Walk Tall...by lilscout

Chapter 3

...

On Thursday night at about 6:30pm, Callie dragged both Cristina and Meredith along the dark and wet street, amid their very vocal protests.

"I get why she's here," Meredith gestured to her best friend, "but I still don't understand why I have to go!"

Cristina scoffed back, "Well if you know why I'm here, then please, enlighten me."

Callie glared at her roommate as she pulled them along. "You know why you're here! I told you what happened the other night. It wouldn't hurt any of us to learn a few self defense skills. That's all."

"Yeah right, that's all!" Cristina teased back. "You just want us there so you can have an excuse to check out your new hottie doctor crush without being too obvious," she stopped suddenly on the sidewalk and crossed her arms "and I, for one, resent being used as a decoy."

Meredith stopped as well and joined her friend in mutiny.

Callie's initial reaction of anger and impatience soon crumbled, replaced with one of fear and pleading. "Please, you guys!" She was not adverse to begging. "I can't go in there on my own!"

Cris and Mer held their ground, their expressions hinting at smugness.

"You know all the crap I've been through lately...it's just...she seems nice...and normal," Callie reconsidered, "well, besides the whole making a grown man cry, thing."

Cris and Mer shared a knowing glance.

"These are our terms. Admit you like her," Cristina simply said, "admit you think she's hot and that you're dragging us there as an excuse to check her out...and we'll go with you."

Callie started to object, but quickly accepted defeat. "Fine! You win...yes, I think she's hot and I'm going to this class to check her out...and I really need you for back-up. So please, can we go now? We're going to be late!"

Cristina gestured for the three of them to continue. "Lead the way," she said, "but I'm telling you right now, if some guy tries to throw me down on the floor, I'm gonna haul off and kick him in the nuts!"

Meredith and Callie laughed at this very truthful statement all the way down the street.

...

Callie took one last deep breath in as she ushered her friends inside the small converted storefront. They were greeted by a young asian woman sitting at a desk by the front door.

"Good evening," she warmly greeted them, "Is this your first time here?"

Callie spoke up. "Yes, hi, we were referred by Dr. Robbins." Callie gestured to the duffle bags they were carrying. "We brought some sweats to change into."

"Okay, great!" The woman responded. "Most of the evening students are here already, so if you will please remove your shoes, you can head downstairs to the change rooms."

The girls smiled back nervously and shuffled off their footwear. They turned to make their way down the stairs, when the woman happily called after them, "Oh, yes, and welcome to Pacific Dojo!"

A few late students hurried around them, pulling on their uniforms and belts with practiced ease as Callie, Cris and Mer entered the locker room and began to change into their sweat pants and t-shirts, and pulled their hair into tight ponytails. Finally ready, they proceeded up the stairs, Callie urging the other two to hurry up before class started without them. They followed one of the regulars down a hallway which opened up into large room at the end. The walls were white, yet anything but bare. All around were hung large colourful canvases, paintings mostly of nature and landscapes, as well as Japanese calligraphy. One entire length of wall was mirrored, floor to ceiling, and the floor was bright lacquered pine. The room was well lit and bounding with energy from the students doing their own warm up before class started.

Callie, Cris and Mer stood at the back and watched the scene before them. The class of about twenty seemed to be pretty even with men and women. Ages ranged from older teens to people in their sixties. They were all wearing a white gi, but the belt colours varied from white to yellow to green, and then a few black belts. Callie quickly scanned the room looking for Arizona, but she wasn't there. She began to get very nervous. Maybe she's just a bit late...I hope. God, what if she doesn't come tonight!

Callie concentrated on watching the black belts. She was instantly fascinated. Their movement seemed so focused, so in control. Not unlike Arizona the other night.

One of them caught Callie's eye, stopped what she was doing, and walked over.

"Hi, welcome. I'm Joanne. Looks like this is your first time here?" she enquired.

Callie looked to her friends, but they had moved away to a corner of the room and were standing idly, whispering to each other and pointing at a couple of the more attractive guys in the class.

So much for back-up. "Yeah, we are..." she pointed at her friends, "we...I've...never done anything like this before."

The woman nodded her understanding. "It's okay. Why don't you just begin your own warm up for now, then we do a proper one at the start of every class. The sensei will be out soon." With that she turned and walked back to join the other black belts.

Cris and Mer scurried back to Callie as soon as the woman left. "What did she say to you?" Cris asked, " And, by the way, I don't see you're hottie doctor anywhere...are you sure you got the day right?"

"Yes I'm sure!" Callie hissed at them. Then, softening, said, "She should be here, unless maybe she got stuck at work..." Callie scanned the room again. Nope, still nothing. "That woman said we should start our own warm up."

Cris nudged Mer in the ribs as she pointed to one of the men they were checking out moments earlier. "Well, maybe we can get him to warm us up, eh, Mer?"

