Let me start by saying that there are always theories. So hearing the spoilers of things that may come, I always like to see how close that I can get. I know that a lot of you haven't heard from me in a while. Here is the thing. I have yet to see an episode this season. I know. I am shocked too. I was so pissed at this sorry excuse for a story line and the divide that has happened, that I just can't stomach it. I didn't read fics all summer nor did I even watch a video, which is HUGE! I was just so done with this I couldn't stand to look at it. I love Callie and Arizona and feel that they both played a small, yet important, role in what happened. Having said that, this story isn't about blaming Arizona, it's about what I see happening during episode 9. I am trying to decide if I will watch the other episodes before then or just wait to see what happens when the dust settles. I do know about the shit that is happening now, which further says that there is a problem that still isn't addressed. So that is my official take on this crapfest. LOL Hope you enjoy the story.
Dinner with Daddy-
Callie was filling her coffee mug one last time before heading out the door for the day. She was just about to grab her keys when there was a knock at the door. She looked at the clock on the counter that read 6:35am. She wondered who in the world would be here this.. "Daddy?" She said when she opened the door.
"Calliope." Carlos said as he walked passed her into the room.
"Daddy, what are you doing here?" She asked in shock as she closed the door.
"I'm here to talk to you."
"About?" Suddenly there was another knock at the door.
"You might want to get that, Mija."
Callie grumbled while walking to the door. "Can't you just tell me who..." Callie looked at the three people on the other side of the door. "Aria?" Callie turned her head from her sister, estranged wife and their sleeping daughter. "What the hell, Daddy?"
"Your sister and I are going to stay with Sofia today. When the two of you are off work, we have dinner reservations. Just the three of us."
Callie knew that 'shit is about to get real' look in Carlos Torres's eyes. Callie huffed and grabbed her leather jacket walking by Arizona who was still in the doorway.
Arizona walked into the room and handed the sleeping girl to her grandfather. "Carlos-"
"Later, Arizona." He said as he left the room and took Sofia to her room.
"So how much trouble are we in here?" Arizona questioned her sister-in-law.
Aria smiled. "Ohhh. A LOT!"
"That's what I thought." Arizona sighed as she left the apartment.
"She just showed up?" April chuckled.
"Yes. Like I opened the door and she almost cousin Guidoed me." April laughed again. "Keep laughing but like I am afraid of what could happen. You weren't here when Carlos put Mark and George O'Malley against the wall. Maybe that is why he brought Aria. Maybe he is going to have her do it."
"Don't you think you are being a little over dramatic?"
"Look, I screwed up. I get it. Now reinforcement is here. If I disappear-"
"Arizona, stop it!" April laughed.
"I am disabled. He wouldn't hurt someone disabled would he?"
"My father isn't here to hurt you I am sure, Arizona." Arizona turned to see Callie had walked up behind her.
"Thanks for the warning, Keepner."
"Hey, you are the one that said they were scary." April said as she walked off.
Arizona watched Callie hand a chart to the nurse. "Did you know they were coming?"
"If I had known, Arizona, I assure you it wouldn't have been at 6:30 in the morning."
"What do you think he wants? I mean he wants us all to have dinner." Arizona was now following Callie. "I don't know. I assume to tell me that my super catholic parents are against divorce just as much as my being gay."
Arizona stopped walking. "Divorce?"
Callie then stopped and turned around to look at her. "What? You think that we should just stay in this limbo or whatever the hell it is? Marriage purgatory?"
"You want a divorce?" Arizona looked the most hurt that she had since the night of the storm.
"I can't do this with you. I'm just shocked that you seem so surprised." Callie hit the button to the elevator. "Daddy said to meet in the lobby at 7:30. I'm sure that he will lecture me for about an hour." She stepped on the elevator and hit the button. Just as the doors were closing she finished her thought. "Then we can go on with our lives."
As the doors closed, Arizona wasn't sure this was the life that she wanted to go with.
It was 7:35 and Arizona and Carlos were sitting in the lobby waiting on Callie. She had a surgery that ran long and she was just finishing her shift. The two had yet to say anything more than hello. Arizona looked at her watch one more time. "She should be here any minute."
