AN: Sorry for the slightly slower update. Unfortunately my revision is refusing to just learn itself... Med school sucks sometimes. Anyway, here's the latest instalment. Had a little wobble over keeping people in character, but I think this came out okay in the end. Reviews are love.

WARNING: A little M moment, someone drops the F bomb! :O you were warned.

I sadly still, despite trying, own nothing.

"Baby?" Callie questioned again, her voice now a sob. Arizona's brilliant blue eyes flickered and finally opened, to stare up into the brown counterparts they had so sorely missed.

"Calliope..."she whispered. Her head hurt, her wrists hurt, her ribs hurt... Everything hurt.

"Hi" Callie smiled down at her, her eyes full of tears, "Ari, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry...You're safe now" she promised, as she slid down to lie next to her on the dirty carpet. "Mark. Call an ambulance" she demanded, wrapping her arms around her girlfriend's shoulders, as Arizona buried her face in her hair, sobs of relief wracking her small frame.

Drawing back to brush tangled blonde curls away from Arizona's face, for the first time in days Callie felt herself actually take a breath. She allowed herself a tiny moment of relief, before she turned back to the body before her.

"Can you move Ari?" she questioned ever so gently, searching the blonde's face, waiting for an answer.

"I don't know" she replied, "But my hands... m-m-my hands..." Arizona began to whimper again, as Callie leaned over her and gasped.

"Okay, Oh god, Ari, it's okay...Mark?" the latina fought back all her own emotion that was ripping through her like a tidal wave of anger and pain...and pushed it to one side to try and do what Arizona needed right now.

"Mark" she repeated desperately, as the plastic surgeon flipped his cell shut turning to her.

"Ambulance is on the way, ETA 12mins" he informed both women, shifting his body slightly to shield their view as the man responsible for all of their pain was dragged out of the door by the law enforcement officer.

"Mark... We need, some scissors, or a knife...we need something that will cut through plastic." Callie stated, her eyes dark and pleading, sorrow crushing her features.

Mark furrowed his brow confused, then stepped forward to follow his best friend's eye line over the peds surgeons back to her wrists "Oh God..." he suddenly felt nauseous, "Hold on one second Bl- Arizona, I'll be right back, and we'll take care of this..." With that he was gone down the stairs.

Callie turned her attention back to her girlfriend, who was staring blankly up at her. Gently sliding her arms under her shoulders, she lifted her head to rest in her lap.

"Baby, I'm so sorry..." she repeated again, leaning down to run her lips over her blonde curls. "The ambulance will come and everything will be fine..."

"No" she was interrupted. "No ambulance Calliope. I don't need an ambulance." The voice was still shaky but more determined now.

"Arizona..." the brunette started to argue, before she was cut off again.

"No. Calliope please... No ambulance. What I need right now is..." her voice broke and fresh tears ran into the dirty tracks of their predecessors down her cheeks, "I want you to take me home, I just need to be with you..."

At that moment Mark arrived back with a pair of kitchen scissors held in one hand and a sweater in the other. "Found these in the kitchen, cleaned them best I could, and this was in my trunk, it's probably the cleanest we're going to get" he informed Callie.

Looking back up at her best friend Callie nodded, which told Mark everything he needed to know, and turned her face down to press her lips back to Arizona's temple.

"Okay Robbins" Mark said, moving to kneel beside Callie, "This is going to sting a little."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

An hour later Callie and Teddy sat outside an exam room at SGMW, seeing her fellow surgeon with her head buried in her hands Teddy reached over to place a hand on her knee.

"You did all you could Callie, we all did" she tried to comfort the brunette, "I know things are bad, but this is Arizona, she's gonna be okay, she'll come through this, you both will."

"Fucking cable ties" Callie raised her head to look Teddy in the eye "He had her in cable ties."

Teddy winced at the thought of her best friend suffering, but quickly pushed away her own discomfort, Callie needed her now, and that's who she was, she was able to step aside in the name of helping others. "We'll get through this" she repeated "All of us together."

Barely seeming to hear her Callie began to mumble again, most of it was unintelligible to Teddy, what she guessed to be Spanish, until "She had blood... Blood on her shirt, and her wrists, and her ankles... She was bloody and scared, and the scars...God Marks good but, will there be scars? I don't know what..."

