#Martin Luthor King Jr | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

englishstrawbie · 2 years

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Serendipity (34/?)

Fandom: Station 19, Grey’s Anatomy

Characters: Maya Bishop & Carina DeLuca

Summary: A chance meeting at a bar leads to these two idiots falling in love. Follows canon and fills in the gaps of their relationship that we didn’t get to see on screen.

Also @ AO3.

* * * * * * * * * *

Nineteen

The time is always right to do what is right. - Martin Luthor King Jr

It was supposed to be a fun afternoon of celebrating their success after a three alarm fire, like they used to before the pandemic. These days, it is all protocols and safety measures and hanging out at home alone in between shifts because, even though they are in a bubble, they have to be careful.

They had beer and spirits, and Andy had gone out for snacks because there was no way Maya was going to let anyone touch Carina’s meats and cheeses. It had taken all of her effort to persuade her girlfriend that it was okay for her to invite the gang over, even though she is only part of Maya’s bubble and no-one else’s. They would turn it into a moving in party once Carina got home from work, just like Vic had suggested on the day Carina moved in. It was a big reason to celebrate and Maya wanted to be able to share that with her friends.

The boys were feeling mischievous, which is why Maya found herself changing out of her t-shirt thanks to an exploding bottle of soda. She wasn’t too mad about it, not really. She liked that they were in a silly mood. They were going to drink and talk and laugh, and forget that the world around them is falling apart.

It was supposed to be fun.

There was no way Maya could know that life was going to turn upside down in the next thirty-six hours.

After changing into clean clothes, she steps of the bedroom, confused about why it is so quiet.

“Hello?” she calls out, getting no reply.

She wanders into the kitchen, finding it just as she had left it. She looks down the room in search of someone hiding behind the couch or a twitching curtain, but is faced only with an empty apartment. Half drunken bottles of beer have been discarded and there is a tray of congealed perogies on the table, which tells her that Vic has been here.

“Ew,” she mutters.

She has only been gone for a few minutes, where did everyone go?

“Is anyone here? I swear to God, if you jump out at me…”

Her suspicions quickly fade when she hears a woman’s cry from the street below.

“Where is she?”

There is something about the tone of the stranger’s voice that grabs her attention. The next thing she hears is Dean.

“We don’t know right now.”

Maya doesn’t hesitate before she rushes to the front door, just about remembering her keys before pulling the door closed behind her. She ignores the elevator, instead running down the stairs and out of her apartment block, following the sound of familiar voices. She turns a corner where she finds Dean, Vic and Travis, masked up, with two women she doesn’t recognise. They are arguing about something, the two women clearly distressed as her friends try to calm them down. She rushes up to them, just as Jack arrives too.

“What is going on here?” she asks.

“Okay, I’d like to introduce you to our captain and lieutenant,” Travis says, gesturing towards Maya and Jack.

One of the women, Sharon, points at the house behind them. “We need to get in that house.”

Maya looks around at the group, not understanding.

“These ladies think their daughters are in that house,” Dean explains.

“Against their will?” Maya asks.

“Yes,” the other mother, Joyce, says.

“We do not have confirmation on that quite yet,” Vic says, her tone telling Maya that the situation is already getting out of hand.

“Have we called the cops?” Jack questions.

“They did,” Dean says, “but we’re way past that.”

Maya can see that he is ready to do whatever it takes to help these women, but her conservative nature is strong and she isn’t going to just jump into what feels like a messy situation.

“Okay, Miller, we’re not on duty,” she says in a low voice.

She can tell that Dean is annoyed by her reluctance to get involved as he glares at her from behind his mask. “Okay. I think I smell a gas leak.”

He starts to stride towards the house.

“Miller, hold on,” Maya tries to call him back but he ignores her.

“No, no, no – Dean!” Vic calls after him.

He ignores them all, so Jack moves past them, swiping at Dean’s arm to pull him back but missing.

“Miller! Miller! We don’t operate that way,” he says.

Dean turns and faces him squarely. “Yeah, except when you needed to get Inara away from her husband, right? When he was using her as a punching bag?” he points out. “Dude, what's the difference between then and now, Gibson? What's the difference?”

Maya can see that he is not going to back down and realises that they are in it, no matter what. Still, she would rather take a cautious approach instead of charging inside without all the facts.

“We have to call it in, Miller,” Maya insists. “We will call the police and they will come.”

