The More Things Change: Chapter Twelve
Title: The More Things Change
Rating: T
Summary: “Hours later Callie felt her best friend slip away silently into the cold and inexorable night while they were all still trapped amidst the wilderness. She held onto him, tighter now; somewhere a slight distance away Kepner was being mauled by the sinister gifts of the wild.” In a world where Arizona wasn't in Seattle when the plane crashed. Three years & PTSD, can she get Callie back?
Author: Pasha
Disclaimer: All recognizable characters belong to SR and ABC. I make not profit. No copyright infringement intended.
Canon Till: 7 x 07
Pairing: C/A
Twelve
TED
A/N: Thoughts, sarcastic comments, Calliesque word jumbles are in 'single quotes.'
Dreams and Flashbacks (& sometimes tonal emphasis in narrative and dialogue) are in Italics.
Some spellings may differ on account of me being Indian and growing up with the Queen's English.
All mistakes on this one are mine.
Read, Review and Enjoy! - No reviews = Boredom, which makes me blah about writing, so reviews please!?
Onward
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"So?" - It came out like a sleep strangled sigh - "what are you doing right now?"
"I'm thanking my lucky stars, Arizona…"
"What?" - She yawned - "still?"
"Yeah, still!" - she chuckled - "this was the first time I didn't fly like a breathing corpse" - completely oblivious to the blonde's flinching, the brunette switched hands, using one to unzip her suitcase and now the other to handle her cell - "why are you calling me if you're so sleepy?!"
"I don't know… just wanted to check in, I guess?" - She said with a nervous uncertainty.
The truth was that she was pretty nervous about Callie flying anywhere too. They had toyed with the idea of trains, but there was no way in hell the brunette was going to be able to take that kind of time off. And, with the help of her shrink, Callie had insisted that she's go on a flight. She'd assured Arizona that she'd done it a few times after the crash.
The blonde had expressed concern about it all the same, asking Callie if she'd take anything to knock herself out.
The brunette's reply was none too comforting, even if she toyed around with dark humour when said - "don't you want me to be awake if something goes wrong?!"All the while Callie had thought to herself that she would actually prefer to be dead to the world before, well, being dead to the world.
"Okay…" - the brunette sighed as she continued to wrestle with her suitcase - "and how was your shift, or day? Damnnit…mrrrph!" - She grunted - "how can my suitcase be overflowing? It's barely a two day trip!"
Arizona gave a sleepy laugh - "yeah… but you had Cristina sit on it while she cursed you, and Teddy, and" -
- "Hey? Why is that?"
"Are you kidding?! She puts the 'men' in Teddy's 'mental-mentee', and" -
- "That was shitty word play Arizona…" - the brunette cut her off as she began unzipping her dress to put on the next one.
- "Whatever" - The blonde intoned - "oh! And she hates you because, you know?" - She stopped and rubbed at her eyes, noting that it was already eleven in the morning - "you're at the TED conference, speechifying your Carti-jello" -
- "Don't call it that!" - Callie cut her off reproachfully - "it makes me sound like a street hawker or whatever" - she let her discontent be known as she fiddled with her bra strap in front of the full length mirror.
"Street hawker?!" - Arizona scoffed mirthfully - "what are you? A character from a Dickens novel?!"
"Whatever Arizona!"- The blonde could hear Callie rolling her eyes - "you still didn't tell me how your day was?"
"Right" - Arizona stifled a yawn -
- "I'm sorry" - Callie chortled - "am I boring you?!"
"No. If you can't tell by all the yawning" - she sighed - "my day was tiring, and I operated on a kid who swallowed anything she could, so that was…" -
- "Ah… I can imagine" - Callie mischievously smiled to herself as she walked back to the bed to pick a few things out - "hey? What is like the weirdest thing you've pulled out of a patient?"
"Ah" - Arizona scoffed - "no, no, no, no! Don't even, Torres! I treat kids! You know I'm going to win this! So… there!" - She said, matter of factly - "In your face!" -
- "Is it though? Is it an 'in your face moment?!'" - Callie ribbed, playfully - "I mean…it's not…not really something you want to win at right?!"
