Fault Lines (22/36)
Fault Lines
Chapter 22/36
Authors: Faith kennedysbitch & Kye kye9
Pairing: Callie/Arizona, Mark/Lexie
Rating: NC-17
Disclaimer
Story Summary: Sequel to Choices. Callie and Arizona make the decision to move forward with their lives, but when a gradual series of events begin to snowball, Arizona tries desperately not to lose her grip on reality.
Chapter Summary: Mark’s in the doghouse while Arizona juggles work, personal issues, and mounting stress.
Previous Chapters
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Mark was staring off into space - also known as ‘the nurse from radiology’s ass’ - when he was clubbed over the head by something hard and heavy.
Arizona didn’t waste time with words or angry noises, she simply smacked him three times over the skull with her patient’s chart before he even had a chance to react.
“What the-” Mark recoiled and finally lifted an arm to deflect the fourth blow, then grabbed the object and wrenched it away from the angry blonde on the fifth. “Robbins, what are you-”
“You’re an ass!” she hissed, deciding that she didn’t need a weapon after all and punching him on the shoulder instead. He tripped backwards and she advanced, not giving him an inch of breathing room. “Seriously, I do you a favour and you repay me by telling your girlfriend, who in turn tells my girlfriend, and now I’m in the dog house? Ass!”
Mark groaned under his breath. Robbins might’ve had tiny fists but she sure as fuck knew how to use ‘em. “Okay! Okay! I’m sorry!” he practically shouted. “What do you want me to say? She walked in when I was-”
Arizona’s hands frantically shot up in the air, cutting him off as she quickly covered her ears. “I don’t want to hear it!” she snapped, shuddering at the visual he’d nearly supplied her with. “Point is, you sold me out and I’m never doing you a single favour ever again. And you so owe me one.”
Shrinking back until he was pressed up against the administration desk, Mark stared back at the woman with wide, terrified eyes. She didn’t look like she was fucking around; in fact, he half expected her to start gnashing her teeth or to reach out and snap his arm off before cracking him over the head with it.
Jesus, Robbins had a whole different scary side to her scary side. And that was saying something.
“Lexie’s very convincing,” he stated after a moment passed, sensing he wouldn’t be decapitated on the spot for opening his mouth. “I can’t lie to her, I’m sorry. I’ve tried but the woman has crazy eyes.”
Rolling her own set of baby blues, Arizona gave up in a huff and collapsed in the rolling chair next to the computer. “Whatever. You’re still a jerk. And I want my movie back.”
Sloan couldn’t help the perverted smirk that spread across his face. “I’ll bet you do,” he chuckled, setting down the chart he’d stolen. “I’d still totally go for a private viewing of your ‘home video collection’, if you know what I mean.”
Sometimes he thought with his penis instead of his brain.
Without even blinking, Arizona’s right elbow shot out and connected solidly with Mark’s groin, her seated position giving her the perfect elevation to make the hit really count.
Mark immediately doubled over, tears springing up behind his eyes as he clenched his legs together and fought the urge to crumble to the ground. A weak, forced wheeze was the only sound he was capable of making as the air left his lungs.
Arizona stood up and snatched her chart back, folding it over and clicking her pen closed. “Ass,” she repeated, not giving him so much as a second glance as she marched off to take the elevator up to Peds.
Mark was barely aware of the looks they were getting, mainly from nurses hovering nearby. He let out a hard puff of a breath, glowering through watery eyes in Arizona’s direction. “Who the hell elbows someone in the groin? Gah!”
***
Luckily for Arizona, Callie was much more forgiving than she’d thought she would be. There was really no further discussion about the porn incident outside of a few well-timed jokes on Callie’s part.
Something told Arizona she would never live it down, even when they were ninety years old and living in a retirement home.
The next few days went by in a blur, filled with various OB appointments, visits with her dad, meetings with her lawyer, and even one and a half Date Nights with her girlfriend. Half, because she’d been paged for an emergency with a long-term care patient in the middle of eating dinner last Thursday.
Arizona was currently taking a break during a two-day shift by dozing in the uncomfortable chair next to her father’s bedside. Both Robbinses were unconscious in the darkness, not so much as a single snore rumbling up from either one of them. They were both exhausted, Arizona from the pressure overload of her life and Daniel because his heart was failing. Mrs. Robbins had taken some convincing to get back to her hotel room for some rest, only after Arizona assured her that the Colonel would not be left alone. Her mom would probably be back soon with food and coffee, ready for a brand new evening of sitting vigil by her husband’s side.
Arizona was sleeping with her neck at an awkward angle when a gentle hand touched her shoulder. She immediately snorted and jerked upright, blinking around the darkened room in confusion. “Hm?”
Callie stood over her with an apprehensive smile, sporting her signature leather jacket and favourite pair of maternity jeans.
Arizona blinked sleepily and shook her head to clear it. “Hey,” she murmured half-consciously, stifling a big yawn that threatened to escape. Almost every muscle in her upper body twinged in protest as she shifted upright in her seat.
She really needed to tell the Chief to replace these visitor chairs. They were like torture devices designed to create more surgical patients for them to fix.
“Hey,” Callie echoed, squeezing Arizona’s shoulder. “Sorry to wake you.”
“What’re you doing here?” The blonde pushed loose strands of hair away from her face, trying to tuck them back into her ponytail. “Are you okay? Is the baby okay?”
“The baby’s fine,” Callie replied with a soft smile, studying Arizona’s haggard form. “Wish I could say the same for you. When was the last time you slept?” She set two cups of coffee down on the nearest table and focused her full attention on her girlfriend.
“Um...” Arizona rubbed a hand across her face. “Don’t remember,” she admitted with a sheepish smile. “Last week some time?”
“Zona,” Callie scolded, sighing unhappily. She reached up to trace her fingertips along the other woman’s brow line. “You’ve gotta get some rest, sweetie. Your dad doesn’t want you running yourself into the ground again. Neither do I.”
Arizona grumbled, closing her eyes and subconsciously leaning into the gentle touch. “No, I’m good here. I don’t want to leave him.” She opened them again and watched her father through the darkness as Callie pulled a chair over. Arizona immediately rested her cheek against the brunette’s shoulder, ignoring the residual twinge in her neck.
“Better not let the baby residents know their favourite ortho Goddess is back in the building,” she mused tiredly, her fingers playing with the worn material of Callie’s leather jacket. “I’ve already had to threaten bodily harm on the majority of them if they so much as think about paging you. Most of ‘em can’t figure out how to fix a broken arm without panicking. You really need a second in command before you go on full mat leave.”
Callie propped her right elbow against the back of Arizona’s chair, idly stroking her fingers through silky blonde curls. “That’s kinda why I’m here, actually.”
Arizona lifted her head and pursed her lips unhappily.
“They need me for an emergency surgery tonight,” Callie explained. “I know I promised I’d take a couple of days off and rest, but they really need me to do it.”
“Calliope,” Arizona replied with the beginnings of a protest.
“It’s for a three-year-old girl,” Callie broke in, her apprehension giving way to sadness. “She was playing in her yard when a driver fell asleep at the wheel and plowed her down on the front lawn. Both of her legs are broken and part of her clavicle is shattered. It’s a miracle she’s still alive.”
Arizona immediately sat up straighter, suddenly finding herself much more awake. “What? Why didn’t anyone page me?” she demanded, fumbling to dig the device out of her lab coat, afraid that she’d slept through it.
“Hunt told them not to,” Callie quickly cut in, placing a hand over Arizona’s before she could rip the pocket off entirely. “You’ve been going for almost two days straight and he knew you were up here with your dad. We’ve got it covered.”
Arizona shifted in her chair and faced her partner more directly. “Are you sure? Because I can be awake and scrubbed in if you give me five-”
“Nope,” Callie interrupted once more with a firm shake of her head. “I’m hardcore, I can handle it. They’re prepping her right now and Hunt needs to do some damage control before I can really get in there, anyway.”
“You’re sure?” Arizona asked, giving a light tug on Callie’s jacket.
“Yes, very.” Callie lifted a sharp eyebrow. “You will be doing nothing but sleeping for at least the next four or five hours, anyway. You look like a zombie from a Quentin Tarantino film.”
Arizona scrunched her brow, thinking that one over. “I don’t...think he does zombies.”
“If he did, you would be one.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“I mean it,” Callie added on a more serious note. “Promise me that you’ll sleep. Promise me.”
Arizona looked wistfully over at her father’s dozing form, hoping for a moment that he might pipe up and echo Callie’s orders. Not so she would feel less guilty about leaving him, but so she would know he was coherent enough to listen in on their whispered conversation.
Nothing. No sounds.
Pouting, Arizona caved in without much protest. She was too worn out to put up a fight tonight; Callie could pretty much walk her off a cliff and she would barely even notice.
“Okay,” she relented, sagging back in her chair. “I promise. But I’m gonna wait for my mom to get back, first. I don’t want to leave him alone.”
Callie squeezed the arm she had around Arizona’s shoulders and pressed a loving kiss to her temple. “I’ve got a few minutes,” she murmured, closing her eyes and breathing in the blonde’s intoxicating scent. “I’ll wait with you.”
Arizona nodded silently and snuggled into Callie the best she could, closing her eyes and wishing for something good to happen today.
***
“Excuse me, I’m looking for Dr. Sloan?”
“He just got out of surgery,” Lexie Grey answered distractedly, scribbling down a few short-handed notes on her clipboard. “He’ll be back in a few minutes. Can I help you with something?”
She looked up and immediately paused, finding herself face-to-face with the hot young thing from down the hall. The one Mark had used his manly muscles to help move into the building. The law student that was entirely too hot to be looking for her fiancé.
“Uh, w-what is it you need him for?” Lexie stammered.
Kyla pushed a lock of hair behind her ear, smiling brightly at the young doctor she’d never seen before. “He’s expecting me, I think. We were going to have lunch.” She held up a white paper bag.
