AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Hi everyone! I am so sorry it has been so long since I last updated! I have been so busy with school and extracurriculars, but I have been writing a little bit every day! I finally got around to finishing this chapter and it is a little longer than the ones I usually write. Let me know what you think!

Chapter 10

Callie hummed as the hot water dripped down her face and body. The temperature of the shower had already steamed up the bathroom mirrors and windows, but Callie didn't notice as she shampooed and conditioned her dark hair.

Callie softly sang to herself as the water washed away all of the soap suds. Stuck inside her own little world, Callie didn't even notice someone enter the bathroom.

"Hey!" A man's voice called out.

Callie practically leapt in the air out of fright.

"Mark! What the hell!?" Callie yelled, covering up her body parts despite the fact that Mark was unable to see through the fogged up shower door.

"I thought you were Robbins. My bad," Mark replied as he backed out of the bathroom.

"She went to get us coffees. She'll be back any minute," Callie told him as she rolled her eyes.

"Got it. I'm going now," Mark said as he closed the bathroom door behind him.

All peace and serenity of her morning shower gone, Callie shut off the water and toweled herself off. When she entered the bedroom, she changed into a pair of navy blue scrubs and tied her wet hair up in a towel turban.

As she opened the bedroom door, she was not at all surprised to find that Mark had made himself a bowl of cereal and was now sitting at the kitchen counter, dressed in identical dark blue scrubs.

Mark looked up and grinned when he saw Callie's stern look.

"In my defense, I had no idea it was you in there!" He laughed.

Callie rolled her eyes.

"Oh, yeah, I'm sure you didn't," Callie replied sarcastically.

Just then, the apartment door opened and Arizona entered, with two Starbucks coffees in a tray on her lap.

She had barely made it through the doorway before both Callie and Mark started yelling in her direction.

Arizona held up one finger, signaling she needed a minute. Both doctors stopped yelling. She took a long sip of her coffee before lowering her finger.

"Okay, what is going on?" she asked.

"Mark walked in on me showering!" Callie whined to her girlfriend, feeling a little bit like a child tattling on their sibling to her mom.

Arizona's eyes widened in surprise as she looked at Mark.

"I thought it was you," Mark said to Arizona before turning back to Callie. "Also, what difference does it make? It's not like I haven't seen it all before," Mark shrugged as he took Arizona's coffee out of her hand and took a sip before handing it back to her.

"Mark! Arizona!" Callie exclaimed.

Arizona closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"Mark. I love you. I love you. But I don't live alone anymore. I don't need you popping in whenever you feel like it. It's been nearly four years since the accident; I am more than capable of handling things on my own. And now I have Callie to help me if I need it," Arizona said, taking Mark's hand and looking up into his eyes. "Now that Callie and I are dating, we need to set boundaries. I love that you're across the hall. I love knowing that you're always there when I need you, and I love knowing that you will protect me no matter what. But Cal and I need privacy and space. To be a couple. I promise that we will still hang out just as much as we do now. You just can't barge in here whenever you want anymore. Okay?"

Mark saw the sincerity and love in his best friend's eyes. Reluctantly, he nodded. She squeezed his hand before letting go and spinning her chair back towards the front door.

She opened it and motioned for him to leave.

"We'll see you in an hour at the hospital," she assured him as he walked across the hall to his own apartment.

She closed the door after he left and flashed Callie a super magic smile.

Callie smiled back and slowly walked towards Arizona.

"That was incredibly hot," Callie told her, as she raised one of her perfect eyebrows.

Arizona bit her lower lip and shrugged, still smiling up at her girlfriend.

As soon as she was close enough, Callie bent down so that she was the same eye-level as Arizona. She leaned in and passionately kissed Arizona, noticing the coffee taste on her tongue. Arizona grabbed the back of Callie's head and leaned into the kiss.

When they finally pulled apart, Arizona smiled a dimpled grin and laughed.

"Well, good morning to you too!"

