Here's the next part!
About six months later, Carina was at the hospital, feeling like her shift was slowly crawling to an end. She was in the ER, reassuring her patient for the third time in the last two weeks that the baby she was carrying was perfectly healthy and that the movement she was feeling was not cramps but rather her baby kicking and moving around. She had just discharged that patient and was updating her chart when she saw Travis and Ben rolling in a patient.
Once Ben saw her, he gave her a look that told her he needed to talk to her. She was a little confused but continued to slowly work on her chart until he came back over to her.
"What's up?" she asked, looking at him.
"You didn't hear this from me," he started, Carina immediately knowing it was about her girlfriend.
"What did she do?" Carina asked, abandoning her mostly done chart.
"How did you…?" Ben asked, looking at her. "
Because I know you and I know her and what did she do?" Carina asked.
"We had a call earlier today," Ben said, "And Maya ran in to save a little boy who wasn't even there because he snuck out and was hiding at the neighbors and while she was searching, a shelf fell on her and knocked her helmet off and her mask. She is pretty much fine, but she has a cut on her forehead and some mild smoke inhalation and she twisted her bad ankle."
"I did not see her come in," Carina said, knowing she would have known if her girlfriend had been in the hospital, she would have heard about it.
"That's cause she didn't," Ben said, biting his lip as he saw the look on Carina's face, "She kinda forced us to patch her up at the station."
"Cosa?" Carina said, "She could have a concussion or her lungs could be damaged or…"
"We ran full concussion screening on her," Ben said, "And she's on oxygen in her office with checks from someone every thirty minutes…"
"In her office," Carina said, eyes wide, "Why are you all so stubborn? Why does no one bring her in when she needs it?"
"Hey," Travis said, stepping in as he saw what was happening, "We've got her. When are you off?"
"In about…now," Carina said, looking at the clock.
"Well, go get your stuff and come to the station," Travis said, "You got her to go home when she had the flu a few months ago, so maybe you can get her to go home now."
"Si," Carina sighed, "I will try. Why is my girlfriend such a stubborn human?"
"It's part of her charm," Travis said, laughing.
Carina just shook her head before signing out of her tablet.
"I will be at the station in about ten minutes," Carina said, "Please do not let Maya leave."
"We will try," Ben said as they parted ways.
Carina went up to her office, quickly changing back into her street clothes, packing her things before heading over to the station. When she got there, she found Vic sitting at the desk.
"Hey," Vic said, smiling at the Italian, "I'm guessing you heard about our lovely captain's adventures today?"
"Si," Carina nodded, looking over and seeing Maya at her desk, oxygen mask on her face, bandage on her forehead, "How is she?"
"Stubborn as ever," Vic said, shaking her head, "We tried to get some Advil in her, but she wouldn't have it so good luck."
"Grazie," Carina nodded, taking a deep breath before knocking lightly on the door.
"Come in," Maya called, pulling down her mask for a minute, "Oh, Carina. Hey…. What are you doing here?"
"Ben and Travis were bring a patient to the hospital, and they told me something very interesting," Carina said, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow at her girlfriend.
"Well, I know who is on bathrooms for the next month," Maya mumbled, coughing a little.
"Bambina, this is not healthy," Carina sighed, going over and pulling Maya's chair out from her desk, "You need to be home, resting, or maybe even in the hospital."
"I'm fine," Maya said, rubbing at her eyes as she got up to go get a binder off the shelves, limping across the office.
"You can't even walk normally," Carina said, "Come and sit. Let me see your ankle."
"It's fine, Carina," Maya said, "This is my bad ankle from the Olympics. It's fine. I reinjure ever now and then."
"Let me see," Carina said again as Maya sat down.
Maya sighed, wincing as she pulled off her shoe that she hadn't even laced because of how swollen it was.
"Bambina," Carina sighed, pulling off the sock and seeing the bruising and swelling that were going on, "This is bad. You need an x-ray."
"No, I don't," Maya said, shaking her head, "It's fine. I just need to ice it for a few days and it will be fine."
"Let me see your forehead," Carina said, reaching for the bandage.
Maya relented, knowing Carina wasn't going to leave it. The doctor slowly pulled the tape off, gasping a little when she saw how big the gash was.
"Oh Bambina," Carina sighed, noticing that it had beautifully done stitches in it, making a note to yell at Ben to not do stitches on her wife without first forcing her to go to the hospital, "That is a big cut."
"It's fine," Maya said, "It's all superficial. A glass vase fell off the shelf and cut my forehead after my helmet fell off. Ben did a good job fixing it."
"He did," Carina nodded, "But you still should be resting. Let me take you home."
"I have to work, Car," Maya said, looking at the stack of paperwork on her desk, "Didn't you just get off? Why don't you go home? Or I think Dean and Andy cooked tonight so you could stay for dinner."
