If you asked, Callie would tell you that she loved her job. She loved going into work every morning knowing that she'd get to save lives, or even just be able to help people. But, being a surgeon was hard work. Sure, since she became an attending she had a more stable schedule, but she still had long days and was sleep deprived a good portion of the time. She wasn't complaining though, of course not. Though, she had to admit that knowing she had the following day off was a big relief – she could really use the extra sleep and she had errands to run.
"Hey, Mark!" Callie called across the nurses' station to her best friend, interrupting his futile flirting with a new nurse that politely wouldn't give him the time of day. "When's your shift over?"
"About a half hour," he gruffly replied, the nurse sneaking away the moment Mark's line of sight landed on Callie. He was frowning now and brown eyes playfully rolled, knowing the look that she was receiving from him. "Since when did you become a cock-block, Torres?" He asked with a sigh, walking over to stand beside her.
"By the looks of it, I saved that poor girl the trouble of having to smack you," she lightly teased in response, smiling as the plastic surgeon scoffed. "The veteran nurses probably already warned her about you, you know that, right?"
"Yeah, yeah," Mark shrugged it off, leaning back against the nurses' station on his elbows. "Anyway, didn't your shift just end? Shouldn't you be changed and out of here by now?"
Callie nodded with a hum as she pushed herself off from the spot she'd been leaning against on the station. "It did, but I was thinking we could go to Joe's for drinks tonight. Neither of us have work tomorrow, so I figured we could unwind."
At that, Mark's brows suggestively bounced. "Unwind together, huh?"
With another roll of her eyes, the brunette lightly smacked her friend on the arm. "Get your mind out of the gutter, Sloan. I meant with drinking and darts. If you're lucky, I'll even play wingman for you."
Mark chuckled, clapping his hand over Callie's shoulder. "I gotta admit, you're the best wingman I've ever had. How about I meet you at Joe's in around forty-five minutes?"
"Sounds like a plan. Get ready for me to drink you under the table." Grinning, Callie turned on her heel, walking toward down the hallway and to the elevator, too far away to hear Mark's snarky remark once he voiced it.
Still smiling to herself, Callie pressed the down button, patiently waiting for the doors to open and when they did, she momentarily froze in place.
There was just a single woman in the elevator so naturally, dark eyes were immediately drawn to her. She had blonde hair that fell in soft curls, resting atop her shoulders. Her eyes were the bluest things that Callie had ever seen and she was clad in black slacks, a white blouse and black blazer, a leather briefcase clutched in her grip. Somehow, the business attire was insanely attractive. And when the woman smiled at Callie, two little dimples appeared, making her heart feel as if it were bursting in her chest. Sure, she was still new to the whole "being attracted to women" thing, but she still knew when she was attracted to one.
"Going down?" The blonde asked in a sweet tone, perking an amused brow at Callie, who hadn't moved a muscle.
"Oh! I, uh, yeah. Sorry." She was blushing profusely by that point, thankful that her darker complexion would hopefully hide it well enough. Clearing her throat, she finally stepped into the elevator, keeping her gaze trained on the number pad and tapping the button for the first floor.
Smooth, Torres, she bitterly thought to herself, watching the light fade from the number 4 and 3 lighting up instead. She didn't spend all that much time on the fourth floor, considering it was the pediatric center and all. But she had to set an eight year old's broken arm and Mark had been checking on his clef pallet patient, resulting in them both ending up there together moments prior. She couldn't help but wonder what the woman in back of her was doing there though. Did she have a kid? Or maybe she'd been on the dreaded fifth floor. Maybe she had cancer; maybe she was seeing one of the psychiatrists there, or maybe…
"Hi," the woman spoke up, breaking Callie from her thoughts and causing her to whip her head around in surprise. The blonde just smiled that dimpled smile. "I'm Arizona. And you are?"
"Callie," she answered, thankful her voice didn't crack as she shot back one of her own award winning smiles as her hands tucked into the pockets of her lab coat. "It's nice to meet you, Arizona." Strange name, she thought to herself. But with a name like Calliope, I have no room to judge.
"Well, Callie, do you – " Arizona was unable to finish her sentence as the elevator came to a screeching halt somewhere between floors two and one.
