So you guys are liking this so far? I hope so, the reviews and follow count have looked good so thank you!
A word on this story, IRL I'm writing this as I'm publishing. I'm writing chapter 19 atm but in the long run I have no ending in sight and no clear plot in mind, so I'm just letting the spirit move me.
This was a nice little chapter to write, I even squeezed a Sara Ramirez quote in here that inspired me to write this fic, see if you can spot it!
I'm also uploading my fics to my tumblr now, visit my profile for the link, the url is McWhoPuff
Once again, please follow/review if you want more, thank you to my lovely betas.
I own nothing! Here we go...
Chapter 4
"You know what to do!" Mark chuckled as Lexie nervously flipped another pancake.
Callie found the two adorably cooking the breakfast that morning, breaking eggs with each other's hands and whisking with their arms intertwined. Currently, Lexie was trying to handle the giant frying pan, Mark had his arms around her and was also holding the pan.
"one...two...three...FLIP!" they yelled in unison as they threw the pancake into the air and caught it in the pan.
"whoop!" Lexie yelled, turning around and kissing Mark on the lips.
"Alright, alright, get a room you two, we prepare food in here." Callie warned as she went through to the dining room to find Arizona poking at her pancakes. Callie could feel her heart disintegrating in her chest, Arizona had never looked more depressed. She had a distant expression on her face and a sad look in her eyes.
"You ok?" she softly asked, sitting across from the blonde. She searched for her eyes with her own but Arizona did not look at her.
"yeah..." Arizona answered as she put down her fork and clasped her hands around her coffee mug.
"hey," Callie put her hands around Arizona's to get her attention, "talk to me." Arizona looked into Callie's soft eyes and sighed.
"I couldn't sleep... so I getup... and I see four or five scripts Bailey has sent me... and I think 'great! scripts, I've gotta learn these'... and then I go out... because I wanted to get some exercise...and I realise...I'm a horrible person." Arizona slowly explained. Callie watched her eyes as she spoke, they were paler than before, as if they were clouded over.
"You are not a horrible person." Callie said simply, rubbing her thumbs over Arizona's knuckles.
Arizona gave out a small laugh and looked down at her decapitated pancakes, "I'm planning on abandoning my friends. My friends who...who took me in when I had nobody else." she looked up at Callie again, "I bail...When things get hard, I...I walk away, And maybe it's because I grew up an army brat. We moved every 18 months. Maybe I never learned to commit, and my friends...they know this and...and they look past it. But now I'm just walking out on them again. I am a horrible person."
"Arizona, listen to me. I've seen horrible. I know horrible. You are the furthest thing from horrible imaginable. You are a sweet, caring, innocent soul. You are not a horrible person." Callie earnestly looked at the blonde until Arizona gave a small smile.
"You know...exactly what to say, don't you?" Arizona sniffed as she took her hands from Callies and put her fork and knife together on her plate.
'only when it comes to how I feel about you' Callie silently replied. She took Arizona's hand and gently stood her up.
"Of course I do; I'm a bartender. Now get your ass to my room right now, we are running lines."
Arizona gratefully hugged Callie.
"I'm so glad we're friends." she heard the blonde say in her ear.
Callie's spirit fell again, "yeah," she said, trying to hide her heartbreak, "me too."
"Page Two" Arizona pointed to Callie's script, "you are playing the... er...peasant, sorry."
Callie laughed, "no it's fine, let's do this!" she wiggled around in her seat. They had been rehearsing for almost two hours, Arizona had Callie play a queen, a mother and a talking donkey. Despite the hard work and effort, Arizona was pleased with her progress and took delight in seeing how engrossed Callie got with her parts.
"So, am I like a sassy peasant or a woe-is-me peasant?" Callie raised an eyebrow, making Arizona snicker.
"Callie, this in an ad for rat poison, all you have to do is cough, okay?"
Callie nodded and Arizona began reading her script. "What a beautiful kingdom! it is such a shame that these peasants are dying of plague...Callie."
"What?" Callie looked up from her script, Arizona had to be careful not to melt at her adorable enthusiasm.
"Cough!"
"Oh yeah!" Callie laughed, "alright start again, I'm ready this time."
As Arizona began to read, an alert on her phone sounded.
"Crap, that's my first audition." Arizona announced, standing up and gathering her scripts.
Callie stood up too and gave her a small hug, "you'll be fine. You. Are. Amazing."
Arizona wanted to remain in the tight embrace, but Callie quickly pulled back, allowing Arizona to walk down to the front entrance, where Bailey was waiting for her.
"Arizona!" she smiled, "are you ready for your first audition?"
Arizona put on her best dimpled smile, "sure am"
Bailey gestured her to follow as she left the inn and got into a car. Arizona buckled up and Bailey started to pull out of the parking lot. "Now, Seattle isn't a big acting place, this isn't Hollywood dear. All this stuff is low budget for local stuff, ok?"
"I understand" Arizona said, she was fully aware that making a name for herself in Seattle wasn't really where her true ambitions lied, but anything had to be better than suffering in the shadow of Izzie Stevens every night.
They arrived at the studio. "This is where I leave you, I like to drive my clients to their first auditions but after this, you are on your own. You have my number if you need me, but don't worry. I saw you in that play Arizona, I've never represented such a talented actress."
"Thank you Bailey!" Arizona got out of the car and walked into the studio. She was shown to a room full of young, blonde women, waiting for their auditions.
"Oh my god!" Arizona heard a painfully familiar voice amongst the crowd, "Arizona Robbins has decided to grace us with her presence?"
Arizona glared at Izzie, "what the hell are you doing here?"
Izzie looked around the room innocently, "cant a girl get a little extra work here and there? I know it's not the big leagues like you but-"
"ok shut up." Arizona snapped, the room fell silent.
