Callie and Arizona after 11x22.
Everyone in the hospital — patients, family members, and doctors — had felt the Earth move.
They had more than felt it. It rocked the hospital to its core as shelves in supply closets crashed down, surgical instruments in in-use ORs clattered to the floor, lights flickered, pipes broke, and surgeons made accidental scalpel cuts with shaking hands.
Everyone cowered in fear, crouching under tables and doorways, listening to the screams of scared kids and waiting for the earthquake to subside.
As the doctors felt the immense force of the seemingly endless tremor, they got ready to spring into action and help those who had gotten injured.
When the world around them finally stopped shaking, the hospital was in chaos. People were yelling and rushing towards nurses, insisting to see their loved ones, and towards stairwells, hoping to get outside and home.
With the power still out and the hospital in primarily darkness, Callie called out reassuringly, "It was just a little earthquake, people! No need to freak out!" But even she knew that it was more than a little earthquake. Her heart was still pounding, and she could have sworn that she'd heard the ceiling cracking during the quake.
She looked around desperately, unsure where to start. Should she check every room in the ICU to try to resuscitate everyone whose ventilators were no longer working without electricity? Should she bring flashlights to the ORs? Should she check on Sofia?
She looked around her. April was running out the door, headed for the ICU, Alex was assessing a woman who had hit her head, and Arizona was talking down an extremely pregnant woman from what looked to be a panic attack.
Owen was barking orders to someone about the backup generator. Somewhere, a baby was screaming.
Again, the lights flickered then turned back on. Owen hurried to turn on the flat screen on the wall in search of news.
"Good evening, Washington," a news reporter began on the television screen, "The Seattle-Tacoma area just suffered a major earthquake, what looks to have a magnitude of at least 6.5. Sources have reported that there have been at least two dozen roof collapses and that there is a thirty-car pile-up by the overpass bridge on Washington and 12th street. We only know of four casualties, but we expect there to be more, so if you are injured and able to make your way towards a nearby hospital safely, please do so. This has been McKenzie Lee with the latest news. I will give another update in an hour."
As the news channel's music began and the screen faded to black, Owen launched into soldier mode. The doctors needed to take action. Now.
He yelled into the big waiting room, "Can I get some volunteers to go help with the car crash victims?!"
"I'll go," Arizona called back decisively, getting up out of her crouch and heading towards him.
"Okay, good," Owen began, "There should be paramedic truck downstairs. Get some supplies and get in the rig."
Arizona nodded and hurried off. She knew that Alex would deal with her patients and any injured kids who came in, and she wanted to be helpful. A thirty-car pile-up sounded bad, and she wanted to do what she could to help.
Two other doctors followed her down the hallway, eager to help at the scene, too, and Owen turned towards Callie.
"Torres," he instructed, "You should go, too. There are probably some pretty severe injuries. Lots of broken bones. Go help."
Callie nodded, then quickly followed the rest of the doctors towards the truck.
When she got there, four doctors were already sitting, ready, inside the rig. Callie only then noticed that Arizona was one of them.
She gulped. She stepped inside. She sat across from her.
Arizona smiled at Callie and, tentatively, Callie smiled back. They had been separated for almost two years now, and things were good. They were good co-parents to Sofia, and they were friendly enough to each other.
Things were good. They had found themselves again. They were fulfilled.
But, still. Callie felt this strange urge to wrap her arms around Arizona and protect her from the day. It was a weird compulsion, and it caught Callie off guard. It had been nearly two years. She shouldn't feel so protective of Arizona anymore.
As the truck began heading to the accident scene a few miles away, Callie offered about the quake, "That one was huge. Already four causalities."
Arizona nodded. "And we know that thirty cars crashed into each other. We haven't even seen the worst of it."
Callie briefly closed her eyes, trying to send good thoughts and prayers into the world. She could already tell that it was going to be a tough night.
"I called the daycare," Arizona began.
Callie looked up at her, eyes wide. Sofia. Right.
"And Sofia's fine. Apparently, she and most of the other kids down there thought the earthquake was fun."
Callie smirked and shook her head. "Typical Sof."
Arizona dimpled. "That's what I said."