Joyce is also frustrated by their failure to act. “If the man in that house took our daughters, what do you think he's doing to them while we stand out here and talk?”

Behind her, Sharon nods her head in agreement. She can feel their fear, it is coming from every inch of their bodies, but Maya insists that they do things by the book.

“I understand that,” she says calmly, “but if we go barging in without backup or evidence, we could do more harm than good. Please, I need you to trust me for a moment.”

“Maya, be real!” Dean challenges her, and she’s pissed at him for questioning her authority in front of everyone but bites her tongue.

“Miller, you know how this works,” she says shortly. “We don’t have authority here, not when we’re off duty.” She looks at him pointedly. “Please, just take a breath and wait. Let me call it in.”

Dean shoots her a look that tells her he’s pissed, but he relents, backing away from her angrily. The small group disperses. Joyce takes her phone out of her back pocket to make a call, as Travis comforts Sharon. Vic follows Dean, and Maya can see her trying to calm him down. Jack joins them and their conversation looks intense. She hangs back, pretty sure she would not be welcome right now. Instead, she pulls out her cell phone and makes a call to the police department, asking for immediate assistance. It isn’t long before she hears a siren wailing in the distance, getting closer, and she walks down the driveway towards the group.

“Her comes P.D.,” she says, as a cop car pulls up next to them. “It’s their scene.”

“This should go well,” Dean says pointedly.

Maya shoots him an irritated look but doesn’t say anything, instead turning towards Joyce as she rushes up to the car.

“Officers! Officers! My daughter is in that house! My daughter is in there!”

Maya steps up to the police officers in the hope of offering a less emotional plea. “I’m Captain Maya Bishop, S.F.D.,” she introduces herself. “I’m the one who called you.”

“No, no, no, we got a call from the homeowner,” Officer Wicklund says. “He claimed that there was a woman creating a disturbance.”

“This is a waste of time!” Dean cries.

Maya tries to reach out to him, but he moves away from the crowd and she lets him go, focussing instead on getting the cops to step in. She still believes they can deal with this calmly and sensibly.

“Okay, this woman believes that her daughter was abducted and is in this house.”

“We're just asking you to check it out,” Jack says.

“Ma'am, what makes you think your daughter's in there?” Wicklund asks one of the mothers.

His colleague, Officer Schneider, butts in. “We don’t have time for this. You people need to step aside…”

His patronising tone riles them all up and Maya immediately takes a disliking to him.

“How about a little professional courtesy?” Jack says from behind her.

“...and let us do our job,” Schneider continues. “Listen, we're not gonna barge into someone's home because some unbalanced woman can't keep tabs on her kid.”

“Are you kidding?” Jack says incredulously.

“Now step aside,” Schneider demands.

Maya’s heart sinks. The cops were supposed to help, they were supposed to be on their side. She can feel Dean watching her.

“Do you smell that now?”

Everyone’s eyes are on her, she can feel them burning into her, waiting for her next move.

“I do, I smell it,” Jack agrees immediately.

It puts more pressure on her and Maya pauses. She knows what it means to mislead the police, but she is starting to think that her faith in them is misplaced.

“Yeah, yeah, I smell it, too,” she says eventually.

“Could be a gas leak,” Jack suggests.

“Check it out, Gibson,” Maya instructs him.

The two police officers share a look and she knows they can see straight through their charade.

“Like hell,” Schneider sneers. “This is my scene.”

This guy is really pissing her off now, his rough, chauvinistic manner reminding her of her father. That makes her dislike him even more.

“Sure, it's your scene,” Maya says, keeping up the pretence. “I don’t care about jurisdiction. We’re dealing with a possible gas leak here. I’m gonna call it in to my station and, if we're right, I'm gonna need you to secure this area, simple as that.”

God knows what she will do when they have to admit that there is no danger here – but she will deal with that problem when she has to.

Schneider turns his back on her as he grabs his radio. “We need backup at Tenth Avenue and Newland, please – immediately.”

Meanwhile, everyone turns towards the house, watching Jack and Dean as they approach the front door, closely followed by Joyce and Sharon. Jack bangs on the door three times.

“Seattle Fire Department!”

It is not long before the homeowner, Bob, answers the door.

“We’re investigating a possible gas leak.”

Bob ignores them and instead looks over Jack’s shoulder at the police officers. “Schneider, are you gonna get these people out of here or not?”

