Fault Lines (14/36)
Fault Lines
Chapter 14/36
Authors: Faith kennedysbitch & Kye
Pairing: Callie/Arizona, Mark/Lexie
Rating: NC-17
Beta’d by clanket
Story Summary: Sequel to Choices. Callie and Arizona make the decision to move forward with their lives, but when a gradual series of events begin to snowball, Arizona tries desperately not to lose her grip on reality.
Chapter Summary:
Disclaimer
Previous Chapters
Beta’d by clanket. Thanks for putting up with me and my rantings for a few days. :)
---
Callie paced the entire length of her apartment thirty-two and a half times before Arizona finally walked through the front door.
“Finally!” She just about lunged at the blonde, waving a sealed envelope in her face. “Do you know what this is?”
Arizona blinked and recoiled in surprise. “W-what?” She looked petrified and eyeballed the piece of paper as though it were a wired bomb.
Callie frowned. “It’s the results! I got them this morning but I couldn’t find you, so I waited until you got home but now you’re late so just - shut up and sit down!”
Arizona was still dazed, barely managing to drop her bag to the floor before Callie dragged her over to the couch.
Callie deposited the confused blonde in a heap and collapsed next to her. She was practically vibrating she was so worked up. “I can’t do it.” She shoved the envelope in Arizona’s face and started to gnaw on her thumb nail.
Arizona turned the brown envelope over in her hands, staring it with wonder. She felt so lost right now, she didn’t even know what to do.
In her bag was a much larger envelope of the same shade, containing papers that might very well change their lives for the worst.
Yet here her partner was, holding the official evidence of their pregnancy, something that would certainly change them for the better.
The juxtaposition couldn’t have been more ironic or unwelcomed.
Arizona swallowed thickly and glanced up at Callie. “You want me to...?”
Callie was too caught up in the moment to think the uncertainty and confusion behind those wide blue eyes had to do with anything other than her blood work results. “Yes! Just...o-open it already!”
Arizona looked back at the envelope and fumbled to rip it open. She was still in shock, having been tearing into a very different set of forms only an hour before.
The blonde glanced up one more time at her girlfriend before pulling out and unfolding the results page. She skimmed over the information and sat there for a moment in complete silence.
Callie seized a fistful of Arizona’s shirt and gave it a rough tug, looking half crazed. “Well?”
Arizona gave a short, singular laugh. “You’re pregnant.”
Callie froze, eyes as wide as saucers. “What?”
Arizona shook her head in disbelief, daring to smile even just the tiniest bit. “You’re...you’re pregnant. We’re pregnant. T-there’s a baby in your belly.”
Callie let out a bark of laughter, covering her mouth with one hand. “Oh my God.”
Arizona dropped the paper and reached up to cup her girlfriend’s face. “Calliope, I...”
She didn’t even know where to begin.
Tears immediately sprang into Callie’s eyes and she suddenly yanked Arizona into a fierce hug. “There’s a baby in my belly,” she echoed, both laughing and crying at the same time. “You knocked me up.”
“Yeah, I did,” Arizona breathed, wrapping both arms tightly around Callie’s back.
They had both been confident after the home test, but officially-officially they could start planning now. Things needed to be bought, names needed to be settled on, and people needed to be told.
The fact that this moment was tainted for her made Arizona Robbins hate Carmen Rodriguez more than she’d ever hated anyone in her entire life.
Tears formed of their own will and Arizona had no idea where they originated from.
They were officially having a baby and starting their new life together.
She might lose her career and any means of providing for her family.
Whatever the reason behind it, Arizona cried.
***
The first three and a half months of Callie’s pregnancy flew by so fast that Arizona couldn’t figure out where time had gone. From the moment they went into the obstetrician’s office to where they were now seemed like nothing more than the blink of an eye.
A hell of a lot had happened in that split second.
Her dad was hanging in there, but barely. He couldn’t sit up on his own anymore without his heart rate spiking dangerously high. There was still no sign of a transplant in the near future as he kept getting pushed down the list for younger, more ‘urgent’ patients.
It was becoming clearer every day that he might not be able to hold on long enough see a transplant come through. Even if by some miracle he managed to, the weaker he became, the less likely he would survive the surgery. And if he did, the risk of complications was so high she could barely stand to think about it.
The notion of losing her father tore her apart inside and she felt her hold on life beginning to slip through her fingers. She’d almost lost herself completely when her twin brother died six years ago; she didn’t know what would happen if she lost her father, too.
And then there was the fact that Carmen had slapped her with a bitch of a sexual harassment lawsuit from way out of left field, five and a half months after their one night stand took place.
All in all, Arizona had seen better days.
She hadn’t told Callie, who was alight and glowing with the joys of pregnancy. Stress of Arizona’s emotional issues was not something the blonde planned to dump on her and risk her and their baby’s health. She was handling everything the way her father had taught her to - with a stiff upper lip.
So far that had lead her here - the board room of Seattle Grace - Mercy West hospital with two lawyers, Chief Shepherd and the scorned woman herself all present.
“You were in fact the one to ask Ms. Rodriguez back to your apartment that night, yes? After you had come onto her the day before?”
Arizona rubbed her forehead, resting an elbow against the table. “That’s not quite-” She clamped her mouth shut when her lawyer shot her a look.
“We’ve already answered these questions a dozen times,” Barbara Summers spoke up from her seat to Arizona’s right. “You have my client’s written statement on file.”
Derek sat at the head of the conference room table, opposite the arbitrator. He was there as a silent party and silent support for Dr. Robbins.
Carmen, not so much.
The scrub nurse sat across from Arizona with a hard, menacing glare leveled directly on her. She had barely blinked in the last thirty minutes since the meeting started.
“It's a simple question,” Carmen's lawyer shot back. “Either your client pursued Ms. Rodriguez for a sexual relationship as her superior or she didn't.”
Arizona sighed heavily as she finally looked up from the table. “I never intended to hurt Car-” She stopped again and corrected herself. “Ms. Rodriguez. I don't know what I was thinking, I-”
“Excuse me?” Carmen’s voice was sharp as a razor, eyes cold and deadly.
Arizona suddenly realized how that must have sounded.
Crap.
“I didn’t mean…” Arizona’s lawyer looked ready to beat her with a stick to shut her up, but she didn’t care. “Look, it was stated from the beginning that I wasn’t looking for anything serious. There were numerous times where she approached me and I-”
“Stated?” Carmen’s lawyer cut her off. “Nowhere in your statement does it mention you telling my client you weren’t interested.” He flipped through Arizona’s written words for show.
Arizona sighed again, her head pounding. “I did tell her I had just gotten out of a serious relationship. She told me she wasn’t looking for one. This was before the incident in question.”
She felt like they’d been running in circles for the last hour. They’d been doing so for a few weeks now, even though this was the first time they’d all sat in a room together.
“According to my client, no such thing happened. She entered your apartment with the expectation of your personal and professional lives remaining intact and separate, but found upon returning to work that things were made difficult for her as a professional.”
Arizona scrunched her forehead in confusion. “What? No, we haven’t even worked together very much since then.”
Arizona’s lawyer sighed while Carmen’s began to smirk dangerously. “So you admit that the job she was hired to do has been compromised because you used her attraction to you without any regard to her feelings or status at this hospital.”
Arizona gulped. Oops.
“My client is admitting to no such thing,” Barbara argued.
“There may be something wrong with my hearing, Ms. Summers, and that’s entirely possible at my age, but I'm almost certain that's exactly what she just did.”
Arizona winced. “Sorry, Barbara, I-”
The older woman quickly cut her eyes back to the lawyer sitting across the table. “Mr. Parker,” she started slowly, “I assure you that my client has in no way, shape or form made it impossible for Ms. Rodriguez to perform her job in a comfortable and safe working environment. This is a big hospital and there are a lot of scrub nurses. It makes perfect sense that your client hasn’t worked exclusively with Dr. Robbins.”
“Really?” James Parker mused, looking smug. He glanced down and flipped through some papers he had spread out on the table before him. “Even though she was originally hired as a replacement scrub nurse for the Pediatrics Department specifically?”
“Scrub nurses go where they’re needed,” Barbara argued.
James ignored her and continued on, flipping to a specific page in his file. “So you would call it 'comfortable and safe' when your client asked mine to leave in the middle of a surgery because she couldn't stand the smell of her perfume any longer, and I quote here, ‘without doing something they were both going to regret’?”
“What?!” Arizona jolted forward in her seat. “I never said it like that!”
“Arizona!” Barbara snapped.
“I never even said that last part!” the blonde continued heatedly. Her annoyance with Carmen was quickly growing. “Everyone knows that the O.R. is a scent free zone; it’s perfectly within my rights to ask her to leave if she fails to abide by that rule. That quote is completely unfounded.”
“You never had a problem with it before,” Carmen shot back across the table.
Arizona opened her mouth to retort when she felt a swift kick to her shin underneath the table. At first she thought it was her lawyer, but quickly saw Derek shooting her a pointed stare. One that read ‘Shutup - now.’
“Dr. Robbins is correct,” he spoke up. “We do have a strict ‘no scent’ stipulation for our operating rooms. No perfumes, colognes, scented hand creams or anything of the sort. She is well within her rights as lead surgeon to ask any member of staff to leave if there’s a reason.”
“I wasn't wearing perfume,” Carmen growled. She shifted her glare from Arizona to Derek. “It was just my shampoo.”
“Scented none the less,” Barbara murmured under her breath, jotting something down on her note pad.
“The same shampoo that Dr. Robbins once told me she couldn't stop smelling even when she wasn't near me.” Carmen paused as she held the blonde's gaze. “And that she liked it.”
