"You're only heading home now?" I startle from the unexpected voice behind me, dropping my car keys in the process. "Ah, shit, Delucs. I didn't mean to frighten you." Amelia quickly jogs the few steps separating us before she bends over to pick up my keys for me. "I saw you leave the hospital and thought I could bum a ride from my best friend to my girlfriend's house? It's Link's night with Scout." She gazes up at me with those sappy eyes that I can't say no to, even after a nine-hour surgery.
I hold out my hand, palms turned upward for her to drop my keys in them. Amelia snaps the keys back just before I can wrap my fingers around it. "On second thought, maybe I should drive you home and call Brooke over. You seem ready to fall asleep as soon as you blink." I roll my eyes but can't fault her for her observations when I feel myself getting woozy, the longer I stand still next to my car. "Dio. I don't know how Maya works doubles like this nonstop. My limbs feel disconnected from the rest of my body right now."
My friend laughs as she moves past me to open the passenger door for me. "Try to stay awake until we reach home, please. I'm not your superhuman wife and will leave your heavy ass to nap in the car if you don't walk up to our apartment yourself." I start chuckling at her as I get in but stop immediately as soon as I see how serious she's being. "Stai zitto. Do you want a lift home or not?" She shuts the door in my face and blows me a kiss through the windscreen as she runs to the driver's side.
When I hear Amelia start the engine, I drop my head against the window and close my eyes. "I just want to soak in a tub for the rest of the year. My feet are killing me, and I smell like antiseptic. Remind me again why we signed up to do this?" Amelia shakes her head at me and reminds me of her fourteen-hour surgery on Dr. Herman, which was the record at the hospital until Meredith recently broke it. "Which means you won't be getting any sympathy for your measly nine-hour surgery, Dr. Deluca. Sorry."
I don't lift my head from its resting place or even open my eyes as I flip her the bird. "Just call your damn girlfriend and leave me alone. At least Brooke's not at work. I wish I could call my wife and complain about my shift in peace. She'll definitely be more sympathetic than you." She barks out a laugh once more, before reaching over to reward me with the most condescending hug I've ever received. She sticks out her tongue at me when I push her away, just as I press dial on the entertainment screen to divert her attention.
"I'm strapped on and ready for you." Amelia frantically waves around the entertainment screen to decrease the volume when the husky voice of her girlfriend comes over the line. "Shit. Fuck. Shit. Shit. Shit. I'm sorry." I can't keep the grin off my face at how flustered the neurosurgeon becomes while she presses buttons on the steering wheel until silence surrounds us. My friend stops moving around in her seat and looks at me with wide eyes after realizing she had just accidently hung up on her girlfriend.
"I'm so sorry. I didn't think she'd pick up the phone like... we're not usually like this." I raise my eyebrow at her ludicrous statement seeing how I share a wall with them whenever Brooke comes over. Which happens to be a lot since her girlfriend has become a third parent of sorts to Scout. "Let me just..." She shushes me when I throw my hand over my eyes to save myself from witnessing this situation. I start shaking on a tired laugh as she speedily shoots off a text before calmly redialing the last number from the car's stereo.
"Hi, sweetheart. Hi, Carina. Can we please pretend that none of that happened?" I roll my head against the back of my seat and smirk at Amelia. I honestly thought she was my one friend that didn't get awkward about the sex, especially after the amount of times she's come to me for advice on how to please her girlfriend. Now her face has turned redder than her shirt over listening to the plans her girlfriend has with her tonight. "Caio, Brooke. Please don't mind me. I'm already fast asleep. I didn't and will not hear anything all night."
Amelia gives me a grateful smile and I wink at her before I turn my head back against the window, giving the two girlfriends as much privacy as I can. I only open my eyes when we stop at Brooke's place, and she climbs in behind me. "Please tell me you're not packing in my car?" I meet her shocked eyes with a wink of my own. "Scherzare. I'm kidding. Blame my lack of sleep." I smile with my eyes closed, ignoring the shove against my arm, when I hear them kiss hello before we start driving again.