Lexie’s brow skyrocketed as she looked from the bag to the woman’s eyes. “You...you were?”
Kyla’s friendly smile faltered and she suddenly looked uncertain. “Um, yeah. Is that not allowed? I just assumed it was okay; he didn’t say anything to me about it not being okay.”
Jaw clenched a little too tightly for comfort, Lexie flexed her right arm, wishing in this moment that it was still in one piece and usable for things such as telling a bitch to step-off. “No, that’s fine. I’m sure he’ll be right out. Why don’t you go wait in the lobby and I’ll tell him you’ve arrived?”
Oblivious to the doctor’s sudden change in mood, Kyla nodded and started for the waiting room. “Cool, thanks. Tell him I’ll wait as long as he needs.”
She turned and practically model-walked down the hall, on legs that were six feet long and an ass that was illegal in forty-nine states.
Bitch.
The pencil in Lexie’s hand suddenly snapped in two and fell apart on the desk. “I’ll do just that,” she growled dangerously under her breath, turning on her heels and marching in the direction of the elevators.
Someone had some explaining to do.
***
Mark was changing in the attendings’ locker room when the door burst open and a very angry looking brunette came storming through.
“Hey,” he called over in surprise, frowning. “What are you doing here? You’re not supposed to work again until the weekend. Torres told you to take it easy without the sling.”
“Shut up,” Lexie snapped, hands planted firmly on her hips. “Your new girlfriend is here. She’s waiting for you in the lobby. With lunch. That she made for you. For your plans.”
Mark froze in place and fumbled for words. “Shit,” he mumbled under his breath, twisting the scrub shirt in his hands. “Lex, it’s not what you think.”
“What I ‘think’, Mark? No, I’m pretty sure there’s only one way to interpret you having lunch with another woman.”
Mark felt a nervous lump swirl around in his stomach, suddenly finding Lexie Grey a lot more terrifying than he ever had before.
At this rate, all he needed was for Torres to physically or verbally attack him and then he’d have collected the whole set.
“I’m not fucking her,” he stated bluntly. “I swear to you. She’s just here for a consult.”
Lexie scoffed and crossed her arms, looking away while wearing a sour expression. “Great, that’s awesome. Really. I feel so much better now. Thanks.”
At a complete loss for how to explain this away, Mark rubbed a hand through his hair and shrugged. “She’s just here for a consult,” he repeated.
“Do you always have a ‘special lunch’ with your ‘consults’?” Lexie snapped. “You’re what, trying to seduce her and then you’ll fuck her? At work, because like you just said, I wasn’t even supposed to be here today. And now I’ve completely ruined your plans to screw the hot young law student you’ve obviously got wrapped around your stupid fat finger!”
“Lex, please,” Mark pleaded, taking a careful step towards his girlfriend as he pulled his scrub top on. “Calm down. The baby-”
Angry, frustrated tears burned in Lexie’s eyes as she jerked away from his touch. “What baby? You mean your son? The one that I’m currently pregnant with while you run out and bone the first thing that flaunts her obviously fake boobs in your face?”
Mark grimaced at the harsh words. “Lexie, I am not fucking her. I’m not and I don’t want to.”
A few tears fell from Lexie’s dark eyes as she crossed her arms defensively over her protruding stomach. “I don’t believe you.”
Why should she? It’s not like he was getting any at home with her. She’d tried, but for whatever reason, she was having difficulty getting close to him. Part of it had to do with her injury when it was fresh, but now that she was getting better, his sexual advances still made her uncomfortable. It wasn’t something she chose; her body just wasn’t responding the way it used to. The way she wanted it to.
She was confused and scared. And now more than a little hurt that Mark was at least tempted to get some on the side.
“She said that you had plans, that you were going on a-a lunch date with her, Mark. She made lunch for you. And maybe if you’d told me about it beforehand I would’ve believed you. But you didn’t, which means you knew it was something to hide.”
“I told her to stop by around lunch if she wanted to talk,” he said in a rush, grasping at straws. “I didn’t mean it was an actual date.”
Lexie’s eyes suddenly hardened and both hands flew down to the hem of her scrub top. “Fine! You want sex? You need sex that badly? We’ll have sex!” She ripped the material up and off of her body, tossing it on the floor without a second thought.
Just as the last sentence left Lexie’s mouth, Callie bustled in through the door, fingers clicking away at warp-speed on her Blackberry. She froze in place and glanced up, surveying the scene in front of her.
Mark looking strained, Lexie standing topless and pregnant, clearly in the middle of yelling at him.
Callie blinked once. “Uh...”
Mark’s eyes were still glued to his fiancée’s bra-clad breasts. He swallowed back thickly before tearing them away to stare at his best friend. “Torres, you mind giving us a minute?”
Callie looked uncomfortable. “Um, yeah, sure. But I have to scrub in right away, soo...” She pointed at her locker.
“We’ll only be a minute,” Mark added quietly.
Nodding, Callie turned on her heels and exited the room.
Mark instantly returned his gaze to the raging volcano about to erupt on him yet again. “Lex, please. Put your shirt back on.”
She growled.
Mark swallowed hard and held up a hand in defense. “Honey, please. I don’t want to do this with you right now.”
Feeling a sharp pang in her chest, Lexie finally tore her eyes away from Mark and tried fitfully to pull her shirt back on. “Fine. Go have lunch with the whore from down the hall. See if I care.”
She yanked the material down, missing the hole in the neckline completely and getting herself stuck.
Mark immediately stepped forward and tried to help. “I really didn’t think you’d be in today.”
Lexie jerked away from his touch and finally got her head through, roughly tugging the scrub top back into place. “Is that supposed to make me feel better?” she snapped, clearly hurt.
Mark ran his fingers back through his hair. “I didn’t mean it like that. I just, I wanted to have lunch and it’s for a consult. That’s all.”
“With the hot girl from down the hall that clearly wants to get in your pants?”
Mark shook his head. “She doesn’t-”
“Yes, she does,” Lexie cut in. “She made you lunch and she’s seen you without a shirt on. Of course she wants to sleep with you.”
She crossed both arms over her chest again, huffing loudly. “If you wanted to have lunch, couldn’t you have at least picked someone uglier?”
It was shallow and she knew it. Lexie didn’t like to be shallow. But she also didn’t like to be pregnant and not in control of her own body. She loved their son, she really did, but she didn’t love what crazy, hormonal things he was doing to her in these last few weeks.
She wanted to want to be touched by her husband, for his sake and hers. Their sex life had never been a problem until now and it [i]sucked[/i].
“At least someone who’s not hotter than me times a million,” she added after a moment, grumbling under her breath and dropping her head. She deflated rather quickly and was left feeling sad and very, very lonely.
Mark immediately stepped forward and took her by the arms. “Are you kidding me?” he said with a growing smile. “Lex, standing next to you, she looks like Janet Reno with a bad case of the mumps.”
Lexie cracked a tiny smile as Mark lifted her chin up. “Really?”
“Oh please, it’s no contest,” he said smoothly. “You have more hotness in your little toe than she could ever hope to have in her entire body.”
Lexie sighed tiredly and closed her eyes. “These last few weeks have really sucked.”
“I know,” Mark replied softly. “I know they have, baby. I’m sorry.”
“She thinks she has a chance with you,” Lexie pointed out. “And she clearly had no idea who I was. Which sucks and makes me want to kick you in the crotch, but...I’m gonna trust you.”
Lexie nodded firmly, trying to muster up more conviction than she felt. “Even though technically I have every right to be pissed off that you’re having lunch with another woman. Who is clearly hot. And has no idea you even have a pregnant fiancée to begin with.”
A moment passed and Lexie’s frown deepened as she contemplated all that. “No, you know what? Screw you.” She turned on her heels, fully prepared to stomp out of the room.
Mark lunged forward and grabbed her by the elbow. “No, stop. Don’t do this.”
“Do what?” Lexie whirled around and yanked her arm away. “You’re an ass. I never listened to anyone when they told me you would try and cheat on me, because I believed you were a good guy and you wouldn’t hurt me. But how am I supposed to feel when you’re seeing another woman behind my back? One that has an interest in sleeping with you when clearly I’ve been a little absent in that department.”
Mark hung his head in shame and his shoulders sagged. “I’m sorry,” he muttered. “I got a little attention and I went with it. I didn’t mean for it to...I’m sorry.”
Lexie stepped back from him again, looking away. “Great, so go with it. You know, I don’t care about the stupid porn. You’re a guy, you’re entitled and you...whatever. But finding out that you’re getting your attention elsewhere isn’t exactly making me feel very confident here. I’m like a billion months pregnant a-and it’s not like I can help that I busted my shoulder. I’m sorry not having sex lately is hard for you, but it’s not a free pass to go and see other women behind my back. Don’t you get that?”
Looking strained, Lexie bit her bottom lip to keep from crying again. “It’s pretty clear I’m not enough for you right now. Which kinda sucks, since I’m having your baby. Makes things a little more complicated.”
“I don’t want anyone else,” Mark argued, sounding dejected. “I miss you. You spend more time with Torres, your sister, or here than you do at home, even though you’re not cleared for surgery yet. And when you are with me-”
“I won’t have sex with you,” Lexie snorted, wiping a stray year away as it threatened to fall. “Great. At least now I know what’s really important.”
Without another word, she turned and exited the room, leaving Mark standing there with his hands by his sides.
He leaned back into the nearest row of lockers and closed his eyes. “Fuck.”
***
In the third floor doctor’s lounge, Callie was pouring herself a fresh cup of coffee when Mark entered. She turned to him while adding copious amounts of sugar to the steaming drink. “You and the wife finished arguing yet?”
Mark shrugged and collapsed wordlessly onto the couch by the window.
Callie frowned and strolled over to him, glancing quickly at her watch. She really had to scrub in soon but she could spare a few minutes for her best friend first.
