Title: The Other Life of Arizona Robbins (3/?)
Author: Race122VE (Coll)
Pairing: Arizona/Callie
Rating: PG-13 - R (Just to be on the safe side. I don't do smut, but I can skim the border)
Summary: A figure from Arizona's past shows up at the hospital and brings with her a glimpse of the person Arizona used to be before she arrived in Seattle.
Disclaimer: All television shows, movies, books, and other copyrighted material referred to in this work, and the characters, settings, and events thereof, are the properties of their respective owners. As this work is an interpretation of the original material and not for-profit, it constitutes fair use. Reference to real persons, places, or events are made in a fictional context, and are not intended to be libelous, defamatory, or in any way factual.
Author's Note: This is my first time attempting this fandom/pairing, and my first time writing anything in quite a while, but I was inspired and figured I'd give it a shot. Takes place after 6.10 "Holidaze." Hope you enjoy, thanks!
Chapter 3
Everything hit her all at once as soon as she left the room. Arizona didn't pause, however. She continued walking, pushing through the disbelief of the situation, the anger at her ex, and the shame of being faced with the consequences of her actions until she was outside. Her breath had hitched itself in her throat until the cold air quickly whisked its way into her lungs. Once Arizona did catch her breath, she felt her knees buckle and leaned into the wall for support. She couldn't understand how this had happened. How one second her life was perfect and now…
The thought trailed off in her mind.
Arizona let it drop because, if she were to be honest, her life here, in Seattle, was perfect. Outside of the city, the hospital, even her relationship, her life was anything but perfect. She couldn't be sure if it was the weather or the thoughts of her pre-Callie life, but a chill ran up her spine. The material of her lab coat wasn't cutting it during January, but when she turned her head to even look at the hospital she knew she wasn't even close to ready.
She released a long, slow breath and watched the air dance around before evaporating into the cold. Her arms hugged her body as tightly as they could, but it wasn't enough. The only good thing that came from the winter chill was that she found it easier to focus on the cold than on the problem waiting for her in the hospital.
"What're you waiting for?"
Owen Hunt's coarse voice happily snapped her out of her thoughts. He made his way over to Arizona without waiting for an answer and stood next to her. She opened her mouth, but quickly shut it knowing that she didn't have a response. His mouth formed a slight frown as his eyes scanned her face. Their eyes met and he gave her a nod before shrugging off his coat and putting it around her shoulders. In Owen's mind, he had assessed the situation and knew that, first and foremost, what Arizona needed was another jacket.
All Arizona could give Owen was a small smile in response. Owen moved on to his next assessment, "OK, you're not waiting…so, what're you hiding from?"
He was good; she had to give him that. "Life," she supplied quietly. "I'm hiding from my life."
They both had found a nice little support system in each other. Nothing too major, just small conversations here and there when they both found themselves in the same room at Callie and Christina's apartment without their respective others. They had an obvious common bond between them, what with the war and service both of them were directly or indirectly involved with.
It consisted mostly of sharing funny stories, or happy memories that were scattered through the painful ones. This was new, though, for both of them. Arizona worked best when she could think out loud, talk out her problem with someone. This was one problem that she was hoping she never had to talk out, but it was here. Katie was here, and that was something she needed to talk about.
Owen was uneasy as he leaned back against the wall, because the situation wasn't as secretive as she may have thought. Sure, he knew something was the matter just by her look, but he wouldn't have put two and two together if he wasn't so on top things in his ER. He knew Lexie Grey ran out of that room frantically and paged Dr. Robbins, and now here she was leaning against the wall looking dreary.
Just as she had her emotions written all over her, Arizona saw that when she looked at Owen he had a knowing look. "You didn't just 'happen' to be out here," she stated, using air quotes to punctuate her point. "What do you know?"
"I know something is going on with you and Dr. Torres' patient," he said slowly, scanning his brain for the right words to say to the delicate woman next to him. She quickly looked to the ground and he rushed to continue, "That's all I know. That's all anyone knows, is…something. And when I say anyone I mean Dr. Grey and myself."
"Give it about five minutes," Arizona laughed bitterly. "Everyone will know there's something…including Callie."
"Maybe," he shrugged. "Maybe you could be the one to tell her that there is something."
"Maybe," she mused, letting the thought enter into her head and imagining scenarios of how Callie would react to everything. Then, she laughed. Arizona tried to hold it in, but the air puffed out of her mouth. She couldn't control the reaction and looked over at Owen. His eyebrows shot up in surprise, followed by his mouth hanging open in reaction to Arizona's sudden fit of laughter. She shook her head, brought her hand up to her chest, and fought to catch her breath as she continued to laugh. "I'm sorry," she managed to let out between her hysterics. "I just realized…thinking about telling Callie what's going on…now all I can think about is wanting a cigarette. It's crazy…I'm…crazy…
"I'm in trouble."
The last words fell out of her mouth and she couldn't even remember what laughing was, let alone being in a fit of it just moments before. "I'm in so much trouble," she verified. "I lied to Callie, who is now…treating the lie for a broken leg."
"You should go find her," he instructed. "You should go tell her before she finds out from someone else. Believe me, you should be the one to tell her-"
"That my ex just showed up?" Arizona supplied, harshly breaking into his advice. "I guess you'd be the one to talk to in this situation."
They were both taken back by the harshness of her reply. She knew where the anger stemmed from, but how it got out and projected onto Owen she couldn't say. "I'm sorry," she said, seconds later. "I'm taking this out on the wrong person."
"You're scared," he told her softly; not letting her words sting him because not only was she a little right but everything was chaos. In chaos, emotions don't always stay where you want them to stay. "And…I do have…experience in this type of situation. Not talking about, not being the one to tell…
"There's no way it will end well, for anyone."
