Chapter Four
After Maya’s bath, Carina helped her into bed, the blonde falling asleep almost instantly. The fever and medication making her feel beyond exhausted.
Carina sat by her side, this time in a chair rather than in the bed, her hand never leaving her wife’s as she watched her sleep, not daring to look away for even a second.
She smoothed out some of Maya’s knotted hair with her fingers, pushing strands away from her forehead, the heat radiating off of her skin being a constant reminder of how sick Maya really is.
With hours passing by, Maya not moving much amidst her sleep, Carina stayed by her side all night, which is how Jo found her when she walked into the room that morning.
“Good morning,” Jo whispers, making her presence known.
“Buongiorno,” Carina replies, her words in the same quiet tone, not wanting to wake her sick wife.
“How is she doing?” Jo asks as she grabs a thermometer, heading over to Maya’s side as she checks her temperature.
“She’s been sleeping all night,” Carina shrugs. There really isn’t much to report.
“And what about you?” Jo questions and Carina frowns.
“What about me?” Carina asks defensively, not really understanding what her friend is insinuating.
“Did you sleep, at all?” Jo questions with a raised eyebrow, already knowing the answer. The sigh that Carina emits only solidifies it.
“I couldn’t,” Carina shakes her head, her eyes going back to her wife. “Not when she’s like this.”
“Well I have good news,” Jo starts, Carina lighting up at her words, listening to what she has to say. “Her fever is down to 100.4 °F (38 °C), which is so much better than last night.”
“That means the medicine is working?” Carina double checks, feeling hope fill throughout her body.
“Yes,” Jo smiles with a nod. “I want to monitor her for a few hours, but if her temperature stays this low, then I will get her discharged.”
“Grazie,” Carina replies with a grin, placing a quick celebratory kiss to Maya’s forehead.
“But I need you to get some sleep too. She’s contagious and you don’t want to catch this because your immune system is lowered,” Jo states firmly and Carina slowly nods, her eyes searching for somewhere to lay down.
“You can sleep in your office and I can watch her, if you want?” Jo suggests. “I have time until I see my next patient.”
“Thanks, but I need to stay with her,” Carina responds and Jo nods in understanding. “I’ll just share her bed.”
“Are you sure?” Jo asks, knowing that the bed isn’t the biggest space in the world.
“Sí,” Carina nods. “Trust me, she would much rather us share a bed anyway.”
It’s a known fact to Carina that Maya enjoys cuddling way more than she would admit, especially when she’s not feeling well. However, she doesn’t think Maya will be too fond if she tells other people that, so she keeps her words to a minimum.
“Okay,” Jo nods. “Do you need anything? Something to eat or drink?”
“I think i’m just going to get some sleep,” Carina answers, the exhaustion hitting her all of a sudden. “Grazie Jo.”
“Of course,” Jo replies, nodding towards the door to signal that she’s leaving. She walks out of the room, shutting the door behind her.
Seeing that Maya’s hogging the middle of the bed, but there’s still room behind her, Carina walks around to the other side, gently sliding in behind Maya, who’s laying on her side.
Careful to not make too much noise, Carina grabs one of the small blankets that Maya was given, pulling it over her body. She then turns to her side as well, throwing a protective arm over Maya’s torso as she spoons her from behind, hiding her face into her wife’s neck.
Maya doesn’t move an inch with all of Carina’s movements, proving to the Italian that she’s in such a deep sleep.
She hopes with all the rest Maya’s getting, she’ll get over all these infections a lot quicker, or at least, not take such a toll on her body.
The fever isn’t as bad as it was a little over twelve hours ago, which is a good sign, Carina just hopes that it continues that downward trend.
Feeling her eyes start to grow heavy in the comfort of Maya’s warmth, Carina allows herself to fall into a peaceful sleep.
A few hours later, Carina opened her eyes, seeing how she’s still in the same position as she was earlier with Maya in front of her. Given that she can’t see her wife’s face from behind, the only indication she has that Maya’s awake is the tracing on her arm, the one that’s wrapped around her waist.
“Buongiorno bambina,” Carina whispers, placing a kiss to the side of Maya’s head, discreetly searching for a fever, instead, she’s met with clammy, warm skin. “How are you feeling?”
“Better, I think,” Maya answers, her voice coming out raspy due to hours of disuse. “I think I broke my fever. I’m sweating.”
“You don’t feel very hot,” Carina replies as she sets her hand against Maya’s forehead, double checking the temperature she detected from her kiss.
