The next morning Callie had to take Sophia for her test. Arizona unfortunatley had to work, but Callie had promised to keep her updated.
As they sat in the waiting room on the Ped's wing, Callie tried her best to prepare the little girl for what was about to happen.
"It's just gonna be a little pinch, or more like a little scratch, it's nothing. You're gonna be fine."
Honestly Callie was doing nothing to put the child at ease. She was saying everything was going to be fine, but the look in her eyes told a different story. She was probably more nervous than Sophia, who at that moment in time looked way calmer than her Mom.
"Mom why do you look scared?" Sophia asked innocently.
Callie's eyes were wide with fear as her thoughts raced around inside her head, she forced a smile. "I'm fine honey."
Sophia raised her eyebrows and looked up at Callie, but before she could say anything, Arizona saw them from the nurses station.
"Hey!" She greeted, causing them both to look in her direction. "How's my two favourite girls?"
Sophia jumped up into Arizona's arms, giving her a big hug. "Hey you!" Arizona smiled, as she picked her up and sat down next to Callie, plonking Sophia on her knee.
Cuddling the child in her arms, she turned her attention to Callie and lowered her voice. "Have you been in yet?"
Callie shook her head. "Lil Grey said she was on your service today, and that she had to prep a kid for surgery, but then she'd be back."
"Yeah, have to do a liver transplant on an 8 year old boy." Callie's gaze dropped to the floor, and Arizona could see the worry written all over her face. "How are you holding up?"
"I'm fine." She lied again.
Lifting her chin so their gaze met again, Arizona placed a soft kiss on her lips. "It's gonna be fine." She whispered.
"Dr. Robbins?" Lexie asked, interrupting their moment together. "Connor is prepped, and is on his way to OR 2, and Dr. Torres do you and Sophia wanna follow me?"
Arizona nodded, and handed Sophia over to Callie before standing up and approaching the resident. "Thankyou Dr. Grey, you can scrub in after you've done the test."
Lexie smiled at the attending before leading a very nervous looking Callie and a surprisingly calm Sophia down the hall to an empty exam room.
Callie lifted Sophia up onto the table, and then sat down next to her. "You ok?" She asked.
Sophia nodded. She'd seen all three of her parents stick needles into various patients, sometimes to take blood, sometimes to inject meds. She wasn't afraid of needles. She vaguely remembered having her shots done when she was younger, it wasn't that bad. Just a little pinch.
"Ok Sophia, I just need to take some blood, I'm gonna put this needle in your arm, and I need you to sit really still for me, ok?" Lexie looked up at Callie, almost for confirmation to carry on. Callie nodded and placed an arm around Sophia's waist as Lexie stuck the needle in.
It hurt a little bit more than Sophia remembered, and she flinched a little bit, making Callie tighten her grip. She watched the red liquid flow into the end of the syringe, trying to keep her arm still.
A few moments later, Lexie slowly removed the needle. "All done!" She smiled, as she grabbed a bandaid and stuck it on Sophia's arm.
"I can take that to the lab, if you wanna go to surgery." Callie offered. She had no idea why she just said that, taking it herself wouldn't get the results any faster.
Lexie looked as though she was thinking it over, but they both knew she just wanted to be in surgery weilding a scalpel. "Ok." She finally said, handing the blood to Callie, then bolting out of the room.
"Residents." Callie muttered as she shook her head. "Right then, you little monster, lets go!" Lifting Sophia up off the table she swung her around and plonked her on the floor, making aeroplane noises as she did.
As they walked down the hall, they passed Alex's room. Sophia glanced in and stopped. "Mom?" She asked innocently. "Can I stay here with Alex? Look he's on his own."
Callie looked at Alex sat alone in his room. She would only be sat around waiting for the test results anyway. Sophia might as well have a friend to talk to instead of being sat bored outside the lab. She nodded, and watched Sophia enter the room, making Alex smile like an idiot.
Walking quickly down to the lab, Callie then handed the guy the blood.