“Scoot,” she ordered, nudging him in the leg until he shuffled over one cushion.
Flopping down into the empty space, Callie leveled him with a suspicious stare. “What did you do this time?”
“Why does everyone always assume that I did something?” Mark snapped irritably.
Callie simply raised an eyebrow.
His shoulders slumped and he stared hard at his lap. “Remember new neighbor girl?”
Callie tilted her head to the side and thought about it. “The hot one with the great ass?” She took a sip of coffee, then amended that statement. “Wait, which one?”
“The blonde one.”
“Ah, right. The one you used your manly arms to help move in.” Callie snorted and drank some more. “What about her?”
“She came in to have lunch with me today and Lexie found out.”
Callie choked on her drink. “Are you stupid or something?”
Mark growled under his breath. “It was not like that, Torres. I’m not fucking her, just having lunch with her. Over a consult. She broke her nose a few years back and doesn’t know if she likes the repair job they did.”
Callie smirked and shook her head. “Yeah, uh-huh. I’m so sure she ‘needs a new nose job’.” When the man only stared at her blankly, she dropped the coffee cup onto her thigh and settled him with a pointed look. “Oh come on, Mark, you’re not that stupid. The girl totally has the hots for you. She was using the nose job thing as an excuse.”
Mark scowled and crossed his arms unhappily. “That’s what Lexie thinks, too.”
“Well, she would be right,” Callie said, treading carefully. “I take it you didn’t tell her about this little ‘lunch’ thing you had planned with neighbor girl before?”
Mark hesitated. “Not in so many words.”
“Sloan,” the brunette groaned, elbowing him in the side. “You’re an idiot. You’ve got a pregnant wife that’s probably more than a little insecure about her body image, whom you’ve yet to sex up since she hurt herself, and now you’re having lunch with nose-job from down the hall? Why do you think Lexie was upset?”
“She doesn’t need to be,” Mark argued. “I love her, okay? But she doesn’t want anything to do with me. She won’t let me touch her.”
“I know you mean well, Mark, but if you’re constantly hounding her for sex, she’s gonna say no,” Callie pointed out. “Trust me when I say a separated, dislocated shoulder is a big deal. Her ligaments are still healing and it’s not a fun experience when on pain medication, which she isn’t. She’s also hormonal and carrying around your baby, while trying not to get left behind in an insanely demanding job. She’s got a lot going on. Give her a break; keep it in your pants for a few more weeks. You’ll survive. You love each other.”
Mark nodded silently and dropped his chin onto his chest. It stung a little that even Torres thought all he cared about was sex when it went so far beyond that, but he just didn’t care to argue right now. His fight with Lexie had taken all the wind out of his sails. “Yeah, okay. You’re right.”
“I’m always right.” Callie took a sip of her drink again. A moment passed before she transferred the paper cup to her right hand, then abruptly reached up and smacked him on the back of the head with her left.
He jolted forward and twisted around to glare at her. “What was that for?”
Callie met his eyes and stared him down. “For getting my girlfriend involved in your shenanigans. She’s impressionable, Mark. Leave her out of your scheming.”
“It was her idea!” Mark shot back defensively. “I had nothing to do with it.”
“Whatever,” Callie said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “Point it, leave my woman out of your issues. I need her focused on me and my issues. Okay?”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Mark grumbled, rubbing one of the growing number of bruises on the back of his skull.
Women. They blamed him for fuckin’ everything these days.
For a long moment, Callie and Mark sat there in a contemplative silence, each lost within their own deep thoughts. The clock nearby ticked away the seconds, echoing through the otherwise quiet room.
Callie stared straight ahead at the opposite wall, slowly raising the coffee cup to her lips after a minute or so had passed. “So, this DVD Arizona lent you. What content could one expect to find on it, exactly?”
Mark blinked out of his trance and turned his head to the right. “What?”
Callie took a careful sip of the hot drink. “Just answer the question, Sloan.”
Mark merely grinned and shook his head.
Women.
***
After her mom returned, Arizona left the ICU to keep her word and get some sleep in an on-call room. However, she only made it to the second floor before getting paged right back upstairs.
She was starting to feel like an actual zombie, as though she could only shuffle from location to location while grunting incoherently and demanding the brains of innocent bystanders. Her own mind was having some serious trouble focusing, leaving her with the attention span of a goldfish.
The next half hour was spent on a consult with OB: a pregnant mother with an unborn infant suffering from a rare heart condition. She felt for the terrified parents, able to relate now in a way she never could before. It made her thankful that all of Callie’s ultrasounds and check-ups had yielded good results. Their daughter was doing well and growing like a weed.
Following the consult, Arizona paged Teddy to meet her in her office, wanting to discuss available options should the parents wait to treat their child after delivery. It was a bit of a tricky situation - they could wait until the baby was born at full term, risking further complications and a slightly higher mortality percentage; they could induce labor once the development of the fetus was just far enough along that the child stood a chance at surviving; or they could go in pre-natally and attempt to fix the problem without delivering the baby. It was an extremely risky surgery and Arizona knew of only one person that could perform it with minimal complications.
“Oceanside Wellness, how may I direct your call?”
“I need to speak with Dr. Montgomery, please,” Arizona asked politely, checking her watch and hoping Addison was still working.
“May I ask who’s calling?”
“Dr. Robbins, Chief of Pediatric Surgery at Seattle Grace - Mercy West Hospital; I was hoping to consult with her about a patient of mine.”
“She was just on her way out but she might still be in the building. One moment, please.” The line clicked off and a string of 1940s-esque elevator music crackled to life while she was put on hold.
Switching the phone over to her other ear, Arizona shrugged off her lab coat and set it aside, then grabbed a pair of reading glasses and began flipping through the patient’s file. About three minutes later, she was ready to page Teddy again when a familiar voice came over the line.
“Dr. Montgomery speaking.”
The blonde leaned back in her seat. “Hey, Addison, it’s Arizona. Robbins. From Seattle Gr-”
“I only know one Arizona,” Addison interrupted, smiling into her end of the phone. “We have met a few times in person, in case you’ve forgotten.”
Arizona grinned lopsidedly. “I may be getting old these days, but hopefully I’m a long way from senile,” she mused. “Sorry to bother you right at the end of your work day.”
“No worries,” Addison replied. “Just be careful who you’re calling old. I have years on you.”
“Sorry,” Arizona laughed, shaking her head. She closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose, feeling the remnants of an earlier headache starting to pound behind her forehead again. “It’s been one of those...years, actually.”
“I hear you.” Addison shuffled around on the other end of the line, sitting back in her desk and clearing some work space. “I also hear that you knocked up Torres about six months back. Congratulations.”
That had Arizona grinning all over again despite her current exhaustion. “I did,” she confirmed, unable to help the happy sensation that flooded her stomach at the mere thought of her girlfriend’s beautiful face. “Though I’m not sure ‘congratulations’ is a word you want to be using around Calliope right now. She reamed me out last week for ruining her feet, lower back and chest all in one go. I think she’s ready to go into labor and she’s still got another three months or so left. It should be a fun experience for us both.”
“Well, if you tell her to call me for once, then perhaps I can talk some sense into the woman for you. Notice the emphasis on calling me. She’s been evasive and hard to get a hold of.”
“We’ve kind of had a lot on our plates lately, I wouldn’t take it personally,” Arizona admitted, feeling a little bad for being the main stressor in her partner’s life these days.
“She told me about your dad a few months ago,” Addison said lightly. “How’s he doing?”
Arizona shrugged even though the other woman couldn’t see her. She played with the phone cord, twirling it around her index finger. “He’s doing okay, I guess. As well as can be expected. Needs a heart soon, though.”
Addison made a sympathetic noise. “I’m so sorry to hear that. I hope one comes through.”
“Thanks, that means a lot.” Arizona sat up straighter and uncrossed her legs, pulling herself closer to the desk.
Sensing the blonde’s need for a change in topic, Addison switched gears. “So, you needed a consult on something?”
“Yeah,” Arizona replied, quickly flipping to the front of the patient’s file. “I was actually hoping to get your fabulous opinion on a course of prenatal treatment.” She went on to explain the fetus’ development problems, details about the mother and how the case had progressed so far. She checked her pager to see if Altman had responded yet, frowning when she still had no reply. Perhaps Teddy was in surgery, in which case someone should’ve told her already that she was unavailable.
“I’m confident Dr. Altman and I could handle the case once the baby is born but the mother really wanted to hear more about the prenatal options. I told her I’d get in contact with you first and see what you had to say before we discussed it any further.”
“I’ll need to see her ultrasounds and any other labs you’ve run so far,” Addison muttered distractedly, the sounds of a pen scribbling down what Arizona had just told her carrying over the phone. “If you fax everything through tonight, I can spend some time in the morning figuring out her best options and get back to you in the afternoon with a plan.”
“Perfect.” Arizona quickly jotted down the fax number Addison gave her before setting the pen aside and leaning back in her seat again. “Give me a call whenever you get the chance and if I’m not available, the peds nurse on desk duty can schedule a conference call for the three of us.”
“Will do.” Addison finished writing and switched the phone to her other shoulder. “Listen, tell that wife of yours to pick up the phone and call me or she’s not getting a Christmas card this year. And tell her I sounded all menacing and deadly serious, too.”
Arizona chuckled into the receiver and didn’t bother correcting Addison on Callie’s status as her ‘wife’. “I’ll make sure she knows you were threatening an all-out silent treatment if she doesn’t comply.”
“Perfect.” Addison’s end of the line made a crackling noise as she set aside the notepad she’d been writing on and prepared to leave again. “Take care of yourself, too, Arizona. My thoughts are with you and your dad.”
“Thank you,” the blonde replied sincerely. “I’ll talk to you soon, then. And thanks for the help.”
“Any time.”
