Fanfic: Slow Me Down (3/?)
Title: Slow Me Down (3/?)
Author: elpmas03
Rating: NC17
Pairing: Callie/Arizona, other various characters
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: SEQUEL TO BATTLEFIELD. Christmas, Christmas, Christmas!
Arizona
I love Christmas. Shocking, I know, but I can’t help it. It’s by far my favorite time of year and working with children makes it even more magical. The snow, the food, the music, the joy…everything about it just makes me happier than any other time of year.
One of my favorite parts is the decorating. It took a lot of convincing, but I somehow managed to get Christina to agree to let me hang Christmas lights in her and Callie’s apartment-it didn’t take much to convince Callie, if you know what I mean. The only condition Christina had was that she wouldn’t be present while I hung them…something about it taking away from her Jewish spirit? I don’t know…it’s Christina we’re talking about, here.
Anyway, her little rule is the reason I’m in their apartment by myself right now, on Christmas Eve, at 8 o’clock in the morning, trying to decide between colored lights or plain white ones. I’ve put this off long enough and almost convinced myself there was no point of doing it anymore since the holiday is almost over anyway, but I’m determined to spread some Christmas joy into this normally dull apartment. It takes me a few more minutes to decide on the white lights; too much color would probably literally cause the two of them physical pain.
As I start to hang the lights onto the little plastic hooks I stuck around the room, I can’t help the excitement I feel when I think about spending Christmas with Callie for the first time. Our first year together she had to work while I sat through a very awkward dinner at Derek and Meredith’s involving Bailey fighting with her father and me feeling lonely. Then last year I got called in to perform four back-to-back surgeries after a semi crashed into a traveling family at 4 o’clock in the morning. By the time I got home it was 8 o’clock at night and Mark, Callie, and Lexie had already finished dinner. More than anything it was just frustrating to know that I had someone to spend this time with and we couldn’t manage to make it work out.
But not this year. Nope. I refuse to let anything get in the way of our first actual Christmas physically together. We even volunteered to hold the Christmas Eve dinner amongst our little group of friends. We have a whole dinner planned, decorations put up, and a big table to set up in the living room area. And by “we” I mean Callie will be handling the whole dinner ordeal. I’ll stick with something simple like sticking a pie in the oven while she whips up some real food. I’ll be honest, I’m even a little nervous about the pie. What if I burn it or it doesn’t taste good? All I have to do is pull it out of the package and stick it in the oven, but-
No I’m not getting into this again. Thankfully I have the sound of the door opening behind me to distract me from the images of the apartment on fire that are flashing before my eyes. I turn around and see very exhausted looking girlfriend smiling half-heartedly at me. Having to work a 36-hour shift only to be called back in 3 hours after you get home and work another 12 hour one is not the most exciting thing to do.
“Hey,” I give her a cheerful greeting as she flops down on the couch and closes her eyes.
“Hi,” she exhales trying to look happy for me.
“Do I even want to know?” I ask her, a look of sympathy in my eyes.
Just as she’s about to answer, her pager buzzes right on cue.
“Augh!” she yells, lifting the beeping enemy toward me without looking at it. “Make it stop.”
I laugh at her whining to me and step off the chair I’ve been standing on to put the lights up. As soon as I’m close enough I take the pager and look at it.
“It’s just Mark,” I tell her.
She releases a sigh of relief and takes it back from me, pulling out her phone to call him. When I turn to get back to work on the lights, she grabs my hand and spins me around to face her again.
“Calliope, I have to finish this so we can get everything ready,” I giggle when she starts swinging my hand back and forth in her own.
She reminds me of a little kid right now…wow, that’s a disturbing image to be in my head. She ignores my plea and smiles back innocently at me until Mark answers her on the other end of the phone.
“Hey,” she greets him unenthusiastically.
I give up on my attempt to get away from her and plop down on the couch next to her. Damn her and her strong bone-breaking hands. She continues to argue playfully with Mark about something I can’t quite catch on to. All I seem to understand is something about chicken or fish?
