Love & Softball (Chapter 46)

[brennaaimee]

Title: Love & Softball
Author: BrennaAimee
Pairing: Callie/Arizona
Rating: PG 13
Summary: Callie transfers to a new high school from one where she is a softball star. Can she prove she belongs on this new team and impress the captain in more ways than she knows.
Disclaimer: All television shows, books, movies, and other copyrighted material referred to in this work and the characters, events, and settings thereof are the properties of their respective owners. This is for entertainment purposes only, no profit is being made.

A/N: This one goes out to My Dougie. Happy Belated Birthday! I love u =)

A/N: The next chapter will be the last one. This has been a long journey and I hope you enjoyed it. For those of you just starting to read, thank you for reading, for those of you who have been around from the beginning . . . wow it’s been a long ride. Thank you so much for sticking with it. I love you all!


|Arizona’s P.O.V|

|3 1/2 Years Later|

“AZ you have got to be kidding me, I ask you for one thing, and you can’t give that to me?” Lita screams at me from the other side of our bedroom.

“Lita, you are acting like this one thing is simple. It isn’t. It has not been simple for three years. I have given you all I have to give and nothing is ever good enough for you.” I fire back.

“Then you aren’t trying hard enough.”

“I’m trying with everything I have in me. I have bought you a new car that you hated even though it’s the best I could do at the time. I have provided us with a place to live. I’m working two jobs and going to school making sure we have everything we need. Yes my parents have helped, but they have been slacking on that, because even they can tell I’m unhappy. Yes they love you and they love Zay like he is their own grandson, but we are not happy.”

“We could be if you would just . . . “

“What if I would just what? Fake it? That is not happening. I have been trying to fake it for you. I have wanted to be the perfect person for you, but obviously nothing I do is good enough. We fight over everything. We even fight about fighting. This is just becoming too much. I can’t do this Lita.”

“Fine you don’t have to do it. I’m done with this. I’m done with you. You can’t be here for me and Zay then don’t be. It doesn’t matter if he needs you or that I love you.”

“Lita, listen to what you are saying. Those last three words you said . . . when is the last time it was just burning for you to say that to me? You can’t honestly say that you have even wanted to say it lately. You have just gotten so used to me being here that you don’t know what you are going to do with me gone. It has nothing to do with you wanting me or loving me you just don’t want to be confused. Lita, look, you will always be in my heart. We have gone through so much shit, but it’s over now. We grew apart a long time ago and it’s pointless for us to both sit here and fight for something that is gone. If you ever need me, or if that little boy ever needs me, I will always be here, but other than that . . . there is nothing for us. This is over.”

I sit down on the bed exhausted. We have been fighting for three hours and it was over something so insignificant that I can’t even remember what it was that set us off. I look up at her and she looks in complete shock. We both knew this was coming for a long time, but this has become such a routine for us that I don’t think she ever expected me to stand up and say what I just said. I’m just so sick of it. She finally sits down on the other side of the bed.

“So this is it?” She finally asks looking down.

“Yes, this is it.” I say definitely. “I’ll get my stuff together and you and Zay can stay here. I’ll get a new apartment. I’ll go to a hotel tonight.”

“AZ you don’t have to do that. You can stay here. We do have a guest room in this house.”

“Thank you.”

“Besides, I think you need to explain this to Zay.”

“I will.”

“AZ?” She asks sounding broken.

“Yes?” I ask.

“What am I going to do?” She asks and I almost lose my temper. This is part of the problem we have.

“Well Lita, you have a job, you have a career, and you have for three years. You are practically stable and that is another problem we have. You have never supported me going into medicine, but that doesn’t even matter. The fact that I just said I would move out and find an apartment and all that is a huge thing, but all you care about is you. Not what we are going to do, just what you are going to do. You have never cared about me. You never loved me, you would never put me before yourself, when that is all I do for you. I was always willing to make you happy, but you never returned that. When you love someone you give them all you have and I felt like you did at one part, but the last six years? I haven’t felt that at all.”

“What do you want me to say? You are right? You might be. May be I just thought this was love. I was trying to force love. I thought you were supposed to be perfect. I guess I confused gratitude for love when my mom died, and when you said we could keep Zay. May be I have never had someone in my life that would do that and you became that for me.”