Callie smiled back genuinely. After a minute, she offered, "Hey, did you, um, want to try to stick together out there? If we can? There's going to be a lot going on and..." she paused, "It might make things easier."
Arizona nodded in agreement. "I was thinking the same thing."
Callie just looked at her, wondering for a second about whether or not Arizona was dating. Or, more precisely, who she was dating. She felt a familiar pang of jealousy, but she silenced it. There was no reason for her to feel jealous. Their marriage had failed. Callie was over her. Of course she was.
Abruptly, the truck stopped, and a few seconds later, the back doors opened. The doctors deftly stepped out, eager to do their jobs and help the injured.
But as the doctors looked towards the aftermath, their eyes widened. It was worse than they had imagined. They could hear people screaming for help, there were cars on fire, there were people bleeding and stumbling around the middle of the road, and there was little space between each vehicle, keeping most people stuck inside their mangled cars.
"Wow," Callie breathed.
Arizona reached over and squeezed her shoulder briefly. "We can do this. Come on." Fearlessly, she headed towards the center of the commotion, armed with only a backpack full of supplies and a sense of responsibility.
Callie hurried after her.
Arizona yanked open the door of the nearest car. Time was key. They would need to get to as many people in as little time as possible if they wanted to save everyone who still had a chance.
"Are you okay?" Arizona asked the woman in the driver's seat.
The woman remained silent, looking straight ahead.
"Ma'am?" Callie asked gently. "We're doctors, and we're here to help. Are you in any pain?"
The woman finally turned to meet Callie and Arizona's worried eyes. "I was driving home from work. I need to...go home."
Arizona flagged down a paramedic in the distance. "Ma'am, you are going to be just fine. Can you get out of the car? This nice man right here is going to check you out and make sure everything's okay. Okay?"
The woman nodded, and Callie and Arizona allowed the young paramedic to take over. They needed to help those who were actually in dire need of it.
Callie spotted a bloodied woman lying on the hood of a car and began rushing towards her. The car was in surrounded on all sides, so she and Arizona had to climb over other vehicles to get towards it.
Callie found her way towards the woman, quickly checking for a pulse, and Arizona paused in front of the man at the steering wheel. The windshield had shattered completely, which was actually a relief because there was no other way he'd be able to get out otherwise.
"Sir, can you hear me?" Arizona inquired.
"My...wife..." he breathed.
"Are you in any pain?" Arizona asked. "Did you hit your head?"
The man shook his head. "M — m — my wife. We were going out to dinner, and all these cars came out of nowhere."
Arizona inhaled sharply. Those words ran close to home. "Dr. Torres is next to me checking out your wife right now, okay? But I want to know how you are."
"My wife," he breathed again. He was clearly in shock. Arizona could see that he was having a breakdown in his head. He knew the situation wasn't good.
Finally, Arizona risked a look at Callie. She thought she might have a breakdown of her own if the wife was dead.
Callie gave the tiniest shake of her head. No pulse. She was gone.
"Sir," Arizona tried again. "We need to get you out of here. Can you climb through the window, here?"
The man didn't answer. He was catatonic.
Arizona sighed. She looked around her. There was so much chaos.
She heard screaming coming from a car crashed below the overpass. It was a kid.
Callie heard it, too, and her eyes widened at Arizona. "Go," she insisted, understanding Arizona's responsibility to go help a kid. "I've got this."
Arizona nodded. "I'll be right back."
They shared a meaningful look as Callie looked into Arizona's eyes unwaveringly. "Be careful."
Again, Arizona gave a slight nod before climbing back over cars and running towards the screams from under the overpass. They were coming from inside a car. A car that had flipped over.
Arizona rushed towards an open window to get a better look.
Cars were still driving over the bridge over her head, and she swore that she could hear the concrete cracking with each turn of the wheels.
She needed to get the kid out of there. Fast.
"Hey," she smiled at the preteen girl inside. "Are you okay?"
"No!" the kid cried. "My sister! She was driving, and now she won't answer me!"
"What's your name?" Arizona asked.
"Katie."
"Katie. Okay. I need you to get out of here, okay? Can you take off your seat-belt?"
Katie nodded.