…

It had been a long morning of boring scheduled surgeries, since she wasn't on call for trauma today, and Callie had been greatly looking forward to her lunch break.

After paying for her lunch, Callie found Arizona at an empty table and put her lunch tray down. Arizona was munching on her kale salad and smiled as Callie came over.

Callie let out a sigh of relief as she sat down.

"Ah. It feels so good to finally sit down," Callie said, taking a bite of her pasta.

Arizona nodded.

"I'm sure it does. You've been standing all day," Arizona affirmed her, looking down at her salad.

Callie internally cringed at herself, realizing that she was taking for granted and complaining about a simple task that Arizona would give anything to regain: the ability to stand.

As Callie swallowed her first bite, her pager began to beep loudly.

SLOAN- 911

ER

Callie groaned as she pushed away her tray.

"What is it?" Arizona asked as she ate another bite of her lunch.

"It's Sloan. 911 to the ER. I'm not even the on-call ortho surgeon today. Could he not have just paged Carlson for this?! Ugh," Callie informed her, standing up.

"If I don't see you until later, have a great rest of your day. I love you," Callie told Arizona as she bent down and kissed the top of her head.

"Love you too," Arizona replied as Callie ran out of the cafeteria in the direction of the emergency room.

Once again, Arizona was alone at the lunch table.

"Are you kidding me?! You paged me 911 for… what? A bone bruise?" Callie asked, with a clear tone of annoyance in her voice when she made it to the ER and found Mark treating a superficial knee injury.

"No. I didn't page you 911 because of a patient," Mark told her, briefly looking up from his precise sutures. "I paged you to tell you something. About Arizona. Given the events of this morning, I was afraid if I hadn't paged you 911, you wouldn't have come."

"You're right. I wouldn't have," Callie replied, crossing her arms before pulling over a rolling stool so that she could sit beside Mark.

"It's just that tomorrow's the anniversary… of… well, you know," Mark started.

Callie was puzzled for a moment before she realized he was talking about the anniversary of Arizona's car accident. Callie's heart sank.

She nodded.

"And since this is the first time you will have known her at the time of her anniversary, I wanted to prepare you."

"Prepare me?"

"Yeah. Hunt always gives her the day off, but she never takes it. She always heads into work in hopes of keeping her mind off of it, also because the day usually falls on the day the new interns come in. She's always either really depressed or bitchy- there's no in between. It's always a really hard day for her, and she'll need your support, even if she acts like she doesn't," Mark informed Callie.

Callie nodded slowly.

"Thank you," she looked into his eyes.

Mark gave her a half-smile back.

"Anytime."

…

Their alarm clock went off at 8 o'clock in the morning, just as it always does. Callie rolled over so that she was facing Arizona.

Arizona's eyes remained closed, even though Callie was positive she was awake. Callie brushed Arizona's hair away from her face and kissed her forehead.

"Hey, pretty lady. Time to get up now. Don't wanna be late," Callie whispered as she stood up and walked over to their shared closet so that she could start getting ready.

Arizona pulled the covers up over her head and rolled over so that she was laying on her stomach.

"Nope. Today's cancelled. Come back when it's tomorrow."

Callie rolled her eyes as she pulled her scrub top over her head. Callie is typically the one that can't get out of bed in the morning, so for their roles to be reversed was quite unusual, even given the circumstances. Mark told Callie to support Arizona, not to let her push her around.

"Arizona, come on. You're going to be late. Please, get up," Callie pleaded.

Callie made her way around to Arizona's side of the bed and pulled the comforter back. Arizona hid her face under her pillow so that all that was visible to Callie was her tank top and her boxer shorts. The edge of her top was pulled up a little bit, revealing her surgical scar.

Arizona was being quite stubborn, but Callie knew her all too well and knew exactly how to coax her out of bed.

Callie smiled to herself as she used her strong hands to manipulate and relieve Arizona's sore and tense back and neck muscles. Callie started at her neck and shoulders and moved her way down towards her lower back. She felt Arizona relax in her hands and she knew that that's exactly what she needed to start her day.