"...thought I told you that I'm not carrying you up...Seriously, Delucs. Wake up!" I sigh and stretch myself out in the car before stumbling out. "I. Need. A. Bath." Amelia and Brooke hook their arms into mine and together we make our way to the elevator. "What kind of hospital makes the heads of their departments work until midnight? Don't you have interns and residents for this type of thing?" Amelia and I look at each other and snort on a laugh at the question. "Emergency surgery." We both respond at the same time, smirking at Brooke when she shakes her head at us.
"You'll get used to it the longer you two date. You should have rethought this relationship when you found out about Amelia's profession. If this isn't your first late night booty call, it sure won't be your last." From the blush on both of their faces, it's clear that this isn't their first rodeo. "Have you and Maya gotten used to it?" I scowl at Amelia before groaning in frustration because she's got me there. "We got used to it when we lived together. Now, not so much. I'm not even getting normal late night calls, who's to say calls related to her booty."
My lips turn down in a pout when I think about how lonely I've been. Since we started seeing each other again, I've only spent time together with Maya three times. Once when she came over for a date at Amelia's, then at the station when she dropped the suicide bomb on her team. The last time was ten very long days ago when we tried to go out on a date before I got called into the hospital. We are both desperate for some time together but have to be satisfied with a few texts and quick phone calls again, since I'm still living at Amelia's place.
"Buonanotte ragazze. Have fun. Quietly please." I kiss both women on the cheek before slumping all the way into my room. I sit on the edge of the bathtub while I watch the bubbles rise higher, the longer the water runs. A knock sounds from the other end of my bathroom door and before I can reach it, the door opens and a hand with a glass of wine slips through. "Sei una manna dal cielo, Amelia Shepherd." I can hear her chuckle in the bedroom as she puts the glass down on the side table, just at the entrance of my bathroom.
"I'd keep those earphones in if I were you." She slams the door shut when I throw a towel against it. I giggle until I hear her laugh subsides as she leaves my room. After getting my glass of wine, I quickly slip out of my clothes and into the bath, slipping my EarPods in and relaxing in the warm water with the soft tunes playing in my ears. Even though I want nothing more than to soak for a few hours, my eyelids become heavier by the minute and the burgundy liquid does nothing to help. No matter how much I'd like to see my wife again, having her rush over to give me CPR because I drowned from exhaustion was not how I wanted it.
I send a quick text to Maya to tell her goodnight and decide to try and stay awake as long as my aching body will allow me, to see if she'll reply. I try to ignore the loud moans coming from down the hall, smiling as I start playing the audio book through my EarPods while getting comfortable against my pillows. Just as I start drifting asleep, Maya's reply lights up my phone, telling me that she's glad I'm safe and that she loves me. The whole text is riddled with spelling mistakes which means she looked at her phone either on her way to a call or waiting to relieve another team.
Maya's words of affirmation lull me into a deep sleep quicker than the book I've been listening to can. My dreams mostly consist out of highly inappropriate moments with my wife during the happiest times in our marriage. From the moment I realized that I was madly and deeply in love with her, to how gentle and sympathetic she was when Andrea died. I hug my pillow closer to me when I reminisce over the expert way Maya handled me on my hormone injections.
My room's temperature increases tenfold as I think back on the night we sifted through potential sperm donors. I think I will die with the smile on my face at Maya's response at my attempt at making the evening romantic. We never should have deleted our homemade porn video we shot that night. Seeing how I haven't heard Maya's moans in my ear in such a long time that I can barely remember the sound of it while I dream about our acrobatic activities.
A frustrating groan escapes the back of my throat as I'm forced back to consciousness a millisecond after dream Maya climbs out of the shower. I squeeze my eyes shut, hoping it will preserve the image of the water dripping between my wife's naked breasts. In my dream I was waiting for her on my knees, desperate to lick those droplets from her fair skin as it travels down her body. My mouth starts salivating merely from the thought of it.
I punch my pillow when a buzzing noise interrupts my fantasy again. Another groan forces its way past my lips when I have to wake up to search for the intruder of my dreams. My eyes burn as they adjust to the bright light coming from my phone in the pitch-black room. "Perché non mi lasci dormire? (Why won't you let me sleep?)" I fumble my fingers around on the bedside table looking to silence the shrill ringing that woke me up, since I'm not even on call tonight.