"I need you to take it off and crawl out this window. Then go wait for me over there," Arizona pointed behind her, about a hundred feet away from the overpass. "I'll help your sister, but you have to wait over there."
Katie nodded and unsnapped her seat-belt before crawling out.
"Does anything hurt?" Arizona asked, taking in the little girl's appearance. Surprisingly, she looked relatively unscathed.
Katie shook her head. "I want to help get my sister out."
Arizona sighed at Katie's stubbornness. She would have said the same thing if it were someone she loved. She looked up as she saw a layer of dust fall onto Katie's head. The overpass might crumble at any second. They needed to move fast.
"Help me get this door open," Arizona instructed. Together, they yanked the bent driver's side door open, and Arizona could finally see the shape the sister was in.
She felt for breathing and a pulse. The girl was breathing, and the pulse was irregular, but it was there.
"Is she alive?!" Katie shrilled helplessly.
"Katie, it's okay. She's alive."
The little girl began to sob in relief.
While Arizona took care of the kid under the overpass, only a few hundred feet away from her, Callie continued making her way through the people in the remaining cars. So far, three people had died on impact, and a few others had broken legs, hips, and ribs. A few people didn't even have a scratch on their bodies. It could have been so much worse.
She looked back towards the overpass. She caught a glimpse of blonde hair. Arizona was safe.
"Katie, I need your help. We're going to take off your sister's seat-belt and carefully get her out of the car. She's unconscious and she's bleeding a lot, and I don't want us to be under this overpass. We need to carry her away from it. Can you help me?"
"Y — y — yes," Katie muttered, trying to suppress her sobs.
"Good," Arizona smiled. "You're being super brave. Thank you."
Katie smiled back genuinely, even through her tears. She liked Arizona.
Arizona quickly reached up and unclasped the sister's seat-belt and angled her more horizontally so that they would be able to pull her out. Katie reached out and helped her.
Arizona looked up as what sounded like a semi-truck raced over the bridge. A wide crack had extended from one side of the overpass clear to the other. It might collapse. And, from the looks of it, it might collapse soon.
"Katie, grab her legs. Put them around you like you're going to give her a piggy-back ride. I'll carry the rest of her weight."
"Okay," the little girl nodded quickly, eager to help.
As Arizona hastily lifted the sister from her chest, she felt the ground shake beneath her.
An aftershock.
They needed to move fast.
"KATIE!" she shouted gravely, "RUN."
Katie followed Arizona's directions, quickly leading them to the other side of the overpass, away from the rest of the car crashes as Arizona raced behind her.
The concrete was cracking. Breaking. Buckling. Crumbling. Right above their heads.
If they didn't hurry, they were going to be smothered. Dead as doorknobs.
As the ground shook beneath them, Katie and Arizona sprinted towards safety. Katie stumbled and fell, dropping her sister's legs. "GET UP!" Arizona screamed. She reached down and grabbed Katie's arm, now dragging two girls behind her, hobbling as fast as her legs would take her.
She prayed that she wouldn't lose her balance and that her prosthetic wouldn't fail her. Not now. Not today. This was life or death.
The aftershock felt like a lifetime, but it was over in seconds. Amid falling trees and the sound of screams, Arizona gave one final push as they flew only a dozen feet away from the crumbling overpass.
In the last second, the tremor gained force, and that was all it took for the thousands of pounds of concrete to collapse to the ground, letting out a sound more cacophonous than a bomb and sending a layer of concrete dust to cover everything within a mile radius.
Immediately, Callie knew it was an aftershock. She felt fear take over her entire body as the Earth began to shake again, and she called out to everyone to protect their heads and not to move.
"It will be over soon! Just stay where you are!"
She looked towards the underpass, towards Arizona, but she couldn't see her anywhere. Ignoring her own advice, she began climbing over cars, hoping for a better view. Where was Arizona?
"Arizona!" she called, rushing closer to where she'd been. Callie was getting closer, but she was still so far. Where was Arizona?
Callie heard a scream behind her, and she turned back to help. As she rushed towards the petrified woman, she heard a definite cracking sound behind her.
She turned back. No.
No.
The overpass.
