Disclaimer: I don't own Grey's Anatomy, I just borrowed the name of the characters for entertaining, no intention to violate any copyrights.

A/N : Hello everyone, welcome back.
I have a little confession to make. I had a debate with myself over the last few weeks about this story. Last chapter provide a perfect window to finish it if I want to, after all, it has been over a year since I started this (I know, I'm a slow writer, I have myself to blame). Long story short, after talking to my wonderful beta… The story will go on ;-)
Now, let's move on to the new chapter with Callie Torres, the surgical intern in SGH.

Once again, calzonaforever35 you beautiful human being, thank you for helping me with this chapter.

Chapter 35

"Good morning everyone." Arizona greeted everyone in the conference room with a dimpled smile. It was one of those rare bright & sunny mornings in Seattle, but it wasn't the reason why the usually cheerful doctor was being extra cheerful.

Today, was her girlfriends first day working in the same hospital as a surgical intern.

"Whoa Robbins, great sex last night? You look extremely vigorous." Mark teased her, earning himself a slap on the head from the blonde, successfully stopping all the awkward stares coming from the department heads in the room.

"Callie starts today, you jerk." Arizona gave him a wry face after sitting down between the man and Teddy. She reached a hand to pick up a donut from the plate on the table.

"Is she nervous?" Teddy asked, and Arizona rolled her eyes in response. "Well, her resident is Meredith Grey, so she should be fine."

"Yeah, I'm not worried. Callie is awesome." The blonde smiled at her friend.

Finally, the chief arrived and the staff meeting started. It was about the usual boring matters like whose department successfully reduced the budget, whose performed a difficult surgery… things like that.

"Ok, last memo. You all know, the new interns start today." Webber cleared his throat for the next topic. He looked around the room and continued. "I want you all to treat everyone the same. This is a teaching hospital. Every intern has the equal chance to learn. I don't want one of those crying babies coming to me saying they didn't get the chance to do any cool surgeries."

"Who are they to complain about that? They can't even find their way in the hospital." Bailey snorted. The rest of the attendings laughed along.

"That's why they're here, to learn from you all." The chief gave his favorite attending a glare. "And a slight change of staff arrangement. Heather Brooks and Callie Torres are going to swap teams."

Callie entered the intern locker room. She was in the attending lounge before, comparing it to the new locker room, it was like a high school football teams changing room. Cheap metal lockers separated the room in several sections, filled with her peers changing and chatting around.

She wandered around trying to find a good spot. Cristina and Meredith told her to take the one on the far end. It had more privacy and was quieter, that would be what she needed after long hour shifts.

She could feel eyes following her every step on the way. Now she truly regretted missing the mixer arranged by the hospital. That was the chance to meet these people before work began. But instead, she went to the private welcome party held by most of the attendings and residents, aka her friends from the hospital.

Arriving at her destination, she was pleased to see no one there. Choosing the one in the middle, she started to change into her light blue scrubs. Another suggestion by her superiors, she kept a long sleeved T-shirt unearth the baggie scrub top, so her chest won't be too exposed from the wide collar.

"Hey, we didn't see you at the mixer. Are you a repeater?" A voice came behind her. She turned around and found 3 girls looking at her. The question was directed to her.

"Nope, I just… was occupied that night." She wasn't lying. But she knew she couldn't tell them she was in 'the other' mixer. "I'm Torres. Callie Torres."

She reached out to shake hands with the triplets.

"Jo Wilson." "Leah Murphy."

"Heather Brooks." The last girl who had a short blonde hair said. "You look old. I mean older than most of us."

"Heather!" Jo exclaimed. "That's rude"

"Never mind. I'm apparently a few years older than you guys." Callie smiled to them.

"No. Heather has social anxiety. You have to tell her if she is being rude, could help her improve her manner of dealing with people." Leah chipped in, and Heather nodded along next to her.

"Oh, ok." Callie gave them an awkward smile, and went to put her stuff in the locker.

"It's ok being older than other people. I'm older than you two." Jo said to her colleague. "Somebody that had to take 6 years to finish college. I went to night school."

"So Callie, which resident are you have assigned to?" Heather asked Callie again.

"I was with Grey, but this morning they told me to switch to Yang." Callie rolled up her sleeves, and answered casually.

"Oh, I was with Yang and they changed me to Grey. I think they swapped us." The short hair blonde smiled at Callie, hoping to get some information from her. "Do you know why?"

"I've heard that there is an intern that's related to one of the attendings. Maybe they swapped around to get that person an excellent resident. Ugh! Nepotism!" Jo rolled her eyes at Heather, who was holding out a bag of potato chips to her. But her hand stopped half way when Leah squeaked.

