OK so I'm back (kinda!)

In my haste to finish the story, I feel like I let myself (and you) down by posting a REALLY rubbish chapter. Sorry. It's been bothering me, so I wanna try and fix it.

I don't think it was 100% rubbish, and I still like the idea of Callie doing the whole 'picture the scene' talk at Arizona's front door in a reverse of what happened in the show, so I'm reposting this chapter, but changing the very end and I'll write a couple more chapters to give them more time. Thanks for your support.

I've indicated at the bottom where the chapter changes so you don't have to read the whole thing again if you don't want to.

Monday

"Shit!" Sam said under her breath "I did NOT see THAT coming" she said looking over at her friend and boss.

"Me neither." Arizona responded still in shock as she watched the American shake hands with the coaching team and hug some of the players who she had played with last year.

The blonde watched Callie smile and laugh as she hugged her former teammates but those brown eyes remained fixed to the corner of the room where Arizona was sitting with Sam. Arizona's heart was in her mouth right now and she needed out of the situation. Sam and Arizona exchanged a knowing look and slipped out of the room.

"What the ACTUAL fuck!" Sam said as she closed the door to the physios office behind her "I mean great for the team as she has a lot to give the team, but can you believe it?"

Arizona was silent as she was still trying to process what had just happened. Callie was here in London. Arizona had read the news on Twitter that the striker had announced that she would be taking her coaching badges working alongside Orlando Pride in Florida. The last place Arizona had expected her to turn up was at Spurs again.

"No...no I can't believe it" Arizona replied, still in a complete daze.

"Well I guess the fact that she is no longer a player means there is nothing stopping you two getting it on if that's wha..." Sam didn't get a chance to finish her sentence.

"Of course that's not what I want!" Arizona snapped at her fellow physio causing Sam to pull a woah face.

Arizona took a deep sigh and realised she shouldn't be taking it out on her friend "I'm sorry Sam" Arizona apologised "it's ummm just a lot to process." The blonde admitted.

Sam smiled back at her friend "OKaaaaay...but if you DID still have feelings..." Sam pressed her friend again.

She remembered how the blonde had initially denied liking the American until she had finally confessed there was an attraction. Sam had been worried about the implications on Arizona's job as she loved working with the physio, but at the same time she had also loved seeing her friend happy again...albeit for a short time before Callie had left to go back to the States.

Sam had also seen how the American had looked at Arizona at the Olympics after party. There was some serious remorse going on there on the part of the American, and whilst she had warned Callie off Arizona at the time as she studied her friend now, she realised that the blonde still had feelings. Even if Arizona didn't want to acknowledge them herself yet.

"Listen...I know you care, but Callie and I are total non-starter. Been there. Done that and it didn't work. From now on out I'm strictly sticking to girls who are already out. It's too hard otherwise." Arizona informed her friend.

"Fair enough." Sam responded with a small smile. She was convinced that her friend still felt something for the American having also seen the way the blonde had read every article following the brunette's retirement from the game.

Sam knew not to push it, to wait for Arizona to come to her own conclusions. She would get there eventually.

"Listen I umm better go, I said I'd pick Niamh up from Kings Cross". Arizona said as she gave Sam a hug goodbye.

"Are you gonna say anything, to Niamh?" Sam asked

"What can I say?" Arizona thought for the moment before acting out the scene "Hi Niamh, great to see you….so listen I've just found out that Callie Torres is back at Spurs and well we used to have a thing, but don't tell anyone as Callie isn't out and I could lose my job!"

Sam paused and looked at her friend "OK. You make a good point."

—-

30 minutes later and Arizona was nervously waiting at the end of the platform where Niamh's train was due to arrive any minute. She had, up until a few hours ago, been looking forward to seeing the Irish woman again, but her thoughts were all over the place now. With Niamh everything was clear cut. What they had was grown up, there was no drama. They got along, enjoyed each other's company and found each other sexy. It was easy and after everything with Alex and then Callie, easy felt good to Arizona.

So then why the hell was Arizona standing there thinking of Callie Torres? Why despite a fun weekend away in Edinburgh with Niamh was Arizona picturing those brown eyes staring at her earlier this afternoon.

