for a tumblr anon: "callie taking care of a sick, bratty arizona set in s5" title from vance joy's "missing piece" set vaguely between the wedding and the s5 finale, idk don't think too much about it, it'll be easier
because when i'm in a room with you (that missing piece is found)
Everything hurt and Arizona was pretty sure she was dying. Like, she was almost positive she was dying. Which, for the record, actively sucked. In case there was any confusion about that. Her entire body ached and her head was almost beyond words. She wanted to cry, but crying also seemed like it'd be so much extra effort and energy that she just did not possess.
So yep, Arizona was dying.
That didn't seem dramatic at all.
With a slight whimper, she rolled onto her side and immediately regretted every choice that had led her to this moment in time as sunshine (which, by the way, why was it freaking sunny in freaking Seattle?) hit the pillow next to her. The regret was only slightly outpaced by the unsettling nausea and the fuzzy feeling in her head.
Why had she chosen this stupid apartment with its stupid windows that let in the stupid sun?
It was, well, stupid.
On some theoretical level, Arizona knew there were words other than stupid. In fact, in a slightly more put together state, she probably could've given a whole variety of synonyms. Arizona had done very well on her SATs, especially the vocabulary. She couldn't remember her score, but it had been good, or at least, she remembered it being good.
Arizona flung an arm over her eyes in a weak attempt to block out the early morning sun.
God, that had been so long ago. She was practically a baby then. Arizona snickered into her arm. Now she saved babies. For some reason, the idea of her seventeen year old self trying to do her current job was nothing short of comical. Her nerdy, try hard, awkward seventeen year old self with pink bits in her hair because a pretty girl had asked if she could practice on Arizona's hair.
"What's so funny?"
"Jesus Christ!" Arizona yelped, managing to keep her arm over her eyes in a strange burst of self preservation. She lifted her arm ever so slightly so she could see Callie standing at her bedside, annoyingly put together and smiling. Well, Callie's smile wasn't annoying; in fact, it was really pretty, super pretty even.
Callie nudged Arizona's hip until she shifted enough to make room for Callie on the edge of the bed. Callie sipped at one of the coffees in her hands and Arizona wasn't entirely sure if she was jealous or if she just wanted to throw up.
"I think 'm dying," Arizona mumbled, half into her pillow.
"What?"
"'m dying," Arizona repeated as Callie brushed some of her hair away from her face and Callie's fingers were cool and felt like magic on her overheated skin.
"You're hungover."
Arizona shook her head a bit and hated herself immensely for it. "Don't get hungover. 'm dyin'."
"Okay, so you're hungover and dramatic."
"You're hungover and dramatic," Arizona parroted back for lack of anything better to say. "'m awesome."
"You threw up for like two hours straight and said you wanted to be part of the earth." A brief, deeply unfortunate flash of a memory of dizziness and nausea surfaced. "I mean, it was kinda cute."
Arizona, by some miracle, managed to raise an eyebrow. Or at least she liked to think she managed it.
Callie laughed a bit and okay, Arizona really didn't mind that noise. "It was cute when you were babbling and talking, the throwing up, less cute, but I've seen worse."
Arizona let out a groan and tried to roll away from Callie with as much grace as she could muster, which, spoiler alert, was very, very little. Callie ran a hand up and down Arizona's back and it just fine so nice, but then she remembered that she had apparently been so drunk she got sick. In front of Callie, who she really, really, really liked. And who apparently thought she was cute.
"I wanna die," mumbled Arizona.
"I thought you were already dying."
"Calliope."
Callie laughed again and that did wonders for Arizona's aching head. "Sorry, I won't tease. Do you want some coffee? Or something to eat? I went out for food because you apparently only have baby carrots and frozen chicken nuggets in your apartment, which, Arizona, as a doctor, that's concerning."
This was really not how Callie spending the night at her place for the first time was supposed to go. For starters, she probably would have preferred not to get sick. And she would've gone to the grocery store. And she would've cleaned up a bit and made sure there wasn't anything even vaguely embarrassing out (and she was like 96% certain her toys were out and she was not ready for that conversation with Callie yet). And again, she wouldn't have gotten sick.
