Author's Note - I'm not entirely convinced that this chapter has been written to the best of my abilities and so I'm tempted to take it down a rewrite it sometime. Please let me what you think of it and whether I should rewrite it or not!

A Better Woman

Having had that rather interesting conversation with Mr. Robbins at Christmas, I spent the next couple of days watching Mark and Arizona closely, keeping my eyes peeled for any kind of interaction that could have been mistakenly recognised as chemistry, but nothing struck me as weird or lustful between those two.

I continued to ponder over how Mr. Robbins had incorrectly speculated that his daughter and the man-whore that was Mark Sloan were together, but I reached no real conclusion. Even though whatever Mark did was somehow linked to the beast in his trousers, there had never been any indication that he was at all interested in Arizona... Except for that one time he had tried to hit on her, but any possibility of a romance between them was quickly blown out of the water when she rebuffed him and started showing an interest in me.
The idea of one's best friend and one's partner getting together was a concept that would normally cause people to shudder with disgust, but it was a thought I laughed at – no two people could be more wrongly suited for each other.

"Are you sure you don't want to go? It's not too late to change your mind, we can book you a ticket right n–"

"Yes Mark," I said, dusting the shoulders of the jacket he was wearing, "I am sure."
The whole idea of returning to Seattle made my stomach churn, but I knew that the forthcoming Shepherd-Grey wedding was something that Mark could not miss. I, on the other hand, felt absolutely no obligation to attend and had politely declined my invitation weeks ago without giving it much thought. Sure, Derek and Meredith were nice enough people, but their wedding ceremony was not worth travelling half way across the world for. Besides, I had a funny feeling that my invitation to the wedding was sent out of politeness, rather than of actual desire for me to attend and I felt that if I had accepted, I would effectively have gone as Mark's plus one. Anyway, attending the wedding would mean having to reschedule the long awaited and highly anticipated first date with Arizona, and I was not going to miss that for the world.

Mark grunted with disappointment and scooped me up into a big hug.

"Have a safe flight. Don't do anything I wouldn't do, stay away from Lexie Grey and call me the second you land, ok?"
He murmured something that sounded like "Shut up Torres" in response, but I decided to ignore it. Instead, I kissed Mark on the cheek and watched him clamber into the back of his taxi.

"Don't forget to call me!"

"Yes mother!" He called, as the car drove away.


In the excitement of planning our first date (that sounds like I actually had some form of input into the matter, which really was not the case – it was all Arizona's doing), the unconventionality of our arrangements hadn't really registered in my head. Even when Arizona told me to "wrap up warm", to "wear outdoor-sy shoes" and to meet her in the park at 1.30pm that Thursday, I didn't think for a second to question her. I hadn't hit me that our first date wasn't going to be the regular dinner date that most people start their relationships off with. It was only when I was standing in the middle of the park that I began to wonder what the hell I had agreed to.

The air was crisp, the sun was out and although it was fairly mild for an afternoon in January, it was still deceivingly cold. Pulling my coat a little tighter around my body, I started to walk around in search for Arizona, but there was no a soul to be seen. In fact, I think the last person I had encountered was some dog walker a couple of minutes ago. If some crazy knife wielding maniac came running out from the bushes right now, I thought to myself, I would be a goner. With that rather morbid thought running through my head, I almost screamed when I heard my phone blast out its ringtone.

"Hey you."

"Hey Arizona, I'm here. Where are you?"

"I'm here too" She whispered in a low soft purr.

"I can't see you..." My eyes swept across the park, but there was no sight of Arizona, "Where are yo- OHMYFUCKINGGOD."
I screamed as I saw something fly out from the bushes I had been standing by and ran in the direction of the dog walker who I had passed a few minutes ago, dropping my phone and shouting "help" at the top of my lungs. But eventually I had to stop; the stitch in my side was becoming unbearable. What the fuck was that?, I asked myself, my heart racing as I bent over to catch my breath. I turned to look back at the place where I had been standing and saw a figure with its arms on its hips. The familiar braided pigtails gave her away.

"Callllliiiioooppppeeee, Callllliiiiiooooppppeeee, come back! It's meeeeee!" She called.
I was far too annoyed to obey her and instead I waited for Arizona to come to me. As she neared me, I felt the annoyance drain from my blood and the grimace on my face was replaced by a grin. I dreamily watched her come closer, with her trademark braids swing from side to side underneath that outrageously colourful bobble hat of hers.

"Don't... Do... That... To... Me." I huffed as I tried to hide my smile from her, trying to pretend that I was still annoyed.

