Chapter Text
The beanery smells of bacon and eggs when Carina enters.
She hears faint whispers, shared laughs and murmured jokes. The mixed voices make it hard to decipher who is who but as she steps into the light coming from the huge windows, she clearly sees where everybody is.
Vic and Andy joke around while standing in front of Travis who, for the better part, tries to follow their quirky bantering. He looks between the two women quickly, eyes fixed on either Vic or Andy, but Carina sees in the way he scrunches his eyebrows, all he really wants is to sit down and enjoy his well-deserved breakfast. They share a look, then, his freckles on full display. The two right in the corner of is eye glitter in the sun kissed light from above. Travis shrugs, mouthing ‘i don’t know’ as if he could read Carina’s mind.
Her eyes wander of to the table, where she finds Theo and Sullivan in deep conversation. The two man almost mirror each other; Sullivan is leaning back against his chair, fingers intertwined as if he was about to give a political speech. His long legs cross under the table, polished shoes rubbing against expensive leather as if they didn’t cost more than some of the brunettes designer clothes. Theo, who’s leaning back just as much as Sullivan, has crossed his arms above his chest, nodding to every word that the man across him mumbles. Sometimes, when given the approve to speak, he remarks something that makes them both laugh, their white teeth shining too much for Carina’s eyes to handle. She quickly looks away.
Walking a few feet towards the stove, Carina sees Ben flipping over the last pieces of bacon. His smile is wider than the day before and she faintly remembers a conversation with him about a date with Miranda. Something about ‘watching a good movie’ and then ‘relaxing on the couch’ though they both knew exactly what ‘relaxing’ really meant. She’s glad he is happy, yet his happiness isn’t the one she was currently looking for. Neither was Jack’s, who stood right next to him. He was bluntly talking about a fire from a few years ago, enchanting Warren with each new word so he didn’t notice him steal two pieces of cooled down bacon. His hair was messy and a bit wet, maybe from a shower, or from the heat the stove extracts. It made him look charming yet unalluring at the same time. So weird, so totally Jack.
The face she’s seeking is missing between the playfulness of a-squat. It makes her frown.
“Hey Carina!” Ben exclaims, hitting Jack with the spatula against the back of his hand. He shrieks away, but not before steeling one more piece of Warren’s famous food.
As he utters her name, the rest of the team briefly interrupts whatever they were doing to acknowledge her. A chorus of ‘hi’ and ‘how are you?’ is heard before they go back to their conversations and jokes and stealing of food.
“Hey everybody.” She smiles kindly at the team, then her eyes fixate on Ben as he shuts the stove of, filling the pan with water to let it cool down before putting it inside the dishwasher. “Do you…?”
“She’s in the locker room. We just came back from a call.” He smiles too, watching her take off. He sees Carina disappear behind a corner and just then does he take his eyes off of her, chuckling in well known harmony. Out of the corner of his eye he just about sees Jack reach towards the plate on his right side and then sees him start running.
“Jack Gibson!” He yells, throwing a dishcloth after him.
The locker room is filled with steam when she enters. The air smells of familiar citrus trees and salty sea, eliciting goosebumps on Carina’s arms. Although she’s wearing a fairly thick hoodie, the mix of burning steam and the breeze from outside the room makes her shiver in a way that she’ll never quite get used to.
A door opens and Maya appears from within the source of the hot cold. Hair still damp, wetting her uniform shirt as it carefully lands on broad shoulders, the blonde doesn’t see her wife just yet. It gives Carina enough time to take her in; to watch her in all these secret ways. Maya’s face was quite red, her rosy cheeks nowhere near ‘rosy’ anymore. While her left eyebrow seems to lay carelessly above her eye, does the right one intrude on such carelessness. Its hairs are flying around as if electrified. Combed down as if the water from her shower stumped on it. But only the right, never the left.
