Callie laughed and rested her head on the back of the couch. "We'll have to fix that. How are you going to pull in all of the ladies if you can't cook them a meal?"

"I haven't had any trouble so far." Arizona winked.

"Mmm" Callie's eyes ran over Arizona, "I'm sure you haven't."

Callie was looking at Arizona with hooded eyes and something else that Arizona couldn't name. She tried to convince herself she was imagining it, but Callie smiled at her slowly and Arizona unraveled. Before she even consciously made a decision to do it, she was leaning forward and pressing her lips against Callie's. The other woman gasped but then groaned low in her throat, encouraging Arizona as she lifted her hands to Callie's face to deepen the kiss. Needing to breathe, Arizona pulled back and stared at Callie, shocked. What had she just done?

"Hey, we're friends, right?" Callie sat across from where Aria was changing in the resident locker room and stared at her intently.

"Uh…yeah. What are you doing in here? Don't you have your own locker room?"

"I needed to talk to you and Dr. Mitchell said you were in here."

"Can you wait until I get my shirt on?" Aria rolled her eyes and finished getting into her scrubs. She grabbed her pager, pen, and cell phone out of the locker and shut the door behind her. "Okay. What?"

"We're friends, right?"

"Yes."

"No, I mean actual friends? I know you're my sister, but we're actual friends, right? Close friends?"

"Yes, Callie, we are actual, close friends. What is this about?"

"We've never talked about sex."

"What?!" Aria looked around the locker room, thankful that none of the other Seattle Pres doctors seemed to be in earshot.

"We've never talked about sex."

"Jesus, Cal." Aria stared at her sister in silence until she realized that Callie didn't have anything more to say. "I don't know what to tell you—I was 11 when you turned 21. When I started having sex, you were in Botswana saving lives. When I moved to Seattle, you had three small children underfoot. No, we never got around to talking about sex." Aria turned and left the locker room, heading down the hallway to the ortho wing.

Callie jumped up and followed behind her. "I was in Botswana when you started…? But you were only 16!"

Aria stopped abruptly and turned to face her sister. "And?"

Mark was coming down the hallway and stopped when he spotted his roommate. "Hey, ladies. What's going on?"

"My sister is trying to slut-shame me." Aria didn't take her eyes away from Callie.

"Torres, not cool." Mark took a small step between the two women, blocking Aria from Callie. "We don't shame people. We celebrate people."

Both women gave him a weird look before Aria tapped his shoulder. "Thanks, Mark. But I'm good."

He shrugged and walked off, leaving the two sisters in a weird staring match. Callie finally gave in. "I'm not shaming. I'm just surprised. I didn't…until I was 22."

"Okay?"

"We grew up with the same strict Catholic stuff being thrown at us. It took me a long time to realize I didn't want to wait for marriage."

Aria sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Callie, you always forget that we didn't have the same childhood. Yes, I also went to CCD and put on a frilly dress for Communion and stood up for Confirmation."

"I know, I was your sponsor."

"You were. But the part you forget is that you grew up as the apple of our parents' collective eye. I, on the other hand, was someone they mostly just wanted out of sight. If you think that didn't mess me up in ways that had me running to seek out attention, you're wrong."

"Aria…"

Aria held up her hand. "In college, I found a great therapist and worked through it. I'm past it and now…I know what I like and it turns out I also have a healthy dose of just plain enjoying sex."

"I didn't know."

"I didn't tell you. This is the conversation about sex you so desperately wanted to have that you tracked me down in the locker room?"

"Ah, no. Sorry, I handled this wrong."

Aria stopped in front of the double doors that lead to the ortho department. "Okay. So what exactly are you asking about?"

"Torres!" Shelly poked her head around the department door and grabbed Aria's arm. "You have to come see this! It's not a solid yet, but it's also not liquid! We're getting close. I feel it—today's the day we're making cartilage in a tube!"

"I'll be right there."

Callie saw how her sister's face lit up at the news and waved a hand in the air. "We can talk later."

"Callie, what's going on?"

"Arizona kissed me last night," Callie blurted out.

"WHAT?!" Aria grabbed her sister's arm and pulled her into a nearby on-call room. After making sure it was empty, she turned to Callie. "What happened?"