Meredith snorted with laughter. Several others in the room turned to look at the three of them. Callie almost died of embarrassment as she poked both of them in the arm and begged her friends to try and behave.

Suddenly the focus in the room shifted as two people entered from a small back room Callie hadn't noticed earlier.

She almost died again, this time not from embarrassment. From sheer arousal.

Arizona strode into the room deep in conversation with an elderly Japanese man. He stopped, patted her on the arm, then continued out through the room, responding in kind to the bows of respect he was given by all of the students.

Callie's position at the back of the room allowed her to observe Arizona before she was seen. The blonde was dressed in a white gi, the same as the others, her well worn black belt snugly secured around her trim waist. Her wavy blonde tresses were pulled back in a loose ponytail, her face was slightly flushed, and though she wore not a stitch of makeup, Callie thought she looked absolutely stunning.

Callie was so focused on watching Arizona, she hadn't noticed that the students had quickly moved to form two lines, side by side, across the room, all facing Arizona. Panicking slightly, she looked around for Cris and Mer, then moved to join them against the back wall.

Joanne barked a command in Japanese to the class, and on cue they all dropped to their knees, heads down. Arizona moved to kneel as well, then something caught her attention, and she smiled.

Arizona spotted Callie, and her heart leapt at the sight. How could it not? The brunette was completely out of her element, and was so adorably nervous. Arizona locked eyes with Callie for just a second, and smiled warmly at her. She stood up fully and weaved her way through the lines of kneeling students to greet the woman she was hoping to see tonight.

"Calliope!" she almost sang, though she kept her voice low. "You made it!" She placed a gentle hand on Callie's right arm. "And I see you brought some friends, that's great!" She stuck out her hand to Cris and Mer. "Hi, Arizona Robbins, very nice to meet you."

"Oh, right..." Callie began, "You probably haven't met each other yet. This is Cristina Yang and Meredith Grey. They're residents at the hospital too."

"Well, I'm glad you all could make it tonight. This is a good first class to come to, there's a lot of novice students. " She leaned into Callie and whispered, "Don't worry about being new. We've all been there at some point." Arizona pulled back again and looked at the three of them. "We start every class in the traditional manner, so for now why don't you just hang back here until warm up starts, okay?"

Once again, Callie found herself nodding mutely at the beautiful blonde. Arizona winked at her, then spun around and made her way back to the front of the room, kneeling to join the rest of the students on the floor as they began the ritual of bowing, meditation and offering respect to all karateka, past, present and future.

"You didn't tell us she was the sensei!" Cris and Mer both whispered, slightly shocked.

"I didn't know...I swear!" Callie whispered back. "Let's just wait back here until they're done." She began to kneel down and pulled them both to the floor with her.

They sat for only a few minutes, until Joanne barked another few commands, and the class all rose as one, turned to bow to the person on their right, then they all faced forward and bowed to Arizona once again. She returned their sign of respect, but this time kept her head up slightly and looked across the room at the brunette while trying desperately to hide the elated grin forming on her lips. Arizona then looked to Joanne and nodded, and as she stepped away to the side of the class, Joanne moved up front and began to put Callie, Cris and Mer and the rest of the class through the warm up drills.

The students fanned out to give themselves room to move and stretch, beginning with every major joint in the body such as neck and shoulders, elbows, wrists and fingers, then hips, thighs, knees, and ankles. This was followed by jumping jacks to get the blood pumping, then push ups and sit ups to work various muscle groups. All told, it was about fifteen minutes of the most strenuous exercise Callie had had in quite some time. It didn't help that she swore she could feel Arizona's penetrating blue eyes on her the whole time. She tried to pay attention to the warm up, but found her own eyes wandering as she watched Arizona move through the class, stopping to adjust the form of some of the newer students. She felt an irrational jealousy when she noticed Arizona's hand settle on someone's arm or knee as she, kindly, pointed out their flawed technique. Arizona made her way to the back of the class and across the room to Cris and Mer, stopping to encourage Cristina to actually make some sort of effort to stretch. She knew right away they weren't serious about the class and guessed that they had only come as a favour to Callie. Since that's what good friends did for each other, she couldn't really be anything but amused by it.

Arizona finally turned to look full on at Callie, taking in the brunette's form as she watched her keep up pretty well with the rest of the class. Arizona noticed the deep pink flush of Callie's face and neck and the tiny beads of sweat that gathered and trickled down her forehead. It was mesmerizing, and Arizona had to mentally chastise herself to concentrate on the class. Although Callie's form was nearly perfect, Arizona couldn't resist the opportunity for physical contact, so she stepped close behind the brunette and lightly placed both hands on Callie's waist.

Callie was having a hard enough time catching her breath from the exercise, so when she felt Arizona at her back she nearly stopped breathing altogether. Arizona leaned into Callie and applied slight pressure to her hip bone, causing Callie to gasp with a mixture of shock and delight.

