Walk Tall...by lilscout

Chapter 1

Summary – Moderately A/U. Both women are surgeons at SGH, but they meet in a slightly different way at Emerald City Bar. Arizona has some...skills...that come in handy one night when Callie is being harassed.

A/N - Set just after Arizona joins SGH as Head of Paediatrics, so no merger people yet.

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"Done for the night, Dr. Torres?" The sympathetic tone in the charge nurse's voice made Callie wince inside.

It was a tone that Callie was getting really tired of hearing. From everyone. God, has it really come to this? I'm being pitied by the nurses now?

Callie forced a smile she did not feel, and handed the patient chart back to the seated woman at the nurse's station. "'Night Sylvia. See you Monday, I guess." Callie turned and walked away. But where to go? Not home, that's for sure. She knew Owen and Cristina would be there and she was in no mood to watch the happy couple be happy. Mark was out with Lexie, she knew that too. "Joe's it is..." she mumbled to herself as she wearily pushed open the door to the resident's lounge and sat down to shed her hospital scrubs in favour of her green top, black jeans and black leather jacket.

Callie wandered slowly along the street, head down as she pulled open the door to the Emerald City Bar. Making her way over to a stool, she quickly scanned the room for familiar faces, and sat down in a huff as she realized that no one she knew was present tonight. Joe spotted her as she approached, and without being asked, placed a full shot glass in front of the sad doctor.

"On the house, Dr. Torres." He gave her a brief smile.

Callie lifted the little glass to eye level and gave a mini salute to the venerable bartender.

"Cheers, Joe, and keep 'em coming. I've got nowhere to be tomorrow except hung over."

An hour later, as shot number seven burned a path down the inside of her throat, Callie took a moment to look around at a few of the other patrons seated at the bar. A happy couple at one corner, sitting close, whispering and laughing with eachother, Ugh, barf, a couple of thirty something women chatting casually as they stirred their drinks, hmmm...blonde's cute, but nope, don't need to be thinking about any blondes tonight, and lastly, some random guy a little older than Callie who she had noticed making eyes at her since she sat down. He seemed to take the brief glance in his direction as some sort of opening, because he slid off his stool and made his way over to her. Callie rolled her eyes as she tossed back the contents of the glass in her hand.

"Hi, I'm Peter." He was smiling and waiting for her name as if he was the kind of guy who usually got one from the women he hit on.

"Good for you." Callie said as she turned her head away from him, preferring instead to check out the pretty blonde again. Unfortunately he didn't take the hint.

"So, I noticed you're here alone tonight." He was persistent, she had to give him that.

She turned back to him, sighing heavily. "Look, I'm not trying to be rude, but you're wasting your breath with me. I'm just not interested, okay?"

"A challenge!" he remarked, coming around behind her to sit on the empty stool to her left.

"No you don't get it...oh whatever, suit yourself." Callie was too tired and too depressed to care, so she simply motioned to Joe for another shot as he passed by the bar register.

"Everything okay here, Dr. Torres?" There was mild concern in his voice. He knew exactly how many shots Callie had already tossed back, and this guy hitting on her seemed to not want to take no for an answer. "How 'bout just one more for the road, okay, then I'm gonna send you home."

"Ok, Joe. You're prob'ly right," she slurred as she reached out and patted his arm while he tipped the bottle of tequila upside down to fill the little glass in front of her. "You take good care of me," she smiled to him. Joe returned her smile, then gave the guy a stern look.

"One more for me too, barkeep," the guy lifted his tumbler and shook it, tinkling the ice cubes around, then turned his attention back to Callie.

"So...a doctor, huh?" Random Guy leaned in a little closer. "Maybe we can go back to your place and you can show me your bedside manor?" His breath stank of whisky and cigarettes.

Callie quickly downed the final shot, and laughed out loud at the ridiculous pick up line.

"Wow, you're a real charmer, you know that!" She started to slide off the seat as she bid him a goodnight and goodluck.

He grabbed her forearm a little too tightly and tried to hold her there. "Awww, come on now...we could have some real fun, you and I." He licked his lips and slid his other hand firmly along Callie's butt. "You have a great ass," he remarked.

