A/N - Ahh, you all knew that they were going to meet again, but you should also know that i never let them get together that easily...(sorry, sorry, sorry haha). Anyway, my stories are mostly more about the process then the being-together part, and i admit, i would need to practice writing those happy perfect scenes more.

Enjoy

III - SEASON OF MONSTERS

JULY 12, 2010

...

It wasn't even past eight, but the small get-together was filling itself.

Arizona stood behind the surgeon showing the new interns around and stared at a terribly familiar head of dark hair from the other side of the sparkling champagne glasses.

Things never tend to go the way they are supposed to.

…

Through the busy preparations and restless nights, Callie and Cristina ended up in a small basement of a building in Seattle. Mark said that the greatest thing about it was that they were right down the street from him, and Cristina replied that it was the very worst thing about it.

Callie found their bickering funny.

That night, they got dressed in pretty skirts and leather jackets for the intern mixer and got into Mark's expensive-looking-I'm-a-plastic-surgeon-convertible. In between her two friends' non-stop jabbing and songs with incomprehensible rap on the radio, they pulled up to the parking lot where Mark clapped her on the back and scurried away because he saw Addison somewhere.

McSteamy chasing after his first girl, Cristina called it, as they crossed the parking lot.

Now in a room with high ceilings and a rubbery alcohol smell, they were following around the chief of surgery himself and a supposed neurosurgeon with scarily nice hair.

"The cafeteria is always open, as is the vending area, open twenty-four seven."

The interns trudge on behind him, listening to more introductions on elevators and finding their way around the hospital.

Just as Cristina was about to lean over to badmouth even more to Callie, a girl in front of them yawned and looked around. And then as Callie's eyes grew wider, she somehow managed to skip out a flask from under the sleeve of her jacket and take a quick swig.

"I like her."

Callie stifled a laugh and nodded at Cristina.

Reaching forward to tap her on the shoulder, Cristina held out her hand. "Hey. You." As the girl turned around skeptically, Cristina continued, "I'm Yang. Cristina Yang. This is Callie."

"Grey. Meredith Grey."

Bobbing her head approvingly, Cristina shook her hand.

Before she could ask for a swig of whatever (hopefully alcoholic) beverage the flask contained, the surgeon before them started talking again. "And these," he said, brandishing his arm proudly at a group of tired looking people in blue scrubs, "are some of our brightest residents."

"God, if I end up with eye bags that big, remember to knock me out before anyone sees me," Cristina whispers into Callie's ear.

"I don't think you'll mind if the price is to cut open a heart."

Cristina shrugged. "Blondie there looks like she's having a stroke. They all definitely do not look like they sleep."

Callie looked over at where Cristina was nodding at, and sure enough, the line of residents behind the neurosurgeon look at the time viciously professional and as frail as an old piece of salmon.

"Blondie's hot though, by whatever standards you lady-lovers have, probably," Cristina continued whispering.

"I guess so. But I told you already, relationship and I are not on good—" Callie cut off just as Doctor Shepherd started introducing them.

"This is Doctor Robbins, fourth year resident and newly announced winner of the Carter Madison Grant, the absolute pride of the pediatrics department."

Derek patted Arizona on the shoulder with a toothy smile.

"Three years in Africa, you're going to be living out all our dreams, eh? How does that feel, Robbins?"

Arizona smiled humbly; hands clasped behind her back. "Pretty great, Doctor Shepherd. I'm just glad I can do something for children everywhere."

Callie blinked and recognised those dimples flashing in between crooks of other memories into a lonely motel off the highway.

Callie stared at her.

Africa, huh?

She guessed she'd done well then, must've gotten her life back together after that night. Callie did too, after all.

"You good, Torres?"

Callie blinked and wanted to look away. Instead, she continued to let Arizona take up all the space in her eyes and mumbled back to Cristina, "That's Arizona. That's the girl I hooked up with last year."

Cristina gave a low whistle. Callie huffed and subtly pinched her side.

She flinched and brushed her hand away. "Well, at least you got good taste."

Callie surrendered to a small twitch of her lips. She did have good taste.

