Disclaimer: I do not own the Robbins family or the Torres family. Everyone else in this story is my own creation. This is just for fun and entertainment, not for profit. Reprints of this story require my permission, however.
Author's Note: I'm always happy to hear what you have to say. Constructive criticism is very welcome. Nasty comments from anonymous posters will not be approved.
Ripple Effects
by AmboDriver
Chapter 1
Friday, September 28, 2012
"You look like absolute shit."
Arizona let out a dry puff of laughter as she gingerly settled her duffel bag on the floor and rolled her eyes at her brother. In the last six months she had become accustomed to the new aches and pains in her body, but today was some of the worst she had experienced in a while. Her entire body just plain hurt, but it was a good pain that made her smile as she slowly hobbled through the living room and over to the couch, collapsing on it as soon as she could. "My God that feels good," she groaned out.
Tim came over and sat on the coffee table, his blue eyes peering at her with that familiar mix of amusement and caring that he so often had for her, especially since the crash. "How'd it go?"
"Well," she said slowly as she rolled onto her side so she could face him, "I passed. Barely."
His smile was instantaneous, lighting up his face as his dimples popped on his cheeks. "Arizona, that's awesome. How barely is barely?"
"I made the run with seventeen seconds to spare." Just thinking about that last quarter mile made her wince in pain. "Thank God for the crunches. I kicked ass on those."
"You ran three miles in less than 32 minutes. Six months ago you couldn't even walk. That's just amazing. I'm so proud of you." He reached over and pushed against her shoulder affectionately. "So when do you find out?"
Arizona used the tip of her left sneaker to pop the other one off, flexing her toes when they were free. "Ben thinks they should have a decision in a week or two, but it could be longer." She started to push herself up to a sitting position, smiling at Timothy when he offered her a helping hand. She then reached under the left leg of her shorts and started removing her prosthetic. "He thinks my chances are 50-50."
"What? You just passed the test, how can it be so iffy?" He let out a long breath. "Fucking Marines just eat you up and throw you out."
"Hey," Arizona said sharply as she lowered her prosthetic to the floor before turning to face him. "First off, you got fucked by the Navy, not the Corps. And second, it's not iffy that I can go back to active duty. That's almost certain. But I'll be damned if I sit at a desk pushing papers for the rest of my career." She started to massage her residual limb, wincing at the pounding pain that ran through it now that it was free of the socket. She then sighed heavily. "Not that I'll have much choice. I mean, there's not really much call for a one-legged helicopter pilot on the outside."
"That's not true and you know it. And besides, you can do anything, Arizona. Go back to school and find a new career if you can't fly. You graduated third in your class. You're one of the smartest people I know."
"You know I don't want to."
Tim's sigh was heavy. "We don't always get what we want."
She felt the kick in her gut that always assailed her when the familiar sadness dulled her brother's eyes. He had been almost exactly where she was thirteen years ago, only he never even got to truly start his career. He had managed to find a new path and seemed to really love his carefree and adventurous life as a photojournalist. Life had gone on for him and she was glad for him that he was mostly happy.
But she wasn't her brother. Some part of Arizona was thankful that he had blown out his knee and been denied his commission. Tim was really never cut out for military life. But Arizona, well, she lived and breathed it and she wasn't sure she could survive without it. And the last thing she wanted to do was think about a future where she wasn't an active duty Marine Aviator. "Speaking of getting what we want," she said with a slightly sly grin on her lips to help distract him as she changed the subject. "You ready for your big date?"
Tim stood up and pulled on the sleeves of his blue button down shirt. "Don't I look ready?"
"You look…" She trailed off before laughing, suppressing the first word that came to her mind. "You look great. She doesn't stand a chance."
Tim's eyebrow went up into his shaggy hairline. "Spill it. What were you going to say?"
She laughed. He knew her so well. "I was going to say clean. You clean up well."
Tim's laughter echoed her own. "The scruffier, the better normally. Let's me fit in on all my trips to the hell holes of the world."
Arizona rolled her eyes. "You haven't been out of the DC area in a year."
