Phonecalls ~ Early Birds
Title: Phonecalls ~ Early Birds
Author: Neolithicdream
Pairing: Callie / Arizona
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: See here on my masterlist
Summary: This is just a series of 'calls' that I have imagined over the years between Arizona and her parents, starting with this one which is set very shortly after she takes over from Dr. Kenley and before that first kiss in Joes. Some will be ( I hope) a lot shorter than this one and probably 2 or 3 'calls' can be posted together. All will be stand alone but also can be read as an ongoing series. They'll be posted when the spirit moves me. The whole idea was inspired by that conversation in Season 6 when Callie tells Mark that Arizona talks to her parents every day.
Beta: The inimitable propgirl1
"Momma?" She had one eye open, squinting at her phone, the other clammed shut in a desperate attempt to cling to sleep. The sleep that the rest of her weary body had been yanked from seconds before.
"Good morning Dear, how are you this fine morning?"
"UHhhhhhhhgggghhh!" She loved her Momma, adored her in fact, but there was a deep streak of perkiness about her that, sometimes, just sometimes, Arizona Robbins found hard to take.
"Momma! It's only..." the bone tired Peds Surgeon squinted at her watch "...six am, I'm sleeping!"
"Really?" Barbara Robbins sounded genuinely surprised. "I'd have thought with your new responsibility you'd be 'up and at 'em' by now." She was so proud of her daughter, well, they both were. How could they not be. Yes they had raised her well but as her husband often remarked, to her, never to his daughter, "She's who we raised her to be but so much more than that as well."
Arizona briefly contemplated getting her mother off the phone and snuggling under the Hospital issue blankets for just a few minutes more. Those thoughts evaporating as she heard her fathers booming voice. "Morning Marine, beautiful day here in the Windy City, have you had your morning constitutional yet."
It was an old joke, one the Colonel never tired of and one that Arizona never quite got. A morning wasn't a morning without, at least, a 3 mile run as far as her father was concerned. As far as Arizona was concerned mornings were for sleeping for as long as work schedules permitted.
She sighed. Her parents were clearly in the mood for talking so there was no more sleep to be had.
"Are you enjoying being in command, Arizona?" Their upbringing had been strict, he knew that, even with his wife bringing a softer edge to his more authoritarian style. It had been worth it though, his beautiful daughter, his handsome son. They were good and honourable; ambitious and hardworking. Both in their own way leaders. He was as immensely proud of his daughter's recent promotion to Head of Department as he had been of his sons promotion to Captain. The loss of his son was a pain too unbearable to contemplate, even now. His refusal to talk about him contrasting with his daily talks with his daughter.
"Yes, no..." she thought about it "...maybe?" Of course she wanted to be Head of Peds. She wanted to be able to shape the direction and ethos of the Department, train her staff the way she had been trained. And, of course, the experience was crucial if she were one day to achieve her twin dreams of establishing an innovative surgical Peds protocol in sub- Saharan Africa and ultimately being Chief of Surgery at her spiritual home, John Hopkins. But...maybe it had come too soon.
"I guess it's hard to get their trust, their respect..." Arizona answered her father honestly. Instinctively she knew that if she could earn the outspoken Chief Residents respect the others would fall into place "... Right now, I'm just a stranger in a pony tail....and heelies" the latter words not spoken out loud. She knew her fathers opinion of said footwear.
" I mean, I've been patient and nice, I've been..."
" Listen Soldier, the uniform will only get you so much respect, you have to earn their trust, their respect. However, being nice has its time and place but sometimes you have to let them know who's in charge and that it's not a democracy. Be tough, don't be afraid to show them who's boss."
Arizona smiled. She had a lifelong fear of authority figures courtesy of her dear Dad and yet, not a day went by that, in his own way, he didn't show her how proud he was of her. As she was of him. She was his daughter, in so many ways, sometimes even more than she was her mother's.
"I will Dad, I will." The sound of her pager filled the air. It wasn't urgent but it reminded her, yet again, just how large her caseload was now that Dr. Kenley was no more. She sighed loudly forgetting her parents momentarily.
"I hope they are not working you too hard, Dear?" Concern was evident in her mothers tone.
Her father's gruffer tone interjected quickly "Barbara, don't coddle her, our girl is tough!"
"I know that, Daniel, I'm not suggesting otherwise but she's like you, she's a workaholic and look what happened to her predecessor."
"Oh, Barbara,he was an old man and..."
"He was ten years younger than you, old man."
Arizona suppressed her chuckle. This happened all the time. They would phone her and in the middle forget that she was there at the other end of the line. Nearly forty years of marriage and her parents were so obviously still in love. She wondered often if theirs was the exception rather than the rule. She could not ever imagine finding someone to live and love and struggle through life with the way her parents had. It wasn't something she really sought, not anymore and yet, there were times, quiet contemplative moments, that the idea of finding her soul mate, finding her person was so very appealing.
She sighed again, shaking her parents from their tete-a-tete as she did. "Folks I have to go,lots of sick tiny humans to fix."
"Ok, Dear...oh before you go, is there any update on that pretty girl you were telling me about?"
"Mom!" Seriously here she was in her mid 30 s and her mother was still prying into her love life.
"Well, all work and no play makes Arizona a very dull girl." The Colonel reproached her.
Oh God, if anything, when it came to her love life, her father was even worse. And she was anything but dull. She wondered idly what they would say if they knew just how dull she had not been since her move to Seattle. Then again she doubted if they would entirely approve of her womanising ways of late. Nonetheless
Arizona decided to throw them a bone.
"Actually, I have a date with a very nice woman on Thursday." June or was it Julia? She was a friend of an ex, worked in Pathology with said ex.
"Oh, the Girl with the gorgeous brown eyes?" Barbara asked with enthusiasm, then continuing, clearly answering her Husbands non- verbal query "... Arizona likes this girl, she's a ..."
"Momma! please ..." the exasperation cut short when her pager blared again "...crap,it's Jackson - 911... Folks I have to go, chat tomorrow,love ya..."
It was probably just as well Arizona didn't hear the rest of her parents conversation.
"Barbara, what do you know about this girl?"
"All I know is she's a surgeon too....and I think she might be Mexican? Oh and according to your daughter, she's stunningly beautiful."