Authors' Notes: As always, our sincerest gratitude goes to Shinata-Riyoko for her hard work beta'ing. Anything she missed is squarely on our shoulders as we might have changed it around after she sent it back. I'm sorry, it's my fault (says Blue). Also to the wonderful response and feedback, thank you so very much. And no more authors' notes nonsense, you're here for a fictional story, not our life story.


Chapter Two: Empty of Loyalties, Certain of Death

The heart, it's an amazing organ. It has four little chambers that together work incredibly hard, pumping blood and oxygen through our bodies – but it's so much more than just a mechanism to keep us alive. The heart feels. It can soar, feeling as though it's going to flutter right out of our chest, but it can also sink just as quickly. It pines over lost loves and races over new ones. Sometimes that heart loves hating and sometimes the heart hates loving, but more than anything, the heart just wants to feel.

One thousand, one hundred, and twelve days later, Callie stood fidgeting in front of the mirror trying on her third outfit of the morning. She felt her heart rate begin to increase as her eyes glanced to the wall clock, the time counting down quicker than she wished it would.

Twenty six thousand, six hundred, and ninety-two hours from the moment her life ended, and Callie knew this because she'd been keeping count, she changed into yet another outfit hoping the next one would be the one. Palms grew sweaty and her heartbeat intensified erratically as another glance showed the timer racing.

One million, six hundred and one thousand, five hundred and twenty minutes had passed since she'd last seen Arizona, give or take a few. Her heart sunk in her chest as she realized how much had changed in that precious time. As her heart sank, she swore that her heart stopped and she wondered if that was what dying felt like.

Callie now looked to her watch hoping that it would show a different time, give her more time, but only she realized that she'd be late if she didn't get a move on and fast. This outfit, although nowhere near close to form fitting or comfortable for that matter, would have to do. Feeling sexy seemed to be as elusive as everything else in her life.

"Teddy thinks this is a bad idea." Mark stood in her doorway watching her fidget with her loose shirt. His own heart aching at the sight of his friend, he could see the excitement, the fear, and the panic in her movements.

"Teddy also thinks that pixie-stix are a suitable meal— she's not always right." Callie snapped at her best friend as she pulled a sweater on under her leather jacket to give herself some semblance of the curves Arizona had once worshiped. The curves Arizona loved about her body were no longer but a pipe dream in her own eyes.

"Did she tell you to come?" He knew he was grasping at straws, but he was trying to save Callie the pain he knew was to come if she left the apartment today.

"No, but I promised, Mark. I promised and I'm going." Callie didn't understand why nobody would support her; this was everything she'd been fighting for, the reason she even bothered to fight.

"Callie, you two have barely spoken in three years—" He was at the losing end of this battle, but he had to try. Callie just glared at him as the phone rang alerting her to the awaiting cab.

"I promised." Her voice, though confident, cracked with emotion as she walked past him and out of the apartment, Mark's comment reminded her how limited their communication had become. A few short emails, that often said nothing more than pleasantries, had become what was left of them, and that was after Callie had sent hundreds trying to beg for forgiveness, but always without an explanation. She knew an explanation would have Arizona on the first plane home and she was saving her girlfriend— ex-girlfriend the grief of knowing.

*GA*GA*GA*GA*GA*GA*

Her nerves were playing havoc on her system, the lonely taxi journey allowing her mind to overanalyze every possible situtation, and now that the plane was landing, over an hour late, Callie was a complete and nervous wreck. This was it. Answers of course would have to be given as well as explanations doled out in the masses, probably some begging and pleading too. She wasn't naive enough to think there wouldn't be lots of crying and yelling, but she was prepared for that. She'd been preparing for this for years and while she knew it wasn't going to be pretty, it had to be done.

Wandering through the crowds, her heart was in her throat as she hurriedly tried to get to her destination. She was almost on autopilot, not taking in anything around her but the target. The rapid beat of her pulse was so intense that her body felt as though it was vibrating. Excitement, fear ... she wasn't sure.

