Clinic Day, Station 19, Marina

[Mems]

Hi guys! I just can't stop with the Marina these days! This is set after last week's episode but before the one that aired last night... I wrote this right before bed and then forgot to edit and post it before the new ep aired! So just pretend Andy is captain, baha. Hope you enjoy!

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Maya had been looking forward to this day for a long time. First clinic day back. Meaning she would hopefully get to see her wife, even just for a minute between calls. She was feeling a little crummy, but nothing that would keep her away from the possibility of a Carina sighting. She rubbed under her itchy nose, noting with a groan that it was starting to run. 

She was sitting at the table in the beanery, head propped up on her hand, attempting to sip a smoothie while she checked the schedule for the fifth time that morning, ensuring that Carina really would be there soon. 

“You alright, Bishop?” Andy asked, jolting Maya out of her thoughts, “No offense but you look rough.”

“Hmm? Yeah, I’m fine,” Maya reassured her friend, although as soon as the words came out of her mouth, a harsh cough followed. 

“Oooookay…” Andy replied, not quite believing her friend, but not feeling like arguing about it. “Line up is in 10 minutes,” she said, slipping into captain mode, seamlessly filling her new role as interim. 

Maya finished as much of her smoothie as she could, reassuring herself one more time that Carina really would be there today, before slipping her phone into her pocket and heading to line up, continuing to sniffle and cough slightly on her way. 

“Alright 19!” Andy bellowed. “It’s clinic day! Montgomery, you’re on desk duty. Gibson and Hughes on Aid Car, everyone else on engine and ladder car. Clinic is being staffed by doctors and volunteers today due to short staffing on our part due to the ongoing investigation. Get to setting up for the clinic then prep your individual assignment duties.”

Maya felt the tickle in her sinuses growing, making it nearly impossible to listen to Andy’s instructions. She tried her best to hold back, but it was fruitless. Her mouth hung open as she took in a few shallow breaths, “Heeeeeeeh… heeeh… heh.. HETCHEIW! HeexCHIEW! HeghxCHEEW!” She sneezed harshly, doing her best to catch them in her hand, but only partially successful. 

“Woah, Bishop, say it, don’t spray it,” Vic said, half-jokingly, swaying back away from Maya as her breath continued to hitch.

“Soh, hehh, sorry Vic,” Maya managed, before unleashing another wet sneeze into her palm, “HEGXTHEIW!” 

She wiped her wet hand under her wet nose, looking around to see everyone else setting up for clinic, and assumed that was the instruction she missed while fighting the losing battle with her sinuses. She quickly began pulling out tables and popping them open, unable to focus on anything more than the very basics of her job and keeping her now streaming nose from sliding down her upper lip. As she dragged another table to the front of the entrance, the klaxons sounded and everyone took off to pull on their gear. Maya slid into her boots, a harsh coughing hit over taking her as she pulled up her turnouts and slid on her jacket. Her nose began to trickle down her upper lip, arms too busy with her gear to wipe it away. 

“Bishop, you’re out! Trade with Montgomery” Andy barked, as she ran to climb into the engine. “Sorry Travis, but you’re going to have to work on campaign stuff another day.” 

“Wait, what?” Maya asked, suddenly angry. She agreed that Andy was the best choice for acting captain but randomly benching her?

“Bishop you’re a walking biohazard, you can barely get your gear on, and a few minutes ago you almost dropped a table on Gibson  while sneezing. I can’t have you running into fires like this. Get a box of tissues and go answer phones.” 

Maya wanted to argue, but she knew Andy was right. She slid back out of her gear and into the kitchen for a cup of coffee before parking herself at the front desk with a box of tissues and the phones. 

The morning was not going much better for Carina. She’d recovered from her bout of food poisoning a few days ago, but now, just as she was feeling herself again, her throat was beginning to ache and her nose was running like a faucet. She let out a groan as she filled her percolator with coffee grounds, remembering that today was a clinic day, meaning she would be running around like a crazy person bouncing from patient to patient for at least 6 hours. She coughed a little as she opened up her travel mug and added the freshly brewed espresso and steamed milk, but then smiled as she put the top onto her mug. Clinic days were tiring, but this clinic day also meant Maya, and nothing in the universe would keep her from that. 