Arizona took a deep breath as she saw Niamh step off the train and head her way. Decision time Robbins!

"Hey you!" Niamh said with a big smile on her face as she stood in front of the blonde physio before leaning in to kiss her.

Instinctively Arizona turned her head so Niamh's kiss landed on her cheek rather than her mouth where the redhead had clearly intended it to. Decision made!

Niamh pulled back and looked at Arizona to see what the issue was "Ooookay…. well that didn't exactly go how I've been envisioning it going for the past couple of hours!" as she said as she pulled back and searched Arizona's face for clues.

Arizona locked onto the green eyes and before she knew what was happening she was talking "I'm sorry Niamh, it's umm good to see you...it really is…." Arizona paused as she tried to put her thoughts in order and communicate them to the Irish woman who was staring at her with a puzzled look on her face.

"Buuuuuuuut?" Niamh said joining the invisible dots.

"But I umm, well I've just this afternoon found out that someone I was seeing before Christmas is back in London and well…" again Arizona paused. What exactly was she saying here? She enjoyed Niamh's company, why was she turning her back on it? Brown eyes.

"And you're not sure how you feel?" Niamh said filling in the blanks

Arizona nodded "I am sorry, it's literally just happened and well I don't want to lead you on or anything."

"It's OK Arizona. we both knew what this was." Niamh replied smiling softly at the physio

"You are more than welcome to still stay." Arizona told the redhead " I have three spare bedrooms for you to pick from!"

Niamh laughed "thanks, but I think it's probably easier if I just find a hotel and stay there for the night. I umm could probably do with working on my presentation anyway" Niamh replied. Arizona appreciated that the redhead was making this easier for her.

"Are you sure?" Arizona asked, feeling bad for the late change of plans.

"I'm sure" Niamh replied

"I'm sorry." Arizona said softly

"Don't be. I hope you guys work out whatever needs working out!" Niamh smiled as she gave the physio a hug "and you know….you have my number if you don't!" she smiled as she pulled back from the hug and gave the blonde an eyebrow wiggle causing the two of them to laugh.

"Thanks, Niamh. I'll see you at the training ground tomorrow?" Arizona asked, relieved that it wasn't awkward "maybe we can grab a coffee after your presentation?"

"Sure that would be nice."

Arizona headed home and mulled over the events of the day. Seeing Callie today at the training ground had derailed Arizona. She had, or so she had thought, firmly closed the lid on those feelings, then why was she sitting there thinking of nothing else?

She really didn't believe in having regrets, life was too short. So why the hell had she been so affected by seeing Callie again? It had been eight months since Christmas. Eight months since Callie had sent the text message with Blink 182 song that she had decided to ignore.

As much as Arizona had tried to move on from Alex, undoubtedly that experience had manifested itself into her next relationship and her behaviour. From day one when she had initially been scared of letting Callie in to then ignoring Callie's olive branch at Christmas after the American had walked away.

Arizona picked up her phone and considered calling the brunette. She had a million questions she wanted answers to, but the big one was too scared to ask. Was she back for her?

Wednesday - Two days later

Arizona was just finishing up her monthly home visit to Beth, the academy player who broke her leg badly before Christmas. As she was leaving the teenagers room she spotted something resting up against the wall in the hallway and walked over to take a look.

"What's this?" Arizona asked the teenager somewhat stupidly as it was pretty obvious what it was, but Arizona didn't understand how Beth had it. Arizona picked up the framed USA women's soccer top with the name Torres on the back and all of the team's signatures. "I mean obviously I know what it is, but how did you get it?" Arizona said, turning to look at the young player.

"Callie dropped it by" Beth replied matter of factly.

"She umm she's been to visit?" Arizona asked, trying to keep the surprise out of her tone.

"Yeah. Yesterday" Beth said happily.

Arizona looked at the shirt and read the handwritten message To Beth...never stop believing. Callie Torres x

As Arizona looked at the message she realised Beth was still talking in the background

"...she's been so nice since my injury, calling pretty much every week to check in on me, to see how my recovery is going...she even called me from the dressing room in Japan after they had won the gold medal….The shirt is signed by all the players. How cool is that?" Becky said excitedly

"That's umm very cool!" Arizona said smiling at the teenager as she carefully put down the framed shirt.

