CHAPTER 36

ARIZONA

As a doctor, one hardly ever finds themselves pacing the waiting room. The doctor is usually not the person frantically trying to get information out of anyone who looks in their direction. It's generally the waiting doctor's job to put the loved ones pacing the waiting room at ease. Arizona had on many occasions delivered both good and bad news to those frantic people that never seemed to be able to sit still in this creepily bare room. She had always wondered if they couldn't sit still because of how uncomfortable the chairs were or if it was something else entirely. In the 45 minutes the blonde surgeon has been confined to this ridiculous room she hadn't even thought about taking a seat in one of the chairs. Maybe they weren't uncomfortable at all, maybe just like her the people who generally occupied this room simply never thought to take a seat.

This wasn't exactly how she envisioned her night ending. About an hour ago all she could think about was her gorgeous girlfriend and how much she wanted to take her home and make love to her, but now she felt like she couldn't breathe, like her world had been turned on its axis and was now spinning incorrectly. As soon as Arizona had seen Lauren walking towards her in the club she knew something was wrong, the red head wasn't walking tall like she usually did and her face was streaked with tears. Lauren didn't even have to say anything; Arizona somehow just knew that it was him. Something had happened to Joshua and the blonde hadn't been there. This was yet another thing Arizona was going to add to her fast growing list of regrets when it came to the boy she once considered her son, perhaps she still considered him her son. At this point Arizona wasn't completely sure how she felt about the boy, which is why she had been putting off seeing him for the past 4 days. However, now he was in the hospital and she may never again get the chance to look into the beautiful green eyes that she saw every night in her dreams for the past 5 years.

"Arizona?" the voice of her girlfriend broke her from her daze.

"Huh?" Arizona knew that Callie had been speaking to her but she honestly hadn't heard a word of what was said.

"Baby maybe you should go over there" Callie was gesturing towards the red head in the corner. Lauren was a blubbering mess; she hadn't stopped sobbing since they arrived back at the hospital. Arizona didn't really know what to say to her, she barely knew what to say to the parents of her patients when she actually knew what the hell was going on. This was an entirely new experience for the PEDS surgeon and it was one that she wasn't enjoying at all.

"What am I supposed to say to her?" Arizona had never felt more lost and she turned to Callie with pleading eyes. It was only on a very rare occasion that the blonde looked to her girlfriend to be the support or the voice of reason but she desperately needed Callie to be that for her now.

"Maybe you don't have to say anything" the brunette placed a gentle kiss on Arizona's temple and guided her toward the cowering red head in the corner.

CALLIE

It was torture for Callie to watch Arizona wrapping her arms around the sobbing red head in the corner of the room. Her blood was boiling and all she really wanted to do was yell and scream, letting the whole world and especially the devilish red head know that Arizona was hers. However, this wasn't about her and this wasn't about her relationship with Arizona, it wasn't even about Arizona's relationship with Lauren. It was about Joshua.

The charming little boy that Callie had spent a wonderful afternoon with was fighting for his life and it was tearing her up inside. She knew that if Joshua didn't make it and Arizona didn't get a chance to see him and try to make things right with him, she wouldn't recover. Arizona was strong, she had this magical way of distancing herself and most of the time she remained emotionless but Callie knew that this would break her. She also knew that the only other person in this world who could possibly know how Arizona was feeling right now was Lauren, so as much as it pained her Callie knew that they needed each other right now.

"Dying kid or no dying kid, she's still got nothing on you Torres" Mark draped a drunken arm over her shoulder. He was just trying to help, she knew this but he was being extremely insensitive in this moment.

"Mark I think maybe you should go home. Thank you for being here but you're drunk and Arizona doesn't need your comments right now" Callie pried his hand away from her shoulder and signalled for Teddy to come and take him off her hands.

"Come on Mark let's go back to your place. Callie will call us if she hears anything" of course Mark was reluctant to leave but he left surprisingly without too much of a fuss. Callie grinned to herself when she realised how good for him Teddy was.

