Forever, and Always: A Maya and Carina Story

Chapter 3

Hour 23

"One more thing, I promise. She called me 'bella' earlier this morning, and I have literally no clue what it means, but it's such a beautiful word and I want to figure out what it means from her, not from my phone. I want to be with her to learn what it means, and not just as friends."

Those were the last words Carina heard before she walked into the room. At first she thought that it was just Maya talking about her one of her friends, but she replayed it in her head a few times to put the pieces together.

It couldn't have been about her friend, because the final part of that statement was "and not just as friends". Carina then thought that she could be possibly talking about a girlfriend, but she realized that if Maya had a girlfriend she would probably be here, considering that it has been almost 1 day since she got admitted to Grey-Sloan. There was one more thing that Carina couldn't wrap her head around. Maya claimed that this lady called her bella. To the extent of her knowledge, Carina was the only Italian in the room that morning, and she did call her bella. Was it possible that the blondie could've been talking about her?

Carina cleared her throat. "Um- Ciao!" Carina didn't take a step forward from her position at the door, because she was scared that if she crossed the imaginary line between her and her patient, too many words would come out. "Everything has been good so far? No abnormal cramps, no unusual dizziness or headaches, right?"

Maya took a deep breath before answering the doctor's questions. "Everything has been just fine. No abnormal cramps, and nothing out of the ordinary is wrong with my head." Maya gave Carina a half-grin, because that she truly meant what she said.

Andy looked between the two women, clearly seeing the tension, and decided it was time to temporarily leave the room. "Uh, I think I'm gonna-" Andy pointed at the door, which earned her a death glare from her best friend. To her surprise, the doctor also gave her a death glare, and Andy was forced to make a decision that she was definitely going to regret in the future. The Latina mouthed sorry to her best friend, and scurried out the door.

Maya rolled her eyes as Andy speed walked out the door and turned her attention back to the doctor currently looking at her.

"So..." The blondie started.

"So..." Carina said.

"Um, do you want to go first, or should I?" Maya was secretly hoping that the doctor would let her go first because there were a few, well more than a few, things she needed to say.

"You first."

Maya let out a sigh of relief, and began stating the things that needed to be said. "Ok. First off, how much, if any, did you hear?" Maya needed to know where to start, just in case she started to say more than she should.

Carina counted for three seconds before answering, not wanting to seem too eager about the subject. "'One more thing, I promise', and everything after that." Carina noticed that Maya dropped eye contact with her, and started playing with her fingers. She decided not to say anything about it, because to her it seemed like something only a partner or a friend pointed out.

Shit. Maya thought to herself. This is going to be a lot harder than I thought it would be.

"Maya? Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm good." The blonde didn't even know where to start. Maya cleared her throat. "Just to clear the air, I was talking about you, but I can explain everything I said."

Carina nodded and let Maya continue.

"I'm going to start from the beginning. When I said 'one more thing, I promise', I did say a lot about you, but it's not anything you need to hear about right now. I don't know what bella means, but if you want to tell me, I have no interest in learning right now, because it is not the appropriate time for that. Um, and the last sentence I can explain after you say what you want to say."

Maya finally looked up at the doctor, who was at a loss for words. She even though Maya didn't say much, that was all that needed to be said by her at the moment. "Thank you be- Maya." Carina at last managed to get out. "You said you could explain the last sentence?"

Maya ducked her head to avoid eye contact again before she said what she had wanted to say for about a day. "In two days, when I am no longer your patient, will you go on a date with me?"

"Maya I- I don't know if I can accept your offer."

The blonde's eyes rolled to the back of her her directly after the OB/GYN said that sentence. She was having a seizure.

—
a/n- i thought it would be funny to have a cliffhanger 🤭 also im sorry that this is a shorter chapter, my original ending for this chapter would've stretched it out and I didn't want that :/