"I can't believe it! It spread out already?" Jo, Heather and Callie all stared at her. "Fine, I'll tell you. My mom and the head of plastics, Mark Sloan were lovers years ago."

"Mark… Sloan?" Callie raised her eyebrows.

"Yes. My mom told me after she found out I got accepted into the program. They haven't been in contact for years. My mom said Sloan was devastated when she broke up with him. Maybe he saw the name of my emergent contact, or my picture. I look a lot like my mother."

"Are you saying… you are Mark Sloan's daughter?" Jo squinted at her. Callie on the other hand, had her eyes widened, still staring at this girl.

"Nope! I was like 8 when they met. But I guess he's never gotten over my mom, that's why he's telling people about me." Leah said with a nod, and a smirk on her face making her friends frown.

"Who's your resident?" Callie asked, trying not to look so curious because Mark said nothing about this.

"Oh, I'm with Yang too."

"Believe me, if he wants to do you a favor, Yang wouldn't be your resident." Callie said as she closed her locker door, then turned around and was met with the eyes of her new friends. "Yang is hard to work with."

"Hey, why are you all still in here?" A black girl with glasses came to them. "We have to go out and meet the residents."

"Stephanie, this is Callie." Jo introduced them.

"Dr. Webber." Arizona chased the chief out of the conference room after the meeting. The man turned around to answer her.

"Yes, Dr. Robbins?"

"I don't mean to question your decision, but do you think it's a good idea to assign Callie to Yang? She's a great surgeon but kinda…"

"Dr. Robbins. Torres is a friend of every doctor in here, and with the relationship between the two of you, do you think the residents dare be tough to her?" Webber gave her a hard glare. "Karev works on your service, Avery won't move a finger without Sloan's approval, and Grey is too nice. Yang is the only one who would treat Torres as any other intern. That's the only way Torres can learn properly."

"But…"

"Dr. Robbins, I recruited Torres to the program because she has potential. Her perfect score has proved it. Have faith in her, and Yang too." The chief patted on the blonde doctor's shoulder. They exchanged a smile and then the man walked away to his next meeting.

Owen walked up to Arizona after the chief took off. He gave a sentimental smile to his colleague.

"I'm sorry about that. But Cristina is a good surgeon, and Callie could learn a lot from her."

"Let's hope." They walked side by side towards the elevator.

They arrived on the main floor, just in time to see the interns get to their residents.

"I have 5 rules, memorize it…" The residents were talking to their designated interns with stateliness. The attendings gathered on the side to look at them with snickers.

"Why are they all giving the same 5 rules speech?" Mark asked, eying the new interns, then finally fixated on Callie and Yang.

"That was the speech I gave to those idiots when they first started. They're just not smart enough to come up with their own." Bailey smirked, and crossed her arms under her chest.

"Callie works under Yang, it's gonna be fun." Mark said when he noticed both Arizona and Owen come and stand next to him. Then moved his head over to that direction. What he didn't know was he caught the attention of someone else in that circle as well.

"I bet that's Mark Sloan." Leah leaned closer to Callie whispering, making the brunette turn and find Mark was looking at her with a smile.

"Yeah, that's the name on the lab coat." Still looking in that direction, Callie was met with a heartfelt smile from her girlfriend.

"He's staring at me, I'm sure he knows who I am." Leah said matter-of-factly. "Oh, the one with dimples is really pretty."

"Yes, she is." Callie's smile went wider at the compliment, but she wasn't going to tell her colleague that, the pretty lady was her girlfriend. Bailey told her, and she agreed that it was better not to let the other interns know that she was in a relationship with the head of a department, at least not on the first day when everyone was trying to find their footing.

"She's smiling at me. You think it's because Mark Sloan said something to her, or…" Leah was still drowning in her self-confidence, but her resident stopped her after coming back from the nurses station with a chart.

"Hey, you! You're here to learn, not to chit chat and gossip." Cristina glared at the two women while flipping open the chart. "I thought I was going to get someone smart, but apparently I drew the short straw. I don't care who you are and how you got into the program. You work under me that means you are my responsibility, do your best, and don't embarrass me."

The last part of the speech was meant for Callie, but Leah took it as referring to her "relationship" with her mother's old boyfriend. She gave her colleague an apologetic smile. Callie looked away and bit her lips to hide the smirk.

As they were waiting for further instruction from Cristina, the pretty attending with the dimples came up to them.

"Dr. Yang, you are on my service today. I have a bowel resection before noon." She said to Cristina, and then gave a smile to the both interns respectively.

"Right, Dr. Robbins. I just got the chart, I'm to prepare the pre-ops now." The resident answered. "Murphy, you go with me. Torres, pit."

