When I First Met Carina

Jack

Jack had just dropped off a patient at the hospital and was outside waiting for Vic to finish the paperwork inside. Normally, he would stay inside, but the ER was insanely crowded and he was told to get out by Dr. Bailey.

He was standing kinda near the aid car, not wanting to get inside because it was too hot. He heard the doors open and looked over, seeing a woman in pink scrubs sitting down on a bench, head in her hands. He wasn't sure he should bother her, but he just couldn't let her sit there and be sad.

"Is everything ok?" he asked, walking over to her.

"Cosa?" she said, looking up at him, "Oh, um, sorry. Si. I am fine."

"You don't look fine," he said, raising an eyebrow as he tried to place her accent, "Do you wanna talk about it? I'm pretty good at listening."

"It's nothing," the woman said, shaking her head.

"Is it about a guy?" Jack asked, knowing that at least with the women he knew, their problems were almost always about men, often times him.

The woman looked at him, almost looking angry before looking past him and seeing something before the anger dissipated a little. He turned to see what she had seen, wondering if maybe it was a person, but all he saw was the aid car. He was confused, but he decided to just ignore it.

"I guess you could say it is about a guy," she said, really looking at him for the first time, "It's nothing. I've been through this before, and I will probably go through it again.

"A guy shouldn't make you cry and you just take it," he said, confused, sitting down next to her, "You seem like a nice person..."

"You just met me," the woman said, confused, "How would you know?"

"Because you are a doctor," he said, realizing he didn't really have an answer, "And because you just seems really nice. I don't know. And even if you aren't, you still don't deserve to be crying over a man."

"I'm fine," she said, "Besides, don't you have to get back to work?"

"One of my colleagues is filling out paperwork inside," Jack shrugged, "Besides, I don't really want to go back to the station. I've got women trouble of my own."

"With someone you work with?" the woman asked, seemingly very interested in Jack's love life.

"My boss, actually," Jack nodded, "She didn't used to be my boss, but then she dumped me just to get a promotion."

"Oh," the woman said, nodding a little, not saying more so Jack took that as an invitation to keep going.

"Yeah, and she basically stole the job from our friend, her apparenrly best friend," Jack said, "Who I also used to date, but that was a while ago."

"Was the woman who became your boss not qualified for the job?" the woman asked.

"She was plenty qualified," Jack said, thinking maybe he shouldn't be complaining about his boss to a stranger, but he decided it would be ok because it wasn't like this woman knew his boss, "I mean, she hadn't been a lieutenant for very long at all, but she was an amazing lieutenant, and I thought we had an amazing relationship going, but apparently, I was just sex for her. She is so damn focused on winning all the time and she doesn't care who she steps on to get there."

"She sounds intense," the woman said, raising an eyebrow.

"That's the nice way to put it," Jack said, shaking his head, "She's crazy. I guess it's a good thing she dumped me because I don't think I could deal with that kind of crazy."

Just then, the woman's phone started ringing.

"Oh," she said, picking it up and showing Jack the screen, "My girlfriend is calling."

Jack's eyes got big as he saw the photo on the screen was none other than Maya. "I thought you said you were crying over your boyfriend," Jack said, not sure if this woman had any clue that he had just spent the past five minutes complaining about her girlfriend.

"I never said that," the woman said, shaking her head as she answered her phone, "Hello Bella."

Jack got up quickly, walking back to the aid car, wracking his brain to try to remember if he had ever said his boss's name. He was pretty sure he hadn't so maybe the woman he had just been talking about her wouldn't know Maya was his boss.

He made himself believe that because otherwise, he was in major trouble with Maya. Vic walked out just then and the two of them got in the aid car, heading back to the station.

"What's going on with you Gibson?" Vic asked, "You seemed more squirrely that normal."

"Nothing is going on," Jack said, deciding that if he didn't say anything to anyone about what had happened, maybe he could just pretend it didn't.

"Ok," Vic said, shaking her head, "Whatever you say."

They got back to the station quickly, Jack getting out of the aid car and looking to see if he saw their captain. He didn't see her so he just got to work helping Vic restock the aid car.

Once they were done, he snuck out of the bar, heading upstairs.

"Gibson," he heard from behind him, wincing as he realized it was his boss.

"Yes Captain?" he said, turning around on the stairs.

"Montgomery wasn't feeling well so I sent him home," she said, "Can you take over his cooking duties tonight?"

"Oh," Jack said, feeling like he could breathe again, "Yeah. Is he ok?"

"He said he got some sketchy takeout for dinner last night," Maya shrugged, "He'll be fine."

"Ok," Jack said, "Is that all?"

"I think so," Maya said, eyebrows furrowed, "Why? Should I be asking you something else?" "No," he said, "No. I am going to go start on dinner."

"Gibson, what did you do?" Maya asked.

"Nothing, Captain," he said, running up the stairs, "Nothing at all."

As he made his way into the beanery to start dinner, he sighed, thinking that Carina had no idea who his boss was, meaning Maya must not talk about him to her which almost offended him, but he decided was probably for the best. Now, he just hoped, that like all Maya's other flings, that this thing with Carina was short lived so he never had to meet her as Maya's girlfriend.