Chapter Three
June 4, 2018
Waking up the next morning felt strange. The apartment was quiet, signaling Arizona was the first one awake. She checked her phone, it was 6:48 AM. Her meeting was at 10 AM and there was another Callie-led tour between now and then. She was alone on the couch and she was neatly tucked in with her prosthetic propped up on the couch.
This was the last morning she would wake up under the same roof as her daughter for a while until her apartment would be available. And… Callie. She kissed her forehead last night. She kissed her. Arizona's stomach fluttered almost to the point of nausea. She pushed the thoughts away, focusing more on the day ahead. They had so much history between the two of them, it was impossible to remove every bit of affection between them.
Arizona looked up when she heard Callie's footsteps coming down the stairs. She was in her pajamas, a random pink t-shirt and some worn shorts that looked like they had seen better years. Arizona sat up, and brushed her hair haphazardly out of her face.
"Hey." Arizona yawned.
"Hey, you're up." Callie responded, letting her gaze remain on Arizona longer than she should've.
"Are you making coffee?" Arizona grumbled with her morning voice.
"You know it." She cheered.
"I'll take some." Arizona stretched her arms upwards, swinging her legs from under her, attached her prosthetic to her legs and slowly made her way to the kitchen island. She slumped her chin in the crook of her folded arm. "Since when are you an early bird?" Arizona groaned.
Callie chuckled. "Since when are you so grumpy in the morning?" The coffee maker began gurgling as Callie looked slyly over her shoulder at Arizona.
Arizona glared. "I am grumpy before my coffee." She paused. "I thought you were, too."
Callie looked over her shoulder and raised her eyebrow.
"How can you even stand New York coffee?" Arizona asked perplexed.
Callie just laughed. "It's definitely not as good as Seattle coffee, for sure. What else am I gonna do, not have coffee?"
"Ohh." Arizona mocked after a pause. "So that's why you are perky, you've had to evolve around the crappy coffee." She giggled.
"Yeah, that's it." Callie chuckled, the coffee pot began grumbling behind her. She turned and rested her forearms on the kitchen island, leaning toward where Arizona was sitting. "Remind me to show you the least bad coffee cart at the hospital today." She giggled.
Arizona smiled, although her eyes were still kind of puffy from just waking up. "Should I be excited or kind of worried about this infamous tour of Columbia-Pres you can't stop talking about?"
"Excited, of course." She smirked. "New is exciting and it's okay–it's good to be excited."
Arizona raised her eyebrow. She could think of many a times where new meant bad with a prettier bow. She should give it a chance, maybe ease up some of the monumental expectations and just be.
"Yes, and how exciting it is meeting with contractors and legal teams." Arizona groaned, stuffing her fist into her slightly swollen cheek. Obviously not looking forward to her meeting this morning. Not to mention, Nicole just happened to "accidentally" delay her flight out to New York for another almost two weeks, leaving all of the administrative work to Arizona.
Callie opened her mouth hesitantly. "Okay, you do need this." She said softly, pouring a hefty amount of coffee into a random blue mug and pouring some cream on top for Arizona. She slid it carefully over to Arizona, as if she might get hit with some of her morning grumpiness.
Arizona glared up at Callie, before swiftly grabbing her coffee mug with both hands. "Thank you." She said softer.
Callie just laughed before beginning to sip on her own coffee with substantially less cream. It was odd. There was a definite heaviness in the air that both women felt but neither acknowledged. They knew each other as wives or ex-wives, but here they were more like friends, and that was way too uncomfortable of a label for the two of them.
They had made it to the hospital no more than two hours later after getting ready and dropping Sofia off at a summer camp she could not stop talking about for weeks.
Callie and Arizona walked in the main entrance together, maintaining a more than healthy distance between them by habit, and Callie just stood silently to let Arizona take it all in. Man, it was big. Big and white, and a modern staircase perpendicular to the lobby leading up to the second floor. It was just any other hospital lobby, but this one was in New York, which seemed to carry a lot more significance than any aspect of the architecture in front of her.