Arizona dropped her head into her hand again. There had been a comment in passing about Carmen’s shampoo smelling nice and that it was an addictive scent or something like that. Ages ago. Freaking light years, at this point. She hadn’t meant it in a flirty way, but apparently it was coming back to bite her in the ass regardless.
“That’s irrelevant,” Barbara spoke up, “a comment that was not written down by your client as an event leading up to their relationship.”
“Or lack thereof,” Carmen mumbled under her breath, earning a glare from her lawyer.
“That doesn’t excuse Dr. Robbins from humiliating my client by placing a bet with another doctor on whether or not she could get her into bed.” Mr. Parker looked directly at Arizona, expecting her to jump to her own defense again and stick her foot in her mouth.
But Arizona had been explicitly told by her lawyer to not so much as hiccup on this subject. That was where the real danger lay here and she could be fired immediately if it was proven true.
She wanted to open her mouth and try to explain that her stupid little ‘bet’ with Mark was not really a bet at all, that it certainly was not regarding who could jump into bed with Carmen first, but she knew it was futile.
She’d fucked up and a big part of her felt horrible for that. In hindsight it had been a stupid, idiotic thing to agree to even in passing, even if it had been just a friendly dare to get a pretty woman’s phone number. That hadn’t been why she’d slept with Carmen, but even her real motive made her feel like less than a decent person.
She was jealous of Callie supposedly sleeping with Mark Sloan. She’d slept with Carmen in revenge and nearly lost Callie in the process.
Now that same mistake was about to cost her her job.
“There was no wager of any kind placed in regards to sexual intercourse with your client,” Barbara said. “And if there was, then why isn’t the other party in question involved in this lawsuit, too?”
“Because Dr. Sloan didn’t act on it, that’s why. Dr. Robbins went out of her way to not only sleep with my client for despicable, selfish reasons, but she has since made it uncomfortable for Ms. Rodriguez to work in the Pediatric wing of this hospital.”
Barbara shook her head, glancing over at Arizona.
Arizona just stared down at her hands, wishing the earth would open up and swallow her.
“We have no further comments on this subject, Mr. Parker. You have my client’s statement.”
“Doctors have a history of disrespecting nurses, Barbara. Is it really so far fetched to you that Dr. Robbins is any different? Just because she’s a woman?”
“My client’s sexual orientation does not automatically make her the type of person to sexually harass a member of her staff. It is unacceptable to try and ruin her perfectly respectable reputation by attempting to label her as a ‘predatory lesbian’. Be very, very careful how you proceed from there, James,” Barbara growled. “Dr. Robbins has nothing but glowing reviews from anyone who has ever worked under or with her before. She is a respected professional with no suspect history of any kind.”
“We’re going in circles here,” the man sighed, flipping through his notes. “Clearly, you have little to no defense. I see no reason why we wouldn’t crush you in court, Barbara. I suggest coming to a settlement for damages done, especially if Dr. Robbins plans on keeping her job in this hospital.”
“What?” Arizona straightened up. “I’m not paying you off, no way.”
Barbara reached out to place a hand on Arizona’s forearm. “My client did nothing wrong. Suing over hurt feelings is inadmissible. She will not be paying anyone anything. Your client suffered no monetary losses as a result of anything done by Dr. Robbins, nor has she spent the last five months in fear of working in this hospital.”
“Fine.” Mr. Parker continued to look rather smug as he gathered his papers, unphased by any of this. “Then in all likelihood we’ll be seeing you in court. Enjoy your job while you still have it, Dr. Robbins. I expect you to have no contact with my client whatsoever.”
Barbara shook her head and leaned over to speak quietly to Arizona. “He’s bluffing, dear, don’t worry.” She turned her attention back to the other parties in the room. “As always, this matter is to be kept quiet and confidential until it is sorted out.” Her gaze lingered on Carmen in particular. “No rumors mills need to be buzzing in the coming weeks.”
Arizona felt her heart twist painfully in her chest as everyone but her and Derek started to pack up and leave. She was starting to realize how real the chance of her losing her job might be, not to mention the fact that she may never get hired anywhere else with something like this on her record.
Fuck.
The absolute worst part of all this was that she had yet to tell Calliope any of it.
***
“You won’t be going to court over this,” Derek Shepherd assured his Pediatrics Attending as they stood just outside the meeting room. “We’ll come to a solution and settle without it ever getting that far.”
Arizona didn't look so convinced.
“Out of everyone in this entire hospital, you are the last person I would ever expect to sexually harass someone, Arizona. Even after Dr. Bailey. I’m on your side, I promise.” Derek's pager went off right on cue and he glanced down to check the device. “Excuse me.” With a reassuring pat on the arm, he hurried away.
Arizona leaned back against the wall and closed her eyes. She wished she was as confident as her boss.
***
A short distance down the hallway, Callie became distracted from reorganizing patient files upon seeing her girlfriend emerge from the conference room in a business suit. Her brow furrowed and she watched the blonde stand perfectly still for a long moment, listening to something Derek said without reacting before he walked away. Arizona then closed her eyes and sagged back against the wall.
That was weird, Callie thought. Arizona had seemed fine when they left for work that morning. In jeans and a t-shirt too, not her finest business suit. Callie hadn’t even seen her take it out of the closet in almost six months.
Just as Callie took a step in her direction, the door to Arizona’s left suddenly opened and Carmen Rodriguez walked out of the office.
Callie was standing a good distance away but she could still make out the unfriendly scowl on the nurse’s face. She watched the other two stare at each other for a long moment but couldn’t read her girlfriend’s expression from so far away.
Just as quickly as she had emerged, though, Arizona turned on the spot and walked away in the opposite direction.
Weird indeed.
***
Despite Callie’s best efforts to track down her girlfriend, Arizona proved allusive for most of the day. Callie couldn’t stop worrying about what she’d seen earlier, even though there was no proof anything was wrong.
She just never knew these days. Arizona had stopped fighting, even though she was doing everything in her power to make it seem like she hadn’t.
Callie knew her partner inside and out and something had changed in the last few weeks. She didn’t know what had caused it or if it had happened as a result of things building up over time, but a month ago it was like a switch had been flipped inside the blonde’s brain and she went into autopilot mode. She said the right things, did the right things, acted the way she was expected to act, but nothing more.
It worried the hell out of Callie.
Arizona started off strong in all of this, fighting to keep her spirits alive while her father waited for a transplant, but somewhere along the way she had clammed up and stopped talking. They hadn’t had a real conversation in almost two months, nothing that went beyond what colour to paint the nursery now that Cristina was gone or what type of infant clothing to start buying when they went shopping. The baby talk was nice and sometimes Callie would catch a bit of that familiar sparkle in those blue eyes she adored so much, but then it would be gone and Robot Arizona would take over again.
Callie could have called her on it, she could have worked harder to get her to open up, but she didn’t. She was afraid. She didn’t know how to help Arizona so she went along with it while she tried to figure out what to do.
So much of what was about to happen in their lives depended on the fate of Daniel Robbins - if he received a heart and made it through the recovery, Callie was confident Arizona could heal from the deep fissure that had formed inside of her and get back to the way things used to be.
But if they lost him...
She was too terrified to even think of the catastrophic results.
One evening while Arizona was working, Callie had called her dad in Miami just to chat and keep him up to date on the pregnancy. Seeing Arizona in the process of potentially losing a parent made her miss her own very much. Both of them were itching to fly out and visit, but they understood it was not a good time with Arizona’s father in poor health.
“Calliope, what’s wrong? Is something not right with the baby?” Carlos had asked when she’d grown quiet.
“No, everything’s fine,” Callie assured him more than once.
She’d gone on to make excuses about how Arizona was busy with work and she was trying to do the same before she was forced to go on maternity leave. Carlos had poked and prodded for more answers but eventually gave up when Callie refused to divulge the reason she sounded so distracted.
While it was nice that her mother and father finally acknowledged her relationship with Arizona and opened their arms to the family they were about to start, it didn’t mean Callie wanted them flying in from Miami and taking over their apartment while they still had another six months to go before the baby was due.
Oy vey, that would not be fun for either of them.
Callie chickened out at work and didn’t bother asking Arizona about the incident she’d witnessed outside of the office. She came home before her partner, showered and changed into her pajamas and sat waiting in bed, fully intending to tie Arizona to a chair and starve her until she spit out whatever it was that was going on in her head.
But as soon as the blonde walked into their bedroom, fresh from a twelve hour day at work, Callie took one look into those exhausted blue eyes and decided to give her more time. She couldn’t handle it if Arizona cracked because she pushed her too hard.
“Hey.” Callie looked up from the novel she was absorbed in, peeling off her reading glasses and setting them aside. “How was your day?”
Arizona released a deep breath, methodically setting down her purse and removing her coat. “Long.” She dumped both items onto a nearby chair and made her way over to the bed. “Yours?”
Arizona climbed on and crawled towards Callie, surprising the brunette when she curled up in her lap and collapsed in an exhausted heap.
Callie instantly began to run her fingers through Arizona’s beautiful golden curls, gently stroking the side of her face before combing them back in a soothing motion. “Same here.”
“Hm. Sorry to hear that.” Arizona closed her eyes and nuzzled her cheek a little deeper into Callie’s thigh. “Mark caught me on the way out. Said to tell you he might have broken your iPod again.”
Callie growled under her breath, fingers twitching but not letting up in their soft stroking. “I’m going to rip his balls off one of these days and feed them to his goldfish.”
Arizona snorted, not sure why the mental image was funny but it was. “Can we please leave all mention of Mark’s balls out of this bedroom? I really can’t handle them right now.” Even she had to grimace at her choice of words.
“Fair enough,” Callie mused. Her heart melted when Arizona released a deep sigh and snuggled further into her lap.
She’d been craving this kind of a connection for weeks now. It wasn’t just the sex she missed, it was the ‘closeness’ that only they had. That intimacy she could achieve just by touching Arizona’s hand or holding her in her arms.
