Summary: Let us watch as intern Callie Torres falls for Attending Arizona Robbins. It's gonna be a real slow burner, but we'll still have some fun along the way.

AN: Thank you to everyone who reads, reviews, favorites, and everything. I really appreciate it. I'm sorry I don't respond to reviews, but I do read all of them and I'm so grateful to everyone who loves this story. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me or message me on my tumblr. My url is robbinstargaryen. Also, I made a playlist of the songs that I got the chapter titles from and it's on 8-tracks. I'll post a link to it on my tumblr. Anyway, on with the fic!

Can't Help Falling
Chapter X: And Other Various Parts

a.k.a. Can We Watch the Foxes?

Have you ever thought about
What protects our hearts?
Just a cage of rib bone
And other various parts.

"It was just the flu, Callie."

"I know." And she did. She knew that, but she couldn't convince some part of her to stop worrying. She couldn't stop that part of her from causing her heart to race whenever Arizona fell asleep. She couldn't stop that part of her from staring at Arizona's chest rise and fall rather than sleeping herself. She just couldn't stop that part of herself from being terrified out of her mind that something worse was going to happen to her friend.

"What the hell happened?" Mark demanded as he ran into the hospital room where his best friend lay still and unconscious. She was surrounded by doctors and he couldn't tell if they were there are friends or as professionals. Derek and Callie were on either side of her holding her hand, and he took pause for a second when he noticed the oxygen mask over her face.

What happened?

Callie opened her mouth to answer his question because she had been there. She had been there when it happened, but god, she couldn't say anything. No words would form, let alone come out of her mouth. She was struck speechless as she mentally replayed watching Arizona crumple to the floor in front of her. A wave of nausea hit her and she swallowed the bile back down, but didn't try to speak again. She wasn't sure what would come out.

"Callie said she collapsed," Derek answered for her.

"She sounded like she was coughing up a lung when I saw her," Bailey added, brow furrowed in worry. "We're running tests now, but I think it might be pneumonia."

"We don't know for sure though," Derek told the other man quickly, knowing how bad it could get if Arizona had pneumonia.

"The last time she was sick, she was in the hospital for two weeks," Mark said robotically as he approached the hospital bed. His stomach churned uncomfortably as he stared at her.

"What?" Callie gasped, feeling the cold grasp of fear squeeze her heart. Two weeks? Arizona had been so sick she had been hospitalized for two weeks? That couldn't happen again. Not now.

"She's never known how to do anything half-assed," Derek tried quirking a smile at her to help ease her nerves, but she could read the fear clear as day in his pretty blue eyes. "Her immune system is usually pretty good about keeping her healthy, but when she does get sick, it's pretty bad."

Callie had mentally beat herself up at the time. How had she not known that about Arizona? They spent the good majority of their free time together and talked about anything and everything. And how had she not noticed Arizona was getting sick? What kind of best friend did that make her that she didn't see that? God, what kind of doctor did that make her? Maybe if she had realized sooner, she could have prevented it from getting this bad. If she had actually been paying attention to Arizona instead of her stupid fucking butterflies.

In the end things had been mostly fine. Arizona had the flu and she had to stay in the hospital for two days to make sure nothing serious happened, and then she had been allowed to go home. But god, Callie could hardly sleep. Every time she tried, all she saw was Arizona collapsing onto the ground and her subconscious mind seemed to enjoy playing out the scenario in the most horrific ways. So she just didn't sleep much.

"Calliope." Her voice was soft and sweet because she had only been awake for half an hour and she was still too ill to get up and move around much, so she was relaxing in her bed with a book she hadn't really been paying attention to.

"Hmm?" Callie picked at the plush comforter under her. It was her first day off in weeks and she wasn't likely to get another one anytime soon and Arizona was trying to get her to go out and do something instead of staying cooped up in her apartment.

"Callie, look at me," she requested and waited for those gorgeous brown eyes to meet hers. The smile that stole across her face was immediate and unintentional. "Thank you."

That caught Callie off guard. "For what?" She choked out in disbelief. She hadn't done anything.

"For taking care of me," Arizona said as if it was obvious.

"What?" What was she hearing right now? She had barely taken care of Arizona; she hadn't even been able to take off of work like she wanted to. Most of the time she got to see Arizona while she was sick was at night when she'd long since gone to sleep and in the morning when it was too early for her recovering body to wake up. "I haven't done anything."

