Callie and Arizona after 11x22. The beginning is just like Chapter 56, but then I took it another direction.
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. "Let's go," she insisted, understanding Arizona's responsibility to go help a kid.
Arizona knit her eyebrows together. "It's okay. You stay and help here. We can split up for a second."
Callie shook her head decisively. "There's no way I'm leaving you on your own. Come on." She began climbing over cars towards the screams, and after a minute of hesitation, Arizona followed.
Together, they ran towards the screams that were coming from a car that was flipped over under the overpass. Someone was trapped inside.
Arizona rushed towards an open window to get a better look. Luckily, the window pane had broken in the crash so Arizona could see inside. In the backseat a young girl continued to scream.
Cars were still driving over the bridge over her head, and Callie swore that she could hear the concrete cracking with each turn of the wheels. She felt her stomach drop. They needed to hurry and get out of there. Fast.
"Hey," Arizona smiled at the preteen girl inside. "Are you okay?"
"No!" the kid cried. "My mom! 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 tried her belt. "No," she cried. "It's stuck!"
Arizona turned to Callie, who had come up beside her. "Can you check on the mom? I'm gonna help Katie get out."
Callie nodded solemnly. "We should hurry."
Arizona smiled for the sake of the girl, who was watching them, but Callie saw the worry in her eyes. "I know."
Arizona found trauma sheers in her backpack to cut off the seatbelt, and she climbed inside the mangled car to help Katie as Callie attempted to open the front driver's side door.
"It's stuck!" Callie called towards Arizona. "I need to get in there!"
Arizona changed her position inside the car to make room for Callie to climb in. "Careful," she warned. "There's broken glass."
Gingerly, Callie stepped inside and angled herself in such a way that she could assess the mom and check for bleeding and a pulse. It looked as if the mom had hit her head on the steering wheel as the car flipped. There was no blood, but there was no breathing or pulse, either. She must have died on impact.
"Is my mom okay?!" Katie screeched from the backseat.
Arizona risked a look at Callie and easily read the grave look in her eyes. Immediately, she knew that the mom was dead.
She took a deep breath. She didn't want to break the poor girl's heart yet. "Katie, Dr. Torres is still assessing her, okay? I need you to stay calm while I finish cutting you out of that thing." She continued cutting the thick seat-belt with bloodied trauma sheers. Poor Katie had gotten sprayed with glass shards during the crash, and she had cuts everywhere. She needed to stay calm.
Callie moved towards them. "What can I do?" she whispered to Arizona.
Arizona shook her head. There wasn't much they could do until they got out of there. "Look for severe bleeding. Make sure we're not missing anything."
Immediately, Callie did just that, and Arizona caught Katie wince in pain at the feel of Callie's hands inspecting her cut up skin.
"Katie," Arizona began, "You stay calm and keep breathing. We've got you. I'm going to get your seatbelt off, and Dr. Torres is going to make sure you don't have any bad injuries. Do you trust us?"
As Arizona soothed the injured girl, Callie looked at Arizona. Arizona's easy ability to connect with patients never failed to leave her in awe. Even now.
Katie nodded in answer. "Yeah, I do."
"Good," Arizona flashed her that signature smile. "Because I'm a pediatric surgeon, and Dr. Torres here is the best doctor I've ever met."
Callie looked at Arizona with curiosity. Could she really mean that?
Still upside down, Katie sniffled. "Really?"
"Yeah, really!" Arizona giggled reassuringly, trying to keep the mood upbeat. "Soon after I met her, she built cartilage out of nothing, and that's not easy to do. And now, she's working on this super awesome robotic leg project." Arizona turned to Callie and offered a slight smile. It felt almost like an apology, and Callie accepted it gratefully, smiling back.
After a minute of silence, Arizona finally announced, "Okay, I've got it." She gingerly pulled the seatbelt off Katie's body. "Can you get out of the car? Be careful."
Callie risked a look outside and saw that a layer of dust had covered the street around them. The overpass above them was coming apart. She nudged Arizona, and Arizona nodded knowingly. "We need to hurry," Arizona whispered quietly in acknowledgement.
They heard a semi-truck drive across the bridge above them, and instantly, they saw another layer of dust rain down over the street outside.
Callie stuck her head out the window briefly and saw that a wide crack had extended from one side of the overpass to the other. She realized that it might collapse. And, from the looks of it, it might collapse soon.
