Marina One Shot (EN) - Part 2

The House Next Door

Carina was on the porch of her home, on the swing, with a glass of white wine in her hand, thinking about the last few weeks. The last few months. The last few years.

/Flashback/

Carina DeLuca was an obstetrician at Grey Sloan Hospital, thirty-eight years old and married for six years to another of the hospital's doctors, Owen Hunt, who was in general surgery. They had met almost seven years ago, when Carina had arrived from Italy to join her brother in Seattle. She had joined the hospital for a study she was conducting.

She had initially dated Arizona Robbins. When she and the pediatric surgeon parted ways, she flirted with Owen, before finally getting back together with Arizona. It wasn't until she and Dr. Robbins had parted ways for good that Carina discovered she was pregnant with Owen's child. By then, it was too late to have an abortion.

She'd never imagined herself as a mother, at least not now, not yet.
She told Owen, and he immediately became involved in the baby's life. He'd been married many times before, but none of his ex-wives had given him children. Carina was a godsend.

After a few months, they started dating and just before giving birth, they got married.

The result was a boy named Cameron. A few years after Cameron's birth, the Italian woman became pregnant again, and they named their little girl Lucia, after the Sicilian woman's late mother.

Their story had unfolded quickly, perhaps a little too quickly, but it had come to this, and today they had decided to move out of downtown Seattle, where they had been living in the apartment that had once belonged to Owen and his ex-wife Christina, then Owen and his ex-wife Teddy, and even more recently Owen and his ex-wife Amelia, to finally buy a house together. For too long, the brunette had lived in the shadow of his ex-partners.

They'd been together for six years and a few months, married for six years, had a six-year-old son and a three-year-old daughter. Carina was thirty-eight and Owen was soon forty-nine.

They had moved into a quiet Seattle neighborhood just before summer.

The truck had been emptied by movers and Owen; the Italian was more in the supervisory mood, with Lucia in her arms. It wasn't summer yet, but the weather was nice and mild, and it was already May.

At half past eleven, when the truck was almost empty and the brunette was at the bottom of the steps leading to their stoop, and by extension to their front door, she heard a noise behind her.

She turned around, still with Lucia in her arms, and saw a young blonde woman coming out of the house next door. She was wearing leggings, a tight-fitting jacket zipped up to the top, a pouch with her phone on her arm, running sneakers and headphones in her ears.

She had watched her close the door and descend the few steps to leave her porch.

The blonde had looked back at her and said hello with a small smile. Carina had replied before the jogger started to trot away.

The brunette had watched her go a few yards before refocusing her attention on the movers the woman had passed and where she had said hello to her husband.

Owen had then come to his wife's side.

- "I didn't know she lived here"

- "who's that?"

- "she's the captain of station 19"

- "really? But how old is she?"

- "no idea, but she does look young"

He had kissed her on the cheek before continuing on his way and bringing his box inside the house.

At the end of May, two weeks after moving in, Owen and Carina had held a barbecue, inviting their neighbors over to introduce themselves.