Chapter Eleven

I find myself standing in front of the black door of Arizona's apartment for the second time, however this time she invited me over personally. After our long chat in Mark's room yesterday, she asked if I was off tonight and if I was, would I want to come over for a movie. It was actually quite adorable how shy she was when asking me, and I may or may not have decided to tease her a bit. I said I did happen to be off, but that I would only come over if I could pick the movie. She agreed.

I smile at the memory, glad that we seem to be making progress in this friendship and that my best friend is waking up…slowly but surely. I raise my hand and wrap my knuckles on the door, firing three quick knocks. I tilt my head as I hear some commotion behind the door, and when Arizona finally opens the door, I smile wide.

She's dressed in a pair of grey sweatpants and a worn out Hopkins t-shirt. Her hair is pulled back in a messy pony tail, and I can see she has her prosthetic on, though she's leaning on her crutches…and she looks amazing. Especially when she gives me a big smile upon opening the door and gesturing for me to come inside. A little breathlessly, she speaks to me.

"Hello Calliope!" she tells me in a surprisingly chipper tone. "I was uh, just making us some popcorn…or attempting to, when you knocked. So, I guess if you wouldn't mind putting in the movie you've selected," she paused to make eye contact with me, "you did bring one, right?"

"I certainly did; a very badass one, I might add," I respond with a smirk.

She gives a small laugh, and under her breath, "I'm sure… Anyways you put the movie in and get it started and I'll finish getting the popcorn ready?" she asks me.

"Sounds like a plan!" I say, and she just gives me an awkward nod and a smile before maneuvering her way into her kitchen area and I start to make my way to the DVD player. I pull out the case I had in my purse and pop it open, and once it's inserted into the device, I search for the remote. Finding it quickly, I figure out how to turn the TV on. Ah! There we go…Now to figure out how to get to the menu. I stare at the button, finally finding the input. Damn, they should just make all remotes the same… Watching the screen as I flip through the inputs, I smile when I finally see it. I hope she likes this movie…

I turn around and set my purse on the floor at the end of the couch and I hear a big clatter from the kitchen area. Slightly worried, but not wanting to be over-protective, I make my way to the kitchen. Just stay cool Torres…you're just coming to tell her the movie's ready to start. Once I round the corner, I see a number of bowls on the floor, and Arizona frowning at them while trying to pick them up with a crutch. Needless to say, she's failing miserably.

"I uh…I don't think that's what those are for," I tease. Her head snaps up quickly, and she flushes at being caught.

"I-I, well…I had an issue getting the big bowl out of the cabinet, and I haven't quite mastered my balance with this enough to bend over so easily," she says as she gestures towards her prosthetic, though the more she talks, I notice, the more embarrassed she becomes. And not the cute 'I-just-got-caught-being-awkward' embarrassed, but more of a shamed embarrassment…because of her leg.

"I getcha," I try to say casually, like it's no big deal. Because it isn't. "But if you're gonna do that, you gotta do it right."

She glances up at me, and I can see the confusion on her face. "Huh? Do what?"

"Well, you can't just stab at it and expect to catch the bowl and lift it easily. You have to corner it." I walk over by her, and ignore the she tenses slightly. "Here, give me this," I say, putting my hand on one of her crutches until she shifts her balance and let's go. "See, just push the bowl this way…and then give it a good tap to flip it on its side against the wall…Now just stick the end of the crutch like so and crawl it up the wall," I explain to her, and I fail to notice the few times I stick my tongue out in concentration. Then I freeze. The bowl is half-way up the wall, and now what? I stare at it…trying to figure out how to go about this. I can't just grab it…that'd be cheating.

I hear a laugh behind me and take a look. Arizona has an amused smirk on her mouth, "Please…do continue. I really want to learn the 'right' way to do this." She puts her hand on her hip, nodding her head at the bowl, indicating I should continue.

I narrow my eyes. "I will…I was just making sure I wasn't going too fast for you to keep up," I say haughtily. I turn my attention back to the bowl stuck between the wall and the crutch. Pursing my lips in concentration, I pull back a little, to see if the bowl would stay balanced. It does. Smiling and sticking my tongue out, I slowly try to rotate so that I can put it on the table, but about half-way there, it falls to the floor.

"Alright. My turn!" she tells me, sticking out her hand for me to return the crutch to her. I huff and do as she asks, disappointed in my failure. She grabs it and makes her way to where I was standing. She pushes it against the wall and successfully gets it up the wall. I watch as she scrunches her face up in concentration. I notice her little grunt and smile of triumph, and sure enough, she's got the bowl balanced on the end. Now, she starts to move it across the room…ever so slowly. She bites her lip as she does so, and I can't take my eyes off those lips. I'm startled from my staring however, by a large crash right next to me. "HA!" she shouts. I jump slightly and then laugh, she successfully dropped the bowl onto the countertop.