"How was there even this much space in Manhattan to build this? It's huge, Callie." It was even bigger than Grey Sloan, partially why this giant white open plagued Arizona so much. It was oppressive and foreign, it made her feel small. She didn't partially own this hospital, she didn't know everyone here, she wasn't respected to some extent, but in the same breath, the thought of no one knowing her was oddly refreshing.
"Where's your big bad ortho floor?" Arizona forced out awkwardly.
"This way." Callie smirked and led Arizona to the nearby elevators.
"You know my expectations are high, right?" Arizona smirked.
Callie laughed.
"With how much you've bragged about having your own floor so much that Sofia told me about it, it better be amazing."
"Okay, well we are in New York, so it is a skyscraper, so a floor is technically true but it is not as big as–"
Arizona dramatically shook her head. "Sounds like an excuse to me, Callie." She tsked.
Callie's mouth fell aghast. "Hey! Well excuse me for still getting excited."
"I'm just saying, there are some pretty big shoes to fill, Torres."
Callie shuddered.
Once they finally got to the orthopedic surgery floor after an excruciatingly long elevator ride, Callie motioned her arms to offer a grand reveal as the doors opened behind her.
Arizona just chuckled and folded her arms. She leaned forward as if to request more information from Callie.
Callie took her time leading Arizona around her floor, being careful to show off her favorite exam rooms and her office that was shoved in the corner although the double windows made up for the cramped stature. Callie haphazardly threw a stack of papers that spattered across her office onto her desk chair, trying to clear up some space and reduce some of the obvious mess.
Arizona leaned over. "You're reading case studies?" She picked up one of the papers left on her desk. "'Structural bone allografts in oncological procedures'," she picked up another one, "'Talar neck non-union in an athlete successfully treated with a synthetic bone graft,' I'm sensing a theme."
Callie laughed politely. "I'm just doing some light reading."
Arizona furrowed her brow, leaning over and picking up another giant stack of papers, reading off each name as she flipped through the case studies and reports. "Callie, this isn't light reading."
"I'm thinking of getting back into research." Callie admitted softly. She was suddenly very grateful for the distance put between them by her stately wooden desk.
"And you have time for that?" Arizona asked with her mouth falling open.
"Yeah." Callie tried to steady her voice. "I've reduced my OR time, but they've given me a lab, and–"
"You have your own lab?" Arizona asked.
"Yes?" Callie said as a question. Truthfully, she had just recently cut down on her surgeries. When Sofia was back in Seattle it was easier to hole up in her office with stacks and stacks of case studies or in her lab messing with different compounds or playing with statistics than going home to an empty apartment.
"Show me it." Arizona smiled.
"It's not that exciting, it's just in the beginning phase of research. I don't even have anyone else working on it."
"It's research, it's new and exciting!" Arizona exclaimed. "Even if it's smaller than this, with a single lightbulb as the only light, and leftover test tubes, it's still exciting, Callie."
Callie tried to smile.
"So show me that lab."
"You want to see the lab?"
"What did I just say? Of course I want to see the lab." Arizona said, waving her arms in the air.
Callie laughed. She lingered her gaze on Arizona. Arizona was still able to make her smile, and Callie enjoyed this side of Arizona and she didn't realize how much she missed it until it was standing right in front of her again.
Once they got to the lab, down another elevator ride, Callie led Arizona to a decent sized room. Callie stood awkwardly behind Arizona as she took in the lab, two lab desks sitting parallel in the middle of the room.
"It's yellow? Cute." Arizona smiled at the cheery paint on the lower half of the lab benches.
Callie laughed as she watched Arizona walk around. She began flipping through her lab notebook she left on the counter.
"Callie, this is…" She paused as she read over Callie's work, "really good."
Callie laughed. "Stop stroking my ego."
Arizona chuckled. "Fine. Want to go back to your giant ortho 'floor?'"
"Okay, rude."
Arizona laughed.
"You still have more to see." Callie said, beginning to back her way into the hallway.