The words were meant for Arizona, but resonated with Owen in a way that he didn't expect. Arizona leaned over and nudged into Owen, smiling as she did so and hoping to pull one out from him. Slowly the smile spread over his hard features and they shared a small laugh at themselves.
Arizona pushed herself off the wall and returned Owen's jacket. "I'll talk to Callie if you talk to Christina," she offered with a shrug. "I'm not sure how it's gonna go, but you're right. It should come from me and, in a weird way, knowing that you're kinda doing the same thing will help me…a little, anyway. This is just…it's gonna be hard and I need all the help I can get."
"Deal," he said as he accepted the jacket.
With a satisfied nod, Arizona headed back into the hospital.
In her paranoid mind, all eyes instantly fell on Arizona. She paused a moment after stepping through the doors and talked herself down. As she continued walking, her eyes instantly were drawn to the closed door of Katie's room. She looked away just as fast and made her way towards the elevator. Arizona didn't really know where Callie would be, but decided to head up to the lounge and have her paged there.
She waited as patiently for the elevator as she could in this state, but her nerves got the better of her and she continually pounded the button that had already been pressed. As if some higher power was controlling her life and having fun watching how tortured she was, the elevator to her left arrived only to announce with an irritating bing and a lit up signal that it was going down.
The loud groan that escaped her mouth earned Arizona a few backwards glances, but she ignored them when the elevator to her right arrived. She was happy to find it empty and pressed not only the button of her destination, but the button that would close the doors sooner so she could remain alone.
With her luck, however, the doors did not close fast enough and a hand came out of nowhere and grabbed the door. Arizona looked up and couldn't help the horrified expression that spread on her face at the sight of Callie. "Nice to see you, too," she said, noting Arizona's expression. "What's up? Did you finish your consult? Are you heading home?"
"I lied to you," she revealed out loud, instantly wincing at the lost gracefulness she was hoping to possess when she brought this up. "I'm sorry…to blurt, I just…I didn't have a consult with Dr. Grey."
"OK," Callie replied slowly.
"Well, I mean…technically, I did," Arizona backpedaled. "Just not the Grey I told you I was supposed to…I was in the right room, when you came down. I was where I was requested to be."
She saw the shift in Callie's features. Normally she found it charming when Arizona was flustered about something, so much so that she tripped over her own words, but Callie quickly realized this was not a time to be charmed by her girlfriend.
"With my patient?"
Arizona watched the speculating thoughts begin to swim around in Callie's head. She looked away, and soon realized that the elevator was not the place for this conversation. "Do you have a minute? Because we shouldn't have this conversation here and I'm sorry I just said-"
"How about you tell me what the hell is going on?"
"Katherine Harper…Katie…she's my…" Arizona found that she was pulling the words out of herself. The final one, the important one that she lied to Callie about took a lot more work to finally get out, "Ex-girlfriend."
They had found an empty on call room after stepping out of the elevator, Arizona leading the way while Callie followed numbly behind. Once inside, Callie sat down on the bed and stared straight ahead with a blank expression on her face. Arizona leaned back against the door, chewing on her bottom lip as she watched Callie's face for any sign of emotion. The talk regarding the exes had come up between them before. Arizona, of course, knew about Erica through gossip, and soon found out about George and Mark. She, too, had told Callie about her past, but never in detail. The only thing Arizona ever offered up about Katie was that they broke up and then she moved to Seattle. Callie now realized there was much, much more to it than that.
"How did you know she was here?" Callie asked suddenly, looking over at Arizona. "You were supposed to be leaving…"
"Lexie paged me because…Katie asked for me," Callie flinched a little when Arizona said Katie's name, but she moved forward regardless. "I'm sorry that this is all happening in this way. Honestly, I was never really expecting to see her again."
"Why?"
This was the tricky part.
"When I broke up with her," she began slowly. "I never, really, broke up with her. I just…left…and came here."
Callie looked away from Arizona instantly. "You…left?" she echoed. Arizona tilted her head and dipped her body slightly so she could get a look at Callie. She was focusing on her hands that were folded together, knuckles white and strained from the firm grip she held. She shook her head slightly and chanced a look back up to Arizona. Callie couldn't even make it to her face, not really knowing who the person in the room with her was anymore.
"You left someone, like that, and never told me," Callie added, the thought seeming so impossible in her head that she had to put it out there for it to make any kind of sense. "How could you do that…?"
Arizona searched for something, anything, but could only mutter, "It's…complicated."
It caused something to stir inside Callie whose brown eyes darted quickly, harshly, to Arizona's. She had never seen a look like this in Callie's eyes. It was a mixture of pain, sadness, and anger. Mostly anger. "You lied to me, and now you can't even explain yourself," she laughed, but it was a harsh laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation. "All those times we talked, and I opened up to you about Erica and what she did…
"I never thought you'd be the person that could do that to somebody."
"I'm not," Arizona rushed in, pulling a chair from a corner and sitting in it so she was right in front of Callie. "That's not the kind of person I am, and I wish I could explain it but…I can't go there."
Callie nodded, "So, not only do I discover that you're a liar and that you're capable of abandoning someone, but also you can't open up to me about any of this."
"Calliope-"
"After everything I shared with you," Callie cut in, her tone growing higher and harsher with each word. "I've hid nothing from you."
"I'm sorry," Arizona offered, but Callie lost interest when her pager started going off.
"It's your girlfriend," She muttered sourly without a look at Arizona. "She's probably gonna need surgery. I have to go."
With that, Callie stood up and left, slamming the door on the way out.
