A/N You all know that I love seeing how close that we can get. So here is my take on the promos. Hope yall enjoy. This is kinda open ended cuz it's what I would do with this episode.
Taking the Stand
xxxx
The courthouse was quickly filling up with Doctors from Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital. Callie watched as Meredith, Derek, Richard, Cristina and Bailey took the chairs behind her. April and Jackson walked in moments later with a blonde that only increased Callie's nerves and heart rate.
Callie hated that she was her. She also hated that she herself was here. She couldn't believe that after all the work she had done that it came to this. A malpractice suit. She shook her head at the mire thought. She had crossed all her Ts and dotted all the 'I's throughout her career. A flawless career none the less. Not only a flawless career, but a God with a scalpel type of career. She was a GOD, but not even a God status would save her from this.
She took a deep breath as she watched the man she had admired her whole life walk into the courtroom. The man who read her bedtime stories and chased monsters out from underneath her bed when she was little. No, not even Carlos Torres could chase this monster. Or any monster that was hidden in the dark of her room. He couldn't make her marriage better. He couldn't keep her daughter from crying for her other mother at night. He sat in the chair shooting his daughter a smile. In that moment, for the first time in her life, Callie Torres knew what it meant to face your monsters alone.
"All rise."
The next few minutes were a blur for Callie. She watched the room rise to their feet and then sat when the judge had spoken. She watched as the other attorney stood and made his first call. "Your Honor, we call Dr. Cristina Yang to the stand."
The sound of the courtroom was no longer silent to Callie. She watched her oldest friend in Seattle, the godmother to her child, take the stand.
She listened as Cristina answered the questions that were asked. Her heart sank when Cristina had said Callie was the best surgeon that she knew. The attorney jumped all over the statement. Callie breathed a sigh of relief as Cristina answered. "Yes, she was. Now she is in a different class. Callie Torres is a genius that puts people back together. I repair hearts for a living, but Callie gives people that don't arms, arms again. She helps a girl who took a stance and was nearly killed when the tree she was in was cut down. She broke almost every bone in her body. I repair peoples organ, Callie builds cartilage from scratch. How amazing is that?"
Callie listened as Cristina finished on the stand. She was once again nervous as she heard, "We call Derek Sheppard to the stand. Derek was asked the same crazy questions that Cristina was at first. "Doctor Sheppard, you were the chief of Surgery for a while, now you are a co-owner, what is your opinion of Doctor Torres?"
"I was injured in accident and everyone gave up on me. Hell I gave up on me. My hand was so badly damaged that I shouldn't have been able to operate."
"So you are operating again?"
"Yes. Thanks to Callie." Derek shot a nervous Callie a reassuring smile. "Without Callie I am confident that I wouldn't be a surgeon today. I would be teaching students how to do what I do."
"Doctor Sheppard, you have been part of two trial studies. You have been highly regarding in your field. Is that correct?"
"Yes."
"So, in your medical opinion, would you say that Doctor Torres is an good surgeon?"
"I am saying if my son, Bailey or my daughter Zola needed an orthopedic surgeon that I would move heaven and earth to make sure it was Callie. Call it what you will."
"Thank you Doctor Sheppard. No further questions." The attorney smiled as they excused Derek."
It was the prosecution that called the next person. "We would like to call Doctor Arizona Robbins to the stand."
This was the first person that Callie didn't watch walk to the stand. As she looked at the desk in front of her she heard them swear Arizona in.
The prosecutor then started. "Can you state your name please?"
"Doctor Arizona Robbins." Arizona fidgeted in the chair. She, and Callie, knew that she was being called by the prosecution before today. She had been served days ago. At the time, she was relieved. When you are going through what her and Callie were, and a man hands you a envelope saying you were severed, divorce paper are your first thought. Relief was only Arizona's first thought. Sheer panic was the second. Pure anger was the third.
"Doctor Robbins...may I call you Arizona?"
"Doctor Robbins is fine." Arizona said coldly.
The attorney smiled smugly. Callie had to admit that made her proud somehow. "Ok, Doctor Robbins it is. Will you please state your relationship to Doctor Torres?"
Arizona took a deep breath and looked at the man for only a second before he questioned her.
"Is there a problem, Doctor Robbins?"
"She is my wife."
"Your estranged wife, correct." Arizona only looked at the man. She suddenly saw where this was going.
"Yes."
"You were in a plane crash with Doctor Sheppard correct?"
"Yes."
"You were both injured, correct?"
"Yes."
"Along with the father of your and Doctor Torres' child? Doctor Torres best friend, Mark Sloan?"
"Yes."
"Didn't he succumb to his injuries of the accident?"
"Yes."
"I am truly sorry about your loss. He died along with Doctor Sheppard's sister-in-law?"
"Yes."
"Doctor Robbins you eventually lost your left leg in that accident didn't you?"
"Yes."
"That must have caused problems. I mean your wife was an orthopedic God as Doctor Yang said." Arizona didn't answer the question. "What happened to your marriage, Doctor Robbins?"
