come back to me

the little things

Mayas POV

I wake up the next morning, tangled in bed with carina. Andrea resting in the middle of us, clinging on to her favorite stuffed animal. I check my phone, 7 am.

I head downstairs, denying the urge to go for a run. I can take a day off, besides, both my girls are here. I want to spend time with them. I start some breakfast. The sounds of little feet coming down the stairs takes me out of my thoughts, Andrea clings into my leg. "You're not a morning person, I know bug. Neither is Mama." I say, rubbing her back. 

She reaches up, asking me to pick her up. I could never say no to that face, my mini carina. I hold her on one hip, and continue cooking. I feel arms wrap around me, a head settling on my shoulder. "Good morning my love" I say, passing a piece of a pancake over my shoulder to her. "Morning" she says, "Mama!" Andrea says. I set her down so she can hug her mama.

"Can I get you anything? A coffee?" I say, plating the pancakes. "No thank you, I hate decaf. I miss real coffee." She says groaning. I hand her a plate, and Andrea one too as we sit at the table. "I know something that will wake up you, without caffeine." I say in her ear in Italian."

She flashes her favorite face, the 'I'm Maya Bishop' face, knowing we can't do that right now. I smile and sit down.

After breakfast, Andrea wanted to play outside. We played some soccer, and whatever else she wanted to play. "Maya, we have to leave soon" I hear carina yell from the porch. "Alright bug, we better go inside." I say to her, walking inside and getting ready.

We arrive at the hospital, dropping Drea off at the daycare for the appointment. "And do you guys want to know the gender?" Jo asks, moving the ultrasound around carinas stomach. "Yes" I reply, smiling. "Alright let me just get these printed real quick" she says, pressing some buttons. She turns the screen to face us, carinas smile widening.

She turns to face me, smiling so wide. "Bella it's a boy" she says, my face lights up. "Oh my god!" I say, smiling. "Dreas gonna have a little brother" carina says, crying tears of joy (I hope). Jo hands me the scan, and I put it in my pocket, reminding myself to replace the one in my helmet.

"Drea, can Mama and I talk to you for a second?" I say once we get home, she's playing with what looks like every single one of her toys. "Yes Mommy" she says, walking into the kitchen. "You know how Mama is pregnant?" I ask, to which she nods her head. "Andrea it's a boy! You're gonna have a fratellino!" Carina adds, Andrea cheers.

We spend the next few hours as a family, doing little puzzles and playing outside with Drea. My phone rings, it's Ross. "Car, one sec" I say, grabbing my phone. "Captain Bishop" I answer, "Bishop, the forest fires are getting worse and 19 might be called in for all hands on deck. If you were to get called in, it would be within the next few hours. Can you get your team in order in preparation to be called in?" She says. "Yes ma'am, I'll be at the station in 30." I reply, "thank you Bishop. And by the way, Congratulations." She adds, I smile, looking over at Carina. "Thank you, Chief." I reply.

"Carina" I say, walking over to her. "Forest fire, I heard. Go on, Bella. We will be okay." She says, reading her book by the pool while Drea naps next to her. "Car if I get called in, I could be gone for a while. If we get called in, I'll be on site until 19 leaves, which could be a week or two." I say, slightly panicking about leaving them.

She puts her book down, grabbing my hand. She places a kiss on it, before looking back up to me. "I know you're worried. Drea and I will be okay. I'm not on shift for the next couple days, and Drea has school anyways. We will be okay. Go be a badass, we'll be waiting for you here." She says, smiling. I lean down and kiss her, our lips lingering after. I pull her in for a quick second one.

"Go. Before you get in trouble." She says, smiling. "I love you and Drea so much." I say, jogging into the house to grab my stuff. I call each member of 19, letting them know the deal, and to meet me at the station asap.

As soon as I get to my office, I pull out the manual, scanning the pages about forest fires. I make a mental list of what we need to do, before meeting the rest of the crew downstairs. I send them each to do different tasks, we could be called in at any second. We need to equip different hoses, we need the aid car to be fully stocked, we need a lot of water for ourselves, oxygen tanks, etc.

Moving fast with all this gear and turnouts is a whole other challenge. It feels like the second we're ready, we get the call. "19 let's go!" I yell, hopping in the truck. It's about an hour drive from us, no lights, so it should take a while.

"How was the date, cap?" Vic asks through the headphones. "It was wonderful, thank you for everything." I reply, smiling thinking about it. We talk about the date, and then about everyone else's situations. It made the long drive feel way shorter. We can see the smoke from Seattle, so I knew this was gonna be bad. As we approach, my stomach drops. I've never seen anything like this.

"19, While you're out there, listen to the wildlands, this is their territory. Monitor the heat, move in pairs. Let's go." I yell as we head towards the Wildlands firefighters, ready to help out this monster out.