"I will stay if that's ok?" Carina asked, not wanting to leave Maya and still pretty convinced she could get her to go home.
"Yeah," Maya said, "Let me finish this file, and then we can go upstairs. Also, I am done with the oxygen."
"What is your O2?" Carina asked, noticing there was a pulse ox on her finger. "95," Maya said, looking at the machine.
"Then you are not done with the oxygen," Carina said, raising an eyebrow.
"95 is fine," Maya said, though she put the mask back on anyway as she coughed a little, "I need to finish this paperwork."
"I am going to just sit right here if that's ok," Carina said, pulling a chair over.
"Yeah," Maya nodded, looking back down at her paperwork.
If she was being honest, she was not feeling great, her head pounding, her ankle throbbing, and her entire body just aching because of the shelf that fell on her. She wanted to go home with Carina, but she was working and was not super comfortable with taking time off.
She just pushed the idea out of her head as she tried to concentrate on her work. However, she found herself rereading the same thing over and over again. She got frustrated with herself for not being about to focus, letting out a frustrated sigh as she threw her pen across the desk, leaning back in her chair as she felt tears fill her eyes.
"Bambina, what's wrong?" Carina asked, getting up and going over to her girlfriend.
"I can't concentrate," Maya said, wiping at her eyes.
"Bambina, let me take you home," Carina said, her heart breaking as Maya cried, "You can rest and try this again later. You can come in tomorrow to work on it if you are feeling better, but Bambina, you are not going to get anything done if you are feeling bad."
"I can finish it," Maya said, rubbing her eyes, "I just…I need this oxygen off and I need me head to stop hurting."
Just then, there was a knock at the door, Andy opening it a second later.
"Hey, dinners…what's going on?" the lieutenant asked, seeing how miserable Maya looked.
"I'm fine," Maya said, pulling the oxygen off her face, "Is food ready?"
"Yeah," Andy said, not really believing that her friend was ok but knowing better than to fight with her friend when she was so clearly not ok, "Carina, are you joining us tonight?"
"Si," Carina nodded, "We will be up in a minute."
"Ok," Andy said, closing the door as she left.
"Are you sure you are up for dinner?" Carina asked as Maya stood up, wincing as she put pressure on her ankle.
"I'm fine," Maya snapped before realizing her tone, "Sorry. I just…I can keep working. Embrace the pain."
Maya took a step before her ankle collapsed, causing her to fall forward, Carina catching her.
"It hurts," Maya cried, tears running down her cheeks as Carina sat down them down on the floor.
"I know, Bambina," Carina said, holding Maya close, rubbing her back as she pressed kisses into her temple, "I know."
They sat there for a while as Maya just cried, rubbing at her ankle. Once the tears settled and Maya seemed to be calmer, Carina looked at her.
"Bambina, please, let me take you to get an x-ray," Carina said, wiping a tear off her girlfriend's cheek, "You are going to get more hurt if we don't. I hate seeing you in pain like this."
"I…ok," Maya said, the pain pretty bad, and she was exhausted from trying to fight through it, "I need to tell Andy or someone."
"I'll text her," Carina said, pulling out her phone, "Do you think you can get up?"
"I…can you help?" Maya asked, her ankle hurting a lot.
"Of course," Carina nodded, getting up and helping her girlfriend up, "Come here. Just sit for a minute and then we will get you out to the car, ok?"
"I need to get out of my uniform," Maya said, looking down.
"I will help," Carina assured her, "Let me just tell Andy you are leaving."
Maya started unbuttoning her uniform as Carina texted Andy before going to help her. She winced when she saw all the makes and newly forming bruises on Maya's back from the shelf hitting her. She carefully inspected all of the marks, making sure nothing was more severe than the bruising.
Just as Maya was pulling back on her civies, there was a knock on the door.
"Hey," Andy said, opening the door, "Are you alright?"
"My ankle is really bad," Maya said as Carina helped her up, the blonde putting a lot of her weight on her girlfriend, "Carina's gonna take me to get it looked at."
"You're going to the hospital?" Andy said, shocked.
"I literally can't put weight on it," Maya admitted.
"Ok," Andy said, "Well, I have the station as long as you need. Text me when you find out what's wrong or if you need anything."
"Thanks Andy," Maya said as she hobbled out with Carina.
"Thank you," Andy mouthed at Carina.
Carina nodded, smiling a little bit.
"Bye," Andy said as they left.
"Bye," Carina said, Maya too focused on not hurting herself more.
They went to the hospital, Carina trying to convince Maya to let her grab a wheelchair for her, but Maya insisted she was fine, although she had to lean heavily on Carina to walk into the hospital.