"Objection!" Callie's attorney stood. "Doctor Robbins, and her marriage, aren't on trial here."
"It is very relevant" The attorney said.
The judge said that she would allow the questioning. Arizona's heart dropped. What little doubt she had as to where this was heading was now gone.
"Doctor Robbins, do I need to ask the question again?" Arizona didn't answer. "You cheated on your wife, isn't that correct?"
Arizona looked at Callie with 'I'm sorry' written all over her face. "Yes." She answered.
"You cheated with another Doctor, correct?"
"Objection!"
The attorney looked at the judge. "It is relevant."
"Make your point." The judge warned.
"Doctor Robbins?" He waited for an answer.
"Yes."
"Matter of fact, you had the affair at the hospital didn't you?"
Suddenly Arizona was nauseous. "Yes."
"In a hospital that you not only work, but co-own with your wife?"
"Yes."
"Are you seeing someone now, Doctor Robbins?"
"Objection! This isn't their divorce hearing!" Callie's attorney spouted.
"Make the point!" The judge demanded.
"Ok. I see that you don't want to answer that. So let me make it easy. Isn't it true that you are seeing one of the interns at the hospital?" Arizona couldn't even look in Callie's direction. "At the hospital that you and Doctor Torres own? Where she was already embarrassed by the cheating?"
The courtroom went silent.
"Doctor Robbins, would it be easy to say that maybe, just maybe your wife is a little distracted at work lately?"
"I- I don't know."
"Doctor Robbins. If you had been through what Doctor Torres has in the past year. The loss of her best friend and the father of her child. The injury to you. The plane crash itself. Her wife's infidelity with women that work with and for her. Would you, yourself be distracted?"
Arizona just looked at the man. He smiled cocky. "No further questions. Thank you, Doctor Robbins." Callie felt like that she had just publicly been kicked in the teeth again. "We would like to call Callie Robbins...I'm sorry... Torres to the stand."
Callie stood on two very shaky legs as she waited for Arizona to walk past to her seat. Callie refused to even look at her.
"Your honor, can we give Doctor Torres a moment?"
The judge saw the tears that Callie was trying to keep at bay. "We will have a 10 minute recess."
Callie thankful for the break, found her seat and felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned to see Meredith. "They are trying to shake you, Callie."
"Well they just did a hell of a job." Callie sighed.
"Just breathe."
Callie placed her hand on top of Meredith's. "Thank you."
Callie sat in her chair just trying to catch her breath. Before she knew it, the 10 minutes were over. Callie suddenly found herself on the stand.
Callie was asked several questions by the attorney about the ins and outs of the surgery. All of which Callie answered to the letter. She watched the attorney seat down, thanking God that it was over. She watched her attorney walked toward her.
"Callie. What was it like for you when you learned of the plane crash?"
"Horrible."
"Why?"
"My wife was on that plane. My daughter's father and her godmother. My friends were on that plane."
"Did you think that they would find them? Your wife?"
"Not alive." Callie answered honestly. A answer that she had never allowed herself to say out loud.
"And when they did?"
Callie smiled. "I was- ecstatic."
The attorney smiled back at her. "I can imagine." Callie looked at the hands in her lap. The attorney gave her a second to clear the tears that were showing in her eyes.
"What was the injuries to Doctor Robbins?"
"She had a compound fracture in her leg that was severely infected."
"You talked to the Doctors in Boise, correct?"
"Yes."
"What did they say?"
"Objection!" The attorney shouted.
Callie's attorney smiled and simply answered "Relevant."
"I will allow it." The judge said.
Callie answered. "They said that her leg was beyond repair. That the infection was almost too far gone."
"What was their recommendation?"
"That the leg needed to be removed."
"What was your opinion?"
"We would try and save the leg. Arizona was concerned about being a surgeon with only one leg. She wanted to try and save it."
"So you agreed?"
"Yes."
"Doctor Robbins became very sick when the infection began to spread?"
"Yes."
"Doctor Robbins coded, correct?"
"Yes."
"Doctor Torres, where were you when your wife coded?"
"I was in surgery."
"What happened? I mean how did you learn that your wife, who you had a wonderful marriage with at this point, was dying?"
"Alex...one of our doctors, came in the OR and told me."
"Told you what, Callie?"
"That Arizona coded."
"And what was your response?"
"I asked if they had done everything they could. If all the medications where given to bring her back."
"Then?"
"He asked what I wanted to do."
"You promised your wife that you wouldn't remove her leg, didn't you?"
"Yes...I promised."
"To make your wife feel better, you made a promise that you knew was a long shot?"
"Yes."
"What did you tell Alex?"
"We agreed it was the leg."
"And?"
"I told him to take the leg."
"You told someone else to remove your wife's leg?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"She was my wife. I wasn't allowed in the surgery."
"So what did you do?"
"I continued the surgery that I was in."
