A/N: I am so happy that you all are enjoying this story, because I am really enjoying writing it. I have a whole list of ideas for it, and I just can't wait to get them written. Thanks so much for your reviews. I love reading all of them.
A/N2: Another big thank you to Angela for not only reading over this, but for also helping me out with ideas.
Three
Callie stared into the screen of her iPad, her two best friends' smiling faces staring back at her. "I can't believe it's already time for me to move," she said as she moved around the bedroom of the house in Washington, DC she had shared with Nick. She'd been packing for weeks, and she now had everything taken care of; she'd decided to sell the furniture with the house because she wanted to start anew. So, other than her own personal items and clothing, she was leaving behind everything that held no sentimental value.
"So, I'll be at the airport to get you in the morning," Arizona happily stated, her eyes appearing slightly hardened and less animated that Callie was used to seeing them. "What time does your plane land?"
Mark rolled his eyes. "She just told you she lands at eleven, Robbins. What the Hell's wrong with you?" he quipped, looking from the iPad toward his distracted looking blonde best friend.
Arizona's face visibly fell upon realizing that Mark was in fact correct, but she couldn't for the life of her remember what time Callie had just said.
Noticing her best friend's instant change in demeanor, Callie was quick to defend her. "Haven't you ever heard of pregnancy brain, you dumb ass? Arizona has every right to be a little forgetful right now. Poor girl's got the baby brain drain!" the Latina comically stated.
Arizona let out a relieved laugh as Mark again rolled his eyes. "Well, whatever she's got, she better snap out of it because we have surgery together in twenty minutes, and I don't need her forgetting how to help repair Polydactyly on an eleven month old," he retorted, his voice serious, but teasing at the same time.
Callie smiled as she watched the interaction between her friends; Mark nudging Arizona with his shoulder as her trademark dimpled grin lit her face. She didn't even realize how much she missed them until she'd returned from Seattle the month before, and it felt amazing that the old gang would be back together again. . .well, minus one. Shaking her head to rid her mind of those negative thoughts in order to focus on the future, she smiled into the screen. "So I'll see you two tomorrow. What time again, Arizona?" she jokingly asked.
Arizona rolled her eyes. "I don't know, I forgot again," she teased, tapping her index finger against her lips. "Was it two o'clock?"
"You're such a goof," Callie said with a laugh. "I'll see you tomorrow. At ELEVEN!"
The following morning at eleven o'clock on the dot, Callie made her way down the jetway toward the arrival's gate, her eyes scanning the area for the wavy blonde hair of her best friend. Looking around, she did find a familiar face in the crowd, but not the one she was looking for.
"Hey, Cal. How was your flight?" Addison asked as she stepped up to the Latina.
Callie looked confused, adjusting her carry-on bag over her shoulder. "It was fine, but where's Arizona? Did she get paged into a surgery or something?" Watching as Addison's face immediately fell, she could tell that something just wasn't right. "What's wrong, Addison? Is Arizona okay? Is it the. . ."
Addison shook her head. "Arizona's fine, Callie," she quickly assured. "She's in the hospital, but she's okay."
Callie tipped her head to the side as tears began to well in her eyes. "The baby?"
"The baby's fine, too."
"A-are you sure? Shouldn't you be at the hospital making sure?" Callie asked in a rush, knowing full well that Addison was the best Neonatal Surgeon in the country, if not the entire world. "You should have just told me to take a cab."
Addison reached out to place her hand on the brunette's forearm in an attempt to calm her. "Everything's fine now, Callie. I wouldn't have left if it wasn't," Addison insisted as they quickly turned, making their way through the crowd of travelers and toward baggage claim.
Impatiently tapping her foot against the ground as she worried her bottom lip between brilliant white teeth, Callie's mind raced. "What the Hell happened?" she asked, spying her suitcase and quickly snatching it.
"I'm not sure of the specifics. Arizona was pretty tight lipped about it, but we were able to get her to admit that she fell," Addison informed as they briskly walked outside to hastily load Callie's luggage into the trunk of her Audi A8 L TDI.
Addison then took her seat behind the wheel as Callie threw herself into the passenger's side. "Fucking Lauren. I swear to God if she did this, I'll kill her," the Latina angrily muttered as the red head started the car.
"Do you want me to take you to your new apartment, or. . ."
"No, no. Take me to the hospital," Callie insisted with a deliberate shake of her head. "I've got a pressing engagement with a blonde Craniofacial Specialist."
"This is ridiculous, Arizona!" Mark shouted at his best friend who was seated with her head elevated in a hospital bed. "I know she did this! Why do you insist on defending her?"
"I'm not defending anyone!" Arizona shot back. "I told you I tripped, Mark. It's no big deal. Everything's fine!"
