Chapter Text
Maya all but hears the rummaging happening under the sheets. She feels hands lowering on her skin as scattering touches.
It makes a smile form on her face before she can even recognize who those hands belong to.
Though she knows exactly the slender fingers and cold fingertips of someone so familiar.
In the darkness she knows they can see close to nothing under there, the touches only a way to know the direction to take in the climb.
The person under the conforter must be finding it hard to breathe cause the soft giggles start turning into the absolute need of taking a deep breath and only then continue with the mission of reaching probably something a little over her knees.
Soft brown curls emerge from the sheets and Maya hides being awake by keeping her expression serious and closing her eyes, avoiding seeing who's climbing her body like a tree.
Then the head slips back under, forcing Maya to hold her laughter when a body moves up and up crossing her abdomen and chest like an alligator in the water, appearing a second later right under her chin risking to hit her nose in the movement.
"Mommy! Time to wake up!" Andrea's voice echoes earning a laughter in responce from the italian on the opposite side of the apartment.
"I said gently, Andrea!" Carina laughs appearing at the door of the bedroom just as Maya's eyes finally open, her arms wrapping around the now not so tiny form of her kid.
"I hear it's someone's birthday today!" Maya giggles tickling her son who tries to slip away, out of her soft grip.
"Mommy no!" Andrea laughs waving his arms in the air to free himself.
Carina laughs looking at the both of them, her hands still hidden behind her back before sending Maya a knowing look that forces the blonde to slowly stop her administrations and turn Andrea towards his Mamma.
"Okay now look. Look at Mamma." Maya instructs, the little boy hums doing as told.
"Is that a present?" Andrea yells way too close to Maya's ear, the blonde covers it with her hand as fast as she can.
He's learned that from Carina, the italian's tone tends to be higher than intended at times when she's excited and Andrea is just like is Mamma. Maya knows she loves that about them though.
"How does he do that?" She asks the brunette while Carina comes closer to them to sit on the edge of the bed laughing at her son's antics.
"Can I open?" Andrea asks with his bubbly voice shaking the box a little, Carina sighing relieved knowing then what's inside can't break because of a kid's excitement.
"Of course kiddo." Maya replies adjusting herself sitting on the bed, her back on the headboard, while running her hand through Andrea's curls.
He rips the present paper off, opening the box with full force, taking all the paper inside of it out on the bed and pulling her present out.
His smile grows incredibly bigger than a moment before.
"Firetruck!" He yells jumping off of the bed and running to the livingroom where both Deluca Bishop's know he'll play with it for the rest of the day.
"Slow down!" Maya giggles moving to sit straight, wincing at the pain it causes in her abdomen, her eyes instantly filling with tears and smile dropping.
She squeezes her eyes shut for a second, images of six days ago flooding back in her mind though she tried really hard to keep them out.
"How are you feeling?" Carina asks carefully, helping her wife back in a flat position and running a gentle hand through her hair.
"Better. Don't worry." Maya dismisses, hiding the fear of any of what happened happening to her family and looks away.
"I will always worry, Maya." The italian confesses, her heart clenching in her chest for the firefighter. She's been witnessing Maya's nightmares for the past five nights and she knows more will come.
And seeing Maya getting seriously injured for the first time did little to ease her already existing worries. She made it out fine though, it's just the small scar on the left side of her abdomen that will remind them of it. Nothing else will stay, she'll heal.
"I'm gonna be okay. As long as I have you two." Maya replies, fully aware of what those words mean. The scream that woman let out when she reappeared bleeding from the lake she's dived into in order to save her husband and kid, but alone without them, will haunt her forever.
That's what Maya will never forget either.
"We're never gonna leave. We'll always be here."
-
"I remember that." Carina gives a little smile under the sheets, her fingertips running on Maya's scar.
"You promised me something that day." Maya confesses, her voice barely above a whisper as she follows Carina's hand moving on her abdomen.
"Yeah. I did, didn't I?" The italian remembers not only Maya's physical and mental pain of those days, she also remembers her worry.
The fear that invaded her chest when Travis called her to go to Grey Sloan cause Maya had been hurt.
It was an internal bleeding for a piece of metal that had cut through her turnout and skin and flesh, too close to her internal organs to keep her out of surgery though Maya had spent three hours hiding it, only drying herself at the station before collapsing face down in the beanery.
Carina will never forget the feeling. Carina will never forget the fear. And she'll never forget what she said either.