Crap. This wasn't helping Arizona get her feelings in check. She had spent the last two days at work avoiding the brunette as much as she possibly could. Just seeing her back at the training ground was sending her emotions through the roof and now, now she was finding out how great Callie had been with Beth. Arizona felt a lump in her throat start to form as she acknowledged what a lovely thing Callie had done for the injured academic player.

"Isn't it great that she is back in London?" Beth asked the physio.

Arizona paused before smiling at the teenager "yeah..yeah actually it is"

Thursday

"Sooo?" Jess said walking purposefully through the front door that Callie had just opened to her friend.

"Soooo what?" Callie called out after her friend who was already making her way to the kitchen.

"You know what!" Jess yelled back

Callie chuckled as she pushed the door closed and followed her fellow American into the kitchen where she found Jess rummaging around in the fridge.

"Where's the wine?" Jess asked looking over at shoulder in Callie's direction

"I don't have any!" Callie responded

"WHAT?" Jess replied in disgust as she slammed the fridge door shut and started shaking her head whilst pulling out her phone "Torres - how are we supposed to have a girlie chat without the wine?" Jess asked with a raised eyebrow "thank god for delivery!" she added as she tapped on her phone.

"Err because I didn't know we were having this girlie chat for a start?" Callie responded with a chuckle.

"Well you've been back five days now, so you knew it was just a matter of time. I would have come earlier, but we had a game" Jess responded as she grabbed two glasses and walked back past her friend and plonked herself down on the sofa gesturing for Callie to join her.

"Come on, you can start filling me in whilst we wait for the wine! How are things with your parents? Any better?" Jess asked her friend.

Callie sighed as she sat at the other end of the sofa and grabbed a pillow as a security blanket.

"Yeah kinda. They've calmed down a bit and my dad called me today to see how I was, so I guess that's a good sign right?."

"That's a great sign Cal. I've always loved your dad!" Jess smiled softly as she thought of Carlos "Just give them time!".

She relived the moment when she had finally told her parents that she had feelings for someone in London and that someone was a woman.

Her mom had blamed soccer "I knew we should never have let you play that stupid game!" she had said angrily as she burst into tears and left the room. Her dad had stormed off, insisting the grass needed cutting, even though they had paid gardeners who came every week.

"Well, that went well!" Callie had said to her younger sister Aria.

"Well, what did you expect Cal?" Aria replied "The golden child is not as golden as they thought!"

"Gee Thanks Ari." Callie had scoffed back.

"Oh, you know what I mean. They have put you up on a pedestal all your life, and now, well now it's a little bit harder for them to worship you."

"But I don't want to be worshipped" Callie had responded angrily

"Well, you don't have to worry about that anymore!" Aria responded with a slight chuckle.

"Again..how is that helping exactly?" Callie asked her younger sister who she suspected was enjoying this somewhat.

"Listen. Just give them some time to get used to it. You've just told two very catholic parents that their daughter is effectively going to hell."

"Aria!" Callie yelled back horrified at her sister's attempt to help the situation.

"What?...it's the bible words, not mine!" Aria had pleaded

"Actually it's not, but forget it," Callie said as she put her head in her hands. She had expected screaming and shouting but the silent treatment was even worse in a way!

"Listen Cal. They love you. Give them some time to take it in and what it actually means. When do you leave for London?" Aria asked her sister.

"Next week. So I don't have a huge amount of time, and I don't want to go away with things like this. They mean too much to me. They have been so supportive to me throughout my whole career, it's killing me knowing that I've disappointed them"

"Hey welcome to my world!" Aria joked trying to lighten the mood "I've been disappointing them since I was born"

"No, you have not! Anyway, at least you've given them the big white wedding and a grandchild." Callie replied.

"Ha! yeah I suppose I'm good for something." Aria said laughing before reaching over and taking her sister's hand. "Cal it's a big shock...to us all….they don't know anyone gay people, so they are probably just a bit scared. Just let it sink in overnight, and try again tomorrow."

Callie hated hurting her parents, but at the same time she was hurting herself by not being true to her feelings. She would sit down with them and make them listen to her. No more secrets. She knew what she wanted...correction… who she wanted and she couldn't wait any longer.