"Ciao." I clear my throat while switching on the bed lamp to see the time. Who the hell calls someone at 3am and then not say anything? "Hello. This is Dr. Deluca." I repeat it again before the sleep leaves my brain enough to realize, I never checked the caller ID. So, I pull the phone away from my ear for a split-second to see who it is and feel my blood turn cold. "Maya? Maya! Cosa sta succedendo!? What is going on!?" The only thing preventing me from having a full-blown anxiety attack, is my wife's heavy breathing on the other side of the line, ensuring me that she's at least not dead.
"Maya. Bambina, per favore. Say something." I jump out of my bed, falling hard to the ground when my feet tangle in my sheets. "Per l'amor del Cielo!" I kick at the shackles around my ankles before I fumble around for my shoes. My wife's soft whimpers echo on the other side of the phone while I slip my shoes on, wishing she'll answer my pleas. "Bambina, please! Dimmi solo che sei illeso. (Just tell me you're unharmed.)"
I hold my breath as I get back on my feet, straining my ears to hear any indication of her wellbeing. When her soft cries turn into heart wrenching sobs, a heavy fog eclipse my brain and stops me from having any rational thoughts of my own. I can count the number of times I've seen Maya cry on one hand and still have digits to spare. "Just tell me where you are, bellissima." I sit down on my bed facing the window, wishing I can teleport to her through the phone and just hold her for an eternity.
"I'm...Aah, Carina. I need you..." Hearing her thick voice spurs me on to get moving again, and I quickly rummage through my drawers to get a shirt to cover myself before I run out the door in search of my wife. "I don't know if we're there in our relationship yet, but... I'm outside your front door." The words barely leave her lips before I'm sprinting down our hallway towards the foyer. "...the doorman recognized me and let me up without-" I jerk the door open so fast that the door handle gets stuck on my sleep shorts in the process.
I curse a few times while I get myself free but feel the blood drain from my face as soon as I see how pale Maya is on the other side of the doorway. My heart breaks when she takes a step back while trying to make herself as small as possible under the harsh lights of the building. "Oh, amore." She's in my arms before either of us can take our next breath. It only takes my strong warrior another second to crumble in my embrace and cry into the crook of my neck, which makes me hold her even tighter.
I inhale her scent and almost choke when a waft of sweat and second-hand smoke infiltrates my nostrils. Just before I can think the worst, Maya takes a deep breath against my skin and calms down instantly. "You were right about Letham." Her arms wrap around my back fully, forcing me to take a step back from the power of her hug. I ignore the sickly smell of the fire Maya must have just emerged from, bypassing the residue soot behind her ears, to kiss her neck in comfort. "He missed a whole team during evacuations. Greenlit a flashpoint with them trapped inside..."
She startles when I suck in a surprised breath, knowing how serious any situation with the words, evacuation, flashpoint and trapped, entail. "How bad?" I start kneading her shoulders and back, to ease as much of the pain she's in as possible. "I thought I was going to pull pieces of their bodies out of that building when I ran in." She lifts her head to rest her chin on my shoulder, so she can stare at the darkness behind me. "I have no idea how they survived. I swear..." I can feel her clenching her jaw next to my ear which prompts me to nibble on the tight muscle.
"I thought I was too late. When the fire blew through the windows, I was convinced that the firefighters, I allowed him to send in there, burned to a crisp." My arms slip away from her lower body to link around her neck and pull her closer than ever before. Thank god she wasn't part of the team inside the building and she didn't lose anyone on her team. The worst I've ever seen Maya was when she lost a firefighter under her command, and I don't think a loving embrace would've kept her clouds at bay if it happened again.
By some miracle, being with me has kept Maya in the light so far. 'Yes, bambina. You should sleep. In bed. At home. With me.' I wish I knew why that particular memory of the night she first attempted to end her life on Halloween, pops into my head. Maya's eyes back then were so guarded and void of emotion, which caused a pit in my stomach from the first physical contact we had in weeks. Nothing from that night is present in this moment, so why would that enter my mind right now? 'That's exactly what I need.'
I fight back tears when the light bulb goes on over my head, and I lean back to hold her cheeks in my hands. I can't believe I never understood what Maya meant that night. I asked her to be open and honest with me for weeks. To let me know what she needed, and she practically spelled it out for me. Just like she did in Diane's office when she told me about her attempts on her own life. How I saved her that night by simply holding her without judgement.
