Someone Like You [3B/?]
Someone Like You
Authors: camerashy06 & kennedysbitch (Team Couch Potato Chip Squared)
Pairing: Callie/Arizona, Callie/Erica
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer
Summary: When Gary Clark dies before he can reach his final destination, the future of Seattle Grace’s surgical team is unknowingly altered. Without a push to find their way back to each other, Callie and Arizona find their lives rolling in opposite directions. Nearly three years and half a world later, circumstances find them crashing together again while old feelings begin to resurface amidst a host of new complications.
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CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS POST (CHAPTER 3A)
“So, how’s Mark doing?”
Callie immediately looked up, surprised, and Arizona shrugged. “I’m just curious. Has he knocked up any nurses or pharmaceutical reps yet?”
Callie cocked an eyebrow at the bizarre topic. “Mark is the last person I thought you’d ever ask me about.”
“What, I can’t be curious? He was a pain in the ass but I’m assuming he’s still around and in your life.”
Callie snorted. She wouldn’t admit it to her best friend but she kind of missed Arizona’s subtle digs at him. “Actually, he’s grown up in the past couple of years. He’s got a steady girlfriend and she’s his age. You would be impressed.”
It was Arizona’s turn to be surprised. “Really? No more Little Grey?”
Callie shook her head. “No, I think that ship has sailed. The new one’s pretty cool. They watch Sofia for me a lot, so that’s handy.”
“Mark’s dating a grownup, I never would’ve guessed,” Arizona hummed. “Do me a favour and don’t tell Teddy if you talk to her again. We had this long-running bet on how many Little Sloans were out there running around. I don’t want to lose fifty bucks.”
A new server appeared at their table and asked if they wanted anything else. Only when Arizona checked her watch did she realize that they’d been talking for well over two hours. She started to ask for more coffee when Callie’s hand blocked the mouth of her mug.
“I think you’ve had enough for this morning,” Callie pointed out, arching a brow. “You’re gonna vibrate a hole in the floor. Pace yourself.”
She did have a point. Arizona politely declined any more caffeine and they were left to themselves again. “This place is good, it’s just too bad that MJ’s burned down. Remember when we went there for your birthday breakfast and the owner made you put on that ridiculous party hat?”
Callie snorted into her coffee. “That was humiliating.”
“You looked adorable,” Arizona teased. “Very classy, all those sequins and sparkles.”
“I only did it because you were bribing me with certain other birthday activities at the end of the day,” Callie pointed out. “Which was cruel, by the way.”
“Hey, I followed through on those promises, didn’t I?” Arizona meticulously raised an eyebrow and fixed her ex with a knowing smile.
Callie’s cheeks flushed. Her 31st birthday had been pretty great, celebrated with friends and her girlfriend, full of presents and laughter. What stuck most in her mind was the later part of the evening - tangled together in a mess of sweaty bed sheets and limbs, feel Arizona’s porcelain skin gliding effortlessly along her own, the sting of blunt nails biting into her lower back. For the first time in history, Arizona had actually called in sick to work the next day. They’d spent most of it in bed together, sleeping and making love. It was her most memorable birthday to date.
She tried to play it off and keep her mind focused on something more appropriate. “What I remember is you laughing at me in that stupid hat all throughout dinner. Didn’t you shoot iced tea out of your nose?”
The phantom sensation made Arizona cringed. There had been some sort of vodka slipped into that ‘iced tea’, as she recalled. “At least we were regulars so they couldn’t ban us from coming back.”
“Somehow I don’t see any straight male bar owner banning two hot lesbians just for being dorks. We were the highlight of his evening.”
Arizona bit her lip and held back a grin. “What about your last birthday? Did you do anything special?”
Callie refilled their water glasses with a pitcher that had been left on the table. “No, not really - not unless you count doing a 13-hour interpositional arthroplasty ‘special’. I mean I kind of do, but it is still nice to celebrate your birthday outside the hospital once in a while.”
“A rarity,” Arizona agreed. “So no celebrations, nothing?”
“I went home and tried to build Sofia’s crib,” Callie said thoughtfully. “I was like four-thousand pounds and out to the moon, and somehow I ended up building it backwards. Eventually I gave up and drank chocolate milk from a wine glass while watching Casablanca for the eight-hundredth time. It wasn’t bad.”
