Third Time's The Charm

Chapter 11

I was in the middle of a delivery when I got the call. It hadn't even been a week since Rebecca's visit, so I never thought it would be her that was calling. The day had started off extremely busy, it was as if every baby in the world got together and decided to be born today.

"Dr. DeLuca? I'm sorry to interrupt, but your phone has been ringing nonstop," said the intern.

"Schmitt for the billionth time, it's DeLuca-Bishop now. And I've also told you several times to not interrupt with such mundane things when I am literally mid delivery," I responded.

"I know and I'm sorry, it's just that you have over 10 missed calls from your wife and another couple from someone named Rebecca. I wouldn't have come in here if I didn't think it was important," he said. My heart sank. It was rare for Maya to call me at work unless something had happened. My mind started to race, playing an infinite amount of scenarios all ending with Maya in a hospital bed, but it wouldn't be Maya calling me if she was hurt right? I took a second to compose myself before speaking again.

"Okay, umm, okay, come on mamma one more big push! And Schmitt, call my wife back and make sure everything is okay," I instructed as I aided the infant with their exit. The delivery had gone smoothly and mamma was now happily settled with her newborn baby. I thanked Jo for her help and asked her to please run all the standard tests while I took a much needed break. I had been working for almost six hours straight, delivering baby after baby. I made my way out of the delivery room only to immediately bump into Schmitt who was still standing in the doorway.

"What is it?" I said, an irritated tone in my voice.

"Umm, your wife asked me to tell you that everything is okay and that she is okay but to please call her as soon as you get a chance. Also, Rebecca called again but she said she couldn't give me any information because of confidentiality issues," he informed me.

"Thank you. Oh and I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been so rude to you," I said, an apologetic tone in my voice as I took my phone out of his hand.

"I understand Dr. DeLuca-Bishop, it's been a very stressful and difficult day for all of us," he smiled.

"Thank you, Dr. Schmitt," I whispered, as he walked away. I made my way over to the attending's lounge only to find that it was completely packed with people celebrating Dr. Webber's birthday. I sighed at the realization and tried my best to go undetected, being too exhausted to sit and interact with anyone right now. I made my way down the hall looking for an empty on-call room, of course those too were occupied with a bunch of horny interns. I finally found a quiet place to sit and picked up my phone, immediately dialing Maya.

"Hey beautiful," she answered.

"Ciao bella, everything okay?" I responded.

"Yes, everything is alright, but by the sound of things you haven't called Rebecca back have you?" questioned Maya.

"Umm no I haven't. I'm actually trying to avoid it. I don't want to hear the bad news. I've already had a very stressful day, don't need to add to it," I chuckled.

"I'm sorry baby. Well she called because she wants us to meet at her office in about an hour, that's why I called you so many times. Should I tell her that we can't make it in today?" she said.

"No, no, it's okay. Let's just get it over with. My shift ends in about 15 min. I'll pick you up as soon as I'm done here, " I said.

"Okay, Love you," she smiled.

"Ti amo bambina, bye" I said, ending the call. I spent the last fifteen minutes of my shift sitting at my desk finishing up as many charts and reports as I could. I finally made my way over to the station to pick up Maya, who drove us to Rebecca. I started to get more and more anxious as we approached the building that housed the social worker's office.

"Bambina, did Rebecca give you any sort of details?" I asked.

"No, not really. She just said she was trying to get a hold of you and that we needed to meet asap, preferably today," she responded, never taking her eyes off of the road. We pulled up to the office building and quickly made our way in.

"Hi, I'm Maya Bishop-DeLuca...." Maya said to the receptionist.

"DeLuca-Bishop." I interrupted.

"Is that really important right now? " she whispered, looking at me before turning her attention back to the woman sitting at the desk.

"As I was saying, my name is Maya DeLuca-Bishop and this is my wife Carina, we are here to see Rebecca Sterling," Maya continued, placing emphasis on our last names.

"You know bambina, we need to agree on the last names before we start the adoption process," I said.

"I know, and Bishop-DeLuca is the better combination," she stated.

"No it isn't! DeLuca-Bishop is so much better! It just flows easier," I argued.

"How does it flow easier? Bishop-DeLuca is in alphabetical order! That makes it flow easier and more pleasant to look at," Maya argued back.

"I see you're still so stubborn about the order of things," I responded, earning a shocked look from the blonde beside me. Maya opened her mouth to respond only to be interrupted by the dinging of the elevator. We made our way down the hall pausing in front of Rebecca's office door.

"You ready?" Maya asked. I nodded in approval and lifted my hand to knock on the door. Rebecca instructed us to come in and have a seat in the two chairs in front of her desk.

"Hi ladies, how are you today?" she asked. The woman held a glowing smile on her face which provided me with a small sense of security. Maybe today's meeting wouldn't necessarily result in the bad news that I was already expecting. Maya noticed that I had started fidgeting with my fingers and immediately reached over, taking my hand and holding it in her lap.

"As good as can be, I guess. A little nervous about today's meeting if we're being honest," Maya responded.

" Oh no! No need to be nervous," she smiled, "I called you in to discuss the progress of your case as well as some next steps that we can take." Maya and I nodded simultaneously, signaling for her to continue.

"Okay, so as I mentioned during our visit. The investigation, if we even want to call it that, was all a procedural formality. I can tell that you both are very good people and honestly wouldn't have even conducted it if I didn't need to. That being said, I have given my approval for you to continue your visits with Ezra," she said. I felt a sense of relief overcome me at the sound of her words.

"Really? So, can we schedule a visit with him as soon as we get out of here?" I asked.

"Um technically yes, but between you and I, Sister Linda didn't take the news of my approval very well. I honestly don't know what has gotten into her. I've never seen her act like this," she responded.

"How do you recommend we deal with this situation then?" Maya asked. Rebecca sighed and began to list different things we could do, but suggested giving the whole visitation period a try first.

"Do we really have to? I mean I feel like Sister Linda is just going to keep throwing things at us at this point," asked Maya.

"Bambina, I feel like this back and forth is going to cause him more trouble in the long run," I said.

"I know but Sister Linda is so set in her ways I don't think she'll ever budge from her whole 'trial period' thing honestly," she responded, placing air quotes around the words trial period. Rebecca watched the interaction between Maya and I. You could tell she was thinking of what to do next, reluctant to overstep Sister Linda's authority over the child.

"What if we contact an adoption lawyer? Maybe they can help us navigate the situation better and help us get around this whole thing," she said.

"That's not a bad idea actually," Maya responded.

"Let's do it!" I said.

a/n: Had a bit of free time today so decided to work on a bit of a filler chapter. As always, comment and VOTE!