Widow Robbins
Chapter 5
Arizona filled her large mug with coffee for the second time. She'd had a restless night, tossing and turning through most of it. She told herself it was because the house was too quiet and empty, but she knew that was a lie. There were plenty of nights when the girls spent the night with their grandparents, or sometimes at a friend's house. It wasn't necessarily a regular occurrence, but it did happen, moreso when she'd been in residency.
She leaned back against the kitchen counter and sighed. It was mornings like this that she missed Jillian. It was actually the companionship, the conversation she missed and she immediately felt guilty for even thinking that. She loved Jillian, but she'd been gone for almost three years. I'm lonely, Arizona thought. I love my daughters and love being with them but I miss adult conversations and having friends, real friends.
This was not how it was supposed to be. She and Jillian had planned it all out. Jillian would get pregnant first while AZ did her residency, and then after she completed her fellowship, it would be her turn - this time she'd carry Jillian's baby. But those plans had changed quickly when Jillian had surprisingly gotten pregnant on the first IVF attempt. They adjusted, however, to that change. Jillian became a stay-at-home mom sooner than they expected and Arizona threw herself into her internship and then later, her residency. They were supposed to do it all together. She wasn't supposed to be a single parent with twins without any friends.
She sighed again and took another sip of coffee. She hadn't really found the time to make any friends during her residency. She had acquaintances and colleagues, but no true friends. The first two years of it she'd been so busy and every spare moment she had she spent with Jillian and the twins. Then Jillian had died and her life became all about work and her girls. There'd been no time for anything else.
And now she and the girls were starting all over again; she at a new job, the girls at a new daycare. Cam and Vivvy hadn't had any trouble making new friends at the Seattle Grace daycare. She, on the other hand, didn't even know the parents of the other children at the daycare, except Bailey. The girls had befriended the chief resident's son, and the only reason Arizona knew that was because she'd run into her one evening picking up the girls.
Maybe Addison was right. Maybe she needed to make more of an effort to make friends, or at least people she could occasionally socialize with. She thought about who she had been working with since she started at Seattle Grace. She really liked working with Addison, and thought that they were on their way to at the very least a professional friendship. But Addison was leaving in a few weeks. She needed friends who were going to be around more than short term.
Bailey (Arizona had learned early on to not call her Miranda) was a good doctor and surgeon. That didn't necessarily mean a good person. Arizona knew lots of doctors that were great surgeons but horrible people (Erica came to mind immediately). The chief resident could be prickly, and not particularly what one would call a 'warm and fuzzy' type of person, but Arizona knew she was a good person. She also had something in common with Arizona; they were both mothers. Maybe she could work on forming a friendship with her.
She wondered if that was why she was drawn to Callie, having a friendship with her. Without realizing it, a smile came to Arizona's face when she thought about the resident. There were times when she thought that she maybe, possibly, wanted more than friendship with Callie. Immediately, her mind conjured the Ortho resident's smiling features. She shook her head when her mental gazing started to venture below the neckline. That was ridiculous! She didn't need to even think those thoughts. She didn't need to ruin the one friendship she did have.
She looked at the clock and knew it was just a matter of minutes before the girls would be running through the door. Their day would soon be filled with soccer, lunch and dance, followed by a movie after dinner. It would be nice to spend a whole day with her daughters.
Arizona was so lost in her thoughts that she was startled when the front door burst open and her daughters came running into the house, followed by their grandmother.
"Mommy! Mommy!" they shouted, flinging their arms around her waist. "We missed you!"
"I missed you, too!" she replied, hugging them both. "Did you have a good time with Grandmom and Grandpop?"
"Yes!"
"We got to have popcorn with a movie!" Vivvy added.
"Were you good?" she asked, looking at her mother who nodded.
"Yes."
"We always are," Cam added.
"Good girls," she said, placing a kiss on top of their heads. "Cam, you need to get ready for soccer. Vivvy, will you help your sister find her shin guards?"
The girls scampered up the stairs, each trying to be first.
"So, how was your evening?" Barbara asked her daughter, watching Arizona putter about the kitchen, packing the drinks and snacks for soccer.
"Fine. Why do you ask?"
"Didn't you go out last night?"
"Oh, I worked late then came home," Arizona answered, turning her back to her mother as she added an extra juice box to the bag.
"Arizona," Babara sighed. "I thought we talked about this."
