Scar Tissue (Part Two) -- Chapter 16
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Scar Tissue (Part Two)
Chapter 16
Authors: kennedysbitch & livelovelearneg
Beta'd by englishstrawbie
Rating: NC-17 [Depictions of violence, PTSD, Language, Sexual Content]
Pairing: Callie/Arizona
Disclaimer
Scar Tissue [masterpost]
Summary: When Arizona Robbins’ brother dies in Iraq, her life takes off in a completely different direction. Now a highly-rated trauma surgeon with the United States Marine Corps, she spends the three years following his death serving their country overseas - until an insurgent attack leaves her with debilitating injuries. Traveling to Seattle at her father’s request, she falls under the care of orthopedic surgeon Dr. Calliope Torres. Damaged emotionally and physically, Arizona tries to start the healing process with the help of a headstrong woman she never saw coming.
Part Two: Now free from the confines of a hospital bed for the first time
in almost five months, Arizona begins her physical and emotional recovery while
navigating a budding yet rocky relationship with Callie Torres.
Warnings: Depictions of violence, PTSD, Language, Sexual Content
Trailer:
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“I have say, so far this ranks pretty high on my list of first dates,” Arizona teased Callie, nudging her playfully with her shoulder. They were seated side by side along the front counter of an old-fashioned ice cream parlour, sipping milkshakes from classic glasses with giant straws.
It was a Thursday afternoon and most of Seattle was still at work, so there were only three or four other people present. Arizona swivelled on her rotating stool, glass cupped between both hands as she gazed around the establishment, eyes wide with curiosity. She guzzled down her double chocolate shake with extra whipped cream, watching as shoppers strolled by the window and took advantage of the rare sunny day.
Callie smiled, positive that the blonde’s ‘straw face’ was the cutest thing she had ever seen. “I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself.”
Arizona twirled around to face her date and pulled back from the drink with a giant grin. “You really went all out, huh? I owed you a milkshake, so you take me to the fanciest joint in Seattle. You’re a smart lady.”
“Oh, I’m well aware of how good I am,” Callie said smoothly. “You always got so excited whenever I’d bring you stuff in the hospital, so I figured chocolate was the way to your heart. I pay attention to those kinds of things.”
“Like I said, smart lady,” Arizona chuckled, doing another swivel before setting her empty glass on the counter. “Let’s hope the rest of the day is this good.”
“I only half-assed it ‘til now because we were limited to the hospital,” Callie added. “Laptop movies and fast food are beneath my normal dating standards. I usually like to show off a little more.”
“So far you get five stars,” Arizona said with a playful wink. “Keep it up and you might get lucky.”
“I’m already lucky,” Callie smirked, not missing a beat. “I’ve got the most beautiful woman in Seattle sitting next to me, slurping on her milkshake like a seven-year-old and looking happier than I’ve seen her in a long time.”
Arizona blushed and produced a goofy smile.
Callie’s insides fluttered and she turned her attention away to hide it. “You want another one?”
Arizona groaned and placed a hand on her belly. “Not unless you want to roll me around Seattle for the rest of the afternoon.”
“No thanks. You’re already enough of a gimp as it is.” Callie flashed her a cheeky grin.
Blue eyes narrowed. “Hey! You just went down to three stars.”
“I’m not worried.” Callie swirled her straw around the leftover whipped cream. “I bet I can get it back up to five real fast if I need to.”
“Oh-ho, says you,” Arizona shot back. “I’m not that easy.”
A slow, careful smile began to creep its way across the brunette’s features.
Challenge accepted.
Her right hand broke away from the milkshake glass and slipped beneath the counter, fingers burning a slow trail up Arizona’s jean-clad thigh.
Arizona nearly swallowed her straw, melted ice cream burning the inside of her nose as she inhaled sharply.
Callie watched blue eyes drop down and stare as she curved a hand around the inside of the blonde’s leg, giving it a firm squeeze. The small intake of breath to her right let her know that it was having the desired effect.
To her credit, Arizona managed not to make any embarrassing noises - at first. Not until Callie’s fingers moved higher, curling inward and digging in about three centimetres away from her core.
She released the breath she hadn’t even realized she was holding, cheeks flushing a bright, involuntary shade of red. “Calliope!” she hissed, trying not to draw attention their way. “You said PG! That is not PG!”
Callie answered with a husky chuckle, turning her gaze forward again as she sipped on her straw, not budging her hand.
“You’re supposed to keep your hands to yourself,” Arizona murmured in a shaky voice.
“I specifically told you to keep your hands to yourself,” Callie pointed out, “I said nothing about me.”
Arizona took in a shallow breath, forcing her attention back to her drink. For such a simple touch, it suddenly felt as though her leg was on fire - the kind of fire that burned in a very good, very distracting way. She tried without success to ignore it, knowing that she was on the verge of breaking into a sweat if Callie didn’t let up sometime soon.
Glancing sideways, Callie couldn’t help but love how easy it was to make the blonde squirm. “You okay there, Dr. Robbins?” she asked innocently.
“Peachy,” Arizona said evenly, her voice cracking. More colour rose in her cheeks and she cleared her throat as a distraction. She tried to fish more whipped cream out of her glass with the straw but her hand was shaking too hard.
It had been a very long time since anyone had even remotely touched her like that. It was a little embarrassing how hard it was to think straight with Callie doing it now; she wasn’t usually so easily flustered. It was just her leg, which was fully clothed given that they were in public. She felt pathetic for getting so worked up over it, even if the hand was nice and warm.
The brunette released a content sigh and checked the watch on her left wrist. “Well, if you’re good, we should probably head out shortly. I’ve got lots more to show you today.”
“I bet you do,” Arizona murmured under her breath, trying not to smile as she avoided eye contact.
Callie smirked and squeezed her hand harder, standing up from her stool and leaning into Arizona’s personal space. She bent over just enough to whisper “I’ll be right back,” into her ear, lips brushing against smooth skin before she released her and walked towards the bathroom.
Arizona felt a hard throb between her legs, her body betraying any efforts to remain unaffected. She closed her eyes, frozen to the diner stool. That sure as hell was not ‘PG’ in her mind.
Callie knew that she was more than a little pent up after a very long, self-imposed dry spell. Between the touching and Callie’s intoxicating scent as she purposefully rubbed up against her...
Whimpering, Arizona dropped her forehead against the counter.
Callie: one. Herself: zero.
***
After pulling it together, Arizona thoroughly enjoyed the next part of their little adventure. Callie was a real sweetheart and decided that she needed to get to know the city if she was going to be staying in it for a while, something she hadn’t been able to do yet. The view from her hospital room was about as far as her knowledge on Seattle went - two apartment buildings and a pizzeria down below.
They drove around town and Callie pointed out various attractions and famous landmarks, as well as a few local things that weren’t covered in the tourist books. She was a good guide and Arizona appreciated the opportunity to get her bearings - not to mention the good company she was graced with while doing do. They didn’t go up the Space Needle, but they did drive by and promise each other a trip to the top someday soon, when Arizona had more energy to spare. They still had plenty of stops to make before the day was done and Callie didn’t want to wear her out.
She took Arizona to Pike Place Market and they wandered around for a while, browsing art galleries and various novelty shops. She pointed out the original Starbucks, much to Arizona’s delight, and bought her an extra strong latte in celebration of their afternoon abroad.
Arizona had missed coffee. Fresh, not-brewed-in-a-hospital coffee, to be precise. It had been months since she had drunk anything but the mud they served at Seattle Grace. She guzzled the latte down within five minutes, the caffeine going straight to her system and energizing her for another round of travel.
Callie made a mental note to caffeinate the blonde more often - though her ‘perk’ meter just about maxed out during the next half hour, seeing Arizona full of energy and grinning from ear to ear made her heart sing. It was such a drastic and welcomed change from the unhappy woman that had been cooped up in bed for five straight months.
She convinced Arizona that they could come back to the market another time; it was too big to do all in one day while she was still on crutches. Arizona inquired a few times about the last location she was being taken to but Callie kept her mouth shut and smiled secretively.
“I can’t remember the last time I had this much fun,” Arizona said with a happy sigh, following Callie back to her car. “I mean literally, I can’t. Going out in public and exploring is practically a foreign concept these days.”
“I’ll make a note to take you out more often,” Callie said. “You don’t want to get any paler than you already are.”
Arizona pouted. “It’s not like I’ve been able to go sun tanning,” she whined.
“I’m kidding,” Callie laughed, hooking a finger through one of Arizona’s belt loops and giving it a playful tug. “You look gorgeous, even when you’re pasty.”
“Gee, thanks,” Arizona mused, sticking her tongue out. Callie laughed as she guided her into the front seat of the car.
She fell silent on the drive out of downtown, shooting Arizona the occasional glance and watching her fidget. Arizona kept waiting for them to turn onto a busy street or somewhere in the center of all the action, but soon enough they were clear of tall buildings all together, the car winding up a gravel road at the edge of the city.
“You’re not taking me into the woods to murder me, are you?”
Smirking, Callie turned right and pulled into a small parking lot. She put the car in park, turned the ignition off and shifted in her seat to gaze intently at the other woman. “Are you up for a small walk? It’s not too far, I promise.”
Arizona nodded, getting a little distracted by Callie’s smile. “Sure, as long as you don’t let me fall flat on my face.”
“You know I’d never let anything happen to you,” Callie replied seriously, reaching for her hand. “We’ll go slow, and if you get too tired I’ll carry you,” she added with a wink.
Arizona grinned crookedly and nodded. “Okay.” She followed the brunette’s lead and clambered out of the car.
Walking around to the passenger's side, Callie placed a hand on the small of Arizona’s back to steady her, giving her as much time as she needed to get settled. Arizona adjusted the crutches under her arms and together they set off, with the blonde curiously taking in their surroundings. They appeared to be on the edge of a park or some sort of naturally wooded area.
“This is beautiful. I didn’t think there would be so much greenery in the middle of a huge city.”
“Seattle is very green and very beautiful,” Callie agreed, watching her like a hawk as they took their time starting up a gradual incline. She was suddenly worrying that even a small hill would be a bigger problem than she had realized.
“Where are we going?”
“Just keep walking and accept the fact that you’re going to be surprised whether you like it or not.”
“I don’t like surprises. I’m a control freak; surprises are like kryptonite.”
“You can trust me, that’s all you need to know.”
“I do trust you,” Arizona stated. “I’m a trusting kind of gir-” She stuck one of her crutches into a gopher hole and pitched forward, stumbling sideways into Callie, who caught her and just barely kept them both from collapsing.
“Oop!” Callie steadied the blonde before she could damage something permanently. “You’re also a huge klutz," she chuckled, propping Arizona upright again. "Be careful, I worked hard on that leg.”