Saying goodbye and hanging up, Arizona closed her eyes and dropped her head back onto her chair. She was contemplating falling asleep right there when the door to her office finally opened and Teddy entered without knocking.
One blue eye peaked open and Arizona immediately lifted her head. “Hey, I was beginning to think you’d been sucked into a black hole or something. What gives?”
Teddy didn’t so much as crack a smile; in fact, she looked rather apprehensive. “I’m sorry, but I wanted to come tell you in person.”
Arizona’s chest immediately tightened and she sat up straighter, back rigid with tension as she took in the somber expression on her best friend’s face. “What happened?”
Teddy swallowed back and stated what Arizona already knew. “It’s your dad.”
***
“Clamp,” Callie called out, accepting the one handed over by a scrub nurse and fastening it into place. “Avery, get in here and hold it steady, will you?”
He maneuvered around the operating table and shuffled up to Dr. Torres’ side, reaching in and doing what was asked. “Think she’ll be able to walk again?”
“She will if I have anything to say about it,” Callie muttered under her breath, focused intently on the set of shattered bones in front of her. “I really hope the driver didn’t just walk away untouched. Because if that’s the case, then God has a seriously twisted sense of humor. God tortures babies and enjoys himself.”
She grew up Catholic, she was still Catholic, but as a surgeon she knew all too well that that was a harsh reality about life. Sometimes innocent children got mowed down by a car while the idiot that shouldn’t have been driving in the first place walked away without a scratch.
“How’s she doing?” Callie called over to Owen, who was working on the little girl’s abdomen.
He checked the monitors and nodded confidently. “Holding steady. Managed to get the bleeding under control. If we can keep it that way, she should make it off the table.”
Callie shook her head in disbelief. “Hang in there, kiddo. We’ve got you.”
It was about three hours in to the extensive surgery when the door to the OR opened and Derek Shepherd stepped through. He held a surgical mask over his face and was flanked by two fourth-year residents. “Dr. Torres?”
Callie had her back to Shepherd and kept it that way as she worked. Hunt looked up at Derek. “Chief. Everything okay?”
Derek nodded once, then focused on Callie. “Torres, Dr. Gregson here is going to step in and assist Dr. Hunt in finishing.”
Callie snorted behind her mask, not even bothering to look over at the man. “No, she’s not,” she stated evenly, twisting a surgical screwdriver and setting a bolt into place.
Derek closed his eyes and sighed. “Dr. Torres-”
Callie finally turned her head around to level a glare on her Chief of Surgery. “I said this is my patient and I’m finishing the surgery. Just because I’m pregnant doesn’t mean I’m incapable of doing my job. Seriously, did you guys harass Bailey this much when she was having little Tuck?”
She shifted her gaze to the tiny, quivering resident standing to Derek’s left and snorted again. “You’ve gotta be kidding me.” She shook her head in disbelief and turned back to focus on the patient. “I said hold it steady, Avery,” she snapped when his hand slipped with the clamp.
“Dr. Torres,” Derek repeated sharply, “put down the drill for a moment and talk to me, please.”
Growling in frustration, Callie reluctantly set aside the equipment she’d just picked up and turned around, stalking over to him with her hands held up to keep them sterile. “Derek, we’re friends, but I have a three year old I’d very much like to live through the next five minutes, so make it snappy.”
He blinked at her, then launched into his reason for intruding. “Dr. Hahn is currently retrieving a heart from Central Washington Hospital as we speak. Dr. Altman has notified Dr. Robbins and is prepping her father in OR Two right now. It’ll be a little while before the heart gets here but I thought you might like to know.”
Callie stopped moving, breathing, thinking, doing anything other than staring at her boss in shock.
Derek’s eyes traveled over to the patient on the table. “If you need to complete this first and are one-hundred percent certain you are capable of focusing, you’re more than welcome to finish. Otherwise, I’m sure Hunt can handle it with Avery and Gregson assisting. I’ve also paged Dr. Cheng in to supervise the femur repairs for your residents.”
Callie still looked dumbstruck, rendered speechless as her mind ran a million miles ahead of the rest of her. She opened and closed her mouth a few times, failing to come up with anything to say in return.
“Dr. Torres?” one of the scrub nurses spoke up, several eyes in the OR planted directly on Callie. “Are you all right?”
Callie didn’t know how to answer that. Her girlfriend’s father was getting a heart, the one he needed to survive, which was great.
If he made it through the surgery. Which he might not. Which meant he might die today and Arizona’s world was about to come crumbling down around her.
Or he might live, only to suffer through a painful, rigorous recovery process that still might end in death.
There was also her patient; the tiny human whose bones needed mending. Her residents were okay but nowhere near as good as she was when it came to fixing the unfixable.
Like that was a fair decision.
“I-I can’t,” Callie finally stammered. “She needs me.”
Which one, patient or Arizona, she wasn’t really sure.
Derek nodded and offered a comforting smile from behind his mask, a smile that easily reached his eyes. “It’s okay, Callie. Finish the surgery; you’ll be done before Hahn gets the Colonel’s heart in. Robbins told me to wait until you were finished here before saying anything but I figured you’d want to know now.”
Callie closed her eyes and growled in frustration. “Crap.”
“You have time to finish. Arizona will be okay; she’s waiting with her mother.” Derek turned to go when the other attending spoke up again.
“I said she needs me.” Callie’s brown eyes were open and set with a fierce determination. She immediately strolled over to the biohazard waste bin and began to pull off her scrub cover and gloves. “Everyone else in this hospital might choose surgery over love, but I’m not one of them.”
She turned to level her fourth-year resident with a hard stare. “Rachel, I expect you to make sure this little girl gets her legs back. If you have any problems you can’t handle, you page me. Got it?”
“Yes, ma’am,” the quivering young resident replied with an eager nod. Thankfully her hands were a lot steadier than the rest of her.
“Good.” Callie met Derek’s gaze briefly before pushing past him and letting the door seal shut behind her.
Hunt watched from across the OR, smiling behind his mask. “Okay, people, let’s focus. Time to save a life.”
***
Arizona sat in the downstairs waiting room with her face buried in her hands. She felt sick to her stomach; just utterly and completely nauseated.
For any other patient, the news of a heart transplant coming through would bring nothing but joy and relief after months of turmoil. Yet once again her knowledge and expertise as a surgeon took that opportunity away from her and her family.
Today her father would either be saved or he would die. The nearly overwhelming odds pointed to the latter. He was weak and there was every chance he wouldn’t make it off the table.
She tried to block out the tearful goodbye she and her mom had with him hours before. ‘I love you’s and ‘See you later’s were exchanged with a fair amount of uncertainty. Arizona promised her father he would be okay and he in turn said that no matter what happened, he loved them both.
The pain in Arizona’s chest shot straight through her entire body, searing a hole in her own heart. She had to bite down on her bottom lip to keep from crying. It was too soon to cry; she needed to be strong for her mother until this was all over. One way or another.
Maria Robbins was off doing something with one of the residents, filling out and signing the proper paperwork that had yet to be finished. Arizona didn’t know what she was doing exactly, but for the time being she was grateful her mom was gone. She needed a moment to pull herself together, to tie up the loose, messy ends that were beginning to fray and hold them together long enough to get through this.
He’d been in surgery for three hours now, maybe four. The initial rush of things to do and people to call had been taken care of. Now all any one of them could do was wait.
Just when Arizona was mustering up every last ounce of strength she had in reserve, quiet, yet rapid footsteps approached from the side.
“Zona?”
Arizona looked up and felt a wave of relief flood through her at once. “Calliope?” she whispered, jumping to her feet. “I thought you were in surgery?”
Callie was still in her scrub cap and a mask was hanging loosely around her neck. “I was,” she said quietly, stepping forward and immediately pulling her girlfriend into a solid hug. “Derek came in and told me they found a heart for your dad.”
Arizona closed her eyes and circled both arms around Callie’s familiar waist. “They did. Teddy’s in there with him now while Erica’s flying in to get the heart from Central. It’ll be a while before we hear anything from either of them.”
Callie ducked her face down and buried her nose in the soft blonde tresses. “He’s gonna be okay now. He’s strong; he’ll make it through this.”
“You don’t know that,” Arizona countered in a hoarse whisper. “It’s a tough surgery and he’s weak. He might not be able to-”
“Shh,” Callie scolded lightly, tightening her hold on the blonde and rubbing a soothing hand up down her back. “Don’t think like that. We just need to have a little faith.”
Feeling the body in her arms start to shake, Callie hugged Arizona even closer. “You don’t have to be the strong one anymore; it’s just me and you now. Let me take care of you for once.”
For a moment, Arizona felt torn up inside. She clung to Callie in a desperate attempt to keep it together, bunching her fists around her girlfriend’s scrub top. It ended up having the opposite effect; the strong arms surrounding her gave her tear ducts the sense of security they needed to unleash, right alongside the hard sob that escaped her lungs.
“I can’t lose him,” Arizona cried into her partner’s shoulder, burying her face in Callie’s neck and squeezing her eyes tightly shut. “Callie, please...”
“You won’t,” Callie murmured into the blonde’s ear, never once easing up on her firm grip. “Everything’s gonna be okay. Just keep breathing.”
Arizona’s mind wouldn’t stop racing ahead with semi-coherent thoughts and images of every possible outcome under the sun.
It’s not that she wasn’t happy her father was getting a new heart. She was; this was what they’d all been waiting for. Now she was terrified of what came after. There were so many things that could go wrong and the probability of any one of them happening was stacked overwhelmingly against their favour.
The only thing that helped keep her head in that moment was the girl whose arms she was wrapped in. Arizona clung to Callie like a lifeline and took solace in the soft and gentle words being whispered soothingly against her ear.
“He’s gonna be okay,” Callie murmured softly, and Arizona wanted so desperately to believe it.
He was Colonel Robbins, patriarch of their family. He had to be.
