TITLE: Grey's Anatomy – "Out Here on My Own"
SUMMARY: Doctor Arizona Robbins has finally come to a decision after years of attempting to regain the love of her ex-wife. She didn't have the epiphany on her own; it was ungraciously shoved in her face by others. Is it finally time to move on and find some happiness or is she preordained to be alone?
Pairings: Arizona Robbins & OFC; Callie Torres & Penny Blake.
RATING: M for mature readers.
DISCLAIMER: The television characters are owned by Creator Shonda Rhimes, ShondaLand, The Mark Gordon Company and ABC Studios. I have merely taken them out to play and will return them unscathed once my Muse is done. All original characters belong to the author. No copyright infringement is intended and no profit is gained from this storytelling.
A/N: Please feel free to review, follow or favour.
This is not a CALZONA tale; already finished one of those. So it is perfectly clear, I adore CALZONA and don't like where the writers of Grey's Anatomy have taken the characters. If you don't like this story then please feel free to go read something else, there is plenty out there to suit your taste or fantasy.
Chapter 1
Tuesday 16th February, 2016
Anger flared like a Fourth of July fireworks display and firmly gripped Doctor Arizona Robbins's heart. A sharp, familiar pain settled across her chest as she dropped the plastic fork she had been using to eat her lunch time meal. Pushing the plate of lasagne to the side, she stared at Alex Karev and asked, "Can you please repeat that last sentence?"
Grimacing, the Attending Paediatric Surgeon realised he had already said too much about the get together at Meredith Grey's house on Sunday night, "Uhm, Dude just forget I mentioned it."
Forming a fist with her left hand, the blue eyed blonde attempted to rein in her desire to punch something or better yet, someone, "Like hell. Let me get this right. My ex-wife told you, Mer, Miranda and Maggie she misses Penny, but to be more precise; she misses the great sex."
Ever loyal to his friend and mentor, Alex went with the truth, "Yeah, that's what she said. We were all bitching about what we missed the most for Valentine's Day because we were all single or currently in the dog house with our partners."
Collecting her tray and cutlery, the Head of Paediatric and Foetal Surgery stood and left the table.
Dropping his head into his hands, Alex groaned, "Oh crap, what have I done?"
Tossing her unfinished meal into the nearest rubbish bin, Arizona stormed off towards the internal staircase. Pushing open the fire escape door, she took off as fast as her bionic prosthetic would allow. After weeks of working out and running with the new technology, Arizona was more than confident with her latest artificial limb.
Fighting against the rage with every stair climbed, the physical exertion caused Arizona to calm down. Since having her self-worth shattered after hearing Callie Torres extol the happiness and ease she felt being with Doctor Penelope Blake when they first commenced dating; Arizona had struggled to move on and leave her love for the Orthopaedic Surgeon behind.
With Alex accidently letting part of the conversation between Meredith and her visitors slip; the realisation that Arizona was still in love with Callie hit her with force of an earthquake registering a ten on the Richter Scale. Having pretended the on and off relationship between Callie and the Surgical Resident had not bothered her for months, Arizona was faced with the fact it tore at her with all the subtlety of a stroke.
Reaching the first step on the third floor, the Ped's Chief looked up and all the hard work of calming herself went out the window. She was confronted with Callie and Penny engaged in a fevered lip lock and pressed up against the wall. Turning around on her right heel, Arizona descended the staircase and exited out the door and onto the second floor.
Taking the elevator to her floor, she barely made it to her office before bursting into heart wrenching sobs. Over the past few weeks, gossip about Callie and Penny' breakup had filtered through the hospital and once it reached Arizona's ears, she had been surprisingly filled with hope of a possible reconciliation between herself and Callie. That dream was now well and truly crushed and Arizona wept harder as the realisation swept her away with plummeting grief.
Not required in an operating theatre for another two hours, the shattered blonde took the time to take a hard look at her life. Sure, she enjoyed going to the lesbian bar with her wingman Richard Webber, but so far no one that had approached her had sparked any interest. She knew she was still holding back from getting on with finding someone, but taking that final step towards putting herself out there was more of a hurdle than Arizona had anticipated.
-o-
When the surgeon had first arrived in Seattle, she was a perky, self-absorbed dater. Arizona had her pick of women at the hospital and was never short of sexual partners. The gay, bi and curious straight girls were lining up and Arizona found she didn't really have to put much of an effort into finding someone willing to be with her. Back then she was a serial dater who didn't believe in forming anything but casual liaisons.
That all changed the moment she observed Callie during one of Webber's addresses to the staff. The woman of Cuban heritage had piqued her interest and Arizona wanted to learn more about the exotic beauty. Unaware of Callie's recent breakup with Erica Hahn or should that be the sudden disappearance of the Head of Cardiothoracic Surgery; Arizona found herself wanting to put the smile back on the Ortho Goddess's face.
After witnessing an upset Callie's departure into the toilet one night at the Emerald City Bar, Arizona followed the object of her interest and boldly flirted with the woman before kissing her. The intention was to let the brunette know many people would be eager to date her including herself. She had left a stunned Callie behind and departed the place.
When she found out Callie had only been in one other relationship with a woman, Arizona had declined her invite for a date and had ended up advising her she didn't waste her time on newborns.
