A/N: I'm back! Another story idea came to me during a long run- so everyone can thank marathon training for this story. It will be a slow burn so please don't flame me for all of the Calzona in the beginning. It is an Alex/Arizona story even if it doesn't seem that way at first. This is canon until Arizona's return from Malawi in 7x10 and even then for the first few chapters it will stay with canon except for some added in scenes. I tried not to go into too much detail of things that were actually seen on the show instead adding to the moments surrounding them. As I stated in the beginning of The Runaways - I understand that many readers out there will have a problem pairing Arizona with a man but this is fanfiction for a reason and we're all allowed to have our crack!ships. If you don't want to read an Alex/Arizona story then use the back button on your browser. I appreciate everyone who has messaged me about more stories - please let me know what you think about my newest venture. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Grey's Anatomy and its characters are owned by ABC and not me.

...

Arizona Robbins wasn't sure what to expect when she showed up on Callie Torres' doorstep that fall night. She had only been in Malawi for a month when she realized what a terrible mistake she had made by leaving her girlfriend at the airport. Arizona found that life without Callie wasn't easy in Africa. While she loved the work she was doing with the clinic, she was crying everyday. She thought that over time the tears would stop but they didn't – they just kept falling harder. It was then that she realized that crying for three years straight wasn't an option and she came up with a plan to return to Seattle.

Arizona's first order of business when she landed in Seattle was finding Callie and making things right. Teddy Altman was the only person from Seattle that Arizona had kept in touch with after she left for Africa and thanks to Teddy, Arizona knew that Callie had moved in across the hall from their old apartment with her best friend Mark Sloan. After a day and a half of traveling, Arizona found herself staring at the door to Callie's new home. Her new home because Callie had given up her apartment to move with Arizona to Malawi before Arizona told her she didn't want her to come on the adventure with her. Arizona kept staring at the door in front of her. She couldn't take her eyes off of it. It was a familiar door to her as she used to live right across the hall from it. She had been in that apartment at least a hundred times over the last two years. She never felt nervous looking at that door before but at that moment, as she tried to gain her courage to face Callie, her stomach was in knots. Arizona had spent the last week in Malawi counting down the hours and minutes until she would see Callie again. She was so excited to see her ex-girlfriend's beautiful face again but as she stood outside of apartment 501 she just couldn't bring herself to knock on it. She didn't know what kind of reaction she would get from her lover. She hoped with everything that she had that Callie would be just as happy to see her as she would be to see the Latina but she also had to be realistic – she knew that Callie was hurt by her actions. So Arizona did what she knew best and had spent the long plane trip back home to Seattle preparing a speech to win Callie back. It was a good speech and she was sure it was enough to win back Callie's heart because it had to be; she couldn't let herself believe that Callie wouldn't take her back. After one last pep talk, Arizona decided she had to bite the bullet. She knocked on the door that had been taunting her for the last fifteen minutes and was rewarded moments later by finally getting to see the face that she had spent the last seven weeks dreaming about. She immediately started into her planned spiel and couldn't help but notice the multitude of expressions on Callie's face. After she finished her speech she watched as Callie didn't say a word and then the door that had just brought her the most beautiful vision she had seen in weeks was closed. Arizona's face fell and she sighed as she realized that getting her girlfriend back wouldn't be as easy as she thought. She didn't expect to be welcomed back with open arms but she didn't expect to have the door slammed in her face either.

Arizona didn't move for minutes. She stood there and stared at the door again. It was still taunting her. She didn't want to leave in case Callie changed her mind and wanted to talk to her. After an hour of sitting outside the apartment Arizona decided Callie wasn't coming out for her. She debated camping out outside the door but decided that she would be able to fight for her love much better if she got a decent night of sleep. Arizona cast one last glance at Callie's door before turning around and heading out to find a hotel. Sleep didn't come easily for Arizona that night. She kept replaying the two minutes that she had spent with Callie over and over again. She couldn't get the Latina's face out of her head. She recalled how when Callie first opened the door she looked surprised but happy to see Arizona but over the course of her speech Callie's face turned more and more sullen before she ultimately shut the apartment door. After hours of tossing and turning in the empty hotel room, Arizona gave up on sleep and again found herself waiting outside of apartment 501. And again, Arizona found herself unwanted by the woman she wanted the most.

During her weeks in Malawi, whenever Arizona had any down time, Callie was all that Arizona thought about. She tried to only think about the happy times but at night when she was sleeping she'd have nightmares about how they left things. She would see Callie's face begging Arizona to not walk away from her and their relationship. Arizona knew how much reliving that memory hurt her so she knew that Callie's pain at being the one left behind had to be much worse. After having the apartment door shut on her the night before, Arizona did not expect getting Callie back to be easy. All she wanted to do was to be able to talk to Callie; to have a discussion about what went wrong with their relationship and how she would fix it. But Callie made it painfully clear to Arizona that she did not want to talk to Arizona.

