Second Time Around (4B/?)
Title: Second Time Around (4B/?)
Author: Nora C. Parker
Pairing: Callie/Arizona
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Set in Season 6. What if a different Cardio God came to SWMWH during the episode "New HIstory" (6x09). This story contemplates a surgeon other than Teddy joining the staff. The story veers from the established timeline as of that episode, although some of the episode is referenced within this story.
Disclaimer: I have no ownership over the characters.
Note: I began this story about a year ago. The entire first chapter was posted elsewhere online. The rest of it is a journey.
Prior parts:
Part 1A
Part 1B
Part 1C
Part 1D
Part 2A
Part 2B
Part 2C
Part 3A
Part 3B
Part 3C
Part 4A
Part 4: Sing it, Van Morrison
The workday that started on such a nice note seemed to go downhill when Callie arrived at the hospital. Owen Hunt was unexpectedly off for the day and the Chief assigned her to the Pit for the day.
Just the type of job she was hoping that she would escape now that she was an attending. Then again, she had no electives scheduled for the day. Follow-ups were something that she could do down here. As much as she hated to admit that the Chief made a good call sticking her down here, she had to admit that he’d made a good call sticking her down here.
The bad part about being down here was suddenly every patient with any pain between the thighs and the neck received close to a full cardiac workup. Erica Hahn was almost camping out, and looking for any reason to stay in the pit.
A breath of fresh air came mid-morning when Arizona was called down to take a look at a child with severe stomach pains.
For her part, Arizona was equally glad for the opportunity to catch a glimpse of her girlfriend. She was less ecstatic to see that Erica Hahn was already in the exam room.
Ignoring Hahn, she questioned Lexie. “Dr. Grey. What have we got?”
The younger Grey hesitated for a moment, looking between the two surgeons before giving the bullet. “Five year old boy. Fever. Pain. Tenderness over McBurney’s Point.”
“So, it’s probably surgical, and likely with no cardiac involvement,” Arizona stated.
The words earned a glare from Hahn, who finished listening to the patient’s heart and put her stethoscope into her lab coat pocket.
Robbins’ gaze remained on Lexie Grey until the young woman managed to answer the question.
“The most common cause would be an inflamed appendix.”
The simple, yet correct diagnosis, earned a smile from Arizona. “Then I think I can take over here, Dr. Hahn.” Arizona received no verbal confirmation from the other surgeon. Hahn’s look that would kill if it could shoot daggers was its own statement, but one separate from the child’s treatment, and one that Arizona chose to ignore.
“So,” this time Arizona directed her comments to the boy’s parents, “what we’ll need to do is run a couple more tests to confirm the diagnosis, but most likely, we will have to remove his appendix.”
She stuck in the room and answered the questions from the worried parents, making a break as soon as she was able.
As she left the exam room she noticed that Erica was standing in the middle of the ER, blatantly staring at her girlfriend as Callie, facing away, leaned over a bed and examined a patient’s lower leg.
“My girlfriend’s hot,” Arizona whispered to Hahn. She knew that she was not being kind to the other surgeon. But at this point, kind didn’t seem to be needed. A solid clue about what was not going to happen seemed to be what Erica Hahn needed most.
“Mark Sloan thinks so,” sniped Hahn, smiling at the hurtful jibe.
“Probably does. But like Van Morrison says, she’s my,” emphasis on the pronoun, “brown-eyed girl.” With that, Arizona felt that she’d said enough, and wasn’t going to be sucked into Hahn’s game.
Besides, it was true, her girlfriend was hot. And her girlfriend loved her. Arizona trusted that love, trusted Callie, and wasn’t going to let Erica Hahn shake that trust.
# # #
Back in the Attending’s lounge, alone, Arizona worked on her schedule. She’d been trying to find time to work on a few elective surgeries. Kids with difficult cases, kids under her long-term management.
Perhaps she’d look into bringing Alex Karev in as a lead on one of those cases. Karev had some skills to learn in terms of managing people, but he was showing real talent when it came to Peds cases.
The room’s silence was broken by Derek Shepherd entering the lounge. “Dr. Robbins.”
“Dr. Shepherd.” She hoped she wouldn’t have to hear…
He poured himself a cup of coffee and sat down near her. “So, are things going better today?”
Nevermind. She was going to have to hear questions about the prior day. “Fine.” She gave him her usual smile. “Everything’s awesome, why?”
“Well, yesterday, you seemed upset.”
“Oh. Aboslutely nothing.” She waved her hand as if waving away an insignificant insect. A clue he did not catch.
“Are you sure because…”
What was it with the clueless surgeons today?
He continued, “…it seems that you might be having some issues with Erica Hahn.”
Great. The grapevine was already in overdrive. She tried to continue ignoring what he was saying. After all, if she didn’t give the notion credence, perhaps he would let it drop.
“And, I realize that some relationships, some women, might invite these types of emotional responses…”
What? What exactly was he babbling about? “Dr. Shepherd?” Her words interrupted his rambles.
“Yes?”
“Are you implying that I might be involved in some sort of drama because my relationship is with a woman?”
“Well,” he seemed confused to even be asked that question. “Isn’t it?”
“I know I haven’t been at Seattle Grace Mercy West for long. But I have been here long enough to hear about your relationship with Meredith Grey, then your wife’s appearance, followed quickly by Mark Sloan moving here. During that period, the group of you had various permutations of couplehood and various emotional reactions here at work as the situation progressed to its current state.”
She almost wished she could capture the stunned look on his face. “Now, is that correct?”
“I suppose.”
“Then we don’t need to talk about one woman’s delusions about a relationship that does not exist, do we?” This was almost too easy.
“I suppose not.” He pointed towards the door. “I’m just going to… Have a good day, Dr. Robbins.”
“You have a super day yourself,” she responded as she watched him exit the room.
Now, back to the kids. Karev would be an awesome choice to manage one of the cases.
(end part 4B)