Chapter Text
Maya whistled along to the sound of "Texas hold 'em" in her earbuds as she closed the door behind her.
When her brother sought her out, ready to rebuild their relationship, she didn't expect him to embrace her so quickly. It had only been six months, but she smiled as she shoved his spare keys into her pocket and walked away from his fifth floor apartment. He was out of town, and she had been entrusted with the care of his beloved houseplants.
An honor that she accepted and one she respected. While she had her own ways of cultivating positive mental health, her brother had an overwhelming, to Maya, number of houseplants he doted on.
She decided to skip the bank of elevators and take the stairs, she hadn't exactly had time for the cardio she would normally partake in while stopping in at her brother's place every day. Maya slipped into an easy flow, rattling down the stairs quickly, her feet barely touching a step before she was onto the next one. Just as she reached the bottom to enter the fourth floor, she lost her balance. Her hand shot out to grab the bannister, realizing that it wasn't her who slipped. The building was shaking.
"Fuck," she muttered, shifting underneath the door frame that led into a fresh set of apartments. She could hear shouting in the distance, though she wasn't sure if it was outside or in the building. There was a woman's voice, it sounded closer. Close enough to- the building stopped shaking before she could finish her thought, and she took a risk peeking around the door to look both ways down the hall. Sure enough, a woman was on the ground rubbing her elbow. Obviously she didn't have a bannister to hold onto.
"Are you okay?" Maya shouted, immediately crouching on approach to search for injuries.
"I'm fine," she responded with no hesitation. "The shaking caught me off guard, knocked me off my feet."
"Can I just make sure?"
The woman looked up at Maya in surprise, narrowing her brown eyes as she inspected the woman in front of her.
"I'm a firefighter," Maya explained, "Paramedic trained," she assured her.
The woman sighed, "I'm a doctor."
"Okay, but you can't treat yourself. Can I just?" Maya nodded towards the arm she kept rubbing. Though she sighed again, heavier this time, she assented. Maya crinkled her nose as she checked the length of her arm. "I know you said it's fine, but it feels like a fracture," she suggested, unzipping the purse on her shoulder and removing a small first aid kit.
"You're joking," the woman laughed incredulously.
Maya shook her head, removing the sling she knew would come in handy eventually. She wasted no time assisting the woman in putting it on, "Do you have any allergies? I can offer you some Tylenol in a non-official capacity."
"Honestly, I'm fine."
"Any other sore spots?" Maya asked.
"Again, I'm absolutely fine."
Maya nodded, standing before reaching a hand out to help the woman up. "Maya," she introduced herself with a small smile. In hindsight, she should have led with that, but she was so taken aback by the sight she rushed right in.
"Carina," she sighed.
"Can I help you out?" Maya offered, "It seems like there's no real damage, nobody pouring out of their apartments and running for the emergency exits."
Carina made a face, but she nodded. "I was here to check on a patient who is supposed to be on bed rest. Imagine my surprise when she wasn't home. I called her and she gasped in surprise, totally forgot about her appointment!" She rolled her eyes.
"Oh, well, if she forgot," Maya chuckled, slightly amused at the exasperation clear on this woman's face.
Carina grumbled. "I would have much rather been within the confines of Grey Sloan for my first earthquake."
"You've never experienced an earthquake?" Maya asked.
She shook her head, "I'm from Sicily and we have had earthquakes, but I've never been in the country at the time," she shrugged.
Italian. Hot.
They reached the third floor quickly, making general conversation as they did. As annoyed as Carina had initially been, she was clearly relaxing in Maya's presence. "Seattle's been waiting for a big one for a while. The fault line is over 40 miles long, a 7.0 is inevitable given experts think it's been over a thousand years since the last of its size."
Carina side-eyed her new companion with a raised brow.
"Sorry," Maya blushed. "Special interest."
Carina laughed a little, but nodded in understanding.
They made it halfway down the first set of stairs when a rumbling in the distance caught their attention. They exchanged a glance, Maya didn't waste time grabbing Carina by the hand and racing the rest of the way downstairs, hoping they could reach a doorway quickly, before that rumbling turned into anything more.