“I was happy to do it for you Lita, but I can’t do this stuff anymore.” I stand up and put stuff in a bag and move it down the hall into the guest room. After a few trips like that I’m done moving part of my stuff. I walk into my old room and see Lita sitting on the bed. “Do you want to talk to Zay with me?” I ask her.

“No, you do it.”

“Ok, I will tomorrow. Good night Lita.” I say and I lean down to kiss her on the top of the head. I walk down the hall and pass my room going to Zay’s. I knock on the door and I hear a muffled sound. “Zay baby, it’s me.” I say leaning against the door.

“Come in.” I hear lightly on the other side. I slowly twist the door knob and open the door. I’m faced with my handsome young man laying on his bed in just his basketball shorts and a wife beater, curled up into a ball, looking like a scared little boy. He doesn’t look at me, just stares at the wall trying to ignore me.

“Z-man, are you ok?”

“I’m fine AZ.” He whispers.

“Talk to me, what is it?” I say sitting down and putting my arm over him. He turns over and looks up at me.

“Can I be honest with you?”

“Always”

“I’m tired of this fighting. I’m scared that one night it’s going to get bad. I know you will never hit her, but I have seen her mad at you remember that one time she started hitting you? I don’t want her doing that again. I know you can only push someone so far and I can’t pick between the two of you. I don’t get why you two fight. It is usually over the stupidest crap.”

“Zay, I know. I’ve fixed it ok? You don’t have to worry about us fighting anymore, not like that.” I say giving him a small smile and a nod.

“How did you fix it?”

“Can we talk about it in the morning? You have school and you need to sleep. You have been up long enough with us yelling.”

“You promise we will talk about it?”

“Pinky” I say sticking my pinky out for him. He wraps his around mine and I lean in to give him a hug.

“I’m getting too old for all this pinky crap.” He says defiantly as I walk to the door. I turn around and give him a look.

“Yeah whatever little man, your secret is safe with me. You can be a sissy all you want.” I wink at him. He laughs that laugh that reminds me of when he was six. I smile and close his door walking back to the guest room.

I lay down in the bed. It’s a good thing that when we got this bed I had my parents in mind. This bed is so comfortable. I roll on my side and pull one of my pillows close cuddling it. My mind goes into over drive. I think about how I finally did something that makes me happy and for the first time I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I’m upset about it, yes, but I believe this will truly make me happy. I’m upset that I am losing someone that has consistently been by my side through all this stuff in my life, but losing the arguments, the fights, and the other unhealthy stuff is a great thing.

I’m lying here and I’m in that limbo between awake and asleep. My mind is still racing. Then it happens, the image of that raven haired beauty goes through my mind. I jump out of my trance. “Calliope” I say to myself and grab my phone. I scroll through my contacts and go to ‘Bad Ass Superstar’ I had put her name as that in my phone so Lita wouldn’t go through my phone and think I still had her number. When she asked who that was I told her it was a high school friend, so I wasn’t completely lying. I click the options and go down to message, then to text message. I key in the words ‘you were right, I love you’ I look at the message and erase the last part. She doesn’t deserve that from me. I clear the message and put my phone down. All that is replaying over and over in my head is that time a little over three years ago when I got the text asking me to come back to her if Lita and I didn’t work out. I still remember typing out the message, the feeling I had saying those things to her. I meant every word I said. I want to go back to her, but for right now, as a friend. I want to be the person that she makes me out to be. I want to know that I won’t ever hurt her again. I know that if I could just have her in my arms again I would never let her go. I would be anything for her, but most of all, like I told her; I would be me for her, the same person that she fell in love with the first time. I soon drift off to sleep with thoughts of my Calliope in my head.

|The Next Day|

I’m sitting in the guest room relaxing in my sweats and on the lap top looking for cheap apartments around town when the guest room door flies open hitting the wall.

“What the . . .” I say looking up startled at a smirking Zay.

“Scared ya” He says.

“Find a better way to do it next time; you don’t want to put a hole in your sister’s wall.” I say laughing and he comes to sit on the bed beside me. “How was school?” I ask him.

“Usual” He says looking at the computer screen. I quickly turn it away from him since I haven’t talked to him yet.

“Do you have homework?”

“No, but what are you hiding?”

“Nothing we’ll talk about it.”

“You want to play the game with me for a little while?”

“Sure kid.” I say as he jumps off the bed and I do the same. We got into his room and he hands me his Playstation 3 controller and finds a game for us to play. We sit on the bed and for two hours play the game.

