Chapter 1

"I just got fired….!" Silence. She felt entire world around her stop. Her body froze, eyes widen in shock, mouth trying to say something when she watched the woman she was dating for a quite a while now climb up the stairs and leave her standing alone. She couldn't think, and yet her mind was running at a thousand miles per hour. Questions, concerns, worries, confusion, everything was there. "Whaa…" she tried to speak but couldn't form the word itself let alone a sentence. Nurses and doctors passing by her kept glancing at her. She hadn't moved from her place for at least three complete minutes. Even though it sounds like a short amount of time, Arizona's mind wondered in all possible directions in those three minutes.

"Dude are you okay?", Alex came from behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder, his face a bit worried and frowned. He was trying to read her but failing completely. He had never seen the woman who was the reason for where he stood right now as a doctor and a human being, so shocked and defeated; not since her court battle. "Robbins" he called again, not too loud but loud enough to bring Arizona out of her world and turn to her left side to face Alex. "Are you okay? What's wrong with you?" He could see that even though she had acknowledged his presence she was still elsewhere. He wanted to help her but knew that somehow, he couldn't, at least not in the hospital lobby. He placed his hands on either sides of shoulder and turned her completely to face him.

"I.. Uhh.. I nee.." and she sighed. She wanted to talk but couldn't. What the hell just happened? What did she mean by she was fired? And how come we never crossed paths throughout the night and the events that lead to this?... Her head was full with so many unanswerable questions. I need to talk to her.

"Robbins would you freakin' talk to me please? I'm getting kinda worried here. ROBBINS!" He shouted at her and it caused everyone to stop in their tracks and look at the two attendings standing at the start of the staircase.

"I-I'm sorry Alex. I have to go! I.. I'm sorry." She told him before dropping her gaze to the floor. "This can't be happening." She started talking to herself and ran up the same stairs she had seen the woman she was dating climb up only a few minutes ago, leaving Alex staring at her in nothing but utter confusion and worry. He sighed and left the place too but made a mental note to check on his boss later.

ATTENDING'S LOUNGE

Arizona reached the Attending's lounge as fast as her prosthetic could allow her to run. This was the first place that came to her mind she asked herself where she could find Eliza. Reaching the door and finding Eliza just standing in the middle of the lounge with her back to the door and hands on her hips, she sighed and slumped her shoulders. "Eliza" she whispered loud enough for Eliza to hear but she didn't turn. Arizona walked towards her and stood on her right side facing her. She wanted to put her hand on Eliza's shoulder or her arm but she didn't know how to approach the situation.

Eliza was slightly shaking her head and staring at the wall. Slightly sticking out her tongue, she sighed and kept staring ahead. This is just perfect. I don't even.. What the hell did Bailey just…. She couldn't even gather herself to think about what had happened and how her life had suddenly gone from making out in the car with her woman no less than 12 hours ago to now being officially fired.

"Eliza what happened? Please talk to me." The blonde made an attempt to test the temperature expecting either a blow of emotions or complete silence. She received the latter one.

"Eliza please talk to me. I have no idea of what the hell happened that led to you being fired. So please ta—" before she could ask her once more she was cut off by Eliza's moist yet angry eyes staring right into hers when she turned her head towards blonde.

"What happened is that I followed the protocols which is apparently not something expected to run this hospital when there's a crisis." The brunette backfired after staring into Arizona's eyes for couple of seconds.

"What do you mean?" Arizona couldn't understand.

"I mean.." she sighed when she saw the compassion in those blue eyes and loosened her expressions a little and continued. "Bailey fired me. I have to pack up and get the hell out as soon as possible. I don't wanna stay here any longer than I have to. Please just leave me to it. I don't want to discuss anything right now." She stated as calmly as she could because she didn't want to shout at her girlfriend or whoever the blonde was to her considering they hadn't officially accepted each other as girlfriends.

"But I just..-" Arizona wanted to talk to the brunette and understand what exactly had happened but she could understand the state Eliza was in. She knew now was not the time to demand details of the events. But she didn't want to leave her alone. She wanted to be with her but after Eliza telling her to leave her to it, she couldn't gather her thoughts to say something so that Eliza would let her stay with her in the lounge. "Is it okay if I stay here while you.." she couldn't finish the sentence cause she never thought she'd have to see this woman packing her stuff for good.

"Yeah you can stay while I pack up." With that Eliza turned away, walked towards her cubby and started putting everything in her purse. She threw her lab-coat and stethoscope in the cubby. After packing everything she grabbed her clothes and ran in the changing room. After changing out of scrubs and into her regular clothes, black pants with white formal shirt (tucked-in), she emerged out of the changing room and went past Arizona back to her cubby. She put her scrub clothes into the cubby, grabbed her grey jacket and purse, shut the cubby close and turned to face Arizona. "I'll see you later."

Arizona was still trying to process everything while watching Eliza pack and get ready to leave. After hearing I'll see you later she immediately stepped forward and tried to speak up. "Let me come with you. Please." She didn't know how to make her feel better for she knew that there was nothing that she could do right now that would make the brunette feel better but she wanted to be with her. "I understand that you want to be alone right now but I can be there with you. Just let me be and if you still feel that you want to be alone then just say the word and I'll leave."

"Arizona I'm using all my energy to remain calm right now and the moment it's all consumed I'm gonna burst out and I don't want you to be there at that time. So please just… Just let me go." She had to figure a lot of stuff and she didn't think Arizona could help much in the situation. She like the blonde a lot but they've been dating for a very short time. She had faced a vulnerable situation with her before but that was before they started seeing each other, before they kissed. This was different. They weren't even officially "girlfriends" yet.

"Eliza don't push me away. Please! I won't ask you anything about what happened. Please just let me come with you. I don't want you to be alone right now." Arizona pleaded and hoped with all of her heart that the brunette would agree.

"ARIZONA!" she shouted and that caused the blonde to step back a little. "I don't want to be with anyone right now. We've been dating for few weeks and it had been fun but this isn't about us. I need to figure out some things on my own and you being there is not gonna help the situation. So just please, I'm begging you to let me go without asking me stop again. Just let me leave." She stressed every word of the last sentence staring intently in those blue eyes that were trying too hard to abstain forming of tears.

"Okay. I'm sorry I didn't want to push you. I uh… I just wanted to help." Arizona said dropping her gaze to the floor.

"Yeah well, I'm not the one who needs help around here." Eliza scoffed.

"Can I call you later today?" Arizona again hopefully asked.

"Please don't. I'll call you when I can." Eliza said without looking directly at her. "I have to leave." With that she put her jacket on, hung her purse over her left shoulder and left the attending's lounge without looking back leaving Arizona with feeling of emptiness.

"What the hell just happened." Arizona tried very hard to control her tears but she couldn't. She sat on the couch, elbows rested on knees and head in her hands. She controlled herself enough not to sob but she couldn't help tears streaming down her cheeks. For her everything was perfect until she met Eliza about 20 minutes ago. She was cheerful even after working all night in the hospital that was on fire with a rapist on loose, she was looking forward taking the brunette back home and sleep it out in their own way, but now everything seemed so unsure. Why is it that something always has to go wrong when I pull myself together and find a path where I can be happy again? When is it going to stop? Is it ever gonna stop?