"Callie." Teddy came up from behind to stand by her friend who was waiting in seats where the passengers exited after unloading the planes. Arizona's gate was right next to the security exit and Callie could clearly see as each passenger left the plane.

"Hey." Callie smiled and quickly glanced at her friend before her attention was drawn back to the crowds of people swarming in her direction. Arizona had to be in amongst them, she'd confirmed her flight reservations three times before this day arrived. "What are you doing here?" Callie seemed to ask as an after thought.

Expecting a bit of anger at her unexpected arrival, Callie being jealous to have to share this moment with somebody else but getting none, Teddy felt even worse for being the bearer of bad news. It would have been easier had there been even a flash of anger, but instead Callie's face was still bright with excitement and Teddy would be responsible for the ruin of it all. "When Mark couldn't talk you out of it, I knew you'd need a friend. I got here as quickly as I could." She reached out and put her hand on Callie's shoulder, but Teddy knew she had heard almost none of what she had said as Callie's mind was firmly stuck on Arizona's impending arrival as it had been for weeks now.

"A friend? What?" Callie sucked in a breath when she saw blonde curls bouncing in her direction. Here goes nothing.

"Callie, please, listen to me." Teddy begged as she threw herself in front of the woman, but it was too late, Callie's smile had already fallen and she turned around to focus on what Callie was seeing.

In the close distance was the object of their reasoning for being there, except she wasn't alone. Damn it, she wasn't alone. They both watched as a woman leaned in, whispering something into Arizona's ear. She began laughing, her head thrown back before her hand, that held onto another woman's, pulled said woman in for a quick kiss.

A woman who wasn't Callie.

"Callie—" Teddy's voice was apologetic, her and Mark had tried so hard to talk Callie out of this and now it was blowing up in their faces. Worse than that, it was blowing up in Callie's face.

"She— she— I told her I'd wait." Callie ignored the presence of her friend; it didn't occur to her that this was why Teddy had shown up out of the blue, because she was too stuck on the woman with Arizona that should have been her. The woman that replaced her and it was her fault. "I promised I'd wait." She whispered as what was left of her heart shattered.

Trying to avoid any type of scene, for any of them, Teddy wrapped her arm around Callie's shoulder and turned them around toward the parking lot, but not before she caught Arizona's eye from across the corridor. "Let's get you home."

"She didn't wait." Callie was sobbing by the time they reached Teddy's car.

"I know honey, I know." Teddy was crushed for her friend, devastated was more like it. She had tried so hard to avoid this; it wasn't either woman's fault, because things just don't always go as planned, which is how they found themselves here in the first place.

"I fought so hard. So hard, Teddy. I fought for her. For us." Teddy folded Callie's broken body into her car before driving her home.

*GA*GA*GA*GA*GA*GA*

"How long has she been out?" Mark asked Teddy when he walked into Callie's apartment.

"A few hours." Teddy sighed knowing they were to blame for this.

"She might hate us." Mark said rubbing the grief from his face.

Teddy stopped dead in her tracks and glared in Mark's direction before her thin framed body started shaking violently as she quickly became hunched over, dry heaves mixed with heartbreakingly silent sobs wracking her body.

Mark moved swiftly to her side, leading her to the nearest chair. Grabbing the nearest box of tissues, he squatted next to her, gently rubbing her arms as she gasped for air to fill her lungs.

"It's not fair." She hiccupped through a muffled cry. "It's not fair that I had to lie to Callie, that I had to lie to Arizona. God, this is why I don't have friends. They're assholes. All friends are assholes." Teddy's broken voice betrayed the anger now apparent across her face, but it was obvious she needed to be angry right now, because the grief of the entire situation was becoming too hard for her to carry any longer.

