The next morning Arizona is called in early for surgery, so not only is she is late to the meet and greet breakfast but she's wearing scrubs to it, not Board Member attire.
"Hey, good you're here." Jackson says once she arrives. "Let's introduce you," he says taking her arm and leading her over to where the two candidates are standing talking with Bailey and Weber.
"Dr William Carson, meet Dr Arizona Robbins." Jackson begins and then they turn to Tori and Arizona interrupts him.
"Tori, so good to see you again. I'm sorry Doctors, but I just got out of surgery." She begins.
"What type of surgery did you just complete?" Tori asks her.
"It was placenta accreta case that we've been watching. We had the C-section scheduled for later this morning, but she went into labor early this morning." Arizona explains.
"Placenta accreta? Did the mother survive?" Tori asks.
"Oh yes, I developed a cauterization method that stops the blood loss, I just haven't published it yet." She replies.
"Wow, that's impressive. I'd love to hear all about it." Tori says moving closer to her.
"You can read all about it when she publishes, right Dr Robbins?" Callie says stepping into the conversation, having watched her entrance and noting that she greeted Dr James by a nickname, the brunette is feeling a bit more insecure about this woman being a candidate for Chief.
"Yes, that is true Dr Torres." Arizona replies stepping back and letting Callie into the conversation.
"Well I look forward to reading it." Tori says smiling at Arizona, then she smoothly directs her focus on Callie.
"Dr Torres, I'd love a tour of your lab, your work is really impressive. I read an article on how you're modifying current prosthetics to enable our wounded veterans to have increased mobility. I found it fascinating." She says flashing a smile and admiring the Latina's legs, this woman really fills out a business suit, Tori thinks to herself.
"Oh, yes. We can arrange that. In fact, you can see one of my prosthetics right now." Callie says excitedly and looking over at Arizona for permission.
"Callie, this is not appropriate." Arizona says hoping to discourage her from showing off her leg.
Caught up in the moment, Callie replies, "Oh it's totally appropriate, we're all surgeons here and you just completed a 4 hour surgery on one of my prosthetics. Let me just show them the ankle and knee joints." Callie asks, beaming a big smile at the blonde.
Reluctantly Arizona agrees and Callie quickly drops down and pulls up the leg to her scrubs and begins showing them the flexibility of the joints. Tori forgot that Arizona had lost a leg, but the familiarity between the two indicates that they are more than colleagues. Dr Carson bends down to get a closer look and suddenly Arizona starts to lose her balance, Tori notices and steps into the blonde who falls back against her.
"Oh," Arizona says surprised when she lands against the other woman.
"No problem, I've got you." Tori says softly into her ear. Funny, she always saw the younger woman as a rival and didn't notice how attractive she is.
"Arizona, I'm so sorry. I guess we shouldn't do this here." Callie says standing up quickly and pulling the blonde off the other blonde, and surprised by the twinge of jealously that she's feeling.
"Dr James, thank you." Arizona says turning around to face the other blonde a little embarrassed.
"My pleasure," she replies flirting a little bit with her, then adds, "it wouldn't be in my best interest to let one of the board members fall at my feet."
A bit surprised that Tori is flirting with her in front of Callie, Arizona steps back to excuse herself.
"Um, it was great meeting you both and good luck, but I need to go check on my patient in post op." Arizona says hastily excusing herself and glaring unhappily at Callie before she grabs a donut and leaves the room.
"Well at least we know that she's a lesbian." Meredith whispers into Callie's ear.
After the morning session, the two doctors are given a tour of the hospital by a couple of interns and Bailey. Then they are brought back to the executive board room, where they are interviewed one at a time.
Dr Carson goes first, so Tori decides to wander around. She gives the executive secretary her phone number and and asks her to call her when it's time for her interview.
Dr James makes her way to the OR floor and looks at the board to see what's going on.
"Can I help you, Dr James?" Maggie asks when she spots her standing in front of the OR board.
"Oh, hello Dr Pierce. I'm waiting for my interview and thought that I would observe a surgery while I wait." She explains.
"Well, I'm about to go in to repair a congenital heart defect on a seven year old, Dr Robbins is assisting." Amelia replies. "We're in OR 4." She says as she walks away.
"I think you have a fan." Maggie teases the blonde as the scrub in to surgery.
"What are you talking about?" Arizona asks.
"I'm pretty sure that Dr James is going to be in the gallery watching this surgery." Maggie replies.
"Why? Why do you think that she's my fan and not yours?" Arizona counters.
"Because I just ran into her in front of the OR board, and I'm pretty sure that she was looking to see if you were on the board, so I told her we were operating in OR 4." Maggie explains.
"Whatever, I'm sure that she's just nervous before her interview and wanting to kill some time." Arizona replies.