"Uh… Dr. Yang, you should let them both work on this case, this is a chance for them to learn." Arizona's smile froze. She thought she could work with her girlfriend today, that was why she asked Teddy to pass Yang to her.

"I don't need 2 interns for a simple bowel resection." Cristina shrugged, liked her didn't get the reason she was in peds today. "Torres, move. Don't make me tell you twice."

Arizona watched as her girlfriend walked to the elevator in fast pace without exchanging a word with her. This was not how she expected this day to start. Sighing softly, she led the resident and the intern on her service toward the peds ward.

"OK, Dr. Yang, you present?" The peds surgeon said after they entered the room.

"Daisy Barkley, 8 years old…" Cristina was talking, but Arizona was disturbed when her phone vibrating in her pocket. She stepped back to the corner and pulled the device out, finding out there was a message from her girlfriend.

Leah Murphy's mother was Mark's old lover. She thinks Mark knows her and is telling people about her. – Callie.

The blonde's eyebrows shot to her forehead. She couldn't help but stare at this woman after reading the message.

Mark didn't say anything about this.

Does Mark know? – Arizona.

"Dr. Robbins?" Cristina asked after finished the presentation, waiting for the attending to wrap it up.

"Ok, Mrs. Barkley, do you have any questions?" Arizona asked the mother, and she felt the phone in her hand buzz again.

"How soon can she eat solid food after the surgery?"

"Dr. Murphy?" Arizona asked the intern in the back, trying to get her involved in the frontline.

"Four weeks?" The sheepish looking new doctor answered uncertainly. Her resident cut in immediately.

"Actually, if there is no complication, your daughter can eat normally after a week."

The mother and daughter shared a grin. The mother smoothed her daughter's hair and explained to the doctors. "Her birthday is in 2 weeks, she was afraid that she wouldn't be able to eat her birthday cake."

"Don't worry Daisy. You can have as much cake as you want." Arizona smiled at the little girl, and then told the other doctors to do a simple check up. As Leah was examining the girl, she looked down to her phone again.

I don't think so. He didn't say anything to me. BTW, Murphy thinks you're pretty. – Callie.

"Oh, it hurts!" Arizona looked up, in time to catch this person who thought she's pretty just press too hard on the little girl's abdomen making the little body jerk.

Standing in the cafeteria with a tray in her hands, Callie felt like she was a new girl in high school again. The place was fairly full, groups of people occupied at tables chatting away. She looked around, wondering where she should go until she found that table gathering with navy blue scrubs. Her feet led her toward the familiar dimpled smile without a second thought. But her tracks were stopped when someone called her on the other side.

"Callie, we have a seat for you." Leah waved her hand beckoning her companion to join the table with the other interns. Callie glanced over her shoulder giving her girlfriend an apologetic smile. Yeah, for hiding their relationship under the radar, the light blue scrub shouldn't be mixed with the navy blue scrubs yet.

"So, how's your first day?" Jo asked while picking up a handful of fries from Callie's tray.

"Bus accident, a lot of sutures. My finger tips are getting numb. You?" The brunette took a sip of her soda, and looked around the table.

"At least you were touching the tools. I ran labs and CTs the whole morning." Jo shrugged. Heather mumbled 'me too' with her mouthful of sandwich.

"Well, then I guess I beat every one of you. Dr. Robbins let me examine a patient." Leah said with a cocky smile. "I did it wrong in the beginning, the patient cried, then Dr. Robbins actually took my hands and taught me how to touch the little girl."

"That sounds dirty." Heather frowned, and the rest of them chuckled.

"The patient was a little girl, pervert." Leah slapped on Heather's upper arm with a pout, making her colleagues laugh even harder.

Callie turned around, and gazed over at the table where her girlfriend and friends were settling in. Being in a room so close yet so far made her crave for any kind of interaction, even just exchanging a smile could make her feel better.

But Arizona was deep in a conversation with Mark and Teddy.

"So, you didn't know?" Arizona raised her eyebrows to Mark.

"Nope, why would I?" Mark exclaimed. "I don't even know who is who."

"Does her face ring a bell?" Teddy chipped in, throwing a glance toward Leah as if trying to see something in her face.

"Do you know how many women I've met over the years?" Mark snorted, making the other two women give him a look of disgust. "I'm not proud of it, ok? I was young and stupid."

"You're still young and stupid." The peds surgeon said under her breath, making Teddy chuckle.

"Whatever." Mark waved his hand. "So what, she's telling people she's my child?"

"I don't know, I didn't get to talk to Callie today." Arizona shrugged, and then she turned her attention to the cardio surgeon. "I asked Yang to be my service, and she sent Callie to the pit."

