AN: So, here's another update. I'll try to keep them as regular as possible, but I can't promise that. Life throws things at us, and then there's family work and work and everything else.
AN2: Also I couldn't come up with a title for this chapter, my bad, if you have any ideas, feel free to tell me.
Callie rubbed her right hand subconsciously over her belly as she sat at one of the tables in the cafeteria, trying to eat something, anything. There was a plate full of delicious vegetables waiting for her, but she couldn't eat anything. The nauseous feeling had thankfully died down an hour after she had jumped out of their bed for the second time that morning, but it didn't seem like their baby was too fond of food today. She really hoped it would get better in time, because with no food and no caffeine, she wasn't sure how she would manage her night shifts. Especially if her wife would just rub it in that she was drinking a cup full of that hot, black, gorgeous lifesaving liquid. Admittedly, Arizona had not done it on purpose and had instantly put a cup with delicious tea in front of her on the breakfast bar, but it simply wasn't the same.
Yet, she couldn't be angry with the blonde. They had walked into the hospital hand in hand half an hour before their shifts had started, to tell Dr. Webber the exciting news. Previously agreeing not to tell anyone aside from their family and their best friends yet, they had decided to tell the chief of surgery today, just in case something would happen. The expression on the blonde's face had been worth all of it, that giddy smile, that happy laughter and those damn dimples which were on full force since this morning. Really, the Latina couldn't be mad at her wife. And on top of that, Dr. Webber had seemed happy for them as well, aside from the fact that Callie would go on maternity leave and he would have to run the ER without the star orthopedic resident for a few months. The brunette wasn't sure if he had been kidding or not, but that didn't matter. They were happy.
Her stomach growled loud and clear and despite the feeling of being sick all over again, she forced herself to eat some beans and mushrooms and then gulped down some water, hoping the food would actually stay inside. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, regretting it as she took in the smells surrounding her. Apparently, their baby didn't like the scent of different types of food either. Sighing, she pushed the plate into the middle of the table and leaned into the chair, her head falling back between her shoulder blades as she once again started to stroke over her stomach, soothing the fetus and her sickness.
"You didn't eat much", Arizona stated when she sat down next to her wife, eying the plate that was still full of food. She had observed her wife from a few feet away, seeing if the brunette's condition would be better by now. Obviously, that wasn't the case. "Is... you know, giving you troubles?" The nod Callie gave her was barely visible, but the unpleasant groan answered it more than enough. "Do you want me to get you something else? Anything you're craving right now?"
"I don't have any cravings yet, Arizona", she stated with a light chuckle and closed her eyes as another surge of sickness overcame her. Reaching over the table, she squeezed her wife's hand, "But thank you for the offer." She just thought that she should give it another shot, wanted to pick up the fork again, as her pager went off. "It's the pit, I gotta go."
Watching the brunette getting up, Arizona couldn't help but stare at her lover, at the mother of their child. "Calliope?", she stopped the Latina by calling her name and waited for her to turn around and face her, "Please try to eat something at some point, okay? You need the nutrition."
Callie smiled. Arizona had already morphed into this protective soon-to-be mother mode and although she thought it would most likely annoy her to no end the further along in her pregnancy she would get, she loved her wife for caring so much. "Of course", she nodded, leaned down to peck the blonde's cheek and then headed for the ER.
Rushing through the double doors of the ER and grabbing a gown on the way, she reached the busy hustling and bustling of doctors and nurses running around. Slipping on a pair of gloves, she stopped next to Dr. Webber as the back doors of the ambulance flew open and a gurney was lifted out of it. Purposefully ignoring Dr. Hahn standing in the same line with her, she asked, "What do we have?"
"Forty-eight year old male, fell off the highest point of the climbing wall because he had a heart attack. Crashed against the wall and most likely broke his ribs and the snap hook so he crashed to the ground, right lower leg is shattered, open femur fracture", Nicole, the EMT listed off the facts while they wheeled the patient on the stretcher into trauma room 2. "We had to revive him on the scene, he's incubated and we injected heparin and morphine."
The Latina absorbed the information of the EMT while carefully gripping the edge of the gurney with both hands, waiting for either Webber or Hunt to give the go to move the patient. Her eyes still avoiding to look at the blonde cardio surgeon, she concentrated on the leg, trying to see the whole damage before looking up at her boss.