---
Chapter 22/36
Authors: Faith kennedysbitch & Kye kye9
Pairing: Callie/Arizona, Mark/Lexie
Rating: NC-17
Disclaimer
Story Summary: Sequel to Choices. Callie and Arizona make the decision to move forward with their lives, but when a gradual series of events begin to snowball, Arizona tries desperately not to lose her grip on reality.
Chapter Summary: Mark’s in the doghouse while Arizona juggles work, personal issues, and mounting stress.
Previous Chapters
---
Mark was staring off into space - also known as ‘the nurse from radiology’s ass’ - when he was clubbed over the head by something hard and heavy.
Arizona didn’t waste time with words or angry noises, she simply smacked him three times over the skull with her patient’s chart before he even had a chance to react.
“What the-” Mark recoiled and finally lifted an arm to deflect the fourth blow, then grabbed the object and wrenched it away from the angry blonde on the fifth. “Robbins, what are you-”
“You’re an ass!” she hissed, deciding that she didn’t need a weapon after all and punching him on the shoulder instead. He tripped backwards and she advanced, not giving him an inch of breathing room. “Seriously, I do you a favour and you repay me by telling your girlfriend, who in turn tells my girlfriend, and now I’m in the dog house? Ass!”
Mark groaned under his breath. Robbins might’ve had tiny fists but she sure as fuck knew how to use ‘em. “Okay! Okay! I’m sorry!” he practically shouted. “What do you want me to say? She walked in when I was-”
Arizona’s hands frantically shot up in the air, cutting him off as she quickly covered her ears. “I don’t want to hear it!” she snapped, shuddering at the visual he’d nearly supplied her with. “Point is, you sold me out and I’m never doing you a single favour ever again. And you so owe me one.”
Shrinking back until he was pressed up against the administration desk, Mark stared back at the woman with wide, terrified eyes. She didn’t look like she was fucking around; in fact, he half expected her to start gnashing her teeth or to reach out and snap his arm off before cracking him over the head with it.
Jesus, Robbins had a whole different scary side to her scary side. And that was saying something.
“Lexie’s very convincing,” he stated after a moment passed, sensing he wouldn’t be decapitated on the spot for opening his mouth. “I can’t lie to her, I’m sorry. I’ve tried but the woman has crazy eyes.”
Rolling her own set of baby blues, Arizona gave up in a huff and collapsed in the rolling chair next to the computer. “Whatever. You’re still a jerk. And I want my movie back.”
Sloan couldn’t help the perverted smirk that spread across his face. “I’ll bet you do,” he chuckled, setting down the chart he’d stolen. “I’d still totally go for a private viewing of your ‘home video collection’, if you know what I mean.”
Sometimes he thought with his penis instead of his brain.
Without even blinking, Arizona’s right elbow shot out and connected solidly with Mark’s groin, her seated position giving her the perfect elevation to make the hit really count.
Mark immediately doubled over, tears springing up behind his eyes as he clenched his legs together and fought the urge to crumble to the ground. A weak, forced wheeze was the only sound he was capable of making as the air left his lungs.
Arizona stood up and snatched her chart back, folding it over and clicking her pen closed. “Ass,” she repeated, not giving him so much as a second glance as she marched off to take the elevator up to Peds.
Mark was barely aware of the looks they were getting, mainly from nurses hovering nearby. He let out a hard puff of a breath, glowering through watery eyes in Arizona’s direction. “Who the hell elbows someone in the groin? Gah!”
***
Luckily for Arizona, Callie was much more forgiving than she’d thought she would be. There was really no further discussion about the porn incident outside of a few well-timed jokes on Callie’s part.
Something told Arizona she would never live it down, even when they were ninety years old and living in a retirement home.
The next few days went by in a blur, filled with various OB appointments, visits with her dad, meetings with her lawyer, and even one and a half Date Nights with her girlfriend. Half, because she’d been paged for an emergency with a long-term care patient in the middle of eating dinner last Thursday.
Arizona was currently taking a break during a two-day shift by dozing in the uncomfortable chair next to her father’s bedside. Both Robbinses were unconscious in the darkness, not so much as a single snore rumbling up from either one of them. They were both exhausted, Arizona from the pressure overload of her life and Daniel because his heart was failing. Mrs. Robbins had taken some convincing to get back to her hotel room for some rest, only after Arizona assured her that the Colonel would not be left alone. Her mom would probably be back soon with food and coffee, ready for a brand new evening of sitting vigil by her husband’s side.
Arizona was sleeping with her neck at an awkward angle when a gentle hand touched her shoulder. She immediately snorted and jerked upright, blinking around the darkened room in confusion. “Hm?”
Callie stood over her with an apprehensive smile, sporting her signature leather jacket and favourite pair of maternity jeans.
Arizona blinked sleepily and shook her head to clear it. “Hey,” she murmured half-consciously, stifling a big yawn that threatened to escape. Almost every muscle in her upper body twinged in protest as she shifted upright in her seat.
She really needed to tell the Chief to replace these visitor chairs. They were like torture devices designed to create more surgical patients for them to fix.
“Hey,” Callie echoed, squeezing Arizona’s shoulder. “Sorry to wake you.”
“What’re you doing here?” The blonde pushed loose strands of hair away from her face, trying to tuck them back into her ponytail. “Are you okay? Is the baby okay?”
“The baby’s fine,” Callie replied with a soft smile, studying Arizona’s haggard form. “Wish I could say the same for you. When was the last time you slept?” She set two cups of coffee down on the nearest table and focused her full attention on her girlfriend.
“Um...” Arizona rubbed a hand across her face. “Don’t remember,” she admitted with a sheepish smile. “Last week some time?”
“Zona,” Callie scolded, sighing unhappily. She reached up to trace her fingertips along the other woman’s brow line. “You’ve gotta get some rest, sweetie. Your dad doesn’t want you running yourself into the ground again. Neither do I.”
Arizona grumbled, closing her eyes and subconsciously leaning into the gentle touch. “No, I’m good here. I don’t want to leave him.” She opened them again and watched her father through the darkness as Callie pulled a chair over. Arizona immediately rested her cheek against the brunette’s shoulder, ignoring the residual twinge in her neck.
“Better not let the baby residents know their favourite ortho Goddess is back in the building,” she mused tiredly, her fingers playing with the worn material of Callie’s leather jacket. “I’ve already had to threaten bodily harm on the majority of them if they so much as think about paging you. Most of ‘em can’t figure out how to fix a broken arm without panicking. You really need a second in command before you go on full mat leave.”
Callie propped her right elbow against the back of Arizona’s chair, idly stroking her fingers through silky blonde curls. “That’s kinda why I’m here, actually.”
Arizona lifted her head and pursed her lips unhappily.
“They need me for an emergency surgery tonight,” Callie explained. “I know I promised I’d take a couple of days off and rest, but they really need me to do it.”
“Calliope,” Arizona replied with the beginnings of a protest.
“It’s for a three-year-old girl,” Callie broke in, her apprehension giving way to sadness. “She was playing in her yard when a driver fell asleep at the wheel and plowed her down on the front lawn. Both of her legs are broken and part of her clavicle is shattered. It’s a miracle she’s still alive.”
Arizona immediately sat up straighter, suddenly finding herself much more awake. “What? Why didn’t anyone page me?” she demanded, fumbling to dig the device out of her lab coat, afraid that she’d slept through it.
“Hunt told them not to,” Callie quickly cut in, placing a hand over Arizona’s before she could rip the pocket off entirely. “You’ve been going for almost two days straight and he knew you were up here with your dad. We’ve got it covered.”
Arizona shifted in her chair and faced her partner more directly. “Are you sure? Because I can be awake and scrubbed in if you give me five-”
“Nope,” Callie interrupted once more with a firm shake of her head. “I’m hardcore, I can handle it. They’re prepping her right now and Hunt needs to do some damage control before I can really get in there, anyway.”
“You’re sure?” Arizona asked, giving a light tug on Callie’s jacket.
“Yes, very.” Callie lifted a sharp eyebrow. “You will be doing nothing but sleeping for at least the next four or five hours, anyway. You look like a zombie from a Quentin Tarantino film.”
Arizona scrunched her brow, thinking that one over. “I don’t...think he does zombies.”
“If he did, you would be one.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“I mean it,” Callie added on a more serious note. “Promise me that you’ll sleep. Promise me.”
Arizona looked wistfully over at her father’s dozing form, hoping for a moment that he might pipe up and echo Callie’s orders. Not so she would feel less guilty about leaving him, but so she would know he was coherent enough to listen in on their whispered conversation.
Nothing. No sounds.
Pouting, Arizona caved in without much protest. She was too worn out to put up a fight tonight; Callie could pretty much walk her off a cliff and she would barely even notice.
“Okay,” she relented, sagging back in her chair. “I promise. But I’m gonna wait for my mom to get back, first. I don’t want to leave him alone.”
Callie squeezed the arm she had around Arizona’s shoulders and pressed a loving kiss to her temple. “I’ve got a few minutes,” she murmured, closing her eyes and breathing in the blonde’s intoxicating scent. “I’ll wait with you.”
Arizona nodded silently and snuggled into Callie the best she could, closing her eyes and wishing for something good to happen today.
***
“Excuse me, I’m looking for Dr. Sloan?”
“He just got out of surgery,” Lexie Grey answered distractedly, scribbling down a few short-handed notes on her clipboard. “He’ll be back in a few minutes. Can I help you with something?”
She looked up and immediately paused, finding herself face-to-face with the hot young thing from down the hall. The one Mark had used his manly muscles to help move into the building. The law student that was entirely too hot to be looking for her fiancé.
“Uh, w-what is it you need him for?” Lexie stammered.
Kyla pushed a lock of hair behind her ear, smiling brightly at the young doctor she’d never seen before. “He’s expecting me, I think. We were going to have lunch.” She held up a white paper bag.
