Fly By Night
Disclaimer: I own nothing and borrow lots. No, really... lots. Like the characters of Callie Torres, Arizona Robbins, Mark Sloan, Lexie Grey, Miranda Bailey, Teddy Altman, and possibly every other character past or present on Grey's Anatomy which are the sole intellectual property of Shonda Rhimes, Shondaland and ABC. All ideas for this story are from brain wrinkles and influenced by many other TV shows and movies. This is purely for entertainment purposes and sadly, no profit is being gained.
Ratings: Overall rating of this story is PG-13ish to R. This story will likely contain adult themes, activity, and language; violence; suspense; and sexual situations or sexually-oriented nudity. But not all at the same time, perhaps not at all depending if this continues or not.
Feedback: Yes, please. I mean... I’m not that needy. Much. I’ll totally love you forever if I know you're reading and even marginally enjoying it. Without feedback, there is no love for you and less enjoyment in writing for me.
Story Information: This is Alternative Universe fan fiction. Mainly because I’m jumping off at the last episode 7x07 “That’s Me Trying”. Spoilers up to the episode anything else is pure conjecture. I know myself, so I doubt I'll continue this, but who knows it might happen.
The flight attendant had now checked on her three times within the last twenty minutes; each time she brought with her another package of facial tissues and asked if she needed a sedative to help her sleep. Arizona knew that this was a sure sign that the crew all fully knew about the sobbing mess in first class. She had received the stares from the businessmen who were trying to sleep through the red eye from Seattle to Newark. Then there was the overly concerned elderly woman who kept trying to talk to her and try and get out what she thought was the juicy details of her airline fueled soap opera.
All in all Arizona was more upset with herself for failing to compartmentalize quicker. It was something she had learned as a military brat and as a Colonel’s daughter. Weakness should be pushed into a corner and put into a box so you could come back to it later when you were alone, focused, and rational. Logic and reason were the two laws that the Robbins children were raised on, but it was harder to focus on what she had been taught her entire life when she felt like she was getting farther away from her.
”Miss?” the wispy flight attendant bent down and smiled kindly, “Oh, see now you’re looking a tad bit better there. It must be the farther we get from Seattle the easier it is to focus on your destination right, miss?”
Seeing her passenger’s face deteriorate before her again she covered her mouth, “Oh no, now I went and said something wrong didn’t I?”
Grasping at the pile of crinkled tissue Arizona shook her head vehemently back and forth, “No! No, it’s me. Me with the lack of focus...” she trailed off for a moment and pointed her finger at her new companion, Arizona squinted at the name tag, “No Melanie! I have a huge heaping pile of focus and vision, but she couldn’t even-”
”Couldn’t what Miss?” Arizona realized that the attendant had slipped into the seat beside her and was patting her shoulder lightly.
Her watery eyes lifted up to Melanie, “She couldn’t even say she was proud of me.”
“Who is she dear?”
Both Arizona and the flight attendant turned to their right and took in the tiny old woman who had so recently been doing a good impersonation of an asleep tiny old woman and both let out a short laugh.
***
Callie arched her eyebrow as she sunk back into the passenger seat of Mark’s car. The crinkle of the leather seats was irritating to her. “Well what?”
He glanced over at her and then back at the traffic as they neared the apartment complex. The turn signal sounded like a time bomb as he decided to let her rip, “So you decided no on the Double Ds right?”
“No, Mark, I did not decide no. I was fully into your crappy metaphor, but she just she just-” leaning into the window she saw the building looming at her and sighed deeply.
He pushed out a breath, “She just called your bluff and left.”
“Yep,” she looked back at her friend as he barely smiled at her, “look I can’t deal with this place can we go to the Archfield or someplace other than here?”
He nodded, but put the car in park and grabbed Callie’s hand, “Look at me.”
She rolled her eyes heavily and turned her head towards Mark. He pulled her hand up to his chin, “She did not leave you okay? You have to try and break through that thought.” He lightly kissed her knuckles and patted her hand, “You and I we tend to leap big Torres and sometimes it’s without thinking.”
Roughly pulling her hand out of Mark’s grasp her pointer finger flew up and waggled in the air, “Did you just spin blame away from her? Because she left me Mark, she left me in the parking lot of airplanes!”