Handing her tissue after tissue, he stayed silent as she let her emotions free. For three years now, Teddy had been a rock. First, his rock after Callie came clean to him why she stayed, and then Callie's when Teddy decided she couldn't stay mad at her due to the circumstances that had been the true reasoning she broke Teddy's best friend's heart. Even after Mark had disclosed Callie's dirty secret to her, Teddy reserved her judgement of Callie until she witnessed the true devastation her abandonment of Arizona had caused herself. A few months after Callie let Arizona go, Teddy caught her crying in an on-call room of the hospital after a rather difficult day in what was going on in her world. She assumed it was Callie having a pity party, except after finally breaking down to comfort her, Callie admitted the truth that she'd have rather died with Arizona loving her than lived knowing she'd forever hate her. She confided in Teddy that she had been moments away from boarding that plane for that reason, except she also knew that she could never put the love of her life through the grisly life her future held for her and that to save Arizona that pain, she had to live, every day, knowing Arizona hated her, but it was still worth it.

Teddy held everybody up. For the first year, she let Arizona mourn the unexpected demise of her relationship with Callie, never once telling her any of the secrets Seattle was keeping. She listened over and over again as Arizona questioned and cried and then eventually, when she had no more tears to shed, she watched Arizona angrily hate Callie and wish her death, a violent and ugly scene, one in comparison to what Callie had done to her heart. It broke her heart to listen to Arizona say such things, but never did she break Callie's confidence to correct Arizona, to warn her, to bring her home.

When Arizona found herself in a relationship, sexual or whatever it was, Teddy wasn't truly sure how it was defined, never once did Teddy try to talk Callie out of waiting for Arizona. She couldn't. She was keeping secrets, lots of secrets. While Callie planned their future at the same time fighting for her own present, Teddy helped pick out dresses and centerpieces and anything else that would get Callie's mind off the hell she was going through. They dreamed of a future for her and Arizona and watching the only thing that brought excitement and hope to Callie was not something Teddy could, or would, dare take away from her.

For three years she held up both friends and Mark, took on their burdens, kept their secrets, and now she was broken. They'd broken her.

"They both hate me." She hiccupped again, snot bubbling from her nose, mascara streaking down her reddened cheeks. She always knew she was an ugly crier and as Mark cringed, handing her another tissue, she couldn't help but laugh only causing more snot to bubble from her nose.

Trying to cheer up her, Mark poorly joked, "Arizona doesn't even know yet."

Hearing that only caused Teddy to spiral further into a self-hating pity party. "I won't have any friends by the time this is done. None. I don't make friends easily, I don't. I have baggage and self esteem problems, and I never make friends because I'm always afraid they'll leave when they realize I'm too difficult. And now that I have them, they're going to leave, just like they always do. But it's not my fault, Mark. It's not fair." She was begging for answers, begging for something to make it all better.

Watching her torment was breaking his heart. He wasn't the advice giver, people didn't come to him for that or help, but he just couldn't bear to watch her beat herself up. Mark couldn't sit back and say nothing so switching tactics; he gave her a grown-up moment from humor to honesty. "If they hate you for being a good friend, for protecting them both, you deserve better and they never deserved you in the first place. You did nothing wrong but love them." He was serious; she'd done nothing wrong but be a good friend. Unless there was something wrong with being a good friend. And if that were the case, then she was super wrong. Placing the tissue box to the side he took her hand in his and made sure her eyes locked with his own."You have to let them both deal with this before they will see that, Teddy. If, afterwards, they both are being assholes, I'll deal with them."

"You should have seen the look in her eyes when we got back here. They were empty, she wasn't even just sad, she was completely empty inside. I did that, Mark."

"We did that, we kept that from her and it blew up in our faces. We both didn't tell her and because we didn't, we couldn't stop today from happening. We're both at fault."