Arizona turned bright red and grumbled under her breath as she re-stabilized. So much for not making a fool of herself tonight, she thought miserably.
“You’ve got three left feet with those things," Callie teased, hoping to keep the mood light. "What am I gonna do with you?”
Arizona blushed even harder. “Take me out back and shoot me,” she mumbled under her breath, yanking her crutch out of the stupid hole.
Callie grabbed her by the hips, gingerly turning her around and stepping closer. “Hey, none of that. I’m sorry, I was only kidding. You’re not a klutz.”
A blonde brow quirked upwards in disbelief.
“Okay, so you’re kind of a klutz,” Callie amended, “but don’t feel bad about it. Crutches are awkward and no one likes using them.”
“I was hoping to get through the day without slowing you down,” Arizona sighed dejectedly. “I’m sorry.”
Callie rubbed a hand up and down Arizona's side, hoping to bring her some comfort. “What did I say about using that word?” she gently reminded her. “You don’t have to apologize to me. I’m having a great time and going slow doesn’t bother me. You’re worth it.”
Arizona was still a bit embarrassed but her spirits lifted at Callie’s words. She mustered up a shaky smile and pivoted forward again with new resolve. “Are we there yet?”
With a hand on her back Callie carefully guided her up the gravel pathway. It was a small incline but definitely more noticeable when she was with someone on crutches. She began to feel a little bad for taking Arizona here, realizing it probably wasn’t the smartest idea she had come up with all day.
Despite the small hike, Arizona continued to look determined and showed no indication of wanting to stop. A bead of sweat rolled down her forehead after a few minutes and her arms strained against the crutches.
“Here we go,” Callie said reassuringly, gripping her arm for added support. As she spoke, they broke the top of the hill and came upon a quiet park, sparsely populated with large trees and several benches lining the top of the valley. The closest one was stationed just off of the pathway, facing the downtown Seattle skyline.
The view was breath-taking. “Wow,” Arizona murmured, stopping for a moment just to take things in. “This is beautiful.”
The setting sun painted the sky with a myriad of pinks, purples, reds and oranges, shimmering off of skyscrapers and creating quite the visual effect. It was the perfect vision of something that Arizona hadn't been able to see in a long, long time.
She wobbled in place, her arms and legs burning from the ridiculous amount of effort she had just expended to get here. Callie hurriedly slipped an arm around her waist, steadying her and steering them towards the nearest bench.
Arizona sat down with a thankful groan, setting her crutches to the side as Callie came around to sit on her left. The city stretched out endlessly in front of them, slowly entering that in-between stage where it was starting to get dark but the lights had a few hours yet before coming on.
“How did you find this place?” Arizona asked, tearing her eyes away from the view.
"I stumbled onto it a few years ago," Callie replied. "I need a break from the craziness every once in a while, so sometimes I come out here and just sit. Occasionally I walk, but usually I'm too tired from work."
"Walking is overrated," Arizona chuckled, pulling her jacket tighter around her torso as a small breeze kicked up. "Sitting is nice."
Callie noticed the shiver and slid an arm around her date's shoulders. Arizona took the invitation and snuggled up against her side, glad for the excuse to get closer. They sat in comfortable silence for a long moment, watching the sunset and enjoying each other's company.
A soft sigh escaped Arizona's lips and she lay her head down on Callie's shoulder. "This is perfect. Today was perfect. Thank you."
Callie closed her eyes and rested her cheek against the top of Arizona's head. “This is pretty nice,” she agreed. Her earlier apprehension had all but completely faded away, replaced with a feeling of contentment.
Arizona resisted the urge to fall asleep in her current position, tired from exerting herself but too in the moment to give in to the urge. "You have no idea how much I needed this. It feels like I’ve been living in a box since last Christmas. Everything here is just so...green." She shook her head in amazement. “It’s been so long since I’ve been able to appreciate the colour green.”
“I can imagine,” Callie replied, circling her fingertips where her hand curved around to rest along Arizona’s bicep.
"It's funny how we take things like fresh grass for granted," Arizona continued. "I don't think I ever appreciated it before."
"Was it really brown in-" Callie faltered on saying the name. "-over there?"
"Where I was stationed, yes.” Arizona kept her head resting comfortably where it was. "There was a lot of drought the last few years. And when a country is in the middle of a destructive war, watering the plants with what little you have left is the last thing on anyone's mind."
Arizona fell silent again. More questions burned on the tip of Callie's tongue, but the blonde showed no inclination of wanting to talk more about her experiences in Iraq and she wasn't about to push the subject so soon.
Besides, she liked the fact that they didn't always have to be talking for things to feel comfortable. Callie already found herself enjoying Arizona's quiet company just as much as when they were flirting over the phone. Thinking back to that conversation and why they were here in the first place, she smiled into the blonde’s hair.
"So, that letter…”
Arizona closed her eyes and groaned, turning her face into Callie’s shoulder. “Please don’t make fun of me. I know it was super cheesy and incredibly lame.”
“Not at all,” Callie protested. “It was beautiful.” She tightened her arm around Arizona’s shoulders and rubbed a hand up and down her jacket sleeve. “What you wrote meant a lot to me. No one has ever done anything like that before.”
Lifting her head, Arizona managed a sheepish smile, glancing shyly at her lap. "I've never been great at talking when I'm nervous or stressed out. Writing what I wanted to say always felt more comfortable." She snuck a glance at Callie, finding those dark brown eyes fixated on her own. "I'm glad it didn't make you gag."
“Hardly,” Callie said, giving her shoulders another squeeze.
“I meant what I said, you know,” Arizona added after a beat. “I want to know more about you. You...fascinate me, and yet you’re still like this big mystery. All I really know is that you’re a Dolphins fan and you happen to break bones for a living. And that you're an amazing kisser."
“I’m the mystery?” Callie cocked an eyebrow. “Says the woman who’s so secretive I know next to nothing about her.”
“That’s not true,” Arizona countered. “You know I like The Sound of Music, which not many people do. And that I love milkshakes. And that I’ve lived in practically every state this country has to offer at some point in my life.”
“Okay, I’ll give you those," Callie admitted, "but you never really talk about yourself. I respect that, I do," she quickly added, "but it doesn’t mean that I’m not curious. I feel like I know you, just not a lot about you. Does that make sense?”
Arizona twisted to the left, pulling her good leg underneath her and facing the other woman. The move pulled Callie’s arm from around her shoulders, though she left it resting against the back of the bench. Arizona reached out to gently take her other hand, lacing their fingers together and pulling them into her lap. "I get what you mean. I guess I've always been a pretty private person; talking about my personal life doesn't come naturally." Despite the admission, she flashed Callie a warm smile. "What do you want to know?”
“Hmm, where to start,” Callie teased, pursing her lips and tilting her head thoughtfully to the side. “I already know what your favourite ice cream is. How about your first pet?”
“First?” Arizona pondered that. “That would probably be Squeaky.” She paused. “A squirrel.”
Callie stared.
“I’m serious!” Arizona said earnestly. “I was six and we were living in Oceanside, California while my dad was training new recruits at Camp Pendleton. There was this squirrel always running along our back fence, so I started sneaking peanuts out onto our deck. My parents humoured me for a while and let me sit out there with him eating from my hand.”
“Something tells me that didn’t last very long.”
“About six months.” Arizona bit her bottom lip. “I kind of let him into our kitchen when it was raining really hard one day. I, um...didn’t want him to catch a cold.”
Callie’s eyes widened. “Yikes. I’m sure your mom and dad thought that was awesome.”
“Oh, I think the only reason the Colonel didn’t kill me was because he was too preoccupied chasing it around our house for three hours,” Arizona giggled. “I actually don’t know what happened to old Squeaks after that.” Her expression darkened. “I try not to think about what dad did with him.”
Callie winced, having a pretty good idea. “FYI - I like pets, but I’m not into rodents.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Shaking her head with amusement, Callie moved on to the next question before Arizona could dwell on the ill-fate of her old squirrely friend. “So, Oceanside, huh? I think that’s like the fourth city name I’ve heard you mention living. Do you even have a hometown?”
“Nope,” Arizona replied, shaking her head. “We moved around a lot. But like I told you back when we first met, our family settled in San Diego for just over two years right before I went to university. With my folks back there now, it kind of became like a delayed home base for Tim and I. I went back there for summer holidays and stuff.”
This was one of the rare times Callie had heard Arizona mention her brother, so she cautiously jumped at the chance to inquire further. “Were you and your brother always close?”
She could see something flicker in Arizona’s eyes but the blonde broke eye contact as she inhaled a steadying breath.
“Yeah, we were. He was the only one that was ever constantly around when I was a kid, so we kind of stuck together every time we moved. We were the same age and similar enough in personality that we hung out with the same crowds of people. It was nice having someone I could always count on.”
Callie squeezed Arizona’s hand supportively and laced their fingers together. “I never had a brother, but I always used to beat up dumb kids that picked on Aria. Even though she was a pain in my ass and we never really got along that well.”
Arizona smiled, and while there was still an underlying sadness to it, she wasn’t disengaging from the conversation, Callie was thrilled to notice. “Tim tried to do the same for me.”
“Tried?” Callie echoed.
Arizona’s smile widened, a far off look in her eyes. “I remember this one time some dumb boys were pushing me around on the playground. I think we were living in Jacksonville for a few months at the time. One of them kept pulling on my pigtails, so I took a page from Dad’s Marine training manual and turned around swinging.”
Callie had the greatest time picturing an adorable miniature Arizona with blonde pigtails and innocent blue eyes slugging someone in the face with her tiny fist. She had always known Arizona was a woman that took care of herself; it didn’t surprise her that she had been that way as a child, too.
“The other kid cried, I got dragged into the teacher’s office, but Timothy told them that he did it.” Arizona laughed at the memory. “We were kind of ridiculous sometimes. It was awesome.”
There wasn’t much that Callie could say; she could tell that Arizona was still deeply hurt over losing her brother, but other than supporting her, she didn’t think that anything she said or did would help. “Speaking as your treating physician, you’re still kind of ridiculous sometimes. But I liked that about you; you were feisty. Even when you had bad days and your leg was killing you, you somehow managed to keep looking forward.”
“Are you kidding?” Arizona challenged in disbelief. “I was horrible. I’m pretty sure the nurses hated me for being such a cranky jerk with them all the time.”
“I didn’t say you were loved all around,” Callie laughed, “but at least you refrained from taking my head off most of the time.”
Arizona grimaced. “Have I mentioned how much of an ass I feel like looking back?”