"…and that was Doctor Altman. Now let's move on to the labs on the other side."

And then their whole night months ago was stored and compressed into two pairs of eyes, meeting again over a crowd of blue scrubs.

Callie's still heart skipped a beat after all this time.

The group of interns moved forward and Callie followed, snapping her head back forward to follow the rest. For a moment, her legs stayed numb and she stumbled, Cristina catching her arm at time.

She smiled politely at Arizona and nodded barely noticeably with tight lips. Arizona let her eyes flicker downwards for only a second before smiling in that equally mannered way.

Cristina frowned at her friend but said nothing as the chief of surgery continued showing them around.

…

Arizona stood a few feet away from the group of new interns and stared at a terribly familiar head of dark hair from the other side of the sparkling champagne glasses.

Callie stumbled and the curly-haired woman beside her grabbed her arm.

Arizona's hand twitched unconsciously.

Things really never tend to go the way they are supposed to.

…

A hospital was always big enough for two people to unconsciously hide in.

Arizona put down her juice box.

Five hours into the new interns starting, and the ER was going crazy.

The straw in her mouth felt out of place. The juice streaming past her lips tasted too sweet. Too sweet. So sweet that it tasted of Callie.

She jerked up, grabbing her tray and shoving the contents into a dark green garbage in the corner of the empty cafeteria. Her pager buzzed and she couldn't tell it was a pager. She was too full of thoughts of Callie. And she wanted it to stop. She felt dirty now. She felt dirty and creepy and like she shouldn't be allowed to think about Callie in that way when Callie wasn't there.

The pager on her hip felt more like Callie's legs wrapped around her. Trembling.

Buzzing, nothing else, the pager is buzzing.

Tightening with a small cry.

Buzzing.

Sweaty, soft, forgiving.

Buzzing.

…

Callie's eyes were stinging and the strange smell of chlorine had set home in her nostrils after her first forty-eight-hour shift. Mark had to forcibly pry her away from the driver's seat and stuff her into the back seats with Cristina.

From experience, he knew that the possibilities of them crashing into a streetlamp was high if Callie were to drive.

…

A week into her internship, and Callie was quite positive that Cristina was going to make her ear fall off with her constant grumblings about not being able to see the inside of an OR.

And Arizona…

Well, Arizona was Arizona, which was half a stranger.

She had expected awkwardness or maybe even weird conversations, but then she found out that the surgical schedules absolutely do not give them enough time to be worrying about these things. Callie was running around the hospital the whole day getting patients to sign charts and running labs and taking so many notes her hand was going limp.

She definitely did not have enough brainpower to worry about anyone else.

In fact, the first time she came across Arizona in the hospital, she barely even thought about anything before nodding her head in a half-asleep state and mumbling a low 'hey' before continuing to walk towards the lockers.

It was only after she'd changed into street clothes with painfully slow movements that she rewired and remembered the lightly surprised look Arizona had worn in her blue eyes.

Callie scowled to herself.

And then she concentrated on not falling asleep at the wheel the whole way back home.

…

It was almost two months into her internship when Callie did a double-take looking at the surgical board's emergency c-sections.

"Mark, Mark, Mark, Mark, Mark, Mark—"

"Jesus," Mark breathed, catching Callie by the shoulders and stilling her pacing, "why are you panicking?"

Callie stared at him and opened her mouth a couple of times.

Mark raised his eyebrows.

"I'm assisting a C-section tonight."

He lit up and clapped Callie very hard on the back. "That's great!"

"No! Not great!" She waved her arms at herself, "Me! Never been in an OR before! Assisting?!"

He patted her on the head and Callie slapped his hand away with a glare while he grinned cheekily. "You'll do great, don't worry. Who are you with?"

Callie looked away sheepishly. "Addison."

"And you're worried?!"

She scowled, "I know I might be overreacting a tiny bit. It's still my first surgery."

"Aw."

"Don't 'aw' me."

He chuckled and hooked his arm around her shoulders, leading the both of them away from the cafeteria and towards the scrub rooms, going on and on about how it was all going to be just fine.

