Summary: Arizona is peculiar and Callie is interested.

AN: I wanted to do things a little differently because Lexie was suddenly intriguing me so I decided to write a Calzona story with a lot of Lexie and Cristina (because bae). This story is primarily Callie/Arizona, but there is a side of Mark/Lexie.

Also, this is a little thing I'm working on while I get my other Calzona stories written up. It probably won't be super long or anything. Anyway, enjoy.

Caught in a Wonderful Lightning Storm
Chapter I: No Illusions about You

You can't hide behind social graces
So don't try to be all touchy feely.
Cuz you lie in my face of all places,
But I've got no problem with that, really.

"What is that?"

"What?"

He pointed to their usual lunch table that was unusually occupied.

Callie looked up from her tray and barely stifled a laugh.

"Guys, come on, she's not that bad," Lexie whispered, staring at the woman who was sitting at "their" table. "Let's just go over there."

"No way," Mark shook his head.

"Yeah, she's weird," Callie agreed.

"Have either of you actually ever talked to her?" Lexie asked and sighed when both of them shook their heads. "Well, I have and she's honestly not as weird as everyone thinks."

"But you admit that she is weird," Mark said as if he'd just made some important point.

She rolled her eyes and started for the lunch table. "Come on."

The two Attendings followed the resident to their regular lunch table, stopping when the woman at the table looked up at them, observing them with her stunning cerulean gaze and her ever-present, absentminded, vacant little smile.

"Hi, Dr. Robbins," Lexie greeted tentatively. "Do you mind if we sit with you?"

A blonde head tilted to the side as if she was carefully considering her answer, though she bit her lip and nodded immediately. Watching the newcomers sit down, the woman rolled a carrot over in her hand before taking a small bite. Once everyone was settled, she fixed her stare on the other two Attendings who were now sitting across from her.

"I don't believe we've properly met," she started in a soft, whimsical voice. "I'm Arizona Robbins, Peds surgery."

Callie and Mark exchanged a surreptitious glance before Callie offered a stiff, professional smile. "I'm Callie Torres, I'm in Ortho."

"And this is my boyfriend, Mark Sloan," Lexie nodded at Mark. "He's the head of Plastics."

Arizona smiled politely at Mark, but focused on Callie. "I've heard of you, I think. Calliope is your full name, yes?"

"Yeah, but nobody really calls me that other than my dad," she told her, shifting uncomfortably under the force of the pediatric surgeon's intense gaze.

"You're doing cartilage research?" Arizona inquired.

Callie instantly perked up at the question. "I am, yeah. Why do you ask?"

The smile on her face grew slightly into a grin and she shook her head shyly, shrugging. "I don't, um… I just think that's really," she seemed to sigh her words as a faint hint of color appeared on her cheeks. "Awesome."

"You think cartilage is… awesome?" Callie's brows were furrowed in obvious confusion over the praise of her barely there research.

"I think what you're trying to do with it is awesome," she qualified.

"Oh, well, thank you," the orthopedic surgeon said awkwardly, quickly biting into her sandwich so she didn't have to carry on with this conversation.

Arizona seemed to realize what she was doing and nodded curtly.

An uncomfortable silence reigned over the table after the last exchange and Callie and Mark kept glancing at each other, silently agreeing that the Head of Peds was weird and they were never eating lunch with her ever again. Arizona, on the other hand, rocked back and forth in her seat as her eyes flitted around the now busy cafeteria, and for the first time, Callie noticed that she was sitting with her legs folded and crossed in crisscross applesauce.

"Why is it so quiet over here?" Cristina questioned when she and Meredith came to sit down. Looking around, she saw the person she was sitting next to and blinked. "Oh. Hi."

"Hi, I'm Arizona Robbins, Peds surgery," the blue eyed woman introduced herself, smiling at both women. "Dr. Grey," she nodded toward the elder Grey sister.

"I'm Cristina Yang, cardio resident," the curly haired woman informed her, leaning back warily when Arizona suddenly bounced in her seat.