Her eyes, one bluer than the other, one holding so many different colors than his sibling, glaze over the ocean that was her orbs. Wet and maybe a bit tired; yet Carina thinks Maya’s eyes have never looked more beautiful. She wanders, her own eyes falling upon the blonde’s cursed lips. Her top lip painted a vague flamingo, her bottom lip arising in cold lemonade. The curse is strong and suddenly Carina wishes her own lips were laying atop of her wife’s.
As she takes in her uniform, the spell only seems to worsen. Maya’s midnight blue top hugs her breast tight and, more importantly, perfect in a way that makes her thoughts run wild. The top is tugged inside her pants, which shine in a slightly darker shade of blue, maybe denim or royal, and her immensely round backside is now all that the brunette seeks. And if she begins thinking about those thighs…
Allora questa visita non sarà così innocente.
Luckily, the saint of Maya’s thoughts breaks the sin in which Carina found hers.
“Carina! What are you doing here?” The blonde smiles. Like, ginormously bright with all of her teeth showing. It makes a crease appear around her dazzling eyes. Carina wanted to kiss it.
“Can’t a woman surprise her wife at work?” She watches Maya take three strikes towards her and before she knows it, her wife has her arms secured around her back, grinning up at her like a toddler high on halloween candy. They surround each other, with Carina’s arms tight around the blondes neck and Maya’s, stronger than a thousand men, slowly, but surely, sneaking down in the direction of her ass. The women pull at each other until there is almost no more space left and if it weren’t for the brunette’s enormous pregnancy belly, they’d be flat against one another now. “Your daughter missed you.” Carina whispers as she quickly kisses the grin off of Maya’s face.
“Mhmm, my daughter huh?” She roars when they pull apart, her eyes lingering shut for just a few more moments as she bathes in the feeling of her wife’s lips on her’s. It gives Carina time to adore the two freckles on her eyelids; one on each, right in the centre. It’s adorable and sexy all at the same time.
Carina quickly nods in agreement.
“If that’s so,” The blonde murmurs as she carefully bents down to place a kiss to the top of Carina’s belly. “Then Mommy missed you too, obviously.” She smiles against the hoodie before sneaking another small kiss from her daughter.
“Uhm, maybe Mama missed Mommy too…?” Carina’s voice is cheeky and maybe a little teasing, Maya couldn’t quite tell. Nonetheless, she wouldn’t give up the opportunity to kiss her once more.
“And I missed you.” They meet for another kiss, this time longer, deeper. Maya sweeps her tongue against Carina’s bottom lip, tickling her until the brunette grands her entry. They fight for dominance in a harsh dance, but it doesn’t take long for Maya to give up. Carina’s always been the better dancer, anyway. Their rhythm is synched in a long built harmony; Carina leading, Maya following. Sometimes they switch, sometimes they don’t. As long as the music doesn’t stop they do not care, too endorsed with each other to care.
When they kiss, they’re dancers and knights and singers and pilots. No matter what, no matter when, but always together.
Always and forever.
They break apart for air, laughing against each other’s lips as they both feel the little kick between them. Maya moves then, walking to her locker but never taking her eyes off Carina. As she opens the door, taking her brush out to wave through her knotty hair, Carina takes in the pictures decorating the small place.
There’s one of Maya, Andy and Vic, hugging in one big hug, faces squeezed against each other. Vic had graduated the academy only half a year ago, but during those six months, their friendship grew beyond just being friends. They were like sisters, now. Not bound by blood, but equal experiences as well as interests.
Below the picture is Maya’s starting number from the Olympics. Those four digits would always hold a special place inside her heart. And although the memories of that day, of the tears, the pain and anguish, still hunted her in her dreams, did she earn them. And no one could take that from her. No one could take the pride she felt standing on the podium, gold medal in hand. No one could take away the serotonin she felt as she crossed the finish line first. Or the endorphins that rose within her when she went to the doctors for her ankle for a regular two weeks checkup and someone asked her if she was the Maya Bishop. No one could take that away.
