CHAPTER 2
The next day Arizona was doing a fibula repair on an eight-year-old with Teddy. It was an easy procedure, and everyone in the OR was chatting away.
"How was the date?" Teddy said and nudged Arizona's side.
Arizona rolled her eyes.
"Oh, it was great! And it lasted all of 2 minutes. Sloan set me up with a woman"
"What?!"
"Yeah. Nice, right?"
Teddy burst into laughter.
"That's new, even for Mark"
"Yeah" Arizona sighed.
"Was she nice? Good looking?" Teddy asked.
"Uh…I don't know. We didn't really talk much. She left. But yeah, she was good looking. Why?"
"Oh, no reason. I'm just curious" Teddy winked at Arizona "Maybe Mark wanted to introduce you guys to each other in the hopes that he could then have a threesome with you"
Arizona furrowed her brow and looked at her friend questioningly.
"You know, him being such a man whore and all" Teddy finished.
"He thinks with his penis, but he's not that stupid, Teddy. And he's actually a nice guy. I just don't understand how he could think that I…that I…."
"That you aspired to become a woman lover?" Teddy laughed.
"Exactly!" Arizona chuckled.
She had never been with a woman, and had never contemplated the possibility. But she found Mark's openness and relaxed approach endearing, and she couldn't help but wonder exactly what Callie was thinking. What had the brunette said to Mark about their short encounter?
She shook the thought and concentrated on the operation instead, but somewhere, in the back of her mind, she had a feeling that since Callie was Marks friend, she'd probably be seeing more of the latina.
She was right.
Two weeks later Arizona was working in the ER. It wasn't a busy shift and she spent most of her time making sure the interns didn't get into trouble.
At 3 o'clock an intern asked her to come and look at a little girl who had had an accident.
Arizona pulled the curtain to the ER closure aside and was met with two sets of identical eyes and almost identical faces. One of them belonged to the date that had walked out on Arizona. The other one belonged to a girl who couldn't be more than 5 years old.
Callie looked surprised and opened her mouth to say something, but the intern beat her to it.
"Ella Torres, 5 years old, play ground accident, probable broken arm and/or dislocated shoulder"
Arizona stared between Callie and the girl and finally rested her eyes on the dark haired woman. She didn't say anything which made the brunette arch her eye brows expectantly. She also smiled.
The intern cleared his throat.
"Oh…uhm" Arizona gathered herself and put on her pediatrics face "Hi, Ella. My name is Doctor Robbins. How are you doing?"
"Not so good" the little girl answered meekly.
"She fell from a swing" Callie said "and I think she hurt her arm pretty bad. She doesn't want me to touch it"
"Okay" Arizona said "I'm just going to check out your arm, Ella. Let me know if it hurts, okay?"
The girl nodded slowly.
Arizona placed her hands on the upper arm of the girl and could feel right away, that the girl had a dislocated shoulder.
"Listen, Ella, your shoulder is out of place…"
The girl gasped.
"…but the good news is that I have super magic hands that can cure any out-of-place shoulder"
The girl looked at Arizona as the blonde wiggled her fingers, earning a small smile from the child. Arizona glanced at Callie for a second. The brunette was looking at Ella and was smiling.
"Are they really magic?" the girl asked with wide eyes and looked at the intern. He opened his eyes wide, smiled, and nodded affirmatively.
"Yes! They're really magic" Arizona said "All I have to do is hold your shoulder here, do this…"
Without warning, Arizona popped the shoulder back in place.
"OW!" the girl yelled and looked at Arizona in shock, tears starting to appear.
"…and then my magic hands will pull this lollipop out of my pocket and give it to you for being such a brave girl" Arizona smiled, and when the girl saw the very large red lollipop she forgot all about the pain.
"I'm going to make sure your shoulder doesn't get hurt again by putting a sling on it, Ella" the blonde told the girl and grabbed a sling from the table next to her. While she adjusted the length of the sling she wondered if this spitting image of the latina was in fact Callie's daughter.
The blonde paused her thoughts for a second, contemplating why she was even interested, but then she immediately became intrigued by something else. The way Callie was dressed.
The brunette was in black slacks and a crisp white shirt. Around her neck was an untied tie. Arizona noticed a jacked on the chair behind the brunette. It had shoulder tags on it.