"Anyway, I've never been over here, I didn't realize how close to the water you are. It's nice." Callie's fingers idly played with Arizona's hair and Arizona couldn't remember the last time someone played with her hair, but it felt so nice. "I did steal your keys, but honestly, I didn't think you'd mind. You were completely passed out."
Arizona's eyebrows pinched together as she tried to remember if she had cigarettes in her purse.
"I don't mind," Arizona said, her voice still hoarse from the previous night. "But I don't think I can eat."
"I think you should try, swee-" Callie cut herself off quickly. Arizona twisted around slightly to see a very pretty blush coloring Callie's cheeks. "You'll probably feel better with something in your stomach," Callie rushed out, nearly stumbling over the words. "I may have gone a bit overboard at the bakery, the one like a block and a half from here?" Arizona nodded along. "But I wasn't really sure what you'd want, and everything looked really good." Callie smiled tentatively, her nervousness completely endearing.
Arizona, with no small effort, managed to turn fully back to Callie, vaguely motioning for Callie to sit or lie down against the headboard. Once Callie was situated, Arizona moved her head to Callie's leg, noting how Callie froze for a split second before relaxing once more. Callie's hand fell easily back into her hair and Arizona didn't feel like she was dying so much anymore.
"'m sorry I got sick." Arizona couldn't even remember the last time she got sick from drinking. Probably in college. Arizona normally prided herself on her ability to hold her drink.
Callie brushed her finger over Arizona's temple. "It's okay. I had a lot of fun, honestly. Well, before you got sick, but before then I was having a great time."
Arizona scrubbed a hand over her face, trying to place all the discordant memories flashing through her mind. She had just wanted to take Callie out for a drink somewhere other than the bar across from the hospital. But she also was fairly certain she had come straight from a six hour surgery and had only eaten a yogurt at breakfast and a half bag of chips sometime around lunch. Maybe Callie was right to be worried about her diet.
Callie gently tugged out the knots in Arizona's hair and she couldn't help but lean into her touch. There was just something about Callie that felt safe. Callie's fingers caught and tugged a bit, causing Arizona to whimper as the slight pain fed directly into the uncomfortable pounding in her head. Callie mumbled an apology softly.
Arizona let her eyes drift shut, absently matching her breathing with Callie's. It was so much more pleasant in the dark, with the soft smell of Callie's laundry detergent and perfume surrounding her. Arizona sighed, the ache in her body receding slightly.
"What do you want to do today?" Callie asked, "Wait, you don't have work or anything, right? D'you need me to call you in or some-"
"Shh, Calliope, too loud," Arizona said, "and no, I'm not working today. I don't usually drink, well, not like that at least, before work."
Callie resumed her combing through Arizona's hair as she said, "I didn't think you would. But you never know. Were you there when Shepherd kicked Taylor out for drinking?"
"Yeah, it was my first week and Kenley wanted to show off about Shepherd. Kinda backfired. I think Webber thought I was gonna quit and run back to Hopkins. Which I did kinda think about."
"Hm, I'm glad you didn't… I mean, as in, not like…. I'm…."
Arizona pushed herself up a bit so she could meet Callie's gaze, even as Callie tried to look away, her cheeks stained pink. "Are you saying you're glad I stayed in Seattle so you could meet me, and I could give you mindblowing orgasms, Calliope? That's so sweet," she couldn't help but tease, especially when Callie looked so pretty. "Or were you just thinking of the poor sick tiny humans of Seattle?"
"You're ridiculous," Callie grumbled, rolling her eyes a bit. "But yes, I was talking about the hospital, of course."
Arizona's bottom lip jutted out as she leaned closer to Callie. "I think you're lying, Calliope," she sang. Faster than Arizona's admittedly still groggy mind could handle, Callie rolled on top of her, pinning Arizona to the bed. "This is fun," Arizona said with a laugh as Callie hovered over her, her hair falling over Arizona.
A soft sort of smile crossed Callie's expression and Arizona found herself smiling back brightly.
