Sorry for the cliffhanger, but I didn't make you wait too long! In this chapter we finally find out about Arizona's past, about the scar as Callie struggles.

Arizona felt her heart racing. God it had been years since anyone had made her feel this way and as much as she wanted to be cool, inside she was freaking out!

That kiss had totally thrown her. Shit she was in trouble here. She looked down at the bronzed hand still holding her wrist before her eyes slowly moved up over Callie's body and met her gaze.

Arizona had to make a choice. Sams words popped into her head - she could totally do something stupid here and keep it a secret. They were alone in this big house...no one would know apart from them.

Arizona saw desire in those big brown eyes that matched the desire she herself was feeling right there and then. Desire and vulnerability as the brunette waited for Arizona to respond.

"No." Arizona whispered as she swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat before continuing "no you are not imagining things...I feel it too Callie" Arizona felt the butterflies in her stomach start up as she watched the biggest smile erupt on Callie's face. The most amazing smile she had ever seen. It literally lit up the room.

Arizona took a deep breath before adding

"I'm massively attracted to you Calliope...I think you are stunning and I probably shouldn't say this, but I'm so relieved that you didn't feel anything when Jess kissed you, because I want to be the one who gives you butterflies..."

Arizona paused and placed a hand on Callie's soft cheek causing the brunette to close her eyes. "but as much as I want to kiss you right now... I can't...because it would be unprofessional. I'm your physio and I could lose my job."

Callie's heart was beating overtime and she wanted to punch the air with joy that the blonde had admitted to being attracted to her, but at the same time she was devastated that their professional relationship didn't allow for anything to happen.

"Fuck..." Callie responded as she opened her eyes and stared into Arizona's deep blue eyes "I would really, really like you to kiss me right now... i'd really like you to do more than just kiss me!" She pleaded in a low sexy voice

Arizona let out a loud frustrated groan "I...I can't Callie..."

"But no one needs to know Arizona, it's just us, here alone...I promise I won't say anything!"

Callie tried her best to tempt the blonde into breaking the rules.

Arizona shook her head "I want to, trust me...I REALLY want to, but I need you to respect the position I have at the club. I love my job, and I can't do anything to risk it."

Callie released the blondes slim wrist that she had still been holding and took a step back so there was more space between them.

"I understand." Callie said unable to hide the disappointment from her voice.

"Thank you." Arizona said smiling softly at the brunette "Ummm we should probably get some sleep."

"Umm yeah...sure...night." Callie said sadly as she opened the door to her bedroom.

"Goodnight Calliope" Arizona whispered before heading into the spare bedroom and leaning back on the closed door. "Fuck!" She said under her breath. That was a tough call and she was already regretting it, questioning if she had done the right thing.

——-

The next morning Callie was woken by the sound of the front door closing and checked her phone for the time. 7.45am - Arizona was clearly desperate to escape. Callie sighed out loud. She hadn't been able to get to sleep for hours as she thought back over their conversation, over how good it felt to know that Arizona liked her too, but how much it sucked that they couldn't do anything about it.

Callie eventually climbed out of bed and pulled on a hoodie over her vest top before plodding downstairs to get some coffee. As she waited for the machine to heat up she heard the front door opening and turned to see Arizona walking back in with some eggs and a newspaper. She hadn't run!

"Hey you're up, I'm sorry did I wake you? The blonde asked apologetically

"I umm thought you'd gone, you know, couldn't face me!" Callie admitted

Arizona placed the newspaper and eggs on the kitchen counter and looked the brunette

"I don't want things to be difficult between us Callie, I want us to still be able to work together and it feel OK to be around each other." Arizona said "that's if it's OK with you?" She checked

"Of course" Callie replied a little too eagerly. She was so happy to see the blonde standing there in her kitchen that she would have agreed to anything.

"Great. Now how about you make some coffee and I'll fix us some eggs." Arizona smiled over at the American who looked cute in her PJ shorts and over sized hoodie. Althea blondes imagination kicked in as she pictured running her hands up inside the hoodie and finding Callies breasts. She felt a throb between her legs as she imagined lifting the American up onto the counter, pulling down those shorts and eating her for breakfast. Fuuuuuck! Arizona shook her head to clear the imagine and tried to focus on the eggs.

The truth was Arizona had been tempted to run when she had woken up. But they had to work together, and so she had decided to stay and make sure things were OK between them before they saw each other back at the training ground the next day.

————

On Monday morning Callie arrived an hour early, as she had wanted to get a swim in before she joined the rest of the team out on the pitches. It was the first time she was able to join the team and take part in the normal exercises with the coaches. It mean that she wouldn't see Arizona today, but she was happy to be kicking a ball again. Maybe not seeing the gorgeous blonde wouldn't be a bad thing. She wanted to focus on the training session.