‘Ah, it must be more wedding details,’ I think to myself, suddenly remembering how often he’s been asking her for advice lately about how to deal with Lexie’s constant freak outs.
After sitting there for a couple of minutes, I realize this conversation is not going to end any time soon, so I make myself a little more useful and slowly inch closer to Callie. I smile to myself when she looks at me suspiciously out of the corner of her eye before bringing her attention back to Mark on the phone. I continue my approach until my lips find her neck and softly kiss around it while I lean over her so that I can crawl onto her lap. As soon as I’m successfully straddling her, continuing to kiss her neck, her attention span gets weaker and weaker.
“Uh, Mark, I, uh-“she pauses to gulp loudly. “Maybe you should just let her have this one, okay? I mean she, um…she…”
When Callie’s voice trails off, I hear Mark yell at her to continue from the other end of the phone.
“She’s the bride, okay? She’s been thinking about this her whole life. Just let her…let her have this one,” Callie whispers, her voice depleting a level as my hands snake underneath her shirt and tickle her stomach.
Her head is now tilted back and resting against the top of the couch and her eyes are shut the entire time.
“I have given her one!” Mark yells into the phone. “This is my wedding too, you know and I’m not just gonna give in so she can get her way all of the time.”
“Right, yeah, sounds good Mark,” Callie responds, clearly not hearing a word he just said. “I, uh, I gotta go.”
“Wha-Callie, no, I-“
Mark’s pleas are cut off as she clicks a button to hang up the phone and lies back so I can continue helping her relax.
“What did he say?” I ask, playing dumb.
“No idea.”
I snort at her response and bring my lips away from her neck to sit up on my knees and wrap my arms around her neck. She opens her eyes slowly when she notices the loss of contact and pulls me by the neck into a lazy, but needy kiss. As soon as she feels my fingers start to unbutton her jeans she pulls away and laughs.
“I thought you had to finish putting your lights up?” she asks before pushing her lips against mine again and pulling me towards her by the waist.
“Oh,” I squeak, pulling my lips away and stopping my hand from moving underneath her pants and standing up abruptly. “That’s right, I forgot.”
“Uh, wha, I wasn’t…being serious,” she complains, her eyes wide in shock when she grabs my hand again and spins me around.
I give her an amused smile and lean over to kiss her again, but we’re interrupted by the door opening suddenly.
“For the love of GOD!” she yells at the ceiling when I pull away from her and wipe my lips clean of her lip gloss.
Mark completely ignores the fact that he just walked in on two women making out and stands just inside of the doorway staring at Callie. Wow, Mark Sloan ignoring some girl-on-girl action….Lexie really has changed him.
“Did you just hang up on me?” he asks her in astonishment.
“Mark, I’m tired, okay?” Callie whines, trying to defend her actions.
“Uh, clearly not that tired,” he shoots back, referring to where we were headed before he walked in.
I give him a sheepish smile and shrug of my shoulders before turning around to get back to work on the Christmas lights. Callie groans and lifts herself from the couch to go to the kitchen and pour herself some wine. When she offers Mark and me some we both look at her in amazement.
“Callie, it’s 8:30 in the morning,” Mark informs her.
“I’ve had a very long day,” Callie tells him, basking in the warm feeling she gets from taking the first sip of the red liquid. “Now, what’s the problem?”
Mark dives into his dilemma about wanting to offer people chicken instead of fish as their second meal choice and I can’t help but laugh to myself at how ridiculous he’s being over meat. I guess that’s what it’s like though when you have a wedding to put together. I can sense my mind starting to wander to faraway land where Callie and I are arguing over these decisions. I snap back to reality when I remember that we have a lot to get done today before dinner tonight, but I sneak one last glance at Callie before I get back to work.
*********************************************************************************************
Callie
Why did I agree to this? Why? Granted I was predicting that I would have a good night’s rest to fuel me, but now that I don’t, I’m thoroughly regretting running this dinner. Well, at least I was regretting it until people started showing up, causing me to suddenly forget about the exhaustion taking over my body.
