"Sofia is waiting for you. And Callie is waiting for you. And I am waiting for you." "Where's Lexie?" "She won't be barefoot." All these words were playing over and over again inside the mind of Arizona Robbins. The ear piercing screams she let out, the agony of her broken leg, and knowing that she couldn't help any of her friends and colleagues were haunting the blond peds surgeon day and night. Tonight was no different.
Arizona put a sleepy Sofia to bed and started making her way to the couch. Even though the accident was almost a year ago, Arizona still had a slight limp. She made it to the couch and slumped down. She wished her wife was here, but she wasn't. Callie was at the hospital, working.
Arizona shifted into a laying position on the couch, not yet ready to crawl into bed and sleep. She turned on the rarely used television and started watching a random late night show.
"Jerry, you'll be okay. It'll be fine, right?"
"The chopper left us here, Arizona. And from what the other woman said, I'm left paralyzed. Not much is left."
"But there is still something, right? We can still get out of here."
"You're not hearing me. There isn't a second chance anymore, unless the people you are supposed to be meeting figure something out."
"But Calliope and Sofia…. I… they…"
Arizona jolted up from the couch. She was drenched in a cold sweat. Nightmares were common, but she usually had her wife by her side. She got off the couch and walked to Sofia's room. She checked on her daughter, and then made her way to the bathroom.
Arizona turned on the shower and stripped off all of her clothes. Climbing into the shower, she relaxed. Hot water always calmed her down. Scrubbing her body clean from the sweat, Arizona looked down and saw the huge scar on her left leg. Forever a reminder of that fateful day, she carried around the scar.
She finished her shower rather quickly and walked to her room with a towel draped around her body. She grabbed a pair of pajama shorts and a tank top then sat on the bed. She was more tired than she thought. She didn't want to move, but she still needed to put clothes on.
After an internal battle with herself, she put on the pajamas and climbed into bed. Pulling the blanket up to her chin, she fell asleep almost instantly. She only wished it were a dreamless slumber.
It had been – what? – five hours since everybody who was on the plane found each other. They were settled, as best they could be, in the middle of a forest. Did anybody know they were stranded and hurt? Probably not.
Arizona felt what she thought was phlegm building up in her throat. Coughing felt like the only way she was going to be able to get it out of her body, but shortly after, she tasted the metallic thickness of blood. Putting her hand to her mouth, she wiped the blood from her mouth and onto the jacket she had. Blood isn't a good sign, especially in the situation she was in.
She knew she needed medical attention, and fast. Callie, her wife, was an orthopedic surgeon! If only she were here, able to hold and care for Arizona right now. Why couldn't Callie be able to help her? Oh yeah, Arizona was stranded in the middle of nowhere, with her bone popping out of her leg and blood coming out of her mouth. Blood, lots and lots of blood. It was everywhere…
Once again, Arizona was jolted out of her nightmare. What was it that woke her up? She looked at the baby monitor and saw no activity in Sofia's room. It was 1:45 in the morning and Callie still wasn't home either. Maybe that's why she woke up for the second time that night; she was alone.
Arizona got out of bed and decided to just get a glass of water and sit in her daughter's room. Maybe being close to another human would calm her never ending nerves. She was shaking, standing in the doorway of the sleeping child's room. What if she sat in the rocking chair and fell asleep? Arizona didn't know if she screamed through her nightmares. Going into Sofia's room probably wasn't a good idea.
The walk back to the deserted master bedroom was long enough for Arizona to become tired again. Since returning to Seattle, after the crash, she had barely gotten any sleep. She wouldn't talk about the crash and the nightmares were getting worse as time went on.
Arizona lay back down and succumbed once again to sleep. Hopefully she wouldn't wake up again until it was morning and she had to get to work.
It had to have been close to two days now; two days of being stranded and left to die. Still coughing up blood, Arizona just wanted her wife and daughter.
"Arizona? Are you alright down there?"
"Yeah, Jerry, I'm fine. I don't think I'll ever be able to see my family again. How about you? Do you have a family?"
"I've devoted my life to flying. I have no one waiting at home for me. Why don't you tell me about your family?"
All that the pilot heard as a response was a lot of coughing. Arizona was covering herself in her own blood and nobody would see it. She left everyone believe that she was okay. She was a good man in a storm, and she was going to let everyone take care of themselves and the others without worrying about her.
"My daughter, she's one. She's adorable and looks just like her mom."
"That must be really nice," the pilot replied.
"It is. But it wasn't at first. We got into a horrible accident when Callie was pregnant. Callie's my wife. Sofia was born at one pound and one ounce. We didn't think she would survive, being that tiny. It took over three months, but they survived. And we were finally a happy family."
"Wow, you've been through so much. And now, to be in an accident like this… I couldn't imagine being in your place."
Without giving a response to the man, Arizona started coughing up more blood. She had been coughing nonstop, with chunks of blood, since the chopper left them. If she didn't get help soon, she would die in the woods. Help, help, help, she needed to find help. Finding help was the last thing she remembered thinking about in the deserted forest full of plane carnage.
"Arizona, wake up! You're having another nightmare!" Arizona heard a voice yelling.
"We need help! No!"
"Arizona, honey, wake up. You're at home, in your bed. You're having a dream."
"Calliope?" Arizona said, sitting up instantly.
"You were dreaming about the crash again, weren't you?"
"For the third time tonight; Calliope these dreams are so real, they kept waking me up."
"Arizona, you won't talk to me about them, but they keep getting worse. I love you too much to see you suffer through these. Please, talk to someone about them. You can't keep living with these nightmares. You have them all the time. I wasn't there, I don't know what happened out there, but this isn't healthy."
"Okay, I'll try. But promise me one thing, Calliope?"
"What is it?"
"Promise me that you'll be there for me."
"Of course I will, Arizona. You're my wife. I'll do anything you ask me to."
"Thank you. I love you so much."
"I love you to the stars and moon and back. Try and get some sleep though."
"I will. Goodnight, Calliope."
"Goodnight beautiful."