But then a strange sort of reluctance, maybe even nervousness appeared in Callie's eyes and Arizona's smile faded. Callie pulled away, mumbling out an apology. Callie moved to lay next to her, their fingers brushing together.
Arizona had no clue what to do, or if she had done something wrong. God… had she done something dumb last night? Callie had seemed fine only moments ago, but now… now, she wasn't sure.
Cautiously, Arizona let their fingers brush together, and then tangle together, gently squeezing Callie's fingers.
Arizona swallowed back whatever emotion rose immediately to the surface, some twist of nerves and regret and dread and excitement. "Calliope?" Arizona ventured, mindful to keep her voice soft. "Did I… if I said something wrong, I don't…." Maybe it was the hangover, maybe it was just nerves, but she found herself rushing out, "I just… I don't want to mess this up, and maybe I'm just overthinking because I feel like crap, but I really like you, Calliope, and I don't want to… I don't know…." Arizona trailed off, her mind not able to catch up with her mouth, and everything just felt foggy.
The silence stretched on for what felt like ages, but may have only been a few moments before Callie squeezed her fingers back. "I really like you too," it was barely above a whisper, but in the quiet morning sunlight, it was clear as day. Callie propped herself up on an elbow to look at Arizona. "Are you hungry?"
Arizona blinked up at her, not quite processing her words for a beat. "Um, I could try to eat, I guess."
"I probably should've asked this before, but are you one of those people who doesn't like food in bed? 'Cause I know we had pizza at mine, but obviously, that was my apartment and I don't mind, but you might and-"
"Callie, Callie, I don't care, honestly."
"Oh, okay, that's good." Callie helped Arizona up into a sitting position, their shoulders and hips pressed together as they leaned against the headboard. "What sounds good to you? I got a couple breakfast sandwiches, and some pastries. Oh, and coffee, can't forget the coffee."
"Hm, maybe a sandwich. Sugar sounds kinda gross."
Callie passed her a sandwich wrapped in paper and Arizona tried to eat it, but the nausea limited her ability to eat more than a few bites. Instead, she found herself resting her head on Callie's shoulder, letting her eyes drift shut a bit. Callie nudged her with her knee and Arizona opened her eyes. "Hm?"
"Try to eat a bit more."
"Don't wanna," and even as she said it, Arizona knew she was being childish, but her stomach and her head both hurt and sleep sounded nice.
"You'll feel better if you eat something."
"I really hate when people say that. It's, it's completely unhelpful, like when you've got a headache and someone says you should've drank more water before. Like, yes, thank you, Barbara, if I had the power of foresight, I would've had water before my head started hurting," even to her own ears, Arizona could hear the clear whine in her voice, but really, she felt awful and miserable and this was definitely not hot.
"Isn't your mom's name Barbara?" Arizona groaned, hiding her face against Callie's shoulder. "Wait, wait, do you call your parents by their first names? Are you one of those kids?"
"First off, I'm not a kid-" she could already feel the snarky comment rising in Callie, so she neatly cut her off, "and if you imply I'm childish, that's rude. Secondly…." Arizona trailed off, her foggy brain uncertain what her second point had been. "Um, oh right, no, I'm not one of those kids." Arizona shuddered slightly at the thought of actually calling her parents Barbara and Daniel to their faces. Her mom might laugh it off, but under the surface, Arizona just knew she'd be fuming. And the Colonel… well, she barely even called him Dad half the time, so God only knows how well that'd go.
Callie let out a burst of laughter, her whole body moving with it. "Sorry, I'm just imagining calling my dad Carlos to his face. He'd-"
"Put you through a wall?"
Callie pinched Arizona's leg. "No, that honor is reserved for people I've slept with."
"I could take your dad in a fight."
Callie twisted slightly to look at her, eyebrows raised. "No offense or anything, but you're kinda, I dunno, scrawny." Callie wound their fingers together, lifting their entwined hands as if that was an example. "Not that my dad's a violent guy or anything, but Mark's a big guy and he practically took his head off. Are you pouting right now? Over the fact that I think my dad would beat you in a fight?"