"I'm sorry?" Izzie asked
"You need to stop. You need to stop telling people that I'm leaving and you need to stop taunting me for my..my..."
"for your tragic career?" Izzie sniggered.
Arizona saw red, before she knew it, she had dropped all of her stuff to the floor and had Izzie pinned against the wall.
"OK Now listen here! We are in the same boat! Owen took us both in like abandoned puppies! You are going to stop being a whiny, passive aggressive little bitch!"
Izzie was silent, she stood against the wall with her mouth wide open. She had no clever retort to that. Two men appeared behind Izzie.
"Miss, we need to escort you off the premises." One of them said.
"dont worry about it," Arizona said as she let go of the blonde and picked up her things, "I was just leaving." Arizona marched out of the studio and rested her head against the brick wall, she waited for the tears to come.
But they didn't. Arizona couldn't bring herself to cry. Arizona had thought all of that for years, and she had finally said it. She finally told off Izzie Stevens. She laughed as the realisation dawned on her. She began laughing hysterically, people passing her on the streets were staring, but she didn't care. For the first time in her life, Arizona had let her emotions get the better of her, and it felt so fucking good.
She knew that she should go inside and apologise, she should go inside and grovel and beg for that part. But what was the point? Instead, she took out her phone and rang the only person she wanted to talk to.
"Hello?"
"Hi? Callie I need some help."
"Anything, Arizona." Callie said without any hesitation, "I mean, what do you need?"
"Could you pick me up from my audition? Bailey was going to come for me but it finished early and I dont know the way."
"sure, text me the address, I'll be right there."
"Thank you Calliope "Arizona said as she leaned against the wall.
Callie spotted the blonde leaning against the brick wall outside the studio and slowed down. As she pulled up beside her, Callie turned down the radio before leaning over to open the door. Arizona laughed as she sat down and put her head in her hands.
"Are you ok?" Callie asked, she couldn't tell if she was laughing or crying.
Arizona picked her head up and turned to Callie, her large grin confirmed that it was the former.
"oh, yeah..." she chuckled, "I...I told her off Callie. I held her down and told her to shut the hell up. I've been wanting to do that for years!" she threw her head back in more laughter.
Callie smiled as she pulled away from the pavement. "Wanna give me some context Robbins?"
"hmmm, nope. Just be happy for me, I've never acted on an impulse before. It feels AWESOME!" Arizona pumped her fist.
Callie's heart melted at the adorable blonde. "You know, I've been told that you shouldn't always follow your heart over your head. I've always struggled with that." She admitted.
"Calliope," Arizona said softly, "my dad is a marine, my entire life has been scheduled and planned. But, since I got here...well...I think Seattle is bringing out my spontaneous side for once, and I love it!" Arizona turned up the radio and did a little dance to whatever song was playing.
Callie watched her in her peripheral vision. She had no idea what was going on with Arizona but she was overjoyed at seeing how happy the actress was. The next song started and Arizona started singing along to the lyrics, her voice took Callie completely by surprise. It was soft, smooth and made Callie feel things she had never felt before.
"whoa, you're amazing. Where did you learn to sing?" Callie asked, turning the radio down slightly so her eardrums wouldn't burst. Arizona went to turn the music down further, her hand brushing slightly against Callie's. Callie went back to driving, hoping Arizona didn't sense the blatant electricity between them.
"well," Arizona started, seemingly unfazed, "because of my dad being in the army, my brother and I moved around a lot as kids. That's why I'm used to travelling I suppose. Anyway, when I was 16, I went to New York for the first time. My brother and I went to see a show on Broadway and I fell in love with theatre. From that point onwards, I dedicated my entire life to getting up on that stage. I even applied to Julliard's."
"wow," Callie breathed, "did you get in?"
"yeah, but I didn't go. See, by the time they accepted my application, we had already moved on to the next state. I was heartbroken, but I went away and practised some more, I got cast in some small productions and I even got vocal training. I spent all my time, money and energy on practising. I went back to New York when I was 18, ready to take Broadway by storm. I auditioned for everything, eventually I was cast in some small plays by up and coming directors, and, over time, I began to gain a bit of a reputation. They said I was easy to work with on and off the stage, which is a rare find. To act, you have to be ready to handle any situation at any moment, and I suppose my military background trained me well. For me...for me theatre feeds my heart and soul."
"I like that," Callie commented as she digested the words, "i understand what you mean, you're loving your job, but you also allow it to develop you as a person."
Arizona nodded in confirmation. Callie was intrigued, she knew that Arizona must've had a theatre background, but she never realised that just how passionate about theatre she was. "so...what happened?"
Arizona shuffled uncomfortably, "oh...you know...it didn't really work," she dismissed, "and thank god it didn't, because if I had to be on stage tonight, I couldn't do this!" She quickly turned up the radio and continued to belt out the tune.
Callie couldn't help it, she just had to join in. She loved Arizona's new carefree and cheerful, although slightly evasive, attitude. She allowed herself to belt out the song, she felt their voices dance together through their harmonies.
"you're not too bad yourself." Arizona said when the song had finished.
"well, Calliope means music," she informed her, "and I trained too."
"Really? Where?"
"err, my shower, the car and...oh sometimes if I'm alone in the elevator I hum along to the muzak. I've umm, I've never sang in front of anybody before." She admitted.
"But your voice... it's amazing...why-"
"Glossophobia" Callie quickly explained, "I love to sing but not in front of anybody."
"except me?"
Callie turned to grin at the passenger, "you, Arizona, always tend to be an exception."
"and why's that?" Arizona asked as she gently looked into Callie's eyes.
'this is it' Callie thought 'this is when you tell her, this is when you find out for sure'
"Arizona, I think-"
"HOLY CRAP LOOK OUT!" Arizona screamed.