"Hmmm" - the blonde mused, happy with how things were between them. A short silence ran the distance between Scotland and Seattle. But now there was a tenuous comfort that came with it.
"So?" - The blonde began - "how was last night? Meet any interesting people?" - Her eyebrows went up as a teasing lilt made its way into her voice.
"Why are you saying it like that?" - Callie felt this weird sort of jumble in the pit of her stomach. It was odd and a little disappointing to hear Arizona ask that question in that way. She couldn't put her finger on it, but her frown was evident in her voice.
Arizona felt a nervous sort of tug in her gut as she laughed, trying to deflect Callie from whatever this was - "I…uh… Calliope, I didn't mean anything by it. I just want to make sure you're meeting people…enjoying yourself…just stuff like that" - she tapered off. Callie's near accusatory tone had confused her; she also had no idea why she had said it the way she'd said it. 'So much for uncomplicated!'
Sometimes it was so simple that it almost felt like they were better than before and other times Callie just confused her. But, the blonde too had a proclivity for putting her foot in her mouth without wanting to, or meaning to. In those moments Callie was so far away from her; it was almost as if one of them was under water and not a peep was making its way through to the other - drowning in a violent silence without the touch of the one you loved, till… till they rescued themselves.
"Oh" - the brunette sounded far from convinced - "well…yeah, I mean Dr. Palmer and Dr. Aaron were here, so yes…" -
- "Wait… what's that noise?" - Arizona cut her off.
"Oh… I'm just picking out some jewellery" - the brunette replied - "um…" - she was standing at the mirror again, holding up different pieces to see which one she preferred - "there's a brunch mixer and then a round of talks, and" -
- "When do you go on?" - The blonde asked hurriedly as she ran a hand through her unruly morning hair and righted the strap of her tank top.
"Uh!" - Callie scoffed, vexed and nervous - "in the evening."
"Okay."
Silence.
"Callie?" - The blonde sighed - "we talked about this? Remember? Are you still nervous?" - She asked compassionately.
"Are you kidding me?!" - She'd screeched loud enough for Arizona to have to remove the cell from her ear - "you gave me the worst pep talk in the world!" - The excitement between them rose as they started talking over one another.
"Callie, you are certifiable! I give the best pep talks! Ask anyone who has been… pep talked at by me!"
"Be yourself?! What kind of hippie advice is that?! Who the fuck else would I be?!"
Their individual tirade died down as someone came at the brunette's door.
"Arizona, hey, can you hold on for a sec? I just… someone's at the door, and…" -
- "Yeah… yes, sure. Go." - Arizona waited on the line as She heard the faint murmurs of a woman's voice she knew not to be Callie's. The blonde chewed the inside of her cheek in nervous anticipation - 'who was this woman… she sounded hot, and what were they talking about…was she being paranoid and weird? She was being paranoid and weird. Definitely…Paranoid…and…Weird' - she nodded to herself.
Callie's smiling voice disturbed her internal monologue - "sorry!" - She sighed - "that was" -
- "Who was that?! She?! Who was she" - Arizona rushed to ask, completely oblivious to the fact that Callie was trying to tell her just that.
"Ummm…" - again an awkwardness made its way into the brunette's voice - "some blonde… I don't remember really. She just introduced herself in passing, then accidentally spilled her drink on my $300 shirt and awkwardly felt me up while trying to clean it."
"Oh…alright…that's bad… but what was she doing now? Coming to you, I mean?" - She hedged, carefully, trying her best not to sound territorial.
"Oh, that?!" - Callie waved it off, then remembered Arizona couldn't see her - "She was just being polite, and offering to get it dry cleaned, and she invited me out to drinks with her and a few colleagues" - she replied in her best casual tone, suddenly feeling a little guilty for no apparent reason.
"Are you… are you going?" - The blonde held her breath.