"I don't pout, for the record-" Callie brushed a finger over Arizona's bottom lip. "Not funny, Calliope. But yeah, I could take him. I've got a 92 percent success rate. I haven't lost a fight since 1985. I'm a total badass."
"You're wearing pyjamas with tiny pink hearts." Callie plucked at the material of Arizona's shorts before letting her hand rest on Arizona's upper thigh. "Also, wait, you have a what success rate?"
"92 percent."
"What? How… Arizona, how many fights have you been in?" Callie tipped Arizona's face towards her with a few fingers under her chin, carefully examining her features.
"I haven't been in one recently," Arizona said with a shake of her head. "And 32."
"32?"
"32 fights."
"And you calculated how many you won."
"Yep."
"That's… actually, I don't know what that is. Were you initiating these fights?"
Arizona rolled her eyes and sighed heavily. "My name is Arizona."
"Hi, my name's Callie? What does that have to do with you being a baby boxer?"
"Honestly, you'd think you were the one with a hangover. You're telling me that no obnoxious kid on the playground thought your name was funny? Not one. I mean, I lo- your name is great. Calliope is an awesome name. But to a third grader?"
Callie shrugged. "There weren't fights at my school." Arizona raised an eyebrow. "What? I'm serious. I think I saw one fight the whole time I went there. And I was there from first grade to the end of high school."
"You're joking."
"And to think, Izzie Stevens thought I was going to kick her ass. Clearly, I should've just tracked down some peds surgeon."
Arizona turned fully to face Callie, crossing her legs under her. "Wait, wait, back up, you and Izzie Stevens got in a fight?"
Callie huffed a breath out, idly reaching for one of Arizona's hands and playing with her fingers a bit. "She thought I was going to beat her up in the cafeteria. It was humiliating."
Arizona, had she been in a better state, would not have blurted out, "Holy shit, that was you guys?" Unfortunately, Arizona's mind was approximately two yards behind her mouth at the moment and apparently every ounce of good sense with it. In a poor attempt to backpedal, Arizona continued, "I mean… I heard that an intern and the chief resident almost got in a fight, but I didn't realise… honestly, kind of thought it was Bailey…" Callie just watched as she dug herself further into a hole. "Would it make you feel better if I told you I got in a fight when I was chief resident?" She offered with a weak smile.
"Are you done?"
Arizona took the out and nodded.
"I just wanted to talk. Because unlike some," she pinned Arizona with a pointed look, the hint of a smile tugging at her mouth, "I was taught to solve my issues with my words. But Izzie told everyone we were going to fight, and, and-"
"You would've won," Arizona declared.
"Are you speaking from your apparent decades of scrapping?"
"Mhm. Izzie probably fights dirty-"
"No shit."
"But you're way stronger than her. Your job is literally breaking bones-"
"That's literally the opposite of my job and it is mildly concerning that you think that-"
"Shh, I'm proving a point here-"
"That I could've broken Izzie Stevens' bones?"
"And you work with power tools all the time, which, by the way, hot, in case I haven't mentioned that-"
"You haven't."
"Okay, well, I'm mentioning it now."
"Noted, continue."
"Where was I?"
"Power tools."
"Oh yes, power tools. You work with power tools and heavy things all day in high stress scenarios. You don't even need to go to the gym because you're already super strong and-"
"Let me guess, that's super hot?"
"Has anyone ever told you it's rude to interrupt?"
"Yes, of course, Miss Apolline covered it extensively."
"Who's Miss Apolline?"
"My sister and my etiquette teacher."
"We had very different childhoods."
"She only lasted a few weeks before Aria scared her off."
"You're very distracting, did you know that?"
"You told me like five times last night that I was too pretty and I made you walk into a doorway a few months ago, which I would like to circle back to at some point because we hadn't met then."
"What do you want me to say? That I saw a really pretty girl and walked into a wall? Because, honestly, not exactly the first time it's happened."
"Wow, you really know how to make a girl feel special."
"But you're the prettiest?"
"Nice save." Callie tugged Arizona in by the front of her shirt for a brief, almost chaste kiss.
"You keep distracting me."
"You were saying I'm super hot."