"That's not true," the blonde protested, her voice still soft. "Mark and Derek told me that you called both of them to make sure they were taking good care of me." She had been home sick for three days now with Mark, Derek, and Addison each taking off a day of work to take care of her. She knew Callie would have taken those three days off to tend to Arizona herself, but that just wasn't possible for an intern.

"Well," Callie flushed to her roots, not really knowing what to say. "Yeah."

Arizona was silent after that. She was staring at Callie through a half-lidded gaze, still feeling a little drowsy. As far as she knew, the brunette had been sleeping on her and Mark's sofa for the past four nights to avoid getting sick and because she didn't want to be too far from Arizona. At first she had been too sick to care about anything other than being sick, but now that she was five days into her illness and it was just beginning to clear up, she finally noticed the dark circles under Callie's eyes, the cloud of exhaustion that seemed to hover over her, and the poorly concealed terror in her eyes.

She knew Callie was scared for her and that broke her heart. It was insane how much she could feel the taller woman's emotional distress even though she wasn't voicing it. It was just so clear to Arizona just from looking at her. That was the last thing she wanted. She didn't want Callie to constantly be afraid that something might happen to her; neither of them could live that way.

"I'm gonna be fine, you know," she reminded her, continuing her visual assessment of her friend.

"I know," Callie nodded, looking down.

"You don't have to worry or be scared that something bad is gonna happen to me," she kept on, bringing up a hand to cup Callie's cheek, forcing brown eyes to meet hers once more. "I don't want you to work yourself up over something you can't control."

Callie snorted derisively, but didn't otherwise respond.

"I'm serious, Callie," Arizona reinforced. "I don't get sick that often so there's no use worrying an ulcer through your stomach over this." And then she cracked a wry grin. "You're an intern; you have enough to worry about without adding my health to the mix."

"But I care about you, Arizona. Obviously I'm going to be a little concerned," Callie pointed out, trying to downplay her feelings.

"Okay," she conceded, resting her back against her headboard. She wasn't going to make it a big deal if Callie didn't want to talk about it. She just wanted to reassure the other woman that she was okay. "I'm not fragile," she reminded her.

That made Callie smile, finally, as she recalled that night so many months ago when Arizona had divulged such personal information about herself. "I remember," she said, taking the hand against her cheek and holding it in her own. "But I'm still staying here with you."

Arizona rolled her eyes and huffed, but a tiny smile found its way to her face.

xXx

"You're not gonna throw up on me if I feed you this, are you?" Callie eyed her best friend skeptically. The smaller woman was bundled up on the sofa watching some documentary on foxes because of course she was.

"If, in fact, I do find myself needing to regurgitate, Calliope, I will make sure it stays as far away from you as I possibly can," Arizona responded in that pinched regal tone she sometimes got when she was entirely unamused and wanted you to know it. "Now can I have my soup?"

"Should I get you a bucket, too?" Callie asked just to fuck with her.

"Give me the damn soup, Callie," she glared, receiving a pleased grin in return.

"It's really hot," the brunette warned her, bringing the steaming bowl over to where Arizona was sitting.

"Do you want to blow on it for me?" She drawled, lifting a dark blonde eyebrow.

"Can I?" Callie taunted. "I promise not to accidentally spit on it."

"Go away," Arizona chuckled, settling the soup into her lap and snuggling further into her burrito of blankets. She focused her attention back on the television for a few minutes until she noticed Callie staring at her. "What?"

Callie just grinned and shook her head, turning toward the television. Arizona was just too cute for words and honestly, fuck the butterflies. They didn't mean anything except that she and Arizona had a connection that was deeper than a mere friendship. It wasn't like she was in love with her or anything.

"You're being weird," Arizona commented idly.

"You like it when I'm weird," Callie countered, leaning over to smack a loud kiss against her cheek.

"Stop, you'll get sick!" She exclaimed, trying to wiggle away from Callie's grasp.

"I got my flu shot."

Arizona opened her mouth to retort, but was halted by a knock on the door.

"Who is it?" Callie called out because if she didn't have to get up, she wasn't going to.

Arizona shot her a look, but declined to say anything.

"It's Addison," they heard back.