“Nah, you weren’t that bad,” Callie replied, stroking her thumb along the side of Arizona’s hand. “Trust me, I’ve had worse patients. Morphine screws with a lot of people’s emotions; you weren’t alone.”
She paused, blushing at her next words. “I actually thought you were incredibly brave throughout the whole thing. You had already gone through so much and yet there you were, fighting like hell to get through more. Without much of a support system by your side, either.”
Arizona gazed adoringly at Callie. “I had you,” she said softly.
Callie tried to keep it together, butterflies flapping away full-force in her stomach. "I'm glad I could help, even if it was just a little," she admitted. When Arizona flashed that heart-stopping smile her way again, she nearly melted into a puddle of goo right then and there.
If Arizona noticed, she didn't say anything or poke fun. "C'mon, this is your opportunity to grill me. I'll give you three more questions."
Trying to save face, Callie mustered up whatever coherent brain cells she had left to think of something smart. "Cats or dogs?" she asked lamely, wishing she had something more insightful to inquire about but needing a moment to gather her thoughts.
Arizona pondered that. “We had a German shepherd named Spartacus when I was eleven. I really loved him.”
“Spartacus?”
“Yeah,” Arizona giggled. “My brother wanted a big tough beast of a dog but it turned out that Sparty was a giant marshmallow instead. He would play with us outside when we were kids and let us crawl all over him.”
“Aww," Callie gushed, imagining the very same mini-Robbins riding around on the back of a giant dog.
"What about you?"
"We had a few smaller dogs over the years, but they were mostly my mom's babies," Callie said. "I like the idea of having a big puppy someday, though. What about you?"
"Dogs are good," Arizona replied with a nod. "But I’ve kind of always wanted some chickens in the backyard, too."
Callie thought she had heard wrong. "Come again? You want a pet chicken?"
Arizona grinned sheepishly. "I said I want chickens, as in plural. It's a thing."
"You're a little strange sometimes.”
"My grandfather had a coop on his farm, okay? I’ve always loved the idea of fresh eggs in the morning," Arizona laughed.
"And meat?"
Her eyes widened and she shook her head adamantly. "Oh no, there will be no eating of the chickens. Just the eggs."
Laughing, Callie stored that information in the back of her brain for later processing. "Okay then. Has a thing for chickens, got it. Next question-"
"Better make it count, you only have two left."
Callie furrowed her brow and mulled it over for a moment, then came up with something that she had been wondering about since yesterday.
"Your letter made it sound like you've written them before. Why? What started it?"
Arizona was a little bit surprised but didn't shy away from the question. Opening up to Callie and talking about Tim made it easier to tell her more about their close-knit relationship before his passing.
She looked down at her lap and absently picked at one of her fingernails. "Timothy and I used to exchange letters when he was with the Marines. He joined right out of the academy and did his first tour of duty before he was nineteen. Email wasn't a huge thing back then, so we started writing letters. Even when email became popular, he preferred getting paper letters instead, so it just kind of became our thing. Right up until…" She trailed off, not wanting to completely derail the conversation by dwelling on her brother's death.
Arizona also left out the part where she still wrote to him sometimes, even though she knew he would never read any of it. She wasn't embarrassed, it was just a very personal thing that no one else knew about. No matter how much she trusted Callie, she wasn't ready to talk about certain parts of her life yet. She didn’t know if she would ever be.
“You guys must have been close,” Callie said quietly, all traces of her earlier amusement gone.
“We were twins,” Arizona confirmed with a nod. “He was the one person I could talk to about anything, no matter what we were doing or where in the world we were. He was my best friend and losing him was...” Again her sentence died off, so she finished with a half shrug and looked away.
“I’m sorry,” Callie whispered, reaching out to place a comforting hand on Arizona’s knee.
"Thanks,” she murmured, willing herself to keep a brave face. She pushed through the heaviness in her chest and flashed the brunette a brighter smile. "One question left."
Callie debated her options for a while, forming a thought in her mind that she wasn't one-hundred percent sure she was allowed to ask.
Arizona could see her hesitation and covered the hand on her knee with one of her own. "It's okay, Calliope. You can ask me anything."
Nodding, Callie licked her lips and did so. "What was the last thing you guys talked about before he passed away?"
Arizona stiffened and broke eye contact again, pulling her hand back and tugging her jacket tighter around her torso as an excuse.
~~
"You're being completely unreasonable! Grow up, Arizona." Timothy’s fist collides with the top of her kitchen counter, balled up and shaking. There’s a vein pulsing along his temple, Arizona notes with satisfaction. Good. Let him be pissed off. He’s overstepping his bounds and a coronary would suit him well right now.
"Screw you, Tim. You don't just get to walk in here and tell me how to live my life.”
“Someone obviously has to, because you’ve lost your damn mind!”
“Get out of my house.” Her voice is thin, brittle. She’ll snap if he tries her patience.
"I'm the one who picked up the fucking pieces last time, in case you forgot what happened.” He rounds the edge of the counter, blocking her immediate escape. “She's a fucking psycho and she's using you. Why don’t you get that?”
Arizona crosses her arms and holds her ground, glowering at him. “I said get out of my house.”
Timothy takes her by the shoulders, a firm yet careful grip, shaking her once ever so slightly. “Zona, please, just listen to me. You’re not-”
“Your marriage didn’t even last two years!” she yells, reaching her breaking point, shoving his arms away. “You’re not exactly one to be giving out relationship advice, Timothy!”
It’s mean and horrible and she regrets it almost the moment she says it, but she’s just as stubborn as he is and crosses her arms in bitter defiance. She is so angry she feels like she’s going to cry, an annoying habit that tends to hinder her case in situations like these.
Unlike her, he has a good poker face, and she cannot for the life of her read his reaction. But he throws up his hands in surrender and turns almost immediately, heading for the back door the way he came. “Fine. Have a nice life. Call me when she cheats on you again.”
Arizona bites back a reply she is not sure will come out spiteful or apologetic. Her eyes follow his back until the slamming door cuts off her view, leaving her in the stark quietness of an empty house.
~~
"Arizona?"
She looked up from staring a hole through the bench, finding Callie watching her closely, concern in her eyes. Brought out of her reverie, Arizona blinked a few times and scrambled to recover the conversation. "We, um…we didn't talk much the last month of his tour. I was absorbed in the beginning of my peds fellowship and his unit was in a pretty remote area, so…"
Callie frowned but responded with a quiet "Oh". Arizona had gone somewhere after she had asked that question; she saw it with her own eyes. She tried to ignore the sinking sensation that whatever doors had been opened prior to this moment had just been slammed shut again.
As though privy to Callie's inner most worries, Arizona took her hand and traced a thumb over the back of it, letting her know that she was still very much in the present. "So, did you get enough juicy information to tie you over for a while? Because I'm pretty sure it's my turn to ask the tough questions." She flashed that same dimple-popping smile as before, only this time Callie noticed that said dimples were much less pronounced.
"Should I be afraid?" she joked, trying to let her worries go for now.
"I can start off with the easy stuff if you'd like."
"You also knew more about me than I did you, so you can jump ahead a few chapters.”
Arizona chewed on her bottom lip, studying her for a long moment before speaking. "True, but it’s only fair if I start off slow. I’ll make it a lightning round - childhood best friend, favourite vacation spot, and craziest thing you’ve ever done.”
Callie felt her spirits lift with just one look into the blonde’s sparkling blue eyes. “Childhood friend, huh? I’d have to say Adam and Danielle Connors. They were brother and sister, and their mom managed one of my father’s Miami hotels. The three of us hung out a lot until they moved away when I was ten or eleven.”
Arizona was excited to have gotten more information out of that question than she had anticipated - Callie’s dad sounded like some big wig hotel owner, a tidbit of information she had avoided discussing up until now. Arizona definitely couldn’t picture her date going into the family business; it wasn’t Callie’s thing. She was much more suited to being a surgeon.
“Vacation spot?”
“New York,” Callie answered without hesitation. “We used to go for Christmas every few years, and sometimes in the summer, too. It’s amazing, I can’t even describe how much I love it there.”
“Then why did you come to Seattle?” Arizona asked curiously. “You could’ve gotten a residency placement at Langone Medical Center or New York-Presbyterian.”
Callie shrugged. “I went to Brown for my undergrad, so I did enough weekend trips to tie me over I guess. I don’t know. Seattle Grace was known for its amazing teaching program and I liked the idea of living on the west coast for a change. New York is somewhere I go to relax and not think about work; does that make sense?”
“Definitely,” Arizona agreed, tugging on her jacket sleeve. “I guess that leaves the craziest thing you’ve ever done.”
Callie didn’t even attempt to hide a smug grin. “I fell for a patient.”
Arizona wore a matching one and scooted closer on the bench. “Good answer.”
“Those were simple,” Callie said with a happy sigh. “Gimme something harder.”
Turning the other woman’s palm over in her hands, Arizona traced her fingertips down the center, following along with her eyes. “Who’s Erica?”
That was something Callie hadn’t been expecting. She was taken back and it took a moment for her to gather her jumbled thoughts together. “How did you hear her name?”
Arizona looked up almost shyly. “I lived in Seattle Grace for over two months. People talk.”
Callie closed her eyes and groaned. She hated how information got passed around that place quicker than syphilis.
“I’m sorry,” Arizona sighed, lifting a hand to trace Callie’s cheek with her fingertips. “I heard you two mentioned in the same sentence a few times and got curious.”
“It’s okay, I said you could ask the hard stuff,” Callie replied with a shaky smile. She took in a deep breath. “Erica is…was...she was my first,” she stuttered, immediately blushing. “My first, y’know. Not my first first, just-”
“The first woman you were ever with,” Arizona clarified, smiling as Callie continued to look flustered. “It’s okay, it’s nothing to be embarrassed about. We’ve all had that experience.”
Callie nodded, playing with her thumb ring as she thought about it some more. “Erica was...a lot of things. Strong, brilliant, hardcore to a fault, but she was also a mistake.” Her brow furrowed. “I was a resident and she was an attending when we met. We cared about each other but we had very different views on a lot of things.”
“Uh-oh, we’re in trouble,” Arizona teased, earning herself a nudge in the ribs.
“I guess to get to Erica I have to tell you about George first.” Sighing, Callie stole a quick glance, not at all optimistic about having this conversation.
“George?” Arizona echoed, blinking in surprise. “You were with a guy named George?”
“Is it really that surprising?”
“Hey, I’m not judging about gender, I just...George sounds so plain and boring. Nothing like someone I’d expect you to date.”
“I married him.”
Arizona’s mouth fell open. “You were married? To a George?”
Callie sighed again. This was going to go so well. “Yes, I married a guy named George. O’Malley. You’re not the first person to react like that, either.”