Maya feels her eyes roll in her head. Of course he knows the cops.

“That man took our daughters!” Joyce yells, her body jumpy, impatient to get inside and find her little girl. She is shielded by Dean, who acts as a barrier.

“I don't know a damn thing about any daughters!” Bob says.

“Where are our girls?” Sharon demands to know.

“Hey, your kid probably ran away to get away from you!” Bob jeers at the two distressed women. “Get off my property!”

Sharon launches forwards, trying to get into the house, stopped by Jack and Dean. Joyce is quickly intercepted by Wicklund, who leads her away from the house.

“Hey, ma'am, ma'am, listen. If you want to file a missing person’s report, you can come with me.”

Joyce pulls away from him. “No, I’m not going anywhere! My daughter is in that house, and I have to get her out! Would you please just do your jobs?” Her whole body trembles, clearly distraught, but it is lost on the two men.

“Ma'am, you need to calm down,” Schneider says in his patronising tone, leaning towards her with a sneering look on his face.

“She absolutely does not need to calm down!” Dean says.

Maya is about to jump in to stop their argument from escalating when, out of nowhere, they hear glass shattering. Her whole team reacts to the noise, rushing to the side of the house to see flames escaping from a small, broken basement window.

Okay, they weren’t expecting that.

“That is more than a gas leak,” Dean comments.

Maya’s captain instincts kick in. “This is our scene now,” she says, not giving the two police officers the chance to object. “Nineteen!” She starts barking orders. “Gibson, call it in. Hughes, power and electric. Montgomery, get some water on it.”

She feels adrenaline pumping through her body. If the girls are in there, Maya knows they may not have a lot of time to find them before the fire grows. Basements are notorious for storing flammable liquids and who knows what Bob might be keeping down there.

From behind her, Joyce and Sharon are calling out for their daughters, held back by Wicklund and Schneider.

“Take it easy!” Dean yells at them, his instincts still to protect the mothers from the cops.

“They’re obstructing the scene,” Schneider says.

Dean stares at him incredulously. “That house is on fire and their crying is what you're worried about?”

A sound from toward the house grabs their attention and Maya turns just as Bob emerges, a plume of smoke following him as he stumbles down the front steps. His face his cloaked with black soot, his eyes wide with shock, and he coughs as he struggles to catch his breath. The two cops go to him and lead him to the sidewalk away from the smoke.

“Hey, what’s going on?” a familiar voice calls from the road and Maya turns just as Andy and Robert come running up to her. “What’s going on?”

“Two girls are being held captive in that burning house,” Dean tells them.

They both react with shock.

“What?”

“This woman believes that her daughter's in the house,” Maya explains, as Dean calls for gloves that are quickly provided by Vic. “We have no proof yet.”

“If we wait for proof, those girls could die,” Dean reminds her.

“Did you call it in?” Andy asks.

“Nineteen’s on a fire downtown,” Jack says as he walks over to them, his cell phone in his hand. “Eighty-eight is seven minutes away.

Maya feels her heart drop. “Seven minutes is too long,” she says, even though she knows everyone is already thinking the same thing.

“I'm not waiting, I'm going in,” Dean says.

“You don't have gear,” Maya points out.

“I am not waiting. I'm going in,” Dean repeats stubbornly, turning and heading towards the house.

Maya calls after him but he ignores her, and she knows there is no changing his mind.

“I’m going in too,” Robert says, following Dean towards the house.

Everyone calls out to them, but they are determined. Maya sighs. So now two of her team are going into a burning building with no protective gear and no hose. Just them, their common sense and hopefully a lot of good luck on their side. She can do nothing but watch as they pull their clothes over their heads and run inside.

“Montgomery, make sure that hose is on the house!” she orders. It is the only thing she can do to offer them some protection from the flames.

She usually feels calmer during a call, but her heart is pounding in her chest. She doesn’t feel like she is in control of this at all. She can feel everyone exasperated and scared, and there is nothing she can do to alleviate it because she feels the same.

Maybe she should have listened to Dean. But there are rules and protocols, and she really did believe that calling the police department was the right thing to do. Because they were supposed to help, they were supposed to work with them, not against them. Was she really so dumb to believe that?

It is a few minutes before they get any news, but it feels like longer; like time is purposely dragging.

“Hey, Miller says he can hear them,” Travis says, as he and Jack walk down the driveway.

“What? What did he say?” Joyce demands to know.