Arizona wondered where Erica was in all of this, whether she was still being a ‘great friend’ during that time or if they had already transitioned to partners. It was none of her business and thinking too hard about it made her feel ill.
“I was gonna call you,” Arizona confessed, watching Callie’s eyes light up from across the table. “I thought about you when I got back to the States, but then things with my dad’s passing got complicated, and the move and everything, so…” She lifted her water glass in a toast to Callie’s health. “Happy belated happy birthday, Calliope. Thirty-four suits you well. And hey - I might still be here for your thirty-fifth, so I can make it up to you then. How’s that sound?”
For an extremely belated birthday wish and a promise that might not even happen, Callie found that she couldn’t stop grinning. “Cheers,” she agreed, clinking glasses. “That would be great.”
The cafe’s initial onslaught of food-starved morning people had slowed dramatically and the noise dipped to a more bearable hum. Arizona looked around them and took in the familiar sights of Seattle mid-morning, realizing that she felt relaxed for the first time in weeks.
“I’ve really missed this,” she confessed as they sat in a more comfortable sort of quietness. “Don’t get me wrong, I like my co-workers in Baltimore, but none of them are-”
“As amazing as I am?” Callie cut in, smugness hidden behind her glass. “Why thank you.”
“They do have better taste in music.”
Callie scoffed. “There is nothing wrong with my music! Kickass orthopedic surgeons listen to loud, obnoxious noises. You on the other hand, with your Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber, how do you sleep at night?”
“Hey!” Arizona shot back. “I do not willingly listen to that stuff, you know that.”
“Sure,” Callie drawled, sounding completely unconvinced. Arizona’s insistence on pre-teen music in the OR with her younger patients made Callie’s ears bleed.
“It’s for the tiny humans,” Arizona said hotly. “You try telling a sick child he or she can’t go into life-endangering surgery listening to their hero sing them their favourite song. They give you these huge, sad eyeballs and their lips quiver and everything. You couldn’t say no either.”
Callie’s lips tilted up in a smirk. There was more than one surgery during which she had nearly taken a bone saw to the entire OR staff when Arizona refused to change the tunes. “You just enjoyed torturing me, admit it.”
“Karev, more specifically,” Arizona grinned. “But hey, you never know what the kids can hear once they’re under. Positive atmosphere and all that, the subconscious mind is a mystery.”
Callie made a face. “If we end up in an OR together while you’re here, I get to pick the music. Think of this as pre-emptive shotgun.”
Her phone buzzed from the inside of her jacket and she took a second to fish it out, just in case it was the daycare regarding Sofia. It was the first time she had actually looked at a clock since coming here and she nearly choked on the remainder of her coffee. “Holy crap, we’ve been here for almost three hours.”
Arizona checked her watch again and wondered when the hands had suddenly jumped ahead. “Yikes. Time flies, huh?”
“Especially when you get to have an adult conversation that doesn’t revolve around Dora the Explorer or Barney and Friends,” Callie said emphatically. “We should probably get going. What’s your day like?”
The enormous amount of work blocking out the next several weeks of her schedule had Arizona sighing. “I have a bunch of hoops to jump through at the hospital, things aren’t running too smoothly right out of the gate.” She stole a quick look at Callie before busying herself with her phone. “Erica and Stark aren’t making things easy on me. I don’t anticipate they’ll have a change of heart.”
Callie grimaced. Getting stuck in the middle appealed to her about as much as guest starring in the next Saw movie. “Stark is always an ass,” she offered. “I don’t think you’re gonna win with him.”
“I’m starting to see I’ve got my work cut out for me, but luckily I’m a lovable person with some force and persistence.” Arizona started to gather her things, triggering Callie to do the same. As much as she would love to stay and catch up all afternoon, she really had to get to work. “We should do this again some time. It was fun.”
“It was,” Callie agreed, smiling. She scooted out from her side of the table. “Come on, I’ll drive you. Cab service sucks when its raining.”
Arizona pulled on her jacket. “Are you sure? I don’t want to get in the way of your plans.”
Callie shot her a strange look. “Arizona, we’re going to the exact same place. I’ll drive you.”
