AN: Many many times requested and now I decided to post it again, the original story of how our girls met at a young age in Two In A Million, at least for now. I'll upload the chapters every other day, so you can choose to write new reviews or just read in silence =)
AN2: There are no changes in the storyline, just some minor edits here and there to give the reader a better look into the scene.
AN3: I will repost the chapters exactly the way they were posted the first time. That means, short chapters inthe beginning but they'll get longer as the story continues. Same goes for my English. Since I am still not a native speaker, there might be still some mistakes.
Chapter 1 – Destiny
Little Arizona was walking and bouncing down the hallway of the hospital. Big blue eyes were scanning the hall and taking in everything that was happening around her. The dimpled smile stuck to her little face, blond curls bouncing up and down with every step. But suddenly she stopped in front of a patient room because she heard someone crying through the partly open door. She pressed her tiny, slightly chubby hands against the wood and pushed the door open.
Sitting in a hospital bed was a little girl, dark long tresses framing her face. Her right arm was in a bright red cast and she used her left little hand to wipe away the tears that kept rolling down her cheeks. Puffy red eyes didn't even notice the other girl.
"Why are you crying?", Arizona asked and walked further into the room. One hand fiddled with the hem of her shirt and the other tucked some of her blond strands behind her ear. It was something she had turned into a habit since her mother couldn't always do her braids and her father couldn't even manage to make a simple pony tail.
Suddenly the other little girl stirred. Big brown puffy eyes looked down on Arizona. "I...I", she sobbed some more. "I am alone." Another surge of sadness wrecked her small quivering body. She didn't understand what she had done to deserve what was happening, changing in her short life.
The blonde girl tilted her head to her right. She didn't get what the brunette was saying. Not at all. Why did she feel alone? Where were her parents, her family. "What happened? Where are your parents?"
"We were in a", she stopped. Another heavy sob leaving her mouth before she could finishher sentence. "In a car accident." It was still hard to say it. Three days ago her life had been perfect and then everything had turned into hell for her.
Arizona stood still for a moment, before she started bouncing on her heels again. "Don't cry." She walked over to the bed and climbed on it, sitting down next to the other girl and pulled her into her arms. She had seen her father comforting her mother by embracing her and she also knew that she felt better whenever she was hugged. So in her eyes, hugging made everything better. "Don't cry", she said again.
After a few seconds in which sobs and cries were the only sounds? that could be heard, the brunette pulled away from Arizona and looked at her. "Why are you here?", she wondered, her voice stillteary. The other girl didn't seem to be sick, so why was she in a hospital?
"I got a little brother today! Mommy and he are sleeping", the blonde exclaimed in excitement. She already loved the new addition to her family. The little boy was perfect. Five little fingers that had been wrapped around her pinky the moment her father showed her her baby brother.
"My sister was in the car too." She wondered if she would ever understand how she could be the only one surviving an accident that took her whole family away from her. "She's gone."
"Oh… I am Arizona", the little girl said, trying to distract the other one. For some reason, she felt a connection with the girl sitting to her right.
"Calliope…", she sniffed. "Calliope Torres."
Hearing the name, Arizona was practically sure she wouldn't be able to say it right, but she wanted to make the other girl smile, so she tried anyway. "Call- Calli-pe ?", she struggled, the Spanish pronunciation not rolling off her tongue as good as any English name would have.
"Calliope", the little Latina laughed and Arizona found the light chuckles way better than the sobs the brunette had shared. For the first time in what felt like hours, Calliope felt her tears subsiding and for a moment, she even forgot that her family was gone.
"Calliope", Arizona smiled, obviously proud that she finally got it right. "Do you know where you're going to live?"
A pair of small shoulders shrugged and a head full of thick dark hair was lowered, brown eyes locked onto the ground. "I don't know", she answered honestly. "Do children whose family is dead stay in the hospital forever? I don't want that."
"Don't you have grandparents?", the blonde wondered. If her parents were going away, she was always staying at her grandparents for a night or two. Sometimes even during the day when her father had been away and her mother hadthings,adult things to do.
The brunette lowered her head. "No, I am all alone.", this time it was accompanied with one of the saddest sighs Arizona had ever heard.
As the little blonde saw the tears welling up again, she took Calliope's hand. "Hey, don't cry again. Maybe you can be like Kevin and live alone?", she offered. It was the last movie she had seen with her father and she kind of envied him for having the house all to himself.