"Yeah yeah…only because I showed you how." I mutter good naturedly.

"Oh contraire Calliope, I added my own little moves there…didn't you notice?" she asks, tilting her head to the side.

I blush, realizing I was too entranced watching her to notice exactly how she did it. "Yeah…yeah. True. You did have some fancy moves there," I tell her rather flustered. Clapping my hands together and avoiding eye-contact, I speak up, "So! Are we ready to get this show on the road?"

"Yeah, Just gonna dump the popcorn in," she says as she does so, "and we're good to go." I grab the bowl to carry into the room without asking, already digging into the buttery treat. "So, dare I ask what movie you brought?" she asks me as we make our way to the couch.

"Mmhmm," I mumble as she sits down and I make my way to the television where I left the remote. "Columbiana. It's pretty good; one of my favorites actually," I tell her. I decide tonight the floor is not for me. And I sit down on the couch next to Arizona, who, to my surprise, hardly tenses up. I'm quick to press play and get the movie started. "It's a bit graphic in the beginning, but not too bad…especially considering what us surgeons are used to seeing." I inform her. I glance at her, and she just nods, looking forward at the movie. I hope I'm not making her too uncomfortable by sitting so close to her…but if she did, I'm fairly certain she would say something…such is the Arizona way. I smirk to myself and lean back, fully intending to relax tonight. This time, I'm very wrapped up in the movie…not paying nearly as much attention to Arizona as I did the last time we watched a movie, so I was a bit surprised when she paused the movie an hour after it started. I look at her in confusion, and she avoids my eyes. "Is everything okay Arizona?" I ask quietly, not wanting to spook her.

"Uh…yeah, I just. Um, I think I'm going to my room for a bit. I've been in my uh…" and she motions towards her prosthetic, but won't voice it allowed. Something I noticed she did earlier as well. "all day and it's…it's rather sore, so I was gonna take it off."

"Oh! Yeah! That's fine," I say, finally realizing exactly how uncomfortable she must've been sitting here with it on the whole time…especially after having it on all day.

"Okay…it might be a while, so if you don't want me to pause the movie, I understand. It's just, I was actually enjoying it and wouldn't mind finishing the whole thing. But, I get it if you don't wanna wait for me." She says, rather abashedly.

"No. It can stay paused. I've seen it a time or two, and I don't mind waiting at all as long as it means you get to be a bit more comfortable," I assure her, placing my hand on her arm.

"Thank-you" she whispers, while staring at the hand on her arm. She seems to start from her thoughts though, because she shakes her head and stands up. She slowly makes her way to her room and, I'm surprised I didn't hear the door shut. She trusts me. She trusts me not to bother her, to look in on her….I think. Or is it a way of asking me to help? Nope. I'm just gonna wait to help until she asks for it. There is absolutely no reason to force myself on her when our friendship is just starting to take off. Deciding she might be a few minutes, I decide to be a little bit nosey. I stand up and walk around the television room, noticing a couple of frames I must've missed the last time I was here. Granted, then I wasn't invited and a bit anxious she'd be angry I'd just shown up. But tonight, I have permission. Kind of.

Looking at the frame, I let a smile spread across my face. Arizona has her arms wrapped around a young man, who looks to be around her age, and both with identical, giant, dimple-popping smiles on their faces. It has to be her brother. I frown when I wonder why he hasn't been around helping Arizona. I've heard it's mostly been just Teddy and her parents. I shrug my shoulders…he might be pre-occupied with his own family or something.

I take a few quick steps back when I hear Arizona making her way back to the living room. Soon, I see her on her crutches making her way to the couch. I head back as well and last minute, I decide to sit a few inches closer than I did before. I want to see how close I can get. "All good?"

"Yes. Much better. Thank you for waiting." She tells me, though she's rather quiet. "So, ready to finish this?"

"You betcha!" I say with a smile, and press the play button and proceed to get comfortable. By the end of the movie, she was resting on the arm of the couch with her leg tucked underneath her. I started to lean closer to her as the movie progressed. When the credits start rolling, I notice I'm rather comfortable, and incredibly tired. Not hearing anything from Arizona, I decide it won't hurt to shut my eyes for a couple of minutes. After all, I've got an early day tomorrow, and I wanted to drop by Mark's room first. I start to relax and let out a deep breath, not remembering the last time I've felt this comfortable. That's when I noticed, or rather felt, Arizona's muscles relax under me. I freeze, not even remember laying my head on her. Nor did I notice how tense she must've been when I did so. I make a move to sit up quickly, so embarrassed that I almost fell asleep against her bicep. Though I'm stopped by a gentle hand.