Callie reached to the side reflexively to grab the railing of the elevator, feeling as if her heart had leapt up into her throat. "What the hell?" She muttered, turning back around to relentlessly prod her finger against the little round button for the first floor. When that didn't work, she pressed the emergency button several times. Still, nothing. "Looks like we're – " But that time, it was Callie's that stopped her own sentence short.
Arizona was a pale woman, but Callie swore her skin had grown three shades lighter over the past thirty seconds. "Hey, Arizona…" She trailed off, but the other woman's eyes were glazed over and she was clearly not really there with her. "Arizona," she repeated more firmly, tentatively stepping toward the shorter woman. "Look at me?"
That finally captured Arizona's attention and her gaze lifted from the elevator wall, to Callie. "We're trapped," she whispered, her former bravado gone. She was suddenly in a dark place, far away, lost somewhere in her past.
"We're in a really busy hospital," Callie reasoned quietly, continuing to take small steps toward the blonde until they were standing side by side. "I'm sure someone will notice that one of the elevators aren't working, and get someone to help us soon."
"Right," came Arizona's response, voice somehow eerily calm despite her spooked appearance. The thought made her calm down just slightly. "I'm sorry, it's just… I'm okay with confined spaces, as long as I have a way out of them."
"I get it," Callie quickly sympathized, not wanting this woman to feel embarrassed over her phobia. "One time, when was around seven, my little sister and I were playing hide and seek and she locked me in this toy chest that I was hiding in. I completely freaked out and ended up crying after like, a minute when I realized the lid wouldn't open." That wasn't exactly a story she told when she first met someone but it had been the first thing that came to her mind in their current situation.
Just as a blush returned to Callie's cheeks over the embarrassing little childhood story she'd spilled, a thankful smile slowly edged up the corners of Arizona's lips. "My brother did something like that when we were young," she admitted, her voice still quiet even though she seemed a bit more relaxed, her fingers loosely curled around the railing behind her as she leaned back against the wall.
"That must've sucked," the Latina offered with a forced, nervous chuckle, only to receive a slight nod of confirmation in return.
A moment of silence passed between the two, before Callie suddenly realized she had her cellphone on her. "Oh!" She exclaimed, hand reaching into her pocket to produce her phone. "I can call for help." Without giving Arizona a chance to speak on the matter, she used the speed dial feature to dial Mark Sloan's number, holding the phone up to her ear.
"Mark, hey. … Yeah, we're still on for tonight. … I called because the elevator's stuck, the emergency button isn't working and I need some help here." As Callie spoke, her eyes followed Arizona as she walked over to the panel of numbers, trying to get the elevator to move on her own by pressing the buttons to no avail. "… Could you just please tell the chief? There are two of us stuck. … Great. Thanks." With another glance to the panic stricken women, Callie added a quiet, "and hurry," before tapping the 'end' button to disconnect the call.
"Arizona?" She then called out, stepping toward the blonde again. "I don't think – "
"I know it isn't going to work," Arizona cut her off with a frustrated sigh, abandoning her briefcase in the corner of the elevator and sinking down to sit, back pressed back against the wall. Knowing that she'd unnecessarily snapped at Callie, she offered an apologetic smile. "So…was that your boyfriend?" She asked, clearly trying to change the subject. "Since we might be stuck in here for a while, we may as well get to know each other."
Callie was momentarily taken aback by the question as she followed suit and slid down the opposite wall to sit on the ground, legs parallel to Arizona's. "Uh, no," she carefully answered with a slight chuckle. Mark was a lot of things to her, but boyfriend certainly was not one. "He's just a friend – a good friend. We work here together, we're both surgeons."
"Right. I could tell you work here by the big bad attending scrubs. You pull them off well." Another smile came from Arizona, and another blush ignited Callie's cheeks. "What's your specialty?"
"What do you think my specialty is?" The brunette fired back, perking a curious brow, wondering if she'd be able to guess.
Arizona's smile widened as she hummed in thought. "Pediatrics?" She guessed. "You were pretty good at distracting me from an impending panic attack a moment ago, so it wouldn't surprise me if you were good with kids."
Callie smiled widely at that. She was good with kids, in fact. But she could never work so closely with them on a daily basis, she couldn't handle dying children. "Guess again."
"Damn, I was hoping we'd be in the same department," Arizona's nose playfully crinkled while speaking as Callie's brow skyrocketed.
