OK! So this is it I guess!
I've been writing this for a long time and when I got to like, 30,000 words I knew I had to upload it.
I wanna say a massive thanks to my friends for helping out and I look forward to your reviews
An I won nothing, enjoy!
Chapter 1
Arizona woke up screaming for the fourth night in a row. She desperately clutched at her covers as she forced herself to calm down. She tried to remember her breathing exercises.
'In...out...in...out' she thought to herself. When she felt the tight sensation in her chest loosen and the twisted feeling of her stomach ease, she rolled on her side and looked for the clock.
She had four hours before she needed to be on stage, but first she had to deal with the tears.
Callie could feel herself crying but the Seattle rain on her face masked the tears.
"So, this is it? We're done? Just like that?" She stammered to the blonde in front of her.
"Callie, this never started." Erica bluntly replied, as she spun around and stormed out of the parking lot - and out of Callie Torres's life forever. The Latina was numb. As she staggered back into the bar, she tried to replay the argument in her mind. None of this made sense.
Despite the warm air inside, she was still shivering. Deciding that she couldn't see guests like this, she wandered into the kitchen to find her head chef, (and best friend) Mark Sloan, chopping onions; he looked up at her with a sensitive smile. The entire inn had heard the argument before Callie had followed Erica out into the parking lot. Callie stood next to him and stared at the vegetables.
Callie's life might have been in shambles for the past few years, but she took pride in her little inn. She opened 'Calliope's' four years ago, and it was a simple place. There was a little hallway with a receptionists' desk, a kitchen that served the small dining room on one side and the bar on the other, and around nine rooms that could be accessed from the stairway and elevator in the hallway.
Callie's favourite place was the bar, not because she loved to drink, but because when she stood behind that bar, she was untouchable. She could serve drinks and talk to customers like it was nobody's business; the inn was her kingdom but the bar was her palace.
Mark was the first staff member she hired. They were close friends at the time anyway and he was just finishing cooking school when she bought the place. Over the years, their friendship had blossomed and, when the bar wasn't open or when it was a quiet day, Callie could often be found in the kitchen chatting to her best friend.
"You ok, boss?" Mark gently asked. Callie sighed, as she took an onion and began chopping aggressively.
"She...she just left. She said that we were never together. That this never started." Callie stopped and studied the lines on the onion; she heard Mark drop his knife and walk over to hug her.
"Ew no you smell like onions..." she protested in vain. She dropped her knife and rested her head on his shoulder and he rubbed her soaking wet back as she sobbed into his white chef's coat.
"You are going to be great Torres. You didn't need her. None of us even liked her." Mark said as he released his friend and went back to chopping.
"I sort of needed her Mark, she was our bartender."
"Bartender my ass! You were always the one serving people behind the bar whilst Erica just made googly eyes at you." He waved his knife around to emphasise his point.
Callie sighed again and also went back to chopping, "yeah...but she had pretty googly eyes."
Mark chuckled softly, "that's your problem Torres, you let your heart decide things over your head. Sure, you needed Erica when you hired her, but now we have Lexie, Meredith and Derek to run the place while you mix pretty drinks behind the counter. You just kept Erica around because you wanted to bang her."
Callie couldn't argue against that, he was completely right. Erica Hahn was the second member of staff to be hired as a waitress and bartender. She and Mark were to run the bar and kitchens so Callie could deal with the guests and rooms. Since then, business had steadily grown and she had gradually been able to hire more staff. She hired Marks long term best friend Derek Shepherd to run the bookings and manage guests and soon after, she hired Meredith Grey to help tidy rooms and assist guests if they needed stuff like pillows or wake up calls. Meredith and Derek would spend hours together behind the receptionists' desk, forming a pretty special relationship of their own. Callie and Mark attended their wedding eight months ago, where they met Meredith's younger sister Lexie, who'd needed a part time job to get through med school. Callie swiftly hired her as a waitress and Mark swiftly started dating her.
"Do you think I should've fired Erica when we hired Lexie?" Callie asked.
