This Morning Sky [6/?]
Title: This Morning Sky [6/?]
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 13, 2011
Arizona’s blank face stared back at her for several moments. “Y-You know who I am?”
Callie nodded. “You’re Arizona Robbins,” she said again.
“How long? How long have you known?”
The brunette’s eyebrows drew together in confusion. Did she miss the “I love you” part? “Uh . . . a couple of years.”
“What?”
“That’s how long I’ve known you. You’re a surgeon here. You have been for a couple of years.”
Arizona’s face went blank again as she processed the new information. She was a doctor? A doctor at Seattle Grace Mercy West? For years. These people had known her for years and they hadn’t said anything? Anger rose up in her chest and she struggled to keep it at bay.
“Why are you just telling me now?”
The blonde’s voice was tight and her brow furrowed in a look Callie recognized. Arizona was pissed. Callie sat up straighter in an attempt to prepare herself for the verbal onslaught she knew was coming. This was just another thing to add to the list of reasons why she was going to kill Derek Shepherd for his stupid plan.
“Well, due to the nature . . .,” Callie started to explain the reasoning behind their actions, but Arizona tuned out. She went over the conversations she had with Callie, and Teddy, and Derek and counted the numerous opportunities they had to tell her. There were a lot. It made more sense to her now, the way Callie fought so hard to help her with her memory and those looks she would give her. That other thing mixed with amazement, the one she had trouble pinpointing, was love.
“You said something about being in love with me,” she interrupted.
“I did.” Callie imagined she looked like a dear in the headlights right about now.
“Did that happen before or after I lost my memory?”
“Before. A long time before. We were in a relationship up until you left for Africa.”
“Was I in love with you too?”
“Yes,” Callie said trying to keep her composure as tears threatened to overcome her. “At least you were. You left and . . . I wasn’t so sure anymore, but I’m pretty sure that’s why you decided to come back from Africa. You’re accident was on the day you were supposed to fly home.”
She was in love with Callie. That wasn’t exactly news to her, but it explained the feelings of familiarity. Arizona felt a sting of betrayal and looked down at her hands. “I need you to leave.”
“Arizona.”
“Don’t. I need a chance to process this and I can’t do that with you here. Will you just leave me alone for awhile?” she pleaded.
Callie got up reluctantly and backed towards the door. Arizona looked devastated and it killed her being the one to do this to her.
Arizona sat in stunned silence for a long time. She just couldn’t believe that these people, her friends, she reminded herself, had lied to her about something so big. For weeks she had wondered what it would be like to finally remember who she was and they had willingly kept that information from her.
So her name was Arizona and she was a surgeon. Other than the fact that she and Callie were in a relationship, the blonde knew nothing about herself. She needed someone to talk to so she paged Teddy hoping she wasn’t in surgery.
Fifteen minutes later, the surgeon showed up in her room looking wary. “I heard what happened.”
“Did we know each other well?”
Teddy looked around the room refusing to meet the blonde’s eyes. “Yeah, we did. We’re friends. We’re kind of, uh, best friends.”
Arizona deflated. She was hoping there was someone close to her who hadn’t lied to her. “Is there anyone in this hospital who hasn’t lied to me?” she asked, her tone harsh.
“Yeah,” Teddy said clearing her throat nervously. “Would you like me to, uh, send them to you?”
“That’d be super,” she replied sarcastically.
Teddy turned quickly and left, relieved to be out of Arizona’s line of fire. It didn’t take long for another face to show up at her door.
“Uh . . . Altman said you wanted to talk to me,” the man said obviously nervous.
“What’s your name?”
“Karev. Alex Karev.”
“Do I know you?”
“You’re kind of my boss. I work with you in Peds,” Alex said taking a tentative step into the room. It was good to see his mentor again, even if she didn’t know who he was. He had been as heartbroken as everyone when the news of Arizona’s death broke. They hadn’t been close outside of the hospital, but she was one of the few people who really believed in him and he missed working with her.
“So I’m a pediatric surgeon?”
“Yeah, one of the best.”
“Was I a good boss?”
“You kick my ass a lot, but yeah, people like and respect you. I mean, I could do without the rainbows and puppies and crap, but you’re a good boss. Why are you asking me about this?”
“Because I just found out who I am, but I can’t remember any of it.”