Mark quietly corrected her, “Terminal.”
She cleared her throat, “Parking lot of airplanes, Mark! And she walked away because that stupid grant is more important to her than me.”
He leaned back into his seat and nodded with her, “You’re right. I’m up for hating her tonight if you are. Oh!” A smirk edged its way up his face, “Then we could pick up ladies together and lament our poor moral fiber the next morning after we kick them out of our hotel room.”
His answer was three short jabs to his ribs as he laughed, “Rooms! Rooms! Separate rooms!”
***
“Just one more,” she pleaded lightly as her finger jutted up and then another joined it, “make that two, two more.”
Her eyes bugged out for a second and she giggled, “I sound like the Count on Sesame Street!” Arizona looked down at the tray in front of her and moved the small bottles around while she hummed a song lightly, She grasped the neck of the miniature plastic Jack Daniels with her left hand and hopped it around as if it was walking, “One! One little bottle of whiskey, eh, eh, eh!” She then tried for the next bottle twice before grabbing it around the middle with her right hand and waddled it back and forth, “Two! Two little bottles of whiskey! Eh, eh...”
Melanie dipped back down into her eye line, “Arizona, it looks like we’re going to have to stop serving as we’re nearing Newark now, but I’m sure you’ll be able to get something in the terminal or on the connecting flight.”
Pouting her lips out for a moment Arizona slumped into her seat, “I guess that’s okay then,” her eyebrows lifted trying to impersonate a more sober version of herself, “although later I was planning on doing a rendition of Near and Far in my Grover voice.”
Seeing the signs before her passenger even knew it was coming Melanie offered a hot towel to Arizona as the airplane had gone through a lot of the tissue supply for the flight patrons just on this one distraught passenger. She rubbed her new friend’s back as she murmured to her, “Yeah, I know.”
A hiccup erupted from behind the towel as she swore she could hear a grumble of, “Far.”
***
“It’s not far, you’re just thinking that because it’s...” Mark squinted his eyes tightly and stumbled towards the door, “It’s in the complete opposite direction.”
A sharp snort erupted from him as he tightened his arm around Callie’s waist. He felt her head plop onto his shoulder as she whined softly, “I’ll just sleep here.” He felt her start to dip as Callie’s knees buckled and Mark laughed as he fell to the ground with her. Twisting he took most of the hit on the floor as Callie landed on his chest and yawned loudly. Mark glanced down his nose and saw her start to tuck a hand underneath her cheek.
“Callie.” His chest reverberated and Callie winced as it was Mark Sloan in surround sound.
“No! I’m sleeping.” She swatted lightly at his face before he grabbed her hand.
Lacing his fingers through hers he whispered to her, his voice hitting a gravely bottom, “Not on the floor of a hotel Torres, you’re a better drunk than that, let’s get you to bed.” He started to sit up slowly, taking his friend with him. “I need you to help me, okay?”
Callie nodded and sighed as they both struggled to their feet looking like a baby fawn taking its first steps. Mark took her left arm, pulling it across his shoulders he started to latch her hand onto his neck. Meanwhile his right arm grabbed at her waist trying to anchor the two together for the sole purpose of getting Callie to her hotel room. “Okay, now let’s make a goal of getting to the other end of the hallway where you have a queen bed full of feathers waiting for you.”
“Okay.”
He was worried, normally the shorter his friend’s responses were the closer to a full slip into dead-to-the-world sleep she was; and even though Mark was less drunk than his friend he knew he wouldn’t be able to carry her the 500 feet they had to go for the finish line. “Tell me a story Callie, what’s your bedtime story.”
A wrinkled brow was his answer for a moment until a wide smile spread over her face and they stumbled along down the hallway, “I’ve got a story, but it always seems to be where you make the wrong choice.”
He could work with this, “What do you mean?”
As each doorway passed he was thankful that they were closer than they had been a step before. Her speech was slurred, but if he paid closer attention he could make out enough to piece together what she meant, because if there is anything your best friend can do it is make out what you mean to say.
