***Arizona's POV****
Staring out over the Rose Garden in the middle of the morning on a Tuesday, things should look better, but they look so gloom today. The sky is an ashy gray the ground is white covered with snow.
"Ugh, it's April 20, for goodness sake why is there snow on the ground?" I turn around in the Oval office realizing that I am alone. "Great I am the crazy president who talks to herself now." I walk over to the desk and pick up a few folders and proceed to my study when the door to my secretary's office opens. I pause in my track and turn.
"Madam President," she said. The conversation behind her overtaking the rest of her sentence. "Thanks, April, I'll take it from here, send them in." Making my way back to the center of the room I stand near the end of the two couches where the two armchairs are putting me directly opposite of the desk the swamps the rest of the room. For a desk that I do little work at, it really is huge. I feel like a child sitting at my dad's desk when I was little, and I don't think I am a small person. But still.
The parties at question are still rambling on amongst themselves as April shows them in. "Good Morning, Bailey, Torres, Shephard, it's it a bit early to be at each other's throats so soon?" Silence fills the air, its good to be president sometimes.
"Here have a seat, would you all like coffee, tea, water, whiskey?" That gets chuckles throughout the room. They take seats. It is interesting to see where they take their seats, Callie sits in the couch to my left, while Bailey sits across from her to my right, Derek Shephard or should I say General Derek Shephard on the had sat in the armchair directly opposite of me, pulling it forward so that he is in direct line with me, powerplay - of course.
I begin after they all have sat, "Ladies and Gentlemen, what can I do for you all today," I pause and then take my seat.
Throughout the meeting the arguing began again mostly between Bailey and General Shephard, meanwhile, I noticed Callie looking at me with sideways glances out of the corner of her eye. It's hard to be stern when I know she is checking me out. I let this conversation, which by the way has me baffled, its an argument over scheduling and responsibilities, why are you in my office? I glance down at my watch and realize it is almost 11:30, I have lunch plans.
"Excuse me," I interrupt, "I do hate to do this, however, I have a prior engagement I need to attend to and I can't be late. Bailey, put some time on my calendar with April and let's brainstorm some alternatives to this issue, then the four of us can sit down again and come to a mutually agreed upon solution. How does that sound?" I stand up indicating that this is over walking to my desk I alert April that my guests need to be let out. April enters holds the door and waits.
"Now if you would excuse me I don't like to be late for appointments, you can understand that General, good day?" I then exit through the door April is holding open, and walk down the hall past Roosevelt's Room and continuing on. Really I don't know where I think I am going, lunch is in my study today, but I needed to get out of there before I started laughing. I step through a door that only I am allowed to go through and turn to my right, Jared is quick on my heals.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"I needed air, lots of it" I respond without looking back.
"You realize it is like 25 degrees out there without windchill, a freak April storm," Jared says as he puts my jacket on my shoulders.
"You are good, and I will only be a min. Let's walk."
Jared and I continue to talk and walk, for about 15 mins before I realize just how cold it really is, my noon lunch should be ready and I need to get back. So we make our way back to the Oval Office, entering this time from the garden.
**** Callie's POV ****
I walked into her study and lunch was already sitting on her side table ready for us. But Arizona wasn't there. I know she walked out of the meeting with Baliey and Shephard but I would have thought she would be back now. I pick up my phone to call her, but as I turn around she is walking through the door a little windblown and chilled.
"Hi," she says.
"Hi," I reply hanging up and putting my phone down, "I was about to call you. Ugh, Lunch is here."
"Great. I'm starved," she moves to her side of the table so that she is facing the door. I step over to the door of her study and shut it. Exhaling a breath I did not realize I had been holding.
"Cal, we don't have to do this," I hear from behind me.
"No Zo, no, we do," I say with a little more bit than I meant to. I slowly turn around and immediately I regret it. She has taken her defensive, 'don't fuck with me' stance and harden her facial expressions.
"Zo, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that, just I miss this, I miss the quiet," I say to her as I soften my expressions and my own body language and approach the table. "Let's keep to our rule, no official shop talk, OK?"
"Okay" Arizona responded.
We both sit down and uncover of plates. As normal, I have a chicken caesar salad with a side of extra chicken - chopped, with a side of extra dressing, she is having an Italian wrap with baked potato chips. We start eating without much being said between us, normally the silence between us never bothered me, but since everything happened, it seems to put me on edge. There is so much tension in the air you could cut it with a knife. There has been for the past three weeks. I remember it, one week after my confirmation hearing, everything went to shit.
