Disclaimer: Not mine.
A/N: ....And here is the moment you have all been waiting for! Sort of. Have fun. (:


The Scars to Prove It.
Chapter 8 : That's Alright

Callie finishes setting the bone and steps out of the room. Her plan is to take a quick trip to the bathroom when someone behind her calls, "Dr. Torres!" and she promptly stops. She turns around on her heel and comes face-to-face with the redheaded nurse she saw with Arizona. What in the hell could she want?

"Yes?" Callie asks, trying to keep the anger and annoyance out of her voice. Stay professional, Torres, she tells herself.

"Dr. Robbins and I--" she begins, but she doesn't get the chance to finish.

Callie feels the anger swell in her the very second Arizona's name comes out of the other woman's mouth. She really, really does not have the time or the patience to deal with this right now. "Who the hell are you?" she demands.

"Amber Elliot," the redhead replies coolly. She continues as though the interruption didn't bother her, "I just think you should know that what you had with Dr. Robbins is over now. It's time that you back off."

There's a second there that Callie wonders if this woman is hearing her own words. Were they back in the seventh grade or something? "I need to back off?" Callie repeats. "I need to back off? I was there when she told me it was over, okay? I think I know better than you do, Nurse Elliot." She spits the redhead's name out with more spite and contempt than she can ever remember using before - well, a certain Izzie Stevens may have gotten the same kind of treatment a few years ago.

Amber scoffs. "Just remember that, Dr. Torres, and we'll be fine," she says before turning and walking away.

Callie glares at the redhead's retreating figure. She sighs, shakes her head, and turns back to go the bathroom. It's not like Arizona cares anyway, right? She shouldn't have listened in that on-call room. She shouldn't have been foolish enough to believe the words that came out of the blond's mouth. She was right to begin with.

"I was almost looking forward to a fight," a voice says from behind her, and she knows who it is before she even turns around. When she does, though, she finds Jose is walking towards her. "You haven't gotten in one since about middle school, have you? Good to know that you at least remember that lesson." He smirks.

"What are you still doing here?" Callie demands, trying to keep her gaze as steady as she can. The last thing she needs is to falter and give him yet another reason to do what he does.

"Giving you this." Jose slides a slip of paper into her hand. She looks at it quickly, her eyes scanning over the address written there. "As soon as you get off," he orders, "you meet me there. Okay?"

She merely glares at him, crumpling the paper in her hand and letting it fall to the ground before turning and walking towards the bathroom.

"I'll wait at your apartment, then," he says easily. She turns to face him in a heartbeat. Are they ever going to let her go?

"What?"

"I'll wait at your apartment," he repeats.

She walks back over to him and picks the paper off the ground. She wouldn't put it past him to know where her apartment is, and she knows very well that he can pick a lock. "As soon as my shift is over," she agrees reluctantly. He smirks, knowing he's won, and nods. Callie bites her lip as he walks away.

What has she gotten herself into?

Room 206.

She reads it over and over again, the messily written address imprinting itself into her brain. Why does he want her to go to this hotel, to see him outside of the hospital, so badly? It's where he's staying, obviously, and there's more chances for him to hit her, but there has to be more than that. He's always had his reasons, his backstory, when he hit her. The reasons never justified it, at least not to her, but they were still there. There has to be more to this situation. It isn't adding up. She has to be missing something.

All needs for the bathroom have been forgotten as she stares at the white slip of paper. The noises of the hospital are not quite reaching her ears and the people walking up and down the hallway she's standing in may as well not exist. Every ounce of concentration Callie has left is being used on this small amount of information.

A hand comes to rest on her shoulder and her head snaps up to look at the culprit as she jumps in surprise. There stands a very confused-looking Arizona, focused on the same piece of paper.

"Room 206, Mason Hotel?" Arizona reads. "What's that for, Calliope?"

Callie shrugs, shoves the paper into her pocket, and eyes Arizona warily. Besides Jose, the only thoughts running through her mind right now are of Amber and Arizona. Nurse Amber Elliot did not seem particularly intimidating - and if it came down to a fight like Jose so wanted to see, there is no doubt that Callie would win in a heartbeat - but if that woman is who Arizona wants, who is Callie to do anything but attempt to accept it?

