It was 6 in the morning and Arizona Robbins did not want to be in an airport. She was all for early mornings, but not torturous security lines, queueing and sitting squashed between two strangers for several hours.
After a bleary-eyed security check, Arizona headed for the nearest generic coffee outlet for her morning fix of caffeine. As she joined the short queue, her phone buzzed. She felt a pang of hope before realising it was, in fact, a text from her mom.
Good luck! Dad and I know you'll be great. Keep us updated.
Arizona smiled at the image of her mother hunched over the phone, reading glasses perched on nose, tapping out each letter by letter. She loved her parents but three weeks of family time in her dead home town was more than enough.
Arizona quickly typed out a reply and checked her watch. A perfect 45 minutes to spare before boarding, thanks to the Colonel's military timings.
It was all going just about fine until the woman in front of her began gesticulating wildly at the barista.
God, Arizona was not up for drama at 6:04am. She turned back down to her phone and scrolled through her messages. Still nothing apart from her mom.
The angry woman argued with a helpless employee for a couple of minutes before rolling her eyes and sighing dramatically, "I just wanted a goddamn coffee to get me through this hell hole." The college-age barista shrugged and for the fifth time reiterated that there was nothing she could do because the machine was broken.
Callie felt bad about taking out her anger on the barista, but she was having a terrible start to the day. She'd had another fierce argument with her sister and still had a uneasy relationship with her dad. And now the barista couldn't even serve her a coffee. Wasn't that what coffee shops were for? To serve coffee. She huffed and stormed off.
Next in line, Arizona gave a sympathetic smile at the weary barista. She had worked in a coffee shop at college and knew the trials and tribulations of jobs with angry customers. And coffee shops were extra bad because sleep and coffee-deprived customers always seemed to take out their rage on the first person they saw in the morning.
"Early morning customers are just the worst, eh?" Arizona said, as she dropped an extra couple of dollars in the tip jar to hopefully brighten up the barista's awful morning. She received a grateful smile and "thanks" in return.
She understood the need for coffee but that woman clearly had some anger management issues. Coffee in hand, Arizona wandered over to her gate and whipped out her book. Half an hour later, she boarded the plane, clutching a ticket stub for seat 19B. The only perk was that she would be by the aisle, and not squashed next to some creepy man with a penchant for nodding off on stranger's shoulders, and shiver ran down her spine at the memory of that particularly unpleasant flight experience a couple of years ago.
Except by the time she got to her seat, she realised that the alternative wasn't much better. As Arizona settled down again with her book, angry coffee woman appeared in the aisle. There was a single moment where Arizona thought her prayer that angry coffee woman had messed up her seat navigation would be granted, but nope.
Arizona was sitting next to angry coffee woman. Great. Nothing says happy 7am flight like sitting next to a bitch with anger management problems. Arizona envisaged an image of her having a go at anyone in sight, which probably included her. She let the woman sit down and burrowed her nose in her book, hoping that it sent out a clear signal that she was not in the mood for communication.
When they were all belted in and taking off, Arizona noticed out of the corner of her eye that angry coffee woman kept glancing at her. Halfway through the flight, everything was okay. There had been no communication and it had been perfectly silent and peaceful.
Arizona was just checking her watch when she heard a familiar voice pipe up. "I just thought you should know I'm not normally that much of a bitch. Like, I don't normally treat people like crap."
Arizona let out a half-grunt of acknowledgement. She didn't really know what the brunette wanted her to say, so left it with a grunt.
Except, clearly, the other woman felt like that wasn't enough, and so began rambling incoherently. "Look, I bet you're judging me a lot right now, but really I don't know what came over me. I'm just having a really bad day, or even week. I had a massive argument with my family, and I'm tired of it all. And I just really need coffee in the mornings, and..."
Arizona was on the verge of tuning out, but this woman was actually kind of endearing in her desperation to prove to a stranger that she wasn't actually a fully-fledged bitch. Plus, the brunette had a hot, moody leather jacket look going on and Arizona had a thing for leather jackets.