"I'm still trying to make up for it." She whispers hiding her face in Maya's neck crook.
"I know." The blonde nods, kissing her wife's head and holding her closer, tighter, as if they could melt in together.
"Do we still have that firetruck?" Maya asks a little later, once Carina's worries had eased a little again and once the sun had fully risen out of the apartment and through the curtains.
"Pretty sure it ended up off the staircase of the building." Carina laughs, recalling the tantrum Andrea threw when his toy went flying down the stairs after he pushed it a little to hard.
The italian had to hold him back or he would've thrown himself down with it to catch it.
She feels Maya's chest rise and fall in laughter along and it makes her lift her head to look the blonde in the eyes, shining in the dim light of day.
"What?" The blonde stops laughing once she meets Carina's eyes.
"I was just thinking about what a great family we'd be." Carina confesses, her heart aching in her chest knowing she's responsible for both the things that made their lives crumble.
"We would right? All four of us." Maya admits, hiding for now all the sweet dreams she had once asleep at night, even during the five months Carina was away.
Though she didn't remember the pregnancy at first, the chance of living day after day with her wife and kid despite all the pain that had invaded their lives remained Maya's safe place to think of.
Not the clouds anymore, but the parallel world in which she didn't waste time talking to the Chief and instead went home immediately, taking her son in her arms before he landed on that table.
Reality is different and she knows it, though Maya doesn't doubt Carina's love and commitment to bring them back to be the family they've always been and were supposed to be.
She's forgiven her wife, and her wife forgave her.
They slowly found the path to heal and allowed each other a second chance.
Maya wonders if they'll ever actually have what they had, now that Carina isn't too young anymore and neither is she, now that their hearts and souls have been permanently damaged but expanded to allow more love to come.
-
"Bishop?" Vic calls out for her at least three times before freezing right outside the gym where Maya is sitting on the edge of the treadmill.
"Maya, are you okay?" She rushes at her friend's side and slides on the floor, now seeing Maya is physically fine but crying.
Her shaking shoulders already were a sign of that, Maya knows they've been going up and down for at least half an hour by now and they're starting to hurt.
She nods, a sobs escaping in her attempt of saying something, anything so that Vic could just let her be, though she knows she won't.
"It's our anniversary." She confesses between sobs, her chest closing tighter than before, her throat now burning for the tears.
Vic sighs sitting finally on the floor beside her and wrapping her arm around the Lieutenant. Vic knows that. She knows because it's also her and Theo's.
"I can't stop thinking about the family we were. The family I wanted us to be. And that I miss her and I don't know why she decided to leave when we were both in pain and heartbroken. She left me behind." Maya sobs, finally breaking down part of the walls she's been building in the past four months.
Vic knows it's the first time she's showing actual emotions over what happened, despite still ignoring all too well her son's death.
But they all knew it wouldn't have been easy. Not this hard, but neither easy.
Maya's always been driven and sure of her feelings, capable of dealing with them in a way none of them ever understood. Until Carina came.
The italian knew how to deal with Maya's feelings since day one. God Maya even broke up with her once and Carina took her back.
Vic will never understand where the love between them came from, but she slowly witnessed it bloom and grow and give birth to Andrea, the sweetest boy she's ever met.
And his life didn't deserve to be that short just like Maya didn't deserve to be left alone in her grieve, especially by the person who loved her. Though she doesn't know what she would've done at Carina's place.
Maybe there's a whole reason behind that none of them understand.
It breaks her heart though to see Maya like this. Completely oblivious, just like each one of them, of the italian's intentions in leaving.
She'd protect Maya with everything now, holding her like they've been trying to do for four months despite her attitude, despite her closing off to them.
That's what she does now, now that Maya is being willingly vulnerable with her after so long. She holds her, silently promising her that everything will be okay cause her and Carina's love can survive every obstacle, every trauma, every pain.
And she does that until Maya's sobs even out, once her tears stop streaming and the stoic look on her face comes back, emotionless.
The blonde ignores the ache it still causes in her heart and the pounding of her head after crying for at least an hour.
She ignores the need of screaming and running away and never come back. She ignores it and flies out of the gym, leaving Vic behind and joining the rest of the team in the barn where they're cleaning the rig.
-
"Do you want to move back in?" Maya asks suddenly, startling Carina as she was filling her bag to leave for her shift.
The italian freezes and turns, focusing all of her attention on her newly found wife.
"Technically I've already been living here." Carina chockes out, swallowing loudly and looking at her wife with eyes wide opened.