"Our reservations aren't until 8. I know that you girls run late some night. I tried to make room for that." He said running a hand down his suit jacket.
"I'm sorry, Carlos." Arizona said sincerely.
"Hmmm."
"What?"
"Nothing, dear. We will wait for..."
"Sorry I'm late." Callie said walking up to the two.
"Shall we go then?" Carlos motioned for the door and the two women followed looking just like they were...being forced to have dinner with Daddy.
When they had gotten to the restaurant, the three were shown to a back room that was reserved for only them. At this point Arizona was panicking that there were no witnesses. There was only one person in the entire room. The man had his back turned to them but Arizona knew exactly who it was. "Dad?"
When the man heard his name he turned. "Ari" He stood and walked over to hug his daughter with a smile.
"Dad, what are you doing here?"
"Well Carlos, Lucia, your mother and I decided-"
"Wait. You all are ganging up on us?" Callie asked.
Daniel looked at Callie. "Have a seat, dear."
Both women, even more reluctant now, sat at the table. "Look. Suddenly I am not so hungry so let's just get this over with. I no longer keep up with Arizona's schedule, but I do know that I have a 5:30 knee replacement in the morning and it's Arizona night with Sof, so let just get this over with. Why are you two here?"
"We just don't understand, Calliope." Carlos started. "You two were so in love and then- this. We don't understand."
"This? She cheated on me, Daddy." Arizona dropped her head. "What part of that don't you get? What part don't you understand?"
"I understand all of it, sweetheart."
"No. No you don't or you wouldn't be here. You would be on my side."
"This isn't about sides, Callie." Daniel offered.
"There is a problem here and you two are either too hurt or just too plain stubborn to fix it."
"Fix it?" Callie was doing all she could not to break down. With the lawsuit hanging over her head, she just didn't know how much more she could take. "How in the hell do you fix that? How do you know that someone...that I wasn't...the last time wasn't...Damn it! You don't understand."
Carlos put his hand over Callie's. "You don't think that I understand? That I don't know how you feel? Let me tell you a little story. You were in med school and Aria had just graduated from high school. She and I went to look at Colleges that were interested in her. We were gone for the whole weekend. We had that best time, Calliope. Just me and my girl. When we came home, things were different somehow. Aria finished out her summer and started college in the fall. It was just Lucia and I. The house was so quiet. For 24 years we had a child in that house. Not just a child, a girl." He smiled at both women. "When Sofia is older you will understand. Girls have their problems, their dramas." Daniel chuckled. "Everything is a crisis. My shoes don't match. Aria touched my hair bow. Callie got more free time than I did. Aria looked at my boyfriend. For 24 years our house was a zoo with you girls and your friends. Then suddenly, it got quiet. There were no drama or boys or 'she's touching my things' anymore. It was just us. The only thing that we had to listen to was each other. So I started to notice it. Little by little things started to add up."
"Daddy, I don't want to hear this." Callie sat back in her seat and covered her face with her hands.
"You remember, Maxwell?"
"Daddy, don't."
Carlos moved Callie's hands. "Her partner Maxwell? The man she had worked with for 15 years, slept with your mother while I was gone with Aria."
Arizona immediately wanted to comfort a visibly heartbroken Callie. "Callie." She whispered.
"NO!" She shouted at Arizona. "You don't get to Callie me like you are sorry. No!"
"Calliope!" Carlos pulled her attention back to him. "What Lucia did to me, to you and your sister, to our vows was horrible. Unforgiveable."
"Wait." Callie shock her head. "That was 8 years ago."
"Yes. Yes it was." Callie looked at her father. "I loved her Calliope. She is the only person that I have ever loved. Truly loved. I was angry, and hurt and a little disgusted. But it didn't change the fact that I loved her. She made a mistake. An awful mistake. A horrible mistake, but then it was up to me. Do I leave this woman that I love or do I find a way to forgive her."
"You forgave her because of the church I am sure."
Carlos chuckled. "Not even God himself can take that image away, dear. You should know that. I had to forgive her for me, for us. The church can say this or that, but when it comes to someone who is unfaithful, it doesn't matter. When a foundation is shaken, everything falls. I had to forgive her for us. No one else. Not God or our children."