"Arizona came over for dinner last night and I kept thinking about what you said…that I needed to find what made me happy and that I should flirt with her and see how it felt."

"Yeah, and?"

"And I flirted and she kissed me."

"Amazing! And then what?"

"And then she bolted."

"Bolted?"

"Apologized twenty times and ran out the door. I didn't have a chance to say anything."

"Did you call her? Text?"

"No, I didn't know what to do. I've never been anything but straight, Aria. I don't know where these feelings are coming from and I'm freaking out too!"

"Okay." Aria grabbed her sister's shoulders and sat her down on the bed. "I can't believe I went on a date last night and you're the one who got some action. But I digress. Feelings for women that come out of nowhere are scary; I get that."

"Is that how it happened for you? Your first time with a woman?"

Aria shrugged. "The first time was just sex. I was drunk, a friend's friend flirted with me, and I woke up naked in her bed the next day. I didn't have time to think about it. But the first girl I dated? Yeah, that was scary and weird. For, like, a minute. It's cliché, but love is love, Cal. It's not that different."

"What am I doing? I'm married."

"Not really, you're not." Aria decided to change tactics. "How was the kiss?"

A big, slow smile stretched across Callie's face and she sighed happily, "It was really good."

"Chase that feeling. Don't worry about the rest of it."

"But—"

"I mean it. Forget about every other thing and lean into the happy feeling. You'll be better off."

Callie swallowed resolutely and looked up at her sister. "You're really smart."

"Yeah, I am."

Standing, Callie hugged her sister briefly. "I have a lot to think about. Wait! How did your date go last night?"

"Ah, well, the parts with just me and Cynthia were great."

"There were parts with other people?"

"Unfortunately. We kept getting interrupted at Joe's. We tried going back to my place, but Mark was there. We made plans for a do-over later. I don't know what it is, Cal, but if I don't get to kiss that woman soon, I'm going to scream."

"Why was Mark in your apartment?"

Aria shrugged and tried to brush it off. "He needed a place to stay, and I have an extra room."

"That's really nice of you."

Aria crinkled her nose. "Cynthia doesn't like him much. I don't think it helped my case that he's my roommate now."

"Wait…you were taking her back to your place? Were you going to…?"

"Oh my god, Callie. Sex on the first date is not a sin. I have so much to teach you."

Callie laughed and opened the door, letting her sister go out before her. "Good luck with your cartilage."

"Good luck with your Peds surgeon."

The word had spread through the hospital about the Seattle Pres doctors and their impending discovery. Doctors from throughout the hospital had been wandering in and out of the lab all day, hoping to be there at the moment it happened. Arizona walked in and stood behind Cynthia as Frankie and Aria debated measurements.

"How'd your date go?" Cynthia asked softly so as not to disturb the doctors, glancing at Arizona out of the corner of her eye.

"What? It wasn't a date. Obviously. It wasn't a date."

"Oh…kay. How was dinner?"

"Uh…turns out I'm a fan of chicken piccata."

Cynthia turned and squinted at her friend. "Why are you acting weird?"

"I'm not acting weird." Arizona forced a smile and studiously looked over at the doctors working. "How was your date?"

"Hmph. Mark Sloan is her roommate."

"So you went back to her place."

"Yeah, but nothing happened because Mark Sloan is her roommate."

"Why are you so threatened by him?"

"Have you seen his face? His arms? If I wasn't so goddamn smitten, I'd be all over that. And now he lives in her apartment."

"So you're jealous because…?"

"Because he's hot!" Derek Sheppard sent Cynthia a dirty look and she lowered her voice again. "He's hot."

"So are you."

"But he's like dirty hot. Know who else is hot like that? Little Torres. Do you know who should be having sex with each other? Two people who are at that level of hotness."

"If you're trying to get into her pants, you should probably stop calling her Little Torres."

Cynthia looked over and watched as Aria argued with Kelly about a certain formula that she had been using. "I didn't even kiss her," Cynthia smirked and looked over at Arizona. "It was really hot though—the not kissing."

"What? Why…why are we talking about kissing?"

Cynthia turned to face her friend. "Why are you acting so weird?"