"But now that I'm done with the study and my knee is better than ever, I'm revving up for my next adventure." He rubbed his hands together in anticipation and then smiled. "Another two or three years and Anderson Cooper won't be the only golden boy on CNN's payroll."
Arizona rolled her eyes as she laughed quietly. "Anderson will always get the best assignments so if you want to play backup for him, then go for it. You could always become the Anderson of Fox News." She tried to hide the smile that the kidding brought to her face but couldn't.
"Fox? Ugh, that just makes my skin crawl. Next thing you know you'll suggest I start eating at Chick-Fil-A and shopping at Walmart. You sure you didn't suffer some crazy brain injury in the crash?" His smile told her that he was joking with her.
She let out a quiet chuckle, even though it felt a little forced after his mention of the accident. "Okay, so now that you have your cover story for why you could use a haircut, are you excited about your date?"
"Excited?" Timothy rolled his eyes. "I thought that damned article would never be published so I could ask her out. I'm just glad that this phase of the study is now officially over and I wasn't picked for the second phase. I guess I was happy to fail for once."
She laughed and shook her head at her brother. She knew that he had basically thrown the interview that would determine whether he would be tracked long term to see how the artificial cartilage in his knee was working. He had bragged about how he had pointed out that he would be out of the country too frequently to be a reliable participant. "So, where are you taking Dr. Sexy?"
Tim's eyes twinkled. "Well, we're going to a little place she suggested in Bethesda. Then I figured we'd maybe go dancing afterward, so she can see how great my knee really is." He danced a little to show off his rather inept dance moves, which made them both laugh. "I offered to pick her up but she said she'd likely be coming from the office so we're just meeting at the restaurant."
She looked at her watch. "What time are you meeting?" She knew her brother could often be tardy, so she wanted to make sure he gave himself enough time to get around the Beltway.
"Seven."
Arizona was satisfied that he still had a few minutes before he needed to leave. As she thought more and more about his date, all the questions she had about this woman came into her mind. She couldn't help it. He was her little brother and she always felt very protective of him. "Does she live in Bethesda?"
"Potomac."
Arizona coughed. "Potomac? How the hell does a chemist on the government payroll afford a house in Potomac? Is she a Kennedy or something like that?"
"No, but a little research told me she has family money. But at least she doesn't seem too stuck up and entitled, so that's good." He smoothed the front of his khakis. "Besides, I could totally deal with a rich girlfriend. I like the idea of being a kept man."
"Uh huh," she agreed with a light laugh. "Hey do me a favor and go get my crutches." As he started to walk out of the room, she raised her voice to continue the conversation. "So, do you want to take my car tonight? Somehow I think someone who lives in Potomac would be less horrified by my Audi than your dirty old Jeep."
He came back into the room with her metal crutches. "Nope. And besides you may drive an Audi, but I'm not sure your Fear the Goat Academy sticker is exactly all that impressive either."
"What's wrong with that sticker? I love that sticker. And Bill is cool." She loved the fact that the Academy's mascot was a goat. It was distinctive and a little quirky, which was so at odds with what everyone thought of the Naval Academy.
He just laughed and shook his head. "Nothing, Arizona, absolutely nothing. And he is cool. But seriously, if she can't date a guy with a Jeep, well then she can't date me. And besides, I not only washed it, but vacuumed it, so it should be good." He leaned the crutches up against the couch. "You need anything else before I go?"
She grabbed one to help her stand up and then pulled the other over to rest under her arms. "Nope I'm good. And that's very mature of you to not try to be something you're not. I'm proud of you little brother." She laughed quietly. "Especially since I know how much you are just dying to get into her panties."
He bit at his lip as he obviously tried to keep from smiling. "Well, yeah, but it's more than just that," he said with a shake of his head. "She's amazing all around. I mean, yeah she's hot, but she's smart and funny and really nice. We seemed to hit it off from the first time we met. I really think I could have a shot with her. And trust me, if you had met her first, you'd want into her panties, too. But she's mine, so don't get any ideas." His eyes twinkled at her knowingly.
In response, she just rolled her own to cover up the mix of feelings that the mention of dating brought up in her, most especially since the crash. "Well, you better get a move on then if you don't want to keep your shot waiting."
