Reality Check 4
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Rated NC-17.
Summary: *WARNING* Just some thoughts about season eight based on interviews from Shonda and JCap regarding what Az and Callie will be going through. Spoilerish if you haven’t read those interviews. I’ve used a few scenes from the first two eps although rearranged. There’s an additional story line in this as well. I love the fact that Shonda treats Calzona’s relationship as commonplace and that none of the people around them have an issue with it, but for so many people (in real life) that’s not the case. So I decided to explore it a little.
A/N: The fallout
Chapter 4:
Arizona made her way home, the pain in her stomach returning with a vengeance. With everything that had happened, she had forgotten to find Dr. Bailey and talk to her about it. She started the garden/jacuzzi tub and then stripped her clothing off. She placed a towel on the bar next to the tub for when she got out. They didn’t use the tub that often although she wasn’t too sure why once she crawled in. The heat from the water surrounding her body instantly made her relax. All she wanted to do was to forget about this day. She submerged her head under water for a minute, but when she came back to a seated position, she felt a sharp pain return to her gut. The alcohol and the steam from the bath made her head swim a bit until she began to feel nauseous. She closed her eyes to try to regain her composure, but suddenly lurched forward and emptied the contents of her stomach all over the side of the tub and floor. When she opened her eyes, she was taken back by the sight of bright red blood. "Oh fuck" she whispered.....full understanding of what was happening hitting her hard. The pain....the caffeine.....the Advil....the stress......the alcohol.... the heat from the bath......it all added up to a perfect storm. She needed to get out of the hot water immediately. However, as she tried to stand, she felt as though her body weighed a ton and she was having difficulty pulling herself up. She used the towel hanging next to her to gain some leverage, but once she got standing, another wave of nausea and subsequent expelling of blood caused her knees to buckle. Her head was spinning and soon everything went black.
******************
Callie hurried home as soon as her shift was over, stopping at Mark’s to pick up Sofia. "Hey Mark....how is she?"
"Who? Sofia?.....she’s fine.....asleep right now." Mark wasn’t sure what the concern was for.
"No....I meant Arizona.....how is she?" Callie clarified
Mark was still confused "Um....I don’t know. She sounded awful when I talked to her on the phone, but I called over to your place earlier to check on her and she didn’t answer. I figured she was asleep......she said she didn’t feel well. Why?.....What’s going on?"
"I don’t really know all of the details because I was going into surgery and didn’t have time to get it all out of her. But then she took something I said wrong, got mad and left. So I still haven’t talked to her. I stopped and picked up a pizza hoping that we could talk rationally and figure it all out. Do you think you could keep Sof a little longer and give me a chance to make it up to her?" Callie looked forlorn and Mark could never resist that.
"Sure thing kid. If I need to keep her overnight, just let me know." Mark kissed Callie on the cheek in a show of support.
"Thanks Mark" Callie picked up the pizza and walked next door to her own apartment. She put the pizza on the counter and walked toward the bedroom "Arizona? Are you in there? She opened the bedroom door to find it empty.....in fact the comforter hadn’t even been moved. The bathroom door was closed, so she thought maybe Arizona was in there. She knocked first so as to not startle her wife "Arizona?" She opened the door and gasped as she saw the blonde, face down on the tile floor, naked, covered in blood and unconscious. "Oh my God! Arizona! Baby talk to me!......What the hell happened?!" She ran over to assess the situation. She carefully rolled her wife over to try and find where the blood was coming from. She checked her pulse which was there, but shotty. She was breathing.....but barely. Callie couldn’t find any open wounds. She tried to stimulate a response from Arizona "Come on sweetheart....open your eyes....please talk to me." She was becoming frantic as she had to leave the limp body to retrieve the phone. The first call she made was 911 requesting an ambulance to her apartment. The next was to Mark, trying to explain what was happening in a crazed state. Mark simply hung up the phone and came over.
"Callie!.....Where are you?" Mark called as her entered the apartment.