"Bull shit!" Mark spat as he paced in front of her bed, his emotions getting the better of him. "She could have really hurt you, Arizona. Or worse! And what about the baby? What would you do if something happened to it? Would you be able to live with yourself if she did something to hurt your child?"
"The baby is fine, Mark!" Arizona argued. "A-and it's Lauren's baby, too! Why would you think she'd ever do anything to harm her own child?"
Mark shook his head, his muscles tensing. "I don't know, Arizona. You tell me, because from where I stand, she's been hurting her own wife for far too long."
"Shut up, Mark! Just shut up! You have no idea what you're talking about!"
Reaching the closed door leading to Arizona's room, Callie and Addison's eyes widened when they heard the argument going on inside. Gently knocking on the door, they heard the feuding friends immediately grow quiet before Arizona's now softened voice granted them entrance.
Peaking her head in through a small crack in the door, Callie's stomach dropped when she saw the large bruise that was beginning to form on her best friend's forehead. Clearing her throat and swallowing hard, she tried her best to calm her frazzled nerves. "Hey," she softly greeted as she and Addison made their way into the room.
Arizona's eyes widened at the sight of her best friend, the realization of the fact that she was supposed to pick her up from the airport suddenly dawning. "Oh shit, Callie. I'm so sorry. I was supposed to meet you. . ."
"Don't worry about it, Arizona," Callie interrupted, waving her off as she moved across the institutional tiled floor to take a seat on the edge of her best friend's bed. "You had more important things to worry about. How are you?"
Arizona didn't speak, instead nervously looking from the concerned eyes of the Latina toward the angry ones of Mark who stood across the room next to his uneasy looking wife. Finally glancing back in Callie's direction, she softly smiled. "I. . .I'm good. Everything's fine."
"That's a load of. . ."
"Mark!" Addison scolded, stopping his tirade.
Callie looked behind her toward her enraged friend, her eyes pleading with him to stop. When his face finally softened, she turned her attention back toward her blonde best friend. "What happened?" she simply asked, taking fair hands into her own.
"I'll tell you what happened!" Mark was quick to respond as he moved closer to Arizona's bed.
"Mark!" This time it was Arizona who attempted to halt him.
"No, Arizona! No! I know that Lauren had something to do with this!" he shouted, uncaring of their surroundings.
"She didn't!" Arizona argued, large tears beginning to brim in her crystal clear blue eyes.
"She did!"
Addison stepped up behind Mark, hugging him from behind as she tried to calm him. Turning him in her direction, she took his hands into her own. "That's enough, okay?" she whispered, her eyes begging him to stop. "She's not going to admit to anything if you keep yelling at her," she added so that only he could hear.
Mark shook his head, but he knew his wife was right. With his strong masculine shoulders sagging, he finally retreated. Taking a seat next to Addison on the small love seat in the corner of Arizona's room, he watched as Callie tried to get through to her.
With her soulful chocolate brown eyes staring directly into sad blue ones, Callie softly spoke. "Tell me what happened, Arizona. Please. We all love you so much, sweetie, and it would absolutely kill us if anything ever happened to you."
Those large tears that had welled in Arizona's cerulean eyes, finally spilled over, her heart rate increasing with every word that left Callie's mouth. "I-I tripped, Callie. I. . ." she trailed off and quickly turning her head, she purposely diverted her best friend's gaze as a sob fell from her lips. She knew Callie could tell that she was lying; she knew her too well and they had known each other for too long for her to get away with it.
Callie quickly leaned in, gathering the crying woman into her arms as she sobbed against her shoulder. "Please, sweetie. Please just tell me the truth," the Latina beseeched, her heart aching with the pain she could feel coming off of her best friend.
"Oh, God, Arizona! I'm so glad you're okay!"
Arizona instantly jumped from the comfort of her best friend's warm embrace upon hearing the voice of her wife penetrate the room. As Lauren made her way across the room, Callie didn't immediately move from the blonde's side, and when her best friend's wife glared down at her, she met her eyes dagger for dagger.
"Excuse me, Callie, but would you mind if I. . ."
Mark quickly jumped from his seat, his face red with anger. "You know what, Lauren! I don't know about Callie, but I would mind!"
Finally moving from her seat, the Latina took Mark by the arm, dragging him toward the door. "Would you please stop yelling like that, Mark!" she whisper yelled. "You're not making things any easier. For any of us!"
Lauren looked smug as she sat down next to her wife, placing an arm over her shoulders. "I think that's enough visitors for one day, don't you, Arizona?" she asked, her tone firm.
Mark and Callie looked between each other, but Addison only stared at the blonde women uncomfortably seated together on the bed. Noticing a look of fear flash through Arizona's eyes at what she was sure was the thought of being alone with her wife, Addison stepped forward, clearing her throat. "Actually, if you all wouldn't mind, I need to do an exam."