Tim came over and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. "Don't wait up," he then said with a mischievous grin before he turned toward the front door.
"Third date rule, Tim. If you want her to respect you, you wait until the third date."
He grabbed his jacket and picked up his keys from the table next to the door before turning to her, the smile still wide on his face. "Maybe respect isn't what she's going for," he said before laughing as he pulled open the door.
She just rolled her eyes. "Have a good time," she said as she started to hobble off toward her bathroom.
"Always," he replied just before leaving the house and shutting the door.
"Dork," she said affectionately before continuing her way into the bathroom for a much needed hot soak.
Callie put her cell phone on speaker and placed it on the sink. "Yes, Aria, I'm actually going on a date. I know it's a miracle."
"It's been three years, Callie. I'm just glad you're finally getting back on the horse. Besides, Matty needs you to find a good guy so that Rick isn't his only influence."
At the mention of her ex-husband, she shivered out of reflex. "I'm not sure that two weeks each summer and every other Christmas is much influence. That bastard wouldn't even come to town for his last birthday."
"My nephew is better off without him." Aria's voice was full of acid.
"Enough about Rick." She leaned in toward the mirror to put an earring in her left ear. "How are Brooks and the kids?"
"They're fine. Brooks is working too hard for his father as usual. Since moving to DC it's gotten worse, but that's no surprise. Jasmin hates her new school. I thought she'd like the all-girl thing, but she's just been whiny about it. And Aidan loves the Abbey. Go figure. I thought he'd hate a boys-only school more and yet he's happy as a clam." She chuckled quietly. "Now, no changing the subject anymore. Tell me about this Timothy kid."
Callie rolled her eyes. "He's only two years younger than me. That's not young at all."
Aria's laughter came over the phone. "He's my age. And guys are so much more immature than women, so subtract another ten years and he's probably as mature as a twenty-five year old woman. A thirty-seven year old with a twenty-five year old? You're like an old Republican on his third trophy wife."
"Ha ha, you should know. How is your husband's new step mom anyway?" She didn't wait for an answer, since she had made her point. "Tim's different. He's seen the world. And you should see his eyes," she added as her voice softened at the thought. "And he's got these dimples. My God, he's just so adorable."
"Um, Callie, shouldn't a guy be handsome and not adorable? You aren't dating Justin Bieber."
Callie let out a bark of laughter. "Have you seen that kid lately? He's quickly losing whatever adorable status he used to have." She picked at her hair, checking herself out in the mirror one last time before she picked up her phone and went out into her bedroom. "Tim's handsome, definitely. When we first met at his initial interview, there was just something about him that got to me. And he's smart and funny. I think this could be really good."
"Trust me, I'm not dissuading you," Aria said defensively. "I kid because I love you. I hope this works out. You need a good relationship and now that Matty's older, you've got the time and energy to really put into this. Doesn't hurt that the first big phase of your study is done, too. Why you must just be feeling like you've got all kinds of time on your hands for mischief."
"True," Callie said, feeling that mixture of elation and regret now that she was in such a lull in her life. Her eyes drifted to the clock on her bedside table. "Listen, I better get going. I've got to drive down to Bethesda."
"He's not picking you up at home? Not much of a gentleman," Aria scoffed.
"I told him I was coming from work," she said sheepishly.
"Why?" Aria asked with a drawn out rise to her voice.
Callie let out a deep breath. "I haven't told him about Matthew."
"What?"
Callie shrugged even though her sister couldn't see her. "I've got a picture of him on my desk. I'm sure he knows."
"If you were sure he knew, you wouldn't care if he pulled into your driveway and saw that behemoth of a swing set you got him last year. What the hell are you doing, Callie?"
"You never had to date with a kid, Aria. It's scary. I want him to get to know me first." She slipped her feet into the heels she had put next to her bedroom door. "I guess I'm just hoping that if he gets to know me a bit better first, then maybe he won't discount giving me a chance just because I have a kid."
"Your choice." There was a pause before Aria's voice was quieter. "Listen, just be smart and have a good time. It'll either work out or it won't."