…

The corridors on this wing of the hospital were always eerily quiet.

Callie was physically incapable to wipe the huge smile off her face.

She'd really got to hold a baby for a few seconds.

That was privilege.

The faint shine of streetlights seeped through the thin windows and Callie felt perfectly invincible. Down to the bones, she was drenched in pride and adrenaline. If she tried hard enough, holding her hands out in front of her, she could almost still feel the wet weight of a newborn.

Her fingers brushed, still trembling, over her pager and she itched to call someone to be this happy with.

And it was also at almost two months into her internship that Callie realized she didn't really have someone she could share it with.

She wanted to call her father and tell him all about the first time she felt so much like a doctor, tell him about his little girl saving another life, but her family was strictly catholic. She wanted to call Cristina and Mark.

But they were doctors and they were surely snoring away in their beds by now.

The light-headed pride she had moments ago washed away pathetically.

Walking along the dim corridor, she sighed and climbed onto a gurney, crossing her legs and leaning back into the cold wall. This loneliness wasn't in any way poetic, it just sucked.

Still, she smiled to herself as she remembered the delighted look on the father's face when she came out of the OR to tell him that he had a beautiful baby girl.

…

It was Thursday night and Arizona had done three appendectomies in a row. People would think a Carter Madison should grant her some exciting surgeries, but no, she was still just like any of those other double-edged residents walking around with eye-bags that were too heavy.

Passing by a nurse she nodded, and the nurse managed half a smile. This was the reputation she'd bult for herself here; she was a shark, she worked hard and she didn't accept error. A type A military raised surgeon that was always alert and ready to go.

She couldn't let herself feel tired, it simply didn't exist.

Except that right then, watching a family of three walk out of the hospital doors hand in hand, talking and laughing, she was feeling tired. So damn tired.

She kept wandering around the never-ending corridors, and even when she saw Callie cross-legged on a gurney in the basement, she kept walking. She walked until she was right beside Callie's gurney, watching her lashes sweep over her cheeks with the gentility of a baby bird. Suddenly, all Arizona wanted was to keep the promise of a friendship with this particular person.

Callie opened her eyes.

Neither of them said anything, but Arizona could see her apprehension.

Arizona was tired.

Arizona knew that Callie was easier to be around then those chattery fellow residents that always had sex in on-call rooms one too many times.

"Can I sit?"

Callie simply nodded.

Arizona wasn't quite sure how long it was before Callie said, "I feel lonely and tired and I want to go to sleep and never wake up because I'm hungry."

"That made no sense," Arizona replied. "But I get it."

From the corner of her eye, Arizona saw Callie cracking into a small smile.

"I feel lonely."

Arizona regretted those words as soon as they left her mouth. But she mowed on through the mess in her head. "In moments like this."

She could see Callie looking up at her from on the bench. She didn't ask Arizona why they were suddenly talking now, and instead she answered, "I get that too."

"On days like these. Days where everything is so happy and alright, and it's like the world's left me behind."

"We're not particularly sad. We're just not very particularly happy."

"You get it."

Arizona could get girls. She could be a shark and completely own her residency. She could go to Africa and she could act like an adult and she could make good pasta.

But she couldn't remember what surge of ambitious aspiration pushed her to sign up for Carter Madison in the first place. And she couldn't remember how she got herself so excited to get out of bed in the morning two years ago.

And she supposed that Callie felt that way. She saw Callie fall in love a bit with everything she came across everyday. What a painfully loving life that must be.

They were so young. So pathetic.

"I've always been so alone," Arizona said after a while, "And you have been as well."

She turned her head the slightest bit and watched Callie's eyelashes flutter with the crappy air conditioning. "We'd make good friends."

Unexpectedly, Callie grinned and turned to face her. "We already are, aren't we? Good friends?"

Arizona blinked.

"Yes, of course we are."

A pager buzzed and Arizona looked down, grimacing. "Mine."

"It's fine."

Standing up, she only hesitated a little before patting Callie's shoulder tentatively. "See you around, Calliope."