Callie was drunk, and depressed, and unsteady on her feet, but she had just enough clarity left in her to shrug her arm firmly from his grasp and make her way to the exit, muttering asshole on her way out. That kind of attention was really the last thing she needed tonight.

She pushed open the heavy door and moved quickly outside, stopping when the cold damp air hit her cheeks. She pulled the flaps of her thin coat tightly around her torso and turned to make her way to her building, once again grateful that she lived so close.

"Hey!" she heard a voice behind her. She turned and came face to face with the same guy. He was moving towards her with his hands out to his sides, as if in a defensive gesture. "Hey, sorry about that. Guess I had too much to drink too. Why don't you come back inside...let me make it up to you."

"The only thing you're sorry about is that I shrugged you off. And no, I'm not going back inside. I'm going home...alone." Callie spit the last part out, getting angrier by the second.

He came close to her and circled around so that she was effectively boxed in by him. To her right was a wall, to her left were some shrubs, and behind, the door to the bar. He was playing the angles, and he was winning. He moved in closer and pushed her lightly against the wall as his left arm went up to block her escape and his right hand quickly moved under her jacket, attempting to fondle her breasts.

Callie's intoxicated mind reeled and she started to panic. How did this go so wrong so quickly? She pushed his wandering arm away and shouted for him to stop, but he simply responded by grabbing her forearm again and pressing her harder against the wall. As his other hand began to trail farther south down Callie's body, they both heard a voice coming from the saloon entrance.

"She's made it pretty clear she's not interested. Stop now and save yourself a lot of trouble."

Callie's head whipped around to see who her rescuer was. It's that hot blonde from the bar!

Arizona Robbins moved slowly towards the guy. He scoffed at her and stumbled back awkwardly away from Callie to face his next conquest. "Yeah, blondie? You gonna make me?" He was smirking to himself and didn't notice that Callie had silently moved away from the wall towards the street.

"I'm simply asking you to leave the woman alone," Arizona responded evenly, stopping and standing in place a few feet from his mildly staggering body.

The guy decided he was going to have some fun after all, and goaded the blonde as he stepped closer to her. "I think you should mind you're own business, unless 'o course, you want to join the party." He smiled what he thought was a charming grin at her, but noticed that her expression remained unchanged, and it only made him angry. "Fine!" he spit out at her. "Then back off!" As he yelled at her he reached out with his fingers and pushed against her left shoulder in an attempt to amplify his point. He startled a little when not only didn't she fall back, but she didn't even budge. Not an inch. Like she was ready for it, expecting it. Arizona didn't respond, and simply moved past him to join Callie at the curb.

"Here," she said softly to the teetering and shocked doctor, as she held her gently by the arm, "I'll get you into a cab."

Callie looked at the mystery woman through blurry eyes and though she was fast losing all coherent thought, managed to squeak out that she lived in the building down the street, so she could just walk home.

"Okay," Arizona responded with a caring smile, "I'll walk you home. You're in no shape to get there on your own."

The guy stood on the sidewalk, blinking and swaying, feeling dismissed, trying to figure out how the circumstances had changed so quickly. One second he was feeling up the hot brunette, the next second they're both walking away from him. He saw himself as charming and handsome. Things did not usually work out for him this way, and it pissed him off. It was the blonde, it was her fault. He was suddenly overcome with rage and hurried towards the women who had their backs to him, the blonde supporting the brunette as they walked. He grabbed hard and rough at the right shoulder of the smaller woman. He would show her a thing or two.

But Arizona had other plans.

