Chapter Two

After hanging up the last of the million decorations in the Peds wing, she had come up with a plan. An awesome, kick ass plan. She hashed out the details in her mind and planned everything to a T as she finished her part of the decorating. While she loved how Arizona made the kids light up just by walking into the room and watching her be all bubbly and charismatic around them - it is absolutely one of the most swoon-worthy things to witness, she wants nothing more than to one-up her girlfriend. Hardcore one up her. Arizona is many things, the best she can be in every conquest she undertakes, refusing defeat as an option until she has nothing left hiding up her sleeve. But for once, it would be Callie Torres that would come out victorious and leave the ambitious blonde looking to iher/i in awe and astonishment.

She is going to rock this.

She texts Mark and tells him to meet her by 'their' on call room. She hustles her way downstairs, opting for the stairs since her luck with elevators isn't exactly amazing when it comes to avoiding people. Off she goes, plunging down the stairs two by two. She peeks her head outside the stairwell door and when she spots Mark she 'psssts' in his direction. He gives her a look like she's gone crazy and walks over to her.

"Torres, I don't have a lot of time, just enough for a quickie though if we get the show on the road..."

Callie scoffs, shakes her head, and grabs him by the shirt, pulling him along behind her. She comes to a stop in front of her desired location and her gaze darts quickly from one end of the hallway to the next, making sure no nurses, and especially not Arizona, see her. Her right hand on an on-call room doorknob, Mark Slone's shirt grasped tightly in her left as she swiftly opens the door and yanks him in as hard as she can.

"Not that I wouldn't totally be down for this, but I totally thought you were kidding. B-but have you met Arizona? She's scary. And possessive. I'd rather just...you know...watch. And besides - I -"

"Would you shut up? You gotta help me. It's a covert operation. Top secret. You're either in or you're out. Right now."

"I'm...down, I guess. What's the mission?"

"Good. Arizona. That's the mission. She's skating around the Peds wing hanging up ridiculous Halloween decorations, pumpkin glow lights and spider webs. And she made me glue sequins and colored shit onto a billion costumes for her kids. She's throwing them and their families a party complete with trick-or-treating, games, and costumes, which are required by the way."

"Let me guess, she's withholding sex so that you'll help her put it all together?"

"Well, kind of. But that's so not the point. Her party is gonna blow. The decorations are boring, the games are dumb, and the only good thing about it will be the freaking candy. I mean, the kids are cute and everything, but, there is nothing like a scary, adult, drunken, loud ass Halloween party. With real caskets and blood and guts and...we're freaking doctors! We can come up with some seriously cool shit for this thing. Arizona is making everyone on staff come to this little kids party upstairs. But screw that, I wanna throw one. A real one. In the basement. And you're gonna help me."

"Wait – Blondie doesn't know about your little plan to upstage her?"

"Nope. And she's not going to learn about it until after her party, either. When someone drags her ass downstairs blindfolded."

"Ooooh this is gonna be so good. I'm totally in."


"And there should be blood spatter on the walls. Like zombies overran the place. Ooooo," Mark points his finger at Callie for extra emphasis as his new brilliant idea formulated in his head, "we should totally have body parts all over the place. And vampires. They're all the rage."

Callie jots down all of the ramblings as fast as Mark can spout them out, visualizing in her head the best way to pull off all the ideas while figuring out the best way to set up the basement for optimal party-ability. Oo, she likes that word and quickly scribbles it down so she remembers it for later. Some of them would be a piece of cake to do, others would be a little harder to pull off. At least the Chief is away for the week at a conference so there wouldn't be any problems or questions about setting up the party in the basement. The only issue is making sure Arizona doesn't find out about their plans. Hopefully it wouldn't be too hard, being all occupied with her own party details. Details she is sure to obsess about until the last possible millisecond to ensure they go off without a hitch. It's times like these Arizona's perfectionist tendencies come in handy.

"What about skeletons? Dancing skeletons." Mark's eyes light up as he subconsciously bops his head up and down, liking the idea more and more as it seeps in to his head.

"Where are we supposed to find dancing skeletons?"

"Interns, Torres. We dress them up in some skeleton bodysuits, glow in the dark ones." Callie narrowly glares at him, not yet completely sold on the idea. "Come on, you know that shit would be cool." She nods and adds it to the list. Glow-in-the-dark shit iis/i kind of awesome. And now that it's in her head, anything glow-in-the-dark is an absolute must.

"Alright, I definitely think we have enough ideas to work with. We have a ton of shit that needs to get done, and fast."

"That's why they invented next day shipping," Mark smugly smiles, proud of his ever punctual wit.

Callie shoots him a disapproving look and promptly returns her attention to the list. There are some things she knows people at the hospital can take care of, some of which Mark will have an easy time convincing to help out. The rest is just a matter of some hardcore lunch break internet shopping, and maybe some shopping around the city. Definitely doable. Definitely a challenge Callie couldn't dream of turning down.

