Crash- Station 19/Marina

Plans

A few days later Maya decided it was time to tell Carina what she'd been researching. Carina kept asking what is was and Maya finally said she'd tell her when she got home from work, which she just had. Andy was on shift so it was just the two of them.

"So, are you finally going to tell me what Amelia was talking about" Carina asks once they're both snuggled on the couch
"I want to go to Italy" Maya says
"What?"
"I want to see where you grew up, meet more of your family. I know you've been wanting to visit and take me but there was a pandemic and all the issues with PD, then I got demoted and Dean, then this" she says, gesturing at her body and the wheelchair next to them. "I know you went during the pandemic but that was visa issues and working, you didn't get to enjoy it. We should go"
"This is what you were talking to Amelia about?"
"I wanted to make sure it was possible before getting you excited"
"And it is? You could go? What about therapy?"
"I talked to Amelia and my therapists, I'm cleared medically and I can take some time off from therapy. I can still do stretches and some of my exercises while we're away. And I did a bunch of research about flying with a wheelchair and an ostomy and it's more complicated but its possible, people have made videos showing through security and getting on the plane"
"How long have you been planning this for?"
"A few weeks" Maya admits
"I wish you told me sooner"
"Do you not want to? We don't have to"
"No, no bambina. Of course I want to, I just wish I could have helped with all this research you did and I want to know everything about how it will work too"
"We can look at everything together, trust me I plan on watching every video I can find multiple time"
"Of course you will!"

"So, we're going to Italy?" Maya asks after a pause
"Si, we are going to Italy. I need to talk to Bailey about taking time off work. I will do that tomorrow"
"Ok, I'm sure she'll give you some time off" Maya says, snuggling into Carina more

"Does your family know?" Maya asks quietly after a few minutes
"Know what?"
"About me"
"Of course they do bambina, you're my wife. They couldn't come to the wedding but they know about it and you've met them on the phone and on video calls" Carina says, slightly confused by Maya's question
"No, I know that. Do they know... we haven't talked to them in a while, do they know about... Do they know I'm in a wheelchair?" She finally says
"Oh, honestly I'm not sure. Some people I talk to more often know you were in an accident but I didn't directly tell them." Carina says pulling Maya closer. "I'm sorry, its not that I'm hiding it, I just wasn't sure if you wanted people to know and I didn't want to deal with my papa's opinions"
"No, its ok. You can tell people if you want, its your life too. Just don't tell people about the ostomy"
"Of course not, no one needs to know how other people go to the bathroom"
"Thanks"
"Do you want to tell them before we go?" Carina asks
"It's probably a good idea, its not like we can hide it when I meet them in person and then we won't have to deal with as much staring and questions on our trip"
"Good plan." Carina says then pauses for a minute. "Does your family know?"
"My mom knows a bit, she knows I was in the hospital and that I'm not working. I don't know how to contact Mason and I definitely don't want to deal with my dad's opinions"
"Si, definitely worse than my papa. But maybe we could tell your mama?"
"Maybe, not now though. Get through telling your family then enjoy our trip. Then I can deal with my mom"
"Ok"

The next day Carina talked to Bailey about taking time off and that night they started looking at flights. After they booked a flight they decided to start calling Carina's family to tell them they were going to visit and about the wheelchair. They decided to call her aunt and uncle first.

Note- Maya can understand Italian if people are speaking slowly and clearly, when someone's speaking fast she can only pick out a few words. She's better at understanding than speaking but can speak Italian ok. I'm going to write in English still when people are speaking Italian because I don't speak Italian and translating would take a long time and probably be wrong anyways.