"Wait, wait, wait. Everyone be quiet!" Aria's voice cut through the room. Cynthia and Arizona looked over to see her take the notebook the doctors had been using for their computations and study it intently. She closed her eyes tight and started muttering numbers.

"Oh man, Torres has her thinking face on," Frankie muttered.

"Shh." She opened her eyes and looked back at the notes. "What if we're thinking about this all wrong? What if we…" she trailed off as she started scribbling furiously.

Drew was at her side and looking over her shoulder at the notes, eyebrows raised. "That could do it."

"Try it, Torres," Shelly urged.

Carefully, Aria measured out the components and combined them in a waiting test tube. The gathered doctors watched with bated breath as she swirled them together slowly and the liquids blended, soon becoming a solid form.

"Holy shit," Aria breathed out. She looked up at her coworkers and smiled. "It's a solid!"

The four other Seattle Pres doctors rushed forward, hugging Aria and taking turns looking in the tube.

Their audience clapped and Dr. Chang's voice rang out, "Nice work, Dr. Torres. You just earned yourself a surgery this afternoon."

"Really?"

"Knee replacement at 2pm with me supervising. Update the board."

Aria nodded as the four doctors gathered at the table to repeat the experiment, making fervent notes. Slowly, all the other doctors from the hospital disappeared, leaving just Cynthia sitting in the corner watching the experiment finish up.

Drew glanced up and noticed her sitting there and nudged Aria, nodding over to their singular audience member. Aria broke away from her friends, rushing over to Cynthia and throwing her arms around the woman in a big hug. "We did it!"

"You did it! Why didn't you tell me you're a rockstar?"

"Oh, you know, I figured the evidence spoke for itself" Aria laughed and took a step back. "Did you talk to Chang? Is that why he gave me the surgery?"

"I haven't had a chance. You did that all on your own. He's tough to impress, Aria. That was incredible."

The two women smiled at each other for a moment, before Aria broke eye contact and glanced at the door. "Did I see Dr. Robbins in here before?"

"Yeah, she was here for a bit."

"What the hell, right?"

Cynthia looked confused. "…What?"

"Did she not tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

"She kissed my sister last night. And then ran out the door. Callie's freaking out."

"WHAT!"

"Sorry to interrupt ladies," Drew stood next to Aria, trying to get her attention. "Ar—you have surgery soon. Don't screw it up for the rest of us and be late."

Aria glanced at her watch, surprised to see that it was so late in the day. "On it, boss." She gave Drew a big hug and laughed, "I can't believe we finally made cartilage happen!"

He smiled and squeezed her before pushing her towards the door. "I know, I know, but you've gotta scrub up, Torres!"

Aria shot an apologetic look at Cynthia who just laughed. "Go! Be a rockstar."

Cynthia finished her afternoon rounds and walked over to the Peds ward, trying to find her best friend. After asking three different nurses her whereabouts, Cynthia finally tried calling Arizona's phone to no avail. Shooting off a quick text telling Arizona to call her back, Cynthia began to formulate a plan.

She decided she needed some help and that she needed Aria on board for this to work, so she went down to observe her surgery. Standing in the gallery, she could see that Aria was killing it. A simple knee replacement was a routine procedure but Dr. Chang wasn't making it easy. Standing over the poor younger surgeon, he was questioning her every move, but Aria stayed calm and placating, going over all her choices and decisions along the way. Cynthia's favorite scrub nurse was standing next to the girl and Cynthia could see the look of approval in her eyes.

Confident that she could interrupt, she walked over to the intercom. "Dr. Torres?"

"Dr. Torres is in surgery, Dr. Rogers." Chang needlessly pointed out. He was always a stickler for a focused O.R.

"I just need a moment to ask her a question, sir."

Aria glanced up and winked at Cynthia before turning back to the task at hand. "I can handle some more questions, Dr. Chang. You must be tired of asking them yourself."

The nurses around her snickered and Chang's face reddened.

"Keep it quick, Dr. Rogers."

"Of course, sir. Dr. Torres, the situation we were speaking of earlier about our mutual friends…"

Aria glanced up again and gave Cynthia a quizzical look. "Yes?"

"I have an idea, but it might mean postponing our…"

"Date?" Drew piped up.

