6.
Arizona wakes up in a strange room. It isn't that she doesn't know where she is - she remembers quite well - she just hasn't actually seen the room before. While slowly getting used to the early morning light she glares around a little.
It's a nice room, more homey than hotel rooms usual are. Then she recalls how Eliza told her about the redecorating. She notices the picture frames, some knick-knacks she probably picked up on her travels, a bowl of fruit, flowers, even some kind of drapes that doesn't seem to belong here.
She slowly turns her head to the side. Eliza has rolled away from her. She's lying near the edge of the bed, her bare back facing towards her. Arizona can't tell if she's asleep or not.
She hasn't intentionally spent the night. To be honest, that choice wasn't exactly up to her: she simply passed out after their mind-blowing sexcapade. She can't be bothered too much though, since for the first time in weeks she actually slept like a baby. And if last night didn't mean anything, then why should this morning be any different?
With that thought in mind she quietly shifts closer to Eliza, sliding her arm around her naked body as she's spooning her from behind.
"Cuddling, really?" Eliza mumbles with a sleepy voice. "You're sure that's not too complicated?"
"This isn't cuddling," Arizona sets her straight, "This is not wasting a lazy Sunday morning."
Eliza chuckles softly. "It's Thursday!"
"Every doctor knows that any free morning is a Sunday morning," Arizona points out, slowly roaming her hand over Eliza's bare stomach. "Didn't they teach you that in scuba school?"
Eliza tries to turn around so she can face Arizona, but Arizona stops her.
"Don't move," she whispers in her ear.
Eliza knows enough. She exhales, relaxes her body and gives Arizona free reign. Arizona brings her hand up to Eliza's neck, She brushes her messy hair to the side, exposing the sensitive skin. While her hand smoothly moves down again, her tongue finds the beating point of her pulse. A soft moan escapes Eliza's lips.
Arizona's hand softly caresses Eliza's abdomen, before it finds its way up to her breasts, her nipples, the base of her throat, then all the way down again. Her touch is feathery. Warm lips attached to Eliza's neck, just one hand slowly going up and down her body, taking all the time she wants, Arizona's idea of a lazy Sunday leaves little to the imagination.
Meanwhile, Eliza - enjoying every second of it and not wanting to seem impatient - feels she really needs more. Her core is throbbing like crazy, screaming for attention. "Arizona!" she pleads, while unconsciously moving her legs to create more space.
Arizona is in a cooperative mood. She lets her hand slip further down this time, till it reaches its destination between Eliza's thighs. She groans when she feels how wet she is. Using her arousal her slippery fingers easily find their way, drawing slow circles around Eliza's clit.
Eliza starts to moan, very soft at first, but louder when Arizona adds more pressure. Feeling how Eliza starts to squirm against her, Arizona has a hard time controlling not just Eliza's, but also her own longing body. She loses the battle and presses her center against Eliza's butt, pulling her in close.
She increases the speed of her fingers. Eliza loses control of her breathing, gasping deeply now, her heart clearly pounding through her chest. Arizona, not fully able to handle her own breathing by now, moves her lips to Eliza's ear. "Let go!" she pants into it.
And so she does, heavily trembling against Arizona's body.
Arizona doesn't let go of her tight grip until Eliza slowly returns back to earth. "Good morning," she whispers seductively.
Eliza turns her head, finally able to face Arizona. A satisfied grin appears on her face. "Good morning to you, too."
... ...
Walking into the hospital, Arizona decides she won't get involved in any child's play today. She has a ward full of young patients who need her undivided attention. She has no time nor energy for politics or crying adults.
Yet as she quickly discovers, not everyone shares that thought...
On her way to the attendings' lounge to get changed for duty she walks into a roadblock: out of nowhere April forcefully grabs her by the arm and drags her into a storage room.
"April, what the hell?" Arizona screams out.
April closes the door behind them, before facing her with a stern look on her face. "So, did you talk to her? Tell her to back off?" she asks, not wasting any time, and clearly referring to Eliza.
"I did actually," Arizona replies, almost sounding proud of herself, as if she's about to add some "Ha, I bet you didn't thought I had it in me!"-kind of remark.
April ignores the tone. "Well, how did it go?" she asks impatiently.
"Perfectly fine," Arizona replies, not completely lying about that part. "I told her the kiss was a mistake, she understood, we had a good laugh about it... all fine."
"Good," April's about to say, before Arizona suddenly continues: "And then we had sex... Twice."
"Arizona!" April exclaims, throwing her hands in the air in despair, "What were you thinking?!"
"Well, clearly I wasn't," Arizona answers dryly. "But it's okay. It didn't really mean anything. Just sex, you know."
April looks thoroughly at her, like a mother who has just caught her two-year-old with his hand in the cookie jar. "Bullshit," she calls, "You like her!"
