Callie finished working on some charts as she noticed a blonde in scrubs walking towards her. Her heart stopped as she quickly glanced up, noticing it was not the blonde in scrubs she was hoping to see.
"Dr. Torres I'm on your service today," The other woman leaned against the counter next to Callie.
"No you're not Murphy,"
"Yeah it's posted on the-"
"It's changed," Callie continued to focus on the paperwork in front of her.
"Uh, I just read it earlier and I-"
"Murphy go bug somebody else,"
"Is this about..." Leah Murphy leaned in closer to Callie, "...Dr. Robbins?"
Callie stood there with a blank expression on her face, trying to find the words to professionally express herself, but nothing came to her. She couldn't be bothered to start a scene, not today, she was just too exhausted. She continued to finish her patients' charts in silence.
"You can't just cut me off your service..." Murphy continued to talk as Callie tried desperately to ignore her, "Just because I'm sleeping with-"
"Okay," Callie looked up, putting her hand in the air, "I'm going to stop you right there."
"You're making a professional decision based on a personal situation and I deserve better than that. You have to teach me!"
"Stop," Callie grabbed Leah's arm and pulled them to the side, "Listen to what I'm about to say to you very carefully. I did not come strutting in here making professional decisions based on personal matters. If you had bothered to check the updated posting you would have known you are no longer on my service today. You can thank the Chief Resident for that. And while we are on the subject of Dr. Robbins let me say this; you do not talk to me about her. You do not assume I am cutting you out of my service because you are sleeping with my wife. Yes, she is still married to me if that piece of information somehow floated out of your small brain. And honestly you should be ashamed of that but also the fact that you are tampering with her healing process. Yeah she's a big shot attending and she owns a share in this hospital and I'm sure it makes you feel good when she smiles at you-"
"I, I-"
"I'm not done Murphy. She needs time to heal, she needs time to find herself again and if you even remotely had feelings for her you would let her do that. But you aren't letting her because at the end of the day you don't care about her. You care about yourself and what makes you feel good. And then you go and rub it in the face of her wife and claim I'm denying you your right to learn as a surgeon. Your actions are pathetic and you make me sick, get out of my face."
Leah Murphy walked past Callie, her head down as she darted past the now large group of nurses watching.
Callie looked around and slowly walked into the nearby on-call room. She closed the door and sat on the bed. There was a moment of silence, a split second where she was proud of herself and then it passed. The tears flowed down her face as the ache in her chest grew and the longing for her wife sank down into the pit of her stomach. She almost didn't hear the faint noise of the door creaking open and closing, but when she looked up she saw the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. The person responsible for her happiest days, and lately her saddest days, stood across from her in the dimmed room.
They stayed in the room, in silence for a few minutes before Arizona slowly walked over to Callie and sat on the bed next to her. Usually if Callie was crying, Arizona would shuffle close and pull her in, placing a kiss on Callie's forehead. But this wasn't that, and instead they sat at an uncomfortable distance from each other. Callie forced back her tears, as she wiped the falling ones from her cheeks. It was a strange feeling for Callie, having Arizona next to her and feeling comforted by it. The woman who had cheated on her, still made her feel the safest in her most vulnerable moments. It was a cruel but comforting feeling as her heart slowed down and the anger in her faded like a flickering candle.
Arizona continued to watch silently as Callie look a few deep breaths and finally stopped crying. They exchanged a few stolen glances as Callie sat up from the bed. She adjusted her scrubs and walked towards the door, turning around and stealing a glance of her wife on last time before leaving the room.