Mark and Callie both glanced around the room, their faces showing their concern and hesitance to leave, but they both soon nodded in agreement when Addison shot them a stern look.
"I'm staying," Lauren insisted, refusing to move.
"With all due respect, Dr. Boswell, I'd prefer to examine Arizona in private," Addison contended, noting a relieved look on one blonde's face and irritation evident on the other.
Lauren looked between her wife and the doctor standing over them, her eyes angry and her jaw firmly set. Deciding not to cause a scene, she finally stood from the bed, quickly breezing past Mark and Callie who stood motionless at the door.
A half hour later, Callie anxiously stood waiting at the nurse's station directly outside Arizona's door, her fingers nervously tapping against its surface. Mark had been paged away fifteen minutes prior, and with him gone, she had wracked her brain trying to come up with a way to get Arizona to tell them the truth; to admit that she and her unborn child were potentially in danger.
Staring at the closed door, she jumped slightly when she saw it begin to open. Looking away from it as if she'd been caught with her hand in the cookie jar, she then glanced back to see Addison step out of the room, the Latina's feet immediately propelling her forward when the red head motioned for her to come back in. Stepping inside the room, Callie gently closed the door behind them as she stared at the defeated, but happier looking blonde sitting up on the bed.
"Is everything okay?" Callie asked as she took a seat next to Arizona's bed.
Arizona immediately looked at her best friend, a slight smile tugging at the corners of her lips. "Yeah, I'm. . .we're both fine, Callie. But. . .Addison wants me to stay the night for observation."
Callie only nodded, reaching out to lay her palm atop the back of one of Arizona's outstretched hands.
"Actually, it took some convincing to get Arizona to agree, and she has made some pretty heavy demands," Addison commented, standing at the foot of the bed.
Callie's eyes narrowed in confusion as she looked between the blonde and the red head. "And those would be?"
"I told her I'd only stay if I could change into some real clothes and get out of this bed," Arizona continued as she stared at her best friend.
"And I told her the only way she could do that would be if she was in the direct supervision of a doctor," Addison added with a sly smile. "She fought hard that she is a doctor, but that doesn't really count in my book, so she volunteered you."
Callie looked a little surprised by that revelation, suddenly feeling uncomfortable with that plan. "I-I really don't mind staying with you, Arizona, but don't you think we should get Lauren? I mean, I'm sure she's worried sick about you a-and the baby. . ."
"Lauren is working and doing God only knows what else, Calliope," Arizona contended with a roll of her eyes. "I mean, I don't really want to call her, but I will if I have to. That is, if you don't want to stay. Maybe I can call Mark, he'll come sit with me."
A low chuckle fell from Callie's lips. "You don't have to be so manipulative, Arizona," the Latina said with a smirk. "If you wanted my company, all you had to do was ask. You didn't have to check yourself into the hospital to get my attention."
Arizona laughed at Callie's response; the Latina finding herself addicted to the sound. Throwing the covers off her body, the blonde happily swung her legs over the side of the bed, preparing to stand. Reaching out for Callie's hand she tightly squeezed it within her own. "Well then, let's get this show on the road."
Fifteen minutes later, Callie found herself making a lap around the Peds Floor with a strangely smug looking blonde at her side. "You set me up, didn't you?" she remarked when she saw Arizona ease her way toward a row of patient charts. "You didn't really want to take a walk, you just wanted to work."
Arizona smiled cheekily as she shot the Latina a sly wink. "I just need to check on one patient. It'll only take ten minutes. I promise," she informed, her hands busily flipping through the chart as her eyes quickly darted across the page.
Callie wanted to argue; she really didn't need Arizona getting any more stressed than she already was, especially not while under her care, but the happiness and look of contentment that shone on her face as she stood there working in her element was certainly a sight to behold; a sight that Callie had missed since they were residents, and one that she couldn't wait to see again when she started working with her best friends in just a few days.
With a smile, she stepped up behind Arizona, glancing over the shorter woman's shoulder to look down at the chart. "Anything I can help with?" she asked, the sensations of being so close to her best friend; her front barely touching the blonde's back, sending unexplained sensations coursing through the Latina's form.
Arizona paused momentarily, reveling in the feeling of having her best friend's chest lightly brush against her back before turning around, her blue eyes meeting brown. For a brief second, they stared at each other, a silent message transferring between the two, and in that moment, they both knew. Callie could see the feelings and emotions swirling in those twinkling eyes; it was no different for Arizona who opened her mouth to speak as she saw everything she had every wanted gazing back at her. "I. . .um. . .yeah, actually," she said, tilting her head to the side and nervously tucking the loose hair that had escaped her ponytail back behind her ear.