Cynthia hadn't even realized he was sitting in the gallery watching the surgery. She shot him a dirty look. "But only for an hour or so. I have a plan."

"I'm in, Dr. Rogers."

"You haven't heard the plan."

Aria looked up at her. "I trust you."

"Thank you, Dr. Torres. Thanks, Dr. Chang."

The older surgeon harrumphed and jumped in to ask Aria a question about her technique. Cynthia laughed as Aria rolled her eyes and explained her process in excruciating detail. As she turned to leave the gallery, Drew stood up and stepped in front of Cynthia.

"Um…Nevermind. Sorry, Dr. Rogers." He sat down abruptly.

Puzzled, Cynthia sat next to him. "Dr. Mitchell? What's up?"

"Nothing, I just…" He sighed and turned towards her. "I was going to do the whole 'what are your intentions with her' thing and then realized that's probably not my place."

Cynthia smiled. "You're protecting her?"

"She never tells us who she's dating. Even when she's dating one of us…none of the rest of us know." He looked down at his hands, a little sadly. "It doesn't matter, I guess. But with you, she just came out and said it, so confidently and…yeah, I'm a little protective of her. I think most of us are. She's brilliant. She made cartilage out of nothing today."

"You've all been working on that project for months. It was the culmination of all of your work."

"It wouldn't have happened without her. She's amazing and kind and funny. And, I think, hurt. I think she has a lot of hurt." He shook his head. "Sorry, yeah, I guess I'm kind of protective of her."

Cynthia nodded. "Okay, I get that." She regarded the man, trying to figure out what he wasn't saying. Deciding that it didn't matter in this moment, she shrugged. "We've had one half-date so far. I can't promise what my intentions are right now, Dr. Mitchell."

"I know—"

"But. I can promise that they're good. I agree with you. She's brilliant and kind and funny and I want to learn more about her. How does that sound?"

Drew gave a small nod. "Sounds fair."

Cynthia stood up and looked down at the other surgeon. "Look, I haven't had time to talk to Chang yet, but I will before the day is out. If he doesn't have any surgeries tomorrow, I'll try to talk him into letting you have one of mine with my supervision."

He looked up hopefully. "Really? I can cut tomorrow?"

"I'll do my best." She put a hand on his shoulder. "Godspeed, Dr. Mitchell."

"California!" Cynthia had wandered into the cardio wing looking for the surgeon and found her sitting in her office, going over some paperwork.

Looking up and smiling at the nickname, Callie responded, "Hey, Cynthia. What's up?"

"Remember way back at the beginning of our friendship when we got drunk and I offered to talk to you about certain things if you wanted?"

"Ah…yeah?" Callie started to look panicked. "Have you talked to Arizona?"

"I haven't, but I did talk to Aria so I know what happened."

Callie groaned. "Does she do that a lot? Kiss someone and then run?"

"Honestly? It's probably happened before. My best friend is…not the best with confronting her feelings. But I digress. Do you want to have that talk?"

"Right now?"

"Only if you're ready for it."

Callie contemplated the idea and then nodded towards the open office door. "Can you close that? I don't need the whole department in my business."

Cynthia smiled and closed the door, walking back over to Callie's desk and sitting down across from the other woman. "So…Arizona, huh?"

After a long silence, Callie finally spoke. "This was easier to talk about when we were drunk."

"Well…what time do you get out of here tonight?"

"Five."

"Me too. The kids?"

"Allegra has a sleepover, and the boys are at Owen's mom's tonight."

"So meet me out front at five, okay?"

"Okay."

After an afternoon of texting Aria to fill her in on the plan and finally getting a text back from Arizona, who had been hiding out in a remote corner of the Peds ward for most of the day, Cynthia was confident that this was going to work.

She waited in front of the hospital for Callie at five p.m., waving when the other doctor came through the doors. "California!"

"Hey. That nickname is really sticking, huh?"

"Will you let me call you Calliope?"

Callie laughed, "Absolutely not."

"Then here we are. So, I was thinking that Joe's is too crowded with our coworkers. Apparently there's a bar a few blocks that way called the Cottage we can go to instead."

"I've been there a couple of times with Aria."

"I've never been. Let's go."