Teddy watched the pain cross his face, the guilt he carried from keeping this from Callie all this time. He had no loyalties to Arizona, never made her any promises, but he still held her truth close, never giving Callie even a hint he had secrets from her. This had aged Mark. From watching his best friend suffer, to taking care of her at her worst, to lies and secrets, Mark had suffered himself, and a great deal. In the past three years, Teddy had watched him give more of himself than she thought possible. He'd given up a chance at relationships, at a future in love himself for Callie's well-being. The happy, careless gleam in his eyes had faded, his face was haunted with the stress the past three years had put upon his shoulders, and the result was worry lines now firmly chiseled out on that once flawless face, his shoulders drooped just enough to take that air of confidence from his stature, and he often looked sad, nobody being able to put the glow back, because he knew the inevitable was around the corner and yet he still kept trekking on. As doctors they knew this destroyed entire families and they were now part of that statistic.

"I should have told her." He admitted quietly.

"She didn't need to know. She wasn't strong enough, and then when she was, I couldn't tell her. I just couldn't be the friend that broke her heart. And you of all people couldn't be the one who was responsible for that either, Mark." Teddy wiped the lingering tears away. "How long did calm last before the storm came back? Neither of us wanted to risk rocking the boat. What good would it have done in the long run anyway?"

Her heart raced so fast it felt as if it was going to beat out of her chest. She had woken to Mark's less than quiet entrance into her apartment and immediately thought to seek him out for some comfort, but as she made her way toward the cracked door of her bedroom, she overheard their conversation. Their whispers carried and she listened intently to them talk about things she was certain she wasn't supposed to know. Standing in the doorway, holding tight to the frame, Callie glared at her friends. "You knew and you didn't tell me?" Her voice was hoarse from the nonstop crying, but laced with raw anger.

They both turned toward the sound behind them and their hearts stopped just by the look of rage vibrating off of her body. "Callie..." Mark tried to calm her down before any damage could be done.

"How long?" She growled.

Neither responded, neither knew how to respond.

"HOW LONG?" She was physically shaking and they both recoiled under her escalating anger.

"A year and a half." Teddy said, hanging her head in shame as she waited for the screaming to begin.

"And you didn't tell me?" Callie was yelling, ignoring the fear in her friends' eyes as they watched her exert energy she didn't have to waste.

"You weren't strong enough Callie. You still aren't. She kept you alive and we selfishly used that. We needed you to fight." Mark argued and tears fell as he watched the heartbreak that he'd been trying so hard to keep in one piece.

"I need you both to leave. Right now." Callie's voice broke, anger drained into empty hollowness. There was no emotion in her words.

"Callie, please," Mark begged.

Shaking her head, she just stared at them in disbelief. It was as if she was unable to process what was right in front of her eyes, to truly accept the betrayal standing before her. She didn't want to believe it, but plain as day, she had no other choice. She shook her head one more time giving them both a look of complete destruction and despair. "Just go. Please." Callie walked back into her room, slamming the door behind her, leaving her friends feeling guilty and ashamed.

*GA*GA*GA*GA*GA*GA*

"So what did the health clinic want?" Arizona watched as Callie walked back into their bedroom dragging a large case behind her and hoisting it up onto the bed, her knee helping to push it completely onto the mattress.

She looked at Arizona with a blank stare, tears pricking the corners of her eyes. Arizona laughed at the zombie look from her girlfriend, taking it in as confusion. "The health clinic called you. You walked away to the other room to get better reception. Any of this ring a bell?"

"What?" Callie blinked several times getting her thoughts and emotions under control. "Oh, eh… just misplaced blood samples from when they were doing our physicals, Dr. Daniels wants me to pop into tomorrow to get them re-taken, luckily it's not having to get those damn painful vaccinations redone!" Callie nervously laughed as Arizona eyed her suspiciously. She began to quickly throw objects into the case, not paying attention to the items falling from her fingertips.

"Well that's lucky, because we're less than four weeks away, if it had been the vaccinations, then no Malawi for you." She sang cheekily. Her smile was bright and happiness radiated from every pore, Callie had to look away before Arizona caught on to her.

"Yeah." Callie's voice cracked as she heard Dr. Daniels voice echo in her mind. 'The blood we took at your medical have come back showing severe abnormalities, it could be nothing, but truth be told, I'm quite concerned about it. Add that to your recent unexplained weight loss and complaints of fatigue, we really need to look into this sooner rather than later. This might be nothing more than the stress of your impending move, but I would really encourage some extra tests to be run and I'd also like to take some more samples and send them off for further analysis.'

