Callie sighed as her head hit the pillow, feeling deflated and frustrated once again. Penny had just refused intimacy for the fifth night in a row now and Callie was definitely feeling the strain. Not that Penny was bothered, by the sounds of her breathing, Callie could tell she was already asleep. Things with Penny were hardly great ever since that dinner party at Mer's house. Their relationship had suffered; their sex life had suffered. Callie never allowed herself to think about it but she was unhappy. She spent all her time at work being ignored by Amelia and Meredith whilst still trying to stick up for her girlfriend. Even Penny had snapped at her. Was it even worth bothering with anymore?
Callie sighed as she nestled her head deeper into the pillow, desperately trying to get comfortable. She put an arm around her girlfriend's body, only for Penny to groan in response. Callie hastily removed her arm, turning to lie on her back and stare at the ceiling. She allowed her thoughts to process everything that had gone on at work today. She and Arizona had ended up on a case together, for the first time in years. It was nice, spending that time with her in the OR, rather than just little bits of conversation here and there whenever they were with Sofia. Callie's stomach began to feel weird, and her heart began to pound. Thinking about Arizona was sending her crazy, and it had been so long since that had happened that Callie truly believed she had got over Arizona. But now she doubted herself. And she doubted that her current relationship could continue.
The next day at work was an emergency. Dozens of firefighters were rushed into the OR. It was all hands on deck today. Callie spotted Arizona in the far side of the room, putting on a pair of gloves as she was called by Bailey to deal with a female firefighter who came in with burns. Callie could only glance for a second. For the first time since the divorce, Callie dreamt of being intimate with Arizona. She found her cheeks reddening at the thought of her dream and instantly put it to the back of her mind as Penny came up beside her.
"I'm on Meredith's service again." she told Callie. They'd barely spoken that morning, instead rushing to get ready for work, not addressing the lack of intimacy which was proving to be a real problem. It was still the early stages of their relationship. When Callie was with Arizona, they barely left the bedroom, other than to eat or shower. Even showering they did together. Knowing It was wrong to compare her ex to Penny, Callie stopped, biting her lip in frustration.
From across the room, Callie could see that Arizona's patient was not quite as injured as some of the others. Callie watched her begin the necessary procedures to treat the patient before she was interrupted by Penny. Callie had forgotten she was there.
"Why do you keep looking at Arizona?" Penny questioned. Callie's head snapped round instantly.
"I wasn't" Callie lied. "I'm looking around the room to see where I'm needed next"
Penny nodded, clearly unconvinced. She took a step towards Callie and wrapped her arms around her waist, holding her there until she saw Arizona begin to look that way. Seeing that as her cue, Penny kissed Callie firmly on the lips, before walking away to find Meredith. Arizona winced.
Arizona's patient turned out to be quite a delight. She had a fair few burns which weren't so severe which meant no skin grafts but a chance for Arizona to get to know her for the next couple of hours. She was pretty, and Arizona would have been foolish not to notice that the firefighter shared a resemblance to Callie. She was interesting and funny, and Arizona found that this was turning into quite a light-hearted afternoon, despite all the chaos of the OR.
"You never told me your name Dr Robbins" the female firefighter stated. Arizona knew from her files that her name was Maria and that she was the same age as Arizona.
"Arizona. Arizona Robbins" Arizona smiled.
"Arizona, that's interesting" Maria widened her eyes and let out a small laugh, wincing every so often as she was still in pain.
Arizona was taken aback as she continued to treat Maria. Being so rusty to the dating game she wasn't sure if Maria was being flirty or friendly. She had these really passionate eyes that seemed to sparkle whenever Arizona looked into them. Out of the corner of her eyes, Arizona spotted Richard – who had recently become her wingman give her a huge grin and a thumbs up. Arizona shook her head at Richard, laughing. Her cheeks flushed bright red.
"You're blushing" Maria pointed out.
"You're stating the obvious" Arizona replied. Maria stuck her tongue out in response.
Arizona began to wonder what Penny's problem was earlier when she kissed Callie when she knew Arizona was looking. Arizona was confused as before the truth emerged about Derek, she presumed they were getting on quite well. They hadn't spoken much since, seeing as Arizona spent her time mostly around babies and children, but Arizona couldn't think of any reason why Penny would try to make her feel jealous. Arizona shrugged, reminding herself to ask Callie about this later when she dropped Sofia off. Arizona's days were always that little bit brighter when she had her daughter by her side. And De Luca was proving to be great with Sofia too, making them the perfect yet most unlikely roommates. Arizona was a bit dismayed to be living with an intern who she barely knew, but now she loved it. De Luca was a great housemate, she loved that arrangement and unless she had someone serious in her life, she wasn't sure that she wanted to change anything.