"Breathe, Calliope...it's important to breathe," Arizona urged, her face mere inches from Callie's heady scented and glowing skin. The urge to kiss the brunette's neck right then and there was almost overwhelming, and for just a fleeting moment, there was no one else in the room, no one else in the universe, except Arizona and Callie.

As quick as the moment came, however, it was gone again when Arizona remembered that she had a job to do. She pulled away from the brunette, and made her way to the front of the class just as the warm up was ending. She chanced a quick glance in Callie's direction again, and noted the brunette hadn't moved from the position she held when Arizona had touched her. Arizona turned to Joanne and asked her to separate the class, running basic block and punch drills with the lower belts and with the three newcomers, while she would take the black belts and work on their more advanced training.

Callie was disappointed upon hearing Arizona's plan for the class, but accepted that there were many other people in the room who needed the sensei's attention as well. Though, none of them wanted it as badly as Callie did...well, almost none.

And so that's the way the remainder of the class went. Callie was surprised by how much she actually enjoyed learning the various beginner's blocks and punches. She was amazed too, to discover how equally beautiful and logical the movements were, especially given her extensive knowledge of the human body's bone and joint structure. At every opportunity, though, she would steal a glance in Arizona's direction, and was awed by the quiet authority the blonde held over women who were twice her age and men who were twice her size. They watched her as if she held some ancient and rare secret that they desperately wanted to be privy to. Callie looked on as Arizona almost effortlessly used a much larger man's own size and weight against him as he attempted an attacking manoeuvre against her. When he pulled himself up from the sprawled position on the floor, she slowly demonstrated it again, this time making sure he and the others understood what she had done, and then encouraged them to practice carefully with each other. The image of the cute, bubbly paeds surgeon rolling down the hall in her Heely's contrasted sharply with the strong, fluid, fierce, yet kind woman Callie was watching now, and it was an incredible turn on. As Arizona looked over to the other half of the class, she caught Callie's eye and winked again. Callie smiled back, then tried to tune back in to what Joanne had been showing them.

Unfortunately, the discreet exchange between the two was not missed by Arizona's assistant, Joanne, and when the realization hit her, she was hurt, and took an instant dislike to Callie. Joanne had been trying to get close to Arizona for months, giving up extra nights each and every week to be her second in class, and helping her set up for different promotional events such as organizing the dojo's participation in the city's annual karate tournament. She loved karate, that was true, and believed in it's principles, but all the extra work she did was for Arizona alone. Now it seemed someone else may have captured the blonde's attention and Joanne was furious with herself for taking too long to make her intentions known. Now, it seemed, it might be too late.

Soon, the hour was up, and Joanne regained her composure enough to call the class to order. This time, the elderly man from earlier, who had been watching the end of the session, interrupted, and gestured for Callie, Mer and Cris to join the rest of the class in the meditation."You have studied with karateka, in turn you are now karateka yourselves," he told them.

As the ritual ended, the students began to quickly file out, all stopping in turn to first bow to Arizona, then to the elderly man, both of whom again returned the gesture. Callie, Cris and Mer held back and waited until all but Joanne had left. Arizona walk quickly to Callie and greeted her with a wide dimpled smile and shining blue eyes.

"You did great tonight, Calliope! You're a real natural. You have good balance, and great form...I mean...I really hope you consider coming again." She looked over Callie's shoulder at Mer and Cris, who were goofing off, shadowboxing each other and badly mimicking the blocks and punches they had just learned. "Not sure about those two..." she began warily.

Callie spun around, and rolled her eyes when she saw what they were up to. "Yeah, they probably won't be back," she turned her attention back to Arizona, "but I had a great time! I mean...I learned a lot..." She was fumbling now and couldn't stop herself. "I guess I shouldn't say I had fun...I wasn't trying to be disrespectful...should I bow to you now?"

"No! It's okay!" Arizona giggled, her eyes furtively scanning Callie's face, darting from dark eyes to full red lips, back to dark eyes. Strong and fierce was replaced by cute and bubbly again. "I'm just happy to see you...I mean I'm glad you decided to give it a chance." Her tone became a little more apprehensive, and she paused, then asked, "So, I'll see you again then, Calliiope?"

Maybe it was adrenaline from the exercise, maybe it was the promise and excitement of a new discovery, an awakening of the body and mind she hadn't felt for quite some time, or maybe it was the attention this very beautiful and desirable woman was giving her, but, whatever the reason, Callie felt herself stand just a little taller, a little straighter, than she had in weeks. She backed away smoothly from the questioning blonde, and flashed her the most radiant smile she could manage.

"You will definitely see me again, Arizona!"

...

Okay not totally thrilled with this chapter, but at some point you just have to let it go, right? What do folks think? Was Arizona, as the sensei, believable? Did anyone predict it?