It was only after Arizona had hurried off in the direction of the ambulance bay that Callie tore her eyes away from the ends of the hallway and realized that Arizona had just called her by her full name.

…

Days passed and everything stayed in that sort of busy buzz that hospitals were accustomed to. Snow was starting to fall and blanketed their stress into a layer of deaf pressure.

Arizona heard of the deceased mother as she walked out of a bowel resection, and even as she told herself it was thoughtless, she let her feet lead her to the gallery.

The world was coming in by the cracks in the ceramic tiles while surgeries were performed. Beeping and blood and flesh and internal organs not where they were supposed to be, and Arizona knew Callie's hands were stained red with the life she'd just lost.

There were a few moments that blurred while the chaos raged, while the surgery finished, and the OR emptied. That was Callie's first main assist.

That was also the first life that leaked away into nothingness right under Callie's hands.

Arizona leaned against the door of the dim on-call room with her hands stuffed into her pockets, cocking her head at the girl curled into herself on the thin bed. A family was grieving, and tears were being ripped into reality, but she stared at Callie, and this was the best way of knowing they were so very alive. The pain, the rush, the all forms of the present, and god, Callie was just as spectacularly beautiful as ever.

It was her first bad surgery of hundreds more to come.

"Hey."

Callie made no sign to show that she heard Arizona, but she quieted down.

Arizona sighed and stepped forward to sit on the edge of the rickety bed. Patting Callie's back gently, she said, "Come on. We're going for a drive."

After a bit of silence, she added, "Because we're friends, Calliope. I'm here for you."

She wasn't sure if she was saying to herself or Callie.

…

The blinding lights of the highway busted through the front window now and again, and when she spared the fraction of a second to glance at Callie, she was as so damn great as always.

She knew clearly that cheering Callie up certainly was not her responsibility. She also knew that she really wanted to cheer Callie up.

Arizona stuck her elbow out the car window, leaning against the cold material, and took note of the green sign flashing in reflection.

"You want to stop for something at the seven eleven a few miles down?"

"Sure."

Arizona nodded and inched into the side lane, sliding off the interstate and in the direction of the neon 7-11 signs. The radio was stuck on the same five channels because she forgot how to add more. A sad love song about sleeping buzzed through the radio and lulled the both of them further into the night.

"And…" Arizona pulled back the parking brake and turned to Callie. "We're here."

Callie nodded slightly, pulling her gaze away from the window and down into the hands in her lap.

Arizona sighed. "Calliope. This is only your first bad surgery." She continued quickly when Callie raised her head, mildly irritated, about to reply, "You'll have many more to come. And they'll all suck horribly." Arizona softened her voice, cocking her head to the side to catch Callie's eye. "But we're at a convenience store in the middle of nowhere, and the bad surgeries can't catch us here, okay?"

She watched Callie bite her lip, almost cracking a smile and look down again. And then raise her head again, saying quietly, "Okay."

Arizona grinned, hopping out of the car and opening the door on Callie's side, holding out a hand. "Great!"

Despite herself, Callie shook her head at Arizona's perky words that only seem to come out at these times, and put her own hand in Arizona's safe one. "So, uh…let's go and buy energy drinks so that we get home to bed only to find that we can't fall asleep at all."

Arizona raised her eyebrows as she pulled Callie out of the car and beeped it locked. "I didn't know you had a love for energy drinks too."

"I don't. But I know you do. So that's what we'll buy."

Arizona didn't say anything, but she smiled dopily at Callie as they pushed open the glass door of the convenience store. Some things always remain better unsaid, and Arizona thought maybe the both of them knew that.

She stared at the side of Callie's face at the end of the candy aisle, clutching icy cans of Monster and Red Bull. She peered at the side of Callie's face by the freezers filled with ice-cream and fruit popsicles.

And then all of a sudden all she could think of was doing laundry together and brushing her teeth next to Callie.

Callie's voice cut through Arizona's daydream.

"Should I buy the lollipops or the twizzlers?"

"Lollipops. They're better then twizzlers," Arizona answered, going back to smiling at Callie. "And I'm the one that's buying today. My treat."