“I know that, but why are you asking me?”
“Well, because everyone I’ve come to know and trust while I’ve been here has been lying to me and I don’t want to talk to them right now. They just make me angry.”
Alex nodded. He remembered a few days ago when the news of Arizona spread around the hospital. Relief and joy flooded through him and he hoped that when she got her memories back she’d come back to work and replace Stark.
“Okay, well what do you want to know?”
“Explain the rainbows and puppies and crap thing.”
“Well, you’re perky,” he chuckled and moved to sit in the chair next to her bed. “The kids love it. You play hide and seek with them and go along with whatever story they made up that day. There, uh, was this one time when I was having a really bad few months and we had this really sick kid who had been in and out of the hospital for years. She had come back in a few days before her eighth birthday and was devastated because she was going to miss Wicked. She loved that play so much. So on the day she was supposed to go see it you had us all dress up and act out a few scenes for her. I had to play the tin man and complained all day about it. I hated you for making me wear silver face paint and sing along to these sappy songs, but the look on that kid’s face was worth all of it. You had just made her dream come true.”
“Did she live?”
“She did. She went to New York a couple months ago and sent us pictures from the real Wicked. Said she liked our performance better,” he grinned.
“I bet you made a great tin man. Who’d I play?”
“Duh, Glinda.”
Arizona had no idea who that was, but judging from the playful glint in the man’s eyes, the role fit her perfectly. She continued to pester Alex with questions. What surgeries have we done together? Do we hang out outside of work? When did we first meet? Why was I in Africa? That was the question that seemed to be the hardest for Alex to answer. He told her about the Carter-Madison and that she wanted to help sick children in Malawi, but he only knew so much about her decision to go. Apparently, Callie had been all set to go with her, but something happened at the airport. He didn’t have any other details. She felt oddly maternal towards him and knew that she must have liked him a lot.
“What about my family?”
He looked a little uncomfortable, but answered her. “Your mom and dad live in Boston. You had a brother, but he was killed in action a while ago. That’s really more of a Callie question.”
The blonde nodded and silence fell between them. She got the feeling that Alex was out of answers and she was getting tired anyway. Meredith would be by soon to check on her and would probably force her to get some rest. “Thank you, Alex. I really appreciate your help.”
“Anytime, Robbins,” he said with a grin. He stood and headed for the door, then turned back to look at her. “I know it’s none of my business, but I think you should take it easy on Callie and the others. I know they all lied to you, but they thought you were dead for months. We were all pretty devastated. It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster around here and even though they said they didn’t tell you for your own good, I think they did it for their own good. I don’t think they wanted to rip the wound open again.”
/ / /
February 14, 2011
It took her a long time to sort through the new information Alex gave her. Arizona was glad the perkiness and optimism were a real part of her; it gave her hope that who she was now wasn’t too far from the real her. The real Arizona. She was going to have to ask about that name.
When she woke that morning to Franklin staring back at her she felt the guilty for snapping at Callie. Alex had helped her put things in perspective, like how she never stopped to think about how all of this affected her friends. Callie was in love with her. Despite everything, that knowledge warmed her heart. Knowing that they had been in a relationship explained how easy it was for her to fall for the brunette and how Arizona felt the most comfortable when she was in the room.
There was a soft knock on the door and the blonde was not surprised to see Callie standing unsure in the doorway.
“Hey,” Arizona said relieved. “I wasn’t sure if you’d come back.”
“Is it okay that I’m here?”
“Yes. I’ve been hoping you’d show up all morning. Come sit.”
“How are you feeling?”
“I feel much better than yesterday.” Arizona took in Callie’s appearance and felt another pang of guilt. Her face looked tired and pale and her hair was pulled into a messy ponytail. She wore the leather jacket Arizona had come to love so much. The blonde did some digging and found that Callie’s shift ended late last night and judging from her appearance, the brunette didn’t get much sleep. “I want to apologize for my reaction yesterday. I was caught a little off guard.”
“You had every right to be angry,” Callie said waiving off the apology. “I’m just sorry we didn’t tell you right away.”
“Can we make a deal? Can you promise to always tell me the truth from now on and I’ll promise not to freak out and get mad at you?”
Callie nodded and smiled. “I promise. You’re going to ask me a bunch of questions now aren’t you?”