"That's one explanation." Maggie replies playfully. "Don't forget that I know Dr James, and you, my friend are totally her type."
"You're wrong Maggie, we were rivals. It's not what you think." Arizona tries to explain. "It was all just med school drama and a long time ago. It's not even worth talking about now."
"Hmm, okay." Maggie says as she finishes scrubbing and backs into the OR with the blonde following her.
"Oh look, we have a guest." Maggie says looking up at the gallery.
"Seriously Maggie, shut it." Arizona says sharply.
"Dr Robbins, do you have plans tonight?" Maggie asks as they scrub out of the two and a half hour surgery.
"No, why do you want to do something?" Arizona asks.
"Actually, I was just being nosy," she teases.
"You need to stop. She's not flirting with me, and if she is it's a misguided attempt to influence a board member." Arizona replies. "Besides, trust me Callie is more her type than I am."
Just then both of their pagers go off and they finish scrubbing out and look at them.
"Perfect." Arizona exclaims, before reading the text, "A second interview will be conducted this afternoon at 4 pm, followed by dinner."
"Well, I guess that I have plans now." Arizona replies sarcastically. Then she adds, "I have to prepare for the second round interview, can you do the post op?"
"Okay, did they say who the candidate is for the second interview?" Maggie asks and she takes off her gown.
Arizona just smiles and takes off her gown and leaves the room.
Reading the notes from the first interview, Arizona makes some notes for follow up questions and then carefully reviews the CV and makes additional notes. Then because she has time, she googles the candidate and makes additional notes.
"Hey are you ready for this?" Meredith asks, stopping by Arizona's office.
"I think so. I've just reviewed everything and taken some notes. How about you?" She asks.
"Oh, I'm ready. I met with Callie after the first round and she helped me come up with some follow ups. How was your surgery with Maggie?" Meredith asks.
"Oh, it went really well." Arizona replies. "So now we're going out to dinner, right?" she asks.
"Yes, we are, but Jackson hasn't decided where we're going." Meredith advises. "He made reservations at two different restaurants. It's either going to be Altura or The Gregorian."
It's after six, when they finish the last interview and dinner reservations are at seven. Arizona decides that she needs to run home to freshen up, so she asks Jackson if she can just meet them at the restaurant, since she's been in surgery most of the day and it's more convenient for her and he agrees.
Meredith and Jackson decide that they will pick up Dr James and take her to Altura and the others will meet them there.
Callie picks up Sofia and Zola from their after school program and drops them off at Meredith's house where Maggie is just pulling up with Bailey and Ellis. "Are you sure that you're okay with all four kids? Callie asks her.
"It's fine. Stephanie is going to stop by after work and check on us." Maggie confesses.
"Oh good, because the girls can be helpful, but not always." Callie advises her. Then turning to the two girls she asks them to help Aunt Maggie.
Arizona decides to just cab to the restaurant and not deal with driving or valet parking or anything. It's been a long day and she just needs some pampering tonight.
Walking into the lounge, she spots Meredith right away and makes her way over to her, before realizing that Jackson and Tori are right there with her. Tori also freshened up and now she wearing slacks and a beautiful silk blouse and she is stunning.
"Hello Meredith, Jackson," Arizona says greeting them warmly and kissing each cheek. Then to Tori, she says, "Dr James, so nice to see you again," and she extends her hand.
Taking the offered hand, Tori smiles and says, "So we meet again, Dr Robbins."
Why is she being so charming? Arizona asks herself. Is this normal candidate charming or is it something else?
Meredith watches the two women and notes that Arizona doesn't quite know what to do with Dr Jame's flirtations. A few minutes later and the others arrive. Callie also managed to change for the evening and she's wearing a gorgeous dark blue dress with silver heels.
Interesting Meredith thinks, all three of them took the time to freshen up, smiling, she nods to Jackson and he takes hold of Dr James and leads her to the table as the rest follow. Meredith hangs back and walks with Arizona.
"What do you think of our candidate?" Meredith asks softly.
"She seems very capable. Honestly, I like her much better than Carson and I really didn't think I would." Arizona admits.
"Oh, I agree. I expected to like Carson more, but I don't. He reminds me of what I didn't like about Hunt." She admits.
"The last thing we need is another Hunt." Arizona agrees.
"Well, she's definitely no Hunt." Meredith replies. "She was Chief Resident during your second year at Hopkins?" she adds.
"She was, but that was the year Tim died and I almost dropped out of med school." Arizona replies softly looking straight forward and watching Jackson and Tori being seated at the table and the others filling in around them, leaving three two spots beside Callie, Meredith takes the far one which puts Arizona between them, directly across from Tori.
