"I ju-just don't understand," Maya said frantically pacing back and forth in the living room, beads of sweat slowly falling down the side of her face.
Andy, Vic and Carina stood sporadically, glancing at each other waiting for someone to say something.
"Maya...," Andy said.
"No. You-you don't get to talk. You knew," Maya yelled back. "You knew when you were helping me with my hair and outfit. You knew when you convinced me to come out to my parents. You knew this was happening and of all days...my wedding day, Andy."
"They haven't opened an investigation yet. Maybe this means nothing. Maybe they are just relieving you of your duties until they know more," Andy said.
Maya started to breathe heavier and get noticeably shaky, pacing faster around herself and around the room.
"Maya, you're one of the best captains that this station has had, you made a choice to save that kid's life...I would have done the same thing," Vic said.
Carina could see the frustration, but more importantly, the utter disappointment, sadness and anxiety building inside of her wife.
"Okay, I think that maybe we should all talk about this another time and as we know more information," Carina said, cutting Vic off mid-sentence, showing signs of frustration herself.
As Andy and Vic grabbed their things and Carina walked them out of the apartment and to their cars, Maya grabbed a blanket and curled up on the couch, knees to her chest and tears filling her eyes.
Soon, the tears were falling down her face faster than she could wipe up with a tissue. She had just lost her job, the one she worked so hard to achieve, making her way up the totem pole not only to prove everyone at the station wrong, but to prove to herself that she could win medals for herself.
Carina came rushing back into the apartment, shut and locked the door and sat next to Maya, wrapping her arms around her, placing a soft kiss on Maya's shoulder.
"Bambina...look at me," Carina said.
Maya shrugged her off, nodding her head "no".
Carina placed her hand on Maya's face and motioned her to look up from her now tear-soken blanket. As Maya looked at her, Carina was softly wiping away her tears.
"Baby, I am so proud of you," Carina said.
"I lost my job, Carina. That is nothing to be proud of. We have a lot to figure out if this is actually the end of my captaincy. What am I going to do? What are we going to do Carina...," Maya said, as she decided to stand up and take a walk to the kitchen.
She gets on her tippie-toes to open up a cabinet and get a glass down, when it falls out of her hand and breaks on the floor. Maya begins to cry again.
Carina gets up to grab a broom and dust pan, rushing to her wife's aid.
"No don't worry about it bambina, I got it," Carina said as she cleaned up the shattered glass and then got her wife a new glass of water. She grabbed Maya's hand and directed them both towards their bedroom.
"Carina...," said Maya. Carina folded down the comforter for Maya to lay down.
"I am going to call Bailey and we are going to take the day to relax here, together," Carina said.
Their mini-honeymoon stay-cation wasn't scheduled for another week, so Carina was supposed to go into work, however she wasn't leaving Maya when she was feeling like this.
"Just lay down, I am going to make some tea and I will be right back," Carina said.
As Carina made her way to the kitchen, Maya began to feel worse. She felt like a failure, not only to herself, but a failure to her wife.
"Carina just got back from Italy, saving so many lives, not just patients, but doctor's lives too," Maya thought to herself. "And I got fired, on our wedding day, for trying to save a life. How am I going to compare to that?"
She snapped out of her thought as Carina started walking through the bedroom door threshold, her hands full of sweets and her cup of tea.
Maya looked up at Carina with tears in her eyes. Carina placed the bags of cookies and candies in the middle of the bed, rolled down the comforter to crawl into bed next to her wife. After she put her tea on the nightstand, she cuddled close to Maya, pushing Maya's hair behind her ear.
"Carina, I am just so scared. I am scared that I will never fight fires again. I am scared that I will never be able to help people again. I am scared that you're disappointed in me and what this might mean for us..." Maya said.
Carina cut her off. "There is no change with us, Maya. I still love you the same. I will always love you the same. I am not disappointed in you. I chose to be by your side, through better or worse, forever, and I am so proud of you," she said.
"You will be able to help people again. You will be able to fight fires again and you will work your way up to captain just like you did before. You are the strongest person I know. You didn't make a choice based on protocol, you wanted to save that child's life, and you did. You helped Andrea and I get the human traffickers. You stood up to your father, bambina. You stood up to him and told him your truth.," she continued as she sat up, still playing with Maya's hair.
"Baby...," Maya said, sitting up next to her wife, gazing at her in her eyes.
"No, I don't think you understand what an amazing person, what an amazing captain, you are. This is only half of what I wanted to say to you during our vows," Carina said.
"But I thought you said you didn't need to say anything else," Maya said.
"There's so much I could say bambina," Carina said. "From the first moment I saw you at Grey-Sloan, to Joe's Bar, JJ's birth, all of it. I remember every moment I got the chance to look at you, I remember every chance I got to be in the same room with you. I am forever grateful that you chose me, forever."
Maya, wiping her happy tears from her cheeks, turned to her wife and placed a hand on her wife's face. "You have no idea how happy I am that YOU chose ME, forever. For better or worse Carina, we can make it through anything together, and I learned that through your strength. I learned that we can get through anything with just a glimmer of hope from each other. I love you so much."
"I love you, Maya," Carina said as the two kissed softly and held each other close, laying back down and cuddling together.
Carina grabbed the back of sweets, ripped it open, unwrapped a candy for her wife, who was playing with her hair. The two remained wrapped in each other's arms, giggling about their first sightings of each other, their first day living together, first argument and many, many other firsts.
"I'm going to be okay, because of her. I am going to grow, learn, work my way back up if I have to and I will be okay, not only because of her and her strength, but because she has shown me that I am strong, that I am smart and that I can fight for what I want and make it to the top again...I can do this, because I chose her and she chose me, forever," Maya thought to herself.