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Carina sat in her car for a minute before heading into the station, blowing her nose as thoroughly as she could and taking one more blessed sip of coffee in the safety of her own quiet car before going in. One small thing she’d given herself when she moved into the hotel was a decent coffee set up, so she at least had that going for her. She took a deep breath, then instantly regretted it, as it triggered a quickly developing cough. She grabbed her white coat and bag from the passenger seat, adjusting everything in her arms so she could swing the door to the station open, a little surprised but very happy to see Maya sitting at the front desk. 

“Carina,” Maya said, clearly feeling a little awkward, but suddenly so grateful for this cold and the desk duty it brought along with it.

“Maya,” Carina greeted, noticing her wife’s slightly red nose and the used tissues scattering the desk. Before she could comment, her own nose made itself known, and a sudden sneeze snuck up on her, “Heh-tSHEIW!” she sneezed openly across the desk, her hands and arms too full to cover. 

“Ahh, here,” Maya offered, taking Carina’s coffee cup from her and handing her a fresh tissue from the box.

“Grazie,” Carina thanked her, burying her nose into it and blowing thickly. 

“You too, huh?” Maya said, still feeling a bit awkward, but her nerves were beginning to settle a bit. 

“Yeah, I guess so,” Carina replied, reaching for her coffee cup back. Maya took the used tissue from her hand and threw it away for her, earning a small smile and another shy “Grazie” from her wife. 

“The least I can do. First I poison you then I cry and snot all over you and apparently share a developing cold.” Maya said. 

“I seem to remember puking and snotting on you a fair amount too,” Carina smiled despite herself. 

“I guess it was going to get us both either way,” Maya said back, a small smile on her lips too.

“You are leaking a bit,” Carina told Maya kindly, gesturing to her upper lip. Maya reached up and felt a wet stream pouring down her face and reddened, she had been so wrapped up in her wife’s face she hadn’t noticed. 

“Sorry,” Maya apologized, grabbing a clean tissue and wiping at her nose, the wet trickle and tickly tissue causing a wet “HEHHGCHEIW!” to spray out, partially caught in the tissue, but a good deal spraying onto the phones and tissue box on the desk as well. 

“Bless you, Bambina,” Carina said, unable to keep the familiar nickname from slipping in. “I guess I should go down to the clinic, but thank you for the Kleenex,” she said, pulling a few more from the box Maya had just sprayed. She gave her nose another quick swipe and looked back at Maya, who was still smiling at her behind her own wet tissues, thinking maybe it wouldn’t be such a rough day after all. 

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She was wrong. It had been a rough day. A really, truly, very rough day. It seemed that every woman who walked into the clinic that day had some sort of gynecological need and Carina spent the morning running from patient to patient, feeling more and more run down by the second. She had started off following the usual hygiene principles she followed at work- sneezing and coughing in her elbow and lots of hand sanitizer, but as the morning dragged and her pockets overflowed with used tissues, she eventually gave up and grabbed a mask, hoping it would contain both the germs and the now ever present stream of wetness pouring down her face. She hit 4 hours before she couldn’t keep it up any longer, the mask on her face full of mucus, her throat and chest aching from the cough, and her body struggling to stay upright. She dragged herself back up the stairs, hoping to snag a few more tissues from the front desk (and maybe another glance at her wife, sure) and a brief car nap to get her through the last 2 hours of her shift. 

Carina rounded the corner, whole body sagging when she saw it was Vic at the front desk, armed with a carton of Clorox wipes, versus Maya and her blessed Kleenex. She snuffled at the thought of a nice clean tissue, mask so full of mucus it did nothing to relieve the congestion, causing a thick “heh-XCHIEW!” instead. 

Vic looked up at the sound, expecting to see Maya returning from her lunch break, surprised to see a very weary Carina instead. 

“Hey Carina! You looking for Maya?” Vic asked, happy to see her friend and also hoping to mend a few bridges between Maya and Carina along the way. 

“The tissue box actually,” Carina said thickly, attempting again to sniff back some of the congestion, triggering a now scraping cough. 

Vic gave her a sympathetic frown. She’d thought Maya looked bad, but Carina was about dead on her feet at this point. 

“You’ll likely find them together,” Vic explained as Carina’s cough stopped only to make way for another congested sneeze, “hEH-XCGHIEW,” she sneezed tiredly, bringing her arm up to cover, despite the mask already covering her face.