Maya has always referred to me as the light in her life, and if there was ever any doubt, the fact that she rushed over here at this time of night, spoke volumes. She's here because what she needs is to sleep. In a bed. With me. "Va bene." She stares into my eyes as my thumb caresses over her lips. Even though her eyes are still wet from the tears in them, the color in them is crystal clear as she reads my mind. Maya's smile slips past the pad of my finger before she leans in to leave a long, warm kiss against my lips.
I glide my hands over her chest and stomach, slipping my hands into hers to pull her into the dark apartment. She easily follows me towards the only light coming from my room, trying to be as quiet as possible. I'll never live this down if Amelia and Brooke see me answering my own late night booty call, especially since it's an emotional one instead of a sexual one. She stops me from dragging her to my bed after softly closing the door, which makes me look over my shoulder at her with a raised brow.
"I only wiped myself down after shift to get here sooner. Do you mind if I take a shower?" I almost deny her request but when she gently places her hands on my hips, I swoon from the heat of them. "I can see you holding your breath. You might love a firefighter, but it doesn't mean my work has to follow me home." Her grip tightens around my middle when I bump my pelvis against hers, mockingly scrunching my nose at her. "What happened to Letham?" Maya sighs heavily with her head thrown back before meeting my eyes in all seriousness. "I 51-50'ed him."
A mix of emotions filter through her eyes as her forehead rests against mine, and I know from experience how hard it is to put someone in an involuntary hold like that. "If I hadn't already reported him after our heart-to-heart, I'd probably still be at the station getting reprimanded for what happened tonight." I catch her just in time when she slumps into my arms, either from how overworked her muscles are, how tired she is or from the emotional turmoil finally releasing from her tense shoulders.
"Doccia. Letto. Sonno. (Shower. Bed. Sleep.)" She tiredly chuckles against my mouth before shuffling her exhausted feet into my bathroom. I take a pair of running shorts and an oversized t-shirt out of my drawer and leave it on the same side table Amelia left my glass of wine for me earlier tonight. The shower and bathtub completely hidden by the ajar door and from the mirror getting fogged up by the steam. I crawl back under my covers after cranking up the A/C to cool down the room enough to counteract another person's body heat.
My smile gets engulfed by the indent I left on my pillow, and the smell of my own soaps and hair products pulls me deeper and deeper into sleep. The relaxing mix of Maya's presence, the heavenly aroma in the next room and the cloudlike softness I'm lying on, makes it unbearable to open my eyes when I feel my wife climbing in behind me. "Meglio? (Better?)" I feel her smile into the back of my neck as she cuddles closer into my back, throwing her arm over my torso. "It is now." Maya kisses my pulse point in my neck before settling back onto the other half of my pillow, while I tuck her hand between my breasts.
The next time I wake up in an increasingly restless night, our positions are reversed and I'm the one spooning my wife. A whimper escapes her again and I grasp what woke me up. "Shh, bambina. You're safe. Your team is safe. I got you, amore mio." I smirk into her tangled hair when her hand slips up my naked thigh to wrap my leg even tighter around her waist. A tranquil sigh leaves her lips as I tighten my arms around her chest and kiss her shoulder. Her deep breaths start lulling me back to sleep only to be interrupted again by a soft knock on my door.
"Carina, hey. I know better than to disturb the demon before her morning coffee, but I need advice on a case that just came into the ER." Amelia knocks on my door again before peeking her head inside. She lifts her hand in surrender and whispers her apology in a hushed manner to not bother Maya. I reluctantly untangle myself from my needy wife, giving my roommate the death glare, all the way out of my room. I expect some teasing, maybe even a jab or two about how attractive my sleeping wife is, to get a rise out of me. But my friend's eyes shine with concern when they meet mine. "Is she okay?"
It still takes me by surprise when the normally snarky surgeon turns empathetic and protective over her friends' mental health. She was Maya's biggest advocate after I had her committed. Standing up for her, trying to help me understand how fragile people are after they reach their breaking point. She even dealt with my wrath a few times when she stopped being a supportive friend to me and forced me to talk to my wife. I love her even more for reading the situation within seconds and successfully deciphering that it wasn't a booty call.