“Like those choose your own adventure books! I was so bad at them. Always died.” Her arm shot out quickly, “Trap! Time Traveling Gnome! Spider! Abominable Snowman!” Her hand flew back and forth with each of her untimely young adult novel demises.
Mark tugged on her hip righting her wobbling for a moment as they approached the halfway mark. “You don’t always make the wrong choice.”
She was out of his grasp weaving in front of him with an accusatory finger pointed at him for what he was sure had reached, for the evening, double digits. “This is a story Mark, this is not me.”
”Ah,” he nodded and his chin jutted out lightly, “Of course, my bad, so this story makes wrong choices.”
Taking sloppy steps backwards Callie nodded as she bounced off the hallway. Rushing forward Mark caught up with her and took a deep breath, righting Callie again as they began the march towards her room.
“Exactly, but they don’t know they’re going down the wrong path until whammo-blammo dead end!”
Mark nodded sympathetically at her, “I get that. It’s a good story,” he pointed at the door and pulled out a plastic key, “but here we are at bedtime.”
Sliding the key in he saw a red light blink and Callie ripped it out of his hand and stated, “You’re not doing it right.” He opened his mouth, but slammed it shut as the green light flashed and a click indicated that he had been doing it wrong.
“Okay, I’m going home.” He placed a quick kiss on her forehead and drew her in for a tight hug, “You can manage getting into bed right?” Looking down he saw a well of tears threatening to be unleashed from her eyes and understood, “Actually I’m tired; they have pull out couches here right?”
She nodded and struggled to smile, “Yeah.”
“Right,” shucking off his black leather coat Mark held the door open, “Get to bed.”
***
He cleared his throat and adjusted his glasses as he looked at the clock’s read-out from the kitchen and winced at the early hour, “What do you mean you’re going to bed in the Newark airport, Hun?” Daniel Robbins shuffled across the linoleum tile. He pulled the sliding glass door open and stepped outside to the crisp autumn air and saw the sun edging over the horizon.
“I can’t get on the connecting flight.” his daughter’s voice sounded like it had when she was scared.
He paused before pressing on, “Can’t or won’t Arizona?”
Her gaze followed the few people in the terminal. Some were slowly moving to baggage claim or walking briskly with garment bags in hand to another gate for a connecting flight. She glanced behind her at the second flight of three she had on her agenda for the travel day. “Can’t.”
It was the four letter word he most hated to hear, “You know that word is not a word in the Robbins family language right Marine?”
She chuckled, “Yeah, I know Dad, but going doesn’t feel right and going back doesn’t either.”
He ran his hand along the wooden railing of the back porch. The soft tinkling of metal tags let him know that the family dog was approaching, excited to have a playmate so early in the day. “Well Arizona...” he trailed off letting his daughter finish.
“Get up and get moving. Never retreat in fear and always press forward in courage.” She wiped a tear from her eye and nodded, “It’s never been this hard.”
Lightly petting the golden retriever at his side he laughed, “It never is and if it is right like you know it to be then you’ll find a way to make it work.”
“Dad?” Arizona sucked in a breath, “What do I do about her luggage?”
He could picture her in an instant and looked back at the sunrise breaking out across the ground trying to warm up the world inch by inch. He rolled his shoulders back and nodded, “Well your Mother and I had talked about coming to visit you in Africa later, how about we just make it sooner and we’ll help with getting you settled.”
The eye roll could be heard through the circuits in his daughter’s cell phone to his own corded down rotary monstrosity as his son had lovingly referred to his vintage phone. “I can hear that all the way here in Quantico.” He was rewarded with soft laughter. “So, that settles it right?”
She nodded and wiped the tears from her cheeks, “Forward in courage it is Sir.”
“Arizona, it is your decision.”
Raising up from her seat she nodded, “I’ve come this far. I have to see it through.” Pulling out the end of her luggage handle it clicked loudly as she saw a gate workers opening the door to the boarding ramp. “You always were a good leader.”
It was the familiar rote conversation they were slipping into now, “You never needed a leader, but we make a great team together.”
The muffled voice came over the loudspeaker and she looked at the small group of passengers starting to congregate around the ticket agent, “I love you Dad, give Mom my best.”