“How did I not know this?” Arizona sounded a little upset that she was only just learning this important piece of information now.
“It’s not like we went out of our way to talk about past relationships,” Callie pointed out. “I swear I wasn’t trying to keep it from you or anything; it was a short marriage and it never had a hope in hell of working out. We were stupid and it was a spur-of-the-moment decision.”
“I feel like I’m missing the details here - back up a little.”
Callie had to steady herself again. “Okay, here’s the cliff notes version - George’s dad died when our relationship was kind of up in the air and it made him decide that he wanted to get married. So, being incredibly stupid, I eloped to Vegas with him and we got hitched by Elvis.”
Arizona’s mouth fell open. Callie promptly closed it with two fingers under her chin.
“At the time I thought I loved him, but he never really loved me. He was in love with his best friend, Izzie, who was in love with a patient of hers.” Callie waited for Arizona to process and catch up with the story before continuing.
“The patient needed a heart transplant, and to make an even longer, more complicated explanation short, Izzie cut his LVAD wire. He was pushed ahead on the list, in front of another guy - a guy that happened to be Erica’s patient at another hospital. Izzie’s boyfriend got the heart but ended up dying anyway. She was disciplined, then eventually hired back. End of drama part one.”
“Part one?” Arizona lifted a skeptical eyebrow. “There are parts to this story?”
“You have no idea.”
Arizona whistled under her breath. “Wow. That place is like a soap opera.”
“You have no idea,” Callie repeated, laughing. “The patient boyfriend ended up dying. Izzie was heartbroken, George’s dad died, George was her best friend - you get the idea. Next thing I knew, we were married in Vegas, and then he started spending more time with Izzie than with me.”
Callie’s eyes hardened and she looked away, remembering how painful that time in her life had been. “I knew he was cheating on me, I knew it, but I convinced myself that I was stupid, and that I didn’t want to be one of those insecure women that accused their husband of cheating every time he so much as blinked at another woman.” She swallowed thickly. “Turns out I was stupid - but not wrong. They fooled around behind my back for a while before he had the guts to tell me.”
Arizona felt a flare of anger for the first time since the day had started. “That little rat,” she murmured. “He used you.”
The look on Callie’s face broke her heart and made her want to kill George O’Malley even though she didn’t know him. “He was an idiot, Callie.”
“Yeah, I guess,” she mumbled, blushing and looking down at her lap. “It was a stupid mistake, anyway. It wasn’t a big deal.”
“No.” Arizona reached out and grasped Callie by the chin, gently tugging her eyes back up to meet her own. “He was an idiot. He didn’t see what a great thing he had in front of him, and you didn’t deserve to be treated that way. It was a big deal.” She traced her thumb along the side of her chin.
Just that simple touch produced enormous butterflies in Callie’s stomach, and she felt herself beginning to smile despite the subject matter. “Thank you. That means a lot to me.”
Arizona smiled softly and leaned in to press a soft kiss right where her thumb had just been. She wanted a kiss on the lips, but that was supposed to be under Callie’s terms if she remembered correctly.
Once some of the tension left the woman’s shoulders, Arizona sat back and held her hand. “Please, continue.”
Callie nodded and released a soft breath, encouraged by Arizona’s supportive reaction so far. “Erica Hahn was hired on as the new Head of Cardio. I barely remember how we met the first time, but somehow we became friends. We spent a ton of time together and ended up getting really close. She was tough and rude and fierce, but she was a loyal friend and I needed one after George.”
She smiled to herself. “I don’t know when it happened, but suddenly I was having feelings for her that went beyond friendship. I tried to deny it, and then...” She shrugged. “I ended up kissing her in the middle of a parking lot.”
Arizona’s anger about George and his treatment of Callie had faded a little and she found herself smiling again. “That sounds just like you.” She brought the hand to her lips and pressed a kiss to the back of it. “Brash, forward, taking what you want. It’s very sexy.”
Callie blushed again. “It wasn’t so sexy at the time, believe me.” Clearing her throat, she continued. “We were both freaking out and totally new at the whole gay love thing, but eventually we got comfortable together. Happy, even. Until her old transplant patient showed up at Seattle Grace and she found out about the stolen heart from two years ago.”
“That must’ve gone over well.”
“Not at all,” Callie sighed. “Everyone was just so tired of it, myself included. The last thing the hospital needed was for that subject to get dragged up again. So we fought about it and somewhere along the way it turned into a raging war about her insecurities. She threw a bunch of stuff in my face about how I couldn’t just be ‘kind of a lesbian’ because I wasn’t going to apologize for being bisexual. She ended it in the middle of the parking lot and walked away. Her locker was clear the next morning and she was gone, her phone disconnected. I haven’t heard from her since.”
The wounds were still raw and even though spilling her guts to Arizona was both embarrassing and therapeutic, Callie felt drained. It had all happened recently enough that it still hurt to think about the way she felt when Erica unceremoniously dumped her cold.
Arizona’s heart went out to her. “I’m so sorry,” she murmured softly, leaning into Callie’s side. “That must’ve been really hard.”
“Yeah,” Callie answered faintly, not quite making eye contact. “It sucked.”
Arizona studied her closely and suddenly a piece of the puzzle fell into place.
“That’s exactly what I did to you.” She swallowed hard, feeling like the world’s biggest jerk all over again. She understood Callie’s reluctance to give her a second chance even more now - it wasn’t the first time she had been left hanging that way.
“Calliope, I am so sorry,” Arizona whispered, bringing her hands up to cradle the brunette’s face between them. She instinctively leaned in and pressed a soft, loving kiss to her lips, holding them there and tuning out the world around them.
Callie’s eyes fluttered closed and she sighed into the kiss. It wasn’t as flashy or as feverish as the one two weeks ago, but it was perfect in every way and felt just as she had imagined it would. She felt every bit of what Arizona was trying to tell her without any more words being necessary.
It only lasted for a few seconds, but it was long enough to make Callie’s lips permanently tingle when they eventually pulled away. It took her a moment to find her voice again.
“I’m not dwelling on it anymore and neither should you,” she said, resting her forehead against Arizona’s and basking in their closeness. “You aren’t Erica. You had your reasons for hesitating, even if I didn’t understand them.”
Arizona stayed silent and right where she was, stroking her thumbs along Callie’s jaw line. The quietness of the moment settled in around them, rustling leaves the only other sound on the hill.
“So, to sum up,” Callie continued after a breath of silence, finally managing to smile, “I got married, cheated on, divorced, became a lesbian, got dumped, drank a whole lot of tequila, met a Marine surgeon, sort of got dumped again, and now we’re sitting outside curled up on a bench together. I think it turned out okay in the end.”
Arizona brushed her noses together. “From here on out you’re taken care of, I promise. I know how good I’ve got it and I’ll never take you for granted again. You’re mine.” She smiled, knowing in her heart of hearts how true that really was.
Callie shivered and released a short breath. “I’m not easy to be with, you should know that. I think Erica and George are pretty good testaments to that.”
“Hey.” Arizona’s eyes popped open and she glared fiercely. “Don’t talk like that, okay? I mean it.” She refused to let Callie turn away, keeping her face gently but firmly between her hands.
“Those two? They were stupid. Me two weeks ago? I was stupid. Don’t ever think that their issues or mine had anything to do with you, all right? You just got stuck with some screwed up, selfish people that were too dumb to see what was right in front of them.”
“You need to stop saying that,” Callie admonished. “Nothing about you is screwed up, Arizona. Don’t compare yourself to them.”
“I’m not,” Arizona replied, giving Callie’s head a gentle tug with her hands. “But I’m not exactly easy to be with. Nightmares, panic attacks, abandonment issues, the list goes on.”
“I don’t care that stuff,” Callie said without hesitation. “It doesn’t make me want you any less.”
She locked eyes with Arizona, lips parting a fraction. She couldn’t look away even if she wanted to.
Fuck the rules.
She curled her fingers around the back of Arizona’s neck and pulled their lips together in a deeper, needier kiss than before. She snaked an arm around the blonde’s waist, leaning into her warm body and exhaling softly through her nose.
Arizona melted into embrace and grasped the front of Callie’s jacket, bunching it in her fists again. She closed her eyes and gladly reciprocated, granting entrance to her mouth.
They barely parted for more than a second, taking in shallow breaths before crashing their lips back together. Arizona pressed forward, deepening the kiss, keeping it slow and steady as they explored one another all over again.
Callie dug her fingers into Arizona’s sides, slipping them just underneath her jacket to brush her thumb across a flat stomach. The other hand lifted to cradle the blonde’s cheek in her palm, urging her closer.
Arizona reacted with a low groan, losing track of everything else around them. Not only had she been thinking of nothing else for fifteen straight days, but somehow Callie tasted even sweeter than she remembered.
The desire to taste and feel one another was heating up with surprising intensity, and Callie was starting to think they might do something extremely naughty for a public place when the unmistakable sound of screaming children reached their ears.
Perfect.
She groaned in exasperation and forced herself away from Arizona’s warm lips, heart pounding violently inside of her chest. Her eyes never left the piercing blue gaze mere centimetres away from her own as a gaggle of children and their parents came up the hill behind them.
“Figures,” Callie murmured, combing her fingers back through Arizona’s curls.
Arizona released a shaky breath. “I know.” She licked her lips and leaned her forehead into Callie’s.
Closing her eyes, Callie pulled in some much-needed oxygen through her nose, doing her best to shove her raging libido back down where it belonged. They didn’t want to move too fast, but god, it was hard not to.
“What do you say we get back to my place? Our place,” Callie amended. “It’s warmer and we can grab dinner.”
Arizona nodded silently, knowing they really didn’t want to continue on with an audience full of tiny humans.
Callie dropped her hand to curve around the side of Arizona’s neck. “We should talk about what you moving in as a roommate would mean for our dating life, because I think we need rules. Otherwise...” She groaned longingly and didn’t need to complete that sentence.
“Yeah, otherwise,” Arizona agreed quietly, nodding once.
They moved apart simultaneously, and Arizona very carefully shifted a few inches to her right. “I guess I should probably meet Cristina, too.”
“Should? Yeah. Will you want to? Probably not.” Laughing even though she was still buzzing from the inside out, Callie stood up from the bench and cleared her throat. She extended a hand. “Can you make it back to the car?”
Arizona grabbed her crutches and smiled at the genuine concern in Callie’s voice. “I’ll be okay,” she assured. Taking the offered hand, she hauled herself to her feet and almost on instinct stole a quick, teasing kiss, momentarily stunning her date. “Take me home, Calliope.”
Loving the sound of that more than she could put into words, Callie grinned broadly and lead Arizona back down the pathway towards the car.