“When can I go home?” Maya asks desperately, not wanting to be stuck in the hospital anymore. Her bed, even her couch, is more comfortable.
“Hopefully soon,” Carina simply says, wishing for that to be the answer. She’s not Maya’s doctor, but she is a doctor and she thinks they could treat Maya at home, as long as her state remains the same.
Maya coughs harshly, reaching for a tissue from the box resting on the table close by, spitting mucus into it.
“Gross,” Maya mutters, searching for a trash can, unable to see one in close proximity. There is one located in the corner of the far side of the room, but she’s not too keen on the idea of getting up.
“That’s good though,” Carina reassures her, sliding out from Maya’s body to retrieve the trash can that her wife is looking for. “It means that your lungs are trying to get rid of the infection.”
She rounds the bed, placing the trash on the floor next to Maya’s side, leading the blonde to drop the tissue directly into the bin.
“Still gross,” Maya states, Carina chuckling at her nasally voice, causing the sick woman to frown, not understanding what’s so funny. “What?”
“What am I going to do with you, bella?” Carina asks rhetorically, sliding back into bed, laying on her back this time so Maya is able to rest her head on her chest.
“What do you mean?” Maya questions, still not understanding. Carina guides her to lay back down, resting her head on her body. Carina’s fingers find blonde hair to play with in the meantime.
“Pneumonia, one ear infection, and strep throat?” How does someone get all those infections at once?” Carina asks out loud as she sees Maya shrug. “I’ve never seen it happen before,” Carina adds.
Now that Maya doesn’t appear to be deathly ill like she was the night before, Carina finds that she can actually joke about the situation a little to help bring up the mood.
Though, it’s obvious that Maya still isn’t feeling good. She can tell just by her mannerisms alone. If Maya was feeling better completely, she would be practically begging to be back at work.
But with Maya’s pneumonia, it’s clear that she most likely won’t be returning anytime soon. Not until her lungs clear up.
“I’m just powerful,” Maya says nonchalantly as Carina playfully shakes her head.
“Can you maybe not be powerful next time? I don’t like seeing my wife sick,” Carina softly requests, lightly massaging Maya’s scalp, making the woman sigh contently.
“I’ll try,” Maya replies.
Their conversation comes to a stop once Jo enters the room, happy to notice that Maya appears to be looking better. Her face isn’t as pale and she has more life in her eyes.
“Good morning, Maya,” Jo greets as she walks in, walking closer into the room and shutting the door behind her. “Are you feeling any better? I know last night was rough.”
“Yeah,” Maya agrees with a nod. “I feel better. I think my temperature went down.”
“That’s good,” Jo grins, grabbing the thermometer. “When I came in this morning it had gone down to a low-grade fever, which is much better.”
“Does that mean I can go home?” Maya asks with a hopeful tone as Jo raises the thermometer to her forehead, pressing the button to reveal a temperature of 101.2 °F (38.4 °C).
“Well, your temperature went up one degree, but it’s still technically a low grade fever,” Jo declares, causing Maya to pout, just wanting to go home. “But that could just be because you’re due for more medicine. Are you having any trouble breathing?”
“No,” Maya answers as she shakes her head. She hasn’t had to be on any oxygen since before her bath.
“Let me check your lungs,” Jo mutters, more to herself as she pulls out the stethoscope from around her neck.
Carina helps Maya into a sitting position, much to her dissatisfaction. Between the fever and her million infections, her body feels completely achy and tired.
Jo listens to her lungs from different angles, coming to the conclusion that although her lungs don’t sound great, her breathing is okay.
The doctor pulls away, Carina guiding Maya back down, smoothing blonde hairs away from her forehead.
“I want to get you some more of your antibiotics and keep you here for few more hours to see if the medicine brings your fever down,” Jo explains and Carina nods in agreement, ultimately feeling better about Maya being in the hospital if Jo still has some concerns.
“And then what?” Maya questions, feeling Carina’s arms wrap around her body from the side. Like a side hug.
“If it goes down, I see no problem with getting you discharged,” Jo finishes and Maya smiles happily. Her comfy bed sheets are calling her name.
“Grazie Jo,” Carina says thankfully as she puts medicine into Maya’s IV.
“How about you, Carina?” Jo wonders with a raised eyebrow.
“What about me?” Carina asks confused, not understanding where Jo’s going with this.
“Did you sleep? The woman questions, leading Maya to glance at the two of them, wondering where this conversation is coming from.
“I did,” Carina nods. “Right after you left.”
