FIC:Support/ Broken/ Gossip/ Reception/Dancing
Title: Support/ Broken/ Gossip/ Reception/Dancing
Rating: PG
Summary: A few short scenes starting with and based on the Bailey/Callie scene in 9x09
Disclaimer: I own nothing. All characters are Shonda’s.
Author’s Note: I wrote this before the ep aired when we got the sneak of the Bailey/Callie “You can run” scene. I haven’t seen the episode yet, as I had to work Thursday and promised my girlfriend I’d wait to watch it with her.
Author’s Note 2: I really do plan on finishing “Aftershocks”. Unfortunately, the words aren’t flowing to bring it to a close. Be patient with me. Thanks!
Support
Miranda Bailey stared at Callie Torres in horror as her friend gave her permission to leave Ben at the altar. She tilted her head and slumped slightly as Callie spoke so callously. She knew Callie and Arizona had been going through a rough time since Arizona’s amputation, but she never imagined she would live to see the day where Callie would imply she regretted her marriage to Arizona Robbins. Maybe Callie hadn’t uttered those exact words, but the intent of her words rang clear. Leave while you can because once those vows are made, you’re stuck.
Bailey closed her eyes to steel her resolve. She straightened her posture and opened her brown eyes. “Do I look like a runner, Torres? Do I have the lean, athletic body of a runner?”
Callie looked perplexed. “No. What does that…?”
“So what on God’s green earth makes you think I could ever be a runaway bride?” She stepped into Callie’s personal space. “I’m merely saying it is bad timing. Being in separate states is no way to start a marriage. It’s a recipe for disaster and I already had one marriage end in divorce.” She took a deep breath. “But the way you’re speaking now…about your own marriage…you need to talk to your wife.”
“There’s nothing to talk about, Bailey. Everything’s been said.”
“Obviously not.”
“I cut…”
Bailey held up her right hand. “No. Alex Karev cut off her leg. You made the decision. Stop wallowing in it. She is going through a very devastating time and you walking on eggshells and treating her like a naughty child can’t be helping matters any.”
Callie glared at the smaller woman but said nothing.
“Right now, Arizona needs her loving, SUPPORTIVE wife and I need my helpful, SUPPORTIVE friend. Don’t talk to me until you find that woman, Torres.”
Broken
Bailey marched straight to the attending’s lounge. She had discovered shortly into Arizona’s return to work that if the pediatric surgeon, wasn’t overexerting herself on the peds floor, then she could be found in her office or the attending’s lounge. “You’ve got a big problem, Robbins.”
Arizona sighed softly, the weariness very evident. She leaned her head on the back of the couch. “You’re going to have to be more specific, Dr. Bailey.” She said tiredly as she closed her eyes.
“Your wife.”
Arizona’s response was an unsurprised. “Ah.”
Miranda felt as though she’d been slapped by the noncommittal noise. “Then you know?”
Arizona sighed again. “Close the door and sit down. I don’t want the hospital knowing my marriage is wrought with more landmines than Baghdad.”
Bailey closed and, for good measure, locked the door before sitting next to the amputee. “If you didn’t want the hospital knowing your marital business, then you shouldn’t have married Callie Torres. Girl’s a gossip mill constant, either spreading it or being in the middle of it.”
Arizona said nothing for several minutes. “What did she say?” She finally asked timidly, as though fearing the response.
“What makes you think she said something?”
“Because, Bailey, you wouldn’t be in here trying to Dr. Phil me if she hadn’t.” Arizona opened her blue eyes to stare coldly at the other woman. Bailey shifted uncomfortably, but remained silent. “You know, several years ago, I sat on this very couch and told her I wasn’t broken, that I didn’t need fixed. Now…” She paused to gather her thoughts and emotions. “Now that I’m…” She paused again, willing away the pool of tears which threatened to fall.
Bailey placed her fingertips on Arizona’s forearm. “You don’t have to say anymore.”
“I do. I need to do this.” She bit her lower lip and breathed steadily through her nose, steadying her inner turmoil. “Now I am broken and the only person who can fix me is Callie.”
“Arizona…”
“I don’t mean fix my leg.” She snapped irritably. “My leg’s gone. I get that. I know it’s never coming back. I AM a doctor, you know.” She stated coldly. She rubbed her left hand over her brow. “Sorry. It’s not just the whole no leg issue that has me broken. Physically, mentally, emotionally, sexually. I’m broken and the only person other than myself who can fix me is Callie and Callie can’t get past her broken promise to not cut off my leg.” Arizona shook her head. “What did she say to have you come charging in here wanting her head on a platter?”
Bailey clenched her jaw. “She told me to leave Ben at the altar.” She watched as a myriad of emotions flittered across Arizona’s features before settling on her current stand-by emotion, anger.
Arizona pushed herself upright and grabbed her cane.
“Arizona?”
Arizona moved slowly towards the door. “Apparently, it’s up to me to fix myself.”
Gossip
The gossip mill had been working overtime today. The nurses spoke with pity about how Arizona kept falling and she rarely smiled. Interns constantly ran from the pediatric wing in tears. These things, while par for the course lately, were nothing compared to the snippet between two nurses Callie overheard on her way to the ER.
“I heard they aren’t even sleeping in the same apartment.”
“That’s old news. I heard Torres told Bailey she should have ditched Robbins at the altar.”
Callie shook her head as she entered the scrubroom. She knew she hadn’t said anything of the kind. Man, Bailey was gonna get a kick out of the latest gossip. Miranda was already scrubbing her hands furiously when Callie entered. “Hey Bailey, you’re not gonna believe what I just heard.”
“Don’t care, Torres.”
Callie continued as though Bailey hadn’t spoken. “These two nurses were saying that I told you I should have left Arizona at the altar. I mean, crazy? Right?”