But as soon as she locked eyes with the chief of surgery, he glared at her and said, "Dr. Torres, hands off the stretcher."
Puzzled by the harsh tone, she blinked a couple of times and then stammered, "Dr. Webber, I-" Her hands hadn't moved an inch, on the contrary, the grip around the plastic tightened, even as the chief's eyes stared her down.
"Hands off the stretcher, Torres", his deep voice, laced with more authority than usual, echoed through the small room and everybody just stopped what they were doing for a moment, everybody seemed to wait and see what the brunette would do next.
Understanding that he wasn't dismissing her, that he wasn't taking her off the case but that he simply wanted to protect her because he knew of her condition, she stepped away and let her fellow residents and surgeons lift the patient. It was only a few seconds and she was back in the game, not missing the icy glares Erica shot her way.
"So, now the golden girl doesn't have to move the patients anymore?", she snarled from her spot at the patient's chest. She had her hands on the torso, checking for broken ribs close to the heart and lungs and then, when nobody said a word about her snippy comment, she barged, "We need to get him into an OR, now."
It all happened so fast, Callie was slightly dumbstruck. She was used to the fast work, the beds rushed into the OR, she should have reacted better, but she hadn't because Hahn's words still stung.
"Dr. Torres", Webber ripped the brunette out of her thoughts. "Dr. Shimmer and his fellow orthopedic surgeons are at the ortho conference in Boston, so I need you to repair the man's leg before it gets infected. Now, Dr. Shimmer talks very highlyof you and I, for a fact, know that you can do some pretty good damage repairs when it comes to broken legs. But, with your condition and Dr. Hahn in the OR as well, I need to ask you if you can pull this through or if you want me to call Mercy West for-"
"No", she quickly interrupted him before he could finish his offer and then added, "No, Sir. I can do it. I mean, I have to see the whole damage before I come up with a plan, but Erica... Dr. Hahn won't be in the way." To be honest, the blonde was still breathing down her neck, that hasn't stopped. But Callie had decided to just ignore her as much as possible. "I can do it", she reassured.
"Perfect", he smiled and started to walk away but stopped mid-movement. "You will be an amazing surgeon, Dr. Torres. Never doubt that. And don't let other people plant any doubt inside you."
He hadn't looked at her, hadn't even turned around while saying the words of encouragement to her, but the brunette imagined to hear pride in his voice. And she wanted to live up to that pride, so she let a nurse page two ortho nurses and made her way to the OR floor, texting her wife that she would be stuck in surgery for at least three to five hours, depending on how much of thedamaged skin, the open fracture and muscles she would be able to fix today. The reply came fast and Callie chuckled as she read the blonde's words, telling her to go and be a rockstar. "Alright. I can do that", she pushed herself, took one last deep breath and entered the scrub room to get ready.
A-C-T
An hour into the surgery, Callie had made up her mind on how to proceed. She had started with the open femur fracture and did her best to save the upper part of the man's leg and if the patient was still stable in the next few days, she would go in again and open his lower leg. The emergency x-rays had showed a bit of the damage and the Latina wasn't sure if she would be able to keep it, but she wouldn't make the call to cut it off without consulting Dr. Shimmer first. She had made sure that the x-rays were sent to his mail address and whenever he would have the time to take a look at it, he would give her a call. To be honest, it was a mess down there. The tibia was completely shattered, the fibula was just as bad if not worse. The patella was wrecked. And that were only the most prominent things. Until now, the brunette had no idea how severe the nerve damage truly was. So she did what she could do, her best, and was already doing her magic, repairing the femur with pins and plates.
"Dr. Torres", the blonde said, eying Callie from her spot over the open chest of the patient when she had noticed that the Latina had stopped working. "Are you done with your stupor and want to continue the surgery, or should we call Dr. Shimmer to fly in from Boston?"
The snippy tone in her voice didn't go unheeded by the brunette and for a short moment, she met the hard glare of the cardio attending. At this point, Callie was ready to bite the other woman's head off, verbally, yet she bit her tongue and counted toten before she replied, "I wasn't in a stupor, Dr. Hahn. I was just thinking about the rest of the man's leg and how bad it looks. I am trying to come up with a plan that doesn't involve amputation." Her tone harsh, her words more bitter than intended, but Erica had once again hit a nerve.