I’ll never admit it, but Christmas is “magical” to me. I have so many great memories from my childhood that revolve around Christmas and spending time with my family. And now…I get to make more of those unforgettable memories with my new family…here in my apartment, exchanging hugs and holiday greetings while I take my time making dinner.
I managed to bribe Lexie with surgery so she would help me prepare dinner. Obviously, it’s nice to have some help, but my main incentive for roping her into helping me was so Arizona wouldn’t. Let’s just say she’s not the most skilled when it comes to cooking. I vaguely remember coming home one night to find her dousing a frying pan with water to put out the flames protruding from it. Of course my initial anger over her ruining one of my favorite frying pans vanished when she proceeded to take off her clothes and shut me up. Damn her and her nakedness.
Recruiting Lexie worked for a few hours, but Arizona has been hinting that she would love to help for the past ten minutes.
“Fine, you can cut the celery,” I tell her, giving in and adding a snort at the end before I continue. “I’m not sure Lexie can handle that again.”
Lexie gives me a glare and a wiggle of her previously injured finger before I turn back around to see Arizona sneak a bite of the breadsticks I’m working on.
“Hey, get…out of here,” I hiss, slapping her hand and laughing at her look of alarm that I hit her.
She distracts me again by pulling me by the waist into a kiss and all I manage to do is laugh into her lips before I spot Mark snaking his arm between us to grab a piece of the bread.
“Mm!” I mumble, pulling away from her lips and slapping his hand as well.
He quickly stuffs the bread into his mouth and tries to smile in innocence when I glare at him. His attempt to steal the food distracts me briefly, but I see Arizona out of the corner of my eye trying to grab another bite.
“Okay, both of you, out!” I yell at them, waving my hands to motion them toward the living room.
“I thought I was cutting celery?” Arizona squeaks as I push her away from the kitchen.
“No. Out!” I order her.
They both quickly grab as many pieces of bread as they can hold before scurrying away. I groan and turn back to the counter to see Lexie shaking her head and giving me an amused look.
“Sometimes I question their age,” I mumble to her when I make my way back to her side and put the finishing touches on the baked breadsticks before preparing some more to make up for the ones that have now vanished.
“Well, it’s nice to not be the one considered the baby anymore,” she tells me, forcing me to smile brightly at her tone of gratitude.
“So, how are the wedding plans going?” I ask her, fully aware of how they’re going.
She pauses briefly when we notice the Christmas music that’s been playing the whole day become louder. I look up to see Derek dancing around jokingly, causing Meredith to roll her eyes in embarrassment and everyone else to roll in laughter.
“Well, they’re…going,” Lexie tells me, the sound of defeat obvious in her voice. “At least you’ll get to feel my pain pretty soon.”
“Mark,” I groan in frustration and realization. “I’m never telling him anything again.”
“Hey, if it makes you feel any better, I slapped him for blurting it out,” she offers a hopeful smile and I quickly return the grin.
“It does, actually,” I confess, causing us both to start laughing quietly.
“Hey! We’re doing Secret Santa!” Arizona’s excited voice floats to us from the other side of the counter.
She has a Santa hat on, a glass of wine in one hand, and an anxious grin plastered on her face, causing Lexie and I both to watch her in amazement.
“Okay,” I reply after staring at her for a few more seconds. “I just have to finish some more breadsticks real quick since someone ate them all.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she answers robotically, taking another sip of her wine and walking back to the living room nonchalantly.
“Mhmm,” I mumble before sticking the pan into the oven, setting the timer, and making my way to the living room with Lexie.
I flop down on the big chair squished next to Mark who’s holding Lexie on his lap. I’m trying to ignore the exhaustion that seems to be suddenly creeping back into my system and thankfully I have Arizona to entertain me and everyone else for that matter. The excitement she has when she starts sorting out the presents is that of a 12-year-old.
“Okay,” she says, grabbing the room’s attention. “First, we have…Lexie!”
