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CHAPTER ELEVEN
EIGHTEEN HOURS EARLIER…
After Sofia's slight meltdown earlier tonight, about me leaving for Baltimore, she sits at the head of our bed and watches her mami and me pack my bag before we all leave for the airport. Callie uses her words carefully in front of our little munchkin as she asks me "So, going back to Baltimore…are you afraid she might still live there"? I just laugh and say "It's a big city Callie…the odds are absurd that I would even run into her let alone care if she still lives there". I look at my girlfriend as I take her hand in mine and say "Besides even if she does still live there and on the odd chance I would run into her on this visit, she has nothing on you…and never will. I love you and I love our baby girl and I would never jeopardize any of that for someone I never really even knew". With that Sofia walks on the top of our bed to hug me as Callie rounds our bed to hug and kiss the two of us.
PRESENT TIME BACK IN BALTIMORE:
I am thinking about that last conversation Callie and I had before I left Santa Monica as I have just dialed her cell phone number. Hearing the phone call go to her voice mail I leave the message "Callie honey it's me…please call me back as soon as you get this message baby…I need to talk to you right away". When I turn around after leaving patient room number 8976, the room number of my new four year old patient Avery Michelle Cooper, her mother is standing right behind me. I lay Avery's chart down on the high legged table along with my cell phone as I pull my hair back off my neck and place a pony tail holder in my hair. I look deep into Joanne's eyes and say "Not now Joanne…not right fucking now". But before I can gather up the things I laid down on the table top my phone goes off and Joanne sees the picture of me, Callie and Sofia glowing brightly from my new cell phone picture. "New girlfriend…and is that your daughter too" Joanne asks as I notice the prying eyes of one Dr. Mark Sloan looking over her shoulder at my phone too.
I look again at my former girlfriend and lover and say "Not right fucking now Joanne" as I scoop up the patient's chart and my cell phone and try to find and empty room…any empty room to have a phone conversation with my girlfriend. Finding a room down the hallway I duck into it and begin to talk to Callie. "Hey baby, you are not simply going to believe the shit that has happened to me today" is how I begin our conversation. Then I proceed to tell the love of my life what has gone down since I arrived in Baltimore. After getting over the initial shock of the patient being the daughter of my former lover and of Mark being here and on this case too, Callie and I talk about how she and Sofia are doing. Callie tells me that little Miss Sofia has requested that she gets to sleep with her mami every night that I am gone just for the simple fact that my side of the bed smells like me and Sofia misses me so much.
Then our conversation turns to the medical side of things when I ask my girlfriend "Are you sure you don't mind me being here because I can hand this case off to someone else if you want me to Callie"? I hear Callie laugh her precious laugh over the phone lines when she says to me "Arizona please, can you honestly tell me that there is anyone in the world other than you right now that can save this little girl's life"? When I do not answer her question quick enough Callie says to me "I thought so. Now you go and do this surgery and make me and Sofia proud. And when you are finished, you get on the first flight out of Baltimore and then you get that sweet little ass of yours straight home to me and your mija. Because then I will personally show you how proud I am of you…I love you Arizona". I smile at my girlfriend's connotation but before I can say another word I hear her phone buzzing in my ear and I say "Is that your phone buzzing, baby"?
During our conversation Arizona hears my phone buzzing in her ear as she ask me if my phone is buzzing and I say to her "Yea baby, it's Mark". Just as I tell her who is calling me I hear a knock on a door on her end of the phone call as Arizona says to me "Why don't you go ahead and talk to Mark and I will answer the door and call you back. I love you Callie". I tell her that I will call her back just as soon as I finish my talk with Mark. I click over my phone to accept the incoming call as I say into my phone "Hello Mark and what the hell are you doing in Baltimore"?
Just as I open the door to the empty room I am in I hear my girlfriend's voice coming from the phone in Mark's hand as she is saying to him "Hello Mark and what the hell are you doing in Baltimore"? Mark walks into the room as he tells Callie "Well hello to you too Callie. Now I am going to put you on speaker phone so you can introduce me to now what appears to be your new girlfriend". Mark places his phone in the center of the table in the room as he silently asks me to have a seat with the waving of his hand and pushes the speaker button and says "Go ahead Callie". I sit and listen to Callie introduce Mark to me and me to him. Then I hear Callie explain our relationship and how we found each other after twenty years. Then I hear the excitement in her voice when she tells him of our love story and how her mother kept us apart for all those years. But then the fear settles into my body when I hear Callie put in to plain words how I feel about Sofia and how my little mija feels about me because I think this may be a problem with him. But my fears are relinquished when I hear Mark ask in a calming voice "So Sofia loves her too"?
Callie listens as Mark and I discuss the upcoming surgery that we are going to perform tomorrow morning. When we complete all the medical details to Callie, Mark says he has something else to share with the two of us. Mark begins to say "I really wanted to tell you this in person Cal…but I guess this will have to do right now. Addison and I have gone our separate ways. She caught me in bed with another woman and she left me. Rumor has it that Dr. Richard Webber called her for a consult on two conjoining twins and she is in Seattle. Maybe hooking back up with Derek…who knows"? But then Callie informs Mark "I don't think that will happen. Derek married Meredith and they adopted a little girl from Africa a few years ago…her name is Zola and Meredith just had their first son…Derek Bailey".