Daniel paused as he wasn’t able to end the phone call with his daughter as he was now used to doing, “I love you too Arizona...”
Pressing the end button Arizona slipped the cell back into her jeans pocket and closed her eyes for a brief moment before rolling her shoulders back and stepping forward towards tomorrow.
Ratings: Overall rating of this story is PG-13ish to R. This story will likely contain adult themes, activity, and language; violence; suspense; and sexual situations or sexually-oriented nudity. But not all at the same time, perhaps not at all depending if this continues or not.
Feedback: Yes, please. I mean... I’m not that needy. Much. I’ll totally love you forever if I know you're reading and even marginally enjoying it. Without feedback, there is no love for you and less enjoyment in writing for me.
Story Information: This is Alternative Universe fan fiction. Mainly because I’m jumping off at the last episode 7x07 “That’s Me Trying”. Spoilers up to the episode anything else is pure conjecture. I know myself, so I doubt I'll continue this, but who knows it might happen.
The flight attendant had now checked on her three times within the last twenty minutes; each time she brought with her another package of facial tissues and asked if she needed a sedative to help her sleep. Arizona knew that this was a sure sign that the crew all fully knew about the sobbing mess in first class. She had received the stares from the businessmen who were trying to sleep through the red eye from Seattle to Newark. Then there was the overly concerned elderly woman who kept trying to talk to her and try and get out what she thought was the juicy details of her airline fueled soap opera.
All in all Arizona was more upset with herself for failing to compartmentalize quicker. It was something she had learned as a military brat and as a Colonel’s daughter. Weakness should be pushed into a corner and put into a box so you could come back to it later when you were alone, focused, and rational. Logic and reason were the two laws that the Robbins children were raised on, but it was harder to focus on what she had been taught her entire life when she felt like she was getting farther away from her.
”Miss?” the wispy flight attendant bent down and smiled kindly, “Oh, see now you’re looking a tad bit better there. It must be the farther we get from Seattle the easier it is to focus on your destination right, miss?”
Seeing her passenger’s face deteriorate before her again she covered her mouth, “Oh no, now I went and said something wrong didn’t I?”
Grasping at the pile of crinkled tissue Arizona shook her head vehemently back and forth, “No! No, it’s me. Me with the lack of focus...” she trailed off for a moment and pointed her finger at her new companion, Arizona squinted at the name tag, “No Melanie! I have a huge heaping pile of focus and vision, but she couldn’t even-”
”Couldn’t what Miss?” Arizona realized that the attendant had slipped into the seat beside her and was patting her shoulder lightly.
Her watery eyes lifted up to Melanie, “She couldn’t even say she was proud of me.”
“Who is she dear?”
Both Arizona and the flight attendant turned to their right and took in the tiny old woman who had so recently been doing a good impersonation of an asleep tiny old woman and both let out a short laugh.
***
Callie arched her eyebrow as she sunk back into the passenger seat of Mark’s car. The crinkle of the leather seats was irritating to her. “Well what?”
He glanced over at her and then back at the traffic as they neared the apartment complex. The turn signal sounded like a time bomb as he decided to let her rip, “So you decided no on the Double Ds right?”
“No, Mark, I did not decide no. I was fully into your crappy metaphor, but she just she just-” leaning into the window she saw the building looming at her and sighed deeply.
He pushed out a breath, “She just called your bluff and left.”
“Yep,” she looked back at her friend as he barely smiled at her, “look I can’t deal with this place can we go to the Archfield or someplace other than here?”
He nodded, but put the car in park and grabbed Callie’s hand, “Look at me.”
She rolled her eyes heavily and turned her head towards Mark. He pulled her hand up to his chin, “She did not leave you okay? You have to try and break through that thought.” He lightly kissed her knuckles and patted her hand, “You and I we tend to leap big Torres and sometimes it’s without thinking.”
Roughly pulling her hand out of Mark’s grasp her pointer finger flew up and waggled in the air, “Did you just spin blame away from her? Because she left me Mark, she left me in the parking lot of airplanes!”
Mark quietly corrected her, “Terminal.”
She cleared her throat, “Parking lot of airplanes, Mark! And she walked away because that stupid grant is more important to her than me.”