"You work here?" She skeptically questioned, head tilting to the side. Sure, it was a big hospital, but she would've surely noticed a woman like Arizona wandering around before.
"Hopefully," she replied, shoulders raising and falling in a light shrug. "I just had an interview with Chief Webber for the head of the pediatric department. I'm a surgeon too. I was on the fifth floor just now, checking out the oncology wing." That surprised Callie, but before she could question it, Arizona carried on with her examination of what her specialty could be. "Anyway, let me see your hands."
Confused, Callie removed her hands from the pockets of her lab coat and held them out for Arizona to see, both of them leaning over closer in the process. Her heart had already picked up speed in the slightest while she thought about possibly working with this woman. "Why?"
"You can tell a lot about a person from their hands," she absentmindedly murmured, gazing to the tanned skin of Callie's knuckles in thought. "Ortho?" She made her second guess.
"Whoa," Callie blinked, dark eyes falling to her own hands. "Yeah, I'm ortho. You could tell that, just by looking at my hands?"
"You have strong hands," Arizona offered with a wry smile, leaning back once again. "Plus, your I.D. tag says you're head of the orthopedic department, sooo…"
"Hey!" Callie laughed, rolling her eyes as she leaned over to lightly smack Arizona's right calf. "You cheated!"
"I did not cheat, Calliope!" she argued, grin on her lips. "I just used the clues around me. Plus, you do look like you have strong hands, perfect for working with bones."
Hearing her full name come from Arizona's lips sent a twinge of annoyance mixed with something else through Callie's being. She didn't think she ever heard her name sound so good before, but the stubborn part of her still didn't particularly like it. "It's Callie," she stated with a flustered huff, crossing her arms. "And you totally cheated."
"The I.D. hanging from your scrub top pocket says that your name is Calliope. It's a pretty name; I don't know why you'd want to go by a nickname." Arizona's lips pushed into a playful pout. "I'll let you think I cheated if you let me call you Calliope."
This woman is unbelievable, Callie mused to herself. A beat of silence passed between them before a soft muttering of, "only my dad calls me that," could be heard. But Arizona just kept giving her that expectant look, causing the brunette to sigh again. "Okay, fine, whatever," she relented, though she couldn't help the smile that came to her lips even as she fought to keep it off.
"Good," Arizona happily smiled as she leaned back again in satisfaction, and God, Callie was sure she'd agree to anything just to see the blonde smile like that forever. "So, Calliope, do elevators normally get stuck in this hospital?" She joked, but for just a brief moment, Callie froze.
Maybe, if the other woman weren't the observant surgeon that she was, then just maybe she wouldn't have noticed. She did notice though and was about to retract the statement, but Callie's answer came quick enough. "Uh, just once that I remember, actually. Ended up with my ex-husband preforming an emergency surgery in it when he an intern." She knew that her second sentence hadn't been necessary, but there was something about the way that Arizona's kind eyes gazed to her that made her want to wear her heart on her sleeve, if only for a moment.
"Oh," Arizona was clearly surprised and, if Callie wasn't mistaken, she seemed just a bit disappointed. Was it because she'd been married to a man? No, it wasn't like she had any evidence that the blonde was gay. "I'm sorry to hear about your divorce," she carefully spoke, blue eyes rising to meet brown again. "How long have you two been separated, if you don't mind me asking?"
With her shoulders rising and falling into a forced, careless shrug, she thought back to her years as a resident. "Years. He cheated on me. It was a…complicated setup that we had, we never should've gotten married in the first place, but…" Callie didn't know where she was going with that, but Arizona was softly smiling and nodding at her in a way that was sympathetic without being pitying and as a fellow surgeon, she knew that that look was hard to master. So, she continued because she just couldn't seem to shut up. It was like she was in a bar, halfway through a bottle of hard liquor and spilling her sorrows to the bartender. "Then, when I finally started getting my life back on track, I realize that, hey, women are pretty hot too. And that led me to start dating this woman, Erica. But then, I apparently wasn't lesbian enough for her or whatever, so she just up and left a couples of months ago."
Arizona just sat there in surprise as she absorbed Callie's ramblings, lips forming a little "o" shape. "Well, I, uh…"
It was then that Callie's eyes widened and her verbal diarrhea finally caught up to her mind, making her realize exactly what she'd spilled to a woman she'd met no more than a half hour ago. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to dump that on you," she quickly cut in, tanned cheeks growing hot again. "Can we just…pretend that never happened, please?" Rich brown eyes were pleading, causing a smile to upturn the corners of her lips.
