Author's Note - I can't deny them any longer.
A Better Woman
Having just completed my seemingly endless week of graveyard shifts, I made my way up to the changing rooms to get out of my scrubs. It was now... 6am and the corridors were silent, except for my footsteps echoing down the hall. I quickened my pace as I relished the idea of spending the whole day catching up on some much needed sleep.
I pushed the door wide open and caught sight of a figure sat in the corner of the dark room, with its knees brought up to its face, forming a tight ball. I immediately knew that my long awaited sleep marathon would have to wait a little while longer but despite being exhausted and emotionally drained, I felt a sudden burst of energy surge through my veins and I launched into a tirade that I had been rehearsing in my head for the last couple of days.
"I don't get it! I -"
The shadow lifted its head to look at me and I heard its familiar voice.
"Don't get what?"
I hadn't anticipated the interruption and I lost my train of thought. Trying to buy myself a little more time, I turned and flicked on the switch. Light flooded the room, illuminating Arizona's face and revealing her confused frown. I took a second to catch my breath - I never knew pigtail braids could be so... So hot.
"This! Us!" I hesitated as Arizona stood up and took a few paces closer to me, "You like me and I like you. Why are we together yet?!"
Arizona's frown transformed into a puzzled and somewhat irritated expression.
"Because Calliope, we are not children. Relationships are more complicated than the whole 'you like me and … I like you'."
"Well what's complicated about us? We don't even have a relationship to make complicated! You should stop denying us something that could be so great, that's so inevitable to happen!"
"Calliope..."
"No." I cut her off rudely, "We both know it's going to happen. Just. Take. The. Freaking. Candy."
She averted her gaze to the floor and refused to meet my eye.
"I just need... Reassurance."
"About what?" I furrowed my brows and folded my arms angrily across my chest.
"You really can't remember anything from the party can you?"
God, I knew that was going to come back and bite me on the ass. I shook my head slowly and began apologising profusely but she hushed me with a heavy sigh, before reluctantly filling in the gaps in my memory.
But perhaps I wasn't as drunk as I thought I had been. It seemed like my brain only needed a gentle nudging before the memories came flooding back. Was it possible that I had subconsciously shunned the incident to the back of my head?
I giggled flirtatiously as I pushed Arizona down onto the bed. I ran my hands through her long blonde hair as I leaned over her and lowered myself so that our lips were almost touching, but I pulled away as soon as I felt her body move into mine.
She let out a long sigh but her lips had already curved into a smile. I flipped my hair back and desperately tugged at the sides of my shirt. Successfully lifting it over my head, I threw it carelessly to the side and looked at her longingly.
We were frozen, locked in a long gaze but a sudden look of panic flashed over her eyes and before I knew it, she had tossed me off of her and was hastily putting my shirt back on me, cursing angrily to herself.
I stood deathly still until she finished. Now I understood - why she had been angry at herself, why she had been avoiding me and why she was now hesitant to embark on a relationship with me.
"Do you get it now? H-how do I know you're not just looking for a hookup?... Maybe you're just some straight chick looking for an experiment? And-and-and, we work together Calliope, what if it doesn't work out, then... Because I swear if you're just looking for a fling I'm going to come find you and kick your arse. I-I-I invest everything in a relationship. I do not want that to go to waste and..."
She was speaking so fast that her words were beginning to mash together and her sentences were getting mangled. Who knew someone could be in such a panic and still be as cute as she was right now?
"... Don't want to get on a ship that's just going to sink…"
I had so many responses in my head to questions but I couldn't bring myself to interrupt her in the middle of all this adorableness.
She took a large breath that indicated the end of her rant and although I knew she was expecting a response with equal affliction, I calmly placed both hands on her shoulders and smiled at her confused expression.
"Let's just take this... One step at a time, ok? I want to be on this ship with you Arizona, knowing that there's a possibility of it sinking, but we're going to protect it. We're going to do everything we can to keep it afloat." My hands curled tighter around her arms, "This is our ship."
I leaned in to place a kiss on her cheek, she closed her eyes and her dimples appeared.
"Our ship."
Home
"Alright, Torres," Mark smacked down his newspaper, folded his arms as I entered the kitchen and adopted his best fatherly tone, "what are you up to now?"
"Hhmm?"
"You, you're up to something. You're grinning like the Cheshire cat, so spill."
I shrugged off his question.
"Do you want to do something today? Oooh let's go out for breakfast - no lunch! Oh wait, what about dinner?!"
"Ok seriously Callie, are you alright? You just got home from a late shift. It's..." He glanced at his watch, "Barely 7am. Did someone spike your coffee or something?"
He was right. It was customary to follow up a late shift with a long sleep but I didn't feel like I needed it anymore. In fact, it felt like I had been woken from a deep slumber. I felt fresh and energised, totally invigorated.
"Callie? Callie stop doing that, you're weirding me out."
I hadn't realised that my face had been frozen into a smile the entire time.
"I can't help it!"
Mark pushed himself out of his seat and approached me. He squeezed my cheeks hard and I let out a yelp.
"There, that fixed that." He smirked as I grimaced, "I'm off to work, catch you later."
He pushed past me and I heard the front door slam.
My lips automatically curled back up into a smile.
