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CHAPTER SEVEN…TUESDAY…JANUARY 10, 2006
Seventy two hours…seventy two hours…that is how long I have been awake and on my feet working on surgeries…so many different surgeries. But now I am standing in the hot…hot shower in the women's locker room as every muscle in my body is aching. The hot shower is supposed to help with my aching muscles but the longer I stand under this hot cascade of water the more I just want to go home and go to sleep. For the last twelve hours, five of my intern colleagues along with myself and four residents and two attending orthopedic doctors build a young man some new legs.
You see, this young man is a bicycle messenger and was working late yesterday evening when a teenage mother was driving her car. As this mother was yelling at her three year old daughter to keep herself strapped in the car seat, this young teenage mother ran a red light and ran her car into the young bicycle messenger pinning him against her car and a nearby tree. Both the mother and daughter died on their way to the hospital but this young man is still alive this morning after the twelve of us ortho gods built him a new skeletonal framework and built him some new legs. I so love what I do as I say to my fellow ortho interns "we build bones out of nothing and legs like god" and they all laugh at my antics. When I finally reach my locker I see that I have messages on my phone from my friend in Baltimore.
Deciding on waiting until I arrive back at my condo to call Arizona so that I am in the comforts of my big ass bed, it takes only three rings to hear her sweet voice as she says "Calliope, what the hell took you so long to call me back…I was getting worried"? I smile and then laugh at my friend as I tell her about my last three days in the OR and the incredible surgeries that I have been a part of and I hear her say "Well then, all is forgiven". I lie back on my king sized bed and listen to my friend tell me about her dinner date that took place over three days ago as I just smirk into the phone and want to say to her so bad "I told you so" but I hold my tongue as I revel in the fact that I knew that I was right all along about that crazy bitch.
Then Arizona tells me about the conversation that she had with her brother as she tells me about the pact that they made all those years ago and I am experiencing some déjà vu with her story about her and her brother and this girl named Stephanie. This story begins to sound so much like my relationship with my sister and Ramon. So much so that it is starting to freak me out a little even though are stories are quite different and unique but all in all it still involves me and my sister and a man we both once slept with much like Arizona and Tim sleeping with the same woman but Arizona not knowing about Tim's involvement with Stephanie.
Laughing every once in a while at my friend's storytelling about how Joanne wanted to sleep with Arizona to compare her sexual experience with Tim against Arizona. Then with me getting a little pissed off at Joanne's reference to me as being called "dark meat" and Arizona apologizing profusely for Joanne's rude comment, I say to my friend "You have nothing to apologize for Arizona. Just because that woman is a racist bitch it has no reflection on you or how I feel about you". Then I come to a decision to tell my friend a little secret of my own when I say "Arizona, I would like to know if I can come for a visit to Baltimore around the first of March. I have something to discuss with you but I want to wait until I am sure of the outcome before I tell you. So my friend, may I come and see you in about seven weeks"?
With the sound of crying and whimpering coming over the phone lines I hear my friend say "Oh yes Calliope, I would love for you to come and visit me. I have missed you so much. Just tell me of your travel plans and I will take time off while you are here to show you around this great city". With the thought in my head of telling my friend that I have missed her so much too but then stopping myself because I do not want to complicate our friendship any further by telling my friend Arizona Robbins that I am falling madly and deeply in love with her at this time in our lives. Because I know deep down inside she feels the same way I do but my future plans may change everything…everything about our friendship and our future together. So for now I will just keep my feeling about my falling in love with my friend to myself and tell her when the time is right…if that time ever comes. Because a change is coming…a change I never saw coming…and when I find out for sure…there is only one person I want to share this change in my life with…and that is with my friend that I am falling in love with right now.
Calliope and I end our latest phone call as now all I am thinking about is how mysterious she is being about her reason for wanting to come for a visit and see me at the beginning of March. With this one thought overshadowing my consciousness this morning when I should be concentrating on my next surgery, I make my way to my mentor and boss's office to ask him for some time off. Dr. Norman McHale stands before me with that look on his face…that look that I have seen so many time in the past…that look of complete understanding that he has for me. But before he will answer my request for some time off the first week of March, he says he needs to talk to me about something important.