“I’m sure she’ll share,” Vic said sympathetically, getting up to take Carina by the arm. She knew that both Maya and Carina were trying to give each other space, but they’d clearly also given each other some sort of plague, and she knew they’d both be much less miserable riding it out together. 

She steered Carina into the bunk room, where they found Maya sitting on her bunk scrolling her phone, a tissue held loosely to her face, failing to fully sop up the stream of wetness pouring from her nose. 

“Carina needs some tissues,” Vic said by means of explanation, nudging Carina towards Maya before slipping back out the door to the desk. 

Maya held out the box to her wife, a little smile on her face. She knew the clinic was full of tissues. 

“Thandk you,” Carina said, voice rough and congested, taking one and twisting it in her hands. 

“Car, come here,” Maya said, trying to be soft rather than demanding, but hating to see her wife struggle. She reached up and took Carina’s hand, pulling her down next to her on the bed. 

Carina, for her part, simply let her. 

“How was the clinic this morning?” Maya asked, swiping her hand under her own nose before quickly going back to the task of rubbing her thumb gently back and forth on the back of Carina’s hand. 

“Insane. Like a whole convention of uteruses,” Carina told her, grumpily furrowing her eyebrows. 

Maya smiled at that, unable to help her natural reaction to her wife’s cuteness. 

Carina leaned her head back, trying her best to get in a deep breath through the thick wet sludge sticking her mask to her face and snapping forward with a resounding “HEEHTCHIEEEEW!” She had spent all day restraining her sneezes, her body desperate to let them fully out now that she was safe again. She rubbed her eyes wearily. 

“May I?” Maya asked, gesturing towards Carina’s mask. There was no need to wear it alone with Maya, they’d already shared germs. Carina nodded glumly, coughing again. 

“That cough sounds so bad already,” Maya tutted, gently removing the straps from around Carina’s ears. She couldn’t hold back a gasp when she removed the mask. It was filled to the brim with snot, which immediately started pouring out down Maya’s hands and Carina’s chin as soon as she broke the seal by removing it. As soon as the fresh air hit her sinus a series of loud sneezes consumed her, “HEEEEEEEHTHCIEW! Heeeeeeeeh HEXCHIEIEW! HETXCHIIEW!” With each sneeze her head reared back and thick ribbons of snot added to the handfuls of wetness Maya now held in her hands with the drenched mask. 

“Sorry,” Carina stammers, reaching her hand up to try and wipe some of the wetness away. 

“Shh, no, don’t apologize,” Maya soothed, “I just, how were you breathing in that thing?” she asked, as she did her best to start soaking up the mess with the mostly used box of tissues.

“No lo so,” Carina shrugged quietly, wincing as the tissues touched her face, her skin chapped and raw from the moisture and rubbing of the mask. 

“I’m gonna go get us more tissues, okay?” Maya asked, desperately needing one herself but having just saturated the last one on Carina. 

Carina shrugged, falling down against Maya’s pillow and curling into a ball. The smell of Maya infiltrated the sheets and the bedding, and Carina took in a deep wet sniffle, attempting to suck in as much of the comforting smell as she could, but triggering another harsh cough instead. 

“I’ll be right back,” Maya told her, holding her sleeve up to her face at this point, no other way to stem the flow from her pouring nose. 

She quickly shuffled out of the bunk room and toward the beanery, almost running into Vic again in the process. 

“Hey, how much longer are you gonna be on your lunch? I don’t mind covering or anything if you need to rest but I’m gonna grab some Crisis One paperwork to do if I’m gonna be there a while.”

Maya answered with a spraying sneeze, “hept-SCHEIEW!” into her arm, ineffective at covering the spray as it was already saturated from stemming the flow of her nose for the past 5 minutes. 

“Woah,” Vic said, stepping back from Maya for what felt like the hundredth time that day. She wasn’t a germophobe by any stretch, but whatever Maya had was wet and spraying in every direction, and poor Vic kept ending up in the line of fire. 

“Tissues, please?” Maya asked, somewhat irritably. She knew more was about to come. Vic grabbed a new box from the supply cabinet, passing it to Maya quickly, but not quite quickly enough. 

“Heh, heh, HEWTSCIEW!” unfortunately spraying Vic’s hand outstretched with the tissue box. 