“Okay good,” Jo nods.
“What do you mean?” Maya asks, looking at her wife instead of Jo, hoping Carina will give her an honest answer.
“It’s nothing, bambina,” Carina answers, attempting to sweep it under the rug.
“You’re wife wasn’t sleeping until I told her to,” Jo answers, causing Carina to duck her head down in embarrassment.
“Carina…” Maya says softly. “Why didn’t you sleep?”
“I couldn’t,” Carina replies, shaking her head.
“How come?” Maya wonders, wanting to get Carina to talk about it, even though she thinks she already knows what’s going on.
“I was worried about you,” Carina admits. “I was worried that you would have trouble breathing or spike a high fever again.”
“You need to sleep, Carina,” Maya says sadly, not liking how her problems are what’s keeping her wife up.
“I am, I promise,” Carina declares. I stayed up majority of the night but I ended up getting a few hours this morning. I’m okay.”
“Okay,” Maya nods in understanding. “You don’t need to worry about me though. We are in a hospital and i’m getting better.”
“I know,” Carina replies, placing a small kiss to the top of her wife’s head, needing to physically feel that she’s here and that she’s safe.
Jo leaves the room shortly afterwards, claiming that she will return in a few hours to see how Maya’s doing.
“I hate how tired the medicine makes me,” Maya grumbles as she rests her head against Carina’s shoulder, enjoying the feeling of her wife rubbing her sore back.
Hospital beds aren’t the most comfortable beds in the world and Maya’s stiff back and neck are to show for it.
“Sleep, it’s good for you,” Carina soothes.
“What about you?” Maya mumbles as she closes her eyes, her sickness quickly making her drowsy from exhaustion.
“I’ll sleep too,” Carina compromises, not wanting Maya to worry. Maya needs to focus on getting herself better, not having to worry whether or not she’s sleeping.
Their plan on napping was short lived, Maya’s coughing and congested snores keeping not only Carina up, but her as well.
However, once Jo returned to the room, taking her temperature, seeing that it went down to 100.3 °F (37.9 °C), she cleared the blonde, giving them their discharge papers, along with the abundance of medication that she needs to fight off her many infections.
Remembering that Maya’s only wearing shorts and a tank top in Seattle’s January weather, Carina stopped at her office on the way out, grabbing a pair of scrubs she kept in her drawer, noting that she only had one pair.
“Here bambina,” Carina says, offering Maya the light pink scrubs, setting them into her shaky hands, because even with her low fever, Maya’s still shivering with cold chills, her outfit not helping much either.
“What about you?” Maya asks, noticing that Carina’s clothes aren’t the best for the cold temperatures outside as well.
“I’ll be okay. I only have one pair and you are freezing,” Carina explains, pointing to the goosebumps on Maya’s arms for extra measure.
“Okay,” Maya relents with a sigh, sliding the scrub pants over her shorts and throwing the shirt on over her tank top. With her wife being a little taller than she is, Maya practically drowns in the scrubs, causing Carina to giggle. “They don’t fit,” Maya bluntly points out.
“It’s cute,” Carina grins as she takes Maya by the hand, leading the two of them out of the hospital. She tries to not pay attention to her coworkers that recognize her, seeing that she’s in her pajamas.
“My head hurts,” Maya admits, having to talk louder than her sore throat would like because of the cool wind that blows past their figures.
“I can give you some tylenol when we get home,” Carina assures, opening the passenger side door as Maya climbs into the car.
The brunette walks around the front, sliding into the driver’s seat and immediately turning on the ignition, rubbing her cold hands together.
Similar to the ride to the hospital yesterday, Maya leans her head against the cold window, hoping it will magically help lower her internal body temperature.
“When am I supposed to go back to work?” Maya asks between fits of chesty coughs. “I can’t even walk to the car without having a hard time catching my breath and avoiding the feeling that i’m going to pass out.”
Carina keeps her eyes on the icy road, because while the winter storm is starting to pass, the roads still aren’t great with the black ice. Although, she reaches over the counsel, taking Maya’s hand into hers.
“Probably not for a few weeks, bellina,” Carina answers, aware that’s not the response Maya was probably hoping for.
And she’s proven right by the groan that escapes Maya lips, causing Carina to shake her head, a small smile gracing her lips.
“Maya, you have an infection in your lungs,” Carina states, glancing over in her wife’s direction. “You don’t need to be running into burning buildings anytime soon and i’m sure the rest of your team doesn’t want your germs.”
