This oneshot was done for a request by superstar1000, who I'd like to thank for getting me back into writing again. I hope you enjoy this as much I did writing it. =D
Banana Pancakes
"I'll make you banana pancakes,
Pretend like it's the weekend now."
- Banana Pancakes, Jack Johnson
Waking up this morning I had expected to have a hectic day, considering I was running the pit. That had of course changed less then a half an hour into work, leaving me in my current state.
I was in the bathroom for close to a half an hour before wiping away the sweat across my forehead as the toilet flushes away the remnants of this morning's breakfast of the banana pancakes I had made specifically for Arizona but ate myself because I knew that frankly they were bad; just as I had done all week.
No, today definitely was not going as expected.
I look down to make sure I haven't vomited on myself before exiting the bathroom stall to wash my hands. Thankfully my scrubs are clean. Upon looking into the mirror after exiting the still I notice that I may have succeeded in not getting vomit on my scrubs but that didn't exempt anywhere else. A considerable amount has accumulated in my hair causing some of the ends to mat together.
"Great job, Callie, great job." I grumble to myself as I leave the room to get a brush from my locker which was thankfully only next door.
I manage to avoid any contact with the other attendings, or residents or nurses, for that matter, during my trip to the attendings' locker room. Explaining why I had vomit in my hair was not on my list of things to do today. I had to get back to the pit as soon as possible.
I can't help but smile now as I open my locker door; no matter how bad I felt the photographs attached to the back of my locker door always made me grin like an idiot. Despite this occasional strange look from a fellow attending or two, I had decorated my locker with personal affects, the majority of which were photos of Arizona and I, just like a teenage girl would in high school.
I forget my current situation as I become face to face with a photo of Arizona and I at my parent's house while on vacation in Miami; we were on the private beach behind their home.
Arizona's new tan is shown off by the white bikini she wearing and her bouncy blonde curls. The photo never ceased to give me a shiver up my spine or goose bumps across my arms. It was somehow possible that the main things that made Arizona "Arizona" were physically visible; her compassion and optimism was perspiring through her appearance, simply radiating out of her dimpled smile and breathtaking blue eyes.
Brrrrrr. The sound of my vibrating pager at my hip pulls my mind of the photo and back to present day. I'm surprised as I examine my pager to find a page from Arizona.
"Peds on-call room. Bring tissues and cough syrup =( xo – AZ"
"You've got to be kidding me." I can't help but groan.
Of all the weeks Arizona could have gotten sick, she had to get sick the week I started getting morning sickness. I couldn't handle this right now, no matter how much I wish I could. I loved taking care of Arizona, as much as it could be a chore, she always wanted to be the good man in a storm and she would get sooky about being taken care of. I couldn't help but find it endearing when she would pout and complain. But I just can't handle it.
I take a deep breath before standing up. I had to find someone to get Arizona what she needed, even if it couldn't be me. I had to do the next best thing.
Thankfully as I leave the locker room after cleaning myself up I run into Mark. "Sloan, just the guy I was looking for." I give him the best smile I can.
"Cal, what were you looking for me for?" He asks with a playful smirk.
"I need you to do something for me."
"Sorry, I can't. I'm on the way to surgery, and hey shouldn't you be down in the pit?" Mark looks at me curiously, the smirk wiped from his face.
"I just needed to get something from my locker. I'm about to head back now."
"Well I'll see you later then, hope the pit's not to busy." He says with a chuckle before bounding off.
I continue to walk down the hall, hoping to find someone who was able to do me this favour. My former roommate's former intern is leaning back against the nurses' station, handing out charts to his interns.
"Mostow, can I borrow one of your interns for a few minutes, preferably McNally?" I ask. Normally I would never as interns to do personal favours but I was getting desperate.
"Not a problem, Dr. Robbins. McNally?" Steve replies almost instantly.
