Chapter 36:
A/N: Lucy makes her move against Arizona this chapter and Callie finally recalls something from her coma. Not my best work, but I wanted to get a chapter out for everyone before the work week starts up again. Also, to all the Lucy fans, I'm not a basher. lol. I adore her character but just chose to have some fun with her in my story. Hope everyone enjoys! All mistakes are mine.
-3 months ago-
Sleep had not come easy for Arizona. After finally managing to get Callie to settle down and discontinue waking her every few minutes, she had thought her remaining hours would be spent in a restful slumber.
She'd been wrong.
Five hours after she'd managed to tell the waking world goodbye, Callie had awakened her...again.
She'd barely had time to register the time on her alarm clock-9:21am-before her partner had expressed another...craving...she had been trying to ignore for hours.
After satisfying Callie, as best as she could given her less than wonderful night of sleep, coupled with the fact that Callie was five months pregnant, Arizona had stumbled into the bathroom for a quick shower. Her last remaining hour, before her shift, had been spent enjoying breakfast with Callie and getting herself ready for work.
Exiting a scrub room, and feeling proud of herself for her flawless surgery, Arizona grabbed a few charts that needed updating and headed for an empty on-call room. Her next surgery wasn't planned until the late afternoon. All she needed to do was complete her charts and then, hopefully, she'd be able to grab a few hours of sleep.
No sooner had she settled herself down on the cot in the far corner of the room, then a knock came at the door and intruded on her thoughts.
"This room's occupied. Find someplace else!" she yelled, thinking the knock was from a lusty and horny set of interns hoping to use the room to relieve their sexual tension.
Before she could focus on her first chart, the door to the room opened and the last voice she wanted to hear floated to her ears.
"Maybe I want to use this room." Lucy Fields said as she stepped inside the on-call room and closed the door behind her.
Arizona watched, in abject shock, as Lucy turned the lock and regarded her with dark eyes.
"Uh..Dr. Fields...I-I didn't know it was you. If you want to sleep, I can always go to the lounge." she said, picking up her charts and hoping to make a quick exit.
Lucy held up a hand to stop her and shook her head.
"I didn't come in here to sleep, Arizona."
Color drained from Arizona's face and she felt her mouth run dry. Her mind had difficulty catching up with what she'd just heard. After months of trying to avoid Dr. Field's flirtations, advances, comments, and innuendo, it looked as if things had finally come to a head.
The professional side of her had tried to overlook the things she'd found disturbing and unsettling where her partner's OB was concerned. Seeing Lucy's smirk and hearing her voice drop to a dangerous octave, Arizona saw that she hadn't been successful.
It was time for the nonprofessional side of her to make an appearance.
"Look, Lucy, whatever you came in here for, you can just forget it. I came in here to update some charts and try to get some sleep. You need to leave."
Lucy shook her head again, unperturbed by Arizona's words, and took a step closer.
"Sleep? People don't use these rooms to sleep, Arizona."
"I do." the blonde said taking a step back to put some distance between herself and Dr. Fields.
"Oh really?" Lucy continued, a playful, devil-may-care, smile tugging at her full lips. "You and Callie have never..." she let the last word ring out in a long, sing-song tone."
Arizona scoffed and threw her charts down on the bed behind her. Pinching the bridge of her nose, she cornered Lucy with a steely glare.
"What the hell is wrong with you? I've put up with your...your...flirtations hoping you would get the idea that I'm in no way interested. But, this?" she said, holding her arms out to her sides and looking around the room. "This is too far. What, did you think you'd come in here and seduce me? That we'd hook up in the on-call room?"
Lucy crossed her arms over her chest and cocked her head to the side. Arizona intrigued her. She had since before she'd officially met her the first night she'd examined Callie. Before Lucy had come to join the staff at SGMW, she'd read several articles in several different medical journals about pediatric surgery.
Those articles, over time, all featured one person in particular: Arizona Robbins, M.D
Lucy had been taken ever since. She wouldn't have gone so far as to say that she stalked Arizona, but she had kept up with her career. At first, it had been nothing but a keen medical interest. Arizona was one of the top in her field. She was brilliant and, as one of the youngest surgeons in the country, was an inspiration.
