Secret Santa Fic for Emmer23
Happy Secret Santa, Emmer23!
Prompt: I would love to see a reimagining of how they first met. It can be totally AU (they have different careers/lives) or it can be just partially AU in that they’re still surgeons at SGMW, but they just met differently. I’d love it to be flirty/sexy and just fun - something that takes us back to why we all fell in love with them in the first place. Any rating is fine by me.
I decided to go with the “partially AU” option. They’re still surgeons at SGMW, and they’re meeting at roughly the same time, a few episodes after Hahn left when Callie’s down in the dumps. I created an OC because I haven’t done a ton of AU and I wanted the plot device ;)
Arizona Robbins had always wanted to be a doctor. From the time she was old enough to comprehend what a doctor was - that had been it. Every time someone asked precocious little Arizona what do you want to be when you grow up? Doctor was the answer without fail. That is until she was old enough to understand what it meant to specialize, then her response had quickly narrowed to surgeon.
That kind of focus and determination meant that Arizona graduated high school, went straight to a four year undergraduate university, then straight to four years of medical school. She was Dr.Robbins, top of her class at Hopkins, with a surgical internship by age 25. Chief resident by age 30, specializing in pediatric surgery.
All of this was in sharp contract to one of Arizona’s childhood friend Evelyn. A fellow marine brat, Evelyn was the younger sister of Nick, her brother Timothy’s best friend. Their fathers had spent time in the same unit, and had received their postings together, and so the four children enjoyed a rare privilege for military brats: friendships that lasted more than a couple of years. While Arizona had the focus and drive instilled by a military upbringing coupled with a desire for stability after years of constantly moving, Evelyn finished high school infected with wanderlust. She spent a year backpacking around South America before enrolling in college. Changed her major four times and went on two study abroad exchanges in Europe before graduating 6 years after she started with a degree (in Math of all things). After another year spent teaching English/ trekking through Asia, she finally came to the decision that she too, wanted to attend medical school. She started her surgical internship at SGMW the same year as Lexie Grey.
Which was why, when an attending position for a pediatric surgeon opened up at that hospital, Arizona decided to jump on it. 12 years of insanely hard work had gotten her to exactly where she wanted to be. But that focus also meant that aside from all of the (failed) relationships with past girlfriends, she hadn’t really connected with that many people. Seattle and Evelyn seemed like the perfect place to really start putting down roots and building lasting relationships. And Evelyn was thrilled for Arizona to take the second bedroom in her apartment both for the help with the rent and for the company.
Although company might have been wishful thinking, given that the average surgical intern life consisted of coming home to eat/sleep before returning to the hospital. So despite the fact that they were roommates, most of the socializing the two old friends got to enjoy took place within the walls of SGMW. Which was why Arizona, with a second cup of coffee perched atop her own, was navigating her way through the maze of cafeteria tables to the one where Evelyn was asleep next to a bowl of cereal.
“Ev,” Arizona called, kicking out the chair across from her friend and taking a seat. “Evelyn,” she repeated, reaching across the table with her free hand to shake the intern’s shoulder.
“Yep,” Evelyn replied suddenly, eyes snapping open. She inhaled deeply before pushing herself off of the tabletop to lean back in her chair. She reached instinctively for the ceramic mug in front of her, only to frown when she found it empty.
“Here,” Arizona supplied, passing Evelyn a full paper cup from the coffee cart.
“Thanks,” Evelyn smiled, taking an appreciative sip. She pushed a spoon through the bowl of mush that had once been her cheerios, and determined that the contents of the bowl had absolutely no business calling itself cereal anymore. She put in on the tray next to her empty coffee mug and pushed them both off to the side.
“Still loving those 48 hour shifts I see,” Arizona quipped through her dazzling smile.
“It’s not the being here for two days that I can’t get behind,” Evelyn replied. “It’s this ortho rotation I’m on and never being allowed to sleep. I’d swear Dr. Torres was the only orthopedic surgeon in the hospital, but I’m told she’s just the only one who never goes home. Or at least not since her breakup with Dr. Hahn. Lucky me, getting paired up with the woman trying to work so much she forgets all of her emotional baggage.”