"Callie..." Teddy interrupted her friend, "Let's just go one step at a time here, because right now that's all any of us can do. I've seen men blown to pieces, literally feet away from me, and been unable to do anything but watch." She locked eyes with the brunette to intensify her point, "We will get through this, You, Arizona, Mark, Me, Bailey, everyone, we'll all pull together and get through, because that's what we do Callie, it's who we are."

Grateful for Teddy's presence, Callie let a tear slide down her cheek as she bowed her head in agreement. As much as she knew she could depend on her friends, her colleagues, her family, to get her through this, she knew deep down it was going to take so much more than that. She knew she would never ever shake the memory of Arizona, her love, her entire life, looking so hurt...so broken.

She let her mind slide back over the whirlwind events since they found her girlfriend. Arizona had eventually agreed to come to the hospital; Callie had been insistent that she get checked over and have her wounds seen to. As soon as Arizona's restrains were off Callie could see that the wounds were deep and would need stitches, Mark had reluctantly agreed to be the one to do them. Although he really didn't want to be the one responsible for the outcome, they also all knew he was most likely to do the best job. The last thing both Arizona and Callie needed was any unnecessary scarring to remind them both of the weeks terrible events.

The door behind them clicked, breaking her thoughts, and both of the women jumped out of their seats to see Mark Sloan exiting the room. He looked downcast; his usually handsome features were twisted into a sombre expression.

"Is she okay?" Callie asked nervously, taking hold of Mark's arm.

"Physically yeah" he replied, looking from green eyes to brown. "The wounds on her limbs were subcutaneous, with some tissue hypoxia due to strangulation. I've sutured them, and with some luck they should heal nicely on their own."

Teddy looked slightly relieved, but when she glanced over to Callie she immediately noticed that the other woman did not share her expression.

"And the blood...On her shirt?" Callie questioned, her eyes desperately searching her best friend's face, as if she hoped to draw the information out of him somehow.

Mark looked uncomfortable; he raised his gaze to meet his best friends wide eyes.

"Mark?" Callie questioned again, tightening her hold on his arm.

"Cal" his voice was gentle, almost apologetic. "She's got two long deep lacerations down her left side" he watched as his best friend sucked in a sharp breath and Teddy shook her head, grabbing it with her hands almost to attempt to will the information away.

"If I had to guess I'd say a kitchen knife, given the ragged edges and inconsistency in depth. She wouldn't talk to me about what actually happened, and I'd barely sutured her up and got a dressing on before she was putting her shirt on insisting she was fine." Mark paused, letting his revelations hang between the three of them.

"Okay" Callie eventually seemed to come back to reality, "Right now she needs to heal...Just let things settle, I'll talk to her when she's better." Teddy nodded her agreement.

"So she's okay to come home?" Callie asked the plastic surgeon.

Mark looked torn for a few seconds, "Torres...She's got deep lacerations on her torso and limbs, her risk for infection..."

"I know Mark" Callie cut him off, "We know, and trust me, I will make sure we're so careful, but right now, what she needs...What I need, is to take her home and take care of her."

Mark let his eyes roam over the bronze skin of his best friend's face. He knew she was right, and though normally he would advise against it, right now Arizona was just as damaged emotionally as she was physically, and in order to begin to heal those emotional injuries she needed to go home, to be with Callie and to feel safe.

"Okay" he agreed. "I'll sign her discharge" Callie nodded and gave him a tired smile, as Teddy squeezed her hand and gave her a reassuring look.

"I have a surgery now" the cardio surgeon informed her colleagues apologetically, "I'll call by tomorrow to see how she's doing... If that's okay with you I mean..."

"Of course" the latina cut her off with a warm smile, "You're her best friend, she'll want you around."

"Okay then" Teddy agreed, "See you in the OR Mark?" Sloan nodded, "I'll see you soon" just before she turned to leave Teddy paused to add, "Callie... I'm just so sorry we didn't find her sooner" and with that she left.

"Me too" Callie mumbled to no one in particular, as she stepped around Mark and knocked gently on the door of the exam room where Arizona was waiting.