When Lucy had taken a position at Seattle Grace, she'd hoped to finally meet and share her experiences with her role model. It hadn't taken much asking around for her to learn that Arizona Robbins, pediatric surgery, and Callie Torres, orthopedic surgery, were madly in love.
Everyone spoke highly of them. They were both accomplished and respected. Lucy had given up on speaking with Arizona, thinking herself silly for even wanting to, and continued to practice medicine to the best of her ability.
She'd realized, after learning about Callie, that somewhere along the way, she'd developed quite a crush on her one time idol. When the fates had played a cruel joke on her and brought Callie and Arizona into her care, she'd known she wouldn't be able to stay away from the blonde.
So, she'd started flirting. Even the most in love couples often times strayed and found enjoyment in another. It never meant that they loved their partners any less. So, to Lucy, her flirting was innocent. She wasn't looking to take Arizona away from Callie. She was just searching for a connection. Whether that connection was physical, emotional, intellectual, or otherwise, she didn't care.
"Don't play coy, Arizona. You can't honestly tell me that you don't find me attractive. You've never thought about what I taste like? What I might sound like screaming your name?"
As she spoke, Lucy stepped closer to Arizona. Her eyes were dark and fiery. The playful smirk that refused to leave her lips only accentuated her beauty.
"What? No, I've never thought...you're completely out of line here!" Arizona retorted, disgust evident in her voice.
Shaking her head, she tried to step around Lucy, but the other woman was faster than she expected. Arms caught her in a tight embrace around her shoulders and, a moment later, Lucy's body was pressed flush against her own.
"Don't lie." the taller woman husked against her ear.
Arizona pushed her away, but Lucy moved back into her personal space.
"I'm not asking you to leave the old lady, Arizona. We could just have a little fun. Relieve some stress. I'm sure living with a pregnant woman wreaks havoc on the sexual side of you...hm?"
Arizona could do nothing but shake her head and look at Lucy. She was stunned into mute disbelief. She'd known Lucy had been flirting with her. It hadn't been hard to figure things out. Yet, hearing her being so blatant was shocking to Arizona. She'd never believed herself to be a woman of few words, but at that moment, her brain was too addled to be of much use to her.
"Thought so." Lucy said, smiling at her.
"I'm sure Callie's kept you satisfied in the past. Let's just have some fun, Arizona."
Finally coming to her senses, Arizona pushed Lucy again and moved away from her.
"You're abhorrent! I love Callie. I'd never cheat on her!"
Unfazed, Dr. Fields turned around to face her.."You sound like a broken record. Is that what you have to keep telling yourself to deny the attraction you feel towards me? And, please, don't insult me and say there isn't one. You can love Callie all you want, but you're still human and you still have desires."
Arizona's shock wore off at Lucy's words. She'd tried being nice. She'd tried being professional. Lucy, like many doctors at Seattle Grace, looked at sex and hook-ups as just another facet of everyday life. The fact that the other woman was acknowledging Callie and the fact that Arizona was in love with her, only made the situation all the more sickening.
Why would Lucy ever think that emotionless sex, a care-free tryst, would be anything she'd desire to take part in? She could admit that she found Lucy attractive. She wasn't blind. Thinking someone pleasing to look at, by no means, meant that she wished to engage in on-call room antics with them.
"I'm going to tell you this, here and now, and you'd better pay attention." she started, standing up straight and squaring her shoulders.
Lucy faced her fully and raised an eyebrow.
"I'm in a relationship with Callie. We're married. We're not some passing hook-up that the hospital can gossip about one week and be done with the next. We're married. We've been together since before you started here. I've been through a lot to keep her and the same can be said where she's concerned. We bought a home recently and you know we're expecting our first child."
She paused at her words and her eyes lowered briefly. First child. Perhaps that was true, in a way. It was her first child with Callie, but it wasn't her first child in the truer sense of the word. Shaking her head and bringing her eyes back up to Lucy's, she took a deep breath and continued.
"I respect your opinion as a doctor and I value having you as Callie's OB. That's the extent of my feelings for you. I'm not looking for any type of release. Do you understand? I don't have frivolous sex with random people to relieve stress. That's why I got married. If I'm looking for sex, I go to my wife. Not to you and not to anyone else. So, you just get that through your head or we're going to have a problem. Understood?"