“So, can we talk now?” Zay asks. He was never one to shy away from an issue or put it on the back burner.

“Yeah we can.” I say pausing the game and putting my controller down.

“So, what did you mean last night when you said that you fixed it?” He said turning to me in the floor and putting his controller down.

“You know how you said last night that you were tired of all the arguing and crap right?” He nods and I continue. “We’ll I am too. Your sister and I grew apart a long time ago, but I couldn’t leave. I loved her and you too much to leave, but you didn’t deserve to see us fighting all the time. Yes I still love her, but the love we use to have isn’t there.”

“Arizona . . .” He interrupts.

“What is it Zay baby?”

“Are you leaving me?”

“I’m moving out, but I’m not leaving you. You have a cell phone now. You can text me just like you always do. Anytime you need me, I will always be here. I’m just a text or phone call away. I want you to do me a favor ok?”

“What?”

“I want you to be good for your sister. Be the kid we raised you to be. You are an amazing little boy and I love you with all my heart. Don’t get into trouble, don’t do stuff the other kids do. Yeah I know, I’m getting into momma mode, but seriously. You are a smart young man and I don’t want anything happening to you. I am not above coming back and beating you down if you get into trouble.”

“Arizona, you wouldn’t.”

“That’s not the point.” I say laughing. “Just behave and make sure you text me and call me, so I know you are doing ok, ok?”

“Ok I will.” He says picking up his controller.

“You want to help me pick out my new apartment?” I ask picking up my controller and unpausing the game.

“Sure, can I come visit?” He says focusing his attention on the game.

“Sure thing kid, If I get a two bedroom, one can be yours.” I say getting back to the game. We play for a few hours then go down stairs and get something to eat. Then go to the guest room to pick out apartments. We hear a knock on the door an hour later, and Lita opens the door.

“Zay, you need to get in the shower and get some sleep you still have school tomorrow.”

“Ok, just a minute.” He says pointing to the screen. We had picked out my new apartment. He gave me a hug and I kissed the top of his head sending him off.

|5 Months Later|

I’m settled into my apartment finally. I just finished the final touches on the living room. I go and grab my laptop turning on the tv to watch while I check my email. I finish going through my email and replying to a few emails about graduation next month. I go to facebook and go through the recent posts. As I scroll down I see a post from Calliope. It said she was attending UCLA’s graduation and under the post she wrote that she was ready to walk across that stage. I check the date for her graduation and it is during my exam week, but my professors took exams early because they didn’t want to meet that last week. I made my mind up right then and there. I went to a few more websites and did what I needed to do before I went to sleep, perfectly content.

|2 Weeks Later|

I step off the plane and go to retrieve my luggage. I go and find a place to rent a car. I finally get a car after a couple of hours and drive to my hotel. I made reservations two weeks ago and lucked upon this room because they had just had a cancellation. This city was full for graduation. I got my room key from the front desk and went up to my room. I didn’t even bothering to unpack because I was only going to be here a night. I pulled out my clothes for the graduation and ironed them. I pulled my curling iron out of my bag and plugged it into the outlet in the bathroom area. I put on the tank top I had to go under my outfit. I started doing my makeup. Graduation was starting in 3 hours and I still had to drive an hour to campus plus allowing some time for traffic. I finished my makeup and started curling my blonde locks. I pulled on my button up white shirt and buttoned it up half way. I went and got my black slacks and slipped them on and put on my heels. I grabbed my purse, keys, phone, and key card and walked out the room.

I’m riding around the school and every lot around seems to be full, and the only parking spots are like a mile away. I happen to glance over during my last run through of the lots and see a single parking spot near the gym. I think the truck behind me sees the same spot and since I’m almost past the opening to the parking lot I see him start to turn the wheel to get into the parking lot. I cut mine quickly whipping into the lot and race into the spot. I take it from another person that was about to pull in. I wouldn’t have been rude or took it from someone like that but I only have twenty minutes until graduation starts, and I’m not going to be late. I get out of the car and look down adjusting my outfit and smoothing out a couple wrinkles. I open the back door and pull out the balloon and teddy bear I had bought Calliope. I walk toward the gym and right as I’m about to climb the stairs to the building I look to my right and a shiny blue car catches my eye. I smile at the memories that flood my mind at the very sight of that car. I feel the crazy butterflies I use to get when we first got together.

