Author's Note: I really liked the feedback for the last chapter, guys :) It's great that you liked it, but what I didn't realise is that people would actually start doing the Team Callie and Team Arizona thing. It seems like I'm making Arizona more unlikable than Callie, but more revelations are to come before Part I finishes! This chapter also marks the entrance of a familiar, polarising face from Season 9 - keep your eyes peeled! There will be more notes at the end of the chapter. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Current events (and the people in them) mentioned in this story are all true, but the characters' involvement is merely well-researched fiction.

Sunday, 10:00PM

The blonde pushed her way through the crowd of women to the bar, where the pink-haired bartender waited expectantly for her request. "Whisky and cola. One ice cube," she yelled over the noise. Taking one final step, she managed to find an empty bar stool.

"You need to put down more money for your tab, by the way," the bartender told her, as she slid the glass across. "Or maybe you should just stop buying girls a drink, and let them buy drinks for you." She smirked.

The blonde laughed. "I'm honourable!" She raised her glass to the bartender and took a sip of her drink. She smiled. Just the way she liked it.

A tall, attractive woman with straight, dark blonde hair walked up right beside her, speaking a breathy question in her ear. "I don't see you around here often," she said.

"I could say the same about you."

"Well, admittedly I don't usually come here on Sundays."

"Neither do I."

The taller woman stared at her curiously. "So why don't I see you around on all the other nights?"

The blonde sipped from her glass. "Maybe we just keep missing each other," she replied. "Also, I'm new in town."

"How new?" The taller woman inched closer to her.

"Not even a month ago."

"Where were you before that?"

"London."

The taller woman smiled, impressed. "You don't have a British accent, though."

"I'm American," the blonde responded, shrugging. "Just haven't been Stateside in ten years."

"Wow, I'm running into an explorer. What's your name?"

"Arizona. And I'm a journalist, not an explorer. What's your name?"

"I'm Lauren." She was close enough that she could put both hands on the counter. "Arizona the journalist," she drawled. "That sounds like a fake name and a fake story." She shrugged. "I don't really care, though. I'd buy you a drink if I didn't see that you already had one."

"Really?" Arizona raised the glass to her lips and finished the whisky in one gulp, then slammed the glass down on the table. She gave the other blonde a challenging look. "What drink?"

11.00PM

In his Manhattan apartment, Mark swilled the last of the beer in his bottle before finishing it. "Hey Torres, want to crack open another one for me while you're at it?" he asked over his shoulder.

He had called Callie over earlier that evening for a movie night. He even paid for their pizza and beer. Now, Callie was fussing around in the kitchen making more popcorn before they set up a second movie.

"You sure you don't want some water first?" Callie asked. But she opened a bottle of beer anyway.

"Are you kidding?" Mark scoffed. "I have the alcohol tolerance of a Scot." He patted his stomach.

"And all the ego and the beer gut of a frat boy." Callie walked back to the couch, cradling a bowl of popcorn in one hand. She glared at Mark, who was examining his exposed belly. "Ew, Sloan, put your shirt back down, no one wants to see that."

A smirk appeared on Mark's face. "I know plenty who do." He accepted the beer and drank it. "Can I ask you a question, Callie?"

"If it's not about your beer gut, sure."

"That time after we first met, we slept together," Mark said slowly. "That was ten years ago."

Callie frowned. "Mark- "

Mark cut her off. "No, I just want to know. Did you do it because you were still smarting over Arizona leaving you?"

"She didn't leave me," Callie corrected. "We split up because she was leaving."

"So…" Mark's eyebrows knitted, "she left you."

Callie shook her head sadly. "I don't remember it being as simple as that."

Mark shrugged. "It probably was, Cal."

Callie considered this and nodded slowly. "Well then, I suppose I did sleep with you as a rebound."

"Ouch." Mark clasped his chest in mock hurt. "You know how to break a heart."

"Oh, I've learnt from experience," Callie said with a nonchalant shrug.

Mark watched her face. "I've never known you to be bitter."

"When it comes to Arizona, I'm the most bitter bitch alive. Massachusetts legalised same-sex marriage in May 2004, you know," Callie said. "Arizona left like six months before that, but I thought of her when it happened. Planned it in my head. Would have been a fall wedding. Boston's pretty in the fall," she finished wistfully.