He leaned back into his seat and nodded with her, “You’re right. I’m up for hating her tonight if you are. Oh!” A smirk edged its way up his face, “Then we could pick up ladies together and lament our poor moral fiber the next morning after we kick them out of our hotel room.”
His answer was three short jabs to his ribs as he laughed, “Rooms! Rooms! Separate rooms!”
***
“Just one more,” she pleaded lightly as her finger jutted up and then another joined it, “make that two, two more.”
Her eyes bugged out for a second and she giggled, “I sound like the Count on Sesame Street!” Arizona looked down at the tray in front of her and moved the small bottles around while she hummed a song lightly, She grasped the neck of the miniature plastic Jack Daniels with her left hand and hopped it around as if it was walking, “One! One little bottle of whiskey, eh, eh, eh!” She then tried for the next bottle twice before grabbing it around the middle with her right hand and waddled it back and forth, “Two! Two little bottles of whiskey! Eh, eh...”
Melanie dipped back down into her eye line, “Arizona, it looks like we’re going to have to stop serving as we’re nearing Newark now, but I’m sure you’ll be able to get something in the terminal or on the connecting flight.”
Pouting her lips out for a moment Arizona slumped into her seat, “I guess that’s okay then,” her eyebrows lifted trying to impersonate a more sober version of herself, “although later I was planning on doing a rendition of Near and Far in my Grover voice.”
Seeing the signs before her passenger even knew it was coming Melanie offered a hot towel to Arizona as the airplane had gone through a lot of the tissue supply for the flight patrons just on this one distraught passenger. She rubbed her new friend’s back as she murmured to her, “Yeah, I know.”
A hiccup erupted from behind the towel as she swore she could hear a grumble of, “Far.”
***
“It’s not far, you’re just thinking that because it’s...” Mark squinted his eyes tightly and stumbled towards the door, “It’s in the complete opposite direction.”
A sharp snort erupted from him as he tightened his arm around Callie’s waist. He felt her head plop onto his shoulder as she whined softly, “I’ll just sleep here.” He felt her start to dip as Callie’s knees buckled and Mark laughed as he fell to the ground with her. Twisting he took most of the hit on the floor as Callie landed on his chest and yawned loudly. Mark glanced down his nose and saw her start to tuck a hand underneath her cheek.
“Callie.” His chest reverberated and Callie winced as it was Mark Sloan in surround sound.
“No! I’m sleeping.” She swatted lightly at his face before he grabbed her hand.
Lacing his fingers through hers he whispered to her, his voice hitting a gravely bottom, “Not on the floor of a hotel Torres, you’re a better drunk than that, let’s get you to bed.” He started to sit up slowly, taking his friend with him. “I need you to help me, okay?”
Callie nodded and sighed as they both struggled to their feet looking like a baby fawn taking its first steps. Mark took her left arm, pulling it across his shoulders he started to latch her hand onto his neck. Meanwhile his right arm grabbed at her waist trying to anchor the two together for the sole purpose of getting Callie to her hotel room. “Okay, now let’s make a goal of getting to the other end of the hallway where you have a queen bed full of feathers waiting for you.”
“Okay.”
He was worried, normally the shorter his friend’s responses were the closer to a full slip into dead-to-the-world sleep she was; and even though Mark was less drunk than his friend he knew he wouldn’t be able to carry her the 500 feet they had to go for the finish line. “Tell me a story Callie, what’s your bedtime story.”
A wrinkled brow was his answer for a moment until a wide smile spread over her face and they stumbled along down the hallway, “I’ve got a story, but it always seems to be where you make the wrong choice.”
He could work with this, “What do you mean?”
As each doorway passed he was thankful that they were closer than they had been a step before. Her speech was slurred, but if he paid closer attention he could make out enough to piece together what she meant, because if there is anything your best friend can do it is make out what you mean to say.
“Like those choose your own adventure books! I was so bad at them. Always died.” Her arm shot out quickly, “Trap! Time Traveling Gnome! Spider! Abominable Snowman!” Her hand flew back and forth with each of her untimely young adult novel demises.
Mark tugged on her hip righting her wobbling for a moment as they approached the halfway mark. “You don’t always make the wrong choice.”