…

Arizona knew that it was going to take time to gain Callie's heart again and even more importantly to gain her trust again. To be able to have that time to win Callie back she needed a job in Seattle and headed straight for her old hospital. She was shocked that she didn't receive a warm welcome back by Chief Webber. In fact, the only person that seemed to be happy to have Arizona back from Malawi was her protégée Alex Karev. Alex was the only person to smile when they saw her again. He was the only one to be excited for her to be back. Arizona was grateful that there was at least one person in her life that she didn't have to work hard to gain their trust back.

She hadn't been back in the United States for twenty-four hours and she had already been rejected by Callie three times. She suffered through a long surgery having to stand right next to the woman that she just wanted to kiss and hold. When Arizona watched Callie walk away from her that night she vowed to keep fighting. She was going to do what she had told Callie she would do – she would tell Callie every day how sorry she was for hurting her so badly and how much she loved her.

At the end of a very long few days of travel and then a day working side by side with the love of her life the last thing Arizona wanted to do was to go home to a foreign and empty hotel room. She wanted to be with Callie at home in their apartment. But that apartment wasn't home anymore. Strangers she had met only once to sign the sublet contract were now calling apartment 502 home. And the one person that could make anyplace home, even a stale, boring hotel room didn't want to have anything to do with her. Arizona just couldn't face an empty hotel room just yet so she made her way across the street to the Emerald City Bar. Arizona hoped that after a night of drinking, she would be able to forget that she had royally screwed up her life.

Walking into Joe's bar was as close to home as Arizona was going to get that night. She recognized many of the patrons inside the bar from the hospital as she entered but only as acquaintances. She figured that it being a Tuesday night she probably wouldn't have to deal with running into any of her coworkers and their evil looks as they all took Callie's side in the breakup. Arizona even found that her best friend at Seattle Grace-Mercy West was icing her out. Teddy wanted to remain neutral in the Callie versus Arizona war and was thus keeping some distance from the pediatric surgeon. Arizona was grateful that no one was there that would want to bother her. She was not in the mood to be social that night. She took a seat at the end of the bar and ordered two beers. She could hear the laughter and chatter of the busy bar surrounding her but she was in her own little world surrounded only by her own demons. The only person that she was concerned with was Joe and making sure he kept putting the drinks in front of her. Over two hours and six drinks had passed when Arizona felt someone sit down on the bar stool next to her. She could feel eyes burning into the back of her head.

Without looking up from the half empty glass in front of her, Arizona told off the person who she was expecting to try to hit on her, "Look, I'm sure you're a nice person but I just want to be alone tonight."

"That's not going to happen, Dr. Robbins," the familiar voice spoke. "Because tonight is trivia night and my date stood me up so I need a partner and lucky you – you're it."

Arizona's eyes moved from her drink to meet the eyes of the man next to her. "Karev…," Arizona sighed, really not wanting to deal with anyone.

"We're not going to talk. We're just going to kick some ass at trivia together." Alex said as he made eye contact with Joe to get a beer. "You know the prize is a hundred dollar bar tab. I think your half of that could cover at least some of the damage you're doing tonight," Alex finished as he pointed to all of the empty bottles in front of her.

Arizona raised her eyebrows, "No talking?"

"Only if you want to," Alex said as he took a swig of beer. "I only want to win some free beer."

"Okay."

Alex smiled and asked Joe for a team entry form. He started filling it out when he came to a blank that needed an answer, "What's our team name?"

"I don't care. You pick," Arizona answered as she continued to stare at her beer.

Alex frowned. This was not the same Arizona Robbins that he knew. This Arizona Robbins was downright depressing. He hadn't seen her smile all day. Not even when she was speaking to her patients. The Arizona that he knew would have immediately given them a corny team name – something that he would be embarrassed to say out loud in a room full of adults. She was always good at playing with the kids at work and helping them to name the stuffed animals that they would get as get well presents. Names like Princess Buttercup and Mr. Gregory Blueberry would roll off of her tongue without any thought. For Arizona not to want a say in their team name was not like the woman that left for Africa a couple of months earlier.

A light bulb went off in Alex's head and he quickly filled it in and passed it back to Joe who handed him their official answer sheets. Alex turned to his partner, "You know you're going to have to take your eyes off of your beer to play. I promise you that your good buddy isn't going to go anywhere. I expect you to help me with all of the girly questions."

Arizona looked up at him and rolled her eyes, "I bet I get more of the manly sports questions right than you do."

"We'll see about that Dr. Robbins," Alex scoffed at his sports trivia knowledge being questioned.

"Karev – we're not at the hospital, you don't have to be so formal. And you want to bet on that?"