"So," I start after taking a big swig of my raspberry ice tea, "this stupid guy I work with stormed into the office of one of my bosses this morning," I pause to take a bite of my salad and continue, "I guess you would call her that, I don't know to tell you the truth. Anyway, the guy starts yelling, like out of nowhere. It was funny because my boss doesn't take shit from anyone and she was rattled, like holy shit what the fuck is going on kinda face you know, anyway I have no idea what the two are arguing about. All of a sudden I get pulled into some kind of debate argument, they start asking me questions like who is right in the situation, I am totally caught off guard, like seriously. I just needed time on someone's calendar and to get copies of some meeting that happened two years ago. This was crazy." I stop talking for a min and take a breath, drink some, continue eating and telling my story. "Oh wait there is more, next thing I know they are storming down the hall, my boss yells 'Torres, now!' What the hell am I supposed to do, I don't even know what they are arguing about." I take another drink, and then continue my animated story, "the dude, you know the one who barged in my bosses office, he strong-armed his way into the presi... " I paused for a minute trying to collect my thoughts and figure out how to rework that statement. I stop talking look down at my food.
"Ok this is hard, look Shephard strong-armed April to let him into your office, and then we were there. I have no idea what crawled up that guy's ass but he needs to get it surgically removed. Nobody likes him, not even the other Generals. What gives?" I finished.
"You know I can't discuss this with you, but, Shephard is a Marine, he didn't like me when I was at the Pentagon. Hell, he didn't like me when I was in Japan or even Germany. He has done everything, been everywhere. My personal opinion and not the opinion of the president is that it's about me, at one point being his subordinates and now I am the commander in chief, so every time something doesn't go his way or is changed, it ruffles him," she finishes as continues to eat her wrap and drink her Coke.
"Wait, Shephard was your CO when?"
"Germany," she answers crunching on her chips.
"How did I not know this?" I asked.
She continues, "Because the others had nicknames for everyone so we wouldn't get busted talking crap about them, some of the other girls called him McDreamy. Something about his hair, I don't know, I don't get it. This was the little hiccup we were worried about but didn't think it would be all too bad. Needless to say, he has dug in his heals. "
I look at her dumbfounded. More liked shocked. "I can't believe it, I give you more props for being tougher than I know you already are, he is an asshole."
She just starts laughing, more like cackling, but the sound of her laugh is like music to my ears.
"I'm sorry, I don't mean to laugh, but you have no idea how much of a pompous ass he can be. But at the same time, he can be really nice, he is a very strange guy," she says wiping her mouth with her napkin and taking a drink of soda. "Ohhh I needed a good laugh, thank you."
Looking at her smile, makes me forget about the hell we have been through over the last six weeks. The craziness of the confirmation hearings and the torture of not being able to see her for nearly two weeks during that time. Then the real chaos began.
****Arizona's POV****
I look up to see Callie is lost in her thoughts. She is playing with her salad. I want to reach over and grab some of the extra chicken she ordered because I know she did that because I always steal her chicken, but can I still do that, am I allowed, this is so hard.
"How do you like the house?" I ask in almost a quiet whisper.
"What?"
"The house, have you settled in yet, found all my secrets?" I ask again.
"Yes, I love the house. The view is amazing. And the big fluffy chair next to the fireplace is my new favorite spot. Like I could live there my entire life and I know I have not missed anything," she responds.
"Oh yeah, I love that chair. It's so comfy I have fallen asleep there so many times it's crazy. " I take a moment to ask her, what I want to ask her. "Where did you go just then?"
She looks up at me and grin, "Just thinking, its nothing." She goes back to eating her lunch.
"Stop, it is something," I reach out and placing my hand on her forearm halting her actions. Both of us freeze. We haven't touched each other, except for a formal handshake in over three weeks.
She looks down at my hand where it lays and then her eyes follow my hand, arm up to my own eyes. I stammer out "I'mmmm sorry." I pull my hand back like I just touched a hot pan, ugh, when did this get so hard.
"Look we need to talk but not here, when are you free?" She asks me.
I go to pick up my phone but looking at her eyes and realizing for once in the last 90 days or more I needed to put us first, well I need to put her first because reality is there is no longer an us. "I can be free tonight," I respond.
"Meet me at the house after work?"
"Absolutely," I respond with the biggest smile I can give her. "What time?"
Her phone goes off, she looks down at her phone, curses under her breathe then places her phone down. She takes the last bites of her lunch and stands up wiping her mouth.
"Anytime, just please come, no matter how late it gets. I've got to run, Bailey, you know. I will see you tonight?"
"Yes."
She leaves my private study and shuts the door behind her, I look down at my lunch and realize I am not so hungry anymore. I get up and walk over to my desk and sit down opening my computer to see what I will need to reschedule in order to finally have the talk I've not ever wanted to have with Calliope Torres.
