AN: Hey everyone! It's been a while since I last posted anything on here, but this just popped into my head and wouldn't leave until I wrote it down. I hope you all enjoy :)
What a shitty day it had been. Arizona stumbled in the front door, her brain still trying to process the chaos she had seen that night. Those poor girls. That poor family. How quickly their lives had changed. All because some idiot decided that the game on their phone was more important than the stop light. Arizona had done all she could, but still she found herself in that drab waiting room, trying to find the right words to tell these parents that they would have to bury their children. No matter how many times she had had that talk in her career, it always left her with the same empty, numbed feeling. Early on in residency, one of her attendings had told her that these were the cases that stayed with you and made you question why you had even chosen to become a doctor in the first place. She hadn't believed him then, but she certainly did now.
She somehow found her way through the kitchen and towards the laundry room in the dark. She peeled her scrubs off and let them fall to the floor. The smell of sweat and blood filled her nose, more evidence of the horrors she had experienced. It had been a long day and even longer night. The small part of her brain that was still functioning told her that a hot shower would make her feel better, but she was too tired and could feel herself drifting off where she stood. Instead, she found one of Callie's old college shirts, threw it over her head, and made her way up the stairs.
It was good that Callie had had that night off. The week had been stressful enough with them both having to take extra call and Callie had already been dealt her share of draining surgeries that week. Arizona didn't want her to bear the weight of this too.
She tiptoed through the door and crawled into bed. Arizona moved closer, wrapping her arm around Callie's waist and letting her head rest on her chest. The movement woke Callie up enough to register that she had finally come home and instinctively place her arm around Arizona's shoulder. It was hard to make out Callie's incoherent, sleep-induced mumbling, but it didn't matter. It was closeness Arizona needed- the warmth of Callie's body next to hers, the softness of her skin, and the slight rise and fall of her chest with each breath. All she needed was to come home and know that the love of her life was alive.
Maybe it was because she was exhausted, maybe it was the way Callie fingers traced random patterns across her shoulder, maybe it was because all of the adrenaline had worn off, but she couldn't stop the tears as they streamed down her face. She buried her face in Callie's chest and hugged her tighter, so much so that Callie was startled awake. Arizona could feel Callie's arms wrap around her and her cries turned into sobs. Today had been too much and Arizona wanted nothing more than to forget, but she knew she would never be able to get the image of those parents' faces out of her head. She cried for them and for all of the other parents who had lost children, including her own. All the while Callie continued to hold her, occasionally placing a soft kiss on the top of her head. Arizona knew that Callie would ask her about this in the morning, but she would wait until then and for that she was grateful. Because right now all that Arizona wanted was the comfort of Callie next to her, those strong arms keeping her safe from the rest of the world.