"Let's go, Katie," Arizona urged. They needed to get out of there as soon as possible. They needed to get out and far, far away from the crumbling overpass. "Try to switch positions so that you're not upside down and can crawl out."
Just as Arizona said the words, she, Callie, and Katie felt the ground shake beneath them.
An aftershock.
Or, perhaps it was the earthquake itself. It already felt bigger than the previous one.
Katie screamed.
"Cover your head!" Callie shouted, trying to protect the girl with one arm while ducking further into the car and protecting her head with her other.
Without thinking, Arizona moved towards Callie, almost shielding her ex-wife's body with her own. Over the sound of the rumble, she could hear the concrete cracking over their heads.
The overpass was cracking. Breaking. Buckling. Crumbling. Right above the overturned car.
Right above their heads.
They were going to be smothered by pounds of solid rock. Dead as doorknobs.
This was it.
There was nothing they could do. They'd never make it out in time.
"We're going to be okay!" Arizona yelled into the air of fear. She didn't know if she meant it as a reassurance for Katie or for Callie. Maybe, it was for herself.
Because she knew this was the end. They were trapped inside an overturned SUV. It was hardly strong enough to survive the weight of a crumbling overpass.
She prayed that they wouldn't be crushed, but the odds weren't looking good.
Callie also knew that they were going to die the quick and nearly painless death of being crushed. They would be the flattened cold cuts in a sandwich of concrete and asphalt.
And in the last second, the tremor gained force, and that was all it took for the overpass to break and for pounds of broken concrete to collapse on top of the car, They ducked further down as the metal bent at the weight. The glass windows shattered and glass shards were launched towards them. Rubble rolled into the open windows and piled around them. Soon, grey rock was all they could see.
And then the shaking stopped. Just as suddenly as it began. And there was nothing but silence.
"CALLIE?!" Arizona screeched. "CALLIE? Can you hear me?!"
Callie was in shock. She was dead, right? She had to be.
"CALLIE!" Arizona ducked her head, moving towards Callie and avoiding the new dent of the car around them.
Arizona reached out, putting her hand on Callie's back.
"Can you hear me?!" Arizona shrilled.
Callie nodded, just enough to let Arizona know she'd heard her. She was alive.
"Oh, thank God," Arizona sighed, finally exhaling. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"
Callie shook her head. She got a grip of her surroundings. The remaining window panes had shattered, and a few dusty rocks were still pouring inside the car, into any open space they could find. She couldn't see anything but hard, grey rock in every direction. Above her, she was sure there was only more.
The car had dented slightly, but it had mostly held up. There was still room to move and sit up. She looked at Arizona. She was alive.
Arizona hadn't shifted her gaze away from Callie's face, and she was now biting her lip in worry. "Callie!" she screeched again. Was she okay?
"I'm," Callie croaked, "Okay." She took a deep breath and tried to pull herself together. She sat up and reached out to squeeze Arizona's hand reassuringly. "I'm fine."
Arizona sighed in relief. "Don't move. You could be in shock. Let me do an exam."
Callie nodded. She was in shock. She was so sure that she was going to die. That they were going to die. She looked up at Arizona as she did a quick head-to-toe exam. "Katie?"
Arizona regretfully looked at Callie. She had checked on Katie first. She shook her head. "It's just you and me."
As Arizona moved to examine her chest, Callie yelped in pain. "What?!" Arizona worried. She pulled back Callie's scrubs to reveal that a glass shard had impaled her chest. She sucked in a worried breath.
Callie looked down and saw it, too. No wonder her chest hurt. There was a glass shard in her chest, close to her heart.
"Great," she sighed. "I'm going to die."
Arizona widened her eyes at her. No. She wasn't going to die. Arizona couldn't live in a world without Callie. She was not ready for her head to be the only place that she exists.
"NO," Arizona insisted, her voice hard and dictatorial. "You are going to be fine."
Callie struggled to swallow. "Arizona, it's fine. It's not like they'll ever find us under this mess, anyway.
Arizona looked at her pointedly until Callie finally met her gaze. "We. Are. Going. To be. Fine," she promised. "I am going to get us out of here. We are not going to die. You are not going to die." She switched positions, sitting on the inverted carpeted roof a next to Callie, avoiding hitting her head on the upended passenger seat.