They hadn’t made love in over two weeks and even the last time hadn’t exactly been magical. Arizona was as talented as ever and made her come quite stupendously, but then refused to let Callie reciprocate afterwards. She’d claimed she was tired and didn’t need it.
That hadn’t happened before. Ever.
They’d even had a small argument the other day over whether Callie’s changing body was the reason Arizona wasn’t attracted to her anymore. It had been gnawing at her for a while when the dam finally burst and Callie accused her of not finding her attractive while pregnant. She wasn’t even showing yet but she was convinced that something had changed the way Arizona looked at her.
The genuine assurances and the honesty in the other woman’s eyes when she swore to her that Callie’s body was not the problem put some of her fears at ease. Callie always felt like the sexiest woman alive whenever Arizona would look at her in a certain way and it left no room for doubt in her mind that the blonde still found her sexual.
Even though she had grown a little distant, there were still those moments when Arizona would place a hand on Callie’s belly and just smile in a way that let the brunette know she wasn’t second guessing their decision.
Arizona loved her and she loved their unborn child, but Callie had the sneaking suspicion that she didn’t love herself anymore.
The stupid baby tears Callie had come to despise threatened to turn her into a blubbering idiot against her will. There were too many thoughts swimming around her head and none of them were making her feel very good about anything. She’d been crying whenever she felt any kind of strong emotion lately and it was extremely irritating.
Callie fought them back and made sure her voice was under control before she spoke again. “I saw you today, outside of the board room with Derek. Neither of you looked very happy.”
Even though the subject threatened to break the comfortable mood they were in, Callie thought she stood a chance at getting a straight answer when Arizona was this submissive. Lying was always harder when one was exhausted.
She just wanted the blonde to open up to her.
When she didn’t receive an answer, Callie’s fingers briefly stopped stroking Arizona’s temple. “Baby?”
The soft touch had been lulling Arizona to sleep and when it ceased she became more aware. “Hm? Oh, that...it was nothing. Just budgetary cuts for the Peds department. Might lose a few beds in the next month or so,” she murmured sluggishly.
“Oh,” Callie sighed to herself, not believing a word of it. She liked to think Arizona would never outright lie to her, so there probably was some type of a budget issue that needed taking care of, but that wasn’t what she had seen.
However, she wanted this moment to last, so she wasn’t going to push it. For tonight, anyway.
Callie could tell she was losing Arizona to unconsciousness, and fast. “Honey? Why don’t you put your jammies on and get comfy?”
“Mm,” Arizona groaned almost inaudibly. “Sleepy.”
Callie cracked a smile and gave a light tug on a lock of hair. “Then at least let me cover you up.”
She very carefully leaned forward without dislodging the woman draped across her legs and pulled the comforter up from where it was piled at the end of the bed. Arizona mustered up just enough energy to shift over and make room for Callie to settle in next to her.
The blonde’s eyes stayed closed as she snuggled in close and curled up against her girlfriend’s side. She burrowed her cheek into the brunette’s silky cotton night shirt and slung an arm over her hips, cocooning underneath the quilt and using Callie’s stomach as her pillow.
Callie settled on her back and immediately returned to running her fingers through her partner’s hair. She felt a mixture of worry and relief flood through her, which only made things more confusing. She was relieved that Arizona finally allowed herself to get close again but she was worried over the possible reasons why. It usually took something particularly complicated to get her to collapse in a heap this way and fall asleep without even changing clothes.
“I love you,” Callie called out softly, peaking down to watch the top of Arizona’s head as the blonde snuggled in closer.
As tired as she was, Arizona managed the tiniest of smiles and turned her head to place a soft kiss against Callie’s belly. “Love you too, baby.”
It didn’t take long before she fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
Callie decided to just relax and not worry about anything else for the night. She wanted to absorb the time she had with Arizona now because in the morning she had no idea what she’d be left with.
***
It was somewhat of a surprise for Callie to wake up with Arizona leaning over the bed, placing a soft kiss against her cheek.
“Hm?” Callie stirred and started to roll over.
“Shh, baby, go back to sleep,” Arizona soothed, running a gentle hand along her girlfriend’s shoulder. “I have to go to work.”
Callie groaned, blinking sleep from her eyes and kick-starting her brain into gear. “Already? Thought we were both in at twelve.”
“I got paged about a long-term patient, need to get there early.” Arizona sat on the edge of the bed and hovered over top of Callie, tracing a thumb lovingly against her cheek. “But you should sleep. Take care of yourself.”
Callie sighed and rolled more onto her back, blinking tiredly up at the blonde. “You sure? I can get ready and we-”
Arizona shook her head. “Nope. You and baby girl need your beauty sleep. You’ve got another two hours before the alarm goes off.” She smiled fondly down at where Callie’s hand automatically rested over her stomach.
“Again with calling it a girl,” Callie chuckled, grinning lazily up at Arizona. “What if a boy comes out?”
“Then I’m screwed, because I haven’t the slightest idea what to do with a boy,” Arizona admitted with a sheepish laugh. “But I’ll love him and figure it out along the way.” She bit her lip and traced her thumb along Callie’s jaw line. “But it’s a girl, so that won’t matter.”
Callie snickered and reached up to cover Arizona’s hand with her own. “Oh, okay then, if you say so,” she mused. “I guess we can always call the baby ‘Hey, you’ until we’re sure.”
“Thought you wanted to wait to find out?” Arizona tilted her head curiously.
“I do, but you know how much I hate surprises.”
“About as much as I do,” Arizona laughed, sharing in it with Callie. She leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to her forehead, then another one against her lips. “I really do have to go, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Callie tugged on the front of Arizona’s coat. “I’ll come find you for dinner if you’re not too busy.”
“I’d love that.”
Arizona smiled The Smile Callie had been aching to see for so long now. It killed her to know that as soon as Arizona left their little bedroom bubble, it could be a while before it made another appearance.
After another quick kiss goodbye, Arizona left for the day and Callie tried to go back to sleep.
However, another round of morning sickness made sure that the last two hours of potential bliss were spent hovering over a toilet seat, wishing she were dead.
Most of all, she wished her girlfriend was there to hold her hair back.
***
“Book an O.R. and see to it she gets priority,” Arizona ordered Meredith Grey, handing her the patient’s chart. “Her stats are going to tank if we wait any longer.”
Meredith nodded and juggled a stack of files, hurrying off to add it to the growing list of things she had yet to do.
Arizona sighed, rubbing her forehead tiredly. It was shaping up to be another busy day in Peds and she was craving a mid-afternoon nap at eleven in the morning.
Meredith was a good resident but Alex had the lay of the land in Peds. He knew how things worked and was incredibly efficient at getting them done and done quickly.
Unfortunately he was still gone for the time being, so a never-ending rotation of residents and interns were all she was left with.
Arizona checked in on a few more patients and made sure everything on the floor was running as smoothly as possible. Then she headed for the elevators, punching the button for the sixth floor.
Just as she crossed her arms, closed her eyes and leaned back against the far wall, another warm body slipped through the closing doors.
Carmen looked surprised that Arizona was already there, but her expression carefully slipped back into that smug, knowing smirk that seemed to be permanently plastered to her face these days. She crossed both arms over her chest and faced forward. “You’re supposed to steer clear of any contact with me, Dr. Robbins,” she stated smoothly.
Arizona gritted her teeth and forced herself not to take the bait. “Pretty sure I was here first.”
“It’s a big hospital, there are plenty of elevators,” Carmen replied.
“So go find one,” Arizona growled under her breath.
Carmen shook her head and turned to look at Arizona with a sharply raise brow. “So you’re asking me to get off the elevator, huh? That’s really gonna go over well if I-”
Arizona couldn’t stop herself. She jumped forward and hammered her thumb over the emergency stop button before whirling around to face the other woman.
“What do you want from me?” she snapped, unable to stop her temper from flaring.
Carmen looked taken back. Apparently she was the only person in this entire hospital to have never been cornered in an elevator before.
“You know damn well I haven’t done a single thing to try and screw you over,” Arizona continued in a rush. “What happened was months ago and I’ve moved on. I have a life, a family. Why don’t you try doing the same thing?”
“You used me,” Carmen shot back defiantly. “And you made some sick bet with Dr. Sloan about getting into my pants. I know you doctors are all hot shots and aren’t used to us lowly nurses fighting back, but you’re getting what you deserve.”
Arizona looked away, exasperated. “Carmen, I have done nothing but, but...not treat you like crap since we slept together! I-I’m sorry it happened and that you got hurt, but there was no bet about getting you into bed and I’ve certainly not gone out of my way to make your life miserable.”
Carmen leveled Arizona with a hard glare. “You have five seconds to get this elevator moving or I’ll see to it that you never so much as set foot inside a hospital again.”
Arizona clenched her jaw and held Carmen’s stare for a moment. Finally, she reached over and popped the emergency button back out before returning to her prior stance against the far wall.
Carmen shook her head and actually had the nerve to snort under her breath.
Arizona felt a moment of desperation seize up in her chest. “I’m having a baby.”
Carmen froze. “You’re...pregnant?”
Arizona sighed. “No. Calliope is.”
Some of the nurse’s initial shock instantly wore off with mention of Arizona’s girlfriend. “Why are you telling me this?”
“Because as much as you want to screw me over, maybe even me and Callie just because you can, there are other things at stake here. I have a family to support.”
The doors finally popped open - slowest elevators on earth - and Arizona brushed past Carmen. “Think about that before you go out of your way to try and further ruin my life.”
Arizona didn’t look back as the doors slid closed behind her.
***
“Hey, you.”