‘Am I really doing this?’ I ask myself. I didn’t get an invite. I haven’t talked to her in God knows how long. Who am I to just show up at her graduation? I push those thoughts aside, I have to see her. I have to lay eyes on her. I have to know she is well. I want her to know that I’m proud of her and nothing ever changed for me, but that last part really isn’t fair for me to just spring on her, so proud works. I walk in and see how full the gym is. People probably started getting here an hour or so earlier. I look around and see a seat close to the gym floor. I walk down a few rows and sit down. I start looking around and spot Addison, Callie’s best friend. She looks amazing. I continue to scan the crowd and they land on the Torres family. I smile seeing Mom, Dad, and Aria. I realize not only do I miss Calliope, but I miss her family as well. I grew close to them when we were together. The gym grows silent and the ceremony starts.

|Callie’s P.O.V|

Graduation starts and the president of the university is talking. I’m so excited; I’ve been waiting for this for so long. I’m ready to start my internship at Seattle Grace. I look to the side and up a row and see the back of my best friend’s head. Mark Sloan and I have been though it all these years, but no matter what I can always count on him. He and Addison were still together, which surprised everyone including me, but they are so good for each other. I’m glad they met. My eyes scan up to the crowd and I see Jamie Andrews, one of the best things that happened to me during high school after Arizona left. She has still been here for me even though she transferred colleges years ago. My thoughts run back to my previous one, the name that haunts me always, Arizona. I look around and I’m seeing all these faces from my past. All the people that have always been here for me and the one face I want to see more than anything, I don’t. This is definitely one of the biggest days of my life and she is the only thing missing. I don’t even know how she is doing, I’m pretty sure her and Lita broke up. I check her facebook every once in a while. The last time I talked to her was about a year ago and she was still pretty unhappy, but she was holding on with Lita. So, there was no talking to me. I get lost in thought and before I know it I’m standing to receive my diploma. I shake the president’s hand, take my diploma, and pose for a picture and return to my seat. Mark turns around and looks at me smiling, then mouths ‘We did it Cal’. I smile widely. I’m so happy even though I feel like something is missing. Graduation ends, we throw our caps and find them. Everyone exchanges hugs and is jumping around. I run up to where I saw my mom, dad, and Aria sitting. I’m pulled into a million hugs. My dad tells me how proud of me he is, my mom is telling me how much she loves me, and Aria is asking when we are partying. Next thing I know my arm is being pulled and I turn around face to face with Cristina Yang and Meredith Grey.

“Wow, what are you two doing here?” I ask my eyes lighting up.

“Well for some reason there was an invitation sent to my parents about some kid’s graduation and I thought it would be nice to see how that bitch was doing.” Cristina says sarcastically and then cracks a small smile. I pull Meredith into a hug whispering thanks in her ear. I pull Cristina into a hug next.

“Thank you” I say squeezing her.

“No need to get all sappy kid.” Cristina says and smiles. “Congrats Cal” She says.

“Thanks, you know, you’re next Cris.” I say glancing over her shoulder spying a blonde, whose curls look very familiar. My mom stands in front of me and starts talking. I try to move her and the blonde had disappeared from that spot.

I start looking around trying to find that person again. I don’t see her, so I shake my head. I guess I missed Arizona so much I imagined seeing her. About ten minutes later I feel a tap on the back of my thigh. I turn around expecting it to be one of my friends messing with me. I look down and see a little girl around seven years old.

“Are you C-Cal-Calliope?” She asks smiling as she finally get my name.

“Stick with Callie little one. Who are you?”

“She asked me to give these to you.” She says handing me a bear, a card, and a balloon, then turning around and looking for someone.

“Who is she?” I ask.

“I don’t know where she went.” She says shrugging her shoulders and running to her parents.

I pull out the card and instead of the standard graduation card I pull out a piece of paper, folded up. On the inside it said ‘I am so proud of you my badass -Spitfire AR-‘ I feel a pain shoot through me and tears form in my eyes. She was here. Why didn’t she see me? I hand Aria my bear, balloon, and envelop to Aria and run up toward the top of the gym trying to find her. I look outside and around the parking lot not seeing her. I feel my heart break again. Why? Is the only thing I can ask.

|Arizona’s P.O.V|

I see her standing there with her family and friends. She looks as stunning as ever. Her beautiful raven hair is flowing slightly longer than I have ever seen it, with a gentle curl to it. I see her laugh and smile and it sends a pain to my heart, yet at the same time it brightens my world. Her laughter, which I can decipher from every other noise in the gym, plays like a song that I wish I could put on repeat and play every day for the rest of my life. I see how happy she is and all I can think is how I wish I could be the one sharing that joy with her. Then it hits me, if I wouldn’t have hurt her, if I wouldn’t have let her go, if I would have been the person she makes me want to be, then I could share that joy with her. All that runs through my mind is how I shouldn’t have put her through all that. I can’t even face her.