“Which one’s Dr. Hahn?” Arizona asked, scanning around the cafeteria and hoping a face might jog her memory and attach itself to the name.
“She left,” Evelyn provided. “She was a cardio surgeon, I think I heard that she took a job in Portland maybe?”
Arizona nodded, and mentally filed away the fact that Dr. Torres had been in a relationship with a woman. “Do you like ortho?”
Evelyn shrugged. “We spend a lot of time in the pit. See a lot of MVAs. I thought there would be more variety. Torres is nice but I don’t think ortho is for me.”
“She’s nice?” Arizona questioned, gently prodding for more info.
“She is,” Evelyn supplied. “Nice enough. I think she’d actually be fun to be around if she wasn’t so bummed out all the time. But all of the scrub nurses really like her. The attendings all seem like they respect her and the interns who worked with her before this break up said she was a lot of fun. Played music in the OR, and joking around and stuff. She’s sitting over there with Dr. Sloan.”
Evelyn gestured to a table behind Arizona with her coffee cup and the attending turned. The look that came over her face made Evelyn laugh, and confirmed that she had been right in pegging Torres as Arizona’s type. “Down girl,” Evelyn joked. Arizona turned back around in her seat. “I heard Sloan say he was going to drag her to Joe’s tonight if it killed him. We can go, I’ll introduce you.”
“Okay!” Arizona replied brightly, clearly excited by the possibility. Evelyn tried and failed to fight back a monster yawn. “When was the last time you slept?” Arizona asked.
“Tuesday,” Evelyn replied waving off her friend’s concern.
“You know it’s Thursday, right?” Arizona replied.
“I’m fine. I was doing scut all night, it’s not like I was really exerting myself. Oh, crap!” Evelyn jumped from the table as she noticed Sloan and Torres leaving. “Gotta go, Tucson,” she quipped, “I’ll see you later.”
Arizona smiled as she watched her friend go. She sipped her coffee alone for a few minutes and considered the suddenly very intriguing Dr. Torres.
XXX
Callie rounded the corner into the pit and made a beeline for Owen Hunt standing behind the charge desk. It wasn’t that she didn’t like the ER staff, she just hadn’t been in the mood for small talk for a while… or a month.
“Anything for me?” she asked the redhead.
“Mmm, not yet,” Owen replied, his attention still on the paperwork in front of him.
“Sorry? Not yet?” Callie asked for clarification.
“Yeah,” Owen dropped his pen and gave Callie his full attention. He gestured to curtain 6 across the room. “This guy was brought in by paramedics about 15 minutes ago.”
Callie followed his gaze to a clearly homeless man sitting on a gurney, gently rocking back and forth, his hand clutched across his chest.
“They picked him up wandering in the streets, talking to himself. ER staff is waiting for psych to come down and check him out before they work him up, but they think his hand might be broken.”
Callie returned her gaze to the man, focusing this time on the hand across his chest, noting the swelling and bruising down the side, she thought a break was a possibility. “So you’re saying I have to wait for psych, then for the ER staff to call me back down here for what is probably not a surgical case any way?” she huffed.
“Yeah, welcome to hospital bureaucracy,” Owen quipped.
“Oh, Dr. Donoghue, nice of you to join us,” Callie greeted sarcastically.
“Sorry,” Evelyn replied. “Where do you need me?”
“Curtain 6,” Callie replied, pulling off her lab coat and tossing it onto the chair Owen had vacated. “Work him up for a suspected hand fracture.”
“Suspected?” Evelyn asked.
“ER hasn’t gotten to him yet. I don’t feel like waiting around for them. You know how?” Callie replied.
“Uh, yeah, of course,” Evelyn replied quickly.
“Good. Rule him out as surgical,” Callie directed
“No problem,” Evelyn replied, making her way to the curtain.
