So I don't know how this happened, I really had no intention of writing any other fics, but suddenly I've been running with two ideas. One is a sequel to Wanted, and the other is this. This should be a much lighter, fluffier piece. Rated M for eventual chapters.
Apologies in advance for any mistakes.
The ball was lobbed high in the air, leading the point guard to the basket. She decided that she would go for the alley-oop lay in. The other option was to grab the ball, come to the ground, gather and then finish, but she didn't want to risk getting blocked on this fast break. As she went to push off her left leg to jump up for the ball, it buckled under her. She caught the ball, but instead of jumping high into the air, she simply fell forward throwing the ball off the back board as she went down. The play continued, the opposing team got the rebound off her horribly missed shot, and she turned to sit on her butt and scooted off the court. When her teammates took notice that she was hurt one of them fouled in order to stop the play. Now the crowd took notice as well as they saw her clutching her knee, and she mumbled to herself in pain, "God, I'm such an idiot. That was so stupid. Why did I do that? So dumb. So dumb." A hush fell over the arena as they saw the Seattle Storm training staff rush over to the up-and-coming star. The star who won 3 championships with UConn. The star who had played a brilliant freshman season and was being groomed to take over for Sue Bird when she retired. The star who everyone had promised would someday lead the Storm to another championship. The star who knew she just tore her ACL, and that her season was officially over.
Six Months Later
"Look Arizona, I know you are in a rush to get back to playing, but when they say it's possible to come back from an ACL injury in 5-6 months, they aren't talking about high performance athletes like you. The explosive movements you make when you play and the contact you're gonna take means you need to build up a lot of strength. And the graft still needs time," the physical therapist tried to reason with the young blonde.
"But Teddy! I'm already feeling good. I mean I do all the squat tests, one legged jumping, you said my leg feels strong. I'm squatting more than I ever have. I need to get back into actually playing though if I want to be ready for season," Arizona argued.
"Arizona-"
"I'm going to play this season! I'm not sitting out again. I can't." Arizona had grown fond of Teddy over the last 6 months, but in her mind the physical therapist was completely off base on this. Arizona could play.
"I'm going to be firm here and tell you that you are not ready to play. If you play now, if you rush it, you are going to tear it again, and that's going to set you back even longer."
"Who do I talk to about getting cleared?" Arizona questioned. She didn't want more "no's," she needed someone to say "yes."
"Well your surgeon, but Dr. Chang actually retired. Bought a boat and is sailing around the world," Teddy said with a smile. That sounded nice.
"Yeah, I'm sure my ACL reconstruction surgery alone was good for a down payment," Arizona said bitterly.
"Probably. Ortho surgeons make bank. Especially, the one's who just pile on the quick reconstructions. Anyways, I like his replacement though. Dr. Torres."
"Sounds great," the words came out sarcastically. Arizona wasn't much a fan of ortho surgeons. Her last one had told her some of the worst news of her life, and she knew all he saw was a pay check. She had thought about asking for someone else, but was told that Dr. Chang worked on most of Seattle's top athletes.
"I'll have them call and set up an appointment. Just... don't be too disappointed. You can still have a long career, but you don't want to rush back. Now lie back," Teddy said as she began to massage and stretch Arizona's leg. "And stop overdoing the squats."
Teddy put Arizona's leg back on the table. She put the STEM pads on her quad and then wrapped it before turning on the Game Ready machine that sent cold ice water straight to Arizona's leg and the STEM machine that sent electrical currents to her leg. Arizona closed her eyes as she lied back on the table. She still hated the STEM treatment after all this time. This doctor would have to clear her, she'd put in all the work.
"Hey, Torres, can I be on your service today?" Alex asked.
"No way, I'm already on her service Karev." Jackson interjected.
"Oookay... This is new. Why do you want to be on my service?" Callie eyed them both suspiciously. Neither were usually keen to be on her ortho service, or "carpentry" as residents would sometimes call it.
"I just really am interested in taking up ortho as a specialty," Karev said with his smarmy charm.
"Karev, we all know you are into peds," Callie said.
"Yeah, you like babysitting." Jackson said with a smirk.
"Whatever, Jackson only wants on today because of Arizona Robbins, if not he'd be kissing his boyfriend Sloan's ass," Karev said with annoyance.
"Same reason you're here. I mean, it be cooler if it was an NBA player, but she was was badass at UConn."
