"Thank you for agreeing to have dinner with me tonight," Liz says once she is settled into the car.
"Well, I have to admit that I was a bit surprised that you called since we haven't really met before," Arizona replies nervously. "I'm going to assume that Amelia doesn't know about this?" she asks.
"Uh, no. She doesn't and thank you for not telling her yet," Liz replies.
After getting to know each other a bit and ordering their meals, Liz smiles at the blonde and begins speaking.
"Arizona, I don't know how well that you know my sister. Amelia has told me a little bit about you and your family, of course I know Callie and I already knew about the plane crash; can I assume that she has shared a bit of her history with you," Liz asks.
"Yes, Liz. Amelia has told me about your father's death and losing Ryan and the baby; I know about her struggles, but she's strong, she's one of the strongest women that I know." Arizona replies.
"Good, I'm relieved that she's told you about those things, I know it's hard for her to open up, so that makes me feel better that she's being honest and open with you." Liz replies taking a sip of her wine. "But Arizona, she's struggling with Derek's death, really struggling and I'm afraid that you may be blinded by your own losses and not realize how badly she's really doing right now."
"I know that she has struggled with Derek's death, but she seems to be doing much better, she has even called me to talk when she's upset," Arizona explains.
"Hmm, well that is encouraging. But Arizona she has this pattern, it's almost like she's addicted to new relationships. My concern is that she's using your relationship to distract her from her grief. Amy is one of the most sensitive people I know, her sensitivity is the basis of her addiction, she prefers to numb her pain instead of feel it. She used to fall into bed with friends, but now challenging almost impossible surgeries seem to be her drug of choice." Liz explains.
Arizona sits stunned by that comment, but fortunately, the food arrives, so she doesn't respond, instead she focuses on her meal and Liz watches her carefully for a few minutes before resuming the conversation.
"She really likes you," Liz remarks. "She doesn't always talk about her relationships with me, but you she has talked about."
"But you think she's using me to avoid her grief over Derek?" Arizona asks confused.
"Not exactly, but she doesn't have the best track record with relationships and I wanted you to know that about her," Liz explains.
"How do you know that I am any better with relationships?" Arizona asks.
"I don't, it's just that you were married and have a child, which shows a level of commitment that Amy has yet to reach. Look I know that I'm probably out of line here, but I want her to be happy and right now, your relationship makes her happy, so I want this to workout and Amy, well, Amy needs this to workout." Liz replies reaching over and squeezing the blonde's hand. "It's just that for this to work, you need to know what you're up against. She's my little sister, Arizona and I love her so much, but she can be really hard to love a lot of the time."
"I don't like that we did this behind her back, if she finds out she will be upset with both of us," Arizona points out.
"Then tell her that we met, tell her I approached you and introduced myself and we had coffee, which is true by the way, we did have coffee," Liz points out.
The waiter brings the check and Liz slips her card on it and hands it right back to him.
"On me, please. You were gracious enough to join me," she remarks.
"She's going to be back in DC for a presentation next month. Would you be available to come down and have dinner with us, so she can introduce us properly?" Arizona asks.
"A chance to see my little sister happy? I wouldn't miss it," Liz replies as they stand up to leave.
"How was dinner last night?" Teddy asks as they walk into the hospital the next morning.
"I'm still trying to process everything. I know that she meant well, but she managed to illuminate a couple of things about this relationship that I was already concerned about. Now I'm a little freaked out about them, well more than I was before anyway." Arizona replies.
"We should have lunch and talk it through," Teddy suggests.
"No, today I'm having lunch with my students. The surgeries are tomorrow, so we're having a working lunch to review everything before their afternoon practice surgeries in the skills lab." Arizona explains.
"Okay, well you know where I am when you're ready to talk," Teddy replies, slipping an arm around her waist and giving her a quick squeeze.
"Hey stranger," Lauren quips when Arizona enters the lounge later that morning.
"How are you?" She asks pouring herself a cup of coffee.
"I'm good. I haven't seen you in over a week, I hope that you're not avoiding me," Lauren asks.
"No, I'm not. I finished writing the article, but I can't seem to finish editing it," Arizona explains.
"Send it to me and let me review it," she offers.
"That's nice of you to offer, but you don't have to do that," Arizona replies.
"Arizona, I like you. I want us to be friends or at least colleagues, so please I want to help you and I liked learning the procedure," Lauren confesses.
Arizona pauses to think about that. "You know, we are doing practice surgeries today and then we have actual surgeries the rest of the week," Arizona replies, "Come by and observe if you have time."
"Wow, you're ahead of all the other groups, our surgeries aren't until next week," Lauren points out.
"Well, we found three pregnant women who fit our criteria, so we had a tight time line," Arizona explains.
"Hi," Arizona says breathlessly into the phone.
"Um hi," Amelia replies, "God Arizona, what are you doing to me answering the phone like that, I'm still at the hospital," she says lowering her voice and teasing the blonde.
Arizona laughs, "Ah, well I just finished swimming laps and got back to my locker to check my phone," she explains.
"So now I'm imagining you in your swimsuit, thanks Robbins, big help," Amelia quips.