Owen raised a brow but said nothing. It was against protocol to work up a patient after they had been designated as requiring a psych evaluation, but Callie had seemed down to him lately, and he didn’t feel like giving her trouble over a harmless sidestepping of the rules.
“Are you sticking around here?” Owen asked.
“No,” Callie shook her head. “Tell her to find me-”
Callie was cut off by a shout and commotion coming from curtain 6. Dr. Donoghue was on the ground, and security was running towards the now screaming man, who was waving a bloody pocketknife above his head. A security guard tackled him to the ground, and it was Owen who came rushing forward to jam a syringe into the struggling man’s thigh.
The bloody pocketknife came skidding across the floor towards Callie, and her brain finally put together the blood on the knife with Evelyn lying on the floor, and she ran towards her intern.
XXX
“Dr. Robbins?”
Arizona turned to see a small mousy woman looking at her expectantly. “Yes?” she replied.
“Nicole Beaton, from the administrator’s office,” she identified herself. “You’re Dr. Evelyn Donoghue’s emergency contact?”
“I think so,” Arizona replied.
“There’s been some kind of incident in the Emergency Room,” Nicole continued. “I believe Dr. Donoghue was attacked.”
“What?” Arizona stopped short. “She was attacked? What happened? Is she okay?”
“I don’t know,” Nicole replied. “I heard he had a knife…”
Arizona’s heart caught in her throat. She pushed past useless Nicole and hurried towards to pit.
XXX
Arizona breezed into the ER and scanned around frantically for her friend. She spotted her through a gap in the curtain, siting on a gurney being attended to by Dr. Torres.
“Are you okay?” Arizona asked, coming up breathlessly and pulling the curtain closed behind her.
“I’m fine,” Evelyn quickly reassured.
Arizona stepped forward to examine the cut on her friend’s arm. It wasn’t deep, and wouldn’t even require stitches. “What happened?” she asked, breathing a sigh of relief.
“Crazy guy with a knife,” Evelyn offered. Arizona gave her a look that prompted her to continue. “I was trying to work up a suspected fractured hand. When I touched his hand, he freaked out, pulled out a knife, and came at me.”
“Crazy guy?” Arizona questioned.
“Yeah,” Evelyn agreed.
“You didn’t wait for psych before you did the work up?” Arizona asked. “Wait, why were you working a suspected fracture. That’s not your job.” She wheeled around to face Dr. Torres. “You sent her in?”
“Arizona,” Evelyn warned.
“It can be useful for interns to learn fracture treatment from the beginning of the process,” Callie offered.
“Not if you’re skipping steps, and ignoring psych notifications,” Arizona retorted. “Have you slept yet?” she rounded on Evelyn.
“In the hour since I last saw you?” Evelyn retorted.
“So you’re sending a sleep deprived intern that you kept here all night to work up an unstable patient?” Arizona accused.
“Every intern is sleep deprived,” Callie bristled.
“Go sleep,” Arizona directed to her friend. “You’re on my service now. You’re off ortho until I send you back.”
Evelyn opened her mouth to argue, but the look Arizona gave her silenced her, and she quietly slipped from the curtain, pulling it shut behind her.
“Excuse me, who are you?” Callie demanded. “That’s my intern.”
“Arizona Robbins, I took over pediatrics from Dr. Kenley.”
“You’re an attending?” Callie questioned.
“Yes, and you’re a resident, Dr. Torres, so I’ll take any intern I want from you, especially when you’re putting them in harm’s way. I don’t care how bad of a month you’re having.”
“How do you know my name?” Callie questioned, realizing her lab coat was still draped over a chair where she’d tossed it.
“Uh, well… people talk,” Arizona replied, losing a bit of steam. “In this hospital, where we work, people talk. So I… know things about you.”
“Oh,” Callie hung her head, crestfallen. “Great.”
“It is, actually,” Arizona replied suddenly feeling bad at the part she’d played in making Callie upset. “They like you, they respect you-”
“They think I’m reckless with intern’s safety,” Callie cut her off.