"It's okay…" It's barely a whisper, so quiet I wonder if I even heard her correctly, but when her hand remains firmly holding me to her, I start to relax again.

"I'm sorry…" I say quietly. My eyes are still closed, and are getting too heavy to open, but my mind is aware. My thoughts. It reminds me of when I was young and used to spend the night at my friend's house. Eventually at around two in the morning, we wouldn't be able to keep our eyes open, so we'd snuggle into the blankets in the dark and just talk for a couple hours until our minds finally fell asleep too.

"Calliope, it's okay."

"If you say so…" I mumble. I burrow my face into her arm as I readjust my own arms in front of me. "You're awfully comfy Arizona." I tell her without thinking. But hey, it's true.

I feel her body move as she chuckles, "Thanks…I guess?"

"Mmmm... 'Welcome." I say. I'm trying to think of something to say. To maybe make conversation, so it's not as quiet as I fall asleep on my new friend. "What's your favorite color?" Really Torres? Very original. Even in my hazy mindset, I know just how lame that was.

"Navy blue." She replies rather quickly. "And yours?"

"Hmmm. Cerulean blue." I say, Arizona's eyes in my mind. "Followed closely by black." I add as an afterthought.

"That's very specific Calliope." She says, and I can hear the smile she must have on her face. She pauses, and I can picture her debating whether to say something or not, "Do you have a big family?" she asks me, and for some reason, this feels like an important question.

"I do. Well, at least a large extended family. My immediate family is my parents, younger sister Aria, and myself." I answer. "What about you? I saw that picture…that your brother?"

She doesn't answer for a while, and I almost wonder if she dozed off. "He was my brother." She answered suddenly, and very quietly. That answer woke me up completely. However, I didn't get up to look at her, choosing to trust my instincts that she's not too comfortable discussing this with people.

"Was?" I press gently, dreading the answer.

"He, uh…he was killed in Iraq." I can hear the emotion in her voice, and from what I know of Arizona, she doesn't want pity. So I remain were I am, though I lift my head slightly to face her. I want her to see the sincerity on my face. I wait till she looks at me.

"I'm so sorry Arizona. I understand if you don't want to talk about it…but I want you to know, I will always listen to you if you need to talk. About anything." I emphasize, hoping she'll realize I'm also talking about the accident and results of said accident.

She takes a deep breath, steadying herself. Holding eye-contact with me, I notice the tears in her eyes. "Thanks." She says quietly. "And…I know it may not seem like it sometimes, but uh, I can be a pretty good listener too. If you ever need to talk about anything. I can't imagine it's been easy for you either… and, I understand if you don't want to confide in me, but…I'm here."

I smile at that. "I'll keep that in mind, thank you."

She just nods. "Are you close with your sister?" she asks me hesitantly.

"I love her, but we really don't have that much in common. I decided to be a deviant and become a doctor. She remained at home, and I'm pretty sure my father is going to be training her to take over the family business." I tell her. "Just as well…I didn't really enjoy all the business talk growing up and kissing the asses of other businessmen doesn't appeal to me," I finish with a chuckle.

"I can get that. My brother and I were really close. He was two years older than me, but we shared the same birthday. Plus we were always moving around, military brats," she added when she noticed my curious face, "and so we didn't have time to make close friends. But we always had each other." She said, and I can hear the pain in her voice.

"I'm sorry if my question is too much, and you don't have to answer, but…when did your brother…" I trail off, feeling rather awkward with my question, wondering if it was too soon.

"No, it's okay. Uhm…" she bit her lip, trying to calm herself. "It's going on eight months." She finally got out.

"Oh honey…" I say. No longer do I care about holding off. I need to comfort her. I put my arms around her and hug her tight. I hold her until she relaxes in my arms. I can think of no words, so instead, I just hold her tight. I can't even imagine what she must be going through. Losing her best friend and barely five months later getting into an accident that drastically altered her life again. I can feel her let out a shaky breath against me, now actually holding me back just as tight. It means a lot that she trusted me with this information. I know it's a combination of me being someone new in her life, and it's always easier to talk to a 'stranger' because they have less bias, but also because she trusts me. Because, hell, even if you talk to a stranger about things, you try and pick a trust worthy stranger. I just hope that this'll strengthen our friendship. She'll see that I'll treat her no different.

I lean back into the couch and bring Arizona with me so that she's resting in my arms and she doesn't fight me. "Thank-you." She murmurs.

"Arizona. This is what friends are for."