What struck Arizona was how many different floors there were. Callie was careful to lead Arizona to the elevator whenever they switched floors, a subtle reminder of her limited mobility began to irk Arizona at each floor change.
"Last stop because I know your meeting is soon and you'll want to be there a half hour early." Callie smirked.
Arizona scowled playfully at Callie. "Maybe." She admitted.
Callie brought Arizona into the OR gallery. Callie stood behind patiently as Arizona inspected each aspect of the OR.
Arizona shrugged. She tried picturing herself or Callie down there operating, but was coming up blank. It was a pretty standard OR, just something felt new and uneasy. At the same time, she didn't look at the OR and see herself, Callie, or Sofia on the table. She didn't have such vivid and horrific memories of these hallways, and this OR wasn't the one where she almost lost the two most important people in her life.
"Are you alright?" Callie asked hesitantly.
"Hmm?" Arizona shook her head.
"You zoned out for a second." Callie treaded lightly. "What are you thinking?"
"Oh, nothing." Arizona smiled politely. Callie's brown eyes looked a little too comfortable that she felt she could break down at that moment. Arizona checked her phone. "I got to go to my meeting." Arizona said awkwardly, huffing her breath.
"Good luck, but you don't need it." Callie smiled sweetly.
"Thanks." Arizona murmured awkwardly. She shook herself as she began her walk toward the conference room. This was a fresh start, she better not blow it.
One meeting down and what felt like hundreds before the Robbins Herman Clinic would even break ground, but Arizona let herself be excited nevertheless. Things were actually happening, her career was moving in a direction she wouldn't have expected years ago but she would be able to help in the way she had been yearning to for years. Not being under a large hospital was scary and being a standalone clinic responsible for the more menial tasks was overwhelming, but the thought of such independence outweighed the fears.
Not to mention, Arizona handled a meeting all on her own and did it gracefully. Not once did she let up on her vision and yet she was kind and sincere. She never let worry into her voice or her mindset. On a personal note, she was very proud of herself. She was making things happen and wasn't falling to pieces under the pressure or threat of authority.
Riding on this high, she wandered the hallways on her own for a while. Peaking into each room or suite as she walked by. She tried to picture herself here, even just for a few months before the clinic was up and running. She pictured Sofia doing homework at the nurses station on the ortho floor and waiting for her mom to be done with surgery. Clearly, this is where Callie's life lived now and now it had to be where Sofia and Arizona's did too. This could work. It was just like any other city and any other hospital.
When Arizona made her way past the gallery, she peaked her head in. A pink and red scrub cap caught her gaze. She smiled before slowly sneaking in and sitting down in the center of the gallery.
It was so odd to watch Callie in the OR again. Back in Seattle, she would vehemently avoid any of Callie's surgeries after their divorce, but here, Callie was all she had. It was hard not to remember how much she used to love watching Callie's surgery. Her hands were so beautiful, surgically speaking, yet she was so strong at the same time. Arizona enjoyed Callie's more intense surgeries with mallets and less graceful looking manurers, but it was cases like these, the complex and delicate cases that showed off Callie's beautiful technical ability.
Callie was an amazing surgeon. Arizona just smiled smally watching her carefully repair a complex fracture on this woman's tibia. It was a little embarrassing how much Arizona was awed by Callie at this moment. She sat next to perfect strangers in the gallery all watching her ex-wife as she commanded an OR and carefully and meticulously correcting an absolutely shattered end of a tibia. None of those people knew their story, and as the surgery progressed, Arizona let go of bits of it herself. Callie was just this surgeon and Arizona was just watching her perform surgery.
It was maybe twenty minutes since Arizona had sat down before Callie even looked up, but when she did and she did a quick glance at the gallery, a blonde head surprised her. She couldn't help but smile under her surgical mask. Arizona just watched in awe as she continued her surgery, the way she stuck out her palm asking for a new instrument and the way she precisely manipulated the destroyed tibia to restore its function. Callie changed people's lives. Maybe bad knees or shattered joints wouldn't kill you, but without fixing, you would painfully notice. Without Callie, Arizona noticed.