"You really just made me love you even more than I already did. How is that even possible?!" Arizona smiled at Callie as she sat up and moved her legs over the edge of the bed, pulling her wheelchair closer before transferring into it.

Callie smiled back as she finished getting ready. She brushed her teeth and tied her shoes at the same time so that they could be out the door before they would be late.

Arizona positioned herself in front of the mirror so that she could put her hair in her signature braid into a low bun hairstyle. Her brow furrowed in concentration as she stuck her tongue out slightly in order to achieve the perfect braid.

Due to their little massage session this morning, Callie knew they were not going to have time to make breakfast here or get fast food on the way, so it looks like they'd be having hospital coffee and attendings' lounge donuts today.

"Okay, you ready?" Callie asked as she gathered her things and grabbed her keys.

"One second. I can't get my stupid shoe on. Ugh!" Arizona said, frustrated.

Callie put down her purse.

"Can I help?" she asked, mindful not to overstep.

After a slight hesitation, Arizona nodded and leaned back in her chair.

Callie bent down and grabbed the Heely shoe that lay next to Arizona's chair. She carefully guided Arizona's foot into the shoe, wiggling it when she reached a troublesome spot.

"Thanks. One thing nobody ever tells you about being a paraplegic is how hard it is to get your shoes on when you can't wiggle your toes," Arizona shared.

Callie smiled and nodded as she picked up her purse and they headed out the apartment door.

…

"This is not general surgery in miniature. These are the tiny humans. There are the children. They believe in magic, they play pretend. There is fairy dust in their I.V. bags. They hope, and they cross their fingers, and they make wishes. And that's what makes them more resilient than adults. They recover fast, survive worse. They believe. In Peds, we have miracles and magic. In Peds, anything is possible," Arizona smiled at the six new interns that stood before her.

It was their first day, and not too many of them were thrilled to be on Arizona's service. Peds isn't for everyone, and, well, the wheelchair just isn't a very good conversation starter. It was more of an elephant in the room the new doctors would attempt to ignore until the day they didn't see the silver rimmed wheels and the metal frame, but the talented young surgeon who sat in it.

Arizona was trying her best to be her normal chipper self, but the mostly uninterested interns combined with the ominous date on the calendar, it was proving to be very difficult.

Arizona saw the bored look on most of her new interns' faces. She was training the future of medicine- possibly the future of this hospital's pediatric surgery program! Her goal was to make this a rotation they would never forget.

"Despite what you may think right now, you did not 'get stuck' with the Peds rotation your first day. Only the most hardcore surgeons go into Pediatrics," she told them.

One of the interns snickered.

She raised her eyebrows in his direction.

"You don't believe me? Wait and see."

And with that, she spun around and wheeled through the double doors leading into the Pediatric ward of the hospital.

Minutes later, Arizona led her team into one of the patient rooms.

The patient's eyes lit up when they saw Arizona enter the room.

"Well hello there, Miss Felicity!"

"Say, 'Hi, Dr. Robbins!'" The young girl's mother cooed.

The girl, Felicity, was hooked up to a C-Pap machine and was laying flat in the hospital bed, with her legs resting on a pillow. A small smile appeared on her face in response.

Arizona waved and smiled at the girl before turning to her interns.

"Who's presenting?"

"Um, I am," a short brunette intern raised her hand and stepped forward, opening the chart she held in her hands.

"Felicity Brown, ten years old. Diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type 1 at three months, here for Dose 2 of Spinraza treatment, as well as a G-Tube replacement," the intern read.

"I will be replacing her feeding tube tonight, with one of you as assist. I will decide based on who shows the most exuberance and promise throughout the day," Arizona announced.

At the mention of scrubbing in, the interns began excitedly chatting amongst themselves. Now that was the buzz Arizona had hoped to create over Pediatric surgery! Arizona excused herself and the young doctors out of the patient's room and left them to begin the charting she had left for them.

