Ashton allowed herself to be shepherded to this doctors office only because she knew Mark would be annoyed if he found her yelling at one of his colleagues in the halls, and after everything Mark had done for her, she wanted to respect him.
Dr. Robbins closed the door of her office behind her, and stood at the door crossing her arms. She watched as the teenager clenched and unclenched her fists, pacing the room. The girl finally spoke, "My dad's name was Ashton, and that's what he named me, because he said my first hour out of my mom's womb, I earned his name." Ashton swallowed hard, angry at herself for almost crying, "I earned his name by being me. And my parents are dead now, so I do everything I can to continue to earn my dad's name. So when people make fun of me, I want to destroy them. I want to fucking kill them!" Ashton was yelling now, "So, no, you don't know!"
"Yeah, I do actually," Dr. Robbins replied evenly. "We haven't met yet. My name's Arizona, and every time people scoff at my name, I want to punch them in the face. I was named after the U.S.S. Arizona. My grandfather was serving on it during Pearl Harbour, and he saved 19 people before he drowned. So, yeah, I get it."
Ashton continued to pace for a couple of minutes, until finally she stopped. She mumbled an apology, "Sorry." Her voice got a little bit louder, "And sorry about Eve."
"It's okay, it frustrates me too that her parents don't have anyone to stay with her," Arizona replied sitting down.
"How do you know who I am?" Ashton asked, after a long silence.
Arizona gestured for the teen to sit, and to Arizona's surprise, the girl did. "Callie told me about you."
"You know Callie?"
"I know her very well actually, she's my girlfriend," Arizona said smiling.
"Oh, like not platonically, right?"
"Right."
"Huh, you don't seem like Callie's type. A little to peppy," Ashton said tilting her head to the side.
Arizona smiled, pleased at the genuine lack of judgement in the girl's eyes. You could never tell how people were going to react, especially teens who always seemed to be a lot more judgemental, if only because they didn't want to be falsely pegged as gay in high school. "Yeah, she didn't think I was her type either. She also mentioned that you never talk, but you seem to be speaking a normal amount to me..." Arizona trailed off, looking curiously at Ashton.
"I..yeah, I don't really talk all that much. It does normally take me a really long time before I talk to anyone as much as I'm talking to you," Ashton said, just realizing herself how much she was talking to Arizona. She began to turn red, embarrased by how much she was talking.
"So why talk to me?"
"I don't know," Ashton mumbled, suddenly very aware of her previously chatty actions.
"Aw, come on. Don't get all shy, now. We were having such a nice conversation," Arizona smiled at her.
"I'm not shy," Ashton replied adamantly.
"You don't talk to people until you've known them for years. You don't talk to Callie. You're shy," Arizona said, bluntly.
"Huh," Ashton huffed.
"So you live with Mark? You know that's across the hall from Callie and me," Arizona tried to start another conversation.
"I knew Callie lived there, but I didn't know she had a significant other."
Arizona smiled, silently pleased by that term, she was Callie's significant other. Suddenly, her stomach rumbled loudly, "Do you want to come eat with me?"
"Sure," Ashton said, standing.
Arizona mentally high-fived herself when the teen agreed. They walked to the cafeteria together, and got their food. Then they sat down at a table with Mark.
"I thought you were napping, Smash?" Mark said as a greeting.
Ashton mentally cursed herself for the second time that day, Mark was the one person who could tell when she was lying. "I..uh, well.."
Arizona could tell the teen didn't want to share her encounter with Eve and her parents with Mark, so she jumped in to save the girl. "I ran into her coming out of the on-call room, and recognized her, so I introduced myself. I asked her to eat with me to get to know her."
"Ha," Mark laughed, "you don't just get to know Smash here."
"Smash?" Arizona questioned, looking at Ashton.
"Small Ashton turned into small Ash, which turned into Smash," Ashton said in response. As Arizona nodded Mark just stared at her. "What?" Ashton asked, defensively.
"You've known her for all of ten minutes, and you're sharing your life story?" Mark said, amazed. He was well versed in his small friends shyness.
"Shutup," Ashton muttered.
Just then Callie sat down, "Hey guys!"
"Hi," Mark and Arizona replied. Ashton didn't talk again for the rest of the meal.