Callie yelled back "No....Mark....don’t come in here....do not bring Sofia in here." Callie was crying, unable to get Arizona to wake up.
Mark stood at the door "What’s going on Torres?!"
"I’ve called 911....she’s out and there’s blood everywhere but I can’t find where it’s from. I can’t get her awake. She has a pulse but it’s weak. But she’s naked and she would kill me if I let you in."
Mark couldn’t believe that she would be thinking about that at a time like this "Callie, just cover her up with a towel and let me help you."
Callie snapped out of her panic and did what Mark asked "Okay....help me get her up and out of here."
Mark came in and picked Arizona up off the floor and brought her into the bedroom, gently placing her on the bed. "Hell Torres, I can carry her over to the hospital faster than an ambulance can get here."
"They should be here any minute.....just help me get some panties on her." Callie pulled out a clean pair and as she went to get them over Arizona’s legs, the blonde came to.
"Calliope" Arizona said weakly "I need help"
"Hey baby....I’m here....we’re going to get you to the hospital in just a few minutes.....I promise." Callie stroked the side of her wife’s face "Where’s the blood coming from Arizona?"
"Gut" was all she could muster
The door bell rang and Mark went to let the EMS in. Arizona went back out and Callie was starting to panic. As they got Arizona hooked up to oxygen and strapped to a gurney, Callie and Mark worked out what needed to be done for their child. Callie was going with Arizona and Mark would take care of the baby. Callie kissed Sofia and then Mark’s cheek "I’ll let ya know what’s going on as soon as I know something."
"We’ll be right here" Mark said reassuringly.
******************
As they entered the ER, they were immediately greeted by Lexie followed closely by Bailey. Callie gave them the breakdown as she knew it to be "Her pulse is sluggish and she regained consciousness for just a minute, but enough to tell me that the blood is from her gut. She’s been complaining of stomach pain for the past couple of days. She has to have an active GI bleed for the amount of blood that was there....Please Miranda.....don’t waste any time....she needs surgery."
"Callie.....let me do my job. I promise you that I’ll do whatever is necessary, but right now...you are the wife....not the doctor. Dr. Grey....get an abdominal CT stat, start her on IV fluids and get back to me ASAP. Callie....what is her blood type?" Dr. Bailey was determined to get Arizona the best and fastest care possible.
"Um.....um I think she’s O negative.....please Bailey.....I can’t lose her." Callie was pleading to her peer.
Bailey looked Callie in the eyes "You are not going to lose her....because I am not going to lose her. Stay here.....I will come back as soon as I know something.
Callie placed a kiss on her wife’s cheek before Lexie took her away.
In about twenty minutes, Bailey returned "You were right....she has a sizeable GI bleed. Her hemoglobin is down to 7.4 so this didn’t just happen. She must have had a slow bleed for a few days anyway, and it just opened up the rest of the way tonight. I’m going to take her into surgery right now. It will take me approximately 2-3 hrs, so I suggest you try to get some rest. I’ll let ya know when she’s in recovery.
Callie paced the floor and pulled her cell out to call Mark. She filled him in on the plan and that Callie would be staying at the hospital for the night. Mark could bring Sofia to her in the morning.
"She’s going to be fine Cal. Bailey won’t let anything happen to her. Kiss her for me when she wakes up." Mark knew that Callie would be panicking and tried to waylay her fears.