Mark thought about it for a moment before responding, "No, you should've fired her when she started treating you like crap. She knew that you liked her and she took advantage; turning up late to work, being rude to guests, being rude to you."
"She wasn't rude she was just-" Callie caught herself. Erica didn't deserve her defence. Erica had been playing with Callie's emotions for years; flirting with her to get around her own blatant violation of the rules. When Callie hired Lexie, Erica had obviously feared for her own job, because that was when the flirting intensified.
"She played you Torres. You should be happy to see her gone. Hey, I know! You should come out tonight with us! Remember Meredith's friend Cristina from the wedding? She is part of this travelling theatre company and its their opening night in Seattle; Meredith's got us some tickets to their play." Mark beamed like a little boy, "It was just gonna be Meredith, Derek, Lex and me, but Meredith and Derek had to drop out last minute. They'll be here tonight, so you could come too! You might even meet someone!"
"No offense Mark, but alone people don't like to be around the together people, especially when the alone people aren't alone by choice, and I don't think I can take another emotional disaster right now. I used to, like, walk tall around here but now I'm feeling like- like Erica's shaved off a few inches, you know?"
Mark put his hands on Callie's shoulders slightly shaking her. "Come on Torres! All you can do is be brave enough to get out there." He put his arms by his sides and looked directly into Callie's eyes. "You fought, you loved, you lost. You should walk tall Torres."
Callie looked at Mark for a moment and burst out laughing. "That was the cheesiest thing you've ever said to me Mark, I can't believe your lines actually work on all those women!"
Mark laughed with her as he scraped the chopped onions into a container. "You like Lexie, you hired her. You should come out with us, the bar isn't even open until the play is over. Do this and I won't bring up Horrible Hahn again."
"Alright then," Callie surrendered, rolling her eyes as she started to help him wash up, "let's get a move on."
"Robbins, get a move on! Where the hell have you been?" Arizona's friend and fellow actor, Alex Karev, greeted her as she snuck in through the back door.
"shh," she warned, "I don't want people to know that I'm late" she whispered as she hurriedly made her way to the dressing rooms.
"What, did you get lost or something?" Alex chuckled, following her, "unfortunately for you, everyone else was early, so yeah, we all know that you're late."
Arizona turned around and cringed, "are they mad?"
"Leah and Cristina don't mind, but Izzie is pretty pissed." Alex explained as the blonde turned around and went into her dressing room. She didn't expect any less.
"what about Owen?" Arizona asked as she took off her coat and scarf.
"He's too busy making sure the staging is alright. Robbins, he's been in rehearsals, he knows that you know this stuff. We all do, we were...we were just worried you wouldn't show."
The words stung. Arizona looked away from Alex, pretending to study her dressing table "I'm fine, Alex. I'm here, tell Izzie I'm here."
Alex nodded as he quickly left the dressing room. She took a moment to breathe before getting her costume out ready. She had twenty minutes before a dress rehearsal to make sure that the new set and lighting worked. She loved the play they were working on at the moment; it told the story of a wife suffering domestic abuse who fell in love with a woman. Most of the play was action and the only dialogue spoken was when the characters all saw the same shrink independently. Arizona had the relatively small part of the shrink.
She didn't mind travelling that much. The theatre company consisted of five actors, a director/writer and a couple of roadies. They went from city to city, staying a couple of months at a time, performing plays for the past three years. The current play had not been performed before but it was their most highly anticipated and, in Arizona's opinion, the best one yet.
"Get a move on Robbins!" Arizona heard the annoying yell of Isobel Stevens, star of the show and downright diva. She got on well with Alex and the other actresses, Cristina Yang and Leah Murphy, but Izzie made her blood boil. She often considered herself too good for the likes of their little company. Owen Hunt, the director and owner of the company, didn't seem to mind and always cast her as a leading role.
Arizona bolted to the stage to find some of the others waiting for her. Leah Murphy, the youngest and newest member of the group turned to Izzie, "you owe me ten bucks, I told you that she would show."