"Hey, I didn't think I'd see you in my gallery." Callie said hesitantly. Arizona had come to the scrub room once Callie finished her surgery and was scrubbing out.
Arizona shrugged. "Where else was I supposed to go?" She asked. "Because trying to find the least bad coffee cart was not on my agenda."
Callie just laughed. She tilted her head to the side slightly and smiled with her lips together.
"You're a good surgeon, Callie." Arizona said quietly.
"Thank you." Callie chuckled slightly out of surprise.
"It was really nice to watch your surgery." Arizona said genuinely with a straight expression.
"Really?" Callie asked hopefully.
"Yeah." Arizona nodded sweetly.
Callie slowly untied her scrub cap and pulled it off her head. Arizona was pleasantly surprised to see she still kept the same scrub cap, and underneath she braided her hair the same as she did many moons ago. Maybe all that distance and time didn't change so much after all.
"After you get your interim position here, I'll be there in the gallery for your first surgery." She promised.
Arizona raised her eyebrow. "Oh, really?"
"Yeah." She smiled. "And maybe I'll tell you you're a good surgeon too."
"Maybe?" Arizona asked, offended. "Did you forget?"
"Did you?" Callie smirked.
Arizona smiled as she shook her head. "I didn't forget, per se, just it reminded me you're a good surgeon not just a surgeon."
"Okay, well then maybe I'll have the same revelation for you too." She teased.
"I am a good surgeon, Callie!" Arizona whined.
"I'm not saying you're not, just maybe I forgot like apparently you did." She bantered.
Arizona giggled under her fluster.
"I'm starting a world-renowned clinic, you know."
"I'll believe it when I see it, Robbins." She joked.
"Ignoring!" Arizona announced. "Can I borrow your car so I can move my stuff to my hotel room?"
"Sure." Callie said, jarred by the tonal shift.
"I'll pick up Sofia from camp today, too, I'm sure she'll have lots to say about her big day." Callie smiled. "I'll just bring her back to your place and we can hang out there for a bit."
"Sure, the spare keys are on the hook by the front door."
"Thank you, Callie." Arizona smiled softly.
Callie maintained eye contact until the moment Arizona turned her head away.
Callie was in trouble. Teasing Arizona and seeing her smile was making her a little too excited. She balled up her fist, digging her nails into her palm until it hurt. Callie took a deep breath, exhaling loudly trying to relax. Callie's stomach tightened when she had seen Arizona in her gallery.
Just ten minutes away, Arizona pouted as she stood in the elevator. The only other company in the tiny elevator was her two bulky suitcases. It was a little more than cumbersome to maneuver the luggage into the elevator while her purse hung from her shoulder and she needed to fish out her room key. She tried to steady her breath as all she could think of was Callie. She had made it so easy and comfortable so far and that was terrifying.
The elevator dinged at her floor and she awkwardly dragged her bags behind her, she scoured the number on each door until she found hers at the end of the far hallway.
It was a nice room, or rather, suite. It had a small kitchen and a little living area off of which had the bedroom off of it. It would just be a week here.
Arizona plopped herself onto the firm sofa. Her mind returned to her ex-wife. Ugh, she was done for.
June 7th, 2018
For the next few days, their lives diverged. Arizona continued to live in her hotel room and made her way to several random exciting yet sometimes mind-numbingly boring meetings. Callie resumed her typical work week, although this week filled with particularly dull and grueling procedures. Arizona often made her way to Callie's apartment to spend as much time as possible with Sofia– her hotel room wasn't really set up to move their seven year old in for the week or so it would be until Arizona was able to move into her more permanent apartment. Usually, Callie would wait for Arizona to be done with her latest meeting and they would drive back to Callie's apartment together, before Arizona would retreat to her hotel later.
This particular Thursday, Callie was waiting for Arizona outside of her boardroom, leaning against the wall behind her. She groaned and tightened her eyes, her back was sore and her head was aching.
"Was your day as exciting as mine?" Arizona joked. Stacking her wads of paper on top of each other in her arms.