Callie rolled her eyes in annoyance at having to get up as she climbed to her feet and walked to the door, unlocking it and pulling it open. "Hey, come on in." She stepped to the side to let the neonatal surgeon inside.

Addison strode into the apartment and dropped down where Callie had been sitting with a heavy sigh.

"Callie's sitting there," Arizona informed her.

Addison then got up, moved over a foot and plopped down on the other side of Arizona, releasing the same heavy sigh. "Hi."

"Something wrong, Addie?" Arizona inquired with an amused smile, absently patting Callie's knee when the darker skinned woman sat back down next to her.

"No," the redhead sighed again. "Just… watching parents worry over their premature newborn wears on you every once in a while."

"Ah," the blonde nodded in understanding.

"Plus, I haven't gotten laid since I've been in this god forsaken city," she added on as what sounded like an afterthought.

"It's been weeks!" Arizona spluttered in disbelief while Callie attempted to stifle her laughter against Arizona's blanket-covered shoulder.

"I know!" Addison shouted, throwing her hands in the air in frustration. "I guess I just haven't found my groove here in Seattle yet."

"Your groove?" Callie choked out, failing to dampen her laughter.

"Oh, whatever," she frowned, and then looked over at Arizona. "How are you feeling?"

"Okay," she answered over half a mouthful of chicken noodle soup. "I slept better last night and I don't feel like my chest has a cinderblock sitting on it anymore. How's my department?"

Callie made a tsk sound at the back of her throat. "I already updated you on the peds department."

"Yeah, but you'd lie to me to keep me from worrying," Arizona remarked. "So how is it really, Addison?"

"I was specifically instructed by Derek, Mark, and Richard not to tell you anything until you're physically able to come back to work," Addison told her.

"See?! I was given the same instructions and I still told you," Callie said, smiling triumphantly. "Still think I was lying?"

"You would lie your way into hell if you thought it would keep me from worrying or freaking out too much," Arizona deadpanned, staring her down for a few seconds. "But fine, I guess I believe you since I don't have many other options."

"Nice," Callie grumbled sarcastically.

Arizona beamed a tired grin at her.

"You two are so cute," Addison cooed.

"Oh, Jesus," Arizona muttered. She still wasn't going to tell Addison the truth, but she needed her to stop telling them what a great couple they were.

"What? You are."

"We are," Callie agreed with a sly smirk. "We're especially cute when we do that thing where your legs go―"

"Okay! We're cute. I got it." Callie was getting better and better at teasing and baiting Arizona, and Arizona could have turned it up a notch to top her (so to speak, of course), but she didn't feel comfortable going to that gay of a place. No matter how much Callie insisted she wouldn't have a problem with it.

"You don't even know what I was gonna say," Callie pouted.

"Yes, I do," Arizona said, side-eyeing her. "Now shush and let me watch the cute foxes."

Not even thirty minutes later, Arizona had finished about half of her soup before falling asleep against Callie's shoulder, which Callie had fully predicted would happen and carefully lifted the lukewarm bowl out of Arizona's lap to sit it on the coffee table. She then sat back and adjusted Arizona so the sick woman was settled more comfortably against her body, head now resting easily just above Callie's breasts.

"You're really good with her," Addison stated, having been watching the younger woman handle her sleeping friend.

Callie barely spared her a glance. "Yeah, we've been together a while, so…"

"She hasn't really told me much of anything about the two of you," Addison kept on, her gaze intently fixed on the pair. "She's pretty private about that kind of stuff, but I'm curious."

"There's really nothing that interesting about us." Which was mostly true. And also, she didn't wanna be subjected to an interrogation about her fake relationship by one Arizona's closest friends while the blonde was knocked the fuck out.

"Oh, I beg to differ," Addison scoffed, arching an elegant auburn brow. "You managed to get the world's most Type A, stickler for the rules, rarely steps out of line, would never date an intern woman to go out with you. An intern. There's plenty to be interested in."

Callie shrugged, not knowing what to say because as far as the redhead knew, that was true. "I don't really know what to tell you. I liked her, she liked me back, and for whatever reason, she gave me a chance. And now, eight months later, here we are."

"There has to be more to it than that," Addison persisted.

"Even if there was, I'm not gonna get my ass in trouble for telling you something Arizona doesn't want me to," she strategically excused herself from answering any other probing questions.