"Exactly. I'll call you tomorrow and give you the scoop." She couldn't help but smile at the interest and care her sister was showing. It wasn't all that long ago that she was just totally oblivious to anything but herself, but now Aria was turning into a mature wife, mother, and sister. And Callie was definitely grateful for the change. "Bye, Aria. Give my niece and nephew a kiss for me."
"If they'll let me. Bye, Cal," her sister answered before the phone went dead.
Callie quickly made her way down to the first floor and found her purse. She slid her lipstick and phone into the clutch and then took a deep breath. "It's like riding a bike, right? You can do this." She took one final glance at herself in the hallway mirror. She then took a deep breath as the nervousness started to make her feel a little sick. "You can do this," she repeated to herself before grabbing her keys and leaving the house.
Arizona leaned back into the pile of pillows on her bed, her muscles screaming until she was settled and then there was just a sigh of relief as the pain eased away. It had been a hard day, harder than probably anything she had done since that first marathon therapy session when she had walked on the prosthetic for the first time. And she had to admit, it was probably more satisfying. When Ben had come up to her to share her time on the run, he had smiled broader than Arizona had ever seen in all the years she had known him. It was strange to be happy with barely finishing in time, when before she was an elite runner who often beat almost all the men in any unit she was in, but she knew that what she had done today was by far harder than any sub-20 minute 5K she had ever run. It might have been easier and she might have finished with more room for error if they had let her wear her running blade, but the officers reviewing her case had said she wouldn't be wearing that prosthetic on duty, since she couldn't wear boots or shoes with it, so she needed to test on the leg she would be using. "But you did it, Robbins," she told herself with just the hint of a smile on her lips.
She closed her eyes and hoped sleep would hit her quickly, but her brain just kept churning over and over, as it did most nights. But this was worse than normal. She couldn't help but wonder whether she would be allowed to fly again on duty, or whether she would even be discharged. She had no idea how she would deal with anything other than getting back into the cockpit and as much as she told herself she'd deal with it when and if it happened, she just couldn't stop worrying.
With a frustrated grunt she rolled out of bed, her entire body protesting the sudden movement. She grabbed her crutches and went to the kitchen, grabbing a beer out of the fridge and quickly opening it before taking a long drink. She then dangled it by the neck between two fingers so she could still maneuver on her crutches and made her way toward the back porch, pulling a sweatshirt from the laundry basket on the couch as she went by. She was almost out the door when she thought about the cigarettes in the backpack she took to therapy. She turned around and went to retrieve the unopened pack and her lighter before returning to the porch and finally settling into one of the Adirondack chairs there, snuggling into her sweatshirt for warmth against the chill of the late September air.
"Fuck," she muttered before draining the rest of the beer and then opening the cigarettes and pulling one out to look at it. "Six months since my last one. But I think I've earned it." She had proudly carried the unopened pack around for weeks, considering it a badge of honor that she hadn't opened it even on her worst days, but tonight just felt so different. She didn't smoke often, mostly when she was stressed or out socially, but tonight felt like the right time. She quickly lit the cigarette and pulled the smoke into her lungs, coughing on the first inhale before her lungs remembered the sensation of the smoke.
Unfortunately, the familiar smoke also made her think back to the last time she had smoked, to the poker game she and three of the guys in her squadron had had the night before it all went to shit. Her new weapons officer, Captain Danforth Hastings, had even brought some imitation Cuban cigars and took some ribbing from the others about how he had smuggled counterfeit cigars onto a military base in a war zone. If his father ever found out, they all knew he would get shit for it, and no one wanted to feel the wrath of the newly elected Senator from Florida, least of all his namesake son. But it had helped break the ice between Dan and the others that had existed since he had transferred into their squadron at the last minute before their deployment. And the night had ended up being a blast, especially since Arizona had fleeced the other three with her Hold'em skills and innocent face.