“Ugh, sorry, Hughes” Maya groaned pulling a handful of tissues from the box and giving her nose a thick blow. 

“That’s okay, you can’t help it,” Vic said, sanitizing her hands thoroughly regardless. “You could maybe get one of those nifty masks from your wife though?” 

Maya made a face at the mention of it. She understood the need for the mask, lord knows if she showed up at a clinic and the only OBGYN on staff was pouring germs as badly as Carina was she’d be seriously concerned, but she was angry with it right now. 

“Don’t talk to me about that mask, she had about a gallon of snot and an inch of air in there trying to breathe and treat patients. Her poor face. I’m mad at the mask,” Maya griped, ending her vent with a deep cough of her own. 

“Okay, mama bear, I get it, no more mask for baby bear, are you coming back to the desk though or not?”

“Yes. Give me 15 more minutes.”

Vic accepted this and took a soda and a bag of chips back down with her to the desk to wait out her last few minutes. 

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Maya slipped back into the bunk room, her heart breaking at the sight of Carina. She’d seen her sick and miserable far too much this past week. There was already a pool of mucus collected on her pillow under Carina’s nose, snot bubbling and pouring with every congested breath.

Maya pulled more tissues out of the fresh box and did her very best to be gentle wiping away the wetness, but Carina’s skin was so raw that even the gentlest touch lead to a thick “KEXCIEW!” into Maya’s hand. 

“Carina?” Maya said, trying to get Carina’s attention as she finished wiping off her wife’s face. 

“Hmm?” Carina responded, not even opening her eyes. 

“I’ve got to get back to the desk, okay? You stay here and rest as long as you want.” 

“No, no I need to go back, I’m probably already past my break,” Carina argued half heartedly, not having the energy to put up much of a fight. 

“Carina, I love you, always, all the time. So much. Especially right now curled up in my pillow with your sweet nose running. But you are in no shape to be around patients, especially pregnant patients. Another 2 hours in that mask and you’ll drown in your own snot and another 2 hours without it and you’ll drown everyone else.”

“You get to go to work,” Carina pouted. 

Maya laughed out loud at that one. 

“Yes, I get to go sit at the desk away from everyone else and answer phones,” Maya chuckled, “would you like to join me?” 

“Si,” Carina answered, to Maya’s surprise. She’d been joking, she loved to work, even if it was just desk duty, but she couldn’t help but see the appeal of sitting somewhere quiet and private for a few hours with the way her face was pouring snot. 

“Alright, come on then,” Maya held out a hand to Carina who quickly clutched onto it. The truth was Carina didn’t want to be alone, she’d been alone so much the past month, with no one to reach out to when she needed. Even sitting in an uncomfortable chair at the desk was better than sitting alone in the bunk room or, god forbid, going back to the dreaded hotel room. 

Maya led her back out to the front desk, kicking Vic out of the extra chair so she could settle Carina down into it. She slid the office chair right up to the desk so Carina had something to lean on and put the tissue box right in front of her. Carina immediately laid her head down on the desk, cradling the Kleenex in her arm like a child’s favorite stuffed toy. Maya smiled for what felt like the hundredth time that day. It had been weeks with no smiles at all, and a few minutes with her wife and she felt like her face might break from all the smiling. 

She leaned back in her own chair, pulling a fresh tissue out of the box her wife was clutching and went back to the piles of mundane paperwork and never ending calls from the community about anything and everything. By the time Andy came out of the captain’s office a couple of hours later, her voice was shot from answering the phone and every time she’d leaned down to fill out a report her nose ran and dripped, leaving it red and chapped.

“Dios Mio, Maya, what the hell?” Andy said, taking in the scene before her. Carina was fully passed out on the desk at this point, snoring not so softly. To Maya’s credit, she had at least tucked a few tissues under Carina’s streaming nose to catch the never ending flow of snot from collecting directly on the desk, but coupled with the literal piles of Maya’s own tissues scattered the desk and the handful of them Maya currently had pressed to her face while she filled out yet another report, it was definitely a sight. 

“She’s twice the biohazard I am,” Maya said, “you can’t have her down in the clinic,” reaching a hand out to rub Carina’s back and she coughed again in her sleep. She’d been coughing intermittently since she’d fallen asleep about half an hour ago, but each time it made Maya’s heart stop. 

