The Unbroken Beat 5/20
Title: The Unbroken Beat
Chapter:Running Out of Fairytales
Rating: T/PG-13
Author: graceoverfire
Summary: Aftermath of Nick's surgery followed by aftermath of the plane crash. In other words angst and drama for days.
Disclaimer: The characters represented in this story are fictitious extrapolations derived from an interpretation of the show Grey's Anatomy which is the production and property jointly of Shondaland and ABC Studios. As such it is necessary to state that this work has not been produced for profit or any other proprietary reason.
At three weeks they started to see signs the surgery had worked. The new cartilage was holding up and the fracture was healing appropriately. Callie had Nurse Tyler change Arizona’s bandages and dressings twice a day. She specifically picked Nurse Tyler because after much deliberation she determined there was no other nurse that hadn’t hit on Arizona at some point. She still wasn’t awake though and that worried Callie a lot. Yes because the longer she was out the less likely she was to recover, but also because their last moments together were so full of tension. Callie just hoped they’d get the chance to have other moments.
Derek had taken on the role of temporary stay-at-home dad. Just until his hand was back to 100 percent, or at least that’s what he told everyone. As part of his new role he’d decided that neither Zola or Sofia belonged in the hospital daycare. The only time Callie got to see Sofia during the day was at her lunch break when Derek would swing by with the two girls and give a daily report of their activities.
“I think” Derek began as he strolled into the cafeteria with Sofia in a stroller and Zola at his side. “I think I just taught them the alphabet.”
Meredith had been officially back to work, well newly back as a general surgery fellow, for the past week. Cristina came back around the same time after being bribed into staying by Baily who promised to give her the sparkle pager even though it was for residents only. They all watched eagerly as Derek sang and Zola and Sofia made gurgled auditory responses in time with his rhythmic tune.
It wasn’t exactly the alphabet, but it was close enough to be something; something Arizona would have wanted to see. Callie reached over and grabbed Sofia out of the stroller.
“Hey my little Robinette, my little song bird” She watched as Sofia’s face lit up with glee. She liked being called Robinette so much Callie was afraid they’d have to change her name.
Callie turned Sofia toward Cristina and held her hand up to assist her in waving hello.
“Hey chicken-face” Cristina teased before turning back to her food. She and Sofia had bonded one night when Callie had to leave her at Cristina’s because Meredith and Derek needed to be alone. Or more accurately Derek was having a moment. By the time Callie came by to pick her up Cristina had her hair styled in a faux-hawk and was letting Sofia play with life-size models of anatomically correct body parts.
“Your kids got a thing for lady parts” she’d explained while pointing to Sofia who was working on putting a vaginal diagram back together. Callie could thank Mark for that no doubt, he’d always read to her from plastic surgery journals and show her mock-ups of surgeries he’d completed successfully.
But she would never let on to liking anything other than surgery at work, so instead Cristina ignored her even when Sofia cutely outstretched her hands as if expecting Cristina to grab hold of her. Meanwhile Meredith smiled and played with Zola, letting the little girl eat most of the food off her tray, or at least the things that didn’t require much chewing. Then it was time for them to go, not because lunch was over, but because Derek couldn’t stand being in the hospital longer than ten minutes a day at this point.
“How is Arizona doing?” Meredith asked.
She’d require daily updates from Callie who happily obliged. Normally she would have been upset but with Alex and the crash survivors, they were like a family of misfits now, all looking out for each other.
“Leg is recovering well, no sign of rejection. Lungs are functioning well but um…” Callie trailed off this last bit was beyond her to explain. They’d done everything right so why hadn’t she woken up yet.
“Arizona’s still in a coma” Cristina finished.
Callie really couldn’t deal with thinking about it. Thinking about it meant trying to deal with the fact that she put her career on the line and broke federal regulations to save her wife. Not only her career but the careers of her friends. It was only a matter of time before Owen or someone higher up in the hospital figured it out and booted every single last one of them. Not only that, she was suddenly dealing with the guilt of the choice she made on that very first day. Owen told her to go to Mark and she ignored him, maybe if she’d gone sooner Mark would be here. It was an impossible position to be in, having to choose between her best friend and her wife. She chose Arizona and some day she felt she was going to have to answer for that. Until then though, Arizona had to wake up, this all had to be worth it.