The waiting was the worst. Callie could only imagine how hard it must have been for Arizona when both she and Sofia were in one of these beds. So much has happened to their family in a relatively short amount of time. As much as Callie liked to think they were now living in a pretty pink bubble, the reality was that their life was complicated, busy and exhausting. Couple all of that with whatever had happened today at work, and Arizona ......the one person she loved as much as their daughter, was paying the price. Callie silently chastised herself for not paying more attention......not picking up the signs sooner. If she had, they wouldn’t be here now. Maybe part of it was her own exhaustion that she saw mirrored back in her wife’s eyes.....the natural state of parents of an infant that doesn’t sleep through the night. She started trying to remember everything that Arizona had said about what had happened with her patient. The more she recalled, the angrier she got at the child’s mother and at Stark. She would give him a piece of her mind as soon as she got the chance. Callie felt bad about the misunderstanding before her surgery today. That must have really set the blonde on edge. She was brought out of her internal reverie when Bailey approached "She’s in recovery. She’s lost a lot of blood so we’re going to hang 3 units of packed cells. I don’t expect her to wake up for several hours....and that’s probably a good thing.....she could use the rest and so could you."
"Can I see her now?" Callie was anxious just to lay her eyes on the woman she adored. Regardless of what Bailey said, she would sit by Arizona’s bed until she woke up.
She made her way to Arizona's room and stopped at the door. The tears fell immediately as she took in the sight of her wife, hooked up to monitors, oxygen and an IV flowing fresh blood into her body. She looked so weak and frail.....the total opposite of how she saw Arizona in everyday life. Her wife was strong and confident. The dark circles under her eyes contrasted by the paleness of her complexion sent shivers down Callie's spine. She approached the bed cautiously, took Arizona's hand in her own and leaned down, placing a gentle kiss on her dehydrated lips. "Sweetheart, I'm right here and I'm not going anywhere. Rest as long as you need to." Callie's words and her feelings were conflicting because what her selfish needs really wanted was to see the ice blue of Arizona's eyes, to know that she was still with her. She pulled up a chair as close to the bed as she could get and settled in for as long as it took.
Over the next 8 hours, several nurses and Lexie came in and out of Arizona’s room, checking her vitals, switching out IV meds and bags of blood and making sure that Callie got whatever she needed as well. Mark came in and brought Sofia to her mothers. The infant was awake and smiling as Callie took her from Marks grasp. "Hey sweetie, did you have a good night with Daddy?" She cradled the baby in her arms and turned to Mark "Did everything go okay?"
"Yeah sure....she was fine....How’s Arizona doing?" Mark glanced over to the blonde still sleeping in the hospital bed.
Callie sighed "She hasn’t woken up yet, but Bailey didn’t really expect her to. She lost a lot of blood. Damn Mark, I should have noticed....I should have been paying more attention. I knew she was having some pain, but she always blew it off as not eating properly and being over tired. I should have known that she was down playing the whole thing."
"Hey Cal......this is not your fault. It isn’t anyone’s fault. Shit happens.....and the point is, you’re here and when she wakes up, we may need to sit down and rethink our schedules. This is new to all of us, and we’ll find a way to make it work." Mark tried to encourage his best friend.
Callie took another deep breath "I know.....but I don’t think that this all came about because of the baby. Work has been extremely stressful on her lately and when she sleeps, she’s not really resting. I think she’s having nightmares......she tosses and turns a lot and when I’m there, I can hear her sobbing, although she’s still sleeping. I can sometimes ease her down.....but, I’m not always there because of having to juggle the schedules. Stark has been an asshole in general, but yesterday.....it escalated. She was so upset and I couldn’t do anything to help her."
"So some of this is not anything any of us can control, we just have to learn to deal with it better." Mark put his arm around Callie and gave her a light squeeze. "I’ve gotta get to work, but let me know when she wakes up and if I need to take Sofia again tonight. I’ll check back in later. Do you need any coffee or something to eat?"
"Coffee would be great....and a croissant" Callie quickly added.
Mark just smiled and nodded that he would make it happen. Callie sat back at Arizona’s bed with Sofia perched on her shoulder.
**********************
Rounds were starting on the Peds wing and Alex was distressed at the absence of his mentor. When they entered Tabitha’s room, Stark asked for Alex to present. Alex went through the normal routine but noticed that neither Tabitha or her mother spoke to anyone. Tabitha looked lost and sad and her mother just looked as though this was the last place she wanted to be. The team turned to leave the room but Tabitha stopped Alex "Dr. Karev?......when do I get to go home?"