"Do you see that?" Callie hissed at Jackson as Arizona and the patient burst into laughter for what seemed like the fiftieth time.
"See what?" Jackson was fazed. His mind was elsewhere having slept with April the night before. His feelings were all over the place at the moment, wondering whether to follow his heart or his head. Callie shook her head.
"Over there. Arizona and the firefighter" she nodded in that direction. Jackson raised his eyes.
"Looks like she's back in the game" he smirked.
"What? No!" Callie shook her head. "She definitely is not back in the game, no way"
April came up beside them, interrupting their conversation.
"Who's back in the game?" she asked.
"No one" Callie replied.
"Arizona is with that firefighter over there" Jackson pointed to where Arizona was. April smiled.
"It's about time" she grinned. Callie glared at her. "What?" she asked Callie. "You're not jealous are you?"
"What? No?" Callie laughed off the ridiculous suggestion, finding her cheeks burning up again. She desperately hoped her friends wouldn't notice.
"Why are you going red?" April asked.
"Fever" Callie snapped her reply, and April took a step back. She stood beside Jackson not knowing how to address what happened last night. "Hey"
"Hey" Jackson's voice was barely more than a whisper. Callie turned around to face them, her eyes squinting in their direction. Jackson and April shuffled uncomfortably next to one another, not knowing how to be in each other's presence.
"Why are you acting so weird?" Callie asked.
"Nothing. No reason at all" April began to ramble. Jackson bowed his head, unable to look at Callie yet knowing she'd figure out the reason whether he looked or not.
"You guys had sex" she grinned.
"Shhh" Jackson shushed her before the entire OR heard. "Callie please just leave it" he sighed, walking away from them both.
Penny was in tears. Meredith had been reasonably harsh on her the whole day. But she was used to that, she could handle that. What she couldn't handle was Amelia, and her unpredictable tempers that would flare up at any random moment and recently Penny seemed to bear the brunt of that. Just ten minutes ago, Penny came to tell Meredith something yet was screamed at by Amelia. Penny hoped by now Amelia still wasn't this standoffish with her. She could take the rude comments and being ignored, but what she couldn't take was being screamed at.
She wanted Callie for support. Callie who was always by her side had now begun to drift away from her. The strain of working her was affecting Penny in both her work life and her personal life. She was so drained by being on Meredith's service all day and being punished twice as hard as other residents that by the time she came home, all she wanted to do with sleep. She didn't want to eat dinner, or play with Sofia or be intimate with Callie. She needed sleep. And Penny knew this was affecting their relationship. They were rarely intimate with each other, and Penny couldn't remember the last time she arrived home when Sofia wasn't in bed already. Penny once thought her relationship with Callie was something that could last a while. They seemed to click, they were intimate pretty much constantly. But ever since that dinner party things had changed, and Penny wasn't sure it would ever go back to the way it once was. She came into the OR, first spotting Arizona. She was jealous of Arizona; she couldn't deny it. Callie's eyes lit up whenever she clapped eyes on Arizona and Arizona's did the same. Penny knew that Callie and Arizona put distance between themselves at work, but that didn't stop the shy looks at each other from across the room.
Penny noticed Callie's eyes were fixated on Arizona, who was chatting to one of the patients – the same one Penny had seen her with earlier. Callie was obviously jealous, her gaze hadn't shifted even with all the chaos going on. Penny felt her stomach lurch, blinked back the tears and left to OR before Callie could spot her.
"Well Maria, it looks like you're all bandaged up" Arizona exclaimed as she secured the last bandage around Maria's arm. "You'll have to keep them on for a good couple of weeks then come back to get them changed but other than that you can be discharged and go"
"Will you change my bandages" Maria smiled, turning her head to the side. Arizona grinned but shook her head.
"Normally I'm a fetal surgeon, most of my work is with babies" she smiled.
"Well in that case, how about once I'm healed we can go get a drink?" Maria asked.