~~~~XX~~~~
“You’re just doing this to screw with me” Alex mumbled under his breath at Arizona’s motionless body.
“I freakn got your stupid wife to fix your leg and now you won’t even wake up” he said that part just a bit louder, loud enough for Callie to hear as she entered the room.
“Hey!” she warned.
“What? Your wife’s being a bitch and I need to vent.” Alex tried to justify.
Alex got up in a huff of frustration irritated that Arizona hadn’t suddenly willed herself awake at his words of encouragement. Callie took over his spot next to Arizona’s bed side. She leaned in and stroked Arizona’s hair.
“There’s so much I need to tell you, so much has happened” Callie whispered. “I need you; I can’t keep going like this on my own.”
Callie let the words sink in, it was the first time she’d actually admitted it out loud.
“Sofia needs you too cause I haven’t told her yet. I can’t even say it myself and I went to the funeral. You have to tell her. You were always better with words.” Callie was trying to keep it together, but she needed someone to respond to her, this was usually the point where Arizona would place her hand over Callie’s and let her cry on her shoulder. But, as it were, Arizona was barely even there to hold onto. She thought about the one time she tried to go back to the apartment and how she’d watched in horror as Sofia reached out toward her father’s door. She thought about how she spent the next two hours coaxing the little girl into sleep to keep her from crying never once mentioning that daddy wasn’t there anymore.
Callie looked at Arizona lying in bed looking like sleeping beauty. She thought of all the bedtime stories she’d been reading Sofia.
“I’m running out of fairytales” she told Arizona who simply remained motionless.
They had literally tried everything and nothing was working, so in a final effort Callie turned her hopes toward magic. She brushed a few tears out of the way and leaned in further before softly kissing Arizona’s lips. They felt cold and foreign at first, but a second later Callie was wrapped up in the familiarity. She saw a shadow flash by and it startled her away from the kiss. Had it worked? Was she back? No, still the same limp motionless form as before, but now with traces of Callie’s lip gloss on her face. Callie got up to walk away as irritated as Alex had been a moment ago when he did the same.
~~~~XX~~~~
“TORRES!” Owen shouted, his voice booming and echoing all the way down the hall to the nurse’s station where Baily and Callie had been chatting.
“Ooh, Hunt Mad! Hunt Smash!” Baily mocked, conjuring up images of a giant green monster.
“How could you do this, do you even realize what you’ve done?” Owen demanded his questions coming with little pause in between.
“Do I realize? I know exactly what I did. Did you think her leg just miraculously healed itself? I know it every second of every day because I fixed it, I fixed her damn leg and threw my career away in the process and now she won’t even wake up.” Callie hadn’t realized how loud she’d allowed her voice to become, but they’d apparently attracted onlookers.
Owen threw his hands up in exhaustion.
“I should fire you.” He exploded, but Callie seemed ready to accept it, what other choice did he have after all.
“Then fire me” she said it in a way that let him know she was okay with it.
“I can’t” Owen countered. “We have no one in Ortho and no money for new hires and besides that firing you means firing Cristina.”
Callie looked up and studied his face. They had a sort of big brother/kid sister bond that lent itself to Owen often lecturing her about her seemingly reckless behavior. Most people would assume they disliked each other, but most people would be wrong.
“What are you saying?” Callie implored.
“I’m saying go home and don’t set foot in this hospital until I’ve figured out a way to fix this retroactively. “
That was it? Really? She’d been expecting much worse. She expected to be ripped apart and taken to task for her horribly unprofessional actions. But instead, a slap on the wrist. She just got away with Franken-surgery half out of necessity and half because Owen was too involved to ever risk hurting Cristina. Why look a gift horse in the mouth though, this was a good thing, or at least good so far.