Arizona ignored this and turned to Alex, "Where's Owen?"
Alex shrugged, "Probably with Cristina in her dressing room rehearsing". Arizona let out a giggle. The love affair between their director and fellow actress was a well known but unspoken matter. The entire company would acknowledge it, but never talk about it. It was almost a running joke now. Once Arizona had forgotten to knock before entering Yang's dressing room and she got an eye load of them going at it. She couldn't really blame them; it got lonely on the road.
As if on cue, Owen and Cristina marched on to the stage, ready for a pep talk before their final rehearsal.
"Ok gang, listen up!" the director called for attention, "This is our opening night in Seattle, and the opening night of our new show, so this has to go perfectly. Got it?"
The congregation nodded in comprehension, they all respected Owen and he was fairly friendly as a person, but when it came to his shows, he was a perfectionist to the hundredth degree.
They warmed up and got into character, each of the actors performing their own little rituals. Cristina had a mantra she would repeat to herself and Alex usually did some stretches. Arizona practiced her breathing, "in...out...in...out..." she thought to herself as she got into position. despite her lateness and anxiety, Arizona was certain that this evening was going to be great.
"Come on you guys, this is gonna be great!" Lexie yelled as she bounded down the street towards the theatre.
"I forgot how young she is," Callie muttered to Mark as they followed her at a more leisurely pace. The rain had stopped and Callie appreciated the crisp, evening air.
"She's not that young," Mark responded, wrinkling his brow, "I mean, 23 isn't that young."
"no, well I suppose you act like a 12 year old most of the time Mark," Callie teased, "so she's perfect for you!"
They were approaching the entrance of the theatre, they joined the back of a small queue had assembled at the doors.
"So how's med school?" Callie asked Lexie, who was positively buzzing with excitement.
"Oh, it's amazing. We're applying for internships soon."
"Have you decided what area you are going to go into?"
"Er, maybe surgery or psychiatry. That sort of why I want to see this play tonight, it's supposed to have this large psychiatric element, like all the dialogue is told through meetings with a shrink. Oh look the door's opening!"
The small crowd shuffled into the theatre. Callie, Mark and Lexie were guided to their seats. It was a small production, but the turnout was fairly large nonetheless. The room could hold around 400 people and just about every seat was taken.
"This guy, Owen Hunt, he's supposed to be a genius," Lexie leaned over to explain, "he was this up and coming playwright in New York. Nobody really knows how he ended up doing small time shows but all of his work is pretty highly anticipated." Callie nodded as the lights went down and the curtain went up.
The stage had two levels, the top one wasn't lit but the bottom one looked like a small, modern kitchen. Callie mildly enjoyed the first couple of scenes. There wasn't any dialogue but it became clear that the main character was being abused by her husband. When the top half of the stage lit up, there was a hitch in Callie's breathing.
The set resembled a shrink's office with a stereotypical couch and armchair. Sat in the armchair, holding a purple clipboard, was the most gorgeous woman Callie had ever seen. She had luscious, straight blonde hair and intense blue eyes. The shrink smiled, revealing gleaming teeth and adorable dimples. Literally anything could've happened in that scene and Callie would not have been able to recall it because she was so absorbed by the beauty of this woman.
The next scene started in the other set and Callie went back to following the action. The woman was falling in love with her next door neighbour who was also a woman.
"Screw this chick," Callie thought, watching the main character lust after the young, dirty blonde, "why aren't you going after the shrink?"
Callie looked at her programme. The actress playing the shrink was called Arizona Robbins. "pretty name" she thought.
The play was shorter than most, so did not have an interval, Callie was ok with this at it would've meant 15 minutes of making more awkward conversation with Lexie. Instead, Callie intently followed the plot and tried not to get distracted during the dialogue scenes with the shrink. Overall, Callie was surprised at the quality of the play; the acting and storytelling was superb.