"I don't understand why you are telling me this. This only makes me feel worse."
"The first step in forgiving Lucia was for me to see what lead her there."
"Are you saying this is somehow my fault? You are NOT about to turn this on me, Daddy."
"No one is placing blame, Callie." Daniel added and then looked at his daughter. "And no one is releasing anyone of it either. What you did was wrong, Ari and I think you understand that, but we need to see the bigger picture here. This isn't Africa-"
"And it isn't Mark Sloan." Carlos added.
Daniel agreed. "Something horrific happened to you, honey. Something terrible happened to both of you. Ari, you shut down and took Callie and Sofia on this downward spiral right along with you."
"But Calliope, you knew that she was sick. You knew that she was changing and instead of standing up to her, you allowed her to just be- broken."
Neither women looked at anything but there laps. "Ari, you wanted to do therapy. You wanted to try- after you cheated on your wife. You two are doctors for God's sake. Did neither of you think that therapy was needed before this happened?"
"She wouldn't go." Callie answered sadly.
"And you thought that was ok for her to make that choice? For all of you?" Carlos added.
"You are two extremely intelligent women." Daniel shook his head. "How in the hell did you two together not realize that Ari was sick?"
"I tried!" Callie was now ready to leave. "I did everything that I could."
"You did exactly what she wanted, Mija. You never asked for more than she was willing to give you. That, dear, falls on both of you."
"This isn't her fault." Arizona finally spoke. "Stop bombarding her like she did something wrong. This is on me!"
Carlos chuckled. "On you? You told me that you loved her. That you protected what you loved. That she didn't need it, she was strong. You made her weak after the accident, Arizona. You made both of you weak. You called me after the car accident-"
"Carlos-" Arizona tried to stop the conversation. "Don't-"
"Don't what? She needs to know."
"Not now. Not like this."
"Know what?" Callie asked.
"When Arizona called me and told me about the car accident, we didn't know if we should come out. I think that Arizona may have candy coated things so that we wouldn't know just how bad it was. She wanted to protect us. Three days after the wreck Richard Webber called and said that you needed some help. That Arizona and Mark couldn't decide on how to handle your case. There was a question as to if they should save the baby or you."
This was news to Callie. "Wait? They had to choose?"
"It didn't come to that, Callie." Arizona answered.
"They needed an answer and Arizona wanted to save Sofia because she thought that was what you wanted. Mark was spouting off that he was the father and he got to decide. He told her that she was nothing, that she was no one. That she was nothing to you or the baby so she didn't get to decide. He said that you could have other kids with him or whoever." Callie looked over at Arizona who again dropped her head. "So they needed answers. She loved you, but was willing to give you up to save the baby that you wanted. A baby that she was willing to raise with Mark. Your mother and I talked it over and agreed with Arizona. This was your daughter. The next day Arizona called and said that Dr. Sheppard was concerned that there were going to be complications, that you weren't responding to any commands that you were given. Leaving them to believe that you may have a permanent brain injury. That is when your mother and I made a decision to move you back to Miami."
"What?"
"We told Arizona that if you were going to need...care, that we would have you moved home and hire nurses to take care of you."
"Wait! Are we talking an invalid?"
Carlos didn't answer and just continued to tell her what happened. "If Sofia come, then we would fight Mark for custody."
Callie looked at Arizona. "How could you not tell me this?"
"When Callie? While you were recovering? How about while we were planning for our wedding? Maybe Sofia's first birthday? Christmas? The past 2 years have been a blur. There wasn't a time that it came up."
"Came up?"
"Callie, Arizona wanted what was best for you." Daniel tried to play peacemaker. "She didn't want to bring all this up again. It wouldn't have been healthy at that point."
"So what happened?"
Carlos looked at Arizona. Arizona sighed knowing this is where she had to step into the conversation. "I took away their rights."
"What?"
Arizona looked at Carlos. "Go on, dear. It's time."
Arizona looked at Callie, squared her shoulders and told the story. "Because Mark was Sofia's dad and they were your parents, I was able to hire an attorney and dissolve their rights as a durable power of attorney for health care. I told the judge that they were too emotionally invested and weren't thinking clearly. That the best thing for you was to be here with Sofia."