Laughing Arizona looks around the locker room to make sure no one is around before replying seductively, "Are you in your office, you could just lock the door and...".
"Um, not in the office, but thanks again." Amelia replies laughing. "Hey, Liz said she ran into you yesterday, so I just wanted to apologize for that."
"No need to apologize, I enjoyed meeting her," Arizona replies. "You've met my whole family, it's only fair that I meet some of yours."
"Uh, yeah but no. That's not going to happen, well not soon anyway," Amelia replies. "I haven't got you locked in yet, can't unleash the Shepherd wolves until you're locked in, that's one thing I did learn from my brother," she quips.
"Locked in, huh?" Arizona questions.
"Did we just really have this conversation?" Amelia asks. "Okay, I'm going to go back to work then, but we should talk later."
"Call me, I'm going to be working on the article. Lauren is looking at it now and sending it back to me. Hopefully, I can get it submitted this week." Arizona replies.
"Wait, why is Lauren helping you with this?" Amelia asks curiously, trying not to be jealous.
"She's been learning this procedure along with my students, she thought it would benefit her to know it and she wants to teach it to a surgeon at the clinic in Bolivia where she volunteers." Arizona explains.
"I-I didn't realize that you were still spending so much time with her," Amelia replies.
"Amelia, she's been monitoring the class off and on this whole time. I'm not spending much time with her and it wouldn't matter if I were, because I'm not interested in her," Arizona points out.
"Anymore," Amelia counters.
"Let's not do this now. I need to get dressed and dry my hair, please call me later?" Arizona asks.
"It might be late, I'm waiting on scans and maybe going into the OR soon," Amelia replies.
"Okay, well you can still call if you're not too tired. I'll probably be up working on this late tonight," Arizona replies.
"Wait, don't you have surgery tomorrow? Don't stay up too late," Amelia replies concerned. "Arizona, I'm sorry about being so sensitive about Lauren, I just, I'm not secure in this yet. You scare me, you know?"
"Call me later and let's talk about that and Amelia? I'm not secure in this yet either," Arizona replies.
"Where's my little miss?" Arizona asks entering her parent's house the next afternoon.
"Momma!" Sofia says jumping down from the chair and running to greet her.
"Oh my gosh, I missed you yesterday baby girl. What did you and grandma and grandpa do?" Arizona asks sitting down and pulling her daughter into her lap.
"We went out and got her a purple snow suit, gloves and boots," Barbara replies.
"Momma, it's going to snow tomorrow!" Sofia exclaims excitedly.
"I know!" Arizona replies equally excited.
"I want to build a snow fort," Sofia replies.
"Oh honey it takes a lot of snow to make a snow fort, we may not get enough for that," Arizona replies.
After putting Sofia to bed, Arizona enters the kitchen to see that her mom has poured them both a cup of tea.
"Oh, this is nice. I don't do this for myself as much as I should," Arizona remarks sitting down.
"I know that you need to get going, but I wanted to talk with you," Barbara explains.
"Is everything okay? I know this was a lot to ask and if having Sofia here is too much, just let me know." Arizona begins to apologize.
"Oh no, we couldn't be happier having Sofia here with us, in fact, your father and I are considering moving out to Seattle to be closer to you both, but we weren't sure how you'd feel about that," she replies.
"Uh, wow, I'd love that Mom and you know that Sofia would," Arizona remarks.
"How would Callie feel about it?" Barbara asks.
"Oh gosh, well I think she'd love it too. Do you want me to ask her?" Arizona questions.
"If you don't mind or we can ask her when she comes out to get Sofia next week," Barbara replies.
"I'll talk to her about it and let you know, but I can't imagine that she wouldn't be happy about it," Arizona replies taking another sip of the tea. "Now about this snowstorm. I really want to come back out tomorrow afternoon to play in the snow with Sofia and Teddy may come with me, I think she loves the snow more than Sofia does! But I do have another surgery in the morning, so it's going to depend on how that goes," Arizona explains.
"I just hope the snow doesn't miss us, she's really looking forward to it," Daniel says entering the room and sitting down with his trademark evening scotch.
"You should take my truck home tonight, so you can be sure to make it back tomorrow," he suggests.
"No Dad, what if you need it? I'll be fine, besides, I'm not even sure I can come back out tomorrow, it will depend on how my procedure goes in the morning," Arizona points out.
"That was amazing, Arizona." Teddy exclaims, she was able to observe the procedure from the gallery with her own students.
"Thanks, I'm just relieved it went so well, I thought that I would have to step in a couple of times, but O'Connell took care of it, she's a natural for this," Arizona points out.
"It's really great that your students work like a team in there, you're a really good teacher," Teddy says complimenting her.
"Teddy, I won't be able to do this very often, so don't get any ideas," Arizona remarks.
"No, but you could train someone to do it," Teddy replies.
"Hmm, we'll see. O'Connell is the first surgeon who I've had do this well with it," Arizona replies, "But she's not going to be available for a fetal fellowship for two years."
"I think you forget who you're talking to, I am the Commanding Training Officer of the Surgical field unit," Teddy reminds her.