“Ooo,” Mark whispers when Lexie’s present is passed from Arizona to Derek, sitting on the couch, to Mark.
“It’s from…Owen!” she says, reading the tag, and directing her excitement to the red-headed man sitting across from her on the floor next to Arizona by the tree.
Arizona smiles brightly and claps her hands in anticipation while Lexie opens the package to reveal a DVD set of her favorite Christmas movies.
“Yay!” she exclaims, bouncing lightly on Mark’s lap.
“Yeah, you’re kinda still the baby,” I whisper to her, leaning in to make sure she can hear me.
She purses her lips before thanking Owen and Arizona throws Mark his present. He reads the tag to find it’s from Meredith and quickly tears it open to find a department store clothing box. Inside, however, he finds an envelope with a gift card in it.
“A gift card?” he asks Meredith in shock. “You couldn’t think of anything more creative, Grey?”
“Mark, shopping for you is like shopping for a picky teenage girl,” Derek defends his wife’s gift, causing everyone to laugh in agreement.
“Wha-I am not, pff-whatever,” Mark huffs, proving Derek’s point.
“Christina, you’re next!” Arizona squeals in delight, telling everyone that she’s the gift giver with this one.
Christina grabs the gift bag and sorts through it to pull out a calendar covered with puppies and flowers. I snort and choke on the wine in my mouth, causing my eyes to water uncontrollably and Christina to shoot me a death glare.
“Wow…a calendar,” she tries to sound enthusiastic.
“It’s a joke,” Arizona assures her, causing Christina to sigh in relief. “There’s more.”
She dives back into the bag and pulls out two small slips of paper that light up her eyes in surprise and joy.
“Tickets to see The Black Keys!” she yelps, forcing everyone to look at her in shock from the excitement she’s showing.
She quickly backtracks and tries to hide the fact that Arizona could bring her so much pleasure.
“I mean, yeah, they’re alright. Thanks,” she mumbles to Arizona who responds with a proud ‘you’re welcome’ before picking up another package and handing it to Derek.
“Little Grey,” he announces, giving her a quick nod before opening the gift to pull out a large container. “Hairspray.”
Before he can even finish Mark bursts into laughter clutching his stomach.
“He wouldn’t shut up until I put it in there,” Lexie explains to Derek. “This is the real present.”
She gets up and runs into my bedroom before returning with a fishing rod in her hand, intact with a little red bow on the handle.
“Wow, thank you,” Derek tells her, standing up to take the gift.
“You’re welcome,” she responds when he gives her a quick hug before both of them sit back down.
Owen opens his present next to find that I got him a collection of vintage Beatles’ cd’s, with help from Christina.
“Callie!” Arizona squeaks in delight when she picks up the next package to find my name on it.
I take it from Derek and see it’s from Christina. This should be good. I open it up and stare at the object in my hands in confusion.
“It’s…CSI,” I declare, holding up the box set of season 3 of the show and turn to Christina. “Christina…I don’t watch CSI.”
“You don’t?” she asks innocently, pretending this is the first time I’ve told her. “Hm, well…lucky for you, you have a roommate who does.”
I roll my eyes, throw the DVD’s at her hard, and chug the rest of my wine when I see how thrilled she is to hold the discs.
“Wait a minute,” Arizona mumbles. “There’s only one left for me.”
“Oh, I got Meredith,” Derek explained. “She’ll get her gift later.”
“Ew,” Christina mumbles eliciting a glare from Derek.
“That means I got Mark,” Arizona says disappointed. “Yay.”
I watch Mark as he starts to squirm in excitement while Lexie leans towards me and whispers an apology.
“I told him not to, but he wouldn’t listen.”
Mark pulls her back and leans to me, wiggling his eyebrows and smiling brightly.
“This is just as much for you as it is for her,” he whispers and I instantly know it’s something dirty.
My suspicions are answered when Arizona gasps in shock as she pulls out a set of red-laced lingerie and quickly stuffs it back in the bag. All I can do is sit there in shock and slap Mark on the arm, causing him to groan in pain.
