Chapter One
"Callie Torres, you better not be eating ice-cream straight out of the carton" Callie groaned as she heard her agent come through the door.
"It's always great to see you Mark" she muttered slamming down the tub of ice-cream with more emphasis than she intended. "Why shouldn't I eat what I want?"
"Because we have all these great shows lined up, Disney world and bar mitzvahs..." Mark Sloan had a gleam in his eye.
"I'm a washed out popstar" Callie wailed. "No one cares if I'm 8 stone or 18 stone getting up on that stage. The past is over"
"You were a part of America's biggest girl group"
"Yet without the others I'm basically nothing" Callie slumped thinking of her former bandmates. She kept in contact with Meredith Grey more so than the rest. Meredith was known to the press for her reckless ways before suddenly quieting down to marry a doctor and become a mom. Isobel Stevens was known to the press for her risky magazine shoots, the ones she probably regretted nowadays. Callie hadn't heard much from Izzie these days. Last time they were all involved, Izzie found herself pregnant from a one-night stand. Back then, she wasn't cut out to be a mom, Callie wasn't sure what happened to Izzie. Or the baby for that matter. The final member of their band was Cristina Yang, even thinking about her made Callie's blood boil. They were the talent, before Cristina Yang decided to betray them all by quitting the band and taking their final album with her. Just like Cristina, she only cared about herself.
"So what, after all this time, you just give up?" Mark asked.
"Maybe it's for the best Mark" Callie sighed. "It's been 15 years, it's time for me to settle down, get a real job that doesn't involve me singing old songs to crowds who are trying to reconnect with their inner youth or even worse, 13 year old boy's bar mitzvah's who weren't even alive when the band ended"
"What would you do?" Mark asked. "If you gave up singing, performing tell me Callie what would you do?"
Callie pondered for a moment, realizing there was nothing else in life she wanted to do. At one point, before the band got famous she dreamed about being a hot-shot surgeon. But it was too late to do med school now and then to become an intern. Mark knew this as much as Callie did.
"I hate you" Callie muttered as Mark pulled out a binder full of upcoming shows that Callie would perform that. "I don't know why Lexie puts up with you"
Lexie, was the younger sister of Callie's former bandmate Meredith. When the band were touring, it was Lexie who was their number one fan. Although now Callie suspected it was to get closer to Mark, something which displeased Meredith a lot. Although admittedly, it seemed Meredith and Mark were getting on better as in-laws now, from the little pieces of information Mark slipped Callie's way.
"Lexie is a star, I'll admit that myself" Mark laughed, agreeing with Callie. Sometimes he couldn't believe how lucky he got with Lexie Grey. She stuck by him in the hardest of times, and even gave him a beautiful daughter Rebecca 8 years ago.
"So you were telling me about these shows?"
"Well Disneyland is a big earner Callie" Mark continued, opening up the binder to reveal the information he had on their upcoming gig. "You'll play the 7-9pm slot this Saturday"
"Fine" Callie rolled her eyes. She loved Mark, Mark was her best friend but he could be so pushy almost as if he wanted this gig more than Callie. Which, in fairness, he probably did.
The buzzer rang, interrupting their chats about upcoming shows.
"Who's that?" Mark questioned.
"Probably the cleaner" Callie shrugged.
"You complain about not having enough jobs so you hire yourself a cleaner?" Mark glanced around the place. "This place is spotless anyway"
"That's because I have a cleaner Mark" Callie grinned, leaping up off the sofa to let in her cleaner Teddy Altman. She and Teddy were pretty good friends in the past couple of months that she'd been cleaning Callie's house. Callie learned that Teddy was an army doctor, but after injuring her hand couldn't perform surgery anymore. Although Callie admitted that she couldn't even see a problem with either of Teddy's hands once Teddy told her. However, to be a surgeon, Callie suspected that any slight injuries to your hands meant your career was all but over.
Callie opened the door, coming face to face with a woman who was not her cleaner at all. She had bright blonde hair, big blue eyes and flashed Callie a grin immediately.
"Hi?" Callie questioned. "Can I help you?"
"I'm the cleaner" the blonde replied.
"I think you've got the wrong place, Teddy Altman is my cleaner"
"She's sick" the blonde told her. "She didn't tell you I would be taking her place?" she rolled her eyes. "Typical Teddy"
Callie nodded slowly.
"Well you better come in then. I'm Callie and you are…"
"Arizona. Arizona Robbins"
Callie showed Arizona to where she kept the cleaning supplies whilst listening to an anecdote of Arizona's where she revealed she once turned up to clean someone's apartment yet they had no cleaning supplies.
"Can you believe it? They thought we brought all the cleaning supplies with us" she laughed. Callie suspected that this was her ice breaker story to every new house she stepped foot in. Callie decided to laugh along.
"Well lucky for you, I even have a cupboard kept just for all sorts of cleaning supplies"
"You're a star " Arizona grinned, almost too cheery. Callie couldn't help feeling like she was betraying Teddy from liking the new girl almost instantly.