"Well, yeah, but you're hot and strong so you would've totally won that fight. If you had wanted to fight. Since evidently, you're a pacifist."
"How do you make pacifist sound like a bad thing?"
Arizona shrugged one shoulder, swaying a bit towards Callie. "All I'm saying is if there's a bar fight, I don't think you'll be much help."
Callie caught her shoulders, holding her still. "Arizona Robbins, have you been in a bar fight?"
She kinda had, well, Tim sort of had been and she had been meeting Tim, and maybe kinda walked into the middle of the bar fight. But Callie didn't even know she had a brother yet.
"Um, no?"
"You are not a good liar."
"My head hurts."
Callie's expression softened a bit. "Do you want something? Advil? I could run out and pick up some Gatorade. Because to reiterate you have no food in your kitchen. Do you not cook?" Callie perked up and she grinned brightly. "I could totally teach you how to cook. I only just started because I grew up with my mom and our chefs," Arizona fought the urge to make some snarky comment because wow, that was deeply unrelatable, "but I think it's pretty good. You liked that pasta I made for you, right?"
"Yeah, it was great." So what if that was a bit of a white lie?
"So it's a date then. We can cook something together and I can teach you."
Callie seemed genuinely so excited, Arizona didn't have the heart to tell her that her mom had her helping with meals since she was tall enough to stand on a stool at the counter. If Callie wanted to teach her how to cook, then Arizona would learn how to cook from Callie. And really, any time she got to spend with Callie was amazing. And maybe she could fix Callie's seasoning so the dish wasn't… well, what it had been.
"As excited as I am, can we maybe not talk about food?" Arizona asked as her stomach twisted uncomfortably. Arizona moved back against Callie's side as if Callie could ward off any vestiges of illness. "Wanna watch a movie or something?"
"Can you make it to the couch?"
"I think I'll live."
"Glad to hear it, Doctor."
"Don't call me doctor."
"You are a doctor though."
"Thanks for the update. It's weird though. I wouldn't call you Dr. Torres unless we were in front of a patient. Or I was really annoyed with you. Unless you have a doctor fetish or something. Oh my God, do you have a doctor fetish?"
Callie furrowed her brow as she stood to her feet, offering Arizona a hand. "That's a thing?"
"You would be shocked."
"Are you speaking from experience?"
"I really wish I wasn't." Arizona let Callie pull her to her feet into a hug, the warmth of Callie's body soothing any dizziness.
"You sure you're going to make it?" Callie let Arizona lean into her as they made their way out to the living room. "Are you limping?"
"No?"
"You're totally limping. I don't think you fell or anything last night."
Arizona glanced down at her own legs in confusion, trying to place what Callie could be talking about. "Oh, oh, no, it's not from last night-"
"What? When did you hurt yourself? Did you get checked out?"
Arizona let out a laugh, leaning more against Callie. "In the early nineties, and yes, I got checked out. It's just an old knee injury."
With a sigh, Arizona dropped onto her couch, letting her eyes drift shut for a moment. She could feel Callie sitting next to her and all Arizona wanted was to lie down and have Callie hold her.
"What do you want to watch?"
"Nothing too intense, or scary. Definitely not scary."
"You don't like scary movies?"
"You do?"
Callie nodded intently. "How can you not like scary movies?"
"Because they're scary," Arizona replied as if that was the most obvious thing in the world, which, in her opinion, it sort of was. "How about a romcom?" Callie shrugged and Arizona took that as a yes. She squinted at the haphazard stacks of DVDs on her bookshelves. "You've Got Mail?" She suggested, picking the first title she saw.
Callie took it upon herself to set the movie up, clearly deciding it'd be too much for Arizona. Once the title sequence started, Callie moved back to the couch, taking a spot against the arm.
Arizona moved closer until she was half on top of Callie and Callie had gone back to playing with her hair.
Arizona swallowed back a yawn unsuccessfully. Between the warmth and comfort Callie was providing and the general exhaustion that seemed to permeate her very being, it was all too easy to let the movie turn into white noise as she focused on Callie's breath and heartbeat.
It just felt right.
xx
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much love xx