Title: As Time Goes By 20
Pairing: Callie/Arizona
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Callie's promotion brings a man from Arizona's past back into her life. This is my first venture into an AU fiction.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. I do not intend to profit in any way, shape or form by posting this story. It's for fun, nothing more, and nothing less. Please don't sue me.
Arizona couldn't wipe the smile off her face. She had woken up from yet another restless sleep about a half an hour earlier and she was in quite a bit of pain, so Teddy had decided to up the dosage on her pain medication. Now Arizona was lying in her bed with a huge goofy grin on her face and headphones in her ears listening to songs on shuffle on her iPod. Callie had left twenty minutes earlier with Arizona's parents to get some lunch from the cafeteria and a promise that she would bring Arizona some real food. As the song she was listening to faded out and a new one began Arizona began to giggle and shift in her bed as though she were dancing. She absolutely loved this song, In My Head by Until June. She started humming the tune and bopping her head from side to side.
"Someone seems to be feeling better." Callie said as she walked into the room. She was holding an apple and a bowl of pasta. "I checked with Teddy, she said you can eat the pasta. The apple's for me." Callie smiled as she perched herself on Arizona's bed and took a bite of the apple. At the same time, she dropped the plate of rather bland looking pasta onto the small tray to the side of Arizona's bed.
"Thank you for the food, I super appreciate it and yes, much better!" She grinned and leaned in toward Callie as though she were about to share the most incredible secret ever shared, "…This hospital has some really amazing and fast working drugs." Her lips held their wide smile as she nodded once and then started to dance where she was half lying down, though she really looked silly and Callie couldn't help but think about how adorable her wife is upon watching her. "Oh, I love this song Calliope."
Callie snuggled up closer and took one of the earphones from Arizona's ear so that she could hear what song. She smiled when she recognized it and laughed. She kissed Arizona on her temple, "I know you do babe."
Arizona started singing along with the song making Callie giggle and shake her head slightly at the antics. "I'm sorry, honey, but I feel so lonely… trapped inside my skin." Arizona playfully poked Callie in the ribs. "Come on Calliope sing with me!" Arizona put a pout on her face.
"Oh no babe, I don't even know the words and I'm sure you'll butcher it enough for the both of us." She chuckled at the look of mock offense Arizona offered her, but it was short lived as Arizona just started singing again. "Alright, I'm just gonna go to the bathroom, I'll be right back." As Callie got off the bed to go to the bathroom Arizona grabbed her hand and started singing to her.
"It's the way you move, it's the way you turn me, the way I sing for you. And allllll the sounds make you fall from all the ways that keep you far from me," the notes in this part of the song were dangerously high and Arizona sounded like she was coming off a dose of helium.
"What are you doing?" Callie felt her face going red as Arizona took both of her hands in hers and started swaying their arms from side to side. Their eyes met and Callie would probably have melted into a puddle of goo from being serenaded by her wife if they weren't in the middle of a hospital, instead, she felt fairly embarrassed. She wouldn't mention that Arizona butchering the song had anything to do with that embarrassment though.
"And allllll I hear are the voices in the air that keep reminding me…" Arizona let go of Callie's hands and started tussling her hair before pointing to her temple, "…you're allllll that's iiiiiin my head!"
Callie could hear voices at the door. She turned her head and noticed that Arizona's singing had not only attracted quite a few nurses who wanted to see what was going on, but also Yang who had been checking on a post-op Mitral valve patient. Cristina had pulled out her phone and was now recording Arizona's little loopy performance. Suddenly she was not only feeling embarrassed, but now she could add mortified to that.
"This is so good." Before Callie could tell Cristina to put the phone away, Alex, April and Meredith all appeared in the doorway out of breath.
"What's wrong..? You paged us all 911."Yang didn't say anything, she just smiled and pointed as Arizona had now began to dance in her bed again, completely oblivious it seemed to her audience. The fact that the entire thing was being videotaped made Callie cringe slightly, since she knew Arizona would not be happy when she saw it… probably on Youtube.
