Callie rolled out of bed and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. The sun was shining brightly through the window and she squinted as she tried to adjust to the brightness. She picked up her cell phone and saw that it was already almost 10 am. She threw her shirt on and opened the door, walking out of the on call room.
After Callie had realized that Arizona couldn't remember the nature of their relationship, she had politely excused herself from the room and sent everyone else in to see her. Callie needed to step away so she could have some time to process. The day had been so exhausting and draining for her and when she had learned that Arizona was conscious, she had let herself believe that everything was going to be okay. But instead she found out that Arizona didn't remember that she was her girlfriend.
Callie had asked Derek to send her an update when he checked on Arizona during night rounds and he had reported that there had been no change. Callie had considered letting Arizona know that she was going to stay the night, but she realized that Arizona wouldn't wonder where she was because as far as she was concerned, they were only friends. So Arizona's parents took Sofia home and Callie, unbeknownst to Arizona, stayed in an on call room so that she could be near by.
Callie turned the corner and arrived at the hall that led to Arizona's hospital room. She saw Bailey standing by the nurse's station and walked up to her with the intent to ask about Arizona's condition.
"There's been no change in her memory Callie," Bailey said before Callie could even get the words out. "But we took her for another set of scans this morning and the swelling is almost non-existent at this point. We'll likely release her tomorrow. Her surgical site looks good, there is no more internal bleeding and her arm is healing well."
"If the swelling is essentially gone, why isn't she remembering Bailey?" Callie asked.
"24 hours ago that woman was in an accident that could've killed her. An accident that almost did kill her. Her body is on overdrive trying to heal. We believe that her memory will likely start coming back in a couple of days. I don't know if it will be gradual or all at once, but Derek and I are both very optimistic that this is just a temporary side effect of the injuries she sustained in the accident."
"What am I supposed to do in the mean time? Do I pretend everything is the same as it was six months ago? Do I tell her how things are now? I don't want to do anything that could impede her recovery."
"You aren't going to help her by letting her think that everything is as it was six months ago. When someone is trying to recover lost memories or periods of time, triggers usually help them in that process. So tell her. When it feels right, you should tell her."
Callie nodded and looked towards Arizona's door. She wanted to tell her so badly, but she was scared. What if Arizona didn't react to the news well? Sure she had been the one to initiate their reunion, but the Arizona in that room didn't necessarily feel the same way. She wasn't exactly herself right now.
As though Bailey could hear what Callie was thinking she suddenly spoke up, breaking Callie out of her thoughts. "Do you believe for one second that Arizona ever stopped loving you?" Bailey asked.
"What?"
"You're scared. I can see it all over your face. But you shouldn't be. She loves you Callie. She's not going to think this is bad news. You should trust me on that."
Callie smiled and started to feel silly for being so scared. Bailey was right. Callie had tried to ignore it for both of their sakes when they had been divorced but Arizona had always loved her, even when they hadn't really known each other anymore.
"Is she awake right now? Can I see her?" Callie asked.
"I just finished morning rounds and she was awake. Go ahead," Bailey replied.
Callie approached Arizona's door and knocked lightly. She stepped inside and smiled when she saw Arizona.
"Hey," Callie said.
"Oh hey. Good morning," Arizona said. "You here to check up on me?"
"Yeah. I just wanted to see how everything was today."
"Well I still think it's June so," Arizona joked.
"Yeah…Bailey told me."
"I'm sorry. For all of this," Arizona said softly.
"Please don't apologize Arizona. What are you sorry for? You didn't ask for any of this."
"What was I doing on that road Callie? Alex told me where they found my car. That road is in the middle of nowhere. What was I doing out there?"
Callie sighed and sat down next to Arizona's bed. She might as well just tell her everything now. There wasn't going to a perfect moment, she just had to do it.
"There's a lot I need to tell you Arizona," Callie said. "And I don't want to overwhelm you and I don't even know where to begin, but Bailey said you need to know as much about your current life as possible. She said it could help you remember."
