Carina POV
The thumping sound of the alarm clock awakens me from the comforting dream I was immersed in. As soon as I turn it off, another noise gives my ears a "good" morning: apparently, dear Maya Bishop, among your countless – and at times adorable – flaws, I must also add to the list that you snore. I never noticed it until now, along with a little luck and the fact that between us the early riser is definitely you.
I sneak to the kitchen after I grab some clean clothes, and I make breakfast. You didn't get me a lot of sleep last night, so I decide the best thing to do is to put on a moka for four. Double coffee for both, you'll appreciate it. Before I leave the house, I want to leave something ready for your breakfast, along with a note.
- Coffee's in the thermos, and waffles are in the Tupperware... I'll be back soon, good day. I love you! C.-
It was a challenge to find parking today, so to avoid being too late, I am forced to enter through the emergency room. I usually avoid it, mostly because you never know what crazy cases there might be. Oh, not because I'm afraid of finding "scary" things, but because, given my faith in infinite human stupidity, I'm afraid of running into patients that make me want to stick around and watch, forgetting what I have to do.
As soon as I get into the E.R., I find Teddy.
"Hey Carina, so? How was your night with your fire tamer? Last night you barreled away as soon as you could. I guess you had your reasons for being in a hurry!" she asks me, laughing with a hint of naughtiness.
"Hi Teddy...yeah, it was good. You know, despite her acting as a badass, Maya actually knows how to be romantic..." I answer her, before freezing. I can see that her attention is elsewhere right now.
"Wait... but that's... Arizona!" Teddy interrupts me, as he sees her coming down the hallway, to wave to her to join us and greet her with a hug.
"Oh Teddy, it's good to see you again!"
"Wow… Arizona Robbins, what are you doing here?" Teddy continues, excited to find her here, before being brought back to reality by the sound of her cell phone.
"Oh, it's Meredith, she needs a consultation. I have to go, but me and you, blondie, we're not done. We need to get coffee as soon as possible."
She says hello to me before leaving in a hurry, and it's just me and Arizona, and honestly, I'm not gonna stand here in front of her for another second. "Have a good day", I say sneaky, ready to get me out of this situation.
"Actually, Carina, I wanted to ask you if we could take two minutes to talk"... she asks me, with a very tiptoe tone of voice.
"I have patients, Arizona and... and I honestly don't want to talk!" I respond, cold, caustic.
"Just a few minutes, that's all I'm asking... I don't say now, but maybe later, or in the next few days..." In the next what? No, wait...
"What do you mean? I thought you were here for a consultation. Will you stay in town?"
My questions are pressing: I need answers, now! I just hope your answer is that it's only for the consultation that you need to stay here a few more days.
"In fact, I should talk to you about that as well..." No... no, no, no, no! This can't happen, I can't believe it, but most of all I can't let her see what it does to me, so I grabbed my bag and headed for the elevators.
I press the call button insistently as she approaches me again.
"Carina, please, let's talk. That's all I ask."
"You should have talked to me a year ago, Arizona. I'm going now, I have patients waiting for me."
I close the conversation as the doors of this elevator do, in front of me, after selecting the floor. We look each other straight in the eye for one last moment. Those blue eyes... I almost forgot how they affected me.
I'm almost out of the hospital when Jo comes running up to me.
"Dr. De Luca, wait!" When she reaches me, she's out of breath, but insists to start telling me about the case right away.
"You should see... these images..."
"Is Owen's patient? The girl who arrived this afternoon?"
"Yes...Dr. Hunt...he thinks it's... uhh, that it's good to induce labor, she's getting worse, and he wanted her for this case"
"No..." I reply firmly. It takes me a second to read what I need from the rest of the folder and realize that the best solution is another.
"The baby wouldn't survive the birth… call Robbins!" I'm going on, firm.
"I mean now, Wilson! I'll go see the patient. Tell her to meet me there."
Just what I need, the icing on the cake. At the end of the shift an emergency surgery. With her. After all, there are situations where you know what the best choice is. And Arizona has always been the best in her field.
Maya POV
It's getting a little late, and from the note you left me this morning, I thought you'd be done early. I check my phone again to see if you've texted me, as you usually do when there are emergencies to keep you at work. Nothing, not even a text since this morning. It must have been a day from hell.