"She's doing a lot better that she was when she got here. Which is already a huge improvement from our past." Amelia's smile turns prideful, and it warms my heart that Maya has another cheerleader in her fight against her mental health issues. "She came to you?" I can't help my own smile from splitting my face at how good it feels from her doing exactly that. I bashfully nod at my friend before taking her phone from her hands, to read the reports sent to her from the interns on call.
"Motor vehicle accident?" I zoom into the x-rays Jo ordered on the patient and reread the results of her sonar and labs to look for any discrepancies. "Yeah, she was in the back of a cab when a car crashed into them. She was unconscious on scene but stable. My scans show an intraparenchymal hemorrhage that requires an emergency surgery and Vaughn hasn't answered a single page." We both roll our eyes seeing how it's not the first time the head of neuro has had to rush back to the hospital because her attending refuses to do his job when he's on call.
"Bambino's vitals are stable. Nothing concerning on the scans or sonar. I trust Wilson to make any calls relating to his care until I come in. But call me if anything changes, sì?" I hand her phone back to her but keep looking back over my shoulder into my room when I hear a whimper behind the door. "Thanks, Delucs. I'll keep you posted. Go take care of your wife." I blow her a kiss and start walking backwards into my room. "Brooke's waiting for me in the car after an eventful night, so I guess we both won...?" She barks on a laugh when I kick her on the ass for falling back into her playfulness.
I lean back against my bedroom door when I see Maya awake, sitting on the edge of the bed while slipping her shoes on. I kick the door closed and crawl over the bed to hug her, swiping her hair away from her neck so I can kiss the soft skin there. "My shift only starts at nine. We still have plenty of time to get caught up on some much-needed sleep." She leans into my embrace for a while before she jerks like she remembers herself. "I was planning of going for a run." My mood dips as our past intrudes into our present and I loosen my hug around her neck.
Maya is trying, that's all I have to hold onto in moments like these, when I feel rejected by my wife. She came here last night. She didn't hide behind her walls. She held me like I was her lifeline. She's been so open towards me that I can't blame her for needing a temporary escape from the flood of emotions she must be feeling. As long as she comes home to me after she works through them on her run. "Okay." I tilt her head back to me, leaning forward to meet her mouth in a toe-curling make-out session.
Maya turns her body more into my arms, biting my lip before deepening the kiss again. I release her from my embrace, flopping down into my bed with my arms open. Giving her the choice of joining me or leaving me. That cocky smirk she has on her face while she looks me up and down gives away which option she's leaning towards. Maya kicks the one shoe off that she managed to put on before I came back into the room, in the same motion that she slips between my legs. "It's a good thing I've only been running for the pleasure of it and not to escape you anymore."
She keeps herself balanced above my body by caging me between her arms. The bulging muscles on either side of my head makes the fog leave my tired mind. I run my hands up and down those tanned biceps and moan when she flexes her muscles even more. She runs her nose up and down the slope of mine before dropping her forehead against mine. Her voice raspy and low as her breathing turns shallow. "I'd much rather escape into you." The air from her whisper against my lips, steals the breath from mine.
I moan into the softness of her kiss, slipping my hands up her arms and over her shoulders. Maya nibbles on my neck as soon as I tuck my legs around her waist and pull her down towards me. A guttural moan forces its way past my wife's lips just as they reach mine again in a sloppy battle between our tongues. She tucks her head back into the crook of my neck and hum in satisfaction when I caress her back with my nails. "I think we both need more sleep, bambina." I start chuckling when she nods against me and flops down next to me.
We stare at each other while lying on our backs, playing with each other's fingers in the air. "I'm pretty sure you were snuggled into me the last time we fell asleep." I roll my eyes before flipping her on her side. I tuck myself into her every curve, but it doesn't seem to be enough. Maya pulls my leg over her waist while intertwining our hands underneath her chin. "You are so needy!" She reaches behind me, giving me a hard slap against my backside. "Careful, my love. I can still take my needy and tired ass out for a run."
I press even harder against her, chuckling into her hair before she wraps me even tighter around her. "Your ass is exactly where it's supposed to be. Giusto qui. (Right here.)" I emphasize the last two words by sucking on the pulse point in her neck. "Sleep tight, bellissima." She grinds that glorious ass into my crotch, smiling all the way as her eyes drift close. I kiss her shoulder a few times until her breathing evens out before I cuddle into the back of her neck to follow her to dreamland