“Yup. Ready?” Arizona smiled when Callie nodded. “Why is my name Arizona?”
“You were named after the USS Arizona, it’s a battleship. You come from a military family.”
“What was my brother’s name?”
“Timothy. How do you know about him?”
“Alex Karev told me. He said he was killed in action. Were we close?”
“Yeah, you were very close.”
Arizona frowned. Though she didn’t remember her brother, she still felt the pain of the loss. “How did you and I meet?”
“You, uh, kissed me in a dirty bar bathroom,” Callie smiled at the memory.
“I did not!”
“I promised to tell you the truth, remember? I was having a rough day and you saw me head into the bathroom upset. You came in to cheer me up and kissed me when I didn’t quite grasp that you were telling me you were interested once I was ready to start dating again.”
“Is that when we started dating?”
“Oh, no. You told me that I was a newborn because I had just started dating women. It took me embarrassing myself in front of your date for you to finally give me a chance. I was mortified that night.”
Arizona laughed. “It couldn’t have been that bad.”
“No, it was bad. I walked up to you all confident and rambled on about all the experience I had. Then you introduced me to your date. I didn’t think we were going anywhere after that.”
“How’d I change my mind?”
“You told me that you panicked and misjudged the situation. You took me to dinner and the rest is history.”
“A history that I can’t remember.”
They sat in silence for a moment as the weight of the truth hit them. Arizona wanted to remember so badly. She wanted to know what made her decide to go comfort Callie that night and how it felt to kiss her. She wanted to remember how it felt to lay beside her after a hard day, the inside jokes only they knew, and the million other things that were locked deep inside her brain.
“I’m sorry,” she said softly. “I can’t imagine how hard it must be for you. You thought I was dead and now I’m back but have no memory of our time together. I’m so sorry Callie.”
“Hey,” the brunette reached out to take Arizona’s hand. “It’s not your fault. I’m just happy you’re alive.”
“So where do we go from here?”
“That’s really up to you. We can work on getting your memory back or you can decide to start a new life.”
It was really a no brainer for Arizona. “I want my memories back. I was scared before, but now I just want to remember all those things you’ve been telling me. I want to remember my brother, and my parents, and . . . you. Most of all I want to remember everything about 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 13, 2011
Arizona’s blank face stared back at her for several moments. “Y-You know who I am?”
Callie nodded. “You’re Arizona Robbins,” she said again.
“How long? How long have you known?”
The brunette’s eyebrows drew together in confusion. Did she miss the “I love you” part? “Uh . . . a couple of years.”
“What?”
“That’s how long I’ve known you. You’re a surgeon here. You have been for a couple of years.”
Arizona’s face went blank again as she processed the new information. She was a doctor? A doctor at Seattle Grace Mercy West? For years. These people had known her for years and they hadn’t said anything? Anger rose up in her chest and she struggled to keep it at bay.
“Why are you just telling me now?”
The blonde’s voice was tight and her brow furrowed in a look Callie recognized. Arizona was pissed. Callie sat up straighter in an attempt to prepare herself for the verbal onslaught she knew was coming. This was just another thing to add to the list of reasons why she was going to kill Derek Shepherd for his stupid plan.
“Well, due to the nature . . .,” Callie started to explain the reasoning behind their actions, but Arizona tuned out. She went over the conversations she had with Callie, and Teddy, and Derek and counted the numerous opportunities they had to tell her. There were a lot. It made more sense to her now, the way Callie fought so hard to help her with her memory and those looks she would give her. That other thing mixed with amazement, the one she had trouble pinpointing, was love.
“You said something about being in love with me,” she interrupted.
“I did.” Callie imagined she looked like a dear in the headlights right about now.
“Did that happen before or after I lost my memory?”
“Before. A long time before. We were in a relationship up until you left for Africa.”
“Was I in love with you too?”
“Yes,” Callie said trying to keep her composure as tears threatened to overcome her. “At least you were. You left and . . . I wasn’t so sure anymore, but I’m pretty sure that’s why you decided to come back from Africa. You’re accident was on the day you were supposed to fly home.”
She was in love with Callie. That wasn’t exactly news to her, but it explained the feelings of familiarity. Arizona felt a sting of betrayal and looked down at her hands. “I need you to leave.”
“Arizona.”
“Don’t. I need a chance to process this and I can’t do that with you here. Will you just leave me alone for awhile?” she pleaded.