Maya giggles while folding Carina's Grey Sloan's sweater in the third drawer. She realises how ridiculous her question sounds now that she's putting her wife's clothes in her own wardrobe.
"I didn't mean it like that. I mean like- let go of that crappy apartment and come live here. It's your home too. I made it for you." Maya blushes, scratching her forehead as Carina finally stops her administrations to focus on her.
"Are you nervous about it, bambina?" The nickname startles something in Maya Who stands up to take Carina's hand in her.
"I'm not nervous. It's just... I'm finally allowing it all to go back the way it was. And it took me - how many? - twenty two appointments with Doctor Lewis and a whole year. But I can see it now. We can be the family we wanted to be." She knows her words risk to give out a bit too much of what she actually means to say. Maya doesn't feel ready to talk about kids, probably never will. But she sees the chance of being happy with her wife once again.
She sees it in the way Carina's shoulders slump back down, having risen in worry for Maya's nervousness. She sees it in the italian's smile that crepts on her face as soon as she's done with her explenation.
"Does it make any sense at all?" Maya laughs when Carina remains silent for a whole minute.
"It makes all the sense it has to make. I'm ready to be your family again, too." Carina's eyes glisten in the light, just a second before the alarm on her phone goes off.
"But I have to go now. So we'll discuss it later tonight." The italian leans forward, placing a gentle kiss on Maya's mouth when the blonde holds her tighter for a few more seconds, exploring her tongue.
"Bambina..." Carina warns, pushing away with a laugh. They've been going there basically every minute they've been home together off of shift in the past month and she knows it's not going to stop.
"Oh come on. Not that you're the only one who can deliver babies in that hospital." Maya defends raising her hands in the hair. She's never been a gesticulating person before she met the italian.
"Well...but I'm the best so..." Carina jokes, throwing her bag on her shoulders and walking past her wife steaking her another kiss. "I'll see you tonight."
"Yes. Go save lives."
-
"Dottoressa Deluca. (Doctor Deluca.)" The approaching steps are anticipated by the voice that echoes in the hallway while Carina finishes filing a paper of a patient she just checked on.
When she turns she's met with a surprisingly familiar face, she remembers the woman's feautures probably from a conference of some years ago, when she was still in Italy before going to Seattle for the very first time.
"Dottoressa Martone. (Doctor Martone.)" She recalls the name as she reads it on her white coat. She's a well renowned neonatal surgeon, probably Arizona had talked to her about her.
"Oh, la prego, mi chiami Serena. (Oh please, call me Serena.)" The doctor insists reaching the desk with her elbows and focusing her attention on the OB.
"Lei Carina, da dottoressa a dottoressa.(You Carina then. From doctor to doctor.)" Carina smiles, sharing her confused look with the other woman as she folds the papers she was holding.
"Ha bisogno di me? (Do you need me?)" She then asks, handing the nurse her files and taking a step back. She sticks the pen in the pocket of her own coat folding her arms on the chest.
"In realtà si. Mi è stato detto che se devo avere un consulto per un caso critico, mi conviene chiedere a lei. (Actually I do. I was told that if I need a critical consult I'm supposed to ask you.)" The smirk that forms on the woman's lips almost makes Carina grimace. Here's the hint to her actual intentions.
"E da chi sarebbe arrivata questa soffiata? (Who did it come from?)" Carina giggles nervously, though she knows exactly the answer and she also knows Gabriella is aware of her intentions: she's not going to have an affair in Italy nor in the rest of the world with noone.
"Dalla dottoressa Aurora, ovviamente. (Doctor Aurora, obviously.)" Serena laughs, giving away all of her fake interest in anything but Carina's talent.
"Non avevo dubbi. (I had no doubt.)" Deluca nods, closing her eyes in both disbelief and resignation. Gabriella will never change.
"Che ne dice, se ne dovessimo parlare davanti a un calice di vino stasera? (What do you say, if we'd talk about it tonight in front of a glass of wine?)" Doctor Martone offers leaning backwards to meet Carina's unfocused eyes.
"Non sono certa di voler mischiare vita privata e lavorativa, Serena. (I'm not sure I'd want to mix private and work life here, Serena.)" Carina shakes her head, fully aware of the professional risk this would provide. The rest of the world isn't like Grey Sloan and Chief's of surgery in Italy don't like this kind of things.