“I’m really sorry if I get you sick,” Maya apologizes, knowing that it’s too late to prevent any sicknesses being spread given that she’s practically coughed and sneezed all over her wife these past two days.
“It’ll be okay,” Carina declares. “If I get sick, I get sick. I just want to take care of you,” she adds with a smile.
Maya blushes, glad that she’s found someone to take care of her like this. It’s more than she could’ve ever imagined. Carina is more than she could’ve imagined.
“Thank you for taking care of me,” Maya replies, closing her eyes, her head still laying against the icy window. “Growing up, I wasn’t allowed sick days. I could be throwing up and having a high fever to the point where I felt delirious and my dad would still force me to run. I wasn’t ever babied when I was sick, so thank you.”
“You aren’t being babied. You’re being treated like someone who is sick. It’s how you always should’ve been treated,” Carina declares, her hands gripping tightly at the wheel, hot rage consuming her.
She hates Lane Bishop. And god forbid, if she ever finds that man, she’s going to-
“Still,” Maya says, breaking Carina from her angry thoughts. “It’s kind of nice, taking a break. A day to rest. I just wish I didn’t feel this bad.”
“Me neither,” Carina frowns. “Seeing you that sick…it was terrifying to witness how out of it you were last night,” she adds with a shudder.
“I’m sorry,” Maya whispers, squeezing Carina’s hand. She doesn’t know what she would’ve done if it was Carina who was that sick. She can’t even imagine what her wife must’ve been feeling. “Hopefully I continue to feel a little better.”
“I hope so,” Carina sighs. “But it’s only been a couple of days. Pneumonia usually lasts about two weeks so i’m worried that you will spike a high fever again.”
“I will tell you if i’m starting to feel worse, I promise,” Maya reassures, not wanting it to get to a point where she’s really sick and in need of going back to the hospital immediately.
Carina wordlessly nods, pulling into their apartment complex. In silence, they walk hand in hand into the building. They decide on taking the elevator, although Maya protests the idea at first.
But when Carina shoots her a glare that she can’t argue against, Maya goes into the elevator, stopping her complaining.
“Couch or bed?“ Carina asks as they walk into their apartment, pulling off their shoes.
“Bed, but I don’t think i’ll be able to fall back asleep,” Maya answers, already walking towards their bedroom, Carina trailing closely behind, still worried that Maya will fall because of her dizziness.
Carina pulls back the covers, allowing Maya to climb into bed, the brunette covering her shaky body, tucking her in.
“Aren’t you joining me?” Maya asks with a small pout, hoping Carina won’t leave her alone. She wants her close. Cuddles are the only part about being sick that Maya doesn’t hate with all of her being.
“You need to eat first,” Carina states as Maya rolls her eyes, most likely back to her stubborn self now that she’s at home and not at the hospital.
“Carina,” Maya whines in protest, not wanting to put any food into her stomach.
“Maya,” Carina mocks in the same tone, seeing how Maya’s pout further develops. “Oh come on. How about soup? Maybe a popsicle? Just something small to put into your poor sick body.”
“Fine,” Maya grumbles, hoping that the less time she spend arguing, Carina will be able to join her in bed. “Popsicle.”
Maya didn’t even realize that sick people have popsicles. As a kid, popsicles were only a rare treat in the summer once her weekly soccer camp was over.
It was when she was so young, doing soccer before she even started track.
Lane didn’t know she had popsicles, always eating the red ones on the unlikely occasions that he dropped her off instead of staying.
On days he stayed, she knew better than to have a treat filled with so much sugar.
Except one day she made a mistake, choosing the blue popsicle, a girl she attended the camp with telling her that it was the best flavored popsicle and Maya just couldn’t pass up the opportunity.
However, unbeknownst to her with how young she was, the blue color stained her mouth, a instant tell that she had a popsicle once her dad picked her up.
He was furious. His face bright red and it wasn’t because of the summer heat.
“Maya?” She hears Carina say, snapping her out of her thoughts, seeing the worried look plastered across her wife’s face. “Are you okay?”
“Fine,” Maya nods unconvincingly, but Carina decides to let it go as she left the bedroom, retrieving two popsicles from the fridge before returning to Maya’s side, figuring that a sickness warrants eating in bed.
“Here you go,” Carina offers a popsicle to her wife, Maya eyeing it for a second before taking it into her hands.
“Blue,” Maya whispers to herself as she pulls off the wrapper, Carina doing the same with her popsicle, climbing into bed herself.
“Is that okay?” Carina asks with a pause, willing to trade her green for Maya’s blue. “We can switch.”
