For the next week or so, Arizona and Addison settled into a routine of work, lunch in the lab, dinner at home and no drinking at Joe's. It did not go unnoticed by the residents and became a regular topic of conversation at the lunch table with the residents.
"How's the project going, Izzy?" Meredith asks the blonde.
"Fine. Successful. Really interesting, they're planning to publish." Izzy replies.
"What are they like together?" Meredith asks curiously, even though she's on Robbins' service, she rarely sees them together.
"Like surgeons on a project, they aren't making out in the lab or anything. They're working." Izzy replies, not going to give them any inside info on the couple. Izzy figures if she refrains from all gossip, she has a chance to get listed on the project when it's published.
"Hey Stevens, Grey, Yang," Callie says joining them for lunch. "What are you talking about?"
"Izzy won't tell us anything about the project or what it's like to work with Montgomery and Robbins." Meredith explains.
"Good for you Stevens." Callie replies, then to the others she adds, "Robbins hates hospital gossip."
"What are you doing here Torres, you finally come up for air or does Sloan actually have a patient to attend to?" Cristina asks sarcastically.
"Shut it Yang. See that's what I'm talking about with the hospital gossip, no wonder you weren't picked for the project." Callie says annoyed with her roommate as usual.
"Who cares, it's all research, I need to cut to live." Yang replies popping another chip into her mouth.
A pagers goes off and Meredith checks, its hers, it's 911 to Peds, as she grabs her stuff, she sees Alex at another table, "Alex! What are you doing down here?" She asks as she rushes past him. He scrambles after her and as they round the corner, they spot Arizona and Addison slipping into the room before them. It's a code blue on a 7 year old with cancer, Alex is stunned, he just left the patient's room 10 minutes ago and he was fine. Well, fine for a 7 year old with cancer. The two residents watch the two surgeons lead the code blue team and get him back.
Arizona looks up at her residents and says, "My office, now."
"Was there something confusing about my request that one of you stay on the floor at all times today?" She begins as they enter her office.
"I was only gone for five minutes..." Alex begins to explain.
"Did you know that Grey was at lunch?" Arizona asks cutting him off.
"Yes, but..." he begins again.
"Shut it, Karev. You're off my service," she says dismissing him.
Watching him leave, she turns to Meredith, "Grey, I need you to stay on the floor for the next 24 hours. You'll alternate with Stevens. I'll send her out to get familiar with the cases. Stevie may need a palliative surgery to relieve the pressure in her colon in the next few hours and you'll be scrubbing in on it with me. I'll be staying here tonight too." Robbins explains.
Nodding, Meredith is just relieved that Alex's mistake didn't get them both kicked off Robbins' service.
Returning to the lab, Arizona informs Stevens that she's now on her service and sends her down to see Grey.
"Are you okay?" Addison asks the blonde, once they're alone in the lab.
"Karev has so much promise, but he needs to get out of his own way." She says frustrated by the resident's disregard of her request.
"There's not much he could have done before we got there." Addison points out.
"I know. I just thought Stevie had more time, she's slipping away faster than I expected she would. I told Grey to redo the ultrasound and check the size of the tumor, but I've already booked the OR for 4pm, we're going to have to go in and resect more and she's barely strong enough..." she tears up and takes a deep breath, then continues, "she's not strong right now."
"I know, is this the case you were telling me about? The parents are stationed overseas and the Aunt is the caretaker and has 4 kids of her own and is never here?" Addison asks.
The blonde nods. "Yeah, I need to call her and discuss options. She needs to tell the parents so they can come home and see her, Stevie doesn't have much time left." Arizona says sadly.
Unable to just sit there and watch the blonde be upset, Addison wraps her arms around her to comfort her.
"I didn't think it would be like this." Addison says softly into the blonde's hair.
Arizona pulls away to look at her, "Like what?"
"You, you hurting makes my heart hurt," she replies and Arizona notices the tears in her eyes too.
"Um, wow." Arizona says softly and reaches up to brush a tear away with her thumb.
"This is real, uh?" Addison whispers.
Nodding, Arizona gently presses her lips to Addison's and they kiss tenderly.
Until they're interrupted by her pager. "It's Stevie." Arizona says glancing at the pager and rushing out of the lab.
Arizona enters the patient's room and is relieved to see the Aunt is there.
"Sorry, she insisted on having you paged. She has a call set up with the parents in fifteen minutes." Meredith explains.
"Okay, that's good. I'm glad you paged me." Arizona replies. "Uh, Dr Robbins step out with me a minute." Izzy says and as they exit the room she adds, "You look like you've been upset. And this is a Skype call."
"Oh right, okay. I'll be right back. Thanks Stevens." She replies and heads to the restroom in her office to take a minute to freshen up.
The call with the parents is difficult, they didn't realize how sick Stevie was and now they understand that they need to get home quickly. The mother is devastated when she sees her child in the bed and it's all they can all do to hold it together for her. Fortunately Stevie falls asleep and they take the laptop into Arizona's office to continue the call.
"I'm planning to take her into the OR in a few hours to resect the colon and reduce the pressure of the tumor. The tumor itself is still inoperable." Arizona explains.
"Is she strong enough for surgery?" The father asks.
"I think so and it will buy us time for you to get here." Arizona explains.
"Okay, do it. We'll be on the next transport and should land at SeaTac tomorrow afternoon. Dr Robbins, please do everything that you can for her." He says, his voice cracking with emotion.
"Of course, Sargent." She says noting the stripes on his sleeve.
After the call ends, Arizona talks to the Aunt and explains the plan. Meredith follows her out to prep the patient for surgery.
Stevie's surgery is tough, but she makes through. Grey and Robbins are scrubbing out when Callie sticks her head in to check on them, "Hey Bailey just told me what's going on with this one, how did it go?" She asks concerned for her friend.
Looking up at brunette, Robbins surprised to see her and is still a little annoyed at her about the drunken pool game and knows that she's been dodging her since. "It went okay," she replies finally.
"Good." Callie says and turns to leave.
"Does this mean you're going to stop avoiding me?" The blonde asks.
"Uh, you noticed that, did you?" She says embarrassed.
"Look, I'm sorry that I hurt you. I really like you and I really need a friend here. But I understand if you don't want to." Arizona replies.
"No, no that's not it. I do want to be your friend, I just got in my head that, look it's fine, I understand that you and Addison are together and I don't want to come between you." She explains.
"So you'll stop avoiding me? And you'll stop doing shots whenever you see us together?" She teases.
"Yes and definitely yes," she replies and flashes a smile at the blonde.
"Okay, one more question, would you and Mark like to come by tomorrow night for dinner?" She asks.
"Uh, no. Mark and I are just friends, now, no benefits. He's sort of seeing someone now." Callie explains.
"Okay, well let me talk with Addison and see what she wants to do. Maybe we can figure something else out."Arizona replies, understanding that the three of them at dinner would be awkward.
"Tell you what, Yang and I have been talking about having a thing. So let me, uh talk to her and we'll see what her schedule is like, maybe we'll have you guys over to our place for drinks and a game night or something." Callie suggests.
"Okay, well that sounds good. Keep me posted." Arizona replies and flashes a smile. "Thanks Callie."