Chapter 15
"Did they deliver the furniture yet?" Arizona asks.
"That is your first question out of recovery?" Amelia asks the blonde.
"I can't go home to an empty place, and I don't plan on staying here any longer than necessary." She explains.
"Wilson is over there now waiting for them. I can't believe you didn't reschedule that delivery." The brunette counters.
"I didn't want to take a chance on it not being delivered and set up in time for me to get released. And I don't want you to have to do it, because I want you here, with me." She says smiling brightly, patting the bed for her girlfriend to come closer.
"Arizona, you're just out of post-op..." Amelia says.
"Whatever. Come here, just for a minute." The blonde ask sweetly.
Climbing onto the bed carefully, Amelia has to admit, she loves being close to her again. It was difficult sitting in the gallery while Callie and Edwards performed the Targeted Muscle Reinnervation surgery. Ironically, this whole process will require Arizona to go through rehab and everything again. Callie was fairly worried about her ex, remembering how difficult it was for her the first time, but they discussed it several times and it's obvious that Arizona is in a much better space this time around.
"How's our patient?" Callie says entering the room, a little nervously. It took her a minute to decide to interrupt when she approached and saw the two women side by side on the bed. This is still quite new territory for Callie and Arizona, and everything they are doing right now depends on all of them remaining steady in their relationships.
"I'm good. No nausea, slight throbbing sensation pulsing through the surgical site, but it's fine." Arizona says grimacing slightly.
"Uh huh," Callie says walking around the bed to examine the site more closely. She knows this patient too well. She has an incredibly high pain tolerance. Glancing up at her blood pressure, Callie makes notes, then reaches over and pushes the morphine button.
"Hey! Callie, I don't need..." Arizona yells at her.
"Yes Arizona, you do need it!" Callie yells back at her. "At least right now you do, don't forget that I know you and I am not going to let you sit there in excruciating pain." The 'this time' is understood by both of them.
"I'll be back in a few hours. Amelia would you come outside a moment?" Callie says turning to leave.
"Calliope, you will stay in here and talk about this in front of me." Arizona says, her eyes growing heavy.
Pausing a moment, Callie shrugs and says, "Okay Arizona, we'll talk here."
"G-goo-d, d-don't lea-ve me out." She says nodding off from the morphine.
"Dr Shepherd?" Callie says smiling", "come out side?"
"I know that we spoke about this before, but I want to remind you that we need to watch for signs of PTSD. Anything can trigger it, a wound check, rehab, hell the morphine could do it." Callie says worried about her ex.
"Callie, I know the signs. She's doing really well right now. I took today off and I'm going to stay here with her until my shift starts tomorrow morning. Then it's Kepner's day off and she's going to spend it with her. So it's covered. We've got this." Amelia says reaching out to squeeze Callie's arm. "How are you doing?" Amelia asks, still holding on to the Latina's arm.
"I-I'm fine. I just had a moment there when I saw the pain in her eyes, just a flash back to before and I just can't see her like that again." She says wiping tears from her eyes. "This has to work. It's going to work, right?"
"This is groundbreaking stuff, it's totally going to work!" Amelia says confidently, reaching up to pull the taller women in for a hug.
Pulling back, Callie chuckles. "This is pretty weird, right?" She says, a bit embarrassed at being comforted by her ex's girlfriend.
"Only if you let it be." Amelia says simply, before turning and heading back into sit beside the blonde's bed.
"Right." Callie says to herself.
"Okay, so how did it go?" Addison asks as she enters the Ortho doctor's office.
"It went well, it looks good. We just to make sure there are no signs of infection and then we can implant the electrodes." Callie says showing obvious signs of relief.
"Cal, were you worried?" Addie asks moving a chair over to sit knee to knee with her.
"Oh not about the procedure. I was, am worried about this whole process triggering her PTSD."
"We talked about that and Arizona went to the therapy sessions. Callie, are you sure it's not triggering you?" Addison says leaning back in the chair.
"Oh, well that is possible." Callie says slumping down into her chair and dropping her head into her hands.