---
Scar Tissue (Part Two)
Chapter 16
Authors: kennedysbitch & livelovelearneg
Beta'd by englishstrawbie
Rating: NC-17 [Depictions of violence, PTSD, Language, Sexual Content]
Pairing: Callie/Arizona
Disclaimer
Scar Tissue [masterpost]
Summary: When Arizona Robbins’ brother dies in Iraq, her life takes off in a completely different direction. Now a highly-rated trauma surgeon with the United States Marine Corps, she spends the three years following his death serving their country overseas - until an insurgent attack leaves her with debilitating injuries. Traveling to Seattle at her father’s request, she falls under the care of orthopedic surgeon Dr. Calliope Torres. Damaged emotionally and physically, Arizona tries to start the healing process with the help of a headstrong woman she never saw coming.
Part Two: Now free from the confines of a hospital bed for the first time
in almost five months, Arizona begins her physical and emotional recovery while
navigating a budding yet rocky relationship with Callie Torres.
Warnings: Depictions of violence, PTSD, Language, Sexual Content
Trailer:
Click to view---
“I have say, so far this ranks pretty high on my list of first dates,” Arizona teased Callie, nudging her playfully with her shoulder. They were seated side by side along the front counter of an old-fashioned ice cream parlour, sipping milkshakes from classic glasses with giant straws.
It was a Thursday afternoon and most of Seattle was still at work, so there were only three or four other people present. Arizona swivelled on her rotating stool, glass cupped between both hands as she gazed around the establishment, eyes wide with curiosity. She guzzled down her double chocolate shake with extra whipped cream, watching as shoppers strolled by the window and took advantage of the rare sunny day.
Callie smiled, positive that the blonde’s ‘straw face’ was the cutest thing she had ever seen. “I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself.”
Arizona twirled around to face her date and pulled back from the drink with a giant grin. “You really went all out, huh? I owed you a milkshake, so you take me to the fanciest joint in Seattle. You’re a smart lady.”
“Oh, I’m well aware of how good I am,” Callie said smoothly. “You always got so excited whenever I’d bring you stuff in the hospital, so I figured chocolate was the way to your heart. I pay attention to those kinds of things.”
“Like I said, smart lady,” Arizona chuckled, doing another swivel before setting her empty glass on the counter. “Let’s hope the rest of the day is this good.”
“I only half-assed it ‘til now because we were limited to the hospital,” Callie added. “Laptop movies and fast food are beneath my normal dating standards. I usually like to show off a little more.”
“So far you get five stars,” Arizona said with a playful wink. “Keep it up and you might get lucky.”
“I’m already lucky,” Callie smirked, not missing a beat. “I’ve got the most beautiful woman in Seattle sitting next to me, slurping on her milkshake like a seven-year-old and looking happier than I’ve seen her in a long time.”
Arizona blushed and produced a goofy smile.
Callie’s insides fluttered and she turned her attention away to hide it. “You want another one?”
Arizona groaned and placed a hand on her belly. “Not unless you want to roll me around Seattle for the rest of the afternoon.”
“No thanks. You’re already enough of a gimp as it is.” Callie flashed her a cheeky grin.
Blue eyes narrowed. “Hey! You just went down to three stars.”
“I’m not worried.” Callie swirled her straw around the leftover whipped cream. “I bet I can get it back up to five real fast if I need to.”
“Oh-ho, says you,” Arizona shot back. “I’m not that easy.”
A slow, careful smile began to creep its way across the brunette’s features.
Challenge accepted.
Her right hand broke away from the milkshake glass and slipped beneath the counter, fingers burning a slow trail up Arizona’s jean-clad thigh.
Arizona nearly swallowed her straw, melted ice cream burning the inside of her nose as she inhaled sharply.
Callie watched blue eyes drop down and stare as she curved a hand around the inside of the blonde’s leg, giving it a firm squeeze. The small intake of breath to her right let her know that it was having the desired effect.
To her credit, Arizona managed not to make any embarrassing noises - at first. Not until Callie’s fingers moved higher, curling inward and digging in about three centimetres away from her core.
She released the breath she hadn’t even realized she was holding, cheeks flushing a bright, involuntary shade of red. “Calliope!” she hissed, trying not to draw attention their way. “You said PG! That is not PG!”
Callie answered with a husky chuckle, turning her gaze forward again as she sipped on her straw, not budging her hand.
“You’re supposed to keep your hands to yourself,” Arizona murmured in a shaky voice.
“I specifically told you to keep your hands to yourself,” Callie pointed out, “I said nothing about me.”
Arizona took in a shallow breath, forcing her attention back to her drink. For such a simple touch, it suddenly felt as though her leg was on fire - the kind of fire that burned in a very good, very distracting way. She tried without success to ignore it, knowing that she was on the verge of breaking into a sweat if Callie didn’t let up sometime soon.
Glancing sideways, Callie couldn’t help but love how easy it was to make the blonde squirm. “You okay there, Dr. Robbins?” she asked innocently.
“Peachy,” Arizona said evenly, her voice cracking. More colour rose in her cheeks and she cleared her throat as a distraction. She tried to fish more whipped cream out of her glass with the straw but her hand was shaking too hard.
It had been a very long time since anyone had even remotely touched her like that. It was a little embarrassing how hard it was to think straight with Callie doing it now; she wasn’t usually so easily flustered. It was just her leg, which was fully clothed given that they were in public. She felt pathetic for getting so worked up over it, even if the hand was nice and warm.
The brunette released a content sigh and checked the watch on her left wrist. “Well, if you’re good, we should probably head out shortly. I’ve got lots more to show you today.”
“I bet you do,” Arizona murmured under her breath, trying not to smile as she avoided eye contact.
Callie smirked and squeezed her hand harder, standing up from her stool and leaning into Arizona’s personal space. She bent over just enough to whisper “I’ll be right back,” into her ear, lips brushing against smooth skin before she released her and walked towards the bathroom.
Arizona felt a hard throb between her legs, her body betraying any efforts to remain unaffected. She closed her eyes, frozen to the diner stool. That sure as hell was not ‘PG’ in her mind.
Callie knew that she was more than a little pent up after a very long, self-imposed dry spell. Between the touching and Callie’s intoxicating scent as she purposefully rubbed up against her...
Whimpering, Arizona dropped her forehead against the counter.
Callie: one. Herself: zero.
***
After pulling it together, Arizona thoroughly enjoyed the next part of their little adventure. Callie was a real sweetheart and decided that she needed to get to know the city if she was going to be staying in it for a while, something she hadn’t been able to do yet. The view from her hospital room was about as far as her knowledge on Seattle went - two apartment buildings and a pizzeria down below.
They drove around town and Callie pointed out various attractions and famous landmarks, as well as a few local things that weren’t covered in the tourist books. She was a good guide and Arizona appreciated the opportunity to get her bearings - not to mention the good company she was graced with while doing do. They didn’t go up the Space Needle, but they did drive by and promise each other a trip to the top someday soon, when Arizona had more energy to spare. They still had plenty of stops to make before the day was done and Callie didn’t want to wear her out.
She took Arizona to Pike Place Market and they wandered around for a while, browsing art galleries and various novelty shops. She pointed out the original Starbucks, much to Arizona’s delight, and bought her an extra strong latte in celebration of their afternoon abroad.
Arizona had missed coffee. Fresh, not-brewed-in-a-hospital coffee, to be precise. It had been months since she had drunk anything but the mud they served at Seattle Grace. She guzzled the latte down within five minutes, the caffeine going straight to her system and energizing her for another round of travel.
Callie made a mental note to caffeinate the blonde more often - though her ‘perk’ meter just about maxed out during the next half hour, seeing Arizona full of energy and grinning from ear to ear made her heart sing. It was such a drastic and welcomed change from the unhappy woman that had been cooped up in bed for five straight months.
She convinced Arizona that they could come back to the market another time; it was too big to do all in one day while she was still on crutches. Arizona inquired a few times about the last location she was being taken to but Callie kept her mouth shut and smiled secretively.
“I can’t remember the last time I had this much fun,” Arizona said with a happy sigh, following Callie back to her car. “I mean literally, I can’t. Going out in public and exploring is practically a foreign concept these days.”
“I’ll make a note to take you out more often,” Callie said. “You don’t want to get any paler than you already are.”
Arizona pouted. “It’s not like I’ve been able to go sun tanning,” she whined.
“I’m kidding,” Callie laughed, hooking a finger through one of Arizona’s belt loops and giving it a playful tug. “You look gorgeous, even when you’re pasty.”
“Gee, thanks,” Arizona mused, sticking her tongue out. Callie laughed as she guided her into the front seat of the car.
She fell silent on the drive out of downtown, shooting Arizona the occasional glance and watching her fidget. Arizona kept waiting for them to turn onto a busy street or somewhere in the center of all the action, but soon enough they were clear of tall buildings all together, the car winding up a gravel road at the edge of the city.
“You’re not taking me into the woods to murder me, are you?”
Smirking, Callie turned right and pulled into a small parking lot. She put the car in park, turned the ignition off and shifted in her seat to gaze intently at the other woman. “Are you up for a small walk? It’s not too far, I promise.”
Arizona nodded, getting a little distracted by Callie’s smile. “Sure, as long as you don’t let me fall flat on my face.”
“You know I’d never let anything happen to you,” Callie replied seriously, reaching for her hand. “We’ll go slow, and if you get too tired I’ll carry you,” she added with a wink.
Arizona grinned crookedly and nodded. “Okay.” She followed the brunette’s lead and clambered out of the car.
Walking around to the passenger's side, Callie placed a hand on the small of Arizona’s back to steady her, giving her as much time as she needed to get settled. Arizona adjusted the crutches under her arms and together they set off, with the blonde curiously taking in their surroundings. They appeared to be on the edge of a park or some sort of naturally wooded area.
“This is beautiful. I didn’t think there would be so much greenery in the middle of a huge city.”
“Seattle is very green and very beautiful,” Callie agreed, watching her like a hawk as they took their time starting up a gradual incline. She was suddenly worrying that even a small hill would be a bigger problem than she had realized.
“Where are we going?”
“Just keep walking and accept the fact that you’re going to be surprised whether you like it or not.”
“I don’t like surprises. I’m a control freak; surprises are like kryptonite.”
“You can trust me, that’s all you need to know.”
“I do trust you,” Arizona stated. “I’m a trusting kind of gir-” She stuck one of her crutches into a gopher hole and pitched forward, stumbling sideways into Callie, who caught her and just barely kept them both from collapsing.
“Oop!” Callie steadied the blonde before she could damage something permanently. “You’re also a huge klutz," she chuckled, propping Arizona upright again. "Be careful, I worked hard on that leg.”