Arizona had to admit there was logic in that. “Thanks, Callie,” she agreed. She dug out her wallet to pay for breakfast but Callie beat her to it and threw a wad of cash onto the table.
“You can get the next one,” Callie said pointedly, putting an end to any debate.
Arizona narrowed her eyes and reluctantly put her money away. “Hm, deal.” She shouldered her bag and indicated for Callie to go ahead in a ‘ladies first’ fashion.
Callie felt as though a weight had been removed from her shoulders as they walked out the front door together. It wasn’t lost on her that agreeing to a ‘next time’ meant there would indeed be one at some point. In her mind, that was a much better option than dodging each other in the halls for weeks on end.
***
“I can’t believe you’ve kept this beast running all these years,” Arizona commented as she relaxed into the passenger’s seat of Callie’s Thunderbird. They peeled around a corner and the car shifted gears, generating a hum that Arizona hadn’t even realized she’d missed until now. The T-bird was older than the two of them combined and yet it still ran like it was fresh out of the factory.
“I take care of my baby,” Callie said with a grin. Her palm wrapped around the shift gear and she gave it an affectionate pat.
“You always did love your car more than me,” Arizona grumbled. “I bet there’s a whole lot of broken hearts left behind because of this thing.”
Callie rolled her eyes. “Your horsepower needed some work,” she said sarcastically. “More horse power, more love.” She ran her hand slowly along the top of the dash as they rolled up to a red light. “Henrietta has never steered me wrong.”
Arizona’s brow shot up. “Seriously?”
“Well, unless you count that time she crapped out on my drive down to San Diego, but other than that, she runs as smooth as silk.” Callie leaned back, relaxed and at ease despite the stress of the last couple of days. Henrietta had a way of melting it all away - if any car was therapeutic, it was this one.
Arizona shook her head in disbelief. “Then there was the time ‘Henrietta’ steered you off the side of the road when we were going to Portland for the weekend.”
“I don’t like it when you use air quotes,” Callie chimed in.
Arizona ignored her. “At least I never tried to run you into a lamp post. Robbins one, car zero.”
Callie made a face. “You’re just mad that you suck at driving a stick.”
“And yet that sentiment is exactly how we ended up together in the first place, my special lady friend.”
The second eye roll nearly did Callie in. “I walked right into that one,” she mused as the light turned green again and they started moving again.
She thought back to the Portland incident about six months before their break-up. “If memory serves, you were the reason I took that corner too sharply in the first place. If your hand hadn’t been in a certain…place, none of that would have happened.”
Arizona tried to squash the cheesy grin that formed and chewed on her thumbnail instead. “I didn’t hear you complaining.”
“Never said I was,” Callie smirked. “Just that it was your fault, not the car’s. Henrietta one, Robbins nothing.”
For the second time that morning, she was starting to think this was a dangerous path to go down. She loved that the two of them were back on speaking terms and that talking to Arizona was just as easy as it had always been, but memories of past liaisons felt disrespectful to her current relationship. That was a long time ago and she had other people in her life that wouldn’t appreciate them.
Clearing her throat, she stole a quick glance at Arizona. “So, did I tell you Cristina’s actually taken to Sofia? She’ll play with her and everything.”
They turned into the parking lot and Arizona dug for her phone again, checking to see if she had any incoming messages. “Yang? Good with kids?” She frowned without looking up. “I thought she was allergic to them?”
Callie steered the vehicle into an empty parking stall. “Well, she’s Sofia’s Godmother, so she tries her best.”
Phone forgotten, Arizona twisted in her seat to stare at Callie like she had two heads. “You chose Cristina Yang to be your baby’s Godmother?” she said loudly.
Yeah, that was pretty much the reaction Callie had expected. “It’s not as weird as it sounds,” she argued.
“Yang, the same woman that pretended to like children just to suck up to me during the merger. Yang, the doctor who makes kids cry. Yang, the doctor who wouldn’t know how to play peek-a-boo if it jumped out and bit her in the ass.”
“Oh come on,” Callie protested. “You make it sound like she’s incapable of handling a kid sharing the same air space.”
“Calliope, she tried to give a two-year-old a Gobstopper. The kid would’ve choked to death if I hadn’t checked in for rounds.”