“Umm, yeah, I can see that. Why is she at the front desk though? Why are YOU at the front desk? Maya, you sound awful.” Andy asked. 

Maya shrugged, “You put me on desk duty?” She really had no idea why Carina was there, other than she wanted to be, and that was enough for her. 

“Okay, Bishop, go home. Take your wife home too, or at least somewhere that is not directly next to the front door of my fire station.” Andy instructed, knowing that Maya and Carina weren’t exactly living together right now, but also knowing Maya wasn’t going to leave her in the state she was in either. 

Maya nodded, scooping the piles of tissues laden the desk into the small trash can while coughing harshly, her voice so hoarse you could hear it in her cough. 

“Hughes!” Andy called out, “Come take over desk, and for christ’s sake bring some disinfectant!” 

Andy went down to check on the rest of the team while Vic came in to take over for Maya. 

“Sorry Bishop,” she said to Maya with a little frown. 

“It is what it is,” Maya responded in a rasp. 

She went back to the bunks to change as Vic settled down next to Carina to keep watch. 

Just as Vic had fully disinfected the desk, Carina began to cough harshly in her sleep, waking herself up and attempting to sit up, resting her elbow on the desk and her head in her hand. 

“Ugh, Maya?” she asked blearily, sleepy eyes barely fluttering open as her breath began to hitch, “HEEEH-TCHIIEEEEEEW!” she sneezed openly, spraying both the newly disinfected desk plus Vic’s hands for what seemed like the thousandth time that day. 

“This is just not my day,” Vic mumbled, getting yet another pump of sanitizer, but worried for Carina all the same. 

“Mmb, sorry Vic,” Carina mumbled, rubbing her eyes and nose, slowly waking up and figuring out where she was. 

“That’s okay, you’re not the first one today,” Vic reassured her with a wry smile, “your wife is practically a full sprinkler system.” 

Maya came back into view just as Vic mentioned her. She looked slightly less miserable in her comfy civilian clothes and hair loose, but her face was still red and runny and it was hard to miss her exhaustion.

“Hey,” Maya greeted Carina sadly, “Andy’s sending me home.” 

“Maya, your poor voice,” Carina frowned, snuffling and rubbing at the mucus leaking onto her upper lip. 

“I believe the orders were for you both to go home,” Vic clarified, passing a fresh tissue to Carina. 

Carina accepted the tissue but her lower lip began to wobble, tears filling her eyes against her will. 

“Carina? Baby, what’s wrong?” Maya asked, the nickname slipping out. She’d been working all day to maintain boundaries and refrain from calling Carina “babe” or “baby” but between the runny nose and the watery eyes and sad little pout, Maya just couldn’t help herself any more.

“I don’t want to be alone,” Carina admitted shamefully, a small sob escaping. Her eyes and nose were both streaming down her face at this point, triggering another irrepressible sneeze across the desk, “HEEEEHKSCHIEW!”

Vic took this as her sign to trade places with Maya, hitting the bottle of hand sanitizer yet again before standing up for a minute so Maya could take her place next to her wife.

“Carina,” Maya soothed, wiping away Carina’s tears and snot as gently as possible with the soft cuff of her sweater. 

Carina looked up into Maya’s eyes. They were as runny and red as her own, but still big and round and blue and full of so much warmth and love. 

“You… you don’t have to… I can tuck you into my bunk here with Vic if you want…” Maya started, “but if you wanted… if you wanted, I could take you home? I promise I’ll give you space, stay on the couch, let you be… but I can’t say I love the idea of you being alone either.” 

Carina took a minute, her whole head feeling foggy. Her walls were built up pretty firmly, but between the violent vomiting earlier in the week and now the violent face leakage, she was growing very tired of holding them up when her wife was right there to hold them for her. 

“Okay,” she said softly. 

“Okay,” Maya said, letting out a deep breath she wasn’t aware she’d been holding. She took Carina by the hand, helping her up and leading her out from behind the desk. She felt a sneeze building in her sinuses and quickly turned from Carina. “Hep-SCHEW!” Luckily it wasn’t an overly messy one. Unluckily, she’d aimed it directly at Vic in her attempt to aim it away from her wife. 

“Good Lord,” Vic grumbled, “take these with you,” she said, shoving the box of tissues into Carina’s hands.