Carina tripped, stumbling slightly. With no extra arm to brace herself, she was prepared for her face to meet concrete but Maya slowed down to catch her, lifting her off her feet to avoid tripping and falling. She didn't have time to breathe easy, not when the rumbling had finally turned into shaking and the shaking was far more violent than it had been the last time. "Put me down," she insisted. They would both be better off on their own two feet.
Maya listened instantly, quickly pushing Carina into the doorway as the shaking intensified. Maya knew neither were steady enough on their feet now to make it there safely. So she grabbed onto the bannister and held on for dear life, sighing in relief that at least one of them was semi-secure.
Maya had been in earthquakes before. They strike fast, they were usually short and intense. This one kept rumbling and as terrifying as it was, the fact that the building was still standing was a good sign. She could hear alarms sounding now, presumably from the cars in the parking lot and likely smoke alarms sounding.
"Fuck," Maya groaned, she could feel the bannister loosening from the substrate.
"Maya, make a run for it!" Carina shouted from the doorway. She could see Maya nodding in agreement, but her hands were gripping the bannister so tightly she wasn't sure if she could let go. Fight, flight, or freeze, and it looked like Maya was a freezer.
"You're a fucking firefighter," Maya spoke to herself quietly and calmly. "Get your shit together, Bishop. Come on." She loosened her grip with one hand, turning to prepare herself to make a frantic dash across the hall, but before she could, one final shudder wrenched the bannister from her grip and took her to the floor. It happened too fast to process, but she realized from her new position on the floor that the shaking had stopped. She couldn't hear any rumbling, but alarms were still blaring. Her head hurt, which made sense from the fall she'd taken, but there was pain in her leg she couldn't account for.
Trying to sit up, she groaned when a wave of dizziness washed over her.
"Maya," Carina rushed to her side, the same way Maya had just moments ago. "Don't try to move," she warned. "Can I use your first aid kit?" she requested, wasting no time rooting around Maya's purse to find the magic set of supplies. She grabbed everything she thought she might need, using the flashlight on her phone to check her pupils. "You're definitely concussed. Are you feeling dizzy or nauseous?"
"Check," Maya responded.
"Okay, I don't want to alarm you, but you are a little… trapped and there is metal in your leg. It looks fine, if that helps."
"Looks fine?" Maya said in confusion, "You said you're a doctor."
"Yes, and you said you're a firefighter, what does that have to do with anything?"
"Oh God," Maya groaned, "I'm going to die here. Oh God, I'm going to die here," she said with increasing panic.
"No," Carina said firmly, "You're not going to die here. You're going to be absolutely fine, yes?"
Maya shook her head, immediately groaning at the pain shooting through her skull as a result of her slight movement. "Oh God, oh God," she repeated.
"I don't meant to interrupt your prayer," Carina sighed, "But I need to check your leg, I just need you to brace yourself, okay?"
Maya tried loudly deep breathing, following the exercise Diane had taken her through a dozen times. It wasn't exactly calming her down, but it was at least distracting her from whatever was going down below her belt. She was slightly relieved that she couldn't sit up to look down and inspect the issue herself. She'd seen it a million times – responding to calls and encountering people who were fine until they caught sight of horrendous injuries and started to panic. Maya knew she was teetering on the brink of a full-blown panic attack and she did not want to spiral.
"Okay," Carina rubbed Maya's good leg in an attempt to provide comfort. "I'm going to call 911 so they know where we are," she said, trying not to let the worry show on her face when the line was busy. So much for calling for help in an emergency. Maya sighed, her eyes remained closed but the busy signal was ringing loud and clear. "I'll text Grey Sloan," she suggested, shooting texts through to Bailey, Amelia, and Teddy.
"My phone is in my pocket," Maya said quietly, "That felt like a 6.0 at least, there's a good chance my team was called in."
Carina fished the phone out of Maya's pocket as politely as she could, "You have a lot of missed calls and texts," she told her. Maya sighed, she expected that. "Text Andy Herrera," she said. "She's the Captain, 19 is the closest station. They should respond."