"Okay but before you say anything, I need to ask you something," Arizona said interrupting her. "And it might sound crazy so please don't laugh or look at me like a lunatic or anything when I ask okay?"
"Okay…" Callie responded hesitantly, wondering what it was that Arizona was so concerned about asking her.
"Are you and I like…a thing? Are we back together? I hate to even ask because we basically just got divorced and you made it very clear that we were done and all that, but I just…I have this feeling that we are. So are we? Together I mean. Or am I crazy? Because I really need to know."
"How the hell could you possibly have known that?" Callie asked, astonished that Arizona had been able to draw that conclusion. "Did you remember something?"
"No. I just…this is going to sound so strange. It was your body language. Last night. Something about it, the way you held my hand and sat by me and looked at me. It just felt different. I mean even when our mouths couldn't find the words to communicate, our bodies always could. And I don't know…I just felt like something was different. Like something had changed. It felt like we were more than friends."
Callie smiled and chuckled a little bit. It was uncanny how in tune they could be sometimes. Arizona was right…words had never been their strong point. That's why it was something they were working so hard on this time around. But somehow, just the way Callie had acted around her had tipped Arizona off. Obviously the kiss had probably been a big clue, but Callie knew what Arizona meant. It was so much more than that. Callie and Arizona had this way with each other and she had simply picked up on it and fit the pieces together.
"You're not crazy Arizona. We are together," Callie replied.
"We are?" Arizona asked with a big grin.
"For about four months now."
"So...you're my girlfriend. You-you took me back. How in the hell did that I manage that one?" she asked.
"It wasn't easy," Callie said with a laugh. "But we both realized that even though it was scary to try again, life with each other was so much better than life apart. So here we are."
Arizona looked like a kid on Christmas morning as she looked at Callie. Her eyes were a sparkling blue and she was smiling that super magic smile she had. Callie resisted the urge to just leap forward and kiss the hell out of her. Arizona may have known they were back together now, but she was still injured and Callie didn't want to exacerbate that.
"Wait," Arizona said suddenly. "Today is Thanksgiving right? Yesterday Derek said it was the day before Thanksgiving."
"Oh…I guess you're right. It is," Callie said. "I forgot with everything going on but it is Thanksgiving."
"Ugh and I've ruined it," Arizona said as she leaned her head back against her pillow.
"Hey you didn't ruin anything. All of us have a very good reason to be grateful today okay? So please don't think like that."
"What happened Callie?" Arizona asked, lifting her head and looking back over at her. "Why was I out on that road? By myself? At that hour of the day?"
"I don't know," Callie replied. "I really don't. We uh-we had had a fight the night before."
"A fight?" Arizona asked. "About what?"
"It's a long story Arizona. A lot led up to it."
"I've got nothing but time," Arizona responded.
Callie sighed and ran her hand through her hair. "Well you haven't told your parents about the divorce. I know you remember that much."
"Ohh…so I told you about that and you got mad."
"Not exactly. They came for Thanksgiving and you still didn't want to tell them, so we were going to just pretend that we were still married. But then my father decided to come as well and you starting freaking out about how he was going to tell them. You told me I should've just gone home for Thanksgiving and it kind of felt like you were blaming me for the whole mess so I got mad and told you to sleep on the couch. I woke up around 5:45 am and saw you pull out of the driveway. I don't know where you were going or why. I should've stopped you. I saw you leave and I should have…I should have stopped you," Callie said as tears began to streak down her face.
"Whoa, are you blaming yourself?" Arizona asked, as she reached her hand over and set it on top of Callie's. "This is not your fault. Do you hear me? You couldn't have known what was going to happen."
"If you had just been with me, you never would have left," Callie sniffed.
"I left Callie. I made that choice. And I also made the choice to drive out to the middle of freaking nowhere. This is all on me."