"But if you got married then, you wouldn't have me as your best man," Mark joked.

Callie shoved him lightly. "We only became friends because you were good rebound sex, anyway," she said. "Also, you were the only person I knew in New York when I moved, so I had to stick to you."

"Really? I thought it was because of my personality."

"Yeah, you were sleeping with half the producers. The woman half. Real charming."

"I'm the Golden Boy, what can I say?" Mark said proudly. His face softened momentarily. "For the record, Boston is gorgeous in the fall."

"I know." Callie sighed. "I read all the wedding magazine articles about it."

Noticing that his friend was about to reminisce whatever pain she had gone through ten years ago, Mark leaned over to grab the remote from the coffee table. "Hey, let's the start the movie?" he suggested.

"Okay, sure."

He breathed a sigh of relief.

Monday, 8:45AM

Because her newly bought curtains blocked the sun, Arizona did not wake up as early as she usually did. In fact, she only started to come to when she heard movement and someone muttering, "Shit, shit, shit," under their breath.

She opened her eyes and stared at the frantic woman who was jumping back into her wrinkled clothes. For a moment, she struggled to remember her name. "L-Lauren!" she said, almost triumphantly. "What are you doing up so early?"

"So early?" Lauren looked at her in disbelief."It's almost nine o'clock. What time do you have to go to work?"

"Not until midday," Arizona said, shrugging.

"Well, I start at nine, but my boss likes it when I'm there at eight-thirty, so I'm screwed," Lauren said. She slumped her shoulders. "I'm going to show up to work in clothes from last night. And I'm so freaking tired!"

Arizona nodded contemplatively. "I do have that effect on people."

"You're real charming, but now's not the time for that," Lauren snapped.

"All right," Arizona said, pretending she wasn't taken aback by that. She got out of bed and pulled a pair of boyshorts and a loose t-shirt over her naked body, relishing the way the other woman's eyes ran up and down her body as she did so. "I've got some clothes that might fit you. What are you after today?" She stood by her wardrobe, hand poised.

"Black pants, white shirt and maybe a navy blazer if you've got one?" the blonde asked hopefully. "I've got a public engagement to go to."

Arizona squinted at her clothes before pulling out the items. "Would these do?" She presented them to Lauren. "I'd lend you my suit but it's tailored for me so it would look a little odd if you wore it. And you know, dry cleaning."

"Understandable," Lauren said. "And these'll do, thanks." She took the clothes and ran into the bathroom to change.

Staring at the locked bathroom door, Arizona sat back down on her bed, wondering why she was being nice to a virtual stranger. She chalked it up to her age. She didn't used to be this nice to her one night stands when she wasn't pushing forty. Timothy would be so ashamed of her.

Lauren emerged from the bathroom fully dressed. She looked bizarrely comfortable in Arizona's clothing. "Well, I'm off now," she said. "And yes, I've already texted my boss telling her that I'm going to be held up. How do you want me to return these clothes?"

"I haven't thought about that, actually." The blonde stood up and reached for the stack of business cards inside her work satchel. "Here are my details. We can work something out."

The other woman's fingers curled around the card suspiciously. "Are you sure this isn't your way of getting a proper date out of me?" she asked.

Arizona laughed. "I'm not interested in that." She caught herself. "I mean, you're really hot and last night was great, but I don't think I wanna see anyone like that. That's just a hundred-fifty dollar blazer that you're wearing and I'd like it back."

"Right, right, Arizona." Lauren laughed too. "I understand." She placed the business card carefully in her wallet. "I'll call you soon. For the clothes. But now I really have to go."

"Yeah, yeah, go!" Arizona said, waving her to the door. When Lauren shut the door on the other side, Arizona walked back to her bedroom and flopped down on her bed. That was one of the weirdest exchanges she ever had with a woman.

4:00PM

"Hey, Cristina, what are you up to?" Callie strode over to the nine o'clock's associate producer's desk. Because of her work hours, Callie had a social life that was limited to people in the newsroom. Which meant she was friends with Cristina. Which meant it wasn't weird for her to come up and talk to her in the middle of a work day.

Cristina looked up from her screen with a glare. "What's up, Callie?" Okay, maybe they were just kind of friends. "Wait," Cristina lifted a finger, "you were going to ask me about Robbins, aren't you?"

