CHAPTER 4

(FYI: I know nothing about baseball. Forgive me)

A month later Arizona and Teddy were standing by the surgical board, looking at their schedule for the day.

"Are you going to sign up for the game?" Teddy asked while studying the board.

"What game?" Arizona asked.

"The baseball game. You didn't hear about it?"

"No"

"It's a charity thing. Mark and what's her name…Callie…are arranging it. It's for a community project…uh…young homeless people…in Renton that she supports. You pay 200 dollars to participate and the losing team will put in an additional donation" Teddy explained "And then we'll drinks beers" She smiled.

"Callie…Callie is involved in a charity?" Arizona asked but tried not to sound too interested.

"Well, yeah. I think it's called 'Homeless Hearts' or something like that. Mark says she basically runs the place."

"Oh…"

"Will you sign up? We never have time to go out together anymore" Teddy whined "This would be a whole day of hanging out and having fun"

Arizona looked tentative.

"Come on! All the cool kids have already signed up" Teddy then said, threw Arizona the most convincing smile she could muster, and batted her eyelashes.

Arizona laughed.

"Well, then I better sign up too"

"Yay!"

The following Sunday morning Arizona regretted her decision. It was a very hot day, and she didn't feel like her baseball skills would live up to how competitive things had already gotten. Callie had stopped by the hospital for lunch a couple of days earlier, and even though Arizona was sitting all the way at the other end of the cafeteria, she couldn't help but notice the competitive banter going on between Callie and Mark. When Callie left, she yelled over her shoulder "Bring your best, Mark Sloan. You'll need it!"

And now Arizona was sitting in her car in the parking lot of a high school in Renton, looking at some of her colleagues and some people she didn't know that she assumed were from Callie's team.

She slowly got out of the car and walked to where Mark was standing. He looked serious as he studied the members of the other team that were now warming up in the field.

"Hey Robbins" he said.

"Hey" she breathed out, not sounding too enthusiastic.

Arizona also looked at the other team. Callie was stretching her thigh muscles while talking to two of her team members. Her jersey said 'TORRES' and she had the number 4. She looked like a natural in her black baseball cap. And she looked happy.

"I'm trying to figure out who their star player is. And what the greatest weakness of a group of pilots would be" Mark then said.

"They're all pilots?" Arizona said in awe. Somehow she'd always found that occupation fascinating. Even though she hated flying.

"Yeah" Mark said "Pilots against doctors. And we will beat them! I can't lose to Callie. She'll forever be on my ass about it"

Arizona chuckled.

"Somehow I think she'd be a more graceful winner than you would" she said and winked at Mark.

As soon as everyone had arrived, the game started.

Callie started as the pitcher and she kept making people strike out. It was really kind of pitiful how bad the doctors were doing. When Mark stepped up to bat though, he managed to actually hit the ball, and after that, the doctor team had a bit more luck actually getting from the home plate to the bases.

When they reached the end of the seventh inning, Callie batted and hit the ball all the way out into the parking lot, effectively ending the game with a win for the pilots.

She was immediately surrounded by her happy team members who started chanting "pilots, pilots, pilots"

"I guess she is their star player" Arizona said to Mark with a chuckle and patted his back as they walked out of the field.

"Shut up, Robbins" he said.

Both teams gathered at the dugout and Callie pulled open two large coolers full of beers.

"Have a drink! The doctors will pay" she simply said, turned around and looked at Mark, raised a challenging eyebrow, and then showed her megawatt smile in a disarming laugh.

Everyone soon followed her, laughed and cheered. Even Mark. Arizona found herself smiling too. This day, the game, had turned out to be quite fun, and she was looking forward to hanging out with her colleagues and the team of pilots for the rest of the day.

A few hours later they were all in the back yard of the community center where the charity they had played for had its headquarters. People were relaxing and simply hanging out. There was music playing, and a few people were playing volleyball.

Arizona and Teddy were standing by the large barbecue, talking to one of the pilots. He was pretty good looking, and Teddy was practically drooling. She soon walked off with the guy who wanted to show her the views from the community center's front yard.

That left Arizona standing alone.

Callie came over to her.

"Hey" the brunette said and smiled at the blonde.

"Hey"

This was the first time they talked to each other that day. Callie had been busy all day.

Arizona was suddenly dumbfounded, and it annoyed her because she didn't know why, but the latina had such a strong presence that it made Arizona slightly nervous.

"Great game" she finally managed to say "Did you raise a lot of money?"

"Yeah, it was really good! Thanks for coming out"

"Of course" Arizona said "I'm more worried what the loss has done to Mark's self esteem"

Her comment made Callie laugh. And that in return made an inexplicable warmth spread in Arizona's chest. Making Callie laugh felt nice. She studied the brunette as Callie took a drink of her beer. She wondered what Callie was like. What her place looked like. If she was good at her job. The blonde was quickly pulled out of her thoughts though when Mark walked over to them and tried to save his honor by joking with Callie.

Arizona just stood there, enjoying the loving banter between the two friends. She'd always liked Mark and she saw something in him that not a lot of other people saw; warmth and love. She was never romantically interested in him. Instead, they talked. About ups and downs. They had become quite close. And Arizona thought to herself that maybe her initial awkwardness and resistance towards Callie was simply because she was a little bit jealous that Mark had a best friend. And that this best friend was now living in the same city as them.