“Sorry Vic,” she grimaced, knowing she’d really tested the limits of friendship by that point.

“Grazie, Vic,” Carina said, tucking the tissue box under her arm so she could reach out and give Vic’s hand a grateful squeeze. 

Carina’s hand was wet and slick with fluids, much to Vic’s chagrin, but she accepted the gesture and gave Carina’s hand a gentle squeeze back. Her friends better be grateful for how much she loved them and Andy had better be setting up the decontamination shower this very second in return for assigning her to cover desk after Maya twice today. 

Maya and Carina trailed out the door to Maya’s car while Vic settled back in her chair, unpackaging yet another set of Clorox wipes. 

—----------------

It was a quiet ride home, Carina still quite sleepy and Maya’s voice so painful and raspy she winced with every swallow. Maya luckily found a parking spot close to their apartment, and collected her belongings as quickly as her tired body could before going to the passenger side to open Carina’s door. 

She knew Carina hadn't fallen asleep, but she’d made no moves to get up since they’d arrived. She kept her head resting against the passenger side window, breathing through her thick congestion the best she could. 

“Carina, babe, let’s go inside,” Maya said, opening the door and unbuckling Carina’s seat belt. She could feel her own head beginning to spin and her nose threatening to drip, but if she could just get them both inside, she could lay down. 

Carina looked up at her sleepily, still saying nothing, worrying Maya a bit. She needed to remember to take Carina’s temperature once they got inside. She managed to get Carina out of the car and into the apartment, leading her directly to the bedroom. She settled Carina onto their bed, blinking back tears at the sight of her wife in their own bed again. Now wasn’t the time to get lost in her feelings. 

“What can I get you?” Maya asked, biting back the “baby” nickname she’d almost subconsciously tacked on. “Have you had anything to eat or drink today? Medicine?”

Carina shook her head softly, burrowing herself deeper in the sheets. Maya wasn’t really sure whether she meant no she hadn’t had food or medicine or no she didn’t want any food or medicine, so she just stood there for a minute, debating her next move. 

“Maya?” Carina moaned, peeking open her aching eyes to look at her from the bed. 

“Umm, yeah?” Maya responded, feeling awkward. 

“Please come to bed.”

Maya didn’t want to take advantage of Carina when she was so vulnerable, but the idea of laying down did sound really good. Her throat was killing her and her damn nose was still running. 

“Umm, okay, sure,” she replied, toeing off her shoes, but hesitating before climbing into bed. “I can just go lay down in the guest room,” she offered, lowering her eyes a bit, wanting to give Carina a chance to ask for space if she needed it. 

Carina’s eyes immediately filled with tears, the sobs coming quickly this time. “I… I don’t want to be alone,” she choked out, sobs making way for a gagging cough.

Maya almost began to cry herself. She was sick and exhausted as well and the sight of her wife sobbing and gagging in front of her was almost too much for her to bear.

“Shh, no baby, please don’t cry,” she begged, quickly climbing into bed and wrapping her wife in her arms. 

“I’m so sorry,” Carina choked out, crying hard into Maya’s chest, but gratefully no longer gagging from her sobs and cough.

“No, shh, don’t be sorry, please don’t be sorry,” Maya almost begged. She was truly concerned now, maybe leaving the station and its access to medical supplies wasn’t the best idea. She bent down to kiss Carina’s forehead, checking for a temperature. She was warm, but not warm enough to cause this kind of reaction, Maya thought. 

Carina coughed into Maya’s chest, beginning to gag again from the tears and snot running down her face and the back of her throat. Maya quickly leaned over her to grab the tissue box from the bedside table when she saw it. The picture of Carina and Andrew and their mother at the beach when they were little kids. Maya loved this picture, Carina was so little and carefree, the stress and pain of grief and loss not yet coloring her features. Then Maya remembered. March 23rd. It was Carina’s mother’s birthday. A truly awful day to be feeling so horrible. 

Maya’s mother had never done much to care for her when she was sick, but she knew Carina’s mom had been good at this sort of thing. Making soup and reading books and snuggling Carina and Andrew until they were well again. 

“Hey Car?” Maya said gently, pushing the tear and snot stained hair back from Carina’s swollen face. “Can you help me? I mean, after we nap, can you help me? Make your mama’s special sick day soup?”