"...I actually went back and apologised to the nice barista and gave her a tip in acknowledgement that I was being an awful person." Callie let out nervous breath at the end of her tangent and looked anxiously back up at Arizona.
"Really, it's okay." Arizona gave her a reassuring smile because this brunette seemed cute and genuinely remorseful for her behaviour. "You don't need to apologise to me."
The brunette gave a sigh of relief. "Okay, thank God, because I felt like you were totally judging me."
Arizona smiled wryly and joked, "Maybe, but just a little bit." The brunette gave a little relieved laugh, and they smiled at each other before settling back into their respective books. The rest of the journey continued in silence, except for a niggling thought in Arizona's mind. A part of her wanted to talk more to the brunette. Because unless she was a mild sociopath, nobody had a total 180 transformation without some major problems. But, on the other hand, she was probably never going to see this woman again and she had her own crap to worry about.
It had been nearly 4 months since her brother had been killed in action in Iraq. Her big brother Tim. She smiled at the memory of him, charming her friends with his effervescent smile and charisma. She could always rely on him to keep her grounded, and she wished he was here for med school. He had been so proud when he found out she had successfully been accepted into one of the most competitive med schools in the country. She was literally starting med school next week, and she was mainly excited but also slightly terrified.
As she wandered out into the baggage claim area, she realised that the brunette was still with her. And somehow they ended up next to each other in the taxi queue. Arizona double-checked the address of her new apartment on her phone, muttering "Walther Avenue" under her breath.
Callie couldn't help but overhear. She was pretty sure she heard "Walther Avenue", and that meant that the blonde woman she had met, not so incongruously, at the coffee shop and on the plane, was going to the same place as her. She weighed up the pros and cons of whether to say something but her heart overruled and her head and before she knew it, she had already struck up a conversation.
"You said Walther Avenue, right?" Callie asked. She had no idea what she was doing. Why on earth was she attempting to strike up a friendship with someone she had only known for about four hours? This blonde could be a serial killer for all she knew. The extent of their interaction had been about 30 seconds of ramble. Major word vomit. Callie braced herself for the inevitable rejection and internally cringed at her series of awful life decisions.
"Yep, that's the one. Are you headed there too?" Arizona replied, unsure of where this was going.
"I am." Callie made a split-second decision to just dive in, because this literally could not get any worse. "I don't suppose there's any chance you'd want to share a taxi? I mean you don't have to, because you don't actually know me, but it sounds like we're going to the same place. So it seems logical, right?" Callie wanted the ground to swallow her up. She had no idea what was making her blather on like some sort of mad woman.
Arizona quickly weighed up the costs and benefits of accepting a stranger's taxi ride offer. The worst thing that could happen was an awkward 25 minute taxi ride, and for an extra $15 that didn't sound too bad. "That sounds great -" Arizona paused, waiting for the brunette to introduce herself.
"Callie. Callie Torres."
"And I'm Arizona Robbins. It's nice to meet you properly."
They settled into the back of the cab, and Arizona decided to strike up some small talk. She smiled internally at the twist of coincidence. She would have never actually imagined that she would be sitting in a taxi with angry coffee woman, but here she was.
Arizona turned around and gave Callie a friendly smile, "So, what brings you to Baltimore, Callie?"
Callie visibly relaxed. That smile from Arizona was a definite confirmation that she hadn't somehow forced the poor woman into a taxi ride with her, and made her feel a lot more at ease. "I'm about to start my first year of med school actually - Johns Hopkins." Arizona began smiling widely, which began to alarm Callie. Had she said something weird? She didn't think there was anything weird about starting med school, but who knew. This was an all-round uncomfortable situation.
"No way! Me too!" Arizona grinned at Callie, "This is crazy! Who would've known that angry coffee girl would be joining me in my first year at med school."
Callie snorted and mumbled, "Angry coffee girl? Really?" But she couldn't actually be mad at Arizona because that infectious grin was all teasing and no malice. "Okay," she admitted with a wry grin, "I guess I'll have to take that." Callie was actually enjoying the small talk, feeling more at ease than all of the last month at home. In fact, she had completely forgotten about her family problems while absorbed in conversation with Arizona. She didn't really want to admit it, but the blonde was kind of cute.
