Chapter Text
Chapter 1
Love. Its dictionary definition is: an intense feeling of deep affection. But where and when this feeling may occur - that’s something no one can predict. It comes in all shapes sizes and forms - love knows no boundaries and than can cause problems. Because sometimes we may fall in love with a person we are determined not to - love just has a different agenda.
Carina DeLuca had been an attending OBGYN at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital for the past 3 years but in the past 4 months had been promoted to Head after the previous one had left to move states. However, the person in charge clearly hadn’t been the most efficient in filing or uploading the files into the system because it was chaos. Carina had been working overhaul for months on end - between surgeries, research and managing an entire department she hadn’t had much time for anything.
This had lead to multiple nights sometimes weeks staying on the sofa in her office and ordering takeout from the various places close to the hospital. To say it had taken a toll on her physical and mental health had become an understatement. She was tired all the time and seemed to be on autopilot most days.
Having to make sure her brother, Andrea, was recovering in rehab also dominated a large part of her life - he had been there for the past month and had one more to complete to end his stay and hopefully by then he would be on the right medication and could finally come home. But in short Carina’s life was a mess. Her friends Amelia, Maggie and Teddy were sympathetic and asked her to come out and have a drink with them to ease her mind and while she did indulge sometimes it often led to more work being needed to complete and the continuous cycle of stress would just continue.
It was only when on a Wednesday morning at 10am that something changed. She had fallen asleep on her desk which was covered in files and notes from another all-nighter when Dr Bailey had walked in, the bang of the door hitting the wall making her bolt upright.
“Dr Bailey?” Carina said startled, her voice a bit hoarse, “I’m so sorry - what can I do for you?” She asked, slightly concerned that she had missed a meeting or a surgery from being asleep.
“DeLuca - now I know what it’s like to have a lot on your plate but this is ridiculous. You look like a mess,” Dr Bailey said, she’d always been direct and that clearly still hadn’t changed.
Carina was only slightly offended because she knew it was true and was about to say something but Bailey hadn’t finished, “I can tell when someone hasn’t been eating or sleeping well and you don’t look you’ve been doing either. Things are hard with your brother I understand and please give him my best whenever you see him next.” Carina nodded. “But, I would like to suggest an option for you. You are an incredible surgeon Carina, I wouldn’t have promoted you if you weren’t - but I need my doctors on the top of their game. So, I am going to give you some of the residents who will help you with this filing catastrophe while you are going to go home and sleep. Then, I want you to go and visit someone - help get everything back on track for you mentally and physically,” Bailey said with a kind smile.
Carina sighed and nodded her head, she wasn’t very good at accepting help but she was working on it and knew that in order for her to do her job she needed to take Bailey’s advice. “I will - thank you Dr Bailey.”
“You are very welcome - here’s their card,” Bailey took out her wallet and pulled out a black business card placing it on Carina’s desk, “After your shift today go get some rest Dr DeLuca - I can’t have you operating on patients if you fall asleep,” Bailey said with a smile which Carina returned with a small wave as the Chief left her office.
She dropped her head back against her chair and rested her feet on her desk stretching out her muscles, letting a yawn escape her lips. After, Bailey’s talk she knew she had to change something for her self and for her sanity if nothing else. So, she stood up and organised her files, bound papers together and placed them in their paper wallets and then carried them over to the filing cabinet in her office - this months collection. Then she grabbed her white coat from the back of her chair and went to grab a coffee from the cart outside. It was a decent substitute, not as good as her Italian coffee beans back at her apartment but not equally as bad as the hospital coffee which she was convinced was 90% water - in short it would do for now.
Once, she payed for her coffee she sat down on one of the benches outside and took out the card Dr Bailey had given to her and looked at it.
C.M.B - Fire Captain- Personal Trainer - Olympic Medalist
A phone number and an email address was listed below.
Olympic Medalist - interesting Carina thought - she hadn’t heard of any Olympians living so close to the hospital but then again it wasn’t like she had been looking. She thought it was best to email and keep everything formal until she’s met them - him or her she wasn’t too sure - Dr Bailey hadn’t mentioned.
Once she’d carefully typed out her email she pressed send and then just sat and took in some fresh air. It felt like she hadn’t been outside in days - probably because it was true but she needed a few moments of calm...just a few moments - until she heard beep beep beep - her pager. “Davvero...ora?” She muttered. She downed the rest of her coffee, dropped it into the bin and then rushed off to the pit.
11 hours later she was finally off shift and decided to take Dr Baileys advice and go home to her apartment. She slipped her shoes off and dragged herself over to the kitchen and pulled out a bottle of her expensive wine, grabbed a glass from the shelf and poured herself a large. Her body relaxed as the liquid entered her body and she let out a deep sigh. She moved over to the sofa and all but collapsed into it letting her muscles rest. She finished half of her glass before she rested it on the coffee table and pulled out her phone seeing an email notification from C.M.B. She scrolled through it reading it twice just to be sure she’d read it correctly. The meet time was 7am by the park close to the water, 7am who gets up at that time to exercise?! She rolled her eyes before setting an alarm and then tossed her phone back on the other end of the sofa, turned on the TV and picked up her wine glass finally feeling a sense of peace.
