Camouflage Christmas
Pairing: Callie/Arizona
Rating: PG-13 for naughty language
Disclaimer: Any use of characters that do not belong to me is not for profit; they belong to Shonda Rhimes and ABC. This story is not intended to be libelous, defamatory, or in any way factual.
A/N: Secret Santa gift for istillam on the Callie_Arizona Livejournal Community. The prompt was "Arizona's dad surprises her and visits Seattle Grace." It's a bit goofy, but I hope you like it!
Arizona didn't consider herself a weak person. Quite to the contrary, she always had thought that she could do anything if she put her mind to it; it was how she had an amazing girlfriend, was a kick-ass Pediatric surgeon, and even had purple belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. But one thing sent the confident surgeon running for the hills. That would be her father.
Arizona's normally precisely styled hair had become a blond bunch perched on top of her head. She did not bother to brush it out of her eyes as she rushed down the hall. One of the sleeves of her lab coat was rolled up, while the other had fallen down by her wristwatch, which she kept glancing at with a harried look on her face. A dark liquid speckled the navy scrubs underneath, but Arizona did not seem to notice as she wheeled through the antiseptic hallway of the hospital, trotting on her toes every so often to speed up.
"Dr. Robbins!" Dr. Bailey called as she rushed up to her. "Doc-- Dr. Robbins. Excuse me? Where's the fire?"
"Fire? Where? What? I just -- Callie, I need Callie. Like, right now, or else... or else...."
Miranda shifted her weight to her back foot and raised one eyebrow.
"If this is has anything to do with the two of you and an on-call room, I'm walking away right now."
"No! This is worse.... This is so much worse.... Daddy -- he's -- I -- Please tell me where Callie is."
"Room 5124. But what do you mean by Daddy?" she called as Arizona sped down the hall.
*****
Finally, Arizona found Callie. As she looked through the glass of the patient's room, she couldn't help but pause. Callie's jet black hair was eau naturale -- messy waves framed her face and cascaded down her back. Even at her worst, Callie was a vision. She left Arizona breathless.
Callie flipped open the patient's chart and addressed the patient, cueing Arizona to bust into the room.
"I'm going to insert a 4 screws into your --"
"Dr. Torres!" Arizona couldn't help but smile as her name rolled off her tongue.
"Dr. Robbins, " Calliope grinned back. Taking in her appearance, she furrowed her brow. "What are you doing here? Is that dried blood on your scrubs?"
"We have a Code Camouflage."
"Camouflage?"
"Yes. Colonel Robbins is in town."
The latina paled amazingly for her skin tone, and glanced at her patient. "I'm sorry could you hold on one sec?" She interlaced her fingers with those of the panicking blonde and pulled her out of the room.
"What do you mean your dad's in town? When? Why?"
"Apparently, he was tired of me working on Christmas and wanted to spend the holidays with me. He called me and told me his plane landed about an hour ago, so he should be here soon.
The wide-eyed expression on Callie's face said it all.
Shit.
*****
A handsome man in his mid-sixtees with gray streaked dirty blond hair marched up to the nurses station. He looked a bit like Mark Sloan, except stiff backed and with more worry lines creasing his forehead. He had his weight shifted to one side, odd for a man who seemed so trained in standing tall.
He cleared his throat.
"Good morning miss. Could you direct me to where Dr. Arizona Robbins might be?" he addressed a redheaded nurse whose name tag claimed she was "Olivia."
"She's got nothing planned at the moment. Would you like me to page her?"
The stiff man nodded affirmatively.
"May I ask who is paging her? It's hospital policy."
"Just tell her the Colonel is waiting for her," he said testily.
A pager went off down the hall from him.
Arizona bent over to check the pager clipped to her waist, huffing in annoyance when her hair fell in her eyes.
Colonel Robbins eyes seemed to smile as he saw his little girl struggle with her waves once again.
With the corners of her mouth upturned, the taller woman leaned over and delicately tucked the locks back behind Arizona's ear.
The Colonel's brow reached down to meet his eyes as he watched the women.
Her shoulders relaxed down as she felt Calliope's hand against her cheek. They tensed again, however, when she read her pager. Watery, blue eyes begged Callie for help.
"He's waiting for me. I've left him waiting," she scoffed at herself.
".... And? He's probably only been here for 5 minutes. And besides, we're in a hospital. We have whole rooms dedicated to waiting," Callie responded, placing her thumb and forefinger on Arizona's pointed chin.
"You don't understand. He's a colonel. You don't keep a colonel waiting," she sniffed.
"Or else what?"
"Or else he'll return the favor. I was late half an hour to school once, so he waited an extra half an hour to pick me up from Ms. Kenton's class. Me. And Ms. Kenton. Alone. For a half an hour." She shook her head at the memory.
"Wow."
"Yes. So now I have to go over there and apologize first." Arizona turned around to shuffle towards the nurses' station.
The Colonel straightened himself up in preparation.
"Wait," Callie said as she grabbed Arizona by the hand once more. "Look, he may be your father, but that gives him no right to treat you like a baby. You are a grown woman. An amazing woman. You save kids' lives everyday. And you know what? Sometimes that makes you a little late. But being an adult, you have a right to handle your own life the way you want and need to. Your opinions, and thoughts, and feelings are just as relevant to the conversation as his. You are a gorgeous, life-saving woman and I love you." She planted a softly passionate kiss on Arizona's lips. "Right now you have nothing to apologize for. Just go up to your dad and say hi. Okay?" Calliope ducked her head to look into crystalline eyes and sighed lightly. The shoulders beneath her fingertips relaxed and strengthened; Callie could see a new resolve form in her eyes.
"Have I ever told you how much I love you, Calliope?" Arizona whispered.
"You might have mentioned it once or twice," she smirked.
"Let me just say it again."
"Come on!" she smiled, nudging Arizona lightly in her father's direction.
"Oh, no. You are coming with me."
Callie's eyes became as wide a saucers. "What?"
Yanking her girlfriend over to her dad, Arizona took a deep breath and said, "Hey Dad. I'd like you to meet my girlfriend Callie," with her best dimply smile. She wasn't apologizing. She wasn't meek. She was an amazing person, god damn it, and her father had to understand that.
Looking between the two, the Colonel smiled with his eyes, and very tenderly, he swept them both into a hug.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Callie. Arizona hasn't stopped talking about you."