“No, it’s okay,” Maya replies, shaking her head.
She’s going to enjoy this popsicle knowing little Maya loved it. She doesn’t need to walk on eggshells anymore. She can eat this damn popsicle if she wants to.
She’s in charge now, not her dad.
Maya brought the cool treat to her mouth, the iciness bringing some temporary relief to her sore throat.
The flavor was just like she remembered.
Little Maya would be so happy, for more ways than one.
Similar to their nap, sleep that night was pretty restless. Maya found it hard to breathe when she laid flat on her back, leading her to be forced to rest in an elevated stature, which was far from comfortable, making sleep difficult to come by.
On the other hand, Carina had a hard time staying asleep, especially with all of Maya’s movement and heavy breathing from congestion keeping her up all night.
By the next morning, they both were exhausted, but Carina was happy to see that Maya was asleep, getting some much needed rest.
Although, she knew that she wouldn’t be getting anymore sleep, leading her to find herself standing in front of the coffee machine, aware that she’s going to need the warm liquid to help wake her up.
Carina brought her mug with her back into the bedroom, grabbing her computer as she got comfortable in bed. She worked on some charting, deciding to get some work done.
While she was supposed to go to work today, Jo offered to pick up her shift if Carina were to cover her sometime two weeks from now, which she gratefully accepted, wanting to be by Maya’s side.
Maya is still very much sick, but Carina doesn’t fully trust that if she were to leave, her wife would stay in bed.
Last time she left, she found Maya running on the treadmill to the point of throwing up.
Carina would rather not chance that happening again, not wanting another trip to the hospital because Maya refuses to rest.
Yet, Maya’s impressed her. She’s actually letting herself rest for the most part without Carina having to beg her.
Though, Carina can’t blame Maya too much for her dislike in resting. It’s all Maya knows. The idea of no rest was pounded into her from the moment her wife knew how to walk.
So Carina’s patient and understanding because she knows where these instincts come from.
Carina was lost in a world of her own, her mind floating from her work back to Maya in a vicious cycle that made doing her charting almost impossible.
A whimper tore her from her thoughts, causing the Italian to look down at the sleeping woman, seeing a small frown presented on her face.
Carina watches, looking for any change in Maya’s features or more noise to show that she’s having a nightmare.
Just as she was about to turn her attention back to her work, not discovering any difference, Maya whimpers once again, except this time it comes out in more of a cry, breaking Carina’s heart.
“Wake up, tesoro,” Carina coos, rubbing her hand up and down Maya’s arm, trying to ease her out of her bad dream. “Come on, Maya. Wake up.”
Maya eyes open in a flash, her posture rigid and tight, not moving a muscle as she looks around the room, most likely trying to familiarize herself with the environment.
“Hey, you had a nightmare,” Carina says as she places her hand on Maya’s face, cupping her cheek, her thumb swiping away a lone tear. “Are you okay?”
“It was my dad,” Maya settles on saying.
Even with the confirmation, Carina would’ve already guessed that answer, knowing that Maya’s seems to be having a lot of reoccurring nightmares and memories from her past being brought up because of the sickness.
Carina isn’t sure if the fever has something to do with her wild dreams, but she knows that because resting while she’s sick is a new concept to her, it’s probably a big reason as to why it’s happening.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Carina asks, lowering her body to lay on her side, leaning her head against her hand that’s because held up by her elbow.
“I wasn’t allowed to have popsicles growing up,” Maya whispers.
“Oh,” Carina responds, not expecting that to be the answer she gets. “Do you feel guilty?” She asks in a guess.
“A little,” Maya nods. “I wish I didn’t. I should be allowed to eat and do whatever I want, but I still feel like I should be following his rules. It’s stupid.”
“It’s not stupid,” Carina shakes her head, resting the palm of her free hand flat against Maya’s chest, feeling the racing of her heart against her skin. “You’re with me and you’re safe.”
Maya merely nods, acknowledging Carina’s motives of calming her down, leading her to inhale a shaky breath.
“You’re allowed to feel however it is that you feel, but you don’t need to feel guilty,” Carina declares. “Arguably, the best part about being sick is eating ice cream and popsicles,” she adds with a chuckle, causing Maya to smile softly, resting her hand on top of the one on her chest.
“I can’t argue with that,” Maya giggles and god, Carina loves that sound.
“Ti amo tanto,” Carina whispers, placing yet another kiss to her warm forehead. “And since you weren’t allowed to eat popsicles growing up, we are going to have all the popsicles in the world, especially if you’re sick.”