"Well" - Callie felt just a little apprehensive about the turn this conversation was taking - "no… I mean she was nice and all, but I just want to soak in a tub and be old and lazy with my novel."
"That sounds nice" - the blonde replied trying to keep her voice level whilst an inexplicably, insanely jealous part of her felt kind of happy - "and you are not old… you're just… wise."
"Umhm… sure" - the brunette supplied her with a nonchalant agreement - "plus, she already spilled her drink on me once while she was sober, soooo" -
- "You sure?!" -Arizona nodded vigorously, enjoying the fact that their conversation had once again become light - "a night out with a clumsy drunk? Sounds promising?!" - She kidded.
"Hey! If I wanted to do that? I'd just go out with you!"
"I'm not clumsy!"
"Sure, you're not!" - The brunette exclaimed sardonically.
"Okay! Okay! Let's just get to the important stuff" -
- "And what might that be?" - Asked the brunette.
"What are you wearing?"
And there it was again, a pause.
"Arizona…" - came the brunette's near tortured sigh.
"What? What did I say?" - The blonde caught on a little late - "oh… Oh! No, no, not like…not like that! I meant to brunch! And then for the speech! I didn't mean" -
- "Oh thank god!" - Callie exhaled a long breath of relief, completely unaware of the uncoiling feeling of a nagging sort of discontent that passed like a wave in the blonde's chest.
"Right… no… absolutely, I just want to know what the new genius with a soul and body to match look is going to be like" - the blonde's voice was regaining that note of levity that made them both feel secure.
"Well… you could help me pick?" - Callie asked, sounding hopeful.
"Sure! What do we got?!"
They chatted some more, once again blissfully unaware of what was changing between them, and what remained the same. They allowed themselves these moments and pockets of recognition, and nothing more; enjoying the fruit and ignoring the process. Blissfully… so blissfully unaware of how things would turn around on them yet again.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A/N: Short, I know, but we are very close to the end, about 4-5 chapters to go. And if you guessed it, you guessed it right.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
My Song of the Day
There There by Radiohead
Rating: T
Summary: “Hours later Callie felt her best friend slip away silently into the cold and inexorable night while they were all still trapped amidst the wilderness. She held onto him, tighter now; somewhere a slight distance away Kepner was being mauled by the sinister gifts of the wild.” In a world where Arizona wasn't in Seattle when the plane crashed. Three years & PTSD, can she get Callie back?
Author: Pasha
Disclaimer: All recognizable characters belong to SR and ABC. I make not profit. No copyright infringement intended.
Canon Till: 7 x 07
Pairing: C/A
Twelve
TED
A/N: Thoughts, sarcastic comments, Calliesque word jumbles are in 'single quotes.'
Dreams and Flashbacks (& sometimes tonal emphasis in narrative and dialogue) are in Italics.
Some spellings may differ on account of me being Indian and growing up with the Queen's English.
All mistakes on this one are mine.
Read, Review and Enjoy! - No reviews = Boredom, which makes me blah about writing, so reviews please!?
Onward
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"So?" - It came out like a sleep strangled sigh - "what are you doing right now?"
"I'm thanking my lucky stars, Arizona…"
"What?" - She yawned - "still?"
"Yeah, still!" - she chuckled - "this was the first time I didn't fly like a breathing corpse" - completely oblivious to the blonde's flinching, the brunette switched hands, using one to unzip her suitcase and now the other to handle her cell - "why are you calling me if you're so sleepy?!"
"I don't know… just wanted to check in, I guess?" - She said with a nervous uncertainty.
The truth was that she was pretty nervous about Callie flying anywhere too. They had toyed with the idea of trains, but there was no way in hell the brunette was going to be able to take that kind of time off. And, with the help of her shrink, Callie had insisted that she's go on a flight. She'd assured Arizona that she'd done it a few times after the crash.
The blonde had expressed concern about it all the same, asking Callie if she'd take anything to knock herself out.