"You're Dr. Yang? I need— can you… would you…?" Arizona let herself trail off, scrunching her nose up in displeasure at her inability to articulate what she wanted to say. "I have a little boy with aortic stenosis and I wanted to know if you'd assist me on it."

"Of course," she accepted. "Thank you, Dr. Robbins."

Arizona beamed, shocking the table with the presentation of the deep dimples adorning her cheeks. "Awesome. I have everything you need to get familiar with the case up in my office. I was thinking of doing a valve repair, but I want you to read it and tell me what you think."

"Okay. Did you have Dr. Altman look over it?" She wondered.

A blush ran up Arizona's neck, but she didn't break eye contact even when it looked like she wanted to duck her head. "No, I tried, but she kind of, um… ran away."

Callie hid her laughter with a very unconvincing cough.

Cristina shrugged. "She runs away from me, too sometimes."

"I'm glad it's not just me then." Arizona let out a relieved little giggle. "The procedure's in about two hours or so. You can come to my office when you're done eating."

"Okay."

"Can I scrub in?" Lexie asked.

"N— okay, sure." She didn't look very certain of her answer, but didn't try to take it back. Taking a short look down at her phone, she unfolded her legs and stood up. "I have to go. It was nice to meet you all. Dr. Yang and Dr. Grey, I'll see you later."

As a whole, the table's remaining occupants watched her leave.

"Well, that was awkward," Mark was the first to say.

"Oh my god, that was one of the most awkward lunches I've ever had to sit through," Callie burst out next.

"It wasn't―" Lexie began to say.

The Latina interrupted her. "Little Grey, if you say it wasn't that bad―"

"It wasn't," the younger woman insisted loudly, drawing stares from surrounding tables. "Oh, mind your own business," she glared.

"What are you guys talking about?" Meredith queried.

"Dr. Robbins," Mark supplied as if that were a sufficient answer.

"Oh," the dirty blonde nodded her understanding.

"What about her?" Cristina wanted to know. "She seemed okay. Kinda perky though."

"You haven't heard about Dr. Robbins before?" Callie asked in disbelief. There was no way she hadn't heard people talking about Dr. Robbins.

"What? That she's a complete weirdo and a little on the crazy side? Yeah, I heard, but I don't know, she doesn't seem any crazier than the rest of us," the Korean woman said, popping a fry into her mouth. "Besides, Alex works with her all the time and he told me she's a little bizarre, but a fantastic surgeon."

"Whatever. She makes me uncomfortable," Mark declared.

Callie seconded that, but she had to admit she was intrigued by Dr. Robbins' interest in her research.

Arizona had a happy place she went to when she was in surgery. Most surgeons preferred to be completely in the moment and absorbed in the procedure, and she appreciated that that worked for other people. She just wasn't one of those people. She always made sure she was present when she was operating, but there was an emotional, mental place she had to get to when she was in the operating theatre. She was watching Cristina start to close up the patient when Dr. Teddy Altman stormed into the OR, nearly jarring her from her happy place.

"What do you think you're doing?" The Head of Cardio spit out.

Bright blue eyes widened over her surgical mask and rolled thoughtfully toward the ceiling, then fell on her angry colleague. "Watching Dr. Yang close our patient."

"Why didn't you ask me for a consult?" She demanded.

"I tried, but you ran away from me," Arizona pointed out, not taking her eyes off of the other woman. "If you recall," she drawled sassily.

"I didn't know it was about a patient—"

"You should have assumed it was about a patient," she cut her off, calmly. "Why else would I talk to you? Besides, you were busy and this is a relatively easy procedure, one I was sure Dr. Yang could handle on her own. And I was right. I apologize if you feel like you should have been informed about this, but this is my patient and I don't answer to you."

"Dr. Robbins, I'm almost done," Cristina announced, not looking up from the patient.

"Dr. Grey, take over, please," Arizona instructed softly.