Callie was ready to go home. She was absolutely ready to pack up and leave, but the thought of not being able to see Arizona until Owen gave her the okay, that thought ate her up inside. She decided to have one more go at it. Maybe she could find something to say that would get through to her and push her out of whatever perpetual in-between place she’d been stuck in for the past several weeks. She entered the room trying to think of what she would say, how she would say it. Nothing seemed right. They’d already said so much. Then Callie remembered something. It was a silly bet that she never thought Arizona would win, but here she was winning it.
Arizona had playfully wrestled away Callie’s cell phone and they got into a not-so-serious wrestling match while Callie tried pointlessly to retrieve it.
“Are you actually going to keep it from me?” Callie questioned shocked that Arizona hadn’t already handed it over.
“You have been texting up a storm all week. The only way I’m giving it back is if you admit that I’m right, you’re addicted to texting, and I’m awesome” Arizona smiled at the thought of Callie saying that last part then rolled over so that she was on top of Callie. They kissed, but Callie refused to be swayed.
“Well, those are three sentences that are never coming out of my mouth.” Callie teased.
Arizona managed to keep Callie’s phone hidden for the better part of twelve hours, but then Mark spotted it in the one place they both knew Callie would never look. It was sort of funny watching her dump out the dirty diaper bin to get to her phone.
That memory seemed so far away now with Mark gone and Arizona inactive the way she was. Callie took hold of her hand.
“I’m going to have to go for a while, but I want you to know I love you, whatever I did, it was because I love you” She smiled and then added “and you’re awesome”
It was just slight, but Callie could have sworn she felt Arizona squeeze her hand back. She shook it off as just a muscle twitch. No sense in getting her hopes up, she was a surgeon, she knew better. But then her eyes fluttered and she felt her hand squeeze again.
“Arizona?” Callie questioned looking up to see two pale blue eyes staring back at her.
“What did you say?” Arizona asked. Her voice tired and cracking.
Callie could barely pull herself together long enough to answer the question. She leaned in and kissed her again happy to receive the kiss back as much as Arizona could return it.
“You’re awesome” Callie repeated and kissed her lips again. “You are so incredibly awesome.”
Chapter:Running Out of Fairytales
Rating: T/PG-13
Author: graceoverfire
Summary: Aftermath of Nick's surgery followed by aftermath of the plane crash. In other words angst and drama for days.
Disclaimer: The characters represented in this story are fictitious extrapolations derived from an interpretation of the show Grey's Anatomy which is the production and property jointly of Shondaland and ABC Studios. As such it is necessary to state that this work has not been produced for profit or any other proprietary reason.
At three weeks they started to see signs the surgery had worked. The new cartilage was holding up and the fracture was healing appropriately. Callie had Nurse Tyler change Arizona’s bandages and dressings twice a day. She specifically picked Nurse Tyler because after much deliberation she determined there was no other nurse that hadn’t hit on Arizona at some point. She still wasn’t awake though and that worried Callie a lot. Yes because the longer she was out the less likely she was to recover, but also because their last moments together were so full of tension. Callie just hoped they’d get the chance to have other moments.
Derek had taken on the role of temporary stay-at-home dad. Just until his hand was back to 100 percent, or at least that’s what he told everyone. As part of his new role he’d decided that neither Zola or Sofia belonged in the hospital daycare. The only time Callie got to see Sofia during the day was at her lunch break when Derek would swing by with the two girls and give a daily report of their activities.
“I think” Derek began as he strolled into the cafeteria with Sofia in a stroller and Zola at his side. “I think I just taught them the alphabet.”
Meredith had been officially back to work, well newly back as a general surgery fellow, for the past week. Cristina came back around the same time after being bribed into staying by Baily who promised to give her the sparkle pager even though it was for residents only. They all watched eagerly as Derek sang and Zola and Sofia made gurgled auditory responses in time with his rhythmic tune.
It wasn’t exactly the alphabet, but it was close enough to be something; something Arizona would have wanted to see. Callie reached over and grabbed Sofia out of the stroller.
“Hey my little Robinette, my little song bird” She watched as Sofia’s face lit up with glee. She liked being called Robinette so much Callie was afraid they’d have to change her name.