She rolled down the hall and into her office. When she opened the door, she found a bouquet of flowers waiting on her desk, next to a pizza box. When she came closer, the card that belonged to the flowers. It read:

Thinking of you on this day. You are so loved, Arizona!

Love, Mom and Dad

She smiled as she put down the first card and attempted to read the note scribbled on the cardboard pizza box. She laughed, immediately recognizing Mark's messy handwriting.

Hey 'Zo. Just letting you know I love you. Stay strong, kiddo. Paralysis' got nothin' on you!

Mark (and Callie!)

P.s. it's Hawaiian

Seeing that Callie had scribbled her name next to Mark's made Arizona smile even bigger. She was so lucky to have people in her corner who cared about her and were always lifting her up (literally and figuratively).

Before she had a chance to even open the pizza, her pager beeped.

911- INCOMING PEDS TRAUMA

Arizona unlocked the brakes and quickly pivoted her chair and opened the door. All of her followers were slouched over their charts at the nurses station.

"Okay! Here's when the real test comes in. A peds trauma is ten minutes out. Let's head down to the pit and see where you can help," Arizona told them.

Moments later, she and the interns were getting gowned and gloved in the ER before heading out to the breezeway to meet the ambulance. As she put on her gloves, Arizona noticed that it wasn't too busy of a day in the pit, just busy enough to keep things interesting.

Her six first years were lined up, waiting for her next command.

"Robbins, we're gonna need to book an OR. Just got word that the patient will need immediate abdominal surgery," Hunt called in from just outside the automatic doors where he stood waiting for the rig.

Arizona nodded before addressing her interns.

"Okay, while I book an OR, go get the Peds gurney in the hall. We're going to have to go straight to the operating room."

All six of their heads bobbed up and down as they all scurried away.

This is bound to be an interesting day… Arizona thought to herself. Though, she couldn't really complain, as the chaos that ensued with having six clueless shadows was easily enough to take her mind off of the anniversary.

Arizona booked the OR, and was wheeling towards the automatic doors, when her interns came rushing back. They didn't see Arizona's head over the gurney before it was too late.

CRASH!

The power of the six of them pushing one child-sized stretcher sent Arizona flying out of her wheelchair when they collided. There was a gasp from everyone on the ER.

"Robbins!" Alex yelled, catching a glimpse of the accident from outside where he was awaiting the trauma.

He ran inside to find Arizona rolling over and supporting herself on her forearms after landing on her stomach.

"Are you okay?!" Alex panicked, looking from a discombobulated Arizona, to her overturned wheelchair, to the six panicked doctors, still standing by the gurney.

Alex knelt down and leaned Arizona's upper body against his knee so that she was sitting up.

"I'm fine," Arizona grumbled as she brushed a stray hair away from her eyes as she reached for her wheelchair.

Arizona had fallen out of her wheelchair more times than she would like to admit, but never at work- and certainly never in front of her colleagues and mentees.

Alex looked up at the brood of interns, still standing there with their jaws on the floor.

"Go make yourself useful! You're not helping by staring at her like she's a circus sideshow! Go! Scram!" he yelled at them.

She turned her wheelchair right side up as Alex picked her up, with one hand under her legs and one hand supporting her back. He placed her in her chair, and Arizona adjusted her legs on the footplate.

The sirens were getting louder now, so she took a deep breath and began to head outside towards the trauma bay before Hunt stopped her.

"Karev, page Barnett to help me with this case. Clear a trauma room for Dr. Robbins and get her settled. Then page doctors Sloan and Torres. I'll stop by before I head into surgery to examine her," Hunt ordered.

Karev nodded and pushed Arizona's wheelchair towards an empty trauma room as she protested.

"Owen-!"

"Arizona. Please. Listen to me," Owen sternly replied to her, their blue eyes locking.

Arizona took a deep breath before nodding reluctantly.

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I promise I will update as soon as I can! Please leave any and all reviews and feedback you have! It makes my day reading it!