Lexie’s brow skyrocketed as she looked from the bag to the woman’s eyes. “You...you were?”
Kyla’s friendly smile faltered and she suddenly looked uncertain. “Um, yeah. Is that not allowed? I just assumed it was okay; he didn’t say anything to me about it not being okay.”
Jaw clenched a little too tightly for comfort, Lexie flexed her right arm, wishing in this moment that it was still in one piece and usable for things such as telling a bitch to step-off. “No, that’s fine. I’m sure he’ll be right out. Why don’t you go wait in the lobby and I’ll tell him you’ve arrived?”
Oblivious to the doctor’s sudden change in mood, Kyla nodded and started for the waiting room. “Cool, thanks. Tell him I’ll wait as long as he needs.”
She turned and practically model-walked down the hall, on legs that were six feet long and an ass that was illegal in forty-nine states.
Bitch.
The pencil in Lexie’s hand suddenly snapped in two and fell apart on the desk. “I’ll do just that,” she growled dangerously under her breath, turning on her heels and marching in the direction of the elevators.
Someone had some explaining to do.
***
Mark was changing in the attendings’ locker room when the door burst open and a very angry looking brunette came storming through.
“Hey,” he called over in surprise, frowning. “What are you doing here? You’re not supposed to work again until the weekend. Torres told you to take it easy without the sling.”
“Shut up,” Lexie snapped, hands planted firmly on her hips. “Your new girlfriend is here. She’s waiting for you in the lobby. With lunch. That she made for you. For your plans.”
Mark froze in place and fumbled for words. “Shit,” he mumbled under his breath, twisting the scrub shirt in his hands. “Lex, it’s not what you think.”
“What I ‘think’, Mark? No, I’m pretty sure there’s only one way to interpret you having lunch with another woman.”
Mark felt a nervous lump swirl around in his stomach, suddenly finding Lexie Grey a lot more terrifying than he ever had before.
At this rate, all he needed was for Torres to physically or verbally attack him and then he’d have collected the whole set.
“I’m not fucking her,” he stated bluntly. “I swear to you. She’s just here for a consult.”
Lexie scoffed and crossed her arms, looking away while wearing a sour expression. “Great, that’s awesome. Really. I feel so much better now. Thanks.”
At a complete loss for how to explain this away, Mark rubbed a hand through his hair and shrugged. “She’s just here for a consult,” he repeated.
“Do you always have a ‘special lunch’ with your ‘consults’?” Lexie snapped. “You’re what, trying to seduce her and then you’ll fuck her? At work, because like you just said, I wasn’t even supposed to be here today. And now I’ve completely ruined your plans to screw the hot young law student you’ve obviously got wrapped around your stupid fat finger!”
“Lex, please,” Mark pleaded, taking a careful step towards his girlfriend as he pulled his scrub top on. “Calm down. The baby-”
Angry, frustrated tears burned in Lexie’s eyes as she jerked away from his touch. “What baby? You mean your son? The one that I’m currently pregnant with while you run out and bone the first thing that flaunts her obviously fake boobs in your face?”
Mark grimaced at the harsh words. “Lexie, I am not fucking her. I’m not and I don’t want to.”
A few tears fell from Lexie’s dark eyes as she crossed her arms defensively over her protruding stomach. “I don’t believe you.”
Why should she? It’s not like he was getting any at home with her. She’d tried, but for whatever reason, she was having difficulty getting close to him. Part of it had to do with her injury when it was fresh, but now that she was getting better, his sexual advances still made her uncomfortable. It wasn’t something she chose; her body just wasn’t responding the way it used to. The way she wanted it to.
She was confused and scared. And now more than a little hurt that Mark was at least tempted to get some on the side.
“She said that you had plans, that you were going on a-a lunch date with her, Mark. She made lunch for you. And maybe if you’d told me about it beforehand I would’ve believed you. But you didn’t, which means you knew it was something to hide.”
“I told her to stop by around lunch if she wanted to talk,” he said in a rush, grasping at straws. “I didn’t mean it was an actual date.”
Lexie’s eyes suddenly hardened and both hands flew down to the hem of her scrub top. “Fine! You want sex? You need sex that badly? We’ll have sex!” She ripped the material up and off of her body, tossing it on the floor without a second thought.
Just as the last sentence left Lexie’s mouth, Callie bustled in through the door, fingers clicking away at warp-speed on her Blackberry. She froze in place and glanced up, surveying the scene in front of her.
Mark looking strained, Lexie standing topless and pregnant, clearly in the middle of yelling at him.
Callie blinked once. “Uh...”
Mark’s eyes were still glued to his fiancée’s bra-clad breasts. He swallowed back thickly before tearing them away to stare at his best friend. “Torres, you mind giving us a minute?”
Callie looked uncomfortable. “Um, yeah, sure. But I have to scrub in right away, soo...” She pointed at her locker.
“We’ll only be a minute,” Mark added quietly.
Nodding, Callie turned on her heels and exited the room.
Mark instantly returned his gaze to the raging volcano about to erupt on him yet again. “Lex, please. Put your shirt back on.”
She growled.
Mark swallowed hard and held up a hand in defense. “Honey, please. I don’t want to do this with you right now.”
Feeling a sharp pang in her chest, Lexie finally tore her eyes away from Mark and tried fitfully to pull her shirt back on. “Fine. Go have lunch with the whore from down the hall. See if I care.”
She yanked the material down, missing the hole in the neckline completely and getting herself stuck.
Mark immediately stepped forward and tried to help. “I really didn’t think you’d be in today.”
Lexie jerked away from his touch and finally got her head through, roughly tugging the scrub top back into place. “Is that supposed to make me feel better?” she snapped, clearly hurt.
Mark ran his fingers back through his hair. “I didn’t mean it like that. I just, I wanted to have lunch and it’s for a consult. That’s all.”
“With the hot girl from down the hall that clearly wants to get in your pants?”
Mark shook his head. “She doesn’t-”
“Yes, she does,” Lexie cut in. “She made you lunch and she’s seen you without a shirt on. Of course she wants to sleep with you.”
She crossed both arms over her chest again, huffing loudly. “If you wanted to have lunch, couldn’t you have at least picked someone uglier?”
It was shallow and she knew it. Lexie didn’t like to be shallow. But she also didn’t like to be pregnant and not in control of her own body. She loved their son, she really did, but she didn’t love what crazy, hormonal things he was doing to her in these last few weeks.
She wanted to want to be touched by her husband, for his sake and hers. Their sex life had never been a problem until now and it [i]sucked[/i].
“At least someone who’s not hotter than me times a million,” she added after a moment, grumbling under her breath and dropping her head. She deflated rather quickly and was left feeling sad and very, very lonely.
Mark immediately stepped forward and took her by the arms. “Are you kidding me?” he said with a growing smile. “Lex, standing next to you, she looks like Janet Reno with a bad case of the mumps.”
Lexie cracked a tiny smile as Mark lifted her chin up. “Really?”
“Oh please, it’s no contest,” he said smoothly. “You have more hotness in your little toe than she could ever hope to have in her entire body.”
Lexie sighed tiredly and closed her eyes. “These last few weeks have really sucked.”
“I know,” Mark replied softly. “I know they have, baby. I’m sorry.”
“She thinks she has a chance with you,” Lexie pointed out. “And she clearly had no idea who I was. Which sucks and makes me want to kick you in the crotch, but...I’m gonna trust you.”
Lexie nodded firmly, trying to muster up more conviction than she felt. “Even though technically I have every right to be pissed off that you’re having lunch with another woman. Who is clearly hot. And has no idea you even have a pregnant fiancée to begin with.”
A moment passed and Lexie’s frown deepened as she contemplated all that. “No, you know what? Screw you.” She turned on her heels, fully prepared to stomp out of the room.
Mark lunged forward and grabbed her by the elbow. “No, stop. Don’t do this.”
“Do what?” Lexie whirled around and yanked her arm away. “You’re an ass. I never listened to anyone when they told me you would try and cheat on me, because I believed you were a good guy and you wouldn’t hurt me. But how am I supposed to feel when you’re seeing another woman behind my back? One that has an interest in sleeping with you when clearly I’ve been a little absent in that department.”
Mark hung his head in shame and his shoulders sagged. “I’m sorry,” he muttered. “I got a little attention and I went with it. I didn’t mean for it to...I’m sorry.”
Lexie stepped back from him again, looking away. “Great, so go with it. You know, I don’t care about the stupid porn. You’re a guy, you’re entitled and you...whatever. But finding out that you’re getting your attention elsewhere isn’t exactly making me feel very confident here. I’m like a billion months pregnant a-and it’s not like I can help that I busted my shoulder. I’m sorry not having sex lately is hard for you, but it’s not a free pass to go and see other women behind my back. Don’t you get that?”
Looking strained, Lexie bit her bottom lip to keep from crying again. “It’s pretty clear I’m not enough for you right now. Which kinda sucks, since I’m having your baby. Makes things a little more complicated.”
“I don’t want anyone else,” Mark argued, sounding dejected. “I miss you. You spend more time with Torres, your sister, or here than you do at home, even though you’re not cleared for surgery yet. And when you are with me-”
“I won’t have sex with you,” Lexie snorted, wiping a stray year away as it threatened to fall. “Great. At least now I know what’s really important.”
Without another word, she turned and exited the room, leaving Mark standing there with his hands by his sides.
He leaned back into the nearest row of lockers and closed his eyes. “Fuck.”
***
In the third floor doctor’s lounge, Callie was pouring herself a fresh cup of coffee when Mark entered. She turned to him while adding copious amounts of sugar to the steaming drink. “You and the wife finished arguing yet?”
Mark shrugged and collapsed wordlessly onto the couch by the window.
Callie frowned and strolled over to him, glancing quickly at her watch. She really had to scrub in soon but she could spare a few minutes for her best friend first.