"You know", the blonde continued, dismissing the Latina's words as if they weren't worth anything. It was her usual way of showing the residents that she was above them, that they were on a lower level than she was. "I was surprised that you asked the scalpel and then made the cut yourself. Since it seemed that heaving a patient is beyond you, I thought you would let a nurse do your work."
Balling her hands into fists before her temper could get the better of her, Callie looked away, her lips pursed in anger and her eyes narrowed. She locked eyes with the intern that was standing across from her, one hand holding a clamp and the other one holding the suction device. His eyes were wide, shocked from the verbal belittling Hahn had just done. The brunette took a deep breath, calming her anger and then said, with the sweetest voice ever, "If I were you, I'd make sure that I would repair the man's heart without frosting it with your icy behavior instead of supervising what I do or don't do." And then she went back to work, as if nothing had happened. She used two additional screws in one of the plates and another additional plate to make sure that the patient would at least be able to keep his upper leg. The rest would have to wait. "Okay, I am done here", she announced after closing up. She had studied her work for at least five minutes to make sure everything was as it was supposed to be and the put the surgical instruments away and left the OR. Ripping the mask from her face and the scrub cap from her head, she turned on the faucet and let the cool water run down her arms while looking through the window, watching Hahn who was still operating. "Ugh, that woman!", Callie almost yelled and hit the sink.
"What did the sink do to you?", Arizona asked, not used to seeing her wife so upset and hitting anything except for a volleyball. Yes, she had been in the gallery and had watched her lover thrive during the surgery, still fascinated by the accuracy and calmness of the brunette's work. She could probably watch Callie fixing bone after bone the entire day without getting tired of it. But she had also witnessed the change in the Latina's demeanor at a sudden point and she could only assume that it had something to do with Erica being in the OR and saying something to Callie. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah", Callie sighed and turned around, bracing herself with her hands on the edge of the silver metal as their eyes met. She was tired and hungry, and the four and a half hours spent in the OR had only added to the madness of the day. Erica Hahn had just been the peak of the iceberg. "I just want to go home or crash in an on call room, to be honest. But I think I saved the man's upper leg and that feels amazing." A smile adorned her face and when she looked at the blonde, she got a smile in return. And just like that, it brightened her day and even more the past hours of tension during the surgery. "Can we go home?"
"Yep", Arizona answered and smacked her lips. "Our shifts are over, mine ended two hours ago so I've watched the rest of your surgery. You were amazing, outstanding. You and bones, you just seem to have this really weird connection, Dr. Bones, and it shows in your meticulous work", she swooned, using the name the nurses had given her wife two years ago. Moving closer to the brunette she asked, "Did something happen in there?" One hand ghosted over the still flat stomach, the other loosened the braid Callie had done earlier to get the scrub cap over her hair.
"Hahn just keeps making idiotic comments", the breathed out and leaned her cheek into the blonde's touch, letting the warmth of her wife's palm pervade her entire body, feeling how her anger slowly faded away. "Webber told me to take my hands off the stretcher and she made a snippy remark about it and then in the OR, she said she thought I'd let the nurses do the job. What does she think I am? Some arrogant resident who thinks they're too good to lift or to move a finger? I am not like that. The chief was just trying to protect the little one." Her words were calm but she knew very well, that it would have been different had she been talking to the blonde attending instead of her wife. "I really begin to hate her. She doesn't know anything."
Although she didn't like that Erica was once again – or still – upsetting the Latina, there was not really something they could do about it. A small part inside of her thought it was more than jealousy of the brunette's talent, but she refused to let that thought get the better of her. Because even if Dr. Hahn behaved like this to deal with some underlying feelings for her wife, Callie was hers. There had never been a person who had stood the slightest chance of getting between them and Erica Hahn would not be the one to change that. "She's got some nerves", Arizona replied, running her thumb over her lover's cheekbone. "But she's not worth our anger. I would have exploded a long time ago, to be honest. And I admire you for your strength, but she's not worth it." Staring into brown orbs, she smiled, "Come, I'll let you scrub out and then we'll go home." She placed a chaste kiss against the soft skin of the brunette's cheek and smiled instantly, then started to walk away.
"Hey, Arizona?", Callie stopped her and waited until she looked at her again. "I have a surprise for you. You'll get it when we get home, okay?"
"Sure", the blonde answered with a wide grin, dimples popping deep into her cheeks. She loved her wife's surprises. Callie just had this special way to surprise her, whether it was a sexy surprise or a nice dinner. It always felt extra special when it came from her lover. And now she couldn't wait to get home.