"What? No!" Callie quickly protested, shrinking back to the red-eyed intern Arizona had picked up in her car and frowning at her. "I can't let you do that, I mean, it's nothing. It's candy. I can afford that."

Arizona fixed Callie with a stern look, unable to feel a bit sorry for getting such an intense reaction out of her. She had an inkling that Callie had more history to her little basement habitations, but she didn't ask. Instead, she said, "Exactly. It's nothing! Let me do this, Calliope, resident to intern, as a-" Arizona swallowed before continuing, "-friend. Like, this is me comforting you, Callie, let me be nice, okay?"

Callie opened her mouth to weakly deny, but Arizona cut her off. "Okay?"

"Okay," Callie grumbled, handing her stuff to Arizona's outstretched hands. "Thank you."

"My pleasure."

Callie shook her head, but Arizona saw the small smile she wore. Callie liked the way Arizona spoke to her.

Down into the parking lot again, and they slipped into the stuffy car. The windows rolled down; the sunroof open. It took some unblocking, but they made it open.

"Cheers."

Arizona gave Callie another crooked grin. The dim light of the car made it look just like the night they met. "Cheers. Here's to us."

Callie sighed. She took a swig of a brown can and grimaced. "You're all I've got right now."

Arizona frowned.

Callie shrugged.

"That's bullshit," Arizona answered.

"My family still won't talk to me. I called them last Christmas and all I got was a very long dial tone."

"You have your friends. You have Mark. Cristina."

Callie shrugged again, but chuckled. "Yeah."

Arizona chuckled too, and said, "Stop drinking that Monster like it's tequila. You're going to end up an alcoholic."

"I'm too broke to be an alcoholic."

Arizona snorted and cracked open her can too. "Same here."

Raining on their own parade, these stuffy nights out weren't particularly good for anyone. But they liked them.

…

Arizona always knew better then this, but she always did it anyways. At least, when it came around to Callie.

Because here Callie was, grown up from the woman she'd encountered almost a year ago in that noisy bar, still to be broken, now, looking so damn pretty in a silky camisole and laughing for the first time in the day. And she was laughing because of Arizona.

Callie's cheeks seemed always permanently stained pink, as though from a pomegranate, and Arizona already knew she was beautiful, but Callie was a different kind of beauty that redefined the word every next time they got to meet. It was weird.

She couldn't do this.

But hell, she wanted to.

And then her blood and her skin were boiling.

A cosmic force in a pretty outfit, making sure she sank too deep this time.

Callie's fingers were grasping onto her shirt, and it would be so easy to just close the tiny bit of reality separating them. So easy. She inhaled; Callie and the hot air inside this car. She exhaled; she was alive.

Callie was no longer just one night in a motel.

Callie paused too.

And then she reached forward with her other hand, grasping the front of Arizona's already rumpled shirt in her fists like a small child afraid to let go, and kissed her.

…

It was the bad day and the tiring rounds.

At least, that was what Callie told herself as she found herself too close to Arizona all over again, breathing the same air and feeling the heat roll of their skins.

There was no other way to explain it.

The three cups of coffee she'd poured down her throat that day weren't half as heady as Arizona's energy-drink-stained lips.

She was running out of breath, suddenly pressing into Arizona, kissing her before she could realise what was happening.

Callie wasn't disappointed when Arizona's hands reached for her immediately, pulling her closer, tighter, safer. The car wasn't big enough to contain the fire slowly igniting.

This was a different kind of alone then basement gurneys after a long day, but it was still a kind of alone that burned.

Arizona reached down behind her and backed the seat up as far as it would go, and Callie, getting the cue, climbed over the console. They both giggled when the horn blared through the empty parking lot, echoing into the empty night.

They had no idea what was happening.

Callie sharply inhaled when Arizona's hands landed on the small of her back, trapping her in her lap in the best way. Almost maliciously, she leant down and softly nibbled the side of Arizona's neck, allowing herself a small smile when Arizona released an almost silent growl.

She had no idea what was happening.