This Morning Sky [5/?]
Title: This Morning Sky [5/?]
Author: abandonedmem
Fandom: Grey's Anatomy
Pairing: Callie/Arizona
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Set around 7x10. Arizona is presumed dead after an accident in Africa, but Derek finds himself with an amnesiac patient that bears a striking resemblance to Seattle Grace's favorite Peds attending. Now Callie has to remind Arizona who she is.
Disclaimer: All television shows, movies, books, and other copyrighted material referred to in this work, and the characters, settings, and events thereof, are the properties of their respective owners.
February 10, 2011
Arizona woke up to Franklin grinning at her, just as she had every morning since Callie had given her the bear. She remembered that first morning waking up confused as to why a fluffy bear in a doctor’s coat was staring back at her. Then she read the note from Callie explaining the bear was a reminder that she was waking up safely in Seattle and that she didn’t have to panic or worry. It was the first time she hadn’t woken up panicked in weeks. She smiled reaching over to rub the furry bear’s head and looked up to see Meredith writing down notes in her chart.
“Good morning.”
Meredith jumped slightly and chuckled when she met her eyes. “Sorry if I woke you. I’m just doing your work up to prepare for the surgery later today. How are you feeling?”
“I’m okay,” Arizona said rubbing her eyes. “Ready to be done with all the surgeries.”
“I bet. Everything looks good. I’ll be by in a couple of hours to take you to the OR.”
Arizona nodded. She was a little nervous about having Dr. Shepherd cut into her brain again, but hoped that after this she’d either remember her life or be able to really move on and start a new one. Being stuck in limbo was frustrating.
The upside to being in limbo was that she got to spend a lot of time with Callie. It was the bright spot of her day, the time she would spend with the brunette talking, eating, and laughing. There was always a lot of laughing. Callie would come for lunch or dinner, in-between surgeries, and after shifts. They spent a lot of time together and if Arizona didn’t know better, she’d say she was starting to develop strong feelings for the woman.
“Someone slept in this morning,” Callie said strutting into the room. “I came in a few hours ago before my shift started and you were still sleeping.”
“Well, someone kept me up late last night. I had to catch up on my beauty sleep.”
Callie smiled and sat down next to Arizona. The blonde eyed her coffee cup and tried to reach over and grab it. “Uh-uh, you have surgery today. No coffee for you.”
Arizona pouted. “Fine, but that means I can withhold something from you.”
“Heard that before,” Callie said under her breath. Arizona had a tendency to withhold sex when Callie was “bad,” which usually worked really well. She wished she could say she had more willpower than that, but the withholding of sex, dimples, and exasperated “Calliope” would wear down her defenses.
“Excuse me?”
“Nothing,” Callie said barely able to hide her smirk.
“You seem rather chipper today.”
“I am. I rocked a surgery this morning, you have surgery and will probably be getting your memories back soon, and this coffee tastes fantastic.”
Arizona pursed her lips and stared at the coffee before glaring at Callie. She really wanted some of that coffee. The blonde wasn’t quite sure what to make of the other woman being excited over her getting her memories back. Sure, as a friend she would want what’s best for her, but what if Arizona’s memories revealed a girlfriend or a completely different life that Callie couldn’t fit into? Arizona wanted Callie to be part of her life and, based on the looks the other woman gave her, she was pretty sure Callie wanted to be part of her life too.
“Hey, what’s wrong? I didn’t mean to tease you about the coffee.”
“It’s not that. Well, yeah, that was mean, but I guess,” Arizona trailed off trying to find the right way to explain things to Callie. They hadn’t really talked about their relationship and the last thing she wanted to do was scare the brunette off, but she needed some reassurance from her. “I guess I’m just a little nervous about the surgery.”
Callie gave her a sympathetic look, set down her coffee, and took her hand. “You are going to fine. Dr. Shepherd is the best and I’ll be right here when you wake up.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
/ / /
Arizona’s nerves returned in full force by the time Meredith came to take her into surgery. She was disconnected from machines and given the final rundown on what the operation would entail. The only thing keeping her from freaking out was Callie’s hand in hers.
“I’ll give you two a minute,” Meredith said quietly exiting the room.
“Are you ready?” Callie asked keeping hold of her hand while she stood.
“As I’ll ever be.”