Carina nodded, curious that there was no security on her phone at all. It just opened right up. Carina found Andy's contact and sent a text, hoping the urgency was clear. "Anyone else?" she asked.
Maya paused her deep breathing, "Um, maybe you should text my Mom and tell her I love her."
"You're not dying, Maya," Carina scoffed. "You're going to be okay, I swear it."
"And my brother Mason, I wish we'd had more time."
Carina grabbed hold of Maya's hand, "Hey, I know you're in a lot of pain right now, I know it's a little scary, but honestly, you're going to be okay," she assured, and she felt confident in that. Well, she did, until the ceiling next to the doorway collapsed. They were safe from the debris, though the dust did reach them, but she hoped silently that nobody crashed through as it collapsed. She already had enough to deal with.
"You were saying?"
Carina sighed, "We're still fine, we don't need that floor anyway," she shrugged. "Your team will use the stairs, yes? Elevators are too risky in these situations, no?"
Maya nodded. "We can't know how stable the structure is."
"Tell me more about that," Carina invited, keeping her hand moving over Maya's good leg while keeping a close eye on the one impaled by the metal rod on the bannister.
Maya took a few deep breaths and nodded, launching into an explanation about structure stability, the risk of subsidence, and anything else she could think of to keep her mind busy. She knew precisely what Carina was doing, and she appreciated it. Her mind had been buzzing, she had too many thoughts to slow down and avoid the panic. This gave her a focus to shut everything else out.
The longer they waited, however, the more Maya could feel the panic creeping back in. "Tell my brother I've cherished the last six months," she said softly, unable to stop a few tears from escaping from her eyes. "Let him know I'm sorry about his plants because if this earthquake kills me, it's definitely going to wipe them out, too. But I really tried, I sang to them just like he asked me to."
"Maya," Carina tried, but she'd started and she was determined to finish.
"And my Mom. Let her know Mason will come around, that he might not be ready to make nice yet, but he'll get there because he did with me. Tell her it's worth the wait, even if it stings."
"Just your Mama and brother?" Carina decided talking it out might keep her calmer than not, given she wasn't willing to shake her fixation on her family.
Maya nodded, "My Father was eaten by an orca."
Laughter bubbled in her chest, assuming it was some sort of joke, but the look on Maya's face quickly shut her up. "Scusa?"
"There's a reason they tell you to remain seated in the boat in several languages," she said very seriously. "Permanecer sentados por favor," she sighed. "Restez assis s'il vous plaît," she added the French. "Manatili kang nakaupo pakiusap."
Carina just nodded. She honestly had no idea what to say in reply to that. "Yes, of course." She scanned her mind, desperate to come up with something more appropriate than that, but Maya didn't sound emotional when she spoke of him the way she did when discussing her brother and her mother.
"Rimani seduto, per favore," she laughed realizing she also knew the Italian. "Needless to say, I doubt the people on the whale watching tour took the company up on their offer to come back another day."
The sound of footsteps pounding upstairs was Carina's saved by the bell moment, she looked up in relief as a team of firefighters rounded the corner with a medical bag and a board in hand. "Look Maya, help is here. I told you that you'd be okay."
"Chief?" Vic's eyes widened as she took in the situation, turning to Gibson and Montgomery to nod her head towards Maya's leg. Montgomery nodded, stepping away to radio the team for additional equipment.
"Tell me how your team is going to get you out of this, Maya?" Carina asked, moving out of the way so the team could get to work.
Maya groaned when Gibson flashed light in her eyes, but she gritted her teeth in determination, doing her best to explain the process. She hadn't been able to lift her head to see the damage, but she'd seen enough in her line of work to suss out the situation quickly. "They're going to stabilize the rod as best they can before sawing it clear, they'll need to transport me as is because I could bleed to death if they remove it," she laughed sarcastically. "Even though you told me I had no chance of dying."
Carina laughed, "Well, what else would I tell my patient?"
"You were my patient first," she shot back.