Forty-five minutes later, Arizona closed the apartment door with her foot and let herself gladly be pushed up against the wooden surface. She felt delicate fingers roaming her sides as she moaned into the kiss, deepening it simultaneously and tunneling her hands in soft raven hair. When Callie's lips moved to her neck, she willingly tilted her head to the side, giving the Latina more room to let her mouth nip and suck at the skin. "Calliope..." It came out as a whisper, but it was meant to stop the brunette before she would leave a mark.
"Sorry", Callie rasped and admitted, "I get so easily carried away. Your skin is like a drug and I am not ashamed to be an addict." Clearing her throat and fighting the blush, she interlocked their hands, gently stroking Arizona's with the pads of her thumbs and leading her further into the apartment into the living room and sat down on the couch, pulling the blonde down along with her. "So, I've been thinking..."
"Oh oh", Arizona joked and shot her wife a wink.
Narrowing her eyes playfully at the blonde, the Latina bit her bottom lip for a second and then said, "Okay. I have been thinking about three things. Firstly, we should not wait to get a house until the baby is born. It's ridiculous to put hours of work into creating the perfect nursery and then doing it all over again in our house." She waited for a bit, seeing if the blonde would want to throw in her two cents, but all that she got was a nod, silently telling her to go on. "Secondly, I talked to the chief this morning when you had to leave because your pager went off and-"
"Wait!", Arizona interrupted her wife and held up her index finger to stop the brunette. "What do you mean with 'I talked to the chief'? Is something wrong? Is it a problem that you're pregnant?" Because they had made sure that it wasn't, they had given Dr. Webber a heads-up that they might be going to try.
"Just let me explain, okay?" Receiving a nod, again, she spoke, "I talked to him because I wanted to do something for you, for a change. The past months have been hard on both of us. And I know that I wasn't the easiest person to be around. I was weird, I felt weird and you gave me so much. The day at the zoo, the night in the den. I just want to thank you. We have so many days of leave saved, so I thought we could go to New York for a few days and then head off to Miami for another few days. You know, see our best friends, maybe kick their butts and then have a relaxing time on the private beach?" Seeing blue eyes light up, she let out a sigh of relief. A tiny part of her had doubted that it was a good idea. "We could leave on Monday so we wouldn't miss family dinner."
Smiling, Arizona pulled her hands out of her lover's hold only to place them on caramel skinned cheeks and crash their lips together, stealing the Latina's air out of her lungs by the force of the kiss.
When she pulled away, the brunette's eyes were glazed and she had to shake her head to think straight again. Her wife's kisses often had this effect on her and while she usually loved it, she had another thing on her mind. But first she asked, "So, you're okay with looking for a house a little sooner and going to New York and Miami... just checking..?"
"Of course I am!", the blonde squealed. She was already looking forward to seeing Addison again. She had missed her red-haired best friend and talking on the phone wasn't exactly the same. "We'll do some major ass-kicking so Addie gets her head out of her butt and accepts Teddy's apology and says yes to trying again. Geez, she's so stubborn." She knew that, so far, the other blonde had not given up begging for a second chance, but she and Callie weren't sure how long Teddy would keep doing that. Sure, her wife's best friend could be persistent, but the redhead had a master degree in giving someone the cold shoulder.
"Okay", the Latina smiled. "Thirdly, I thought about cutting my hair again, the length I had it when you proposed and-" Once again, she was cut off by the blonde, this time with another kiss full of fire and passion. Arizona successfully pushed her backwards into the cushions and pushed her tongue into Callie's mouth, eliciting a series of soft moans.
Memories of how sexy the brunette had looked with the short waves framing her face flashed before her eyes and she couldn't hold back the urge to kiss her again. She had loved to tangle her fingers through the silky strands and she remembered how hot Callie had looked with the shorter haircut. She loved her wife, long curls, short tresses, it didn't matter, but she always knew that she would find it difficult to look at anything but the Latina. Her Calliope would be glowing from the pregnancy and with the short haircut, the blonde would have to give her best to keep it in her pants. "God, I love you", she breathed, air becoming a necessity after the kiss, but once again, her hands started wandering over her lover's body. It was embarrassing, but just the thought about Callie getting her hair cut had aroused her beyond believe. "And I need you", she stated, rolling her hip against the wife's core. "Now."