I see a couple little kids playing with a bouncy call at the top of the gym. One little girl throws the ball and the other catches it and throws it back, and the process continues. I walk up to the top of the gym and face the other side trying to think of a way to get these things to Calliope. Next thing I know I’m getting a bouncy ball to my back. I turn around and see the four year old with her hands cupping her mouth and looking at me scared. The seven year old runs over to me and grabs the ball behind me against the wall.

“I’m sorry, it got away from us.” She says looking a little scared. I bend down to get eye level with the little girl. I look over and see her parents looking at us.

“Its fine sweetie just be careful next time.” I said smiling letting my dimples out full force.

“So who are those for?” The little girl asks pointing to the gifts in my hand.

“Well, they belong to my best friend, Calliope.” I say smiling.

“Ca-Cal . . .”

“-iope” I say helping her out.

“Cal-liope” She finally gets out.

“Yeah” I say smiling.

“Why haven’t you give-d them to her?” She asks.

“Well, she’s right over there.” I say pointing to Calliope, her family, and friends.

“The pretty girl in the black dress?” She asks pointing to her.

“Yes” I say. “You want to make her smile?” I ask the little girl. She nods vigorously. “Here” I say handing her the balloon, card, and teddy bear. “You can give them to her, if your parents say its ok.” I say looking at them and nodding. Her eyes light up and she turns around to talk to her parents. I hear her tell them what she is going to do and they nod watching her closely. As soon as she gets a few steps away from Callie I head out of the gym and toward my car, hoping that Callie wouldn’t be too upset with me for coming.

|6 years Later|

I go into the locker room and pull out my mail. I have three offers from other hospitals wanting me to join their programs as an attending. I am one of the best residents in my field. Another resident, one of my closest friends, walks into the locker room and sits down beside me.

“Hey AZ, what’s up?” Liz asks.

“I’m reviewing these job offers. I really want to be an attending and I don’t understand why I’m not already, but I love it here, I love Mercy West, so going to another hospital definitely isn’t ideal.” I say staring at the letters.

“Well do what you think is best for you. Where are the offers from?”

“Seattle Grace, Mass Gen, and John Hopkins” I answer her.

Well, Seattle Grace is a pretty good program, but if you want to be here, why don’t you talk to the chief?” She asks and I look up at her. She’s right, I’m awesome, the kids love me, and I would make a good attending here. Why should I wait to be asked? I gather myself and prepare to go talk to Chief Booth. I hear the loud beeping of my pager tear through the quiet room. I read the page; it’s the chief paging me to her office.

“It’s Chief” I say shocked.

“Go tell her how it is.” Liz says nodding and throwing me the scrub top I had sitting in between us. She pushes me as I walk past her to motivate me. “Oh and Arizona remember to sign up for the softball team on the bulletin board.” She yells after me.

I put that on my mental check list as I head toward the chief’s office. My nerves are starting to flare up and I wish I could go and hit a few softballs before going in here. I stop in front of her door. I take a deep breath and raise my hand to knock. Before my hand even makes contact with the wood I hear her yell for me to come in. I twist the knob to the office and walk in closing the door carefully behind me.

“Robbins, take a seat.” Chief Booth says. I watch her studying me carefully.

“Ma’am, I was wondering if I could discuss something with you.” I say carefully, this woman is very intimidating, not to mention I have authority issues.

“No, you cannot.” She says sternly. “Not until after I finish saying what I have to say.”

“Yes ma’am” I say starting to worry. Chief Booth is always stern and scary, but not like this.

“Robbins, I received the news that you have received offers from other hospitals for an attending position.” She states simply. I start to say something but she holds her hand up to cut me off. “You are an amazing and important asset to this team. The cases you have taken on and the things you have accomplished are impressive. I would like to keep you on board. You are talented. So, I would like to make you an offer. I have an attending position open for you if you would like to take it.” She finishes.