She didn't give Lucy a chance to respond before opening the door and starting to leave the room. When she stepped out into the hall, she felt a hand on her arm.
Lucy looked at her with wide, nearly apologetic, eyes and held her in place.
"I'm sorry...I-I..I'm not like that..I...I'm sorry. I've admired you for a long time and I guess...I guess I got caught up in being around you."
Arizona looked down at where Lucy's hand rested against her arm. Her heart was pounding at what had just transpired. Parts of Lucy's apology were confusing to her.
Admired? For a long time? What?
Releasing a tense breath, she tried to calm herself. The entire encounter left her feeling sick. She was split on rather or not to tell Callie. Did they get another doctor this far into the pregnancy? Callie was already showing borderline high BP. Telling her about Lucy's advances could be dangerous. Would it be better to try to forgive and forget? Let the matter become water under the bridge?
"Fine. It's forgotten. No hard feelings." she managed to force out.
Patting Lucy's hand, she nodded and walked away. As she headed down the corridor, she failed to notice Mark in an alcove across from the on-call room she'd just left. The older man, unable to hear the exchange, had watched with alarming anxiety.
He'd never pegged Arizona to be the cheating type, but she had just left an on-call room looking very flushed. He'd thought, at first, that Callie was in the room as well, but when Lucy had emerged and placed a hand on Arizona's arm, his mind had gone in a million different directions.
He'd been unable to move. The two women had locked eyes and Lucy had appeared to be pleading for something unknown. When Arizona had patted her hand and walked away, it had left Mark even more confused.
-Present Day-
Callie laid, awake, with Arizona at her side. She was unsure whether or not it was late in the night or early in the morning. The room was cast in a shadowy darkness, the only light being from the few machines she was still hooked up to.
As she stared at a distant spot on the wall, the fingers of her left hand moved, languidly, along Arizona's neck and shoulders.
Her partner was exhausted. After her emotional breakdown, she'd collapsed against Callie and cried herself to sleep. The way she had clawed and grasped at Callie's hospital gown and body had been beyond desperate.
Though she felt a weariness in her own bones, Callie found that sleep eluded her. Her earlier physical displays had pushed the limits of her reserves. Arizona had been falling away from her. That had been all she'd known. She'd panicked and pushed herself and her body to do what needed to be done for her partner.
At the time, the only thing that had mattered was Arizona.
Callie's thoughts replayed everything her lover had said. She tried to piece together the fragments of her missing memory, but it was to no avail.
She couldn't remember what had brought her to the hospital. She couldn't remember Daniella's birth. She couldn't remember her last memory, her coma, nothing. She felt like there was something important just beneath the surface of her being. Important to her or to Arizona or to Daniella, she didn't know. She couldn't recall.
What was it?
"...will you tell Mommy something for me..."
Callie blinked at the sudden voice in her head. Where had it come from? Who was the speaker? She fought to follow the frail and flimsy tendrils of her thoughts. Like smoke, they were impossible to grasp.
Words played in her mind. Various voices came together at a startling pace to form a cacophony of myriad sounds.
-"I'm pregnant..."
-"Deidre! Mrs. Robbins, please tell me. I feel like I'm failing out of touch with her. She's so evasive with me..."
-"I don't like this Calliope. I want us to go back to being just us. This is why I didn't want you knowing any of this. It's been one thing after another. I hate it...
Callie could feel her breathing becoming erratic. Her mind was firing synapse after synapse and with each breath she took, a new voice, a memory, flashed throughout her being. The voices sounded disembodied and ethereal. They echoed in her head.
-"Are you trying to make me fall in love with you all over again? First you tell me we'll discuss the idea of kids and now you're asking me to move in with you? How did you become so perfect?"
"Is that a yes?"
"That's a big yes. I'd live in a box if you asked me to, Arizona..."
Memories rushed through her mind at a crazed speed. She could barely keep up with the images and sounds that assaulted her. As soon as she was able to pinpoint a memory, a new one would form before she had time to ponder its significance.
"Marry me..."
-"So, what do you think...?"
-"Arizona, this is...it's, wow. Where did you find this place?"
- "Oh, I can't give away all of my secrets, Calliope. I take it you approve?"
-"Approve? Arizona, this place is awesome! It's gorgeous. It's huge and ritzy and-"
-"Ours..."
