New story. Let me know if it's worth continuing!
Arizona was walking to the coffee cart on a typical Wednesday morning when her pager began to sound. She froze, ready to run to the ER where she'd find a dying tiny human waiting for her. To her surprise, however, the page had come from Bailey—specifically, from her office.
Knitting her brows together, Arizona turned in the opposite direction from her beloved caffeine, heading instead toward the chief's office. There, she tentatively knocked on the door.
"Come in, Robbins," she heard from inside.
Arizona promptly opened the door and peeked inside. "Chief? You paged?"
"I did," Bailey confirmed. "Come in. Close the door behind you."
Arizona obeyed. She sat down in the chair across from Bailey. "Am I in trouble?" she worried.
"No, no, no," Bailey hurried to assure her. "Nothing like that. You do great work. You always have."
Arizona nodded slowly, increasingly confused about why Bailey had paged her.
"I, actually…" Bailey cleared her throat. "I wanted to talk to you about something…personal."
Arizona's eyes widened. "Oh. Is everything okay? Is Ben-"
"Not about me," Bailey interrupted. She paused, as if silently deciding something. Then, she started in. "Have you…spoken to Callie much lately?"
Arizona stiffened. She was on decent terms with her ex-wife—good terms, in fact—but she resented the question. It seemed invasive, somehow, even though Arizona knew it wasn't. Bailey had officiated their wedding, after all. And they'd been friends for years. "A little," she admitted, keeping her tone blasé. "I talk to her a little every day when I call Sof."
"Has she mentioned…how she's doing lately?" Bailey pressed.
Arizona frowned. "No." In truth, she hadn't really asked. She and Callie tended to keep their conversations to a minimum.
"Well, I'm sure she'll tell you tonight, but…" Bailey hesitated. "I know you don't like surprises. So consider this a 'surprise alert.'"
"A 'surprise alert?'" Arizona deadpanned.
Bailey just stared at her. "You ready?"
Slowly, Arizona nodded.
"Torres just called and asked for her job back."
"S-she…she what?" Arizona stuttered.
Bailey shrugged. "She said she wanted to come home. And I said we'd love to have her."
"So…" Arizona paused, attempting to make sense of her thoughts. "She's coming home?"
"She's coming home," Bailey confirmed. "But that's all I know. I'm sure she'll tell you the details tonight," Bailey quickly assured her.
Arizona gulped. "When?"
Bailey knew what she was asking. She wanted to know when Callie and Sofia would be back. "In a month. Her contract starts September 1st."
After her brief meeting with Bailey, Arizona spent the rest of the day drifting around the hospital like a ghost. She couldn't think about anything but her patients and their parents—she couldn't let herself think about Callie.
And, of course, the thought of Sofia being home in one month's time thrilled her. Sof would have to get reacclimated, start a new school, and endure a bunch of sudden changes—again—but Arizona wasn't so worried about her. Sof was young and a kid who was, to Callie and Arizona's dismay, fairly well-accustomed to change. She was strong. She'd had to be.
Arizona was more worried about Callie. Not only about seeing her again, after a year of being apart, but about Callie herself. Why was she coming home? What had happened with Penny? Had Callie gotten her heart broken again? Or had she been the one to end things?
Arizona was pondering these questions when April approached her. "Arizona!" She pulled the peds surgeon from her reverie.
Arizona's head shot up as if she were tasered.
"Are you still trying to do your one-date-a-week thing?" she wondered.
Arizona nodded. She was. She loved dating, and that at least got her out of her house and head.
"Great," April chirped, "because I talked to this woman at my church who has a daughter who's gay, and-"
"You tried to set me up with some woman's daughter at church?" Arizona countered in amazement.
"Well, not during the service," April assured her. "Afterwards. While we all ate lunch."
Arizona allowed herself a laugh. "That's sweet, April, but-"
"Oh, give it a shot," April pleaded. "All you'll have to do is show up and see how it feels."
As Callie again began to consume Arizona's thoughts, she decided to give in. She definitely needed the distraction. "Okay. Thanks, April. Sounds great."
Arizona cancelled the date she'd had planned for that evening, offering a pathetic food-poisoning excuse. Still, she was glad she had opted to take a raincheck, in the end, because Callie called right in the middle of dinner.
