Fanfic: City of Black and White (1/?)
Title: City of Black and White (1/?)
Author: elpmas03
Rating: NC17 (eventually)
Pairing: Callie/Arizona
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. As this work is an interpretation of the original material and not for-profit, it constitutes fair use. Reference to real persons, places, or events are made in a fictional context, and are not intended to be libelous, defamatory, or in any way factual.
Summary: What happens when Arizona arrives while George and Callie are still married? This doesn’t exactly follow the storyline of the show, so check out what’s going on under the cut before you read so you’re hopefully not too confused. Also, this is going to be a long one so my updates will be more spread out than I usually make them. I want to take this one slow and get every detail as perfect as I can, so I apologize if there aren’t daily updates. Hope you like it!
Authors Notes: I explained that this doesn’t follow the show’s storyline, so I wanted to point out some major differences
-Callie is an attending and George is a resident; they stayed together even after George cheated with Izzie for the sake of their marriage
-Izzie moves on and everything happens with Alex that happened on the show (she gets cancer, they get married, she gets fired, she leaves, and her and Alex get divorced); George stops talking to Izzie once she leaves in order to make Callie trust him and for them to move on together
-Teddy and Owen have arrived and Arizona is just arriving as Head of Pediatrics
Arizona
Sitting in the parking lot, I watch as groups of hospital staff cluster together and make their way into the warm haven of Seattle Grace Hospital. I am a friendly person; I am an outgoing person who most people like-no, who everyone likes. I am perky and talkative and adamant that everyone likes me. Some might call me a people pleaser for the most part…at least until I meet someone who does not exactly deserve to be pleased. I fight for what I want, get what I want, and manage to do so with class and a smile on my face.
But even I can’t overcome the first day butterflies throwing a party in my stomach. There is something about the way these people walk together, like they’ve known each other their whole lives. It’s a camaraderie; the kind of camaraderie that can only be accomplished by years of trials and heartbreak. So yes, I may be socially gifted, but after growing up in a military family with a childhood full of “first day jitters”, I still have to force myself to breath slowly and ease the tension.
Taking a few deep breaths and grabbing my purse, I step out of my shiny silver Lexus. Locking the door behind me, I take a few slow and tentative steps before picking up that confident swagger I’ve developed over the past 32 years. Blonde curls bounce in my wake as I strut to the front doors almost as if I own the place. I am the new kid; the new head of pediatrics at the prestigious Seattle Grace Hospital and the youngest to ever hold the position. The decision to leave my family behind and venture into this new journey was a difficult one, but necessary. It took almost a year after the death of my brother to get this confidence back. The confidence I’m using this very moment to step into the bright elevator and emphatically press the button for the fifth floor pediatric wing.
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After almost an hour of paperwork and a quick tour from the Chief, he sends me on my way to handle my first task; tackle the Emergency Room. A few wrong turns and skeptical glances later, I finally end up in front of a giant sign that reads “Emergency Room”; if it hadn’t been there, I would still be able to tell where I was. Everything is moving so fast. There are attendings, residents, interns, nurses, and patients scrambling around the room in complete and utter chaos. They’re all a blur, but I manage to spot a red-headed man in dark blue scrubs directing traffic. I vaguely recall Dr. Webber instructing me to find a surgeon of this man’s description and quickly weave my way through the maze.
I stumble upon Dr…..Hunt? I think that’s right. He’s examining a little boy who can’t be more than 8 years old. Right away, I notice mangled bones and lots and lots of blood. Too much blood that shouldn’t be outside of such a little body. Before I can reach the two of them I hear that heart wrenching sound of a long beep signaling the boy’s heart failure.
“He’s crashing, get me a cart!” the red-haired man yells and yanks the paddles out of nurse’s hands a few seconds later. “Charge to 200…clear!”
Everyone collectively holds their breath until the steady beeping indicates his heart is beating again. It has always amazed me how all medical personnel seem to exhale in unison every time they hear that beautiful sound.
“He’s gonna need surgery as soon as possible,” the red-head speaks to no one in particular, knowing undoubtedly that someone will listen. “Someone page ortho and peds-“
“Peds is here,” I pipe in and get a slightly suspicious look from the man in charge as if he isn’t sure whether or not to trust me. I don’t take any offense to his look; after all…I’m the new kid. “Arizona Robbins, I’m the new Head of Peds,” I declare proudly, extending my hand to formally introduce myself.
“Owen Hunt, trauma,” he replies with a curt smile and twists his arm to shake my hand. He hands me a chart and helps a nurse adjust the bars on the boy’s bed so he’s ready for transportation. “He was in a car accident with his parents who were also brought in with severe injuries. He’s got lacerations to his face and lower stomach, multiple breaks, and I can’t be sure, but I’m going to guess some internal bleeding,” he repeats everything on the chart robotically and pushes the bed forward.
“Okay, I can take it from here,” I say politely as we share a quick nod of understanding and he passes the bed along to me.
“Dr. Robbins?” I hear a soft voice call my name and spin around to see a mousy young brunette in light blue scrubs running towards me. “I’m Lexie…Lexie Grey I’m a resident. Dr. Webber assigned me to your service today.”
“Right, um,” I give the boy’s chart another quick glance to find his name. “Okay, get little Jake here up to CT and X-ray and make sure someone has paged ortho. Oh! And have them page neuro too, just to be safe,” I instruct her and get an eager nod in response. Dr. Grey takes my position and pushes the bed to the elevator, disappearing behind the sliding doors. The beeping of my pager breaks my gaze and I spin around back to the ER, mentally preparing myself for more carnage and broken children.