"Did you need something?" Callie asks, nearly cringing at how cold she sounds. She didn't mean for it to come out like that.

Arizona looks taken aback. "I just thought we could talk," she says, a twinge of sadness and hurt in her voice.

Callie sighs as the guilt settles in. She hates it when Arizona is upset, and even more so when she is the cause. "Alright, let's talk," she says, somewhat reluctantly.

Arizona's face brightens and Callie smiles despite the sinking feeling in her stomach as the blond leads her to an empty on-call room.

----

Callie shoves her hands into her pockets as Arizona opens the door to the first free on-call room they've found. She suddenly feels nervous, despite all of her attempts to calm herself down. She doesn't know what Arizona wants to talk about and the not knowing is making her heart race. After all, she doesn't exactly prefer any of the possibilities. It could be about Jose, them, Nicole, some other patient, or even Amber. None of those exactly jump out at her saying talk about me!

She slowly follows Arizona into the room, kicking the door closed behind her. She doesn't want to take her hands out of her pockets because in a way, it makes her feel just a little bit better. It's a comfort issue, a nervous habit. That, and her fist is closed tightly and Jose's note. She has the address memorized, but the last thing she needs to do is lose it. She knows that if somebody found it, it wouldn't be too big of a deal - it wouldn't make sense to anyone - and maybe that makes her fear irrational, but she doesn't care. She doesn't want anyone else to know, whether they understand or not.

Arizona pats the bed beside her, a silent suggestion that Callie should sit down. The brunette swallows thickly before walking over and gently sitting down, careful to leave a good amount of space between them.

They sit in silence for a minute, both trying to find the right words to say. Finally Arizona settles on something and she speaks, her words effectively cutting through the jumbled mess of thoughts running through Callie's brain. "Was eleven before or after Jose?" Arizona asks carefully, afraid that maybe she's starting off wrong. Maybe she should have tried talking about them first.

It takes time for Callie to organize her thoughts enough to answer. "After," she says quietly.

When Callie doesn't say anything else, Arizona asks, "Do you want to talk about it?" She realizes that it's not the best question to ask, but it's the only coherent question she could manage.

The brunette shrugs. A part of her wants to say "not really" while another part of her wants to blurt everything out. Both sides of her battle until one finally wins out. "I used to idolize him," she says eventually. "Not like Aria did, but I still really looked up to him. I was... Six, maybe, when everything started. He would just push me around every now and then, hold onto my hand too hard, smack me. Nothing too serious..." She swallows, trying to keep her voice from shaking. "I was nine when it started becoming more than that. That's why at the beach I didn't give it much thought. I mean, by that time I knew it was wrong of Jose, but... I don't know. I guess when it came to other guys and I was, you know, giving them permission... Maybe it was a control thing? I couldn't really tell anyone, so I didn't really get a say in a lot of other things in my life, so...

"But, uh, anyway... Aria loved him. She used to - to get mad at me be-because she thought..." She's finding it hard to get the words out. Arizona gently lays a hand on her knee and she tries not to flinch at the soft contact. Silent tears are streaming down her face as she holds back sobs, all the time thinking, why are you telling her this? "She always said I was stealing her dad away from her," she continues. "And I guess I kinda was. It got to the point where he was spending more time with me than with her. He didn't mean to hurt Aria with all of this, she was his world, and I wanted to let her know that. But I couldn't - I couldn't tell her, or any of them."

"Calliope..."

Callie shakes her head. She's come this far, now she just wants to get the rest of it out. "I turned sixteen and everything changed. Jose wasn't... He wasn't careful enough. I..." She stares at the ground. "I got..." She squeezes her eyes closed and tells herself, you can still back out, but she know she won't. "Brandon."

Arizona looks at her with confusion etched across her features. She's about to ask when it hits her. "You were his mother," she whispers in understanding.

Callie nods but doesn't open her eyes. "Aria and Damien were already engaged, so Daddy convinced them to take him. Aria couldn't... She was infertile, I mean, so... Dad convinced them it was now or never." Callie wipes the tears from her eyes and takes a minute to control herself before looking up at Arizona. "I became Aunt Callie and Aria became Mommy. It hurt, though, to always see them.. The perfect, happy family. They always thought his dad was some random guy I met at a basketball game, so when he ended up looking so much like Aria, everyone was thrilled. Except Jose... He was pissed. He thought that with keeping him in the family, they were all going to figure it out, he thought he was about to get caught."

