Summary: Let us watch as intern Callie Torres falls for Attending Arizona Robbins. It's gonna be a real slow burner, but we'll still have some fun along the way.
AN: I hope I get this up by Daya's birthday lol. Also, I'm still writing Caught in a Wonderful Lightning Storm.
Can't Help Falling
Chapter VII: Time Has A Way
a.k.a. Play with Me?
Was there when the rain tapped
Its way down your face.
You were a miracle,
I was just holding your space, mmm.
Callie noticed something. Well, she noticed a lot of things, but there was one thing she noticed that kind of freaked her out. Arizona was completely silent when she slept. She didn't make a single sound, unless she was shifting around. But where most people made some type of breathing sound, whether it was a soft snuffle or an all-out snore, Arizona was just quiet. And it was fucking terrifying to Callie. She was not used to it and she had to keep reminding herself to watch the rise and fall of the senior surgeon's chest to calm down.
But it still freaked her the fuck out.
Arizona thought it was funny.
They didn't sleep together every single night, but at least two or three times a week, they would stay together at Callie's if Nicole was being particularly obnoxious or at Arizona's if they needed to make it a point to be all couple-y in front of the redhead. And that was another thing: being Arizona's fake girlfriend wasn't as weird as she initially thought it would be. Being straight, she never thought about dating a woman and really, she still wouldn't seriously consider doing it, but pretending to wasn't all that bad.
But splitting time between her intern friends and her Attending friends was getting a little difficult. Any time she turned down her fellow interns to hang out with Arizona, they made snide, mostly joking remarks, but she missed Arizona when she spent a lot of time hanging out with her intern friends. She was closest with Meredith and Cristina out of the interns, but Arizona was probably her best friend at that point. Plus, being an intern and working insane hours didn't leave a lot of time to socialize anyway, so a lot of her time spent with Arizona was spent sleeping or working. And going all the way to Meredith's house to hang out could be such a chore, so for the most part, she would go to Joe's for drinks with her intern friends and then head to her or Arizona's apartment to sleep. Currently though, she wasn't sure that was going to work.
When she walked into Joe's with George, she spotted Meredith and Izzie at the bar and the two of them began to make their way over. On the way there though, she saw Arizona, Mark, and Derek sitting at a table near the dart board, and her steps faltered, causing George to run into her back. Her apology was automatic, borderline absentminded as she watched her Attendings laugh amongst themselves. Should she go over and say a quick hello? She had seen two out of three of them earlier though and she knew if she went over there, she would be reluctant to leave their company. Maybe she'd have a drink with her friends and then go over.
"Callie?" George prodded her in the back, questioning.
"Yeah," she murmured before moving forward once again toward the bar. She sat down next to Meredith and ordered a beer.
"Today sucked," the dishwater blonde declared.
She chuckled. "Not for me, it didn't."
"That's because you're best friends with the only Attending that Bailey seems to like," Izzie pointed out. "And like is a strong word when it comes to Bailey."
"I wasn't even on Arizona's service today," Callie countered easily. "And my being friends with her doesn't make Bailey like me any more or less. I already asked."
"Of course you did," George smiled.
"It's important information to have," she reasoned playfully. "And Meredith, I thought you got in on one of Shepherd's surgeries." She received a knowing look in response. "Ah." They'd be talking about that later, it seemed. "Well, I helped Evans place a titanium rod into a guy's femur, and then I got to watch Sloan do a skin graft. So I had a great day."
"Save it, Torres," Grey groused.
Callie opened her mouth to reply, but paused when she felt a warm weight against her back. A funny mix of vanilla and mint wafted up into her nose and she knew instantly who it was. "Can I help you?"
She felt a puff of breathy laughter against her cheek. "Maybe later."
"Having fun?" She inquired, twisting around on her stool to face her slightly intoxicated friend.
"Yes," Arizona chirped brightly. Her and the guys hadn't gone out, just the three of them, in what felt like forever so she was having an awesome time. "I'm having a lot of fun kicking Derek's ass at darts. You should come play with me later."
The brunette took in twinkling, cornflower blue irises and the ever-present dimples, and allowed a bemused smirk to make its way onto her face. "That sounds promising," she flirted without thinking.