Arizona froze to the spot, not expecting this reaction from herself. She struggled to formulate a reply to such a simple question. This whole dating thing had been too long and she still didn't feel ready. She was interrupted by April calling her to another patient. She excused herself and ran before Maria could say another word.
Callie was treating her own patient now, still managing to steal glances at Arizona here and there. She'd moved on from that woman, that woman who looked so suspiciously like her. Callie wondered and even hoped that Arizona spending time with that patient made her think of the times they shared together. Callie's heart began to pound. She had to break up with Penny, she knew it was hardly the right time seeing as a lot of the hospital were against her but she had to. She longed for Arizona, she'd thought it quite a bit recently before brushing it off. But actually seeing Arizona flirt with someone else made her feel so jealous, that she had to seriously restrain herself from marching over to Arizona right then and telling her everything.
"Callie can I talk to you" Callie was surprised to hear Arizona's voice behind her. She finished treating her patient and gave him the necessary details.
"Sure" she smiled nervously at Arizona as the pair slipped out of the OR and into the nearest on-call room. "What's up, can't you have Sofia tonight?"
"No that's not the problem" Arizona exhaled. "Look I know you've been staring at me all day, I could feel your eyes burning into the back of my head"
Callie broke off eye contact, her cheeks blushed bright red. Arizona tried to make Callie meet her gaze.
"And that patient was flirting with me and at the end she asked me out and I froze and said no" Arizona continued. "And I think that was because of you"
"What do you mean?"
"Callie" Arizona found Callie's eyes again. "You know I never wanted the divorce, the moving out, the taking turns taking care of our child, us barely speaking to each other for the past two years. You know I never wanted any of that. And then finally I see you've moved on and I'm happy for you and I try to do the same and I can't" Arizona broke off.
Callie brushed her ex-girlfriend's face with her thumb. "The closer we've got the past couple of weeks, the more I think not being with you is the biggest mistake of my life" she gulped. Arizona let out a gasp.
"Why, why wait this long? Why put me through the pain of watching you be happy with someone else that wasn't me. Knowing someone else was playing a part in raising my child"
The pair edged closer to one another until they were within kissing distance. Callie's stomach was doing backflips. She ran her fingers through Arizona's hair.
"I am so, so sorry" she whispered, resting her nose on Arizona's. "I am in love with you Arizona, I always will be no matter what happens. I wish it hadn't taken me this long to do this"
Arizona nodded, tears falling down her cheeks. Callie brushed them away with her thumb.
"What about Penny?"
"Penny's a great person, but she isn't you. I have to break up with her before this can go any further".
Arizona nodded. Callie was never going to actually cheat, Arizona knew her opinion on that matter. Callie left the room hurriedly desperate to find Penny and tell her the news Penny already knew was coming. Arizona went to pick up Sofia, she would see Callie later and things would be different.
De Luca was still stuck at the hospital, so it was just Arizona and Sofia tonight. The pair cuddled up under a huge blanket watching a typical Disney princess film. Sofia loved it, and Arizona did too. More so seeing the joy on her daughters face, and getting to spend some mother-daughter time that had been so restricted the past two years.
The doorbell rang interrupting Arizona's thoughts. She leapt to her feet, hoping it was Calliope. It was. Arizona couldn't hide the glee on her face.
"Did you?" Arizona asked. Callie nodded, she'd obviously been crying, but Arizona wrapped her arms around her waist.
"She knew" Callie admitted. "When we spoke, she knew it was because of you. Apparently I couldn't hide my feelings for you"
Arizona nodded, still feeling bad for Penny. However, for the first time in two years she felt that her life was slotting back into place.
Callie continued. "She told me to go for it with you. She said to me that if you find the one you shouldn't let them get away. I pushed you away because of the foetal surgery fellowship and you prolonging our attempts to start a family. It broke my heart knowing you wanted that break, and it broke my heart again breaking yours after that 30 days" she paused for breath, taking Arizona's hands in hers. "I love you Arizona Robbins, and all I want is for us to start afresh, you, me and Sofia"
Arizona's hands began to shake as her face broke into a huge smile.
"Deal" she grinned, pulling Callie close to her as they shared their first kiss in two years. "Now you have to come watch Disney with me and Sofia, because I've seen frozen too many times and I need some adult company to help me through it".
"That sounds pretty perfect to me" Callie replied as Arizona pulled her into the house and the reunited couple watched the remains of the Disney film with their daughter.