Title: Hamilton Gregg Wants to Kill Your Face (11/?)
Author: Maggiemerc
Rating: M
Status: In Progress
Fandoms: Rizzoli & Isles, Grey's Anatomy
Pairings: Callie/Arizona, Rizzoli/Isles, Rizzoli/Arizona (but purely past tense)
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters. It is a tragedy I suffer through daily.
Summary: Fresh on the heels of the season two finale Rizzoli is trying to manage her confusing feelings for Maura and the case of a criminal from her past. Her hunt to stop him before he kills again takes her to Seattle, and straight into the sights of her ex.
Author's Note: I'll be out of town for work for a few weeks but hopefully I'll be able to get a few more chapters in during downtimes. If I don't at least you know why!
Chapter Eleven
Callie felt like she'd been hit by another truck when she woke up. The Archfield mattresses, once places of sweet respite from emotional break ups…or George, had become hard as a rock. Her whole body was stiff and things popped like she was ninety when she stretched.
It would have been minutely better if she hadn't woken up alone and when she realized Arizona's side of the bed was cool she had to tamp down a whole mess of frustration that flooded her system.
Frustration and anger. She was going to murder the woman.
A card slipped into a brass card slot and the door opened though. Arizona stepped in with two enormous coffees and a bag of pastries from the downstairs. A smile she knew must have looked goofy spread across Callie's face.
"You're awake," Arizona said softly, as though Sofia was in the next room and would wake up at the drop of a pin.
"You got breakfast?"
"Had trouble sleeping. Someone kept fidgeting and kicking me away when I tried to cuddle."
Callie didn't remember that. She let the covers pool in her lap and accepted the offered coffee. Arizona sipped her own coffee while surveying the bed. She made some sort of judgement call, kicked off her shoes and hopped back in.
"Comfortable," Callie asked. Arizona shrugged off her pants and curled up under the covers.
"Yes." She reached for the bag of pastries which Callie had managed to acquire but Callie held them just out of reach.
"Are you working today?"
"I've got a surgery this morning. Then I'm going back to the apartment to clean up."
The reminder of what happened the night before sapped any playfulness Callie had felt. She let the bag drop and Arizona, rather then reach for unguarded pastries, sat up. She dropped a kiss on Callie's shoulder.
"You okay?"
"Not really. How are you?"
Her wife's face screwed up in thought, "I don't know. I feel like," she pulled away, "It's like how I work with kids. I can't get attached."
Callie hoped her raised eyebrow was enough to convey her offense at that statement.
"Not you," Arizona was quick to say, "I mean, he attacked me before and he nearly killed me. And Jane—Jane's a cop. She was facing death every other week when we were together. And I guess I just got good at—"
"Being the military wife."
A wistful smile crossed her wife's face. "Right. Exactly. I got good at managing the crisis."
Callie thought back to her hospital stay. It had been grueling and she hadn't been…the best patient. She'd half expected Arizona to bail at every turn. It just made sense given Africa and everything. But her then fiancee had gone into some sort of crisis mode and become a super woman. Preparing the apartment, getting the nursery finished. Handling Callie's residents and dealing with the hospital staff and their parents. Where even the strongest might have wavered Arizona had stood strong—always with a smile and confidence.
"You're not getting…flashbacks?" Everyone dealt with trauma differently. Callie couldn't even fathom how someone would feel after having their home violated by a man who once nearly killed them. She was just the wife and had to try hard not to think about it before anger and fear battled from prominence.
"I'm terrified, you know? He's in Seattle—in our home—because of something I did. But I'm not going to run from him. And I'm not going to let him get to me."
Callie's wife. A bundle of contradictions. She would run from those she loved but stubbornly stand against a serial killer, a car crash and put herself between a child and a gun man.
"I guess I had practice. With my mom." Her mother's behavior proved that there needed to be a word that superseded cheerful. "And now Angela's here and she—she definitely rivals my mom when she wants to. Only about ten times naggier." Arizona curled her fingers into a claw. "She just kind of digs into you."
"Fuuuun."
Callie rooted through the bag and pulled out a cream cheese danish which she handed to her wife, as the other one looked like orange and Arizona hated orange in her pastries. She took a bite of her own danish and tried not to frown.