“He said he could hear voices,” Jack says.

“They’re lying!” Bob calls out from where he is being treated nearby.

Sharon turns towards him angrily. “My baby’s in there!”

The crowd nearby start jeering at the police and it prompts Vic to square up to Bob.

“Hey – listen to me! If anybody is trapped in that house, they are going to die and if that happens, I will move heaven and earth to make sure you stand trial for murder!”

Schneider intervenes, still as condescending as ever. “Okay, back it up, missy.”

“Just tell us where they're at, Bob,” Wicklund says. “Kidnapping charges are a lot nicer than murder.”

Bob coughs but doesn’t answer, his silence speaking for itself.

The fire continues to rage, the hose lodged through the small window into the basement doing little to dampen the flames. There is still no sign of Station Eighty-eight and Maya mentally notes to have a word with the Chief about their response time, because it has already been five minutes and Nineteen would be hooked up to the hydrant by now.

She tries calling out to Miller and Sullivan, but if they reply she can’t hear them over the roaring fire. She is pretty sure she can hear a crashing sound from inside but has no idea what it is, or if her team – her friends – are safe, and it is killing her inside. The fire is getting worse, the flames starting to lick the outside of the house, and it is so hard to stand back doing nothing when it is her instincts to fight.

She hears a gasp behind her and turns, her heart leaping when she sees a figure emerging from the front door. Dean is the first to appear, carrying a young girl wrapped up in a thick blanket. Robert follows closely behind him. Joyce and Sharon run up to them immediately, desperate to see their daughters. They carry the girls down the driveway to the sidewalk, placing them gently on the ground and starting to administer first aid.

Maya hears the wail of sirens just as the first of the fire trucks turns the corner and she runs to the curb just as they pull up with the Aid Car. Someone – Andy, she thinks – calls for oxygen and her team works with Station Eighty-eight to care for the two young victims.

Joyce hovers over her daughter as she lies unresponsive on the floor. Maya feels her body stiffen as she waits next to her, shuddering with relief when Jada suddenly starts to cough, gasping for breath.

“Thank God,” she mutters to herself.

Nearby, Bob is cuffed – the first decent thing the police officers have done since they arrived at the scene. Shanice is loaded into the back of an Aid Car, her mom in close pursuit. Maya stays with Jada and Joyce. Dean places an oxygen mask over Jada’s face and they sit her up, giving her room to breathe.

Officer Wicklund approaches, leaning down to address Jada.

“Miss, do you feel able to answer some questions?”

Jada shrugs, moving her oxygen mask to one side to answer him. “I guess.”

“Can you tell me what happened?”

“Um, me and Shanice, we had this message from this girl on insta. She said she was an influencer, that she could help us get more followers, maybe get some people to pay us to promote their stuff.” She pauses to cough and Dean lifts the oxygen mask back to her mouth.

“Take some deep breaths,” he instructs her.

She does what he says, her small body shaking.

“How did you end up here?” Officer Wicklund asks.

“We turned up at this diner to meet her but she wasn’t there. I don’t think she was real,” Jada says, her voice cracking. “We were outside and this van pulled up, and this guy grabbed me and threw me in the back. Shanice, she could’ve run but she didn’t, she was trying to get me out but he grabbed her too and locked us in.”

“The guy that brought you here…” Wicklund starts to ask.

Jada lifts her hand wearily and points towards Bob. “Him. It was him.”

“What happened when you got to the house?”

“He locked us in the basement. He told us to be quiet and that he’d be really angry if we made a noise,” Jada says.

Wicklund shuffles awkwardly on his feet. “Was there any, um… penetration?”

The question comes out of nowhere and they all react in shock at the intrusion.

“What is the matter with you?” Joyce asks angrily.

“I'm sorry, ma'am, but I have to ask,” Wicklund says.

“You don't have to ask it like that,” Maya berates him. She looks at the young girl. “Jada, we need to ask you a personal question. Do you want some privacy?”

Jada shakes her head. “No, I just want to stay with my mom.”

“Okay,” Maya says gently. “Did he hurt you? Did he touch you?”

“No, he didn't even talk to us after he locked us up down there,” Jada answers. “Wait, wait. You think he would have…? No!” She starts to cry and Maya puts a comforting hand on her arm.

Schneider approaches them and whispers something in Wicklund’s ear.

“Miss, I'm sorry, but I have to ask a few more questions.”