"Calliope," she chose her words carefully, reaching out to place a gentle hand on Callie's knee, "for what it's worth, I think your ex-husband was an idiot for cheating on you. And Erica was an even bigger idiot for leaving you."
Callie smiled then, it was a slow process for corners of full lips to pull up but when they did, Arizona's heart melted a little. A woman with a smile that beautiful should always be given a reason to smile, she was sure of it.
"Well, thank you," she shyly replied, getting ready to think up something else to add to that but coming up empty. Was Arizona flirting with her? She couldn't tell. It wasn't like Callie to get so flustered.
Luckily, Arizona jumped in. "Once I dated this girl, Heather, right? Well, when on our one-month anniversary, she proposed that we get matching tattoos. When I informed her that I didn't want to, she proceeded to attack me with a steak knife."
A loud laugh burst from Callie's lips upon hearing that, eyes wide with amusement over the specific incident and over the fact that Arizona Robbins was apparently into women. "Oh my God, matching tattoos?" She exclaimed, covering her mouth as another laugh threatened to escape her. "Please tell me she didn't get a jab in?"
It was Arizona's turn to giggle as she quickly shook her head and honestly, she couldn't remember the last time she made a sound resembling a giggle. "She didn't, but I must say she gave a valiant effort."
"That's hilarious," Callie answered, wiping the laughter-induced tears that had begun to form at the corners of her eyes. She was going to add to that when suddenly, the lights of the elevator flickered then shut off completely, leaving them both in total darkness, a sharp intake of breath being heard from Arizona.
"Shit," Callie said instead, quickly pushing herself up to her feet and glancing up to the dead lights above, as if that could help anything. "A fuse must've blown…or something." Callie was a surgeon, not an electrician. She had no idea what was going on and she wouldn't even be able to help the situation if she'd been on the outside of the elevator. "Where the hell is Mark with help?"
Even if Callie weren't more or less speaking to herself, her words still would've been lost on Arizona. Her breath quickened as blue eyes darted around the overwhelming darkness, going unnoticed by Callie who was busy texting Mark. She'd grown to hate the dark and you would've too if you'd been through what she did.
"My friend said that the repairman was screwing with the controls and short-circuited something, accidentally turning the lights off. So, we aren't going to go crashing to the ground but it'll take a while for them to figure out what the hell they did," Callie began to explain after a moment, though Arizona still wasn't paying attention. When she didn't receive an answer, she cast the soft glow of her phone's screen in Arizona's direction, brows knitting in concern all over again when she noted that blue eyes were sealed shut. "Arizona?"
Arizona absolutely hated anyone knowing that she had a prosthetic leg – especially gorgeous brunettes that she happened to get stuck in an elevator with. So she tried to ignore the pain, tried to will it away, but her anxieties were building up on her and she was finding it harder to breathe, and if she couldn't breathe properly, there was no way she'd be able to control the gnawing, excruciating burning sensation that suddenly radiated throughout her left thigh.
With a sudden gasp, Arizona's frantically gripped her thigh, nails digging into the throbbing skin, not being able to hold off anymore. Except, it wasn't throbbing. It was all in her mind.
"Arizona," Callie repeated, becoming very confused, very fast. It took her just a moment to be by the blonde's side, invading her space as if they'd known each other for years. She set her phone on the opposite side of her, the light from the screen doing little to illuminate the small space. She was wondering why Arizona had a death grip on her thigh, but didn't ask, not yet. "You need to breathe for me, okay? You're safe, we're just going to be stuck here for a little while longer, but you're safe. Do you hear me?"
No, Arizona didn't hear her. Callie's soothing voice sounded as if it were a million miles away and it was all she could do to not break down into tears. "Stab me in the foot," she rasped out desperately, chin tucking close to her chest as her eyes squinted open just slightly. "I need you to stab me in the left foot."
A/N: I know I should be working on Four Days, but this idea popped into my mind and well…I just went with it. The second half of this two-shot should be posted relatively soon (I thought it was just a bit too long to post as a one-shot), and then I'll get back to my multi-chapter fic.