Arizona didn't manage that. She readjusted and gnawed on hers. "This danish—"
"Is like a brick." Callie split her danish in half and chewed on the center. "It's a little better in the middle."
Arizona followed suit. "Chewy," she said, her mouth full of pastry that had seen better days.
They ate in companionable silence. Like they'd done dozens—hundreds—of times before. Arizona repositioned herself so her head rested on Callie's lap and her feet lay on the nightstand. She even drank her coffee that way—a feat that had made Callie a little envious once or twice.
It was peaceful for the first time in a week. If she let her vision go a little fuzzy they could be back in their apartment with Sofia in the next room. Enjoying a lazy Sunday morning instead of being up at six in the morning and stuck at the Archfield.
"So Jane's 'friend.' What's up with her?"
Arizona sort of twisted so she could look up at her wife, "Really?"
"I'm a little on edge and gossip makes things easier. So the friend."
"Apparently went to Hopkins with me," she said with just a hint of bitterness in her voice.
"Yeah, and she's younger."
"Like two years. That's hardly anything."
"Younger. Just as smart. Just as accomplished." She ticked them off with her right hand.
"Carter Madison grants trump infant Medical Examiners every day of the week Callie."
"Bet she's published more too."
Arizona groaned, grabbed a fist full of pillow and whacked Callie in the face.
Callie frowned, "She even kind of looks like you."
Arizona paused mid-swing, mirroring Callie's face. "She does."
She resumed but Callie snatched the pillow away and pinned her wife to the bed. "Not as cute though." She pressed her lips delicately to Arizona's neck. Her heartbeat fluttered against Callie's lips and her fingers dug into Callie's shoulder.
"Mm," she moaned, "I missed that."
Her other hand fell to the waist of Arizona's pants and teased the button there. "Did you?"
"Mm hm. That too."
She dragged her nail across Arizona's stomach and nipped gently at her neck.
"All of that. Missed it." Arizona wrapped her hands in Callie's hair and pulled her away. "I missed you."
They're mouths met in a kiss that was surprisingly searing. They'd been so heated and yet strangely distant for the last week. Dancing around each other and then meeting in bed for mechanical fumblings that did little to ease all the ache. The sex had had an alluring quality but had been so fraught with emotions unsaid that Callie had found herself increasingly dissatisfied.
Now for the first time they were on equal footing. There weren't any secrets. No more massive emotional bombshells lurked in the closet.
She slipped her hand into Arizona's pants and when her wife gasped the sensation was so familiar that, unbidden, tears sprang up. Arizona caught her face in her hands, her lower half still unconciously rising up to meet Callie.
"What?"
She ducked her head into the crook of Arizona's neck. "I missed you too," she whispered.
Her fingers travelled well worn and familiar paths. Normally that was when Arizona would fling her head back into the pillow and close her eyes and lick her lower lip. But she held Callie close and kissed her hard instead.
####
"He kissed you?"
"On the mouth!"
Arizona was pacing and Jane was helpless to stop her.
"What if we took this too far Jane? This guy…likes me. He's expecting things and I don't—"
She hopped off her stool and stepped in front of her girlfriend. "Okay when I guy hits on you normally what do you do?"
"Smile. Walk away."
"What about guy friends? Ever had a guy friend get the wrong idea?"
She rolled her eyes, "No. Because I don't hang out with neckbeards who think they can straighten out a gay girl."
Jane sighed and let her head fall, "Okay." She put both hands on Arizona's shoulder. "This I have experience with."
"Because all cops are neckbeards?"
"I'm not really sure what that is, but guys who won't take no? I totally get that."
Arizona gave her a look that said she didn't like Jane's friends.
"Not the guys I work with! Wierdos. On the street. They see the uniform and think I'm a fantasy built just for their loser butts."
"Okay. So how do you get rid of them."
"Usually I call my partner over or flash my gun."
Clearly that wouldn't work in this particular case.
"We'll let him down slowly, over a couple of days. Like how I broke up with this guy a few years ago. Took him two weeks to realize I hadn't called him in three."
"And if Gregg doesn't want to be let down slowly? What if he—"
"Hey," she dug her fingers into Arizona's shoulders. "He's not doing anything with you you don't want. I'll make sure of that. Okay?"
