Taking these ladies out for a spin for a change. Reviews give me life.
Arizona stood at the pediatric nurse's station, staring into space with her chin resting on her right hand as she looked down at her left. She frowned at the nakedness of her ring finger, and thoughts of her and Callie's wedding ran through her head. Thoughts of looking into those gorgeous brown eyes and seeing nothing but love. Thoughts of dancing for hours, eating cake, and laughing so hard she had cried. Thoughts of all the ways they'd touched each other once they got back to their hotel suite, and all through the night.
She felt her face grow warm.
"I'd say penny for your thoughts but judging by the colour of your face I'm not sure I want to know. Or maybe I do?" April walked over and squirted some hand sanitiser into her hands.
"Do you have to say her name?"
"I'm sorry, whose name?"
"Penny."
"You were thinking blushy thoughts about Penny?! Wow, plot twist."
"Are you serious? Of course it wasn't Penny. I just don't like to hear her name. I like to forget that she exists. It's my new favourite pastime."
"Oh I see. So you were thinking blushy thoughts about Callie?" She smiled at Arizona sadly, who nodded.
"Annoyingly it seems to be happening more and more recently, and at increasingly inappropriate times. Yesterday I was in the middle of an appy and all I could think about was the time Callie and I were in the on call room on the fifth floor and she was fu-."
"Oooookay, that's just about enough detail for me, thank you."
Arizona sighed.
"Do you want to know what I think?"
"I'm not sure I do, but you can tell me anyway."
April rolled her eyes.
"It's clear to anyone who sees your face when Callie walks into a room that you're still in love with her. And if we're being really honest, I think Callie herself has been doing a lot of looking at your face recently."
"Oh God, do you think Callie knows?"
April raised her eyebrows. She started to shake her head, quickly turning it into a nod.
"It's official. I'm pathetic."
"You and Callie have a history. You have a daughter. Plus, you know, she's hot. I'd miss her too."
Arizona gives her a look.
"Oh don't look at me like that, I'm just making an observation."
"She is hot, isn't she?"
"Super hot."
"But she has Penny now. And they look happy. They look happy, right? Or do they not? I don't even know what happy looks like anymore. God, I am so pathetic."
"I think that sometimes we need to be apart from the ones we love, to realise what it is we really want."
xxx
Callie walked back to her car, which she'd had to park right next to the wall in the tiniest space imaginable. Still, she was a superstar with a scalpel, and a superstar at parking. She swung her shopping bags happily as she rooted around in her bag for her car keys.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, the ground moved.
"What the hell was that?" She said out loud to herself, jumping when she heard a woman's voice from behind her. She whipped round.
"Do you think it was an explosion?"
Her stomach lurched. Oh God. Not here. Not today.
"It seemed like the whole Earth was moving…"
The ground moved again, only this time it was about a hundred times more violent, and rubble began to fall all around her. She leapt towards her car, scrambling for cover as the ceiling caved in, and everything went dark.
xxx
Hunt hushed the crowd, his arms raised in the air until there was quiet.
"People, there was a magnitude seven earthquake east of Seattle 20 minutes ago, we need to prepare for hundreds of casualties. Let's set up triage, make sure we have O neg fully stocked, and get all ORs prepped and ready to go for trauma. We're all going to need to pitch in for this one. It's going to be a long day. Thank you everyone."
People rushed to their stations, grabbing supplies and taking a breath before the onslaught of patients arrived.
Arizona stood frozen, unable to move, or think.
"Robbins, let's go!" Hunt called out to her as he filled a box with gauze, bandages and suture kits.
She jumped.
"Callie was shopping in Bellevue today."
Hunt's face fell. He clenched his jaw and nodded.
"Call her, then get to work."
She hurried round the corner, grabbing a trauma gown and grabbing her cell from her pocket simultaneously. A couple of taps with her thumb and she was calling Callie on speed dial, her heart sinking a little further each time it rang.
"Come on Callie, please pick up."
xxx
Her alarm was going off. She was in a car park but she was also waking up in her bed, to the sound of her alarm. Something was vibrating in her pocket. She wanted to sleep. It wasn't time to get up yet, was it? Surely not.
She lifted her head and the entire left side of her body screamed at her to stop. Was she having a nightmare? Someone was screaming. Her body was screaming, and someone was actually screaming, somewhere close to her.
Okay. Let's just stay here for a second. Moving hurts, so let's not move. Let's enjoy the stillness.
She opened her eyes. It was dark, except for two or three pinpricks of light streaming onto the pile of rubble in front of her.
Though it was pitch black, she knew her shoulder was dislocated. She guessed two, maybe three ribs were cracked. She felt a dripping from her head, and could smell the metallic tang of her blood.
Crap.
The screaming had stopped.
"Hello? Can you hear me?" She remembered the woman, the woman whose car was parked next to hers, who'd looked terrified as the ceiling collapsed.
Her voice was dull, quiet. She was lying on her front, her words directed straight at the ground. She needed to turn over, to sit up. It was going to hurt.