"Let me get this straight, Callie. Your wife, who just survived a plane crash, that was worried about her medical career, was in the next room having her leg removed, while coding, by someone else? After you promised not to remove it?"
"Yes."
"While you continued the surgery?"
"Yes."
"That had to be nerve wrecking?"
Callie almost chuckled. "You have no idea."
"Did you think your wife would forgive you?"
"I hoped."
"Yet you continued to do your surgery?"
"Yes."
"Callie, am I right to understand that the surgery that you were performing at that exact moment, while your wife, who you had a good marriage with, was dying, wasn't that Derek Sheppard?"
"Yes."
"So-" The attorney turned toward the other table. "Would you say that would be the most, what was it- " He looked at the other attorney. "What was it you called Doctor Torres? Distracted?" He then looked at Callie. "Callie, have you ever, in all the years you have been performing surgery, been THAT distracted as you were that day?"
"No."
"Your wife was dying in the next room and you had no way of knowing if she had survived yet you kept your cool enough to continue a surgery that several other doctors said was impossible? That saved Derek Sheppard, a world renowned Neurologist, hand? An exceptional Doctor that early said if his own children needed an Orthopedic surgeon that he would, and I quote, that he would move heaven and earth to get you?"
"That's what happened." Callie said frankly.
"I am going to ask you a very personal question, Callie." Callie braced herself. "The plane crash was months approximately 9 months ago. How was your marriage after the crash?"
"She was angry."
"How angry?"
"She didn't speak to me for months."
"Did she attend the funerals of the co-workers that died?"
"No."
"Didn't you say that Doctor was a shell of the person she was?"
"Yes."
"Then, were you surprised that she cheated?
"Yes." Callie paused. "No...I don't know."
"Your wife cheated months ago. She has seemed to have moved on. I would say that a dying loving wife should have been much more distracting than one that had cheated and moved on."
"Yeah." Callie answered calmly.
"When you should have been distracted you were a rock Doctor Torres." He looked at the judge. No further questions.
xxxxxx
Callie took a long sip of her wine. Wine that she was given by Derek and Meredith after the judge had ruled in her favor. She sat the wine glass down and mindlessly turned the ring that was still on her finger. She was lost in thought when there was a knock at the door. She stood to answer it and found the last person she expected. Her wife.
She looked into Arizona's blood shot eyes. "You weren't surprised?"
"What?"
"You said today- you said that you weren't surprised."
"At that point you were someone I didn't know anymore." Callie walked into the room causing Arizona to follow.
"So what now?"
"With what?"
"When I was subpoenaed I thought -" Arizona stopped not being able to even say the words.
"Oh. You thought-"
"Yeah." Arizona watched Callie take a long sip of wine. "I can't be afraid that everyone who asks my name is going to serve me with papers. I need to know-"
"I have a job interview next week." Callie never looked at Arizona.
"Ok." Arizona said stunned. "Where?"
"I knew." Callie looked at her. "I knew about Leah. Do you know how hard it is to be in that hospital?"
"Callie, there isn't another hospital in the city."
"It's in Miami."
"Wha-"
"I did the phone interview last week. They wanted to see how all this played out and meet in person next week."
"You are not taking Sofia to fucking Miami, Callie!"
"A lot of divorced people do it. You can still get her and then when she starts school in a couple years, you can have summers and we will rotate holidays."
"So that's it. You are just leaving Seattle and our marriage?"
"You are questioning our marriage and the ring on her hand as been all over and probably in someone else? You need to figure out who you are now, Arizona. Whoever it is apparently doesn't want to be with me, so please, let me go. I can't do this." Callie turned away when the tears started.
"How can I figure out who I am with you gone?"
"I have been gone from your thoughts for a long time, Arizona."
"This isn't fair!"
"What isn't fair is that you got on that plane. It isn't fair that it crashed. It isn't fair that Lexie and Mark died. It isn't fair that the pilot will never walk again. It isn't fair that you as a Doctor ask me to keep a promise that you knew I couldn't. It isn't fair that you lost your leg. Those things aren't fair, Arizona. You having sex with someone else isn't about what was fair. It was about what you wanted. What you needed that I couldn't give you. Now I am asking you to give me what I need. Space from that hospital. Space from the whispers. Space from looking at Leah Murphy. If you care anything about me, let me go."
"If you need space I will give you that, but I am not letting you go. I don't know how to fix this. I don't know how to fix you hating me or throwing me out of our apartment. I don't know how to fix that."
"And neither do I."
Arizona walked to the door and just before opening it she turned to look at her. "Remember that you went to Mark when we broke, I just went to someone else."
"We weren't married, Arizona. That was break up sex. Was it right, no, but we are still married! I feel like I am still being cheated on."
"I will never love anyone like I do you. Sex with someone else is sex. With you it was being with the person that I loved. Lauren didn't give me that and neither does Leah." She watched Callie take another drink. "I haven't asked anything of you in months Callie, but I am asking...I am begging you not to do this. Don't give up on us yet." With that she left the room.