"You can tell me how you feel… you're not standing here… in fact you're nowhere near..." At that line, Arizona shrugged her shoulders and pretended to be looking around the room for her wife which made Callie burst into a fit of laughter. She quickly covered her grin and laughter with her hand as she watched her wife continue her antics. Behind her, Callie could hear April giving Cristina a lecture.
"Cristina, when you page me 911 I truly expect one of my patients to be dying and frankly faking a 911 page is an extreme breach of hospital protocol and…"
"Oh pull the stick out of your ass farm girl and be quiet, you're making me miss the show." Yang cut off April in a whisper before turning back to the video she was making and one that was definitely going to go viral within the next hour. She couldn't contain her excitement.
"It's a dream I'm having and I keep relapsing… all that's in my head," this time Arizona had attempted to get out of bed and Callie had to stop her before she hurt herself.
"What in the world..?" Callie closed her eyes and shook her head before letting out a small chuckle. From the sound of that voice, clearly Barbara and The Colonel had returned from the cafeteria.
"What is she doing?" She heard the Colonel whisper to someone only for them to shush him. From the sounds of his reaction the Colonel did not appreciate this dismissal.
"Excuse me, boy… did you really just shush me?"
"No sir, it was her." Alex muttered and pointed at Yang who just shook her head and turned back to the video she was making.
"And alllllll the sounds make you fall from all the ways that keep you far from me, and alllllll I hear are the voices in the air that keep reminding me, you're all that's in my headddddd." As Arizona belted out the last few lines of the song she threw her arms around Callie's neck and kissed her.
"I think we need to talk to Teddy again, something tells me your dosage is a little bit too high this time." Arizona just giggled and pecked her wife on the lips again. Callie sighed and kissed her back, deciding it wouldn't be worth turning and yelling at the crowd for watching.
"You're pretty," Arizona said softly into Callie's ear. Callie giggled as she helped Arizona lay down in the bed. After making sure she laid there, without singing or trying to disrobe or something more embarrassing, she turned around to the doorway to find that all the nurses had gone, but Arizona's parents, Yang, Meredith, April and Alex all still stood there.
"Well, that was actually… quite disturbing. I didn't think anyone, even Robbins, could be THAT perky." Yang muttered under her breath to Meredith.
"Don't you four have patients to look after?" Alex, April, Meredith and Yang all started with the excuses until the Colonel turned to face them all.
"I think the lady wants you to leave." His commanding, booming tone made all four attending surgeons mumble excuses once again, only this time they were excuses to leave. Callie let out a big chuckle as she watched four intelligent and talented surgeons being turned into terrified toddlers by her father-in-law.
"Wish they'd listen to me like that." Arizona giggled at Callie's words and instantly tugged on Callie's hand trying to bring her wife's lips to her own. In any other situation Callie would have happily let this happen, but with Arizona in her current hazy state, Callie couldn't rule out the possibility that her wife wanted more than just a chaste loving marital kiss and she did not want to risk that in front of her in-laws. Come to think of it, Arizona has probably embarrassed them both enough for a lifetime since her in-laws showed up.
"Right well, Daniel and I just came here to tell you that we thought we'd go and see the children and make sure they are all right and then get down to spoiling my grandbabies! Perhaps we could bring them by to see you both in a couple of hours, maybe when visiting hours start again?" Barbara was all smiles to both of them. Callie was so happy to see that her in-laws were so genuinely in love with not only their kids, but with her as well.
"And doughnuts! Bring doughnuts! Everyone's been bringing doughnuts; I bet Spencer would like another doughnut party!" Arizona giggled and ran her hand up and down Callie's back. It took every single bit of strength that Callie had not to shiver under her wife's touch.