The brunette's reply was none too comforting, even if she toyed around with dark humour when said - "don't you want me to be awake if something goes wrong?!"All the while Callie had thought to herself that she would actually prefer to be dead to the world before, well, being dead to the world.
"Okay…" - the brunette sighed as she continued to wrestle with her suitcase - "and how was your shift, or day? Damnnit…mrrrph!" - She grunted - "how can my suitcase be overflowing? It's barely a two day trip!"
Arizona gave a sleepy laugh - "yeah… but you had Cristina sit on it while she cursed you, and Teddy, and" -
- "Hey? Why is that?"
"Are you kidding?! She puts the 'men' in Teddy's 'mental-mentee', and" -
- "That was shitty word play Arizona…" - the brunette cut her off as she began unzipping her dress to put on the next one.
- "Whatever" - The blonde intoned - "oh! And she hates you because, you know?" - She stopped and rubbed at her eyes, noting that it was already eleven in the morning - "you're at the TED conference, speechifying your Carti-jello" -
- "Don't call it that!" - Callie cut her off reproachfully - "it makes me sound like a street hawker or whatever" - she let her discontent be known as she fiddled with her bra strap in front of the full length mirror.
"Street hawker?!" - Arizona scoffed mirthfully - "what are you? A character from a Dickens novel?!"
"Whatever Arizona!"- The blonde could hear Callie rolling her eyes - "you still didn't tell me how your day was?"
"Right" - Arizona stifled a yawn -
- "I'm sorry" - Callie chortled - "am I boring you?!"
"No. If you can't tell by all the yawning" - she sighed - "my day was tiring, and I operated on a kid who swallowed anything she could, so that was…" -
- "Ah… I can imagine" - Callie mischievously smiled to herself as she walked back to the bed to pick a few things out - "hey? What is like the weirdest thing you've pulled out of a patient?"
"Ah" - Arizona scoffed - "no, no, no, no! Don't even, Torres! I treat kids! You know I'm going to win this! So… there!" - She said, matter of factly - "In your face!" -
- "Is it though? Is it an 'in your face moment?!'" - Callie ribbed, playfully - "I mean…it's not…not really something you want to win at right?!"
"Hmmm" - the blonde mused, happy with how things were between them. A short silence ran the distance between Scotland and Seattle. But now there was a tenuous comfort that came with it.
"So?" - The blonde began - "how was last night? Meet any interesting people?" - Her eyebrows went up as a teasing lilt made its way into her voice.
"Why are you saying it like that?" - Callie felt this weird sort of jumble in the pit of her stomach. It was odd and a little disappointing to hear Arizona ask that question in that way. She couldn't put her finger on it, but her frown was evident in her voice.
Arizona felt a nervous sort of tug in her gut as she laughed, trying to deflect Callie from whatever this was - "I…uh… Calliope, I didn't mean anything by it. I just want to make sure you're meeting people…enjoying yourself…just stuff like that" - she tapered off. Callie's near accusatory tone had confused her; she also had no idea why she had said it the way she'd said it. 'So much for uncomplicated!'
Sometimes it was so simple that it almost felt like they were better than before and other times Callie just confused her. But, the blonde too had a proclivity for putting her foot in her mouth without wanting to, or meaning to. In those moments Callie was so far away from her; it was almost as if one of them was under water and not a peep was making its way through to the other - drowning in a violent silence without the touch of the one you loved, till… till they rescued themselves.
"Oh" - the brunette sounded far from convinced - "well…yeah, I mean Dr. Palmer and Dr. Aaron were here, so yes…" -
- "Wait… what's that noise?" - Arizona cut her off.
"Oh… I'm just picking out some jewellery" - the brunette replied - "um…" - she was standing at the mirror again, holding up different pieces to see which one she preferred - "there's a brunch mixer and then a round of talks, and" -
- "When do you go on?" - The blonde asked hurriedly as she ran a hand through her unruly morning hair and righted the strap of her tank top.
"Uh!" - Callie scoffed, vexed and nervous - "in the evening."
"Okay."
Silence.