“Hey, you’re gonna be fine. You’ll be back to stealing my coffee in no time.” Callie gave her a quick hug and accompanied them to the OR. She had fought with Derek briefly about being in the room during the surgery, but she knew there was no way they’d actually let her. Instead, she planned on grabbing a quick lunch then was going to nervously watch from the gallery. She waited until Arizona disappeared behind the OR doors before saying a quick prayer for the blonde.
/ / /
Arizona stared at the ceiling waiting for Dr. Shepherd to arrive. She kept nervously glancing at the gallery windows hoping to catch a glimpse of Callie, but the room was empty.
“Okay, Sarah,” Derek said coming into the OR. “Dr. Warren is going to administer your anesthesia now.”
“Hold on, Derek,” she said locking eyes with him. “I need to know that I’m going to wake up from this. I’ve had a ton of surgeries and have never been nervous about the outcome until now. These last two months have been spent looking backwards. My whole life has been about getting my memories back and remembering who I am. I never had a reason to look to the future . . . until now. I have friends. I have Callie. I’ve got a shot at a real life here. Before I just cared about remembering, but now I care about living. So, you can do this right?”
“I can do this,” he said sincerely. “We’re going to take good care of you.”
Once Arizona was out Derek looked up to see Callie nervously fidgeting in the gallery. He met her eyes and gave a reassuring nod before he began the procedure. The brunette looked away, not wanting to see Arizona’s skull cut open. She sat there quietly for an hour fixated on every move Derek made until Mark snapped her out of her trance.
“How’s Blondie doing?”
“She’s doing great.”
“And how are you doing?
“I’m alright. I’m anxious to see if this surgery will fix her memory the way Derek thinks it will. I miss her Mark. I miss her so much even though she’s right here.”
“What if she never gets her memory back?” he asked softly. It was always the elephant in the room when they talked about Arizona.
“Nothing will change. If this ordeal taught me anything, it’s how much I love her. And I’ll continue to love her whether she’s Arizona or Sarah or some mixed version of the two. We’re meant to be together. Any idiot can see that,” she said playfully elbowing her best friend.
“Even this idiot can,” he said with a chuckle. “You think this new version of Blondie even likes you?”
“Oh, she likes me. No one can resist the Torres charm.”
“Do you have a back-up plan in case this doesn’t work? Are you going to tell her who she is or let her stay Sarah forever?”
Callie sighed. She’d given this a lot of thought. In fact, she wished they’d been honest with Arizona about who she was in the first place. She was going to be rightfully pissed when they finally told her the truth.
“I’m going to tell her. I have to. I don’t know, maybe explaining her life and surrounding her with familiarity will trigger her memory. Plus, I refuse to call her Sarah for the rest of our lives.”
/ / /
Arizona opened her eyes slowly. The harsh lights of the hospital hurt her head and she blinked rapidly trying to focus. She smiled when she saw Franklin. That must be a good sign. If she remembered the bear that meant Dr. Shepherd hadn’t scrambled her brain. She looked over to see Callie’s head resting on their joined hands. The blonde felt a pang of . . . déjà vu or familiarity about the situation, but blamed it on the drugs. Something about Callie sleeping next to her felt so right. She jostled in the bed trying to push herself into a more comfortable position and accidently woke the brunette.
Callie’s head rose sleepily. “Oh, hey you’re up. You feeling okay?”
“Yeah,” Arizona said staring at her. The odd familiar feeling didn’t go away and intensified when her eyes met Callie’s. It was strange, the way it made her heart soar and break at the same time.
“What is it?” Hope fluttered in Callie’s chest. When she looked into those blue eyes she swore see could see the old Arizona in them. The moment passed too quickly as the blonde blinked and shook her head.
“Nothing. I think the drugs are making things a little foggy. How’d the surgery go?”
“Perfectly. Dr. Shepherd fixed the bleed and closed you up. It was as textbook as you could hope for.”
“So what happens now?”
“Now you rest. We’ll worry about everything else in the morning.”
February 13, 2011
Arizona didn’t remember anything. It’d been a long three days of tests and memory exercises. Callie told her stories, brought food from her favorite restaurants, and even talked about Arizona’s favorite patients trying to jog her memory, but nothing seemed to work. Callie was frustrated. Derek said it might take Arizona some time for her memory to restore itself, but she lost hope each day that passed.