"You don't mind but I have to call your agency just to confirm"
"No go ahead" Arizona reassured her. "I'll get started on the house"
Callie walked away, out of Arizona's earshot and rang the agency who confirmed Teddy's absence and revealed that Arizona would be Callie's cleaner for about a month or so. Callie thanked the woman on the line and hung up as she heard Arizona nervously shuffling behind her.
"I noticed you have plants so I was wondering if you have a watering can"
"They're all plastic" Callie grinned. "So no watering can"
"Oh" Arizona felt herself blush and reminded herself to check things before she asked some stupid questions.
Mark came up beside them both.
"Callie are you ready to discuss Disneyland again?" he asked before glancing to Arizona. "I'm sorry, I'm Mark Sloan, Callie's agent"
"Agent?" Arizona questioned before looking at Callie. "You're an actress?"
"Singer" Callie corrected her. "A long time ago"
"And now. You should come. Bring your friends" Mark flashed her his winning smile that normally worked with all the girls. Arizona didn't budge.
"I have a date"
"I didn't tell you what day it was" Mark laughed.
"I have a lot of dates" Arizona smiled sweetly. Callie tried not to laugh. Mark was always used to having the upper hand over woman, but it looked like he had met his match. If anything Callie was beginning to like her even more now, maybe her month working for Callie would take Mark down a few pegs.
"We'll leave you to clean. Mark lets go in the other room" she directed at him taking him into the other room.
"She's tough" Mark commented.
"She's not my normal cleaner, so don't worry soon Teddy Altman will be back and she'll definitely fall for that huge smile" Callie laughed. "Now let's discuss these shows before I change my mind and move to Florida for an early retirement"
"Over my dead body" Mark laughed, before instructing Callie on their upcoming jobs together and the schedule for each particular job.
Arizona took her time cleaning as she always did when entering a person's home for the first time. She wanted to make a good impression, as well as get to know the person that she was working for. Her boss seemed nice, although Arizona couldn't say the same for her agent. The apartment was relatively normal, no posters or memorabilia of the past, which Arizona had encountered in other people's houses. Arizona wondered just how big Callie was, until she came across a framed poster in one of the upstairs bedrooms. These woman, they seemed so familiar to Arizona and she couldn't place her finger on it. However, she wasn't the one who was overly into music, it was her brother Tim who was the music fan of their family. He probably knew who Callie was, if she was even a somebody to begin with.
She took her phone out to call her brother, knowing that she shouldn't as she was working but she wanted answers and knew she would probably forget to ask Tim later. She pulled the job sheet out of her bag and read Callie's name aloud before Tim picked up the phone.
"Callie Torres, Callie Torres" she whispered. Her brother picked up.
"Sis" he greeted his sister cheerfully. "What's up, aren't you working?"
"I am. I'm in a new house and the woman was a singer. Well she is now but apparently according to her agent she was big a long time ago"
"Do you have a name?" Tim asked. Arizona had worked for a lot of singers in the past, a couple who her brother had liked and even made her ask for autographs on behalf of him, which was embarrassing.
"Callie Torres" Arizona repeated the name to her brother. Her brother paused for a moment. "Tim?"
"THE Callie Torres?" her brother nearly squealed down the phone. Arizona groaned.
"I'm starting to wish I hadn't called" she muttered.
"I have to meet her"
"We're not doing this again" Arizona warned. "She's my boss"
"Callie Torres was part of America's biggest girl group when we were teens" Tim informed her. "How can you not know who she is. Or Meredith Grey or Cristina Yang?"
"No Yang I know. Yang was a solo artist" Arizona argued.
"After she betrayed her group and took their last album and claimed it as her own" Tim filled her in. "I have to meet her, I've been in love with that girl for years. Even had a poster of the band up in my room. Broke my heart when they revealed she was gay"
"You're not meeting her" Arizona spoke in a stricter tone. "And may I remind you that you are married, with two children also" she smiled.
"I just don't understand how you don't know who she is" Tim argued.
"Maybe I knew her when we were younger, but she's hardly still big now otherwise I probably would" Arizona sighed. "I have to get going"
"Could you watch your darling niece and nephew tonight?" Tim asked her. "I forgot to ask you earlier but mom and dad are busy and Beth and I made reservations"
"Sure" Arizona replied. She had planned on a nice relaxing night, maybe a nice bubble bath but she knew her night would be filled with guitar hero and playing on all sorts of different games with the twins. "You owe me"
"You got it" Tim smiled. "Catch you later sis"
He hung up, just as Callie could be heard approaching where Arizona was. Arizona blushed again, knowing Callie had caught her on the phone but hoping that it wouldn't be too much of a problem.
"I'm sorry" Arizona spun around. "My brother needed a babysitter" she smiled. "For his kids, he's our age" she stammered.
"It's fine" Callie smiled. "You've done a good job"
"Thanks. But I really have to get going"
"You don't want to stay for a coffee?" Mark asked as he came up beside Callie. Arizona shook her head.
"No I should get going. It was nice…meeting you both" she stammered her words and hurried past them to get to where her coat was. Before Callie even had time to call out after her, she heard the door slam shut.
"Well that was weird" Mark pointed out, looking at Callie. "You don't think that was weird?" he questioned.
"Super weird" Callie replied, unable to get the blonde out of her head.