Carina could hear a small ringing from somewhere, but where it was coming from she didn’t quite know - it was faint but she couldn’t quite be bothered to move to find out why it was ringing until she slowly opened her eyes the daylight almost blinding her making her wince. She wasn’t in her bed, she knew that much, she must have fallen asleep on the sofa. With a sigh she reached her hand trying to see if she could find the culprit behind the ringing noise - after a few blind attempts she found her phone and peaked a look at the screen - it was her alarm - why did she have an alarm? It was her day off - she tried to rack her brain until she looked at the time - 6.50 - exercise - meeting. It all came to her in one wave - she was late.
She sat upright instantly regretting it as the few drinks she must have consumed last night hit her. Her eye brows shooting up as she shivered in discomfort, she swung her feet round and began to sort herself out realising she had 10 minutes to get dressed and mentally prepare herself for her first PT session.
She managed to change in record time deciding on a pair of grey leggings and a black hoodie matched with some grey trainers which Carina was pretty sure she’d worn once or twice since she’d bought them. She grabbed a bottle of water and walked out the door her watching reading 6.56 - 4 minutes to spare. She doubted that the trainer would mind hopefully she’d be only a few minutes late and it wasn’t like they’d be doing much on the first session anyway - it would probably just be talking and discussing a plan of sorts for how they’d move forward.
She arrived at the park at 7.05, checking her phone to see if C.M.B had let her know where they were - nothing. She glanced around and tried to see if she could find anyone who resembled a trainer but if she was being honest - they all did, everyone was running around either alone or with someone else that was until she heard a voice behind her.
“You’re late.”
She turned around and saw a blonde woman, a few inches shorter than her dressed in a tight short sleeve red shirt and black running shorts. She was toned and very attractive - anyone could see that from a mile away. The woman’s hair was pulled into a ponytail and her eyes were covered in black sunglasses despite it not being particularly sunny. Carina gave her a subtle look up and down appreciating the clearly define muscles in her legs and her soft curves that she could see even over her clothes.
A cough pulled Carina’s eyes back up to Maya’s face.
“I’m sorry?” Carina said, still quite taken aback.
“You are Dr DeLuca correct?” The woman asked sternly, folding her strong arms across her chest.
“That’s me,” Carina responded with a smile trying to lighten up this awkward situation. When Dr Bailey had said ‘personal trainer’ she didn’t think it meant enrolment into a boot camp - who did this woman think she was talking to her like that. Sure, she’d been a few minutes later but it was a few minutes not an hour.
“Then you are late - let’s go,” The girl said walking off.
Carina quickly ran to catch up, “So do you have a name or do you go just go by C.M.B?” Carina asked sarcastically.
“Captain Maya Bishop.”
“Maya,” Carina repeated to herself - she was quite good at reading people but she could tell the Fire Captain was going to be tough to understand.
“Ready?” Maya suddenly asked picking up some speed.
“Ready? Ready for what?” Carina asked suddenly very confused.
“Running - let’s move,” Maya said and started to jog. Carina was too stunned to argue and caught up to Maya’s strong pace.
“Um - why are we running? I thought today would be, I don’t know taking or something?” Carina hadn’t ran in a while so this wasn’t exactly her idea of the best way to start her morning.
“You thought this would be easy - oh no - you were 5 minutes late - I don’t like people who are late, so for future reference be here on time or even early if you feel like it and we won’t run as far. Fair to you?” Maya asked, Carina didn’t really think it was a question but silently nodded anyway.
“How far are we running?” Carina asked some 15 minutes later, already feeling a bit out of breath while Maya hadn’t even broken a sweat yet.
“An easy 5 miles,” Maya responded keeping her eyes focused ahead of her.
“5?!” Carina asked - she doesn’t think she has run 5 miles....ever.
“It will take as long as it takes but we are doing 5 - 5 minutes late equals 5 miles so keep up the pace princess,” Maya called back to her with a small grin, her sunglasses still resting on her nose.
‘Princess’ Carina thought, ‘Oh absolutely not - Bailey would be getting an earful from her tomorrow - who did this girl think she was, Maya may be attractive, okay very attractive, but one thing Carina cannot stand are people that are rude and Maya was rude - infuriating in fact.’
Just over an hour later Carina collapsed onto the grassy area where they started their training from hell. Maya had been ahead of her for most of the way, which she wasn’t exactly complaining about as it meant she got a good view. If she was going to be running then she may as well get some form of enjoyment out of it. Maya was stood over her with barely rosey cheeks, sunglasses still in tact, with a smirk on her face.
“You good down there Princess?” She asked.
“Perfect,” Carina responded trying to avoid breathing too heavily, not wanting to give Maya the satisfaction.
“Okay, good - want to do some push-ups then since you are so ‘perfect’?” Maya questioned a slightly sarcastic tone to her voice as she squatted down next to Carina.
“You think you’re funny Bishop?” Carina said closing her eyes.
“Oh, I wasn’t joking,” Maya said, taking her sunglasses off.
“Neither was I,” Carina retorted. She opened her eyes and was met with ocean blues staring back at her.