"N-no!" Callie stammered. "Why would I be asking that?"

"Arizona already talked to me about it," Cristina said, waving dismissively. "I'm not going to run off and sell the exclusive to Us Weekly, you're not that important. Consider my mouth shut."

Callie was opening her mouth to reply, but a sharp voice cut through the air: "Cristina, aren't you supposed to be working on that story on the military commissaries?"

The two women turned around to watch Bailey coming towards them, a folder tucked under an arm. She stopped in front of Callie, disregarding the large height difference between them. "And aren't you supposed to be working with your team for your show tonight?"

"But it's such a tragic rundown! I'm taking a breather." Callie slumped her shoulders. Bailey's authoritative persona reduced her to childish antics oftentimes.

Cristina's eyes shifted from Bailey to Callie. "Yeah? What's on tonight?"

"Attacks in the Middle East, follow-up on that Bangladeshi clothing factory collapse, more GOP politicians talking about the shutdown as if it was the Dems who threw their toys out of the cot because of the ACA- "

"Enough!" Bailey interrupted. "Torres, go work with your own team and stop distracting mine. Yang, get that story done, it goes to air tonight or it won't be me wanting your head on the platter." She glanced at Callie, so quickly that the taller woman wouldn't have noticed if she wasn't looking at Bailey. "It'd be Arizona." She walked away.

"What would I be doing?" the blonde called from across the room, hands on her hips.

Bailey turned around midstep to face her EP. "Nothing," she said quickly. "I was just reminding Cristina to get a move on with that commissary story."

A smile spread over Arizona's face, although Callie noticed that it was aimed at no one in particular. "Yes, the commissary story," she said. "Don't mess that up, Cristina. Perhaps you want to stop having girl talk with Callie for a little bit." She disappeared into her office.

Meredith had walked over, witnessing the entire exchange. "I've never seen someone look so perky while being intimidating." She picked up a spearmint from Cristina's desk, unwrapped it and popped it into her mouth.

Completely disregarding Callie's presence, Cristina shared a conspiratorial look with her best friend. "Hell, she probably got laid."

7:45PM

A sharp beeping noise was heard throughout the bullpen.

Shane, who was assigned at the newsdesk for the evening, looked up from the magazine he was reading. The screen was flashing red. Alarmed, he clicked on the headline. "Guys." His eyes travelled quickly down the report. "Guys," he repeated, a little louder. Heads raised to look at him. "I think someone should take this to Owen before the show starts."

"What is it?" Leah asked, approaching him with a curious expression.

"North Korea just put their army on alert," Shane said. "It's on Reuters."

"What?" Teddy slowed down from rushing around the bullpen as she got everything ready for tonight's show. "What do you mean North Korea has put their army on alert?" she demanded.

Shane turned his eyes back to the screen. "A spokesman for the North's military warned the United States of 'disastrous consequences' for moving a group of ships, including an aircraft carrier into a South Korean port," he read out loud.

"I hate it when stuff like this happens right before a show." Teddy sighed.

"Do you think it's a legitimate threat?" Leah asked her.

"Probably not. Their bark has been worse than their bite."

"I think we still need to see it as a credible threat, though," Shane said. "We don't even know what kind of weaponry they've got out there. We shouldn't treat them like the boy who cried wolf."

Leah folded her arms and chuckled. "Aren't you the foreign policy expert now, Shane?"

The man merely stared at her.

Teddy shrugged. "Print that out, I'll take it to Owen now."

Shane jabbed a key and the printer next to the news desk regurgitated a freshly inked sheet of paper. Teddy grabbed it. "Good work," she told Shane. "We'll have to vamp this at the top of A block as breaking news. Leah, please tell Callie and Mark to get to the studio as quickly as possible so we can brief them?" She was already halfway to the corridor leading to the control rooms.

Leah rushed off to the dressing room to inform Callie and Mark of the new development.

8:00PM

"And roll in."

Mark shuffled his papers one last time before looking up at the camera. "Good evening. I'm Mark Sloan."

"And I'm Callie Torres. You're watching The Eight O'Clock Breakdown. Tonight, we begin the show with breaking news. North Korea's army has been put on high alert as a response to what it sees as provocations from the United States and South Korea…"

In the control room, Owen was concentrating on the screens in front of him when someone tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around and covered his mouthpiece with a hand. "What's up, Meredith?"