Callie swallowed to try and catch her breath. She felt as if her mind was racing towards some great end, but what that end could possibly be, she could not say. Part of her wondered what had triggered and sparked the influx of various and sporadic memories, but she tried not to think overly much on that.
Doing so could stop whatever was happening and she desired that the very least.
-"Everyday I spend with you is like a breath of fresh air. I cherish it. You make me smile. You make me laugh and dream. I love you. Everything about you. I promise to always love you. I promise to protect you and care for you. I'll always listen to you and support you. I promise to honor and respect you for as long as you'll allow me. On this day, I offer you-I give you everything that I am. My heart, my body, my faith, my love, my soul. They're yours, Arizona"
-"Should illness visit you in this life, you have my promise that I'll never leave your side. I'll be your friend, your partner, until the day I die. I love you. Today, I vow that you will always hold my heart. Today, I become responsible for your happiness and health. I can't wait, Calliope."
Arizona stirred next to her and murmured in her sleep. Closing her eyes, Callie bit her lip. The memories, the vivid flashbacks, was like watching her life before her own eyes. Some snapshots played in order, whereas, others formed with, seemingly, no time line or reason. Struggling to sit up, Callie gently shrugged Arizona away from her. The blonde's head landed on the pillows behind her and she continued to sleep peacefully.
Sitting up and resting on her elbows, Callie continued to fight for breath.
-"Calliope! Baby, can you hear me?"
-"Calliope! You listen to me! This isn't how things are supposed to be for us! You're a rock-star and you're going to be an amazing mother! Don't let this win...
-"She has ten fingers and ten toes. Her little heart is beating and her lungs are processing oxygen. She has a healthy appetite and well, you've heard her cry, so you know she's got a nice set of lungs."
-"CC, don't do that. She'd be mad if you did that. Wake up, CC."
-"You're okay, CC. "
-"Are you going to say something, CC?"
CC.
CC.
CC.
Like a building crescendo in her head, the voices, the memories, the sounds, everything, came together and reached their climax. She tried to shake her head to rid herself of the scenes that played behind her eyes. She covered her ears in an attempt to drown out the voices all starting to overlap and blur together.
The sound of her own breathing, of her heart beating madly, thrummed inside her head and formed a dull ache at the back of her skull.
The voice! She'd heard it before. She'd been hearing it since the day she'd awakened from her coma. Who was it? Why was it familiar? Why did it feel like Arizona?
She tried to focus on the last line she'd heard. Behind her, she thought she felt movement, but she ignored it. She just needed to follow the voice...follow the last line uttered.
"Are you going to say something, CC?"
"Are you going to say something, CC?"
Her mind started to paint a picture. It was a canvas without color. There was nothing but a white expanse around her. The vision presented to her was out of focus, as if it were being pulled at the seams of its reality. She noticed different colors beginning to form around her. There was a body, a small body, in front of her.
"Are you going to say something, CC?"
Again, the voice rang out to her, but it was closer. The shape in front of her, the shape she'd managed to find in her mind, had to be the speaker.
Again, she thought she detected movement in her hospital bed, but, as before, she ignored it. Another voice, distant, called to her, but she remained intent on discovering who the person was in her mind's dream.
"Are you going to say something, CC?"
Letting herself forget about where she was physically, Callie struggled to remain wherever it was that her memories were showing her. The hospital, her room, Arizona, all faded away.
Opening her eyes, she blinked rapidly at the brightness around her. The form before her was bathed in a startling luminescence and was difficult to make out. She refused to look away.
The longer she focused on the shape, the dimmer it became. Her breathing quickened as apprehension set it. She was going to finally discover who this person was.
"Are you going to say something, CC?"
Callie's heart slammed into her rib cage so hard, she felt the wind knocked from her lungs. The image before her started to dissipate. She heard Arizona's voice calling her name from somewhere far away.
Struggling to burn the face of the person in front of her into her mind's eye, Callie called out to the child whose form was catching to the winds and shimmering in various directions.
"Hannah!" she called before the vision was gone and she found herself, once again, in her hospital room.
Her breaths were shallow and deep and her body was covered in sweat. When she looked over her shoulder, Arizona's wide eyed expression caused a lump to form in her throat.
"Hannah?" the blonde questioned in a barely recognizable voice.