"I'm just… i'm not ready," she responded while avoiding her mother's pitying gaze.
"No one is saying you have to date, just make some friends."
"Well, that's never exactly been my strong suit."
"Nonsense," Barbara countered. "You had lots of friends everywhere we moved."
"No, Tim had all the friends.. I just tagged along."
Before Barbara could respond, Daniel came into the house, interrupting them. "Barb, are you ready? We need to leave or we're going to be late," he said, his impatience showing.
"Coming, dear," Barbara said with a smile and a slight roll of her eyes before turning her attention back to her daughter. "We're not done talking about this. When we get back from Portland, you and I are going to have another talk."
"I'm sure we will." She walked over to the bottom of the stairs. "Girls! Grandmom and Grandpop are leaving. Come say goodbye."
# # # # # # # # # #
Arizona stood on the sideline watching Cam and her teammates run around the field. Every successful kick was cheered. She was proud of Cam as the young girl seemed to be a natural at soccer. Maybe she was biased, but Cam did seem to be gifted, for an almost five year old playing in her first summer of soccer.
"Did you see Cam, Mommy?" Vivvy said, pointing at her sister. "She almost scored!"
"I did see."
"When can I play soccer?"
"Not until you're out of your cast and Dr. Callie gives her okay."
"I miss Dr. Callie," Vivvy said. "We didn't get to see her at all this week."
"I know. I'm sorry. Mommy was really busy and so was Dr. Callie."
"Can we go to the park again with Dr. Callie? We had fun with her."
"We'll see," she answered, turning her attention back to the game.
After the game (if you could call a dozen five and six year-olds chasing a soccer ball around the field a game), Arizona began picking up discarded juice boxes and snacks. She smiled politely at the other parents, nodding to the more familiar faces.
Cam ran up to her mother and sister with her teammate Sarah in tow. "Mama, can Sarah come over and play?"
Arizona looked her daughter up and down, noting the clumps of grass in her daughter's hair and streaks of mud along her legs. "I'm sorry, sweetie, but not today. You need a bath before dance class."
"Sorry, Sarah." After her friend ran away, Cam's lower lip jutted forward and she kicked her toe in the dirt. "I don't wanna go to dumb ol' dance class."
Arizona narrowed her gaze at her daughter's attitude. Her voice deepened slightly. "Camilla."
"Oooooo you got real named!" Mocked her sister.
Cam scowled and reached out to slap at her sister's arm. Vivvy squirmed out of her reach.
"Camilla Jean, that is enough." Arizona said forcefully in an even tone. "Grab your equipment and go to the car now."
"You're in trou-ble! You're in trou-ble!" Vivvy taunted on their way to the vehicle.
"Vivian Marie."
The admonished twins walked slowly to the car. "You got us in trouble." Cam muttered.
"Nuh-uh. You did."
"Girls. Stop. We have a busy day ahead of us. Cam, you know Saturdays are a bad day for having friends over. We can have Sarah over another day." Arizona could feel a headache starting to form. "Everyone buckle up."
# # # # # # # # # #
"Okay, Cam, let's get you into the tub," Arizona said as they entered the house.
"Yeah. You stink," Vivvy giggled.
"Do not!" Cam protested, arms folded across her chest.
"You need a bath, Cam. I'm not going to tell you again.."
Cam scowled as well as a five year old could and silently followed her mother up to the bathroom.
"Can you wash up yourself?" Arizona asked as she filled the tub.
"Yes, Mommy," the pouting girl answered as she began to pull off her clothes.
"Okay. I'm going to make lunch for us. I'll be back up in a few minutes."
"Can I help, Mommy?" Vivvy answered.
"Yes."
As she fixed their lunch, Arizona found herself thinking about her mother's urging to make friends. Maybe she should look outside the hospital for friends. Maybe some of the parents at soccer or dance or swimming would work. She thought about the other adults who had been standing on the sideline and realized she hardly knew them. She'd be hard pressed to know one thing about them other than "Josh, Stacey's dad the contractor" or "Tiffany, Ethan's mom who's a stay at home mom". And there was Bob, the coach, who always tried to flirt with her. Yeah, that's not going to happen, she thought with a wrinkle of distaste crossing her face.
Twenty minutes later the family was sitting at the kitchen table.. Now over her forced bath, Cam was excitedly chatting about her soccer game. Vivvy proudly added that she'd counted Cam's goals. Arizona wasn't sure if Vivvy was proud of her sister, or proud of her own ability to count the goals scored. Either way, she was pleased to see them supporting each other.