The two women walked down the street, making small talk about their days and the drama of the hospital residents. They arrived at the small bar and settled in, surprised to see the same bartender from their night at Joe's come up to their table.

"Hey, ladies. What can I get you?"

"I'll take a Corona," Callie said.

"Make that two. Didn't we see you working at Joe's the other night?"

"I cover shifts there some nights for a friend of mine. But this is my home bar. Let me grab your drinks."

After the bartender walked away, Callie leaned over to Cynthia. "Didn't you tell me she was gay?" At Cynthia's nod, Callie continued, "How do you know?"

"Well, she's flirted with Arizona a couple of times at Joe's." Callie raised her eyebrows. "Don't worry, as far as I know it never went anywhere. But she's also got a pride tattoo on her arm." Cynthia tapped the inside of her wrist.

The bartender came over and put down two bottles of Corona in front of the women, Callie staring at her forearm and seeing the small rainbow flag among a number of other tattoos. "You look very familiar. Do I know you from somewhere?" the woman asked Callie.

"I've been here a couple of times with my sister, Aria."

"Aria's your sister? Aria Torres?" The woman's face lit up in a big smile.

Cynthia looked up in interest. "You know Aria?"

"Oh, sure. Tell her Jess said hi."

With a slight scowl, Cynthia nodded. "We sure will. Thanks."

After the bartender walked away, Callie rubbed Cynthia's arm. "This is Aria's bar, like Joe's is ours. Don't read too much into it."

"Hmph." Cynthia popped the lime wedge into her bottle and took a long drink. "Okay, so…Arizona?"

Dropping her head into her hands, Callie groaned. "I don't know, Cynthia. I've been playing it over and over in my mind all day. We had a great night, we were talking about all kinds of things, I was…" Callie's voice faltered.

"You were what?"

"Aria told me that I should flirt with Arizona to see how it feels. I've told her that…I don't know, Arizona has been on my mind a lot lately and she wanted me to test it out. So I was flirting."

"Was she flirting back?"

"I don't know. I don't know how to read that!"

"Well, the kiss was probably a clue that she was feeling it."

"That's what I thought while it was happening."

"And then what?"

"And then she pulled back, got a panicked look in her eye, said she was sorry and just left."

Shaking her head, Cynthia winced, "I'm sorry. That had to suck."

"I just don't know what she's thinking."

"Do you know what you're thinking?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well," Cynthia began, "you're, for lack of a better word at this very moment, straight. And married. One of those things is definitely changing, the other one is probably not the case." Cynthia paused, waiting for Callie to disagree, but Callie just brought her drink to her lips and took a hefty sip. "If, instead of bolting, Arizona had stayed, what would you have wanted to happen?"

Callie shrugged and sat in silence for a moment, contemplating. "It all felt easier in the moment."

"It usually does."

"This morning Aria told me I need to forget about all the doubts and just lean into the good feelings. That's what I want to do. It's what I think I deserve. So, if I go by that idea…Arizona would have stayed and we would have kept talking and flirting and just been together." She looked at the other woman pleadingly, "I just like spending time with her. Why does it have to be so hard?"

"Your sister is right—it doesn't have to be so hard. Lean into the good."

Double-checking her text from Cynthia, Aria knocked on the patient room that Arizona was supposed to be in. The lights in the room were on, but all the curtains had been pulled. Aria cracked the door open and peeked her head inside. "Dr. Robbins?"

Arizona was sitting in a guest chair with the bed's rolling table in front of her, with a pile of paperwork and charts on top of it. She sighed deeply at the sight of the other woman. "You need me?"

Quickly entering the room and closing the door behind her, Aria looked around. "You're hiding out?"

"I'm…a little bit. But I also had a lot of paperwork to finish up and this is sometimes the only way I can get quiet time to finish it."

"So I know that you became friends with my sister by just declaring it…I'd like to do the same thing now."

"You're declaring friendship?"

"I am. We are friends, and what's nice about that is that I think we were pretty much on our way to becoming friends anyway. Friendly coworkers, at the very least. I mean, we are fake dating, if you ask my mother."

Laughing unwillingly, Arizona acquiesced. "True. Okay, so we're friends."

"I know you kissed Callie last night."

Arizona flopped back in her chair and nodded once. "I did."

