You made walking easy

He's back but is he okay?

MAYA POV

Every time I go the hospital I run into Andrea, it's as if he has some sort of tracker on me. It's almost starting to get scary. We never talk, he just stares, and because of that I've now perfected a route to Carina's office without any awkward interactions, if you can even call them that. It's become a habit that on my day off, I buy two coffees and give them to Carina and Jo before retreating to Carina's office. We normally only fit a two-minute conversation in but since she's taken on research again, there's more time for an actual conversation.

Carina was busy explaining her research to me, I was doing my best to take in what she was saying and understand it. Luckily for me, I have an amazing girlfriend who is great at dumbing things down for me!

Knock knock

"Ah Maya, just who I was looking for. There's a man in the ER who says you are his daughter. He's been in a car crash and seems to be quite disorientated. Can you come with me? " Amelia explained. Ah shit, I need to go down and see if he's okay. Carina and I share a concerned yet confused look and head down to the ER behind Amelia.

Entering the ER, I see a lot of blood on the floor and some shouting. Doesn't take a lot to realise the shouting can only come from one person and one person only.. my dad. Entering his curtained area, he stops everything and stares at me with a grin. He's never grinned, I mean yes he as smiled but never in a good way if that makes any sense. It's always in a sinister you-will-run-until-you-die sorta way.

"Ah there's my girl! Can you get me your medal? I want to take a picture with my favourite girl. You've made me so proud; I think we should start running again. Didn't we used to enjoy that? You were so focused on having goals and eating well. You made me the happie-happ-ha..." he states before slowly slurring his words and fainting. Yet again, I share a gaze with my girlfriend of pure confusion and concern. Something about my dad acting proud of me made me run away, ironic right? I just started to run, I blacked out and was only aware of my feet landing on what I'm guessing was concrete.

I woke up from my subconscious as I slumped down in my office at the station. I don't know how I feel about my dad, I don't even know anything about why he's acting like this? Well, while I'm here I can as well do paperwork and ignore the world for a while. Let's just say that doing paperwork is both satisfying and frustrating. I get to put things in the correct order, and there's specific ways that the paperwork needs to be completed in.. but then again if any of that is wrong it becomes a hell of a lot more frustrating. On my last shift, two days ago I didn't do any paperwork, so I have about 48 hours of firefighting to put into writing. Luckily, we use an iPad while at the fires to write notes when we can, so I have some facts along with my memory to work from.

I guess I got so wrapped up in my paperwork that I didn't realise that it was night-time. Looking up I found a Tupperware box with lasagne in it and a note saying 'Take however long you need, Bambina. When you're ready to come home, I will be waiting. Please don't drown yourself in paperwork or running! I love you, Carina'. Well shit, how did I not notice her coming in here! While quickly eating the food and putting that note in my drawer - I keep a drawer full of all of the notes she leaves me and of course they're dated and organised by colour and size of the sticky pads used.. it's not sad right? After eating the food, I packed everything up and ran to my car.

-

CARINA POV

I knew Maya needed time to process things, especially if it's about her dad. I dropped food off and as soon as I entered her office I could see she was completely shut down, I didn't want to stay in her space and eat with her so I decided to leave her food and go home so I can eat alone.

When it hit 9pm I started to get worried, I knew she'd be okay at the station but the only thing I could think about was her running and somehow getting hurt. While lost in my thoughts I heard the front door quietly close with a few clangs of the door getting locked. I pretended to be asleep, I didn't want to bombard Maya in anyway, while she's in this state. So, I turned to face the wall with the light off in hopes she'd believe my acting skills.

"Carina I know you're awake. Come on, let me see your beautiful face. I'm sorry about earlier, I know we worked on me communicating when I needed space instead of just running away. I don't know what happened but I'm here now. Come on, turn around for me " she whispered. I guess I might need to work on these acting skills.

"Am I really that crappy at pretending to sleep? I thought I was better; I'll work on that. Did you eat? You looked so busy I don't think you even realised I was there, so I left. Are you okay? " I started to bombard her with questions, yes I'm a hypocrite I know I shouldn't bombard her, but I can't help it. She softly smiled and pulled me into a hug.

"I'm okay, just feeling a bit drained. I've eaten, did you? Although I'm soo full I could easily eat more of your lasagne. Yeah you probably should work on your acting skills, you pretending to sleep without snoring was my first clue at you pretending." she stated matter-of-factly, earning a playful slap on the arm from me.

MAYA POV

I'm so thankful Carina knows what I need. Before meeting her, I have worked on myself when it comes to boundaries and triggers but I think no amount of therapy will prepare me to seeing my dad again randomly. It's probably stupid but I still on some level worship him despite knowing what he has done to my family.

"Do you want to know why he was there? Amelia told me so I could tell you if you wanted to know " Carina asked.

"Uh yeah okay. tell me" I said quite shortly.

"He got in a car crash while slightly drunk. They think he got in an argument before he got in the car as while becoming more conscious he started to shout threats to everyone and specifically swearing at Mason and your mom as if they were there. He's got a grade 3 concussion which meaning he is expected to be having some amnesia, vomiting and speech difficulty for a while. If it's not treated properly it can result in brain damage. I'm sorry, Bambina" She quietly says while looking at me as if trying to detect any emotion on my face. This is a lot to take in.

"Come on, let's go to sleep. Thank you for telling me, I need to think about it but first sleep! I'm too emotionally exhausted I think if I stay awake any longer I'm going to start seeing flying unicorns" I offer Carina which she takes while pulling me down into our usual snuggle position, with her laying her head within the crook of my neck, her arm over my stomach and leg almost wrapped around one of my legs. I'm not one for cuddles but hers are the best, no arguments about that.

"Uh Carina, I really want to snuggle and sleep but I think I need to get out of these clothes. I still have my sneakers on, I don't think you want them on our new sheets." earning a low groan from Carina as her grip loosened enough for me to escape. Within seconds I was back in her grip, under the sheets and within seconds her snores began. I soon followed.