She watched the smoke drift up in front of her and shook her head. All three of them were dead now and Arizona couldn't help but blame herself. She should have done a more careful approach instead of charging in headstrong and she should have made sure there was enough room between her and Mike in case a problem arose. And most of all, she should have made Dan take cover instead of letting him try to help her get out of the cockpit. So many shoulds. Should is a curse word. Shoulda woulda coulda, all curses. Her therapist's voice rang in her head with more than a hint of self-recrimination from Arizona herself. Shoulds couldn't change what happened and shoulds couldn't bring them back. "All you can do is move forward, Robbins." But she knew that was easier said than done.
She sighed and stuffed the cigarette into the mouth of the beer bottle, listening to the sizzle it made when it hit the small amount of liquid in the bottom. While she was sitting there, worried that she might never get to fly again, she knew the three of them would all love to have been in her position. Don't be so fucking ungrateful. But she couldn't help it. Her grandfather had died saving the men in his care and her father had done the same. She had just managed to get her men killed and somehow lived to tell the tale. Losing her leg wasn't penance enough for the sin of survival.
"What would Dad say about this?" she wondered aloud for the umpteenth time in the last six months. She had spent her entire life since that day at Arlington almost thirty years before doing everything she could to make her father proud and it had all been undone in what felt like an instant. She had failed to think through all the possibilities, instead determined to make her father proud by rushing in to save the lives of her fellow Marines. It was what a Robbins was supposed to do, after all, and she had been determined to follow that tradition, but instead she had lost three lives that were in her care. She stood up and put the crutches under her arms. "What a failure," she muttered as she started to head back into the house, resigned to another sleepless night of infomercials to distract her from her recriminations.
"God, that was amazing," Callie said with a sigh as she dabbed at the corner of her mouth with the linen napkin. She and Tim had just shared a sumptuous meal at the small Brazilian chophouse in Bethesda, enjoying both the amazing food and the easy conversation. As far as first dates went, this was certainly nice and was helped considerably by the fact that they knew one another ahead of time. But Callie couldn't shake the feeling that Tim seemed more like someone who would make an awesome friend, and less like someone she wanted to take to bed. I'm out of practice with this whole dating thing is all. He's hot, right? And clearly he's interested. Give it a chance.
Tim finished taking a sip from his wine and then nodded. "Every time I eat at a place like this I think about this restaurant in Nairobi called the Carnivore. We went to Kenya the summer before my sophomore year in high school and after the first morning on safari near Nairobi, our tour guides took us there for lunch. You should have seen Arizona's eyes when they brought out the hartebeest on this thing that was more like a sword than a skewer. Our guide laughed about how we might have seen that exact animal that we were eating while we were out in the park and here's my sister, planning on going to the Academy in a year and joining the Corps, and she freaked out. She almost cried and refused to eat any of it. We had this amazing game meat and she just ate salad." He laughed, obviously lost in the memory for a moment. "Didn't faze me, though. I even ate the ox balls. I mean, literally, they had ox balls listed on the menu."
Callie's eyes went wide at the images he was evoking. "I'm usually a pretty adventurous eater, but I might have to pass on those. Yuck." She laughed at just the thought of it and then shook her head a little to let the amusement pass. "Africa is the one place I've always wanted to go but haven't managed to get to yet."
"Yeah, I imagine it's not easy to travel to exotic locales with a young kid," he said casually.
Callie sucked in a quick breath and then forced herself to exhale it slowly. She laughed quietly as she felt a wave of nervousness wash over her. She took a deep breath and then looked up at Tim. "I wasn't sure whether you knew about Matthew."
He shrugged but there was a definite proud smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "I'm a journalist. Observation and research are what I do best. I saw the picture on your desk and asked around." He sipped from his water glass. "So, you don't have to be afraid to have me pick you up at home from now on."
Callie snorted quietly. "Busted." She felt a heat on her cheeks at being so easily found out. She took a deep breath and then risked looking up into his blue eyes. "I guess I wanted to make sure you had a chance to get to know me and hopefully that would be enough to not make you run for the hills when you found out I came with a kid." She bit at her lip, slightly confident since he had mentioned picking her up at home, and then tilted her head with just the hint of a smile on her full lips. "You're not going to run for the hills, are you?"
