Playing with fire (Amelia Shepherd) ABANDONED

forty nine

"Hey," Carina sidled up to where Mallie was stood in the station a few weeks later.

It was clinic day and Andy and Jack were off out somewhere, and Vic and Theo were on a Crisis One call. Carina had taken the lull in visitors as a chance to find Mallie at the front desk.

"Hey," Mallie said, leaning back in her seat. "What's up?"

"Nothing. Why do you ask?" Carina said.

"'Cause you're making your doctor I-have-news face," Mallie said.

"I don't have a face," Carina said, a small frown on her face.

"Everybody has a face. I still have my face," Mallie said. "Amelia uses her face when she's telling the kids there's no more churros before bed," Mallie said.

"That's a bad news face. This isn't bad," Carina said.

"So there is news," Mallie grinned. "Spill, Dr. DeLuca," Mallie said.

"I got my greencard interview. Three weeks," Carina said.

"That's great, but that isn't what you wanted to tell me. Did Maya do something? Do you need somewhere to stay? Money? A lawyer? Did you kill someone? Do you have a brain tumour, 'cause that's more Amelia's thing than mine. Is it the baby thing?" Mallie said.

Carina blinked a few times.

"That... What?" Carina said.

"Well, you came to me last time when Maya, uh... You know. And you stayed with us. And I'm rich. And you might need a lawyer for something work related, and people, like, die, and you found Amelia's brain tumour in your orgasm chamber, and, well, you're popping a baby Bishop out, soon," Mallie trailed off quietly.

Carina blinked a few more times before laughing.

"That's fair. You're funny," Carina chuckled. "And you got it right. Baby thing," she said.

"If you're gonna ask me for sperm, I don't actually have a penis. Or if you needed, like, sapphic parent solidarity, you got it. Or if you-" Mallie started.

"Mallie," Carina placed her hand over Mallie's mouth with a light grin. "You ramble when you're awkward," she said.

"I don't do great with feelings, but I'm working on it," Mallie said, sticking her tongue out onto Carina's palm and laughing when Carina rolled her eyes and grabbed the hand sanitiser.

"I know we have your sapphic parent solidarity, thank you. Amelia assures me of that every time we cross paths in the hospital. It's sweet. And, I've heard enough of Amelia's encounters in your bedroom to know you do not have the facilities we need," Carina chuckled.

"That's one way to put it," Mallie shrugged. "So, she talks about me? Does she say I'm good?" Mallie grinned.

"She does, and I'd love to help fuel your foreplay for later, but, this is me time," Carina said.

"Of course. We'll come back to it. So, what baby related issue can I help you with?" Mallie asked.

"Maya and I needed to pick someone with sperm for the egg. We looked into clinics, but we decided we wanted the donor to be someone in our lives that we know," Carina said.

"So you asked Jack," Mallie said.

Carina blinked.

"I'm sorry, how did you figure that out?" Carina said.

"Process of elimination. Beckett, no way. Sullivan, Maya wouldn't do that because she knows how pissed I got over him marrying Andy. Emmett, you guys were never close enough for that, and Travis doesn't want kids that way, so you wouldn't have asked him. Theo is with Vic, Ben is with Bailey, which leaves us with Jack," Mallie said.