For her part, Arizona seemed to be taking everything in stride. She knew the blonde grew restless of the countless tests and would get irritated when they pushed her too far. Not that Callie blamed her. The constant nagging she got from Teddy, Derek, Meredith, and Callie herself must have been incredibly frustrating. Derek was working tirelessly on other options, but he did mention that it was time they start thinking about what to do once her recovery was over. Callie hoped they wouldn’t have to worry about that. In her head, Arizona would miraculously remember one morning and they’d start putting the pieces of their shattered relationship back together, then they’d live happily ever after with their ten kids. She clung to that on days like this when her hope was dwindling.
She made her way to Arizona’s room after a hell of a shift. On days like this the only thing that used to get her through would be the thought of curling up with Arizona in the warmth of their bed. She’d pick up pizza or take out and Arizona would be waiting for her at home with a glass of wine and her best super magic smile. More than anything Callie wished she could go home to that tonight.
When she entered the room the blonde was idly flipping through the TV. She gave Callie a tired smile. “You look like you’ve had about as good of a day as I’ve had.”
“Yeah. We can compare notes later,” she replied tiredly.
“Callie, you look exhausted. It’s okay for you to go home. Really.”
“It’s okay. I probably wouldn’t be able to sleep anyway.”
Arizona understood. She hadn’t exactly been sleeping either. The stress of the past few days was making it impossible for her to sleep for more than a few hours a night. If she was honest with herself, Callie was a big reason for her insomnia. She thought they were getting somewhere, really connecting, but the brunette had been working so hard to help her with her memory. She couldn’t understand why Callie would do that if she was truly interested in her.
“Look, I know we are both incredibly tired and this probably isn’t the best time for this conversation,” Arizona said. Her exhaustion and frustration must be making her brave. “But I like you Callie. I like you a lot and I guess I just don’t understand why you are pushing so hard for me to get my memories back because I’m pretty sure you like me too. I mean, what if I the old me is a completely different person or what if our lives are too different for us to work?”
Callie opened her mouth to speak, but Arizona held up a hand to silence her. “I’ve secretly been wishing that I wouldn’t get my memories back because I don’t want to lose you. That may sound horrible, but I don’t care. I’m scared that my old life isn’t as good as this.” Arizona’s voice broke as tears filled her eyes.
“It is as good as this. It’s so much better,” Callie said while her own eyes filled with tears.
“You can’t know that.”
“But I do,” she said taking the blonde’s hand. “I know it is because your name’s not Sarah. It’s Arizona Robbins. And you’ll never lose me because I am in love with you.”
Author: abandonedmem
Fandom: Grey's Anatomy
Pairing: Callie/Arizona
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Set around 7x10. Arizona is presumed dead after an accident in Africa, but Derek finds himself with an amnesiac patient that bears a striking resemblance to Seattle Grace's favorite Peds attending. Now Callie has to remind Arizona who she is.
Disclaimer: All television shows, movies, books, and other copyrighted material referred to in this work, and the characters, settings, and events thereof, are the properties of their respective owners.
February 10, 2011
Arizona woke up to Franklin grinning at her, just as she had every morning since Callie had given her the bear. She remembered that first morning waking up confused as to why a fluffy bear in a doctor’s coat was staring back at her. Then she read the note from Callie explaining the bear was a reminder that she was waking up safely in Seattle and that she didn’t have to panic or worry. It was the first time she hadn’t woken up panicked in weeks. She smiled reaching over to rub the furry bear’s head and looked up to see Meredith writing down notes in her chart.
“Good morning.”
Meredith jumped slightly and chuckled when she met her eyes. “Sorry if I woke you. I’m just doing your work up to prepare for the surgery later today. How are you feeling?”
“I’m okay,” Arizona said rubbing her eyes. “Ready to be done with all the surgeries.”
“I bet. Everything looks good. I’ll be by in a couple of hours to take you to the OR.”
Arizona nodded. She was a little nervous about having Dr. Shepherd cut into her brain again, but hoped that after this she’d either remember her life or be able to really move on and start a new one. Being stuck in limbo was frustrating.
The upside to being in limbo was that she got to spend a lot of time with Callie. It was the bright spot of her day, the time she would spend with the brunette talking, eating, and laughing. There was always a lot of laughing. Callie would come for lunch or dinner, in-between surgeries, and after shifts. They spent a lot of time together and if Arizona didn’t know better, she’d say she was starting to develop strong feelings for the woman.
“Someone slept in this morning,” Callie said strutting into the room. “I came in a few hours ago before my shift started and you were still sleeping.”
“Well, someone kept me up late last night. I had to catch up on my beauty sleep.”
Callie smiled and sat down next to Arizona. The blonde eyed her coffee cup and tried to reach over and grab it. “Uh-uh, you have surgery today. No coffee for you.”