"So, we have a little while before dance class. What do you want to do?"
"Can we play a game?"
"Let's play Hungry Hippos!"
"No, I wanna play Trouble."
"How about we play one now and one after supper?"
"Trouble!"
"Hippos!"
"Decide on one or we won't play any game," Arizona said in a stern voice.
The girls arguing over which game to play was interrupted by Arizona's pager. She pulled it from her purse, checked it, then grabbed her phone.
"This is Dr. Robbins," she said, walking into the other room for some privacy. "I was paged."
"Yes, Dr. Robbins. We have a multi-vehicle crash that involves children."
"I'm not on call. What about Dr. Kenley?"
"He's not available. Dr. Webber requested that you be paged."
"Okay." She glanced at her watch. "I think I can be there in thirty minutes, maybe less."
"Thank you, Dr. Robbins."
Arizona ended the call and immediately called her sitter. The call kept going straight to voicemail. "C'mon, c'mon," Arizona muttered. "Pick up, Kara."
Frustrated with her attempts at contacting the teenager that lived down the street, Arizona knew she needed a new plan.
"Okay, girls, change of plans. Go get your backpacks. Mommy has to go to the hospital for a little while and you'll need to go to daycare."
Knowing that they'd already made their mommy mad earlier, the girls quickly obeyed with no complaints. It only took a few minutes for them to be on the way to Seattle Grace. Even knowing she was needed there, Arizona resisted the urge to speed.
"Are we still going to get to go to dance?" Vivvy asked.
"No, honey, I'm sorry. Not today."
"Yay! No dance!" Cam cheered. "I don't like dance."
"You don't like dance because I'm better than you," Vivvy declared.
"Are not."
"Am too."
Arizona felt her headache return after several more choruses of 'are not' and 'am too''.
"Well I'm better at soccer than you," Cam countered.
"Are not!"
"Enough you two!" Arizona ordered. "You're not the same, so you have different skills."
"But we are," Vivvy said with confusion in her voice.
"We're twins! We're the same," Cam added.
Arizona just shook her head in exasperation as she pulled into the hospital parking lot.
# # # # # # # # # #
Callie tried not to pace as she waited with the other residents in the ER. She could feel the adrenaline rush starting. Multi-vehicle car accidents usually meant lots of broken bones. It'd been awhile since she'd felt it this strongly; it'd been a slow week or two for big emergencies.
"Any ETA?" Cristina asked, standing next to Callie.
"Last I heard was fifteen minutes."
She noticed Cristina seemed distracted and saw she was looking across the room at the new head of Trauma, Owen Hunt. The chief and Dr. Hunt were walking toward them.
"Anyone seen Robbins yet?" Richard Webber asked.
Before anyone could reply, Arizona rushed up to the chief.
"I'm here, I'm here. Sorry I'm late. I had to drop two very unhappy girls off at daycare."
"Why were they unhappy?" Callie asked.
"I was supposed to have today off and they were supposed to have dance this afternoon."
Owen looked on with some amusement until the chief interrupted them.
"Dr. Robbins, this is Owen Hunt. He's the new head of Trauma. Dr. Hunt, this is Arizona Robbins, our peds fellow. I'd like her to run point on the pediatric patients coming in."
"Where's Dr. Warner?" Arizona asked, reaching for a yellow gown. She wondered why the peds attending on call wasn't there.
"He quit this morning. I haven't had time to get a replacement," Richard answered.
Arizona didn't particularly like Carl Warner, but an extra set of hands would've been good to have. The sirens of the approaching ambulances quickly got everyone's attention.
"Torres, you can triage the broken bones," Owen said. "Anything that isn't surgical, pass off to the third and fourth year residents."
"Got it," Callie said with a nod.
"If I need another surgeon for peds, I'd like Bailey," Arizona chipped in. She looked around at the waiting doctors and noticed something seemed odd. "I thought this was all hands on deck. Where are the interns?"
The other attending surgeons looked around then at the residents.
"Who cares?" Alex Karev grunted as he fiddled with his sterile gloves.
"Not my job to babysit them," said Cristina moving towards the front of the crowd as she noticed an ambulance turn down the alley to the trauma bay.
"Okay people, let's roll," Owen said as the first ambulance pulled up.