"Or what?" She winked, handing me my phone before taking my hand in hers and casually weaving her fingers around mine.

"Or... Or I'll come kick your ass, that's what!" I said, attempting to pull away from her, but she tightened her grip. I had been hoping to make her feel bad for scaring me, but she merely grinned at my empty threat, "I thought you were some crazy knife psycho freak coming to kill me. Who the fuck jumps out of bushes anyw–"

Arizona suddenly mashed her lips against mine, placing her palms on my cheeks to hold me in a lip lock, before grabbing my arm and pulling me in the direction we had just come from.

"Come on." She said, tugging me along.
I didn't put up a fight or resist her and having failed in making her feel guilty for her little prank, I thought that the right compensation for her practical joke would be to marvel at her ass as she led me along. I was secretly hoping that our walk would be a long one, so that I could spend as much time as possible staring at the perfectly pert butt cheeks she had, but my ogling was rudely cut short when she span back around to face me, almost knocking me over.

"Close your eyes." She whispered as I steadied myself.

"W-why?"

"Just do it! This is going to be freaking awesome, ok? Now close them and keep them shut!" She said in a raised voice.
I was hesitant to follow her commands, but when she flashed me her dimples, I immediately shut my eyes. Arizona continued to pull me along, but she quickened her pace into a swift march. I felt a couple of branches brush my face as she pushed us through some sort of gap in the hedges and her hands slipped from my grasp. My eyelids were about to flicker open.

"NO. I told you to keep them shut," She said, a little aggressively, before adding quickly in her usual sweet tone, "please."
I squeezed my eyes tightly in response to prove they were still shut and listened closely to the rustling and oddly, the sounds of clinking glassware I could hear, but the noises quickly stopped.

"Arizo- Arizona, are you still there?" I began to panic, the temptation to just open my eyes was overwhelming but I didn't want to risk making Arizona cross again, "Arizona? Arizona?!"
I unexpectedly felt her lips lightly press against mine, reassuring me that she was still there.

"Yes, yes... I'm still here. Ok, I think that's it – I think I'm ready." She said, clapping excitedly, "You may open your eyes now."
I cautiously opened my eyes, half expecting her to tell me to shut them again. Arizona was stood in front of me, beaming so much that she was practically glowing with happiness. Her hat had somehow started to slide down her face and was now sitting lopsided on her head. I reached out to straighten it up, but she ducked out from my reach, revealing behind her, the activity of our admittedly "freaking awesome" first date.

"Oh, Arizona..." My voice trailed off as I gasped at the sight – I was simply lost for words.
I thought that, with the big coats and the walking boots, we were going to go on a romantic walk together (which would still have made a pretty strange first date) or something, but I could not have been more wrong. I mean, yes, we were outside, but not for the reasons I had expected. This idea for a first date was sweeter and more romantic than any of the dates I had ever been on and the tugging in my chest became stronger.

Arizona sat down on the blanket she had laid out and gestured for me to sit down with her. She gave me a puzzled look when I remained standing, still in awe of what was in front of me.

"Do you... Not like it? Oh God, I knew it. I should have just booked a table at a restaurant like a normal person would, I'm so-"
I sat down beside her as she carried on spewing out all these words so quickly that I could barely understand what she was saying. I placed a finger on her lips to silence her and she took a large deep breath.

"No, Arizona. I love picnics. This is incredi-"
It was as if she hadn't heard me say a single word. Arizona interrupted me and continued powering on through her mini-speech.

"I just didn't want this to be the normal first date, you know? I wanted this to be something memorable... I didn't want us to be an ordinary couple on a forgettable first date in some fancy restaurant... We're not ordinary people Calliope!"
She paused and straightened up her hat that had continued to slip down her face. My eyes moved away from the mini-feast she had laid out for us to look at her. Her eyes were moist and her lips were quivering a little.
"We're extraordinary people! You're an extraordinary person Calliope."

I felt the oh so familiar urge bubbling up inside of me, the urge that I had so far successfully suppressed, but I knew the words were on the tip of my tongue.
I so wanted to have just blurted them out right there and then. It was what my gut, and more importantly, what my heart was telling me to do, but I didn't want to put all that pressure on Arizona to say it back – something I never used to worry about with previous relationships, but then again, I had never felt the compulsion to say those three words at the start of a first date.