They had been sitting around for two and a half hours waiting for news on Joshua's condition. When they had arrived at the hospital he was seizing and he had flat lined shortly after but since then they hadn't heard anything. Callie wasn't even sure what had happened to the boy. Lauren had been muttering something about only leaving him alone for a little while and then she had fallen in a heap on the floor, where she has been for the past two hours. Arizona was now sitting with her and had her arms wrapped around the shaking red head. It was difficult for Callie to watch the two of them, the way they touched each other, the way Arizona comforted her like she knew what she needed sent chills up Callie's spin but this wasn't the time to be petty or jealous so she pushed her feelings aside.

Bailey came bursting into the room causing everyone to jump to their feet and race towards her at the door.

"Ok Ok. Everyone calm down. He had a severe allergic reaction but it also looks like he sustained a nasty fall. He's just come out of surgery where we had to repair his liver and deal with some internal bleeding but he's stable and he's going to be just fine" Bailey was ever the professional. She didn't seem to be fazed by the way Lauren was groping at her, she simply took the red heads hand in her own tiny surgeon hands and spoke to her calmly before leading her out of the room.

Callie watched as Arizona let go of Lauren's hand and stood stock still in the doorway. The red head shot Arizona a pained look before being dragged away by Bailey. As Callie approached her silent girlfriend, she wasn't crying or freaking out. Anyone who didn't know Arizona would think that she was handling this whole situation very well but Callie knew better. A calm, sedated Arizona was far worse than a panicked ranting one.

"Baby, are you okay?" Callie brushed a stray hair from Arizona's angelic face.

"I can't do this. I can't just go in there and… I mean he doesn't even know me" it was breaking Callie's heart to see the woman she loved looking so broken. The brunette knew that Arizona was scared of her first meeting with Joshua, she feared that the boy wouldn't know her, that he wouldn't like her. Of course it was impossible for anyone not to like Arizona, just ask Cristina Yang.

"Yes you can. You can do this Ari, and I think that in some way he does remember you. He drew you remember? You're in his dreams. That has to mean something" Callie began rubbing circles on Arizona's lower back, knowing that it would sooth her. She watched as the blonde closed her eyes for a moment, allowing the gentle ministrations of her girlfriend relax her.

Even after Callie's rousing speech, it still took Arizona the best part of an hour to psych herself up enough to go anywhere near the PEDS ward let alone inside Joshua's room. Clearly the brunette rock-star ortho surgeon wasn't quite as eloquent as her beautiful girlfriend because Arizona was still standing just outside Joshua's hospital room looking very much like she needed a cigarette.

Callie was feeling so helpless that she almost felt like offering her love a death stick if it would calm her down.

"Ari, are you going to go in?" Callie knew she had to speak up or Arizona would be there all night just pacing around and mumbling incoherently to herself.

Before Arizona could reply to Callie's question they heard a tiny voice call out. Neither sure they had heard correctly stopped dead in their tracks, staring wide eyed at each other.

"Dr. Callie!" there it was again and this time she was sure that she had heard Joshua's voice calling out to her. He must have seen her pacing up and down in front of the boy's door, which in retrospect was probably not the best place to be hovering around if they didn't want to be seen.

The boy's persistence gave Callie no choice but to give Arizona a quick kiss on the temple before stepping cautiously into Joshua's room.

"Hey buddy, how are you feeling?" Callie greeted the small boy with a giant grin that he reciprocated immediately. He had been awake barely an hour and he was already hard at work on his comic. He was scribbling furiously when Callie entered the room.

"I'm okay, my belly hurts a little but Dr. Bailey says I'm going to have a cool scar when I leave here" Callie couldn't help but laugh at the small boy who seemed ecstatic about the prospect of a cool scar to show off. This kid was definitely a kid after her won heart that was for sure.

"Well scars are pretty rock-star" Callie couldn't have agreed more with the young child but her smile faded a little when she saw him try to move but winced in pain instead and flopped back onto his pillow. Lauren rushed to his side helping him, fluffing his pillow to allow him to sit up so the he could see his visitors without causing him any pain or discomfort.

"Who were you talking to outside Dr. Callie?" oh no. This wasn't the way this conversation was supposed to go. He wasn't supposed to ask about Arizona before she was ready to see him. She had to do this on her own. Or maybe she didn't, maybe this was the push the PEDS surgeon needed and suddenly and idea came to her.

"Urh… well I was talking with my friend Dr. Arizona. She's a doctor for awesome tiny rock-stars like you" Callie announced as energetically as she could. However, it didn't seem like she was fooling Joshua because he was now eyeing her suspiciously. Arizona had obviously also caught on to her because the pacing outside the room had come to an abrupt stop.