She bolted for the overpass, desperate to somehow do something. Desperate to somehow save her. It could crumble at any second.
"ARIZONA!" Callie screamed. "ARIZONA! GET OUT OF THERE!"
She sprinted closer, she could see pieces of rock falling. The bridge was coming apart with every second that passed.
"ARIZONA!" she screamed again. Callie needed to get to her. She needed to save her.
A nearby paramedic noticed Callie carelessly racing for the crumbling bridge and sprung into action.
"ARIZONA!" she screamed. She was only fifteen feet away. But before she could edge any closer, she felt arms around her, and she was tackled to the ground.
From the ground, she heard a deafening crash behind her.
"NO!" she sobbed hysterically. "ARIZONA! NO!" Callie pushed the paramedic off her and scrambled towards the rubble, precariously trying to claw through it and push off rocks to get to Arizona. "NO!"
The paramedic raced for her again, pulling her away from the pile of cement. There was no use in her dying, too.
"NO!" she screamed. "NO!" she collapsed in grief, putting her head in her hands. She fell to the asphalt beneath her.
Arizona used her body to shelter the girls, her heart exploding in her chest. It had been so close. They had nearly been crushed. Pulverized. Now, there was a pile of broken concrete ten feet high separating them from the rest of the crash victims. From Callie. She needed to get over it. Back to the other side.
Was Callie okay?
She needed to get back.
After a few minutes, Katie's sister finally regained consciousness. "What...happened?" she breathed.
Arizona tried to slow her shallow breathing. They'd been this close. This close to dying.
"We were in a car crash!" Katie cried. "And an earthquake! You were driving me home from soccer practice and we crashed! Brooke, you're okay!" She hugged her sister and Arizona smiled gratefully at them.
She had saved them. They would all be okay.
Was Callie okay?
She needed to get back.
"Are you two both okay to walk?" Arizona asked.
The girls nodded.
"Okay, we need to get you back to the other side of where the bridge was. There are paramedics there, and they can get you guys to the hospital."
They waited.
"The only way to get back is to step over the rubble. It's precarious, so we need to be careful, okay?"
Again, they nodded, and the three of them worked to step over the rocks and back towards the remaining crash victims.
Was Callie okay?
Callie was in shock. She. Was in. Shock. She was. Overcome by grief.
She had never felt more heartbroken in her entire life. More stupid.
Because she had loved Arizona. She had loved her every second, she was realizing. Every second since the divorce.
And she had tried to convince herself that she hadn't. She'd tried to mash it down, and not say it, and not feel it, but Arizona was the person she loved.
She always would be the person she loved.
And now Arizona was dead and buried under thousands of pounds of cement.
Callie couldn't breathe. She couldn't blink. Couldn't think.
All she could do was look at what was left of the overpass.
Arizona was dead.
Arizona carefully helped Katie and Brooke over the unstable rubble, following close behind. It was hard to make her way over precarious broken cement with one artificial leg.
"I'm right behind you guys," she assured them, "Just head towards a paramedic or a doctor. They'll take care of you."
The girls followed Arizona's orders and scrambled down the other side of the rubble. They raced towards a nearby paramedic truck.
Callie didn't even see them. She couldn't see anything. The woman she loved was dead.
Arizona began lowering herself down the other side of the destruction. She could finally see the chaos of mangled cars and people in the distance, and though sad, it felt somehow like a relief.
She was okay.
But even as she carefully placed her feet and continued down the mountain of rocks, she was looking for Callie.
At last, Arizona spotted her. Sitting on the ground, eyes glued straight ahead. Looking at Arizona but not really seeing her.
Callie's eyes widened as her eyes focused and she took in the sight before her.
It was Arizona.
Arizona.
She wasn't dead.
Callie pushed herself up off the ground with her hands, standing up and running towards the blonde. "ARIZONA?"
Arizona offered an exhausted smile. "Callie," she breathed.
Callie was okay.
"ARIZONA!" Callie couldn't believe it. She couldn't say her name enough. She rushed towards the crumbled concrete, eager to help Arizona to safety. Eager to tell her everything she'd been burying deep inside her and hadn't realized until just then.
Eager to tell her that she still loved her. Eager to hold her and never let go.