"It'll be a few hours, we're backed up." The guy said, he had a very annoying monotone voice.
"I need you to make this your priority, move it to the front of the pile." Callie instructed.
The guy sighed. "I can't do that, you'll have to wait."
"Listen. I'm Dr. Torres, Head of Ortho, and when I tell you to make this your priority, then you make it your priority!"
The guy sighed again, before disappearing back to his work.
Callie sat down on a chair in the hallway and waited. She was on edge, the suspense was killing her. She had to know, but on the other hand she didn't want to know. She didn't know what she would do if it came back positive. She didn't know how she would cope. This was her child. Her daughter. She'd promised her that she wouldn't let anything bad happen to her. Her job as a Mother was to protect her. If it came back positive, she'd feel as though she'd failed that job.
She looked at her watch, 1 hour had passed. She thought of Arizona and envied her. She had surgery to distract her from this situation. She had something else to occupy her mind. Even though Callie knew deep down Arizona was just as worried as she was, there was no time to worry about your own life in the OR. You had to be professional. You had to concentrate. Patients put their trust in you, they allow you to cut them open, and they trust you to fix them. One mistake could cost you their life. There was no room for error. No time to think about anybody else but the patient laying unconscious in front of you, and right now Callie envied that.
"Torres!" The guy called out as he held a brown envelope in his hands.
Callie lept up off the chair and practically sprinted towards him, snatching the envelope from his hands. Looking down at it, she braced herself for the worst.
Carefully peeling the corner, she slid her finger underneath the edge and ran it the whole way down the envelope.
Taking a deep breath, she pulled out the paper from inside, her eyes scanning across it as quickly as they could.
"Is this right?" She asked the lab guy, not tearing her eyes away from the page.
"Of course it's right, I never make a mistake."
Callie winced at his words, in any other situation she would have had to restrain herself from punching him in his arrogant face, but right now only one thing was on her mind: She had to tell Arizona.
Running down the hallway, Callie willed her brain to remember which OR Arizona was in. She thought back to the conversation earlier with Lexie, and cursed herself for not really listening.
Spotting Avery scrawling in a chart, she ran towards him. "Avery!"
He quickly turned around and almost collided with Callie. "Whoa, where's the fire?" He chuckled, as Callie fought to catch her breath.
"A-Ari-Arizona." Callie gasped.
"I haven't seen her." He said simply. "Have you checked the OR board?"
Pushing him out of the way, she sprinted again down the hallway, stopping at the OR board.
Her head was spinning from the adrenaline, and her eyes couldn't focus right, not to mention whoever wrote on this thing earlier had written really small.
Closing her eyes, Callie took deep breaths, trying to regain control of her breathing and lower her heart rate. Opening them again, she looked at the board.
' OR 2, Liver Transplant. Patient: Bostock, J. Attending: Robbins, A. Residents: Grey, L, Karev, A.'
Making a quick mental note to pay more attention to residents in future, Callie then dashed off down to the OR floor.
There was a lot of commotion on this floor. Callie could hear raised voices, or mainly just the Chief bellowing over everyone else, and as she rounded the corner, she could see why. It looked as though someone had just exploded in the corridor. Blood lined the floor, walls, ceiling and even a terrified looking intern.
Unfortunatley the incident was just outside of OR 2. Thankfully Arizona should only be halfway through the procedure, meaning the intern had enough time to clean up before she finished. Or at least that's what Callie gathered from the Chief's yelling.
Remembering that OR 2 was one of the OR's fortunate enough to have a gallery, she again sprinted off down the hallway.
Arizona was deep in concentration. Callie loved watching her operate, she was so meticulous, so flawless and so perfect. She hated interrupting her.
Karev noticed her stood in the gallery watching and got Arizona's attention. She lifted her head and Callie waved the envelope indicating that she had the results.
Quickly looking around Callie spotted a pen laying discarded on one of the chairs, she picked it up and scrawled something on the palm of her hand, before pressing it to the glass.
It read:
'NEGATIVE'