"That's a movie.", Calliope stated as a matter-of-factly.
"Yeah, so you don't even have to be scared of the mean men", the blonde smiled, dimples popping into both of her cheeks. "Does your arm hurt much?" She had never had a broken arm, or leg, or even finger and she thought those kinds of pains would be unbearable.
"It's okay, I guess." She had been in pain, of course, but ever since a doctor had set her arm and put a cast around it, it was okay. Maybe it was numbed by the pain about her dead family.
With the broad smile still on her face, Arizona tapped carefully against the hard material around the little Latina's wrist and forearm. "I like the color. But I like pink the bestest", the blonde girl grinned. Everything in her room was pink. From her bed sheets to most of her toys.
"Pink is too girly." Shaking her head and scrunching her face, she looked at the other girl who promptly started to laugh. "What?"
"We are girls."
A little baffled by the blonde's reply, the little Latina needed to think about an answer before giving one back. "Yeah. But I am too old for that. I am over loving pink. I like red now. My dad always said it's a powerful color."
Shining blue eyes looked at the other girl, confusion written all overher face? She was sure she would never get over loving pink. It was the coolest color in the whole world, as far as she was concerned. "How old are you?"
"Six", the brunette said. "You?"
Narrowing her eyes, the other little girl counted in her head. Her father had taught her how to count because she was too eager, always wanting to learn more and more. Sure, she could spend hours coloring or listening to her father or grandpa reading her a story, but learning new things was something she'd always liked a little more than other kids her age. "Five. So, that's what? Two… no, one year", she answered when she had figured out the difference between their ages.
"Aria was two years older than me and we hated each other. She always said that I was too young to play with her."
"Well, I like you."
Big blue eyes stared at the little Latina who was finally able to smile back. "I like you too." She wiped more tears away with the sleeve of her sweatshirt. She wiped more tears away with the sleeve of her sweatshirt. They had started to spill again when she had talked about her sister, without her even noticing it.
"Arizona Robbins!", could be heard from the hallway.
"Oops, that's me. The Colonel's calling, I have to obey.
"The Colonel?"
Hopping off the bed, Arizona turned around, a wide smile grazing her lips as she looked at the little Latina. "Daddy", the blonde girl said. "Bye, Calliope."
"Arizona?", the little Latina said before her new friend slipped out put of her room, making her turn around once again. "Maybe you can come back tomorrow?"
"Sure", Arizona answered and left Callie alone and ran straight into her father's legs.
"Arizona Robbins, what are the rules for hospitals?", Daniel Robbins chastised. He was a strict man. A General through and through and although his child was still young, he expected her to follow his rules.
"Don't run away.", Arizona answered dutifully and tried to look away.
"And…?", he dug deeper, knowing that they had had the same conversation just a few minutes before he had taken his daughter into his wife's room.
Looking up, the smile faded. She knew she had acted against his rules and that he was allowed to get angry. "Do not bother other patients. But daddy, I didn't. There's a girl in this room and she was crying, I just wanted to make her better."
"Still, you ran away."
"I am sorry, daddy", she said batting her eyelashes and showing him her dimples, knowing that worked all the time with her mommy. "Colonel, Sir", she added to get on his good side.
"You are too smart for your own good, Dimples", he said picking her up in his strong arms.
"Daddy? Do children without a family stay in the hospital forever?", she asked, nuzzling her face against the Colonel Robbins' shoulder. It comforted her, nothing could hurt her if she was in her daddy's arms.
He tightened his grip on his daughter's small body. "Why do you ask something like that?"
"Because the girl in this room has no family anymore", she answered, locking her eyes to the door of Calliope's room.
"They don't stay at the hospital", the man said, telling her the truth, albeit knowing that she would want more answers after that.
"Where do they go?"
He was holding the blonde even closer to his body, absentmindedly, and was brushing through her golden tresses as he went down the hallway. "They'll live in an orphanage."
"Like the one we went to last Christmas?"
"Exactly like that."
A thoughtful sigh left her lips. She remembered last Christmas and all the kids in the orphanage. "There were so many children, daddy." The family had gone there as a social service,distributing donated gifts so the kids could have a little Christmas party too. She hadn't understood why Santa hadn't been the one bringing them presents, but her mother had told her that sometimes even Santa needed some help and that's why he had sent her daddy to the orphanage.
"I know, Dimples. And I know it made you sad."
"When I'm grown up and a doctor, I'll give one of them a new home."