Callie turned Sofia toward Cristina and held her hand up to assist her in waving hello.
“Hey chicken-face” Cristina teased before turning back to her food. She and Sofia had bonded one night when Callie had to leave her at Cristina’s because Meredith and Derek needed to be alone. Or more accurately Derek was having a moment. By the time Callie came by to pick her up Cristina had her hair styled in a faux-hawk and was letting Sofia play with life-size models of anatomically correct body parts.
“Your kids got a thing for lady parts” she’d explained while pointing to Sofia who was working on putting a vaginal diagram back together. Callie could thank Mark for that no doubt, he’d always read to her from plastic surgery journals and show her mock-ups of surgeries he’d completed successfully.
But she would never let on to liking anything other than surgery at work, so instead Cristina ignored her even when Sofia cutely outstretched her hands as if expecting Cristina to grab hold of her. Meanwhile Meredith smiled and played with Zola, letting the little girl eat most of the food off her tray, or at least the things that didn’t require much chewing. Then it was time for them to go, not because lunch was over, but because Derek couldn’t stand being in the hospital longer than ten minutes a day at this point.
“How is Arizona doing?” Meredith asked.
She’d require daily updates from Callie who happily obliged. Normally she would have been upset but with Alex and the crash survivors, they were like a family of misfits now, all looking out for each other.
“Leg is recovering well, no sign of rejection. Lungs are functioning well but um…” Callie trailed off this last bit was beyond her to explain. They’d done everything right so why hadn’t she woken up yet.
“Arizona’s still in a coma” Cristina finished.
Callie really couldn’t deal with thinking about it. Thinking about it meant trying to deal with the fact that she put her career on the line and broke federal regulations to save her wife. Not only her career but the careers of her friends. It was only a matter of time before Owen or someone higher up in the hospital figured it out and booted every single last one of them. Not only that, she was suddenly dealing with the guilt of the choice she made on that very first day. Owen told her to go to Mark and she ignored him, maybe if she’d gone sooner Mark would be here. It was an impossible position to be in, having to choose between her best friend and her wife. She chose Arizona and some day she felt she was going to have to answer for that. Until then though, Arizona had to wake up, this all had to be worth it.
~~~~XX~~~~
“You’re just doing this to screw with me” Alex mumbled under his breath at Arizona’s motionless body.
“I freakn got your stupid wife to fix your leg and now you won’t even wake up” he said that part just a bit louder, loud enough for Callie to hear as she entered the room.
“Hey!” she warned.
“What? Your wife’s being a bitch and I need to vent.” Alex tried to justify.
Alex got up in a huff of frustration irritated that Arizona hadn’t suddenly willed herself awake at his words of encouragement. Callie took over his spot next to Arizona’s bed side. She leaned in and stroked Arizona’s hair.
“There’s so much I need to tell you, so much has happened” Callie whispered. “I need you; I can’t keep going like this on my own.”
Callie let the words sink in, it was the first time she’d actually admitted it out loud.
“Sofia needs you too cause I haven’t told her yet. I can’t even say it myself and I went to the funeral. You have to tell her. You were always better with words.” Callie was trying to keep it together, but she needed someone to respond to her, this was usually the point where Arizona would place her hand over Callie’s and let her cry on her shoulder. But, as it were, Arizona was barely even there to hold onto. She thought about the one time she tried to go back to the apartment and how she’d watched in horror as Sofia reached out toward her father’s door. She thought about how she spent the next two hours coaxing the little girl into sleep to keep her from crying never once mentioning that daddy wasn’t there anymore.
Callie looked at Arizona lying in bed looking like sleeping beauty. She thought of all the bedtime stories she’d been reading Sofia.
“I’m running out of fairytales” she told Arizona who simply remained motionless.
They had literally tried everything and nothing was working, so in a final effort Callie turned her hopes toward magic. She brushed a few tears out of the way and leaned in further before softly kissing Arizona’s lips. They felt cold and foreign at first, but a second later Callie was wrapped up in the familiarity. She saw a shadow flash by and it startled her away from the kiss. Had it worked? Was she back? No, still the same limp motionless form as before, but now with traces of Callie’s lip gloss on her face. Callie got up to walk away as irritated as Alex had been a moment ago when he did the same.