"I'll have her back to you before you know it." I smile widely, and motion for McNally to follow me. The brunette swiftly does as she's told and begins to follow me towards the stairwell.
"I'm sorry I have to ask you to do this McNally but I need a personal favour. Are you alright with that? You're perfectly free to go back to your resident if you wish." I ask politely, fully well knowing any intern in this hospital wouldn't say no to a reasonable personal request from an attending, even sensible intelligent ones like McNally.
"I'm alright with it, Dr. Robbins." She gives me a small warm smile along with her verbal response.
"Okay, here's what I need you to do,"
As I disgustingly suck back my runny nose for what feels like the billionth time, unable to blow my nose due to my lack of tissues, while waiting for Calliope I hear a knock on the on call room door.
"Come in,"
"Dr. Robbins?" As the door opens the faint voice of one of the surgical residence bounces off the wall of the on call room.
"Uh, yes." I mumble slightly as I roll over in the bottom bunk so that I'm facing the wall so that they don't see the tears now forming in my eyes.
"Um, the other Dr. Robbins sent me."
"Oh, I'm guess she roped you into," She doesn't let me finish my sentence.
"Into bringing you tissues and cough syrup. Yes, she did. I don't mind. I hope you feel better soon, Dr. Robbins."
"Thank you, Dr. McNally. Did Ca- Dr. Robbins say what she was doing?"
"She's busy running the pit and was about to scrub in on a surgery when I left. So I've really got to get back to my resident." She says as she puts the box of tissues and medicine on the bedside table.
"Alrighty, thanks again."
"Not a problem, ma'am." McNally says quickly before swiftly exiting the room.
With the sound of the door shutting, the room is left in silence. The room may be left in silence but my head sure is not. My thoughts are racing around to and fro; just like a tetherball being hit back and forth. I wish my thoughts would stop contesting each other for the title of being the scariest. I wish they would go back to the way they were last week.
But no, this week they wouldn't stop for the life of me.
Calliope had been distant almost all week. She woke me up with remote actions and went off to work, leaving me alone rather than staying and having breakfast together as always. She always had to be at work before I did but she never ceased to make the time to stay home and make breakfast for the two of us so we could spend our mornings with each other.
I can't do anything now but wipe away my tears, take my medicine and wait for tonight, wait to find out what is wrong with my Calliope.
Brrrrrr. I wipe the sleep from my eyes quickly before snatching my pager from the living room coffee table. Before I even get a chance to read the message my mine is occupied by the sound of a voice echoing through the room.
"What are you doing home so soon?" Calliope's voice catches me off guard causing me to roll off the couch creating a loud thud.
I wait for a moment before speaking, giving myself a moment to catch my breath. "Geez Calliope! You scared the you know what out of me!" I practically hiss, as I scramble to get back up onto the couch and begin to cough up a storm.
"Sorry," She frowns slightly. "And you do know that you can say 'crap' when you're not at work right?" The frown is now replaced by a small smile as she chuckles a typical Calliope chuckle.
"I know, but that doesn't mean I like to make a habit of it." I say as the coughing stops, "And to answer your question I came home early because unfortunately my body doesn't handle cough syrup the way it used to. It now makes me more drowsy than you'd ever think possible. The chief realized that I was useless in the OR so he sent me home, which I gratefully did." My tone of voice is now quite 'matter of factly' as I finish my small anecdote.
"Well I guess it's better to be here sleeping then in an on call room right?" The chuckle that comes after this is almost filled with guilt, to untrained ears it would be undetectable but to me it was definitely there.
"Yes, it is better." I say hesitantly, because it's not what really I want to say. I want to ask why she's been distant, why she's isolating herself from me, why she hasn't been taking care of me the way she always does, the way I thought she wanted to.
"Ther-"
"Arizo-"
Both Calliope and I begin to speak simultaneously. I pause and wait for Calliope to either instruct me to continue or finish her own sentence. She nods almost hesitantly motioning me to continue on.