"So which college have you come from?" Callie asked, keen to find out more. She knew a couple of people already at Johns Hopkins, but they were nothing more than rich acquaintances of her daddy's social circle that she had little time for. Arizona was definitely a lot perkier than her usual set of friends, but in an endearing way that made Callie smile, rather than in a way that made Callie want to punch her. After leaving Botswana, she was really done with her old wealthy, superficial friends. Going back to visit them in the last month had only made her feel more alienated from their shallow lives. Instead, Callie had found her calling - medicine.
"Fresh out of Stanford. Kind of generic, huh? I've wanted to be a doctor for as long as I can remember, so my path to Johns Hopkins hasn't been the most exciting." Arizona looked back at Callie, "What about you?"
Callie paused, unsure how much of her life to share with this random stranger. Yet, she figured that she would be seeing a lot more of Arizona, so decided to divulge. "I've actually just spent a year and a half in Botswana. I was at Yale before that." Arizona looked genuinely interested, so Callie kept going. "Yeah, I actually served with the Peace Corps. It was incredible, raw and intense, but life-changing. It's kind of why I'm here." Callie checked Arizona's expression for any signs of disinterest or judgement, but instead Arizona had just broken into another one of those characteristic smiles that lit up her whole face. Callie smiled brightly in return, surprised that one person could show as much interest as about the whole of her family and friends combined.
"Callie, that's awesome!" Arizona exclaimed. "I can't really compete with that. It's way more interesting than my medicine story."
Callie attempted an "I'm sure it's not", but it was waved away by an eager hand. Arizona still had that genuine look of interest that Callie found entrancing, and proceeded to question her manically. Callie found herself attempting to answer a barrage of questions about Botswana, and before they knew it the taxi was pulling into Walther Avenue.
"It looks like I'm in apartment 502," Callie commented as they strolled up to a non-descript apartment entrance. Part of her was hoping that Arizona would be in an apartment nearby because she definitely did not want that to be the end of their interaction.
"Looks like you're in luck, Callie," Arizona smiled, "because I'm in apartment 404. And if I have my navigational skills are right, that makes me one floor down from you."
Callie couldn't wipe that embarrassing grin from her face. She barely knew Arizona, and somehow she was excited that she would be in the same apartment block. They trudged into the block together, and Callie's brain was whirring. She really wanted to invite Arizona round to get to know her better, but didn't want to seem an over-enthusiastic freak. In the elevator, Callie crossed her arms and considered her options.
The elevator pinged as it reached the fourth floor. As Arizona exited the elevator, the doors began to close before Callie made a spontaneous decision to stick her arm out between the sliding doors. A bemused Arizona turned around and peered at Callie.
"Arizona, do you want to come over tonight? Obviously you don't have to, but I don't have any plans apart from unpacking, and that sounds very dull to me." Callie forced her expression into one of total neutrality in preparation for rejection, in case Arizona had this massive friendship group already and thought the idea of hanging alone at Callie's place was totally uncool.
Arizona's frown transformed into a grin. "Callie, I'd love to. 7?"
"Perfect," sighed Callie. She got another trademark Arizona grin and arrived at her apartment 502 with a smile etched on her face. Her roommate was supposed to be arriving later in the afternoon, so she had a precious few hours of peace before she arrived. She double-checked the documentation and saw a "Cristina Yang" with an unsmiling passport photo. Callie felt slightly alarmed that someone could manage to look so robotic in a passport photo, but reassured itself that this 'Cristina' was also a first-year med student, so what was the worst that could happen? She'd survived 18 months with strangers in Africa. A roommate situation was going to be a breeze.
One floor down and Arizona was checking on the exact same thing. She'd had an awesome roommate at Stanford, so her expectations were high. She couldn't wait for this 'Theodora Altman' to arrive. They were going to be best friends. She was sure of it.