"I know…but I just want to say how much I appreciate it. I love Teddy and my parents, I do…but it's just so hard to talk with them. They knew me before my brother and the accident, and I've changed. A lot. And every time they look at me, I feel like I'm letting them down by not being that person. I know in my head that's not very rational, but my head doesn't win these arguments very often." She explains to me quietly. This is nothing I didn't suspect, so I remain silent, letting her get this out. She sighs before continuing on, "I love them so much, and I get so angry at myself when I snap at them, but I can't seem to help it. And they just take it…well Teddy doesn't…but none the less. And the fact that they let me yell at them and don't yell back makes me irrationally angry too, because I know that if I weren't injured…or, or sick, they would have none of it. They pity me. They think I can't handle it. They think I'm too 'sensitive.' And after they leave, I realize, that's not the case…but rational thoughts disappear when they're here…ya know?"

"I can understand that. It's like…they keep expecting you to suddenly be fixed. To give you grieving time, and you'll just be that person they always knew. I think over time, everyone changes, but because it's so gradual, people hardly notice. But when one or two big things happen rather quickly and sometimes close together, you change so quickly, it's a shock to those around you. Because you became a new person within seconds…minutes…days, and the last they knew…you were still the 'old' you." I pause, playing it back in my head to see if that makes sense even to me. I think so, "Kind of like that?"

"I think you've finally put into words what I've been trying to figure out for ages." She chuckles. "You're pretty amazing Calliope." She sighs contently.

"Oh, I know." I say smugly, trying to lighten the mood a bit. I laugh a little when I feel her give me a small thrust with her shoulder.

"And modest too…" she says quietly. I can tell she's probably about ready to fall asleep, and honestly, I'm okay with that. I close my eyes and rest my head on the back of the couch. I'm content in this moment. I really am.

XXX

I wake with a start, slightly disoriented by my surroundings. Finally I remember going to Arizona's to watch a movie, our talk, and how we must've fallen asleep on the couch. I feel her weight on me, and smile to myself. This is comfortable. I like this. From what I can tell, Arizona is still asleep, and I know I need to wake her up and get her into a bed. It's not good for her limb to fall asleep like this. Her head is resting on my chest, her forehead close to my mouth. Before I think, I kiss her gently on the forehead. "You are so beautiful Arizona, and I have no idea what you're doing to me." I whisper. The truth of that statement hitting me full force. After a moment, I shake my head to clear my mind. No use thinking like that…Now that we're friends, I can't risk ruining it for something more. I need her in my life in some way.

"Hey…Arizona. Hun, you need to wake up." I say while giving her a small shake. She stirs a little, and finally opens those big blue eyes. She stares at me for a few moments, and for a second I wonder if she was awake for my confession. I quickly dismiss that idea though. There's no way…she was definitely asleep.

"Sorry I fell asleep on you…" she mumbles. She looks rather flustered, and I assume she's feeling self-conscious about everything that happened tonight. I don't think she's been this open, physically or emotionally, for a long time. I decide to put her at ease.

"Hey, I don't mind. I didn't really give you much of a choice," I say with a smile. "But you need to get to bed, and I need to head home. I've got an early day tomorrow…though luckily for me, I don't live far from here or the hospital."

"Oh geez…I'm sorry Callie! I didn't mean to keep you here and up late-"

I put my finger up to her mouth to stop her. "I don't regret a moment. I can't remember the last time I had such a good, meaningful conversation with someone. And I plan on having a lot more of these late night pow-wows." I say with a smile…though after I say it, I start to feel a bit insecure, "that is, if you want?" I ask, avoiding eye-contact.

"Pow-wow?" she asks, her eyebrows raised in question. "And people think I use childish phrases…" she mutters to herself.

My jaw drops open, "Hey!" I can't help but let out a laugh at that. Did I really say pow-wow? I am a dork.

"But yeah…" she says, and she pauses until I look at her, "I would love to have another one of these 'pow-wows' sometime," she says rather shyly, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth. She looks so adorable right now.

"Okay! Yeah…Great," I say with a smile. I move to stand up, and help her do so as well. I quickly bend down and grab her crutch and hand them to her. She adjusts it under her arm, and gives me another small smile. "Soo…I guess I'll get going. See you on Saturday for lunch? That is if I don't see you before then?" I ask, choosing to ignore how eager I sound.

"Yeah, Saturday for sure," she replies. "And thank you again, Calliope. You're a good friend."

"You are too Arizona. You are too." I say, as I reach the door. The last thing I see is her give me a small wave goodbye, with a content smile on her face.

AN: Hello again! It's been a month since I last updated, and I feel like a lot has happened in my life in that month. One of the reasons it took me so long though, is because I got a new lap top and it took longer than I would've liked to get Word on my new one. However, I finally did! And I was feeling jolly and in the holiday spirit and decided to finish this one up and post it. So for those of you still following this story, thank you times a million! Hope you all have a good holiday season! Hope you enjoy it!

(I did not go over this chapter very much, so I'm sorry for any mistakes...)