Arizona sucked in a breath a little too shaky for a surgeon. "Okay," she stepped close. Slipped her hands around Jane's middle and rested her head on her chest. "I can—we can do this."
Jane ran her hand through Arizona's hair and dropped a kiss on top of her head, "Yeah. We can."
####
Maura had difficultly sleeping and when seven rolled around she was already dressed and awake. Angela had taken the second bedroom in the suite and her door was still shut without a glimmer of light peeking through the cracks so Maura made her way downstairs for breakfast.
The actual restaurant was filled with heavy foods, strong odors and loud people preparing for a day sightseeing or business meetings. She took a cup of yogurt and an little box of orange juice and sat out in the lobby instead.
Dr. Robbins and her wife came through a few minutes later laughing and acting perfectly at ease. They had an easy chemistry, their hands clasped out in public. Robbins leaned into her wife and her wife tilted her head just to be a little closer. They were a sweet couple. More romantic than many of the straight couples Maura knew. And they were doctors—surgeons. It wasn't a profession full of happy and loving people—but distanced ego maniacs who couldn't connect to a toddler.
Jane was unconscious in a hospital and holding onto life by a thread. These women—that woman was at least partially responsible and yet she moved through the lobby like it was just another day.
They didn't see her and it was probably for the best. There would have been an awkward pause. They would have acted embarrassed being caught laughing and she would have felt uncomfortable after the preceding night's fraught emotions and then they would have shuffled away apologetically and what little appetite she had would have gone up in a puff.
She finished her yogurt in silence then went to the concierge to order a rental to be delivered to the hotel. When she made it back upstairs Angela was awake, dressed and standing in the seating area with a cup of room brewed coffee.
"You don't want to eat something?"
The older woman shook her head, "I can't eat."
Nothing more needed to be said on the subject. "Doctor Robbins left about thirty minutes ago so I've arranged for a rental car to be delivered."
Angela opened her mouth to protest the expenditure. As she did any time Maura spent money on her or her family. She held up a hand to quiet the other woman. "It really isn't a problem Angela."
"But the plane tickets and the hotel too? Maura this is costing you a fortune."
"And Jane's my best friend. This is the very least I can do for you."
Angela set her coffee down and quickly crossed the room to squeeze Maura into a suffocating hug. "You're such a good girl," she hummed maternally.
Maura's own mother was not particularly affectionate physically. Even with the dramatic shifts in their relationship over the last year they'd maintained a cordial distance when it came to physical displays of affection.
But Angela. Angela would hug a burglar and make him cookies. She freely gave out hugs—which had led Jane to always be wary of them. Not Maura. She leaned into the hug and gratefully accepted Angela's soft warmth.
She had the urge to say something about how it would be okay. To attempt to verbally comfort Angela. But it wouldn't—couldn't be. A killer had maimed her friend and left her in a hospital and they were thousands of miles from home with only each other to find support from.
It was very much the opposite of okay.
####
Mark had intended to get into work earlier but after an epic surgery on Arizona's ex and a night with a fussy baby at his girlfriend's he instead slept like the dead and barely made it into the hospital to drop off Sofia before rounds. Callie and Arizona were both waiting for them outside the daycare and jostled briefly to see who would grab their daughter first. Callie won by virtue of having a longer reach then her wife but held Sofia so that Arizona could still get in maximum snuggles.
And since when did he start using words like 'snuggles'? Robbins and her cloying Peds sentimentality were rubbing off on him.
"Any luck finding the guy who apparently can just waltz into your apartment yet?" Mark was going to sue the apartment manager into ten generations of poverty. Maybe Callie and Arizona would sign onto the suit too.
Arizona shook her head. "Nothing. The detective said he'd be in touch. Until then we get police escorts when we're not at the hospital."
"Yeah about that, you know they'll still pull you over for speeding?"
Both women blinked.
"Ran a stop sign." The guy was supposed to be protecting Mark's daughter from crazy men with knives! Not scoring an easy ticket for a rolling stop.
Callie arched an eyebrow, "Wow. Good job Mark. Were you doing cocaine off a hooker at the same time?"