"Fine," Addison sighed for the fourth time since arriving at the apartment. "Well, are you two planning to move in together?"

Callie shot her a bewildered look. Didn't she just say…? "Not that I've been told, but seeing as how we live across the hall from each other, I don't see why we would."

"I was hoping if she moved in with you, I could take her room here," she explained.

"I like her bed better than mine." And that was the truth. Arizona's bed was stupidly comfortable. "So if we did choose to stay in one spot, it would most likely be here."

"What about getting your own place, just the two of you? Since you're all in love and stuff."

"I don't know. We haven't talked about it." And they weren't ever going to talk about it.

"Do you want to?"

Oh, my god, these damn questions. "I don't care. I'll do whatever she wants, but I'm not― I don't really care about that stuff. Now can we watch the foxes before I say something I'm not supposed to?"

"Okay," Addison held her hands up in a pacifying gesture and turned to face the television.

Neither woman said anything for the duration of the program and even kept silent for the subsequent program, which who the hell knew there were so many documentaries on foxes? Arizona was gonna be pissed that she missed them all.

And she was. She woke up as soon as the last documentary was going off and her bottom lip instantly pushed out in that infamous pout of hers. Callie sucked her own lips in to keep from smiling or laughing, but it was hard because Arizona's pout was so damn cute. Especially when it was genuine. Like right now.

"It might come back on later," she tried.

"No, it won't," Arizona whined quietly, burying her face into the softness of Callie's bosom. She had missed the foxes and nothing would be right in the world ever again.

Rein it in, Torres. Do not laugh. "We can look on a different channel if you want."

"Noooooo," the blonde wailed from her position. "It won't be as good." She then leaned back to look up at Callie with the pout firmly in place and watery blue eyes. "I missed them, Callie."

"Oh baby, it's okay," the intern wrapped her arms around Arizona and pulled her close again. And she tried, she tried so hard not to laugh, but a couple of chuckles snuck out as she was comforting her. But how could she not laugh when Arizona was being that adorable over some foxes?

"No, it's not," she denied, shaking her head.

Callie rested her cheek on the top of Arizona's head and attempted not to bust out laughing, but Addison was clearly trying to do the same, so it was pretty freaking difficult. Fortunately, she was distracted by someone knocking on the door.

"Who the hell?" Callie muttered under her breath.

"It's me!" Nicole shouted through the door as if she'd heard Callie.

"Oh, my fucking god," she groaned dramatically. "I'm not getting that."

"Calliope," Arizona had to laugh at her best friend's continued disdain for Mark's not-quite-girlfriend.

"I'll get it," Addison rolled her eyes as she got to her feet and went to answer the door.

"Hi, I'm Nicole," the shorter redhead greeted her, walking in.

"Addison," the blue-green eyed woman shook her hand. "I'm a friend of Arizona and Mark's."

"It's nice to meet you. I'm dating Mark," Nicole said as she made her way toward the kitchen. "Arizona, are you still not feeling well?"

Arizona made an indecipherable noise and pressed even further into Callie's breasts. She didn't wanna talk about it.

"She missed the foxes," Addison supplied an explanation for the blonde's current upset.

Nicole sent Callie a confused look, but the brunette pretended not to notice.

"Are you hungry?" Callie asked, squeezing Arizona in her arms to let her know she was talking to her. Arizona shook her head and Callie frowned. "Not even a little bit?" Arizona shrugged. Sickness made her funnily uncommunicative. "What if you take a bath first? Do you think you'll be able to eat something after?"

"You're gonna make me eat anyway so does it matter?" The peds surgeon questioned, but her words were still muffled so Callie had to lean down to hear her properly.

"It does if you're gonna throw up," she retorted.

Arizona jerked out of her arms to glare at her. "I threw up one time, Callie. Once. And you weren't even there when it happened. You didn't see it."

"Yeah, but there's always the possibility of it happening again," she reasoned, which only served to make the smaller woman more irate.

"Are you saying you wouldn't clean up my vomit?" The question was spoken in a very low, controlled tone.

"No, I would clean it up. The point is that I don't want to have to," she answered even though she knew she might get yelled at for it.

"You know what; leave me alone," Arizona scowled, moving to stand up.