“I don’t think anyone would assume that of you,” Arizona replied softly. “From what I’ve heard, you’re good to interns. They like you.” She paused, unsure of whether or not she should press, but something spurred her on. “Why would you send her in here?”
“I’m tired of being stared at,” Callie replied in a moment of honesty that surprised even herself. “People know that I’m… off. That I haven’t been myself lately and they all know why, and they stare. With the pity that I can’t stand. I just didn’t want to be waiting around here to be stared at.”
Arizona took a step closer. “That’s not the only reason people stare,” she offered softly.
“What?” Callie questioned. She raised her head to meet Arizona’s gaze and a piece of hair slipped from behind her ear.
“You’re beautiful, Dr. Torres,” Arizona replied. Callie looked at her, confused, for a second longer, and Arizona reached forward and tucked the hair behind Callie’s ear. A smile broke out on Callie’s face.
“Where did you come from?” Callie asked.
“Hopkins,” Arizona replied with a quirky smile.
“I had a cheesier line in mind,” Callie retorted.
Arizona laughed. “Try not to worry about the staring,” she offered. “Because people here, they like you. Some of them really like you.”
“Will some of them be at Joe’s tonight?” Callie questioned.
A bright smile crossed Arizona’s face. “Some of them get off at 8.”
“Same,” Callie replied, a flirty little smile playing on her lips.
“It was a pleasure meeting you Dr. Torres,” Arizona grinned, pulling back the curtain.
“Pleasure meeting you as well, Dr. Robbins,” Callie replied. She glided across the floor of the pit, and she felt the eyes on her as she went. Turning, she found that the eyes she felt on her were the dazzling blue’s of Dr. Robbins. Continuing across the ER, she realized some stares were very welcome.
So I apologize, because I’m not wildly fond of how this turned out. Some nice moments but altogether not my best work. I didn’t have any amazing ideas for the prompt, so time constraints said I had to take the best I had. Which was this. But anyways. Happy Holidays!
Prompt: I would love to see a reimagining of how they first met. It can be totally AU (they have different careers/lives) or it can be just partially AU in that they’re still surgeons at SGMW, but they just met differently. I’d love it to be flirty/sexy and just fun - something that takes us back to why we all fell in love with them in the first place. Any rating is fine by me.
I decided to go with the “partially AU” option. They’re still surgeons at SGMW, and they’re meeting at roughly the same time, a few episodes after Hahn left when Callie’s down in the dumps. I created an OC because I haven’t done a ton of AU and I wanted the plot device ;)
Arizona Robbins had always wanted to be a doctor. From the time she was old enough to comprehend what a doctor was - that had been it. Every time someone asked precocious little Arizona what do you want to be when you grow up? Doctor was the answer without fail. That is until she was old enough to understand what it meant to specialize, then her response had quickly narrowed to surgeon.
That kind of focus and determination meant that Arizona graduated high school, went straight to a four year undergraduate university, then straight to four years of medical school. She was Dr.Robbins, top of her class at Hopkins, with a surgical internship by age 25. Chief resident by age 30, specializing in pediatric surgery.
All of this was in sharp contract to one of Arizona’s childhood friend Evelyn. A fellow marine brat, Evelyn was the younger sister of Nick, her brother Timothy’s best friend. Their fathers had spent time in the same unit, and had received their postings together, and so the four children enjoyed a rare privilege for military brats: friendships that lasted more than a couple of years. While Arizona had the focus and drive instilled by a military upbringing coupled with a desire for stability after years of constantly moving, Evelyn finished high school infected with wanderlust. She spent a year backpacking around South America before enrolling in college. Changed her major four times and went on two study abroad exchanges in Europe before graduating 6 years after she started with a degree (in Math of all things). After another year spent teaching English/ trekking through Asia, she finally came to the decision that she too, wanted to attend medical school. She started her surgical internship at SGMW the same year as Lexie Grey.