"Um....right now, Dr. Altman has planned a couple more procedures to help your heart function. So as long as they go well, you can probably go home in a couple of days." Alex was rather matter of fact with the teen more so because he wasn’t sure what was going on with Arizona’s absence and Stark’s presence.
Tabitha looked at her hands and then asked "Dr. Karev? Where is Dr. Robbins?"
"Tabitha....that’s enough.....we’re not discussing this anymore" Mrs. Hurley snapped.
Alex looked on confused by the interaction but then answered the teen "I don’t know, but I will find out." He walked out of the room and caught up with the rest of the group. "Dr. Stark.....where is Dr. Robbins? Her patient was asking for her."
"Tabitha Hurley is no longer Dr. Robbins’ patient so any questions that she has can be answered by me." Stark was cold in his explanation.
"I don’t get it. Robbins has been her doctor for three years......why the change?" Alex pushed for answers.
Stark looked rather annoyed at the resident’s inquiry "Do you really think that I owe you an explanation?" he shook his head in disbelief.
Alex was pissed now "If I’m supposed to be on her service, then I kind of need to know what the hell I’m supposed to be doing."
"Look Karev....you are on my service....much to my dismay. Dr. Robbins will not be in for the next couple of weeks at least." Stark was tired of this discussion and just gave Alex enough information to hopefully shut him up and then walked away.
Alex decided to do the next best thing for answers....he went looking for Callie. He asked one of the nurses if they knew where Dr. Torres was and he was promptly directed to a patients room. He knocked and then opened the door expecting to find Callie doing a consult, but what he saw was Callie and Sofia sound asleep in the chair next to his mentor lying in the bed. Confused by it all, he cleared his throat in an effort to wake either of the adults.
Callie opened her eyes and instinctively pulled the baby close to her "Oh....Karev.....what’s up?
"What the hell happened? No one has said a word." Callie thought that Alex looked as though he was on the verge of tears.....he was after all Arizona’s boy.
After she had explained the events of the previous night, Callie looked over to her sleeping wife with a wave of sadness. "It’s touch and go right now Alex. We’ll know more when she wakes up."
"Do you know what’s going on with Tabitha Hurley? I was in her room earlier and she was asking about Arizona then her mother like....shut her up." Alex was determined to find out what had happened after three years.
Callie relayed what she knew had transpired as a wave of guilt hit her. She was partly to blame for the Hurley woman’s outrage. "Arizona was extremely upset about it yesterday and I’m guessing the kid isn’t too happy either."
Alex nodded his understanding and then turned to leave the room but stopped before he got out of the door "Let her know I’m thinking about her."
Callie smiled knowing that as tough as he tried to be, Alex had a soft spot for Arizona. She glanced over at the bed and grabbed the blonde’s hand giving it a slight squeeze. "Your boy is worried about you. How about waking up and making us all feel better."
**********************
Alex made his way back to the Peds wing and to Tabitha’s room, hoping that her mother wasn’t there. He was in luck. Tabitha was staring out the window. "Hey, are you all right? he asked as he approached her bed. The teen just nodded and didn’t make eye contact. "Listen....I heard what happened yesterday and I thought that you should know that Dr. Robbins is not staying away on purpose. She was going to fight to remain your doctor.....but something happened.....and she’s a patient here in the hospital."
"What?!......What happened?.....Is she okay?" Tabitha looked frightened.
Alex tried to clam the kid down, he didn’t need her getting all hysterical "Calm down....You can’t stress your heart too much. She apparently had an ulcer in her stomach open up and she lost a lot of blood. She had surgery last night, and hasn’t regained consciousness yet.....but she will....she just needs the rest right now."
"Will you tell me what room she is in?" Tabitha pushed.
"Officially.....no.....but I will tell you that she is on the fourth floor, but if anyone asks.....you didn’t hear it from me." Alex grinned and winked at the young girl