"I know you ran afterward."

"I did." Arizona sighed.

"Want to tell me more about what happened in between those two things?"

Arizona let out a humorless laugh. "I came to my senses?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, Calliope is straight and married and a mother and straight and I was reading too much into her being friendly and acted foolishly."

Aria laughed and moved farther into the room, sitting on the bed in front of Arizona's makeshift workstation. "Callie was flirting with you."

"What?"

"She was one hundred percent flirting with you. She might just be figuring out all of the feelings that go along with it, but she made the decision to flirt with you. She liked the kiss. She wanted the kiss."

Arizona sat with this information for a minute, contemplating what it meant. "I don't know, Aria. I don't typically date newborns."

"Newborns?"

"If she's just figuring out her feelings about women, she's going to be all exploring and experimenting and yay! Like a newborn. I try to avoid that."

Aria stood up. "That's…that's just gross. As your friend, I have to tell you that's a gross thing to say. And a gross thing to assume."

"Excuse me?"

"Callie is incredible. Callie is loyal. She is the kind of person I aspire to be. And if she's set her sights on you, she's going to be one hundred percent in it." Aria continued before Arizona could interrupt. "She's a grown woman. She has a house and kids and a literal picket fence. She's past the experimenting phase. What happened last night wasn't because of some newfound attraction to women. It was because of an attraction to you, you dope."

Arizona stood and moved around the table so she was standing in front of Aria. "Hey, we might be friends, but I don't appreciate you talking to me like that."

Aria shrugged and glanced at her watch. "I get it. My shift is over anyway. Want to go cool down and get a drink with me?"

Glancing at the clock on the wall, Arizona realized her day was over too. "I don't know. I should go home."

"And hide out some more? Come on, Arizona. It's been a crazy day. I'm sorry I brought out the tough love so early in our friendship. But my team made cartilage out of nothing today—the least you could do is get a celebratory drink with me. Please."

Arizona contemplated the request. It was a rough day and she definitely could use a drink. "Help me get all this paperwork back to the nurse's station and we can go."

Aria smiled and grabbed a big pile of charts. "Let's do it!"

"So we're going to keep replicating the experiment, obviously, making sure it's not a fluke. Then we have to apply to the board and write some papers…I don't know what all the steps are yet, but I know Shelly is all about that research, so we'll be fine." Aria was leading the way to the Cottage after promising Arizona she could continue to hide out and no other Seattle Grace doctors would be at the bar. She opened the door so the other woman could go in first and stepped in behind her quickly. As expected, Arizona caught a glimpse of Callie and whirled around, ready to leave, but Aria was blocking her path.

"Aria…"

"Talk to her."

"This was a setup, wasn't it?"

"Of course it was. I have a date to get to. Go talk to her." Aria had her hands up to stop the other woman as she physically blocked the door with her body. She was aware of Cynthia watching the scene unfold but was glad that Callie hadn't turned around yet. "She was flirting with you, Arizona. She wants to see where it goes. You're the one who kissed her so I think it's safe to assume you want her too. Go, be brave."

Arizona finally stopped trying to get around Aria and sighed, defeated. "I don't really think that. The newborn stuff."

"You're trying to protect yourself; I understand that. But I'm telling you that being with Callie is the safest place to be."

Arizona turned around and took a step towards the table holding Callie and Cynthia. Seeing this development, Cynthia stood up and grabbed her bag. Callie looked up in confusion and glanced behind her, seeing Arizona coming up to the table with Aria standing behind her at the door. "What's-"

"Hey," Arizona said softly.

"Hey?"

"We're going to leave you two to it. Don't do anything I wouldn't do." Cynthia squeezed Arizona's arm as she walked past and met Aria at the door.

"You really think this is going to work?"

"Arizona responds well to tough love. And Callie just needed a minute to process out loud. I think we've given them the best things we could to convince them to give it a try."

"Then can you finally take me on a date?"

Cynthia grabbed the other woman's hand, squeezing it gently before opening the door and guiding Aria out of the bar. "Absolutely."

A.N: Next up, Callie and Arizona finally talk and Aria and Cynthia get their date! Thanks, again, for all of the favorites, follows, and especially reviews!