The good doctor stands from behind his enormously large walnut desk as he says to me "It is with great pride and honor today that I, Dr. Norman Douglas McHale, say to you Dr. Arizona Michelle Robbins congratulations as you are now the Chief Resident of the Pediatric Surgery Department at Johns Hopkins Hospital". I am so glad that I am sitting down because if I were standing I am positively sure that I would be laying passed out face first and flat down on the floor of my boss's office right now.
I stand before him to say a big and hearty "Thank you" as I extend my hand out to him for him to shake. As this man…this man I have respected for the last four years of my life…shakes my hand as he then says "There will be a formal dinner on Saturday January 21st at the Torres Hotel in downtown Baltimore to make this announcement properly but I wanted to be the one to tell you personally because Arizona I have loved working with you over these past years. You have become the inspiration that I have wanted every member of my pediatric staff to achieve. You are a great surgeon and someday you will be the head of your very own pediatric department whether it is here in Baltimore at Johns Hopkins or at any other hospital anywhere your heart takes you. I am so deeply proud of you and what you have accomplished here at Johns Hopkins and especially in Africa".
My friend…my mentor…walks around his massive desk as he wraps me up in his arms and gives me a proper hug of appreciation. Then once this precious moment is over, Dr. McHale says to me "Please by all means do not say anything to the rest of my staff about this matter as I want to tell them at the dinner on Saturday. Oh by the way, what is it that you wanted to talk to me about again"?
I then tell the good doctor "I will keep this announcement to myself as I would like to express my sincere thanks and gratefulness for this decision. I will make you proud sir and you will never regret your decision". Dr. McHale sits back down behind his desk as he smiles back at me and says "You have never been that doctor that I have ever regretted teaching, Arizona. It has been my pleasure being your teacher". Before I turn to leave his office I ask him "I know this may not seem like the right time to ask this after what you have just told me but do you think I could take a week off work at the beginning of March"?
This wonderful man…this caring man…says to me with a smile stretching across his hard and worn face "Does this have anything to do with the one and only Dr. Calliope Torres of Miami"? With my face blushing beet red and my mouth carrying the biggest smile possible, I do not have to say a word because my friend…my boss says to me "Of course you may have this time off to spend with your friend and tell Ms. Torres I said hello".
I am on cloud nine as I skip throughout the Peds ward of the hospital with my face smiling at everyone and my perkiness all aglow. Checking out the OR board and seeing my name on three different surgeries today, I decide to wait until later to call my family and friends about my new promotion since technically I am not really supposed to say anything just yet…not officially until Saturday. Hope I can contain this great news all to myself…but who am I kidding…I really have to tell someone.
So I see, by the time on the OR board, that I am not due in my first surgery for another hour I make the consciousness choice to let my fingers do the walking and press the first number on my cell phone. Within three rings the sweet voice I have been longing to hear for over a week now since I left Boston asks in her beautiful southern twanging voice "Hello baby girl, and what do I owe the pleasure of your call today"? I talk to my mother and my father, as he has picked up the extension in the study, for the next forty minutes or so until we all hear my pager buzzing.
I tell them of my new position here in the Peds department as I hear them cheering and congratulating me with all the love they have for me in this one phone call. I invite them both to come to the presentation on Saturday and to invite Tim as well. My mother says with all the excitement in her voice that she can muster "Your father and I cannot think of anywhere else we would rather be than with you on your night. But unfortunately your brother will not be able to attend this milestone. He has gone to Seattle to prepare for his upcoming employment at Seattle Grace Hospital. His friend Owen called three days ago and asked him to come to see what his new career will entail and he jumped at the chance and the first plane out of Boston. He is staying at our old house in Seattle and I am so sorry baby girl to tell you this way because I thought he would have called you and told you himself by now". I then tell my mother as I hear the melancholy in her voice at my brother's disconcern for not contacting me about his change of plans so quickly as I tell my mother and father "It's alright mama…daddy…we all knew he was going to leave us soon to begin his career in Seattle. I will call him later tonight and tell him of my good news as I congratulate him on his good news too. So then I will see you both this weekend".
I hurriedly end the call with my parents as my pager buzzes again and I run, I never walk, to the OR surgery room when my pager buzzes. Scrubbing my hands in the scrub room as I make my way into the OR and dry my hands off on a sterile towel that one of the many nurses in the OR hands me as another nurse gowns and gloves me. Walking over to stand opposite Dr. McHale as I listen to him when he begins to tell me about the patient laying on this table…this child…this little girl that has been sexually abused by her father…my thoughts of my new appointment are now gone from my mind as my only concern now is finding a way to save this little girl from the monster that she calls her daddy.