Callie got up reluctantly and backed towards the door. Arizona looked devastated and it killed her being the one to do this to her.
Arizona sat in stunned silence for a long time. She just couldn’t believe that these people, her friends, she reminded herself, had lied to her about something so big. For weeks she had wondered what it would be like to finally remember who she was and they had willingly kept that information from her.
So her name was Arizona and she was a surgeon. Other than the fact that she and Callie were in a relationship, the blonde knew nothing about herself. She needed someone to talk to so she paged Teddy hoping she wasn’t in surgery.
Fifteen minutes later, the surgeon showed up in her room looking wary. “I heard what happened.”
“Did we know each other well?”
Teddy looked around the room refusing to meet the blonde’s eyes. “Yeah, we did. We’re friends. We’re kind of, uh, best friends.”
Arizona deflated. She was hoping there was someone close to her who hadn’t lied to her. “Is there anyone in this hospital who hasn’t lied to me?” she asked, her tone harsh.
“Yeah,” Teddy said clearing her throat nervously. “Would you like me to, uh, send them to you?”
“That’d be super,” she replied sarcastically.
Teddy turned quickly and left, relieved to be out of Arizona’s line of fire. It didn’t take long for another face to show up at her door.
“Uh . . . Altman said you wanted to talk to me,” the man said obviously nervous.
“What’s your name?”
“Karev. Alex Karev.”
“Do I know you?”
“You’re kind of my boss. I work with you in Peds,” Alex said taking a tentative step into the room. It was good to see his mentor again, even if she didn’t know who he was. He had been as heartbroken as everyone when the news of Arizona’s death broke. They hadn’t been close outside of the hospital, but she was one of the few people who really believed in him and he missed working with her.
“So I’m a pediatric surgeon?”
“Yeah, one of the best.”
“Was I a good boss?”
“You kick my ass a lot, but yeah, people like and respect you. I mean, I could do without the rainbows and puppies and crap, but you’re a good boss. Why are you asking me about this?”
“Because I just found out who I am, but I can’t remember any of it.”
“I know that, but why are you asking me?”
“Well, because everyone I’ve come to know and trust while I’ve been here has been lying to me and I don’t want to talk to them right now. They just make me angry.”
Alex nodded. He remembered a few days ago when the news of Arizona spread around the hospital. Relief and joy flooded through him and he hoped that when she got her memories back she’d come back to work and replace Stark.
“Okay, well what do you want to know?”
“Explain the rainbows and puppies and crap thing.”
“Well, you’re perky,” he chuckled and moved to sit in the chair next to her bed. “The kids love it. You play hide and seek with them and go along with whatever story they made up that day. There, uh, was this one time when I was having a really bad few months and we had this really sick kid who had been in and out of the hospital for years. She had come back in a few days before her eighth birthday and was devastated because she was going to miss Wicked. She loved that play so much. So on the day she was supposed to go see it you had us all dress up and act out a few scenes for her. I had to play the tin man and complained all day about it. I hated you for making me wear silver face paint and sing along to these sappy songs, but the look on that kid’s face was worth all of it. You had just made her dream come true.”
“Did she live?”
“She did. She went to New York a couple months ago and sent us pictures from the real Wicked. Said she liked our performance better,” he grinned.
“I bet you made a great tin man. Who’d I play?”
“Duh, Glinda.”
Arizona had no idea who that was, but judging from the playful glint in the man’s eyes, the role fit her perfectly. She continued to pester Alex with questions. What surgeries have we done together? Do we hang out outside of work? When did we first meet? Why was I in Africa? That was the question that seemed to be the hardest for Alex to answer. He told her about the Carter-Madison and that she wanted to help sick children in Malawi, but he only knew so much about her decision to go. Apparently, Callie had been all set to go with her, but something happened at the airport. He didn’t have any other details. She felt oddly maternal towards him and knew that she must have liked him a lot.
“What about my family?”
He looked a little uncomfortable, but answered her. “Your mom and dad live in Boston. You had a brother, but he was killed in action a while ago. That’s really more of a Callie question.”
The blonde nodded and silence fell between them. She got the feeling that Alex was out of answers and she was getting tired anyway. Meredith would be by soon to check on her and would probably force her to get some rest. “Thank you, Alex. I really appreciate your help.”