“What’s so crazy about it? That IS what you implied.” Bailey refused to meet Callie’s gaze.
“What? No. No, I didn’t. NO!” Callie’s voice rose with each denial.
“You said I should run. That it would be a clean break. That otherwise I’d be stuck scrubbing urine from the floor and sleeping with a demilitarized zone down the middle of the bed.”
“Where in that do you get that I wish I hadn’t married Arizona?”
“There’s the part where you called off your wedding for four hours and I had to convince you to walk down the aisle. The part where I wound up officiating to ensure you walked down the aisle.”
Callie grimaced. She’d forgotten about that.
“And you know as well as I do that if you’ve heard the gossip, then Arizona has, too. You need to get over yourself. Yes, it’s difficult and yes, you broke your promise, but you need to forgive yourself for making the decision. And whatever crap you’re going through and however hard you think YOU’VE got it, what Arizona’s going through is a hundred thousand times harder.”
Callie straightened. “Sounds like you’ve been talking to her.”
“There’s a reason she’s a bridesmaid, Torres, and not just so she can round out my bridal party.”
Callie leaned against the scrub basin. “What am I supposed to do, Bailey?”
“I ain’t gonna give you all the answers, Torres.”
Reception
Callie watched from the corner of her eye as Arizona shredded her salmon with her fork, but only ate four tiny bites of the entire meal. “Aren’t you going to eat?”
Arizona made a show of stabbing a piece of salmon and bringing it to her mouth. “I AM eating.”
The verbal battles remained a steady constant since the couple left the hospital. Callie wisely let this particular one slide.
Arizona fidgeted and placed the fork on the plate. She moved awkwardly from her chair and grabbed her cane in one hand and her glass of wine with the other. “I need some air.” She said by way of conversation.
Callie took the hardened glare to mean her wife wished to be alone. “Ok. Let me know if you need anything.” She didn’t notice the slump to Arizona’s posture.
When Arizona hadn’t returned twenty minutes later, Callie began searching for her. It took another twenty minutes to find Arizona seated on a bench amongst the bare rose bushes in the garden behind the hotel. She watched as Arizona lit a new cigarette with the butt of the one she had just finished. “I thought you quit.” Callie said announcing her presence.
“I did.”
“Obviously not.”
“I did. I recently started again.”
“How did I not know this?” Callie stood in front of her.
Arizona didn’t say anything for several minutes. She stared at a bush a few feet behind and to the left of where Callie stood. Arizona couldn’t bear to look at Callie when she finally did speak. “Do you want a divorce? I’d…I’d understand if you do. A-and if you do, I-I-I won’t fight it.”
Callie sat on the bench next to her wife. “Is that what you want?”
“This isn’t about what I want.”
“Obviously, part of it is.”
Arizona puffed on her cigarette. Her gaze remained fixed on the dormant rosebush. “I spent all day enduring condolences about the end of our marriage. I reduced six interns to tears today because they had the audacity to suggest I was quote ‘stuck in a loveless marriage.’ Then to top off my day, I had Bailey hunt me down to tell me I had a big problem with my wife and that said wife…YOU…told her to ditch Ben at the altar. So please, Callie, tell me what you want me to do and I will do it.”
The two women stared at one another as those words settled over them and memories of those same words spoken moments before a different crash resurfaced. The last time those words were uttered a proposal followed. This time they were preceded by the request for an end to their union. The irony was not lost between the two women.
Neither Callie nor Arizona wanted a divorce, yet neither knew how to bridge the chasm between them.
Arizona crushed her cigarette and stood, dejection written plainly on her pale features. “It’s Bailey’s day. We’ll discuss this later.”
Dancing
When the pair re-entered the reception hall, Callie grabbed Jackson and led him to the dance floor while Arizona moved to the table furthest from the festive area to sit with Alex and Jo.
“Not that I mind dancing with a beautiful woman, but why aren’t you dancing with your wife?”
“She’s got a prosthetic, Avery.”
“So? She can still sway in place.”
At the table, a similar conversation took place.
“You’re an idiot, Robbins.”
“Shut up, Alex.”
“This was the first song you and Torres danced to at your wedding.”
“I said to shut your mouth, Karev.” Arizona muttered as she grabbed a glass of champagne from a passing waiter.
Callie felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned to see April. “What do you want, Kepner?”
“This is the song you and Dr. Robbins had your first dance to at your wedding. You should be dancing with your wife.”
“Arizona doesn’t want to dance.”
“Then go sit it out with her.” April pressed a hand to Jackson’s chest to place some distance between him and Callie. “I’m cutting in.”
Callie threw her hands in the air and turned to walk over to the bar. As she waited on her drink, Bailey appeared beside her. “You ratted me out to Arizona?”
Bailey shrugged. “I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Why aren’t you dancing with your wife?”
Callie looked around for prying ears and leaned closer to her friend. “She asked me if I wanted a divorce.”
The statement didn’t faze Bailey. “And do you? Because the way you talked earlier sounded like you might.”
The memory of a different promise made surfaced…one made before Arizona stepped on that fated plane… “Don’t leave. Don’t ever leave me.”
Callie felt sick to her stomach. “There’s something I need to do, Bailey.”
As the strains of Eric Clapton began to echo through the crowded reception hall, Alex glowered at the woman who approached his table. “What do you want?”
“I came to ask my wife to join me on the dance floor.” Callie replied with just as much animosity towards Alex. She held her hand for Arizona to grasp. “Dance with me?”
With a hesitant nod, Arizona allowed Callie to help her to her feet and maneuver them to the edge of the dance floor.
As she held Arizona close and whispered along to the lyrics of “Wonderful Tonight”, Callie knew dancing wouldn’t fix anything, but at least it was a step in the right direction.