"Hey," Callie offered, a little cautiously.
Arizona wiped the tomato sauce from her mouth with a paper towel. "Hey."
"Sof is here, but…" Callie paused. "I was hoping that you and I could talk first.
"Okay," Arizona breathed. She knew what was coming.
"I, um." Callie paused, and Arizona could just picture her looking down at her hand, or maybe fidgeting with something that lay on the counter. "I have some good news. Or, well, at least I think it's good news. I'm not sure what you'll think."
"It is good news," Arizona assured Callie, wanting to put her out of her misery. Her ex-wife was clearly nervous, and she didn't need to be.
Callie felt her heart speed up. Does Arizona know? Does she want me to come home? "It is?"
Arizona nodded. "Yeah. I get my daughter back."
Right. Sofia. Of course. Callie could have slapped herself for thinking Arizona meant something else. Instead, she asked, "How did you know?"
"Bailey told me," Arizona offered. "She said you'll be home in a month."
"Yeah," Callie exhaled. "And I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I just…I mean, you're the first person I've told, after Bailey, and I just had to tell her because I had to ask for my job back. I…I didn't want to say anything until it was a sure thing. I wanted to make sure I still had somewhere to come home to."
"You'll always have a home here," Arizona vowed. Then, feeling the way her heart drummed in her chest at the implication in her confession, she added, "That's what Bailey seemed to say today. That you're always welcome at Grey-Sloan." Good save.
"Right," Callie acknowledged. "Of course. So, um, you know I'll be back at the end of August?" she asked.
"Yep. Sounds good," Arizona approved.
But, despite Arizona's even tone, Callie refused to believe that her ex-wife was so okay with the sudden change—especially after enduring such a big change only a year before, when she'd first moved to New York. "Arizona..." she began. "Are you okay?"
"Me?" Arizona's eyebrows flew up in surprise. "Are you okay?"
Suddenly, Callie was equally as confused. "What? No. I'm fine. I'm great," she corrected. And she was. Sort of. Making a plan to come home, talking to Arizona...she felt better than she had in a while. "What about you?"
"I'm fine, Callie," Arizona vowed. "Are you getting an apartment? Is that all set up?"
Callie laughed to herself, a little embarrassed. "I probably need to get on that," she admitted. "It's all moving pretty quickly."
"Stay with me." Arizona spoke the words before she had the chance to consider them, and then it was too late to take them back. Then again, she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to take them back.
Callie was silent for a moment, considering. Then: "Really?"
Arizona nodded. "Sure. I mean, we're still family. Right?"
Callie smiled. "Right," she promised. "And it'll give us a chance to catch up."
"Yeah," Arizona breathed.
They were silent for a moment, and then Callie remembered that all Arizona really wanted to do was talk to Sofia. "Well, it's getting late," she began. "I better give the phone to Sof."
Right on time, Sofia rounded the corner to the kitchen and hopped up and down in excitement as she waited for her turn.
Callie grinned. "She's dying to talk to you. So I'll talk to you tomorrow, okay? And I'll see you in a month."
Arizona inhaled a steadying breath. "Okay, Callie. Now, put Sofia on. I miss her." And I miss you, too, she thought. But, of course, she didn't dare say it.
The month of August passed by in a blur. Callie distracted herself from thoughts about her future in Seattle with packing up box after box, and Arizona distracted herself from her own thoughts about the future with date after hopeless date.
And it wasn't that the dates were bad. They weren't. They were fun. Flirty. Easy. And the women were beautiful. In fact, at least two were signed with modeling agencies and ten years her junior.
Arizona realized that, maybe, she was the kind of woman who enjoyed the chase—maybe too much. God knew she had literally followed Callie on multiple occasions before they started dating. Not in a creepy way, though. She had just been observing her as the ortho goddess she was. It had been more out of curiosity than stalkerishness.
But the problem was she couldn't chase any of the women she was dating now. She already knew that they wanted her, so how could she chase them?
And, then again, maybe she didn't care about the chase at all. Maybe it was just that none of the women were Callie.
Still, dating was more fun than not dating—especially after her long bout of celibacy—so Arizona vowed to continue trying. Especially because one coworker after another kept setting her up with the lesbian friends they knew. That made dating easy. All she had to do was show up and woo them.