“About what?” Joyce interrupts him, frustrated by his constant line of questioning.

“Just give us a moment,” Maya says.

Emotions are heightened and she is doing everything she can to calm everyone down. It doesn’t work, as Joyce becomes more aggravated.

“What the hell do you need to ask my daughter, who has just been through hell, about?” she wants to know.

“Your daughter just started a fire,” Schneider says accusingly.

“Is this really the time?” Maya says, annoyed by his attitude and constant digs. Next to them, Dean and Vic lift Jada onto a gurney.

“Seriously, Schneider, can't we just…” Wicklund starts to say, quickly cut off by Bob who calls out from nearby.

“Those girls broke into my house and set fire to it!” he yells in between coughs. “I want them arrested for trespassing and arson!”

“She was kidnapped!” Dean shoots back at him as he wheels Jada towards the Aid Car.

“So they say,” Schneider jeers. “These kids lie all the time.”

Joyce finally snaps, launching forwards towards him. “You son of a…!”

Maya catches her before she can do something she will regret, pulling her back. Wicklund too holds out his arm, but it is too late as Schneider sees his opportunity to pounce.

“Ma'am, you are under arrest for assaulting a police officer,” he says. Another officer jumps forwards and the two of them restrain her, pushing her towards a police car.

“What?”

From nearby, Travis and Jack object too.

“She didn't!”

“Hey, we're right here!”

“We can see she didn't do anything!”

But Schneider is set on causing more harm to this family. Joyce struggles in their grasp, but they are bigger, stronger, and Schneider berates her for resisting. Jada calls for her mommy as she watches her being manhandled by the cops. Joyce tries her best to reassure her, but she is slammed against the hood of the car.

“Take it easy, man!” Dean yells. “What's wrong with you?”

He starts to run towards them and it suddenly feels like everything is moving in slow motion as another police officer tackles him to the ground. Two more officers approach and, together, the three of them wrestle him, pinning his arms behind his back. Everyone is shouting, begging them to let him go, but he is seen as a threat and they keep him pinned.

Dean Miller – the softest, kindest man she knows – is being treated like a criminal in front of Maya’s eyes, and she is helpless. Jack and Travis are held back by the police, and Vic is stopped in her tracks as she tries to intervene.

“What are you doing?” Maya tries to help but they ignore her. Everyone ignores her.

Andy runs over, but she is pushed to the ground by an overzealous cop. Robert instinctively retaliates, pushing the cop back and away from Andy, and Maya watches as he also falls to floor.

It was an accident, Sullivan was only protecting his wife, but all of a sudden there are two guns on him as Schneider and another cop grab their weapons.

“That’s it, freeze!”

Robert’s eyes flare with anger and Maya feels panic start to rise up inside of her.

“Get your hands in the air now!” the second cop demands.

Maya waits for him to react, but it is Andy’s voice that stops him.

“Robert, please. Please!”

He pauses and Maya wonders what he is going to do next, but he obeys their instructions and slowly lifts his hands above his head, waiting for someone to cuff him.

Maya steps towards Schneider. “Officer? Officer, please, this is my team,” she begs. She knows she sounds desperate but she doesn’t know what else to do.

“You coming with us too?” Schneider threatens her.

Maya is taken aback. “What? On what charges?”

“Obstruction of justice; breaking and entering,” Schneider reels off.

“Are you kidding?” comes a voice from behind her, expressing what she is thinking.

“What are you doing?” Andy wants to know but she is ignored too.

All they can do is stand and watch as Dean and Robert are put in the back of police cars and taken away. Maya feels defeated. She is their captain and she had no power to stop it from happening.

“What do we do now?” Jack says.

“We follow them to the station,” Vic says immediately, as if it is the most obvious answer.

“I’m gonna check in with Eighty-eight and make sure the house is secure,” Maya says. “Vic’s right, you should all get to the police station. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

She turns towards Andy.

“Are you okay? I saw you on the ground, are you hurt?”

It takes a moment for Andy to reply, too stunned by what she has just witnessed to realise that Maya is talking to her.

“Hmm? I’m fine, just some scrapes on my hands where I fell,” she says. “What just happened?”

It is not a question she expects an answer to – not that Maya would know where to begin in trying to explain it. “Get to the police station, be there for Sullivan.”

The team disperse, except for Jack who hangs back.

“You want me to stay?” he asks. “Just in case?”