"But he wasn't?"

Callie shakes her head. "No. Not then, anyway. My - my dad... He just found out." She hangs her head as more tears start to escape her.

Arizona isn't sure what to do. She has never seen Callie look so destroyed, so broken. Everything she has just heard is still processing in her brain and with all the thoughts running through her head, she isn't sure what to say. She isn't sure if there is anything to say. Nothing seems to be enough. Now words seem to mean what she wants to say.

So she whispers, "Come here." As Callie obediently slides closer, Arizona wraps her arms around her and lets her sob into her chest. "It's okay," she whispers, among other things, as she gently rubs Callie's back.

The sobs subside as Callie starts to get a handle on herself, until even stray tears are a thing of the past. Yet she makes no attempt to move away from the blond's arms. She is perfectly content breathing in Arizona's comforting scent and letting it wash over her. Just being in the other woman's arms makes her feel safer than she has in a long time.

They sit like this for minutes on end. Callie is nearly on Arizona's lap, her head nestled in her shoulder. Arizona has the brunette wrapped tightly in her arms and has her head turned so she can rest her chin on top of the raven-colored curls.

Then Arizona ruins the moment by asking softly, "Are you okay, Calliope?" She knows that Callie is not 'okay' - not after all that - but she felt compelled to ask anyway.

Callie pulls back and nods. "I'm fine," she says unconvincingly as she sniffles.

Arizona nods. She doesn't want to push it. "Is there anything I can--"

"How do you do it?" Callie interrupts, and when Arizona's blue eyes look at her in confusion, she sighs. "We broke up three weeks ago. Maybe that's a long time for you, but... But it's not for me. And you're already dating and always calm and... and you're still McPerky and trying to be friends and... How do you do it? Because I can't. I can't figure out how to do it. Three weeks isn't long enough for me and I haven't moved on and I... I just... How do you do it?"

Somewhere during her ramble Callie ended up pacing up and down the length of the on-call room with tears running down her face. Arizona stares at her blankly, again at a loss for words. The blond is starting to speak when the shrill beep of a pager fills the room. Both surgeons check their waists reluctantly, and Callie's back goes ramrod straight when she sees that she is the one being paged. She gives Arizona a curt nod and rushes out of the room.

Not only did she just pour her heart out, but she embarrassed herself and now Arizona knows nearly everything. Callie shakes her head at herself as she runs down the hallway.

Great.

----

A sigh escapes Callie's lips as she steps into the stairwell. This day has been dragging on for so long, but now that it's nearly over, she's wishing she was on the twenty-four hour shift. She wasn't even on the schedule today and they have still had her running around like a pack mule, doing small tasks that could have easily waited until tomorrow, but now that she doesn't want to leave Derek is telling her to go home in an hour or two.

Right before the door shuts behind her, she hears a "Calliope!" being shouted at her. Oh, no. The last thing she wants is to have to talk to Arizona. Not after making a fool of herself like she did in that on-call room. Not after sharing all of that about her past. She didn't want anyone to know, and she should have kept her mouth shut. Why couldn't she have kept her mouth shut?

Arizona comes bursting through the door and Callie turns to face her. She's standing down on the first landing, now regretting not rushing down the stairs, as Arizona slowly walks down to stand closer to her. Arizona is panting slightly. Callie assumes that she had run down the hallway to reach her in time. When Arizona reaches the stair above her, Callie swallows - it just so happens that this is the same stairwell they had always run into each other. Their "make-out stairway" of sorts. Why hadn't she remembered that until just now?

She's in the middle of berating herself when Arizona lays a hand on her shoulder. Slowly, Callie turns her head to face the blond. Of all the possible scenarios running through her brain, the rough kiss that Arizona forces on her was not one of them.

"I don't," she whispers softly, her breath tickling Callie's cheek. She removes her hand from Callie's shoulder and continues down the stairs before the brunette can even process what happened.

"Show me how defenseless you really are
Satisfied and empty inside
Well, that's alright
Lets give this another try"
"So Cold" - Breaking Benjamin