"Going somewhere fancy?" Arizona asked the brunette while looking up and down the latina's attire. She was tying Ella's arm in the sling as the girl enjoyed the raspberry treat.
"Going to work actually" Callie said.
"Oh" Arizona said. She was racking her brain, trying to figure out what kind of occupation entailed wearing a jacket with shoulder tags. The only thing she could come up with was something in the military.
"You can ask" Callie chuckled.
Arizona blushed a little when being caught so obviously wondering about the brunette.
"Yeah…uh…what do you do?"
"I'm a pilot" Callie said.
"Oh, really?"
"Yeah. You sound surprised?"
"Uhm…yeah…I mean, I saw the jacket and I thought that maybe you were in the military"
"I was a fighter pilot in the air force until a couple of years back. But these days I fly commercial. Delta Air Lines"
"Oh…" Arizona just said. The whole situation was a little bit awkward and Arizona struggled to figure out why.
"My military history is more of a second date kind of topic though" Callie said and winked at the blonde.
The brunette seemed very confident and relaxed, standing completely straight and looking directly at Arizona, and it disarmed the blonde. She smiled.
"Are we done here?" Callie asked and motioned to Ella.
"Oh…uh…yeah" Arizona scribbled something on her prescription pad "Give her some of this if the pain gets bad. She'll be uncomfortable for a few days. And keep her away from swing sets for a while"
Callie grabbed her jacket and took the prescription from Arizona's hand.
"Thanks, Arizona"
She turned towards Ella and said "Can you thank Doctor Robbins, Ella?"
"Thank you, Doctor Robbins" the little girl said, the lollipop in her mouth making it hard for her to speak. She jumped off the exam table and grabbed Callie's hand.
Callie smiled at Arizona one last time before the two left, and as Arizona watched them walk towards the exit. Arizona squinted her eyes, imagining what the tall brunette would look like in fighter pilot uniform.
Later, while she was having dinner with Teddy in the hospital cafeteria, the image of Callie lingered in the blonde's head.
"A female pilot? That's about the sexiest thing I've ever heard. And I'm not even gay!" Teddy said with wide eyes.
Arizona was telling Teddy about her encounter with Callie.
"Right. But would you date her?" Arizona shot back.
Teddy looked hesitant.
"Didn't think so" the blonde said.
"Come on! The last 50 dates you and I have gone on have been disasters. Men are idiots. And I heard lesbian sex is awesome. Maybe Mark was trying to do you a favor" Teddy said with a teasing smile.
"Shut up, Teddy!"
"All I'm saying is that you've been whining for months now, wanting something interesting to happen. A hot pilot lands in your lap, and all of a sudden you turn into a total prude?" Teddy chuckled at her own words. She loved teasing the blonde.
Arizona rolled her eyes.
"You can have her, Teddy" the blonde said with a smirk.
"Have whom?" a voice came from behind the two. It was Mark, and he sat down next to the two women.
"Your friend" Teddy said "Callie"
"Oh, I don't mean to be rude, but I don't think Teddy is Callie's type" Mark said before biting into a carrot.
"What do you mean?" Teddy said with a mock insulted look on her face.
"Nothing…just…she likes Robbins" he stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world while not looking up from his food.
"She told you that?" Arizona blurted out.
"Not in so many words. She wrote me. I believe her message said 'Robbins is alright'" Mark answered.
"'Robbins is alright'?" Arizona said in disbelief.
Teddy laughed out loud.
"Wow, Mark, she really has a way with words" Arizona mumbled and started gathering her things "Now, can we please stop talking about this?"
"Why were you guys even talking about Callie?" he asked.
"Because she stopped by the ER with her daughter today" Arizona said.
"Her daughter?" Mark furrowed his brow "Callie doesn't have a daughter"
"But the girl, Ella…"
"Oh, Ella!" Mark said with a smile "That's her niece. Her brother's kid"
"Really? They look so much alike" Arizona said.
"Yeah, the Torres genes are pretty strong" Mark chuckled "Callie's brother is raising the girl on his own, so Callie moved here to be closer to them. To help out when needed"
"Oh…that's nice" Arizona mumbled.
"She's a really great woman. We went to high school together and we've been best friends ever since"
Arizona and Teddy looked at Mark with inquisitive eyes. He had never come across as someone who had 'best friends', but the way he spoke about Callie was…soft? Caring? The two women looked at each other with arched eye brows. And then they got up to get to surgery on time.