"Oh, definitely." Callie said, rubbing her forehead. "I'm kind of sick of knee replacements, that's all I see now."
"I thought you liked those?" Arizona raised her eyebrow.
"I do when I'm not exhausted." She slumped forward dramatically. "Having to hammer bones while I'm dragging is not nearly as fun." She pouted. Arizona noticed how particularly low Callie's voice was, how mellifluous it flowed from her mouth, yet how it seemed to deepen with exhaustion or stress.
"I haven't even been in an OR for a week." Arizona groaned. "So you can't complain." She snickered.
"You watched that trauma case I got on Monday, so basically as exciting, right?" Callie poked.
"Oh yeah." She laughed. She caved into herself for a moment. Remembering how it felt to watch Callie in that OR, forgetting for a few hours that they were ever divorced or that they even knew each other.
"Let's go get a drink. It's been a long day." Callie sighed after a beat.
Arizona raised her brow.
"Friends can get drinks with friends, you weirdo." She smacked her arm. "And Sofia's at a sleepover."
"You're paying." Arizona smirked.
Callie laughed. "I would expect no less."
Callie's eyes widened so much that the whites of her eyes began to sparkle under the dim bar lights.
"What?" Arizona perplexed.
Callie tipped her head to behind Arizona, and awkwardly sipped on her wine.
Arizona turned around in her chair to be met with a scruffy man in a pink button up. His lips looked as if permanently smirked and his eyes were intrusively intense. "Oh, god." Arizona said under her breath. She heard Callie's giggle behind her.
"Hey, I saw you from across the bar and I just had to ask: are you as beautiful on the inside as you are on the out?" He said smugly, winking.
Arizona's mouth fell open awkwardly. "Wow." Arizona groaned. Callie laughed loudly.
"I'm Michael, it's nice to meet you."
"Uh-huh." She nodded.
"So what's your name?" He smiled.
"Arizona." She said stiffly. A look back at Callie only stiffened her expression further and increased Callie's hysterical giddy.
"Is that why you're so hot?" He said, forcing his voice lower.
Callie choked on her wine and began to cough.
"Oo, okay…" She sighed. "You're really proud of that one." Arizona glared back at Callie at the eruption of a particularly hearty laugh, kicking her shin swiftly.
"Ow!" Callie yelped, but swiftly resumed her laughing fit.
"I know I'm nice to look at, but how about you give me your number and I can see you later?"
Arizona laughed uncomfortably. "Huh, so, Michael, I'm just enjoying a drink here, and–" Michael began to sit down next to her. "Nope, you don't need to do that." Callie snorted loudly.
He pulled out his phone, "What did you say your number was?" He insisted.
"I didn't give it to you." Arizona smiled sarcastically.
He sat there impatiently with an optimistic smile.
"I'm not interested, I'm just trying to relax with a friend." She hissed. The word friend was truly weird to be associated with Callie. They've been girlfriends, wives, ex-wives, and co-parents but never friends.
His face dropped and he pouted as he solemnly walked away.
Arizona dropped her mouth open as she turned back to face Callie. "Wow." She sighed.
Callie just laughed loudly.
"Oh, quit it!" Arizona scolded.
Callie smiled guiltily, taking another sip of her wine.
Arizona sat there pretending to gag, her head was slumped over onto the bar.
She looked up at Callie to just see a smirking, giggling face, and she rolled her eyes and reverted back to her slump.
"Shut up, Callie." She groaned through gritted teeth.
Callie waved her hand to the bartender. "Could we get another round?"
Arizona smiled as she shook her head and laughed in disbelief.
When the next white wine was placed in front of her, she couldn't help but basically chug it. Callie watched with an open mouth.
"You're gonna feel that tomorrow."
"It's okay, as long as I can forget that that just happened." She shuddered.
Callie just laughed harder and harder.
"Oh, you shut up." Arizona scolded.
Callie stumbled as she laughed walking down the street. Just as the alcohol really began to hit them, they decided to leave the bar.