In the top left corner, just a few centimeters from the edge, was a picture from their wedding day. Vic had captured the two smiling dorky smiles as they leaned in for a kiss. They were sitting on their table, their guests to occupied with dancing and drinking and laughing too care about them for just a single moment. It was peace like Carina had never known. She still remembers the giddy feeling inside her stomach when Maya, her wife, whispered a quiet ‘I love you’ just seconds later. Only for her to know. Only for her to feel.
While the blonde had printed it out for her locker, Carina put it as her Lock Screen.
The last of the four photos, right in the middle, the center of the epitome, was the ultrasound picture from the day they found out that their little baby was indeed a girl and that the blood test handn’t lied. There was not much to see, obviously, but Maya endorsed in the way her baby girl lifted her tiny, fragile little fingers, which made it seem like she was waving at them. At her Mama and her Mommy.
On the back Maya wrote ‘Baby’s first selfie!’ with a smirking face behind it.
“So, what takes you really here?” Carina was too observed in the love she felt reminiscing one, two, three, four pictures that she almost forgot that Maya was even present. Or that she has finished brushing her hair by now.
“I told you, we missed you!” She rasps, her voice dry from too little water. “And I’m going grocery shopping, wanted to know if you need something special?”
“Oh, yes! Can you get those little ice cream cones? The ones with the chocolate and milky filling.” Maya speaks to her as if she was a child, eyes huge and beyond crazy.
“Alright, two packets of ice cream, coming right up.”
“Two? I think one-“
“You’re not the only one that likes them, bambina.” She smirks. “Your bambina loves them too.”
And as Maya laughs, Carina laughs too. A wholehearted, loud laugh that almost makes them buckle over. The firefighter closes her locker but not before taking Carina’s hand in hers, and together they make their way into the beanery.
The scene looks different, now, as a-squat generously munches in perfectly timed bacon, and not-from-this-world scrambled eggs. They moan in delight, especially Travis, who appears to have been escaped the conversation Andy and Vic had trapped him in. He moans and roars, like a tiger baby eating meat for the first time. And did he just roll his eyes?
“There you are!” Vic yells, loudly, as she sees Maya and Carina taking a halt in front of the table. “That was way to long for a quickie.”
“Vic!” Maya’s flabbergasted face looks kind of cute, especially when her eyes get so big they almost pop out. Carina finds it sexy as much as lovely.
“What? Don’t act like we haven’t seen Carina sneak in and out of your bunk during the last six months or so!” Andy high-fives the brunette, both of their laughter quickly infecting the rest of the team, which join them in laughing. The blush creeping up Maya’s cheeks makes all of this so much funnier.
“Well, a woman’s needs go beyond any boundaries.” Maya whispers, smirking cocky while fixing her eyes on the dark haired girl. “Seems like yours have been neglected, don’t they?”
A round of ‘uhhhh’ and ‘busted’ fills the room. Carina couldn’t be more proud, especially when Theo looks away, ashamed, and Vic pushes her tongue against the inside of her cheek.
“You, Bishop, are the devil.”
And Carina was bewitched by her. Sinning in all her luck.
The team invites them to eat, but while the smell of eggs doesn’t seem to affect the brunette anymore, did the taste speak another story. She declines kindly, encouraging Maya to join them because she was about to departure, anyway.
“I’ll walk you out before I eat.”
Carina waves goodbye to the team, promising to be back later to bring over some leftovers. They walk hand in hand, soft fingers against even softer knuckles. Their steps are in sync, even walking down the staircase doesn’t stop their match, so Carina surrenders the lovely feeling inside her chest. Like a blanket that covers her insides.
Maya makes her feel things she has never felt before.
As they pass the reception, Chief Ross walks past them. She nods to them acknowledging, though her eyes squint when landing on Maya’s, who, for the better part, tries to smile through the pain. The woman leaves them, then, strolling along the steps the pair has just come down from. Her silhouette is still visible as the sun’s strength enlightens the room despite the fact that it was the middle of January. Which makes Carina remember…
“Did you talk to her yet?” She is referring to Maya’s upcoming maternity leave. Andy, or Captain Herrera, had granted her the usual to weeks off and although she knew the blonde ached to spend more than 14 days at home with her new baby was it not in her control to decide that. She’d have to speak with Chief Ross if she wanted more.