Maya shakes her head. “No, I think the best thing you can do is go to the station and try to stop this from getting any worse than it already is. I’ll be right behind you.”

She heads over to the fire truck and finds Captain Khalidi.

“Captain Bishop,” he greets her.

“Is the fire out?” Maya asks, too rattled to engage in pleasantries.

“It is,” Khalidi says. “Started in the basement and rose up into the first floor. The bottom half of the house is gutted. I hope the guy has decent insurance.” He pauses and looks over his shoulder to where the remaining members of the police department have congregated. “Your team okay?”

“No,” Maya answers honestly.

“Look, I didn’t see much because we were focussed on putting the fire out, but I did see what happened to Sullivan. God knows I’ve got my issues with him after what he did, but he didn’t deserve that. If you need my support, you’ve got it.”

Maya smiles gratefully at him. “Thanks, I appreciate it. The team will too.”

“We’ve got everything under control here. The two young girls are on their way to Grey Sloan to get checked out. You don’t need to be here,” Khalidi says. “Go be with your team.”

Maya nods, then turns on her heel, stuffing her hands into her pockets as she walks the short distance back to her apartment. Her brain spins as she tries to make sense of what just happened and understand how things escalated so badly and quicky. When she arrives home, she jumps straight into her car and drives to the police station. It is only as she pulls into the parking lot that she remembers the mess she has left behind in the apartment. She pulls out her cell phone and calls Carina, listening to it ring until it finally clicks to voicemail.

“Hey babe. I, uh… something happened this afternoon. I’m okay, we’re all okay, but Miller and Sullivan got arrested so we’re at the police station trying to sort it out. It’s a long story. Anyway, that’s why the apartment’s gonna be a mess when you get home. I’m sorry, I…” She sighs. “I’ll call you later, okay? I love you.”

She ends the call and sits in her car for a moment, feeling guilty for not rushing inside to support her team but needing to collect her thoughts. It was a crazy situation to begin with; the idea that two girls would be tied up in the basement of a house round the corner from where she lives would have been unbelievable to her just a few hours ago. There is a part of her that is still struggling to believe it, despite what she witnessed. And to bring in the cops only for that to make the situation worse, not better, baffles her.

Her phone pings with a message from Vic, chasing her whereabouts, and she shrugs off her own feelings as she heads inside where her team are pooled by the front desk. The officer on the other side eyes her wearily.

“Not another one,” she hears him mutter under his breath.

“Officer?”

“Bates,” he answers.

“Officer Bates, I’m Captain Maya Bishop of Station 19, Seattle Fire Department,” she introduces herself. “You have two of my team here and I don’t believe you have grounds to hold them.”

She tries to sound confident, even though she doesn’t feel it.

“That’s what your friends have been saying,” he says, waving his hand towards her team, “but as I told them, there is nothing I can do.”

“So who do I need to talk to?” Maya asks.

Bates sighs. “The arresting officer is dealing with another case at the moment.”

She presumes he means Schneider, since he was the instigator of all this – not that he would be of much help, he made his prejudices known to them.

“So let me talk to someone else, someone more senior,” Maya pushes.

“I can’t do that right now,” Bates says, his impatience starting to show.

“Why not?”

“Because he’s busy too,” Bates says. “You’re going to have to wait.” He gestures towards the seats, then turns his back on her, pretending to leaf through a pile of paperwork, signalling that their conversation is over.

Maya takes a step backwards, deflated.

“That’s it? That’s all you’re gonna do?” Vic asks her.

“No!” Maya says quickly. “Of course not. I just…”

She just doesn’t know what to do.

“Hey!” Vic screams all of a sudden, her anger spilling out as she slaps her hand on the desk, making everyone jump.

Bates turns around, his hand drifting towards the radio on the desk, and Maya holds out her hand, resting it on Vic’s arm.

“We want to make statements,” Maya jumps in with the first idea that comes into her head. “We were there, we saw what happened, and we want to make statements in support of our friends.”

Bates rolls his eyes. “That’s not my job.”

Maya is starting to wonder what exactly he is there to do, but she bites her tongue. “Then find us the person whose job it is,” she demands. She squares her shoulders and glares at him until he relents with an unenthusiastic sigh.

“Give me a minute.”

The minute turns into an hour, until eventually Officer Wicklund comes out to talk to them. Schneider appears at some point too, but he walks past them nonchalantly, muttering something under his breath that Maya is glad they can’t hear because she is pretty sure that it would rile them all up again.