Which was why, when an attending position for a pediatric surgeon opened up at that hospital, Arizona decided to jump on it. 12 years of insanely hard work had gotten her to exactly where she wanted to be. But that focus also meant that aside from all of the (failed) relationships with past girlfriends, she hadn’t really connected with that many people. Seattle and Evelyn seemed like the perfect place to really start putting down roots and building lasting relationships. And Evelyn was thrilled for Arizona to take the second bedroom in her apartment both for the help with the rent and for the company.
Although company might have been wishful thinking, given that the average surgical intern life consisted of coming home to eat/sleep before returning to the hospital. So despite the fact that they were roommates, most of the socializing the two old friends got to enjoy took place within the walls of SGMW. Which was why Arizona, with a second cup of coffee perched atop her own, was navigating her way through the maze of cafeteria tables to the one where Evelyn was asleep next to a bowl of cereal.
“Ev,” Arizona called, kicking out the chair across from her friend and taking a seat. “Evelyn,” she repeated, reaching across the table with her free hand to shake the intern’s shoulder.
“Yep,” Evelyn replied suddenly, eyes snapping open. She inhaled deeply before pushing herself off of the tabletop to lean back in her chair. She reached instinctively for the ceramic mug in front of her, only to frown when she found it empty.
“Here,” Arizona supplied, passing Evelyn a full paper cup from the coffee cart.
“Thanks,” Evelyn smiled, taking an appreciative sip. She pushed a spoon through the bowl of mush that had once been her cheerios, and determined that the contents of the bowl had absolutely no business calling itself cereal anymore. She put in on the tray next to her empty coffee mug and pushed them both off to the side.
“Still loving those 48 hour shifts I see,” Arizona quipped through her dazzling smile.
“It’s not the being here for two days that I can’t get behind,” Evelyn replied. “It’s this ortho rotation I’m on and never being allowed to sleep. I’d swear Dr. Torres was the only orthopedic surgeon in the hospital, but I’m told she’s just the only one who never goes home. Or at least not since her breakup with Dr. Hahn. Lucky me, getting paired up with the woman trying to work so much she forgets all of her emotional baggage.”
“Which one’s Dr. Hahn?” Arizona asked, scanning around the cafeteria and hoping a face might jog her memory and attach itself to the name.
“She left,” Evelyn provided. “She was a cardio surgeon, I think I heard that she took a job in Portland maybe?”
Arizona nodded, and mentally filed away the fact that Dr. Torres had been in a relationship with a woman. “Do you like ortho?”
Evelyn shrugged. “We spend a lot of time in the pit. See a lot of MVAs. I thought there would be more variety. Torres is nice but I don’t think ortho is for me.”
“She’s nice?” Arizona questioned, gently prodding for more info.
“She is,” Evelyn supplied. “Nice enough. I think she’d actually be fun to be around if she wasn’t so bummed out all the time. But all of the scrub nurses really like her. The attendings all seem like they respect her and the interns who worked with her before this break up said she was a lot of fun. Played music in the OR, and joking around and stuff. She’s sitting over there with Dr. Sloan.”
Evelyn gestured to a table behind Arizona with her coffee cup and the attending turned. The look that came over her face made Evelyn laugh, and confirmed that she had been right in pegging Torres as Arizona’s type. “Down girl,” Evelyn joked. Arizona turned back around in her seat. “I heard Sloan say he was going to drag her to Joe’s tonight if it killed him. We can go, I’ll introduce you.”
“Okay!” Arizona replied brightly, clearly excited by the possibility. Evelyn tried and failed to fight back a monster yawn. “When was the last time you slept?” Arizona asked.
“Tuesday,” Evelyn replied waving off her friend’s concern.
“You know it’s Thursday, right?” Arizona replied.
“I’m fine. I was doing scut all night, it’s not like I was really exerting myself. Oh, crap!” Evelyn jumped from the table as she noticed Sloan and Torres leaving. “Gotta go, Tucson,” she quipped, “I’ll see you later.”