Dr. McHale along with Dr. Brennan, who is the main pediatric attending doctor on this case, and I save this little girl's life as the three of us walk out into the pediatric waiting room to inform the patient's parents. Dr. Brennan steps up to face the parents as Dr. McHale gestures for me and him to wait a step back. Dr. Brennan describes, in great detail, how this monster that has every right known to man to call himself this little eleven year old girl father viciously raped and sodomized his baby girl. That this man tortured his daughter so bad that even though the three of us doctors save her life that now her life will be filled with this one act of suffering from someone she loves. Dr. Brennan then says to the little girl's mother "You may go and see your daughter ma'am, she is in the Pediatric ICU but you sir will not be allowed to see her as long as she is my patient".
Dr. Brennan begins to turn to leave the presence of this vial man when he feels a hand grabbing his arm and spinning him back around. Before anyone one of us standing there can react to what is happening, Dr. Brennan does some sort of very cool ninja trick and pummels the father of this eleven year old rape victim to the ground.
Holding the father in some kind of choke hold as Dr. McHale and I hear Dr. Brennan whisper in the man's ear "Just want you to know that when you trial comes up that I will be the one sitting in the witness chair explaining in great detail to the jury about what you did to your daughter today. So take a long hard look at my face you worthless piece of shit because this is the face that will be sending you sorry ass to jail for hopefully the rest of you sad and miserable life. So if you want to retaliate some revenge for what I am about to do you and your life then by all means look me up and find me because I would like nothing better than to kill you myself in about a hundred different ways. Who knows, maybe if you are stupid enough to take me up on my offer, I will torture you in the same manner that you tortured that beautiful little girl".
The security officers from the hospital arrive in the nick of time before Dr. Brennan settles the score with the father with his own brand of justice. Dr. McHale and I help Dr. Brennan up off the floor as I leave the two men to discuss what just happened and take the little girl's mother to the Pediatric ICU.
This day has finally come to an end. I am sitting in my apartment, after taking a long hot shower, sipping a glass of white wine eating General Tso's chicken with white rice and broccoli. I check my phone for any messages and see that my brother has returned my voice mail message from earlier in the day as he now too has left me a voice mail message. I click on the feature on my cell phone that replays my messages as I hear his manly voice say "Hey sis, sorry I have not called you to tell you of my plans but in my defense I have been pretty busy watching and consulting on some amazing surgeries. Teddy and Owen have been wonderful helping me get settled in...especially Teddy. Mom tells me that you have some great news to share so call me back when you get a minute and we will play some catch up. I love you Arizona and miss the hell out of you so call me back when you can".
Tim answers my return call on the first ring as I hear him say "Arizona" with such enthusiasm as it makes me giggle a little and I say back to him "Hello Timothy". For the next hour and a half my brother and I talk and catch up on our fascinating lives. Because of the three hour time difference it is only seven o'clock in Seattle as my brother tells me he is getting ready to take Teddy out to dinner tonight after her shift that ends around nine. I make the sly comment "So this Teddy woman…you getting serious with her big brother"? I then hear my brother say with a hint of trepidation in his voice "Yea…me and this Teddy woman…Arizona…she makes me feel…she just makes me feel again".
Finishing off my glass of wine after talking to my brother as he arrives at Seattle Grace Hospital lobby to pick up his dinner date…the new woman in his life named Teddy…my thoughts drift off to five years ago. Five years ago when on June 9, 2001, three weeks before my big brother was due to marry the love of his life…or so he thought…his whole world came crashing to a halt. Tim's wife to be was on every news channel across the country as she and four other family and friends successfully robbed a bank but not before shooting a teller and killing her on their way out the door.