As she swam up and down the pool she thought back to the events of the weekend. To Jess who was now with the national team at their training camp, to her conversation with Arizona and how it had felt to kiss her cheek, touch her and how she had gone to bed last night thinking of the blonde. Callie respected Arizona's wishes, but she had given up on the blonde yet, she just needed some time to find the right moment.

Over the next two days Callie worked hard on the pitch, working with the coaches with shooting practice. After the other girls had gone in, Callie had stayed behind and worked on her headers with Beth, one of the coaches.

"How's the knee?" The coach asked

"Fine. No pain at all." Callie replied happily

"You sure. We don't want to push it." Beth said with concern

"Honestly, it feels good."

"Ok well maybe you should jump in the ice bath before you shower, to prevent any tightness."

"Sure" Callie agreed. She hated the ice bath, but she knew Beth was right, she would be stiff tomorrow otherwise and she didn't want any set backs.

"I think we'll see how things look this week and then I think the coach will maybe put you on the bench for the game on Sunday if you come through OK." Beth added

"Really? That would be awesome!" Callie said excitedly

"Yes but you have to tell us the minute you feel anything out of the ordinary. Robbins and the physio team will kill us if we work you too hard, too soon."

Callie smiled to herself at the mention of the blondes name. She had looked out for her today, when they had broken for lunch, but hadn't seen her.

Thursday

Sam walked into the physio office and slumped down on the sofa.

"Houston we have a problem. Torres didn't show up for her check up session today" Sam told her boss who stopped typing at the mention of the American's name.

"Was she in the training session today?" Arizona asked

"Yeap, she was there with the rest of the team, but headed to the car park as soon as they finished rather than shower and come to our session as planned." Sam sighed "She honestly thinks she is too good for this place!" Sam said criticising the American.

"Do you think something has happened?" Arizona asked concerned

"I spoke to Beth who said she had been busting a gut all week in an attempt to try and get selected for the game on Sunday, but that today she had seemed distracted, moody even." Sam paused "no changed there then!"

"Ah now, come on Sam, leave it out" Arizona knew Sam wasn't Callie's biggest fan, but she didn't like her saying negative things.

"Well you know I find it irritating that it's one rule for Callie Torres and another rule for everyone else!"

"something must happened. It doesn't make sense" Arizona said reaching for her phone to call the brunette. The call when straight to voicemail.

"Apparently she lost her shit with Charlie who went in a bit strong on one tackle during a practice game. Accused her of being reckless and dangerous."

"Oh that's not good. She's umm going to have a bit of a shock when she takes the pitch against West Ham is she does get picked!"

Arizona was worried about Callie and what was going on with her. They hadn't spoken to each other since Sunday, but Arizona had thought they had parted ways on good form.

Grabbing her phone and keys she locked the computer and stood up to leave.

"Where you going?" Sam asked

"I think I better check in on her" Arizona replied

"Want me to come with you?" Sam asked

"No I'm fine, I just swing by hers on the way home and check in and make sure nothing bad has happened." Arizona told her friend

"Ari...has something happened...you know between the two of you?" Sam asked concerned for her friend

Arizona looked over at Sam "no. Something nearly did, but I told her nothing could happen".'

"So you rejected her!" Sam said

"No...well yes...but not really...I don't think this is what this is about, I think it's something else!" Arizona told her friend

"OKay, well just be careful OK. I don't want you getting hurt again!"

"I promise I'll be careful." Arizona said rolling her eyes at Sam, but it was nice to have a friend who cared for her.

—————-

Arizona rang the doorbell to Callie's and waited for the door to open, but it didn't. She could see the lights were on so she buzzed again and pulled her phone out of her pocket to call the brunette. Straight to voicemail again.

Arizona was getting worried now as she tapped out a text message

Callie. I'm outside. Let me in. A x

After a few minutes Callie, who had clearly been crying, opened the door.

"What are you doing here?" She asked without a hello or smile.

"I could ask you the same thing!" Arizona said as she marched in to the house and closed the door behind her, not waiting to be invited. "You missed your physio session this afternoon

with Sam. We need to complete our tests and monitor you to make sure you're not experiencing any twinges. I've been calling. what's going on Callie?" Arizona asked as she looked at the striker who couldn't meet her gaze.

Callie didn't respond, instead she walked into the kitchen, went to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of wine and poured herself a huge glass. She didn't bother offering Arizona one.

The physio watched in silence as the brunette chugged half the glass down in one go.