"What if-"
"I was prepared for that. I am a doctor for God's sake. I know nurses too. You were staying here!" Arizona said frankly.
"She fought for you." Daniel told Callie.
"Not only for you, but against us, and Mark, and Seattle Grace and the state of Washington." Carlos chuckled. "I have to say that it was quiet impressive. She demanded that you stay here. That no matter what, she would stay with you and care for you- and Sofia."
"What-" Callie started to laugh. "You were just going to wipe my ass the rest of my life?"
Arizona didn't crack a smile. "If I had to, yes. You weren't leaving me and Sofia."
"Here is the thing that we don't understand, Ari. You fought so hard for Callie when she was sick, but you won't fight for yourself. You would have fought Goliath for her, but not for you. I don't understand why."
"I loved her and she needed me. She needed me to be the one that listened with my head and not my heart. She needed me to be the bad guy."
Callie's mind immediately went to a conversation. She doesn't care about you, Alex. She needs me to be the bad guy.
Callie looked at Arizona with all the confusion in the world in her eyes. "You loved your brother. Wouldn't you have rather him come home with a prosthetic than not at all? Couldn't you have loved him with a disability?"
"It's not the same."
"IT IS! I loved you. The same. Just like you were going to love me the same. That leg doesn't define you Arizona. You do. Sofia does. The care that you give those tiny humans defines you. Not that damned leg! We don't deal with things. We didn't deal with babies, or Africa or Mark or Sofia or the car wreck or the plane crash. We swept everything under this nice little rug that now has bumps and pot holes that we are continuous falling into and tripping over."
"You didn't marry this physically and emotionally disabled person."
"You married me with all my faults, Arizona. And there were plenty." Callie was now at her breaking point and couldn't do this any longer. "I need to go." Callie stood and pulled her purse up. "Arizona I will stay at Marks tonight and you can stay at the apartment so that Sofia isn't jumbled around tonight."
They watched Callie leave. "I can't believe that you told her all that stuff. She didn't need to hear that."
"Who said that was for her?" Carlos answered.
Callie got virtually no sleep that night. Her mind was racing with the things that she had heard. Her mom had been unfaithful to her dad, Mark had bullied Arizona after the accident and Arizona had decided to stay with her no matter what happened. She had called Cristina on the way home from the restaurant for advice. How had she forgiven Owen, if she even had?
Cristina told Callie the story of the days that they spent in the woods on that mountain. How Arizona had begging Mark to live, how she had talked about Callie and Sofia, how they had given the last drinks of water to Arizona and it made her feel even worse to accept it. She told of the animals that fought over Lexie's body and how afraid Arizona worried that they would come for them. She told her about Arizona being angry at herself for being on the plane. She even said once that if she died, it would serve her right for being so stupid. Cristina said one thing that stood out to Callie the most.
"You know, every day I get up and I go to work. Some days I think about the crash but it may be days at a time. Derek is the same way. Mer, she remembers Lexie and mourns her, but not every day. Maybe every other day, but Robbins, she gets up every day and puts that leg on and remembers. Every night, she takes it back off and hangs that memory back up. She is the only one of us that faces that every day, multiple times a day. When Owen had that flashback, I coulda walked away. I wanted to, but something wasn't right. There was something in him that was broken from that war. This is her war, and she is broken. She is the one that needed help when we came back. Hell, we all failed Robbins. We should all saw this coming. One day she was all 'grrrr' and angry and the next she was Robbins again. Those demon were hidden deep, Torres. But we missed it, Callie. We should have pushed harder."
Callie's mind was going a mile a minute most of the night. She hadn't seen Arizona yet today, but had sent her a message at around 3:00 that afternoon. She was now pacing the floors in the room. She tried to calm herself and looked out the window as she waited for her response. She wasn't sure if she had been so lost in thought that she didn't hear or that the person now in the room was so quiet. Either way, she turned around and started into familiar blue eyes. She smiled. "You came."
"Of course I did, Calliope."
Callie was just about to say something else when the other door opened. "Oh, you're both here. You must be Doctors Torres and Robbins?" Both women shook their heads looking scared to death. "Shall we?" He motioned into the room and they both followed. He closed the door that read 'Dr. Peirce, PhD'.