I mean, those words, those momentous, significant words were for the cementation of an established and stable relationship.
What Arizona and I had, well, I could barely define what we had. Our relationship was so... Backwards – everything we had done was in a weird jumbled order. I had met her parents before I had kissed her; I had spent the night at hers before I had even called her my girlfriend (though I did only end up crashing on her couch, but that was beside the point) and this had all happened before our first date. It was exactly how Arizona had said – we were definitely not ordinary people.

Besides, was I even sure that I was actually in love with Arizona? Maybe it wasn't love, but lust?
No no, it was certainly not lust. I've felt that before, and what I was feeling was something totally different. This was something completely new to me, an unexplored territory of emotion that made me question whether I had ever been in love with anyone before.

"Calliope? Calliope – you're freaking me out."

"Huh – what?"

"Y-you were just staring blankly into space. Did you hear what I said?"
My cheeks flushed a deep red and I mumbled my apologies as I watched her pour out a drink.

"I would have bought wine, but you have a surgery later so..." She said, passing me a glass, "orange juice it is! Oh shit," She gasped, "I'm doing it all wrong."
Arizona snatched away my drink and placed it down on the ground, before rustling around in the picnic hamper. She mumbled something about doing something else first and quietly reprimanded herself.

"Arizona? What's wrong? What are you doing?"

"I completely forgot about this at Christmas, so... Merry Christmas." She beamed.
I frowned at her as she presented a little red velvet box in the palm of her hand.

"Arizona..." I said, pushing her hand away from me.

"No. No. Please, just open it." She begged, with her big blue eyes watching me closely.
I sighed and whispered my thanks, before opening up the little box. Inside, sat a shiny silver chain and linked to that, a little anchor charm.
As I stared at the necklace, widening my eyes in total shock, Arizona searched my face for my reaction – I felt the burn of her gaze on my face.

"You're my anchor in this big ocean called life – you keep me steady when the waves get rough. We're on this ship together Calliope... And I love... I love..."
My ears pricked up and I glanced from the necklace to Arizona, who had the look of determination and unease on her face. Was she really ready?
"I love spending time with you. Let me help you put it on."

I immediately held my hair up so that Arizona could fasten the necklace around my neck, and I knew from the second I put it on, that I would never ever take it off.

Home

As I lay in my bed, tossing and turning, trying to get to sleep, I knew that my attempts to nod off were futile. Arizona was on my mind, like she had been all day, all week, all the time. I was slowly becoming infatuated with this woman, and although the idea of becoming obsessed with someone was quite scary and something typical of a psychotic stalker, I knew that I was sane and in a right and safe frame of mind.

My phone rang and I instantly knew who it was.

"What took you so long?"

"Sorry – we had a lot of catching up to do."

"You and Derek or you and Lexie?"

Mark mumbled something and quickly changed the subject, "So what's new?"

"Arizona and I had our first date, she said… That she loved spending time with me."
I heard Mark sharply inhale.

"Ouch."

"Why ouch?"

"Well Torres, I know you. I know how much you like her. I've seen the way you look at her. You're in love with her aren't you? You want to tell her you love her, don't you? Torres… Torres, are you still there?"

"Y-y-yeah, yeah I'm still here." I said, having paused to collect my thoughts.
Was it really that obvious?

"But don't, don't tell her you love her yet."

"Oh, what the hell do you know, Mister commitment phobe!"

"Hey! If you don't want my advice, go ahead, go and tell her that you love her and watch her run a mile."

"Oh come on, you know I didn't mean it…"

"Just give her time Callie, it'll come. I mean, I always say "I love spending time with you", it's my way of saying "I love you" without the full commitment."
I mumbled, and that's why you've never had a long term relationship, I thought to myself.
"Anyway, I gotta run, busy day, best man duties and all."

"Ok, bye Mark, stay safe and promise to call me later."

"Yep, I promise. Oh and Callie?"

"Yeah?"

"I love spending time with you."

"Shut up Mark."

Putting the phone back down, I could hardly believe what I had done. I was taking advice from the resident fling king, but somehow my talk with Mark was reassuring and had cleared my head from some of its worries. Arizona had said that she loved spending time with me. That, on the first date, told me that she serious about our relationship – I mean, not "I love you" serious, but it was certainly heading in that direction.
Should I have said it back? Actually, I think it had been a good decision to not have done, I could have blurted out the "I love you" way too soon.
I smiled as I fiddled around with my new necklace, thinking of her. For now, I would refrain from saying it, but that wouldn't stop me from saying it as many times as I wanted in my head.
I love you. I love you. I love you, Arizona Robbins.