~~~~XX~~~~
“TORRES!” Owen shouted, his voice booming and echoing all the way down the hall to the nurse’s station where Baily and Callie had been chatting.
“Ooh, Hunt Mad! Hunt Smash!” Baily mocked, conjuring up images of a giant green monster.
“How could you do this, do you even realize what you’ve done?” Owen demanded his questions coming with little pause in between.
“Do I realize? I know exactly what I did. Did you think her leg just miraculously healed itself? I know it every second of every day because I fixed it, I fixed her damn leg and threw my career away in the process and now she won’t even wake up.” Callie hadn’t realized how loud she’d allowed her voice to become, but they’d apparently attracted onlookers.
Owen threw his hands up in exhaustion.
“I should fire you.” He exploded, but Callie seemed ready to accept it, what other choice did he have after all.
“Then fire me” she said it in a way that let him know she was okay with it.
“I can’t” Owen countered. “We have no one in Ortho and no money for new hires and besides that firing you means firing Cristina.”
Callie looked up and studied his face. They had a sort of big brother/kid sister bond that lent itself to Owen often lecturing her about her seemingly reckless behavior. Most people would assume they disliked each other, but most people would be wrong.
“What are you saying?” Callie implored.
“I’m saying go home and don’t set foot in this hospital until I’ve figured out a way to fix this retroactively. “
That was it? Really? She’d been expecting much worse. She expected to be ripped apart and taken to task for her horribly unprofessional actions. But instead, a slap on the wrist. She just got away with Franken-surgery half out of necessity and half because Owen was too involved to ever risk hurting Cristina. Why look a gift horse in the mouth though, this was a good thing, or at least good so far.
Callie was ready to go home. She was absolutely ready to pack up and leave, but the thought of not being able to see Arizona until Owen gave her the okay, that thought ate her up inside. She decided to have one more go at it. Maybe she could find something to say that would get through to her and push her out of whatever perpetual in-between place she’d been stuck in for the past several weeks. She entered the room trying to think of what she would say, how she would say it. Nothing seemed right. They’d already said so much. Then Callie remembered something. It was a silly bet that she never thought Arizona would win, but here she was winning it.
Arizona had playfully wrestled away Callie’s cell phone and they got into a not-so-serious wrestling match while Callie tried pointlessly to retrieve it.
“Are you actually going to keep it from me?” Callie questioned shocked that Arizona hadn’t already handed it over.
“You have been texting up a storm all week. The only way I’m giving it back is if you admit that I’m right, you’re addicted to texting, and I’m awesome” Arizona smiled at the thought of Callie saying that last part then rolled over so that she was on top of Callie. They kissed, but Callie refused to be swayed.
“Well, those are three sentences that are never coming out of my mouth.” Callie teased.
Arizona managed to keep Callie’s phone hidden for the better part of twelve hours, but then Mark spotted it in the one place they both knew Callie would never look. It was sort of funny watching her dump out the dirty diaper bin to get to her phone.
That memory seemed so far away now with Mark gone and Arizona inactive the way she was. Callie took hold of her hand.
“I’m going to have to go for a while, but I want you to know I love you, whatever I did, it was because I love you” She smiled and then added “and you’re awesome”
It was just slight, but Callie could have sworn she felt Arizona squeeze her hand back. She shook it off as just a muscle twitch. No sense in getting her hopes up, she was a surgeon, she knew better. But then her eyes fluttered and she felt her hand squeeze again.
“Arizona?” Callie questioned looking up to see two pale blue eyes staring back at her.
“What did you say?” Arizona asked. Her voice tired and cracking.
Callie could barely pull herself together long enough to answer the question. She leaned in and kissed her again happy to receive the kiss back as much as Arizona could return it.
“You’re awesome” Callie repeated and kissed her lips again. “You are so incredibly awesome.”