really loved you. He still does, just not in that way." Maggie smiled.

"I really loved him too. Love him."

"Hey so I know we did not get off to the best start. I have a tendency to be too overprotective sometimes. I know now that Andrea had as much to do with what happened between you two as you did, and I would just like to apologize for the way I acted."

"It's okay, Carina. I would do the same for Meredith and Amelia."

"Bene. I was about to head down to the cafeteria for some food. Would you like to join me? With Amelia on maternity leave, I need some new girl friends around here."

"I would love-" Maggie was interrupted by her pager going off, "I'm so sorry, Carina. There's a trauma in the pit. I have to go."

"Another time then."

"Yes, definitely." With that, she took off down the hall towards the ER. Carina sighed, and looked around. Other than a few nurses, there wasn't a single other person in sight. Carina would have asked one of the nurses, but she wasn't sure how they would feel about that after Arizona had pretty much one and done all of them while she was Carina's friend. Arizona had gone through a bit of a midlife crisis following her divorce with Callie, sliding back into her pre-marriage womanizing days. It had been great for her, not so great for the nurses. Carina wasn't even entirely sure that all of them were into women. She was glad that she'd found Maya so early on in life, because she wasn't sure she could handle dating in this day and age. Especially as a queer woman. She glanced up at the news, which was playing on one of the ceiling TVs.

"A tiger, which was kept as a pet, has been wandering around Seattle all day after attacking its owner and getting loose. Thankfully it appears that the tiger was well fed enough that only the one mauling has occurred. Oh wait we are now getting wind of the current location of the tiger. Apparently, it has wandered into a local fire station. Animal control has received a call from Maya Bishop, the fire captain over at Station 19. They are headed over there now. We will be back as soon as we know more. Stay safe out there, Seattle." Carina gasped, taking off in a sprint towards her office. Maya had called animal control, which meant that she was okay, but Carina's phone was not on her, and she was worried that Maya may have attempted to contact her to let her know what was going on.

When Carina reached her office, she immediately grabbed her phone off of the desk. There weren't any calls from Maya, but there was one text. Don't know if you saw the news, but if you did, I'm okay. I'll call you once things are settled here. Love you. Carina sighed. It was just like her wife to be so nonchalant about a vicious wild animal being loose in her workplace. As much as it worried her, it was one of the things Carina loved about Maya: her ability to be calm in such high stress situations. Situations that were stresses for her, not so much, but that was normal. I'm on my way, bambina. Please be careful. I love you. Carina grabbed her purse off of the back of her chair, and dug around for her keys. Her shift was not over, but she wouldn't be able to concentrate on anything other than Maya unless she knew with her own eyes that she was okay. She'd stop at Bailey's office on the way out to make sure that it was fine if she left for a little while. She knew that Bailey would say yes, but didn't want to go without asking anyways. Before Carina could gather the things she needed to take with her, there was a knock on the door.

"Come in!"

"Carina." It was Bailey. Well, depending on why she was here it would save Carina the trip to the chief's office.

"Is everything okay, chief?" Carina asked.

"I'm not sure if you've seen the news, but I'm going over to the fire station to make sure that Ben is okay. Would you like to come with me?" Bailey replied. Carina smiled; she'd forgotten of course that Bailey's husband was also at the station.

"Yes that would be great. I was actually about to come find you to ask if I could leave to go check on Maya."

"Have you heard from her?"

"Yes. She texted me about ten minutes ago to check in."

"Okay, good. I just got off the phone with Ben. Apparently, Hughes is trapped in the bay with the tiger. Thankfully it doesn't seem to want to harm her."

"Dio mio. Vic must be scared out of her mind."

"I imagine so. But I also imagine that this is very scary for Maya. I can't even begin to discern how I would handle that situation if it happened here, let alone if a member of our staff was trapped with the tiger."

"She is a rockstar. I am not worried. I mean I am. But not about her ability to handle the situation. In her text to me she acted like this sort of thing happened every day."

"Maybe it does. I swear Ben does not tell me half of the things that they have to deal with on calls."

"Maya either. Although I do insist that if she is not going to tell me she has to tell her therapist." They both laughed. Carina realized that while she'd been looking for a new friend, the perfect option had been right in front of her the whole time. She and Bailey both had spouses that were firefighters, something that they could not only relate about, but could help each other through.

"Alright, we should probably get going," Bailey said. Carina nodded. She grabbed her coat to throw over her scrubs, and slipped her phone into her pocket.

There were three police cars in front of the station, and what appeared to be the animal control truck. Carina couldn't quite tell from inside the car. She and Bailey were waiting for the all clear from the police before they were allowed to get out. The idea was to keep the foot traffic as light as possible as to not frighten the tiger into doing something drastic. Carina felt as if they had been waiting forever. She knew that it had only actually been a couple of minutes, but she needed to touch Maya, to hold her, to know for sure that she had not been eaten by a tiger. Finally, two men guiding the tiger behind them emerged from the bay. The tiger was muzzled and attached to a lead.

"I know that it's a vicious, man eating, animal, but if it hadn't been kept as a pet in the first place it wouldn't be here. It seems a little unfair to me that it's now most likely going to be Zoo-ed or put down," Bailey said.

"I agree. They probably just shot it up with so much tranquilizer in order to be able to muzzle it, and I cannot see that feeling good for the ragazzone." Before Bailey could answer one of the officers knocked on the window. Bailey rolled it down.

"You're welcome to go in now if you would like," he said.

"Thank you."

"Grazie." Carina exited Bailey's car, and immediately made a beeline for Maya's office. She wasn't totally sure that Maya would be there, but it was a good a guess as any. Especially since she figured that having a tiger loose in the station probably made for a lot of paperwork. Which was another reason why Carina had needed to come see her; there was no way Maya was going to be able to leave at the end of her shift. Sure enough Maya was sitting at her desk, pen in hand, scribbling away at something.

"Maya." Maya looked up. Her face immediately softened, the stress seeming to fall away. "Per favore veni qui and hug me so I can know that I am not imagining that you are okay." Maya was halfway across the room before Carina could even finish her sentence, pulling her close. Carina wrapped her arms around Maya's waist, lifting her up, breathing in her scent. She felt tears sting in her eyes.

"I'm okay, baby, I'm okay. I'm here. Ti amo," Maya reassured her, "It's going to take a lot more than a tiger to take me from you. I promise. I love you too much." Carina sighed tearfully. She didn't even know why she was crying. She was just so glad that Maya was okay.

"I love you." Maya pulled away slightly, wiping away the tears that had escaped from Carina's eyes, and kissing her softly.

"You're beautiful you know that?" she said. Carina smiled, chuckling, and pulling Maya back in for another kiss.

"I just really needed to see you."

"I know, Car, and I'm right here." Maya found Carina's hand with her own, squeezing it gently.

"Okay, well Bailey and I probably should get back to the hospital, and you probably have to get back to your paperwork, but you better tell me exactly what happened later."

"I will," Maya paused, "Tomorrow morning, because you need sleep, and you need to go to sleep when you get home tonight." Carina huffed.

"Fine."

"Good. Now go bring some more new life into this crazy world." Carina smiled. Maya was the only person who actually thought that their jobs were on the same level even though Carina only ever had to save a life when there were complications, and Maya would save lives every time she went out on a call. Carina blew Maya a kiss, and turned to the door, where Bailey was waiting.