At the time, Callie had been mortified by the terminology while Arizona's penchant for the sassy and self-confident Latina had only grown. Some confusion and obvious flirting ensued before they agreed to a first date.
The sparks flew and the couple fell in love only to have a shitload of drama thrown their way by the universe. They survived and married only to have Arizona commit the worst sin of them all. She cheated on her wife with a virtual stranger in an on-call room all because she was drowning in a sea of anguish over the loss of her leg and close friends.
-o-
When visiting Craniofacial Surgeon Lauren Boswell shamelessly dallied with Arizona before and during a procedure on a tiny human who was born with his brain growing on the outside of his cranium; the blonde had been shocked to find someone interested in her the way she was. She found it flattering and soaked it up thus disregarding her marriage vows.
At first she had resisted the temptation along with the many compliments and expressed the fact she was happily married, but that altered when a superstorm hit Seattle after the completion of a successful operation on the infant. Arizona found herself in that damned on-call room with Lauren with the intention of saying goodbye.
Lauren wasn't letting her go that easily with a handshake and the two Doctors embraced then lights went out resulting in a passionate kiss. The auxiliary generators kicked in. Arizona pulled away and protested. Heading for the door, she had her hand on the knob and was ready to leave when Doctor Boswell had to go and utter the eleven words that would forever change Arizona's life – "Arizona, you are allowed to lose a little bit of control".
That freaking sentence caused her to lock the door instead and return to the other woman's arms. For the first time in months, Arizona felt the anger subside and she took back control of her life. The pair engaged in furious, unrestrained sex and then the guilt set in.
Unbeknown to Arizona at the time, Callie was looking all over the hospital for her; worried about her safety during the devastation caused by the weather.
-o-
After dressing, Arizona and Lauren attended the NICU to check on their patient, and that is where Callie found her wife. Her world crumbled when she noted Lauren was wearing Arizona's scrub top with her wedding ring pinned to the front. She confronted her spouse and the expression on Arizona's face said it all.
The marriage ended when Callie asked to be free while the couple was attending a session with a marriage counsellor. Arizona was heartbroken, but Callie had done all she could to forgive her for all she had put them through. From that day on, Arizona had remained hopeful, but in the end she couldn't forgive herself for hurting the woman who was her anchor. She had been suffocated by the darkness surrounding her and struggled to understand her decision in accepting the affections of a person's whose ship passed in the night.
Her thoughts then turned to the disastrous sexual relationship she engaged in with Surgical Resident Leah Murphy and the tears cascaded down her face. Overall, she had made some shitty mistakes since Lauren freaking Boswell came to town.
Pulled out of her musing by the buzzing coming from her pager, Arizona dried her eyes with the sleeve of her white coat and was relieved for the distraction of a consult in the ER. Exiting her office, she prayed her wandering mind would stay occupied during the assessment and that was a good thing or so she tried to convince herself while pressing the call button of the elevator.
-o-
Entering the pit, Arizona called out, "Who paged for a Ped's consult?"
Trauma Attending, Doctor April Kepner appeared from inside treatment room two, "I did."
"What do you have for me Doctor Kepner?" inquired Arizona while joining her.
Handing over a tablet, the redhead presented the case, "Four year old Joshua Madden involved in a car accident. His father's car was sideswiped by some idiot running a red light."
Walking into the room, Arizona observed as Doctor Owen Hunt passed an ultrasound transducer over the exposed abdominal area of a crying, brown eyed child.
Kepner continued her initial assessment, "Extended stomach indicating an internal bleed. Doctor Hunt is checking for the source."
Viewing the screen, Arizona noted, "Do you see what I see Doctor Hunt?"
Without looking to her, Owen answered, "Lacs to the spleen and liver."
"I'll organise an OR," suggested the blonde while moving to the wall phone. "Doctor Kepner, page Doctor Bailey please."
"Right away Doctor Robbins."
-o-
With a successful splenectomy and liver resection completed in OR 5, Arizona and Miranda scrubbed out. The smaller woman removed her surgical cap and folded her arms. Her brown eyes settled on blue and she asked, "Are you okay Robbins? You seem a little preoccupied."
"I'm fine Doctor Bailey, just tired." "Tired of all the bullshit," she thought to herself.
A roll of the eyes indicated the Chief of Surgery was anything but convinced, "Okay, so your non-communication during that four hour procedure can be explained away by fatigue?"
Drying her hands, Arizona turned to her colleague and friend, "You are going to pester me until I talk about it, aren't you?"
"Damn straight I am. I assume you have heard the latest rumour doing the rounds and I can only imagine how distraught you must be."
Holding back tears, Arizona remarked, "There's really nothing I can say expect thank you for the assist Doctor Bailey." Walking away, she left a flustered Miranda behind and headed for the Attending's locker room.
The place was deserted and for that, she was thankful. Changing out of her dark blue scrubs, Arizona slipped on a fresh pair before making her way to OR 6 to begin the scheduled surgery that had been delayed due to the emergency.
-o-
A/N: See, Arizona is well aware she is mainly responsible for the breakup with Callie although there were contributing factors, and is taking control of her life … finally. Let me know what you think?