Arizona looked up in surprise to find Callie standing in the scrub room door. It took a second to pull her mind out of the deep contemplation she’d been in the middle of and she pushed herself upright. She’d been leaning against the sinks, staring absently into the O.R. for a good ten minutes by herself. “Oh, hey. What’s, uh...what’s up?”
Callie immediately frowned, recognizing the stormy look in Arizona’s ever-expressive eyes. “You okay? Did the surgery go badly?” She stepped inside the room.
Arizona shook her head, quickly trying to mask whatever look she’d been wearing before Callie walked in here. There was a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach and she couldn’t stop thinking about the lawsuit and the fallout she felt coming her way. “No, it...it went fine. The kid is on his way to recovery now.”
She plastered a happy smile on and faced Callie. “How about you?”
Callie blinked in surprise when Arizona all but jogged over to plant a big kiss on her lips. “Uh, good, I’m...good.” She frowned at her girlfriend.
Arizona rushed on in a hurry, stepping around Callie and holding open the scrub room door for them both. “So, did you get some sleep? Any bones to break this afternoon? Ooo, if you’re feeling up to it we should order Thai tonight because it’s ‘ten percent off Tuesday’. And I think Gone With the Wind is playing on cable at eleven; I set the DVR two days ago just in case we missed it. Double the fun - good food, good movie, good company. Though technically that should be triple the fun, I guess.”
Callie fixed Arizona with a strange look. “Uh-”
“Oh, hey, Teddy asked if you were up for a girls night out next week,” Arizona rushed on, trying to quell the growing panic she felt inside. “She’s planning on having everyone over to her cabin in the woods and setting up a taco bar or something, maybe mini pizzas. Should be fun.”
“Uh,” Callie repeated, blinking in surprise. Arizona appeared to be almost vibrating. If she hadn’t just seen how upset and broody the blonde looked moments before, Callie might’ve scolded her for drinking too much caffeine again. “Sure, that...sounds great, but-”
Arizona’s pager went off and Callie couldn’t help but notice how relieved she looked for the distraction.
“Sorry sweetie, I gotta go.” Arizona once again smiled so brightly it looked like it hurt. She planted a hard kiss on Callie’s lips before jogging down the hall, leaving the brunette in a stunned silence. She never once looked at her pager to check who or what it was about.
Callie’s shoulders sagged as she watched the blonde’s retreating form disappear through a set of double doors.
Yeah. Things were definitely back to normal today.
Damn it.
***
Pagers were the root of all evil and Mark was about two seconds away from smashing his with a hammer.
“Of course,” Lexie sighed from her place beneath him on their couch. She dropped her head back onto the cushions and closed her eyes.
A trail of clothing led from the door of their apartment to the couch they were tangled up on now. Both were left wearing just enough to frustrate the other upon Mark’s pager going off.
“I hate when you’re on-call,” Lexie groaned. “I need sex.”
Mark shifted uncomfortably and forced himself to sit up, wishing his pants didn’t feel so damn tight all of a sudden. “Yeah, you and me both.” He picked the offending object up from the floor and looked at the screen. “Great. It’s Robbins.”
Lexie mirrored him and sat up as well, swiping a hand back through her hair. “Guess this means you should go.” She bent down and started rooting around the floor for her shirt.
Mark shook his head in disappointment. They couldn’t find a moment alone these days, it seemed. Lexie was working her tail off, knowing she’d have to go on maternity leave in two months time. She was barely ever home and when she was he was working instead.
Mark needed the sex, too. It had been over a week. That was a freakin’ lifetime for him.
“I’ll be quick,” he said after a moment, pushing up to his feet and starting to get dressed again. “I hope.”
Lexie pulled her jeans back on, grumbling when she had trouble doing up the button.
Glancing over, Mark’s face broke out into a huge grin. “Honey, I don’t see why you won’t just wear the maternity jeans you bought last month. You knew this was coming and besides, you look sexy in them.”
He stepped up next to his fiancé and placed a hand over the small and newly-formed bump on her lower abdomen. His heart soared at the knowledge that their son or daughter was starting to get bigger.
Lexie, however, wasn’t quite as overjoyed. “I am not getting fat!” she snapped, causing Mark to jerk his hand away in surprise. “These jeans still fit me just fine, thank you very much.”
They clearly didn’t, but she wasn’t ready for maternity wear yet. She’d taken to wearing a clean pair of scrub pants around the house in defiance.
Mark sighed and held up a hand in surrender. “Okay, okay, I’m sorry. But I think you’re sexy now and I‘ll still think you’re sexy when you’re nine months along. Don’t hate me for that.”
He picked up his shirt and pulled it on as the last piece of missing clothing. “We’ll finish what we started when I get back?” His eyes roamed over Lexie’s half-clothed body.
“Only if you hurry up,” Lexie said with a hint of amusement. “You know how your child tends to make me go from horny to weepy in a matter of minutes.”
Mark frowned. “I’ll tell Robbins to deal with it on her own and be back in twenty.”
He turned and fled the apartment.
As soon as he was gone, Lexie popped the button on her jeans and groaned in relief. “That’s the stuff.”
She wandered over to the freezer and dug out the latest tub of ice cream Mark had purchased for her never-ending craving.
After some though, she added a jar of Cheese Wiz and Gherkin’s Pickles to the mix.
***
“Mark,” Arizona called cheerfully, bouncing up next to him at the ER desk. “You came.”
He turned from checking the OR schedule. “You paged 9-1-1.”
“I didn’t,” Arizona corrected, “the Chief did. Even though I told him I could handle it on my own.” She bounced on the heels of her shoes, hands stuffed in her pockets as she nodded over her shoulder.
“The kid in bed three has some burns that you should take a look at as long as you’re here. Nothing too major.” She elbowed him in the side. “Should be able to get home in time to keep your lady happy, if you know what I mean.” Arizona wiggled her eyebrows suggestively and grinned at him.
Mark leaned away from Arizona and fixed her with a scrutinizing stare. “What’s wrong with you?”
Arizona frowned. “What? I can’t be friendly?”
“To me? About my sex life?” he asked, continuing to look skeptical.
Arizona rolled her eyes. “Fine, go ahead, be an ass. Just check out the kid before you leave.” She turned and rolled away on her Heelys.
Mark shook his head in disbelief and glanced back down at the OR schedule. “Torres is right, you really are acting weird,” he mumbled under his breath.
It was good to know he wasn’t needed for anything serious, though. That meant he could finish up here and escape back home to his girlfriend for a long, steamy night of-
“Hey.”
He closed his eyes and dropped his head with a sigh.
Or not.
Callie looked grumpy as she took up the space Arizona had just vacated. “When you’ve got a sec, I could use a consult upstairs.”
“I’m technically not here right now,” Mark replied with a shake of his head. “Can it wait until tomorrow morning? I left Lex at home.”
“And you, what, only gave her enough food and water for an hour? She’s a big girl, Mark,” Callie pointed out. When he merely glared, she relented with an uncaring sigh. “Yeah, whatever, tomorrow is fine. Patient wants your opinion on surgical weight loss procedures. I just finished replacing both of her knees and-”
She trailed off, eyes locking onto Arizona’s back across the room. The blonde stood over a patient’s bed, laughing with a great big smile on her face as she talked to the parents. “She’s been faking it all day.”
Mark frowned in confusion. “Faking being fat or faking needing a knee replacement?”
“Arizona,” Callie shot back without taking her eyes away from her girlfriend. “I saw her yesterday with Derek and...some...other people.” She didn’t particularly want to go into detail as to who. “Anyway, she looked pissed or unhappy or something. I tried to ask her about it last night but got nothing in return. And now, whenever I run into her, she spends the whole time shooting rainbows from her mouth and sprouting a pair of happy fairy wings. I can’t get a word in edgewise through all the perky.”
“Isn’t that what Robbins is like pretty much every day?” Mark tilted his head, thinking back to the overly sweet and pleasant exterior of the peds surgeon he’d been introduced to moments before. “Or maybe she’s drunk. I remember her being exceptionally giggly and annoying when she’s drunk.”
“I’m not talking drunk-giggles here, I’m talking smile-so-hard-your-face-falls-off. It’s fake, trust me. I know the difference between Arizona-perky and ‘I’m a big fat faker that won’t talk to my baby mama’-perky. She won’t even give me half a second to ask what’s going on.” Callie released a heavy sigh and rubbed at her brow. “I’m just gonna go over there and make her talk to me.”
“You do that,” Mark replied quickly. He patted Callie on the arm. “I’m gonna go check on a patient, then I’m heading home to my woman where no amount of talking whatsoever shall be done.” He scurried away before anyone else could suck him into a conversation he didn’t want to have.
Callie frowned, stuffing her hands in her lab coat pockets and straightening her shoulders. “You are going to talk to me, even if I have to put you in a headlock and drag you out back,” she murmured to herself, heading swiftly over to her girlfriend with a newfound resolve.
Enough was enough.
***
Robbins’ consult took about twenty minutes longer than Mark wanted it to, but he scheduled the kid for surgery first thing in the morning. He wasn’t putting his sex life over the well-being of his patients, he really wasn’t, but the burns on the kid’s arm needed to be cleaned and fixed up before he could look into the possibility of a skin graft. The residents could handle that part.
It was raining by the time he left the hospital and jogged across the street to his apartment. He took the stairs two at a time, too impatient to wait for the elevator.
A small grin appeared over his face as he rounded the corner on the fifth floor and pulled the keys from his pocket. They slipped easily into the lock but turned without any resistance. Mark frowned as he pushed the door open.
“Honey, you should really close up after I leav-”
Lexie blew by him the second he stepped inside.
“Hunt paged, needs extra hands in the trauma center today, sorry!” She scampered down the hall as fast as she could, stumbling as she pulled on her second shoe while hopping around on one foot.
Mark watched her go, too surprised to protest until it was too late.