“Mark!” Arizona scolds him, her face turning red in embarrassment.
“Relax, blondie, there’s more,” he assures her, a grin still plastered on his face.
She reaches back in the bag and pulls out a small box and a little piece of paper that’s on top of it.
“A coupon for one free night of Mark Sloan,” she whispers and I can’t help but laugh loudly along with Mark.
She glares at me and throws the lingerie at me causing my hands to fly up to attempt to catch it. The amount of wine I’ve had doesn’t help my usually terrible coordination and I end up just catching the lace by the edge before it can fly behind my head onto the floor. I continue laughing the entire time, but she ignores me and opens the small box in her hand while I look over the lingerie before me.
“Hm, nice,” I mumble to Mark and he nods in agreement.
“Wow,” Arizona mumbles in surprise when she holds up a pair of small diamond earrings. “Mark, these are…beautiful.”
“Damn, why couldn’t Mark have picked me,” Christina mumbles, causing Arizona, her gift-giver, to glare at her.
“Thank you, Mark,” Arizona mumbles quietly and puts the earrings back in the box.
“You’re welcome, blondie,” he answers.
Our dull chatter is quickly stopped when I hear the ding of the timer signaling that dinner is ready.
“Food!” I declare, the wine definitely now flowing through my body.
Everyone shoots up at once and heads to the table while I move to the kitchen with Arizona quickly on my heels. I grab the breadsticks out of the oven and put them on the plate I’ve prepared with vegetables before I corner her by the refrigerator.
“So,” I start nonchalantly. “That was a nice present you got.”
She shuts the metal door and turns around slowly to face me.
“Why? It’s not as if you’ll be getting to see it anytime soon,” she informs me, punishing me for laughing at her embarrassment earlier.
“Ouch,” I mumble at her before she walks away to the table, carrying a few plates of food.
After everyone is settled and grabbing plates of food, I feel like I can relax, knowing that my job as the head chef is done. Just as I’m about to take the first bite of my delicious home-made breadsticks, I hear the dreadful sound of someone’s pager going off in the room. A collective moan escapes the table and I literally look up to the sky and pray to God it’s not mine or Arizona’s. Not that I wish it upon anyone else, but I really really would like to enjoy the present Mark got her tonight.
“Uh, Callie,” Derek says from the living room area where he was pacing to find the source of the beeping.
“Seriously?” I ask him, getting an apologetic smile as an answer.
I catch a glimpse of Arizona as I stand up to get the pager from Derek-I was dreading this before based purely on my own exhaustion, but seeing the disappointment and sadness in her eyes causes me to feel even worse. As soon as I see the “911” on the screen I let out a puff of anger and look at her apologetically. She offers a smile that I know she’s using to make me feel better and hide her pain before she gets up to walk me out.
“Sorry guys,” I apologize to the table.
“We’re sorry,” Owen whines, giving me a sympathetic smile along with everyone else at the table.
I say goodbye to all of them before grabbing my jacket, shoes, and purse and walking to the elevator with Arizona. We stand in silent frustration while we wait for the elevator before I apologize to the one person who this is probably affecting the most…even more than me.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper, giving her a frown to go along with my frustration.
“It’s okay,” she attempts to comfort me, moving closer and taking my hand in hers. “Besides, I have plenty of entertainment to get me through tonight.”
I laugh at the truth in that statement-Mark alone would give her enough to make fun of tonight, but an apartment full of our drunk friends might just make it even easier. When the elevator door opens I pull her into a long and slow kiss before regretfully pulling away to step inside the doors.
“Just hurry, okay?” she says. “I don’t know how long I can wait to try on my present.”
She gives me a flirty grin and wiggles her eyebrows as I laugh in response to her promise while the doors close shut in front of me.
*********************************************************************************************
Arizona
‘It’s technically not Christmas yet,’ I think to myself as I lie in bed, watching the clock tick another minute before it blares “11:44 pm” in bright red lights.