"Right, Spencer wants a doughnut party and not you, huh?" Callie laughed when she saw Arizona roll her eyes. She turned back to Barbara, "That sounds like a great idea. In fact, since you guys are staying at the house, if you want to keep the munchkins with you, I'm sure Nix wouldn't mind. And we called Alice and explained what happened and she should be back the day after tomorrow. It would give you two full days of uninterrupted grand-parenting." Callie smiled when she saw Barbara giggle and clap at the idea, much like Arizona would do. She then put her hand behind her back to stop her wife's actions and leaned down to kiss her temple. "I'm just going to get a nurse to page Dr. Altman, I'll be back in two minutes. " Callie blinked after the kiss, Arizona felt hotter than she should have. She took a better look at her wife only to find that Arizona was now lying back down and she was sweating a little bit. She brushed her hand against Arizona's forehead and sighed when she felt a small amount of heat radiating from it. "Babe, I'm just going to get someone to page Teddy okay? You're hot…"
"You're hot too Calliope, but this is no time for that with my parents here, besides I don't feel good. I think we should get Teddy down here." Callie scoffed and shook her head before placing a kiss on her wife's forehead. She turned around to leave and just as she was about too, she let out a yelp and a hop as she felt Arizona's flat palm make contact with her ass.
Callie's eyes widened in shock and horror and she turned only to see the looks on Barbara and the Colonel's faces. She turned to face her wife who was looking at her as if to say if I could, I'd pounce on you right here right now, and was merely greeted with Arizona winking at her. "Hurry back, Dr. Torrressss." Callie closed her eyes at the sound of Arizona rolling the R's and hissing out her name. Her mind was about to enter very dangerous territory when a very loud cough rang through the room. Callie turned to see Barbara giving the Colonel a look and shaking her head.
"I'm sorry, but it's as if our daughter has clearly forgotten we are standing right here and that she's not invisible and neither are her hands or where she chooses to place them." Daniel had a small grin on his lips.
"Oh hush you, stop being so grumpy, don't you remember when we were that young and in love?" Barbara smiled at Callie as she spoke.
"I don't remember groping you in front of my parents." Barbara gave him a slap on the arm. Callie suddenly feeling very uncomfortable and muttered something about paging Teddy before getting out of the room as fast as she could, the sound of Arizona's giggling following her. Callie walked up to the nurse's station and the woman sitting behind the desk smiled at her.
"Ah, Dr. Torres, how are you?" Callie returned the woman's smile warmly.
"I'm okay, I'm just glad that she's alright." Callie gestured towards Arizona's room and the nurse nodded her head in understanding.
"Oh I just remembered, the chief asked me to tell you that he needs you to sign some forms for the hospital records." She placed the forms on the counter along with a pen.
"I forgot about these, I'll fill them in, in the meantime could you please page Dr. Altman? I think Arizona is coming down with a fever and I think the dosage of her pain meds is a bit too high, she's acting incredibly perky even for her." The nurse let out a chuckle before picking up the phone.
Callie picked up the forms and began to read. It was the same old stuff she had seen patients fill out or a patient's family or friends, depending on who was aware enough to write. She knew Arizona, as her emergency contact, had to fill it out after her accident, she just hated the fact that now she was doing the same thing.
"Excuse me..?" Callie looked up from her form to see two women walking towards her from the elevators. One of them looked to be about her age with long dark brown hair was carrying a small red headed little girl in her arms. The other woman looked to be in her late twenties and was carrying a bag full of toys. "I was wondering…" The woman squinted at the name on Callie's lab coat, "Dr. Torres, if you could help me?" She sounded incredibly nervous and almost like if she wasn't holding the child, she would be shaking from head to toe.
"Of course, are you looking for a patient?" The woman nodded and took a deep breath.
"Yes, I am. I'm looking for Arizona Robbins." Callie was confused and she knew it showed on her face. She thought she had met all of the people she would consider close enough to Arizona to actually come and visit her, yet she had never seen this woman before in her life.
"I'm sorry, who are you looking for?" Callie asked again, just to make sure she had heard right.
"Oh, uh… Robbins, Dr. Arizona Robbins? We were told she was on this floor, is she not?" Callie shook her head.