Teddy glared at the pediatric surgeon for a long moment, and then turned around and stormed back out of the OR.

Things were quiet for all of a minute before Lexie said something. "Dr. Robbins, I know it's not really my place—"

"That doesn't seem to be stopping you," the blonde said lazily. "But continue."

"Maybe you could take it easy on Dr. Altman. Her husband just died—"

"Little Grey," Cristina warned.

Lexie didn't glance up from her stitches. "I'm just saying, she's going through a really hard time right now and she's not usually so angry."

"I heard," Arizona murmured. "And I'm empathetic. Losing someone like that is devastating, but that doesn't give her the right to scold me like a child over something so trivial. I'm deeply sorry she's hurting, but she can't take it out on me."

"Of course, Dr. Robbins," Cristina said, shooting a significant look at Lexie.

The young resident finished closing quickly and the three doctors scrubbed out silently.

"Do the charts," Arizona mandated as she was drying her hands. "I have another surgery soon." Without specifying which one she was talking to, she left the scrub room.

"You shouldn't have said anything," Cristina said once she was gone.

Lexie frowned helplessly. "I was just trying to help. I don't want Dr. Robbins to think Dr. Altman is bitch when she's not."

The black haired woman shook her head. "People are going to think what they wanna think, Little Grey. You should already know that."

"I do know that— wait, are you mad at me or something?" What had she done?

"No," Cristina rolled her eyes heavily. "But why do you care what Dr. Robbins thinks of anyone when you think she's a freak of nature?"

"I don't," Lexie denied indignantly. "I don't think she's a freak of nature. I guess I just… got caught up in the gossip, but you have to admit, she is kind of strange."

"So are you," Cristina retorted. "And so am I. And so is everyone."

The doe eyed woman looked at her sister's best friend. "Why do you care what I think of Dr. Robbins?"

"Because you're judging her before you know her," she replied, opening the door to leave the scrub room. "Never judge a book by its cover and all that crap."

xXx

After lunch Callie went straight to her lab and got to work on the components of her artificial cartilage, or "goo" as Mark liked to call it. She worked for about four hours on her research, taking breaks only when she had to use the restroom. It was great to work so long without any interruptions, which she had counted on since Mark and Cristina were in surgery for pretty much the rest of the day. What wasn't great was her lack of decent results on her cartilage. She knew it would take several months at minimum before she had anything to cheer about, but producing a slimy, jello thing time and time again was discouraging.

She was on her fifth hour of work when she heard the door to the lab open and close.

"Hey, did you finally get a break?" She asked without looking up from her microscope, assuming it was Mark. "I thought you had back to back surgeries."

"I finished early."

That was definitely not Mark.

Her head snapped up. "Dr. Robbins, hi. I'm sorry, I thought you were Dr. Sloan." The other woman didn't say anything, just rocked back and forth on her heels. Oh, god, Callie thought, please, she couldn't handle this much awkward twice in one day. "Did you need something?"

Arizona mashed her lips together and furrowed her brows, face tightening in what could have been confusion or exhaustion. Either way, she couldn't find the words she wanted to express so she moved forward and sat in the chair across from where Callie was working, but just slightly off to the side. She pulled her legs up and folded them like she had them at lunch.

"Can I stay here for a little bit?" Her voice was hardly above a whisper.

Callie nodded, despite wanting to say no. "Are you okay?" She queried as she got back to work.

"Hmm," she hummed, grinning impishly when cocoa eyes found hers. People hated when she answered with hums. "How's your research going?"

"It's not," the brunette groaned in frustration. "Going, that is. I've been at this for hours and I keep getting the same result, which is this jelly stuff and definitely not cartilage."

"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again," she recited, noting the eye roll she received. "Or you could always change something."

The orthopedic surgeon shook her head. "Nope. This is it. I know I have everything the way it's supposed to be, it's just not working, but it will. I just have to be patient." Her face screwed up on the last word.