"So what's happening with Dr Robbins?" Jess asked, wiggling her eyebrows in her friends' direction.

Callie let out a groan and placed the pillow over her face and flopped back onto the sofa. She had been dreading this conversation from the minute she had told Jess she was coming back to London. Jess asked forthright questions that the brunette often didn't know the answers to herself.

"Well there isn't reality a lot to say!" Callie stated as she sat back up,and fiddled with the zipper on the cushion she had placed back on her lap.

"Right! Whatever Torres! What did she say when she saw you were back at Spurs? Was she super happy?" Jess asked excitedly.

"We err haven't actually spoken!" Callie admitted

"WHAT?" Jess yelled "Callie! What the fuck are you waiting for?"

"I think she's with someone, remember that redhead from the olympics?" Callie said "I saw them together in the canteen the other day"

"Were they making out?" Jess asked

"NO! Of course they weren't!" Callie responded with alarm at the suggestion

"Right, therefore you don't know for sure that anything is going on" Jess paused "and you never will if you don't bloody well speak to her Torres"

Callie sighed. She knew Jess was right. "Oh I know. I mean what's the point of me coming back if I'm too damn scared to even talk to her.

"None!" Jess replied

"ARGHHHHH….I just don't know where to start?" she admitted to her friend.

"Well here's a thought - maybe start by telling her how you feel?" Jess said, holding her friend's gaze. "I mean it Torres. No more messing about. Get your arse over to her house and tell her for god's sake!" Jess said firmly as she stood up and started pulling the brunette up off the sofa

"What NOW?" Callie said in shock as she allowed herself to be pulled up

"Yes NOW!" Jess repeated with a chuckle just as the doorbell rang "And you can take the wine with you!" she smiled at her friend.

Callie tipped the delivery guy before pulling her friend in a big bear hug."Thanks Jess!"

"For what?"

"For giving me the push I need" Callie responded softly

"Go get your girl Torres!"

The blonde was slumped on the sofa in front of the TV, not really paying any attention when the doorbell rang. Arizona's heart started beating fast as she opened the door to find a nervous looking Callie standing in front of her.

Blue eyes found brown again and Arizona found herself melting under their spell. It was the first time they had been alone together since December when Callie had told Arizona it was too much for her. Was it still too much?

"OK...so picture the scene..." Callie said launching into a passionate speech "I'm back home in Miami and everything is great. I've come out and told my family that I'd met this amazing woman in London. and whilst they aren't flying the rainbow flag outside the house just yet...we're making progress."

WOW. Arizona hadn't expected the brunette to have said that. Maybe it wasn't too much for her.

Callie stared into Arizona's eyes and continued

"I've just won gold at the Olympics and I'm due to start my coaching badges at Orlando…. but I'm miserable. Like REALLY miserable. So Stacey asks me what's wrong and I say…"

Callie paused and swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat as the emotion started getting the better of her.

"I say….I miss you..." the American whispered the sentence as a tear started sliding down her cheek. "I missed you so fucking much Arizona….and so she asked if I wanted to go back...and I said yes...YES a hundred times! " Callie paused and took a deep breath, wiped the tear away before continuing

**NEW SECTION**

"And so I did...I came back...for you…to see if there's still a chance" Callie paused took another deep breath before saying softly "..and fuck...you look really pretty…and it's so good to see you.."

Callie's mouth turned into a huge smile as she said the last sentence and took in Arizona. The physio was wearing a pair of ripped jeans and an oversized Free Britney T-Shirt with what looked like a ketchup stain on it. Her blonde hair had been plonked on top of her head in a messy bun, with loose curls framing her face.

As Callie stood looking directly at Arizona for the first time in eight months, brown eyes scanned those mesmerising azure blue ones for a clue as to what the blonde was thinking. Callie decided to take the fact that the Brit hadn't slammed the door in her face yet as a positive sign!

Arizona's heart was pounding hard against her rib cage as she took in everything the American had just told her. Callie had missed her, come out and told her family about her, had come back to the UK for her!