Well, so much for that idea.
---
Chapter 14/36
Authors: Faith kennedysbitch & Kye
Pairing: Callie/Arizona, Mark/Lexie
Rating: NC-17
Beta’d by clanket
Story Summary: Sequel to Choices. Callie and Arizona make the decision to move forward with their lives, but when a gradual series of events begin to snowball, Arizona tries desperately not to lose her grip on reality.
Chapter Summary:
Disclaimer
Previous Chapters
Beta’d by clanket. Thanks for putting up with me and my rantings for a few days. :)
---
Callie paced the entire length of her apartment thirty-two and a half times before Arizona finally walked through the front door.
“Finally!” She just about lunged at the blonde, waving a sealed envelope in her face. “Do you know what this is?”
Arizona blinked and recoiled in surprise. “W-what?” She looked petrified and eyeballed the piece of paper as though it were a wired bomb.
Callie frowned. “It’s the results! I got them this morning but I couldn’t find you, so I waited until you got home but now you’re late so just - shut up and sit down!”
Arizona was still dazed, barely managing to drop her bag to the floor before Callie dragged her over to the couch.
Callie deposited the confused blonde in a heap and collapsed next to her. She was practically vibrating she was so worked up. “I can’t do it.” She shoved the envelope in Arizona’s face and started to gnaw on her thumb nail.
Arizona turned the brown envelope over in her hands, staring it with wonder. She felt so lost right now, she didn’t even know what to do.
In her bag was a much larger envelope of the same shade, containing papers that might very well change their lives for the worst.
Yet here her partner was, holding the official evidence of their pregnancy, something that would certainly change them for the better.
The juxtaposition couldn’t have been more ironic or unwelcomed.
Arizona swallowed thickly and glanced up at Callie. “You want me to...?”
Callie was too caught up in the moment to think the uncertainty and confusion behind those wide blue eyes had to do with anything other than her blood work results. “Yes! Just...o-open it already!”
Arizona looked back at the envelope and fumbled to rip it open. She was still in shock, having been tearing into a very different set of forms only an hour before.
The blonde glanced up one more time at her girlfriend before pulling out and unfolding the results page. She skimmed over the information and sat there for a moment in complete silence.
Callie seized a fistful of Arizona’s shirt and gave it a rough tug, looking half crazed. “Well?”
Arizona gave a short, singular laugh. “You’re pregnant.”
Callie froze, eyes as wide as saucers. “What?”
Arizona shook her head in disbelief, daring to smile even just the tiniest bit. “You’re...you’re pregnant. We’re pregnant. T-there’s a baby in your belly.”
Callie let out a bark of laughter, covering her mouth with one hand. “Oh my God.”
Arizona dropped the paper and reached up to cup her girlfriend’s face. “Calliope, I...”
She didn’t even know where to begin.
Tears immediately sprang into Callie’s eyes and she suddenly yanked Arizona into a fierce hug. “There’s a baby in my belly,” she echoed, both laughing and crying at the same time. “You knocked me up.”
“Yeah, I did,” Arizona breathed, wrapping both arms tightly around Callie’s back.
They had both been confident after the home test, but officially-officially they could start planning now. Things needed to be bought, names needed to be settled on, and people needed to be told.
The fact that this moment was tainted for her made Arizona Robbins hate Carmen Rodriguez more than she’d ever hated anyone in her entire life.
Tears formed of their own will and Arizona had no idea where they originated from.
They were officially having a baby and starting their new life together.
She might lose her career and any means of providing for her family.
Whatever the reason behind it, Arizona cried.
***
The first three and a half months of Callie’s pregnancy flew by so fast that Arizona couldn’t figure out where time had gone. From the moment they went into the obstetrician’s office to where they were now seemed like nothing more than the blink of an eye.
A hell of a lot had happened in that split second.
Her dad was hanging in there, but barely. He couldn’t sit up on his own anymore without his heart rate spiking dangerously high. There was still no sign of a transplant in the near future as he kept getting pushed down the list for younger, more ‘urgent’ patients.
It was becoming clearer every day that he might not be able to hold on long enough see a transplant come through. Even if by some miracle he managed to, the weaker he became, the less likely he would survive the surgery. And if he did, the risk of complications was so high she could barely stand to think about it.
The notion of losing her father tore her apart inside and she felt her hold on life beginning to slip through her fingers. She’d almost lost herself completely when her twin brother died six years ago; she didn’t know what would happen if she lost her father, too.
And then there was the fact that Carmen had slapped her with a bitch of a sexual harassment lawsuit from way out of left field, five and a half months after their one night stand took place.
All in all, Arizona had seen better days.
She hadn’t told Callie, who was alight and glowing with the joys of pregnancy. Stress of Arizona’s emotional issues was not something the blonde planned to dump on her and risk her and their baby’s health. She was handling everything the way her father had taught her to - with a stiff upper lip.
So far that had lead her here - the board room of Seattle Grace - Mercy West hospital with two lawyers, Chief Shepherd and the scorned woman herself all present.
“You were in fact the one to ask Ms. Rodriguez back to your apartment that night, yes? After you had come onto her the day before?”
Arizona rubbed her forehead, resting an elbow against the table. “That’s not quite-” She clamped her mouth shut when her lawyer shot her a look.
“We’ve already answered these questions a dozen times,” Barbara Summers spoke up from her seat to Arizona’s right. “You have my client’s written statement on file.”
Derek sat at the head of the conference room table, opposite the arbitrator. He was there as a silent party and silent support for Dr. Robbins.
Carmen, not so much.
The scrub nurse sat across from Arizona with a hard, menacing glare leveled directly on her. She had barely blinked in the last thirty minutes since the meeting started.
“It's a simple question,” Carmen's lawyer shot back. “Either your client pursued Ms. Rodriguez for a sexual relationship as her superior or she didn't.”
Arizona sighed heavily as she finally looked up from the table. “I never intended to hurt Car-” She stopped again and corrected herself. “Ms. Rodriguez. I don't know what I was thinking, I-”
“Excuse me?” Carmen’s voice was sharp as a razor, eyes cold and deadly.
Arizona suddenly realized how that must have sounded.
Crap.
“I didn’t mean…” Arizona’s lawyer looked ready to beat her with a stick to shut her up, but she didn’t care. “Look, it was stated from the beginning that I wasn’t looking for anything serious. There were numerous times where she approached me and I-”
“Stated?” Carmen’s lawyer cut her off. “Nowhere in your statement does it mention you telling my client you weren’t interested.” He flipped through Arizona’s written words for show.
Arizona sighed again, her head pounding. “I did tell her I had just gotten out of a serious relationship. She told me she wasn’t looking for one. This was before the incident in question.”
She felt like they’d been running in circles for the last hour. They’d been doing so for a few weeks now, even though this was the first time they’d all sat in a room together.
“According to my client, no such thing happened. She entered your apartment with the expectation of your personal and professional lives remaining intact and separate, but found upon returning to work that things were made difficult for her as a professional.”
Arizona scrunched her forehead in confusion. “What? No, we haven’t even worked together very much since then.”
Arizona’s lawyer sighed while Carmen’s began to smirk dangerously. “So you admit that the job she was hired to do has been compromised because you used her attraction to you without any regard to her feelings or status at this hospital.”
Arizona gulped. Oops.
“My client is admitting to no such thing,” Barbara argued.
“There may be something wrong with my hearing, Ms. Summers, and that’s entirely possible at my age, but I'm almost certain that's exactly what she just did.”
Arizona winced. “Sorry, Barbara, I-”
The older woman quickly cut her eyes back to the lawyer sitting across the table. “Mr. Parker,” she started slowly, “I assure you that my client has in no way, shape or form made it impossible for Ms. Rodriguez to perform her job in a comfortable and safe working environment. This is a big hospital and there are a lot of scrub nurses. It makes perfect sense that your client hasn’t worked exclusively with Dr. Robbins.”
“Really?” James Parker mused, looking smug. He glanced down and flipped through some papers he had spread out on the table before him. “Even though she was originally hired as a replacement scrub nurse for the Pediatrics Department specifically?”
“Scrub nurses go where they’re needed,” Barbara argued.
James ignored her and continued on, flipping to a specific page in his file. “So you would call it 'comfortable and safe' when your client asked mine to leave in the middle of a surgery because she couldn't stand the smell of her perfume any longer, and I quote here, ‘without doing something they were both going to regret’?”
“What?!” Arizona jolted forward in her seat. “I never said it like that!”
“Arizona!” Barbara snapped.
“I never even said that last part!” the blonde continued heatedly. Her annoyance with Carmen was quickly growing. “Everyone knows that the O.R. is a scent free zone; it’s perfectly within my rights to ask her to leave if she fails to abide by that rule. That quote is completely unfounded.”
“You never had a problem with it before,” Carmen shot back across the table.
Arizona opened her mouth to retort when she felt a swift kick to her shin underneath the table. At first she thought it was her lawyer, but quickly saw Derek shooting her a pointed stare. One that read ‘Shutup - now.’
“Dr. Robbins is correct,” he spoke up. “We do have a strict ‘no scent’ stipulation for our operating rooms. No perfumes, colognes, scented hand creams or anything of the sort. She is well within her rights as lead surgeon to ask any member of staff to leave if there’s a reason.”
“I wasn't wearing perfume,” Carmen growled. She shifted her glare from Arizona to Derek. “It was just my shampoo.”
“Scented none the less,” Barbara murmured under her breath, jotting something down on her note pad.
“The same shampoo that Dr. Robbins once told me she couldn't stop smelling even when she wasn't near me.” Carmen paused as she held the blonde's gaze. “And that she liked it.”
Arizona dropped her head into her hand again. There had been a comment in passing about Carmen’s shampoo smelling nice and that it was an addictive scent or something like that. Ages ago. Freaking light years, at this point. She hadn’t meant it in a flirty way, but apparently it was coming back to bite her in the ass regardless.