Callie visibly shook herself to break their sultry staring contest and before she could look back into those blue eyes she had fallen in love with years ago, she looked behind Arizona and down the hallway, her face falling when she saw Lauren coming their way. Quickly taking a small step back from her best friend, she smiled as she grabbed the chart. "So, it's an Ortho patient?" she asked, flipping through the pages of the medical record.
Arizona stared at Callie in confusion before glancing back down at the page the Latina was currently reading. "Uh, yeah. It's a congenital scoliosis patient. She's only two."
Callie nodded her head as she read a note Arizona had written the day before. Glancing up from the chart, the Latina surreptitiously scanned the area for Lauren and didn't immediately see her, but soon she saw her disappearing behind an on-call room door with a petite brunette nurse.
Hoping that her best friend had not just witnessed the scene, Callie looked toward her, but knew that Arizona had indeed just seen her wife when she felt her body stiffen at her side. Grasping the blonde's arm, she gently tugged on it as she spoke. "Come on, Arizona. Let's get you back to your room."
Arizona hastily shrugged out of Callie's hold, her mind racing. "That bitch!" she growled so only her best friend could hear.
"Arizona. . ."
"In the on-call room of MY department, Callie."
"I know, Arizona. Let's go. . ."
"With MY favorite scrub nurse."
Callie nodded, reaching out for her again, but before Callie could stop her, Arizona streaked toward the door, the blonde's hand momentarily resting on the door knob before throwing it open.
The sight before her caused her to recoil even though she was already aware of what she would find. The two women inside the room were in an intimate embrace, both in various states of undress; one of Lauren's hands cupping the nurse's bra clad breast as the shorter woman gripped her ass, her other hand precariously shoved into the front of her scrub pants as they shared a sloppy kiss.
Callie stood next to Arizona, but off to the side, unsure of what to do. Reaching into her back pocket, she grabbed her phone, quickly shooting Mark and Addison a quick text message just in case she needed back up. "We should go," she said, grabbing Arizona's hand.
"No, Callie," Arizona hissed, pulling her hand from the Latina's and charging into the room. "Seriously, Lauren?" she shouted, her voice causing both women to jump apart.
"Arizona! I. . .I. . ."
"No, Lauren! Just no. You don't have to say anything, but I. . .I do," she argued, bending over to gather a navy scrub top before tossing it in her wife's direction.
Lauren hastily donned the shirt, her eyes wide and fearful for the first time Callie could ever remember. "Please, Arizona. I. . ."
"Save it, Lauren! You don't get to speak right now!"
Callie nervously stood outside the room, watching the scene unfold and fully ready to spring into action if her best friend so needed, though at the moment, Arizona seemed to be doing just fine. Sensing a presence behind her, she turned to see that Mark had just arrived. "What's going on?" he asked in confusion.
Callie didn't speak, motioning instead to the open on-call room door. "Oh, shit," he breathed, though he couldn't hide the excitement he felt at the fact that Arizona finally had the proof he knew she'd been looking for. It was just like her not to go off half-cocked; she'd been waiting for this moment so that she could have the evidence she needed to strike.
"I'm not as stupid as you think, Lauren," Arizona argued, her voice surprisingly calm. "I've known that this has been going on for a while now, so I just need to thank you," she coyly said as she removed the wedding band that encircled her left ring finger. Rolling the white gold and diamond jewelry between her thumb and index finger, she reached out to grab Lauren's left hand before briskly removing the ring she found there. Turning the shocked blonde's hand, palm up, she gently placed both of the rings in the now outstretched hand. "Thank you for giving me exactly what I've been looking for. Exactly the proof I needed."
And with a resolute nod, she turned on her heel, stalking out of the room and down the hall. Mark and Callie were right behind her, ready to do whatever she may need. When she paused halfway down the corridor, the Latina stepped forward, ready to catch her if she fell. "Arizona. . ."
And without a moment's thought, the blonde woman turned around, her lips insistently latching onto a surprised Callie's who now found herself pinned against the hospital wall. She couldn't help but return the kiss; it was insistent and full of emotion, and she moaned softly into Arizona's mouth when her best friend's hands came up to press against the sides of her face.
Callie's hands moved of their own volition, landing on Arizona's hips and tugging her closer as the blonde continued to kiss her senseless. And then her best friend's lips were no longer on hers, lusty blue eyes staring into darkened brown as she gripped the top of her shirt with both hands, nuzzling their noses together.
And as soon as Arizona was there, she was gone, and all Callie could do was speechlessly stare out ahead of her. Mark stood smirking behind her, trying mightily to resist the urge to clap and cheer as Lauren's mouth fell agape at the sight.
A/N3: So, what do you think? Will Arizona's kiss cause tension between our two girls, or will it help Callie admit her feelings to her best friend? I really hope you liked this update, and I look forward to reading your reviews. Thanks so much for continuing to read!