With one hand, she reached out and grabbed Callie's hand. At the touch, Callie relaxed slightly, almost letting out a sigh of relief. With the other hand, Arizona took her phone out of her bag and attempted to call 9-1-1, then the hospital. The telephone poles must have been knocked over in the earthquake, though, because her calls wouldn't go through.
"Anything?" Callie asked.
Arizona shook her head.
Between shallow breaths, Callie managed, "We're in a...car...under pounds of rock...with TWO CORPSES...we're going to...die...and Sofia is going...to...be an orphan...and—"
"NO," Arizona insisted. "We're going to get out. I'll make sure we get out. I promise you that."
Callie shook her head in disbelief. Tears stung her eyes. She was going to die. The woman she loved was going to die. She could see the headlines now: "Divorced Lesbian Surgeons Spend Last Moments Together Under Pile of Rubble." It was almost funny, in a macabre Romeo and Juliet kind of way.
"Callie..." Arizona began worriedly. "Don't cry. We will get out of here." She scooted a few feet away from Callie and shrugged off her coat. After she folded it up to use as a pillow and set it over her legs, she pat her thighs. "Come. Lie down."
Callie knit her eyebrows together. She was wary. Even though she and Arizona had been separated for two years, Callie still felt her body light on fire at the feeling of Arizona's skin. Even now. Touching her wasn't a good idea.
Because Callie still loved her. Of course she did. But their marriage hadn't been working. Arizona had been unhappy and had lost herself. And in trying to save them, Callie had lost herself, too.
Of course Callie still loved her. They had been together for five years, and Arizona was the mother of her child. But Arizona had been unhappy in their marriage. Callie knew that she made the right call to let Arizona go. Arizona was happier now.
Callie didn't make a move towards her.
"Callie!" Arizona insisted. "Please. You need to lie down. And hand me your coat. I need to cut it up and use it to help keep the glass shard in place while putting pressure around the wound. Come." She pat her thighs again, and hesitantly, Callie slowly scooted towards her.
Arizona helped her lie down, and she almost sighed in relief at the feeling of Callie's warmth on her legs. She had missed just being near her.
At the same time, Callie exhaled a long, shaky breath. Arizona was warm.
Arizona smiled down at her. "We're going to be okay. Someone's going to get us out."
Arizona handed Callie the phone so that she could try to call again from her place in Arizona's lap, and Arizona worked on cutting Callie's Grey-Sloan issued coat into usable sections to put around the glass shard.
As much as she wished she could do more, she couldn't. Pulling out the glass would likely only do more damage, and she had no supplies for surgery and certainly shouldn't try with no anesthesia in an overturned car under a pile of rock and rubble.
This was all she could do. "Any luck?" she asked Callie about the calls.
Callie threw the phone down in defeat. "Nothing. We're going to die here."
"We're not going to die," Arizona insisted with so much strength that it stunned Callie a little. "You rest. I'm going to yell. Hopefully someone will hear me." Arizona called for help until her voice turned to a meager croak, and then until she had no voice left.
Callie felt a pinch behind her eyes. "It's okay," she breathed. "We tried." She closed her eyes.
"CALLIE," Arizona barked. No. Callie couldn't pass out. She couldn't sleep. She couldn't die. This was the woman she loved. "Do not close your eyes. Do not die on me."
Callie slowly lifted her eyelids. She reached up and grabbed Arizona's hand. "It's okay. I'm tired, and we're going die here, anyway. No harm in a nap."
"No," Arizona insisted. "Callie! Stay awake. We are not going to die. I'm not going to die, so you don't get to die."
Callie just exhaled slowly in response.
"CALLIE," Arizona continued. "Stay. Awake. We are going to get out of here. Please," she begged.
Callie fought back unconsciousness and opened her eyes to look up at Arizona. There were tears in Arizona's eyes, and in Callie's disoriented state, she reached her hand up to brush away the few that had spilled over. "Hey. What's wrong?" she whispered. Her chest felt tight, and not only because of her injury and the blood likely filling her chest cavity.
She hated seeing Arizona cry.
Arizona caught Callie's hand with one of her own and brought her other hand down to run her fingers through Callie's long, thick hair. "You, stay with me," she begged. "I need you not to die. I love you, and we will get out of this. I am not going to let you die, but you better not try to fall asleep on me. You stay. We will get out of this, but in case we don't, I just had to tell you. I love you. I will always love you. I've been waiting for you, and you can't die, okay?"