“That’s irrelevant,” Barbara spoke up, “a comment that was not written down by your client as an event leading up to their relationship.”
“Or lack thereof,” Carmen mumbled under her breath, earning a glare from her lawyer.
“That doesn’t excuse Dr. Robbins from humiliating my client by placing a bet with another doctor on whether or not she could get her into bed.” Mr. Parker looked directly at Arizona, expecting her to jump to her own defense again and stick her foot in her mouth.
But Arizona had been explicitly told by her lawyer to not so much as hiccup on this subject. That was where the real danger lay here and she could be fired immediately if it was proven true.
She wanted to open her mouth and try to explain that her stupid little ‘bet’ with Mark was not really a bet at all, that it certainly was not regarding who could jump into bed with Carmen first, but she knew it was futile.
She’d fucked up and a big part of her felt horrible for that. In hindsight it had been a stupid, idiotic thing to agree to even in passing, even if it had been just a friendly dare to get a pretty woman’s phone number. That hadn’t been why she’d slept with Carmen, but even her real motive made her feel like less than a decent person.
She was jealous of Callie supposedly sleeping with Mark Sloan. She’d slept with Carmen in revenge and nearly lost Callie in the process.
Now that same mistake was about to cost her her job.
“There was no wager of any kind placed in regards to sexual intercourse with your client,” Barbara said. “And if there was, then why isn’t the other party in question involved in this lawsuit, too?”
“Because Dr. Sloan didn’t act on it, that’s why. Dr. Robbins went out of her way to not only sleep with my client for despicable, selfish reasons, but she has since made it uncomfortable for Ms. Rodriguez to work in the Pediatric wing of this hospital.”
Barbara shook her head, glancing over at Arizona.
Arizona just stared down at her hands, wishing the earth would open up and swallow her.
“We have no further comments on this subject, Mr. Parker. You have my client’s statement.”
“Doctors have a history of disrespecting nurses, Barbara. Is it really so far fetched to you that Dr. Robbins is any different? Just because she’s a woman?”
“My client’s sexual orientation does not automatically make her the type of person to sexually harass a member of her staff. It is unacceptable to try and ruin her perfectly respectable reputation by attempting to label her as a ‘predatory lesbian’. Be very, very careful how you proceed from there, James,” Barbara growled. “Dr. Robbins has nothing but glowing reviews from anyone who has ever worked under or with her before. She is a respected professional with no suspect history of any kind.”
“We’re going in circles here,” the man sighed, flipping through his notes. “Clearly, you have little to no defense. I see no reason why we wouldn’t crush you in court, Barbara. I suggest coming to a settlement for damages done, especially if Dr. Robbins plans on keeping her job in this hospital.”
“What?” Arizona straightened up. “I’m not paying you off, no way.”
Barbara reached out to place a hand on Arizona’s forearm. “My client did nothing wrong. Suing over hurt feelings is inadmissible. She will not be paying anyone anything. Your client suffered no monetary losses as a result of anything done by Dr. Robbins, nor has she spent the last five months in fear of working in this hospital.”
“Fine.” Mr. Parker continued to look rather smug as he gathered his papers, unphased by any of this. “Then in all likelihood we’ll be seeing you in court. Enjoy your job while you still have it, Dr. Robbins. I expect you to have no contact with my client whatsoever.”
Barbara shook her head and leaned over to speak quietly to Arizona. “He’s bluffing, dear, don’t worry.” She turned her attention back to the other parties in the room. “As always, this matter is to be kept quiet and confidential until it is sorted out.” Her gaze lingered on Carmen in particular. “No rumors mills need to be buzzing in the coming weeks.”
Arizona felt her heart twist painfully in her chest as everyone but her and Derek started to pack up and leave. She was starting to realize how real the chance of her losing her job might be, not to mention the fact that she may never get hired anywhere else with something like this on her record.
Fuck.
The absolute worst part of all this was that she had yet to tell Calliope any of it.
***
“You won’t be going to court over this,” Derek Shepherd assured his Pediatrics Attending as they stood just outside the meeting room. “We’ll come to a solution and settle without it ever getting that far.”
Arizona didn't look so convinced.
“Out of everyone in this entire hospital, you are the last person I would ever expect to sexually harass someone, Arizona. Even after Dr. Bailey. I’m on your side, I promise.” Derek's pager went off right on cue and he glanced down to check the device. “Excuse me.” With a reassuring pat on the arm, he hurried away.
Arizona leaned back against the wall and closed her eyes. She wished she was as confident as her boss.
***
A short distance down the hallway, Callie became distracted from reorganizing patient files upon seeing her girlfriend emerge from the conference room in a business suit. Her brow furrowed and she watched the blonde stand perfectly still for a long moment, listening to something Derek said without reacting before he walked away. Arizona then closed her eyes and sagged back against the wall.
That was weird, Callie thought. Arizona had seemed fine when they left for work that morning. In jeans and a t-shirt too, not her finest business suit. Callie hadn’t even seen her take it out of the closet in almost six months.
Just as Callie took a step in her direction, the door to Arizona’s left suddenly opened and Carmen Rodriguez walked out of the office.
Callie was standing a good distance away but she could still make out the unfriendly scowl on the nurse’s face. She watched the other two stare at each other for a long moment but couldn’t read her girlfriend’s expression from so far away.
Just as quickly as she had emerged, though, Arizona turned on the spot and walked away in the opposite direction.
Weird indeed.
***
Despite Callie’s best efforts to track down her girlfriend, Arizona proved allusive for most of the day. Callie couldn’t stop worrying about what she’d seen earlier, even though there was no proof anything was wrong.
She just never knew these days. Arizona had stopped fighting, even though she was doing everything in her power to make it seem like she hadn’t.
Callie knew her partner inside and out and something had changed in the last few weeks. She didn’t know what had caused it or if it had happened as a result of things building up over time, but a month ago it was like a switch had been flipped inside the blonde’s brain and she went into autopilot mode. She said the right things, did the right things, acted the way she was expected to act, but nothing more.
It worried the hell out of Callie.
Arizona started off strong in all of this, fighting to keep her spirits alive while her father waited for a transplant, but somewhere along the way she had clammed up and stopped talking. They hadn’t had a real conversation in almost two months, nothing that went beyond what colour to paint the nursery now that Cristina was gone or what type of infant clothing to start buying when they went shopping. The baby talk was nice and sometimes Callie would catch a bit of that familiar sparkle in those blue eyes she adored so much, but then it would be gone and Robot Arizona would take over again.
Callie could have called her on it, she could have worked harder to get her to open up, but she didn’t. She was afraid. She didn’t know how to help Arizona so she went along with it while she tried to figure out what to do.
So much of what was about to happen in their lives depended on the fate of Daniel Robbins - if he received a heart and made it through the recovery, Callie was confident Arizona could heal from the deep fissure that had formed inside of her and get back to the way things used to be.
But if they lost him...
She was too terrified to even think of the catastrophic results.
One evening while Arizona was working, Callie had called her dad in Miami just to chat and keep him up to date on the pregnancy. Seeing Arizona in the process of potentially losing a parent made her miss her own very much. Both of them were itching to fly out and visit, but they understood it was not a good time with Arizona’s father in poor health.
“Calliope, what’s wrong? Is something not right with the baby?” Carlos had asked when she’d grown quiet.
“No, everything’s fine,” Callie assured him more than once.
She’d gone on to make excuses about how Arizona was busy with work and she was trying to do the same before she was forced to go on maternity leave. Carlos had poked and prodded for more answers but eventually gave up when Callie refused to divulge the reason she sounded so distracted.
While it was nice that her mother and father finally acknowledged her relationship with Arizona and opened their arms to the family they were about to start, it didn’t mean Callie wanted them flying in from Miami and taking over their apartment while they still had another six months to go before the baby was due.
Oy vey, that would not be fun for either of them.
Callie chickened out at work and didn’t bother asking Arizona about the incident she’d witnessed outside of the office. She came home before her partner, showered and changed into her pajamas and sat waiting in bed, fully intending to tie Arizona to a chair and starve her until she spit out whatever it was that was going on in her head.
But as soon as the blonde walked into their bedroom, fresh from a twelve hour day at work, Callie took one look into those exhausted blue eyes and decided to give her more time. She couldn’t handle it if Arizona cracked because she pushed her too hard.
“Hey.” Callie looked up from the novel she was absorbed in, peeling off her reading glasses and setting them aside. “How was your day?”
Arizona released a deep breath, methodically setting down her purse and removing her coat. “Long.” She dumped both items onto a nearby chair and made her way over to the bed. “Yours?”
Arizona climbed on and crawled towards Callie, surprising the brunette when she curled up in her lap and collapsed in an exhausted heap.
Callie instantly began to run her fingers through Arizona’s beautiful golden curls, gently stroking the side of her face before combing them back in a soothing motion. “Same here.”
“Hm. Sorry to hear that.” Arizona closed her eyes and nuzzled her cheek a little deeper into Callie’s thigh. “Mark caught me on the way out. Said to tell you he might have broken your iPod again.”
Callie growled under her breath, fingers twitching but not letting up in their soft stroking. “I’m going to rip his balls off one of these days and feed them to his goldfish.”
Arizona snorted, not sure why the mental image was funny but it was. “Can we please leave all mention of Mark’s balls out of this bedroom? I really can’t handle them right now.” Even she had to grimace at her choice of words.
“Fair enough,” Callie mused. Her heart melted when Arizona released a deep sigh and snuggled further into her lap.
She’d been craving this kind of a connection for weeks now. It wasn’t just the sex she missed, it was the ‘closeness’ that only they had. That intimacy she could achieve just by touching Arizona’s hand or holding her in her arms.