"I just thought I'd let you know that John Boehner just agreed to come on for an interview on Thursday night," Meredith told him, her voice laced with barely contained triumph.

"Thursday?"

"That's the only day he can do," Meredith said. "I think he's going on The O'Reilly Factor before heading straight to us."

Owen's brows knitted in confusion. "Wait, he's live crossing from the DC bureau?"

Meredith shook her head. "He's coming here. Live."

"How did you-?" But the EP paused as he noticed that Callie had finished the North Korea report. "Meredith, sorry, we'll talk about this in tomorrow's rundown meeting," he said. "Well done, though."

"Okay, cool. Sorry for interrupting you, by the way." With a wave and a smile, she left the room.

Tuesday, 11.00PM

Working in the news was an unusual job. For most of the year, it's a hard slog to come up with material to fill forty minutes of a show. But for busy news periods, journalists have to work twice as hard to produce stories in the same amount of time. The government shutdown had resulted in one of these busy periods.

Arizona just about staggered to her apartment door. The episode tonight wasn't particularly busy, but the rest of the week will be, with more and more services shutting down, and the debt ceiling decision looming. She was about to insert her key when her shoe nudged a neatly wrapped parcel left by her door. Since her building entry was electronic only, she found this odd. She picked the parcel up turned it in her hands. There was a note attached on the package. She gingerly unfolded it and read the loopy script.

Arizona,

So your story about being a journalist in London checks out, since I realised that the cellphone number on there was a UK number. I took the liberty of having your clothes washed, dried and ironed. I even got them to use hypoallergenic products just in case.

I really enjoyed the other night. Despite what you said about not wanting anything further, I hope I can see you again soon.

Lauren

The woman had written her cellphone number neatly underneath her signature. It wasn't the first time one of Arizona's one night stands wanted a first date, so Arizona knew better. She placed the note in her jacket pocket, making a mental note to put in the recycling bin later.

Wednesday, 1:00PM

Owen addressed the room of APs in front of him. "Okay, Meredith has some news for us."

"Boehner? We already know," Leah said.

"She wouldn't stop talking about it," Stephanie supplied, glaring at Meredith. "Like, come on, Grey, you're a booker, you were only doing your job."

"Stephanie," Callie warned. "Come on, this is going to be a great show. Act excited!"

"How did you manage to get that interview anyway, Mer?" Mark asked.

Meredith's response was hesitant. "I told Boehner's staff that my mother was Ellis Grey." An award-winning print journalist and a trailblazer for her time, Meredith's mother had worked in DC during Boehner's rise up the ranks of the Republican Party. Her daughter entered journalism with very big shoes to fill.

Stephanie snorted. Leah did, too, but a glare from Callie shut her down.

When he was sure there weren't going to be any more snide remarks, Owen continued, "Boehner's coming on Thursday. In this studio. We want it to be a good interview, so we need to start prepping. Now, you all know that I usually assign Teddy on big things like this, but she and I have decided to give one of the APs a shot. It's a given that Meredith will have to work with them too since she's prepping Boehner before the show." Owen gave the surprised-looking blonde an acknowledging nod. "So, who else wants to work with Callie and Mark on this?"

All of the other APs raised their hand.

Owen knew he couldn't decide without attracting the ire of whoever wasn't chosen, so he turned to the anchors. "You guys wanna pick?"

Mark and Callie made eye contact for a few seconds, before turning back to the rest of the staff in the meeting room. "April," they said in unison. She was the perfect foil to Meredith and would be more likely to acquiesce to their way of doing things.

The redhead smiled. For once, she was oblivious to the disparaging looks from her colleagues.

1:30PM

The people who knew Arizona well could say that she had some issues with authority. They weren't enough to keep her from being cheeky with her work from time to time, but they were enough to make her anxious as she sat in the executive dining lounge of the Harper Avery Media Tower, Richard Webber sitting across from her. The older man was jovially tucking into an open steak sandwich while Arizona fiddled with her grilled lamb.

"That thing isn't going to eat itself," Webber remarked.

Arizona's hand paused. "Sorry, Chief," she said hastily. "I was just wondering why you asked me to come up here to have lunch with you."

"I just wanted to tell you what a good job you've been doing with America in Focus," Webber said cheerfully. "Finally - a decent current affairs programme on my screen, five nights a week!"