Shaking the thought from her head, she plastered on a wide smile to her face and looked up to be greeted with Arizona's questioning eyes. She needed to change the subject quickly. "So…do you think there will be a pool?" Holding up her sexy red bikini, her eyebrow playfully raised as Arizona shook her head in the negative and whispered 'it's Malawi' smiling back at her girlfriend, Callie trying to quell the thoughts from her own head comically threw the garment over her shoulder and tried not to cringe at the throbbing pain in her forearm. At least the swelling had finally gone down, but she'd really like to know how she injured herself. "Oh well, if we get there and there is a pool, our neighbors will get an eye full!"

*GA*GA*GA*GA*GA*GA*

Arizona had been back for two long weeks and had yet to see Callie except for the airport incident. Every morning she scanned the surgical board in hopes to see Callie's name, but remarkably she never did. Callie lived to cut, so her absence confused Arizona. In those two weeks Arizona had also seen little of Teddy, and Mark was being genuinely out of character, nice to her. All of it was unsettling. Weird even, colleagues of old would part like the red sea when she came near them. Vibrating, silent pagers coming to their rescue as they dashed off in opposite directions.

It wasn't the first time that Cristina had caught her staring at the surgical board or trying to pump nurses for gossip and information since her return. Arizona wasn't even technically on staff yet, her contract not beginning for another six months, so she would have the freedom to travel back and forth to Malawi to make certain, in her absence, things were still running well. Except for the last two weeks since her return to the states, Cristina had seen her at the hospital more often than not. Granted she did have OR privileges and she was a paid consultant working on her own schedule until her full time return, but in Cristina's own pumping for gossip, she found Dr. Robbins was not at the hospital for the sake of any patient and had not seen the inside of an OR either. Arizona had one thing on her mind and Cristina figured it was time to give her what she wanted. It wasn't the sad, pathetic stalking or even the lost puppy look on her face. After Cristina's scrub nurse had cornered her, frantic after Dr. Robbins had been asking too many questions, she figured it better to tell her than her hearing from someone without all the facts. Facts, Cristina was good at facts and that's all that was needed here.

"Dr. Robbins." Cristina approached the board after watching Arizona for a few minutes from afar.

"Yang." Arizona didn't bother to make eye contact with the other woman. By Cristina's tone of voice, she was sure there was going to be a confrontation and she wasn't prepared for that. So far, she'd also avoided most of the old gang, unsure how welcome she'd be in her return and with their own current avoidance tactics, it had been an easy task. In reality, if she was one hundred percent honest, she'd been avoiding them because even though Callie probably had her "reasons" for staying and abandoning her to go to Malawi alone, by herself, without a freaking explanation, dumped in the middle of an airport, Arizona was sure that after a three year absence, they would surely take Callie Torres' side even if she was wrong. Even though she was wrong.

Arizona had been skeptical over seeing Mark, except he'd gone and proved her concerns wrong with his odd and friendly welcome home attitude. Cristina Yang she was not excited to see in any way, shape, or form. She was snarky and rude and while she pretended not to have a care in the world, she was fiercely overprotective of those she considered her friends, and Arizona Robbins had never been on that list. She had merely been accepted as Callie's girlfriend and nothing more.

"Been staring at that board for a while, looking for someone's name?" She asked knowingly.

"Oh, I must have been daydreaming." Arizona pasted on a fake smile hoping to end their conversation before it began.

"She doesn't work here anymore." Cristina simply stated what she thought was the obvious.

"What?" She didn't bother to feign ignorance at Cristina's news.

"You've been gone a long time, things change." She cleared her throat by feigning a deep cough. While; her emotions where Callie was concerned were raw, nobody else needed to know such was the case.

"Where is she now?" Arizona asked. She wanted details, not some run-around nonsense.

"Right now?"