Carina took a shuddering breath, calming down at the mention of her mama and her special pastina. The thought of eating anything else made her want to be sick, but the idea of her mama’s pastina was comforting. 

“Yeah, we can do that,” she finally answered Maya, after a few more shuddering but calming breaths. She pulled her head out of Maya’s chest, strings of snot connecting her to Maya’s sweatshirt as she pulled away. 

Maya went to pull another handful of tissues from the box, but found it frustratingly empty. She’d used them all up the night before when her nose had first begun to run. She had meant to get more on her way home from work.

Carina was snuffling wetly next to her, struggling to breathe through the snot and having no luck wiping it away with her bare hands and arms. 

Maya decided to fuck it and pulled her sweatshirt sleeve over her hand and began to use the fabric to wipe the thick mess that has collected on Carina’s face during her sobs. It wasn’t as if it wasn’t already soaking in snot and tears and it was certainly better than Carina sitting less than a foot away from her struggling to breathe. 

“Blow baby,” she instructed Carina, lightly pinching the fabric around Carina’s nostrils. Carina hesitated, but an ear shattering “HHHEEEEHSHCGXCHIEW!” sprang from within her sinuses and into the wet shirt in her wife’s hand. Carina gave up at that point, blowing thickly, quickly saturating the thick fabric through. 

“Better?” Maya asked, pulling her hand away from Carina’s face. 

“Si,” Carina sighed, a bit despondent.

Maya’s nose decided to make itself known at that moment too, and as she reached up to wipe her own snot away, she recognized her mistake. She no longer had any dry sleeve to sneeze into or wipe her own nose on. 

“Aww, mi Bambina,” Carina soothed, seeing Maya fighting a sneeze. Eyes lidded and head leaned back, Maya was doing her best to hold off the sneeze as long as she could. She could feel how messy it was going to be. Her nose began to run, not stopping at her upper lip as usual, but pouring down past her lips and onto her chin. 

“Come here, Maya,” Carina said, taking Maya in her own arms this time and tucking her into her chest. Maya sneezed harshly into the fabric of Carina’s tee shirt, leaving a thick glob of snot and a spray of wetness behind. 

Carina pulled her hem up to Maya’s face, attempting to wipe the stream of snot off Maya’s chapped face, but Maya’s nose had other ideas, “HEPTCHEIW!!” she sneezed again, Carina holding the fabric gently around Maya’s nostrils. 

“Blow, Bambina,” she promoted. “It’s your turn now.” Maya grumbled, but blew, unable to argue with the feeling of emptying her never endingly runny nose. 

“Thandks,” Maya said glumly, running her hand under her nose.

“Maybe we get some more tissues when we order the ingredients for our pastina, hey?” Carina cajoled, trying to wipe the horribly dejected look off her wife’s face with a little lightheartedness. 

“What else did your mama do when you were sick as a little girl?” Maya asked, settling her head on Carina’s chest, trying to avoid the mess she’d just made on her shirt. 

“Mmm she’d read to me, and sing to me, and hold me just like this,” Carina said, lying them both down under the covers and wrapping her arms tightly around Maya’s waist and back. 

“I don’t know how much good I’d be at singing right now,” Maya said with a touch of regret, her voice sounding and feeling like her throat was made of gravel. “I could tell you a story though?” she offered.

“No Bambina, shh, rest your voice,” Carina told her, rubbing her thumb in small circles on Maya’s back.

“Thank you for remembering her,” Carina said softly. “I don’t think I had connected how bad I was feeling with how much I miss her today and always and especially when I am sick and all I want is my mama.” Her voice hitched again, and slow quiet tears began to creep out this time. Carina didn’t mind these tears nearly as much as she’d minded the gagging sobs earlier. Memory tears could be healing. 

“I think maybe you’re a lot like her,” Maya said quietly. She was getting very sleepy under the gentle touch of her wife’s hands and the warmth of Carina’s favorite blanket that Maya had refused to use since she’d left. 

“Hmm, yes and no. I think I maybe have a little more fire,” Carina chuckled a bit, “Maybe I could be the one to tell the story, huh?” 

Maya nodded against Carina’s warm chest. 

“Okay, so when I was 11 and Andrea was just a tiny thing, we both managed to get the most horrible stomach flu you’ve ever seen. My food poisoning Monday was nothing compared to this.”