They hadn’t made love in over two weeks and even the last time hadn’t exactly been magical. Arizona was as talented as ever and made her come quite stupendously, but then refused to let Callie reciprocate afterwards. She’d claimed she was tired and didn’t need it.
That hadn’t happened before. Ever.
They’d even had a small argument the other day over whether Callie’s changing body was the reason Arizona wasn’t attracted to her anymore. It had been gnawing at her for a while when the dam finally burst and Callie accused her of not finding her attractive while pregnant. She wasn’t even showing yet but she was convinced that something had changed the way Arizona looked at her.
The genuine assurances and the honesty in the other woman’s eyes when she swore to her that Callie’s body was not the problem put some of her fears at ease. Callie always felt like the sexiest woman alive whenever Arizona would look at her in a certain way and it left no room for doubt in her mind that the blonde still found her sexual.
Even though she had grown a little distant, there were still those moments when Arizona would place a hand on Callie’s belly and just smile in a way that let the brunette know she wasn’t second guessing their decision.
Arizona loved her and she loved their unborn child, but Callie had the sneaking suspicion that she didn’t love herself anymore.
The stupid baby tears Callie had come to despise threatened to turn her into a blubbering idiot against her will. There were too many thoughts swimming around her head and none of them were making her feel very good about anything. She’d been crying whenever she felt any kind of strong emotion lately and it was extremely irritating.
Callie fought them back and made sure her voice was under control before she spoke again. “I saw you today, outside of the board room with Derek. Neither of you looked very happy.”
Even though the subject threatened to break the comfortable mood they were in, Callie thought she stood a chance at getting a straight answer when Arizona was this submissive. Lying was always harder when one was exhausted.
She just wanted the blonde to open up to her.
When she didn’t receive an answer, Callie’s fingers briefly stopped stroking Arizona’s temple. “Baby?”
The soft touch had been lulling Arizona to sleep and when it ceased she became more aware. “Hm? Oh, that...it was nothing. Just budgetary cuts for the Peds department. Might lose a few beds in the next month or so,” she murmured sluggishly.
“Oh,” Callie sighed to herself, not believing a word of it. She liked to think Arizona would never outright lie to her, so there probably was some type of a budget issue that needed taking care of, but that wasn’t what she had seen.
However, she wanted this moment to last, so she wasn’t going to push it. For tonight, anyway.
Callie could tell she was losing Arizona to unconsciousness, and fast. “Honey? Why don’t you put your jammies on and get comfy?”
“Mm,” Arizona groaned almost inaudibly. “Sleepy.”
Callie cracked a smile and gave a light tug on a lock of hair. “Then at least let me cover you up.”
She very carefully leaned forward without dislodging the woman draped across her legs and pulled the comforter up from where it was piled at the end of the bed. Arizona mustered up just enough energy to shift over and make room for Callie to settle in next to her.
The blonde’s eyes stayed closed as she snuggled in close and curled up against her girlfriend’s side. She burrowed her cheek into the brunette’s silky cotton night shirt and slung an arm over her hips, cocooning underneath the quilt and using Callie’s stomach as her pillow.
Callie settled on her back and immediately returned to running her fingers through her partner’s hair. She felt a mixture of worry and relief flood through her, which only made things more confusing. She was relieved that Arizona finally allowed herself to get close again but she was worried over the possible reasons why. It usually took something particularly complicated to get her to collapse in a heap this way and fall asleep without even changing clothes.
“I love you,” Callie called out softly, peaking down to watch the top of Arizona’s head as the blonde snuggled in closer.
As tired as she was, Arizona managed the tiniest of smiles and turned her head to place a soft kiss against Callie’s belly. “Love you too, baby.”
It didn’t take long before she fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
Callie decided to just relax and not worry about anything else for the night. She wanted to absorb the time she had with Arizona now because in the morning she had no idea what she’d be left with.
***
It was somewhat of a surprise for Callie to wake up with Arizona leaning over the bed, placing a soft kiss against her cheek.
“Hm?” Callie stirred and started to roll over.
“Shh, baby, go back to sleep,” Arizona soothed, running a gentle hand along her girlfriend’s shoulder. “I have to go to work.”
Callie groaned, blinking sleep from her eyes and kick-starting her brain into gear. “Already? Thought we were both in at twelve.”
“I got paged about a long-term patient, need to get there early.” Arizona sat on the edge of the bed and hovered over top of Callie, tracing a thumb lovingly against her cheek. “But you should sleep. Take care of yourself.”
Callie sighed and rolled more onto her back, blinking tiredly up at the blonde. “You sure? I can get ready and we-”
Arizona shook her head. “Nope. You and baby girl need your beauty sleep. You’ve got another two hours before the alarm goes off.” She smiled fondly down at where Callie’s hand automatically rested over her stomach.
“Again with calling it a girl,” Callie chuckled, grinning lazily up at Arizona. “What if a boy comes out?”
“Then I’m screwed, because I haven’t the slightest idea what to do with a boy,” Arizona admitted with a sheepish laugh. “But I’ll love him and figure it out along the way.” She bit her lip and traced her thumb along Callie’s jaw line. “But it’s a girl, so that won’t matter.”
Callie snickered and reached up to cover Arizona’s hand with her own. “Oh, okay then, if you say so,” she mused. “I guess we can always call the baby ‘Hey, you’ until we’re sure.”
“Thought you wanted to wait to find out?” Arizona tilted her head curiously.
“I do, but you know how much I hate surprises.”
“About as much as I do,” Arizona laughed, sharing in it with Callie. She leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to her forehead, then another one against her lips. “I really do have to go, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Callie tugged on the front of Arizona’s coat. “I’ll come find you for dinner if you’re not too busy.”
“I’d love that.”
Arizona smiled The Smile Callie had been aching to see for so long now. It killed her to know that as soon as Arizona left their little bedroom bubble, it could be a while before it made another appearance.
After another quick kiss goodbye, Arizona left for the day and Callie tried to go back to sleep.
However, another round of morning sickness made sure that the last two hours of potential bliss were spent hovering over a toilet seat, wishing she were dead.
Most of all, she wished her girlfriend was there to hold her hair back.
***
“Book an O.R. and see to it she gets priority,” Arizona ordered Meredith Grey, handing her the patient’s chart. “Her stats are going to tank if we wait any longer.”
Meredith nodded and juggled a stack of files, hurrying off to add it to the growing list of things she had yet to do.
Arizona sighed, rubbing her forehead tiredly. It was shaping up to be another busy day in Peds and she was craving a mid-afternoon nap at eleven in the morning.
Meredith was a good resident but Alex had the lay of the land in Peds. He knew how things worked and was incredibly efficient at getting them done and done quickly.
Unfortunately he was still gone for the time being, so a never-ending rotation of residents and interns were all she was left with.
Arizona checked in on a few more patients and made sure everything on the floor was running as smoothly as possible. Then she headed for the elevators, punching the button for the sixth floor.
Just as she crossed her arms, closed her eyes and leaned back against the far wall, another warm body slipped through the closing doors.
Carmen looked surprised that Arizona was already there, but her expression carefully slipped back into that smug, knowing smirk that seemed to be permanently plastered to her face these days. She crossed both arms over her chest and faced forward. “You’re supposed to steer clear of any contact with me, Dr. Robbins,” she stated smoothly.
Arizona gritted her teeth and forced herself not to take the bait. “Pretty sure I was here first.”
“It’s a big hospital, there are plenty of elevators,” Carmen replied.
“So go find one,” Arizona growled under her breath.
Carmen shook her head and turned to look at Arizona with a sharply raise brow. “So you’re asking me to get off the elevator, huh? That’s really gonna go over well if I-”
Arizona couldn’t stop herself. She jumped forward and hammered her thumb over the emergency stop button before whirling around to face the other woman.
“What do you want from me?” she snapped, unable to stop her temper from flaring.
Carmen looked taken back. Apparently she was the only person in this entire hospital to have never been cornered in an elevator before.
“You know damn well I haven’t done a single thing to try and screw you over,” Arizona continued in a rush. “What happened was months ago and I’ve moved on. I have a life, a family. Why don’t you try doing the same thing?”
“You used me,” Carmen shot back defiantly. “And you made some sick bet with Dr. Sloan about getting into my pants. I know you doctors are all hot shots and aren’t used to us lowly nurses fighting back, but you’re getting what you deserve.”
Arizona looked away, exasperated. “Carmen, I have done nothing but, but...not treat you like crap since we slept together! I-I’m sorry it happened and that you got hurt, but there was no bet about getting you into bed and I’ve certainly not gone out of my way to make your life miserable.”
Carmen leveled Arizona with a hard glare. “You have five seconds to get this elevator moving or I’ll see to it that you never so much as set foot inside a hospital again.”
Arizona clenched her jaw and held Carmen’s stare for a moment. Finally, she reached over and popped the emergency button back out before returning to her prior stance against the far wall.
Carmen shook her head and actually had the nerve to snort under her breath.
Arizona felt a moment of desperation seize up in her chest. “I’m having a baby.”
Carmen froze. “You’re...pregnant?”
Arizona sighed. “No. Calliope is.”
Some of the nurse’s initial shock instantly wore off with mention of Arizona’s girlfriend. “Why are you telling me this?”
“Because as much as you want to screw me over, maybe even me and Callie just because you can, there are other things at stake here. I have a family to support.”
The doors finally popped open - slowest elevators on earth - and Arizona brushed past Carmen. “Think about that before you go out of your way to try and further ruin my life.”
Arizona didn’t look back as the doors slid closed behind her.
***
“Hey, you.”