"No," Tim answered simply as he reached across the table and lightly took her hand in his. "I like you, Callie. You're smart and funny and gorgeous and nice." The final compliment came out as if he were surprised. "I mean, you must be a fugitive or murderer or something, right?"
Callie let out a quiet laugh. "No, nothing so interesting. I'm just a boring chemist trying to find a way to artificially replace cartilage. Fixing one knee at a time is my motto."
"Well, my knee appreciates it." He smiled a little coyly.
A lull hit their conversation then, one that made Callie just slightly uncomfortable since they were still so new with one another. She let a few topics from their conversations dance through her head, desperately searching for something to say before she found one. "So, you said your sister's name is Arizona. How did that happen?"
Tim laughed. "Well, it wasn't because she was born or conceived there." He wrinkled his nose up. "Well, I'm assuming she wasn't conceived there and I try hard not to think about that to be honest."
"Yeah, I like to think I was somehow part of an immaculate conception minus the whole religious thing."
Tim nodded, an easy smile on his lips. "Well, as to Arizona, she's named after the ship our grandfather served on at Pearl Harbor. He died there in the attack. My parents always wanted to name a son after him. But my mom had three miscarriages before Arizona was born, so they didn't want to risk waiting on a boy and Arthur is not really a name for a girl, so they thought up Arizona. Then when I was born, I was named after my mother's father, who didn't fight in any wars, but was the mayor of his small town in Idaho, so that's something I guess." There was a hint of disappointment and even agitation in his tone. He then let out a quiet laugh and shook his head dismissively. "Sorry, I adore my big sister, but sometimes I feel like she got all the good stuff and I got the leftovers. Well, at least until this year."
Callie leaned forward a little as she propped her chin on her hand. "What happened this year?"
"Besides meeting you?" he asked with a glint in his eyes.
Callie's smile was accompanied by a slight blush coming to her cheeks. "Yes, besides meeting me."
He leaned back in his chair and seemed to be pondering something for a moment before giving just the slightest shrug, as if to himself. "Arizona is a helicopter pilot in the Marines and a damned good one. She even did a tour at the Navy test pilot school, which is incredibly prestigious. Her tour right after that was to go back to Afghanistan. She'd been deployed twice before then, once in Iraq and the other time to Afghanistan, and this was likely her last chance to really get out there, so she was all gung-ho. With the war winding down and a promotion to Lieutenant Colonel likely coming in the next year or two, she was going to get fewer and fewer chances to get out in the mess of it."
Callie had a sneaking suspicion that she understood a little why Tim thought his sister got the best of everything. She certainly seemed to have the dream career, one she knew Tim had dreamed of having himself before destroying his knee his senior year at the Academy. It must have been so hard for him to see his sister have the life he once dreamed of. "Well, if she's as good as you say she is, then I'm sure we're all lucky she was out there for our guys, huh?"
Tim nodded. "And she was. She was the executive officer of her helicopter squadron. She flies a Cobra, which is this mean thing full of guns and missiles. From everything I've heard from other pilots she was the best most of them had ever seen. She could fly circles around basically everyone and had gotten into and out of a lot of hairy situations with barely a scratch. She always told me she loved that she was the protector of the helicopters doing transports and of the guy's on the ground when they needed air support. Who knows how many lives she's saved."
Callie's eyes went wide at the thought of it even as she pushed the thought out of her mind of how many lives Tim's sister had had to likely take to protect the good guys. "Wow, that's impressive."
"It is. But Arizona's skill also makes her damned cocky." He looked down at his hands on the table and then looked up at her. "If you meet her, don't tell her I called her cocky."
Callie understood the dynamics of having a sibling and knew she had opinions about her sister that she wouldn't want Aria to know. "Promise."
"Good. So," he began before taking a deep breath. "In early March, she was in command of a quick reaction team. That's basically a few helicopters that sit on the ground ready to take off if any of the missions in the area get into trouble. Her team that morning was just her, another Cobra, and a Huey for medical evacuations if needed. There were other helicopters in the area they could call on if need be, but her team would be the first one there by a few minutes at least. In war, minutes are like hours, so that team can really mean the difference between life and death for the guys on the ground. So one of the missions—she can't talk about the specifics but I get the feeling it was a group of special forces guys, so not a huge group. Well, they got ambushed in a narrow canyon with lots of trees and rocks. She said from the air it was almost impossible to see anything, but they had to get in and do it quick. There were already casualties and so there really wasn't time to plan out what they were going to do. They needed to just charge in."