Arizona bit down on her bottom lip to keep her giggle from breaking free, but it didn't dampen the widening of her grin. She looked like she wanted so badly to continue with that line of banter, but decided to hold it in when she ducked her head bashfully for a second. "Did you have a good day?"
"I did," Callie said in low voice, watching the blonde through lowered lids. "I didn't see you though."
"I missed you, too," she said back, a muted tone of amusement in her voice.
"That was a bold leap." Callie was all but oblivious to the attention of her fellow interns at that point.
"No, not really," Arizona remarked confidently, happily. She reached behind Callie to grab her drink from Joe. "Come see me later," she requested, inclining her head in the direction of where Mark and Derek were seated as she began to back away.
"I will," Callie quickly promised. She didn't look back to her friends until after she watched Arizona take her seat next to Mark, and she found all three of them staring at her. "What? Do I have something on my face?"
"You're kidding, right?" Izzie deadpanned.
Callie just stared blankly. What was she talking about?
"You were flirting with her," Meredith supplied helpfully.
"Yeah…?" Callie wasn't sure what the big deal was. She and Arizona flirted all the time, but it didn't mean anything. That was just how they were with each other sometimes. "Alcohol makes her flirty and goofy when she's in a good mood. It's funny."
"You drink with her a lot?" George was curious.
"Well, I wouldn't say a lot. We have wine with dinner sometimes when we're not too tired to manage." Which was true, but more often than not, they both ate relatively quickly and fell into bed, or they ate while studying for surgeries and the intern exam (Callie) or writing, editing, and reviewing articles for medical publications (Arizona). "But I usually get in pretty late, even when she doesn't, and it's basically time for us to go bed."
"Us? So you two are sleeping together," Izzie exclaimed in a knowing manner.
Honestly if Callie had rolled her eyes any harder, she probably would have gotten a headache. "Yes, we sleep together in the same way that Meredith and Cristina sometimes sleep together."
"Oh," the blonde visible deflated.
"Why does everyone care about what I do or don't do with Arizona?" Callie wanted to know, feeling truly mystified.
"Well, a lot of people at the hospital think you're dating," Meredith told her. "You two are very tactile and smiley when you're around each other."
"And your personal space is practically nonexistent," George added.
The brunette scoffed a laugh at that. If she and Arizona were a real couple, they'd be a pretty boring one in her opinion. And she actually knew that people at the hospital thought that they were dating because last week, one of Arizona's scrub nurses told her how lucky she was to have 'snagged' Dr. Robbins. Callie had been so stunned she hadn't been able to correct the woman.
"We're not dating," she declared simply, rather than launching into all of the reasons why she and Arizona wouldn't be a real couple. "And we're not having sex with each other either. We are best friends, if there needs to be a title. Now, can we please talk about something else?"
And so they did, Cristina showing up not long after with a story about the surgery she had just scrubbed out of. The five young doctors spent the next couple of hours sitting at the bar and enjoying each others' company, while periodically quizzing each other on medical terms, procedures, and conditions. Although the intern exam was far off, they all firmly believed that it was never too early to start studying. Callie wasn't too worried though; she had always tested well because she had an incredible talent for coming up with good ways to study.
None of them really noticed how late it was getting because when they got together, they just seemed to lose track of time talking about pretty much anything. It was only when Callie turned to check on Arizona (for the umpteenth time that night, but who was counting?) and saw the small blonde jumping up and down, clapping with glee, before throwing herself into Derek's arms that she knew it was time to leave. The neurosurgeon seemed to be expecting it because he caught her easily without batting an eyelash.
To be honest, Arizona could have either been very drunk or just extremely tipsy. Any amount of alcohol turned her enthusiasm levels up to a thousand percent. Still, it was past midnight and she had to be up fairly early in the morning, so she said her goodbyes to her fellow interns and paid for her drinks so she could go over to her Attending friends and find out if she would be sleeping alone that night.
"Torres, wait," Alex called to her as she was standing up. He had shown up about an hour ago and though he wasn't very well liked, he was still one of them so they made somewhat of an effort to include him in their conversations.
"What?" She couldn't keep herself from snapping.
He smirked into his drink. "Does Robbins wear a frilly little nightgown to bed?" Ah, that put a downright wolfish grin on Callie's face, but she just shook her head. "Then what does she wear?"