Arizona looked up in surprise to find Callie standing in the scrub room door. It took a second to pull her mind out of the deep contemplation she’d been in the middle of and she pushed herself upright. She’d been leaning against the sinks, staring absently into the O.R. for a good ten minutes by herself. “Oh, hey. What’s, uh...what’s up?”
Callie immediately frowned, recognizing the stormy look in Arizona’s ever-expressive eyes. “You okay? Did the surgery go badly?” She stepped inside the room.
Arizona shook her head, quickly trying to mask whatever look she’d been wearing before Callie walked in here. There was a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach and she couldn’t stop thinking about the lawsuit and the fallout she felt coming her way. “No, it...it went fine. The kid is on his way to recovery now.”
She plastered a happy smile on and faced Callie. “How about you?”
Callie blinked in surprise when Arizona all but jogged over to plant a big kiss on her lips. “Uh, good, I’m...good.” She frowned at her girlfriend.
Arizona rushed on in a hurry, stepping around Callie and holding open the scrub room door for them both. “So, did you get some sleep? Any bones to break this afternoon? Ooo, if you’re feeling up to it we should order Thai tonight because it’s ‘ten percent off Tuesday’. And I think Gone With the Wind is playing on cable at eleven; I set the DVR two days ago just in case we missed it. Double the fun - good food, good movie, good company. Though technically that should be triple the fun, I guess.”
Callie fixed Arizona with a strange look. “Uh-”
“Oh, hey, Teddy asked if you were up for a girls night out next week,” Arizona rushed on, trying to quell the growing panic she felt inside. “She’s planning on having everyone over to her cabin in the woods and setting up a taco bar or something, maybe mini pizzas. Should be fun.”
“Uh,” Callie repeated, blinking in surprise. Arizona appeared to be almost vibrating. If she hadn’t just seen how upset and broody the blonde looked moments before, Callie might’ve scolded her for drinking too much caffeine again. “Sure, that...sounds great, but-”
Arizona’s pager went off and Callie couldn’t help but notice how relieved she looked for the distraction.
“Sorry sweetie, I gotta go.” Arizona once again smiled so brightly it looked like it hurt. She planted a hard kiss on Callie’s lips before jogging down the hall, leaving the brunette in a stunned silence. She never once looked at her pager to check who or what it was about.
Callie’s shoulders sagged as she watched the blonde’s retreating form disappear through a set of double doors.
Yeah. Things were definitely back to normal today.
Damn it.
***
Pagers were the root of all evil and Mark was about two seconds away from smashing his with a hammer.
“Of course,” Lexie sighed from her place beneath him on their couch. She dropped her head back onto the cushions and closed her eyes.
A trail of clothing led from the door of their apartment to the couch they were tangled up on now. Both were left wearing just enough to frustrate the other upon Mark’s pager going off.
“I hate when you’re on-call,” Lexie groaned. “I need sex.”
Mark shifted uncomfortably and forced himself to sit up, wishing his pants didn’t feel so damn tight all of a sudden. “Yeah, you and me both.” He picked the offending object up from the floor and looked at the screen. “Great. It’s Robbins.”
Lexie mirrored him and sat up as well, swiping a hand back through her hair. “Guess this means you should go.” She bent down and started rooting around the floor for her shirt.
Mark shook his head in disappointment. They couldn’t find a moment alone these days, it seemed. Lexie was working her tail off, knowing she’d have to go on maternity leave in two months time. She was barely ever home and when she was he was working instead.
Mark needed the sex, too. It had been over a week. That was a freakin’ lifetime for him.
“I’ll be quick,” he said after a moment, pushing up to his feet and starting to get dressed again. “I hope.”
Lexie pulled her jeans back on, grumbling when she had trouble doing up the button.
Glancing over, Mark’s face broke out into a huge grin. “Honey, I don’t see why you won’t just wear the maternity jeans you bought last month. You knew this was coming and besides, you look sexy in them.”
He stepped up next to his fiancé and placed a hand over the small and newly-formed bump on her lower abdomen. His heart soared at the knowledge that their son or daughter was starting to get bigger.
Lexie, however, wasn’t quite as overjoyed. “I am not getting fat!” she snapped, causing Mark to jerk his hand away in surprise. “These jeans still fit me just fine, thank you very much.”
They clearly didn’t, but she wasn’t ready for maternity wear yet. She’d taken to wearing a clean pair of scrub pants around the house in defiance.
Mark sighed and held up a hand in surrender. “Okay, okay, I’m sorry. But I think you’re sexy now and I‘ll still think you’re sexy when you’re nine months along. Don’t hate me for that.”
He picked up his shirt and pulled it on as the last piece of missing clothing. “We’ll finish what we started when I get back?” His eyes roamed over Lexie’s half-clothed body.
“Only if you hurry up,” Lexie said with a hint of amusement. “You know how your child tends to make me go from horny to weepy in a matter of minutes.”
Mark frowned. “I’ll tell Robbins to deal with it on her own and be back in twenty.”
He turned and fled the apartment.
As soon as he was gone, Lexie popped the button on her jeans and groaned in relief. “That’s the stuff.”
She wandered over to the freezer and dug out the latest tub of ice cream Mark had purchased for her never-ending craving.
After some though, she added a jar of Cheese Wiz and Gherkin’s Pickles to the mix.
***
“Mark,” Arizona called cheerfully, bouncing up next to him at the ER desk. “You came.”
He turned from checking the OR schedule. “You paged 9-1-1.”
“I didn’t,” Arizona corrected, “the Chief did. Even though I told him I could handle it on my own.” She bounced on the heels of her shoes, hands stuffed in her pockets as she nodded over her shoulder.
“The kid in bed three has some burns that you should take a look at as long as you’re here. Nothing too major.” She elbowed him in the side. “Should be able to get home in time to keep your lady happy, if you know what I mean.” Arizona wiggled her eyebrows suggestively and grinned at him.
Mark leaned away from Arizona and fixed her with a scrutinizing stare. “What’s wrong with you?”
Arizona frowned. “What? I can’t be friendly?”
“To me? About my sex life?” he asked, continuing to look skeptical.
Arizona rolled her eyes. “Fine, go ahead, be an ass. Just check out the kid before you leave.” She turned and rolled away on her Heelys.
Mark shook his head in disbelief and glanced back down at the OR schedule. “Torres is right, you really are acting weird,” he mumbled under his breath.
It was good to know he wasn’t needed for anything serious, though. That meant he could finish up here and escape back home to his girlfriend for a long, steamy night of-
“Hey.”
He closed his eyes and dropped his head with a sigh.
Or not.
Callie looked grumpy as she took up the space Arizona had just vacated. “When you’ve got a sec, I could use a consult upstairs.”
“I’m technically not here right now,” Mark replied with a shake of his head. “Can it wait until tomorrow morning? I left Lex at home.”
“And you, what, only gave her enough food and water for an hour? She’s a big girl, Mark,” Callie pointed out. When he merely glared, she relented with an uncaring sigh. “Yeah, whatever, tomorrow is fine. Patient wants your opinion on surgical weight loss procedures. I just finished replacing both of her knees and-”
She trailed off, eyes locking onto Arizona’s back across the room. The blonde stood over a patient’s bed, laughing with a great big smile on her face as she talked to the parents. “She’s been faking it all day.”
Mark frowned in confusion. “Faking being fat or faking needing a knee replacement?”
“Arizona,” Callie shot back without taking her eyes away from her girlfriend. “I saw her yesterday with Derek and...some...other people.” She didn’t particularly want to go into detail as to who. “Anyway, she looked pissed or unhappy or something. I tried to ask her about it last night but got nothing in return. And now, whenever I run into her, she spends the whole time shooting rainbows from her mouth and sprouting a pair of happy fairy wings. I can’t get a word in edgewise through all the perky.”
“Isn’t that what Robbins is like pretty much every day?” Mark tilted his head, thinking back to the overly sweet and pleasant exterior of the peds surgeon he’d been introduced to moments before. “Or maybe she’s drunk. I remember her being exceptionally giggly and annoying when she’s drunk.”
“I’m not talking drunk-giggles here, I’m talking smile-so-hard-your-face-falls-off. It’s fake, trust me. I know the difference between Arizona-perky and ‘I’m a big fat faker that won’t talk to my baby mama’-perky. She won’t even give me half a second to ask what’s going on.” Callie released a heavy sigh and rubbed at her brow. “I’m just gonna go over there and make her talk to me.”
“You do that,” Mark replied quickly. He patted Callie on the arm. “I’m gonna go check on a patient, then I’m heading home to my woman where no amount of talking whatsoever shall be done.” He scurried away before anyone else could suck him into a conversation he didn’t want to have.
Callie frowned, stuffing her hands in her lab coat pockets and straightening her shoulders. “You are going to talk to me, even if I have to put you in a headlock and drag you out back,” she murmured to herself, heading swiftly over to her girlfriend with a newfound resolve.
Enough was enough.
***
Robbins’ consult took about twenty minutes longer than Mark wanted it to, but he scheduled the kid for surgery first thing in the morning. He wasn’t putting his sex life over the well-being of his patients, he really wasn’t, but the burns on the kid’s arm needed to be cleaned and fixed up before he could look into the possibility of a skin graft. The residents could handle that part.
It was raining by the time he left the hospital and jogged across the street to his apartment. He took the stairs two at a time, too impatient to wait for the elevator.
A small grin appeared over his face as he rounded the corner on the fifth floor and pulled the keys from his pocket. They slipped easily into the lock but turned without any resistance. Mark frowned as he pushed the door open.
“Honey, you should really close up after I leav-”
Lexie blew by him the second he stepped inside.
“Hunt paged, needs extra hands in the trauma center today, sorry!” She scampered down the hall as fast as she could, stumbling as she pulled on her second shoe while hopping around on one foot.
Mark watched her go, too surprised to protest until it was too late.
Well, so much for that idea.
---