Carina smiled at that, relieved to see a bit of that initial machismo flooding back in now that her freedom was looming. Maybe it was the presence of her team that helped infuse her with confidence. "They called you Chief?" Carina questioned, moving in to place safety glasses on her face as the team readied the gear to buzz through the bannister.
"Battalion Chief," she confirmed. "Like, four weeks ago," she said with a laugh. "I'm sure the boss will be happy that off-the-job activities will be the cause for this sidelining."
"No liability," Carina offered, "I'm sure the boss will be delighted."
Maya gritted her teeth as the team set to work, the pain in her leg now more prominent than the pain in her head. She groaned loudly as the saw vibrated through the bar in her leg, and though she was slightly embarrassed to shed so many tears in front of her team, she knew there was nothing she could do about it but hold onto the hand Carina offered her.
"We're almost done," Vic promised, attention still focused on the task at hand as Gibson and Montgomery spoke between each other quietly working.
"See, just like I told you. You'll be fine," Carina said with a bit of a shrug.
Vic stifled a laugh. "And you are?" she asked standing, once Gibson and Montgomery finished, carefully shifting the board beneath Maya and strapping her in.
"Doctor Carina DeLuca," she introduced herself with a smile. "I'd shake your hand, but" she gestured with her sling. "Chief Bishop here thinks I have a fracture."
"Well, then you two can share the aid car to Grey Sloan," Vic offered with a smile, helping Carina towards the stairs as Gibson and Montgomery carried Maya who was groaning, but in embarrassment rather than pain. She hadn't exactly made a great impression on the woman, and now she'd have to extend their time together?
This was worse than the impalement
~~~
As promised, Maya was just fine. She didn't feel particularly great, but Carina was right – she lived. That made her panic meltdown even more embarrassing in hindsight. Maya had built a career in a high-pressured job, and yet when faced with an emergency in her spare time, she folded. Immediately.
She'd seen it more times than she could count, the emotional goodbyes people sputter out just in case. She wondered if she'd be as embarrassed by the whole thing if Carina hadn't been an incredibly attractive woman. Perhaps it was further complicated by the knowledge that she worked at Grey Sloan. Granted, her position as Battalion Chief would make trips to the hospital increasingly rare, there was still every chance their paths would cross. That was a nightmare scenario, she thought as she nodded back off once the powerful painkillers took hold.
Maya groaned as she woke up, the pain in her leg back in full force. She'd been lucky – the rod hadn't done much damage given the risks. She would be back at work in a couple of weeks with a walking stick and life would go on. First, she'd need to get over this infernal burning in her leg.
"Chief Bishop?"
Even if the voice didn't come with an Italian accent, she would have known immediately it was Carina. She felt the air change the moment the door opened, the familiar scent of her citrusy perfume, and as she opened her eyes she could see the smile clear on the doctor's face.
"Hey," Carina added when Maya's eyes met hers. "How are you feeling?"
Maya could feel a blush spreading across her face. She'd never felt so embarrassed to see someone in her life. From calm, cool, and collected firefighter, she'd turned into a crying mess offering her last words. "Not so bad."
Carina nodded. "Good," she held her arm up. "You were right," she offered, almost as a peace offering. "Fracture and a cast, I chose red in honor of the brave firefighter who saved me." She was being genuine, but there was a teasing undertone that made Maya slightly furious. She was a brave firefighter. "Does your Mama know you're here?"
Maya nodded, more embarrassed to hear her mention her mother. So, there was no chance she'd forgotten the exchange then.
"Good," she nodded. "Well, I'll leave you to it, I just wanted to check in on you and thank you for the help."
Maya nodded. "Thank you, too," she offered, it would be rude to ignore that Carina had also saved her.
Carina offered her a smile and a little wave as she left her hospital room and Maya made a face. She didn't get the sense it was something Carina would hold over her head, but the thought of her sharing Maya's meltdown with other Grey Sloan doctors bothered her. If Grey Sloan doctors heard about her moment of panic, it could make its way back to her firefighters. She'd just taken over the role of Battalion Chief, the last thing she needed was her stations to laugh at her.
She groaned, pressing the button to release another round of painkillers, leaning back with a heavy sigh.
What a fucking day.