Arizona made a shushing noise and put a hand over Sofia's ear protectively.
"No," he retorted. "I was texting Julia." Why did he admit these things to these women? Both women opened their mouths to unleash tirades but Mark's pager bleated. He held his hands up defensively, "And that's my cue. Lunch? Lunch?"
He didn't wait for an affirmative but turn and jogged to the elevator.
The page had been for Arizona's friend.
####
The good looking younger doctor, Avery intercepted them on their way to Jane's room. He tried to make small talk as he walked with them and snapped in what he seemed to think was an unobtrusive manner when one of the nurses saw them.
"How is she," Angela asked. Her voice was rough with grief and she was wise to whatever game he was playing.
"She's fine."
"Really? Because from where I'm standing it would appear you were attempting to stall us." Maura crossed her arms for extra haughty doctor menace.
"That would be because of me," Mark Sloan rounded the corner with a smile. "I wanted to go in with you all and see how she was doing."
Angela looked at him suspiciously, "You normally so hands on with patients' family?"
"I am not. But normally those patients aren't the ex-fiancee of the mother of my child. In Jane's case I'm making an exception."
"Arizona had sex with a man?"
"Her wife did." He paused right after he said it. Like maybe he'd just realized he'd said too much and said it in a completely blasé manner. Avery rolled his eyes.
Angela waved off the whole concept and headed for Jane's room. "I never understand all the hippy dippy gay stuff of Arizona's and I don't really want to know now."
Maura was seeing a disaster on her hand and interjected, "That wasn't a slight against Dr. Robbins' sexuality by the way. They just happen to have some…history."
"I noticed," Avery muttered.
"Not a problem," Sloan said, "I don't get Robbins half the time either."
They found Jane in much the same state they'd left her in before. Her hair was still dirty and brushed to the side and her skin was still pale beneath her tan and the bandages on her neck were still bulky and dehumanizing.
Dr. Sloan voice was low as he explained his plan. Soon she'd be moved to a stroke unit where they could better monitor what he felt was the biggest threat to her health.
"Is she gonna wake up," Angela asked.
What a question to ask? Angela posed it casually. Like asking about a family pet—not her daughter. Would she wake up? Could she? And who would she be?
All the fights they'd had. Arguments over things petty and grand. It didn't make sense any more.
And there was Angela just asking the doctor in a voice fraught with grief, timidity and the iron will of a mother, "Will she wake up."
Maura had to close her eyes a moment to shut it all out. Because if she kept looking at her best friend and seeing that conversation carried out in the corner of her eyes she'd probably crumble to the floor in a million little pieces.
He nodded. "When she's ready," he said gently, "You're welcome to stay here, but you need to both be quiet." His tone turned scolding, "Respectful."
"As long as Arizona doesn't come waltzing in here—"
"To her too. She's a doctor at this hospital and again," he smile was so tight it was nearly a grimace, "I'm kind of fond of her." Sloan always seemed to have a little bit of a lilt in his voice. Like he was a step away from a self depreciating joke that would humanize an otherwise godly man, but there was hardness in his tone at the mention of Arizona and the chastisement, though slight, was enough to make Angela back down.
He and Avery left and Angela took the seat next to Jane's bed. Since the night before someone had added another chair and Maura sat in it gratefully.
####
"You're really leaving?"
Jane and Arizona had danced delicately around each other after Arizona's announcement. She was leaving Boston and taking the job in Seattle. It wasn't CHOPs or Texas Children's or Boston Children's but it was a program with potential and after the aging head of Peds she'd be the top dog in a very small pond working with some of the best surgeons in the country.
Jane had accepted the decision mutely.
Angela…Angela had not.
"Well what about the wedding?"
Arizona sighed. "There isn't one Angela."
She ducked under the bed to pull out her rollerblades. She hadn't used them in years and for the first time in a while they seemed…childish to her.
"You go and get engaged to my daughter and the minute things turn a little south you leave?"
Beneath the bed Arizona sighed. "If that's the way you want to look at Angela yes."
"Tommy's in jail. And your brother—"
She pushed herself back out into the open air and sat up. "Don't bring Tim into this."