I groan and roll over on my side so I’m facing Callie’s side of the bed and pull up the covers to stop my body from shivering. I kept my promise and put on Mark’s sexy lingerie before crawling into bed to wait for her to come back, but the lack of clothing on my body is making goosebumps appear everywhere.
I just want her. I want her here, next to me, naked in bed, and cuddling with me while we watch the snow falling outside and the clock ticking away towards Christmas. I want to smell her and feel her warmth and kiss her soft skin, but I can’t do any of that because she’s off saving someone’s life right now. Normally, I feel guilty and selfish for getting so angry when either one of us has to leave to help a patient, but not tonight. This was supposed to be our Christmas together. It wasn’t supposed to end with me lying alone in a cold bed with only her pillow lying beside me.
I sigh again in frustration and settle with pulling her pillow toward me to hug tightly until she gets here. As I grab the squishy friend I feel something poking out from inside the cover. Reaching my hand inside to find the object, I feel a soft, tiny box and pull it out.
“Oh my God,” I whisper to myself, staring at the blue occupant of my hands before me.
My heart is pounding in my throat and I abruptly sit up in bed and cross my legs while I twirl the box in my hands. I gulp down the lump in my throat and take a deep breath before I grip the top and start to pull it up. The door opens suddenly and I panic, snapping the lid shut and dropping the box in my lap before I pull the covers up again to hide it.
Callie gasps quietly when she sees me sitting up in the red outfit Mark bought me.
“Wow,” she exhales. “Merry Christmas to me.”
I smile at her, still worried that she knows I’m up to something, but she just takes off her jacket and shoes before crawling from the bottom of the bed towards me. I laugh nervously when she reaches me and straddles my lap, trying to think of some way to distract her so I can get rid of the evidence.
She lowers her lips until they meet my own and it causes my focus to weaken as my head starts to spin. It takes every ounce of control in me to pull away and force her to kiss down my neck instead.
“Why don’t you, uh, go get some wine,” I manage to suggest, still finding it hard to concentrate with her kissing me so intimately.
“Ooo, good thinking,” she agrees and I sigh in relief as she scurries from the room to the kitchen.
I quickly move her pillow back to her side of the bed and shove the box underneath it.
“Holy crap,” I whisper to myself.
I can’t believe she has a ring. An engagement ring. As in a ring you use to propose to someone. A ring she’s going to use to propose to me. We’re going to get married. As I think these words in my head, I feel the megawatt smile cross my face as she returns with two bottles of wine.
“No glasses?” I ask, trying to cover up how odd I look smiling so brightly by myself.
“Eh, I’m classy like that,” she tells me, crawling back into the bed and handing me a bottle of white wine in the process.
I laugh at her and set the bottle on the table beside me while she takes a sip of the red liquid in her own hand. She stops automatically when she sees me ditch the bottle and move closer to her.
“I thought you wanted wine?” she asks with a confused look in her eyes.
“I did,” I say, giving her a naughty grin as I crawl on top of her and take the bottle from her hands to put on the table beside her. “And now, I want you.”
She smiles back and lets me plant kisses down her neck and move up to her ear where I nibble gently on the soft piece of flesh.
“Arizona?” she whispers in my ear, trying to speak through the arousal she’s feeling.
“Mhmm,” I mumble, continuing to kiss just behind her ear where I know makes her quiver the most.
“I love you,” she exhales after gasping briefly at the touch of my lips.
I pull away from her ear and bring my body back up so it’s facing her, my hands pinning hers down by the wrists. The way she tells me she loves me is so free and effortless, as if she’s been doing it her entire life and it makes me give her a look of amazement in response. I continue to stare at her for a few more minutes until I see the clock strike midnight out of the corner of my eye.
“Merry Christmas,” she wishes me, grinning at the look I’m giving her.
I just chuckle in response and pull her into another sweet kiss before she flips me over onto my back and kisses her way down my body.
This is exactly how Christmas should be.