"E io non sono certa lei voglia ignorare quello che ho da dirle. (And I'm not sure you'd want to ignore what I have to say.)" The woman insists, reaching forward to tap her hand on Carina's shoulder. Reclutantly, Carina doesn't push her away. Physical harm can be easily called out even if she just shrugs her hand off of her shoulder.
"Per ora non mi è stata fatta alcuna proposta allettante, purtroppo. Mi vedo costretta a rifiutare. (I wasn't given any tempting offer, unfortunately. I'm flattered, but I must decline." She turns away, walking three steps before the voice relentlessly insists calling her to turn back around.
"Neanche se questo consulto la facesse diventare la migliore, non solo dell'ospedale, ma dell'intero stato? (Not even if this consult would make of you not only the best in the hospital but in the whole country?)" She sounds as rude as Carina heard her to be around the hospital, with collegues just as much with patients.
"Di che cosa sta parlando? (What are you talking about?)" She asks looking back at her.
"Lei deve capirmi, Carina. La sua esperienza all'estero al Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital di Seattle, la sua vita privata che da quanto ho sentito è appesa ad un filo piuttosto sottile, potrebbe diventare un caso mediatico di elevato interesse se dovesse unirsi a me nello studio che voglio portare avanti in neonatologia. (You need to understand me here, Carina. Your experience abroad at Seattle's Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital, considering your private life hanging by a thin thread could become a relevant media event if you'd join me in my neonathology study.)" Carina ignores the reference to her marriage, ublivious to how the news had spread around in the past four months.
"Mi riesce difficile credere che il suo unico intento qui sia un progresso nella medicina neonatale. (I find it hard to believe that your only aim here is a medical progress in that field.)" Deluca honestly replies, knowing she can be just as rude as the other woman but avoiding to be. She's a Deluca, and she's a good person. Noone will ever see her as impulsive or abrupt.
"Le sto offrendo su un piatto d'argento una carriera di spicco che la porterebbe non solo in America, ma in ogni stato del mondo, dottoressa. Il tutto per un bicchiere di vino. Basta solo che lei decida di restare. (Do not waste this opportunity I'm offering you. It would bring you to an excellent carreer not only in US, but in any other state in the world, doctor. All of it for a glass of wine. You only have to stay.)" The brunette refuses to believe to any word Doctor Martone has just spoken and laughs away her offer.
"Cosa le fa credere che io non abbia un motivo migliore per cui andarmene? (What makes you believe I haven't got a better reason to leave?)" Carina squares the blonde off, relying on the certainty that nothing with her would ever give her even half of what she had with Maya. Of what she threw away with Maya.
"Ce l'ha? (Do you?)" That smirk again makes Carina's heart pound in her chest. She grits her teeth and looks deeply at the woman in front of her.
"Si, dottoressa, ce l'ho. Ed è la mia famiglia, in America. (Yes, doctor, I do. And it's my family, in America.)" The way her voice is so polite gives out all of what she's feeling. It doesn't crack cause her facade is strong but she doesn't even confess the hurt of what she's done.
"La stessa famiglia che ha abbandonato per venire qui? E in cerca di cosa se non di una carriera migliore di quella che poteva ricercare là? (The same family you abandoned to come here? Looking for a better carreer than the one you had there?)" Her blood boils in her veins as she finally decides that Serena's words are too much. She won't let her speak about her or her family this way.
"Lei non ha alcun diritto di parlare della mia famiglia o di me in quel modo. E se pensa che dopo questo trattamento avrò intenzione di venire a bere un calice di vino con lei, si sbaglia di grosso. (You have absolutely no right of talking about my family or me like that. And if you think after this treatment I'll want to come share a glass of wine with you, you're impossibly wrong.)" Carina all but whispers her words, her voice and thick accent echoing throughout the hallway, down faces focusing on then and the scene happening. She turns away abruptly, walking two steps forward and forcing the woman to do one backwards. "E ora si levi di torno, ho ben altro a cui pensare, tipo i miei pazienti. Per questo sono la migliore. Sono loro ad avere la priorità sulla mia carriera. (And now get out of my way, I have better things to think of, like my patients. That's why I'm the best. They have the priority on my carreer.)" She walks past her, hurting her with the shoulder and disappearing in the elevator.
She ignores the tears forming in her eyes until her phone dings with an unexpected text.
As she reads through it, the tears slide out.
-
"Tesoro. I'm home, Maya." Carina sets her coat and purse by the entrance, the silence in the house instantly causing her to frown in the darkness of the floor. Only a small light comes from the livingroom.