Callie began to sweat and the collar of her shirt was all of a sudden feeling very tight around her neck, but she had come this far so she might as well throw herself in the fire now and hope for the best.

"Dr. Arizona, why don't you come in and say hi to my friend Joshua" Callie called out to her girlfriend.

Silence.

It felt like an eternity of strained eye contact and weird facial twitches exchanged between Lauren, Joshua, Callie and the nurse fussing over Joshua's bandage. After a long torturous silence Callie saw blonde curls peeping into the room and she watched as her girlfriend took a deep breath and stepped fully into the room with her signature 1000 mega-watt smile adorning her face.

She wasn't sure why but this was a proud moment for Callie. Arizona was confronting her fears and Callie couldn't help but allow a giant smile to cross her own face as she witnessed the way her girlfriend was looking at the young boy.

"Hi Joshua" the blonde didn't sound as confident as she looked, her voice was quivering a little and it was a few octaves higher than normal. Callie wasn't really all that surprised by Arizona's actions but what she was surprised by was Joshua's reaction. The boy hadn't spoken a word since Arizona entered the room, any semblance of a smile had been quickly erased as soon as he had laid eyes on her and he was now gawking at her with a horrified expression. He kept looking at Arizona and then back to the sketch pad that was sitting in his lap and then back to Arizona again. He was starting to breath heavy and Callie thought the kid was going to have a panic attack.

"Joshua honey, say hello to Arizona" Lauren tried prompting the boy but this only seemed to make the matter worse. His gorgeous green eyes were starting to fill with tears before he lifted the blanket above his head and they could hear his breathing become worse as he went into a full on panic attack.

Callie rushed to his side, ripping the blanket off him and placing her hands on his shoulders gesturing for him to look at her.

"Joshua, look at me. It's okay. There's nothing to be scared of, just breath. Breath with me buddy" Callie was also starting to freak out. She wasn't the one who was good with children. She didn't know how to make a child feel relaxed or calm in her presence, this had always been Arizona's area of expertise but as she looked across the room at her girlfriend all she saw was the blonde's heart breaking. Joshua followed Callie's eyes toward Arizona who was slowly backing out of the room and his trouble breathing only increased.

"He can't breathe, why can't he breathe?" have the child's mother freaking out in the corner was also not helping the situation that was currently getting way out of control.

ARIZONA

She hadn't planned on this being the first meeting between her and Joshua. He was the boy she had sung to sleep every night, the boy who would only let her cradle him when he was sick or hurt and now he couldn't even look at her without having a panic attack. This was a new feeling for Arizona, kids love her, she's in paediatrics but the boy that she devoted four years of her life to seemed to hate her so much that it was making him ill.

She couldn't do it; she had to get out of there. She was clearly the reason Joshua was freaking out so taking herself out of the equation was hopefully going to be enough to help the boy calm down. The blonde swiftly exited the room leaving her girlfriend to take care of the situation, Arizona saw Callie's eyes pleading her to do something to help but the blonde knew that there was nothing she could do in this particular situation and had to hope that Callie wouldn't freak out completely.

She didn't go far, she wanted to be close by in case Joshua's conditioned worsened and she was needed so she stood outside the door listening to Callie trying to sooth him. Arizona smiled as she realised that her girlfriend was doing a pretty good job, she was talking to him calmly and trying to distract him from the situation. The only thing that was hindering Callie's progress was Lauren who was frantically screaming "he can't breathe. He's going blue. What's wrong with him". From what Arizona could tell Lauren hadn't changed much, she still couldn't handle the pressure.

Arizona saw Cristina walking by and grumbling to herself and an idea popped into the perky blonde's mind. She flung herself forward and grabbed Cristina's wrist before pulling her toward the wall outside Joshua's room.

"What the hell Robbins" of course, Cristina wasn't very appreciative of the firm grasp Arizona had on her.

"Cristina I need you to go in there and help Calliope. A 9 year old boy is having a panic attack and his mother is making the situation worse. You need to get her out of there" Cristina must have been able to see the desperation in Arizona's blue orbs because she simply gave a defeated sighed and moved to enter the room. Arizona had to stop her for one more thing; she couldn't believe she didn't think of this earlier.