Arizona laughed at the expression. "My daughter makes that face when I try to get her to eat bananas. She acts like it's a grievous crime against her rights as an American citizen that she has to eat them."

"You have a daughter?" Callie was genuinely surprised by that. How had she not heard about that yet? "How old is she?"

"She just turned one last month actually," she beamed, startling the other woman with the power and beauty of her smile. Callie didn't think she'd ever seen her smile so widely before.

"What's her name? She's not named after a state, too, is she?"

"I'm not named after the state, actually," she told her primly. "And neither is she. Her name is August."

"That's pretty cute. How'd you think of that?" Callie wondered curiously.

Arizona flashed her a mysterious simper. "That's a story for another time, Dr. Torres."

"Fair enough," she conceded.

"Can I ask you something?" When she received a hesitant nod, she paused as she thought of how to word her question. "You know what, never mind. It's not important."

"Oh, come on," Callie encouraged, mildly astounded that she still wanted to talk to the kid surgeon. "You can't just bring it up and then take it back. You'd really leave me to think about it for the rest of the day?"

Arizona rocked forward in her chair, planting her hands on the tabletop in front of her, and locking eyes with the brunette, effectively stealing Callie's attention from her research. Intent cobalt eyes studied the dark stare of the woman before her, darting from eye to eye, obviously searching for something.

Callie found herself unable to break away from the hold Arizona had over her. Her stomach turned over itself and she slowly pitched forward so that she too was leaning against the lab table. She felt herself trembling and wondered what the hell this woman was doing to her. And why the hell she liked it.

"What?" She ground out between clenched teeth, willing her body to stay the fuck still.

But Arizona didn't answer right away, she just kept staring, idly observing the gradual darkening of rich chocolate irises and the measured dilating of pupils. Reluctantly deciding to leave that alone for now, she took a deep breath and considered her next words carefully.

"You think I'm… peculiar," she stated slowly as if tasting how the sentence sounded as it was coming out of her mouth.

Clearly thrown off and thankful that Arizona's penetrating gaze had eased up, Callie expelled a breath and responded before she could think about what she was saying. "Kind of, yeah. I mean, it's not a bad thing or anything."

Full, pink lips pursed in doubt, but she dismissed whatever she was originally going to say. "Is that what you think then?"

Callie opened her mouth to reply, but stopped herself at the last second. "Is this a trick question?"

"No," she said. "I really would like to know if that's what you think."

"I think," Callie started. "That you like to ask questions that you already know the answer to."

She hummed low in her throat, a soft sound that sent a raging heat through the Latina. Her tongue peaked out to wet her full, pink lips and Callie had to grip the underside of the table to keep herself in check. "That's probably true," the blonde admitted quietly, smiling wryly and humming once again.

Callie desperately need to get away from this woman. "Why are you so interested in my cartilage?"

"Because it's interesting," she said, unaffected by the abrupt subject. "Even though you haven't gotten as far as you'd like just yet. But I've been in here too long; I've got patients to attend to." She uncrossed her legs and slipped out of her seat. "Until next time, Calliope." She didn't wait for a response before she exited the lab.

Releasing the breath she didn't realize she'd been holding, Callie sat back in her chair and groaned loudly, deciding that she was done for the day. She went to stand up and froze as soon as she moved.

Her panties were soaked.

Arizona wasn't stupid and she wasn't oblivious like people liked to believe. In fact, she was very well aware of what people thought of her. They thought she was crazy and weird and just a little too perky, and that was fine with her. Sometimes she even played it up so people would leave her alone because no one wanted to talk to the "weird girl." It kept the interns and residents in line and it kept the other Attendings from starting inane chitchat with her whenever they had to operate together. Even the chief was wary of her.

And she liked it that way.

But Calliope Torres was something else entirely.

She was exceptionally beautiful, that was undeniable, but she did not make a good first impression.