"Competition within our own team, Robbins?" Alex questioned. He couldn't bring himself to call her Arizona to her face. She was still his superior after all. Calling her Arizona when talking about her behind her back was one thing – but not to her face. "That doesn't help team unity."

"Sounds like someone knows that they would lose."

"Fine. Whoever gets the most sports questions right and the fastest gets the full prize, no splitting it," Alex stuck his hand out to his mentor.

Arizona grasped his hand and shook, "Easiest hundred bucks I've ever made."

Two hours and many drinks later Arizona claimed victory in the sports trivia competition. Sadly, Team Hardcore came in third place overall and thus there was no bar tab for Arizona to claim as her prize.

"It's not fair," Alex whined. "That shouldn't count as a sports question."

"It was about football!" Arizona exclaimed, nearly spitting out her beer in excitement over her victory. All of the hours spent being forced to watch sports because her older brother was bigger than her and would sit on her if she tried to change the channel paid off as she easily beat Alex on sports trivia.

Alex shook his head, "It was about cheerleading. That is not a sport."

"It was about football!" Arizona protested. "It's not my fault that you didn't know that the Cowboys were the first football team to have a professional cheerleading squad. Plus, I totally schooled you on the baseball question too."

"Only because you went to Hopkins and the question was about the Orioles."

Arizona shook her head wildly, "Face it Karev. A girl beat you in sports knowledge. I think you owe me a drink."

"That wasn't the deal," Alex protested. Arizona started to interrupt when Alex continued, "But because I'm a nice guy, I'll get you another. More beer or you want something harder?"

Arizona nodded. "Beer is good. Thanks, Alex."

"It's just a drink, Robbins. Even as a lowly resident I can afford it."

"Not just for the drink. You're the only person who actually seemed happy to have me back today."

Alex handed Arizona her drink and tipped his own beer bottle toward her to clink their glasses together, "I am happy to have you back. Stark is horrible. He already hated me before today and I'm sure after what we pulled in the OR it is only going to get worse."

"I think he hates me more than you so that should give you a free pass."

Alex noticed that Arizona was starting to get depressed again. As the trivia game started earlier in the evening he watched as Arizona started to come out of her sadness and had almost been the old Arizona that he recognized by the end of it. She took no mercy in taunting the other teams around the bar and she even had no problem taunting Alex over their sports bet. But as soon as the game was over, she reverted back to the sullen woman that was sitting at the end of the bar all alone when Alex had come in. He had heard the rumors throughout the day at the hospital; that Arizona had come back for Callie who wanted nothing to do with her. He watched Arizona down the drink that he had gotten for her. She looked woozy as she sat on her barstool.

"Can I help you get home?" Alex asked as he looked at his watch. It was midnight and he knew that they both had to be at the hospital the next morning.

"I don't have a home anymore," Arizona said sadly as she motioned Joe over to settle up her tab.

Once Joe had given her her card back, Arizona went to stand from the stool and put her jacket on. She was immediately wobbly on her feet as she started to feel the full effects of all of the alcohol she had been drinking.

Alex reached out to help stabilize her, "Where are you staying?"

"Archfield," she mumbled as she struggled to get her arm into the sleeve of her jacket.

"That's on my way," Alex said as he moved to walk outside with his boss.

"I'm okay. I think I'm going to walk. It's only a few blocks."

"I'll walk with you."

"I'm a grown woman, Karev. I'm older than you. I can make it six blocks on my own," Arizona started to argue.

Alex immediately stopped her, "You are, but it is past midnight and you've had a lot to drink. If something happens while you walk to the hotel alone I would never forgive myself." Alex didn't want his boss to know that he actually cared about her so he decided to bring it back to himself, "Plus, I just got you back and I'd like to keep you around for awhile. You're my new heat shield from Stark."

By the time Alex finished his speech, Arizona realized they had already walked two blocks and were almost to the hotel. It would be pointless to try to argue with Alex with only a few blocks to go. They walked the last four blocks in silence before arriving at The Archfield. Alex wanted to make sure that Arizona made it all the way to her room without incident but settled for just making sure she got into the hotel okay.

"Thanks Karev," Arizona shouted as she walked toward the large hotel door.

Alex nodded his head, "You know every Tuesday is trivia at Joe's. Maybe next week we can rematch? I need to kick your ass to make up for tonight."

"Yeah, maybe," Arizona nodded as she turned back to walk into her hotel.

"See you tomorrow, Dr. Robbins."