He wasn't quiet, so she heard his fast approach. Odds are that a man will grab a woman to turn her around and punch. They usually don't tackle women from behind. She figured correctly that his first move would be to the shoulder. So, in her mind, it was over before it began. He grabbed at her right shoulder with his right hand while leaning in with his right leg, which meant he was off balance. Arizona let go of Callie, lightly pushing her away, then quickly reached over with her left hand and ducked down slightly as she grabbed his hand in hers. He would be expecting her to pull away from him, but instead she stepped back into his body and lifted his arm up into the air and twisted it as she turned underneath it. This motion surprised him and he was forced by his own body's immediate sense of pain to spin around with his back now facing her. She immediately moved both her hands to his wrist, bending it in, and applied a moderate amount of pressure to the joint connecting his middle finger to his right hand. He instantly cried out in pain, collapsing to the sidewalk on one knee, desperately trying to find a way to relieve the intense strain on his right arm. Arizona calmly matched each attempt he made to push and pull his way out of the painful hold, until he finally realized he was just making it worse and gave up as he cried out a desperate apology, begging to be let go.

Arizona turned her head to look at Callie who was standing still, stunned by what she was witnessing. "Do you want the police?" she asked her. "Do you want to press charges?"

Callie took a second to register that those words were directed at her, then shook her head and managed a stuttered "N..no, no I don't." She pulled her gaze up from the broken man on the ground to lock her wide eyes with the blonde again. "I just want him to go away..."

Arizona leaned down close to the man's ear, and whispered angrily, "For what you did to her I would really like to hurt you," she paused, "but that's not who I am. I'm going to let you get up in a moment, but first..." She applied just the tiniest bit more pressure to his joint and he whimpered again in pain. "What you're feeling is your tendons about to snap. Trust me, you don't want that."

She let go a little, providing him some welcomed relief.

"So, here's what's going to happen. You are going to stand up and you are going to walk away. You will not say or do anything. You will just walk away. You will not think of retaliating. It would be...unwise...and there would be police involvement. Do you understand me?"

He nodded his head quickly, trying to stifle a sob as he responded to her.

Arizona let go of his wrist and took three steps back from him, placing herself out of reach just in case he, foolishly, was thinking of making a move. He stayed on the ground for a moment, cradling his very sore wrist in his left arm, then awkwardly stood up, turned around to glare at her, then moved off quickly down the street. She watched him get to the end of the block, before he turned back one last time to scream "Bitch!", then he turned the corner and was gone.

Arizona turned back to Callie with a look of deep concern. "Are you okay?" she asked the brunette.

"Am I okay?" Callie responded with shock. "I should be asking you that! How did you do that, anyway?"

Arizona chuckled as she moved forward and took Callie's arm in her's again. "How about I save that story for another day? You're still pretty unsteady on your feet and I need to get you home before the rain really starts." Both women looked up as the first few big drops began to fall from the dark sky. "Shall we?"

Callie simply nodded and allowed herself to be helped along the street and up the two flights of stairs to her apartment door. Exhaustion took hold faster than she hoped and after a fourth failed attempt to place her key in the lock, Arizona moved close and gently took Callie's wavering hand in hers, guiding it smoothly into the keyhole and pushing open the door. Arizona watched as Callie stumbled inside and headed straight for the couch, knocking her knee against the arm and falling on her side onto the soft cushions with a audible grunt. Almost immediately Callie began to emit a light snore. Arizona sighed and smiled at the adorable brunette, then moved to the kitchen and collected an empty bowl and a glass of water, and placed them on the coffee table beside the couch. She knelt down and cautiously untied and removed Callie's sneakers, not wanting to wake her, then stood up. She felt a slight pang a guilt for letting her eyes linger a little too long at the exposed skin of Callie's waist where her shirt had ridden up, and over the tempting curves of her jean-clad hips and butt. Lastly, Arizona's eyes settled on Callie's beautiful face, her serene features evidence of a deep slumber. Features that Arizona had been admiring from afar since the first day she spied the good doctor in the hospital cafeteria. Features that were hard to miss, especially when Callie smiled or laughed, which she didn't seem to do very often anymore, if the nurse's gossip wheel was any indication.

Arizona leaned in and sighed again as she tenderly brushed a few strands of hair away from Callie's cheek. "I was really hoping to get to meet you tonight Doctor Torres...but I didn't think it would be under these circumstances." She straightened up and made her way quickly to the open apartment door. Before leaving Arizona paused, then turned, and more to herself than anyone, sadly whispered, "Sweet dreams, Calliope."

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Arizona can kick ass! Who knew? :) Want more? Let me know...