To her credit Angela looked sad. She knelt next to Arizona and tried to put a hand on her knee but Arizona pulled back. "It's been a year. And you're still grieving."
"Wouldn't you? Wouldn't Jane or Frankie? What if Tommy didn't just get put away for drunk driving? What if he'd hit a wall going sixty"
"Don't you make this about Tommy."
"I'm not," she said firmly, "It isn't about Tommy. Or Tim. It isn't even about the fact you're still pissed I'm a woman."
Angela rolled her eyes. "Right. So you're a girl. Big deal."
"Don't give me that. You've been pissed Jane was dating a woman since she first told you."
"Yeah. I was. Back before I knew you and Jane just popped it out at dinner one night and seemed to change twenty something years of history we had with her I really wasn't crazy about it but I got over it Arizona. You can get over a lot of big stuff when you love someone."
Damn it. Arizona's mom was so ridiculously loving and nurturing and sweet. Angela could be too, but she could also be a spitfire full of fire and brimstone when she really wanted to and she switched between the two extremes so suddenly that Arizona never quite had a grasp on her.
Of course according to her parents, Tim and Jane she had problems with really getting anyone. She was always just a hair off. Just out of reach of understanding the way the people around her worked.
It didn't bother her. She was a surgeon and she could talk to kids better than any other surgeon she knew and Seattle Grace was offering her a job.
"I'm sorry Angela, I really am, but I got this job and I can't ask Jane to go with me. She just got moved from Vice to Homicide. And she's got you all—"
"And you don't?"
No. She didn't.
####
Arizona snuck into the ICU after her first surgery of the day. Callie had made her promise not to get into another fight with Angela but that wouldn't stop her from checking with the shift nurse or, if they were there, Mark or Avery.
The two other women had made it from the hotel to the hospital and were sitting by Jane's bed dozing. That's all there was to do while she was unconscious. Sit. Wait. Stare. She stepped out of the line of sight of the room to avoid being caught by Angela and nearly bumped into Avery.
"Are you going in," he asked.
"No."
He grinned and flashed those very pretty teeth of his. "Because Sloan would probably want me to bring in a SWAT team if you did."
"Avery?"
His voice went a little high in response to the steel in hers, "Yes?"
"Go away."
"Yes ma'am."
Wait. "Is she okay?"
He turned, "She's still sleeping. Sloan's put me on her for the rest of the day," he said sourly, "So anything comes up I'll be here."
She smiled, not because of Avery. He sounded pretty pissed about his job, but because Mark had thought to do it. "Thanks," she said.
He shrugged and slipped into the nurse's office.
Arizona started to leave. Just seeing Jane had been enough, and knowing Mark had Avery on the case made it all a little better.
"Dr. Robbins?" Maura Isles stepped out of the ICU unit. She glanced back wistfully then scooted over to Arizona. "I wanted to introduce myself. Without…"
Angela.
"Is she all right?"
"She's doing well enough with everything."
"Good." She meant it. She and Angela never got along; there was some unspeakable chasm that had always existed between them filled with all the expectations and insinuations and lost dreams they each represented. But Angela had been something to her. Something important.
Maura seemed to be considering something because her face screwed up in thought. "Have you spoken with the police?"
Ah. Jane said Isles liked a mystery. "Not today. They're looking for him."
"And the scene?"
Of the crime. "I'm going to clean it up later today."
"Can I—can I come?"
Arizona raised an eyebrow.
"It's just. While Jane is sleeping there isn't very much to do, but maybe if I could see the scene of the crime. Maybe I could figure out a way to understand him." She was rambling. Sort of like Arizona did. Callie would find it hilarious. Jane less so. "I've read all the previous reports, including yours for the initial victims and I keep feeling like—"
Words failed a woman Arizona suspected was rarely reticent.
"I've got to head back to the OR right now. But I'll stop by on my way."
"Thank you." The promise of more clues to the puzzle her mind was desperately trying to solve seemed a balm to Dr. Isles. Arizona turned to leave but she called out once more, "Oh, and Dr. Robbins?" A moment of communion between them so unexpected Arizona's eyes widened in astonishment I'm sorry."
It was such a genuine gesture. An unnecessary apology that carried within it so many more. Arizona took a deep breath. "I'm sorry too."