"Decent, huh? I'm glad you think so," Arizona said.

Webber leaned forward. "I know that Derek can be difficult to work with at times, but I'm glad that you and him have a good relationship."

"Yeah, Derek was a mentor to me back when we were at the BBC together." She paused. "Wait, weren't you his EP when he first started on America in Focus?"

"That's correct."

"What happened?"

"Look, Arizona, I love being in the bullpen so much. Would really rather do it than do this." Webber gestured at the upscale dining lounge. "But Derek and I clashed so much I actually gunned for this promotion just to never see the inside of a control room with his stupidly good-looking face on the screen ever again." He finished with a laugh.

"Right…" Arizona chuckled nervously. "I'm just glad that you're happy with the work I'm trying to do with the show, Chief. And I assure you, Derek is a little diva, but I got him under control."

"I couldn't be happier with the job that you're doing. The ratings are good, the feedback is good, people are saying that Derek Shepherd is back! The APs seem to think highly of you as well. Alex Karev, in particular."

Arizona sat up a little straighter. "Oh, he's a bright one."

"The kid has raw talent, but Stark always thought he was a bad hire."

"I can understand why he wouldn't get on with Stark, though. I'm surprised Derek did."

"Well, he got on with Stark better than he got on with me." He hummed whimsically after sipping from his glass of water. "Anyway, let's get down to business. I want America in Focus to do a panel on New York's stop and frisk law."

Arizona's fork stopped midway to her mouth. "Excuse me?"

"They ruled stop and frisk unconstitutional, but the election for the mayoralty is coming up and you know, some decisions may be at risk of reversal." Webber waved his hand in a vague direction.

"You know something I don't know."

"I'm well-connected," the older man retorted. "I can't tell you anything because it's not final, I just know that stop and frisk is going to come up as an issue, and I want HANCA to be right there from the beginning. Starting with a discussion panel. Come up with three or four other people you'd like to see talking about it, and make it happen."

"You expect it to be done that simply?" Arizona asked him, surprised.

"I gave you a brief, now I want you deliver above and beyond it." Webber smiled at her. "Don't worry, Arizona. I know that you'll deliver. Anyway, I have to get back to work." He dabbed at his mouth with his napkin. Make it happen," he repeated, before standing up and leaving the executive dining lounge.

With all the shutdown coverage she was trying to produce, this panel was just another spanner in the works. Arizona called the waiter over, holding in a slightly frustrated sigh. "Can I have a glass of your best red wine, please?" she asked. It wasn't something she usually did, especially with a rundown meeting coming up, but she felt like she needed to right now. "Charge it to Richard Webber's account."

The waiter smirked. "That's already been done, ma'am. A glass of red coming right up."

A minute later, a balloon-sized glass of red wine was placed in front of her. Arizona stared at it impressed, before reaching for her phone to send Bailey a text. Guess she would have to be late for the rundown meeting.

6:00PM

Inflated egos were rife in the news industry, and even the daughter of the great Ellis Grey - expected to be immune to ego - had enough of it sometimes. It wasn't that that she was never accused of having an ego herself. But Meredith Grey wasn't an anchor, nor was she planning to be. Anchors were the worst, second only to print journalists.

She stormed out of Mark Sloan's office, letting out an exasperated sigh as she walked across the bullpen, back to her desk. "Dunno how Kepner does it. I don't know how I even deal with it sometimes," she growled under her breath.

"Deal with what?" Alex's eyes flicked from his screen to Meredith. She stared at the receiver of his desk phone, which was cradled in between his head and left shoulder. "I'm on hold with the NYCLU's comms people," he explained. "What's up?"

"Two hours before the interview, and we still haven't decided on one angle to come after Boehner with," Meredith replied, sighing. "I guess I don't do it often enough, because I just realised that Callie and Mark are awful to work with."

"They're anchors, they work it, as in the camera, not work with actual people," Alex said easily, by way of consolation. "You're still doing good work with getting Boehner for tonight though, don't let them get you down."

Meredith nodded at the phone. "You're on the phone with the NYCLU?"

