Diary of a Girl from Seattle

Make No Mistake, He's Mine

Dear Diary,

We had an interesting surprise at the house today; Carina's old friend from Italy came to visit. I say "friend" loosely because she came running into the apartment calling her pet names and hugging her. It was pretty clear right off the bat that there was some history there. Needless to say, Maya looked pretty uncomfortable. Carina introduced her as Gabriella, explaining they had worked together and were best friends back in Italy. It certainly didn't help matters much when Maya found out that they also used to sleep together.

Moving into our kitchen, Gabriella quickly made herself at home and kept speaking Italian knowing full well that Maya didn't understand. Not only that, but she used it to her advantage, talking badly about Maya any chance she got. I pretended I couldn't understand either, but Spanish is pretty close so I caught almost every word. I tried to slip away to escape the awkwardness, but Gabriella apparently liked me a lot more than Maya and insisted I stay. She started making gnocchi and made me her sous chef, saying (in Italian of course) that she thought Maya would only mess it up. It took everything in me to stay quiet but I was trying really hard not to cause any trouble. I didn't want Maya to hear even more bad things about her when she's already been feeling inadequate in taking care of Carina. Plus I didn't want to make things harder on Carina while she's grieving.

While Gabriella and Carina were looking through old photo albums Maya got a text from Andy... or at least I thought it was from Andy. I'll come back to that, but anyway, Maya left to help and pulled me aside on her way out. She told me to keep an eye on them, saying that she didn't trust Gabriella. I told her that they were just friends, that I was sure there was nothing to worry about, but honestly I understood her concern and stayed put in the living room. A few minutes after Maya left, I texted Andy to check in, saying that Maya had mentioned a family thing going on. Andy responded a few minutes later, very confused and told me that she hadn't talked to Maya all day. Naturally I texted Maya asking where she really was, but she didn't respond for a while.

Meanwhile, I desperately wanted to excuse myself and go study in my room, but Maya's request went to my head and I felt like I should stay and watch and sure Gabriella didn't try anything. I quickly grabbed my books and settled into a corner of the living room. Carina asked what I was studying for and I mentioned that I had a procedural skills exam coming up and that spurred another fervent Italian conversation reminiscing on med school days. Gabriella also praised me for studying to become a doctor, saying she was worried when she heard I worked at the station but was glad to hear I was choosing a better career. I immediately fired back that I fully respect and admire my friends that are firefighters, saying that what they do every day is brave and selfless and that I should be so lucky as to have what it takes to go into that field. I felt bad for snapping but I couldn't keep letting her make slights at Maya's expense; especially when Maya wasn't there to defend herself. Either way, Carina quickly changed the subject and I went back to studying.

Finally Maya responded and told me that she had been with Jack. Marsha took a turn for the worse and had to stay in the hospital longer than anticipated so she went over to their place. She then asked me to grab Carina and come to Grey Sloan. Jack brought the ladder truck over so he and Marcus could go up to Marsha's window with get well soon signs. While they were up there Maya apologized to Carina about lying to her. I took that as my cue to leave and climbed into the ladder truck. I'm guessing the apology was well received cause when I looked in the side mirror, I could see them making out. Seeing that, I figured I'd give them some space so I headed back to the station with Jack and went off to find Andy. My first shift back wasn't for a few more days and I missed my friends.

I found Andy in the captain's office and she was pacing, stewing when I walked in. I paused in the doorway just watching and waiting for her to notice me but she was too preoccupied. Finally I stepped in and closed the door behind me as I asked what was wrong. She jumped a little then let out a sigh of relief when she saw that it was just me. Then she went off about how Sullivan had been undermining her authority all shift and that he didn't seem to realize what was wrong with the situation. I sat on the desk and listened to her vent as she paced back and forth in front of me. After a solid 5 minutes of uninterrupted ranting, she sat down next to me.

"Am I crazy for being angry about this?" Andy asked.

Mattie shook her head. "Definitely not. I'd be pissed too."

Andy nodded, glad to have been validated. "But," Mattie continued, "I think you need to talk to Sullivan about it."

Andy laughed and rolled her eyes. "Trust me, I tried. He's being such a baby about all this. He just doesn't seem to understand that this isn't just an isolated incident. He's going to stay a probie, at least for a while, and even when Maya gets back next week I'll still be his lieutenant. He has to respect my calls."

Mattie nodded, not quite sure what to say. Nothing she said was going to fix it, she didn't know what Andy should do, and wasn't sure what would make her friend feel better. After a beat she settled for validation. "That sucks dude" she said as she leaned her shoulder against Andy's.

Andy laughed, "yeah... it does." she said as she put her head on Mattie's shoulder.

Andy and I sat quietly together in her office for a solid ten minutes, just thinking, before Vic came in looking for Andy. She seemed pleasantly surprised to see me and said she had a lot of station gossip to catch me up on if I wanted to come restock the engine with her. We chatted for almost an hour as she told me all about the department drama with Miller wanting to press charges against the racist cops that arrested him and Sullivan a few weeks back. There's a whole lot to unpack there but basically Dean wants reform in the system and I support him 100%. Then Vic went on to tell me about this guy she's been kind of seeing. I had heard her mention him once before; he's a firefighter at another station and they kept running into each other (literally) in the park. Well it turns out that this guy Theo was the captain that got Travis's husband killed a few years ago. She was feeling pretty conflicted about what to do, saying that there were two sides of the story but Travis was going to be so mad at her for even hearing Theo out. I nodded to show I was listening but quickly realized that I was all out of good advice for the day haha.

Eventually I got a text from Maya asking where I was. I laughed seeing that it took her an hour and a half to even realize I had left. It was getting late so I took that as my cue to leave. I called Guils on my walk home and it was so good to talk to her. She was assigned to do her practicum in Portland for her last semester of grad school so we haven't been able to see each other since the pandemic started three months ago. We chatted about our days and just casual stuff for the half hour it took me to get back to my apartment. I laughed when I walked in and saw Maya and Carina cuddled up on the couch and Gabriella sitting over on the chair by herself. Finally, Guils said that speaking of apartments, she was finishing her practicum in a week and was going to move back home until she could find an apartment in Seattle... hopefully one with me. I couldn't stop smiling when she said it and agreed wholeheartedly. So we're going to be apartment hunting in a few weeks... guess I should tell Maya and Carina I'm moving out soon.

- Mattie