"Hey, I think she's doing you a favor, it's better not to work together on her first day if you want to keep the relationship hidden."

"We're not trying to hide it. She just thinks that it's better not to disclose it to her peers yet. Meredith got quite some cold shoulders when she started dating Derek."

"Well, except she's dating the head of peds, and she's friends with every department head in the hospital. She was recruited by the chief, her family name is in a chain hotels and she owns the pub across the street. I think she's going to get a lot of cold shoulders."

"Thanks to you Mark, I think your kid is going to take some heat over Callie's shoulder."

"She's not my kid! Don't even let it slip to Lexie, she's going to freak out again." Mark hissed. He looked around trying to find his girlfriend, relieved to see she was on the another side of the cafeteria with her sister and Yang. "Can you ask for more details from Callie?"

Arizona gave him a lopsided smile, pulling her phone out to type the message.

Mark is panicking. Is Murphy his daughter? – Arizona.

Callie stopped her conversation with her intern friends while a vibration came from her pants. She couldn't help but smile naughtily at the question on her phone.

"What so funny? A text from your boyfriend?" One of the girls asked, Callie shook her head and looked up.

"No, I don't have a boyfriend."

"Oh, Shane will be happy to hear that. He thinks you're hot and was hoping to have a chance with you." Heather said casually, making both Jo and Leah stare at her with wide-eyes.

"Heather!"

"What?"

"You're not supposed to say it out loud. Shane is going to kill you."

"Well, you can tell Shane that I'm flattered." Callie interjected, saving Heather from being killed by her friends. "I don't have a boyfriend. I have a girlfriend."

"Oh ok. I'm sure he'll think you're even hotter."

"Thanks?" Callie said with a smirk, and ducked her head to type a response to her girlfriend.

"Speaking of which, did you know Dr. Robbins is a lady lover too?" Leah leaned closed to the table, whispering to the rest of women at the table.

"Why are you whispering?" Jo asked. Callie casted a glance at Leah from the corner of her eyes looking cautiously.

"During rounds, I heard a nurse ask about her girlfriend, but Dr. Robbins brushed it off, like she didn't want to talk about it." Still whispering, Leah wore a smile on her face. "Maybe something happened between her and her girlfriend."

Intending to keep herself away from involving in this conversation, Callie shoved a mouthful of salad in her mouth and chewed extremely slowly. She just hoped they could change the subject quickly because hearing them talking about her girlfriend wasn't a good idea.

"What are you smirking about?" Jo rolled her eyes. "Do you think you'd get a chance with Dr. Robbins? I heard her girlfriend is sex on a stick."

Callie almost choked on the salad. She coughed violently making her face flush red. Well, as if that was the only reason.

"Are you alright?" Jo asked with concern, the flushing brunette nodded and picked up her soda to wash down the remaining salad in her mouth.

"How do you know that?" Callie asked after her breathing came normal again.

"Spending half a day running labs you could learn every piece of gossip in this hospital. Those nurses and lab techs just like to share everything they know." Jo gave the questioner a stink eye. "Dr. Sloan and Dr. Robbins used to fool around with nurses in the on-call rooms. Not together. But they don't do it anymore because Dr. Sloan is with Dr. Grey…"

"Dr. Grey?" Heather interrupted, but got shushed immediately.

"Lexie Grey, Meredith Grey's half sister." Jo continued. "And about a year ago Dr. Robbins hooked up with an ortho nurse, but Dr. Robbins dumped her few months ago after being with sex on a stick. I didn't get the name of the woman, she probably doesn't work here."

Callie was chewing her straw nervously. If this conversation continued, she would have to tell the trio that she was the mysterious woman. Fairly speaking, she was also amazed to learn that even though half of the staff in the hospital knew her from the pub and her relationship with Arizona, none of those gossipers had exposed her yet.

Luckily, something else caught Leah's attention.

"So, Dr. Sloan is dating Lexie Grey, the 3rd year resident? There's no rule against it?"

"Don't think so." Jo shrugged. "The other Grey is married to Derek Shepherd. They started dating when Grey was an intern. Yang was dating an attending in her intern year too, now she's married to Owen Hunt."

That answer brought a smile to Leah's face. But her day dream was interrupted when someone came near their table.

"As you all probably already know, we have a tradition here. The attending on-call picks an intern to perform an appendectomy during the first shift. The honor of performing the first surgery is reserved for the intern that shows the most promise." Yang delivered the speech with her usual poker face, but the hints of annoyance still would be detected in her voice. "As your resident, I'm sent to tell you that you're going to scrub in for an appy with Dr. Bailey this afternoon, Dr. Murphy."

Yang took off without looking back, leaving the four women on the table with their mouth slightly agape in shock, especially Leah.