"Oh! Hi, yeah, I'm here." Alex held up a finger and gave his friend an apologetic look. "Hang on, can you spell that for me, please?" He quickly scribbled the name down on a legal pad. "Okay. Thanks so much for that, please tell her we'll see her on the studio Saturday at one PM. Yeah." He relayed the address of the HANCA tower. "Bye!" Putting the phone down, he grinned triumphantly at Meredith, "Score."

"So?" Meredith prompted for an explanation.

"Arizona just gave me my first big assignment," Alex responded eagerly. "She wants me to help her and Bailey put together a discussion panel to discuss the stop and frisk law. I'm supposed to select a handful of candidates to be on a panel and set up an open forum with them here on Saturday, throw some ideas out."

"Well, look at you!" Meredith commented cheerfully. "Wow, you just one-upped me on Boehner."

"Aw, don't be like that, Mer," Alex said. "I'm sure that the interview will be great. Once you manage to rein Torres and Sloan in, that is." He smirked.

"Wait until Arizona asks you to manage Derek."

Alex shook his head. "We do things differently at the nine. Only Arizona handles Derek. That way, nothing gets in the way of proper journalism. Not even Derek Shepherd's ego."

"Karev." Bailey's voice called out to him. "Did you get a rep from the NYCLU?"

"Yeah." Alex pushed his chair back so the diminutive senior producer was in his sight line. "The Associate Legislative Director - bam! You proud of me, Bailey?"

Bailey merely rolled her eyes and refocused her attention back to her computer screen.

Saturday, 12:45PM

Callie liked going to her office in the newsroom on the weekends to do some extra work, and the weekend staff were also nowhere as obnoxious as some of her own staff. However, the newsroom she entered today looked more like the one she went on the weekdays. "The hell is going on," she murmured, as she watched Bailey usher a few people inside the big conference room.

Through the glass wall, Callie could see Arizona, who was swiping at her tablet, looking up occasionally to greet the people coming in. Not knowing that she was even doing it, Callie stood there and watched her. Her smile was still as sunny as the first time Callie had been on the receiving end of it, on the Al Gore press bus.

As if by telepathy, Arizona's head turned and her eyes locked with Callie's.

Even from the far side of the bullpen, Callie saw how blue they were.

Arizona left the conference and began to approach her. "Callie," she said brightly. "What are you doing here today?"

"Uhm." Callie shuffled on her feet nervously, not really knowing why Arizona had this effect on her. "I like to work here on my days off. It's quiet. Mark can't disturb me."

"Mark Sloan lives with you?" Something unpleasant flickered over Arizona's face. Was it jealousy?

"No, he lives next door." When the expression on Arizona's face didn't change, Callie added, "He was the only person I knew in New York when I moved here, so I thought it was a good idea at the time. For you know…"

"No, I don't know."

"Carpooling."

"Right." Arizona pursed her lips and nodded.

As much as she was enjoying Arizona's apparent displeasure at her living near Mark Sloan, Callie wanted to defuse the tension. "I liked the story on the military commissaries that have been shut down."

"Thanks," Arizona said. "It was a story close to me."

"Yeah, your parents, right?" Callie said. "How are they doing, by the way?"

Arizona shrugged. "Still living in Quantico, just outside the base. Dad's on partial retirement. My mum called afterwards to say that she's been doing stuff to help out the families who can't afford anything but the commissary."

"That sounds like your mother," Callie said, smiling. A silence settled between them. "So… what are you doing here?"

"Webber told me to put a panel together for America in Focus to discuss the stop and frisk law closer to the election date."

"But it was declared unconstitutional," Callie said, frowning.

"Yeah…" Arizona shrugged. "He knows something I don't know. Just following orders. Anyway, we're gonna have an open forum with the panelists today, without Derek. Not to control what they have to say, obviously. Just an initial prep, you know?"

"Yeah, I get it." There were occasions when discussion panels would have different formats, requiring even independent panelists to turn up for briefing sessions.

"You're welcome to sit in, if you like."

Callie shook her head. "Oh, it's a work thing, I really shouldn't." She held her resolve, even though Arizona's eyes, trained squarely on her face, were the hardest thing to resist in the bullpen - perhaps even the entire Harper Avery Media Tower.

"All right then." Arizona said, appearing unfazed. "Well, have fun with your work, and stuff." She was about to turn around and head back to the conference room when her gaze moved from Callie's face to over her shoulder. Her jaw went visibly slack.