Arizona turned bright red and grumbled under her breath as she re-stabilized. So much for not making a fool of herself tonight, she thought miserably.
“You’ve got three left feet with those things," Callie teased, hoping to keep the mood light. "What am I gonna do with you?”
Arizona blushed even harder. “Take me out back and shoot me,” she mumbled under her breath, yanking her crutch out of the stupid hole.
Callie grabbed her by the hips, gingerly turning her around and stepping closer. “Hey, none of that. I’m sorry, I was only kidding. You’re not a klutz.”
A blonde brow quirked upwards in disbelief.
“Okay, so you’re kind of a klutz,” Callie amended, “but don’t feel bad about it. Crutches are awkward and no one likes using them.”
“I was hoping to get through the day without slowing you down,” Arizona sighed dejectedly. “I’m sorry.”
Callie rubbed a hand up and down Arizona's side, hoping to bring her some comfort. “What did I say about using that word?” she gently reminded her. “You don’t have to apologize to me. I’m having a great time and going slow doesn’t bother me. You’re worth it.”
Arizona was still a bit embarrassed but her spirits lifted at Callie’s words. She mustered up a shaky smile and pivoted forward again with new resolve. “Are we there yet?”
With a hand on her back Callie carefully guided her up the gravel pathway. It was a small incline but definitely more noticeable when she was with someone on crutches. She began to feel a little bad for taking Arizona here, realizing it probably wasn’t the smartest idea she had come up with all day.
Despite the small hike, Arizona continued to look determined and showed no indication of wanting to stop. A bead of sweat rolled down her forehead after a few minutes and her arms strained against the crutches.
“Here we go,” Callie said reassuringly, gripping her arm for added support. As she spoke, they broke the top of the hill and came upon a quiet park, sparsely populated with large trees and several benches lining the top of the valley. The closest one was stationed just off of the pathway, facing the downtown Seattle skyline.
The view was breath-taking. “Wow,” Arizona murmured, stopping for a moment just to take things in. “This is beautiful.”
The setting sun painted the sky with a myriad of pinks, purples, reds and oranges, shimmering off of skyscrapers and creating quite the visual effect. It was the perfect vision of something that Arizona hadn't been able to see in a long, long time.
She wobbled in place, her arms and legs burning from the ridiculous amount of effort she had just expended to get here. Callie hurriedly slipped an arm around her waist, steadying her and steering them towards the nearest bench.
Arizona sat down with a thankful groan, setting her crutches to the side as Callie came around to sit on her left. The city stretched out endlessly in front of them, slowly entering that in-between stage where it was starting to get dark but the lights had a few hours yet before coming on.
“How did you find this place?” Arizona asked, tearing her eyes away from the view.
"I stumbled onto it a few years ago," Callie replied. "I need a break from the craziness every once in a while, so sometimes I come out here and just sit. Occasionally I walk, but usually I'm too tired from work."
"Walking is overrated," Arizona chuckled, pulling her jacket tighter around her torso as a small breeze kicked up. "Sitting is nice."
Callie noticed the shiver and slid an arm around her date's shoulders. Arizona took the invitation and snuggled up against her side, glad for the excuse to get closer. They sat in comfortable silence for a long moment, watching the sunset and enjoying each other's company.
A soft sigh escaped Arizona's lips and she lay her head down on Callie's shoulder. "This is perfect. Today was perfect. Thank you."
Callie closed her eyes and rested her cheek against the top of Arizona's head. “This is pretty nice,” she agreed. Her earlier apprehension had all but completely faded away, replaced with a feeling of contentment.
Arizona resisted the urge to fall asleep in her current position, tired from exerting herself but too in the moment to give in to the urge. "You have no idea how much I needed this. It feels like I’ve been living in a box since last Christmas. Everything here is just so...green." She shook her head in amazement. “It’s been so long since I’ve been able to appreciate the colour green.”
“I can imagine,” Callie replied, circling her fingertips where her hand curved around to rest along Arizona’s bicep.
"It's funny how we take things like fresh grass for granted," Arizona continued. "I don't think I ever appreciated it before."
"Was it really brown in-" Callie faltered on saying the name. "-over there?"
"Where I was stationed, yes.” Arizona kept her head resting comfortably where it was. "There was a lot of drought the last few years. And when a country is in the middle of a destructive war, watering the plants with what little you have left is the last thing on anyone's mind."
Arizona fell silent again. More questions burned on the tip of Callie's tongue, but the blonde showed no inclination of wanting to talk more about her experiences in Iraq and she wasn't about to push the subject so soon.
Besides, she liked the fact that they didn't always have to be talking for things to feel comfortable. Callie already found herself enjoying Arizona's quiet company just as much as when they were flirting over the phone. Thinking back to that conversation and why they were here in the first place, she smiled into the blonde’s hair.
"So, that letter…”
Arizona closed her eyes and groaned, turning her face into Callie’s shoulder. “Please don’t make fun of me. I know it was super cheesy and incredibly lame.”
“Not at all,” Callie protested. “It was beautiful.” She tightened her arm around Arizona’s shoulders and rubbed a hand up and down her jacket sleeve. “What you wrote meant a lot to me. No one has ever done anything like that before.”
Lifting her head, Arizona managed a sheepish smile, glancing shyly at her lap. "I've never been great at talking when I'm nervous or stressed out. Writing what I wanted to say always felt more comfortable." She snuck a glance at Callie, finding those dark brown eyes fixated on her own. "I'm glad it didn't make you gag."
“Hardly,” Callie said, giving her shoulders another squeeze.
“I meant what I said, you know,” Arizona added after a beat. “I want to know more about you. You...fascinate me, and yet you’re still like this big mystery. All I really know is that you’re a Dolphins fan and you happen to break bones for a living. And that you're an amazing kisser."
“I’m the mystery?” Callie cocked an eyebrow. “Says the woman who’s so secretive I know next to nothing about her.”
“That’s not true,” Arizona countered. “You know I like The Sound of Music, which not many people do. And that I love milkshakes. And that I’ve lived in practically every state this country has to offer at some point in my life.”
“Okay, I’ll give you those," Callie admitted, "but you never really talk about yourself. I respect that, I do," she quickly added, "but it doesn’t mean that I’m not curious. I feel like I know you, just not a lot about you. Does that make sense?”
Arizona twisted to the left, pulling her good leg underneath her and facing the other woman. The move pulled Callie’s arm from around her shoulders, though she left it resting against the back of the bench. Arizona reached out to gently take her other hand, lacing their fingers together and pulling them into her lap. "I get what you mean. I guess I've always been a pretty private person; talking about my personal life doesn't come naturally." Despite the admission, she flashed Callie a warm smile. "What do you want to know?”
“Hmm, where to start,” Callie teased, pursing her lips and tilting her head thoughtfully to the side. “I already know what your favourite ice cream is. How about your first pet?”
“First?” Arizona pondered that. “That would probably be Squeaky.” She paused. “A squirrel.”
Callie stared.
“I’m serious!” Arizona said earnestly. “I was six and we were living in Oceanside, California while my dad was training new recruits at Camp Pendleton. There was this squirrel always running along our back fence, so I started sneaking peanuts out onto our deck. My parents humoured me for a while and let me sit out there with him eating from my hand.”
“Something tells me that didn’t last very long.”
“About six months.” Arizona bit her bottom lip. “I kind of let him into our kitchen when it was raining really hard one day. I, um...didn’t want him to catch a cold.”
Callie’s eyes widened. “Yikes. I’m sure your mom and dad thought that was awesome.”
“Oh, I think the only reason the Colonel didn’t kill me was because he was too preoccupied chasing it around our house for three hours,” Arizona giggled. “I actually don’t know what happened to old Squeaks after that.” Her expression darkened. “I try not to think about what dad did with him.”
Callie winced, having a pretty good idea. “FYI - I like pets, but I’m not into rodents.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Shaking her head with amusement, Callie moved on to the next question before Arizona could dwell on the ill-fate of her old squirrely friend. “So, Oceanside, huh? I think that’s like the fourth city name I’ve heard you mention living. Do you even have a hometown?”
“Nope,” Arizona replied, shaking her head. “We moved around a lot. But like I told you back when we first met, our family settled in San Diego for just over two years right before I went to university. With my folks back there now, it kind of became like a delayed home base for Tim and I. I went back there for summer holidays and stuff.”
This was one of the rare times Callie had heard Arizona mention her brother, so she cautiously jumped at the chance to inquire further. “Were you and your brother always close?”
She could see something flicker in Arizona’s eyes but the blonde broke eye contact as she inhaled a steadying breath.
“Yeah, we were. He was the only one that was ever constantly around when I was a kid, so we kind of stuck together every time we moved. We were the same age and similar enough in personality that we hung out with the same crowds of people. It was nice having someone I could always count on.”
Callie squeezed Arizona’s hand supportively and laced their fingers together. “I never had a brother, but I always used to beat up dumb kids that picked on Aria. Even though she was a pain in my ass and we never really got along that well.”
Arizona smiled, and while there was still an underlying sadness to it, she wasn’t disengaging from the conversation, Callie was thrilled to notice. “Tim tried to do the same for me.”
“Tried?” Callie echoed.
Arizona’s smile widened, a far off look in her eyes. “I remember this one time some dumb boys were pushing me around on the playground. I think we were living in Jacksonville for a few months at the time. One of them kept pulling on my pigtails, so I took a page from Dad’s Marine training manual and turned around swinging.”
Callie had the greatest time picturing an adorable miniature Arizona with blonde pigtails and innocent blue eyes slugging someone in the face with her tiny fist. She had always known Arizona was a woman that took care of herself; it didn’t surprise her that she had been that way as a child, too.
“The other kid cried, I got dragged into the teacher’s office, but Timothy told them that he did it.” Arizona laughed at the memory. “We were kind of ridiculous sometimes. It was awesome.”
There wasn’t much that Callie could say; she could tell that Arizona was still deeply hurt over losing her brother, but other than supporting her, she didn’t think that anything she said or did would help. “Speaking as your treating physician, you’re still kind of ridiculous sometimes. But I liked that about you; you were feisty. Even when you had bad days and your leg was killing you, you somehow managed to keep looking forward.”
“Are you kidding?” Arizona challenged in disbelief. “I was horrible. I’m pretty sure the nurses hated me for being such a cranky jerk with them all the time.”
“I didn’t say you were loved all around,” Callie laughed, “but at least you refrained from taking my head off most of the time.”
Arizona grimaced. “Have I mentioned how much of an ass I feel like looking back?”