The brunette couldn't stop her sly chuckle as she pulled her bag up on her shoulder. "Nothing," she sang merrily, walking away. She technically wasn't lying. Arizona had told her that she usually didn't wear anything to bed when she slept alone. But Karev didn't need to know that.
"What are you smiling at?" Mark inquired when she came up to their table.
She flushed and fixed her gaze on Arizona. "Nothing. Just… said something I probably shouldn't have, but it felt right to say it at the time."
The ENT was about to reply when Arizona finally noticed who had joined their trio. "Calliope! Hi," she giggled, bouncing up to her and standing right up against the taller woman. "Did you come to play with me?"
The Latina cocked her head to the side, biting her tongue to keep from laughing at how cute and accidentally (or maybe not) provocative mildly-drunk Arizona was being. "That depends on your definition of the word play."
Minutely darkened cobalt eyes narrowed for about half a second, and then the excitable woman was bouncing once again, which briefly messed with Callie's concentration for some reason. "Are we going home to play?"
Letting her head fall back on her shoulders, Callie raised her eyes heavenward and silently asked her lord and savior for the strength to rein it in. Her body shook with the effort she was exerting trying not to laugh. She didn't understand why she was so entertained. Nothing was funny. But Arizona was just so! She couldn't even explain it.
"What do you wanna play, Arizona?" She asked, genuinely curious about her fascination with playing.
The happy blonde shrugged her thin shoulders, giggling. "Something fun."
Descriptive, Callie thought wryly. "Like what?" She prompted, placing her hands on Arizona's waist.
"Whatever it is, you might wanna take it to your apartment, Torres," Mark interrupted them. "Nicole is on her way over."
He sure knew how to ruin her mood.
"That's okay. We can still play at your place," Arizona assured her, her brow furrowing in exaggerated sympathy. "Even though I have more games than you do."
"Thanks, Arizona," she chuckled. "How much have you had to drink?"
"Three," the pediatric surgeon answered absently, focusing her attention on smoothing her fingers through the intern's thick, dark mane.
"Three…?" She left the question open ended, looking to the two men for more information.
"She started off with wine," Derek offered. "But she likes to switch up after every drink so that's all I know."
"The second one was a vodka tonic," Mark added in, sounding certain. "And the last one might have been whiskey, but she finished it too quickly for me to be sure."
Dark coffee-colored eyes glanced down at her smaller friend. "You are full of surprises, aren't you?"
Arizona beamed a huge smile up at her. "Yes."
Ten minutes later the pair of women and Mark had just crossed the street to go home. Callie was holding Arizona's hand because Mark had a large, protective hand resting on the small of the blonde's back, which Arizona kept trying to wiggle away from, so she thought there might be cause for concern leaving Arizona to her own devices in the state she was in. Then again, Mark was just generally overprotective of the small surgeon, but she wasn't taking any chances.
When they walked into the building, they spotted Nicole lingering near the elevators. "Hey, Nicole's here," Arizona blurted as though she was announcing a new discovery.
The snort Callie released was completely by accident. "Honey, hush. You're a little loud," she spoke calmly, her mouth against the skin of Arizona's temple.
"That's never been a problem for you before," Arizona retorted archly, pouting just the tiniest bit.
Oh, she couldn't be that drunk if she was able to keep up with their whole charade.
"Funny," the junior surgeon made a show of rolling her eyes.
"Hey, Arizona," Nicole smiled after greeting Mark with a kiss. "Callie."
"Hi, Nicole," Arizona said amiably as the four of them stepped onto the elevator. "Callie says hi, too," she added when her fake girlfriend didn't say anything.
"Yeah, hi," Callie mumbled as an afterthought. She really hadn't planned on saying anything to Mark's not-girlfriend and to prevent her from having to say much else, she pulled Arizona to her so that her back was flush against Callie's front. Nuzzling her face into the smooth ivory skin of her pretend lover's neck, she wound both of her arms around Arizona's mid-section.
With the alcohol coursing through her system, Arizona was helpless to her body's reaction to Callie and the situation in general. Low-pitched giggles poured out of her in an almost endless stream as the raven haired woman lightly nipped at her neck and gently smoothed a palm across her ribcage. Her level of intoxication was more than enough to loosen her tongue, but not enough that it dull her senses; in fact, it appeared that they might have been heightened, if the light tingling she felt in her abdomen was any indication.