"I was just going to say there's some left over Thai food in the fridge, I didn't get a chance to attempt to make anything." I can't help but blush slightly as I have to wipe my nose in the middle of the conversation. "Sorry. I kind of sat down when I came home and fell asleep almost instantly."
"Ar-" She begins to speak but I blatantly cut her off, unable to hold back the anger spewing in my stomach.
"No," My voice is now extremely firm, supported by the slightly cold look I can tell that is spread across my face.
"You don't get to Arizona me, not today. What is up with you, Calliope? You've been avoiding me all week, ever since I started to get sick you've been avoiding me. Normally," I can't help but huff now, to be honest close to nothing about this week was actually normal, "you'd be all over me, taking care of me when I'm sick. But you don't make breakfast anymore. You won't even cuddle with me anymore."
At my own words the tears I hadn't realize were forming begin to roll down my cheek. Calliope begins to kneel down in front of me and reaches out to touch my face, to wipe away my tears.
"No, Calliope. You don't get to wipe away my tears, tears you caused. I can do that myself. What I can't do is figure out what is wrong with you!" My voice is raised to a yell now, taking Calliope off guard.
Her eyes widen as she opens her mouth to speak, but she doesn't get to say anything before she slaps her hand over of her mouth. All I hear is something that has the tune of the words 'you've got to be kidding me'. Calliope quickly launches herself up off the floor and begins to all out run to the bathroom.
No matter how upset I was Calliope was scarring me beyond belief. "Calliope?" I receive no reply but the slamming of the bathroom door. Immediately I pull myself up off the couch and head towards the bathroom.
As I reach the door I hear the dreadful sound of retching which was obviously coming from Calliope. I take a deep breath before knocking on the bathroom door. I wait a moment and still receive no reply. "Calliope, sweetie?"
Once I hesitantly open the door tears begin to flow more freely down my face at the sight of Calliope sitting on our bathroom floor, a slightly sweat covering her slightly pale face. I calmly walk into the room and take a seat down on the cold tile floor next to her, I don't even hesitate before pulling her hair back just in time before she retches once again.
After she finishes she begins to cry, "Calliope, just tell me."
Calliope sniffs and takes a deep breath before speaking. "I've been avoiding you because I didn't want to get a cold on top of, well this."
"And what is this?" I ask curiously, unfortunately I'm unable stop myself to from raising my brow.
"Promise you'll understand. Promise me that you won't be mad." Calliope looks at me with her big brown sad puppy eyes that are beginning to fill with tears. "Promise me, because I'm so happy about this and I really hope that you will be too."
With her words I put two and two together. At first I gasp, unable to form any words. Calliope just looks at me without saying a word because she's obviously scared.
"You're," I take another breath trying to form a sentence, "You're?"
Calliope understood what I had been trying to say. "Yeah, I am." Calliope begins to cry even more now.
"Shh." I attempt to sooth her by running my fingers through her hair. "It's okay, it's more than okay."
"I-I" Calliope is now the one who is unable to string together a complete sentence.
"If I wasn't sick right now, and you hadn't just thrown up, I would kiss you right now." I give her my best dimpled smile as I knowingly place my hand on her stomach.
Calliope swiftly gets up off the bathroom and makes her way to the cabinets, leaving me slightly confused. Only do I realize what she's doing as I see her spit in the sink. She tosses what she retrieved from the cabinet onto the counter top before quickly turning on her heels.
Before I know it she's barely inches away from me "Come here, you." are the only words I get to hear before Calliope's lips are on my own, effectively erasing away any emotion other than love and happiness.
I reluctantly pull away as my body's need for air becomes undeniable, "What about the whole sick thing?" I look at her curiously.
"So I get sick." Calliope's arms wrap around me pulling me even closer as she nuzzles into my neck. "I love you, Arizona."
I can't help let out a sigh of contentment because right now that was the only thing I need to hear.