They give their statements in turn, hanging around in the waiting area. They don’t really bother with conversation, too worried about the fate of their friends, too tired to find things to talk about.

Carina calls after a few hours and Maya slips outside to answer it.

“Hey,” she answers.

“Are you okay?” Carina asks without offering her a greeting.

“I… don’t know,” Maya admits.

“What happened?” Carina asks.

Maya tells her the story, although she keeps the details light for now. She knows Carina will have a million questions for her and she doesn’t have the energy to answer them right now.

“I don’t know what else to do,” Maya confesses. “The police officer who arrested them is a piece of work and no-one is being helpful.”

“Do you think your statements will help?”

“I don’t know, maybe? Andy doesn’t think they’ll back down,” Maya says. She sighs.

“Is there anything I can do?” Carina offers. “Do you want me to bring you all food or coffee? It sounds like it’s going to be a long night.”

Maya smiles at her kind gesture. “No, thanks. I don’t think anyone has an appetite and they have a coffee machine here,” she says. “It’s not as good as your fancy machine, of course.”

“Of course,” Carina says.

Maya sighs. “I’d better get back to the team. I’m sorry we left the apartment in such a mess.”

“It’s okay,” Carina says, glad that Maya can’t see her nose turning upwards at whatever has been left to sour in the aluminium tray. It will be going straight into the trash can. “Just let me know how it goes, okay?”

“I will,” Maya promises. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Carina says.

Maya hangs up and heads back inside, prepping herself for another conversation with Officer Bates as she tries to find out if and when Dean and Robert will be released.

A little after ten o’clock, Vic’s phone pings and she lifts her eyebrows in surprise when she sees Jackson Avery’s name light up her screen.

“Something going on that you’ve been keeping from us?” Travis asks.

Vic’s confusion turns into relief when she reads his message. “He’s been treating Jada and Shanice,” she says. “Smoke inhalation and some second degree burns, but he says they’re both going to be okay.”

“Physically, at least,” Jack comments.

They all know what he means. The trauma that these girls have suffered is going to take a long time to heal. Maya watches as Andy stands up and walks outside.

“You okay?” she calls out after her.

“Just need some air,” Andy says, except she doesn’t come back.

Maya leans her weight forward as if she is about to stand up, but Vic holds out a hand to stop her.

“I’ll go.”

Maya hesitates. She wants to be there for her friend, but she knows she is not the best person to talk to her right now. She doesn’t understand it, she knows that. And there is a part of her that is relieved to avoid the conversation. She leans back in her seat and nods, watching with a heavy heart as Vic goes outside.

Unable to just sit there and wait, Maya goes back to the front desk, pressing Officer Bates for an update. It is twenty minutes later when Vic comes rushing through the front door.

“Hey guys,” she says, her voice lighter than it has been all evening. “Look at this.”

Maya is still by the front desk and she turns, walking over to where Vic is holding out her phone. She looks down and watches the video that replays the events from earlier that afternoon.

“One-and-a-half million views?” Travis questions.

“Yep. The power of the internet,” Vic says. She turns and walks towards the desk. “I need to talk to Officer Wicklund. Now.”

The video helps and it isn’t long before Officer Wicklund confirms that Miller and Sullivan will be released without charge. Relief washes over them all. It takes another few hours to deal with the paperwork. The sun is already rising and, one-by-one, they make their way outside to wait, where Andy has spent most of the night.

It is just after six o’clock when the door opens and their friends finally step outside. Jack is the first to step up to them, pulling Dean into a hug, while Andy runs from her seat on the step and into Robert’s arms. Maya hangs back as they embrace each other, glad to see her friends but wary of them.

Wary of what they think of her after she stalled for so long. Her decision to play by the book was the wrong one, and it started a series of events that could have led to the loss of life – the complete opposite of what she is supposed to do as captain.

It is Dean who turns towards her, holding out an arm and inviting her into a group hug. She stoops under his arm, grateful to feel his warm body next to hers. No-one knows what to say and they hold each other tightly, a shared relief between them. Vic is the only one to talk, just one word falling quietly from her mouth.

“Nineteen.”

#station 19 #grey's anatomy #maya bishop #carina deluca #station 19 fanfiction #my fanfiction #serendipity #I can't believe I've written a fic that has 34+ chapters

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