She rolled slowly onto her right side, wincing and crying out at the pain shooting through her shoulder, and the dull ache in her ribs. She felt around with her right arm and realised she was just next to her car. She managed to sit herself up and let out a gasp as she leant back against the back of her car.
Her phone stopped ringing. She lifted herself up slowly, painfully, and managed to take her phone from her pocket. The screen was smashed but she could still just about make out Arizona's name and 'missed call'.
She tapped at the screen, but nothing seemed to happen.
"Crap." She hissed.
"Is someone there?"
That must be the screamer.
"Hi, my name's Callie, I'm a doctor. Are you hurt?"
"I can't move."
Callie's heart sank.
"You can't move at all? Is there anything you can move?"
"I'm trapped. My legs are trapped underneath something."
"I think the ceiling collapsed."
"How lucky am I to be stuck in a collapsed car park with a doctor." The woman laughed, though very quickly she began coughing.
Callie managed to turn on the flashlight on her phone, and swept it around her in an attempt to locate the woman. She squinted through the air, which was filled with dust. There, to her left, was the woman. It looked as though the bottom half of her body was laid underneath a layer of rubble.
"What's your name?"
"Susan. Susan Beck. I just popped out to the shops. I was shopping for an outfit for my son's wedding, and now I'm here. I'm going to die. Oh God."
"Susan? Hey, Susan, I need you to try and calm down for me. You're in shock. I think I probably am too. But like I said, I'm a doctor, and no one is dying on my watch. Do you hear me?"
Susan sounded as though she was hyperventilating, but Callie could see her nod by the light of her phone's flashlight.
"I'm going to see if I can call 911, I don't always get service down here and my phone screen's pretty bashed up but I think if I-."
"If you hold down the lock button it calls automatically. My daughter told me that when I went on a trip to New York. She worries."
Callie smiled.
"Thank you, Susan. Just hold on, we're going to be fine. You just need to hold on."
She held down the button on the side of her phone, sending out a silent prayer it would work.
'Calling 911'.
"YES. Susan, it's working! We're going to be okay. Can you hear me?"
"911, what's your emergency?"
"This is is Doctor Calliope Torres, I'm an orthopedic surgeon at Grey Sloan Memorial. I'm trapped in the Lincoln Square car park, the ceiling's collapsed. I'm here with Susan Beck, female, late 50s, who has crush injuries to the lower half of her body. We're going to need fire and ambulance."
"Doctor Torres, I need you to remain calm when you hear what I'm about to say. Can you do that?"
"I'm an orthopedic surgeon, of course I can remain calm," she snapped. In truth, she felt anything but calm, but she knew that letting her feelings get away from her would only make things worse.
"The area you're in has been hit by a high magnitude earthquake, and there are several collapsed buildings."
Callie stayed silent.
"Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, go on." Callie clenched her jaw.
"We're sending everyone we have down to near where you are, but from what I hear it could take some time to get you out. There's a lot of devastation. Do you have any medical supplies with you?"
"I have my doctor's bag with me, but I don't know how much good that's going to do. I've got a dislocated shoulder and I think my ribs are cracked."
"We're going to try and get you out as quickly as we can, okay Doctor Torres?"
"I know you are. What's your name?" She softened her voice.
"This is Thomas, Doctor Torres. Do you need me to stay on the line?"
"No, I don't want to waste my battery. Would you be able to call someone for me though? She's important to me, and I need her to know I'm not dead just yet." She chuckled, a lump forming in her throat.
"What's her name and number?"
"Her name is…" She stopped, swallowed the lump in her throat, and took a breath.
"Her name is Arizona Robbins, she's head of pediatric surgery at the hospital. Please call her on 206 555 0114 and tell her I'm alright."
"I'll get right to it Doctor Torres. Stay safe."
Callie hung up and rested her head back against her car. She had thought of Penny at first. Penny should know she was alright. Penny was her girlfriend, her person. But somehow, when she had gone to say Penny what had actually come out of her mouth, weirdly, was Arizona. And then she was reciting the number she knew by heart, that she would never and could never forget.
She shook her head. Now was not the time to address her love life, or the fact that she couldn't stop thinking about her ex wife.
"How you doing Susan?"
"Doug, is that you? Doug, I think we need to let the dog out, he's making an awful racket."
xxx
"Hey there, I'm Doctor Robbins, I hear we have a little girl with a broken arm? Would that be you?"
The girl, who couldn't have been older than five and whose hair was in adorable pigtails, nodded slowly, her bottom lip stuck out and trembling. Arizona took out her penlight and shone it into the girl's eyes before listening to her chest with her stethoscope.
She picked up the girl's arm delicately, feeling as gently as she could for signs of a break. Ah. There it was.
"She was coming out of daycare and debris just started falling from the sky, I managed to pick her up, but not quick enough."
The woman sitting next to the little girl bowed her head, still clutching her hand tightly.
"Are you this little cutie's mom?"
"Yes, this is Millie and I'm Debbie. I just wish I'd got to her faster."
"Millie here is going to be just fine. We'll take her up for an x-ray and then she'll be able to choose a colour for her cast. How does that sound Millie?" Arizona beamed down at her.