“I would love that, thank you.” I say stand up and shaking her hand. I think the abruptness I answered her with shocked her.

“Congratulations Robbins” She says. “Now, what did you want to talk to me about?” She asks seemingly more relaxed.

“Nothing anymore” I smile showing my dimples. I walk out of her office and head to the locker room. I open my locker and reach for my purse, pulling out my cell phone. I scroll down my contact list and see ‘Bad Ass Superstar’ I never changed that name in my phone. Still when I get good news, she is the first person I want to call and share it with. I skip down and go to my parent’s phone number. I call them and tell them the news and follow up by sending out some excited texts. I scroll back down my contacts and stop on Callie’s number. I want to text her but I’m not even sure that is the right number. I put my phone on the bench and change my clothes to get ready to leave. I put my phone in my pocket and head to the bulletin board writing my name on the softball team list. I pull my phone out and text Liz. ‘I put my name on the list, bout time we can do something besides going to the batting cages. I’m going to call Ashlye and go to Joe’s tonight, meet us there?’ I finish my text and walk outside, as soon as I get in the parking lot I call Ashlye.

“Hey babe, you were off tonight right?”

“Yeah, what’s up?”

“I’m going to pick you up, let’s go to Joe’s I got some news.”

“Ok, are you leaving work now?”

“Yeah, I’ll be there in twenty.”

“I’ll be waiting.” She says and hangs up.

I walk out to my car and get in. I open the compartment between the seats. I try to fit some of my paper work in, but there is too much stuff. I start to rearrange stuff in there to make it fit. I pull out some stuff to throw away and my fingers brush up against something soft. I pull out a key chain Callie had won for me. It was a small bear in a baseball outfit with a baseball bat. I smile thinking about the night she won it for me. For some reason, all of my memories with her seem like they just happened yesterday. I’ve never left that keychain anywhere ever since I got it; it’s always in my car, so it’s always with me. It is my good luck charm. I kiss the top of its head and put it back into the compartment.

I take off to pick Ashlye up. I pull up and go to her apartment. I walk up and ring the door bell. She doesn’t come to the door so I pull out my key and just walk in like I always do. We started internship together and have been at each other’s side ever since. I sit down on the couch. Ashlye comes out of her room buttoning up her black shirt with a white skinny tie hanging loosely and putting on her black fitted hat.

“Hey AZ” She says coming up behind me and kissing me on top of the head and handing me the remote off the table.

“Thanks, guess what?” I say turning to the tv and flipping through channels.

“What is it?” She asks walking back toward her bathroom.

“Well, first off, I signed up for the softball team and you aren’t on the list, just why aren’t you?”

“I haven’t gotten around to signing up yet.”

“Well you better; I need my star short stop.” I yell.

“So, what’s the news?” She asks as I hear her starting to brush her teeth.

“We have a new Peds attending.” I shout. I hear her almost choke and spit out her mouth full of toothpaste.

“We have a new WHAT? If anyone should have gotten that position it should have been you. I’m going to go in there tomorrow and give Booth a piece of my mind, we don’t need another . . .” She starts rambling.

“It’s me!” I yell cutting her off.

“Wait” She yells running into the living room. “You’re the new attending?” She practically screeches and I nod vigorously making my blonde curls bounce. She runs over and pulls me up off the couch and into a hug. She pulls back and looks me up and down. “Why Doctor Robbins, I have to say authority looks sexy on you.” She winks and I hit her arm.

“Ashlye Michelle! I’m hot, authority or not.”

“What is this, a tell me I’m great moment? Because if it is, I’m pretty sure, I kind of just did.” She replies sarcastically. I glare at her and she laughs. She grabs her jacket and mine. She helps me put it on and slaps my butt. “Come on my little attending, let’s go celebrate.”

|Three Weeks Later|

|Callie’s P.O.V|

I walk into the attending locker room to find Mark. I turn the corner and see him talking to Derek. I stand back and wait on him to stop talking. He finally turns around and sees me standing there.

“Torres, what are you doing in the attending locker room? You aren’t at this level yet.” He says mockingly.

“Shut it Sloan, the only reason you got an attending position before I did is because plastics is a bull shit specialty and no one else wants to be in plastics.” I say laughing. For anyone else to say that it would be a sore spot, but he knows that I’m just teasing.