Arizona smiled as she watched her friend go. She sipped her coffee alone for a few minutes and considered the suddenly very intriguing Dr. Torres.
XXX
Callie rounded the corner into the pit and made a beeline for Owen Hunt standing behind the charge desk. It wasn’t that she didn’t like the ER staff, she just hadn’t been in the mood for small talk for a while… or a month.
“Anything for me?” she asked the redhead.
“Mmm, not yet,” Owen replied, his attention still on the paperwork in front of him.
“Sorry? Not yet?” Callie asked for clarification.
“Yeah,” Owen dropped his pen and gave Callie his full attention. He gestured to curtain 6 across the room. “This guy was brought in by paramedics about 15 minutes ago.”
Callie followed his gaze to a clearly homeless man sitting on a gurney, gently rocking back and forth, his hand clutched across his chest.
“They picked him up wandering in the streets, talking to himself. ER staff is waiting for psych to come down and check him out before they work him up, but they think his hand might be broken.”
Callie returned her gaze to the man, focusing this time on the hand across his chest, noting the swelling and bruising down the side, she thought a break was a possibility. “So you’re saying I have to wait for psych, then for the ER staff to call me back down here for what is probably not a surgical case any way?” she huffed.
“Yeah, welcome to hospital bureaucracy,” Owen quipped.
“Oh, Dr. Donoghue, nice of you to join us,” Callie greeted sarcastically.
“Sorry,” Evelyn replied. “Where do you need me?”
“Curtain 6,” Callie replied, pulling off her lab coat and tossing it onto the chair Owen had vacated. “Work him up for a suspected hand fracture.”
“Suspected?” Evelyn asked.
“ER hasn’t gotten to him yet. I don’t feel like waiting around for them. You know how?” Callie replied.
“Uh, yeah, of course,” Evelyn replied quickly.
“Good. Rule him out as surgical,” Callie directed
“No problem,” Evelyn replied, making her way to the curtain.
Owen raised a brow but said nothing. It was against protocol to work up a patient after they had been designated as requiring a psych evaluation, but Callie had seemed down to him lately, and he didn’t feel like giving her trouble over a harmless sidestepping of the rules.
“Are you sticking around here?” Owen asked.
“No,” Callie shook her head. “Tell her to find me-”
Callie was cut off by a shout and commotion coming from curtain 6. Dr. Donoghue was on the ground, and security was running towards the now screaming man, who was waving a bloody pocketknife above his head. A security guard tackled him to the ground, and it was Owen who came rushing forward to jam a syringe into the struggling man’s thigh.
The bloody pocketknife came skidding across the floor towards Callie, and her brain finally put together the blood on the knife with Evelyn lying on the floor, and she ran towards her intern.
XXX
“Dr. Robbins?”
Arizona turned to see a small mousy woman looking at her expectantly. “Yes?” she replied.
“Nicole Beaton, from the administrator’s office,” she identified herself. “You’re Dr. Evelyn Donoghue’s emergency contact?”
“I think so,” Arizona replied.
“There’s been some kind of incident in the Emergency Room,” Nicole continued. “I believe Dr. Donoghue was attacked.”
“What?” Arizona stopped short. “She was attacked? What happened? Is she okay?”
“I don’t know,” Nicole replied. “I heard he had a knife…”
Arizona’s heart caught in her throat. She pushed past useless Nicole and hurried towards to pit.
XXX
Arizona breezed into the ER and scanned around frantically for her friend. She spotted her through a gap in the curtain, siting on a gurney being attended to by Dr. Torres.
“Are you okay?” Arizona asked, coming up breathlessly and pulling the curtain closed behind her.
“I’m fine,” Evelyn quickly reassured.
Arizona stepped forward to examine the cut on her friend’s arm. It wasn’t deep, and wouldn’t even require stitches. “What happened?” she asked, breathing a sigh of relief.