“Anytime, Robbins,” he said with a grin. He stood and headed for the door, then turned back to look at her. “I know it’s none of my business, but I think you should take it easy on Callie and the others. I know they all lied to you, but they thought you were dead for months. We were all pretty devastated. It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster around here and even though they said they didn’t tell you for your own good, I think they did it for their own good. I don’t think they wanted to rip the wound open again.”
/ / /
February 14, 2011
It took her a long time to sort through the new information Alex gave her. Arizona was glad the perkiness and optimism were a real part of her; it gave her hope that who she was now wasn’t too far from the real her. The real Arizona. She was going to have to ask about that name.
When she woke that morning to Franklin staring back at her she felt the guilty for snapping at Callie. Alex had helped her put things in perspective, like how she never stopped to think about how all of this affected her friends. Callie was in love with her. Despite everything, that knowledge warmed her heart. Knowing that they had been in a relationship explained how easy it was for her to fall for the brunette and how Arizona felt the most comfortable when she was in the room.
There was a soft knock on the door and the blonde was not surprised to see Callie standing unsure in the doorway.
“Hey,” Arizona said relieved. “I wasn’t sure if you’d come back.”
“Is it okay that I’m here?”
“Yes. I’ve been hoping you’d show up all morning. Come sit.”
“How are you feeling?”
“I feel much better than yesterday.” Arizona took in Callie’s appearance and felt another pang of guilt. Her face looked tired and pale and her hair was pulled into a messy ponytail. She wore the leather jacket Arizona had come to love so much. The blonde did some digging and found that Callie’s shift ended late last night and judging from her appearance, the brunette didn’t get much sleep. “I want to apologize for my reaction yesterday. I was caught a little off guard.”
“You had every right to be angry,” Callie said waiving off the apology. “I’m just sorry we didn’t tell you right away.”
“Can we make a deal? Can you promise to always tell me the truth from now on and I’ll promise not to freak out and get mad at you?”
Callie nodded and smiled. “I promise. You’re going to ask me a bunch of questions now aren’t you?”
“Yup. Ready?” Arizona smiled when Callie nodded. “Why is my name Arizona?”
“You were named after the USS Arizona, it’s a battleship. You come from a military family.”
“What was my brother’s name?”
“Timothy. How do you know about him?”
“Alex Karev told me. He said he was killed in action. Were we close?”
“Yeah, you were very close.”
Arizona frowned. Though she didn’t remember her brother, she still felt the pain of the loss. “How did you and I meet?”
“You, uh, kissed me in a dirty bar bathroom,” Callie smiled at the memory.
“I did not!”
“I promised to tell you the truth, remember? I was having a rough day and you saw me head into the bathroom upset. You came in to cheer me up and kissed me when I didn’t quite grasp that you were telling me you were interested once I was ready to start dating again.”
“Is that when we started dating?”
“Oh, no. You told me that I was a newborn because I had just started dating women. It took me embarrassing myself in front of your date for you to finally give me a chance. I was mortified that night.”
Arizona laughed. “It couldn’t have been that bad.”
“No, it was bad. I walked up to you all confident and rambled on about all the experience I had. Then you introduced me to your date. I didn’t think we were going anywhere after that.”
“How’d I change my mind?”
“You told me that you panicked and misjudged the situation. You took me to dinner and the rest is history.”
“A history that I can’t remember.”
They sat in silence for a moment as the weight of the truth hit them. Arizona wanted to remember so badly. She wanted to know what made her decide to go comfort Callie that night and how it felt to kiss her. She wanted to remember how it felt to lay beside her after a hard day, the inside jokes only they knew, and the million other things that were locked deep inside her brain.
“I’m sorry,” she said softly. “I can’t imagine how hard it must be for you. You thought I was dead and now I’m back but have no memory of our time together. I’m so sorry Callie.”
“Hey,” the brunette reached out to take Arizona’s hand. “It’s not your fault. I’m just happy you’re alive.”
“So where do we go from here?”
“That’s really up to you. We can work on getting your memory back or you can decide to start a new life.”
It was really a no brainer for Arizona. “I want my memories back. I was scared before, but now I just want to remember all those things you’ve been telling me. I want to remember my brother, and my parents, and . . . you. Most of all I want to remember everything about you.”