“Nah, you weren’t that bad,” Callie replied, stroking her thumb along the side of Arizona’s hand. “Trust me, I’ve had worse patients. Morphine screws with a lot of people’s emotions; you weren’t alone.”
She paused, blushing at her next words. “I actually thought you were incredibly brave throughout the whole thing. You had already gone through so much and yet there you were, fighting like hell to get through more. Without much of a support system by your side, either.”
Arizona gazed adoringly at Callie. “I had you,” she said softly.
Callie tried to keep it together, butterflies flapping away full-force in her stomach. "I'm glad I could help, even if it was just a little," she admitted. When Arizona flashed that heart-stopping smile her way again, she nearly melted into a puddle of goo right then and there.
If Arizona noticed, she didn't say anything or poke fun. "C'mon, this is your opportunity to grill me. I'll give you three more questions."
Trying to save face, Callie mustered up whatever coherent brain cells she had left to think of something smart. "Cats or dogs?" she asked lamely, wishing she had something more insightful to inquire about but needing a moment to gather her thoughts.
Arizona pondered that. “We had a German shepherd named Spartacus when I was eleven. I really loved him.”
“Spartacus?”
“Yeah,” Arizona giggled. “My brother wanted a big tough beast of a dog but it turned out that Sparty was a giant marshmallow instead. He would play with us outside when we were kids and let us crawl all over him.”
“Aww," Callie gushed, imagining the very same mini-Robbins riding around on the back of a giant dog.
"What about you?"
"We had a few smaller dogs over the years, but they were mostly my mom's babies," Callie said. "I like the idea of having a big puppy someday, though. What about you?"
"Dogs are good," Arizona replied with a nod. "But I’ve kind of always wanted some chickens in the backyard, too."
Callie thought she had heard wrong. "Come again? You want a pet chicken?"
Arizona grinned sheepishly. "I said I want chickens, as in plural. It's a thing."
"You're a little strange sometimes.”
"My grandfather had a coop on his farm, okay? I’ve always loved the idea of fresh eggs in the morning," Arizona laughed.
"And meat?"
Her eyes widened and she shook her head adamantly. "Oh no, there will be no eating of the chickens. Just the eggs."
Laughing, Callie stored that information in the back of her brain for later processing. "Okay then. Has a thing for chickens, got it. Next question-"
"Better make it count, you only have two left."
Callie furrowed her brow and mulled it over for a moment, then came up with something that she had been wondering about since yesterday.
"Your letter made it sound like you've written them before. Why? What started it?"
Arizona was a little bit surprised but didn't shy away from the question. Opening up to Callie and talking about Tim made it easier to tell her more about their close-knit relationship before his passing.
She looked down at her lap and absently picked at one of her fingernails. "Timothy and I used to exchange letters when he was with the Marines. He joined right out of the academy and did his first tour of duty before he was nineteen. Email wasn't a huge thing back then, so we started writing letters. Even when email became popular, he preferred getting paper letters instead, so it just kind of became our thing. Right up until…" She trailed off, not wanting to completely derail the conversation by dwelling on her brother's death.
Arizona also left out the part where she still wrote to him sometimes, even though she knew he would never read any of it. She wasn't embarrassed, it was just a very personal thing that no one else knew about. No matter how much she trusted Callie, she wasn't ready to talk about certain parts of her life yet. She didn’t know if she would ever be.
“You guys must have been close,” Callie said quietly, all traces of her earlier amusement gone.
“We were twins,” Arizona confirmed with a nod. “He was the one person I could talk to about anything, no matter what we were doing or where in the world we were. He was my best friend and losing him was...” Again her sentence died off, so she finished with a half shrug and looked away.
“I’m sorry,” Callie whispered, reaching out to place a comforting hand on Arizona’s knee.
"Thanks,” she murmured, willing herself to keep a brave face. She pushed through the heaviness in her chest and flashed the brunette a brighter smile. "One question left."
Callie debated her options for a while, forming a thought in her mind that she wasn't one-hundred percent sure she was allowed to ask.
Arizona could see her hesitation and covered the hand on her knee with one of her own. "It's okay, Calliope. You can ask me anything."
Nodding, Callie licked her lips and did so. "What was the last thing you guys talked about before he passed away?"
Arizona stiffened and broke eye contact again, pulling her hand back and tugging her jacket tighter around her torso as an excuse.
~~
"You're being completely unreasonable! Grow up, Arizona." Timothy’s fist collides with the top of her kitchen counter, balled up and shaking. There’s a vein pulsing along his temple, Arizona notes with satisfaction. Good. Let him be pissed off. He’s overstepping his bounds and a coronary would suit him well right now.
"Screw you, Tim. You don't just get to walk in here and tell me how to live my life.”
“Someone obviously has to, because you’ve lost your damn mind!”
“Get out of my house.” Her voice is thin, brittle. She’ll snap if he tries her patience.
"I'm the one who picked up the fucking pieces last time, in case you forgot what happened.” He rounds the edge of the counter, blocking her immediate escape. “She's a fucking psycho and she's using you. Why don’t you get that?”
Arizona crosses her arms and holds her ground, glowering at him. “I said get out of my house.”
Timothy takes her by the shoulders, a firm yet careful grip, shaking her once ever so slightly. “Zona, please, just listen to me. You’re not-”
“Your marriage didn’t even last two years!” she yells, reaching her breaking point, shoving his arms away. “You’re not exactly one to be giving out relationship advice, Timothy!”
It’s mean and horrible and she regrets it almost the moment she says it, but she’s just as stubborn as he is and crosses her arms in bitter defiance. She is so angry she feels like she’s going to cry, an annoying habit that tends to hinder her case in situations like these.
Unlike her, he has a good poker face, and she cannot for the life of her read his reaction. But he throws up his hands in surrender and turns almost immediately, heading for the back door the way he came. “Fine. Have a nice life. Call me when she cheats on you again.”
Arizona bites back a reply she is not sure will come out spiteful or apologetic. Her eyes follow his back until the slamming door cuts off her view, leaving her in the stark quietness of an empty house.
~~
"Arizona?"
She looked up from staring a hole through the bench, finding Callie watching her closely, concern in her eyes. Brought out of her reverie, Arizona blinked a few times and scrambled to recover the conversation. "We, um…we didn't talk much the last month of his tour. I was absorbed in the beginning of my peds fellowship and his unit was in a pretty remote area, so…"
Callie frowned but responded with a quiet "Oh". Arizona had gone somewhere after she had asked that question; she saw it with her own eyes. She tried to ignore the sinking sensation that whatever doors had been opened prior to this moment had just been slammed shut again.
As though privy to Callie's inner most worries, Arizona took her hand and traced a thumb over the back of it, letting her know that she was still very much in the present. "So, did you get enough juicy information to tie you over for a while? Because I'm pretty sure it's my turn to ask the tough questions." She flashed that same dimple-popping smile as before, only this time Callie noticed that said dimples were much less pronounced.
"Should I be afraid?" she joked, trying to let her worries go for now.
"I can start off with the easy stuff if you'd like."
"You also knew more about me than I did you, so you can jump ahead a few chapters.”
Arizona chewed on her bottom lip, studying her for a long moment before speaking. "True, but it’s only fair if I start off slow. I’ll make it a lightning round - childhood best friend, favourite vacation spot, and craziest thing you’ve ever done.”
Callie felt her spirits lift with just one look into the blonde’s sparkling blue eyes. “Childhood friend, huh? I’d have to say Adam and Danielle Connors. They were brother and sister, and their mom managed one of my father’s Miami hotels. The three of us hung out a lot until they moved away when I was ten or eleven.”
Arizona was excited to have gotten more information out of that question than she had anticipated - Callie’s dad sounded like some big wig hotel owner, a tidbit of information she had avoided discussing up until now. Arizona definitely couldn’t picture her date going into the family business; it wasn’t Callie’s thing. She was much more suited to being a surgeon.
“Vacation spot?”
“New York,” Callie answered without hesitation. “We used to go for Christmas every few years, and sometimes in the summer, too. It’s amazing, I can’t even describe how much I love it there.”
“Then why did you come to Seattle?” Arizona asked curiously. “You could’ve gotten a residency placement at Langone Medical Center or New York-Presbyterian.”
Callie shrugged. “I went to Brown for my undergrad, so I did enough weekend trips to tie me over I guess. I don’t know. Seattle Grace was known for its amazing teaching program and I liked the idea of living on the west coast for a change. New York is somewhere I go to relax and not think about work; does that make sense?”
“Definitely,” Arizona agreed, tugging on her jacket sleeve. “I guess that leaves the craziest thing you’ve ever done.”
Callie didn’t even attempt to hide a smug grin. “I fell for a patient.”
Arizona wore a matching one and scooted closer on the bench. “Good answer.”
“Those were simple,” Callie said with a happy sigh. “Gimme something harder.”
Turning the other woman’s palm over in her hands, Arizona traced her fingertips down the center, following along with her eyes. “Who’s Erica?”
That was something Callie hadn’t been expecting. She was taken back and it took a moment for her to gather her jumbled thoughts together. “How did you hear her name?”
Arizona looked up almost shyly. “I lived in Seattle Grace for over two months. People talk.”
Callie closed her eyes and groaned. She hated how information got passed around that place quicker than syphilis.
“I’m sorry,” Arizona sighed, lifting a hand to trace Callie’s cheek with her fingertips. “I heard you two mentioned in the same sentence a few times and got curious.”
“It’s okay, I said you could ask the hard stuff,” Callie replied with a shaky smile. She took in a deep breath. “Erica is…was...she was my first,” she stuttered, immediately blushing. “My first, y’know. Not my first first, just-”
“The first woman you were ever with,” Arizona clarified, smiling as Callie continued to look flustered. “It’s okay, it’s nothing to be embarrassed about. We’ve all had that experience.”
Callie nodded, playing with her thumb ring as she thought about it some more. “Erica was...a lot of things. Strong, brilliant, hardcore to a fault, but she was also a mistake.” Her brow furrowed. “I was a resident and she was an attending when we met. We cared about each other but we had very different views on a lot of things.”
“Uh-oh, we’re in trouble,” Arizona teased, earning herself a nudge in the ribs.
“I guess to get to Erica I have to tell you about George first.” Sighing, Callie stole a quick glance, not at all optimistic about having this conversation.
“George?” Arizona echoed, blinking in surprise. “You were with a guy named George?”
“Is it really that surprising?”
“Hey, I’m not judging about gender, I just...George sounds so plain and boring. Nothing like someone I’d expect you to date.”
“I married him.”
Arizona’s mouth fell open. “You were married? To a George?”
Callie sighed again. This was going to go so well. “Yes, I married a guy named George. O’Malley. You’re not the first person to react like that, either.”