I decide to write to Andy, see if she wants to come over for a beer, like the old days, under the porch of her father's house: me, her and Vic, to take the piss of last rookie or those of shift B, or to gossip about our latest conquests, always watching out for Captain Herrera's big ears.
- Give me 15 minutes and I'll be with you. Should I bring supplies? -
- I've got everything, just bring your ass here, Herrera! -
I don't know if it's because of my reply, but she takes a really short time to arrive. She takes a seat while I pull two bottles out of the fridge and grab a corkscrew before joining her on the couch. She made herself comfortable, after all she knows my house well and for a while this was also her house.
"So Maya, what's going on?" she asks me, sure that something is going on. I have to admit, I'm a little offended by her question.
"Nothing, Andy...I can't want to spend an evening with my best friend?"
"Where's Carina?"
Her tone becomes inquisitive, not to mention suspicious.
"At work"
"Oh Maya, please, don't tell me you've already screwed this up!" she tells me, as if she didn't even hear what I said.
"Hey, what do you take me for?" I reply, this time truly offended. If that's my best friend's estimation of me, I'd say I'm on a roll!
"Let me guess... something's wrong though..."
"I don't know what you're talking about," I reply, my elbows resting on my knees, before downing another sip of beer.
"Oh, you know it… even the label on that poor beer figured it out!"
I realize I've shredded that strip of damp paper, wrapped around the body of the bottle. Only a few pieces remain, along with some glue residue, and drops of condensation wetting my fingers.
"Arizona is in town", I announce, with a dry, firm sentence.
"Arizona... wait, that Arizona? You mean Carina's ex girlfriend?"
Her amazement goes hand in hand with my regret for starting a conversation I'm not sure I want to engage in.
"But didn't she move to New York, to stay with her daughter and her ex-wife?" she asks me, curious. "She'll be in town for a short time, she's here for a consultation", I explain, half-hearted.
"Wait, but did you hear it from Carina?"
"She actually introduced me to her last night… we ran into her when I picked her up from the hospital and we introduced ourselves."
"Ohhh… you're not going to tell me you're jealous? Ah, Maya Bishop put in awe of an ex?"
"It's...it's not that."
"So do you want to tell me what's wrong or do I have to guess, Maya?" she asks, and I realize she's stopped teasing me and is ready to listen to whatever I want to tell her.
"The reaction… the reaction Carina had when she saw her was not only surprised. It seemed like it might come back… all, all her pain... as if two seconds had passed since they broke up. She still has a grudge inside of her for what Arizona did to her, and I understand. I just thought she drew a line under the past, that she was happy with me, that we were happy! Apparently we aren't for the moment, almost not at all... I should've known from how the day started..."
I think about that phrase in your sleep... it would have passed away like a breath of wind if we hadn't seen her outside the hospital just a few hours later. "What happened?"
"No, no, no big deal..."
"Maya, come on, you can tell me... did you piss her off? Did you wake her up before dawn to go running?"
Someday I'll understand why Andy always thinks I'm the problem.
"Because in her sleep I heard her calling Arizona and asking her not to leave her."
The expression on her face changes and she lets all her surprise come out. Then, trying to scramble to defend you, she starts telling me that our brains can be tricky in our sleep, that these words mean nothing.
"Don't worry Andy, I took that sentence for exactly what it is… it's the series of unfortunate coincidences that I don't like. Much less having seen how hot her ex girlfriend is."
"Afraid you can't compete, Bishop?" she asks me, provoking. She's laughing.
"I mean, have you seen her? She would shake the certainties of even the most convinced straight... Maybe I should introduce her to you: I would get rid of a potential problem and you might broaden your horizons!"
After this pearl of wisdom, she throws a pillow in my face, with a hit as unexpected and disruptive as a well executed slap and in a moment I regain my seriousness.
"Jokes aside, I don't care about Arizona or her brief appearance here. I just want Carina to be happy with me, that's all."
After a few seconds of silence, in which she looks at me apparently struck by the wisdom of my words, brings her bottle closer to mine, to toast. "That's talking, Captain... to the pursuit of happiness!"
