Marina One Shot (EN) - Part 2

once upon a time

Carina Deluca was a woman of almost thirty-eight. She was married to Ryan Tanner. They had a fifteen-year-old son, Giuliano. Carina was a doctor who had become pregnant while studying medicine, and instead of having an abortion, they had decided to keep their baby. They had been together since they were eighteen, almost nineteen, and were in love. As a result, instead of continuing her studies as a surgeon, she changed to become a general practitioner. So she'd had nine years of study, from her A-levels at seventeen to the eve of her eighteenth birthday.

So, from the time Giuliano was born, she had only three years left to study, instead of five or six, depending on the specialty she had chosen. It wasn't much more, but she was already juggling classes, practicing medicine and raising the little boy, so thankfully Ryan was a big help.

At the end of her studies, Ryan had asked her to marry him and she had naturally accepted. They had been together for ten years by the time of the wedding, and almost four years as parents.
He was a police officer and they had met where Carina had gone to medical school, in Los Angeles.

Carina had moved to L.A. two weeks after her eighteenth birthday. Ryan and Carina had lived there for a while, but a few months ago Carina's mother had fallen ill, her brother had been diagnosed as bipolar and their father had left Lucia to return to Italy. It had therefore been natural for Ryan to suggest to his wife that he move to the place where she had grown up between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, to come and support her family. Lucia had spent just over nineteen years away from Seattle.

Giuliano hadn't been happy about leaving a city where sunshine reigned over rain, leaving his friends and coming to live in a rainy state where clouds hid the sun and blue skies most of the time.

He would no longer be able to surf the beaches of Malibu or Santa Monica, he would no longer be able to have such tanned skin, to make him even more irresistible; for Giuliano had noticed, he knew, girls liked him, even at fifteen, the genes of both his parents combined had made him a sublime being. But he had no choice. He knew it was for a good cause.

So Carina had moved back to Seattle, near her old neighborhood a year ago now.

For her part, Maya Bishop had been captain of Station 19 for several years now. She, too, was nearly thirty-eight, and the mother of a fifteen-year-old girl named Blake. She had been separated for twelve years now. Her marriage to her former partner had not lasted.

She had dated an older woman, eight years her senior, even though she was only twenty. After two years, the thirty-something woman wanted a child. Maya agreed, but her partner's eggs were not good enough. So they underwent IVF and her ex, Lucie, carried her egg, giving birth to Blake.

She had always lived in Seattle. She had alternated custody of her daughter, and her position as captain allowed her to come home every night when it was her week on call. She hadn't been the maternal type when the little girl was born, not very comfortable raising a child, not having really received parental love herself, but she had wanted to please her partner at the time. They separated the year she turned twenty-six, when Blake was only three.

Lucie had thought that Maya would take advantage of the situation to clear her name and gain full custody, but not at all. At first, the blonde took their daughter on every day of her shift, and when she became captain, that's when they switched to every other week.

Blake adored Maya more than anything. To her, the captain was the cool mom. She could see that her mother had had a strict upbringing and didn't want to impose the same education on her. Besides, she knew her grandparents.
Instead, Maya was sometimes too cool. Meals in front of the TV, on the couch every night, candy until noon, fruit juice at all hours of the day and night,... Anything that kept Blake from crying when she was younger was fair game. The only thing Maya had asked of her daughter was that she play a sport, any sport, and Blake had chosen Lacrosse.