“How did I not know this?” Arizona sounded a little upset that she was only just learning this important piece of information now.
“It’s not like we went out of our way to talk about past relationships,” Callie pointed out. “I swear I wasn’t trying to keep it from you or anything; it was a short marriage and it never had a hope in hell of working out. We were stupid and it was a spur-of-the-moment decision.”
“I feel like I’m missing the details here - back up a little.”
Callie had to steady herself again. “Okay, here’s the cliff notes version - George’s dad died when our relationship was kind of up in the air and it made him decide that he wanted to get married. So, being incredibly stupid, I eloped to Vegas with him and we got hitched by Elvis.”
Arizona’s mouth fell open. Callie promptly closed it with two fingers under her chin.
“At the time I thought I loved him, but he never really loved me. He was in love with his best friend, Izzie, who was in love with a patient of hers.” Callie waited for Arizona to process and catch up with the story before continuing.
“The patient needed a heart transplant, and to make an even longer, more complicated explanation short, Izzie cut his LVAD wire. He was pushed ahead on the list, in front of another guy - a guy that happened to be Erica’s patient at another hospital. Izzie’s boyfriend got the heart but ended up dying anyway. She was disciplined, then eventually hired back. End of drama part one.”
“Part one?” Arizona lifted a skeptical eyebrow. “There are parts to this story?”
“You have no idea.”
Arizona whistled under her breath. “Wow. That place is like a soap opera.”
“You have no idea,” Callie repeated, laughing. “The patient boyfriend ended up dying. Izzie was heartbroken, George’s dad died, George was her best friend - you get the idea. Next thing I knew, we were married in Vegas, and then he started spending more time with Izzie than with me.”
Callie’s eyes hardened and she looked away, remembering how painful that time in her life had been. “I knew he was cheating on me, I knew it, but I convinced myself that I was stupid, and that I didn’t want to be one of those insecure women that accused their husband of cheating every time he so much as blinked at another woman.” She swallowed thickly. “Turns out I was stupid - but not wrong. They fooled around behind my back for a while before he had the guts to tell me.”
Arizona felt a flare of anger for the first time since the day had started. “That little rat,” she murmured. “He used you.”
The look on Callie’s face broke her heart and made her want to kill George O’Malley even though she didn’t know him. “He was an idiot, Callie.”
“Yeah, I guess,” she mumbled, blushing and looking down at her lap. “It was a stupid mistake, anyway. It wasn’t a big deal.”
“No.” Arizona reached out and grasped Callie by the chin, gently tugging her eyes back up to meet her own. “He was an idiot. He didn’t see what a great thing he had in front of him, and you didn’t deserve to be treated that way. It was a big deal.” She traced her thumb along the side of her chin.
Just that simple touch produced enormous butterflies in Callie’s stomach, and she felt herself beginning to smile despite the subject matter. “Thank you. That means a lot to me.”
Arizona smiled softly and leaned in to press a soft kiss right where her thumb had just been. She wanted a kiss on the lips, but that was supposed to be under Callie’s terms if she remembered correctly.
Once some of the tension left the woman’s shoulders, Arizona sat back and held her hand. “Please, continue.”
Callie nodded and released a soft breath, encouraged by Arizona’s supportive reaction so far. “Erica Hahn was hired on as the new Head of Cardio. I barely remember how we met the first time, but somehow we became friends. We spent a ton of time together and ended up getting really close. She was tough and rude and fierce, but she was a loyal friend and I needed one after George.”
She smiled to herself. “I don’t know when it happened, but suddenly I was having feelings for her that went beyond friendship. I tried to deny it, and then...” She shrugged. “I ended up kissing her in the middle of a parking lot.”
Arizona’s anger about George and his treatment of Callie had faded a little and she found herself smiling again. “That sounds just like you.” She brought the hand to her lips and pressed a kiss to the back of it. “Brash, forward, taking what you want. It’s very sexy.”
Callie blushed again. “It wasn’t so sexy at the time, believe me.” Clearing her throat, she continued. “We were both freaking out and totally new at the whole gay love thing, but eventually we got comfortable together. Happy, even. Until her old transplant patient showed up at Seattle Grace and she found out about the stolen heart from two years ago.”
“That must’ve gone over well.”
“Not at all,” Callie sighed. “Everyone was just so tired of it, myself included. The last thing the hospital needed was for that subject to get dragged up again. So we fought about it and somewhere along the way it turned into a raging war about her insecurities. She threw a bunch of stuff in my face about how I couldn’t just be ‘kind of a lesbian’ because I wasn’t going to apologize for being bisexual. She ended it in the middle of the parking lot and walked away. Her locker was clear the next morning and she was gone, her phone disconnected. I haven’t heard from her since.”
The wounds were still raw and even though spilling her guts to Arizona was both embarrassing and therapeutic, Callie felt drained. It had all happened recently enough that it still hurt to think about the way she felt when Erica unceremoniously dumped her cold.
Arizona’s heart went out to her. “I’m so sorry,” she murmured softly, leaning into Callie’s side. “That must’ve been really hard.”
“Yeah,” Callie answered faintly, not quite making eye contact. “It sucked.”
Arizona studied her closely and suddenly a piece of the puzzle fell into place.
“That’s exactly what I did to you.” She swallowed hard, feeling like the world’s biggest jerk all over again. She understood Callie’s reluctance to give her a second chance even more now - it wasn’t the first time she had been left hanging that way.
“Calliope, I am so sorry,” Arizona whispered, bringing her hands up to cradle the brunette’s face between them. She instinctively leaned in and pressed a soft, loving kiss to her lips, holding them there and tuning out the world around them.
Callie’s eyes fluttered closed and she sighed into the kiss. It wasn’t as flashy or as feverish as the one two weeks ago, but it was perfect in every way and felt just as she had imagined it would. She felt every bit of what Arizona was trying to tell her without any more words being necessary.
It only lasted for a few seconds, but it was long enough to make Callie’s lips permanently tingle when they eventually pulled away. It took her a moment to find her voice again.
“I’m not dwelling on it anymore and neither should you,” she said, resting her forehead against Arizona’s and basking in their closeness. “You aren’t Erica. You had your reasons for hesitating, even if I didn’t understand them.”
Arizona stayed silent and right where she was, stroking her thumbs along Callie’s jaw line. The quietness of the moment settled in around them, rustling leaves the only other sound on the hill.
“So, to sum up,” Callie continued after a breath of silence, finally managing to smile, “I got married, cheated on, divorced, became a lesbian, got dumped, drank a whole lot of tequila, met a Marine surgeon, sort of got dumped again, and now we’re sitting outside curled up on a bench together. I think it turned out okay in the end.”
Arizona brushed her noses together. “From here on out you’re taken care of, I promise. I know how good I’ve got it and I’ll never take you for granted again. You’re mine.” She smiled, knowing in her heart of hearts how true that really was.
Callie shivered and released a short breath. “I’m not easy to be with, you should know that. I think Erica and George are pretty good testaments to that.”
“Hey.” Arizona’s eyes popped open and she glared fiercely. “Don’t talk like that, okay? I mean it.” She refused to let Callie turn away, keeping her face gently but firmly between her hands.
“Those two? They were stupid. Me two weeks ago? I was stupid. Don’t ever think that their issues or mine had anything to do with you, all right? You just got stuck with some screwed up, selfish people that were too dumb to see what was right in front of them.”
“You need to stop saying that,” Callie admonished. “Nothing about you is screwed up, Arizona. Don’t compare yourself to them.”
“I’m not,” Arizona replied, giving Callie’s head a gentle tug with her hands. “But I’m not exactly easy to be with. Nightmares, panic attacks, abandonment issues, the list goes on.”
“I don’t care that stuff,” Callie said without hesitation. “It doesn’t make me want you any less.”
She locked eyes with Arizona, lips parting a fraction. She couldn’t look away even if she wanted to.
Fuck the rules.
She curled her fingers around the back of Arizona’s neck and pulled their lips together in a deeper, needier kiss than before. She snaked an arm around the blonde’s waist, leaning into her warm body and exhaling softly through her nose.
Arizona melted into embrace and grasped the front of Callie’s jacket, bunching it in her fists again. She closed her eyes and gladly reciprocated, granting entrance to her mouth.
They barely parted for more than a second, taking in shallow breaths before crashing their lips back together. Arizona pressed forward, deepening the kiss, keeping it slow and steady as they explored one another all over again.
Callie dug her fingers into Arizona’s sides, slipping them just underneath her jacket to brush her thumb across a flat stomach. The other hand lifted to cradle the blonde’s cheek in her palm, urging her closer.
Arizona reacted with a low groan, losing track of everything else around them. Not only had she been thinking of nothing else for fifteen straight days, but somehow Callie tasted even sweeter than she remembered.
The desire to taste and feel one another was heating up with surprising intensity, and Callie was starting to think they might do something extremely naughty for a public place when the unmistakable sound of screaming children reached their ears.
Perfect.
She groaned in exasperation and forced herself away from Arizona’s warm lips, heart pounding violently inside of her chest. Her eyes never left the piercing blue gaze mere centimetres away from her own as a gaggle of children and their parents came up the hill behind them.
“Figures,” Callie murmured, combing her fingers back through Arizona’s curls.
Arizona released a shaky breath. “I know.” She licked her lips and leaned her forehead into Callie’s.
Closing her eyes, Callie pulled in some much-needed oxygen through her nose, doing her best to shove her raging libido back down where it belonged. They didn’t want to move too fast, but god, it was hard not to.
“What do you say we get back to my place? Our place,” Callie amended. “It’s warmer and we can grab dinner.”
Arizona nodded silently, knowing they really didn’t want to continue on with an audience full of tiny humans.
Callie dropped her hand to curve around the side of Arizona’s neck. “We should talk about what you moving in as a roommate would mean for our dating life, because I think we need rules. Otherwise...” She groaned longingly and didn’t need to complete that sentence.
“Yeah, otherwise,” Arizona agreed quietly, nodding once.
They moved apart simultaneously, and Arizona very carefully shifted a few inches to her right. “I guess I should probably meet Cristina, too.”
“Should? Yeah. Will you want to? Probably not.” Laughing even though she was still buzzing from the inside out, Callie stood up from the bench and cleared her throat. She extended a hand. “Can you make it back to the car?”
Arizona grabbed her crutches and smiled at the genuine concern in Callie’s voice. “I’ll be okay,” she assured. Taking the offered hand, she hauled herself to her feet and almost on instinct stole a quick, teasing kiss, momentarily stunning her date. “Take me home, Calliope.”
Loving the sound of that more than she could put into words, Callie grinned broadly and lead Arizona back down the pathway towards the car.
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