"No, no, she is, I just wanted to make sure I heard you correctly. I'm Callie Torres, her wife." The woman let out a small oh. "And you are?" The woman let out another deep breath; she looked like she was on the verge of tears. She opened her mouth to speak, but something over Callie's shoulder stopped her. Callie turned around only to see that the Colonel had stepped into the doorway of Arizona's room and he looked angrier then Callie had ever seen him before. She heard him tell Barbara to stay in the room before he forcefully closed the door.
"You!" The Colonel's voice was full of anger, but also full of disbelief as he walked towards them. "How dare you come here?"
"Colonel Robbins, please, I just came to…"
"Just came to what..? What in the world would possess you to show your face here? Did you really think you would be welcome?" Callie looked between the two adults in a panic. She could see that the little girl the woman was holding was visibly scared by the Colonel's presence.
"Mommy…" Her voice was trembling with unshed tears. The Colonel seemed to be oblivious and went to take a step forward, but Callie jumped in between the two.
"Daniel, please stop!" Callie hoped using his first name in this way would have him back off a bit, "Whatever is going on here, shouting in front of a toddler and scaring her is not the right thing to do." The Colonel looked past Callie and into the eyes of the terrified child; he let out a small cough and nodded his head, though anger was still present on every inch of his face and his stance. He took a step back as the woman placed a kiss to her daughter's head and whispered something into her ear. She then turned to the other woman.
"Hannah, would you please take Kristen to the cafeteria to get ice cream with Mary and the boys?" The younger woman nodded before taking the little girl into her arms.
"Say bye to mommy, Kristy." Kristy waved at her mother before they disappeared to the elevators.
The second they were gone the Colonel turned all of his attention back on the mystery woman.
"You better not be here to see my daughter. Don't you think you and you're family have caused enough anguish to mine? You are not setting foot in that room, so just turn around and go." At the Colonel's words, realization suddenly came to Callie's mind. She took a step back from the woman so that she was standing at the Colonel's side, while a look of horror crossed her features.
"Oh my god… You're Monica, aren't you?" before she had even nodded her head to confirm it, Callie knew it was true. Her mind, body and soul were suddenly filled with white hot hatred and the urge to smack the woman's head off the nurses' station counter.
"Is she alright?" Monica asked. The words sounded convincing, but Callie had no idea why she would show her face, knowing what her brothers had done to Arizona in the past and done again to her now.
The Colonel let out a disbelieving scoff at Monica's words. "Do not insult my intelligence by pretending that you care about how she is. You didn't care about her when she was your roommate or whatever you two were, and you certainly don't care about her now."
"That's not true." Monica shook her head as tears streamed down her face. Callie couldn't take her eyes off the woman as she spoke. She couldn't find words to describe how she felt in this moment. She had never felt so much disgust for anyone in her life. This was the woman Arizona had trusted, the woman she had told everything about her life too, the woman she had fallen in love with at such a delicate age, and she was also the woman who had torn her life to shreds with a single lie.
"Of course it's true. You have never given a rat's ass about her! I'm sure the only reason you are here now is out of guilt, pure guilt. Well, I am not going to allow you to upset my daughter's life any more than you or those psychopathic brothers of yours already have. I hope the guilt eats you alive and you live in as much pain as your brothers have forced my daughter to live through. She's not the same girl you knew and she's not the devastated mess you left behind in a wake of lies and betrayal. She's happy and there is no way in hell I will EVER let you take that from her again, like you once took it from her in the past. Now leave before I make you leave."
"Please…" Monica began, but Callie cut her off simply by holding up her hand and taking a step towards her so they were only a couple of inches apart.
"You heard him. Go, before I call security, and so help me god, if I ever catch you trying to get anywhere near my wife or trying to get any information about my wife from anybody in this hospital, I will call the police and I will have you arrested." Callie was finding it difficult to reign in her anger, but for the sake of Arizona, who was a short walk away, she curbed the desire to really go off and lash out at the woman who had the audacity to show up here in the wake of Arizona's attack.
