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"It just takes a second for my world to come crumbling down."
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"I can't do this anymore!"
"Fixing our marriage is too much to ask of you, okay fine. Just go."
"That's not what I said, stop twisting my words Calliope!"
"It's what you meant, I know you better than you know yourself."
"You don't know what you're saying."
"Can't you just admit that I'm right for once?"
"You don't know anything so just stop talking! Okay?"
"No that's not okay. Hey! Don't walk away while we're having a conversation!"
She knows that she has to get out, her breathing is laboured and her vision foggy. It's all too overwhelming. The hustle and bustle of the busy hospital is clouding her judgement. Before she knows it she's making a dash for the elevator and once inside she slams on the close door button. Callie's voice is trailing behind her, and she can hear it getting louder and louder as her wife draws closer. She presses the button repeatedly and lets out a sigh of relief when the doors close and she begins to make her way towards the ground floor. As soon as the doors slide open she's out of the building in a flash, thanking her lucky stars that Callie hasn't caught up to her. She keeps walking until she's found herself sitting on a park bench, head in her hands and tears finally allowing themselves to stream down her face. Her anger and hatred for her wife completely replaced with self loathing because deep down she knows that this is all her fault.
So Arizona finds herself sitting on a park bench as the sky darkens and the cool evening air sets in because she hasn't got the will to get up and go home or to the hospital. In this moment she has lost the will to live with no one to blame but herself because she screwed up and it cost her the love of her life. She has no one to turn to, because ever since the day she met Calliope Torres, she has known that she will always be her person, and no one else makes the cut. So she is alone.
The sun has completely set and Arizona begins to feel the chill of the night. Her eyes are dry and she's certain that it's not physically possible for her to cry anymore. She contemplates going back to the hospital, but then she's overwhelmed at the prospect of all the people, and also she's completely dreading what Callie has told everyone.
Instead she opts to go a hotel for the night, just to clear her head, and naturally her first thought is to raid the mini bar, but she can't she just can't do that. She knows that when she gets drunk she gets reckless, so no she doesn't plan on getting drunk because she hates herself for cheating on Callie and getting drunk will most certainly result in a one night stand and another mountain of regrets. So she sits on the bed staring into the void of darkness hoping for sleep to take over, and begging for some kind of release. But neither of them comes. She's still awake when the first light starts to break through and she still feels like crap. However it's a new day, and that means that she has to put on a brave face and go back to work.
She drops her key at the front desk and heads into the hospital so she can shower and change into the spare clothes that are in her locker. She stands at the mirror and braids her damp hair before heading out to pick up her charts. As she's walking down the corridor she hears her name being called. Before she turns she plasters a grin on her face and attempts to be her usual perky self.
"Arizona."
"How can I help you?" She says as she turns around and her braid falls to the side. "Meredith."
"Callie called and said she couldn't pick Sofia up, so I took her home." Meredith lets Sofia's hand go and the child wanders over to Arizona. Naturally she smiles at her daughter, because right now she's the one thing which is keeping her from losing it completely, her beautiful little girl.
"Thank you." She takes her daughters hand and guides her towards the elevator. "Come on baby, lets go to daycare." She sits with Sofia for a while, since she feels like she hardly sees her anymore, but when she checks the time she knows she really should be heading back upstairs before the rumour mill starts to churn up reasons as to why she is sitting in day care rather than working. She kisses her daughter on the cheek. "Bye Sofia."
"Bye mama." And then she's out of the room. She waits, staring through the blind for a while, because she's missed that smile and her voice. For a second she feels sane, happy and grounded. But only for a second. Her pager is going off, she's being called in for a consult. Her head starts to spin, because what if she runs in to Callie. They've been able to remain professional and act courteously around each other, but after yesterday she's unsure of what will happen because she's never really felt the full wrath of Callie before then.
She's on a caffeine high, but she's made it through the day, without running into Callie. Then her phone rings and Callie's face pops up on the caller ID. She's got a goofy grin, and Arizona remembers when she took that photo. Sofia had been on a play date and they were home alone, they'd planned to just sit on the sofa and watch TV but Callie had surprised her, she'd cooked and then dimmed the lights in their bedroom and laid out a few candles. She remembers how good the pasta that Callie had made tasted. She'd moaned, and Callie had teased that clearly her cooking was orgasmic. That's when she had snapped that photo.
"Doctor Robbins, are you going to get that?"
"Sorry yes." She'd been so caught up in the memory, she had forgotten that photo, because Callie never called anymore, so she never saw it. "Hello, can you give me a second." She walks down the hall and finds an empty on call room because she figures that it must be important if Callie is calling her. "Yes I'm here."
"Can you pick Sofia up and bring her over here?"
"Are you feeling okay? If you're sick I can take her for the night."
