Good Evening by jodief1
A/N: Focusing on Calzona after 6x24 (season 6 finale); rated M for future chapters. Standard disclaimer re: Shondaland: I own nothing. Thanks in advance for your review(s)! I really appreciate them (don't we all?) and will respond to each and every one. :)
Chapter 1:
Callie and Arizona stood gripping each other on the sidewalk, oblivious to the commotion all around them, until Callie's cell phone rang, breaking the spell that bound them. She reached down to flip open the phone with one hand while she continued holding Arizona's arm with the other.
"Hello?" Her own voice sounded strangely frantic to her — but a split second later, her mind caught up with her intuition, and she realized that she still didn't know exactly who had been injured in the attack. Her blood ran cold with dread until she heard the familiar deep rumble of the voice on the line:
"Oi, Torres — Thank God you're safe! You hadn't called, and I was startin' to worry…"
Callie literally sighed with relief. "Mark! Where are you? You're okay?"
"Yeah, I'm over at Presbyterian with Teddy, who just finished operating on Karev. He's stable now, and will be fine in a couple weeks, but he was shot in the chest, and would've been a goner if Lexie and I hadn't found him bleeding out in an elevator. She's with him now, he's starting to come out of it."
While she listened, Callie inhaled sharply and looked at Arizona, who was watching her intently, brow furrowed with concern. Callie mouthed "Alex," and Arizona nodded gravely.
When Mark paused, his voice breaking a little, Callie said, "Well, at least he was in good hands! And you and Lexie, you weren't hurt?"
"Nah — we were in the lobby when that nut started firin', but I grabbed Lexie and headed for the elevator where we found Karev. She had another run-in with the nut later — I don't even wanna think about it, but she said he had it in for her and Derek and Webber because they pulled the plug on the guy's wife a couple months back. He was about to shoot when a sniper hit him and he went down, and Lexie got away." Mark swallowed audibly, and his voice went to a whisper. "I swear, if he'd hurt her, I woulda gone straight after him…"
Callie cut in. "Well, it's a good thing he didn't. That…that must've happened right before he came into Peds, where I was helping Arizona with a patient." Callie looked deep into Arizona's eyes, which were swimming with tears. She clutched Arizona's arm even tighter and cleared her throat. "He, uh, he told me his name — Gary Clark — and said he'd been shot, so I gave him some bandages and told him to take them and leave the room. Fortunately, he did. He was….he was pretty out of it. He even thanked me, for Chrissakes." She shuddered inadvertently at the thought.
"Oh God, Torres." The pain in Mark's voice broke Callie's heart. "I can't believe you had to deal with that sonofabitch. You said Robbins was with you?"
"Yeah, she's right here with me now." Callie moved her free hand to cup Arizona's chin, wiping away the tears that were now beginning to streak down her pale cheeks. "She's fine, I'm fine, and we're…we're going to deal with this together. I'm never going to let her go again."
Arizona cracked a smile despite her tears, and Callie couldn't help seconding it.
"Glad to hear it," Mark replied, gruffly. "You two…you make a good pair."
"Listen, Mark…"
"You still at Grace, Torres? D'you know what happened to everybody else? I've been tryin' to call Derek and Meredith, but nobody's answering. I've been worried sick about Derek ever since Lexie said the shooter was lookin' for him. I even tried Bailey and Webber, y'know, but it's like nobody has their goddamn phones on. Can you ask around there and get back to me?"
"Sure thing. Have you seen Cristina or Owen?"
"Teddy said she was in the OR with Hunt when the lockdown happened, but they snuck out with their patient. But then Hunt turned around and went back into the hospital, 'cause he knew Yang was still in there. We haven't seen either of them over here at Presbyterian yet. D'you want me to…?"
"Nah, I'll call her, Mark. And I'll let you know what I find out. Don't worry, alright? If Derek were dead, somebody would have called us by now. He's probably just been busy dealing with….everything."
"Yeah…yeah. Sure." Mark didn't sound convinced. "I'll stay here as long as Lexie needs me, but eventually I'll head back over your way, depending on where Derek ended up. I'll see you later, okay? Keep in touch."
"You got it. Mark — I…You know…." Callie was momentarily at a loss for words. She felt herself half-grinning, foolishly, into the phone. "You're my best friend, you know that?"
"Ditto, Torres. We're gonna make it through this one, I promise. Now go find Shepherd for me."
Callie closed her phone and hugged Arizona tight. "I love you," she said simply. She felt Arizona nod into her hair. She pulled away and examined Arizona closely. "You okay?"
Arizona nodded slightly and wiped at her face. "I'm still worried about the kids finding their parents. I think I'll just run over there and make sure."
Callie chuckled. "You've got the best-trained squadron of nurses and interns I've ever seen — the kids and parents are probably long-gone by now. But go ahead — I just told Mark I would call Cristina and try to figure out what happened to Meredith and Derek." She flipped her phone open again and put it up to her ear. "I'll find you in a few minutes, okay? You have your phone, just in case?"
Arizona leaned in to give Callie another quick peck on the cheek. "Right. I do. And I love you."
"Oh believe me, I feel the same way," Callie smiled a little sadly, brushing Arizona's hair back from her forehead. "And I'll never get tired of hearing it."