Pulling her into her arms, Addison pats her back. "It's okay Callie. She's going to be fine. I just saw her and she's laughing and eating jello."
Pushing her friend away, Callie flashes angry eyes. "Fucking perfect." She says storming across the room.
"What the hell Torres?" Addison says jumping up to follow her across the room.
"I'm a goddamn mess and she's fine?" Callie says spinning around angrily.
Chapter 16
"I'm not sitting here all day April. Come on, get me a wheelchair and let's go down the cafeteria for lunch or something?" Arizona has only been in the hospital bed for one day and she's ready to get out.
"Arizona, let's at least get you sitting up first. You don't even know if you can tolerate that yet." Kepner says trying to be a friend and a doctor.
"Whoa, what are you doing?" Callie asks sharply from the doorway.
"I'm sitting up." Arizona says proudly.
"You're sitting up and out of bed, Arizona. I haven't ordered that yet. Where's Kepner?" Callie asks annoyed.
"I sent her to get me wheelchair. I need to get out of this room Callie. It's boring in here." Arizona says simply, flashing a sweet smile.
"That doesn't work on me any more Arizona." Callie says pointing her finger at the blonde. "You're not leaving this room yet. Your site is still open and healing. God only knows what you could get exposed to outside of this room." Turning around, she walks over to door and spies Kepner coming down the hall with the wheelchair.
Looking up as she rounds the corner, April sees Callie Torres coming towards her. "You won't be needing that today. She is not to leave that room. Are you crazy? She has an open wound!"
"I know." Kepner says, "But, but, she's super persuasive."
"Yes, but you're a doctor Kepner." Callie reminds her.
"Okay, how about if I go to the nursery and get Sofia and Zola, gown them up and bring them in to watch movies with her? That would settle her down, right?" Kepner asks.
"Probably. But do me a favor and get Grey's approval before you kidnap her daughter from daycare, okay?" Callie says walking off.
Approaching her girlfriend's room, Amelia is surprised to see the lights out and the door shut, then she hears the singing.
"What's going on in here?" She asks slipping into the room, just as the last part of "Let It Go" is sung out.
"Aunt Amy!" The brunette is greeted by Zola and Sofia.
"Hey girls, what are you doing up here?" Amelia asks looking over at April.
"I had to do something, she was threatening to break out of here in a wheelchair!" April explains.
"Well, I think maybe it's time for the girls to go back downstairs." Amelia says looking over at Arizona and seeing pain in her eyes.
"Nooo." The two girls say in unison.
"Girls, I'm sorry but Momma needs a nap Sofia. And Zola isn't it time for you to get back to daycare and check on your brother?" Amelia suggests trying to distract them.
"Okay, Momma you take a nap and be better." Sofia says, sliding off the hospital bed like a champ with Zola right behind her.
"April will you take them back to daycare?" Amelia asks.
"Yes, of course. Can I bring either of you back anything?" She asks taking each of the girls by a hand.
"No, I've got a an hour break in my schedule, so you can take your time coming back, I know it's your day off." Amelia offers.
"Goodbye girls! Mwah!." Arizona says blowing them kisses.
Walking around the bed, Amelia reaches down for the morphine pump and hits the button.
Arizona looks at her and pouts. "You're as bad as Callie." She says annoyed.
"Because neither of us want to see you laying here in pain? Yeah, we are literally the worst." She says sarcastically, making her way back around the bed and climbing in beside her. "Now come here." Amelia says pulling her in wrapping around her.
"This site looks perfect Arizona. Are you sure that you're okay for us to implant the electrodes today?" Callie asks as she examines the healing wound.
"Yes, yes, let's do it." The blonde says excitedly. After three days in the hospital, she is eager to keep this moving forward so she can be released soon.
"Okay, Dr Shepherd will back in soon with the peripheral nerve interface to verify that the nerves are all healing and viable for the electrode implantation." Callie explains. "We have the implantation scheduled for this afternoon. Now remember there's no general anesthesia, just local. Are you positive that your pain level is down enough for this Arizona?"
"Yes, Dr Torres. The pain is minimal, I am fine. Let's stay on schedule." Arizona says flashing annoyance at her ex.