If Maya had to choose between talking to Ross or walking over burning hot lava, she’d choose the later.
They had moved past the blackmailing a long time ago, their equal sorrow allowing them both to accept each other’s apologies. That didn’t mean they were friends, though, or even on a friendly basis. Ross was still her superior, a superior who acts as if SFD’s ‘groundbreaking’ rules were life threatening morals if not acted like them to the point of obsession. Old and nasty rules that would never allow Maya to take off more than two weeks of maternity leave because oh my god she isn’t pregnant but demands maternity leave? Nope, screw queer humans.
Maya can be glad she even gets time off.
“Oh, no I haven’t.” Carina throws her a look that says ‘seriously?’. “Yet. I haven’t talked to her yet.”
But something in Maya’s eyes tells Carina that she isn’t telling the truth. Or, the whole truth at least.
But she doesn’t push. Nothing good ever came out from pushing Maya.
Instead she nods. She trusts. They had three more months, anyway.
“Drive carefully, yeah? We’ve been to one too many car crashes this week.” Maya whispers, kissing Carina’s belly first, then her lips, before opening the drivers door for Carina to enter.
“I promise.”
“I love you.”
“ Ti amo tanto, amore.”
Carina reaches up for one more kiss before starting the engine and driving off. She keeps her eyes fixated on Maya, who she watches through the mirror until she turns left from the station’s parking lot and loses all of Maya’s visible.
She turns a few more times. Left, right. Right again then left. She drives past the park she and Andrea used to walk in before COVID hit, before he died. It’s not a huge space, rather small, yet comfortable. Comforting. There were exactly five benches to sit on, two teeny tiny picnic tables and one small, adorable pond with ducks and little fishes. They would feed them for hours on end. They talked and talked and talked until dawn approached and wind hit.
When Carina got together with Maya, their walks became less.
And then suddenly, he wasn’t there to talk to anymore. To walk with.
To laugh with.
Oh how she missed her stupid little brother. How she missed his laughter and cocky smiles. His silly jokes and overprotectiveness. Even when he’d belittle her. She missed him, all of him.
Her Andrea.
Her fratellino.
The uncle to a baby he would never meet. Who he could never meet.
She turns left again, driving along the bridge of Boat Street while trying to stop the tear dwelling in her eyes. Those pregnancy hormones really made her into a mess.
Loud music blasts from the radio, so Carina turns down the volume by four. Never five, always four. The street is empty, luckily. If she’d have to drive through traffic now, she might as well just turn around. Apart from being extremely sad all the time, she was also extremely inpatient. And anxious.
She hates traffic. She was afraid of bridges. And absolutely terrified of bridges covered by cement, making them appear like a tunnel.
“Don’t be something you’re not.” She had said to Maya just a week ago, when the mayor of Seattle revealed this cover for Boat Street. For the bridge on Boat Street. He had said something about ‘the environment’ and ‘saving the pigeons and providing a home for them’ which made absolutely no sense because since when do pigeons live on big cement blocks?
However, there was nothing Carina could do but drive through this, whatever it is, and hold her breath until she was securely on the other side again.
As the light around her darkens, Carina turns the volume on the radio up again. Six this time. The louder the music, the quieter were her thoughts.
She didn’t hear the cement crack. Or the first bricks fall.
All she knew was that suddenly, the radio was out, her car had flipped twice and she couldn’t see. That she was bleeding somewhere on her head but she didn’t know where because her arm is trapped underneath a block of gravel so she couldn’t move it.
And then, just when she thought it might have just been a dream, were her eyes closing.
And darkness has consumed her.
Engine 19, Ladder 19, Aid Car 19; requested to vehicle crash on Boat Street. Vehicle trapped under collapsed tunnel.