Monica nodded her head in defeat and began to walk away, but something stopped her. She turned around and looked straight at Callie. "Don't worry, I will leave quietly, but you should know that I've never regretted anything as much as I regret the way I treated Arizona and I will never fully forgive myself for my actions. I know no one owes me anything, but please… can you just tell her… tell her how sorry I am..?" Callie could see Monica's eyes mist over with unshed tears. Monica swallowed what was probably a large lump in her throat and tried to scrape up as much dignity as she could before continuing, "…and that I'd love to have the chance to tell her in person, if she will let me, of course. My family and I are staying at The Archfield, room 402 and we'll be here for another five days. If she wants to talk to me, that's where you'll find me." Monica stood there for a moment, her eyes pleading with Callie to understand or at least accept that she was here with good intentions and that she had no intention what-so-ever to hurt Arizona. She nodded once at Callie and then the Colonel before she walked away.
The elevator door opened and Monica stepped on as Teddy stepped off. Teddy couldn't help but look extremely confused at the way Callie and Colonel Robbins were watching as the elevator doors closed. When they finally did, Callie released the breath she didn't realize she had been holding and a couple of stray tears fell down her cheeks. The Colonel quickly put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed it before removing it quickly. The Colonel wasn't a man who showed a great deal of emotion or affection, but it made Callie's heart feel warm and she felt incredibly comforted by her father-in-law at that very moment.
"What the hell was that all about?" As Teddy spoke, the door to the stairwell flew open and Nix burst into the room. He was red in the face and completely out of breath. "Nix, what are you doing?" he walked very slowly over to the nurses' station where Callie, the Colonel and Teddy were all staring at him. He quickly leaned his arm on Teddy's shoulder as he continued to pant and try to catch his breath.
"So what happened?" Teddy turned her attention back to Callie as Nix accepted a bottle of water from a nurse and started gulping it down. "Who was that woman?"
"Woman?" he asked Callie, his panting decreasing. "It was Monica, wasn't it?" Callie nodded her head before Nix continued, "I knew it! I heard two women in the cafeteria with some kids talking about Arizona and her room number and then they mentioned the name Monica and I was carrying a tray of pasta salad at the time, and I may have thrown it up into the air and just ran right out of there and all the way here."
"Wait… that was Monica?" Callie shot Teddy a look.
"How do you know about…" as Callie was about to finish her sentence, her eyes caught with Nix and that told her everything she needed to know. "Nix! I can't believe you told her, do you not understand how much trouble you are in with my wife already? Earlier she was talking about taking you on a day out to a construction site with an endless supply of bricks." Nix looked absolutely terrified at the idea and shook his head frantically.
"No, no, well kinda… but the police brought it up with both of us, especially since Teddy was there when everything happened and she asked me about it. The police told her more than I did Callie, but it's not like I could keep it quiet anymore. Teddy was talking Robert down and saw everything happen, I had to tell her what I knew," Nix shoulders slumped and he frowned. He was really getting the crappy end of the stick regarding the entire situation.
"He's right. Honestly, I don't know the full story, just that they were college roommates and a lot of bad stuff happened that has led to all this!" Teddy waved her arms around.
"I am going to go and get Barbara and then we are going to go and see the children, like planned. You can choose what to do about Monica, Callie, I trust your judgment." Daniel ran his hand through his hair and then glanced at Nix, "We'll be over in thirty minutes and we'll want the troops ready to go. We'll be watching them at their own home until Arizona is ready to be discharged." Nix swallowed hard at the Colonel's words and he nodded.
"Right then… I uhm… yeah, I'm gonna go and take care of that… Right now…" he saluted the Colonel and then he turned and left.
Callie couldn't stop the chuckle from parting her lips as she turned back to Daniel, "You really do scare him. He's known you for so long and hasn't realized you're a big teddy bear at heart?"