…

For the next week Arizona was hyper aware of Callie's location in the hospital at all times but she did not approach her ex-girlfriend. Instead, she tried to weaken Callie's resolve by having an intern or resident bring her her favorite coffee with an "I'm sorry. I love you." note scrawled on the side of the cup. She would slip notes into Callie's locker – notes that Arizona had written to Callie while she was in Africa but never got the nerve up to mail. The one thing she didn't do was confront Callie herself. She needed to give Callie the space that she knew the hot tempered woman needed to process Arizona's return. By the end of the week, Arizona watched as April passed Callie the coffee that Arizona had bought her and for the first time all week, Callie didn't immediately throw the coffee in the trash. Instead, she watched as Callie lifted the lid, sniffed it and then sipped the warm liquid before going about her morning rounds. Arizona saw that a sign that Callie was starting to crumble; that maybe soon Callie would be willing to talk to her.

After watching Callie actually accept her gift that morning, Arizona decided to approach her again and see if she could get her to talk and have a real conversation about their relationship. Arizona checked the OR board and saw that Callie was scheduled to be out of surgery at four o'clock that afternoon. Arizona was on until six but she made sure that she was in the Attendings' Locker Room at ten before four so that she could just happen to be there when Callie would be coming in to leave for the day. Just like Arizona had planned, at four, Callie pushed open the door to the room and immediately headed for her locker without giving the blonde a glance. Arizona knew that Callie saw her. They were the only two people in the room. She couldn't miss her but Callie was definitely pretending that she wasn't in the room.

"Callie, can we talk? Please?" Arizona asked as she moved from the bench she was sitting on to lean against the wall near Callie.

Callie tugged her bag out of her locker and slammed the door, "I don't have anything to say to you, Arizona."

"I love you," Arizona stated simply as Callie finally made eye contact with her.

"You left me. You broke up with me. You don't get to love me anymore," Callie retaliated as she didn't want to hear about love from the woman that broke her heart.

"Give me a chance to fix this. To fix us," Arizona reached out to grab Callie's hands. She could feel the spark that was still between them as she held them in her hands. It was the first time they had touched in two months and the electricity was still there – even Callie couldn't deny that.

Callie quickly pulled her hands away and lifted them to rub at her temple, "I can't do this, Arizona. It's been a really long day. I'm tired and I have a killer headache." Callie sighed as she looked at the dejected woman next to her. "Just not today."

"I'm not going anywhere, Callie." Arizona said with a small smile thinking that she was right, that Callie might just be softening toward her. "When you're ready… I'll be here."

Callie gave Arizona a slight nod, "Goodnight, Arizona."

Arizona watched as Callie left the room and then sat back down on the bench to overanalyze the three minute interaction. She questioned what Callie meant by her phrase "just not today." She wondered if that meant that she would talk on another day because if she didn't want to talk to her at all she could have just said that she didn't want to talk.

Arizona shook her head and willed herself to stop thinking about Callie. Overanalyzing every word of the conversation had her feeling like a high school student with a crush and she didn't want to be that girl again. The girl that just fantasized about the girl but didn't get the girl. Arizona had to believe that she would get her girl again.

...

Though the interaction was slight, the conversation with Callie left her feeling better than she had all week. She was rejuvenated as she went back to work for the last two hours of her shift. She made her way back up to the pediatric floor with a spring in her step. She found Alex waiting for her with the chart of a recently admitted patient that needed a simple appendectomy. Still feeling happy from Callie actually having a short conversation with her and knowing that Stark was already gone for the day, Arizona decided to let Karev take the appendectomy and fly solo. She watched from the corner of the operating room while Karev performed the procedure flawlessly. While an appendectomy is one of the simplest surgeries to do, it was still the first time Alex had performed a surgery without any guidance from an attending surgeon.

"Thank you Dr. Robbins. That was amazing," Alex couldn't keep the smile off of his face as he scrubbed out.

Arizona smiled, "You did well. I'm sure Stark will have my ass about this tomorrow but I don't care."

Alex had finished drying his hands and held the scrub room door open for his superior. "You know it's trivia night. You want to rematch on the sports questions?"

"I don't think so, Karev."

"I can understand," Alex nodded. "I'd be afraid of losing to me too after watching how well I kicked that surgery's ass."

Arizona laughed, "It was an appendectomy, Karev. Not exactly brain surgery."

Alex began to squawk like a chicken at Arizona who continued to shake her head at him. He finally stopped when the nurses started staring at him, "What are you going to do tonight? Go order room service, eat a tub of ice cream and watch reruns of Friends?"

"No, I prefer How I Met Your Mother, thank you very much," Arizona mumbled almost ashamed at how close Alex's words resembled her plan for the night.

"Well as the great Barney Stinson would say 'Suit up! And get to MacLarens.' Or in our case Joe's. I'll meet you in the lobby in fifteen," Alex said as he turned around and walked down toward the stairwell without giving Arizona a chance to argue with him.

Arizona stood in shock for a moment. She couldn't believe that Alex Karev had basically just told her that she was lame. Against her initial wishes, fifteen minutes later, Arizona found herself waiting in the lobby for Alex Karev.

...