Wheeling in the interface equipment, Amelia notices that she's interrupting something.
"What's going on? Is everything okay?" She asks concerned.
"Everything is awesome Dr Shepherd. Let's do this!" Arizona says turning to smile sweetly at Amelia.
"You're such an ass." Callie says rolling her eyes and walking out of the room.
Raising an eyebrow at her girlfriend, Amelia crosses her arms and waits.
"Ugh, she makes me crazy, always second guessing me and not trusting me to accurately assess my pain." Arizona exclaims in frustration.
"Seriously, that's your argument?" Amelia says laughing at her.
"Don't laugh at me!" The blonde cries out.
Waving the nurse in, Amelia watches as she moves in to attach the electrodes to connect Arizona up to the monitor.
Confused, Arizona grabs the nurse's hands for a second. "Amelia what is this?" The blonde asks.
"Arizona, we are putting you on the monitors, so that we can check your blood pressure and heart rate while we perform the peripheral nerve interface measurements." Amelia explains calmly. "This way I will not have to rely on you to tell me when you're in pain. I'll just look at the monitors."
"I control the pain with biofeedback Dr Shepherd, I assure you that this isn't necessary." Arizona replies firmly annoyed.
"Well now, the neurologist can be the judge of that, can't she?" Amelia says confidently.
Reviewing the test results in the conference room with Derek on a web connection, Callie and Amelia are still concerned about the patient's pain levels.
"If this was any other patient would you really have the same concerns?" Derek asks them.
Looking at each other, they both look down.
"Biofeedback is a valid way to control pain and your tests show that she is fairly successful at it. Honestly, I don't see a problem with moving forward. In fact, I'm encouraged that she may have an advantage over our other patients." Derek adds.
Snapping her head up, Callie looks over to Amelia. "I hadn't considered that. You're right Derek. She already is using her pain and nerve centers to control her pain, it's just one more step for her to take to control her movements.
The rest of the review concludes rather quickly and Callie goes to make sure the equipment is set up in the OR correctly, while Amelia goes to see Arizona.
"Hey." Amelia says softly standing in the doorway.
"Hey. What's the verdict, Dr Shepherd?" She says tiredly.
"I've come to prep you for surgery." The brunette says smiling.
"Oh thank god!" Arizona exclaims pushing herself up into a sitting position. "Or should I say Derek?"
Walking over to the bed, Amelia puts her hands on the end of it and says, "You called him didn't you?"
"Um, why do you ask?" Arizona asks warily.
"He was a bit too prepared to discuss your biofeedback abilities." Amelia replies suspiciously.
"Amelia, I really haven't talked to Derek today." Arizona says laughing. "After Owen tried to get me to do biofeedback when I was dealing with the phantom limb issues and it didn't work. I later talked to Derek about it and he helped me understand it more clearly and with his help, I was able to learn to do it more effectively." Arizona explains. "Without it, I'd never have made it through my fetal fellowship and so many long surgeries."
Moving around to sit in the chair closest to the bed, Amelia smiles at her and shakes her head. "You continue to surprise and amaze me."
Quickly swinging her body around to face the brunette in the chair, Arizona reaches out her hands and tilts her head before asking, "Do you know what would be really awesome right now?"
Hesitantly, Amelia looks down at the blonde. "What?"
"Standing up and wrapping my arms around you. That would be freaking amazing right now." Arizona says softly.
"Okay but just for a second." Amelia says, bending down to help her stand up. She wobbles for a moment and then leans over and wraps her arms around the brunette.
"Hmm, perfect." Arizona whispers softly into her hair.
"Ahem, Dr Shepherd?" Addison says from the door.
"Shut it Addison." They both say together.
"Fine, Amelia and Arizona." Ignoring them and walking in anyway, Addison steps in and takes Arizona's arm and wraps her arm around her waist. "Dr Shepherd is here to prep you for your next procedure. If you want to hang on someone, you can hang on me!" She says smiling at them.
"Thanks, but really, not the same." Arizona says scrunching up her face.