That second impression though…

Calliope was attracted to her. Whether the ortho surgeon realized or not, she couldn't say for sure, and she didn't know what to do with this information. She could either ignore it, confront Calliope about it, or wait to see if Calliope would come to her. While none of those options really appealed to her, she chose to go with option three because from the way Calliope had been looking at her earlier, there was no way she wouldn't figure it out sooner or later.

"Dr. Robbins?" The youngest Grey sister interrupted her thoughts.

"Dr. Grey," she addressed Lexie with a smile and a nod. "Did you need something?"

"Actually, I got you coffee," Lexie handed the senior surgeon the coffee cup she was holding. "And I wanted to tell you that I finished the chart on Noah Stickler, and I checked on all of your post-op patients and updated their charts as well."

"Good. Thank you, but you didn't have to bring me coffee." She was more puzzled than anything. Sure, Lexie didn't treat her like she was from another planet like everyone else did, but she wasn't exactly welcoming either.

"I know, but I wanted to," she said.

"Oh, okay then."

Lexie stood there for an uncomfortable moment or two before smiling and walking away slowly. "I'm done for the night so I'll see you tomorrow?"

Arizona lifted her head in a slow nod. "Okay. See you tomorrow." She watched Lexie walk away long enough to catch a glimpse of a certain orthopedic surgeon duck into a nearby supply closet.

Seeing that, she decided fuck option three. Arizona Robbins was more of a take charge kind of woman anyway.

xXx

This was bad. No, this was weird. Really, really weird. She was hot for the perky Peds surgeon? The woman who bounced and wheeled and wore butterflies on her scrub cap? Seriously? What kind of a sick fucking joke?

"This is insane," she muttered under her breath as she hid inside of a supply closet for at least the third time that evening. She was trying to avoid Arizona, still feeling shaken and aroused by their last encounter a few hours ago. It literally hadn't even been a day and she was already avoiding her like the plague.

And she didn't even have hope that it would go away, at least not anytime soon. She couldn't remember the last time someone had made her so wet so quickly. Without even meaning to, for god's sake. There was very little chance of her ignoring her body's reaction to the bubbly woman. She would just have to―

"You need a better hiding spot."

Callie jumped and whipped around to face the owner of the voice that pulled her from her internal ramblings.

"Jeez, Arizona, don't do that. You scared the crap out of me." She placed a hand over her racing heart, positive that she'd just lost ten years of her life.

"Sorry," was all the blonde offered her. She cocked her head to the side as she watched the taller woman.

Callie eyed her uneasily. She could already feel her body heating up and her core clenching in anticipation, and Arizona's visual appraisal was making it much, much worse. "Stop."

Blue eyes blinked slowly. "Stop what?" For the life of her, she couldn't stop the smirk that stretched across her lips.

"Stop staring at me. It's creepy." She tried to sound as put off as possible, but the tremor in her voice wasn't very substantial and that sexy little smirk was wreaking all kinds of havoc on her self control.

Arizona chuckled, and it was a low, rumbling sound that Callie didn't even know the blonde was even capable of making. It also sent a pool of wet heat straight to her center, but she forced herself not to shift and give herself away because she was sure Arizona knew exactly what she was doing. It was both frustrating and sexy, and the fact that she found it sexy made her more frustrated.

Of course Arizona could see what she was doing to the other woman, and despite herself, she found it delightful to make her squirm. She thought that Callie might deny her attraction or ignore it and she had been right, not that she was very surprised. She didn't expect anything to come from this, but that didn't mean shouldn't have a bit of fun with it.

She thought about saying something saucy to throw the woman off, but instead she just: "I'll see you tomorrow, Dr. Torres."

She left and Callie was left alone.

Soaking wet.

Once again.

And I've got no illusions about you.
And guess what. I never did.
When I said, when I said I'll take it
I meant as is.

So there was that. There was originally going to be a kiss in the last scene, but then I was like nope, so it didn't happen. I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I don't know when I'll update next, but be on the lookout cuz you never know.

Lyrics: As Is by Ani DiFranco

Review, per favore.

~Elphaba C. Snow Thropp