darkest hour

visits

Long chapter 

Mayas pov 

"The field should be on the left with the track." I say, the sight alone of the track is making me nauseous. I ran here in college before joining the fire academy. I see the girls track team with the coach doing intervals. 

"Are you okay Bambina?" Carina says, taking Lu out of her car seat. I must've zoned out thinking about college. "Yeah, sorry. Just old memories." I reply. "The fertility doctor called back, she said we can come in for a check up anytime this week." She says grabbing lu's bag and a blanket for the bleachers. 

"Okay! I'm off tomorrow." I say smiling. I grab my crossbody bag and grab carinas hand, walking over to the field. The girls team is leaving the track as we walk in, and of course the coach notices me. "Bishop?" He says smiling. 

"Coach, hi." I reply, turning to talk to him. I notion for Carina to keep walking. "What are you doing back on campus?" He asks, "watching my daughter play, she's the goalie for Stanford." I reply. "Wow, you must be proud... are you still running?" He asks. I nod, "yeah, conditioning. I'm the captain of station 19 in Seattle." I say smiling weakly. 

A few moments of silence pass before I say, "I better get going, my wife is waiting on me." "Wife? Didn't pin you as gay." He replies. I nod, "yeah... it was nice to see you." I reply awkwardly, starting to walk away. 

He grabs my arm, "bishop, if you ever think about coming back, the girls need a new coach. Im retiring this year, and im sure UW would hire you in an instant." I bite my cheek. "Okay, I'll think about it." I reply, "bye coach" I say, jogging away and into the stands. 

My heart is racing, I know he's a sweet guy and he meant nothing by the arm grab, but it reminded me of lane. Running always does and I can't escape it. I can't escape him. "Bambina, was that your coach?" Carina asks, pulling me out of my thoughts. "Mhm." I reply, "he offered me his job". I say. 

"Bambina that's.. wow. That's a big offer." Carina replies. I shake my head no, "I'd never leave the station. And Seattle." I add.

We watch as y/n and her team take the field, jogging, stretching, and warming up. I can see y/n's eyes scan the bleachers, looking for us. We wave and she waves back, smiling. 

I know very little about soccer, but Carina is a big fan. When the World Cup is on, it's like I don't exist. Y/n is extremely talented, starting as a freshman. I watch as she blocks the warm up shots from her players. 

The game starts, and there's not a lot of action for y/n. Her team kept the ball mostly on the other side, missing shots left and right. They take the ball down the field towards y/n, and a shot on goal is attempted, but she catches it and kicks it back across the field. 

I cheered for her, and Carina laughed at me. She's never one to yell for or at y/n, which I love. "She's doing great" I say, Carina nods, not taking her eye off the ball. Stanford scores, and cheering erupts from the parents and students.

At halftime, Carina feeds Luna, and we decide to take her on a short walk around the outside of the field. I try to avoid eye contact with the track, the hurdles still set, the relay batons on the floor. 

"Did you like running here?" Carina asks out of nowhere. "It was better than running with my dad, but of course my dad showed up to every meet to yell at me no matter the outcome." "It's like you couldn't escape him, sí?" She replies, squeezing my hand a little harder. I nod. 

"I feel that way with my papa and y/n's father. Every time I feel not worthy, every time y/n has the familiar look on her face." She says. I didn't know that, she never told me. I knew she struggled from ptsd, but nothing like that. To have your own daughter look like the man who took advantage of and abused you... 

We walk back around to the bleachers, I watch Carina help Lu up the stairs. My heart melts seeing her with Lu. I can't wait to have another one. I can't wait to see Carina pregnant, to see her nurse and change diapers. It seems so unattractive but it's so raw and natural. I love everything about my wife. 

The second half starts, and the ball is immediately near stanfords goal. "Come on y/n" Carina whispers as the ball is kicked at the top left corner. Y/n jumps and just barely catches the ball with her fingertips. She hits the ground hard, but gets up like nothing happened, tossing the ball to her teammate. 

There's one more shot by each team, and now there's only five minutes left. They bring the ball back to y/n and she saves the goal again right before the buzzer goes off. The field is flooded with red jerseys as the team jumps and hugs y/n, all forming a circle around her. 

I turn to Carina and smile, Luna cheers and the parents around us laugh. "You must be DeLucas partners, I'm Greg, Annie's dad, #10." She has her long read hair in a ponytail, freckles cover her face and arms. A man says, putting his hand out. We shake his hand. "Is this the first game you've gone to?" He asks politely.

"Yes, we're from Seattle so it's the only relatively close one" Carina replies, "and with a little one it's hard" he says laughing. We smile and nod. "Annie loves y/n, always talking about her when she calls home." He adds. 

"We hear about her too" Maya says smiling. Carinas face looks puzzled as they head into the Locker room. "It'll be about five minutes until they come out, and then you get two hours before they gotta head back." He says smiling. 

We chat a little more before heading down the bleachers and waiting for them to come back out.  I take Lu from Carina as I watch y/n jog over. She jumps in carinas arms. "Hi Bambina!" Carina says smiling. "I missed you mama" she replies putting her feet on the ground again. 

She turns and hugs me and Lu too. "And you two, of course." She turns for a second to reveal the back of her jersey. Deluca, 8, it reads. "8, just like Zio Andrea" y/n says. Tears form in carinas eyes as she smiles. "Sí". 

Annie comes up behind her and gives her a pat on the back "deluccccccs" she says. Y/n smiles. "Annie these are my moms, Carina and Maya. And this is my sister Luna." Y/n says, we wave to Annie. "It's good to put some faces to the names, I'm Annie. I'm sure delucs talks about me all the time." She says joking. "She does, don't worry." Maya replies laughing. 

"We brought scaccia and cassateddi, probably enough for the whole team." Carina jokes. "Annie, mr Obrien, you want some real Italian food?" Y/n jokes, "of course I do!" Annie replies, her and her dad following us to our car to grab the food. We set up a blanket and the food like a picnic. 

"Oh my god mama, it's delicious. Grazie." Y/n says taking a big bite of her food. "It's really good mrs deluca" Annie says, "oh call me Carina" Carina answers. "You're blessed that your wife can cook. Alex couldn't make toast." Greg jokes to me. I nod, smiling. Luna moves to y/n's lap, Carina can't resist taking a picture. "Ahh, my bambinas" she says. 

We eat and laugh, y/n and Annie sharing glances the whole time. I know they're just friends, but neither of them want to be JUST friends. I know those looks, I gave them to Carina for months. "Here's my number, I'll update you on the games and when I'll be there." Greg says to us, and we add him to our phones. 

Y/n and Annie run to share the cassateddi with the team. "You know, it's hard to come by what they have." Carina says quietly. Greg and I agree, Luna blabs and grabs carinas necklace to play with.