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It’s been non-stop movement for the past three hours, but I can finally head up to Jake Bentley’s room to look at his scans and make sure he can last a little longer before surgery. I walk into room 5114 just as another attending is entering the room. He has dark, wavy hair that looks almost too perfect to be real and flawless features. He spots me walking towards him out of the corner of his eye and says something to Dr. Grey behind him. She gives him a quick nod and he stops from walking into the patient’s room, opting to wait for me instead. How gentlemanly of him.
“Dr. Robbins,” he greets me excitedly. “I’m Derek Shepherd, Head of Neuro.”
“Arizona Robbins,” I say, shaking his extended hand and flashing him one of my infamous dimpled smiles.
“I hear you have a patient for me,” he replies smoothly, giving Dr. Grey a quick glance.
“Possibly,” I respond and give him the details of everything I know. He nods along, following all of the information as we step into the room to find Jake’s dazed eyes watching us.
“Hey there, Jake,” I whisper soothingly and stand at the head of his bed so he can see me smiling down at him. “I’m Dr. Robbins and this is Dr. Shepherd and Dr. Grey. We’re gonna take a look at some pictures of you and see if we can help you out, okay?”
Despite the intense amount of pain he’s feeling even with the morphine, he gives me a small smile and a nod to let me know he understands. I stand back as Dr. Shepherd asks Jake a few questions and runs a few exercises to assess his injuries. I follow Dr. Grey to the other end of the room as she slides a few films under the light for us to examine them.
“Wow,” she mumbles quietly after a few seconds of silent observation.
“What do you see, Dr. Grey?” I ask; I remember being told specifically that Seattle Grace Mercy West was one of the top teaching hospitals in the country. And I have every intention of doing my part to keep it that way.
“I see a…broken leg, possibly the other one too, but it looks like it could be just a fracture. Contusions to the chest and abdomen and…I think…is that his spleen bleeding?” she asks, scrunching her eyebrows to get a better look.
“Mhmm,” I nod absentmindedly and point to another part of the film. “There also looks to be some damage to his right wrist as well, but I can’t quite tell. I think we’ll have to wait for ortho to get here thou-“
“Hey, someone page me?”
I glance behind my shoulder at the sound of a new voice and do a double take. My eyes land upon a tanned woman with jet black, curly hair that flows an inch or so below her shoulders. She’s wearing dark blue scrubs with a white long sleeve shirt underneath, rolled up to just below her elbows. She has the most swoon-worthy chocolate brown eyes I’ve ever seen and perfect full lips. Even though I know I look completely ridiculous, I can’t seem to stop looking. And I can’t help but notice that she feels the same way. Just as my eyes start wandering from her lips down the curve of her neck, I’m startled by Dr. Grey’s voice next to me.
“Dr. Robbins?” she asks tentatively and I blink rapidly, looking between her and the woman in the doorway a few times. “Are you okay?”
“Wha? Oh I’m fine, um,” I mumble awkwardly and shuffle the rest of the films in my hand. Living up to my reputation as a klutz, I fumble with the file and drop the scans onto the floor. I curse myself under my breath and bend over, hearing hurried footsteps and peaking out of the corner of my eye to see this new woman helping me. She gives me a tiny sympathetic smile when our eyes meet and stands up with me as soon as everything is picked up.
“I’m Callie Torres, ortho,” she says, smiling brightly and holding out her hand for me to shake. I give her a blank stare for a few seconds before yelling at myself in my head to remember how to function.
“Arizona…Robbins, pediatrics. I’m new...well, I mean not new to pediatrics, just new to…here,” I stutter awkwardly and shake her hand. I don’t want to let go of the soft fingers in my grasp, but I also don’t want to be known as a stalker. I expect her to give me weird looks or just ignore me completely, but instead she smiles brightly at me and laughs softly. God, I think I could light up this entire hospital with that smile.
“Right, well…welcome to Seattle,” she responds, still smiling. “Is there something you wanted me to take a look at?”
“Yes!” I almost shout at her when I realize why she’s waiting for me to speak. “Jake Bentley, he’s 8-years-old, was in a car accident with his parents and was thrown from his seat. He has contusions to the face and abdomen, a ruptured spleen, and we think some broken legs and possibly a broken wrist.”
I watch as she immediately switches from friendly to work-mode, stepping forward to take a look at the scans in front of us. Just as she steps past me, I catch a whiff of her hair; she smells like strawberries and something else I can’t quite make out.
Focus, Arizona! I shake my head a few times and step beside her to try and see what she sees.
“Hmm, well…the right leg is definitely broken and the left one is at least fractured. I won’t know more until we get into surgery, but the wrist just looks like a sprain to me,” she concludes her diagnosis with a confident nod before she bites her bottom lip and steps a little closer. “This leg is definitely going to need a plate, possibly two, if he wants to stay a little kid.”
The way she comes to her conclusion so heartbroken, but hopeful at the same time almost makes me want to kiss her right there. Not that I didn’t before…
“Well, let’s make sure that happens,” I answer quietly; she tilts her head to the side and gives me another beaming smile. I feel my pulse quickening and my heart beating so loud it feels like it’s busting out through my ears. She seems to notice my frazzled state and I swear I can see something that I can’t quit pick out flash before her eyes. Intrigue? Confusion? I can’t tell, but I know one thing for sure.
Best. First day. Ever.