Now though, she was pretty sure that Callie was alright. It made her relax a little.

The relaxation lasted only until a week later when Arizona found herself on a date with a guy called Peter that Teddy knew through a cousin. He was nice. But also very boring. And as soon as they ordered their food, Arizona was already regretting agreeing to having dinner instead of just coffee with the guy.

Halfway through their dinner, two people walked into the restaurant. Arizona looked up from the very long story her date was telling and saw Callie and another woman being led to a table not too far from where Arizona was sitting. The brunette looked happy and so did the woman she was with.

Arizona stared for a few moments, and then shook her head and returned her attention to her date. During the rest of their dinner though, she kept being distracted by Callie's laughter, and whenever Arizona looked over at the latina, Callie half the time looked like she was in the middle of telling a fun and interesting story and the other half of the time like she was listening intently to the woman she was with. And she looked amazing, which was something that somehow fixed itself in Arizona's brain. Callie. Looked. Amazing.

Arizona furrowed her brow.

At the softball game Callie had been dressed in shorts, a baseball jersey, and a baseball cap. She'd looked sporty. The day she came to the hospital with her niece she'd looked very put together. Tough. And now she was in a curve hugging dress with her hair pulled back and up in a French-braid-messy-bun kind of hairdo, looking like a million dollars. She had a masculine femininity or feminine masculinity to her that Arizona couldn't quiet grasp.

And then all of a sudden, Callie looked over, meeting the blonde's gaze, almost causing Arizona to choke on her wine.

Callie broke out a smile and gave Arizona a small wave, but she also sent her a challenging look as if to say 'I know you were staring'. And then the latina turned back to the woman she was with.

Arizona quickly looked down at her plate. She swallowed. What the hell? Why hadn't she just smiled and waved back at the latina? A week earlier they had chatted and it had been comfortable. Easy. And now all of a sudden it was weird?

After Callie's wave, Arizona managed not to look at the brunette for the remaining half an hour of her date. As she walked out of the restaurant with Peter, she even pulled herself together enough to finally smile and wave back at Callie. She didn't want things to be awkward. Why were things awkward? Was she really jealous of Mark and Callie's friendship? Or was it something else?

She didn't bother making small talk with Peter and instead pretty quickly said goodnight and jumped into a taxi. She needed to go home, sleep, and get to work the next morning so she could talk to Teddy.

When she tracked down Teddy the next day, her friend let her babble for a while.

"…I mean, how often does she go on dates? This is at least the second one since her and I…and…and I think she gave me a weird look…and…"

Teddy gave the blonde a tired look and simply said "Did you spend the whole date looking at her instead of at Peter?"

"No!" the blonde retorted.

"Then why is she all you talk about?"

"Uh…she is NOT all I talk about. I told you he was boring"

"Yeah, but you didn't elaborate much. Or maybe you don't have much to say about him because you were busy eyeing the pilot" Teddy wiggled her eyebrows.

"Oh please!" Arizona said. She tried to sound as if Teddy was very wrong in her assumption, but the truth was the blonde didn't even completely remember what her and Peter had talked about after Callie walked into the restaurant.

Teddy got up from the staff lounge couch and walked to the door.

"He won the Arctic Circle Race last year, you know" Teddy said.

"Who?"

"Peter"

"Oh…well maybe he should have talked about stuff like that instead of about his ex-wife and their collection of embroidered pillow cases!"

They both chuckled, and then Teddy left the room.

Later, when Arizona was eating alone in the cafeteria, convincing herself that Teddy hadn't really listened to what she was saying about Callie, a conversation at a nearby table caught her attention.

"How did the baseball game go last week?" a nurse asked the young doctor Karev.

"It was fun. The pilots won. Their best player…uh…Callie Torres…sort of hit the ball out of the park" he answered.

Doctor Maya Christensen was also at the table, and when she heard Callie's name, her head shot up in surprise.

"You know Callie Torres?" she quickly asked.

"Well, I've only met her that once" Karev answered.

"Oh…" doctor Christensen breathed out.

"Didn't you go on a date with her" an ortho nurse asked Christensen.

"Yeah"

"Really?" Karev asked and wiggled his eyebrows "She is HOT! How was it?"

Doctor Christensen smiled timidly.

"It was…good…but it was a one time thing…I guess"

"You didn't like her?"

"God, yes, she's incredible. Amazing. A great kisser" Her cheeks blushed when she realized that she had shared something so intimate.

Arizona pretended like she wasn't paying attention to the conversation, but she was actually almost falling off her chair, trying to take it all in.

Somehow the idea of Callie kissing doctor Christensen annoyed her. Arizona didn't dislike Christensen. She just found her slightly uninteresting. Why had Mark set Callie up with her?

The blonde took a bit of comfort in knowing that apparently not much had happened between Callie and Maya. But then Arizona's thoughts travelled to the woman Callie had had dinner with the night before. Was that also someone Mark knew? Was it even a date?

Arizona closed her eyes and furrowed her brow.

Why the fuck did she care?

She packed up the rest of her lunch and left the cafeteria to go and clear her head with some surgery.