The best is yet to come

After all this time?

- January 6th 2025 -

"Leslie come on!" Maya yelled from the kitchen to her daughter who was still half asleep getting dressed.

"Yeah I'm coming give me just -" she put her sweatshirt on before running to the bathroom to wash her teeth.

"No I'm not giving you any second. I told you I had the meeting girl." The blonde cut her off mid sentence and sighed heavily resting her back on the wall.

She felt awfully tired that morning even though she had slept well enough through the night. She pinched her nose between index finger and thumb squeezing her eyes shut.

"Are you okay bambina?" Carina walked through the hallway holding a sleeping Joy on her hip.

"Yeah. All good." Maya raised her head and smiled at two of her girls. "But Leslie is making me extremely late even though I told her we had to leave a little earlier." She raised her voice again for the last part.

The young firefighter's steps came fast as Leslie ran down the stairs almost missing one of them.

"You see? If you rush me I fall." She giggled walking towards her italian mother to place a kiss on her sick sister's head and on Carina's cheek.

Maya chuckled shaking her head and gave her wife a kiss that prolongued a little.

"Now you are making yourself late." Leslie pulled Maya's sleeve dragging her to the door laughing.

They reached the station in less than fifteen minutes. Maya ran in to her office to dress up with her uniform and gather the papers for the meeting.

"Why is she running?" Vic asked once Leslie walked in behind her mother.

"I made her late...or better I asked her to remind me about the meeting cause she didn't write it down anywhere and I knew I would forget, which I did. But then she stopped to kiss mom so technically it's not entirely my fault." The girl spoke following Vic to the lockers to get changed.

"Well you're clearly not famous for your perfect timing." She joked earning a soft punch on her shoulder by the younger firefighter.

Maya knew she wasn't very well. After the meeting her head started pounding a lot more than the early morning. She stumbled to the beanery to have something to eat while the room was still empty.
After one bite of cookie she placed the box back in the cabinet and threw away the remaining of the one she was eating.

Andy walked in in that moment and saw the expression on the Chief's face.

"Hey. You alright?" She asked walking closer and resting her hand on Maya's back.

"Yeah." The blonde wispered in responce taking a chair to sit on and resting her head on the table.

"You got what Joy has?" The Latina asked sitting beside her friend. She looked even more pale than ever and was probably freezing since she was shaking a little.
Andy reached forward to touch Maya's forehead.

"Woah. You're definitely warm. You're not okay Maya." She talked standing up to take a glass for the blonde. Taking a sip Maya thanked her and placed the glass back down.

"Yeah no I'm...I'm good I just have to..." The Fire Chief stood up and walked forward to the door.

"Maya." Andy tried to pull her back unsuccessfully.

"I've still got four hours then I'll be home. I just have to...I have to si-sign some...I've got paperwor-" She managed to mumble before her legs gave in making her collapse to the ground with a thump.