At the end of the play, the main character was killed by her best friend, who runs off with the abusive husband. The final scene was the young girl next door talking to the hot shrink about the uncertainty of life or whatever. When the lights went down, the entire audience burst into applause, everyone was on their feet.
"Everyone was on their feet!" Owen clapped after the actors had made their bows and were standing backstage. "Thank you so much everyone, now don't get caught up in the reviews and I'll see you tomorrow evening." The director said his goodbyes and left with Cristina on his arm.
"well that was a dud," Izzie proclaimed as soon as he had gone, "we'll be lucky to get anywhere with this one."
"what are you talking about? They loved it!" Arizona asked, she was determined to not let the likes of Isobel Stevens ruin the evening of her best performance yet.
"Oh, come on Robbins. A big star like you should know that the shows with a good audience reaction always gets the worst reviews." Izzie complained as she made her way to her dressing room.
"she doesn't know what she's on about." Alex huffed as he followed suit, patting Arizona on the back and going into his dressing room.
"I thought you were amazing tonight Arizona." Leah smiled.
"well, thanks I thought you were awesome too Leah" Arizona returned the smile and made her way to her dressing room too.
"Doyouwannagettadrink?" she heard the young girl call after her. Arizona spun around.
"Sorry?"
Leah was standing there, a little flustered, "I was just wondering if...maybe...you'd like to get a drink...with me?"
Arizona considered the offer, she could really use a drink after today's stress and dealing with Izzie, but she couldn't risk another late night. Especially if people were taking bets on whether she would show up to work at all.
"I don't think I will tonight, let's wait until the reviews are published and we can go out tomorrow and celebrate maybe?"
Leah nodded, a little disappointed, "yeah...sure...see ya tomorrow"
"See you tomorrow" Mark kissed Lexie on the forehead before the young girl got out of the car. Mark was dropping her home before dropping Callie off at the inn.
"Reckon McDreamy and Grey have burnt the place down to the ground yet?" Callie mused as Mark drove.
"Nah, I think they probably did it on the reception desk or something." He chuckled, "are you going to open up the bar tonight?"
Callie sighed, she had momentarily forgotten that the bar wouldn't be open when she got back, because her bartender had left. "Yeah, it's not that late and maybe I'll get some interesting people if I only open after midnight."
The bar had its own entrance onto the street, so it wasn't only guest that used it. Often, people would come into the bar, drink themselves blind, and stumble upstairs to get a room because Callie wouldn't let the drive. It was a pretty good system, despite its exploitative nature.
Callie thanked Mark for the ride and unlocked the entrance to the bar. Callie got behind the counter and, as she bent down to unlock the cash register, she heard somebody enter and sit on one of the stools.
"Are you open?"
Callie stood up to answer, but she couldn't. Sitting behind her bar was the incredibly hot shrink. All the words Callie knew had dissolved into the walls of her brain. Eventually, she nodded at the blonde.
"I'll have a scotch on the rocks please" she asked the dumbstruck bartender, "with a twist."
Callie simply nodded again before preparing the drink. She was amazed how suddenly this woman had gotten from the stage to the bar, why was she here? Why wasn't she at some after party or something? Why is she alone?
Callie slid the drink across the table and muttered, "on the house."
"and why is that?"
Callie was regaining her words now, "my favourite actors don't have to pay in my bar." She winked.
"have you've seen me perform?" the blonde asked, a little bit more freaked but mainly intrigued.
"I just saw you," Callie explained, "you were incredible. You played the shrink, right?"
"yeah," Arizona said, slowly holding out her hand, "thanks, I'm Arizona".
"Callie," she said, shaking the hand, "and don't mention it. I don't see a lot of plays, but that was amazing".
"I bet you say that to all the actors." Arizona winked.
"oh, only he pretty ones." Callie smiled.
The women looked into one another's eyes, completely comfortable.
"Callie, Callie, Callie..."Arizona began to coo. Her face turned into a blur her voice became deep.
"Callie! Callie! Hey Torres wake up!" Mark shoved his best friend, "no sleeping in my car!"