Concerned, Callie turned around, only to come face to face with a pretty, lithe blonde her height. Her face mirrored Arizona's. "Can I help you?" Callie asked her.

The woman made eye contact with Callie, with clear effort. "This is the newsroom for America in Focus, right?" she asked, her voice a little shaky.

"Yes." Callie nodded slowly.

"Okay, I'm here for the stop and frisk panel?"

"Oh, Arizona will help you out there." She looked over at Arizona, who remained standing there with the same expression she had a moment ago, a mixture of shock and confusion. "Arizona? This lady is on your panel."

Arizona snapped out of it. "Your name, please," she said, in an equally shaky voice.

"Lauren Boswell. From NYCLU," the blonde replied in a peculiar tone.

"Right." Arizona shifted her weight from one foot to another. "We're getting started in a minute, but do you wanna come to my office for a sec? Standard procedure, I just want to talk to you before you talk to the other panelists."

Callie shot Arizona a look. The blonde fired one back at her.

"Come this way, please." Gesturing for Lauren to follow her, Arizona made her way to her office.

To her credit, as soon as they entered Arizona's office, Lauren seemed to have regained the bravado she had that night at the bar in West Village. "Funny to see you here, Arizona," she said slyly. "HANCA. Should've known."

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" Arizona asked. "And don't give me that look, you didn't tell me you worked at the NYCLU either."

"Did I have to?"

"Well, that note you left on my freshly washed, dried and ironed clothes implied that you wanted to see me again, and you left me your freaking number, but nothing else. I thought it was rather impersonal." Arizona frowned. "How did you even get into my apartment building?"

"I followed someone in, pretended that I lived there so they held the door open for me," was Lauren's simple reply. "And I did want to see you again, as I said in the note, so I have no idea why you thought I was being impersonal. You're the one who didn't take the initiative to call or text me after I left you my freaking number, so I just assumed it was a no. I bet you accommodating me in your office isn't even - what did you call it? - standard procedure. You just wanted to tell me off for stalking you."

"Okay, it isn't standard procedure," Arizona conceded. "Look at us, arguing like a pair of lesbians. Lauren, huh?"

The other blonde ignored her."Was that Callie Torres out there? She's tall."

"She is, isn't she?" Arizona said. "Jesus, I can't believe you're the Assistant Legislative Director of the NYCLU and you're coming on a panel on the show that I produce. Talk about having to skirt professional boundaries."

"Your one night stands don't show up to the studio often?"

"My one night stands don't usually have a BA in History from UCLA, a JD from Stanford and an in depth knowledge of institutional racism in the criminal justice system," Arizona said.

Lauren grinned. "So you looked me up."

"No, an AP did it. I just had him read everyone's resumés out loud, like a bedtime story."

Bailey rapped her knuckles on Arizona's door before opening it and poking her head in. "We ready? Callie told me you've got Lauren Boswell in here." She scrutinised Lauren.

"Just a couple more minutes, Bailey. Lauren is an old friend," Arizona said.

"All right." Bailey left.

"So, we have to maintain professional boundaries now, I suppose," Lauren said.

Arizona made a show of looking at her watch. "Nah, we got time to cross them for a bit," she said. She took a deep breath, not really believing that she was saying what she was about to say. "I know it was pretty crappy of me not to get in touch with you, and I don't really have a good reason for it, but I want to transgress professional boundaries and ask you out for a proper dinner date. Unless, you know, drinks and then sex are more your style."

"I prefer all three," Lauren deadpanned, which made Arizona laugh. "But seriously, yes, I'd love to go out for a proper dinner date."

"How about tomorrow night? I'll even properly call you about the final details."

"Pulling out all the stops, aren't you?" Lauren said, chuckling. "Sure, tomorrow night sounds great. As long as you don't make me late for work again."

"Oh, I can't promise that." Arizona winked, then straightened her sweater. "Now, shall we meet the rest of the panel?"

Author's Note: Yup, I went there! You'll be surprised how this story is gonna go between Callie and Arizona, including finding out what Arizona really thinks. In the meantime, keep those reviews coming!

I made a playlist to listen to when I'm writing this fanfic. It's got songs which remind me the way the relationship between Callie and Arizona will be written, so some of you may want some clues there. Who wants me to share it on my writing Tumblr wip-alterocentrist? Say so in your reviews or PM me :)