She was out of his grasp weaving in front of him with an accusatory finger pointed at him for what he was sure had reached, for the evening, double digits. “This is a story Mark, this is not me.”
”Ah,” he nodded and his chin jutted out lightly, “Of course, my bad, so this story makes wrong choices.”
Taking sloppy steps backwards Callie nodded as she bounced off the hallway. Rushing forward Mark caught up with her and took a deep breath, righting Callie again as they began the march towards her room.
“Exactly, but they don’t know they’re going down the wrong path until whammo-blammo dead end!”
Mark nodded sympathetically at her, “I get that. It’s a good story,” he pointed at the door and pulled out a plastic key, “but here we are at bedtime.”
Sliding the key in he saw a red light blink and Callie ripped it out of his hand and stated, “You’re not doing it right.” He opened his mouth, but slammed it shut as the green light flashed and a click indicated that he had been doing it wrong.
“Okay, I’m going home.” He placed a quick kiss on her forehead and drew her in for a tight hug, “You can manage getting into bed right?” Looking down he saw a well of tears threatening to be unleashed from her eyes and understood, “Actually I’m tired; they have pull out couches here right?”
She nodded and struggled to smile, “Yeah.”
“Right,” shucking off his black leather coat Mark held the door open, “Get to bed.”
***
He cleared his throat and adjusted his glasses as he looked at the clock’s read-out from the kitchen and winced at the early hour, “What do you mean you’re going to bed in the Newark airport, Hun?” Daniel Robbins shuffled across the linoleum tile. He pulled the sliding glass door open and stepped outside to the crisp autumn air and saw the sun edging over the horizon.
“I can’t get on the connecting flight.” his daughter’s voice sounded like it had when she was scared.
He paused before pressing on, “Can’t or won’t Arizona?”
Her gaze followed the few people in the terminal. Some were slowly moving to baggage claim or walking briskly with garment bags in hand to another gate for a connecting flight. She glanced behind her at the second flight of three she had on her agenda for the travel day. “Can’t.”
It was the four letter word he most hated to hear, “You know that word is not a word in the Robbins family language right Marine?”
She chuckled, “Yeah, I know Dad, but going doesn’t feel right and going back doesn’t either.”
He ran his hand along the wooden railing of the back porch. The soft tinkling of metal tags let him know that the family dog was approaching, excited to have a playmate so early in the day. “Well Arizona...” he trailed off letting his daughter finish.
“Get up and get moving. Never retreat in fear and always press forward in courage.” She wiped a tear from her eye and nodded, “It’s never been this hard.”
Lightly petting the golden retriever at his side he laughed, “It never is and if it is right like you know it to be then you’ll find a way to make it work.”
“Dad?” Arizona sucked in a breath, “What do I do about her luggage?”
He could picture her in an instant and looked back at the sunrise breaking out across the ground trying to warm up the world inch by inch. He rolled his shoulders back and nodded, “Well your Mother and I had talked about coming to visit you in Africa later, how about we just make it sooner and we’ll help with getting you settled.”
The eye roll could be heard through the circuits in his daughter’s cell phone to his own corded down rotary monstrosity as his son had lovingly referred to his vintage phone. “I can hear that all the way here in Quantico.” He was rewarded with soft laughter. “So, that settles it right?”
She nodded and wiped the tears from her cheeks, “Forward in courage it is Sir.”
“Arizona, it is your decision.”
Raising up from her seat she nodded, “I’ve come this far. I have to see it through.” Pulling out the end of her luggage handle it clicked loudly as she saw a gate workers opening the door to the boarding ramp. “You always were a good leader.”
It was the familiar rote conversation they were slipping into now, “You never needed a leader, but we make a great team together.”
The muffled voice came over the loudspeaker and she looked at the small group of passengers starting to congregate around the ticket agent, “I love you Dad, give Mom my best.”
Daniel paused as he wasn’t able to end the phone call with his daughter as he was now used to doing, “I love you too Arizona...”
Pressing the end button Arizona slipped the cell back into her jeans pocket and closed her eyes for a brief moment before rolling her shoulders back and stepping forward towards tomorrow.