“And cuddles?” Maya adds with a hopeful grin. “That’s also arguably the best part about being sick.”
“Of course,” Carina nods in agreement. “All the popsicles and cuddles in the world.”
“And soup?” Maya continues.
“You couldn’t have soup when you were sick growing up?” Carina questions in disbelief. It’s not that she couldn’t really believe it, but she wondered why that’s the case besides Lane just being controlling in nature.
Maya simply shakes her head no, tracing the back of Carina’s hand with her finger.
“But it’s not filled with a lot of sugar,” Carina points out, catching Maya’s finger with her hand and wrapping her hand in hers, giving it a squeeze.
“Doesn’t matter,” Maya sighs. “It’s not that I couldn’t have it. I actually did because it’s low in carbs, but not typically when I was sick,” she explains. “It wasn’t a sick day food for me, more like an after track meet meal if I won.”
Carina frowns, not enjoying the fact that food was used as leverage for Maya when she was a kid. Something she had to work for, not just got because she was alive.
“Popsicles, cuddles, soup, and what else?” Carina asks, adding soup to their imaginary list of what makes resting days good.
Maya just simply shrugs, starting to feel her mind fade from the exhaustion of her illness, allowing Carina to take the lead.
“Back rubs,” Carina states as Maya looks at her with a puzzled expression.
“Back rubs? Since when is that a sick day activity?” Maya questions and Carina smirks.
“I might’ve just made it up,” Carina admits as Maya chuckles.
“Does that mean I get a back rub?” Maya asks as she quirks an eyebrow, looking at Carina for a certain answer.
“Sí,” Carina nods with a smile, laughing at how quick Maya flips to lay on her stomach. “If you wanted a back rub so bad you could’ve just asked.”
“I didn’t, not until you mentioned it,” Maya replies, her words muffled against the mattress.
Carina gently pulls her tank top over her head, beginning to carefully dig her hands into Maya’s back, physically feeling how tense she is. “Relax, bambina,” she whispers, feeling Maya do exactly as she said, her body melting into her touch.
Nothing about this was to fulfill a greater want of desire. This is just Carina showing Maya the love and care that she should always be deserving of, not just when she is sick.
It doesn’t even take ten minutes into the back massage before Maya’s out like a light, her small snores filling the once quiet room, bringing a tender smile to Carina’s face.
The Italian doesn’t stop the back rub until she’s finished with her whole back. Carina then covers Maya’s bare skin with the blankets, setting a kiss to the spot just below her hairline as a promise.
A promise that she will always make sure Maya is taken care of. That she feels loved, even on her sickest of days.
Maya adjusts her work shirt in front of the mirror, coughing a little as she does so.
With a week and a half of rest, Maya managed to convince Carina to allow her to go back to work, as long as it’s desk duty, not running into active burning buildings.
Yet, that was fine for the blonde, given that she was still having slight breathing trouble after some exercise showing that she’s not ready for the physical efforts of firefighting yet.
Seeing Carina walk up from behind her out of the corner of the mirror, Maya grins when she feels a pair of hands wrap around her waist, a small kiss pressed to the spot behind her ear.
“Ready for work?” Carina asks and Maya nods, melting into her wife’s embrace, feeling so incredibly grateful for the woman who was by her side for the last week.
It’s also Carina’s first day back to work as well. She took off a few shifts of work, treating her time away like a vacation, just wanting to spend her time with Maya, even if she was sick for the majority of it.
Maya’s fevers weren’t as high as the day she spent in the hospital once she was released. It took a good seven days before her fever finally broke, bringing her some peace.
“I packed you lunch to bring with you. Make sure you eat as much as you can. You need the fuel,” Carina explains and Maya smiles, turning her face sideways to rest her forehead against the side of Carina’s forehead.
“Thank you, for everything. You helped me so much and I only hope to be as good at taking care of you when you’re sick as you were to me,” Maya says quietly.
“I’m holding you to that,” Carina replies as Maya giggles.
“I promise,” Maya states.
“Let’s hope none of us gets sick for a long time,” Carina declares as she pulls away from their embrace.
“Agreed,” Maya nods as Carina heads toward the door of their bedroom.
“I’ll meet you in the car,” Carina announces as she leaves the room, going to do as she said.
“Okay,” Maya yells.
She takes a second to think back on their week and although she was very sick and miserable most of the time, Maya’s so lucky to have had her wonderful wife there to help her through it all.