After I tell Mark of Derek Sheppard new life in Seattle with Meredith Grey and their children he tells Arizona and I about another thing in his life that is about to take place. With our speaker phone conversation continuing Mark says "After this surgery I have a consult at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in L.A. I also have an opportunity to join their staff so I may be leaving New York and moving to L.A. soon too". With the phone line going dead silent between the three of us, I am the first to say "Well that's great news Mark and Sofia will be so happy to know that you may be coming to live on the west coast soon. Maybe on your impending visit you and she can go out to dinner and you can tell her the good news yourself". Then Mark says to me "Thanks Cal, I think that is a good idea. I iron out all the details with you and her when my plans become final. Well I guess I had better get back to work because it seems with the look on Dr. Robbins' face right now that the two of you need to talk. I'll talk to you soon, Cal and tell Sofia that I love her too".
Mark has not even made it out the door when my phone begins to ring incisively. I say "Hey babe" and somehow Callie senses the tension in my voice as she says back to me "Hey pretty lady". Then Callie persists in saying "I know…I know…I know Arizona that I should have talked to you first about telling Mark what I told him but his confession just caught me off guard". I try to ease my girlfriend's conscious by saying "It's alright Callie, really it is". Then Callie surprisingly says "We are so going to so talk about this more when you get home because I can tell by the tone in your voice Arizona that this is not alright…not alright at all". When the phone call ends with Callie, I sit and ponder what I am really upset about after this three way conversation and I find that I don't know that much about Callie's life during that twenty year period that we did not keep in contact because of what her mother did to me but I want to…I want to know more about her and soon.
Standing in the x-ray room going over our game plan and the latest scans with Mark as well as Dr. Farrell and Dr. McHale, the three gentlemen leave my presence while we all agree that the surgery needs to happen this morning. I gather all the scans and other information from the x-ray room and make my way out the door and right into Joanne. She has been crying and she asks if she can talk to me alone. I follow her to an open air waiting room because I do not want to be in an enclosed room with her just in case she has other plans for our talk. I stand in front of Joanne and ask "What would you like to talk about Mrs. Cooper"? Joanne wipes the final remaining tear from her eye and says "Arizona, how have you been? I could never find out where you went from our…your friends because they would not talk to me after you left Baltimore".
I take one step closer to the woman that I once loved with all my heart as I say to her "I am here to operate on your daughter and nothing more. You don't get to know how I have been since the day you fucked your now husband in our bed. When I help you daughter with this surgery then I will be gone again. So just stay the hell out of my way. I will talk to you both one last time when I come out of surgery. Goodbye Joanne forever". Before I walk out of the waiting room and to the scrub room to get ready for the surgery that I came to Baltimore for…Joanne has one last thing to say to me. She just cannot help herself…she always has to have the last word in every conversation. When I try to walk away she says to me "I gave her your middle name…because I always wanted to remember you". I continue to walk away from her after she tells me her confession…and I never look back.
Resting my head back on the top of my seat with a smile on my face after talking with Callie and Sofia before the airplane taxis down the runway, telling them I am now on my way home to them. With another successful surgery under my belt as the joint effort by me and Dr. Sloan helped save the life of Avery Michelle Cooper. I close my eyes and think back to the post surgery conversation Dr. Sloan and I had with Avery's parents and how Dr. Sloan jumped in front of me when Joanne walked towards me to give me a hug and took the impending hug away from me. He even held out his hand to shake Mr. Cooper's hand so I did not have to and he accepted their gratitude for saving their daughter's life. I smile again as I think that maybe this guy…this guy that is Sofia's father…is not such a bad guy after all.
Calliope Iphegenia Torres is standing at the exit gate when my feet finally touch down on California soil. I run to her as I gobble her up in my arms and kiss her deeply. When our kiss finally breaks I say to my girlfriend "I love you and missed you so much…so very much Callie". Callie kisses me again with a little more passion than before and when the hoots and hollers begin the kiss breaks. My girlfriend whispers in my ear "Maybe we had better take this home so I can truly show you how much I really missed you". Callie tells me that Sofia is sorry that she could not be here but Lucas invited her to a sleepover and she thought it would be better for the two of us if she wasn't home tonight. Callie says "Swear to God Arizona, those were her exact words". We both laugh at our daughter's mind set but we both are really glad that she knows her mami and her mama so very well.
Callie and I practically break down the front door to the beach house when we arrive home. Our clothes seem to fly off our bodies and throughout the house as we christen almost each and every room possible. Finishing our quest in our own bedroom several hours later and falling to sleep in each others arms. With the sudden feeling both the rays of the balmy southern California sunshine on my face and the soft, plump and warm lips of my girlfriend on my mid section of my body as she is bringing me to another mind blowing orgasm. Callie is crawling up my body leaving kisses all along her way and when she reaches my lips I kiss her passionately and then ask her in a whisper "Callie, tell me about your life while we were apart"?