Daniel let out a loud laugh and patted Callie's back; apparently, all of the anger and tension from moments ago had faded away. "I love you, Callie. You make my Arizona so happy and you really helped her shine to her true potential. Barbara and I were scared that there would never be more family. After Timmy died, Arizona made up her mind about never having kids or really anything that could hurt her as much as his death did. You changed that. And I don't think Barbara or I could ever thank you enough, so you get the teddy bear, everyone else gets the Colonel." He winked at Callie and they both shared a laugh. His face became serious again, "I don't know what that woman is up to Callie, but I don't trust her, so be careful, okay?" He lowered his head so he could look Callie in the eye.
Callie nodded once, "I'm a good man in a storm, Grandpa. I protect the people I love and my family is what I love the most." She could see that Daniel had tears in his eyes and he nodded before turning and walking back into Arizona's room.
Callie finished the paperwork and handed it to the nurse. She ran her hand through her hair and sighed deeply. She had no idea what to do about Monica. She didn't want to tell Arizona that the woman suddenly showed up, but she knew she had too. They've had enough heartache between one another due to avoidance and secrets to last a lifetime, she wasn't about to let another secret cause more harm than it already will. She was lost in thought when she heard a throat being cleared behind her. She turned and saw Arizona's parents smiling at her.
"Callie, dear, we'll bring Sofia and the triplets by in a few hours, okay?" Barbara said and then wrapped Callie up in a tight hug. "Don't worry about Monica, just concentrate on your wife and take care of her, okay?" She pulled back and gently caressed Callie's cheek. "Thank you for being so wonderful."
Callie blushed and smiled to both Barbara and Daniel. "She's everything to me, along with our kids, of course. I hope you both know that. I would do anything for them."
"We know, dear. Now go to her, she's been asking for her sexy wife for the last ten minutes and I think Teddy is tired of listening to your sexcapades." Barbara giggled as she watched Callie's eyes widen.
"S-she isn't, is she?" she glanced at Barbara, whose cheeks were flushed, and then looked over at Daniel, who couldn't look her in the eye. "Oh my god, Arizona!" She turned around and ran back into the room.
"We're terrible, Daniel." They both laughed and Daniel shrugged his shoulders playfully as they walked to the elevators.
"Hey, Grandma and Grandpa have to get their fun too, right?"
Callie walked back into the room to see Teddy blushing brightly and Arizona talking animatedly. She cleared her throat and watched as both women turned to her and then laughed loudly. "Uhm, hi there. What's so funny?"
"Your wife was just telling me about a crazy dream she had while she was under anesthesia. Apparently, we were Charlie's Angels and Mark was Bosely and Henry was Charlie." Teddy laughed and shook her head slightly.
"Wait, how did you know Henry was Charlie? I thought they never saw the guy." Callie raised an eyebrow at them.
"Someone takes her TV shows to seriously," Arizona said in a slur. Her eyes were glazed over and her face flushed.
Callie frowned and stepped closer and placed the back of her hand against Arizona's cheek. "You know how much I enjoy seeing ladies kick ass."
"I'd like to do something to your ass right now…" Arizona said a bit louder than she probably meant too, but the drugs were releasing her inhibitions. She shamelessly let her glassy eyes travel down Callie's body and then back up.
"Seriously..?" Teddy said with a laugh.
"Whatever drugs you're giving are really making her insatiably horny." Callie said with a grin, but quickly turned a worried eye back to Arizona. "It feels like she's getting an infection. Did you do any tests yet?"
"I ordered everything, but I think you're right. Once I get confirmation, we'll put her on antibiotics and watch her closely. I'm going to tone down the pain meds and we'll see how she reacts. If the pain becomes too great, we'll up the dosage again, okay ladies?" Teddy waited for both of them to nod before leaving the room to check up with the intern who was running the labs.
Callie sat down next to Arizona and intertwined their fingers together. "Are you feeling any better?"
"I am now that my super sexy wife is back," Arizona offered her a wink.
Callie laughed at Arizona's words and then leaned in and pressed a soft kiss against her cheek. She raised her free hand and gently caressed the spot she just kissed. "Arizona, I need to tell you something…"