Maya shuddered in Carina’s arms, “Ouch,” she commented, “I didn’t know it was possible to get much worse than that.” 

“Mi dio, si, it was BAD. Spewing from both ends, and it hurt so badly I could barely move” Carina explained. 

Maya frowned at that, she didn’t like the idea of her wife ever being so sick, even decades ago. 

“Andrea was so little at the time, sick all over his clothes, and too small to lose too many fluids, so mama had him in her bed, changing him and holding him and giving him small spoonfuls of juice. I was so jealous. I was practically glued to the bathroom floor, and she was in the other room with my stupid baby brother.”

Maya giggled at that, a rough cough escaping as she did so. She knew Carina had been a jealous little thing when Andrew had been born. 

Carina rubbed Maya’s back as she coughed, sniffling back a stream of mucus but choosing to ignore it for now. 

“I decide I will make my mama pay attention to me, so I drag myself out of the bathroom and to the bed and I vomit ALL OVER. All over mama, myself, Andrea, the bed. A disaster.”

“Carina!” Maya scolds with another giggle and cough. 

“I know!” Carina said. “I was 11! I deserved a slap for that one at that age.” 

Maya tensed in her arms, knowing that if she’d dared to be seen or heard being sick at all as a child that a slap was the least of her worries. 

“You know what mama did?” Carina continued, biting the tension and rubbing Maya’s back even little more softly.

“What?” Maya rasped, her voice almost indiscernible.

“She changed Andrea first, which made me mad,” Carina chuckled. “But then she changed me into clean pajamas too and laid Andrea on one side and held me close in the other. The whole rest of the day I puked in a bucket in her bed while she held me. Then when we were better she made us pastina and we read books together on the couch, both of us tucked into her lap as if one of us wasn’t an 11 year old with giant baby giraffe legs.”

Maya smiled and sighed, tucking herself even further into Carina’s arms before slipping into sleep. 

Carina snuffled back another a trail of snot, leaning down to wipe it the best she could on the shoulder of her wife’s already ruined sweatshirt. 

She held Maya tight. She couldn’t ever remember Maya sleeping peacefully in her arms when sick. She either stressed about work, or worked herself to the point of no return. Getting her to take a sick day was usually nearly impossible.  Carina felt her heart warm a bit at that realization. Maybe her wife was changing, getting better. Accepting her own vulnerabilities and others’ love. And with that thought, Carina slipped into a healing slumber too. 

 

Edited April 1, 2023 by Mems

[ID2006]

This was amazing 

[anon13]

This is the biggest compliment I can give: I created an account specifically so I could comment on this story. 
I would absolutely love to see a part 2, specifically with Vic getting sick. Maybe Maya watches Vic progressively get sicker throughout a shift and drags her home after. We all know that she can’t take care of herself while she’s sick (and the writers won’t let Ripley) but Marina is a close second. 
I can imagine that the two of them are so unfazed by the germs at this point that they totally forget about personal boundaries. 

[Mems]

21 hours ago, anon13 said:

This is the biggest compliment I can give: I created an account specifically so I could comment on this story. 
I would absolutely love to see a part 2, specifically with Vic getting sick. Maybe Maya watches Vic progressively get sicker throughout a shift and drags her home after. We all know that she can’t take care of herself while she’s sick (and the writers won’t let Ripley) but Marina is a close second. 
I can imagine that the two of them are so unfazed by the germs at this point that they totally forget about personal boundaries. 

So glad you created an account! I also lurked for a longggg time but it’s so much better to be in on the fun!

I knew when writing that I was setting up for Vic contagion, but didn’t really have any plans to follow through on that, but I love the idea of Maya and Carina taking in a sick Vic! Maybe if I get a hit of creative juice I will see what I can do there. Thanks so much for the comment and welcome!

[anon13]

I’m so impressed with how quickly you responded! I also love the fact that you would consider my idea! If you ever decide to add another chapter, I fully support you. Just know that I’m checking this story multiple times a week to keep up to date! 

[arambolia]

That was amazing, I’m really impressed how’s much detail and love you put into that 😍

 

[Dingle]

It’s really nice to see that this can be a place for people to express their creativity without needing to always focus on sneezing 

[anon13]

Update, please?!?