"Calliope," she managed to groan out, slowly rocking back on her heels.
"Hmm?"
Feeling the question vibrate into her flesh sent an alarming shot of arousal straight down the center of her body. It made her eyes shoot open, despite being unable to recall shutting them, and she felt herself rapidly sobering up by the second. "Bed," she croaked over the sudden lump in her throat. That wasn't even what she meant to say, but rather than making a second attempt, she just pointed forward while the elevator doors were opening, permitting them access to their floor.
"Good idea," Callie rasped out with a thick chuckle. Untangling herself from behind her companion, she snatched up a smaller, lighter hand in hers and marched toward her apartment.
"Someone's impatient," Arizona commented evenly, watching Callie hurry to pull out her keys.
"Eager," she corrected immediately, unlocking and opening the door in a smooth, swift motion. Without even waiting to bid the other couple goodnight, she yanked Arizona into her apartment and slammed the door behind them. "Now, you mentioned something about bed?"
Rolling her eyes, Arizona walked further into the apartment, nudging her friend on the way to the kitchen. "I was distracted. Leave me alone."
"I distracted you?" Callie grinned, following her but stopping across the other side of the kitchen island.
"Yes, Calliope," she said dryly, taking a bottle of water out of the refrigerator. "In case you forgot, I'm gay and you are…" she ran her tongue across her top row of teeth to stall for time because she wasn't about to say something weird and make everything uncomfortable. "… not unattractive."
"Oh, wow," Callie remarked sardonically. "That's the best you can do, Arizona?"
"Of course not, but I don't wanna say something and then have both of us wish I hadn't said it," she explicated warily, wanting to tread lightly with that topic.
"Because you're afraid I'm gonna read into it more because you're gay?"
Callie Torres, a good guesser.
"Something like that, yeah." Exactly like that. "I really like being your friend, Callie and I don't want you to misinterpret anything because of this whole fake girlfriend thing."
"Arizona, you don't ever have to worry about that," the brunette declared.
"I don't?"
"Of course not. I know that even if you are attracted to me, it doesn't mean anything more than that. I know I don't have to worry about you getting a crush on me or something like that," she told her, absolutely certain of her words. She knew Arizona would never be anything more than her friend. She was Arizona Robbins for god's sake, and Callie was just an intern. "And in the interest of full disclosure here, I'll confess that I actually really like kissing you."
"Well, yeah. I'm a fantastic kisser," the blonde retorted impishly before turning serious again. "But we understand each other, right? And we're― we're good?"
"Yeah, Arizona," Callie laughed quietly. "We're good. Now, can we go to bed?"
Arizona had just finished and scrubbed out of an eight hour long surgery that had saved the life of a ten year old when she was ambushed by Mark as she exited the scrub room. She knew exactly what he wanted to talk to her about and she knew the talk was long past overdue, but there wasn't much to say on her end.
"It's fine, Mark," she started to say before he could speak. "I'm fine about it and so is she. We came to an understand last night and everything is good, so I don't need a lecture."
"I'm hurt, Arizona," he feigned offense, placing a hand over his heart. "I don't lecture; that's Derek. I was just gonna make sure you know what you're doing."
"Of course I don't," she laughed. "I've never done this before, but like I said, we've talked. We've been talking and we'll keep talking for as long as this thing lasts. Speaking of which, you and Nicole―"
"Don't look into it," he cut her off, referencing the longevity of his situation with the redhead. "We're casual and we're just having fun."
"Okay," she shrugged, believing him.
"So I know you don't have time for an actual meal before your next surgery." The pair heard Callie before they saw her. During the course of their talk, they had made their way to an empty gurney that was sitting against the wall in the corner of the hallway. The intern was approaching them from the hallway adjacent to the way they were facing. "But I brought you some pasta salad from the cafeteria since I know you like it and it won't take too long to eat. Hey, Sloan."
"You take such good care of me," Arizona grinned cheekily, taking the container of food from Callie and scooting over so the taller woman could sit next to her.
"I do what I can," Callie replied, her voice coated with false modesty.
"You didn't bring me anything," Mark pointed out.