"He was like 25 at most." Arizona shook her head and sniffled her nose in disgust, still stuck on his horrible flirting techniques.
Callie snorted, "Oh my god. That was maybe one of the best moments of my life."
Arizona glared at Callie. "I mean, where do straight men get their confidence? And to think that was decent flirting?" She scoffed.
Callie wiped some tears from her eyes.
Arizona looked over at Callie and studied her for a moment. Her giant smile as her unrestrained laughter poured from her mouth. Her eyes sparkled almost comically under the streetlamps.
"Next time we're going to a gay bar." Arizona groaned.
"I think women would still hit on you." Callie chuckled.
"But man, it would have to be better than that." She shuddered.
"I don't know. This one woman hit on me by complimenting my earlobes." Callie chuckled.
Arizona turned back to face Callie, looking intently at her earlobes. "Oh yeah, those are some quality earlobes, Cal." She said jokingly with a low voice. Callie batted at her arms. When Arizona turned away to continue walking down the street, she felt a weird pang at the thought of someone hitting on Callie, and she was all of a sudden painfully aware that they were in NYC because of Callie's ex-girlfriend.
Suddenly painfully conscious of people flirting with Callie and remembering everything she saw after they divorced. Suddenly feeling the need to bolster her romantic life.
"Do you know what ghosting is?" Arizona asked, the alcohol feeling like it kicked in right at the perfect time. Well she didn't mean to bring up the negative part, but, Arizona and alcohol didn't often mix well.
"Like when somon' ditches you?" Callie slurred.
Arizona pouted. "You knew what that meant?" She exclaimed.
Callie raised an eyebrow with a stoic look on her face. "You didn't?"
"No." Arizona said meekly, she tucked her chin into her chest.
"Did you get ghosted?" Callie asked.
"Maybe." She admitted slowly.
"It's okay, one day someone will compliment your earlobes." Callie smirked.
Arizona pulled her hair back behind her ears. "Are they pretty qual'ty?" Arizona joked.
"Ehh." Callie laughed.
Arizona smacked Callie's arm. "Hey!"
One day someone would, maybe, but clearly, it wouldn't be Callie.
"Would you think I was straight?" Arizona asked out of the blue.
Callie chuckled inwardly.
"If you didn't know me, obviously." Her words all slurred together, the alcohol beginning to really take its effect.
Callie started to laugh uncontrollably.
"Hey, it's a serious question!" Arizona hit Callie's arm.
"I didn't know you before I knew you weren't straight." She knitted her eyebrows. "Or I knew you and knew you weren't not straight." She confused herself.
"Okay, but picture me, and forget you know me." She tried to stabilize herself as she wobbled down the sidewalk.
That request hit Callie differently. How everything could change and be smoothed out if only they could forget who they were.
"I don't know, I guess you give off the vibes." Callie slurred.
"The vibes?" Arizona rubbed her head. "Like gaydar?" She asked seriously.
"Yeah, sure." Callie answered equally as seriously.
Arizona burst out into laughter.
"We need to go to bed." Callie held back her own roaring laughter.
"Moms night out is coming to an end." Arizona pouted.
When they made their way up to Callie's apartment, the idea of going back to her hotel room didn't even cross Arizona's mind. She stumbled into the guest bedroom which at this point was practically her own.
Callie stopped for a moment at Arizona's entryway.
"It's nice going out to a bar with a friend again."
"'Cause Imma awesome friend." Arizona drew, saying as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Callie snickered. "Sure." She enjoyed how easily Arizona established herself in her guest bedroom. "We're going to feel like hell tomorrow morning."
"Yeah." Arizona pouted. "But that t'morrow Arizona's problem." She shrugged.
She giggled. "Okay, then. Good night, you dork." She smiled before heading her way upstairs for the night.
Drunk Arizona could go one of several ways, but pouty Arizona was one of Callie's favorites, for sure. Arizona really could be an amazing friend and a co-parent, she was fun and it was nice interacting with her without some giant issue looming over them.
Her head hit her pillow hard after changing into her pajamas but she just smiled.