"Feel better now?" She asked surprised at what she was seeing.

"Nope not yet." The brunette replied as she picked up her glass and gulped the rest of the wine down. "Now I do!" She snapped back

It was then that Arizona spotted the laptop on the kitchen table and the passport beside it. The webpage was for British Airways and showed a list of flights to Florida.

"You're leaving?" Arizona asked her voice wobbling slightly with emotion.

"That's the plan" Callie replied "this has all been a huge waste of time and I just don't need it anymore" Callie said matter-of-factly pouring another glass.

"But I don't understand...you are so close to being selected for the game at the weekend. The hard work has paid off!" Arizona said still shocked at the news that Callie wanted to go back to the States.

"Listen, Arizona, I appreciate everything you and Sam and Becky have done over the past month, but I have no reason to stay anymore."

"But what about the Olympics?" Arizona asked

"Yeah that's not happening." Callie said

"What? Why?" Arizona was so confused

"Because I'm a has been. I'm 32 and I'm lucky if I make the bench against a team I've never even heard of before, my career is over and I've just been stupid to think I could come back and make the US team for the Olympics."

"Callie...where is all this coming from?" Arizona asked with concern

The brunette walked over to the laptop on the table and clicked the mouse and brought up the webpage for the New York Times.

Arizona looked at the picture of Hope Powell, the 18 year old striker who had scored a hatrick on her debut for the USA national team against The Netherlands.

The picture showed the pretty blonde striker being hugged by her fellow team mates and the headline read 'USA's great new Hope'.

Arizona now understood what was going on.

"Callie this doesn't mean anything!"

"Arizona, I'm not stupid...I know exactly what it means...it means the end of tired, old, broken Callie Torres." Callie snapped back as she clicked on another button and brought up Twitter to show Arizona all the posts about the teenager.

Arizona felt her anger start to grow. She couldn't believe that Callie was behaving like this. She looked at the screen as Callie scrolled down the page to show the number of tweets about the teenager.

"Look...America loves her...and why wouldn't they! She's brilliant...look...look at this goal..."'Callie grabbed the laptop and started typing in YouTube but Arizona grabbed her hand to make her stop.

"Callie, for fuck sake..." Arizona raised her voice "I don't need to see her goals OK. I know how good a striker you are...this doesn't change that!"

"Yes it does!" Callie yelled at the blonde "it changes everything! I'm finished." Callie felt the tears start to fall again.

Arizona had been patient with the American since she had arrived at Spurs. She had been supportive and defended her behaviour to Sam and Becky, but this...this was too much.

"Stop being so pathetic!" The blonde spat at her causing the brunette to look up angrily. Arizona had her attention now "This is only the end if you let it be...and considering you're booking a flight home...!"'Arizona snapped still upset at the thought of Callie leaving "well I guess that must be what you want!"

Callie scoffed "You just don't get it Arizona you've no idea what this feels like" she said viciously

"Actually I do." The blonde said in a raised voice "I know EXACTLY what this feels like" Arizona stared at Callie "only you have a choice...I didn't. Only in this scenario you are the one deciding your career is over, you and only you...in my case it was the doctors" Arizona snapped back.

Now it was the brunette's turn to be confused "what are you talking about?"

Arizona took a deep breath try and get her emotions in check. She was normally a pretty calm person, she had always hated arguing and confrontations, but she didn't want Callie to leave, so she was about to tell her her secret.

"I used to play football too" the physio said "professionally I mean...like you...I signed my first contract at the age of nine and by 11 I was playing for Barcelona." Arizona confessed and watched as Callie face changed from anger to surprise.

"Football was my life..." the blonde continued "it was all I ever did and at 11 I was living in a different country, travelling the world, winning every tournament there was to win. I was..." Arizona paused " a star in Spain and in England, I was on TV shows, had my own fan club...I even had my own comic strip in a kids magazine ." Arizona seemed embarrassed talking about her success.

Callie's eyes were wide open with surprise as she listened to Arizona's story."what...what happened?" She asked still confused by what Arizona was telling her. She had googled the blonde physio when she had got here and read nothing about this.

Arizona knelt down and pulled up the leg of her tracksuit to show the big scar Callie had seen in the swimming pool.

"This happened" Arizona said feeling a lump start to form in her throat. "My ACL snapped during a game one day and NOTHING..." Arizona empathised the word nothing "...was the same again!"

Callie remained silent

"I was 16 and the surgeon the club hired fuck up the operation. I had three surgeries over the space of six months, I got an infection and at one point, I nearly lost my lower leg." Arizona said with a wobbly voice

"They saved my leg, but my football career was over for good. I was 16 Callie. Sixteen! Turns out the surgeon had been on drugs, so my parents sued the club and we won enough money so that I didn't have to worry about work if I didn't want to, but what was I going to do with the rest of my life? "

"I don't understand..." Callie spoke "I googled you...none of this was mentioned."