"She got her candy! She got her candy!" I said, clapping excitedly.
A couple of days passed and I had still not seen Arizona since our meeting in the changing rooms. Sure, she was a busy bee, but I thought it was strange to not have seen her up in the paeds wing or in the cafeteria at lunch.
But one afternoon, I saw Arizona bobbing her head up behind the huge mass of people, evidently looking for someone. When she caught sight of me, she returned my smile with a grin and skipped over towards us. Mark pulled out a chair for her as she sidled up to our lunch table.
"Hey, you guys, what are you two doing for Christmas?"
I looked at Mark and he looked back at me. Was it almost Christmas already?
Mark opened his mouth to speak but she carried on before he could properly respond.
"Great. You guys are coming over for the day. Teddy and I are going to cook you Christmas dinner. No. Excuses."
Our eyes widened simultaneously. We had not forgotten the time Teddy had tried to cook for us, but as we both started to voice our objections, Arizona wagged her finger up at us.
"No. Excuses." Arizona put her hand on mine and squeezed it tightly, "See you guys later."
I could feel Mark's eyes watching me as I watched her disappear out of the cafeteria.
"Ooookkk... So what was that?"
When I was sure she had definitely gone, I turned back and shrugged casually.
"What was what?"
Mark rolled his eyes, "Don't play dumb with me Torres, are you and Blondie...?"
"I think so."
He lifted up his tray and playfully punched me in the arm, "Atta girl Callie! See ya."
The people around me must have thought me mad, because nothing could wipe the massive beaming grin off my face.
Home
The remaining weeks till Christmas went by quickly and before I knew it, the day had arrived. Arizona and I had come to the agreement to wait until after the festivities to have our first "official" date.
"Morning! Merry Christmas."
Mark pushed open my bedroom door carrying a food tray. Breakfast in bed was part our traditional Christmas morning.
I moved over to accommodate Mark in my bed. He handed me a mug of coffee and reclined against the headboard.
"Nervous?"
"What's there to be nervous about?"
"Oh, nothing, I thought Arizona's parents were coming over or something?" Mark said, casually.
"What?"
I had been under the impression that I would be spending Christmas with my two good friends and my girlfriend (wait, am I allowed to refer to her as my girlfriend? I made a mental note to find out), but it seemed as though other guests would be in attendance...
"... But that'll be fine. You've already met them, haven't you?"
I guess that was true, I had already met them as Dr. Callie Torres, but not Callie Torres, your daughter's 'girlfriend'. And besides, we had only been 'dating' for a couple of weeks, and in those weeks we had had barely any time to see each other - it just seemed a little bit premature to meet her parents already.
Teddy and Arizona's House
We walked up the path to their house and Mark turned to me in a panic.
"I smell burning."
He darted up to the door and hammered it repeatedly. Arizona opened the door and very narrowly missed getting punched in the face by Mark's fist.
"Happy Christmas!" She held her arms open to hug him, but he muttered his greetings and thrusted a bag full of wine bottles into her hand before pushing past her and running into the kitchen.
She shot a little scowl to the back of his head and kept her arms open to hug me.
"Hello, you!"
"Hey."
She planted a kiss on my cheek and ushered me into her home, leading me into the kitchen.
"Well those are all ruined. And you can't possibly servethat! Gimme that. Let me show you."
In the space of two minutes, he had dominated the whole situation in true Mark style. It wouldn't be long before Teddy started barking "yes chef" at him.
Having said my hellos to Teddy, Arizona shut the kitchen door behind us and let me into the living room, which had now been decorated, even the already glittery pink unicorn had been wrapped in tinsel. I could tell Arizona took Christmas very seriously (well at least, on the decoration front). She was dressed in a festive red dress that made me a little weak at the knees, and of course, any of Arizona's outfits wouldn't be complete without a silly accessory, a little elf hat.
"Catch!"
She tossed me over a matching hat. I cracked out into a laugh, but it faded away when I realised Arizona was being serious. I hesitantly put on the hat and saw the smile form on her face. If putting on this frankly ridiculous hat meant I could see those dimples, I would never take that darn thing off.
"Arizona..." I said, uneasily, "You never said your parents were coming..."
She cocked her head to the side.
"Does that make you nervous?"
I frowned, "Well, yeah."
"Calliope," She took my hand in hers and stroked her thumbs along my knuckles, "it's just dinner. I'm not going to introduce you as my girlfriend, because this isn't the official 'hey Mum, hey Dad, this is my girlfriend' meeting, ok?"
My voice caught. "I'm your girlfriend?"
Arizona pursed her lips together and screwed up her nose, "Yes, well... I thought you -"
I jerked my hand away from hers and wrapped my arms around her and she copied me so that we were in a tight tangled embrace. We both instinctively leaned in and our lips became locked in a passionate kiss. As we both rested our foreheads on each other's, I breathed in the smell that was so indescribably Arizona. It was as if it was the antidote to all my worries, my afflictions and my burdens - so long as I was wrapped up in Arizona's arms, and she in mine, I didn't have a single care in the world. I didn't care what anyone had to say about us. No one could tell me that we were acting "against God's will" or being "unnatural" because nothing I have ever done has felt as natural as my being with Arizona.