Arizona nodded.

Cristina looked down at her watch, her forehead crinkled as she did the math. It was early enough still for her to be just finishing up. "6th floor." While she knew it wasn't her business, she also believed Arizona needed to know. It was well past time that Arizona Robbins got the truth.

Looking confused, Arizona questioned Cristina. "I thought you said she didn't work here anymore?"

"She doesn't." Cristina shrugged as she watched Arizona's face contort in complete confusion. She might have been enjoying playing with her, just a tiny bit but before she could lose her temper Cristina grabbed her by the arm and swiftly walked them in the opposite direction of the board.

Usually Arizona would not let herself be manhandled but she was so confused and her worry grew as Cristina pulled open an empty exam room and gently shoved her through the threshold before closing the door behind them. "What's going on, Yang? Why did you bring me here?"

"Robbins, I'd say it's not my place, but I made no promises to Callie. Once upon a time this involved you too and you have a right to know..." Cristina took a deep breath before continuing, except Arizona's annoyance interrupted her.

"What are you talking about, Yang?" Arizona, impatient, snapped. She was done with games. With her heart in her throat for reasons she wasn't certain of, either Cristina got to the point or got the hell out.

"Three years ago, she didn't get on that plane, not because she didn't love you, but because she did. Too much. Too much to ask you to stay."

"Oh yeah, sure." Arizona scoffed with disbelief. She might have been wracked with worry and fear both induced by Cristina's odd actions and her own fear that hid just behind her eyes but this subject could and always would bring out Arizona's less than compassionate side.

Cristina walked toward Arizona, grabbing her shoulders with a small shake. "Listen to me, she couldn't ask you to stay with her even though she needed you to." She hated having to do this, but she also knew nobody would.

She took a step back, pulling herself from Cristina's grip. If this was the reason she was in here, she needed to get out except when she tried to sidestep Cristina, the other woman followed suit and blocked her path. "Why did she need me to stay? For her ego? Because she'd already dried up her supply of Seattle Grace fuck buddies?" Arizona asked bitterness dripping from her voice as she realized she was not going to get out without this conversation.

Cristina remained calm and waited for Arizona's storm to crest and bottom out giving her ample time to get it off her chest now.

"Was she worried without me staying that she'd have nobody to make her feel good about herself? Did she want the sex with no strings attached? Why? Why did she need me to stay when Mark could have done any of that for her and without the mess of a real, adult, mature relationship?" Arizona viciously wiped at the angry tears she didn't even realize had fallen as she slowly backed down realizing Cristina was not at the apex of these charged emotions and it wasn't fair of her to unload. Nor did she really want to give the younger doctor any ammunition in the future such as a breakdown like this.

Cristina waited a few more moments until Arizona had completely calmed. "What's the 6th floor?" she asked softly.

Silence filled the room as the realization smacked Arizona in the face and guilt choked her. "Oh my god." Arizona gasped, her hand flying to her mouth as she tried to shove the word back in. If she didn't say it, it couldn't be true.

Cristina nodded, the tortured look on her face spoke volumes.

"Oncology..." She barely could whisper.

"Yeah, oh my god." Cristina repeated, except there was no mocking sentiment behind it. "She went into remission for a while, but it came back. It is back. She's playing it off, but it's pretty bad this time. She wanted to beat it before you returned. She tried. She really did.".

Arizona could hear the fear in her voice, the desperation cut her deep to the bone. "Prognosis?" Arizona choked on that damn word. How many times in her life had she used it? As a surgeon it effortlessly fell from her lips; you have to detach yourself from the patient. Yes you feel sorrow, upset for what the words mean, except now, for the first time ever, it meant something completely different and painful to her, this affected her heart. This was Calliope.

"If this round doesn't work, three maybe four months. Six tops, but that's pushing it." Her voice was barely above a whisper. If she didn't say it too loud, maybe it wouldn't come true.

"Diagnosis?" Arizona asked with fear in her voice. Fear in her eyes. Fear plastered across her face. She was consumed with fear so much her body shook just enough, enough for Cristina to see at least.