In less than twenty four hours Aimee and her two brothers and two of her brothers friends were caught by the Boston Police Department and the United States Border Patrol as they were all trying to escape into Canada. Aimee's trail lasted almost nine months as each individual member was tried separately. Each member was found guilty by a jury of their peers as the judges for each trial considered each of their sentences very carefully because during the course of each trial, not one member took responsibility for their actions in the murder of the young teller, a mother of two small children. The judges sentenced Aimee and her two brothers along with their two friends to a life of imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
My brother…my dear sweet older brother…by four years…who like the rest of Aimee's family and friends…had no clue of her and her brothers secret double lives, sat every day in that courtroom that tried and convicted his fiancé for nine months watching testimony after testimony and picture after picture and description after description as the prosecuting attorney portrayed Aimee as a cold blooded and heartless murderer. Aimee never once apologized for what she had done and she never looked at my brother the whole time he sat in that courtroom. It wasn't until the day of Aimee's sentencing that she even acknowledged him being in the same courtroom for all those months.
After the judge handed down Aimee's sentence and she was taken by the Suffolk County Sheriff's Department back to her cell to await transport to the Secure Female Facility at the United States Penitentiary in Hazelton West Virginia. But it was Aimee's mother who came up to my brother in the courtroom to hand him her daughter's engagement ring. Then on March 20th 2003, two years after Aimee was sentenced to prison and the day after President George W. Bush declared war in Iraq, my big brother joined the United States Marine Corp as a trauma surgeon.
The back of my head resting on the top of the sofa as I have drifted off to sleep when I hear the opening crescendo of the Van Morrison song "Brown Eyed Girl" blaring across my living room. I have set this song to play whenever my friend Calliope calls my phone. I rapidly collect the phone off the coffee table in front of my sofa and push the talk button as I say to my friend "Hey you, how's my favorite orthopedic surgeon tonight"? Calliope lets out a small chuckle and says "I had better be your only favorite ortho surgeon my friend".
Talking to my very good friend for the next hour or so, we talk about the cases we have been working on lately along with me telling Calliope about my brother's new place of employment and his move to Seattle. Just as we are about to end our call I almost forget to tell her about my new position at Johns Hopkins and all of the details of dinner and the official announcement a week from Saturday. With the sound of Calliope's cheering me on and wishing me well as the new chief resident of the Pediatric Surgery Department, we say our goodbyes for the evening as we both notice the clocks on our walls showing it is past midnight and we both have to be at work at six in the morning but before we hang up our phones on each other my friend says to me with so much love and admiration in her voice "I am so very proud of you Arizona".
Saturday…January 21, 2006…The Announcement Dinner…
Walking in to the formal dining room inside The Torres Hotel in downtown Baltimore on the arms of my mother and father as the three of us are escorted to our table is becoming a humbling experience for me. Once we arrive at our designated table I properly introduce my parents to Dr. Norman McHale and his wife Betsy and to Dr. David Brennan and his wife Jennifer. After having an exquisite dinner and even a more exciting series of conversations between the seven of us, I look around the dining room at the other professional medical staff of doctors and nurses from Johns Hopkins who are here to congratulate me on this very special achievement.
With dessert being served, my parents and I listen to the countless people telling stories about me and my journey to reach this point in my life. Then my mentor, Dr. Norman McHale stands from our table as he reaches his hand out to me from across the table and says "Ready Arizona" and I take his hand in mine and say "Yes sir, I am" as we walk towards the stage. With an array of stilled photographs being displayed on the big movie like screen behind me of me and my travels throughout my internship and residency, I stand off to the left a bit of Dr. McHale as he stands at the podium telling the audience of my adventurous journey.
Listening to my mentor speak about me and all my accomplishments on this grand stage, I take a peek at the screen behind me for a moment to look at some of the photographs. I cannot believe what I am seeing right now as I stare at the one picture that I did not even know anyone had taken. It is a picture of me and my friend Calliope Torres in Botswana. It is a simple picture…a simple picture of two women helping the children of this African country learn how to play soccer.
I totally forgot about day…this one afternoon…this day of fun that we are sharing with the healthy children of this African village of Francistown after we helped them with the virus that spread throughout their village. Then as the next picture comes into view I hear Dr. McHale say my name as he introduces me to the audience. I stand before my mentors, my peers and my colleagues as I say a heartfelt and warm "Thank you". After I finish my infamous Robbins speech to the medical staff from Johns Hopkins Hospital, I place my arm into the awaiting arm of my mentor as he leads me off the stage. Both of us are walking down the long flight of steps with the spotlight still in my eyes as I hear Dr. McHale congratulate me again on my success. Just before as we both reach the bottom of the stairs, I see this gorgeous raven haired beauty of Latin heritage in a beautiful flaming red dress as I say "Calliope" in a questioning tone.