Chapter 45 : I will remember you

Callie's POV

A few hours later, after returning to the house of Arizona's parents to take a shower to relax after this interminable wait and to sleep a little bit, we could finally go to see Daniel. They all went into the room, but I decided to stay outside. I wanted to let Daniel enjoy this moment with his wife, daughter, and grandchildren. I watched them smile and talk from outside the room while drinking coffee.

At some point, I turned my head and I saw Erica walking in my direction. I had not talked to her in many years, but considering that she had saved Daniel's life, I absolutely needed to thank her.

"Oh," Erica said, obviously extremely surprised to see me here, "it's nice to see you again, Torres. We haven't seen each other in ages."

"I'm happy about that too," I replied. "I didn't know you worked here!"

"I've only been working here a few weeks. By the way, why are you here? Are you here for a procedure?"

"No, I'm here for family reasons. By the way, you operated on my father-in-law today. Thank you Erica for saving him!"

"Who's that patient?"

"Daniel Robbins, he had stomach cancer."

"Ah," she said, suddenly remembering what the operation was about, "the operation went really well. In fact, I just came out of his room. I had to check his heart functions. He's doing really well."

"I thank you for saving him, Erica."

"Don't worry, this is my job, and I haven't lost my talent in recent years. I'm still the best cardiothoracic surgeon in the country."

"That's why I was so confident when I found out that you were the one taking care of Daniel. To be honest, for a few seconds I was afraid you would revenge yourself on him but you didn't know who he was."

"I had no reasons to revenge."

"You still left without saying a word and we never spoke again. I took it for granted that you were angry."

"Callie, look, I don't think this is the right time to talk about the past. We should have dinner with your wife sometime in the next few days. I'd really like to meet her. I saw her in Colonel Robbins's room, she seems extremely nice."

"She is. And you, have you met someone?"

"No," she said, lowering her head, "I can't meet anyone...since I'm still in love with you."

I could not say anything, this situation was so embarrassing. I remained silent for a few minutes. However, before I could think of anything to say that would not offend her, she burst out laughing.

"I'm just kidding," she said, "I've been married for five years. Her name is Isla and she is a wonderful woman. If you want, you can come to our new apartment for dinner."

"I'll talk to Arizona about this."

"Well," Erica says, looking at her watch, "I'm going to have to go."

"I'll keep in touch with you."

Once we finished this discussion, I joined the rest of my family. The Colonel was sore but feeling better. Half an hour later, we decided to go home and leave Barbara alone with her husband. She had negotiated with the nurses to sleep with her husband. We went back to Arizona's parent's house, made dinner for our children, ate together and then went to bed with our children. We lay down on the bed in the guest room and I hugged my wife, I knew she needed my arms around her to feel reassured.

"I'm so happy that everything went well today for your father!" I said to my wife.

"The road ahead is not over," said Arizona, still visibly concerned. "He's going to have to be closely monitored for the rest of his life anyway. He could have a relapse, or he could have a new tumor."

"Don't worry," I said reassuringly, "everything is going to be fine! He will be monitored by the best doctors in the world."

"I know, but I can't stop thinking that we will have to go back to Spain soon and let them go through the next few weeks without us."

"You know, we don't have to go back right away. Anyway, Sofia doesn't have to go back to school until September."

"I don't know if I want to go back to Spain!"

"What do you mean?"

"I know I was the one who convinced you to go there, but I miss my life with my family and friends. I just want to be with the people who matter in our lives and the people we love."

"What do you want for our future, Arizona?"

"I don't know what I want, that's exactly the problem."

"I want you to know one thing," I said to Arizona, taking her hand in mine, "you are my wife and I love you, which means that the only thing that matters to me is your happiness. If going back to Spain makes you sad, we have to come back here."

"Callie, please be a little serious. You can't quit your job at the research center just because I'm homesick."

"In a few weeks, I'll be able to operate again, and let me remind you that I'm Dr. Calliope Torres, one of Seattle's 7. I have regular job offers at great hospitals. I just don't want my career choices to influence our family life once more."

"I don't know Cal."

"Listen my love, we can talk about it again tomorrow or in a few days, once we've both taken some time to think about it."

"That's fine with me," she said before kissing me gently.

"You know, I talked to Erica today and she suggested that the four of us have dinner with her wife. Would you like that?"

" In other circumstances, I might have refused, but after this kind of discussion, I can only accept!"