"Who? The lady 6 month post-op from ACL reconstruction?" Callie said clearly confused.
"The lady? Yeah, Torres. She won 3 championship's at UConn. She's the next Sue Bird. Plays for the Storm. Ring any bells? I want to get an autograph for Lucy. She'll dig it." Karev said with a small smile. Callie saw Alex try to hide the smile, he had a bad boy image to maintain, but he was a softy.
"Plus, she's hot," Jackson added with his trademark Avery smile.
"Yeah, I know I'm the ortho surgeon and all, but I don't really follow sports too closely. But I sense that she's a very good basketball player. Anyways, I didn't do the surgery, Chang did."
"WHAT?!" Karev and Jackson both exclaimed.
"Is she alright?" "The dinosaur didn't ruin anything did he?" "Does she need another surgery?"
Karev and Jackson fired off questions quickly, and Callie couldn't keep up with them.
"Calm down!" She said loudly to silence them. When she had their full attention she continued, "She's fine. I mean he used a hamstring graft when I would have recommended a patellar tendon graft, but there are pros and cons to either. Teddy, her physical therapist said that she wants to be cleared to play."
"6 months post-op? Can she?" Karev asked.
"Absolutely not. Not if she doesn't want to tear her ACL again. But clearly you both are interested so you both can be in the room to meet her."
"Cool." Was all Jackson had to say.
Callie strolled into the room, and was re-reading Arizona's chart.
"Hi, I'm Dr. Torres," She said as she stuck her hand out to shake Arizona's hand, and she looked up for the first time.
"Uh, Hi. I'm Arizona," Arizona said as she took her hand, and gave it a quick firm shake. She could have sworn she felt some sort of spark. "Probably just static electricity," she thought to herself, but she found herself starring into Dr. Torres' eyes. When she became aware of that fact she quickly looked down. A hot female surgeon was not what she was expecting.
"So Arizona, let's check out your knee shall we. Lie on your back, with your knees bent, feet flat on the table." Callie sat on the edge of the table and began pulling Arizona's left knee in different directions. Arizona was use to these tests by now, and she was always relieved when she felt the small tug of the ACL in her knee. "It's still there," she thought to herself and breathed a sigh of relief. Then she looked over her shoulder and saw two other doctors watching them. Her eyebrows furrowed. Callie followed her gaze.
"Oh, they are doctors Karev and Avery, they are just observing if that's alright," Arizona nodded, then Callie whispered quietly, "they are big fans," which brought a bright smile to Arizona's face. "Let's test your range of motion," and she instructed Arizona to test some movements with her knee.
"What about you Dr. Torres? You follow basketball at all?" Arizona asked while she did the tests. She quickly read the doctors face. "I guess not."
"Dr. Torres doesn't really follow professional sports, but we do. I just have to say you were absolutely brilliant in the championship game you're senior year," Jackson gushed.
"Well thank you Dr. Avery." Arizona said with another dimpled smile. The two boys started rattling off questions and Arizona handled every one of them with ease. As Karev got an autograph for Lucy, Callie caught herself starring at the beautiful blonde. However, when Arizona looked back at the doctor Callie quickly looked away embarrassed.
"Okay boys, we have a few more tests to do," she said sternly trying to shake off her embarrassment. She had Arizona do lunges and squats, and one legged jumping, and when it was all done she told Arizona to have a seat while she sat across from her in a rolling chair.
"Arizona, it looks great. Really?" She said with a big grin, and Arizona quickly smiled back thinking she was about to get the good news."You are probably further along then the vast majority of people at this point," Arizona's expression quickly changed as she heard the "but" coming. "But, I'm sorry you aren't ready to be cleared yet. It's still going to be a few months at least."
"What? I've been doing all my exercises. I've been doing extra even! And everything feels really good," she pleaded her case.
"Yeah," Callie squinted, "You're going to want to take it easy. Don't want to rush. I can tell you've been taking rehab very seriously, and that's important for the best results, but you are a high performance athlete so still going to take longer," Callie tried to explain.
"Give me any test you want. I'll pass it," Arizona challenged. There was a fierce determination in her eyes. Callie was sad that she was about to break it.
"Okay, you're going to need to follow me," Callie said standing up, and strolling towards the hallway. "Karev, Avery, come with us," Callie said as she stole a bag of chips out of Karev's hands, and popping a chip into her mouth.