Luckily, Carina managed to flag down Link just after they came in. He did a quick assessment on Maya's ankle before sending her for x-rays before they went back to wait for Link.
"Bambina, do you need anything?" Carina asked, brushing a piece of hair off Maya's forehead, "Something to drink or something for pain?"
"I just want to go home," Maya said, rubbing her eyes, "I'm sore and I just want to go to sleep."
"I know," Carina said, "I can get something for you to take to help with the pain."
Maya shook her head, shifting a little.
"Is your back hurting?" Carina asked.
"Some," Maya nodded, "And my shoulders. Not any more than just a deep ache, but it doesn't feel great."
"I'm sorry Bambina," Carina said, pressing a kiss to Maya's cheek.
They just sat there together for about half an hour before Link came back in.
"Alright," he said, pulling up her x-rays, "So, Captain Bishop. It appears you have a hairline fracture in your talus which is your ankle bone. We are going to put you in a boot for 6 weeks and I want you non-weight bearing for the first four of those weeks."
"I broke it?" Maya said, looking at Link in disbelief.
"You did indeed," Link said, "It's only a hairline fracture so as long as you are a good patient, you should heal up just fine. I am going to send a nurse down here with the crutches and boot. I want to see you back here in 6 weeks, but if you have any worsening pain or anything, feel free to call."
"Thanks Link," Carina said, seeing the look on Maya's face and knowing that the blonde was struggling to accept what she just heard.
The orthopedic surgeon left, and Carina turned her attention all on Maya.
"Bambina, it's going to be ok," Carina said, "Just breathe, ok?"
"I broke my ankle," Maya said, tears welling up in her eyes.
"Si," Carina nodded, "I am sorry."
"I am not going to be able to work," Maya said, biting her lip, "What am I going to do?"
"Well, the first thing is that we are going to get you in a boot and then I am going to take you home and baby you for the next few days," Carina said, brushing a tear off Maya's cheek, "And then we will figure it out from there, si?"
"I have to work," Maya said, feeling the panic fill her body, "I can't just do nothing for a month and a half."
"Bambina, you do not have to do nothing," Carina said, "Maybe you could work on desk duty or something like that, but even if you can't, then you can't. There is nothing you can do to change it. Whatever happens, I am going to be right here to help you through it, ok?"
Maya nodded a little, tears falling down her cheeks that she desperately tried to wipe away.
"Sorry," Maya said, trying to get the tears to stop.
"No apologizing," Carina said, shaking her head, "It is ok to be sad and to cry and to be angry or whatever you are feeling. Come here."
Carina held her for a minute, just letting her feel the comfort she was offering. Maya pulled back after a minute, wiping her eyes.
"Thank you," she said as Carina handed her a tissue.
Carina just nodded, pressing a kiss to Maya's cheek. A nurse came in a few minutes later, getting Maya fitted for the boot and making sure she had a handle on the crutches before releasing her.
Carina brought her home, picking up some food from their favorite deli on their way.
"Where do you want to eat?" Carina asked as they made their way into the apartment they had been sharing for the past month, "The couch, the bed?"
"Bed," Maya said, exhaustion starting to take over, "I'm not really hungry."
"You need to try to eat something," Carina sighed, knowing Maya was excellent at forgetting to eat, "I got you soup."
"Maybe," Maya said as she followed Carina into the kitchen.
"Go get into bed," Carina said, "I will be in in a minute. I just want to put this into bowls."
"I'll just wait for you," Maya said, watching Carina move around the kitchen.
Carina had learned when Maya was sick that the blonde did not like to be alone in bed. Any time Carina got up, Maya would follow her, even when she was miserably sick and could barely stand up.
Carina suspected that this was because she was always told to not be lazy and was expected to constantly be working when she was growing up. It broke her heart, but she understood it and knew better than to push Maya, especially when she was not at her best.
Soon enough, they were both in bed after pulling on their pajamas, Carina getting some ice to put on Maya's ankle.
"Do you need anything else Bambina?" Carina asked as she propped Maya's ankle up on a pillow.
Maya shook her head as Carina got into bed, the blonde resting her head on her girlfriend's shoulder.
"Eat Bambina," Carina said, picking up her own food.
Maya took her soup, eating some of her food, struggling to keep her eyes open.
"Here," Carina said, taking the bowl from Maya, handing her some Advil and water, "Take these and then sleep."
Maya didn't fight her on the meds, her entire body aching and hurting from the day. Once Maya had taken her meds, she settled down into bed, cuddling close to Carina.
"I will be right here Bambina," Carina said, giving her a kiss, "Wake me up if you need anything. And don't forget to use your crutches if you have to get up in the night."
"Love you," Maya said, smiling sleepily at Carina.
"Love you too," Carina said as the blonde drifted off to sleep.
What did you think? If you have any ideas, let me know!