"You mad at me?" Callie needled, grabbing Arizona's waist to keep her in place.

"You're an ass," she said, clearly irked.

"Yeah, but I'm your ass," Callie grinned, loving how she could get under Arizona's skin.

"Yeah, the pain in it," she threw back easily, eyes rolling skyward at their banter.

"You still love me though."

"Mm."

"Arizona."

"I'm gonna go take a bath."

"Arizona! Tell me you love me."

"You can heat the soup up if you want."

"Arizona!"

It was a few short days later that Arizona was finally able to get back to work and no, Callie wasn't freaking out. Not entirely anyway. She was maybe kind of a little bit flustered by the idea of not know where Arizona was at all times, which she knew was strange, at best. But considering recent events, it wasn't really, was it? Being at work and worrying about Arizona sick at home was one thing because at least she knew where the blonde was, but now she'd be able to travel freely through the hospital like before. And it was truly causing Callie some stress because what if something happened and she wasn't there?

Logically, she knew she wouldn't be able to be where Arizona was all the time forever. She knew that. But it didn't alleviate the pressure in her chest. But what did? The periodic texts she was receiving from Arizona throughout the day, assuring her that she was fine and that although they wouldn't be able to meet for lunch, dinner was a guarantee. And there was a part of her that was thoroughly aware that her friend shouldn't feel compelled to do that for her, but she was grateful nonetheless because she definitely needed it.

She couldn't ever remember caring so much about someone she wasn't related to. And it was so fricking weird. Her whole Arizona experience was weird as shit, but it also wasn't in a way. It felt natural to be with Arizona the way she was. And that was why it was so goddamn freakish to her. She'd had close female friends before, but her friendships with them paled in comparison to what she shared with Arizona.

She usually didn't think about that shit, but Addison asking her all those questions had her mind all scrambled up.

"Hey, you okay?"

Callie blew out a breath, regarding her friend for a second. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Oh, yeah, you definitely sound fine," Meredith joked sarcastically.

"Arizona's back at work today and I'm just a little worried," she explicated casually even though she was feeling anything but casual about it.

"She's not still sick, is she?"

Callie shook her head. "No, she's not. I'm just being silly. She keeps sending me texts so I know she's okay." She glanced over to see Meredith watching her and realized she'd have to elaborate. "Her being sick really freaked me out. It scared the hell out of me, actually."

"Derek said getting sick could be pretty dangerous for her," the dark blonde commented.

"And I can't get that out of my head," Callie admitted, deflating back against the wall. The pair of interns were sitting on a gurney in the first floor corridor they frequented. "I know she's fine now, but what about next time?"

"You can't worry about next time," Meredith told her. "You have no idea if there'll even be a next time, or when or if it'll come. You can't worry about what's not gonna happen for a long time when there are plenty of things in the present to worry about. Like, the intern exam."

"I know. You're right." But she was probably still gonna worry. "How are things with you and Derek?"

Meredith exhaled loudly. "Things are… we're working on it. He lied to me. For months. But I'm in love with him so I'm trying to get past it."

"How do you know?" She wondered.

"Know what?"

"That you're in love with him."

Meredith shrugged and was silent for a couple of seconds. "I don't know, I just always wanna be around him even when I'm mad at him. I pretend to like his taste in music because it makes him happy. I let him have the last slice of cheesecake because it's his favorite. When I've had a shitty day at work, his arms are the ones I wanna be in. When I've scrubbed in on a really good surgery, he's the first person I wanna tell. And when I'm with him, everything makes sense, no matter what else is going on. He and I make sense."

You know when you think you might be coming to a big realization? Big in an overwhelming, all encompassing, dizzying kind of way. Your eyes go wider than ever, your head swims and you hear what's going on, but you don't listen. You can't listen over the rush of all those significant memories flying through your head at warp speed. Your breathing goes a little shallow and your palms sweat, and it's all you can do not to scream.

And then everything clicks.

"And of course, there's the cliché butterflies I get when I'm with him."

Oh, fuck.

So it's fairly simple
To cut right through the mess.
And to stop the muscle
That makes us confess.

I'M FINALLY FUCKING DONE. I'M SO PUMPED. I hope y'all like it.

Chapter title and lyrics: Breakable by Ingrid Michaelson

Review, per favore.

~Elphaba C. Snow Thropp