They sat together on the couch and Carina started a video call. Her aunt answered greeting them excitedly and yelling for her uncle to come. They both started talking quickly until Carina interrupted them, telling then to slow down so Maya could understand. Maya and Carina told them they were coming to visit and her aunt got even more excited and started talking fast again and Maya was completely lost.
"Zia, slow down" Carina says
"Sorry Maya, I'm just so excited to see Carina again and finally meet you in person! I was just saying that we can pick you up from the airport and I'll get the guest room ready for you"

Maya looked over at Carina and reached for her hand, Carina taking it. They'd talked about this, guest room was on the second floor. "Time for the hard part" she thought

"Thank you but we can't stay at your house" Maya says
"Of course you can, it's no trouble"
"We're going to stay at a hotel or an Airbnb, we can't stay in the guest room" Carina says
"Why not, we'll give you two your space"
Carina looked at Maya for conformation before she explained but instead Maya spoke.

"We can't stay in your guest room because it's on the second floor. I can't get up the stairs"
"What?" Carina's aunt and uncle looked very confused.
"Car, can you, everyone will understand better" Maya says in English
"Of course" Carina replied before switching back to Italian.

"Remember I told you Maya was in an accident at work" Carina says
"Yes, that was months ago"
"I didn't tell you everything that happened because we were processing and it was a hard time. The accident caused a spinal cord injury so she uses a wheelchair" Carina explains, Maya understands some of what she's saying but she doesn't know a lot of the words. Then Carina's aunt and uncle start asking questions quickly and Maya doesn't understand what they're saying at all. After a minute of very fast Italian speaking Carina manages to direct the conversation back to their trip and get them to slow down so Maya can understand. Eventually they ended the call.

"Are you ok?" Carina asks Maya once they've hung up
"Ya, I'm fine, I didn't understand most of it anyways" Maya tells her. "Are you ok, you had to do all the talking"
"I'm good, I'm sorry you didn't understand. Do you want to know what we said?"
"I assume you just told them about the wheelchair and explained spinal cord injury"
"Si, and they asked a few questions about SCI and then were asking if we are both ok and if we want them to tell people"
"What did you say?"
"I asked them to let us tell people, that way we can answer questions"
"Probably best, no weird stories because people didn't understand that way. So, time to tell more people?"
"If you're up for it, we have lots of time before we leave"
"Who else do we need to tell"
"We don't need to tell anyone but we'll probably see my cousins. I don't know what to do about my papa"
"Whatever you want, you know I understand, I'd be happy if I never have to tell my dad"
"I'm scared he will say something horrible"
"Then don't call him, if you decide you want to see him while we're there then we can tell him or just show up. It's up to you"

Carina hugged Maya from the side, pulling her over so she was leaning on her.
"I love you"
"I love you too" Maya says wrapping her arms around Carina. "Do you want to call Gabriella and tell her? You'll probably want to see her"
"Are you ok with that?"
"Yes, I was jealous when she visited but we've been through a lot since then and we're married. I don't need to be jealous of your ex sex buddy"
"My what?" Carina says, laughing a bit
"What am I supposed to call her? You both said you never dated!" Maya says, also laughing.

They ended up calling calling Gabriella. Carina told her what happened, Maya understanding none of it when the 2 doctors started talking about medical stuff in rapid Italian. Explaining to Gabriella was much easier since she's a doctor and understands what things mean. After talking to her for a while Carina decided they could call other people another day, seeing that Maya was getting overwhelmed and upset and just not saying anything about it.

"Ok, that's enough calls for today" Carina says putting her phone down
"No, we can keep going" Maya says trying to push herself up to sit straighter, her body slouching again as soon as she stopped holding herself up with her arms
"Maya, we have time, you don't need to pretend to be ok. This conversation is hard, especially explaining it multiple times, its hard for me too. So no eyes forward, no embrace the pain. Talk to me, what do you need?"

"It's hard, telling to people, just talking about it at all. Reminds me of being in the hospital not able to move at all, like the very beginning when breathing was hard"
"Me too, of when you came in and waiting while you were in surgery and for you to wake up. And those memories are not nice but they remind me of how far you've come." Carina says squeezing Maya's hand and getting a slight squeeze in return, reminding them both of how much progress she's made over the last few months.