"Callie?" - The blonde sighed - "we talked about this? Remember? Are you still nervous?" - She asked compassionately.
"Are you kidding me?!" - She'd screeched loud enough for Arizona to have to remove the cell from her ear - "you gave me the worst pep talk in the world!" - The excitement between them rose as they started talking over one another.
"Callie, you are certifiable! I give the best pep talks! Ask anyone who has been… pep talked at by me!"
"Be yourself?! What kind of hippie advice is that?! Who the fuck else would I be?!"
Their individual tirade died down as someone came at the brunette's door.
"Arizona, hey, can you hold on for a sec? I just… someone's at the door, and…" -
- "Yeah… yes, sure. Go." - Arizona waited on the line as She heard the faint murmurs of a woman's voice she knew not to be Callie's. The blonde chewed the inside of her cheek in nervous anticipation - 'who was this woman… she sounded hot, and what were they talking about…was she being paranoid and weird? She was being paranoid and weird. Definitely…Paranoid…and…Weird' - she nodded to herself.
Callie's smiling voice disturbed her internal monologue - "sorry!" - She sighed - "that was" -
- "Who was that?! She?! Who was she" - Arizona rushed to ask, completely oblivious to the fact that Callie was trying to tell her just that.
"Ummm…" - again an awkwardness made its way into the brunette's voice - "some blonde… I don't remember really. She just introduced herself in passing, then accidentally spilled her drink on my $300 shirt and awkwardly felt me up while trying to clean it."
"Oh…alright…that's bad… but what was she doing now? Coming to you, I mean?" - She hedged, carefully, trying her best not to sound territorial.
"Oh, that?!" - Callie waved it off, then remembered Arizona couldn't see her - "She was just being polite, and offering to get it dry cleaned, and she invited me out to drinks with her and a few colleagues" - she replied in her best casual tone, suddenly feeling a little guilty for no apparent reason.
"Are you… are you going?" - The blonde held her breath.
"Well" - Callie felt just a little apprehensive about the turn this conversation was taking - "no… I mean she was nice and all, but I just want to soak in a tub and be old and lazy with my novel."
"That sounds nice" - the blonde replied trying to keep her voice level whilst an inexplicably, insanely jealous part of her felt kind of happy - "and you are not old… you're just… wise."
"Umhm… sure" - the brunette supplied her with a nonchalant agreement - "plus, she already spilled her drink on me once while she was sober, soooo" -
- "You sure?!" -Arizona nodded vigorously, enjoying the fact that their conversation had once again become light - "a night out with a clumsy drunk? Sounds promising?!" - She kidded.
"Hey! If I wanted to do that? I'd just go out with you!"
"I'm not clumsy!"
"Sure, you're not!" - The brunette exclaimed sardonically.
"Okay! Okay! Let's just get to the important stuff" -
- "And what might that be?" - Asked the brunette.
"What are you wearing?"
And there it was again, a pause.
"Arizona…" - came the brunette's near tortured sigh.
"What? What did I say?" - The blonde caught on a little late - "oh… Oh! No, no, not like…not like that! I meant to brunch! And then for the speech! I didn't mean" -
- "Oh thank god!" - Callie exhaled a long breath of relief, completely unaware of the uncoiling feeling of a nagging sort of discontent that passed like a wave in the blonde's chest.
"Right… no… absolutely, I just want to know what the new genius with a soul and body to match look is going to be like" - the blonde's voice was regaining that note of levity that made them both feel secure.
"Well… you could help me pick?" - Callie asked, sounding hopeful.
"Sure! What do we got?!"
They chatted some more, once again blissfully unaware of what was changing between them, and what remained the same. They allowed themselves these moments and pockets of recognition, and nothing more; enjoying the fruit and ignoring the process. Blissfully… so blissfully unaware of how things would turn around on them yet again.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A/N: Short, I know, but we are very close to the end, about 4-5 chapters to go. And if you guessed it, you guessed it right.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
My Song of the Day
There There by Radiohead
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