A/N Sorry it's been so long! And I'm sorry it's not the best update. Please do let me know what you think!
"I finally found what I never knew I always wanted."
The music is loud, pumping through every part of Callie's body. The alcohol she has consumed makes her legs move freely, her arms up above her as she dances wildly to a song with no words. She dances with everybody and nobody, her body gliding against stranger after stranger but connecting with no one at all.
Fear is what has driven her here all over again. Fear, regret and perhaps a sprinkling of desperation. When she closes her eyes all she can see is the blonde haired, blue eyes woman that's haunted her for months, the coffee cup she'd almost thrown away until realising a mobile number was scribbled hastily across it. But then she blinks and the dream is gone. Instead she sees mistake after mistake. Loud, intense beeping of machines. Angry, desperate screaming. Hurried feet scraping along hospital floors. The eerie silence of disbelief. The final nail in her already built coffin. Fear is what has dragged her down. Fear, regret and a longing to feel.
This is how Callie spends most of her week. She ignores her phone and knocks at the door, spending her time either asleep, drinking or in a strangers bed. She begs them, men, women, anyone at all just to make her feel again. Even when she closes her eyes and screams at her release, she doesn't feel alive at all.
Hope is long gone. Darkness is everywhere, overwhelming all of her senses. Her clothes are smothered in blood that doesn't belong to her, blood she can feel seeping into her skin and into her bones until it simply becomes part of her. Arizona's head lays against an unmoving chest, ribcage protecting a heart that no longer beats. An arm is draped over the body, embracing it. Not letting go. Never letting go. Far away, somewhere way in the distance, she can hear the sound of laughter and hate churns in the pit of her stomach.
She lays, waiting.
Waiting for death to take her too.
Woken with a start by her phone ringing, Arizona brushes a hand across her face and through her hair, wiping away the familiar nightmare. Pressing the phone to her ear, she clambers up, mumbling a hello without checking the caller.
Jake rests in his crib beside the bed, still dozing contently and for a moment, his tiny hands curled into fists, one sock no longer on his foot and his eyelashes fluttering as he dreams, everything is right in the world.
"Arizona?"
"Marie?" The familiar voice through the phone makes the blonde's blood run cold.
"Yeah. Hi."
"Wow. Hi." Arizona holds the phone with her shoulder and reaches in to scoop up the tiny baby, somehow managing to keep him sleeping as she cradles him as tightly and as closely as she safely can.
"I just wanted to- well you haven't been by in a while."
"I'm sorry. Really. I've just been busy.
Silence lingers for a moment before either speaks.
"How is he?"
Looking down at Jake, Arizona's smile is immediate, natural. "He's-" amazing, breathtaking, life changing, "he's good. He's well."
"Good, that's, it's really good. Arizona-" the blonde already knows what's coming, "will you come again soon. Please?"
With her entire life in this woman's hands, all she can do is agree.
For the first time in over a week, Callie stays in. She doesn't leave her house all day but she spends hours in a steaming bubble bath, music humming quietly in the background. She puts on some makeup and dresses in some casual clothes, pouring out a glass of water, lighting some candles and curling her legs up under herself with an old black and white movie for company.
Eventually, her mind wanders to where it always does and her eyes fall on the coffee cup on the table beside her. Reaching across, before she can even begin to question herself, Callie taps out a message, types in the number and presses send.
[Hey. So, I suck. I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get in touch…]
It's barely five minutes of agonising waiting till Callie's phone beeps.
[If this is the pretty girl with the guitar then yes, you do suck. Like super amounts.]
[Yikes. Can we maybe just focus on the part where you called me pretty?]
[What took you so long?]
Callie bites thumb nail, waiting a second before responding the easiest way she knows how, [I guess you scare me.] She barely gives the stranger a chance to ponder that before quickly typing another message [I don't even know your name?]
[Arizona]
[I said name not where you're from.]
[Ha ha. Cute.]
Callie finds herself giggling slightly, something bubbling inside her that she'd long since forgotten, [I like it, it's very unique.]
[So?]
[?]
[Are you going to tell me your name, or?]
[Oh. It's Callie]
[Callie?]
[Yes]
[Oh.]
[Oh?]
[Sorry, it's a lovely name. I just imagined you'd be called something, I don't know, something... else.]
[Something... else?]
[Yes. I imagined maybe Amaryllis. It means sparkling eyes. Or Mireille. That means miraculous.]
]You're kinda good at flirting, huh?]
[I'm kinda good a lots of things.]
[I can imagine. Thanks by the way, getting your number is probably the most flattering thing that's ever happened to me.]
[You're kidding, right?]
[Not in the slightest.]
[Someone as beautiful as you surely has people falling at their feet. Or at the very least something much more exciting than scribbled numbers on coffee cups.]
[Actually, no. It was really lovely, Arizona. I find myself thinking of you far more often than is probably acceptable.]
[Well the feeling is very mutual. Can we talk more tomorrow? I'd really like to get to know you properly Callie… Far more than is probably acceptable.]
[Calliope. My full name is Calliope. And yes please, I'd really, really like that.]
[Yeah. That's way better. Goodnight Calliope.]
[Goodnight Arizona.]