"Maya, where are -" She asks walking through it and freezing by the couch. Behind it, her wife stands tall in her White wedding dress. "What's all this?" Carina looks around, finally taking in the candels and roses, the soft music playing in background. She remembers that song perfectly.
Maya swallows, peaking at the small paper in her left hand, where she's also holding flowers just like the ones in Carina's bouquet.
"Technically we already are...but I'm willing to marry you again. To fully try again and fix and heal with you." The blonde confesses, ger voice breaking halfway through.
"Maya this is-" the italian starts still looking around, her eyes glazing over the surrounding.
"Please let me say this before I faint." Maya insists, shaking on her heels and looking at her wife with loving eyes. Though she knows exactly what the italian would want to say, she begs for the courage to not fade.
Carina nods, silencing herself and walking towards Maya, who's hands reach forward to take hers.
"I know exactly the moment I fell in love with you hopelessly. It was on our vacation in Palm Springs. When-when I had that panic attack and after everything I've told you about me, which was close to nothing, still you knew how to make me calm. And you said 'no eyes forward. Eyes only on me'." The tear slips out and Carina doesn't bother whipe it away. She'd let Maya feel even the most absurd of the emotions just to try and be the support she's need. Her rock, her home.
"That's what I've been trying to do. All of the time that came after then. That's all I want to do for as long as I live and breathe. Despite all the pain and loss we've both been through. Despite how hard it has been and is still going to be, if you're willing with me, I want to start over. And be your whole family." Maya finishes, handing Carina her bouquet and running her fingertip on the italian's wedding band.
Carina clears her voice, her eyes all the time focused on Maya's eyes flicker to her lips. She wets them to speak.
"Yes yes, bambina. Of course I'm willin-." Her mouth falls on Maya's before the word is actually finished. The bouquet falls on the floor and Maya's hands reach for Carina's jacket so that it can join the petals on the ground.
They barely breathe in the kiss, tongues fighting for who's going to give more love through it.
"Carina-" Maya chockes as Carina's hand starts travelling to reach the zip of her dress and unzip it, leaving Maya half naked standing in the middle of the living.
"I'm here." The italian assures, her mouth finding Maya's again, teeth hitting each other in rythm.
"Be-bedroom." Maya replies, gently pushing her wife forward and towards the bedroom door, where they crash twice before the blonde actually manages to walk past it and fall backwards on the bed.
Carina slips her trousers and shirt off, going as naked as Maya on the bed to lay on her wife, cupping her left breast in one swift move.
"Mhm." Maya moans biting her lower lip as Carina's free hand travels down, reaching inside her panties the treasure underneath.
"Fu-" the blonde moans, leaning her head to the side enough to kiss her wife's lips again as she feels the intrusion in her lower core.
"Let go for me. Let go." Carina asks in a whisper, feeling Maya's walls squeezing already though they're just getting started. Maya's whole body is sweating.
"I'm -" the blonde tries to warn, feeling herself closer and closer to the edge, ready to feel the best feeling while holding to the woman she loves the most. Holding her whole family.
"I'm here for you. I came back for you."
-
"Lieutenant Bishop!" The Chief announces opening the door once the lock is off, Maya stands by the desk greeting him inside.
"Chief. What do I owe the pleasure?" The blonde closes the folder she was working on and slips her hands in her pockets, finding her superior silently looking at her.
"Is your team here?" The Chief asks, pointing around in the air hoping for an affermative answer.
Maya feels the tickling in her fingertips, sign of some expectation, residue of the good old ambition that drove her to where she is and up above.
"They're all in the beanery, sir." She answers, walking the few steps to the stairs to guide the Chief where the team is gathered for breakfast. Everyone except Beckett.
"Nineteen." He calls out once inside. Everyone stands from their seats and let spoons and cereals fall in the cups absentmindedly. His presence welcomed but unexpected leaves everyone struck.
"Chief-" Vic chockes out still with her mouth full, her hair hanging halfway out of her ponytail.
"Is there anything we can help you with?" Sullivan interjects standing from his seat.
"I'm sure you noticed the absence of your Captain this morning." The Chief replies. Maya scoffs, as if it were the first time.
The blonde exchanges a knowing look with Vic who giggles behind her hand.
"We did but...it wouldn't be the first time he's late for shift." It's still Sullivan talking, his voice giving away a bit of expectation he doesn't bother hiding. Maya's eyes fall on him with the clear intention of turning him into ash.