"It was an accident. You couldn't have known what was going to happen either."
"Yeah," Arizona said softly.
Callie and Arizona sat in silence for a second when they heard a knock on the door. Arizona's mother poked her head around the corner and saw Callie sitting by her side.
"Is this a bad time?" Barbara asked.
"No, come on in mom," Arizona said.
Barbara pushed the door open all the way and Daniel, Carlos, Alex, Jo and Sofia all walked inside. Barbara followed, pushing in a food cart with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, rolls, cranberries, and every other Thanksgiving food you could possibly imagine.
"What's all this?" Arizona asked, as Sofia crawled up on the bed and snuggled against her side.
"Careful," Callie whispered, as she helped the little girl maneuver around Arizona's cast.
"Well we figured that since you couldn't be home for Thanksgiving that we would bring Thanksgiving to you," Barbara answered. "We came to spend the holiday with our daughter and by golly we're going to do just that."
Carlos walked over to Arizona and gave her a light hug. "I am very happy to see you awake and talking," he said.
"Thank you Mr. Torres," Arizona replied, surprised by his kindness.
"Sofia wanted to bring this for you too," Jo said as she stepped forward and handed Mr. Bear to Arizona.
"You brought him just for me?" Arizona asked, looking down at her daughter nuzzled against her.
"He makes me feel better when I'm sick. I want him make you feel better too," Sofia said.
"Thank you sweetheart," Arizona replied, gently squeezing her against her side.
"Who wants to cut the turkey?" Alex asked, holding the knife toward Carlos and Daniel.
"Colonel, would you like to do the honor?" Carlos asked.
"Please...it's Daniel," Arizona's father replied.
Carlos looked slightly taken aback. Daniel had once made it very clear to him that he went by 'colonel' or 'the colonel'. But now he was telling Carlos to call him by his first name.
"Daniel," Carlos said with a smile. "I think you should be the one to carve the turkey. Go ahead."
Alex handed the knife to Daniel and he walked toward the turkey. He quickly cut it up and began to place it onto the dishes. Barbara piled on all the sides and passed the plates around. Bailey brought in extra chairs so everyone could sit down and then turned to walk out of the room.
"Wait!" Barbara suddenly called after her. Bailey stopped and turned back around.
"Yes Mrs. Robbins. Did you need something?" Bailey asked.
"Where do you think you're going? Sit down and grab a plate," she said.
"Oh…I have patients. I couldn't."
"Dr. Bailey, we insist. Please," Daniel chimed in.
Bailey looked around and nodded her head. "Okay. I'll have a quick bite. Thank you," she said as she grabbed a plate and sat down at the edge of the room.
"I want to say something real quick before we eat," Callie said. "I'd just like to say how grateful I am that we are all here today. Our family and friends gathered in one place to share this meal. It's easy to forget how lucky we are sometimes. We let such petty things get in the way and forget what is truly important. If I've learned anything in the past couple days it's that we have to remember that life is short. It's too short to be anything but happy. But I am happy right now. To be with all of you here. So let's enjoy this delicious food that Mrs. Robbins so graciously prepared. Thank you Mrs. Robbins."
"I told you to call me mom," Barbara said, giving her a stern look.
Callie smiled, touched that after everything that had happened Barbara still considered her to be her daughter. "Thank you mom," Callie said. "I'll stop rambling now. Everyone go ahead and eat."
Everybody dug into their plates and engaged in light chit chat while Callie went and sat down on the other side of Arizona. She didn't bother trying to eat her food. Instead, she helped Arizona juggle both Sofia and her plate since she only had one good arm. Arizona looked over at Callie and leaned over to whisper in her ear. "I may not remember everything, but I do know this: I love you," she said.
Tears glistened in Callie's eyes upon hearing those words and she placed a light kiss on the corner of Arizona's mouth before whispering
"I'm so happy to hear you say that. Because I love you too."