She rips a piece of paper from her notebook, writing down all of Mark's tasks. She hands him the sheet when she finishes, a fierce look shining in her eyes. "All of this needs to be done. By tomorrow. Lunch time."

Mark's eyes bulge momentarily as he processes his deadline. He nonchalantly brushes it off, smiles at Callie and makes his way to the door.

"Consider it done."

He coolly leaves the room and sees one of the nurses on his list of people to chat up. He puts on his most charming, winning smile and approaches her with a casual confidence, complimenting her new hairstyle. Much to his delight, she instantly melts at his words, hopelessly flirting back. Mark knows she's married, in a committed and dedicated marriage at that, but she loves the attention, she just eats it up. And he is certainly not going to feel at all guilty about using it to his advantage.

As Mark continues his assault, he fails to notice a certain blonde watching him from a distance, the one that has been carefully studying him now for the last five minutes. At first, I didn't think twice about his flirty actions. It wasn't until Callie emerged from the same on-call room just moments after he left that my suspicions heightened. I've had a feeling Callie is up to something, and her getting Mark involved wasn't really a surprise. They would be up to some sort of schemery together, I am absolutely sure of it, but I have no idea what they could possibly be doing. I thought maybe it's something for my birthday, but the nurse Mark is flirting with is nobody I know, so that theory doesn't really work. Whatever it is they're up to, I'll figure it out. Nothing gets past Arizona Robbins.


I glide through a stream of people while riding my heelys, abruptly stopping when I spot Callie at the nurses' station. I press my body against the counter and intently focus on her as she scribbles something in a patient chart.

"You're up to something. You and Mark."

"Mark? Me? Up to something? Pfft," she scoffs, handing her chart to one of the nurses. She shoots me a sarcastic look then turns to walk down one of the hallways. I quickly pace myself to catch up with her, matching my stride with hers when I'm at her side.

"You're a terrible liar, Calliope."

"There's no one up to anything."

I ho-hummedly laugh, jogging in front of her to stop her in her tracks. "You have that nonchalant, 'I'm a total badass for thinking of this' aura going on. And Mark has this stupid smirk on his face every time I see him. You two are totally up to something."

Callie just smiles and ignores me, giving me that smug smartass look. She knows the silence kills me and that I'm bound to blurt something else out eventually. But not this time. I'm not going to beg or plead or pout or do flirty eyes or offer any inappropriate suggestions. She'd get too much pleasure out of any of them and her satisfaction is not my top priority right now. So I'll just stay quiet. It'll totally throw her off her game.

I follow her to the elevator. She leans forward to push the button then steps back to join me at my side. She sideways glances at me before returning her gaze directly in front of her. I can't tell whether or not this whole quiet thing is working, but I've committed to it for too long now to back down. The doors open and we both step inside. She hits the button to the ortho floor and lazily stares at the ceiling until the doors close.

"How much longer are you gonna do this silent treatment thing?" Callie says in a low, husky voice. Damn her for being so sexy when I really just want to be annoyed at her. I don't respond, mostly because I really don't have a time frame in mind. And I don't really feel like being super mature at the moment. Of course, I know from my kids that the silent treatment doesn't get you much of anywhere. But it sure does make you feel like you're getting something accomplished.

"Fine, don't tell me." The doors open and she exits, spinning on her heels to face me with that smug smartass look again. "But it's gonna be super badass. It'll blow your mind." My jaw drops as I helplessly watch her snicker while the doors close.

Calliope Torres is gonna pay. Big time.


"Alex, I need you to do something for me. About Arizona."

"I'm not on her service today. She's mad at me."

"What'd you do?"

Alex claws at his scattered charts and puts them in a single pile, hugging them to his chest as he begins to walk away. "I dunno. Pissed her off about something. Have Kepner do it."

Callie lets out a strong puff of air that subtly blows her bangs as she watches Alex's back fade into the distance. She had a whole plan set out with Karev, Arizona wouldn't have suspected a thing. Okay, so she already kinda suspects something is going on, but Alex could've thrown her off.

In the corner of her eye, Callie catches a glimpse of April talking to another surgeon. She was no Alex, but maybe it wouldn't be so bad. The more she let the idea sink in her head, the more she liked it.

Kepner will be perfect.

It's practically flawless. Neither of them has worked with her much, so Arizona making a connection directly to Callie was minimal. She definitely seems easy enough to convince with the right wording. And she looks totally harmless. Not someone who would be up to anything remotely mischievous. Yes. This will totally work. April wraps up her conversation with the surgeon. Now's Callie's chance to reel her in. "Hey Kepner!"

"Yuh - yes Dr. Torres?"

"What are your plans for Halloween?"

"I'm helping Dr. Robbins with her Peds party."

"Awesome. You're gonna help me with something too."