Maya's Next Step

Part 12

Maya POV

I blinked my eyes open, the room was still dark, telling me it was still early. I turned my head to the right and smiled, seeing carina still fast asleep. Next, I looked down and saw Elva still fast asleep on my chest. We mustn't have moved all night.
Although it's still early, it was still one of the best nights sleep I've had in a long time.

Elva stirred a little, I stroked my hand up and down her back to keep her settled. I could stay here all day watching my girls sleep.

My girls.

That felt right, I could get used to saying that.

Tying to keep Elva still on my chest, I leaned over slightly to reach for my phone off the bedside table.
I quickly messaged Andy to let her know I wouldn't be in work today. I had so many personal days saved up, it wouldn't be a problem.

Normally, having a day off work would put me on edge, I'd feel stressed out not knowing what was going on. But I knew Elva needed me, I wasn't leaving her alone today.

I put my phone back down and just lay there, watching the sun rise out the bedroom window.
About thirty minutes later, Carina started to wake up.

"Buongiorno bella," she smiled, leaning over Elva to kiss me.

"Did she stay like that all night?" She asked, gesturing to Elva.

"Hmmm," I nodded. "I'm surprised she didn't wake up."

"Most likely the exhaustion," she said.

"I'm dreading today," I admitted.

"I just wanna stay here like this," I pouted.

"Me too bambina," she sighed.

"Coffee?" She asked.

"Please," I smiled.

I watched Carina climb out of bed. Just in shorts and a vest, she threw on her floral, satin robe. Before heading into the kitchen, she pulled the curtains open to let a little more light in.

While I waited for my coffee, I wrapped my arms a little more tightly around Elva.

A few minutes later, Carina was back in bed, I had my coffee and Elva was starting to wake up. She wriggled slightly. I put my coffee down and shifted up the bed a little so I was seated a bit more.

"Mmmm" Elva wined, waking herself up.

"Shhh morning sweetheart," I said softly.

"Morning," she replied sweetly, lifting her head off my boobs to smile at me.

She yawned and rubbed her eyes.

"Sleep okay?" Carina asked.

"Yeah, Maya's comfy," she giggled, cuddling back into me.

"I can agree with that," she laughed back.

We all stayed in bed a little longer and went over our plan again.

I could tell Elva was nervous, her body language had changed. She'd gone quiet.

We got up and ready for the day. As was our plan, Carina left before us, going to work as normal. I got Elva's clean clothes and we both got dressed.

She refused to eat breakfast and if I'm honest, I felt too nervous to eat too. I was terrified they'd just up and take her away again.

Before we left, I turned and bent down in front of Elva.

"You ready bub?" I asked.

"What about Bobby?

"You wanna bring him?"

She thought for a moment.

"He's safe here," she replied.

"Then he'll be waiting for you sweetheart."

I took her hand in mine and led her out of the apartment.

Arriving at the hospital, Elva stopped. She looked all around her, almost deciding whether to run or not.

"Elva I've got you. I'm not going anywhere," I reassured her.

Within ten minutes we'd had Carina paged, acted out that I'd found Elva all alone and got her in a private room. The plan was playing out nicely.

Carina was also happy that she was finally able to fully assess Elva.

"Nows the time to make the call," Carina said after she'd done all the tests she wanted.

I sighed and nodded, giving Elva's hand a squeeze.

She'd gone extremely quiet since we got here, I tried my best to keep her distracted. I wish we'd brought Bobby with us, I knew she used him for comfort.

"Maya?" She asked after a while.

"Yes sweetie?"

"What's gonna happen?"

I took a breath.

"I don't really know bubba, but I do know that I won't just let them take you again. Are you okay if I just pop outside to speak to Carina, I won't be long?" I asked her, suddenly having an awful thought.

She nodded.

I quickly got up and rushed to find Carina.

She was at the nurses station, as I approached she'd just hung up the phone.

"Bambina? What's the matter?" She asked, seeing I was a little stressed.

"What are we doing here?" I said.

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"Well we've brought a little girl to the hospital, rang social services and told her we won't let them take her. What were we thinking?"

"Okay Maya, you need to calm down," she said slowly, leading me over to the waiting area chairs. We sat down and looked at each other.

"We arranged this whole thing without even discussing what we wanted to happen," I pointed out.

"Okay if we didn't have to follow any rules or protocol, what would you want to happen?" She asked me seriously.

"I'd want to go into that room, tell that little girl in there that we were taking her home and going to give her the best life possible. I'd tell her that after everything she's been through, things were finally going to get better because she's got two mothers who love her,"

I was almost out of breath.

I looked at Carina, scared of what she was going to say.

"When that social worker arrives, we are going to do everything we can to make that happen," she said.

"Are you sure you want this?" I asked nervously.

"Maya I love you. I want a family with you and there is a little girl in there who would fit right in."

"We're really gonna do this?"

She smiled widely.

"Let's do it Bella,"

Authors note.

How do you want this to go?

What's the social worker gonna do??