Callie's eyes widened at Arizona's honest profession. Those had been the last words she'd expected to hear.
"Do you hear me?" Arizona demanded, crying. "I love you. And I'm going to make sure that we get out of here alive so that I can prove it to you."
Callie's eyes stung. She didn't know how much she'd been waiting for those words until right then. How much she'd been waiting for Arizona to love herself again and to want to love Callie again. Callie grabbed Arizona by the back of her neck and pulled her face down towards her own.
As Arizona became aware of Callie's intentions, her breath hitched. She'd been waiting to kiss her for so long. She brought her lips to Callie's.
Callie felt like her heart was going to beat out of her chest. Arizona was the love of her life.
Arizona felt as if her heart might explode. Callie was the only woman she could ever love. Callie was her home.
Regretfully, Arizona pulled away. "We have to keep you calm, remember?" She grinned through her tears. "Don't want to make your heart overwork."
Callie laughed, then she sobered up.
They both did. The reality was: they were still under a pile of rubble in a torn up car. And no one was looking for them.
Arizona kissed Callie's forehead. "Can you move? I have an idea."
Callie nodded slightly, and together, they moved Callie's head off of Arizona's thighs.
"What's your idea?" Callie murmured from her horizontal position. "Be careful," she warned.
Arizona nodded and began stripping off her scrub pants.
"What ar—" Callie began, then stopped. Arizona was removing the Velcro straps of her prosthetic. She was taking it off.
Arizona explained, "I have no voice left, so I can't yell for help, but I do have this. I'm going to bang it against the roof until someone hears it. Metal against metal."
Callie's head bobbed in understanding.
They shared a nervous, meaningful look, and then, with both hands, Arizona smashed her prosthetic against the roof of the car as hard as she could. And, she had been right: it was loud.
Callie smiled encouragingly. "Do it again."
Arizona smashed it against the roof, again and again and again, until finally, she and Callie heard voices above them. It felt freeing to use something she had resented for so long — something that came after her life turned upside down and was ruined entirely — to save them.
It felt good.
Callie's eyes bulged. "It worked!"
Arizona sighed in relief and began rubbing Callie's thigh affectionately. "HELP!" she croaked. "We're down here!"
Mere minutes later, she and Callie felt a waft of cold, fresh air hit them. They heard a bulldozer. More voices.
They weren't going to die. They were going to be okay. People had found them.
"You hanging in there?" Arizona worried, turning to Callie.
Callie exhaled loudly. "Still alive," she smiled. "How's the leg?"
Arizona smirked. "A little dented."
Her smile faded slightly as she got lost in Callie's rich chocolate brown eyes, and Callie in turn looked deep into Arizona's cerulean blues.
Arizona moved a hand to caress Callie's cheek intimately. It was something she had wanted to do for a long time.
Callie's breath hitched at the feeling of the soft pads of Arizona's skilled, surgeon fingers against her skin.
"I meant what I said," Arizona reminded her.
Callie's eyes widened, and she gulped. She wanted it so badly that she was afraid to believe it.
"You were right to walk out before. I was stuck, and so were you. But now I've found myself again."
Callie nodded. "Me, too."
Arizona smiled slightly. "I know. So we can work this time. You and me. Forever. Because I love you, Calliope, and I won't stop when we get out of here. I won't ever stop loving you."
Callie smiled, tears once again falling from her eyes. "I—" she began, but then the bulldozer blade lowered and scooped up rocks and rubble for a final time.
Arizona looked up, and could finally see the world outside.
Suddenly, it was chaos. Red and blue lights flashing, construction workers abound, paramedics running towards them, Arizona climbing out, insisting they get a gurney for Callie.
Callie being wheeled towards the paramedic truck, Arizona jogging beside.
Them both hooked up to IVs once they were inside the rig, and the paramedics assessing Callie's condition.
Callie reaching for Arizona's hand, and Arizona gratefully taking it.
"See?" Arizona smiled at Callie amid the hustle and bustle. "You're going to be fine."
Callie smiled back, keeping her eyes focused on only Arizona.
They were going to be fine.
No.
They were going to be extraordinary.