Arizona had spent several shifts in the ER at Seattle Grace, but this was the first time she'd been involved in an "all hands" emergency. She was impressed at how quickly everyone sprang into action, each doctor and nurse seeming to know exactly what to do and where to move.
The patients were assessed quickly and efficiently. She stopped at the surgical board to see which OR she would be operating in and with whom. Cristina Yang was staring forlornly at the board with Chief Webber.
"Everyone got in on a surgery except me," she pouted. "Mer's with Shepherd on the father. Izzie is with Bailey on one of the kids. Alex is with Robbins and Torres on the other. Addison is monitoring the mother. O'Malley is shadowing Hunt with the other family."
Chief Webber placed a hand on her shoulder. " Go home, Yang. It's your day off, anyway."
*But I need to be here. There's stuff happening and I should be learning from it," she protested.
Arizona released a heavy sigh. "Someone should be able to enjoy their day off. I'll be in OR 3. Page me if I'm needed. Before you leave, I suggest you find your interns." She pivoted away from the duo to head towards her surgery.
Before she was too far away, she heard the resident call after her, "I don't babysit!"
# # # # # # # # # #
A couple hours later, Arizona found herself standing in front of the wash basin scrubbing out of surgery with Callie next to her. Everything had gone smoothly and the child was in the process of being moved to a room for overnight observation. She smiled as she mentally replayed what she had done.
Callie's low voice interrupted her thoughts. "Good job in there."
Arizona turned her smile towards Callie. "Thanks. You too."
Callie's stomach flipped with unexpected arousal so she quickly turned her focus to scrubbing at her thumbnail. "So… uh… what happened to you last night? Addison said you were going to join us at the bar but Bailey said you had an emergency."
Arizona's smile vanished as the memory of Erica with Callie swam in her vision. "Oh… right. Sorry. I… ah…" she stammered as she tried to recall the excuse she had discussed with the other resident. "Right. I got a call as soon as I got there and needed to rush home. One of the girl's was running a fever."
"Oh no!" Callie exclaimed. "Should she be at daycare then?"
Arizona waved off the comment as she dried her hands. "The girls are fine. False alarm but my night was ruined." Her pager screamed from her hip and she released a frustrated groan. "Bailey needs help with the bowel resection on the brother."
As they exited the room, Addison came rushing up to them.
"Oh, good, Arizona, you're here. Wait, I thought you had the day off?"
"So did I but Kenley's who knows where and Warner quit. so my day with the girls is shot, and Vivvy's upset because she didn't get to go to dance, and Cam is thrilled because she doesn't have to go," she rambled. "And who knows when I'll have a day off again after tomorrow because Warner always covered those days since Kenley is more concerned with his golf handicap than with medicine."
Callie found Arizona's rambling to be charming. Addison glanced at Callie and thought the smile on Callie's face was one of adoration. She filed it away for a time when she was less busy and when she could talk to Callie privately.
"What did you need, Addison?" Arizona asked after taking a calming breath.
"The mother and baby are in distress. We're getting her prepped for surgery. I'd like you to assist, especially if the baby needs NICU."
"And now I've got to be in three places at once," she sighed as she looked at her watch. "Bailey needs me right now in OR 2," she said as she headed to the scrub room off OR 2. "And I don't know what I'm going to do about the girls. My support system has fallen apart due to my parents out of town and unreliable teenaged babysitters." She knew she was being unfair to her babysitter. Kara had been a good and dependable babysitter for the past three years.
"I can watch them," Callie blurted out. "My shift ended half an hour ago, and there are no more surgeries scheduled for me."
"You?"
"Don't sound so surprised. I like kids. I like your kids and they like me. I live just across the street, I've got some video games we can play, and I can order a pizza," she listed. "It can't be more than an hour or two."
"I don't know, Callie."
"C'mon. It'll be fine."
"Well, I guess it could be okay for a few hours," she agreed. "I'll call daycare and tell them you'll be picking them up."
"Great. It'll be fun. Don't worry," Callie assured her friend.
"Okay. You've got the kids." Arizona turned her focus to Addison. "Page Karev to help you. He did really well with me earlier. If you do need me, then I'll try to do what I can but right now, Bailey needs my help." With a smile and a wave, she disappeared into the scrub room for OR2.
"Do you know what you're getting yourself into, Callie?" Addison asked.
Callie waved off the comment. "They're five. How much trouble could they be?"