Arizona pouted. “Fine, but that means I can withhold something from you.”
“Heard that before,” Callie said under her breath. Arizona had a tendency to withhold sex when Callie was “bad,” which usually worked really well. She wished she could say she had more willpower than that, but the withholding of sex, dimples, and exasperated “Calliope” would wear down her defenses.
“Excuse me?”
“Nothing,” Callie said barely able to hide her smirk.
“You seem rather chipper today.”
“I am. I rocked a surgery this morning, you have surgery and will probably be getting your memories back soon, and this coffee tastes fantastic.”
Arizona pursed her lips and stared at the coffee before glaring at Callie. She really wanted some of that coffee. The blonde wasn’t quite sure what to make of the other woman being excited over her getting her memories back. Sure, as a friend she would want what’s best for her, but what if Arizona’s memories revealed a girlfriend or a completely different life that Callie couldn’t fit into? Arizona wanted Callie to be part of her life and, based on the looks the other woman gave her, she was pretty sure Callie wanted to be part of her life too.
“Hey, what’s wrong? I didn’t mean to tease you about the coffee.”
“It’s not that. Well, yeah, that was mean, but I guess,” Arizona trailed off trying to find the right way to explain things to Callie. They hadn’t really talked about their relationship and the last thing she wanted to do was scare the brunette off, but she needed some reassurance from her. “I guess I’m just a little nervous about the surgery.”
Callie gave her a sympathetic look, set down her coffee, and took her hand. “You are going to fine. Dr. Shepherd is the best and I’ll be right here when you wake up.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
/ / /
Arizona’s nerves returned in full force by the time Meredith came to take her into surgery. She was disconnected from machines and given the final rundown on what the operation would entail. The only thing keeping her from freaking out was Callie’s hand in hers.
“I’ll give you two a minute,” Meredith said quietly exiting the room.
“Are you ready?” Callie asked keeping hold of her hand while she stood.
“As I’ll ever be.”
“Hey, you’re gonna be fine. You’ll be back to stealing my coffee in no time.” Callie gave her a quick hug and accompanied them to the OR. She had fought with Derek briefly about being in the room during the surgery, but she knew there was no way they’d actually let her. Instead, she planned on grabbing a quick lunch then was going to nervously watch from the gallery. She waited until Arizona disappeared behind the OR doors before saying a quick prayer for the blonde.
/ / /
Arizona stared at the ceiling waiting for Dr. Shepherd to arrive. She kept nervously glancing at the gallery windows hoping to catch a glimpse of Callie, but the room was empty.
“Okay, Sarah,” Derek said coming into the OR. “Dr. Warren is going to administer your anesthesia now.”
“Hold on, Derek,” she said locking eyes with him. “I need to know that I’m going to wake up from this. I’ve had a ton of surgeries and have never been nervous about the outcome until now. These last two months have been spent looking backwards. My whole life has been about getting my memories back and remembering who I am. I never had a reason to look to the future . . . until now. I have friends. I have Callie. I’ve got a shot at a real life here. Before I just cared about remembering, but now I care about living. So, you can do this right?”
“I can do this,” he said sincerely. “We’re going to take good care of you.”
Once Arizona was out Derek looked up to see Callie nervously fidgeting in the gallery. He met her eyes and gave a reassuring nod before he began the procedure. The brunette looked away, not wanting to see Arizona’s skull cut open. She sat there quietly for an hour fixated on every move Derek made until Mark snapped her out of her trance.
“How’s Blondie doing?”
“She’s doing great.”
“And how are you doing?
“I’m alright. I’m anxious to see if this surgery will fix her memory the way Derek thinks it will. I miss her Mark. I miss her so much even though she’s right here.”
“What if she never gets her memory back?” he asked softly. It was always the elephant in the room when they talked about Arizona.
“Nothing will change. If this ordeal taught me anything, it’s how much I love her. And I’ll continue to love her whether she’s Arizona or Sarah or some mixed version of the two. We’re meant to be together. Any idiot can see that,” she said playfully elbowing her best friend.
“Even this idiot can,” he said with a chuckle. “You think this new version of Blondie even likes you?”
“Oh, she likes me. No one can resist the Torres charm.”
“Do you have a back-up plan in case this doesn’t work? Are you going to tell her who she is or let her stay Sarah forever?”