"No I'm not sick, but we need to talk, and it's something we need to talk about face to face. It's something that you deserve to hear in person. Since you're at the hospital and I'm not I figured it would be simpler if you just brought Sofia here and then we can talk."
"Over to the apartment? You mean you aren't you at the hospital?"
"No, if I was do you think I'd be asking you to pick up my daughter?"
"Sorry I wasn't thinking, why aren't you here?" The fact that Callie used the word my instead of our was not lost on Arizona, and whilst it could have genuinely been a slip up she had a feeling that was not the case. However she wasn't about to to push her luck and potentially blow something meaningless way out of proportion so she just let it be.
"We can talk about that when you get here. I'll see you soon. Goodbye."
The screen goes black and there are two beeps indicating that the call has ended. She shoves her phone into her pocket and heads to change out of her scrubs before picking her daughter up from daycare. She runs into Meredith on her way down, which of course leads to a rather unpleasant conversation.
"Have you spoken to Callie?"
"Yes I got off the phone with her a while ago."
"Do you know why she wasn't in today?" Meredith is curious because Callie has refused to tell her anything about the situation and she'd hate to see her friend get hurt.
"No I don't"
"And she knows that you're picking up Sofia?"
"Yes. Can you stop questioning me"
"Sorry Callie is my friend…"
"And I'm a worthless cheater! She's still my daughter, and I'd appreciate it if you didn't question me about my marriage and how I'm raising my child." She's raised her voice and now people are staring at her.
"I wasn't…"
"I'm sorry, I've just had a rough few days, it's not your fault. Goodnight Meredith." She picks up Sofia and walks out briskly so that it doesn't look like she's running from all of the people who just witnessed her having a mini meltdown.
She puts Sofia in the car seat and drives to Callie's on auto pilot. She pulls up and helps Sofia out of the car. She knocks on the door and it swings open. Callie's hair is not combed and she's in her pyjamas, Arizona knows this means that she's had a bad day.
"Hi!" Callie scoops Sofia up and immediately takes her to her room. She gets her cleaned up for bed whilst Arizona waits in the living room. She waits patiently, standing rather than making herself at home because this isn't her home anymore, and she doesn't want to irritate Callie any further. She paces and doesn't say a word whilst her wife carries out Sofia's nightly routine, that she knows by heart because they used to do it together. She keeps her mouth shut when Callie forgets a step, she's forgotten to brush and braid the little girls hair, because when she sleeps with it down it usually becomes a tangled mess. Callie emerges from Sofia's room. "Do you want to say goodnight to her?"
"Yes of course." She disappears for a few minutes, and she feels guilty for rushing it, because she hasn't tucked her little girl in for so long now, but she has to get back out and see what Callie so urgently needed to talk to her about, and what is so serious that it couldn't be discussed over the phone.
When she closes the door behind her she finds that Callie is seated on the sofa. Callie motions for her to take a seat in the arm chair, and she complies. "So, what did you want to talk to me about?"
"I didn't come into work today. This morning when I woke up I just didn't want to face you after yesterday. I felt a little guilty. But as the hours passed and I had time to think about it I felt less and less guilty. I mean why the hell should I feel guilty when you're the one who strayed. I'm not going to yell at you because our daughter is next door, and she's much too young to understand why we're fighting and what is happening."
"I know, you blame me, it's largely my fault." She talks slowly and calmly, trying to rationalise, whilst also leaving out some vital details which she knows could help her out in the long run if she just tells Callie, but she can't bring herself to tell Callie all of the things that she's been through. She can't burden anyone with everything that's eating her alive.
"No, don't you dare give me that, don't tell me it's your fault and then have your own little pity party and try to make me feel sorry for you because it's not going to work." Ouch. Those words really sting, because they hit close to home, she want's Callie to understand and she desperately wishes that she could tell her everything, and make her understand that she should have a little bit of sympathy, but the words just don't come out.
"Calliope."
"I'm warning you. You're pushing it."
"I want to try, and I need…"
"Look frankly I don't care what you want or need anymore, because you never cared to tell me what you wanted before and I wasn't consulted when you decided to sleep with someone else." There's a sharp pain inside, because of course the brunette is right. She slept with someone else, and that hurt Callie, and she can't undo the pain she caused, but at the same time she can't stop feeling the pain she's in. Now she's feeling the most pain from the fact that the love of her life is hurting, and there's nothing she can do now to stop that.
"Listen to me Calliope please." She needs her wife to stop talking, to give her minute to process all the thoughts bouncing around in her head. She can't from a coherent thought and she wants to be able to say her piece.
"No, you listen to me, you're going to listen to what I want for once. Do you hear me?" The blonde gives a cautious nod, waiting to hear what she has to say. "Arizona, I want a divorce."
A/N: If you're willing to stick with this then thank you so much, and if you have time to drop a review it's always appreciated.