“Crazy guy with a knife,” Evelyn offered. Arizona gave her a look that prompted her to continue. “I was trying to work up a suspected fractured hand. When I touched his hand, he freaked out, pulled out a knife, and came at me.”
“Crazy guy?” Arizona questioned.
“Yeah,” Evelyn agreed.
“You didn’t wait for psych before you did the work up?” Arizona asked. “Wait, why were you working a suspected fracture. That’s not your job.” She wheeled around to face Dr. Torres. “You sent her in?”
“Arizona,” Evelyn warned.
“It can be useful for interns to learn fracture treatment from the beginning of the process,” Callie offered.
“Not if you’re skipping steps, and ignoring psych notifications,” Arizona retorted. “Have you slept yet?” she rounded on Evelyn.
“In the hour since I last saw you?” Evelyn retorted.
“So you’re sending a sleep deprived intern that you kept here all night to work up an unstable patient?” Arizona accused.
“Every intern is sleep deprived,” Callie bristled.
“Go sleep,” Arizona directed to her friend. “You’re on my service now. You’re off ortho until I send you back.”
Evelyn opened her mouth to argue, but the look Arizona gave her silenced her, and she quietly slipped from the curtain, pulling it shut behind her.
“Excuse me, who are you?” Callie demanded. “That’s my intern.”
“Arizona Robbins, I took over pediatrics from Dr. Kenley.”
“You’re an attending?” Callie questioned.
“Yes, and you’re a resident, Dr. Torres, so I’ll take any intern I want from you, especially when you’re putting them in harm’s way. I don’t care how bad of a month you’re having.”
“How do you know my name?” Callie questioned, realizing her lab coat was still draped over a chair where she’d tossed it.
“Uh, well… people talk,” Arizona replied, losing a bit of steam. “In this hospital, where we work, people talk. So I… know things about you.”
“Oh,” Callie hung her head, crestfallen. “Great.”
“It is, actually,” Arizona replied suddenly feeling bad at the part she’d played in making Callie upset. “They like you, they respect you-”
“They think I’m reckless with intern’s safety,” Callie cut her off.
“I don’t think anyone would assume that of you,” Arizona replied softly. “From what I’ve heard, you’re good to interns. They like you.” She paused, unsure of whether or not she should press, but something spurred her on. “Why would you send her in here?”
“I’m tired of being stared at,” Callie replied in a moment of honesty that surprised even herself. “People know that I’m… off. That I haven’t been myself lately and they all know why, and they stare. With the pity that I can’t stand. I just didn’t want to be waiting around here to be stared at.”
Arizona took a step closer. “That’s not the only reason people stare,” she offered softly.
“What?” Callie questioned. She raised her head to meet Arizona’s gaze and a piece of hair slipped from behind her ear.
“You’re beautiful, Dr. Torres,” Arizona replied. Callie looked at her, confused, for a second longer, and Arizona reached forward and tucked the hair behind Callie’s ear. A smile broke out on Callie’s face.
“Where did you come from?” Callie asked.
“Hopkins,” Arizona replied with a quirky smile.
“I had a cheesier line in mind,” Callie retorted.
Arizona laughed. “Try not to worry about the staring,” she offered. “Because people here, they like you. Some of them really like you.”
“Will some of them be at Joe’s tonight?” Callie questioned.
A bright smile crossed Arizona’s face. “Some of them get off at 8.”
“Same,” Callie replied, a flirty little smile playing on her lips.
“It was a pleasure meeting you Dr. Torres,” Arizona grinned, pulling back the curtain.
“Pleasure meeting you as well, Dr. Robbins,” Callie replied. She glided across the floor of the pit, and she felt the eyes on her as she went. Turning, she found that the eyes she felt on her were the dazzling blue’s of Dr. Robbins. Continuing across the ER, she realized some stares were very welcome.
So I apologize, because I’m not wildly fond of how this turned out. Some nice moments but altogether not my best work. I didn’t have any amazing ideas for the prompt, so time constraints said I had to take the best I had. Which was this. But anyways. Happy Holidays!