I actually have huge respect for plastics when it comes to him. Even though Mark Sloan is a notorious flirt and labeled the man whore, it’s not about boobs and ass jobs to him. When we were residents a few years ago, we had a trauma come in the ER, before we declared specialties, Mark was set on trauma. He loved the adrenaline rush. There was a car wreck that came in. Three people were in critical condition and another three were just really beat up, bruised and scratched up, but there was a four year old little girl who had gotten stuck in one of the cars while it was on fire. Someone finally got her out and rushed her into our ER. Her burns were so severe they didn’t think she would make it.

Mark was the first one to get out to that ambulance. The parents of the little girl had just had T.O.D called. She attached to Mark and he did what he could to soothe the burns and get her stabilized. Mark checked on her every day and eventually they started trying to fix her skin. The little girl was going to have to go into foster care and probably couldn’t keep having the surgeries because they didn’t know how they would be paid for. She was so scared. She would tell Mark everyday how she didn’t think anyone would adopt her because of her appearance. Mark talked to social workers, got a lawyer and made some arrangements. Her adoption was finalized a year ago. He vowed to his daughter that he would do everything he could to help people like her. So plastics and all he does is for my niece Brie.

“Wow, low blow Torres.” He says laughing and giving me a hug. “Someone is just a little sour, what’s up?”

“Nothing, wondering if you want to practice a little this afternoon before our game tomorrow.”

“Yeah, I have to get Brie from school first.”

“Good, I want to see my baby girl, and she will probably want to practice too. Her summer league starts soon doesn’t it?”

“Yeah, she’s already bragging about how she is going to be better than everyone because she has her Aunt Callie teaching her.” He laughs.

“She knows who the best is.” I wink. “I’m going to go change, meet me at the park at four?”

“See you there.”

|The Next Day|

|3rd Person P.O.V|

Arizona throws on her sliding shorts, followed by an old pair of basketball shorts. She puts on her long softball socks that have long black stripes down the side of them. She slides on a pair of sandals and goes into the laundry room pulling her hospital team shirt out of her dryer. She pulls out a tank to after that and puts it on. She folds up her hospital shirt and throws it into her softball bag. She goes into the kitchen and pulls out a small cooler. She grabs a bag of ice out of the freezer and busts it up, emptying the contents into the cooler and then adding gatorade and water bottles.

She hears the door bell ring and she already knows it’s Ashlye, so she just waits for her to come in. Within a minute Ashlye is walking in wearing her basketball shorts, her hospital shirt, long socks, and a visor.

“Well you look ready.” Arizona comments smiling “your car or mine?”

“Considering we have all this equipment and the cooler, I’m thinking mine.” Ashlye says grabbing Arizona’s softball bag and the cooler off the counter going ahead and carrying it out to her SUV. Arizona walks out and gets into the vehicle. They ride to the park listening to music and getting pumped.

Callie is at the field with the team already. They are all warming up in the outfield.

“Hey Cal” Mark shouts running over to her.

“What’s up?”

“You and Holly can go over to one of the other fields and you can practice pitching if you want to.”

“Yeah, where is Holly? I’m going to take you up on that offer.” She says. Mark points out Holly and Callie goes to get her and they walk to one of the other fields.

Arizona and the rest of her team meet in the parking lot and walk to the field together. They get into the dugout and start hanging their bags and situating everything. The umpire walks to the middle of the field.

“Teams, are you ready?” He yells.

Mercy West’s team answers yes and Mark runs to get Callie and Holly. They come back from the other field in a run. Arizona is in the corner of the dugout talking to Ashlye facing a away from the field.

“Ok, give me a player from each team for the coin toss.” The ump yells. Ashly holds onto Arizona’s arms and back her out onto the field straight to the umpire. She talks to her for a moment. Callie is surrounded by the team telling her to get out of there. She steps out of the dugout and before she knows it Brie is tapping on her back. Callie turns around and looks at her niece.

“What’s up little bit?”

“Can I walk with you for the coin toss?” She asks bright eyed.

“You can even call it, you know you are Aunt Callie’s good luck charm.” Callie says backing up and watching her niece’s face light up. She turns a bit and sees how far away the mound and umpire is. She sees her opponent’s shoes. She starts jogging backward knowing her niece will chase her. Callie finally stops jogging when she realizes she is in the pitcher’s circle. Arizona and Callie both turn around at the same time and lock eyes.

“Arizona?”

“Calliope?”