He took a deep breath before continuing. "Arizona told the Huey to wait while she and the other Cobra went in. They had gotten a target location from the guys on the ground and they were going to take that out and then see if it was safe for the Huey to come in to get the wounded. Arizona wanted to fly in relatively low so they could get a feel for the terrain to hopefully find a landing zone for evacuations. Plus that way they could see if there were any Taliban that could endanger the larger and slower helicopters that they had called for to get the rest of the team out. They came around the last turn and were just about to fire on the target when they started taking fire from their right side. She couldn't say for sure what happened, whether the Cobra with her was hit or just moved to avoid the attack, but the blades of his helicopter clipped her tail rotor. Both helicopters went down and crashed hard."
Callie knew his sister was still alive, so at least she knew what question to ask. "Was she badly hurt?"
Tim nodded. "She won't say too much about the details, but from what I know it was really bad. The two pilots in the other Cobra died in the crash. Arizona and her weapons officer survived the crash, but they were in the middle of all the Taliban. They couldn't be evacuated immediately until the reinforcements got there to clear out the enemy forces. Arizona's weapons officer was shot by the Taliban in the throat while they were waiting for evacuation and he died on the flight out. She won't talk about what happened on the ground, but her left leg was amputated below the knee in the crash. And then she developed an infection on top of that, so they ended up having to amputate above the knee once she was in the hospital in Germany. She would have died otherwise."
"Oh my God, that's horrible," Callie said, feeling a sudden empathy with this woman she had never met. "I'm so sorry."
"She's coming to terms with it." He then smiled brightly. "In fact today she took the annual physical fitness test Marines have to take and she passed so it looks like she'll get to stay on active duty. The military has come a long way lately with letting injured vets stay in uniform, so there's a lot of precedent there. Of course, she really wants to be flying. She's gone up with one of her former commanders to try it out, and she can fly fine with her prosthetic. Maybe not quite as well as she did, but still better than probably most of the pilots out there. But she's still waiting to hear what the decision will be. I know if she has to sit behind a desk the rest of her career, she won't be a happy camper."
"She could get out, though, right? I'm sure she could do something exciting in civilian life. Look at what you did." She had spent most of the evening hearing all of Tim's stories from years as a photojournalist so she knew how he had managed to find a fulfilling career when the military was no longer an option due to injury. Perhaps his sister could do the same. "I'm sure she has other interests."
"Um, maybe?" he said with a strange uncertainty in his voice. "To be honest, she pretty much lives and breathes the Marines. I'm not sure what she'll do, if she has to find something else. But whatever it is, she'll be amazing at it. There isn't anything she can't do." He paused and then laughed. "Well, except her love life. That's the one thing I'm better at." He playfully waggled his eyebrows.
Callie laughed loudly. "Oh, with lines like that she must be horrific because that was just sad."
He joined in her laughter. "It's part of my charm."
Callie leaned back and took him in for a moment, smiling at the impish grin he now wore. "Well, why don't you try your hand at charming me on the dance floor?"
He must have taken the hint because he was suddenly on his feet and then pulling her chair out for her. "Okay, but I hope you wore your steel toed shoes tonight. I'm all left feet sometimes."
She looked down at her black heels. While she had opted not to wear a pair of her more expensive shoes, she still did not want them ruined by an awkward dance partner. "Um, okay, well we don't have to go dancing."
He laughed then and did a little move where he swayed his hips rhythmically. "I'm just kidding. With my awesome new knee cartilage provided by yours truly, I can cut a rug with the best of them."
She smiled at him and his dorky dance moves before drawing out, "Okay. This I have to see."
He put his hand on the small of her back as he started guiding her through the restaurant toward the exit. "Let's get to it then."
To Be Continued...