"Well, he's actually missing because he no longer is Nineteen's Captain." The Chief says clearly, plain and simple, immediately earning all A-team's reactions.
"What?" Travis asks wrapping his hand around Vic's forearm in disbelief, his hand landing on his mouth for the joyful surprise.
"What do you mean?" Jack politely asks setting his mug on the wood table and exchanging a knowing look with Maya. The blonde crosses her arms on the chest.
"The board and myself have decided to officially reinstate Lieutenant Bishop as Captain of Station 19, effective immediate." He says a moment later, once all the reactions were out. And it just makes everyone's happiness skyrocket.
"Congratulations, Captain."
"Oh my-" Vic yells running towards her friend and wrapping Maya in a solid hug, everyone else erupting in cheers and congratulations over their re-found Captain.
Maya smiles in the gesture, finally realising she's made it. After so many days, weeks, months, years, she's got her job back. And it fills her with an uncontrollable joy.
"And she's back!" Gibson's voice calls out as soon as Andy walks through the beanery with her 19's red helmet secured on her head.
Everyone focuses on her laughing and clapping their hands, happy to finally see their friend back home, back at Nineteen.
Maya interjects the Chief once everyone has given her a solid hug and offers him a thankful hand shake.
"Thank you, sir." She says feeling the lump that has formed in her throat threatening to give away.
The Chief leaves the beanery and the building a moment later, and Maya is still standing there, struck by the news, flooded by conflicting emotions.
Her eyes suddenly fill with tears and Andy manages to see her, ignoring Travis for a moment to look at her.
"Maya." She tries, reaching her hand forward uselessly.
"Let me-" The blonde chockes out turning to run out of the room and then downstairs where noone can see her.
But Andy follows, silently running behind her and into the gym where she's hidden from them.
"Maya." The Latina's voice so calm does little to help Maya keep herself together without breaking down on probably her happiest day since Andrea's death.
Her only happy day since then.
"Just give me a minute." Her voice cracks, Andy comes sitting with her on the bench and holds Maya close, tightly, just as she starts breaking.
And Maya sobs for a good ten minutes, shaking in her friend's embrace after holding everything inside for so long.
"I-I don't care about it. I don't care about it if my family isn't my family anymore." She chockes out, coughing on her own words in between the sobs, tears streaming uncontrollably down her face that she doesn't even try to whipe away.
"It's okay. It's gonna be okay." Andy keeps holding her close, speaking nothings in her best friend's ear to try and soothe some of her despair.
But when Maya keeps crying and crying and crying, Andy reaches sideways for her phone in the left pocket of her trousers and allows Maya's head to rest on her shoulder.
She picks the contact and writes the text, feeling like this is the breaking point for Maya and that from this she can only climb back up before risking to reach the actual bottom.
- I don't know what brought you to the point of doing what you did, but I'm asking you one thing. You have a month to come back. Carina come back. Your wife needs you. -
-
"Have you seen my shoes?" Maya asks loudly, her voice echoing throughout the whole house makes Carina smirk in their bedroom before replying.
After the night they shared Maya decided to leave for a run while Carina woke up though the brunette has managed to distract her till now. She's awake too now, dressed for the day ahead.
She hides even to herself the shiver that runs down her spine in anticipation.
"Check the shoe cabinet at the entrance." The italian says while slowly walking down the stairs, making sure her wife doesn't notice what she's doing.
She sees Maya cross the hallway, kneel by the cabinet opening from the bottom three drawers before coming to a sudden halt, her mouth hanging open.
"Carina?" She asks a little later, turning her head only to be faced with the brunette's cocky grin that shifts into a lovely smile as she walks the last few steps to join the firefighter.
"What is this?" Maya asks in disbelief holding the long blue velvet box up in the middle where Carina's eyes lower to look.
"You have to open it to know." She explains, running a gentle hand up and down Maya's arms as she carefully opens the box.
She sees the inside of it shine even before the box is actually opened and smiles widely for a while at its content when her eyes finally notice.
It's a gold, tiny necklace with ywot particular pendants: a small "A" that her fingertips start rubbing slowly, taking in the smooth and shiny material and a carrier, reminder of a baby none of them ever had the chance to meet.
Her heart clenches in her chest, a small tear forming in both her eyes to slide on her cheeks falling at their feet.
Maya looks up at Carina's belly first, where their other child lost the chance to live a new life and then meets Carina's glistening eyes.
"We shall never again forget."
The end.