“Scoot,” she ordered, nudging him in the leg until he shuffled over one cushion.
Flopping down into the empty space, Callie leveled him with a suspicious stare. “What did you do this time?”
“Why does everyone always assume that I did something?” Mark snapped irritably.
Callie simply raised an eyebrow.
His shoulders slumped and he stared hard at his lap. “Remember new neighbor girl?”
Callie tilted her head to the side and thought about it. “The hot one with the great ass?” She took a sip of coffee, then amended that statement. “Wait, which one?”
“The blonde one.”
“Ah, right. The one you used your manly arms to help move in.” Callie snorted and drank some more. “What about her?”
“She came in to have lunch with me today and Lexie found out.”
Callie choked on her drink. “Are you stupid or something?”
Mark growled under his breath. “It was not like that, Torres. I’m not fucking her, just having lunch with her. Over a consult. She broke her nose a few years back and doesn’t know if she likes the repair job they did.”
Callie smirked and shook her head. “Yeah, uh-huh. I’m so sure she ‘needs a new nose job’.” When the man only stared at her blankly, she dropped the coffee cup onto her thigh and settled him with a pointed look. “Oh come on, Mark, you’re not that stupid. The girl totally has the hots for you. She was using the nose job thing as an excuse.”
Mark scowled and crossed his arms unhappily. “That’s what Lexie thinks, too.”
“Well, she would be right,” Callie said, treading carefully. “I take it you didn’t tell her about this little ‘lunch’ thing you had planned with neighbor girl before?”
Mark hesitated. “Not in so many words.”
“Sloan,” the brunette groaned, elbowing him in the side. “You’re an idiot. You’ve got a pregnant wife that’s probably more than a little insecure about her body image, whom you’ve yet to sex up since she hurt herself, and now you’re having lunch with nose-job from down the hall? Why do you think Lexie was upset?”
“She doesn’t need to be,” Mark argued. “I love her, okay? But she doesn’t want anything to do with me. She won’t let me touch her.”
“I know you mean well, Mark, but if you’re constantly hounding her for sex, she’s gonna say no,” Callie pointed out. “Trust me when I say a separated, dislocated shoulder is a big deal. Her ligaments are still healing and it’s not a fun experience when on pain medication, which she isn’t. She’s also hormonal and carrying around your baby, while trying not to get left behind in an insanely demanding job. She’s got a lot going on. Give her a break; keep it in your pants for a few more weeks. You’ll survive. You love each other.”
Mark nodded silently and dropped his chin onto his chest. It stung a little that even Torres thought all he cared about was sex when it went so far beyond that, but he just didn’t care to argue right now. His fight with Lexie had taken all the wind out of his sails. “Yeah, okay. You’re right.”
“I’m always right.” Callie took a sip of her drink again. A moment passed before she transferred the paper cup to her right hand, then abruptly reached up and smacked him on the back of the head with her left.
He jolted forward and twisted around to glare at her. “What was that for?”
Callie met his eyes and stared him down. “For getting my girlfriend involved in your shenanigans. She’s impressionable, Mark. Leave her out of your scheming.”
“It was her idea!” Mark shot back defensively. “I had nothing to do with it.”
“Whatever,” Callie said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “Point it, leave my woman out of your issues. I need her focused on me and my issues. Okay?”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Mark grumbled, rubbing one of the growing number of bruises on the back of his skull.
Women. They blamed him for fuckin’ everything these days.
For a long moment, Callie and Mark sat there in a contemplative silence, each lost within their own deep thoughts. The clock nearby ticked away the seconds, echoing through the otherwise quiet room.
Callie stared straight ahead at the opposite wall, slowly raising the coffee cup to her lips after a minute or so had passed. “So, this DVD Arizona lent you. What content could one expect to find on it, exactly?”
Mark blinked out of his trance and turned his head to the right. “What?”
Callie took a careful sip of the hot drink. “Just answer the question, Sloan.”
Mark merely grinned and shook his head.
Women.
***
After her mom returned, Arizona left the ICU to keep her word and get some sleep in an on-call room. However, she only made it to the second floor before getting paged right back upstairs.
She was starting to feel like an actual zombie, as though she could only shuffle from location to location while grunting incoherently and demanding the brains of innocent bystanders. Her own mind was having some serious trouble focusing, leaving her with the attention span of a goldfish.
The next half hour was spent on a consult with OB: a pregnant mother with an unborn infant suffering from a rare heart condition. She felt for the terrified parents, able to relate now in a way she never could before. It made her thankful that all of Callie’s ultrasounds and check-ups had yielded good results. Their daughter was doing well and growing like a weed.
Following the consult, Arizona paged Teddy to meet her in her office, wanting to discuss available options should the parents wait to treat their child after delivery. It was a bit of a tricky situation - they could wait until the baby was born at full term, risking further complications and a slightly higher mortality percentage; they could induce labor once the development of the fetus was just far enough along that the child stood a chance at surviving; or they could go in pre-natally and attempt to fix the problem without delivering the baby. It was an extremely risky surgery and Arizona knew of only one person that could perform it with minimal complications.
“Oceanside Wellness, how may I direct your call?”
“I need to speak with Dr. Montgomery, please,” Arizona asked politely, checking her watch and hoping Addison was still working.
“May I ask who’s calling?”
“Dr. Robbins, Chief of Pediatric Surgery at Seattle Grace - Mercy West Hospital; I was hoping to consult with her about a patient of mine.”
“She was just on her way out but she might still be in the building. One moment, please.” The line clicked off and a string of 1940s-esque elevator music crackled to life while she was put on hold.
Switching the phone over to her other ear, Arizona shrugged off her lab coat and set it aside, then grabbed a pair of reading glasses and began flipping through the patient’s file. About three minutes later, she was ready to page Teddy again when a familiar voice came over the line.
“Dr. Montgomery speaking.”
The blonde leaned back in her seat. “Hey, Addison, it’s Arizona. Robbins. From Seattle Gr-”
“I only know one Arizona,” Addison interrupted, smiling into her end of the phone. “We have met a few times in person, in case you’ve forgotten.”
Arizona grinned lopsidedly. “I may be getting old these days, but hopefully I’m a long way from senile,” she mused. “Sorry to bother you right at the end of your work day.”
“No worries,” Addison replied. “Just be careful who you’re calling old. I have years on you.”
“Sorry,” Arizona laughed, shaking her head. She closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose, feeling the remnants of an earlier headache starting to pound behind her forehead again. “It’s been one of those...years, actually.”
“I hear you.” Addison shuffled around on the other end of the line, sitting back in her desk and clearing some work space. “I also hear that you knocked up Torres about six months back. Congratulations.”
That had Arizona grinning all over again despite her current exhaustion. “I did,” she confirmed, unable to help the happy sensation that flooded her stomach at the mere thought of her girlfriend’s beautiful face. “Though I’m not sure ‘congratulations’ is a word you want to be using around Calliope right now. She reamed me out last week for ruining her feet, lower back and chest all in one go. I think she’s ready to go into labor and she’s still got another three months or so left. It should be a fun experience for us both.”
“Well, if you tell her to call me for once, then perhaps I can talk some sense into the woman for you. Notice the emphasis on calling me. She’s been evasive and hard to get a hold of.”
“We’ve kind of had a lot on our plates lately, I wouldn’t take it personally,” Arizona admitted, feeling a little bad for being the main stressor in her partner’s life these days.
“She told me about your dad a few months ago,” Addison said lightly. “How’s he doing?”
Arizona shrugged even though the other woman couldn’t see her. She played with the phone cord, twirling it around her index finger. “He’s doing okay, I guess. As well as can be expected. Needs a heart soon, though.”
Addison made a sympathetic noise. “I’m so sorry to hear that. I hope one comes through.”
“Thanks, that means a lot.” Arizona sat up straighter and uncrossed her legs, pulling herself closer to the desk.
Sensing the blonde’s need for a change in topic, Addison switched gears. “So, you needed a consult on something?”
“Yeah,” Arizona replied, quickly flipping to the front of the patient’s file. “I was actually hoping to get your fabulous opinion on a course of prenatal treatment.” She went on to explain the fetus’ development problems, details about the mother and how the case had progressed so far. She checked her pager to see if Altman had responded yet, frowning when she still had no reply. Perhaps Teddy was in surgery, in which case someone should’ve told her already that she was unavailable.
“I’m confident Dr. Altman and I could handle the case once the baby is born but the mother really wanted to hear more about the prenatal options. I told her I’d get in contact with you first and see what you had to say before we discussed it any further.”
“I’ll need to see her ultrasounds and any other labs you’ve run so far,” Addison muttered distractedly, the sounds of a pen scribbling down what Arizona had just told her carrying over the phone. “If you fax everything through tonight, I can spend some time in the morning figuring out her best options and get back to you in the afternoon with a plan.”
“Perfect.” Arizona quickly jotted down the fax number Addison gave her before setting the pen aside and leaning back in her seat again. “Give me a call whenever you get the chance and if I’m not available, the peds nurse on desk duty can schedule a conference call for the three of us.”
“Will do.” Addison finished writing and switched the phone to her other shoulder. “Listen, tell that wife of yours to pick up the phone and call me or she’s not getting a Christmas card this year. And tell her I sounded all menacing and deadly serious, too.”
Arizona chuckled into the receiver and didn’t bother correcting Addison on Callie’s status as her ‘wife’. “I’ll make sure she knows you were threatening an all-out silent treatment if she doesn’t comply.”
“Perfect.” Addison’s end of the line made a crackling noise as she set aside the notepad she’d been writing on and prepared to leave again. “Take care of yourself, too, Arizona. My thoughts are with you and your dad.”
“Thank you,” the blonde replied sincerely. “I’ll talk to you soon, then. And thanks for the help.”
“Any time.”