Callie sighed. She’d given this a lot of thought. In fact, she wished they’d been honest with Arizona about who she was in the first place. She was going to be rightfully pissed when they finally told her the truth.
“I’m going to tell her. I have to. I don’t know, maybe explaining her life and surrounding her with familiarity will trigger her memory. Plus, I refuse to call her Sarah for the rest of our lives.”
/ / /
Arizona opened her eyes slowly. The harsh lights of the hospital hurt her head and she blinked rapidly trying to focus. She smiled when she saw Franklin. That must be a good sign. If she remembered the bear that meant Dr. Shepherd hadn’t scrambled her brain. She looked over to see Callie’s head resting on their joined hands. The blonde felt a pang of . . . déjà vu or familiarity about the situation, but blamed it on the drugs. Something about Callie sleeping next to her felt so right. She jostled in the bed trying to push herself into a more comfortable position and accidently woke the brunette.
Callie’s head rose sleepily. “Oh, hey you’re up. You feeling okay?”
“Yeah,” Arizona said staring at her. The odd familiar feeling didn’t go away and intensified when her eyes met Callie’s. It was strange, the way it made her heart soar and break at the same time.
“What is it?” Hope fluttered in Callie’s chest. When she looked into those blue eyes she swore see could see the old Arizona in them. The moment passed too quickly as the blonde blinked and shook her head.
“Nothing. I think the drugs are making things a little foggy. How’d the surgery go?”
“Perfectly. Dr. Shepherd fixed the bleed and closed you up. It was as textbook as you could hope for.”
“So what happens now?”
“Now you rest. We’ll worry about everything else in the morning.”
February 13, 2011
Arizona didn’t remember anything. It’d been a long three days of tests and memory exercises. Callie told her stories, brought food from her favorite restaurants, and even talked about Arizona’s favorite patients trying to jog her memory, but nothing seemed to work. Callie was frustrated. Derek said it might take Arizona some time for her memory to restore itself, but she lost hope each day that passed.
For her part, Arizona seemed to be taking everything in stride. She knew the blonde grew restless of the countless tests and would get irritated when they pushed her too far. Not that Callie blamed her. The constant nagging she got from Teddy, Derek, Meredith, and Callie herself must have been incredibly frustrating. Derek was working tirelessly on other options, but he did mention that it was time they start thinking about what to do once her recovery was over. Callie hoped they wouldn’t have to worry about that. In her head, Arizona would miraculously remember one morning and they’d start putting the pieces of their shattered relationship back together, then they’d live happily ever after with their ten kids. She clung to that on days like this when her hope was dwindling.
She made her way to Arizona’s room after a hell of a shift. On days like this the only thing that used to get her through would be the thought of curling up with Arizona in the warmth of their bed. She’d pick up pizza or take out and Arizona would be waiting for her at home with a glass of wine and her best super magic smile. More than anything Callie wished she could go home to that tonight.
When she entered the room the blonde was idly flipping through the TV. She gave Callie a tired smile. “You look like you’ve had about as good of a day as I’ve had.”
“Yeah. We can compare notes later,” she replied tiredly.
“Callie, you look exhausted. It’s okay for you to go home. Really.”
“It’s okay. I probably wouldn’t be able to sleep anyway.”
Arizona understood. She hadn’t exactly been sleeping either. The stress of the past few days was making it impossible for her to sleep for more than a few hours a night. If she was honest with herself, Callie was a big reason for her insomnia. She thought they were getting somewhere, really connecting, but the brunette had been working so hard to help her with her memory. She couldn’t understand why Callie would do that if she was truly interested in her.
“Look, I know we are both incredibly tired and this probably isn’t the best time for this conversation,” Arizona said. Her exhaustion and frustration must be making her brave. “But I like you Callie. I like you a lot and I guess I just don’t understand why you are pushing so hard for me to get my memories back because I’m pretty sure you like me too. I mean, what if I the old me is a completely different person or what if our lives are too different for us to work?”
Callie opened her mouth to speak, but Arizona held up a hand to silence her. “I’ve secretly been wishing that I wouldn’t get my memories back because I don’t want to lose you. That may sound horrible, but I don’t care. I’m scared that my old life isn’t as good as this.” Arizona’s voice broke as tears filled her eyes.
“It is as good as this. It’s so much better,” Callie said while her own eyes filled with tears.
“You can’t know that.”
“But I do,” she said taking the blonde’s hand. “I know it is because your name’s not Sarah. It’s Arizona Robbins. And you’ll never lose me because I am in love with you.”