They were down in the basement. Karev and Avery were to watch the doors and make sure no one got in the middle of the exercise or was run over by Arizona. Arizona's task was simple, she was to run down a straight hallway, and when the hallway came to an end, she was to continue sprinting the corner down the adjacent hallway until she reached the end. She was to repeat this action three times. Callie stood where the two hallways met so that she would have the best view.
"Start when you're ready," Callie called out. She saw Arizona throw up a thumbs up, and then take off at a dead sprint. "She's pretty quick," Callie thought to herself. Arizona took the corner and then continued to run until she reached the other end. Arizona smiled to herself and thought, "piece of cake." She took a quick breather, and then ran back as quickly as she could. Callie monitored Arizona's knee and movements closely. Arizona took a breather, and then ran her final sprint. She felt good and if this was some type of test she felt like she had to have passed.
"How did I do Dr. Torres?" Arizona asked with a smile.
"Good," Callie said, and Arizona beamed, "but-"
"Oh no," the blonde groaned.
"You are really fast, but you slow down on the corners, significantly, and you favor your right leg. It's your body naturally protecting itself from the lateral movement, and it got worse by the third sprint" Callie said, and she starred at Arizona.
"Dr. Torres-"
"Did it feel natural?" Callie interrupted. Arizona starred at Callie, but couldn't answer. Truthfully, deep down, she knew she wasn't ready, but she was so desperate to play again she wanted to believe that she was fine.
Callie could see the blue eyes start to water, but Arizona refused to let them flow over. She refused to show weakness, but Callie saw it, and she felt awful in that moment. She really wanted to do something to help.
They started heading back upstairs. Avery and Karev left as they no longer were interested in being on Callie's service. She would have to remember that for next time.
"So I may not know much about professional sports, but I use to play basketball," Callie finally spoke.
"Oh yeah? What position," Arizona politely asked. She wasn't really interested anymore, she had just been devastated again.
"Well just look at me, I was obviously a post," Callie snickered. That amused Arizona.
"Well I mean, on my team you wouldn't be tall enough. Most of our posts are at least 6'3.""
"And you're what? I think the chart said 5'5"?" Callie questioned.
"Yeah, well with my shoes on and a little bit of imagination I get to be listed 5'7" on the roster," Arizona said with a wink making Callie laugh.
"But I'd imagine that the reason you've been so successful is your quickness. You probably have an explosive first step. Defensively, I'd imagine you're fiesty. Quick, move quickly side to side to stay in front of your man. Am I on the right track?" Arizona rolled her eyes, she knew where this was going, but she decided to throw in some charm.
"Well, you are forgetting the fact that I am an excellent three point shooter, and I'm also extremely crafty," Arizona cheerily added.
"Well, Arizona Robbins, you continue to follow your rehab, listen to Teddy who I've heard nothing but great things about, and you don't over do it, then I'm sure you'll be back and just as good as you were before. Then you can take over for Sue Bird. Besides now I will actually have a reason to go catch a Storm game," Callie smiled.
Through this whole experience with Dr. Torres, Arizona had found herself starring at the good doctor, and she had tried to be slightly flirty at times, but now she really wished she had the guts to ask her out on a date. However, her brain reminded her that this was her doctor and she didn't want to make her uncomfortable. Dr. Torres was probably straight anyways. Meanwhile, she didn't know that Callie was having the same internal battle. Only Callie wondered if Arizona was gay (she didn't want to stereotype), and she also thought about the age difference, Arizona still seemed so young to her, but she was definitely drawn to the young blonde. Not to mention this was a patient so it would be inappropriate.
"Well Dr. Torres, I will make sure there are tickets waiting for you for every home game," Arizona held out her hand, and Callie grabbed it shaking her hand while starring into the bluest eyes she'd ever seen.
"You can call me Callie," she said lamely and after what felt like a lifetime of starring.
"Um, Torres, you're needed down in the pit," Jackson said awkwardly and then ducked out of the room, and now Callie wished there was a hole she could crawl into because she knew she'd never hear the end of this.
"Go. Be awesome Callie," and now those blue eyes were twinkling.
AN: So I've actually torn my ACL twice from playing basketball so a lot of the stuff I talk about in relation to the injury comes from personal experience. I mean, it's not a life-threatening injury or anything, but it can be extremely demoralizing when all you want to do is get back out there to play basketball.
Anyways, hope y'all comment so I know if anyone is interested in this story, or I can go work on the other one (trying to do a little of both right now).