Saying goodbye and hanging up, Arizona closed her eyes and dropped her head back onto her chair. She was contemplating falling asleep right there when the door to her office finally opened and Teddy entered without knocking.
One blue eye peaked open and Arizona immediately lifted her head. “Hey, I was beginning to think you’d been sucked into a black hole or something. What gives?”
Teddy didn’t so much as crack a smile; in fact, she looked rather apprehensive. “I’m sorry, but I wanted to come tell you in person.”
Arizona’s chest immediately tightened and she sat up straighter, back rigid with tension as she took in the somber expression on her best friend’s face. “What happened?”
Teddy swallowed back and stated what Arizona already knew. “It’s your dad.”
***
“Clamp,” Callie called out, accepting the one handed over by a scrub nurse and fastening it into place. “Avery, get in here and hold it steady, will you?”
He maneuvered around the operating table and shuffled up to Dr. Torres’ side, reaching in and doing what was asked. “Think she’ll be able to walk again?”
“She will if I have anything to say about it,” Callie muttered under her breath, focused intently on the set of shattered bones in front of her. “I really hope the driver didn’t just walk away untouched. Because if that’s the case, then God has a seriously twisted sense of humor. God tortures babies and enjoys himself.”
She grew up Catholic, she was still Catholic, but as a surgeon she knew all too well that that was a harsh reality about life. Sometimes innocent children got mowed down by a car while the idiot that shouldn’t have been driving in the first place walked away without a scratch.
“How’s she doing?” Callie called over to Owen, who was working on the little girl’s abdomen.
He checked the monitors and nodded confidently. “Holding steady. Managed to get the bleeding under control. If we can keep it that way, she should make it off the table.”
Callie shook her head in disbelief. “Hang in there, kiddo. We’ve got you.”
It was about three hours in to the extensive surgery when the door to the OR opened and Derek Shepherd stepped through. He held a surgical mask over his face and was flanked by two fourth-year residents. “Dr. Torres?”
Callie had her back to Shepherd and kept it that way as she worked. Hunt looked up at Derek. “Chief. Everything okay?”
Derek nodded once, then focused on Callie. “Torres, Dr. Gregson here is going to step in and assist Dr. Hunt in finishing.”
Callie snorted behind her mask, not even bothering to look over at the man. “No, she’s not,” she stated evenly, twisting a surgical screwdriver and setting a bolt into place.
Derek closed his eyes and sighed. “Dr. Torres-”
Callie finally turned her head around to level a glare on her Chief of Surgery. “I said this is my patient and I’m finishing the surgery. Just because I’m pregnant doesn’t mean I’m incapable of doing my job. Seriously, did you guys harass Bailey this much when she was having little Tuck?”
She shifted her gaze to the tiny, quivering resident standing to Derek’s left and snorted again. “You’ve gotta be kidding me.” She shook her head in disbelief and turned back to focus on the patient. “I said hold it steady, Avery,” she snapped when his hand slipped with the clamp.
“Dr. Torres,” Derek repeated sharply, “put down the drill for a moment and talk to me, please.”
Growling in frustration, Callie reluctantly set aside the equipment she’d just picked up and turned around, stalking over to him with her hands held up to keep them sterile. “Derek, we’re friends, but I have a three year old I’d very much like to live through the next five minutes, so make it snappy.”
He blinked at her, then launched into his reason for intruding. “Dr. Hahn is currently retrieving a heart from Central Washington Hospital as we speak. Dr. Altman has notified Dr. Robbins and is prepping her father in OR Two right now. It’ll be a little while before the heart gets here but I thought you might like to know.”
Callie stopped moving, breathing, thinking, doing anything other than staring at her boss in shock.
Derek’s eyes traveled over to the patient on the table. “If you need to complete this first and are one-hundred percent certain you are capable of focusing, you’re more than welcome to finish. Otherwise, I’m sure Hunt can handle it with Avery and Gregson assisting. I’ve also paged Dr. Cheng in to supervise the femur repairs for your residents.”
Callie still looked dumbstruck, rendered speechless as her mind ran a million miles ahead of the rest of her. She opened and closed her mouth a few times, failing to come up with anything to say in return.
“Dr. Torres?” one of the scrub nurses spoke up, several eyes in the OR planted directly on Callie. “Are you all right?”
Callie didn’t know how to answer that. Her girlfriend’s father was getting a heart, the one he needed to survive, which was great.
If he made it through the surgery. Which he might not. Which meant he might die today and Arizona’s world was about to come crumbling down around her.
Or he might live, only to suffer through a painful, rigorous recovery process that still might end in death.
There was also her patient; the tiny human whose bones needed mending. Her residents were okay but nowhere near as good as she was when it came to fixing the unfixable.
Like that was a fair decision.
“I-I can’t,” Callie finally stammered. “She needs me.”
Which one, patient or Arizona, she wasn’t really sure.
Derek nodded and offered a comforting smile from behind his mask, a smile that easily reached his eyes. “It’s okay, Callie. Finish the surgery; you’ll be done before Hahn gets the Colonel’s heart in. Robbins told me to wait until you were finished here before saying anything but I figured you’d want to know now.”
Callie closed her eyes and growled in frustration. “Crap.”
“You have time to finish. Arizona will be okay; she’s waiting with her mother.” Derek turned to go when the other attending spoke up again.
“I said she needs me.” Callie’s brown eyes were open and set with a fierce determination. She immediately strolled over to the biohazard waste bin and began to pull off her scrub cover and gloves. “Everyone else in this hospital might choose surgery over love, but I’m not one of them.”
She turned to level her fourth-year resident with a hard stare. “Rachel, I expect you to make sure this little girl gets her legs back. If you have any problems you can’t handle, you page me. Got it?”
“Yes, ma’am,” the quivering young resident replied with an eager nod. Thankfully her hands were a lot steadier than the rest of her.
“Good.” Callie met Derek’s gaze briefly before pushing past him and letting the door seal shut behind her.
Hunt watched from across the OR, smiling behind his mask. “Okay, people, let’s focus. Time to save a life.”
***
Arizona sat in the downstairs waiting room with her face buried in her hands. She felt sick to her stomach; just utterly and completely nauseated.
For any other patient, the news of a heart transplant coming through would bring nothing but joy and relief after months of turmoil. Yet once again her knowledge and expertise as a surgeon took that opportunity away from her and her family.
Today her father would either be saved or he would die. The nearly overwhelming odds pointed to the latter. He was weak and there was every chance he wouldn’t make it off the table.
She tried to block out the tearful goodbye she and her mom had with him hours before. ‘I love you’s and ‘See you later’s were exchanged with a fair amount of uncertainty. Arizona promised her father he would be okay and he in turn said that no matter what happened, he loved them both.
The pain in Arizona’s chest shot straight through her entire body, searing a hole in her own heart. She had to bite down on her bottom lip to keep from crying. It was too soon to cry; she needed to be strong for her mother until this was all over. One way or another.
Maria Robbins was off doing something with one of the residents, filling out and signing the proper paperwork that had yet to be finished. Arizona didn’t know what she was doing exactly, but for the time being she was grateful her mom was gone. She needed a moment to pull herself together, to tie up the loose, messy ends that were beginning to fray and hold them together long enough to get through this.
He’d been in surgery for three hours now, maybe four. The initial rush of things to do and people to call had been taken care of. Now all any one of them could do was wait.
Just when Arizona was mustering up every last ounce of strength she had in reserve, quiet, yet rapid footsteps approached from the side.
“Zona?”
Arizona looked up and felt a wave of relief flood through her at once. “Calliope?” she whispered, jumping to her feet. “I thought you were in surgery?”
Callie was still in her scrub cap and a mask was hanging loosely around her neck. “I was,” she said quietly, stepping forward and immediately pulling her girlfriend into a solid hug. “Derek came in and told me they found a heart for your dad.”
Arizona closed her eyes and circled both arms around Callie’s familiar waist. “They did. Teddy’s in there with him now while Erica’s flying in to get the heart from Central. It’ll be a while before we hear anything from either of them.”
Callie ducked her face down and buried her nose in the soft blonde tresses. “He’s gonna be okay now. He’s strong; he’ll make it through this.”
“You don’t know that,” Arizona countered in a hoarse whisper. “It’s a tough surgery and he’s weak. He might not be able to-”
“Shh,” Callie scolded lightly, tightening her hold on the blonde and rubbing a soothing hand up down her back. “Don’t think like that. We just need to have a little faith.”
Feeling the body in her arms start to shake, Callie hugged Arizona even closer. “You don’t have to be the strong one anymore; it’s just me and you now. Let me take care of you for once.”
For a moment, Arizona felt torn up inside. She clung to Callie in a desperate attempt to keep it together, bunching her fists around her girlfriend’s scrub top. It ended up having the opposite effect; the strong arms surrounding her gave her tear ducts the sense of security they needed to unleash, right alongside the hard sob that escaped her lungs.
“I can’t lose him,” Arizona cried into her partner’s shoulder, burying her face in Callie’s neck and squeezing her eyes tightly shut. “Callie, please...”
“You won’t,” Callie murmured into the blonde’s ear, never once easing up on her firm grip. “Everything’s gonna be okay. Just keep breathing.”
Arizona’s mind wouldn’t stop racing ahead with semi-coherent thoughts and images of every possible outcome under the sun.
It’s not that she wasn’t happy her father was getting a new heart. She was; this was what they’d all been waiting for. Now she was terrified of what came after. There were so many things that could go wrong and the probability of any one of them happening was stacked overwhelmingly against their favour.
The only thing that helped keep her head in that moment was the girl whose arms she was wrapped in. Arizona clung to Callie like a lifeline and took solace in the soft and gentle words being whispered soothingly against her ear.
“He’s gonna be okay,” Callie murmured softly, and Arizona wanted so desperately to believe it.
He was Colonel Robbins, patriarch of their family. He had to be.
---