And, above all, dating made it easier for Arizona not to think about Callie.
That is, until she saw her, anyway.
"Torres, I'd love to give you the whole welcome-back orientation, but I just don't have the time today, so we're going to have to settle for a little walk-and-talk orientation instead."
"Sounds good," Callie quickly conceded, happy to be back. She hurried to keep up with the tiny chief.
"A few things have changed since you were here a year ago. And you don't know about any of them because you never visited." Bailey fixed Callie with a hard look.
"Hey, I had some stuff to figure out. I needed some space," Callie defended. "But I'm back now."
"For good?" Bailey pressed.
"For good," Callie swore.
"Good," Bailey quipped, stopping by the nurses' station on the peds floor. "Now, I've gotta go to the ER, but we'll catch up soon. You can buy me a drink or something."
Callie laughed. "I can buy you a drink?"
"That's what I said." Bailey wagged an accusatory finger in Callie's face. "You owe me some answers."
"Wait. The ER?" Callie questioned in confusion as Bailey turned to go. "If you have to go to the ER, what are we doing on the peds floor?"
Bailey shrugged innocently, but Callie saw the way something caught her eye behind Callie's head.
As Bailey made her escape, Callie turned around. And, immediately, her heart began to pound in her chest.
There she was: looking as if she'd seen a ghost, even though it hadn't been long since they had last seen each other.
Arizona.
They had only had enough time to say a quick "hi" before Arizona was called away for a surgery. Still, hours later, Callie saw Arizona again, and her heart sped up. What's wrong with me? she wondered. Do I have some newfound allergies?
Down in the ER, Callie caught sight of Arizona a third time and felt herself freeze. What is it about this hospital—about Seattle—that is making my chest ache? she asked herself.
"Torres?" Richard had stridden over to stand beside her, and Callie jumped in surprise.
"Oh. Webber. Hi."
Richard laughed, then he turned serious. "You okay?"
"I'm great," Callie assured him without thinking. Then, she added, "I don't know. I feel kind of lightheaded. Dizzy." She shrugged, waving it off. "I guess I'm a little overwhelmed."
Richard's eyebrows descended. He was clearly concerned. "C'mere." He urged her toward a quiet corner of the bustling ER. "Let's check it out."
"Oh, Richard..."
"It'll only take a minute," he assured her. "It'll give us a second to catch up, anyway."
She sat on the bed with a sigh of surrender.
Richard prepared to stick the eartips of his stethoscope into his ears. "Any other symptoms?"
Callie shrugged. "Chest pain. Sort of," she admitted.
Richard frowned. Then, he raised the chestpiece of the stethoscope to her heart. He looked at his watch, counting the beats. Seemed steady. Not too fast.
While Callie waited, she spotted Arizona. She was moving toward the elevator alongside a stretcher.
Her heart sped up, and it was enough that Richard looked up, alarmed. He followed Callie's eyes and saw Arizona.
Then, he turned back to Callie with understanding. "When did this start?" he asked. "Today?"
Callie tore her eyes away and focused on Richard. "I guess so."
"And you said you had chest pain?" Richard pressed. "So…your heart hurts?"
"I don't have an arrhythmia or anything, do I?" Callie panicked.
"No," Richard shook his head. "There's nothing wrong with you—physically, anyway."
Callie looked at him in confusion.
Richard gestured toward Arizona with a tilt of his head. "You saw Robbins and your heart started beating faster," he explained.
"What?" Callie attempted to sound incredulous, but, really, she wasn't surprised. That made sense. She knew that made sense.
"You still love her." It wasn't a question. Richard knew it was the truth.
Callie sighed. Richard was right. She loved Arizona. And she realized then that that was why she had decided she'd had to come back to Seattle. To come home. Because Arizona was home.
She put her face in her hands. Loving Arizona was hopeless. So many years had passed. And, even being back, there was still so much emotional distance between them.
And, of course, her ex-wife had moved on. Hadn't she? "What do I do?" she demanded. She needed a cure.
When Callie finally looked up, Richard offered a helpless shrug. "There's only one cure for this, Torres."
Callie waited, eyes wide and expectant.
Richard smiled and set an allaying hand on her shoulder. "Listen to your heart."