"I didn't know you were gonna be here," she excused herself. "But since you are here, how long do you think Nicole's gonna be around?"
"Why? You already sick of kissing Robbins already?" He smirked.
Both women glared at him, but Arizona spoke up. "He doesn't know."
"Why?" He asked again, looking to the Latina for an answer.
"Just curious," she lied. She honestly just didn't like Nicole. At all. She wanted her gone.
"What time do you get off?" Arizona wanted to know.
"Nine."
"Good. We can go home together," she smiled.
"What about me?" Mark was only a few notes shy of whining.
"You get off two hours before us," Arizona reminded him.
"Still," he insisted. "I don't like being the third wheel."
She scoffed so hard she almost choked on a piece of pasta. "You and Derek make me feel like a third wheel all the time. On purpose."
"That's different," he reposted. "You're a baby."
"That's not a viable argument, Mark," she cried, having heard that excuse be used as a trump card in countless disagreements between her and the guys.
"You're just mad 'cause you're a baby," he taunted.
She let out a high-pitched noise of frustration and turned her body away from him. "You are so annoying."
"You two are adorable," Callie stated, having observed the childish back-and-forth in amusement.
"Don't," Arizona said sharply, stabbing at her food.
A warm rush of affection blossomed in Callie's chest at the other woman's pouty, indignant demeanor. The minor downturn of her mouth, the light flush on her cheeks and neck, the little crinkle in her nose, the stubborn set of her chin. She was just so impossibly cute, Callie thought, considering nothing else when she leaned over and pressed a gentle kiss on the tip of her nose.
"Adorable," she repeated, keeping her gaze attached to Arizona's.
The blonde, shocked by the spontaneous kiss, could only gape back, transfixed by the deep, unguarded nature of Callie's stare. She could clearly see the unfiltered warmth shining in her eyes, and she so wanted to sink into that warmth and let it blanket over her. But that would be stupid for a multitude of reason, so she blinked and looked down at her pasta. "Fine."
Callie smiled, feeling triumphant for no real reason.
xXx
"Ugh, I'm so ready to go home," Callie groaned, several hours later as she and Arizona walked toward the lobby of the hospital. "I feel like I could sleep for a month."
"You have to eat first," Arizona said, knowing the exhausted woman hadn't eaten in last seven hours.
"But Arizona," she wailed, leaning heavily on her friend as they walked. "I'm so sleepy."
"You still have to eat first," the peds surgeon was unrelenting.
"But why?"
"You know why, Callie. You haven't eaten in a really long time."
"But I'm so sleepy."
"Oh, are you?" Arizona asked airily. "I hadn't heard."
"Don't be mean to me," Callie whimpered.
"Oh, my god," Arizona muttered under her breath.
"Arizona," she moaned again just because.
"Calliope, I swear to god," she expressed through puffs of light laughter.
"Goodnight, Meredith," Callie said when they got closer to the other intern, who was waiting in the lobby, probably for Derek.
"Night," Meredith waved. "You two doing anything tonight?"
"Arizona's going straight to bed." It was the head of neurosurgery who responded as he approached the three woman.
"Wow, thanks, Dad," the aforementioned woman intoned sarcastically.
"You worked a lot today," he told her as if she wasn't aware.
"You're right, she did," Callie agreed, knowing it irritated Arizona when Derek or Mark were too protective of her. "And so did I, so we're absolutely going straight to bed."
"After you eat," Arizona supplemented.
The brown eyed woman shot her a severe look.
Nobody noticed the impending, tall redhead until it was too late and her stunning blue-green eyes were fixated on Derek.
"Addison," Derek and Arizona whispered in unison.
"What are you doing here?" He questioned, his tone giving away nothing.
"Well, you'd know if you bothered to return any of my phone calls," the mysterious redhead retorted, and then turned toward the woman he had his arm around. "Hi, I'm Addison, and you must be the woman screwing my ex-husband."
Well, time has a way of
Throwing it all in your face.
The past, she is haunted.
The future is laced.
AN: I highkey almost made Addison Arizona's ex, but that would have severely limited how I was able to use her so I changed my mind, but y'all are in for such a surprise next chapter. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed.
Chapter Title and Lyrics: Big Black Car by Gregory Alan Isakov
Review, per favore.
~Elphaba C. Snow Thropp