"Can I have pink and blue?"
"I think if you ask just as nicely as that, you can have whatever colours you want." She turned towards a group of interns standing by the nurse's desk, looking lost.
"Parker, get over here." She beckoned with a wave.
"Millie here needs 200mg of paracetamol, and then please take her and her lovely mom up to imaging to get an x-ray on her arm. Take good care of them please. Millie, it's been a pleasure, but I need to go and see who else needs my help, okay? Look after your mom."
"I will, thank you Doctor Robbins."
Arizona smiled as she walked off, hurrying round a corner when she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket.
Unknown number.
Oh God, this better not be some stranger telling her that Callie was dead. Her stomach lurched.
"Hello, Doctor Robbins speaking."
"Doctor Robbins? Doctor Arizona Robbins?"
"Yes, who's calling please?" She felt herself go numb as she waited for the impending bad news.
"This is Thomas, I'm a call handler with the emergency services, I believe I spoke to your friend, Doctor Calliope Torres a few minutes ago?" Arizona felt her heart speed up in her chest.
"Oh God, is she okay?"
"She wanted me to tell you that she's alright."
"She's alright? Why would she have someone else call me if she was alright? I mean that's just madness, right?"
"Doctor Robbins, please don't panic. Doctor Torres is in the Lincoln Square car park, she's trapped, but she seemed alert when I spoke to her and first responders are moving as quickly as they can, safely, to start removing the injured."
"She's injured? She's trapped? I don't feel like that constitutes 'alright'!"
"Doctor Robbins, I really do need to get back to taking calls. It's mayhem around here. But I wanted to pass on the message from Doctor Torres. I hope everything works out okay for her."
"Thank you, for calling I mean. I know it goes above and beyond but, Doctor Torres well, she means a lot to me. And I really am grateful for your call."
"Take care Doctor."
Arizona felt tears prick her eyes and her chest began to heave. She managed to get into an on call room before she started sobbing. After a few moments, she composed herself, feeling lighter and better than she had before Thomas' call, but feeling a little dizzy from worry.
Callie was trapped in an underground car park. After everything she'd been through, after all the trauma her body had suffered in the past, she of all people did not deserve to be crushed in a collapsing building.
"Hold on Callie," she whispered, as she wiped her eyes and made her way back into the ER.
xxx
Callie knew that Susan was probably suffering from a crushed pelvis and legs, internal bleeding and a head wound. She also knew that she herself could barely move without doing something about her shoulder.
Why did it have to be her shoulder? Anything but the shoulder. She turned on her phone's flashlight and set it onto a piece of rubble in front of her and took a deep breath.
"Susan, you still with me?"
"I don't know where I am. I think I passed out."
"That's okay, you just need to try and stay awake for me. Can you do that? I just need to sort my shoulder out and then I'm going to come over and see how you're doing. How does that sound?"
"What have you done to your shoulder, dear?"
"I think it's dislocated. In fact no, I'm an orthopedic surgeon. I know it's dislocated."
"My husband dislocated his knee once, when we were skiing. He howled so loudly I thought the entire mountain was going to collapse."
Callie smiled and breathed out shakily.
"I'm pretty useless like this so I need to reduce it."
"I don't think I'm going to be much help with that, I'm afraid."
Callie chuckled. Before she could think about it for another second, she grabbed the hand of her bad arm with the other, pulled upwards and pushed backwards.
She let out a scream that seemed unnatural even to her, eyes clamped shut, the pain travelling from her shoulder up through her neck into her head, and down her arm, seeming to shoot out of her fingers. She gasped and sucked a breath in, throwing her head back in agony.
Finally, after a few deep breaths, and once the feeling that she was about to vomit had passed, she opened her eyes again.
"Are you okay over there, dear?"
Callie couldn't speak so she hummed in response. She'd give herself 30 seconds, and then she'd move.
xxx
"You're going down there? Can I come?" Arizona hurried to keep up with Owen's huge strides as he grabbed supplies and shoved them in his bag.
"Robbins, I know Callie's in the middle of it all, I know you want to help her, but I need you here. This isn't over, not by a long shot. I'm taking a team with me, and I will find Callie. Please, trust me that I will find her."
"I can't lose her, Owen. Please bring her back to me."
"I- Robbins?" He tilted his head and looked at her with sad eyes.
Arizona's eyes filled up with tears and her bottom lip began to tremble.
"I love her, Owen. I've loved her since I first saw her, and I never stopped. I know we can't be together, but I can't imagine a world where she doesn't exist. I can't lose her." She began to sob as her head dipped.
She flinched as she felt Owen's arms wrap round her shoulders, in a rare display of affection.
"I'll bring her back to you. I promise. And you know I don't make my promises lightly. Now, can I leave you to get on with treating patients, or do you need to go home?"
She pulled back and wiped her eyes, suddenly embarrassed.
"I can't do nothing, I'm okay, I'm good."
He nodded and smiled his crooked smile before turning and heading towards the exit.
"Owen?"
"Doctor Robbins?"
"Thank you."