"Bone cancer." She took a second to let it sink in. "How tragically poetic, huh?" Cristina laughed with a disgusted tone.

*GA*GA*GA*GA*GA*GA*

"Prognosis?" Callie stood at the threshold of Dr. David Daniels' office. Her heart dropped when she saw the very familiar face of a close colleague that specialized in oncology. She found her knuckles whiten as her grip intensified, the frame seem to be the only thing holding her upright.

"Good morning, Callie. Please come in and sit down."

"David. I thought I told you I didn't want anyone from Seattle Grace involved, so what is she doing here?" Callie didn't mean to sound as nasty as she had; it was just with Dr. Martina Emory's presence, she knew it wasn't good.

"I'm sorry, we're all doctors here, Callie. You knew my concerns when we took the scans. Now I asked Dr. Emory here because you know you want the best team available." He maintained eye contact with her, telling people was always hard, but even harder when the patient was a doctor.

"I'm going to Africa for three years with Arizona. Three years...We're happy again. Please don't...I'm going to Africa." Callie pleaded from the doorway. This could not be happening, she had plans.

"Callie, please come in and sit down." Dr. Emory spoke up, nothing but sadness covered her face. She knew from the few times she'd worked with the surgeon that Dr. Torres had a reputation for being stubborn. She waited for Callie to join them before she continued. "I need to ask you a few questions and we can get a treatment plan in order back at Seattle Grace. It says here you are experiencing fatigue and you've had some weight loss. About how long would you say this has been on your radar?"

"Cut the scripted crap Marti, just tell me what you found."

Sucking in some air, Dr. Emory folded her arms and adjusted her back in the chair she was sitting in. "The CT scans showed a large mass in your right ulna. Of course, to be certain, we'll need to take a biopsy, there's a good chance we're looking at Osteosarcoma, but we need..." She was quickly cut off by Callie's out of place laughter. Dr. Daniels looked on with understanding pity at her reaction as he watched the woman continue to laugh as she finally sat down.

"I wouldn't be here if you weren't certain. You wouldn't be here if you weren't certain. You have the scans, you have the blood work; you know very well what we're looking at here. The biopsy is just semantics, so don't you dare try to downplay this for me." Callie growled before her voice trembled. "Oh of course it is... Of course, that's just..." Callie covered her face with her hands as David continued to look on with confusion. "Great!"

"Dr. Daniels, Dr. Torres is an orthopedic surgeon." Dr. Emory explained.

"Oh!" Dr. Daniels looked down at his paperwork and began to straighten them not sure what to say next. Because this started out as a simple vaccination and physical for travel, her specialty had never come up.

Marti reached over and put a comforting hand on Callie's shaking knee. "Callie, we'll get a biopsy done and if it is osteosarcoma, we will deal with it. You know we can fight this. You've had your fair share of bone cancer patients and you've helped them. Let us come up with a plan. You can fight this."

She scoffed and swallowed the bile sitting in the back of her throat. "I've had my fair share die too after I did everything in medicine's ability...My arm isn't even sore," She lied holding up her arm for them to examine. "There's no swelling. Yes, of course I'm tired, but I'm a freaking surgeon… I'm going to Africa." Standing up, her eyes darted toward the door, her plan to escape. Callie felt as if the rug had been pulled out from under her, her world was crashing down. She closed her eyes, squeezing tight. The damn dizziness came on so fast, so unexpected, she could only plant her feet and hope to stay upright. Opening her eyes, she realized it hadn't dissipated any and she felt her entire body start to sway. Wide, terrified eyes looked back at her as she went from dizzy to a feeling she couldn't explain. She felt heavy, so heavy. "I'm going to Africa." She repeated in a desperate tone. As her jaw slammed into the hard floor, she saw lights flash behind her eyelids. Her body was now pins and needles and throbbing pain. The panicked voices all around her were nothing compared to the loud buzzing in her head. 'I have cancer.'