"You're...alive," Callie managed between sobs as she clambered up the rocky hill towards her. She stumbled, her legs not moving fast enough.
At the same time, Arizona tried to edge closer to Callie, scrabbling down the hill as fast as she could. Why was Callie crying?
"You're alive, you're alive, you're alive," Callie whispered again and again, getting closer and closer.
She was desperate to hold Arizona. She couldn't believe it was real. She was alive.
"Callie...?" Arizona questioned when Callie was only a few feet away from her. What was going on?
Callie climbed up on a final rock, and finally at eye-level, her eyes intensely focused on Arizona. Without a second of hesitation, she fervidly wrapped her arms around Arizona's body with all the strength she had.
Arizona was alive.
She was alive, and Callie still loved her.
Callie still wanted her. No one else. She knew that now.
After a second of confused hesitation, Arizona brought her arms up to wrap around Callie's body, clinging to her with everything she had.
She didn't know what was going on, and right now, she didn't care. She had been aching for Callie's embrace for so long. She would take whatever she could get.
Callie pulled back regretfully after a few minutes. She moved her hands to cup Arizona's face. It had been so long since they'd touched each other so freely. Callie felt her stomach doing somersaults. No one else's skin had ever made her feel this way.
Arizona watched Callie's face. She felt a pinch behind her eyes, and she didn't know why.
"I thought you were dead," Callie attempted to explain.
Arizona smiled slightly. "I'm not."
Callie released a shaky breath. She shook her head. Arizona wasn't getting it.
Arizona pulled away and looked at Callie questioningly. What was Callie doing? Arizona was getting hopeful, and she knew that she shouldn't be. She had been trying to give Callie space to learn to walk again. She had been giving Callie space for two years: to find herself, to be happy, and then to hopefully find her way back to Arizona.
Because Arizona knew that she wouldn't ever want anyone other than Callie. She could never want anyone after Callie. She knew that now.
It had been nearly two years, and she had refused any opportunity to try to move on. She couldn't.
She would love Callie forever.
What was Callie trying to say now?
Callie pursed her lips. She sighed. She decided to take the risk and jump over the cliff, hoping that Arizona would catch her. "I love you."
Arizona raised her eyebrows.
"I still love you. I've been loving you. And I tried to convince myself that I didn't, and I tried to move on, but I can't. I don't want to." She paused as tears welled up in her eyes. "I want to be with you. Forever. I didn't before because we got lost. We just kept hurting each other. But it's been two years. You've grown. I've grown. And I know we still have problems, but marriage isn't supposed to be easy. It's hard sometimes. And maybe we'll hurt each other again, but it's worth the risk."
Arizona just stared at Callie, wide-eyed. She wasn't sure if her heart was beating so fast that she couldn't feel it or if it had stopped entirely.
Callie offered a nervous smile. She wanted to know what Arizona was thinking. She needed to know that it wasn't one sided. Shakily, she breathed, "You're worth the risk."
Arizona grabbed Callie's face and pulled it to hers, kissing her with such love and ferocity that it surprised even her.
On Callie's cheeks, the pulsing nerves in Arizona's fingertips felt that warmth and that miraculous, one-of-a-kind Callie-ness of her ex-wife's beautiful soul.
Callie kissed her back fiercely, trying to pour two years worth of love into Arizona's lips. No, a lifetime's worth. Her hands cradled Arizona's skull, rendering her immobile. She never wanted Arizona's soft lips leave hers again.
She loved this woman. She realized now that Arizona was who she wanted.
She thought that they would be happy without each other. And maybe they were.
Maybe they had been happy. At times.
But they were happier together.
They were better when they were together.
Finally, together, they pulled back for air, still keeping their hands on each other. Never letting each other go.
They looked into each other's eyes, each staring straight into the soul of their own personal miracle.
Each staring straight into the soul of the person who knew all their flaws and loved them anyway. Loved them even more.
Callie and Arizona crashed their lips together again, neither knowing who initiated it, and they felt their separate hearts shatter in their chests and then rebuild as just one.
They clung to each other, for a moment, not caring about anything else in the world.
After so long, after so much individual growth, again:
They were one.