"Oh and tell Calliope to get him to hum Godspeed" it was clear that Cristina had no idea what Arizona was talking about because she just stood there staring at her with a dumb look on her face.

"She'll know. Just go Cristina" and with that the surly Resident had rolled her eyes for about the zillionth time that day and run into the room.

"Ok red time for you to leave. Let's go!" Arizona almost let a giggle escape her lips when she heard the way Cristina was speaking to Lauren; this would definitely be a new experience for the privileged red head. Lauren fought for all of three seconds before Cristina had wrenched her out of the room and shooed her down the hallway to the waiting room before quickly going back to help Callie.

As she heard the sounds of 'Godspeed' by the Dixie Chicks coming out of Joshua's room she lost it. The tears that she had been holding in for what felt like an eternity were now falling freely; her knees couldn't hold her up anymore and as she felt herself sliding to the floor she had to clutch onto her sides as if to hold herself together. Her body was wracked with heaving sobs as soon as her knees hit the ground, she couldn't control them they just kept escaping from her body.

She didn't know how long she had been lying there on the floor sobbing but when she had finally managed to control her own breathing she was surprised to find herself being held by a strong set of arms.

MARK

This night had been a particularly interesting night for Mark Sloan, it had started off as a random get together with a few people from the hospital which included his ex girlfriend and his new… ummm Teddy. He wasn't sure exactly what they were but they were something and it certainly made for an awkward start to their night, that was until Brookeleigh Robbins decided to shake things up a little, well no actually a lot. Mark found it hard to believe that Brooke and Arizona were sisters, they looked alike but their personalities were just so different that it was hard to fathom the fact that they had spent their entire lives around one another. Or maybe Mark had simply pegged Arizona wrong, she seemed all serious and grown up, a big goodie two-shoes but if Mark were being honest he didn't really hang out with her that much outside of work and when they did hang out it was usually in a group and Callie was always hogging her anyway so it was hard to get a true picture of what a single, work-free Arizona would be like. The more Mark thought about it the more curious he had become so he made a pact with himself to spend a little quality time getting to know the eldest Robbins sister.

Once the crazy red head had shown up at the club screaming and crying like a loony the night had ended fairly quickly. He had followed them all to the hospital but he was ushered away from the waiting room by Teddy not long after they arrived. He liked Teddy but she certainly was a bossy one. However, now here he was sneaking back over to the hospital to check on his friends. He wasn't sure if there would be anything that he could do to help as he was sure that he was probably still too drunk to assist with anything medical but he knew that just being there would say something. Even if it was only to stop Callie from ripping that crazy red heads throat out.

Mark didn't know what was going on but the PEDS floor certainly did look like it was the place to be, there were people bustling about everywhere. It was far too busy for so late at night. That was when he heard it, the sobbing was echoing down the hallway. As he rounded the corner he found Arizona on her knees clutching herself tightly as she rocked back and forth. It broke his heart a little to see her like this. She was always this perky little ball of sunshine and it wasn't until this moment right here that he realised what a dark and cloudy place this hospital had been before the arrival of the heely wearing PEDS surgeon.

Whilst most of the time they all rolled their eyes and felt sick to their stomachs every time she spoke of rainbows and fairy dust or how she insisted on wear a dimply grin no matter the occasion. She could be extremely annoying, everybody thought so and yet the group dynamic had gotten considerably lighter since her arrival and this was something they all enjoyed.

Without further ado Mark bent down and scooped his usually perky friend up into his strong arms. He had expected her to fight him but she didn't, she simply snaked her arms around his neck when she felt him take hold of her around her midsection. As he lifted her up she swiftly wrapped her legs around his waist and rested her head on his manly shoulder. Mark was surprised by the ease in which he was able to carry her, it was like carrying a child and he cradled her rubbing her back and he spoke soothingly to her just like he would if she were a child.

He quickly rushed her off into the empty lunch room and tried to place her on the couch but she clung on to his shirt, not yet wanting to let go. So instead he simply sat on the couch with her and rubbed her back soothingly until he felt her drift off to sleep in his arms. This was going to be an extremely awkward moment when she woke up but for now, Mark was enjoying the comfort just as much as she needed it.