"That's because up until I was 18 I was known as Maxine"

"OMG...you're Max Robbins!" Callie responded in amazement, the penny dropping into place as she listened to Arizona's story. "shit...I knew you looked familiar...I watched you play when you came to the States with the Barcelona team." Callie was struggling to take it all in. "You were amazing!"

Arizona remained silent as she wiped a tear that had escaped from her eyes. This was why she didn't tell people, it was too painful.

"Oh man...Arizona...I can't believe this...you are like folk law in woman's soccer, Max Reynolds the girl who played on the boys team."

"That's me!" Arizona said sarcastically "Maxine Arizona Robbins"

As a child all Arizona had wanted to do was play football. Her mum had tried to get her to be into ballet and dancing, but she would spend every minute she wasn't at school playing football. Girls football wasn't really a thing in the UK then, so she begged her mum to cut her hair short so she would fit in more and got picked to play for a local boys team. She was so fast with the ball, so skilful she was and miles ahead of the other players on the team she quickly became the talk of the town.

"You know you did so much to highlight the lack of provision for girls who wanted to play soccer, you were a hero to so many girls..." Callie said still amazed at Arizona's secret "but I don't get why change your name?"

"Because of that very reason" Arizona replied bitterly "Everything I had ever wanted had gone, my dreams gone." Arizona took a deep breath as she felt the emotion taking over again.

"I was referred to as the former this, past that...I was fucking 18 years old and I was finished. How do you live with that...move on from that ?" She said angrily knowing the brunette didn't have a response.

"I didn't always want my past thrown in my face, so I grew my hair, officially changed my name and went to college start over again."

"You Callie...you're 32 and you can still play, you still have the chance to experience the buzz of scoring goals, the feeling of people cheering your name..." Arizona was struggling to hide her resentment "YOU can still have all of that...but you're choosing to walk away from it...the minute it starts getting hard...the minute you think you're not the best anymore!"

Callie stared at Arizona and saw anger and hatred in those blues eyes. Those blue eyes that had only a few days ago shown desire.

"I don't talk about this...about my past...EVER, but I'm telling you because your career doesn't have to be over... YOU still have a choice. You can start believing again and get your arse down to the training ground tomorrow and fight for a place in the team or you can give up and run back to America".

"I didn't have that choice Calliope...but if I had been given one...I know what I would have done I would have done all I could to show those selectors that they couldn't leave me out of the squad I would have made my self indispensable., and sure I maybe wouldn't have ran as fast as I used to, maybe not scored as many goals, but I would have set them up for others, I would have pulled defenders out of position for my team mates to score I would have worked so hard to help the next generational players be better players."

Callie felt awful, she knew Arizona was right, she had lost sight of things and overreacted.

"Arizona...I'm sorry what happened to your career..." Callie started to apologise and she walked towards the blonde.

Arizona was still angry "I don't need your apology Callie, I've moved on with my life and I have a job I love...a job I love so much that I put it above my feelings for you...but I guess I had a lucky escape there huh?"

Callie was shocked that Arizona had mentioned her feelings for her, and knew she had messed up.

"Arizona I..." the brunette started speaking, but the blonde interrupted

"Forget it Callie...let's just forget the whole fucking thing! You go ahead and quit...go running back to Florida and have a nice, boring easy life"

Arizona's words stung and the brunette responded "you don't know anything about my life!" She spat back

"Yeah...yeah I do... I can picture it now...you living a nice life in sunny Miami, teaching soccer at a local high school, probably married to a guy called Greg or Brad, maybe a couple of kids...you know...normal life...because the alternative, Calliope Torres actually admitting to the truth...is too hard!"

"Fuck you!" Callie yelled at the physio

"No...fuck you!" Arizona yelled back "shiiit and to think I actually liked you!"

Arizona turned and headed out the kitchen door to leave "enjoy the easy life Torres!"

She yelled over her shoulder and she slammed the front door.

Arizona sat in her car for a few moments as she tried to calm her nerves, her hands were physically shaking. She hadn't meant to be so harsh on Callie, but she knew she had to push her, had to try and get her to stay. She hoped it would work, she hoped the competitive Callie that she knew was still in there would want to prove her wrong. If not, then she had fucked up and she would probably never see Callie again.

DRAMA! Did anyone guess Arizona's past?

As ever stay safe and thank you so much for reading this story, I love hearing what you think.