They were all the things she had wanted to happen for the longest of time, but eventually she had accepted that it was time to move on...and so she had started to do that. She had finally got to that stage where she had stopped thinking of Callie randomly throughout the day, stopped watching interviews of her online and had recently found herself smiling when her phone buzzed and she saw it was a message from Niamh. Flirting with the redhead had been fun, but Arizona knew that was because it was 100% safe. There had been zero possibility of it becoming anything serious and so she found herself relaxing and enjoying herself again. And then Callie had turned up at Spurs and now everything was up in the air again.

After what felt like the longest of time Arizona opened her mouth and closed it again without actually saying anything!

She took a deep breath and followed her heart opening her mouth only this time she found the courage to say the words that had evaded her a few moments earlier "it's good to see you too Calliope."

Arizona was powerless to stop the smile forming on her face as watched Callie's reaction. She felt the butterflies start up again as the brunette's face came alive..Shit! Arizona thought to herself how did this woman still have such a powerful effect on her?

As the two women stood in silence smiling stupidly at each other Arizona had to fight the urge to give Callie the biggest hug of her life. As much as she wanted to feel the Latina in her arms again there was a lot they needed to discuss before that was an option.

Clearing her throat Arizona spoke "We umm, we should probably talk" she said softly as she held her hand out for Callie.

The brunette looked down at the small ivory hand the blonde was holding out for her and momentarily closed her eyes to stop the tears that she could feel we're starting to form ifrom getting any bigger. Opening them she quickly glanced down at the outstretched hand before her eyes moved up to the blonde's face and saw Arizona smiling softly back at her. Callie let out a huge deep breath, one that she hadn't even realised she had been holding in, and happily accepted the hand.

As she led the American through the hallway she caught a glimpse of herself in a mirror and kicked herself at the state of her hair and outfit. This was not how she had looked when she had played this scene over and over in her head the past few months.

"Would you umm like a drink?" Arizona asked because she knew she sure did.

"Hell yeah!" the American replied smiling to herself as she felt Arizona's thumb gently rub the back of the hand she was leading the American by.

Once in the kitchen Arizona reluctantly let go of Callie's hand so she could open the fridge and pulled out two beers.

Turning to face Callie she popped the caps off and handed a bottle to Callie.

"Thanks" the Latina said as she accepted the drink, trying her best to hide the nerves she felt at that moment from her voice. It was crazy. They had seen each other naked, had had amazing sex together, why was she all of a sudden so nervous around the blonde?

"Cheers!" Arizona said as she clinked her bottle against Callies and watched the brunette take a gulp of the cold beer. Arizona felt a wave of desire flood through her as she silently watched the brunette pull the bottle away from her mouth and carefully run her thumb slowly across her full lips wiping away a stray droplet of beer. Arizona unconsciously licked her lips as she imagined running her tongue over the brunette's bottom lip before slipping it inside her mouth.

Realising she needed to get a grip the Brit nodded in the direction of the living room "shall we sit?" she didn't for an answer. Instead she reached down and took Callie's hand again and led them out of the kitchen.

Arizona waited for Callie to sit down first so she could judge the appropriate amount of space she would need to place between them so she wouldn't be too tempted. As much as she wanted to jump the strikers bones, she also wanted to talk. She had missed talking to Callie so much and before anything else happened, they had to be honest with each other.

Arizona knew exactly what she was going to say. It had been the same thing she had wanted to say since that day in December "I know I pushed you Callie...in Deal….I should never have made that comment about being in the closet…" Arizona said, referring back to their argument on the promenade "...but why did you run?." Arizona paused and looked into the big brown orbits "you have no idea how that felt, because I really cared about you…"

Callie's whole body reacted to what Arizona had just said

"Cared?" she questioned softly "as in past tense? As in no longer do. Shiit There's someone else isn't there? Is it the redhead from the Olympics, it's her isn't it..?. Am I too late?"

Arizona smiled softly and shook her head "There was something briefly with someone, Niamh the redhead, but no Calliope...it's not past tense...and you are not too late. I still care about you...a lot...seeing you again, being near you again has made that totally clear to me. I still want you"

OK need to sleep now, but I'll pick it up again over the weekend. They need to talk some more and then take things slowly. I hope I can give the story a proper ending. Sorry again for the previous rubbish chapter!

Sarah x