Callie rolled her eyes. “That was years ago. Don’t worry, she doesn’t let Sof play with sharp objects and she doesn’t feed her choking hazards.” Cutting the engine, she climbed out of the car and waited for Arizona to do the same before locking up. “Cristina’s changed. And honestly, the more people and influences in Sofia’s life, the better, right?”
Arizona conceded with a half shrug, even though she still thought the choice was an odd one. Then again, Callie and Cristina had always understood each other on a different level. Callie knew what she was doing.
As they approached the staff entrance, Callie felt another flutter of nerves in her chest. “That includes you, y’know, if you want,” she hedged, trying to gauge Arizona’s reaction through her peripheral vision.
Despite the casual way in which it was said, Arizona could read the apprehension in Callie’s body language. She didn’t want to give her any more reasons to stress out about her presence than necessary. “I’d love to get to know her better,” she said after a moment of choosing her words carefully. “She is the world’s cutest kid, after all. I have to see how much she’s like her mom.”
Callie felt some of the tension ease but she was still nervous on the inside. “I’ve made a mess of too many things in my life,” she sighed. “I’m hoping Sofia uses better judgment.”
Arizona shot her a funny look. “Yeah, your footsteps are so messy, what with the incredible career at a young age, inventing cartilage from nothing, and heading up what will probably turn out as one of the most successful orthopedic clinical trials in the next decade. All while raising a healthy, well-rounded and amazing daughter. Oh, and don’t forget that inevitable Harper Avery nomination.” She reached over and punched Callie in the shoulder. “God, it would be a shame if Sofia ended up anything like you.”
Callie released an exasperated sigh. “Well when you put it that way, I sound like I’m fishing for compliments.”
Winking, Arizona steered Callie through the door. “If she inherits that sarcastic grin of yours, the ladies won’t know what hit ‘em.”
The very idea of her baby girl in dating mode made Callie stop walking all together. “Oh no, I have at least sixteen years before I have to start worrying about girlfriends or boyfriends,” she argued, holding up a finger while adjusting her shoulder bag. Then the thought of all the horny teenaged boys chasing Sofia around behind her back came rushing in and she started to sweat. “Oh god, boyfriends. I’ll be that scary mom she’s too afraid to bring anybody home to and then god knows what will happen behind my back.”
“Give yourself more credit than that,” Arizona chuckled as they started walking again. “You’ll be fine when the time comes for those challenges. And if her boyfriend or girlfriend is a total ass, then just scheme out a way to separate them and she’ll never be the wiser.”
When all she received was a grumbled, noncommittal response, Arizona slowed her pace again and nudged Callie in the side. “You’re an amazing mom and friend, Callie. You’re not gonna screw your daughter up. She’s lucky to have you looking out for her. Believe me, I’ve met some really scary parents that should not be raising children. You are not one of them.”
Callie was starting to look a little more convinced, though the very idea of Sofia dating was freaking her out. Now she would spend the next sixteen years worrying; that couldn’t be good for her health. “At least I’m not a pageant mom, right?” she mused, conceding to Arizona’s pep talk.
Arizona burst out laughing as they continued through the lobby, her sole focus on the woman beside her. “Oh god, I will call child services if I ever come across a parent forcing their kid into that kind of thing.”
“Remember when we used to watch ‘Dance Moms’ every week?” Callie added enthusiastically. “God, I almost forgot how bad that show was.” Suddenly she couldn’t seem to stop herself from snickering. Their co-piloted commentary had made those TV marathons a blast.
“Oh, you should have seen this one mom in Maryland,” Arizona jumped in again, her whole face lighting up. “Her daughter needed her appendix taken out but she actually tried to postpone the surgery until after they had-”
Two things happened at once: Callie stopped dead in her tracks and Arizona heard someone clearing their throat. She frowned, backtracking a step, and finally looked ahead.
There weren’t many things in life that Callie was ever truly afraid of, but Erica looking like she could frighten off a pack of grizzly bears was definitely one of them.
“So,” Erica started, her voice alarmingly calm. She stared right at Callie, ignoring the other person present, and folded both arms over her chest. “‘Work stuff’, huh?”