Now Arizona gets defensive. "I don't like her! Well, yeah, I guess I like her, but I don't like-like her, I'm not in-like with her. If that's even a thing." Quickly adding: "Which it isn't, cause I'm not!"
April shakes her head. She looks like she's about to give up on her friend. Clearly there isn't anything she can say here that will bring Arizona back to her senses. She turns around to leave the room, when Arizona stops her.
"April, no one can know about this!" she claims, sounding a bit nervous all of a sudden.
"Of course no one can know," April cries out, stating the obvious. "They'd rip your head off!"
... ...
Halfway during rounds Arizona's day gets even more busy when Trauma has a minor coming in. "Find Dr. Karev," she tells Ben Warren, who comes looking for her.
"He sent me to you," Warren answers, slightly in despair. Arizona, quickly deciding she'll check on Alex's excuse at a more convenient time, follows him without further questioning, as priorities are clear.
Once at Trauma she discovers Alex has found his way to the young patient after all. "I'm sorry," he apologizes, "my schedule is a mess. But I've got it now!"
"You're sure?" Arizona double checks.
He's sure, Arizona isn't needed. Just about to return to Ped's, she suddenly thinks of something. "By the way," she asks for his attention again, "I'm planning a board meeting. So please check your messy schedule for any options any time soon."
Alex looks up from his chart, looking a little puzzled. "You don't have to, Mer already did."
"Meredith is back?!" Arizona exclaims in surprise.
"Yeah, they sorted it out, some temporary solution till that meeting," Alex explains, while turning around as he's being called by a nurse. He walks away, but looks at her over his shoulder once more, screaming over the Trauma Unit's noises: "Check your email!"
Walking back to her own ward Arizona pulls her phone from her pocket and opens her email. If her inbox represents her in any way, there isn't much to be proud of. She's never really been the administrative type of person, but the current amount of unanswered emails is downright embarrassing. Nevertheless she decides now is not the time for working on her correspondence.
She quickly swipes the screen, searching for this one specific message. When she finds it, she notices it has been sent a day before, by Meredith. The message is short, nothing more than an invitation for a board meeting, a week from now. The only point on the agenda: the Residency Program. Nothing about the ending of her suspension, or terms of conditions.
Arizona wonders what happened and if her own fight with Bailey had anything to do with it. She doesn't get a lot of time to think about it though, since by now she's returned to Ped's, where she quickly continues her rounds.
... ...
Hours later she's finally able to take a short break. Not having enough time to go for an actual meal, she gets a bag of chips from the vending machine and sits herself down on an empty gurney.
When she opens the bag, she hears a familiar voice, saying: "Ah, my favorite sound in the world."
Arizona looks up. "You're back!" she calls. Of course she isn't really surprised.
"I am," Meredith states, climbing on the gurney to sit down next to Arizona.
"What happened?" Arizona asks her, involuntarily sharing her chips.
"Bailey finally had the decency to come and see me," Meredith answers, her mouth full of chips.
Arizona, also having a handful of chips (before Meredith eats it all), thus not able to reply straight away, realizes the two of them haven't sat together since they both dealt with a little panic attack in a supply closet. They aren't best buddies or anything, yet they are bound by something stronger: they both survived the plane crash. That experience alone does make them quite important to each other.
When they've both satisfied their first hunger, they are able to actual talk again. "So she just offered to end your suspension?" Arizona asks.
Meredith shakes her head. "Not exactly. She first had to give me a big-ass lecture about refusal of work. I asked her if she'd rather had seen me go out on a strike, which turned out she actually did, cause that would at least have been my legal right. According to Bailey, now I was just behaving like a toddler, which is why she'd sent me to bed without diner... or something like that."
"Yet you're here now," Arizona points out, quietly adding "...eating my dinner."
"I am," Meredith states again. "At some point Bailey started to explain that even though she didn't agree with my actions, she wanted to fix this - my suspension apparently being the only thing within her power at this moment. Long story short: she told me I could come back if I'd work with Minnick anyway, I told her I wouldn't work with anyone till we have an official board meeting, and she agreed on that."
Arizona takes the last chips, then crumples the bag. A little satisfaction takes possession of her, realizing she might actually have done something good here. "So you do wanna look for a solution on this Webber/Minnick-situation then?" she questions, slightly optimistic.
Meredith jumps off of the gurney. "Oh no, Minnick is out!" she says, a little viciously. "She just doesn't know it yet."
... ...
Note: I realize I made a mistake regarding to the board seats. I remembered Karev getting Yang's shares, making him a board member, but I forgot about the fact that the board chose Bailey over him. I'm also not sure if she's still on the board now that she's Chief of Surgery. So yeah, this part might be a bit non-canon. Sorry if this is a little confusing!